Colorado Springs - The Negatives . (Denver: homes, safe neighborhood, price)

[Ripleyrose]

I have lived here since 1974. I hate to see the sprawl of houses marching out in every direction. They are cookie cutter subdivisions. And the houses advancing further and further up the mountains. The clogging traffic going up and down the pass.

I think it is a negative that we are known as the 'Mecca of the West.' So many people get the impression that you MUST be an Evangelical Christian or you won't be welcomed or fit in. Not so.

My cousins from back east think we have winter 12 months out of the year and they see that as a huge negative. They don't understand the sun comes out and melts it away.

I thought about leaving and then realized that with all the flaws and growing pains this is still my happy place.

Every negative is offset by a positive.

I love the west side and Cheyenne Canon area. So I live there.
We have winter but with enough sunshine and warm days to keep me sane.
There is so much beauty here and plenty of opportunities to be a tourist in your own home town.

We are a work in progress. Our negatives are so small to me. Everyone is different, but me...I thrive here.

[Bideshi]

Originally Posted by Ripleyrose

.


I love the west side and Cheyenne Canon area.

What's the ZIP code for that area?

[Ripleyrose]

It's 80906. Some of it is very pricey but I have a cute and very modest place. It comes complete with bears, foxes and lots of deer.

[ryanek9freak]

Indeed, I live in the 80904, pleasant valley area. There are so many deer here, it's borderline rediculous. The views are really awsome, and i'm really close to OCC.

Gotta love the bars there. Well the 2 I frequent anyway.

[silverClimber2go]

Originally Posted by simonjtt

My family and I have been thinking of relocating to Colorado for many years and although we like Denver we are intrested in Colorado Springs. The tourist pictures look great, it seems like a great place and of course the Realtor's will always say great things! I am a great believer in a collective opinion of things, so I want to throw the question out there what are the negatives?

My family is looking to relocate to CSprings and has been doing research and visiting the area for a couple of years now to ensure it is the right place for us. On each and every visit I do my own poll of people at every single place I go. I ask two questions: What do you love about the CSprings area?; and What do you dislike about the CSprings area?

Wanna know the answers to the questions? Each and every person I asked (several hundred people) replied to the first question - "Everything!"; the answer to the second question every time was - "Nothing!"

I asked people from every walk of life these two questions. They were all taken back by it, but they also replied with utter honesty. And that took a lot of them back and I definitely left them thinking. Good or bad? I have no idea. But it was interesting that I never received a different answer from anyone. That says a lot about the positive things of the area and how they affect the people that live there. It's this mindset that is drawing us, and our kids, to the CSprings area.

Good luck on your search for the right place. As always, nothing is ever perfect. You just need to make the best place the best it can possibly be for you.

[icewater]

I heard a recent media tidbit that behind Vegas, Colorado Springs had the highest suicide rate in the US. Not sure how it was calculated, but this should not be the case for a city like this. Seattle with no sun or Flint Michigan with no opportunities should be at the top. Vegas is understandable because of it's nature (sounds like some of the PEOPLE actually stay in vegas) but Col. Springs.....Why? I really don't like the city and it seems vacant and squalid. Not squalid in a dirty or decaying way, but in a secretive pent-up way. Very strange.
Funny enough, when I first moved to Co, I had visited Co.Springs and ended up talking to some girl in a Denver bar, and we both agreed that it was very reminiscent of a recent movie "Murder at Robin Hood Hills".

[Bob from down south]

Originally Posted by Ripleyrose

It's 80906. Some of it is very pricey but I have a cute and very modest place. It comes complete with bears, foxes and lots of deer.

But are there prairie dogs?

[YvZ]

silverClimber2go
-
"On each and every visit I do my own poll of people at every single place I go. I ask two questions: What do you love about the CSprings area?; and What do you dislike about the CSprings area?

Wanna know the answers to the questions? Each and every person I asked (several hundred people) replied to the first question - "Everything!"; the answer to the second question every time was - "Nothing!"

I am sorry but I have a hard time to believe that houndrands of people didn't say one negative thing about Colorado Springs. At the least people will make a comment that there are a few cold days in the Winter that they don't enjoy. It is nature that people will have at least one negative thing to say.

[JAF1976]

I would have to say the 5 minute long stop lights, that are timed wrong, combined with the traffic, and poorly designed roadways are the only complants I have about this place. Other than that COS is by far the best place I have lived.

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by YvZ

silverClimber2go
-
"On each and every visit I do my own poll of people at every single place I go. I ask two questions: What do you love about the CSprings area?; and What do you dislike about the CSprings area?

Wanna know the answers to the questions? Each and every person I asked (several hundred people) replied to the first question - "Everything!"; the answer to the second question every time was - "Nothing!"

I am sorry but I have a hard time to believe that houndrands of people didn't say one negative thing about Colorado Springs. At the least people will make a comment that there are a few cold days in the Winter that they don't enjoy. It is nature that people will have at least one negative thing to say.

You want to hear the negative?

Too big. Too sprawled. Too much military dependence. The Springs is a water-sucking pig from some of the most critical rivers and wetlands in the state. It has grown with virtually no planning and foresight. The Springs has one of the most beautiful natural settings anywhere, but there has been virtually nothing that man has built there in the last 50 years that is aesthetically pleasing--and much of the older magnificent architecture has been bulldozed in the name of "progress." Colorado Springs used to be one of Colorado's "jewels." Now, it's just another overgrown, sprawled mess trying to be like every other sprawled mess of a city in America.