Durango, CO (lower-class, rent, house prices)

[KraigK]

Colorado Native...harsh but true! I was born and raised in New Mexico, and vacationed every year in Durango. I was forced to move to Houston Texas later, and have been trying to get back to the Southwest ever since. I visited Durango for the first time in about 20 years last January, and was really disappointed. It is still a beautiful town, with great people, but it has taken on a little of that Texas/California feel of "were here now", and everything is about money now. Many of those $500,000 homes would be more like 175,000 homes anywhere else, but investors and bad outside interests are taking over and ruining one of the most beautiful and treasure by most places in the southwest. It will soon be like Aspen, and Telluride where only the very wealthy can afford to visit or vacation. I'm still looking to relocate back to the southwest, but will probably focus my efforts more to the north central part of New Mexico which in many ways is still un-touched by "progress".

[colorado native]

CourtneyOK,
You might find this a bit embarrassing...

Think Progress » Boxer Slams Down Inhofe’s Global Warming Filibuster: ‘You Don’t Make The Rules Anymore’

Inhofe is an Okie Senatoer, is he not?

It's just the myriad little examples like this that I use to form my opinions.

I, obviously, understand that much of Durango's economy is boosted by tourism. Must it also be "boosted" by the people that visit for a few weeks and end up buying up some land?

"The people you discuss are people who are here maybe two months out of the year and then they leave again." You can handle that? Good. It's probably pretty easy to do so from Oklahoma... These people come here on vacation, buy some land, build a monolith of invidious distinction (McMansion) that sits empty for 10 months out of the year... and this is a good thing somehow.

Hmph.

As far as me not being able to reach people becasue of my tone... so? Am I or anyone else really going to change someone's politics with a paragraph? Nope. Just injecting a bit of honesty and dreading the Aspenization of my home that KraigK points out.

[Catherine D]

Originally Posted by colorado native

Catherine,

Ahhhh, you now own paradise. Congrats. Be sure to put up a fence and to prosecute trespassers!

You say you're not sure why people think that Christians don't love the environment... Us progressive folks wonder the same thing. Have a look at Bush's environmental record and ask yourself the same question. He's personally undone decades of environmental legislation to make doing business easier for his corporate cronies. What's with the Christian/Conservative inability to admit that global warning is happening and is an issue? If you've paid attention, you've noticed the effects of global warming in your own lifetime.

I wish you luck and thank you for illustrating my earlier points so well.

What a mean spirited responce this is. I don't believe anyone is just mean. It's usually from hurts viewed from ones own perspective. Try putting yourself in someone else's place rather than condeming them. Try extending some grace that I'm sure others give you! I do not believe being cruel can possibly be fullfilling to you? I have a feeling that you probably wouldn't be so brazen in person. Get off the chat line and extend a kindness to someone else. Let people get the info they need, not such disrespect! Then try and have a good day

[colorado native]

Originally Posted by Catherine D

What a mean spirited responce this is. I don't believe anyone is just mean.

I didn't think it was that mean.

[justmyopinion]

Originally Posted by colorado native

CourtneyOK,
You might find this a bit embarrassing...

Think Progress » Boxer Slams Down Inhofe’s Global Warming Filibuster: ‘You Don’t Make The Rules Anymore’

Inhofe is an Okie Senatoer, is he not?

It's just the myriad little examples like this that I use to form my opinions.

I, obviously, understand that much of Durango's economy is boosted by tourism. Must it also be "boosted" by the people that visit for a few weeks and end up buying up some land?

"The people you discuss are people who are here maybe two months out of the year and then they leave again." You can handle that? Good. It's probably pretty easy to do so from Oklahoma... These people come here on vacation, buy some land, build a monolith of invidious distinction (McMansion) that sits empty for 10 months out of the year... and this is a good thing somehow.

Hmph.

As far as me not being able to reach people becasue of my tone... so? Am I or anyone else really going to change someone's politics with a paragraph? Nope. Just injecting a bit of honesty and dreading the Aspenization of my home that KraigK points out.

I have to say, Colorado Native.... SOMEONE in Durango must be making money on all of the what you call McMansions going up. SOMEONE local must be selling their land for a goodly sum. If no one is suppose to move here and build anything (according to you) then who do you expect to buy the land that is coming up for sale??? The land isn't cheap, and the locals who are selling the land are making out quite nicely, and they have a right to that.

The one thing that worries me is the DENSITY of housing going up, like the hundreds of condos, and the unbelievable density of the Grandview project. I hate to see it happen because the infrustructure is not here to support it. But the governments of Durango and Bayfield seem to think it is a good thing, and if developers are going to build it, then ANYONE has the right to buy it and live there. Every successful city in America has similar stories.

You don't like it?? Try change through the local governing offices and the planning departments, and not be rude and unwelcoming to people who pay the high prices just to live here.

I hope if you move to another city, you are greeted with more tolerance and acceptance, and not the "only I am allowed to live here" attitude that you project to those moving to Durango.

[colorado native]

Originally Posted by justmyopinion

I have to say, Colorado Native.... SOMEONE in Durango must be making money on all of the what you call McMansions going up. SOMEONE local must be selling their land for a goodly sum.

Why does it HAVE to be someone local? What makes you think that the people that are making all of this money live here? It's been shown in this thread alone that many people that own land in Durango are not from Durango. I don't care how many land and home sales there are, if a local person cannot make enough to get IN to the market, it doesn't matter how good the market is.

The one thing that worries me is the DENSITY of housing going up, like the hundreds of condos, and the unbelievable density of the Grandview project.

Ah yes. The "affordable" housing is the biggest problem.

This coming from the woman that is apparently having problems with the "help."
To wit:

It is almost impossible to get work done on a house, on a car, or find a landscaper, or mason, or metal worker, or any kind of contractor that will return a call, actually show up when called, or even RETURN A CALL. When we built our home here, we decided to use all local help, and businesses. If hunting season, ski season, fishing season started, workers just didn't show up. Not to mention the drug problem.

Maybe, just maybe, people choose who they do work for and for some reason, whatever that may be, they decided against doing work for you. To say the whole town has a service... and drug... issue is ridiculous and indicative of the attitude I alluded towards the beginning of this thread.

It doesn't bother me if people move here, really. It's those that bring in...alternate attitudes that bother me; those that bring a selfish sense of entitlement... the leisure class, if you will. They seem to want things that Durango does not provide, and so they change the place to suit themselves, rather than changing to fit the place.

[dgoboy204]

Hi ~

Here's an interesting article, appearing in today's Durango Herald. This has implications for all of Southwestern Colorado and underscores the "growth/change debate" as well. Who's "right" and who's "wrong". I don't know...

Durango Herald Online

best wishes to all

[colorado native]

Great article to accentuate the debate, dgoboy.

Thanks

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by colorado native

Great article to accentuate the debate, dgoboy.

Thanks

When you see the words "California" and "investor group" in the same sentence with "large ranch" in Colorado, you can pretty much count on another obnoxious trophy house real estate development to trash up the landscape, destroy prime ag land, and obliterate winter game habitat and migration routes. A good real estate crash to send these out-of-state carpetbaggers out of Colorado can't come soon enough. And people wonder why so many native Coloradans don't have nice things to say about Californians?

[dgoboy204]

Originally Posted by colorado native

Great article to accentuate the debate, dgoboy.

Thanks

My pleasure, colorado native ~ I have enjoyed all of the posts on this thread ~ it is an interesting debate, so thanks to you all as well.

again, best wishes