Denver, Orlando or Tampa HELP ME CHOOSE (Colorado Springs: rent, crime)
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My wife and I are currently living in London, England. I'm a Brit but she's a native of small town Ohio. We've grown tired of life in London (horrid traffic, high prices for EVERYTHING, even higher prices for petrol, low paying jobs, long commutes and a general lack of things that we want to do). We've been talking over where to move to for a while now and have it narrowed down to Denver, Orlando and Tampa. Why those three? Well, we both have family in Denver and we both fell in love with the sunny days and mountains in the background. Orlando and Tampa? The wife has family in Orlando but more importantly, we're sick of London weather (no it doesn't rain all the time...it's just cloudy a lot and summer isn't really any good) and want to try some warmer/more tropical climates. Tampa?....In case Orlando is crap
I found this website a couple of days ago and was horrified at what people were saying about Orlando and Florida in general. I've been to Florida once...the dreaded summer of '04. Inbetween Hurricanes I liked what I saw, but it was only a week so I couldn't get a very good picture of what it was like. I've been to Denver a handful of times, for a little less than a week each time and loved it every time. I just haven't seen or been told about the bad parts of each place.
So what are we looking for?
The wife and I want SUN...we can handle cold, as long as there is sun...even partly sunny. From my recollections, Denver can deliver that and Florida is a no brainer, but I need to know about the other areas of living in each of these cities. What is crime REALLY like?! Remember, I live in London, and although crime is an issue here, I don't live in a dangerous part of town (although you can get robbed anywhere, anytime in London) but you generally have to be somewhat streetsmart to live here. Commuting times...I generally have a one hour commute each way usually by train and tube (subway) so 45 minutes in a car is an improvement. How is the credit crunch hitting the jobs in the area? What areas should be avoided for a young couple in their late 20's?
Any help like this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.
Since you're on the Denver forum, I'll talke some about Denver. Sun? Yes, lots of it. The Chamber of Commerce people say 300 sunny days a year, which is technically true if you count partly cloudy days as well. Many days in summer start off sunny and clear and end up clouded over by afternoon. Then it rains (sometimes) and clears up again in the evening. My estimate of # of days the sun is out at all is about 355 days/year.
You can look up crime stats on City-Data and other websites. I'd venture to say in Denver it's a bit like London. If you're not in a dangerous neighborhood, your chances of being a victim of crime are fairly low. My daughter lives by herself and feels perfectly safe in the city.
There are all sorts of commutes here, from the fortunate few who have say, a five minute commute, all the way to those who are commuting an hour or more. Public transportation is good to excellent here, depending on where you live and work.
Just curious, what horrified you about Denver? Maybe we can help dispell some of this (mis)information.
I agree with all above, but maybe you need to post this on the General US forum, so you will get more subjective opinions from people who have been to all three, or maybe can recommend you to other alternatives.
I lived in Ohio Tampa and Colorado Springs. I visit family on a yearly vacation to orlando ...orlando is pretty yukie now a days very over crowded and very low pay tampa is ok you get nice weather all year with a nice breeze off the gulf so it dont feel hot and muggy just nice all year round. if you need schools though floirda schools are really not good at all!!! The Palm Harbor area of Tampa is ok though but you have to be careful cuz it borders some not so great areas. Overall if you have no children i would go to tampa. it offers alot of things to do and is always nice out. If you have children I would go to colorado for the sun you are seeking and better schools. plus there is alot of outdoor activities here.
I've lived in Orlando for seven years and I can't take it anymore. Rude New Yorkers(and New Jerseyites), bad crime(got robbed a few times), bad schools, mediocre restarants, crappy sports town(no NFL, MLS, MLB, NHL), too many bugs, no mass transit. I could go on for pages. I've been looking all over the US for a great all around city and for me, nothing compares to Denver. Go Broncos.
Denver is one of my favorite cities in the World and in every single category blows away Florida. I took a two year consultants job with my company in Orlando. I've lived in eight cities around the country and can honestly say Orlando is the worst place I've ever lived in or visited. Denver has mountains, Orlando is flat, Denver has a change of seasons Orlando doesn't, Denver has Buffalo, Orlando has roaches, Denver english is the 1st language, Orlando Spanish is the 1st language. Denver has incredible brewpubs Orlando doesn't, Denver has great restaurants, Orlando has nothing but chains, Denver has crime in some areas, Orlando has rampant crime, Denver has pro football, hockey basketball, and baseball, Orlando has just basketball, Denver you can fly to anywhere in the US in 3 hours, Orlando is in a remote corner of the US, Denver has history, orlando is a transient community with low end service workers who only moved there to work low end service jobs brought on by theme parks. Denver has culture, Orlando has none. Florida is a wonderful place to vacation in the winter for a week but an absolutely awful place to live, of all the places in Florida Orlando is by far the worst, tolls every 3 miles. Tampa is a much better city than Orlando but there is no comparison between any Florida city and Denver. Flat ugly cookie cutter homes and a transient population, and I live in Orlando so clearly I'm not bias. You are a prisoner to your home in Orlando from May to October because the weather is absolutely unbearable and the beach is 45 minutes away.
Denver is one of my favorite cities in the World and in every single category blows away Florida. I took a two year consultants job with my company in Orlando. I've lived in eight cities around the country and can honestly say Orlando is the worst place I've ever lived in or visited. Denver has mountains, Orlando is flat, Denver has a change of seasons Orlando doesn't, Denver has Buffalo, Orlando has roaches, Denver english is the 1st language, Orlando Spanish is the 1st language. Denver has incredible brewpubs Orlando doesn't, Denver has great restaurants, Orlando has nothing but chains, Denver has crime in some areas, Orlando has rampant crime, Denver has pro football, hockey basketball, and baseball, Orlando has just basketball, Denver you can fly to anywhere in the US in 3 hours, Orlando is in a remote corner of the US, Denver has history, orlando is a transient community with low end service workers who only moved there to work low end service jobs brought on by theme parks. Denver has culture, Orlando has none. Florida is a wonderful place to vacation in the winter for a week but an absolutely awful place to live, of all the places in Florida Orlando is by far the worst, tolls every 3 miles. Tampa is a much better city than Orlando but there is no comparison between any Florida city and Denver. Flat ugly cookie cutter homes and a transient population, and I live in Orlando so clearly I'm not bias. You are a prisoner to your home in Orlando from May to October because the weather is absolutely unbearable and the beach is 45 minutes away.
Umm you are extremely biased, you are an incessant critic of Orlando in these forums for whatever reason. I'm not knocking Denver in any way since I haven't lived there, but I love living in the Orlando area, and just hope you don't base your decision on the basis of a few very vocal people who insist on bashing the area.
Just curious, what horrified you about Denver? Maybe we can help dispell some of this (mis)information.
Nothing has horrified me about Denver other than it's hard to get someone to say anything bad about Denver in the same way people talk trash about Orlando. I know it would be easy to take an obvious conclusion from that, but I want a balanced view on both cities. The things Silence Dogood said on here a little earlier are mild compared to what I've read in the Orlando forums and I wanted to know if these were just the exaggerations of disgruntled residents unable to make a more balanced post or genuine problems with Orlando.
It certainly seems that Denver seems to be winning this battle so far but I would be interested in hearing some of the bad sides of Denver. Not just because I want a reason to bash it, but EVERY city has bad points. Maybe the bad points are just similar to London's bad points, but not as bad as London, making them an improvement over what we have right now.
Right now one of our major criticisms of London is that although there are plenty of things to see (historical, cultural etc) first of all, they all cost an arm and a leg. Secondly, getting to them is tough even though they're all connected to some sort of public transport, the cost of the that transport is quite expensive not to mention the trip itself is tiring (mentally), long and unpleasant. For example, my wife and I are looking to go to an art gallery this Saturday in Chelsea. The trip in will require us to walk 15 minutes to a train station then take a train downtown taking around 20-25 minutes then a 5 minute tube ride followed by a further 10 minute walk. It'll take us about an hour and cost £6 ($12) return. We could take the car, but parking is either non existent or costs another arm and a leg, and I'd probably have to take another tube to get to where I actually wanted to go to. Not to mention the traffic will be shocking all the way and it'll still take me about an hour or more to get in (we don't live far from downtown, probably about 10 miles as the crow flies) and then we'll have to put more petrol in the tank because of all of our time in jams (petrol here is at £1.15 per litre for regular unleaded, that's about $8.62 per gallon.) At the end of the day we will return tired, stressed (due to the public transport but mainly the people who ride it) and generally wondering why we spent so much money to return to the house feeling this way. But what choice do we have? Stay at home and not do anything? I can do that it rural Kansas and not pay £1100 per month ($2200) rent for 700sqf!
We're hoping that in either Denver or Orlando we'll be able to work as normal but have things to do in the evenings that don't cost as much as they do here. If we're in Denver we'd like to take weekend trips to Wyoming, Utah or New Mexico and enjoy what they have to offer (my wife is big on camping and outdoor stuff and I'm trying to learn). But if we happened to be in Orlando, we'd both be happy taking those same weekend trips, but just go to the beach instead. It doesn't hurt that Denver is the home of Chipotle (I'm addicted but I refuse counselling cos I love it too much) but I could find them in Orlando too. So in looking to try and break the tie between these two we need insider information. We have no kids and aren't planning on any for a long time so schools aren't a consideration right now.
Umm you are extremely biased, you are an incessant critic of Orlando in these forums for whatever reason. I'm not knocking Denver in any way since I haven't lived there, but I love living in the Orlando area, and just hope you don't base your decision on the basis of a few very vocal people who insist on bashing the area.
Gotta agree!
I love Orlando. I visited a buddy that lives there now. He actually moved from Colo Spgs, CO and would not ever go back (we grew up knowing each other since 3rd grade all the way to graduation in Colo Spgs, CO).
I think there is lots to do in both cities.
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