The walk to Cory Elementary is less than three blocks from the Powell family’s home. It would be easy for the family’s two young children to handle it on their own — if Samantha Powell didn’t think their lives were in danger.

She’s not alone among parents in south Denver’s Cory-Merrill neighborhood. The post-World War II neighborhood’s original rural character has evolved and is attracting young families, but the sidewalks — often missing — have not, requiring those on foot or in wheelchairs to take to the street and cross some thoroughfares far from traffic lights.

The neighborhood is among several pockets of the fast-growing city, including both working-class and well-to-do areas, that still lack sidewalks along hundreds of miles of streets. Elsewhere, pedestrians in places with aging sidewalk networks — from downtown to the Capitol Hill neighborhood and most older areas — often face cracked or disjointed pavement and stone walks.

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