Where to move? (Denver: apartment, lease, crime)

[movingfwd]

I am currently looking for a place to call home. I am 29 years old and single. I have 12 years Customer Service Experience and 4 of those years in Management and a degree in Computer Information Systems. I currently live in Atlanta, GA and I am from Canada originally. I also want some place low on crime. I want to start looking now since I have 5 months on my apartment lease and I would like to find a job and hope to move there then. What cities are best for jobs? Anything helpful I would glad to hear feedback. I also like the mountains so any place with a great view will be great. Thank you.

[jazzlover]

Well, I'll get the usual flaming for a post, but if I held Canadian citizenship and was looking for someplace near or in the mountains, I'd be looking in British Columbia or Alberta in a heartbeat. The Canadian Rockies are every bit as spectacular as most anyplace in Colorado--and far less developed and crowded. The cold weather in a place like Calgary or Edmonton would be a consideration, I'm sure, but I think it may be a worthwhile tradeoff. A co-worker of mine spent several years working in Canada, but had to return to the US to take care of ailing family members and had to give up his Canadian job and work visa. He's trying to figure out how to move back to Canada--he loved it there. One thing he commented frequently about was how much safer most Canada locales seemed to him from a crime standpoint.

My co-worker friend lived several places in Canada. He said that Calgary was very comparable in Denver in the total "vibe," but that he much preferred Calgary.

I happen to think that over the next few years, the overall Canadian economy may actually fare better than the US economy. Both countries have their problems, but I think the economic/social situation is deteriorating much quicker in the US. Pretty soon Canada may have the same kind of problems with disaffected Yanks illegally immigrating to Canada that the US currently has with illegal immigration from Mexico.

I also think it interesting that Canada now beats the US in most "quality of life" survey rankings.

[bhcompy]

Denver has a robust tech base, as does Los Angeles, Orange County, and San Diego in southern california