divorced mom, urban lifestyle (Denver, Arvada: renting, insurance, crime)

[lauramcr]

I'm posting this to several cities, looking for the best place to relocate. I'm a newly divorced mother of an eight-year-old, and will be working at home. I'm looking for a lively, eclectic urban scene but one where there are other families, where I can get my son into a decent public school, still drive a car without losing my mind, and perhaps even keep the family dog. Can't afford much right now, but expect my income to improve. I don't know much about Denver expect that it keeps turning up on "best" lists and is more affordable, I think, than the places I'd really love to move: Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle. I've only got about $250K to spend. Also wondering: we're coming from a very liberal college town with a very tolerant, advance-degreed population. Should Denver stay on my short list? Finally, my concerns about Denver are twofold: Though I can and do walk, I use a mobility scooter, and I'm thinking that for a huge chunk of the year it will be too cold/snowy to get it down the sidewalk. Also feel like Denver isn't NEAR anything, lol. I am used to being more centrally located in the midwest, where most of the cities I want to get to--Toronto, Chicago, Cincinnati, Louisville, etc., are about a half-day's drive away. Will I spend a fortune on airfare? Anyway, thanks in advance to anyone who has time to respond.

[tfox]

A word of caution: despite Metro Denver's relatively low cost of living, the urban neighborhoods like Congress Park, Washington Park, Highlands, etc are probably a bit out of your 250k range (at least for a single family home), though in these times of economic hardship you might find yourself a deal. You can probably live in some of the less trendy urban neighborhoods for that price range, however, which you might want to do that anyway. Also, some of the suburbs, like Arvada or Englewood, can offer a similar lifestyle in their historic sections for a lot less money (and possibly have better school options, too).

As for Denver, yes, it's nowhere near Toronto, Chicago, Cincinatti, so if that's a major factor you might consider somewhere the midwest instead. In fact, you have a good point, that Denver is noticably distant from ANY major city, though some of us consider that one of Denver's biggest draws. We're a lot closer to national parks, national forest land, miles of blm land, etc, than we are to other cities.

As for your scooter, your concerns are probably well justified given that we average 60+" of snow per year, and it's also a fact that none of the metro Denver cities do a great job of cleaning up quickly after snowstorms. However, your experience will vary from year to year, season to season. Some years will see very little snow at all, and others you'll wonder when it will stop. Most years, it will be long periods of dry, sunny weather interrupted by a few big storms.

[steveindenver]

No

[cowboyxjon]

Why not move to one of the cities you really want to move to instead of moving to Denver (or another city not on your list) and wishing you were living in one of those three? I have a feeling that you could find a way to make one of those cities work, even if it involves renting a place instead of buying one or something like that.

[subsound]

I would really say that affordability and traffic wise, Denver is one of the best on your list there. For other things, not so much. If you're looking for affordable in the PNW (Seattle and Vancouver are hideously expensive) Portland has been my choice after living in Colorado for a long time, and the most so I have found. It's really terrible to drive around in the city, but there's a huge public transit system very well geared for the disabled to get around to anywhere at any time. The housing prices are higher then Denver, but taking public transit mitigates that...plus insurance is way, way cheaper (Mine dropped by almost 2/3rds on a new Toyota).

The only problem is that Portland has one of the highest unemployment rates at the moment, and a considerable amount of poverty related crime (ID theft, car break ins) from the good homeless/poverty programs in the city. It does rain a good amount, and is cloudy even more...so if you have problems with SAD or depression it can trigger it. It almost never snows, if it does it's pretty much an emergency condition.