former east-coaster -kinda regret moving to co (Denver, Colorado Springs: relocating, property taxes)

[Katiana]

Originally Posted by hello-world

oh pittnurse, that's so "old school".

I doubt anyone in Pittsburgh knows what that means, either.

[hello-world]

Originally Posted by Lotuslion

hello-world,

I was specifically replying to the original poster, who I believe moved to CO in August, but you make a fair point about rosesanam's experience. I obviously can't speak about the atmosphere in CO, as I've never lived there, but it's too bad that rosesanam hasn't been able to "break in" - I wish him/her luck though. I've never lived anywhere longer than 4 years, so it's hard for me to comment on that - additionally, because I moved so often, I tend to adjust fairly quickly to new areas.

We just moved to suburban DC in March 2006, so we haven't been here that long - I lived in State College, PA for school before that, as did my husband (although he's originally from York, PA.) I've had a pretty wide range of experiences, from rural to suburban to urban on both coasts, plus some places in between. DC is very different from the rest of the northeast, you're right about that, but the feeling of unfriendliness I experienced in both PA and upstate NY. I've had a lot of what I thought were unnecessarily competitive conversations with people about issues regarding status and class. Perhaps "keeping up with the Joneses" wasn't the proper expression - it's more like classism. And to be fair, it's been about 10 years since I've lived in the west, so things might have changed. I just wanted to make the point that it's hard to adjust to a very different culture, no matter where you're from or where you moved. I've had friends who moved from east to west and had similar experiences to mine, too.

For the record, DC is pretty soulless. I'm a pretty Type A person, and this city is too cut-throat competitive, aggressive, and overly ambitious even for me. There are much better places in the east to live - I think we're just kind of tired of this region and looking for a change.

i think some of this can come down to what you consider "friendly". some people consider honest, blunt, and/or direct...but communicative "friendly". some feel it as "competitive". some consider "smiles, but rarely following through or open about much" unfriendly, while others feel it as "friendly, and the heck out of my business and i don't want to know theirs - let's keep it 'friendly'". i can't know what your perspective is, though being more type A and from the west, i'd only imagine you'd fall somewhere in the middle. i do think that some of the west and maybe some of the midwest can fall into some of the second category, culturally, and the northeast more into the first. i always found upstate new yorkers and PAers to be pretty friendly, pretty honest, pretty reliable, pretty direct, pretty family-oriented...for the most part. they tended to tell it more like they saw it, and to hear how you saw it too. phily, boston, some CT, downstate NY can sometimes feel TOO direct and fast paced for some people, i think, though i'm not sure it's patently "unfriendly". it can definitely be truly unfriendly (frustration with people, frustration with waiting, frustration with the weather or economy, e.g.).

in CO (front range anyhow), i think it can fall more in the latter category. if someone is into heated/lively intellectual discourse, e.g., they might rarely find it here, or find it and never see the person they found it with again... i find that with northeasterners, many times, that kind of thing can be cause for friendship and drinks bought.

do you think DC is soulless, or the suburbs of it are? i've found that a lot of DC contains people with a lot of passion about this or that cause, and a lot of people of various backgrounds. i also found that there were plenty of people "climbing" and "excelling" in some sectors (maybe georgetown, NOVA, some of the wealthier areas of MD). and of course, penn state is a relatively strong school with some relatively competitive people, though those i've met also liked to drink a lot and hoot it up over football.

[hello-world]

Originally Posted by Lotuslion

Pittnurse -

The first person I heard mention it to me when I moved east was from NJ, just across from Philly. Of course, I'm really of the opinion that PA should seriously be two states, because the eastern side is so, so different from the west. Really good friends of mine are from Pittsburgh, by the way.

rather true about NY, CA, maybe IL, and maybe increasingly CO in my view.

[Katiana]

Originally Posted by Lotuslion

Pittnurse -

The first person I heard mention it to me when I moved east was from NJ, just across from Philly. Of course, I'm really of the opinion that PA should seriously be two states, because the eastern side is so, so different from the west. Really good friends of mine are from Pittsburgh, by the way.

Originally Posted by hello-world

rather true about NY, CA, maybe IL, and maybe increasingly CO in my view.

There is a thread on the Illinois forum about dividing Illinois in two, north to south. I think many large states feel that way. Pennsylvania has a lot of diversity, I should say. Though from Pittsburgh, I lived (or more correctly my parents lived) in central PA while I was in college. It was a nice change from the factories, which were still going very strong when I was living in Pitts.

Back to Colorado, I think it's fine the way it is. Lots of diversity here, too, east vs west.

[Lotuslion]

Originally Posted by hello-world

i think some of this can come down to what you consider "friendly". some people consider honest, blunt, and/or direct...but communicative "friendly". some feel it as "competitive". some consider "smiles, but rarely following through or open about much" unfriendly, while others feel it as "friendly, and the heck out of my business and i don't want to know theirs - let's keep it 'friendly'". i can't know what your perspective is, though being more type A and from the west, i'd only imagine you'd fall somewhere in the middle. i do think that some of the west and maybe some of the midwest can fall into some of the second category, culturally, and the northeast more into the first. i always found upstate new yorkers and PAers to be pretty friendly, pretty honest, pretty reliable, pretty direct, pretty family-oriented...for the most part. they tended to tell it more like they saw it, and to hear how you saw it too. phily, boston, some CT, downstate NY can sometimes feel TOO direct and fast paced for some people, i think, though i'm not sure it's patently "unfriendly". it can definitely be truly unfriendly (frustration with people, frustration with waiting, frustration with the weather or economy, e.g.).

Definitely. I think you hit the nail on the head (and got to what I was trying to say, but in a more articulate manner, haha.) It's differences in how one acts and behaves according to the culture where one was raised, versus the new culture. My parents are from the South, and when we first moved North, my mother had serious, serious culture shock because of all this and thought that everyone in our new town was rude and nosy, haha. For me, it could be my experiences are biased because of my age - I first moved east when I was a senior in high school. No one talked to me for 3 weeks, which was very, very different to any school I'd attended in the west - that was in upstate NY. That's the first example I can think of... my brain's a little sluggish tonight, haha.

in CO (front range anyhow), i think it can fall more in the latter category. if someone is into heated/lively intellectual discourse, e.g., they might rarely find it here, or find it and never see the person they found it with again... i find that with northeasterners, many times, that kind of thing can be cause for friendship and drinks bought.

do you think DC is soulless, or the suburbs of it are? i've found that a lot of DC contains people with a lot of passion about this or that cause, and a lot of people of various backgrounds. i also found that there were plenty of people "climbing" and "excelling" in some sectors (maybe georgetown, NOVA, some of the wealthier areas of MD). and of course, penn state is a relatively strong school with some relatively competitive people, though those i've met also liked to drink a lot and hoot it up over football.

I think a lot of people come to DC full of passion for a cause, but that eventually gets sort of sucked out of them. This is definitely a transient city - it's hard to find a native Washingtonian - which is actually something I like about it, but you hardly have any time to talk to anyone with the long and frustrating commutes (which probably contributes to the unfriendliness, haha.) I just feel like a lot of people, myself included, get their idealism or passion crushed out of them by the rat race here. My husband says the city is too much like a machine. There's so much poverty here, surrounded by obscene amounts of wealth, and a feeling that people would merrily stab you in the back to get ahead. It's definitely not just DC that's like that, but this is a city founded on and centered around politics, and the dirty side of politics seems to dominate everything, even if individuals themselves are passionate. It could be we just don't like urban areas - we feel so much more relaxed in Pennsylvania, haha.

Aahh yes, Penn State - we only compete over pints and touchdowns. A T-shirt I saw sums it up best: "Penn State: a drinking town with a football problem."

It's interesting to hear what you have to say about CO. We're taking a trip out in August to see if it's somewhere we really want to live. It'll be interesting to see how we find the cultural climate. I haven't been back west in a long time, but my husband has been out there on business and really loved it. I hear conflicting reports on whether the people in CO are friendly or not, but perhaps that goes back to your first point on how one defines "friendly."

[hello-world]

Originally Posted by Lotuslion

It's interesting to hear what you have to say about CO. We're taking a trip out in August to see if it's somewhere we really want to live. It'll be interesting to see how we find the cultural climate. I haven't been back west in a long time, but my husband has been out there on business and really loved it. I hear conflicting reports on whether the people in CO are friendly or not, but perhaps that goes back to your first point on how one defines "friendly."

haha

i think it can take a bit more than visiting a place to get a feel for how it might be to live there. visiting can be like the honeymoon. as for colorado, i would think that if you could have a feel for the type person talking it up or talking it down (either of which could have truth, maybe more depending on what you're like...and your idea of "friendly"), and which you might be more like, you might have a better idea of what it might be like for you after the honeymoon. it's a metro of nearly 3 million, so there's probably someone for everyone here, though seemingly heavily skewed in a couple of ways (more so than most other metros it's size that i've seen, seems to me) that might make it more amenable for some, more demanding of patience for others. moving with your husband could help, either way, is my guess.

[CTC]

For an East Coaster, I think CO would be very different, and possibly too different to ever feel in place.

I have only lived in the West, so CO feels right at home..not that much different than say Idaho or New Mexico. And as far as friendly goes-it seems to be pretty much the same as every other state I have lived in-

When I am back East the green tunnel makes me claustrophobic, and humidity gives me a rash..go figure!

[piledriver]

FOR ALL WHO DONT KNOW DIA IS CONSIDERED THE BEST ON TIME AORPORT IN THE COUNTRY ,,,, IM FROM NJ... YOU SHOULD COUNT YOUR LUCKY STARS..

Originally Posted by Brill

With things the way they are today, I give myself a good 2 hours to get through security and get to the gate. The days of breezing through the airport are gone. At a large busy airport, getting through security and to the gate under an hour is good. With that said, I hate DIA too. I fly out of COS when I can, but I got stuck booking a flight out of DIA to go home for Christmas, I'm dreading it.

I've been in Colorado Springs for almost a year now and haven't really made any friends. I'm also kind of the loner type as well. Though I go out alot, I've got used to doing things alone. With or without someone, I enjoy it out here and don't have any regrets about moving out here.

[Nique]

When we moved from Colorado to Wisconsin the weather here felt downright oppressive. I couldn't believe that you could go several days without seeing the sun, and the idea that rain could last that long was baffling.

I also felt claustrophobic and closed-in with all of the trees everywhere; it bothered me that you couldn't see the city stretching to the horizon, because all the lights and skylines were blocked by trees.

Now Colorado does feel rather arid to me when I go back to visit, but I still think I prefer the dry air and weather there. If there's one thing I've never adjusted to here, it's the humidity.

With regard to meeting people, I think it takes 18 months to really feel at home someplace, and to START to develop good social circles. I figure there's usually about two six-month periods of making friends you don't hang on to before you meet people you will stick with. That's been my experience the two times I have had major moves.

I worry sometimes about moving to Colorado and missing the trees and lakes here; I've grown rather accustomed to the water. But then, I suppose that's what I can look forward to coming back to visit. I'd rather have a mountain view every day.

[Katiana]

I also felt claustrophobic and closed-in with all of the trees everywhere; it bothered me that you couldn't see the city stretching to the horizon, because all the lights and skylines were blocked by trees.

My husband has expressed that closed-in feeling when visiting my family in Pennsylvania, and my DDs said the same thing about going to college in Minnesota and Indiana. I grew up in Pennsylvania; it doesn't bother me.