castle rock, parker or highlands ranch?? (Denver, Littleton: credit, home, find a job)

[ItalianGrl88]

Hopefully relocating to Co.....considering castle rock, parker and highlands ranch..........can anyone shed some light on these three for me....comparativley speaking?

wich city is best in the following area's?

1. saftey?
2. better schools?
3. lakes nearby (for skiing, swimming and fishing mostly)
4. close to a good size hospital (husband is an RN)
5. Green ....Coming From Arizona....we'd love to have some green stuff around ..... I think they call it Grass and Trees lol

Thanks ya'll for your help.....I narrowed it down to those three cities now i just need to pick two to visit

[Katiana]

Originally Posted by ItalianGrl88

Hopefully relocating to Co.....considering castle rock, parker and highlands ranch..........can anyone shed some light on these three for me....comparativley speaking?

wich city is best in the following area's?

1. saftey?
2. better schools?
3. lakes nearby (for skiing, swimming and fishing mostly)
4. close to a good size hospital (husband is an RN)
5. Green ....Coming From Arizona....we'd love to have some green stuff around ..... I think they call it Grass and Trees lol

Thanks ya'll for your help.....I narrowed it down to those three cities now i just need to pick two to visit

Safety? I think they're all safe.
Better schools? Better than what? I know that sounds snide, but there are a million different opinions on what is "better".
Lakes nearby? I don't think there are any lakes near any of them. This is not water sport country!
Close to a good-sized hospital? Depends on what you mean by "good-sized". None of them are close to a major teaching hospital.
Green? None of the above are particularly green. This is semi-arid country, not green country. There will be grass and trees in all the neighborhoods, but not much of either in the open areas.
None of them are especially far from each other.

[HockeyFan]

1) Safe -- they're all safe. I don't really consider any areas in any of those places to be even remotely unsafe.

2) Same school district, they are all top-notch schools.

3) Lakes? In Colorado (outside of the mountains)? Chatfield Reservoir by Highlands Ranch I suppose... but it's nothing that great.

4) Highlands Ranch is closer to most metro Denver hospitals.

5) Green? In Colorado? The state's color is brown -- not that it's bad at all. It's actually a very pretty place. Trees struggle with the short growing season, and grass needs as much water as Arizona.

[2bindenver]

Parker has Parker Adventist, west of Parker but east of HR is Sky Ridge in Lone Tree and to the north of HR is Littleton.

Chatfield Res is to the west of HR, Cherry Creek is north of Parker.

It wouldn't be an issue to vist all to see which one "feels" best.

[Charles]

How and why did you narrow it down to these three towns? Specifically, what were your criteria? What were your methods? From where did you get information and data?


Where (location) is the breadwinner working?
What is your home price range target?
What are your comfort zones for commuting in minutes and miles?
If the primary breadwinner loses his job, what (where) is Plan B?

[Katiana]

I agree with 2beindenver that you should visit. You might be very surprised, considering your criteria for lakes and green space. You should know, too, that nursing jobs are very competitive here. Someone else posted recently that she was unable to find a job in nursing despite several years of experience and ICU credentials. It took me two years to find my latest job. I am not giving it up! The "nursing shortage" as such does not exist here.

[colorado_sunshine]

Originally Posted by pittnurse70

I agree with 2beindenver that you should visit. You might be very surprised, considering your criteria for lakes and green space. You should know, too, that nursing jobs are very competitive here. Someone else posted recently that she was unable to find a job in nursing despite several years of experience and ICU credentials. It took me two years to find my latest job. I am not giving it up! The "nursing shortage" as such does not exist here.

Interesting. My wife had offers from 6 hospitals and after getting hired, several hospital recruiters in CO have contacted her. She has networked with many many nurses for the past 6 months and this is the first we have heard that Colorado does not have a shortage. Very interesting!

[colorado_sunshine]

I forgot to add this to my last link:
Colorado faces nursing shortage : Denver Nursing Star

"The nursing shortage in Colorado is twice that of the national average, according to Center’s study."

Not to discredit you pittnurse, but not sure where you got your information! What we do know, however, is if you have bad references and bad work history, you will not find a job (even in nursing!). My wife has seen 3 nurses get fired in the 30 days she worked at her new job and it was because those nurses had crappy attitudes and were trouble makers.

[Katiana]

That is good for her. She must have some skills that are very much in demand. I have lived here for 27 yrs, most of my nurse friends agree that nursing jobs are harder to find here than other places. I think it is because so many people are moving here. There was this recent post that of course I can't find now about how hard it was to find a nursing job.

I just checked the Parker Adventist Hospital website for jobs. They have 41 jobs available, all require experience of 1-5 yrs, about half are part-time (some per diem), and about half are night shift postions.

[GunGirlCO]

Lakes? what lakes...Colorado does not have lakes...no trees and it stays green for the first part of summer...everything is pretty dry right now...and yes I live in parker...well out side of parker ...in franktown now...if you want stuff to do you better get yourself some land and some horses