looking for info on longmont (Denver, Fort Collins: rentals, crimes, modular homes)

[jamh13]

I wouldn't call longmont a small town. Maybee an eventual superburb of Denver. Gangs are a problem here!

[Gijs]

Yeah I live in Rotterdam wich is a town with a population of 6500,000. So that`s why I thought it was small. But iam pretty suprised to hear in almost every topic on city-data.com they are talking about gang violence. And that`s new to me `cause iam an Europian who is planning to move to the U.S. (Because of the big bigger biggest things I like that muscular culture, you know in Europe it`s more like the opposite.) Iam dutch to be exact. So there is almost no gang violence here in Europe no matter how big the city is. Yes we have more maffia activities. But that`s different from that low-life aggresive streetgangs you have in America. I know this isn`t my topic. But can I ask one question here? Is it really that bad in Amerika? And is the gang crime based in this town? Or does it come from Denver? That would be more logical because of the size of the town. But I could be saying this because of the envirement Iam raised in. And what`s wrong with boulder? Has it more gangs? Look i like the U.S. But my biggest concern are the gangs. Because that will be something new to me. And that`s a scary thing of the U.S.

[livecontent]

Originally Posted by Gijs

Yeah I live in Rotterdam wich is a town with a population of 6500,000. So that`s why I thought it was small. But iam pretty suprised to hear in almost every topic on city-data.com they are talking about gang violence. And that`s new to me `cause iam an Europian who is planning to move to the U.S. (Because of the big bigger biggest things I like that muscular culture, you know in Europe it`s more like the opposite.) Iam dutch to be exact. So there is almost no gang violence here in Europe no matter how big the city is. Yes we have more maffia activities. But that`s different from that low-life aggresive streetgangs you have in America. I know this isn`t my topic. But can I ask one question here? Is it really that bad in Amerika? And is the gang crime based in this town? Or does it come from Denver? That would be more logical because of the size of the town. But I could be saying this because of the envirement Iam raised in. And what`s wrong with boulder? Has it more gangs? Look i like the U.S. But my biggest concern are the gangs. Because that will be something new to me. And that`s a scary thing of the U.S.

It is nice to hear from someone from the Netherlands. The talk about gang violence does not mean it is wide spread. Sometimes topics on forums tend to concentrate on the negative. However, America is more a hetoregeneous culture (meaning have many difference parts) with large enthnic groups. So this causes some problems in interactions with different people. In tradition europe it was homogeneous (containing the same parts throughout) so there would be a tendency to have less stress and problems. However today, as I understand it, in the news, there are more problems in Europe because of immigration and the integration of different ethnic groups.

Please correct me, if I am wrong, but my understanding that in Nederland, there are problems because of the toleration that the Dutch have shown to allow the immigration of various ethnic groups, and many from your former colonies. This has caused increased conflict and violence in your cities between groups, especially with the Muslim Immigration from the former colony of Indonesia. So Nederland today is starting to see that there are inherent problems in integrating various groups into the national identity. These are the same problems that face America, to give rights and opportunities to diverse groups of people and sometimes it is not easy.

[Gijs]

Originally Posted by livecontent

It is nice to hear from someone from the Netherlands. The talk about gang violence does not mean it is wide spread. Sometimes topics on forums tend to concentrate on the negative. However, America is more a hetoregeneous culture (meaning have many difference parts) with large enthnic groups. So this causes some problems in interactions with different people. In tradition europe it was homogeneous (containing the same parts throughout) so there would be a tendency to have less stress and problems. However today, as I understand it, in the news, there are more problems in Europe because of immigration and the integration of different ethnic groups.

Please correct me, if I am wrong, but my understanding that in Nederland, there are problems because of the toleration that the Dutch have shown to allow the immigration of various ethnic groups, and many from your former colonies. This has caused increased conflict and violence in your cities between groups, especially with the Muslim Immigration from the former colony of Indonesia. So Nederland today is starting to see that there are inherent problems in integrating various groups into the national identity. These are the same problems that face America, to give rights and opportunities to diverse groups of people and sometimes it is not easy.

That`s right about Europe. But it isn`t about gang violence. Cause we have it, but it`s from the maffia who are more closed and aren`t so agressive. You mostly don`t hear from them. They are a behind the scene group. But from my understanding it is in america the other way around. And you are right about the netherlands. But there are no gangs of muslims. There are cultural diiferences. Because they don`t really like dutch people and some dutch people don`t really like muslims. But there are no gangs wo rob you and kill you and stuff like that. But we have a little hate problem. It`s more like a competition who hates who more. But we don`t kill each other. And if you are just down to earth and don`t carry that much hate, you wouldn`t even notice the muslims are here. But the church tries to demolise them and the mosks try to demolise that unbelieving dutch pigs. So there`s a hate problem but no more then that.

[Gijs]

There`s one more thing I`d like to know. How do you avoid this gang violence? Are there cities with this size who doesn`t has it? And in schools are there many gang members in schools?How can you raise a family in a city with gangs? Or do you mean with not wide spread not wide spread in the city itself. Then you could raise a good family there. Or do you mean not wide spread in all of america? Iam especially conserns about the schools. Are gang members mostly dropouts? Or are they also in schools? Or does that depends on the schools itself? Are there gangs in the American `burbs (like you call the middle-class neigbourhoods to my understanding.)

[livecontent]

Originally Posted by Gijs

There`s one more thing I`d like to know. How do you avoid this gang violence? Are there cities with this size who doesn`t has it? And in schools are there many gang members in schools?How can you raise a family in a city with gangs? Or do you mean with not wide spread not wide spread in the city itself. Then you could raise a good family there. Or do you mean not wide spread in all of america? Iam especially conserns about the schools. Are gang members mostly dropouts? Or are they also in schools? Or does that depends on the schools itself? Are there gangs in the American `burbs (like you call the middle-class neigbourhoods to my understanding.)

You have asked interesting questions. I think the media and especially the European media exaggerates the predominance of gangs and the problems that occur. Gangs are not wide spread in the U.S. and not widespread in all the cities. I believe that the problem is more endemic in the very poor areas of major cities. Even years ago, from my experience in tough areas of eastern cities, I think Television and the Movies has made more of the problem then actually existed. However, I am talking about years ago when drugs was not the main motivating factor.

You mention the mafia many times. The mafia, which I mean large international criminal organizations, are not apparent to most Americans. Gangs of criminal youth are not to me, Mafia. However I believe large mafia type organizations are very influential in the drug trade.

In the past the Italian Mafia had overt influence in certain cities and were noticed, but were not as evident as the Movies would have you believe. My grandparents are all from Sicily and I am from New York, and that is my view of it. However, the Italian Mafia was more involved with the "numbers" (gambling), prostitutions, loan sharking (illegal high interest loans), control of union funds, intimidation of politicians with payouts for state contracts but drugs was not a major issue. Now drugs are major and the Italian mafia is vastly diminished in this country. However there are very large and dangerous drug cartels (which you can say are mafia) that come from other cultures.
Gambling is gone because the government made it legal for revenue, prostitution has somewhat given way to liberal sex, and government over site of contracts and unions are greater.

Are the members of gangs mainly dropouts or are they in the schools??? That is a good questions and not being in education profession and not having school age children, I have not given it much thought. Also, I am a Senior citizen so I am insulated from that problem. I hope I can get help from other, more knowledgeable member of this forum.

I have lived in the Denver area for almost 30 years and I have not seen or experienced major gang problems. But this may be from my prospective of having experienced very bad areas of the east. Again, help from other forum members can give a better answer. to an inquiry from a native of the Netherlands.


I was in Amsterdam, many years ago, and it was not like any other European city. There appeared to be too many transients on the street who intimidated the tourist. This, I believe, was a result of your liberal attitudes towards drugs and the sex trade at that time.

As a note, you write good English, well enough to be understood.--certainly better than I can write and understand Dutch. Keep up the good work.

[Gijs]

Thank you. But that`s because Holland is not very for from England. And the dutch television is not much entertaining. So most dutch people look te the british programs. To be honest I only watch dutch programs for the news. So I can understand alot. But there could be some grammatical faults in my posts. My apologees (I don`t know how to spell that word) for that. And I know that the street gangs of yours are not the mafia. What I`m trying to say is that we do have maffia in Europe. But no agressive street like gangs of yours who slaughter you for just some euro`s. (Or dollars in your case.) That`s what I mean. And iam concerned about that. The agression of that type gangs. And yes you are right. But in Holland it`s legal te have drugs. Other europian country`s see that as running away from your problems. But we had a drug problem in the 60`s so what did the dutch goverment say? Make it legal so the organised crime doesn`t have to blackmail and kill people here. And yes that made it a liberal culture. It had it`s goods and bads. Because weed is just as bad as alcohol so if you drink whiskey sometimes you could also roll a joint sometimes. It`s just as bad. I know that the U.S. is demolising hash and weed in the media. And the good thing of that is if you don`t like to drink you could also smoke a joint to have be in a nice mood. The bad thing is is that we get tourists from Germany,England and France who are just interested in getting high and vandalise our towns. Also you have some junkies who started with weed and ended with cocaïn speed and heroïn and stuff like that. And that`s nasty. So nasty it even is illegal in the Netherlands. So yes you are right we do just sell drugs to anybody above 21. But only the softer drugs and because it is legal there is not much crime connected to it. It could be it is smuggled in. ( That`s the strange part you may not import drugs to the Netherlands it must be all dutch-made). But that`s all. So it has it`s plusses. But I would really like it if someone has some information about how to avoid gang. Are there city`s of this size who doesn`t have a gang problem? And is there gang violence at school? And do gang members also go to schools? And if so, does that depend on in what town you`re in. In what area and what school? And are there schools wo don`t have the problems in towns the size of Longmont?

[gpraceman]

I think you are being overly worried about gangs. They are out there, especially in the larger towns and cities, but most of us Americans have never seen any gang violence. Sure we hear and see it on the news, but most of us have never been around it or been victims of it. I think the media in other countries overplays our gang violence (like our media does), so people in other countries think it is more prevalent than it really is.

The best thing to do is find out from the locals where to stay away from. Generally, that is the lower income areas with older housing.

[Katiana]

I think our Dutch friend is worried about gang violence b/c someone on this forum said Longmont has a lot of it. I would disagree.

[jkcoop]

I would disagree as well. It makes it sound like Longmont is ridden with gangs. Guess they need to move to a better part of town. We've never, ever had an issue where we are in southwest Longmont. Very little crime in general. But you have to be careful about what part of town you are in no matter what community you move to. I don't think Longmont is any worse then any of the other suburbs around Denver. Frankly I don't even consider Longmont a suburb of Denver, but that's just me.