Denver hasn't really worked out... (Colorado Springs, Boulder: fit in, for sale, tech jobs)

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Originally Posted by headingtoDenver

Funny.. People think the same thing about Orlando. Fly into Orlando and then still have an hour drive to the nearest beach.

Here in San Diego you get 5 min away from the beach and it starts to look like AZ. 15 min from the beach and it's as hot as AZ.

I've lived out E in Colorado so far you couldn't even see the Rockies!

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by mporter1984

Hi!

I moved to Denver last August, with the primary goal of getting away from the hustle and bustle of Chicago and 'moving to the mountains.' ...So it hasn't really been the pie in the sky situation I'd thought. So I'm in this difficult situation of trying to decide what to do. Do I attempt to move away from Denver and into a smaller city in Colorado, with the hopes that this will solve the main problems (traffic, housing costs, more access to nature)? Curious what other transplants or locals have done who have had similar feelings about the city as me.

Any advice would be helpful!

I agree... 30 yrs in CO I never grew to appreciate Denver, fortunately I never had to live there, but I did have to venture into and out of the city 3-5x / week as a trucking terminal / to fetch my loads.

1) Can you transfer with USPS to a more suitable 'outdoor centric' location? (Boulder, Co Springs, Missoula, MT, Logan, UT, Santa Fe, NM, Coeur d'Alene, ID...) There are many great choices in the Mtn west.

2) What do YOU really want? City or outdoors? Denver is definitely City, but is also Prairie, not Mtns.

You seldom can have City w/o traffic (within USA) What do you want in a 'city' / home environment?

You seldom can have Mtns in the city (but it is possible for a 'Small' - city) What do you want in a Mtn environment? (I like my view but don't get to be out in it as much as I would like)

While you are in CO, spend time exploring options.

Depending what you need in a city... Glenwood Springs is worth considering (Unless you need to be near and airport)


During my earning yrs, I enjoyed living and being employed in an income tax free state with Mtns and Ocean. Traffic... (Which I dislike...) there is not a stoplight in my entire COUNTY, yet I am 20 min to a very nice city and airport. Skiing and beach are ez access, mtns... outside the door. Similar situation czn be found in most outdoor centric small cities.

[illinoisphotographer]

Originally Posted by wilberry

Interesting that the OP says the cost of living is about the same in Denver as Chicago.

Homes in Denver are more expensive, but RE taxes are about 1/3 of IL's RE taxes. Gas is about 25-30 cents/gallon cheaper in Denver, but car registration costs 2-4x as much (depending on the age of your car). If you assume 30MPG average in an econo car driving 12k miles/year, you save $120 year in gas.

Food seems pretty much the same. Less toll roads in Denver, but the tool roads (like E470) we do have are significantly more expensive per-mile.

[Cfella]

Originally Posted by mporter1984

Denver is this gigantic hectic city with traffic right on par with Chicago/NY/Philly, etc,

As a transplant who moved from NYC 1 year ago....this is statement is complete inaccurate. The traffic in Denver during rush hour can be pretty bad, but after rush hour there really isn't much traffic anywhere. In NYC, there is always traffic.

[BarryK123]

Originally Posted by Cfella

As a transplant who moved from NYC 1 year ago....this is statement is complete inaccurate. The traffic in Denver during rush hour can be pretty bad, but after rush hour there really isn't much traffic anywhere. In NYC, there is always traffic.

Agreed. Unless you've lived in one of the big cities of the Northeast or Cali, you don't know what traffic is.

[mporter1984]

Originally Posted by intrinsiknergy

Try moving to Evergreen. It's close enough to the city to commute, but you will live within easy, daily access to what the mountains have to offer. North Evergreen is very pricey for your (and my) salary range, but there are other housing options further into Evergreen that may fit your criteria. I'm an east coaster from NYC and Boston, and the traffic doesn't even come close, so make sure you're being very aware of your expectations/fantasy verse reality. I know it's hard, I'm there myself for a different reason. Denver is a very unattractive city for sure, but if you wanted an attractive city you would have gravitated toward something else, but you're here, and you know what this area REALLY has to offer. So let's make that happen instead.

Good outlook.

[mporter1984]

Originally Posted by Norrov

Try Conifer or Bailey.

I've lived in a Chicago, Houston and Austin, I don't even notice the traffic in Denver compared to those places. I mean it sucks at times but it's not terrible. It's terrible if you moved here from some small Midwest town.

I moved here for the dry climate and the mountains. I've never been a fan of bigger cities but I can handle Denver. I go skiing/riding/hiking 2-3 times a week and I love it. If you leave early you can easily avoid the I70 traffic..

See I was in Chicago for years, and I find the traffic in Denver to be almost as bad, and it's the #1 thing people in Denver complain to me about. Yea, Chicago is worse if you're commuting from say, Rogers Park to Lincoln Park. Just no good way to do that - it's a nightmare! But if you plan your life right in Chicago, you hop on the train or take an uber. And life can become quite simple because of that infrastructure. When Denver has a legit rail system, that'll be amazing.

[mporter1984]

Originally Posted by MN_Ski

I had the opportunity to visit Chicago, Boston, and LA this summer for work. I was also recently in Atlanta and Austin. Here is my newer take on traffic here.

I think the congestion per mile is really the same here as it is in major cities. The difference is in how far you have to travel to get somewhere. So in Denver, you might only need to travel 7-8 miles to go from work to home. That can easily take you 45 mins to an hour on a heavy traffic day. Or, it might take you 35-45 mins to cross downtown (4ish miles). I think the reason why it doesn't seem as bad here is because the city is smaller, and you need to travel less distance.

In LA for example, my hotel was 18 miles from my office, and it took about 1.2-1.5 hours. LA is so big, I didn't even realize that I was going for such a long distance. I cruised around downtown on my day off, and it took me over an hour to cross downtown, but I also had to travel a good 9-10 miles to do so.

So I kind of laugh when people say that the biggest cities with tens of millions of people (LA, NYC, Chicago, Boston) has worse traffic than the 17th largest city, just because that is obviously implied (same argument for COL). In the end, I think that you are still going the same speed per mile.

I think its fair to compare Denvers traffic to cities of similar size (Minneapolis, Austin, Portland, Seattle, Nashville). In that regard, Id say we are right in the middle. Better than Austin, Portland, and Seattle, but worse than Minneapolis and Nashville. But the whole "WOW Denver traffic is nothing compared to NYC"...its like, duh.

Well said!

[mporter1984]

Originally Posted by emm74

that's what I was going to ask to OP. If you came to Denver thinking you were "moving to the mountains" then you hadn't done any due diligence ahead of time, and unfortunately Real Denver generally doesn't live up to Imaginary Denver, as is the case with most locations.

Personally, I don't find Denver unattractive and I want to live in a city with ready access to the amenities it provides so I have no interest in moving to a smaller city. But if your job is transferable to a different location, perhaps that would be the correct solution for you. I don't see that as a solution if you still had to work in Denver or the immediate metro area though because then you'd still have the traffic portion of the commute as well as a longer distance to travel before you go to the more congested area.

Yea, I had visited a handful of times, so I knew Denver wasn't in the mountains. I mean, if you've ever looked at a a map....

[mporter1984]

Originally Posted by illinoisphotographer

Another option is to move to the suburbs. I live in SW Littleton and am less than a half mile away from Chatfield State park, 5 miles from Waterton Canyon and within 10-15 minutes of various trailheads. My answer is yes, I can have my cake and eat it too because I still am within 40 minutes of downtown Denver but have daily access to the recreation I moved here for.

I moved from Naperville myself to here and just went back to visit family for 2 weeks. The traffic in Chicago *is* worse, and personally I can't stand the humidity anymore, even after only living here a year. I think one thing you need to keep in mind is the availability out the outdoors here. Back at home, you have a handful of forest preserves. Here, you have a huge playground. I mean, last month, I took a random day off work to go climb a 14er. Try doing that in Chicago.

Yes, the outdoor life in Chicagoland is pretty bad, but I regret not buying windsurfing gear while I was there. Pretty much world class wind surfing.