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I love Colorado! I moved here from North Carolina where I had more traffic - NC is basically a bunch of towns connected by I-85/40. I fell in love with Colorado and have stayed in a job I hate that pays well because I can't leave this state. I am going to have to for my sanity, but I know that I will cry my eyes out and I will be back! I think homes are overpriced between Broomfield and Boulder - I don't know anything about Denver. I live in Broomfield, on open space in a large home and I couldn't have bought it any cheaper in Raleigh unless I would have lived over 30 miles from downtown or RTP. Now, I would have gotten a much nicer home, bigger yard, and nicer decor in Raleigh for that price though. So, yes, I think homes are overpriced here for salaries. I was hopelessly bored in Raleigh - it was safe, sound, and BORING! I have lived in western NC, Charlotte, Birmingham, and all boring, boring. I love to be outside and Colorado just fits me to a T. I think the weather is wonderful except for a few months when I threaten to leave - December - February. But the SUN! The SUN is glorious. I have never lived anywhere with this much sunshine. I visited Montana for a possible move for grad school - it's much more green, but I don't think I could do the cold, grey, rain.
The main problem here to me is jobs. I have a job with a California-based company and am paid California wages - this is rare and probably won't last for me. Based on that, Colorado has been affordable for me. However, my hubby has struggled to find a job as a consultant and finds alot of resistance to outsiders, and I have heard lots of stories from others.
On being rude, this is one that I remarked on when I first came to Colorado in college in 1998. My sister-in-law is native to Wyoming but lives here in Denver. She speaks in snippits, with little emotion, but she is the most loving person you'll ever meet. When I met her, I told my husband/then-boyfriend "Man, people in Colorado are rude!" People in Colorado have less expression and little intonation in their voices. I am a southerner that thank goodness doesn't have an accent, but I miss that sing-songiness of southern accent and then other accents have some expression, albeit some are not good. People stick to themselves and don't bother you. I have noticed that. Maybe that's the cowboy way. How many people in Colorado have told me when I whined about the weather, etc. - "Cowboy Up, or Go Home!"
I love it here though, and if I could get rid of all the states between here and California, and pull it closer to the ocean and add more trees and green, it would be my favorite place on earth. California would be my ideal place to live if I was loaded and didn't have to drive anywhere or pay taxes. :-)
Well said, the areas of Charlotte and Raleigh are probably even growing faster than Denver! I'm a Denver native and I went to Santa Barbara, CA for college and worked as a Coast Guard reservist all over the country and I loved Santa Barbara but would not go back unless you gave me $5,000,000 or more and I know Uncle Sam don't love me that much.
NC has a different trend though, since a lot of Northerners are moving there while as our trend in CO tends to be more of Californians, Texans and Midwesterns. Most people who come here love it and love the great outdoors and blend in to make a true melting pot, while as them snowbirds who move to NC try to change things and bring their politics along, we got a couple in our governments in Denver/Colorado as well.
How do you people in Colorado view your situation? Do you feel the homes are over priced, jobs hard to find, people rude? Is the traffic bad? Do any of you long for a move out of the state? I ask these questions because I am looking to move to colorado and I am tired of all of the above where I am now. I visit my family in Colorado a few times a year and every time I come back I feel like you people in Colorado are very lucky to have what you have. I know that is a far reaching statment, but I can see myself doing what I do there and having a quarter of the home payment, half of the traffic, a few of the rude people, and I actually would be able to understand the person at the drive through.
I always find that the people who have the most complaints about a place have either been there since a young age or have come, not by desire of the environment, but for work related issues. I know this because I bash Phx and am sick of it because I need a change since I have been here my whole life. Where am i moving? Colorado, because it's everything Phx isn't! Scenic, cool, friendly, cultured. My whole family have all moved up in the last 6 years and everytime I visit, i don't wanna leave. In 3 weeks, I won't have too. It's all in your background story! There is no paradise, just a welcome change of environment!
I live in the Colorado Springs but would like to live elsewhere in the state if I had a job in a different town. Though recently, I have been craving warmer weather. I must be getting old!
The original OP asks, Does everybody in colorado love colorado?
YES all of us who are here now absolutely and completely love Colorado. Here in Colorado we have a division of the state police known as the love police. If they find anyone not loving Colorado they kick their sorry *ss out of the state.
If you like sprawled-traffic-riddled suburbia, hedonistic overpriced resorts, trophy houses, and transient populations (at both ends of the economic spectrum from illegal alien workers to affluent part-time residents with an attitude), then Colorado is your place. If you want a quieter, normal community with a balanced socio/economic mix, there are a very few places in the state that you can find that, too--but it's getting more difficult all the time. Too bad, time was that most of Colorado was a pretty nice place to live--now less and less of it is. What is really sad is when I read posts from people who think the screwed up parts of Colorado (and that's getting to be a lot of it) are actually decent. It speaks to what a complete hell-hole wholesale areas of the rest of U.S. have evidently become.
I can't agree with this person more! People actually thought at one time Colorado was another country!...That was at one time,now it's a mecca for people looking to start over, find a new way of life, etc. It feels at times honestly like it's being destroyed by the droves and droves of people that are coming here in search of a major lifestyle change. Why I can see the appeal, my heart breaks everytime I see another plow sitting a long the side of some once quiet and peaceful road or more building. I have to be realistic, but it's hard to see it go. As said before, the rest of the U.S. evidently must be falling apart at the seams! I visited California a few years ago and fell in love, but I have been told by many that it's lost its splendor with the booming populations that have already beseiged it. At times I can't believe I am in the quiet, small town I grew up in! So many new faces, ruder people, heavy traffic in what was once just a country town, now quickly becoming another magnet for people. It's not going to be a small town much longer. It's happening all over Colorado. If you notice, many of them have sprawl that extends for miles.
If you aren't from Colorado, you probably will think that you've found a paradise, but if you are from here, were raised here, you see it changing and sadly turning into another place. The air has even changed in the last several years. It's much cruddier than it used to be and the amount of traffic on the roads isn't helping the situation. It's just sad to see the true magic of Colorado slowly fade away.
I lived in Colorado 2 years, moving from South Dakota. I was born in Chicago, raised in Wisconsin. I also lived on the east coast (bad) in Maryland for a few years. WI and MN folks are ok, east no good for me, the prairies are , well, prairies. AZ too hot, CA too many people. Oregon,Washington, and Alaska weather not for me. Colorado is the place to be. There are too many people everywhere. Tearing up the land, building houses anywhere and everywhere. This is true in Colorado, as well as everywhere else with a job and and a good place to live. All these people must live somewhere. Maybe Colorado needs to explore more of Boulders "open space" ideas, before its all gone.
There is plenty to love about CO, which keeps the Love police off my back. There is also plenty to not love, especially if you go around comparing it to a place that only existed decades to go.
Any place that is desirable to live in due to climate, scenery, economy, or other conditions has seen the same glut over the years. I have family in Hawaii... can you imagine how the long-timers there feel about the changes they've seen in the past 50 years? They've a right to feel that way, but it doesn't mean its a bad place to live now, or that they would all be better off moving to some godforsaken land with a shrinking population. Same with CO. It just is what it is. Embrace the good, do what you reasonably can to alleviate the bad and let the rest go. Otherwise you end up just sounding like a whining, bigoted old curmudgeon who's been sitting in one area for the last half century, getting very stale.
Last edited by treedonkey; 06-12-2009 at 09:45 AM..
There is plenty to love about CO, which keeps the Love police of my back. There is also plenty to not love, especially if you go around comparing it to a place that only existed decades to go.
Any place that is desirable to live in due to climate, scenery, economy, or other conditions has seen the same glut over the years. I have family in Hawaii... can you imagine how the long-timers there feel about the changes they've seen in the past 50 years? They've a right to feel that way, but it doesn't mean its a bad place to live now, or that they would all be better off moving to some godforsaken land with a shrinking population. Same with CO. It just is what it is. Embrace the good, do what you reasonably can to alleviate the bad and let the rest go. Otherwise you end up just sounding like a whining, bigoted old curmudgeon who's been sitting in one area for the last half century, getting very stale.
I haven't been sitting in one area for 50 years getting stale, buddy. I've lived in numerous places in this state. Yes, I know what it was--and I miss that. I also know what it IS--from one end to the other. Every nook and cranny of it. I do very much enjoy and embrace what is good about it--but I'm not going to keep my mouth shut about what is wrong with it--often wrong things that are or can be quite preventable--no matter how uncomfortable that makes somebody feel. If all this board serves is a bully pulpit for saying everything that is wonderful about this place--in other words, blowing smoke up peoples' skirts like the Chambers of Commerce do, then it serves no real purpose. I don't expect people to always agree with what I say, but my opinions are not some lone voice in the wilderness. I hope enough people DO open their eyes to the very real problems this place faces--enough of them to effect real change. Fact is, though, fat, satisfied, "things are good enough the way they are" people never change anything. When enough of them get pushed out of their brainwashed comfort zone, they will.
I haven't been sitting in one area for 50 years getting stale, buddy. I've lived in numerous places in this state. Yes, I know what it was--and I miss that. I also know what it IS--from one end to the other. Every nook and cranny of it. I do very much enjoy and embrace what is good about it--but I'm not going to keep my mouth shut about what is wrong with it--often wrong things that are or can be quite preventable--no matter how uncomfortable that makes somebody feel. If all this board serves is a bully pulpit for saying everything that is wonderful about this place--in other words, blowing smoke up peoples' skirts like the Chambers of Commerce do, then it serves no real purpose. I don't expect people to always agree with what I say, but my opinions are not some lone voice in the wilderness. I hope enough people DO open their eyes to the very real problems this place faces--enough of them to effect real change. Fact is, though, fat, satisfied, "things are good enough the way they are" people never change anything. When enough of them get pushed out of their brainwashed comfort zone, they will.
If Budddy = Treedoney...
Who said I was referring to you (Jazzlover)?
I think you've made it abundantly clear that CO, like every other place in the world, has its problems. The thing I have a problem with is when people repeatedly point the finger at certain demographics as being the cause of such problems.
Last edited by treedonkey; 06-12-2009 at 10:22 AM..
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