Relocating to CoS. Apartment & Location Advice (Colorado Springs, Fountain: apartments, to rent)

[Dr.Ergo]

I am fairly certain that I will be relocating to CoS in the next few months. After gathering a lot of information it seems that the area to avoid would be South-East CoS. The issue that I have is that the position I will be taking is with Northrop Grumman (next to Schiever AFB) putting my job smack dab in the SE area.

I figured that I would have to commute regardless and I am interested in learning about nice areas or even apartments within those areas if anyone can be specific. To help give you all a bit of information that might profile a particular area that might match.

Age: 26
Born in California, but did undergrad and doctoral training in Ohio (use to dynamic shifts in area)
Male
African American (I don't want to make this a focus, but it is good to know areas that may cause me problems due to this factor).
Religion: None. Though I am not too informed about the evangelists I would rather avoid them if they actually are an issue.
Education: PhD
Single
No Pet

Looking at the apartment ranges they seem fairly decent and wouldn't mind going as $1600 for a single though given my last assessment I don't think there is anything near that across the city.

Thank you!

[otowi]

Colorado Springs will be very happy to have you and I don't think you need to worry about race being a factor, but if you want a more diverse area to live in, you might prefer areas in the southern parts of the city, or maybe the west side like OCC or downtown - not sure how far of a commute you want. There are several Northrop Grumman facilities in town - not sure which you will be at - but you might like to look in Fountain/Security/Widefield or Falcon if you want to stay on the East side of town. East of Powers and north of Constitution you might find some things you like as well. If you choose to go West, you might like the areas around Broadmoor Bluffs, Quail Lake, or the Cheyenne Mountain Conference Resort - nice neighborhoods and a relatively simple commute to the airport/Schriever area generally speaking.

[hollyt00]

Welcome to Colorado Springs!!

[TCHP]

Welcome!


I believe Northrup-Grumman has three locations in Cos. I don't believe any of those are close to Schreiver AFB, although they may support work at the base. This is an important distinction because the N-G location on Aviation Way is in the southeast part of town near the airport, whereas SAFB is considerably east of the actual city, and working at one will put you in the southeast part of the city while the other will take you far out of town.


If you are at the Aviation Way facility, it is in zip code 80916. The two zip codes with the highest reported crimes rates in town are 80909 and 80910 and 80916 is directly adjacent to 80910. Certainly some of this activity will spill over to parts of 80916. There are any number of apartment and condo complexes in these two zip codes, but given your education and income levels, you probably would not want to stay in these areas. Are these ghetto areas where you will be assaulted in broad daylight, no, not at all. Many people live and work in those places without any incidents at all and there are some nice places in that area as well. But overall, the income and education levels there are some of the lowest in the city and there are direct correlations between income and crime.


A commute in Cos is not going to be too arduous no matter where you live, but some areas will make it a bit shorter and easier. If you are working on Aviation Way or at SAFB, then you may want to commute down the Powers Blvd corridor. Zip codes to start your search in would be 80917, 80922, and 80923. There are newer complexes in these areas that will not be too outrageous in price. There also is considerable retail and recreation in these areas along Powers so a chance to hit local watering holes and catch up on your favorite sports teams with similarly educated and employed people will be possible. Want to golf, there are a couple of courses in this area. Movies or laser tag instead, those are there too. These areas also tend to have a more age similar demographics to yourself. These areas are also not too far from the other N-G facilities in town either. If you need to head out to SAFB, again, not a bad drive from these zip codes.


Overall, race is not an issue here. Do we have racist people, yes, as does any population center with a half million people. Is it in your face, no. Is it subtlety inserted in daily life, no. You may never see any, or you may see some. It mostly is not an issue although some seem to be to able to find instances of it more than others.


Religion, again, not an issue. Yes, we are home to several large evangelical organizations and we have a reputation of being conservative and a Republican strong hold. But we also have a large military presence, a fairly young population, and a laid back attitude to balance life. We also have a population of LGBT, vegans, agnostics, atheists, tree-huggers, and others that call Cos home and despite the popularity of similar topics on this forum of late, we do not have physical confrontations on the street corners between groups, nor regular yelling matches in the media. It seems to become more noticeable while looking at political results or dealing with public budgets in local government.

[shanen]

What do you want in the neighborhood you move to? You make enough to support living in pretty much every part of town. So it's up to you on what an acceptable commute is, what you want the neighborhood to be like, if you want walkability to stores/restaurants or prefer driving, etc.

[Dr.Ergo]

Thanks for all the great info and feedback. Given the location of NG and SAFB I am prepared for an acceptable commute of 20+ mins not including traffic. I do like the idea of walk-ability, but also a "younger" crowd in the sense of not surrounded by family life, not necessarily youth as that criteria most likely conflicts with other things. I am from Los Angeles so a sprawl-like feel would be nice as well.

The zip codes that I have found to have places of interest seem to be 80917,918,920-924 which seem to run fairly close to the University more or less. I have also run into people discussing 906,904,905,903 which seems to be on the SW corner of town. Any thoughts on those or is the best bet to stick N or NE?

[shanen]

Originally Posted by Dr.Ergo

I do like the idea of walk-ability

Originally Posted by Dr.Ergo

a sprawl-like feel would be nice as well.

Those are polar opposites

The east, northeast, and north sides will give you sprawl-overload and terrible walkability. It definitely isn't a young demographic. Most young people prefer downtown or the west side here (and in most cities). Those would offer more homes to rent rather than apartments.

[Dr.Ergo]

Yeah my bad. Being from LA even when you mean walk-ability we still intend to drive. I should qualify it given the fact that LA is fairly decentralized that Downtown feels more like a location on the map not the center of the city. Being born and raised in LA I have never spent anytime in Downtown or LA proper because every area has anything you want to offer.

What are the Downtown and West-side areas like?

How far would you say the more sprawl areas are from downtown? As in I don't need to be in downtown to have fair access to downtown.

[otowi]

Compared to LA everything is close to everything else here. We do not have a high skyline so downtown doesn't look like a big city downtown so much. West side is a little eclectic and less cookie cutter - at least in the area that people usually mean when they say West side - Old Colorado City and surrounding areas.

[dr.frog]

OCC would be a great place for a young single professioinal to live, but I sure would not want to commute to the east side from there every day. In general, the main arterial streets and highways in COS go north/south rather than east/west.