Does everybody in colorado love colorado? (Denver: rental car, fit in, real estate)

[almost heaven]

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.

[formercalifornian]

I like Colorado for right now, but it's not where I plan to spend the rest of my life. My spouse and I relocated here for a job offer and to be closer to family while our children are young. Once they are grown, we plan to retire in northern California, but that's still many years in the future.

Be careful assuming that the grass is always greener. Rudeness and traffic can be problems wherever you live. Housing prices and job availability may not be an issue for you at all, depending on your resources and career choices. I fear you may be setting yourself up for disappointment if you believe Colorado is the answer to feelings of discontent. It's beautiful, but it has problems just like everywhere else.

BTW, our local drive-through is staffed by Mexican immigrants, so you may still have trouble ordering a Big Mac without a translator unless you speak Spanish. It's frustrating and makes me regret not paying closer attention to my high school Spanish teacher. On the flip side, we have an absolutely awesome Mexican restaurant in town with a waiter who loves to teach my little ones Spanish words. They love him and want to eat there all the time!

[FoRuMRideR420]

Originally Posted by formercalifornian

BTW, our local drive-through is staffed by Mexican immigrants, so you may still have trouble ordering a Big Mac without a translator unless you speak Spanish. It's frustrating and makes me regret not paying closer attention to my high school Spanish teacher. On the flip side, we have an absolutely awesome Mexican restaurant in town with a waiter who loves to teach my little ones Spanish words. They love him and want to eat there all the time!

LMAO reminds me of that south park episode damn goobacks took er jobs!


thats pretty much ALL fast food places now BTW not just CO

[McGowdog]

Whenever I go to Mexico-er am forced to go to Mexico for my job- we sometimes go to the MacD's there because the Gringos I go with have no guts or appreciation of good Carnitas!

I'll give the McD's one thing. The place is clean, and the toilets are usable.

But when I go up there to order even a cup of coffee, I get trouble. They just stare at me and look around and kind of give me a dirty look. Then, if I'm lucky, I get a manager that speaks english. But if I don't, then I try to whip out my best Spanish. I'll try to say, "Numero Uno, Numero Quatro," Etc.

Numero Quatro? How do you screw that up? Number Four! I want the Chicken! Pollo! Poy-yo! Bauck! Cluck! I'll jump up on the G-Damn counter and start clucking Like a G-Damn Chicken!

Anyways. I live in Colorado and I hate to leave, be it by boat, aircraft, automobile, donkey, ostridge, foot, rail. Example; the other day, I was flying to South Carolina, boy my arms were tired; bodumCHHHHHHHHHH! As we were preparing to land, I said to the old bucko next to me, "It sure is green out there." Then he proceeded to tell me what a drought they've had and how awful dry it was out there this year. I said, "I understand ya hear, but I'm from Colorado." The poor old guy just didn't seem to hear me because he went on to tell me how dry it was. I said, I don't care how damn dry you think it is, my A$$ aint gonna like the sweat drippin from it cause I aint used to it. He went on to tell me how it aint humid. That night, as I stepped from my rental car to make my way to my cheap motel, my glasses fogged up. This is approximately 10:00 pm and there's this presence of hot humid air about me. To y'all, it aint humid! To me, it's disgusting.

If you are used to that, fine. I'm used to this. Thank God not everybody wants to move here. There's four exits outta here. Seeya!

[hello-world]

i'd say look around the denver forum, and you'll see plenty of opinions that run the range.

it is sunny. the mountains are beautiful. go rocks! go avs! too suburbanized. too sprawling. too homogenized. people not so into "culture". smallish pockets of plenty of "culture". "cow town". nice parks. nice bike trails. foreclosure capital (for a while). car culture. traffic. bland. cold in the winter. hot in the summer. sometimes very snowy. too dry. you'll see all these and more if you do that.

good luck.

[downtownnola]

Here's my take on the situation: I love living here but I don't think that Colorado is a perfect paradise- the state certainly has problems just like everywhere else. Keep in mind I live in Denver so my perception is probably quite different from those who live in rural Colorado.

I do feel that the real estate here is overpriced- not as overpriced as California but the homes here aren't exactly a "bargain" in comparison to income. The job market is in a bit of a slump- hopefully it will pick back up soon. I often here people here referred to as "friendly," but that certainly is not always the case. Denver is not the most rude place I've lived however, I have lived in FAR friendlier places. People here seem a little stand off-ish and not particularly warm. We all know that the traffic isn't as bad as California but it's still congested. There are also lots of obnoxious drivers in this city.

For me, the benefits of living here outweigh the negatives. Colorado has so much to offer. People just need to be realistic in their expectations.

[hello-world]

Originally Posted by downtownnola

Here's my take on the situation: I love living here but I don't think that Colorado is a perfect paradise- the state certainly has problems just like everywhere else. Keep in mind I live in Denver so my perception is probably quite different from those who live in rural Colorado.

I do feel that the real estate here is overpriced- not as overpriced as California but the homes here aren't exactly a "bargain" in comparison to income. The job market is in a bit of a slump- hopefully it will pick back up soon. I often here people here referred to as "friendly," but that certainly is not always the case. Denver is not the most rude place I've lived however, I have lived in FAR friendlier places. People here seem a little stand off-ish and not particularly warm. We all know that the traffic isn't as bad as California but it's still congested. There are also lots of obnoxious drivers in this city.

For me, the benefits of living here outweigh the negatives. Colorado has so much to offer. People just need to be realistic in their expectations.

i think you're right on. i second some of the distance, "the surface" you can get from people here. almost like "fit in or i'm not sure what to say to you"; not obnoxious or totally overt, even almost "easy going seeming" in some ways, but something you can sense. but i also second the "be realistic about seeking utopia" and the possibility of benefits outweighing the negatives, depending on what you want, need, and have.

[jazzlover]

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.

[vegaspilgrim]

Originally Posted by jazzlover

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'm just curious but what cities and towns in Colorado have you actually lived in, and how long for each one? And what do you do for a living? Do you have a family?

[nelumbo]

I moved to Colorado for a job opportunity - I work in a small highly specialized field where there are relatively few places where I can be employed. As soon as is feasible for my career (a few years more, I've been here two years), I plan to move back to the east coast. I don't hate it here, but I don't really appreciate a lot of the things the region has to offer (mountain activities, etc) and there are a lot of things about the east coast that I miss (trees, humidity, etc). Also, I have increasingly bad sinus problems in this area due to the low humidity - having a headache most of the time makes me cranky.

Having come from an area with considerably higher housing costs and worse traffic, (Boston and DC), I don't find these to be a problem here for me. In fact, I want to move *back* to DC because I'm willing to deal with the traffic and high cost of living in return for the benefits of the area (and it is one of those few places where I am likely to be able to find a job).