Park Hill East: Colfax to 23rd, Holly to Monaco
Park Hill West: Colfax to 23rd, Albion to Hudson
The American Planning Association selected Park Hill
as one of the 10 “Great Neighborhoods” in America for 2008.
Park Hill named one of 10 best neighborhoodsposted by: Jamie Kim, 9News |
DENVER – People who live in the greater Park Hill area of Denver have one more thing to be proud of. The American Planning Association has named the neighborhood one of the top 10 best in the country.
Ask anyone in Park Hill, and they’ll tell you they know they live somewhere special.
Caroline McMorrow is on her second house in Park Hill.
“Everybody just gets along great. We have block parties, I think there’s a real community in Park Hill. We love all of our restaurants and markets and it’s just a fabulous place to raise children,” she said.
There’s the beautiful architecture, the history and the prime location.
“Our house was built in 1912, and we’ve got great old millwork and crown molding, base boards, and columns. It’s just beautiful,” McMorrow said. “Really we’re five minutes from downtown, I can’t say enough about Park Hill.”
But perhaps the most precious asset is neighborly love.
It all centers around a neighborhood association that dates back to 1959. Executive Director Greg Rasheed says he gets calls from communities across the country wondering how Park hill does it.
“I said it’s not so much me as it is the people in the neighborhood who are really dedicated, who love this community,” Rasheed said.
The Greater Park Hill Community, Inc. runs like a small government. The association offers services unheard of in most neighborhoods. For example, the neighborhood has its own food bank, with all the food donated by neighbors for other neighbors.
“A lot of food banks are suffering,” Rasheed said. “But not ours.”
In this neighborhood of racial, economic and social diversity, the secret is really no secret at all.
“It’s basically just getting to know people,” Rasheed said. “You know we have all this technology, everyone’s on the Internet, but it gets down to basically going door to door going and meeting people. That’s what you got to do. You gotta know who’s who, what’s what and what’s going on in your neighborhood.”
People in Park Hill have known they live somewhere special, and now the rest of the country does too.
The American Planning Association selected Park Hill for “its social diversity, residents’ progressive attitudes, including tolerance and openness towards others, and the neighborhood’s memorable character.”