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Old 04-01-2009, 01:48 PM
 
Location: Denver, Colorado U.S.A.
14,164 posts, read 27,097,406 times
Reputation: 10428

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Quote:
Originally Posted by the3Ds View Post
I'm glad to know you have found a nice place to live where you feel comfortable. That's really the important thing, right? I too came from a "bible thumping" family who took me to church twice on Sunday, once on Wednesday and to more church camps, teen groups, etc than I can count. When I told them I was heading to a liberal, Catholic University, my mother nearly fainted and my dad told me I would have to do it on my own financially. When my daughter was born, I was 35 (considered an AMA-Advanced Maternal Age) and I was able to have tests to see if the baby would have Downs Syndrome. I took the tests and my husband and I were prepared to abort the baby if the results indicated our child would be born with a life-altering disability. Some would argue with me about my reproductive rights but I know what's best for me and my family. My mother called me the morning of my test telling me that she was going to pray for me. Yikes. I think most of us have our own issues to deal with. My husband's family is considered very prominent in the Mormon Church and my husband is the black sheep in the family for quitting the church. They seem like a very moral, well adjusted family on the outside but the inner workings of their relationships make it seem like an episode of Melrose Place.

I think the term "liberal" and "progressive" just rankled me a little because I am so sick of these labels. People who voted for Obama aren't necessarily "liberal." The tide for Obama included many people who would consider themselves Republican and conservative. The reality is that GWB messed things up pretty bad and there was a backlash against him in this election. Obama didn't just win because of the registered Democrats. Many people went across party lines as a statement to their own leaders that they had lost their way. I am a registered Independent who votes all over the map. I consider myself more liberal on social issues but very financially conservative. If you were my neighbor and I knew you were gay, I would still treat you the same as I treat my other neighbors. I think there are closed minded people all over the place and Colorado is no exception. I have noticed, however, that Colorado (at least the Denver area) leans more liberal on social issues than most places I've lived before (except Seattle).

My initial post was pretty hostile towards the question because as a parent myself, my first and foremost priority for finding a house was "good schools." Second was a place we could afford. It seemed like the question was posted as she was trying to look "oh so intellectual" and only wanted to look at places that reminded her of her "ultra liberal" area of Portland. That annoyed me.
Sounds like my parents! Unfortunately. We did the genetic testing too - I just hoped nothing was wrong and that we wouldn't have to make a decision, but having grown up with a bother w/Spina Bifida, I know how tough life can be with extreme disabilities. I didn't even mention the testing to my mother! But they're perfectly healthy and doing great.

I will say that some liberal cities (Boulder, Santa Monica, San Francisco, etc.) seem to have a different class of liberal that you find in Stapleton or Denver - much more in-your-face, "hippy" type liberals. I'm thinking of a few years ago when the city of West Hollywood (another ultra liberal city) banned cat de-clawing and pased some declaration that people who had pets were no longer "owners", but "pet companions"
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Old 04-01-2009, 01:51 PM
 
Location: Denver, Colorado U.S.A.
14,164 posts, read 27,097,406 times
Reputation: 10428
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bradburn1 View Post
This senario describes Bradburn fairly exactly, except I think the last time I counted you could walk to 15 restaurants (although that does include fast food such as Wendy's, Chipolte, Smoothie Shop, Starbucks,Einstiens). Everyone knows each other here and we socialize pretty much all the time. I was at bookclub last night, am headed over to a neighbor's later today, am going to a Bradburn ladies' movie on Sat. Once the weather improves (which should happen shortly) we have weekly park parties for the entire neighborhood which basically involve the adults standing around drinking wine or beer while the kids run around the park playing, and then movie nights in the park as well about twice a month in summer etc...

Bradburn has a sense of community unlike anything else in my experience, and is the reason I never want to move again. Ever. We didn't even know of or expect the community aspect when we moved here. We moved here initially because both my husband and I hate driving, and I liked the design of the neighborhood because they actually had houses that had some charm and weren't all beige!

One of the reasons I post on this forum about my neighborhood is I like having cool new neighbors who also want to be in a real community. I've met about five different couples through this board, so far four of them have moved in and love it here, the fifth is in the process of selling their home in another state and then will move out here.
That sounds "so Stapleton" - parents with beer/wine in the park while the kids run around. We do rotating happy hours on our front porches in the Summer too. And like you, we bought for the houses and found out about the social aspects later.
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Old 04-01-2009, 02:04 PM
 
Location: Denver Colorado
2,561 posts, read 5,788,890 times
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Cherry Creek North where I have lived on and off for fifteen years tends to be a softer, gentler socially liberal area as opposed to more in your face Boulder..It is very gay friendly as well as family friendly. I have many openly gay neighbors,and friends here. It's very hard to live in an area defined by high fashion/design without having a strong gay presence. I like that it remains some what unique in that there is a nice mix of republicans and democrats who both remain pretty socially progressive and open minded.
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Old 04-01-2009, 02:27 PM
 
Location: Aurora, Colorado
2,212 posts, read 5,136,197 times
Reputation: 2371
Quote:
Originally Posted by denverian View Post
I will say that some liberal cities (Boulder, Santa Monica, San Francisco, etc.) seem to have a different class of liberal that you find in Stapleton or Denver - much more in-your-face, "hippy" type liberals. I'm thinking of a few years ago when the city of West Hollywood (another ultra liberal city) banned cat de-clawing and pased some declaration that people who had pets were no longer "owners", but "pet companions"
That's funny...pet companion. Yikes. I think that extremists from both sides have ruined their parties. Apparently, the liberals are now irritated with Obama because he doesn't lean far enough left and the extreme conservatives wouldn't vote for John McCain because he didn't support their extreme social views.

In the immortal words of Rodney King..."can't we all just get along?"

I don't see why people just can't work together to make their communities a nice place to live. Whether it's local (in your neighborhood) or at the city and state level. Ostracizing you and your partner just because you're gay without knowing if you are a good parent or if you are raising your children to be contributing members of society is just plain irritating and dumb. No matter which party you vote for, I think our world would be a much better place if we just tried to leave it better than we found it. Doesn't look like it's going that way, however. That's too bad.

Your story about drinking wine on your front porch with your neighbors made me laugh. When we moved to Florida, we found out very quickly that we had moved into a neighborhood like that. At first, we were both thinking "what have we gotten ourselves into?" It took a while to feel comfortable with everyone sitting in their front yards (usually on beat up lawn furniture) and drinking beer while the kids built bonfires. It was so "redneck" it made us laugh. But, as anyone whose lived in Florida can probably verify, that's just the way you meet your neighbors. As we aren't the drive-into-the-garage-and-shut-the-door type of people, we had to adapt. I am much happier to be here in Colorado with the wine drinkers who don't put their kids' lives at risk in order to build a big fire hazard!
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Old 04-01-2009, 04:52 PM
 
21 posts, read 85,750 times
Reputation: 20
Sorry, can't quite get the "quoting" thing down here, silly newbie. As to your Portland/Seattle question Denverian, Portland is (statistically) less rainy and overcast than Seattle, but the naked eye would never notice. Nov to April is pretty brutal. But May-Oct is fantastic, and to me weather doesn't get better anywhere in the world than Portland June-Sept. 75-90 degree sunny days, dry, maybe only a week or so where you need AC b/c it cools at night. And you have everything close by to enjoy: mountains, ocean, hiking, etc. Stick those kids in the burley and bike to the farmer's market downtown, or go to a farm on sauvie island and pick berries before watching the free concert and eating a farm-fresh meal for pennies on the dollar. Everything's < 20 minutes away. Even my Newport Beach born and bred husband thinks it's heaven 1/3 of the year. Plus it's absolutely the most kid-friendly town I know of. There are movie theaters here where you can catch a flick, get a good microbrew, popcorn and some pizza AND have your kids entertained in the on-site childcare, all for about $20. Some restaurants and most coffee shops have kid play areas, there are more parks than we know what to do with, I could go on and on. I think of Portland as an incredible place for families, not some "ultra-liberal" bastion...and I live here! It's unfortunate that apparently the stereotype is that we all think it's fine to defecate on flags. It's certainly left of center (and also has some other distinctive attributes, like civility and polite driving) but I personally don't know anyone who uses Portland's liberalism as an excuse to act like a "moron".
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Old 04-01-2009, 04:58 PM
 
Location: Northglenn, Colorado
3,689 posts, read 10,381,926 times
Reputation: 971
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bradburn1 View Post
This senario describes Bradburn fairly exactly, except I think the last time I counted you could walk to 15 restaurants (although that does include fast food such as Wendy's, Chipolte, Smoothie Shop, Starbucks,Einstiens). Everyone knows each other here and we socialize pretty much all the time. I was at bookclub last night, am headed over to a neighbor's later today, am going to a Bradburn ladies' movie on Sat. Once the weather improves (which should happen shortly) we have weekly park parties for the entire neighborhood which basically involve the adults standing around drinking wine or beer while the kids run around the park playing, and then movie nights in the park as well about twice a month in summer etc...

Bradburn has a sense of community unlike anything else in my experience, and is the reason I never want to move again. Ever. We didn't even know of or expect the community aspect when we moved here. We moved here initially because both my husband and I hate driving, and I liked the design of the neighborhood because they actually had houses that had some charm and weren't all beige!

One of the reasons I post on this forum about my neighborhood is I like having cool new neighbors who also want to be in a real community. I've met about five different couples through this board, so far four of them have moved in and love it here, the fifth is in the process of selling their home in another state and then will move out here.
I want to buy within Bradburn so bad, I fell in love with the place before the first street was laid, unfortunately we missed the boat when the prices on the town homes were still very low. Hopefully in a couple years, my Wife, Daughter and I will be able to take the plunge
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Old 04-01-2009, 08:08 PM
 
1,176 posts, read 4,466,735 times
Reputation: 470
Quote:
I want to buy within Bradburn so bad, I fell in love with the place before the first street was laid, unfortunately we missed the boat when the prices on the town homes were still very low. Hopefully in a couple years, my Wife, Daughter and I will be able to take the plunge
Why? And this is not a negative comment, but I see Bradburn as a last resort if you have to live way the hell from anything. Stapleton offers Bradburn with better value retention (at least from what I have seen lately) closer to the urban core (within?) and to the airport.
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Old 04-01-2009, 08:11 PM
 
Location: Aurora, Colorado
2,212 posts, read 5,136,197 times
Reputation: 2371
Quote:
Originally Posted by nmsegal View Post
I think of Portland as an incredible place for families, not some "ultra-liberal" bastion...and I live here! It's unfortunate that apparently the stereotype is that we all think it's fine to defecate on flags. It's certainly left of center (and also has some other distinctive attributes, like civility and polite driving) but I personally don't know anyone who uses Portland's liberalism as an excuse to act like a "moron".
My grandparents live in Lake Oswego and many friends from college have ended up in Portland as well. We were on our annual visit-the-grandparents- and-head-to-Seaside OR for vacation a few years ago when we saw on the news that there had been a protest about something or other and a man decided to literally take a crap on the US flag. During that same protest, an effigy was burned of a US soldier as a bunch of little kids who attended the protest with their parents looked on. When we returned to Lake Oswego, the debate was still raging but the Portland newspaper basically said that those who were offended should just get over it. WHAT?

While I will hope that you decide to actually use a restroom to relieve yourself, what shocked me more than anything was that no one stepped in. I take pride in the fact that this sort of protest would not go unnoticed here in Denver. Those protesters and especially those lighting a fire to the US soldier effigy and poo-ing on the flag would have had the snot kicked out of them.

As for civility and polite driving...give me a break. Rather than initiating one of those tiring "my city is better than yours" debates I will just say that I am glad you have found somewhere you enjoy living. I have too. I enjoy my city so much that I don't even bother going on other cities' sites here on city-data.com and debate how much better it is where I live.
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Old 04-01-2009, 08:24 PM
 
698 posts, read 2,039,343 times
Reputation: 499
Quote:
Originally Posted by steveindenver View Post
Why? And this is not a negative comment, but I see Bradburn as a last resort if you have to live way the hell from anything. Stapleton offers Bradburn with better value retention (at least from what I have seen lately) closer to the urban core (within?) and to the airport.
Well, if you work in Boulder or Interlocken (as many of my techie neighbors do), Stapleton is one crappy commute. From here it's 5 minutes to Interlocken and 20 to Boulder. Also I can get downtown in 20 minutes on the express bus, hardly the "hell away from anything" (well, except for the DTC LOL--so is Stapleton). I'm also a 5 minute walk to an extensive open space with bike/running trails that go forever (Stapleton to be fair also has this), many parks etc.. and most houses in Stapleton are not 5-10 minute walking distance to more than 15 restaurants, 4 bars, many stores, organic grocer, etc.. every single house in Bradburn is, so is a matter of what the hell you want be close to I guess Most houses in Stapleton are walking distance to....more houses, simply because of Stapleton's size. I know that hopefully will change as more small town centers in Stapleton are devleoped.
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Old 04-01-2009, 08:29 PM
 
Location: Denver, CO
5,610 posts, read 23,228,163 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by denverian View Post
Sounds like my parents! Unfortunately. We did the genetic testing too - I just hoped nothing was wrong and that we wouldn't have to make a decision, but having grown up with a bother w/Spina Bifida, I know how tough life can be with extreme disabilities. I didn't even mention the testing to my mother! But they're perfectly healthy and doing great.
I'll freely admit I am a total dumbass when it comes to this subject. I do not know any gay couples in real life raising children. So please educate me-- how exactly does a gay couple "have" children? Where/who/how/what happens to the biological mother? And how do they get custody? I'm not trying to start an argument here, I just honestly have no clue. I honestly thought all gay couple with children were adoptive parents, but apparently that isn't the case?
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