Front Range
Denver County
31 Porch Notes tied to Denver County — the local details that change from one part of Colorado to the next.
Places in this county
Money and taxes (2)
Money and taxes
A small sales tax in Denver funds science and arts groups
Denver is part of the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District, a metro-area special district funded by a small sales tax that supports museums, zoos, and arts groups.
Read note ->Money and taxes
Denver's sales tax is built in layers
A Denver sales-tax total is several separate taxes stacked together — the state, the RTD transit district, the SCFD cultural district, and the city — so it differs from a nearby suburb.
Read note ->Home and property (1)
Water and land (4)
Water and land
A lot of Denver's water starts on the other side of the mountains
Much of Denver's tap water is collected high in the mountains and moved across the Continental Divide, which is why Front Range water is a statewide question.
Read note ->Water and land
Denver owns a chain of mountain parks far outside the city
The City and County of Denver owns dozens of mountain parks in the foothills and high country, miles outside its own borders, including Red Rocks, Genesee, and Echo Lake.
Read note ->Water and land
Denver's riverside greenway trails all knot together at Confluence Park
From the spot where Cherry Creek meets the South Platte, a paved greenway built over decades carries walkers and cyclists along the water, out of downtown and far upstream.
Read note ->Water and land
The High Line Canal is an old ditch turned long shady trail
The High Line Canal is a historic irrigation ditch, long owned by Denver Water, whose banks now form a long, mostly flat, tree-shaded trail across the metro area.
Read note ->Outdoors and wildfire (6)
Outdoors and wildfire
Daniels Park is Denver's wide-open park out on the plains
Daniels Park is a Denver Mountain Park down in Douglas County, set on open high plains with long views of the mountains and a second city bison herd.
Read note ->Outdoors and wildfire
Denver keeps a bison herd you can see from I-70 at Genesee
The City and County of Denver maintains a small bison herd at Genesee Park, visible from Interstate 70 in the foothills west of the city.
Read note ->Outdoors and wildfire
Denver's parks come with prairie dogs, geese, foxes, and coyotes
City parks and open spaces in Denver host wildlife like prairie dogs, Canada geese, red foxes, and coyotes, and the city asks residents not to feed them.
Read note ->Outdoors and wildfire
Summit Lake is a Denver park in the alpine, high on Mount Blue Sky
Summit Lake Park, a Denver Mountain Park near the top of Mount Blue Sky, sits in true alpine tundra where the weather and altitude need respect.
Read note ->Outdoors and wildfire
Washington Park is Denver's outdoor living room
Wash Park pairs two hand-launch boating lakes, Denver's biggest formal flower beds, and a loop path that the neighborhood treats like a shared backyard.
Read note ->Outdoors and wildfire
You still need a fishing license at Denver's city lakes
Colorado's fishing license rules apply at Denver's urban lakes and rivers just as they do in the mountains; anyone 16 or older needs a license.
Read note ->Cars and driving (2)
Cars and driving
The express lanes on Denver's highways are tolled
Several Denver-area highways have express lanes that charge a toll or require a pass, separate from the free general lanes beside them.
Read note ->Cars and driving
The Mount Blue Sky road is seasonal and needs a timed ticket
The high paved road up Mount Blue Sky from Echo Lake is open only part of the year and requires a timed-entry reservation in season.
Read note ->Local rules (3)
Local rules
A Denver short-term rental must be your primary home
Denver allows licensed short-term rentals only at your primary residence, so you cannot run one at an investment property you do not live in.
Read note ->Local rules
Denver is a city and a county at the same time
Denver is one of only two consolidated city-and-county governments in Colorado, so one set of offices handles both city and county business.
Read note ->Local rules
Denver's buses and trains are run by a regional district
Denver is part of the Regional Transportation District, a multi-county special district that runs metro buses and trains and is funded partly by a sales tax.
Read note ->History and culture (13)
History and culture
A whole city's stages gathered under one downtown roof
The Denver Performing Arts Complex packs more than a dozen venues and four resident companies onto twelve downtown acres under an 80-foot glass canopy.
Read note ->History and culture
City Park is old, big, and holds two major institutions
City Park is one of Denver's oldest large parks, laid out in the 1880s, and it surrounds both the Denver Zoo and the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.
Read note ->History and culture
Civic Center was Denver's City Beautiful centerpiece
Civic Center Park between the Capitol and the City and County Building was built in the early 1900s as Denver's grand public space and is now a National Historic Landmark.
Read note ->History and culture
Denver Union Station was built to gather the railroads
Union Station opened in the 1880s to bring many railroads into one Denver depot, and after a long restoration it reopened in 2014 as a rail, bus, and train hub.
Read note ->History and culture
Denver's tree-lined parkways are a designed historic system
Denver's grand boulevards and parks were planned together as one system in the early 1900s, and the whole network carries historic recognition.
Read note ->History and culture
Larimer Square survived because someone fought to save it
Larimer Square holds Denver's oldest commercial block, saved from urban-renewal demolition in the 1960s and now a protected historic district.
Read note ->History and culture
LoDo is a protected historic district, not just a nightlife name
Lower Downtown, or LoDo, was declared a Denver historic district in 1988, which is why its old brick warehouses still stand and changes to them are reviewed.
Read note ->History and culture
Lookout Mountain holds Buffalo Bill's grave and a wide view
Lookout Mountain, a Denver Mountain Park above Golden, is the site of Buffalo Bill Cody's grave and museum and a sweeping view back over the plains.
Read note ->History and culture
Red Rocks was a Denver park before it was a famous stage
Denver bought the Red Rocks land in the late 1920s and built its amphitheatre with Depression-era work crews, opening it in 1941.
Read note ->History and culture
RiNo's Painted Warehouses: Denver's Open-Air Mural Gallery
In Denver's River North Art District, brick warehouses double as canvases for a self-guided mural walk that grows a little every year.
Read note ->History and culture
The Capitol steps have more than one 'mile high' marker
Denver's nickname comes from sitting about a mile above sea level, and the State Capitol's west steps carry several 'One Mile Above Sea Level' markers from surveys done over the years.
Read note ->History and culture
Why Denver built mountain parks a century ago
Denver's mountain parks were a deliberate early-1900s project, planned by noted landscape architects and built over decades to give city people access to the foothills.
Read note ->History and culture
Why Denver grew up where Cherry Creek meets the South Platte
Denver started at the meeting of the South Platte River and Cherry Creek during an 1850s gold rush, which is why the old city center sits where it does.
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