Relocating Soon, Hard To Find Housing! (Denver, Colorado Springs: low income, real estate, apartment)

[TCHP]

Which part? I've seen parts of Fountain that have brand new, stucco ranch level homes with meandering driveways that could have been plucked out of Briargate and dropped in down south and sell for $100k less. Fountain Ft Carson High School is similarly large, new, and as complete, maybe even more so, a facility as Vista Ridge or Pine Creek.

That's the point I was trying to make above...there are pockets of great areas through out Co Spg metro area. They are not all limited to those areas found in 8092x. But to find them you have to pull back a layer, sometimes two, and in the case of the OP, do some checking on schools that goes beyond a basic web check at greatschools.com

[otowi]

Yes - Fountain has some great neighborhoods and homes and a nice community/small town environment. And there are also some streets I wouldn't buy a house on. But there are definitely ones that would be like a dream home....

[MsMetal]

Originally Posted by otowi

I don't particularly notice any difference attributable to pot, nor do I personally see any evidence of "ghettos" at all, nor of less-good neighborhoods growing in size. To the contrary, the economy is pretty hot right now and I've seen neighborhoods improving as a result.

I tend to agree with this. I have not noticed any difference at all b/c of pot. In fact, I just had a worker in my house who lives in Manitou & he's fairly conservative, but he was raving about how pot has helped Manitou (the only place around here that sells recreational MJ). He said the taxes accounted for 10% of the city's budget & thought it was great. He also hadn't noticed any change in his community.

I've noticed 0 change & yes, the economy is pretty good, lots of building, lots of new retail, etc. I can't speak for the hoods, as I don't leave the north side that often, but I've never felt this town has a real ghetto. I guess I've lived in big cities all my life, so what we have is pretty low key.

I don't know anything abt renting. I will say tho' that I do feel homelessness has increased in the last 5-6 yrs & that the issues with it have become more visible to the average middle class citizen. You didn't used to see beggars on every major intersection corner & even in shopping center parking lots, up north here. BUT, it was MUCH worse about 4 yrs ago or so, when there was a LOT of camping concentrated in 1 area & you could see it & smell the campfires just driving by, etc. Plus they were hanging out in tourist spots. That's really gotten much better.

[Vision67]

My best friend lives in Manitou Springs. Neither of us has anything to do with pot but he commented about how the tax dollars were positively being used by Manitou Springs to fix the roads and infrastructure.

They even repaved his street.

I think Colorado Springs is losing a lot of tax revenue because the city council refused to go along with the voters who voted to legalize pot. By outlawing retail sales in the city they just pushed all the customers over to Manitou Springs. That did nothing to prevent use by Colorado Springs customers; it just forces them to take a short drive.

I'd prefer Colorado Springs be able to capture that lost tax revenue.

[BornintheSprings]

Originally Posted by Vision67

My best friend lives in Manitou Springs. Neither of us has anything to do with pot but he commented about how the tax dollars were positively being used by Manitou Springs to fix the roads and infrastructure.

They even repaved his street.

I think Colorado Springs is losing a lot of tax revenue because the city council refused to go along with the voters who voted to legalize pot. By outlawing retail sales in the city they just pushed all the customers over to Manitou Springs. That did nothing to prevent use by Colorado Springs customers; it just forces them to take a short drive.

I'd prefer Colorado Springs be able to capture that lost tax revenue.

I agree Vision I mean the Springs has medical shops why not recreational we could use the money.

[abcdefg567]

Originally Posted by BornintheSprings

I agree Vision I mean the Springs has medical shops why not recreational we could use the money.

One of our reasons for moving to the springs from Denver was the lack of recreational pot shops. It's nice not to see every suburban corner covered with them. We actually felt it was more family friendly here.

Also, driving around the Stetson Hills/Springs Ranch area, I haven't noticed any medicinal places either. If they're there they aren't advertised well. Idk, but if they did have recreational pot shops everywhere here too, it would be a negative for our family and possibly for others with kids just based on conversation with other moms I've had.

[Mike from back east]

Devil's Advocate here: Liquor store on every corner, in every supermarket, drug and convenience store is okay but weed shops aren't?

[BornintheSprings]

Originally Posted by abcdefg567

One of our reasons for moving to the springs from Denver was the lack of recreational pot shops. It's nice not to see every suburban corner covered with them. We actually felt it was more family friendly here.

Also, driving around the Stetson Hills/Springs Ranch area, I haven't noticed any medicinal places either. If they're there they aren't advertised well. Idk, but if they did have recreational pot shops everywhere here too, it would be a negative for our family and possibly for others with kids just based on conversation with other moms I've had.

How does having a shop effect your family? I don't smoke at all yet I support recreational because of the tax revenue and the fact it frees up police to go after real criminals and not people who want to grow plants.

[MsMetal]

Originally Posted by Vision67

My best friend lives in Manitou Springs. Neither of us has anything to do with pot but he commented about how the tax dollars were positively being used by Manitou Springs to fix the roads and infrastructure.

They even repaved his street.

I think Colorado Springs is losing a lot of tax revenue because the city council refused to go along with the voters who voted to legalize pot. By outlawing retail sales in the city they just pushed all the customers over to Manitou Springs. That did nothing to prevent use by Colorado Springs customers; it just forces them to take a short drive.

I'd prefer Colorado Springs be able to capture that lost tax revenue.

ITA! If there was ever a town that needed tax money, it's this one. I just posted in another thread, how in Mpls my property taxes were $6K & then I moved here & they were $1200 for the same house basically. Then I lived here for a few years & realized the $6K was well worth it for the services we received!

So many things about this town are such a joke & you're right, anyone who wants pot just takes a short drive, whether it be north, south or west.

[Kathy884]

I have to say (as we are considering moving to Colorado Springs), that we aren't thrilled about the fact that recreational pot is allowed in the state. We just hate the smell. It's on our list of cons for moving actually.

We vacationed in LA/Disneyland in January and with pot there allowed now, even on the highway so many times we could smell it from other cars and felt fumigated by that, and there was no way to get away from that. Yuck. We don't have that issue at home. And it was a daily issue for us when we were on the highway in the area. We hated that.

DS 21 has found that even in St. Louis more of his friends who never smoked pot before are doing some smoking now -- They use the rationalization hey if it's legal in some states it can't be that bad for you. Passage in a few states affects attitudes in so many other states. DS left one party early because of weed and has now been passing on going to parties at one of his friend's house because he knows that it will turn into lots of people smoking pot -- He still gets together with that friend one on one, etc. or with certain select circles who he knows aren't into that, but avoids the party scene there.

For me and DH who are 56 and 63 respectively, I don't think the legalization of weed would have much of an affect on us socially. But if you prefer not to smoke and prefer others around you not to smoke I think it does affect the younger 20 something crowd a bit more.