New England to Colorado move? (trees, people, about)

[Barristan67]

Wow. Thanks for all of the opinions.

I'm originally from Georgia and have been in New England for 20+ years and would like a change. The only drawback it seems would be finding employment.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by davidv

I am not from NE, but here are some things to consider:

People here are much friendlier. The pace is much slower. The culture is more casual and laid back.

Denver is the West. This means that it's generally more conservative (even the democrats are more conservative). It is very isolated; drive 8 hours in any direction and you will still won't find a city of comparable size. It both more rural (wide open spaces with lots of nothingness between the few small towns) and more urban (population is more concentrated in urban areas than in the east).

Denver is much newer (settled in 1859). There is not the same sense of history that you have in NE. Most of the people here are transplants. Finding a Denver native is a rare event :-). Most growth has occurred post automobile, so there is much more sprawl.

There is an underlying belief/culture of rugged individualism. People want to rely on govt less. Taxes are lower. That means less public transportation, fewer services (outside of Denver, people pay companies to pick up trash, snowplows are not used for smaller storms/not all streets are plowed, etc). There is a definite anti-union bias here, the only strike in recent history was grocery store employees about 6-7 years ago. Public employees are not paid as well as they are in the east.

This is just a few of the things from the top of my head.

Some points of agreement and disagreement. Colorado is more conservative than may eastern and midwestern states. (I grew up in Pennsylvania and lived there as a very young adult; move to Illiniois and lived there 7 years.) The rugged individualism is more talk than anything else. There is a very libertarian attitude here that you don't see in the eastern half of the US. Unions are not big here, and there is little sympathy for things like grocery store strikes. Don't know about public employee pay, as I am not one at present. However, when I worked as a public health nurse for a couple of health departments here, the pay was similar to that in private practice outside of hospitals (where you get a kind of "combat pay").

The RTD system can stand up in comparison to the transit systems of most eastern/midwestern cities of its size. Way better than Pittsburgh's for example. RTD covers a huge geographical area, and yes you can get from suburb to suburb, as someone else suggested you couldn't. DH used to take the Golden Express from Boulder to Golden, and he could, if he wanted to, take the bus from Louisville to Boulder. Yes, we pay for trash pickup here in Louisville, but so what? It saves on taxes, which ALWAYS get passed along to the consumer.

As for the sprawl, the metro area has some of the smallest lots I have ever seen (outside of California). It is common to have a 1/2 acre lot in many parts of the east, and not unusual to have 1+ acres (in the suburbs). Here, 10,000 sq. ft. (~1/4 acre) is considered huge.

ETA: Regarding Colorado natives, there is a whole generation of them. Colorado really started growing in the 1970s. Many of the people that moved here were young adults who had kids here. Some of these "kids" are close to 40 now.

[Ziasforever]

Originally Posted by Barristan67

Wow. Thanks for all of the opinions.

I'm originally from Georgia and have been in New England for 20+ years and would like a change. The only drawback it seems would be finding employment.

I think there are plenty McJobs and things like working at an Auto Parts store. If you can settle for that it might pay the rent on something small. I wonder what kind of neighborhood it would be in though.

[Davros]

Originally Posted by Ziasforever

I think there are plenty McJobs and things like working at an Auto Parts store.

Is this true ? I've heard otherwise, also.

[Ziasforever]

Originally Posted by Davros

Is this true ? I've heard otherwise, also.

I am just guessing. Are you in DEN? If so, what are the opps like?

I have some friends up there and they say the job op situation is pretty dismal.

[Davros]

Originally Posted by Ziasforever

Are you in DEN?

Not any more. But hope to again some day, and I'm dreaming for it to be soon. I'm just wondering if it's really true that there are plenty of McJobs. I've heard that there aren't, but I don't have first hand knowledge.

There are plenty of minimum wage food service jobs where I am in State College, PA, but I don't know how hard they are to get, because I haven't tried. I already got a job.

[LisaBoulder]

I moved here from a NYC bedroom community in CT where I grew up to go to grad school about the time you moved to New England (yikes), so some of this may be outdated. I'll try not to repeat what's already been said but some differences that I've noticed are:

In the Denver metro area, there is more regional planning/services than in CT. I'm thinking of things like school districts, transit and special tax districts. Like one of the PPs mentioned, you can take public transit from suburb to suburb here which is still not possible where I lived in CT. People knock RTD and it doesn't compare to NYC transit, but it beats Fairfield County CT transit hands down. Then Denver area also has regional taxing for things like the arts which didn't exist in CT, at least when I lived there. School districts here also tend to be regional and much larger than city or town specific districts, which are more the norm there.

Another big difference that I was surprised by was the whole ballet initiative thing come election time. CT just didn't have the same type of process for citizen initiated government change.

Residential zoning can also be very different. My parent's house was in a suburban area with 2 acre zoning. That is much more unusual here. As someone else mentioned, lots here are small, but there is more shared open/recreational space. Even with the suburban sprawl, I think that overall it's easier to walk in the Denver suburbs than the CT ones. I've found that your mileage will vary with the whole neighborly/friendliness thing. CO is one of the top 10 states for population growth so you still will probably meet a lot of people here who are from somewhere else. My suspicion is that there are more multi-generational local families in the Northeast than in CO. I've also found that there are fewer snotty/snobby people here. This is probably also a relative perception.

In addition to what others have said about the weather (which I agree with 100%), I noticed a big difference in comfort here between sun and shade. I think it's because of the lower humidity.

Most people here have a low tolerance for long commutes. Back east, at least in NYC metro, commutes could be very long and involve drive/train/subway legs and 90 plus minutes each way. Here, they tend to be less than 30 minutes. This is probably a matter of opinion, but I think that people here have a much better work/life balance. The shorter commute may play into that or maybe people just self-select for the life style. One other thing at least with my company is that people here tend to start and end the workday earlier. It's mainly because the time zone difference and an east coast headquarters.

Ethnic and bakery food choices are different. Pizza here is different so if you are in love with the pies there, you may be disappointed. One thing that I really miss is Portuguese rolls. Another is black and white cookies.

There is also a lack of fireflies in CO. :-(

[pyrotech]

Originally Posted by Dorthy

I also don't miss the Boston accent and the overuse of the word "wicked"

That's wicked insulting to someone who has wicked love for the word "wicked."

To the OP, I've only been here in the summer so far, but I'd have to say that I've enjoyed the summer here much more than New England. Not nearly as much rain here, much more sun, drier air (I don't perspire much here, which is wicked appreciated), higher mountains.

It's taking me a while to acclimate. I was really big into mountain biking in Vermont. The elevation here at times makes my teeth hurt if I push myself really hard. I've even tired myself out hiking a couple 14'ers. I've never been tired out from hiking in the Green or White Mountains. Bouldering, on the other hand, is easier here due to the drier climate. I have yet to have my chalky hands slip on moss!

Some people say the people are friendlier here than back east. I've found it the other way around, and have had much easier times meeting people and keeping in touch with people in Boston, NYC, Philadelphia, VT, Montreal, etc. than here around Denver. People don't seem as flaky back east as they do here.

The live music scene here compared to Boston, NYC, and even VT kinda sucks. I haven't found nearly as much variety here.

Not as much variety when it comes to food here. I'm sure you'd get more variety the closer to the west you get, so it's not really fair to compare CO vs the east coast, being as everything is so close to NY.

I've come to miss the lakes in New England this summer, but the mountains and climate here make it worth it IMO.

[boston2denver]

Originally Posted by David Aguilar

...lack of trees...

That part is wrong. People don't head up to New England to watch the leaves change color in the Autumn on bushes :-)

[boston2denver]

Originally Posted by Barristan67

The only drawback it seems would be finding employment.

That can be said about anywhere.