Golden Today

The City of Golden is situated between the high plains to the east and the foothills of the Rocky Mountains to the west; bisected by Clear Creek; and watched over by North and South Table Mountains, Mount Zion and Lookout Mountain. Often considered a suburb of Denver, Golden does lie within the Denver Metropolitan Area, but it is a vibrant, forward-looking City in its own right.

Golden hosts the Colorado School of Mines, offering programs in engineering and science, along with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the Colorado Railroad Museum, the Coors Brewery, the American Mountaineering Center and much of Jefferson County’s government offices. These and other large employers attract enough commuters that Golden’s daytime population exceeds its total residents. In recent years, Golden has become a center for world class rock climbing, kayaking and paragliding, and on any given weekend visitors can attend numerous museums, arts centers, or events like Blacksmith Demo Days, the Young Artists Celebration and the Summer Solstice Music Festival.

Golden is laid out on a grid system, with its historic downtown centered on Washington Avenue—a wide boulevard with attractive streetscaping and a well-known arch that welcomes people to town. Golden is connected to Denver, the Rocky Mountains and beyond by highways and bus service in the Denver Metropolitan Area; by 2013 Denver’s FasTracks light rail network will reach to the edge of Golden. The City is working hard to involve the community in traffic planning and other initiatives through effective e-government systems that serve as a web-based portal, information source and public feedback mechanism for all the City’s activities.

US Census figures show that the City’s population grew by more than 30 percent between 1990 and 2000. Although the growth rate has recently slowed, Golden’s population is now larger than at any point in its history, and yet it maintains such a unique character and close-knit community that residents and officials still refer to it as a town. In the last few years, Golden’s planning initiatives have emphasized citizen engagement and quality of life. A Downtown Character Committee led a collaborative process in 2006 to create a holistic plan for the downtown area and to discover citizen’s values and priorities. The Committee reviewed nearly 800 citizen comments gleaned from surveys and public events, then incorporated them into a Downtown Character Plan. The City Council created new citizen task forces in 2008 to address bikeability, walkability and housing affordability, and a neighborhood planning process will engage more citizens and enhance the community at a grassroots level. 

In 2009, Golden will celebrate its 150th birthday—a perfect occasion to develop a new vision that honors the community’s rich past, capitalizes on Golden’s abundant resources and fosters citizen-driven actions to ensure a vibrant future.

• « first
• ‹ previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• 7
• 8
• next ›
• last »