Money Magazine: Best Places to Live in USA. 2009/2010/2011 (Boulder, Louisville: high crime, unemployed)

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by DilySalu

I had a long term visit recently in the SE colorado area. I noticed that my health was MUCH better!!!! I also visited in New Mexico and noticed my Health was Much better there as well. ( All places over 6000 feet elev).
I have some criteria that MUST be satisfied, then there is the "preferred list" .
1. Must have good medical support
2. Nothing under 4000 ft. Elev.
3. Must be near (5-10 miles) to health food store(s)
4. and medical facilities
Preferred list:
1. Population about 20K+,- nothing under 10K
2. in the mountains, foothills, nothing flat.
3. "Close" to family' sort of.

Please assist,

Sorry, your list is pretty much mutually exclusive. First, there are few communities over 10K in southern Colorado. Second, go look at a map--southeastern Colorado, with the exception of Trinidad, Walsenburg, and LaVeta, is not in the mountains or foothills. Third, medical care in rural Colorado can be problematic, and is likely to get worse with funding problems of county hospitals and emergency medical services.

Cañon City might fit your needs, but it is pretty close to the Front Range metro blob.

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by DilySalu

I had a long term visit recently in the SE colorado area. I noticed that my health was MUCH better!!!! I also visited in New Mexico and noticed my Health was Much better there as well. ( All places over 6000 feet elev).
I have some criteria that MUST be satisfied, then there is the "preferred list" .
1. Must have good medical support
2. Nothing under 4000 ft. Elev.
3. Must be near (5-10 miles) to health food store(s)
4. and medical facilities
Preferred list:
1. Population about 20K+,- nothing under 10K
2. in the mountains, foothills, nothing flat.
3. "Close" to family' sort of.

Please assist,

Check out Woodland Park (WP). Current Population is listed at about 7,000 but the region should meet your 10k figure. It's 20-30 minutes west of Colorado Springs with it's 400k people and four major hospitals. WP now has it's own hospital. There are health food stores in WP as well as COLO SPGS. WP sits at 8500+ feet, with excellent views of Pikes Peak; and flat it ain't. I think it will work for you very well. Use our search tool with the town name and you'll get lots of info.

[Dport7674]

Best Places to Live 2011 - Top 100: Town details: Louisville, CO - from MONEY Magazine


Looks like it won a couple of years ago too. Must be a pretty nice town.

[suzco]

Originally Posted by Dport7674

Best Places to Live 2011 - Top 100: Town details: Louisville, CO - from MONEY Magazine


Looks like it won a couple of years ago too. Must be a pretty nice town.

The opening sentence

This sunny, lively mountain town is safe (crime rates are among the lowest in Colorado) and easy to navigate.

shows so well the fluff in these rankings - anyone here think Louisville is in the mountains?

Castle Rock, Superior, Parker, Black Forest, and quite a few more Colorado areas are also in the top 100.

[Snikt]

Originally Posted by Dport7674

Best Places to Live 2011 - Top 100: Town details: Louisville, CO - from MONEY Magazine


Looks like it won a couple of years ago too. Must be a pretty nice town.

Eh I dunno, I've been there a few times, nothing really special just another Denver suburb?

[debbie at bouontiful]

Originally Posted by Snikt

Eh I dunno, I've been there a few times, nothing really special just another Denver suburb?

Why! I lived near there and can't imagine that town on the list. Lexington maybe but Louiville?

[OakAve2OakLand]

I know...another one of these lists.

See link below, or I'll save you the trouble with their writeup on Louisville, CO:

"This sunny, lively mountain town is safe (crime rates are among the lowest in Colorado) and easy to navigate. Lots of good jobs in tech, telecom, aerospace, clean energy, and health care can be found right in Louisville, and more are on their way. And there's world-class mountain biking, hiking, and skiing in the nearby Rockies. Real estate prices have barely budged since 2005, yet a typical three-bedroom house here still runs less than a comparable one in nearby Boulder. Its schools consistently rank among the top three academically in the Denver area."

So I'm just curious to hear from the locals, is the above description generally accurate? It shows the Louisville unemployment rate at only 6.3% and speaks of an alleged abundance of good, high-paying jobs. I thought the job market was very tight all over the Denver / Boulder metro right now...am I missing something, or are the CCN/Money authors painting too rosy a picture in that regard?

I have no doubt that Louisville is a great place to live, but I'm always a bit skeptical of these type of lists, no matter what locale they rank at the top.

And if Louisville really is all that, I must ask - is the place all families, or are there some singles mixed in there? Also, how about community social opportunities and/or nightlife...do Lousiville residents have choices there, or must one typically go to Boulder or Denver for such events and activities?

Thanks in advance for sharing your Louisville experience and wisdom!

best-places-to-live-in-america-2011: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance (http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/article/113316/best-places-to-live-in-america-2011 - broken link)


EDIT: Sorry, all...I didn't mean to post a redundant thread. I searched the whole first page (going back to 8/11) for anything with Louisville in the title, and didn't see anything, so...

[Timmyy]

Louisville is not a mountain town. That being said I like the place. I have family there and it seems very clean and family friendly.

[livecontent]

Well, not knowing that Louisville is on the Great Plains and not in the mountains, tells me that these editors are not too bright to allow this big error. This list just jockies back and forth many towns in Colorado, over the years with Louisville being number 1 in 2009.

Louisville is nice but it is not the best; it is amoung the best. I think it better to talk about this little region as being good places to live. I would say Lafayette, Broomfield, Longmont,Westminster, Firestone, Frederick, Dacona, Boulder and Superior (which made this list) as being in much of the quality because they are very close to each other. I would further express that a good quality of life extends to much of Northern Colorado, that being Loveland, Ft. Collins and Greeley and all the little towns in and around.

Unfortunately for newcomers this publicity has a way of raising cost for housing but it is certainly a plus for people who already own a home. It also draws more people into Louisville and the population increases; the quality of life decreases and Louisville will no longer make the list of the best places to live. Then a new sucker city vies for the honor of being number 1, becomes known and desired, housing cost rise, population goes up and quality of life decreases...

I think it would be better for a nice comfortable small city to remain unknown and make no lists. I want to live in the the City of Obscurity and the Town of Inconspicuous.

Livecontent

[qfrost]

I don't know about you, but I'd be more than happy if they'd pick some OTHER place to throw a national spotlight on these rankings.