22 Facts About Aurora Colorado

Aurora Colorado is a principal city of the Denver–Aurora Colorado–Lakewood Metropolitan Statistical Area and a major city of the Front Range Urban Corridor.

Aurora Colorado originated in the 1880s as the town of Fletcher, taking its name from Denver businessman Donald Fletcher who saw it as a real estate opportunity.

Aurora Colorado, composed of hundreds of subdivisions, thus carries the name of one of the original development plats from which it sprang.

Aurora Colorado's growing population in recent decades has led to efforts for co-equal recognition with its larger neighbor.

Indeed, since the 2000 Census Aurora Colorado has surpassed Denver in land area, and much of Aurora Colorado is undeveloped, while Denver is more fully built-out.

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Aurora Colorado is largely suburban in character, as evidenced by the city's modest number of multi-story buildings.

In 1979, it was announced that a science fiction theme park would be built in Aurora Colorado using the sets of a $50 million film based on the fantasy novel Lord of Light.

In 1993, Cherry Creek State Park on the southwestern edge of Aurora Colorado was the location for the papal mass of the 8th World Youth Day with Pope John Paul II, attended by an estimated 500, 000 people.

Aurora Colorado is split among three counties and lies distant from the respective county seats.

In 2004, Aurora was honored as the Sports Illustrated magazine's 50th Anniversary "Sportstown" for Colorado because of its exemplary involvement in facilitating and enhancing sports.

In 2008, Aurora Colorado was designated an All-America City by the National Civic League.

On July 20, 2012, Aurora was the site of the third largest mass shooting in terms of number of casualties in United States history at the time and the second-deadliest shooting in Colorado after the 1999 Columbine High School massacre.

Aurora Colorado is composed of dozens of neighborhoods, districts and military installations.

City of Aurora Colorado manages more than 100 parks, more than 6, 000 acres of open space and natural areas, and six award-winning municipal golf courses (Aurora Colorado Hills, Meadow Hills, Murphy Creek, Saddle Rock, Springhill and Fitzsimons).

Aurora Colorado is home to several privately owned golf courses including CommonGround Golf Course, Heather Ridge Country Club, Heritage Eagle Bend Golf Club and Valley Country Club.

Aurora Colorado History Museum is a community-based cultural center featuring a permanent exhibit on Aurora Colorado history and two changing exhibit galleries touching on topics related to history and decorative arts.

City of Aurora Colorado operates under a council-manager form of government, where the city manager runs the city's day-to-day operations with general guidance from the city council.

The Aurora Colorado Municipal Courts handles a wide variety of offense violations, and the Aurora Colorado Detention Center is a 72-hour adult holding facility.

In national elections, Aurora Colorado leans to the left and the Democratic Party, though not as much as neighboring Denver but more than other suburbs in the Denver metro area.

Northern and Central Aurora, due to an extremely racially and culturally diverse voter base and high density for a suburban city, are some of the most Democratic areas in Colorado and vote similarly to Denver and Boulder; southern Aurora is more of a swing area and used to lean Republican, though it has swung Democratic as of late but not as much as areas more north of Interstate 225.

Much of Aurora Colorado is more convenient to DIA than Denver itself, and the city is planning an aerotropolis along the airport's southern flank.

In 2017, Aurora became the first city in Colorado to host a dockless bike sharing program.