Arvada City of

As most people probably would come onto the City’s Unilocal page to complain, I thought I’d pop on to say I called the city to pick up a dead skunk that we could smell 2 blocks from our house and I drove by 10 minutes later to find it gone. That’s fast reaction. Thanks Arvada!

Oh Arvada, how I hate thee. I am leaving this city this summer and am so thankful. I’m just bummed that I’ll still own a house here after we leave.
Let me count the ways.
1. You don’t give a shit about pedestrians. How about a bike path that deadens on a 4 lane divided road, speed limit 40, with a 3 block walk to the nearest stop light. Yes, if I wanted to walk to do a grocery run, I’d have to cross this street.
2. You love sprawl. Ooh yes, lets build some great big sprawl out at Indiana and 64^th… ooh, even better let’s annex beautiful rolling grasslands out at Highway 72 and Indiana and build a massive new subdivision called Candellas. Isn’t that the name of a childhood disease? Thank god for the real estate bust. Let’s hope some zoning commissioners invested some money in that deal and are now looking at surviving on their social security from now until forever as pennance.
3. Your main street, Ralston road, doesn’t have a sidewalk. Oh wait, google maps shows it DOES have a sidewalk, but just in front of city hall.
4. You had a nice public pool in a lower-​income section of the city, but then you filled it in and built a giant monstrosity in the wealthier parts of town called the apex center which you fill with screaming day care kids all summer long from 9 – 3 (gotta pay the bills!) so that the pool is more unpleasant than taking a dip in my sanitary sewer running under my street. Lets see, Honda Pilot driving hockey dads/​moms need 2 ice rinks before we rebuild a single pool in the center of town. (and in a classy move, Arvada residents voted down a cheap tax levy to rebuild that pool. Keep it classist Arvada. Economic stratification is the way to go!)
5. And your restaurants. Let’s see. Bella Bistro. Check. And… thats it. If I want to eat out. I leave. Period.
6. The Archive Room? If I wanted a $ 12 hamburger surrounded by old newspapers, I’d dump my recycling bin on the floor of the kitchen, throw a $ 10 bill down the disposal, and cook my burger on the stove at home.
7. And Olde Town. Let’s correct that. Old Town. You don’t deserve the extra «e» A motorcycle shop, a silk flower shop, a few dive bars that I’d never step foot in, some overpriced food, a decent library (I say that grudgingly) a bunch of nail salons, and an overpriced ice cream and candy shop. Yeah, thats you Scrumptious. (look up my review. So far they are beating the curse.)
8. Elders of the city, I blame you for the sprawl, the zoning that means I dread walking or riding my bike to the supermarket, which is but a half mile away, I blame you, generation that grew this city from a bunch of farms into the place that is called the triangle, at Ralston Rd. and Independence.
9. And why were you so rushed to get the farm out of the suburbs? When I bought my house, built in 1969 on the site of a farm, the deed specifically forbid homeowners from owning small livestock. This for a house built on fields plowed under. Why are you so afraid of chickens?!
So Arvada, in my last 8 weeks in your city, I will be looking for a tenant who will appreciate your wide SUV-​friendly streets, your copious shopping opportunities at 52^nd and Wads. (oh which one of you at city hall takes the glorious credit for bringing both a Sams club AND a Costco to our town) In my last 8 weeks I will be driving to I-​70 and zipping east until I pass by Lakeside and exit into the Highlands for a lunch or a stroll along Lowell and 32^nd. I’ll be spending Sundays down at Riverfront park, spending money anywhere but Arvada.
What can you do citizens of Arvada? Well, for starters, get the fuck out of your cars and walk to the 2 grocery stores that were built right across the street from each other. How was that? Did you feel like you were going to die because all the other drivers have never seen a pedestrian crossing 64^th before?
Then start complaining. Our city is lead by a generation that loves cars, loves houses that in any other country would be apartment buildings with 3 families in them. Let them hear that the suburbs are NOT wonderful when they must be lived from the drivers’ seat, when your choices of food are a grocery store to the left or a grocery store to the right.
Then start walking to get a loaf of bread. Enjoy the long slog across the acres of parking lots that are built in our city… with no clear path from sidewalks through the parking lots to the store.
And after you tire of that for a while, move out. Find a renter for your house and move into Denver. Enjoy biking to the bars on a Friday afternoon, enjoy creative and reasonably priced food. Enjoy parks filled with people (seriously, where are you all? Arvada parks are empty! Are you all inside glued to your 52 inch Costco Vizio LCD TVs?)
Good by Arvada. I truly hate you. I hope you’ll come around someday.

Have lived all over the metro area, and I’d have to say living in Arvada has been my favorite area!
Likes:
The town government is always asking for input from its taxpaying citizens. I routinely get surveys in the mail. They also broadcast all the City Council meetings on Channel 8 (the Ocho).
Good mix of business and residental, along with a little industrial/​commercial
Property tax dollars seem to be spent wisely, and again the city has asked for my input as to how they are spent
Trail system in Arvada is PHENOMENAL! There are a ton of trails that are well-​maintained and clean that snake all over the town.
Good school system
Dislikes:
Snow removal. Period! I know that CDOT maintains some of the roads by my house for snow-​removal, and they’re usually the crappiest roads to drive on in bad weather. So perhaps my beef is with CDOT.

I guess I should clarify what I mean by sales after 10pm regarding alcohol in Arvada. If it is a grocery store after 10 or a liquor store after 10pm has to close. Bars seem to be excluded in this ordinance.