Do you like living in Colorado? (Denver, Colorado Springs: felony, home, DMV)

[TCHP]

Originally Posted by Hschlick84

Have fun removing snow off the sidewalks during April and having enough hail in August to appear like it snowed. Oh, don't forget that week in February when you break out the shorts and flip flops because its so stinking hot out. And, and, there are the winter windstorms that can and will produce hurricane force winds the week before the beautiful weeks of flip flops. My perennial favorite though, trick or treat in the snow where all costumes consist of a parka and ski hat.

Fixed it for ya.

[Colorado Rambler]

Originally Posted by TCHP

Originally Posted by Hschlick84

Have fun removing snow off the sidewalks during April and having enough hail in August to appear like it snowed. Oh, don't forget that week in February when you break out the shorts and flip flops because its so stinking hot out. And, and, there are the winter windstorms that can and will produce hurricane force winds the week before the beautiful weeks of flip flops. My perennial favorite though, trick or treat in the snow where all costumes consist of a parka and ski hat.

Fixed it for ya.

LOL! You must spread some reputation around before giving it to TCHP again.

And let's not forget all the excitement of torrential late summer rains that swell up all the streams and brooks into rivers bigger than even the Amazon or the Nile and come roaring down from the mountains to carry off innocent towns like Estes Park and Lyons in a single giganto, so-called thousand year flood that now occurs every other summer! I'm also fond of the burning infernos some call forest fires that burn outlying parts of Colorado Springs into nothing but mere cinders and ash every few summers. I understand that the state legislature is considering re-naming my hometown "Crispy Critter Springs" for all the rabbits and bunnies and deer and elk fleeing the fires there with lots of long hops and bouncing strides on their singed toes.

It's no wonder we all love living in Colorado so much!

[MountainEarth]

No. Hate it. Don't move here. It's a horrible place.

[sammy87]

Mostly yes, other places Ive lived...FL, NC, TX, PA, GA and I travel a bit.

I love the weather and outdoor things to do.....I hate the houses. My house is now worth $500k+ and its 10' away from my neighbor and all new houses have a short 3' fence so you can see everything your neighbors are doing......Id like more privacy in my home.

Ive been here 5 years and i now notice how crowded everything is getting....I70 even on summer weekends, local foot hill trails are now packed....Denver itself is pretty overrated.

[Careerist]

Mostly.

I enjoy the mild, dry climate that permits being comfortably outdoors most of the year.

I like that it's relatively easy to meet people and build relationships, as there always seems to be people looking to branch out and make new friends.

I like that there is a lot to do here throughout the year. Whether it's going outdoors, going to the bar with people, going out to the large variety of microbreweries, going to a music venue, going to a professional sporting event...there seems to be a little bit of everything for everyone's tastes.

I like that public transit is solid and reliable. I use it almost daily and almost don't need a car of my own.

I don't like the snow or cold that we get sometimes. I had my fill of that growing up in the Midwest.

I don't like the traffic problems at times (specific to Denver Metro).

I don't like that the cost of living seems to go up so much year over year, because it makes staying at one job with minimal salary increases difficult and unappealing if you're trying to have upward mobility in your personal life.

I think that about sums it up.

[pikabike]

Originally Posted by sammy87

Mostly yes, other places Ive lived...FL, NC, TX, PA, GA and I travel nota bit.

I love the weather and outdoor things to do.....I hate the houses. My house is now worth $500k+ and its 10' away from my neighbor and all new houses have a short 3' fence so you can see everything your neighbors are doing......Id like more privacy in my home.

Ive been here 5 years and i now notice how crowded everything is getting....I70 even on summer weekends, local foot hill trails are now packed....Denver itself is pretty overrated.

LOL, those places were already crowded in the early 90s. That was when the ski resorts along I-70 heavily promoted their hotels and grounds as summer accommodations, to supplement their waning skier revenues when lift tickets got so expensive that locals basically quit going. I remember getting lots of glossy promo cards in the mail, touting them as inexpensive lodging for us mountain bikers--ooooeeeee, "only" $100 a night! I don't know if singles and couples took the bait, but obviously tourists benefited from the "low" summer rates. Also, groups willing to put four or more people in a room or suite.

The foothills trails received a surge of traffic starting about the same time. I was doing volunteer work for a county with arguably the best nonfederal trails system in the US, and I witnessed the changes over many years. The organization that had started the system way back in the 70s had a few oldtimers who attended public meetings, and they all said the trails and parks were being loved to death. In the beginning, they said they had worried there would not be enough people using the trails. LOL again.

In the late 80s I hardly saw any bikers riding on those trails, with the exception of two parks, or at Green Mountain. Holy moly, did that tide ever come in hard in the early 90s. It began the era of user conflicts, which later subsided as rules were posted and became common standard knowledge.

Americans love their public land.

[sammy87]

Originally Posted by pikabike

LOL, those places were already crowded in the early 90s. That was when the ski resorts along I-70 heavily promoted their hotels and grounds as summer accommodations, to supplement their waning skier revenues when lift tickets got so expensive that locals basically quit going. I remember getting lots of glossy promo cards in the mail, touting them as inexpensive lodging for us mountain bikers--ooooeeeee, "only" $100 a night! I don't know if singles and couples took the bait, but obviously tourists benefited from the "low" summer rates. Also, groups willing to put four or more people in a room or suite.

The foothills trails received a surge of traffic starting about the same time. I was doing volunteer work for a county with arguably the best nonfederal trails system in the US, and I witnessed the changes over many years. The organization that had started the system way back in the 70s had a few oldtimers who attended public meetings, and they all said the trails and parks were being loved to death. In the beginning, they said they had worried there would not be enough people using the trails. LOL again.

In the late 80s I hardly saw any bikers riding on those trails, with the exception of two parks, or at Green Mountain. Holy moly, did that tide ever come in hard in the early 90s. It began the era of user conflicts, which later subsided as rules were posted and became common standard knowledge.

Americans love their public land.

Its bad when you get to the point of....too crowded to ski on the weekends to now....too crowded to MTN bike on the weekends.

The other thing I hate is car registration.....total ripoff. CO has the nicest DMV's I've seen. Wonder why?

[SkyDog77]

Originally Posted by sammy87

Its bad when you get to the point of....too crowded to ski on the weekends to now....too crowded to MTN bike on the weekends.

The other thing I hate is car registration.....total ripoff. CO has the nicest DMV's I've seen. Wonder why?

If it's too crowded to ski, how come so many people are skiing?

[pikabike]

You need to look at other DMVs that are not near Denver. They are not all new or fancy.

At least part of why vehicle registration costs so much relates to two things:

1. About 6 or 7 years ago, the state cracked down on stolen vehicles. I remember having to jump some absurd bureaucratic hurdles to register a commercial "kit" trailer that I had assembled after receiving it via UPS. This trailer was not available in CO, so I had mail ordered it. The state wanted to make sure that trailers sold by other than in-state stores were taxed and verified as not stolen goods. At that time, they masqueraded it as being for "safety" but when I got the inspection done the trooper barely looked at the trailer. He scrutinized the paperwork verrrryy carefully, however.

Also, it turned out that many, many trailer owners had not paid their registration fees at all, or were driving around with trailers whose tabs had expired literally years earlier. Well, it wasn't only trailers. We used to examine the tabs on cars at busy stoplights and look for expired ones. We almost always saw at least one.

We recently moved back to CO and dreaded the registration process because we knew about that extra hurdle, the VIN verification. I had kept ALL my original purchase papers for truck and trailer etc just in case. After this, the renewals will be a simple matter of paying for each year's registration, and that can be done by mail. However, we were shocked at how expensive it was to register a couple of trucks, 12 and 20 years old! The fees had always been high but they are more so now.

2. Upon reading the back sides of the registration slips, I noticed a pair of new fees, a Road Safety Surcharge and a Bridge Safety Surcharge. These literally added about 50% to the usual total of registration fees. Why these charges? It was before your time, but CO had found that many of their bridges had not been properly built. An overpass over C470 near the Hogback had collapsed onto a Durango below, killing the entire family. Those kinds of faulty construction triggered an examination into the road and bridge system. Apparently, it needed a lot of fixing.

Anyway, despite the sticker shock, I am glad that there is an attempt to raise money so that the roads and bridges will be brought up to snuff! At least we get something for that outlay.

[Colorado Rambler]

Originally Posted by SkyDog77

If it's too crowded to ski, how come so many people are skiing?

Oh, those are just the college kids on spring break Nobody else in Colorado bothers.


Spring break college kids hit the slopes at Vail.*


https://youtu.be/A4sti7zMiCU



* Note this alternative fact has been approved by Kellyanne Conway, so nobody on this forum better mess with me on this one or else you risk being defunded.