Mountain View, CO

Mountain View is a tiny Jefferson County town immediately west of Denver, occupying about 12 square blocks between Wheat Ridge, Lakeside, and the city of Denver. The 2020 census counted 541 residents. The town was incorporated in 1904 on the Berkeley Annex subdivision, which grew out of John Brisben Walker's Berkeley Farm. Its borders are so compact that the whole municipality reads more like a neighborhood with a mayor, council, police, and town hall than a conventional suburb. That small footprint has produced a very specific local economy.

Mountain View's commercial strip includes three retail marijuana dispensaries, and sales taxes from those shops make up a large share of the town's budget alongside the remaining businesses. Community events, council meetings, and short trips across Sheridan Boulevard connect the town to the larger Denver edge around it. Mountain View's local scoop is a Colorado town where a 1904 subdivision, a dozen blocks, and a modern tax base built around dispensaries all occupy the same tiny grid.