Angry (tongue-in-cheek!) rant by native (population, single, sticker)

[rumline]

Originally Posted by skidamarink

lol That part about using the n-word almost made my jaw drop, until I realized the author meant "native" and not the other term.

I'm not so sure about that.

Real Coloradans own guns, fishing poles, tents, etc. We hunt, fish, drink beer, fart, say ****, use the "N" word when it's called for, and aren't afraid to fly the flag and tell the truth.

When is using the "Native" word "called for"? Makes no sense in that context. They wouldn't use "native" as a pejorative or as calling someone out, since they typically see "native" as a good thing.

[TechMike]

Originally Posted by rumline

[...] For Colorado to claim to be so laid back, having hostility towards others because they weren't born in CO is pretty uptight. And pathetic.

Completely agreed. I'm still looking for all these laid back Coloradans that people post about here.

[Kar54]

I for one love all the transplants to our state. Overall, new blood is good for a society.

Isn't this part of what makes America great? Live where you wish, work where you choose, and enjoy life on your terms. If you can do that, you have my support and admiration wherever you live.

From this "Native" to all newcomers or those considering CO as a place to live, welcome!

[Count David]

Originally Posted by TechMike

Completely agreed. I'm still looking for all these laid back Coloradans that people post about here.

It's probably more "laid back" as in "dressed down" in comparison to eastern counterparts.

[JD401]

I stopped after the first two paragraphs after their complaining about traffic (and of the course the ever colloquial "stop moving here!") and telling people to "assimilate." Get over yourself. Diversity of a city's population is what leads to improvement and growth in areas throughout.

This is what online Westword is though; pure click bait and juvenile commentary to stir comments and additional clicks.

[JD401]

Originally Posted by Kar54

I for one love all the transplants to our state. Overall, new blood is good for a society.

Isn't this part of what makes America great? Live where you wish, work where you choose, and enjoy life on your terms. If you can do that, you have my support and admiration wherever you live.

From this "Native" to all newcomers or those considering CO as a place to live, welcome!

Kudos to you

[Good Red Road]

Originally Posted by Kar54

I for one love all the transplants to our state. Overall, new blood is good for a society.

I completely agree. The people moving here are excited and ready to embrace the state as their home. But the state needs to keep up the growth.

That's not the "N" word, it's the "T" word.

Tolls or Taxes...take your pick.

[JrzDefector]

Originally Posted by Kar54

I for one love all the transplants to our state. Overall, new blood is good for a society.

Isn't this part of what makes America great? Live where you wish, work where you choose, and enjoy life on your terms. If you can do that, you have my support and admiration wherever you live.

From this "Native" to all newcomers or those considering CO as a place to live, welcome!

Smooches! We love you too!

[TCHP]

Does the original author have some issues to work out, sure. Let's hope they never take this frustration toa physical level and start running cars off the road or worse. However, they must feel they need to point out items they are concerned with and while mosto f them are somewhat narrow and petty, I'd venture a guess there are some deeper seated changes that has brought these points up.

Since I have read a number of similarly snippy comments in this thread, let's take this angle on it…hate is a learned response. We don't come by it naturally. So it may be safe to say that the original author comes from a family with at least more than a short casual history here. How far back, we can only speculate. Since they are claiming native status, we couldme that it is round 20years or so. I'd say they are at least a second or third generation to have ormed such strong opinions of transplants that they have passed on to their ids.If you care to read on, you'll find this is a subject that is near to me and if you'll indulge me, let me try explaining this from a;ightly different angle.

Let's look at the population changes through a historical context. It took Colorado 100 years to reach a population of 2 million. That wasn't so long ago that some of our parents and grandparents can't remember a time before it. In the 40 years since hitting that number, Colorado has since more than doubled its population. In this century alone it is increasing it by 100,000 persons annually. That’s a prettysignificant rate in anyone's book.

I tend to agree with others that anytime you start increasing the gross number of people around you it means you will run into a cross section of society in all its best and worst guises. Obviously there are a lot of great people in thosenumbers that have moved here along somereal dregs. So it is all really a relative situation. While someone moving here from LA, Dallas ,or Boston will tell you how traffic here is isn't that bad, things aren't that crowded, houses aren't that expensive and things certainly could be worse, you have to consider the context of someone that had previously chosen to not experience living in a city of several million people and have had these changes occur around them, these changes are significant in their world.

Just in my lifetime I have seen changes here that seem drastic compared to my youth, but still no where near what some have experienced elsewhere. But, from my point of view, hthey have been big. Here are some notations; For example, when I learned todrive, a traffic jam was sitting through a single traffic light with another 15-20 cars. Now that same traffic jam is 80+ cars and several light sequences. A Sunday afternoon drive up to Breckenridge and back meant no crawling traffic down I-70 and the return trip could be completed in a little more than an hour. That same drive on a Sundayafternoon now may take you several hours provided there are no accidents to deal with.

And speaking of being in the mountains, it was possible to drive two hours up into the them and find a camping spot in national forest,set up a spot, and only ever see few other people all weekend long. Fishing only took throwing a line in a close by creek to catch your limit of fish bigger than the minimum.Now you need to drive 4-6 hours away to find those same conditions, and if you want go camping anywhere close to the front range, you either have to be very tolerate of a fair amount of close proximity partiers or better have a reservation in the campground among the 30+ other sites. The author does have a point about parking on 4x4 and other narrow roads in the mountains. Not only annoying but potentially dangerous too.If anyone has ever seen the parking lot that is the Buckskin Gulch road to Kite Lake, you will know what I mean. There is plenty of parking up top, but ground clearance tends to leave throngs of cars parked on the road in some switchbacks. If you can't make all the way up, park further down the road instead of creating an automotive obstacle course on the side of a mountain.

Two of my personal favorite activities have also changed. I have to drive 2 hours to go boating with my family to avoid huge crowds, waits in line, and un-manageable wakes that didn't exist within an hours drive previously.Similarly, participating in or even watching a motorsports event means I have to drive to the far side of Denver ordown to Pueblo. There are no longer any venues of any sort in my home town anymore because of the NIMBY attitude towards development and that means I now have an hour+ commute to enjoy one of my past times.

When I was growing up, you NEVER drove past a car sitting onthe side of the road without stopping and asking if you could help. Although Ido see some of this manifest its self in severely inclement weather or on moreremote mountain areas, so I guess that courtesy isn't completely dead.

The flip side of all this growth is there are some really neat restaurants around with a wide variety of food and menus that would have never survived with smaller population levels. Similarly, many small town festivals have manage to not only survive but thrive because of the variety of people that visit them and create much needed revenue streams (except the StateFair, for some reason). There is a lot of creative energy in the business environment, and more selections in service providers than you can shake a stick at. Craft beers and craft distilleries are all recent additions that have come along with the growth that provide libations we can all enjoy over a fine meal at one of the aforementioned eateries. Many small municipalities have grown and become eclectic additions withunique neighborhood ambiance. No longer do I need to go to 16th Street Mall, Larimer Square, or Cherry Creek to find premiere retailors. I've seen a larger, more diverse, and more interesting collection of people in local clubs and events I frquent. Things I would have searched nationwide for in the past, can now often be found along the front range.I have made some fantastic friends in all of this that I would have never had the chance to met otherwise. Some of which I still keep in touch with despite them having left Colorado.

So before you dismiss the locals complaining as simpleton whining and fear of progress, remember there have been some pretty significant changes to our world and most of it wasn't activiely pursued by us. Conversely, we won't complain about crowding the mountain passes and driving up home prices. Ultimately we all have to chose where we want to work, and play, and live and so long as we can tolerate the negatives,Colorado is still offers a lot of potitives and is a pretty decent place to be. Once it is no longer that, than we owe it to ourselves to move on and find that place that will better serve our needs. Colorado has always been a collection of different people coming together to create a life together. Today is no different than 140 years ago in that regard. So in that spirit, I chose to stay and continueto welcome the new neighbors I meet. I help them understand things they may not get right off the bat. I try to help them learn their way around and give insight to better discern casual tourist traps compared to worthwhile things to look into. So far, I'm still happy and enjoying my home state and glad that so many other people find it to be the same for them as well.

[JD401]

^ Whoa. I'm sure that was a great post.