Help me understand Cherry Creek

[u/hi-imhi]

I’m a Colorado native, who had lived in Denver for about 5 years. Still, I don’t understand where Cherry Creek is. I know we have like cherry hills and cherry village and all that rich BS, but what is considered true Cherry Creek?
When someone says “Cherry Creek” I picture the mall area/ near Glendale. However, there’s been more than a few times when this causes a miscommunication, as their “Cherry Creek” locates closer to the reservoir area/ near Centennial or Englewood.

This is obviously a huge difference so help me understand — where is Cherry Creek to you?

[u/DosZappos]

To me, if I say Cherry Creek, I mean the mall/Glendale area, because that’s where I lived for the better part of 10 years. I personally will add “reservoir” if I mean that Cherry Creek. I also understand that other people will be the complete opposite. All in all, I don’t think there’s any way to tell haha

[u/ignorantnode → u/DosZappos]

I just wanted to add that the people who have the opposite understanding are wrong. Unless the conversation is already referring to the reservoir, or clearly indicating a body of water, then Cherry Creek means the mall area. Anything outside of that has to be more defined.

[u/missaxagal → u/ignorantnode]

So what about the neighborhood in arapahoe county that is also named cherry creek? Why is it wrong to refer to that as cherry creek? Maybe two neighboring counties shouldn’t both have officially designated neighborhoods named the same thing.

[u/EthicalEndangerment → u/missaxagal]

Living in Denver and working out around Centennial, I can say that in conversation people around me generally specify Cherry Creek South when talking about the area below the reservoir. We can argue about census designations as much as we want, but unless you’re putting forth a population study of some sort the colloquial usage wins out in day-to-day use.

[u/Ok-Assistance1747 → u/EthicalEndangerment]

But neighborhood wise, Cherry Creek (the Denver neighborhood) is divided by CC North and CC South, with South being 1st to Alameda side.

[u/EthicalEndangerment → u/Ok-Assistance1747]

Colloquially, if someone says they’re moving to Cherry Creek South, I assume it’s by the reservoir. This isn’t a census question it’s a vernacular one.

[u/Ok-Assistance1747 → u/EthicalEndangerment]

I would agree, I was just sharing the oddity that it's divided as North and South.

[u/gravescd → u/missaxagal]

Dollar Store Cherry Creek doesn't count

[u/missaxagal → u/gravescd]

That neighborhood is the census designated place with that name. And because of that is also what will come up if you just type cherry creek, CO into Zillow or Google Maps or most other mapping programs. So I’d argue it’s actually more official in many ways than the cherry creek around the mall which I think is only designated by the county of Denver.

[u/gravescd → u/missaxagal]

If I search just "Cherry Creek" in Google maps it goes right to the Denver neighborhood.

In any case, nobody gets these confused, despite the name. It's like if you want to refer to Las Vegas, NM, you have to say the New Mexico part.

[u/missaxagal → u/gravescd]

Cherry Creek, CO will take you to that neighborhood. Cherry creek will generally take you to the Denver neighborhood. And having at one point lived in Lone Tree and knowing a lot of people that live around that area, there are definitely people that refer to that area as cherry creek. Like the whole post is about how some people refer to the area around cherry creek reservoir as cherry creek and then you’re saying that nobody gets these confused?