if you're new to denver, it may take a second or two to figure out that 5280 takes its name from the city's mile high elevation. five thousand, two hundred and eighty feet above sea level. it's an unusual name for an out of the ordinary magazine.we began 5280 in 1993 with the simple but unprecedented step of asking 75,000 area residents what they wanted to read about in a magazine about the mile high city.denver, they told us, is a place of contrasts. it's hot jazz at el chapultepec, dry martinis at the cruise room, and high tea at the brown palace. it's the man made beauty of the city & county building at christmas and the natural splendor of the rocky mountains. it's wild friday nights at the grizzly rose and lazy sunday afternoons at the tattered cover bookstore.