Grand Junction (Denver, Montrose, Delta: house, neighborhood, construction)

[redwhiteblue]

I am looking around for a new place to live and Grand Junction is on my list.

Can someone who currently lives there tell me their opinion on the pros and cons of the area.

I would especially like to hear from those that recently moved to the area.

Thanks!

[COflower]

I'm not a current resident but lived there in the mid 90s. I had a house (rented) off 28 1/4 road and Orchard. A sheriff lived across from me. A pretty respectable area at that time.

Then the "bad" areas were off the bridge that takes you to Delta and Montrose. But over all it was such a mish-mash of housing, nothing was bad (except near the bridge and some of the housing around the industrial areas). Some areas near downtown weren't that great but decent enough.

I knew I should have just bought the house I was living in. It backed up against one of the canals, good people in my neighborhood and over all, good location to shopping and to taking the dog to the Bookcliffs (off 25 Road) in the early mornings with my bike.

Oh, the old days.

[ShellKing]

We moved to GJ in 2002 and left in 2006. It was growing too fast and getting too big (for us). You can read the GJ newspaper online to get an idea of what it is like there. It was easy to move there and make friends in the community. The people were friendly; it seems like a lot of people moved there from somewhere else.

[CosmicWizard]

I moved to Grand Junction in 2006 and I've enjoyed living here thus far. Regarding the pros and cons, they have already been addressed in previous threads. Please use the search feature with the words Grand Junction to read the wealth of information available.

[get me outta gj]

Like ShellKing said, read the local paper which you can find online at Welcome to GJSentinel.com! and read the "You Said It" section and check out how a lot of people here actually think, I guarantee you will look for someplace else to live. Again referring to what Shellking said, yeah, a lot of people have moved here from other places as is the case with so many places in Colorado and that has made places like GJ less desirable to live, at least from a native's standpoint. It used to be a nice small place but with all the growth has come the things people left other places because of; traffic, crime, pollution, increased cost of living (rent is ridiculous), construction, sprawl (eating up the scenic beauty that made this a great place to live) and now you have the energy (oil and gas) industry drilling and polluting (a local rancher had water tested that was found to have a known carcinogenic chemical called benzene in it. I fear that that is a harbinger of what is to come from the industry in this region, much pollution. Needless to say, I'm looking to get outta here soon! Most likely out of Colorado.

[Josseppie]

This would be a nice thread for Grand Junction people to take with and run. Maybe you guys could post some pictures of your city for all of us to see!!!!

[McGowdog]

Yes!!!!!!!!! I found it!!!!!!!

Go to Jerry Bckr's Photo Album here for some fantastic shots of the Grand Junction town and area! You'll see them in his Beautiful Colorado album

Edited out, no longer relavant. Thanks again, Katz!

[jazzlover]

I was just in Grand Junction today. Always nice to see what that wonderful growth does to a place. The whole area on US 6 and 50 west of town is looking more and more like some suburban claptrap strip mall dump that can be found in any major city in the US. Traffic is an easy reminder of Denver. And, oh yes, that lovely inversion--with brown layer of smog lying over the whole town, and licking up into Colorado National Monument. Yep, you gotta love growth and progress . . .

[motoracer51]

Originally Posted by jazzlover

I was just in Grand Junction today. Always nice to see what that wonderful growth does to a place. The whole area on US 6 and 50 west of town is looking more and more like some suburban claptrap strip mall dump that can be found in any major city in the US. Traffic is an easy reminder of Denver. And, oh yes, that lovely inversion--with brown layer of smog lying over the whole town, and licking up into Colorado National Monument. Yep, you gotta love growth and progress . . .

I'll take Grand Junction over the front range any day of the week.

You hate development so much, you should move to a place that has a decreasing population, say Detroit, MI.

[CosmicWizard]

Jazzlover wrote:

And, oh yes, that lovely inversion--with brown layer of smog lying over the whole town, and licking up into Colorado National Monument. Yep, you gotta love growth and progress . . .

YEah, that inversion layer has been rather persistent this winter. Granted, the brown layer of smog is due to development and growth, but the inversion layer itself is due to natural conditions. Usually the air grows colder as you move up through the atmosphere. But on a cold, clear winter’s night, the ground quickly grows so cold it cools off the air just above it, rather like a refrigerator. A little higher up, though, the air stays slightly warmer and this temperature inversion behaves like an invisible ceiling, stopping fog and smoke from rising any higher. The temperature inversion remains in place so long as conditions remain calm, with little air movement to break up the layers of cold and warm air.

According to the local weather guys, the temperature inversion is even more strongly entrenched over in Gunnison.

Regarding growth and development...some people like it, some people don't. Ya can't please everybody. When growth in a place where I'm living exceeds what I am willing to tolerate, I move to another area that is more appelaing to me. Many years ago, I found that complaining about it did nothing to slow it down. All my complaining ever accomplished was to rain on someone elses parade. For me anyway, it's far healthier, and easier to just move.