Snowboarders flock to Breckenridge and Aspen, not the Ruby Hill neighborhood, for their slope needs.
But don’t tell Ruby Hill residents that this weekend.
Snow machines churned out the white stuff all week in preparation for Saturday’s opening of the Ruby Hill Rail Yard, a snowboarding park partnership between Winter Park Resort and the Denver Parks and Recreation Department.
With or without snow, the 88-acre park is a tremendous selling point for the small neighborhood, named for the red garnet-colored stones found in the nearby South Platte River.
Reyna Kazimour, 34, moved to Ruby Hill when she was 3 years old.
“It’s unique, and it’s always been diverse,” Kazimour said of the local population.
But she laments not knowing as many of her neighbors as she once did.
“Growing up here, you knew everybody. Now a lot of people have moved out of the neighborhood,” she said.
A hidden jewel
The longtime resident grew up tubing down Ruby Hill Park’s rolling grass and swimming at the park’s expansive pool.
These days, she savors local Mexican fare such as what is served at Torres Mexican Restaurant, which features a Mariachi band and authentic cuisine.
Denver City Councilman Chris Nevitt sees Ruby Hill as a hidden jewel.
“It’s one of Denver’s postwar neighborhoods. The homes are modest, but the amenities are great,” Nevitt said.
The neighborhood is undergoing a generational shift, one that blends longtime residents with new homeowners, he said.
“A lot of the residents are retired folks. For them, it was the first home they bought,” he said.
Ruby Hill resident Dorothy Posson, 82, said her neighbors still watch out for one another as they did when she bought her house in 1958. That might mean shoveling an older neighbor’s walkway or offering to pick up supplies when snow clogs the local walkways.
In Ruby Hill, nearly every basic need is within reach, she said.
In recent months, neighbors fought over a proposal by Xcel Energy to install higher power lines over Ruby Hill Park, marring the view. In September, it was agreed to allow Xcel to erect the towers.
“We lost, but we tried,” Posson said, adding that her neighbors rallied to present a petition against the installation in only three days.
The park’s highest bluff, once used by American Indians as a lookout point, offers an irresistible vista of downtown Denver.
Working for the future
Jan Marie Belle, president of the Ruby Hill Neighborhood Association, said the power-line battle isn’t officially over.
Belle said that Ruby Hill and neighboring areas are still discussing ways to get those lines buried and out of sight, even if it means raising money via bonds.
The association president described the area as quiet with a relatively low crime rate. But Ruby Hill residents have some work to do to keep their neighborhood safe.
Belle said she worries about the number of vacant homes and homes under foreclosure.
She said she would also like to see more family-friendly stores in the area and hopes residents will keep giving the growing youth population — more than she has seen in the past 10 years — plenty of support and activities.
Jill Coffman, field superintendent with Denver Parks and Recreation, said that during the summer, the park is full of local teams playing softball and soccer.
“The pool is maxed out,” Coffman said.
Posson has watched Ruby Hill evolve over the years, with some of her peers moving on and a blend of younger residents filling the gap.
“It’s changed a lot in the period of time we’ve been here,” Posson said, but it remains “more like a neighborhood than a city.”
