Why do people leave Colorado? (Denver, Colorado Springs: to live, gangs, manufacturing)

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by MN2CO

I just have to comment on this: I lived in Co for 2 years and noticed how touchy people were (BTW - 90% of these people were also from somewhere else but had lived there longer). Comments not intended in anyway to criticize CO were taken as such. Here's an example:

The first year there, it snowed every day in Jan. I made a comment one day on how I was already tired of all the shoveling and was glad it was the light fluffy stuff. The snake eyed looks I got - clearly I was criticizing their state because I was from somewhere else.

I'm from MN - paleeze!!!! It snows here - only it's usually the heavy wet stuff. I certainly didn't say MN was sooooo much better than CO. I would have said the same thing if I was in MN and it snowed every day. GET OVER IT!

In the 2 years I lived in CO I met maybe 10 people that were from CO - everyone else was from somewhere else. GET OVER IT!

Real interesting. I was at a meeting awhile back with a multi-generational Minnesotan living in Minneapolis-St. Paul. All he could complain about was all of the transplants overrunning Minnesota--how it seemed that no one in Minneapolis-St. Paul was a native Minnesotan anymore, how every nice fishing and hunting spot in the state was getting overrun with out-of-state "idiots" (his term), and how much the quality of life in the state had diminished with the influx of out-of-state immigration. Oh, he has a "Native Minnesotan" sticker on his car, too.

I wonder how he would feel if some out-of-state transplant told him to "just get over it"? Or how he would feel about transplants complaining about the winter weather, or making fun of the local's "funny" accent--like that "Fargo" movie.

I can tell you one thing--if I moved to Minnesota, or anywhere else, I would show some respect to the people who have lived there all of their lives, and know a lot more about the place than I would.

[jenntenn]

I was having a conversation with my friend the other day (neither one of live in CO), and we came to the conclusion that Colorado is where people go to hide. So many of our friends who were "looking to find themselves" or "needed break from their life" at some point in the 20's or 30's end up in CO. for some period of time and then leave. Just an observation.

[GeorgiaTransplant]

Originally Posted by gn3

Colorado is the most xenophobic state I've been in, second would be Oregon. This doesn't mean that most people in the state are xenophobes - the majority are not - but the attitude is more prevalent here than elsewhere. Some of the bumper stickers, attitudes etc. this minority display are downright hateful.

At the root of it is the tendency to blame broad cultural trends on specific groups of "outsiders" - itself an interesting sociological phenomenon. It is intellectual laziness.

Jazzlover might be interested to hear this-I am an Oregon native (and yes, I lived briefly in Colorado). I happen to agree with you about xenophobia, in both states.

Far too easy to get high and mighty about how you know better than to accept that there might be some value in what the newcomers say, and that things will progress. Saw it (And still see it visiting relatives) all the time in Oregon. "Welcome to Oregon...now go home" <---real bumper sticker. "Damn Californians!"

Colorado is not much better. "Colorado Native" bumper stickers. "Stupid easterners!" Sorry, bud, the world has moved on. You may have had a long and distinguished career there, but that and being native doesn't automatically make everything you say gospel truth about the state of the state or what immigration is doing to it. Some agree with you; some don't.

[Umbria]

Originally Posted by jazzlover

Real interesting. I was at a meeting awhile back with a multi-generational Minnesotan living in Minneapolis-St. Paul. All he could complain about was all of the transplants overrunning Minnesota--how it seemed that no one in Minneapolis-St. Paul was a native Minnesotan anymore, how every nice fishing and hunting spot in the state was getting overrun with out-of-state "idiots" (his term), and how much the quality of life in the state had diminished with the influx of out-of-state immigration. Oh, he has a "Native Minnesotan" sticker on his car, too.

I wonder how he would feel if some out-of-state transplant told him to "just get over it"? Or how he would feel about transplants complaining about the winter weather, or making fun of the local's "funny" accent--like that "Fargo" movie.

I can tell you one thing--if I moved to Minnesota, or anywhere else, I would show some respect to the people who have lived there all of their lives, and know a lot more about the place than I would.

I don't think MN is a hot spot where lots of people are moving to, but yes, we are getting some new blood - thank God!

We have our fair share of people that hate change and think that anyone not born & bed here must have something wrong with them - I avoid these people. They're like dead people - they're everywhere Every state has them.

Change is not new and it's not going to stop so you can choose to fight it, vent, create a lot of those nasty radicals flowing through your body that will eventually do you in OR you can accept it (I didn't say like it) and be a happier person. It's a choice.

P.S. I'm moving back to CO just so I can complain about the snow Maybe we can have coffee someday

[zenkonami]

The irony being that later on, those same transplants see the stability they once had in their new home drift away as a new wave of transplants arrive, changing what they were comfortable with, and forcing them to either accept the change, or move somewhere else.

For some people, place is about more than just location.

[gmm_24]

I agree that the reason I am looking to move is family, yes some of mine stalked me out here but the rest and some friends are on the East Coast, land locked and not just the ocean but to go to another state or just..... Else Where takes a while. I do miss the ocean but I miss trees just as much.

It is very brown here and the wind gets on my last nerves when it blows and blows for an entire day or two. Yes it is doing it right now

The snow does not bother me nor does driving in it,I knew how to before I came here but the people who come from snow-less states and have no clue how to drive it in, buy an SUV and roar down the road bother me. Then you see them 5 or so miles down the road having taken out a light post.

I also have no clue why people think it is bug free here. I tell them high alt does not mean no bugs.

I have found the people here to be nice and friendly. I do like the way the towns are laid out, the shopping and etc. I do like that we have 60 degree days in the Winter and I do like that shade means cool, due to little humidty. But do not like the short Spring and Fall.

Sure there are things we do not like but what state is perfect?


Too funny about the static electricity. I wonder if it is the alt because my family calls me Lightening Lady. I shock them, the pets too and zapped our computer once and caused over $400 worth of damage from it. Killed the motherboard, CD rom, memory and etc with one small zap. I now turn it on with a pencil

[gn3]

Originally Posted by jazzlover

Oh, please. It doesn't just happen in Colorado. It happens pretty much anyplace where a hordes of know-it-all *******s move in and then start telling how they know how to run the place much better than the people who have spent most or all of their lives understanding and working with the social, economic, and environmental fabric of the place. If there is "intellectual laziness," it is more often in the know-it-alls who move in who can't be bothered with understanding anything of the history of the place. Not all transplants or newcomers are like that--and many of the "non-native" posters on this forum know more about this place and have worked to understand it more diligently than even some natives or long-time residents--but there are plenty who don't give a darn about Colorado, but are more than ready to opine about how they know better about it. Included in the latter group are some people who have never even set foot in Colorado, or have been here only briefly.

It's like you're arguing with someone else. I stand by what I said: I've been all over the country, and while other places have it too, Colorado has a major xenophobia problem (actually, thinking back to my original post, Hawaii might have the worst problem, but that's a whole different set of circumstances than the contiguous states). It's a minority of people, but they're there, and it's nasty. And you know what? Given that people will move, no matter what, and that society changes, no matter what, it's counterproductive. I honestly think these folks make things worse.

[brightdoglover]

I suspect that a lot of people aren't objecting to new ideas or new people, but to crowding. Growth. New people from elsewhere mean more people wherever you are. More farms going to suburbia, more traffic, more roads for traffic, more school bonds to fund.
Some time ago, the U.S. passed a point where the majority of the population lived in suburbs- not cities, towns or country. Suburbs, which don't seem that different from place to place (although the houses in the East are overall much smaller and often older- little land left).
There are just too many people. Too many well-off people who can use up vast resources, and too many poor people, living badly (this country) or utter squalor and misery (many other countries).

I moved to the Boston area from a south Jersey suburb when I was 20. Moved out of state/country three times, plopped back. I venture that most people don't know that much about their own area even if they're from it- I think they just take it for granted. My main neighbor traces his family in this town back to the deed from the King of England, 100 years before the American Revolution, but doesn't know the town I work in, which 20 miles east towards Boston.

I think that what looks like xenophobia is often a desire not to see the area change, physically, the housing, traffic, view (if any), and crowding. Anyway, I don't think xenophobia would refer to people from other states, but other races/cultures.
I just don't like to see growth. Now, the failing cities and towns of the Northeast or any former manufacturing area are not a pretty sight, and are not good for people's lives- and I bet when the factory came in, the local people didn't want it because it was ugly and dirty and noisy.

I guess I'd like to see steady-state population. The U.S. population is already too high for resources, and of course people do clump up in places where there is work. Well-off people clump up in pretty and otherwise desirable places. They have always done so, and will always do so. It's just there are too many of 'em now. Or is it "us?" Everywhere a baby boomer goes, we're part of the lump-in-snake problem. After our die-off, it still won't be steady-state, with all the immigration and birthin' going on.

I saw houses on realtor.com in Montrose listed for one dollar. They were oversized and seemed to float in a sea of empty cleared land. I wondered if a developer just wanted people in the houses so they could justify the infrastructure needed for a subdivision. I wonder who would want to live in a mega-house surrounded by tumbleweeds and fake gas lanterns.

Just meandering here. I'm home with an injury and can only sit with right leg up- computer, TV, read. Don't mind me.

[CAVA1990]

One good thing about getting older - you don't give a c*** what the locals think about you.

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by CAVA1990

One good thing about getting older - you don't give a c*** what the locals think about you.

Or the transplants.