Moving from Los Angeles. Need tips. (Denver, Colorado Springs: environment, hoa, trip)

[MGeldres]

Hi,
I'll be moving to Boulder this fall for school (Naropa). I've lived in Los Angeles my whole life so I really need to know:

What cities should I be looking for rentals in?
What areas do I stay away from? (We all know these neighborhoods)
What are the best online places to rental search? I've been doing alot of craigslist.

Also,
What does starting pay look like for clerical/adminstrative assistant work in Boulder?
Here I make $12.00 can I expect to make the same?
I have three months to figure this stuff out before moving.

[POdNCrazee]

Boulder is infinitely smaller than LA. There are absolutely NO "hoods" in Boulder you need to avoid. Probably Denver and Pueblo are the only places in Colorado where you need to worry about hoods n gangs n street crime, etc. You should definitely live in Boulder, that's where Naropa is...you don't want to spend your day in traffic (it's pretty bad out here too!). Starting pay for clerical/admin might be as low as 9 or 10 bucks an hour here. Boulder is a bad place to work for a living, many businesses come and go in weeks, months, and years like some annoying roullette table. Arrogant monied people come here from elsewhere all the time to start businesses, in a year or two they are out of business and gone, it's annoying for the employees. Also, employers figure out that the City of Boulder is run by looney spoiled-brat upper-middle-class leftists who make it a real pain in the ass to run a business with all their Stalinist-type regulations and zoning and taxes and BS. Most students and people in Boulder are wealthy to rich-as-****. They tend to be snooty, arrogant, and hard to make friends with. This is not a great place if you come from humble financial means. The nature and outdoor stuff here is mind-blowingly awesome, though, plus best weather in the world !! There is a lot of competition for jobs here, although that has gotten a little better in recent years as growth has created more jobs. Good luck. P.S. The great majority of modern beatniks, hipsters, and hippies moved out of Boulder by the end of the 1990's. Boulder is not liberal, it's nouveau-Victorian and 90% caucasian! It's a good town if you're a lesbian, BTW.

[MGeldres]

Hmm....I was kinda hoping it would be more down-to-earth....
I'm kinda shocked actually. Sounds like there's too much competition for jobs because it's a small city, right? And it's not such a good idea to look for a job out of the city because traffic is bad. Rentals are probably expensive too, huh? I guess I'm wondering how much different is living in Boulder from any city in LA, money-wise.

Also, I've been wondering, is the price of goods lower in Colorado than Los Angeles? Like in Utah?
How much is gas over there right now? the average. Here it's about $3.29

[jazzlover]

Another poster stated that Boulder is pretty much a place for rich hippies. That's not far off. It sure as heck is high-priced. Housing (renting or buying) is high-priced in relation to salaries. Many working folks in Boulder live in surrounding communities (Longmont, Superior, Broomfield, etc.) and endure the traffic to commute.

If you don't like traffic in LA, then Front Range Colorado probably won't trip your trigger, either. It's not as bad as LA, but the developers are following the same automobile-centric development patterns to make it that just like LA (assuming the gas supplies hold out--not likely).

Overall living costs are probably lower than LA over most of the Front Range, but so are salaries. The Front Range used to rank pretty well on "affordability indexes." It's middling, at best, these days. Fuel generally is cheaper than LA, but still is more expensive than some areas of the country.

If I had to pick a larger Front Range area in which to live, Fort Collins is not too bad. It is growing too quickly, and has its sprawl and traffic problems, but it is still a relatively nice place. It has a university (Colorado State University) that adds to the community. Unlike CU in Boulder, which tends to be a rich kid's school with a lot of out-of-state "preppy" kind of students (sorry CU, it's true!), CSU still remembers some of its land-grant "aggie" heritage and attracts a lot of Colorado students that don't have their noses in the air. Boulder tends to be elitist environmentalist chic; Fort Collins is pretty much middle-class.

If you are determined to go to school in Boulder, I would suggest looking in one of the smaller towns nearby for a place to live. Lafayette and Louisville are fairly pleasant.

[vfrpilot]

POdNCrazee-
That is the funniest descripton of Boulder I've ever read. I hope you didn't hold anything back

[POdNCrazee]

I'm down wit most everything Jazzlover wrote, but.... why live in Louisville or Lafayette if schooling in Boulder? Almost same rent but more time will be spend in really annoying traffic. Boulder's nightlife is okay to fair (the whole town tends to shut-down by 10:00 pm, nightlife totally dominated by and revolves around college kids).

Things to do in Lafayette: Look at cows. Get yourself a plain bean n cheese burrito. Count up all the fat people in sagging sweatpants you see going out to re-up on Cheetos and Budweiser before "the game" starts back on their TV's.

Things to do in Louisville: Throw rocks at all those shiny new corporate office buildings. Look up fun stuff in the dictionary, such as the definition of "bedroom community". Put a kayak and a bike on the roof of your vehicle, drive around and act snobby, if anyone says anything to you, you say: "I'm a triathlete, I'm special and I can't talk to you right now." Whatever you do, don't actually go out and ride the $3,000 bike.

[MGeldres]

Ha! This is hilarious. I honestly don't know what to think. Well I'm moving down there in the fall. Is Front Range a city? Is it something I can find on a map? We'll see what happens when I'm down there. Thanks for all of your replies.

Michelle

[Rawlings]

You're going to Naropa? Whoa! I didn't know anyone actually went there. I thought it was a few levitating monks and Ward Churchill.

Stunning!

[vegaspilgrim]

Originally Posted by MGeldres

Ha! This is hilarious. I honestly don't know what to think. Well I'm moving down there in the fall. Is Front Range a city? Is it something I can find on a map? We'll see what happens when I'm down there. Thanks for all of your replies.

Michelle

"The Front Range" is just a geographical term for a region. It actually has two meanings: 1. The easternmost range of the Rocky mountains-- including 14k ft peaks like Longs Peak, Grays, Torreys, Mt. Evans, Pikes Peak, etc. (sp). or 2. The urbanized area of Colorado, where most of the population of the state lives, just east of these mountains. Basically, everything from Ft. Collins to Colorado Springs (some might count Pueblo as well ), including Denver and its suburbs, Boulder, etc.

[McGowdog]

Originally Posted by vegaspilgrim

"The Front Range" is just a geographical term for a region. It actually has two meanings: 1. The easternmost range of the Rocky mountains-- including 14k ft peaks like Longs Peak, Grays, Torreys, Mt. Evans, Pikes Peak, etc. (sp). or 2. The urbanized area of Colorado, where most of the population of the state lives, just east of these mountains. Basically, everything from Ft. Collins to Colorado Springs (some might count Pueblo as well ), including Denver and its suburbs, Boulder, etc.

See, that's what I thought the Front Range was. It's this city that goes from Ft. Collins all the way down to Denver South (Colorado Springs). I live in Pleblo (sic) and I'm definitely south of civilization.

Oh, to respond to the SoCal; I lived in the Valley back in the 70's, Chatsworth to be exact. For a SoCal, Boulder is the place. Just try to make a lot of money and enjoy it's weather and scenery.

Speaking of Boulder, when does/did the Kinetics (at Boulder Res.) happen?