Park Hill named one of 10 best neighborhoods
posted 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."
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