grand junction (Colorado Springs, Durango, Fort Carson: job market, buying, construction)

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by DOUBLE H

I'm guessing 1991 to 1992 to be the year where all of the properties that had been sitting empty for 10 plus years were bought up. But a few years earlier developers were buying the bejeebers out of land-cheap. And the housing boom started to go in crazy mode. IMO new employment basically consisted of craftsmen working on home construction. Energy companies such as Halliburton and Weatherford didn't really have a huge presence here in the valley and wouldn't until the gas prices starting climbing in the early 2000's.

The western slope done a campaign and a half to get people to move here. I have friends in several neighboring states and you would see ads in major newspapers, commercials on tv stations, etc. to get the word out. IMO the topper is seeing signs on the city buses in L.A.

And Californians came in here in droves. There were 50% more Californians moving here than any other state at first. How do I know? I have a good friend who worked nearly 30 years for the state government, in the drivers license bureau. Yep, that's the first place to go when you relocate, or at least one of the first anyway.

Other than the fires, earthquakes, and other problems, a BIG factor was for L.A. people moving were the L.A. riots in the spring of 1992. Several people who live in my area told me just that, that the areas where they had lived in were simmering for action also. They found out about the western slope, took the first offer on their places, and were out of there in a flash. I met a real estate gal in the early 90's who had never heard of Montrose, but wanted to get the H out of the "inferno hellhole" of L.A. Everthing she had was in her car, and drove straight to Montrose. Stayed in a motel for a few days until she could get on her feet, lives there to this day, and never looked back.

All very true. The sad reality for a lot of these people--excepting retirees with absolutely secure retirement incomes (and a lot of people who thought their retirement income was "secure" are finding out otherwise these days)--is that the jobs they took or businesses they started were mostly construction and real estate related. Now that those industries are in serious trouble on the Western Slope, a lot of those "newbies" are out of work. As an article noted in Sunday's Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, it's starting to hard to get a rental truck to move out of Grand Junction because they've all been taken by somebody else desperate to get out.

I watched this back in the early 1980's. Just as now, all kinds of people and new businesses moved in during the boom preceding the crash. The old line business people knew better and didn't go hog wild during the boom. When the crash came, most of the "newbies" went broke, and bunch of people left the area with their tails between their legs--and nothing else to show for their time in western Colorado. Meanwhile, those old-liners weathered the storm, and many of them still are in business or still are working the jobs they were before things busted back then. Today has all of the earmarks of a repeat, only this time the thumping those who bought in during the boom are going to take--and that's most anyone whose relocated here in the last ten years--is likely to be pretty brutal. As the saying goes, history may not repeat exactly, but it usually rhymes.

[DOUBLE H]

Originally Posted by jimmy914

If you look at the actual crime statistics, Grand Junction's are actually very high for a city of it's size. And sorry, unless things have just cleaned up that much in the 3 years since I moved away, you're just not seeing the graffiti etc. And I'm from a MAJOR metro area with serious gang and crime problems. When I lived in downtown GJ I could look out my window at almost any hour of the night and see transient/criminal types walking up and down the sidewalks. The neighbors' dogs constantly woke us up barking at creeps walking through the alleys in the middle of the night, up to no good. I'm not talking about walking down main street at 9pm. I'm talking about the back streets at 2 in the morning. If you're cool with that, then that's fine. I wouldn't want my wife and kids around that. Where I am now, it's never an issue.

One of the things that you have to remind yourselves of is that when an area booms and HAS boomed ( in this case, over 15 years), there is the factor of the con artists, dishonest contractors, etc., etc., coming in to try to set up shop. And this area is no exception. Petty crime has been on the increase for some time. After my most recent post on this thread, on three successive nights we had three robberies in a row; two gas stations and also RiteAid. It was a few days before that there was a robbery of all places in a laundromat in the early a.m. hours.

Today it has been reported in today's Sentinel and on the local tv stations that a Baptist church was burglarized and extensively damaged throughout the church. For now they are talking thirty, maybe forty thousand dollars damage. This area has gone through this before with wack jobs. Several years ago there was one individual who kept on maliciously trying to do damage to the Catholic outreach center, from damaging it by fire to spraying graffiti to throwing rocks through windows. Sad.

Years ago different churches in this area had similar break-in problems, like, say, several in a short period of time. And then after that, few problems. These sorts of things seem to come in bunches.

[80skeys]

I maintain that GJ ranks 3-3.5 on a 1-10 scale of safeness, meaning that it's more safe (less crime) than 65%-70% of American towns, and less safe than 30-35%. If your base of comparison is the lower 30%, then you're likely to think GJ has "criminal" issues. On the other hand, if you are one of the 70% of Americans, this would not be the case.If your life experience is limited to living in an area that's in the top 10-20% safest places (including nice neighborhoods of big cities), then "any" amount of crime will seem extravagent to you. Most Americans do not fall into this category. Most Americans would consider Grand Junction "safer" and "more peaceful" than what they're used to.

[DOUBLE H]

I sure would have LIKED to have lived in one of those 10% to 20% places, but I occupy real estate on the lowest level, the mobile home on a small lot. Fortunately we don't have a chronic problem with the crime issue in my neighborhood, but my point is this area has its share of crime. People who move in to this area should not have the expectations that nothing happens around here.

[DOUBLE H]

One issue that I do like is some of the development from within the inner city, particularly Mesa State College. I like what they've done with some of the recent expansion around the college. I know a few people from the college, and I enjoy supporting the programs. I go to a few Mesa basketball and baseball games and some of the community events they have had at Saunders fieldhouse. As far as I'm concerned you can get a darn good education from the smaller schools on the slope, such as Mesa State and Western State in Gunnison.

I'll admit I'm not crazy about all the construction on North just west of 12th, and I'm not sure how businesses only will fit in there. Looks like an awful lot of units there. The development downtown has looked ok, though.

[eofelis]

Originally Posted by DOUBLE H

As far as I'm concerned you can get a darn good education from the smaller schools on the slope, such as Mesa State

I just graduated from Mesa State College with a BS in geology, just in time for the energy bust! I'm satisfied with the education I got there. I really liked the small class sizes and professor availability. During some of my tougher classes I was visiting my professors for help every week.

Tuition at MSC is reasonable and I got enough financial aid in scholarships, Pell Grants and state grants to pay for all my tuition, so I walked debt-free.

[CosmicWizard]

eofils wrote:

Tuition at MSC is reasonable and I got enough financial aid in scholarships, Pell Grants and state grants to pay for all my tuition, so I walked debt-free.

Way to go! Congratulations. Graduating debt free puts you way ahead of most of your contemporaries.

[eofelis]

Originally Posted by CosmicWizard

eofils wrote:

Tuition at MSC is reasonable and I got enough financial aid in scholarships, Pell Grants and state grants to pay for all my tuition, so I walked debt-free.

Way to go! Congratulations. Graduating debt free puts you way ahead of most of your contemporaries.

Graduating debt free was central to my college plan. I was determined to find ways to get free money for school. I had to keep my grades way up to get the scholarships, and I had to keep my cost of living way down. I graduated magna *** laude and I still have some money in savings. I'm no young 'um either, 41!

My SO graduated from MSC in 2006 on the same money plan, so we helped each other out. We are sitting ok, so unemployment or p/t work is fine for us for a while.

[DOUBLE H]

Am happy to hear it. Good for you!

[CosmicWizard]

In my eyes, graduating debt-free shows even greater wisdom than graduating Magna-***-Laude. However, both of them are notable accomplishments.