Positives / Negatives (Denver, Colorado Springs, Monument: job, homes, crime)

[Nadine]

Originally Posted by jetjockey75

Believe me, that gets REALLY old REALLY fast when they start eating every plant, shrub or tree that you put in the ground!!!

Or tear up your garden that is your main stay in the summer and for canning and freezing for winter. Some of us just prefer our produce to store bought and sure helps fixed incomes. People really should make life miserable for them to be in your yards. Why? because they become unafraid of human. And preditors follow food. You really don't want them lounging in your yards. Not good for you or them. Keep the wild , wild. I enjoy seeing them as much as the next guy but run them off.

[MattDen]

Positives of Colorado Springs
-Very Clean
-Good parks system
-Close to good hiking
-One hour from Denver
-Lots of restaurants
-Pleasent downtown
-Outdoorsy city
-Good library system
-Older neighborhoods tend to be well kept
-Very little blight
-Climate tends to be moderate: average highs are in the 40s in January and 80s in July with very little humidity

Negatives:
-City infrastructure overall is way below where it should be
-Economy is very weak and slow growing for the most part especially for a city of its size
-Very spread out for an area of only 600,000 people
-Doesnt seem to have as much of a sense of community as Denver/Boulder area in my opinion
-Long periods of very dry weather quite common

Overall, Colorado Springs is a good city in my opinion I wouldnt say its great but its got more positives then negatives but the negatives could really overshadow the positives very quickly if it doesnt work at improving some things.

[michiganbornandproud]

I have lived here in the Springs for most of my life (not by choice mind you...lol...hence my name)...and I can come up with actually few positives about C/S as a whole...but I will try....
1)nice scenery in certain areas of town (Garden of the Gods,etc..)
2)nice libraries,and parks in certain areas
3)Territory Days at Memorial Day and balloons at Labor Day are nice although Memorial park isn't exactly a quality piece of real estate IMHO...
My negatives are oh so many...but I will try to be gentle as I can...
1)The cost of living here is RIDICULOUS...me and hubby are hard working,raising 2 kids,and have 2 incomes,and cannot afford much better than what we have renting in Cimmarron Hills...2)watching people smoke crack openly on the street and the rotten kids with no adult supervision outside setting off firecrackers from sun up to sundown...3)The city has gotten HUGE by comparison to what it use to be...and even then...it wasn't all it was cracked up to be...4)NO sense of community..5)The city's Parks and Recreation dept. is a JOKE(was my first job at 15,worked for them for 15 years seasonally and it only got worse as time went on)...6)Someone previously mentioned pleasant downtown...I don't know which "Downtown" you are referring to,as I was over there for Springspree,and Acacia Park smells of urine and pot smoke as you troll through the "homeless campground"...7)I would take an 80 degree day with 100% humidity over a 100 degree day in what feels like Death Valley and that I am gonna crack and bleed out from the sunburn...lol...8)The water restrictions..9)People in blue collar work are pardon the expression "screwed"...they could make so much more elsewhere and are stuck here to the high rents,high home prices,and expensive economy....making $10 an hr. for a job that is worth $15 an hr. or more elsewhere...10)The cleanliness of the city is negotiable...certain areas of downtown and around Garden of the Gods and Briargate are kept clean...but what about Cimarron Hills,Widefield,around Pete Field and Fort Carson,etc...etc...kids are finding hypodermic needles in the street,meth is raging through most of the afore mentioned places and NOTHING is being done...11)The Department of Human Services is a JOKE...I see at least 3 cases of parental neglect and abuse DAILY...I call child abuse hotline,and if it is a life or death situation,MAYBE they will send someone,but NOTHING is being done most of the time...I know several people who need food stamps,housing authority Section 8,what have you...and they wait MONTHS for help...only to get tossed scraps to tide them over...
I could go on and on..but no sense in beating a dead horse...I am getting out of here as fast as my little bum can carry me as soon as I can get out...JMHO

[vfrpilot]

1)The cost of living here is RIDICULOUS...

I guess everything is relative. This is a positive for me. Just about any house in San Diego is over 400k, most in the 600k and up range.
There are areas with a lower CoL than CO Springs. Pueblo comes to mind. There are lots of folks who commute to the Springs because the median home cost is about half.
Doesn't Michigan have employment issues? I saw an article about a street in a Detroit suburb where all but one house was foreclosed. That is really sad.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by michiganbornandproud

1)The cost of living here is RIDICULOUS...

This is why I don't live in LA anymore. I am very, very happy to live here in the Front Range Region. The numbers are not a joke. They are actual prices. I think now people will understand why people like Paul and I moved from SoCal to here.

YouTube - Dr. Housing Bubble - Real Homes of Genius

[CareFreeAZ]

Originally Posted by vfrpilot

Doesn't Michigan have employment issues? I saw an article about a street in a Detroit suburb where all but one house was foreclosed. That is really sad.

This is true. My boss who teaches relocation appraisal around the country was in Michigan a couple of months ago and brought up this very same fact to us here in Arizona and how lucky we were to be in such a good economic area.

[michiganbornandproud]

I can appreciate that SoCal is very expensive and that Colorado Springs has less expensive homes and cost of living by comparison,but where I come from....living here is like living in SoCal by comparison.Detroit,MI and even the state as a whole does have employment issues as far as the automobile and high tech professional fields,especially in Detroit and surrounding areas...but as far as that goes,my husband and I are not in the fields that are suffering from the job situation there...Bless you if you can afford C/S,but we cannot afford anything but to barely eek by round these parts...I understand that drugs,high gas prices,and unemployment are everywhere in this country,but for the blue collar working class that we are,a move to a simpler,less expensive way of life is the ticket to our survival...my love of home and my friends and family at home are what drive me to leave CO all together.

[vfrpilot]

my love of home and my friends and family at home are what drive me to leave CO all together.

Forget all that other stuff. You sound like you should return. I hope you are able to make it happen. Best of luck.

[HoustonNTheRearViewMirror]

Originally Posted by michiganbornandproud

but what about Cimarron Hills,Widefield,around Pete Field and Fort Carson,etc...etc...kids are finding hypodermic needles in the street,meth is raging through most of the afore mentioned places and NOTHING is being done

Um, I just bought a house in Widefield, near Widefield Park. I am moving there from Houston, and I spent 3 days looking at houses, and bought one in Widefield that I really like.

Are you saying Widefield is dangerous? Will the Park be safe for me to use? Are there likely to be meth labs in my neighborhood?

[michiganbornandproud]

Most of the time,Widefield is safe around the park from what I know of...but there is a drug problem down in that area...I know personally about 20 people in the Widefield area who have left,or are currently suffering living next door to "meth heads"...I have had the unfortunate experience of knowing several people through lifelong friends or friends of a family member who have ex's or even a sibling in jail for being a dealer and/or user,and they lived in Widefield...I live in the Cimarron Hills area,and it seems to me this is more of a dangerous area than Widefield,but I know of a problem down there from personal experiences with knowing people down there.Sorry,I didn't mean to scare ya,but my visits to Widefield have been less than satisfactory as far as cleanliness and seeing the parts of Widefield I've seen as far as the residents go......I have no knowledge of meth labs so to speak,but I wouldn't be surprised if they found any...most of the time,life is pretty uneventful,but probably would make headlines if people just didn't ignore what's goin on right in front of them...Good luck to you in your move to Widefield,and I hope your experiences there wonderful..