Looking for Hip, Funky, Liberal, smaller mountain town in CO (Denver: real estate, Home Depot)

[delta07]

Originally Posted by SheridanL

Sure sounds like South Park/Alma would love another funky coffee shop!!
They are the 2 towns at the bottom of Hoosier Pass on your way to Breckenridge!! That's my vote anyway!!! Everything your looking for!!
Check it out!!

Good luck surviving there! I lived in Fairplay for 5 years, and I saw numerous coffee shops come and go through the years. It is a great place to live, but hard to make a living. If you can do it, best of luck to you. Just make sure you really research the area before investing everyting you own into a pipe dream.

[delta07]

[quote=jazzlover;9233803]Here's a dirty little secret about rural and resort Colorado. It does not say much for the long-term vitality of the economy in those areas, but it is what it is. Want to know what people manage to live in rural and resort Colorado for the long-term, and who manage to make at least a livable income? People who work for government. Sorry, but that is the hard truth.

Want to enjoy living in the nice part of Colorado? If you enjoy summer recreation, get hired as a teacher. You won't be able to make a living wage to live in many of the resort towns, but you can live nearby and have summers off to go to the mountains. Want winter free time to ski? Get a seasonal summer position on a highway crew. Want a flexible schedule? Become a nurse and work at the local county hospital. If you want to work for the feds, try for one of the rare and hard to get full-time Forest Service jobs (don't expect to stay in Colorado with that one, though, they transfer their people a lot).

QUOTE]

Jazzlover is right in most respects. I was fortunate enough to have a government job (Forest Service) in one of the most beautiful places in CO. However, the FS, doesn't really do mandatory transfers. I probably could have stayed there my entire career. I chose to transfer to further my career. It's pretty rare to be required to transfer, but most people do. Just wanted to clarify.

[kevbomac05]

go for it life is short and Colorado is sweet land.

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by delta07

QUOTE]

Jazzlover is right in most respects. I was fortunate enough to have a government job (Forest Service) in one of the most beautiful places in CO. However, the FS, doesn't really do mandatory transfers. I probably could have stayed there my entire career. I chose to transfer to further my career. It's pretty rare to be required to transfer, but most people do. Just wanted to clarify.

I think we are both sort of right. My friends who have worked for the Forest Service explained it to me this way. When the time comes, if you want a promotion, you take the transfer. If you don't, advancement comes a lot harder. One fellow I knew was offered two promotions which required transfers, which he refused. His boss told him that if he refused another, he would retire at his current position and pay grade (he had over 10 years left before retirement). When the third promotion offer was made with a required transfer, he again refused--and he never did get another promotion.

Years back, the Forest Service was even more adamant about transferring people. 6 years was about the max any forester or range scientist could expect to stay in one place. Another fellow I knew worked in no less than 7 National Forests from Nebraska to Montana to New Mexico in his 30 year career. He worked in some cherry places, but the Forest Service would not let people stay in one place too long back then. The rationale then was that the Forest Service did not want its employees getting too familiar and "cozy" with some of the ranchers, loggers, and miners which they dealt with in a particular area. Now, I think they want their people to be considered more of a part of a community, thus fewer transfers. I strongly considered a Forest Service career back when I was in college, but the prospect of getting bounced all over the country (which was common then) didn't appeal to me.

[treedonkey]

I'm not trying to brag, but being a full-time remote worker, I really do have the luxury of being able to live just about anywhere - as long as they have electricity, phone and high-speed internet service. Even so, the resort towns of co never did have much appeal to me. There are plenty of pretty places here on the front range - with stellar mountain access - and then you get the benefit of having things like sports, culture and a real hospital and airport within easy driving distance. Also, I'm not sure the pool of potential 'friends' would be very good up in those towns... it's mostly all tourists and wealthy snowbirds up there... I'm sure most of the working class folk come and go constantly, so it would make for a strange lifestyle, long term, IMO.

[delta07]

Originally Posted by jazzlover

I think we are both sort of right. My friends who have worked for the Forest Service explained it to me this way. When the time comes, if you want a promotion, you take the transfer. If you don't, advancement comes a lot harder. One fellow I knew was offered two promotions which required transfers, which he refused. His boss told him that if he refused another, he would retire at his current position and pay grade (he had over 10 years left before retirement). When the third promotion offer was made with a required transfer, he again refused--and he never did get another promotion.

Years back, the Forest Service was even more adamant about transferring people. 6 years was about the max any forester or range scientist could expect to stay in one place. Another fellow I knew worked in no less than 7 National Forests from Nebraska to Montana to New Mexico in his 30 year career. He worked in some cherry places, but the Forest Service would not let people stay in one place too long back then. The rationale then was that the Forest Service did not want its employees getting too familiar and "cozy" with some of the ranchers, loggers, and miners which they dealt with in a particular area. Now, I think they want their people to be considered more of a part of a community, thus fewer transfers. I strongly considered a Forest Service career back when I was in college, but the prospect of getting bounced all over the country (which was common then) didn't appeal to me.

Very true! Yes, you don't have to transfer so much these days, but the appeal of retiring at your highest 3 years salary, is often too much to resist. I've since left the FS, as it was difficult to impossible to get a job where I really wanted to live!

[LovinCO]

Hey guys - I'm glad you are getting a kick out of rambling back and forth.....money is not an issue - I sold my 3rd company for 6.2 million in 2007-

If someone can just focus on a few great small towns (doesn't have to be "resort" towns....that is what I am looking for....cool? THX!

[sunsprit]

Originally Posted by LovinCO

Hey guys - I'm glad you are getting a kick out of rambling back and forth.....money is not an issue - I sold my 3rd company for 6.2 million in 2007- snip

You'll need it.

Your Colorado choices are "resort" and "tourist" oriented towns, or college towns, which will be very expensive to set up and stay in a small business, and you'll be saddled with a lot of high turnover seasonal help issues. Expect long hours and hard work if your business has any chance of just breaking even. I've known a lot of folks in the hospitality business in these towns and they only way they finally got a vacation and some profit after owning the business for years was to sell it to another dreamer.

The other little towns that might qualify for you generally aren't capable of supporting a coffee shop for the long haul. That's why you don't see the shops there now ... many others have tried to do this and some, who I know were experienced in the restaurant business ... all failed.

There's a number of small towns that are rural and ag or extractive industry based that support a local cafe/coffee shop ... but they're not "hip" and "liberal" by any means. Your local clientele is going to be a bunch of hard working folks that are close to the land, with an entirely different paradigm of life than what you're looking for.

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by LovinCO

Hey guys - I'm glad you are getting a kick out of rambling back and forth.....money is not an issue - I sold my 3rd company for 6.2 million in 2007-

If someone can just focus on a few great small towns (doesn't have to be "resort" towns....that is what I am looking for....cool? THX!

Famous quote:

Question: "How do you get a million dollars in rural Colorado?"

Answer: "Bring three million and don't stay too long."

Seen that happen more times than I can count--often from people who made a lot of money someplace else, and thought rural Colorado would be the same. By the way, was the $6.2 million your equity in the company or just what you sold it for? Big difference.

[motoracer51]

I hear California needs some money. They have some great small towns.