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jchasse and stoymonkey....On your way to the restaurant, watch out for the equity locusts, trustafarians, and transplants. Word has it that they have taken over Durango and they want to destroy it along with all of the other mountain towns in the western USA. They hate small towns and the smalltown lifestyle. They want to turn Durango into another southern California with freeways, liberal whackos, and beautiful people running about everywhere. They are not to be trusted, so keep your eyes open and be wary of them. If you see one, go to the other side of the street for your own safety. It is best not to ever walk on that side of the street again. If they walked there once, chances are they will walk there again. So always walk on the other side of the street.
This is NOT true nor is it funny. Sorry, those of us who migrate from the BIG cities to SMALL towns share YOUR VALUES - Libertarian, Anti-Big Government, Anti-Tax, Self-Sufficiency, etc. Durango, Salida, Pagosa, Santa Fe, Tahoe, Mammoth Lakes, Ashland Oregon, Corvallis Oregon, etc. etc. (Boulder and Eugene, Oregon are Wacko Leftists, - No Way.) I am so tired of reading broad generalizations about the 18-35 year olds who are exiting the Big Cities for the Rural Towns on City-Data! Nowhere are these inappropriate generalizations more articulately expressed than on the Colorado forums, which are widely regarded as the Meanest forums on City-Data. Read my post archives and you'll see what my values are.
But maybe it'll help Durango support itself with a boutique market for AIDS and sex-change clinics.
There are no sex change clinics in Durango or any of the more conservative places I mentioned in the previous posts. And even if their were, you're still very paranoid of the GLBT population, for no reason. Yes there is a GLBT community in Durango, and yes, Oprah is bi- or a lesbian (I don't follow this stuff) and visited Durango, from what I read in other posts, but so what? Why does it affect you? Just chill out and try to have a great day and stop worrying about the newbies.
Get a grip on reality. You'll have to accept that you're no longer the dominant demographic in your region. Newcomers to Durango share your very own environmental and Libertarian values, are fiscally conservative as you are, and are slightly more liberal on social issues than you are, but Durango isn't West Hollywood so you have nothing to fear. Why else would there be 4 health food stores for a population of 16,000 if the people here didn't care about your rural lifestyle, just as you do?
*IF* you want (your choice, not mine, I'm just an urban planning guru), you CAN develop Durango into an economically thriving place, with not only tourism and second homes, but ALSO with the existing and planned industries. This discussion so far has been superficial, because it's failed to discuss the general economic picture. There are other industries in Durango that affect the real estate market, because these employ high paid workers who can afford the $300,000 homes: Ft. Lewis College, Local Government, The City, The County, Local Natural Resources, Agriculture, etc.
You're not only selling homes and condos to people from Denver and Chicago. You have plenty of local industries with people who buy your condos and homes. I don't know what the percentage of second homes is, but it's not as high as some places at higher elevations.
As to Bob from Down South who said that local kids should complain that local real estate has become too expensive, he's right. It is too expensive when the median multiple is way over the average income. So reduce the environmental restrictions on new construction and lower the impact fees, and build more housing. Annex parts of La Plata County. Durango wants to grow, you have lots of new families, but some of the posters in this thread sound like paranoid overpopulation advocates from UC who don't want any newcomers, using Paul Ehrlich's unproven 1973 ecology book as an excuse.
Nowhere are these inappropriate generalizations more articulately expressed than on the Colorado forums, which are widely regarded as the Meanest forums on City-Data.
Is there a rating system somewhere for that? Kind of gives posting here a sense of danger. The CO moderator must have retired without telling anyone. Quite a contrast with some where you get shut down for discussing anything more controversial than puppies and rainbows. I much prefer the rough and tumble of this one.
No, I'm not an equity locust, as I never owned a house before I bought here. The classical definition is a person that takes the appreciation from one market and then transplants it to another (along with many others, who descend on the host city like a swarm of locusts with similar deleterious effect),
I'm using a broader version of equity locust than the one you define above. I include those who made money investing in the stock market and accummulated lots of cash without producing anything of value thru their OWN LABOR. Let it be noted that I don't see equity locusts in the negative light that you do. I am one of them as I confessed in an earlier post.
If you're a home-grown local kid that can not afford a decent place to live because the locusts swarmed in and bid everything up to levels even they can't sustain, you have every right to be angry at "those b*st*rds from out of state" as you put it. But you have even more right to be angry at your parents and their friends, who sold their souls and gave those developers the keys to your birthright. Hope they got some nice granite countertops out of the deal.
Even though the anger is better directed toward their parents and their friends, who sold their souls and gave those developers, it's still just a reaction to something that already happened, and it does NOTHING to resolve the issue. Many of those who hold the anger will probably spend the rest of their lives being angry bitter people, unless they are willing to let it go and move on with their lives.
The fact that their parents and their friends, DID sell out to the developers suggests that those people who chose to do that were already financially distressed, that life in small town Colorado was never the bed of roses that some folks make it out to be.
interesting article in durango herald.com today. median price up1.2% to 387450 as foreclosures soar to record highs. durangoans are very proud of thier home values. you can probably pick up a 3 br dump with no insulation and single pane steel casement windows for around 300,000 if you shop around
I'm using a broader version of equity locust than the one you define above. I include those who made money investing in the stock market and accummulated lots of cash without producing anything of value thru their OWN LABOR. Let it be noted that I don't see equity locusts in the negative light that you do. I am one of them as I confessed in an earlier post.
OK, but, I only made a small percentage of my money in the stock market, and I've been out of it since 1997. Most of what I have was earned and saved by living far below my means over the course of decades.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CosmicWizard
Even though the anger is better directed toward their parents and their friends, who sold their souls and gave those developers, it's still just a reaction to something that already happened, and it does NOTHING to resolve the issue. Many of those who hold the anger will probably spend the rest of their lives being angry bitter people, unless they are willing to let it go and move on with their lives.
Well let's hope that anger motivates some of those people to take positions against the next wave of out-of-town developers looking to make a fast buck at the expense of their communities. Let's hope it motivates a bunch of them to call or write their elected non-representatives and make it known that the financiers that fueled the price run-ups with highly leveraged speculative money should be allowed to fail rather than stay in business by transferring their losses to the government. Let's hope it motivates them to consider community-building moves like a stiff local real estate transfer tax that makes flipping, especially by non-residents, inherently non-profitable in their communities.
All of those things would help resolve the issue (along with dragging bankers out of their offices and placing them in stocks near an ample supply of rotting fruit for the public's throwing pleasure).
Get a grip on reality. You'll have to accept that you're no longer the dominant demographic in your region. Newcomers to Durango share your very own environmental and Libertarian values, are fiscally conservative as you are, and are slightly more liberal on social issues than you are, but Durango isn't West Hollywood so you have nothing to fear. Why else would there be 4 health food stores for a population of 16,000 if the people here didn't care about your rural lifestyle, just as you do?
Actually, "my" region is Colorado Springs, and I am indeed in the dominant demographic here. I started planning for a Colorado retirement about 20 years ago, and Durango was the place I thought it'd be. I read the Durango Herald online every day for many years, and grew ever sadder as I watched the property values escalate to the moon, and more and more influence by the QDACDCCWDGWG bunch. I was in Durango last about 5-6 months ago, and we sat down at a restaurant only to be met by a waiter with an earring to starboard, a heavy lisp, and a sky-high wrist lag factor. We got up and left--I don't have to patronize a place where it's waved in my face like a billboard. I never would have seen that when I first started going there (usually staying in the Kelty Hilton just outside of town). And thus sensitized, I started looking around with a critical eye, and I got the feeling I actually might just be in a new West Hollywood in the making.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CCCVDUR
There are other industries in Durango that affect the real estate market, because these employ high paid workers who can afford the $300,000 homes: Ft. Lewis College, Local Government, The City, The County, Local Natural Resources, Agriculture, etc.
If you're telling us that college teachers and local government workers are paid enough to afford those (more like $400K) homes, then Durango is headed for a cliff even faster than I thought. Public coffers can't sustain cops and firemen making $100K a year (which is about what it takes to afford a $300K home) in a place like Durango, and when property values start to really decline, the revenue shortfalls will start the same sort of vicious cycle we're seeing all over the country.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CCCVDUR
You're not only selling homes and condos to people from Denver and Chicago. You have plenty of local industries with people who buy your condos and homes. I don't know what the percentage of second homes is, but it's not as high as some places at higher elevations.
I do not believe for a second that those condos that sprouted up around Durango like cardboard kudzu are being sold mostly to locals.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CCCVDUR
As to Bob from Down South who said that local kids should complain that local real estate has become too expensive, he's right. It is too expensive when the median multiple is way over the average income. So reduce the environmental restrictions on new construction and lower the impact fees, and build more housing. Annex parts of La Plata County. Durango wants to grow, you have lots of new families, but some of the posters in this thread sound like paranoid overpopulation advocates from UC who don't want any newcomers, using Paul Ehrlich's unproven 1973 ecology book as an excuse.
And what is fueling Durango's growth? An economy based on selling more and more real estate, absent production of something useful and marketable in the greater world, is doomed. Your answer is to make it up in volume??!
I was in Durango last about 5-6 months ago, and we sat down at a restaurant only to be met by a waiter with an earring to starboard, a heavy lisp, and a sky-high wrist lag factor. We got up and left--I don't have to patronize a place where it's waved in my face like a billboard. I never would have seen that when I first started going there (usually staying in the Kelty Hilton just outside of town). And thus sensitized, I started looking around with a critical eye, and I got the feeling I actually might just be in a new West Hollywood in the making.
Likely homosexual households (counted as self-reported same-sex unmarried-partner households)
Durango
Lesbian couples: 0.3% of all households
Gay men: 0.3% of all households
Colorado Springs
Lesbian couples: 0.3% of all households
Gay men: 0.2% of all households
Yeah looks like it's much more prevalent in that Sodom and Gomorrah of Durango.
OK, but, I only made a small percentage of my money in the stock market, and I've been out of it since 1997. Most of what I have was earned and saved by living far below my means over the course of decades.
Kudos to you. I genuinely admire that. Please accept my apology for thinking you might be one of those evil equity locusts.
Well let's hope that anger motivates some of those people to take positions against the next wave of out-of-town developers looking to make a fast buck at the expense of their communities. Let's hope it motivates a bunch of them to call or write their elected non-representatives and make it known that the financiers that fueled the price run-ups with highly leveraged speculative money should be allowed to fail rather than stay in business by transferring their losses to the government. Let's hope it motivates them to consider community-building moves like a stiff local real estate transfer tax that makes flipping, especially by non-residents, inherently non-profitable in their communities.
Anger is a powerful emotion. Far more often then not, it ends up controlling the person who gets caught up in it. The destructive aspect of anger is more prevalent than the constructive application of anger. Only rarely is an angry person big enough to harness and direct their anger to accomplish something of value.
All of those things would help resolve the issue (along with dragging bankers out of their offices and placing them in stocks near an ample supply of rotting fruit for the public's throwing pleasure). emphasis added
Although I consider myself a peace loving, non-violent person, I'm a sucker for this sentiment every time you post it, and I end up agreeing with you. Here's a good example of anger getting the better of me.
With regard to the gay waiter. Although it is not a lifestyle that I embrace, I say live and let live. His sexual orientation is not my decision to make. If a gay waiter provides good service, I'll consider him a good waiter and give him a decent tip, just like I would for a straight waiter. Makes no difference to me. Now if he starts coming on to me...there goes his tip!
Last edited by CosmicWizard; 03-13-2010 at 01:14 PM..
Likely homosexual households (counted as self-reported same-sex unmarried-partner households)
Yeah looks like it's much more prevalent in that Sodom and Gomorrah of Durango.
Source? I have yet to find any sorts of statistics on homo populations that aren't biased to the point of uselessness.
But what's most important to me is the public profile. I have no idea what the stats are in San Francisco or Hollywood, for example, but I know that I can't walk down the street there without seeing it everywhere. It doesn't bother me in California, because I know that place is beyond hope already. Seeing it in Durango makes me throw up in my mouth a little.
Your statistics notwithstanding, it's not a problem when I walk around here, but it sure was a problem on my last visit to Sod...errr...Durango. And what I saw was not something that grew up in Durango...this was clearly an imported form of big city openly displayed depravity, something that almost surely rode in with the cloud of locusts that have infested the place.
With luck, when Durango real estate collapses under its own weight, that element will leave town to look for greener-hair pastures.
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Just Chill Out And Have A Great Day
I much prefer the rough and tumble of this one.
