Why Do You Stay In Fort Collins? (Denver, Boulder: houses, job market)

[monkeynoodle]

Originally Posted by Shaun32

Say FC is 150,000 people. Denver metro is almost 3 million people! OK maybe 2.5...still, that's about 1/100 of Denver metro, not even close to 1/5!

I hope you dont have a math degree or work with other peoples money.1/5 is way closer then then 1/100th. I think a more appropiate number would be 1/20 of the Denver metro.

[Joe Booker]

I used to live in Fort Collins in the 1980s and I thought it was a great town. The old town mall is very nice, and while the old town streets are wide I did not find the minds narrow. FC offers very good access to the mountains for hiking (except that Horsetooth Lake is in the way) and winter skiing, excellent roads for road biking and many bike trails as well, good schools, an avid folk and contra dance community, very good public schools. City Park is pleasant. The old homes are full of character. People are friendly and there are many interesting characters if you hang out for a while. CSU is a welcoming university. I made friends for life in FC, and while I am not in contact with all of them, I think of them often. I hope that the FC I knew is still to be found. Like any place, you need to live there for a while before you find what you like, of course. Based on my experience, I highly recommend FC.

[anniebleu]

Hi,

My husband and I expect to move within a couple years, and as I liked FC when I visited for a few days in the '90's, it's on my list. One of us is retired; the other's work can be done virtually anywhere.

We'll rule out immediately any location that doesn't have high quality doctors and hospitals though. Any glaring lack of certain specialists that anyone is aware of? Apologies if I've missed a discussion on this subject.

Opinions?

Annie

[tfox]

Originally Posted by anniebleu

Hi,

We'll rule out immediately any location that doesn't have high quality doctors and hospitals though. Any glaring lack of certain specialists that anyone is aware of? Apologies if I've missed a discussion on this subject.

I don't have experience with the full range of specialists but my impression is that Fort Collins does have a pretty good range of medical care for a city of its size. The main hospital in town is PVH, which is generally well thought of and serves a wider area than just Fort Collins, particularly SE Wyoming and SW Nebraska. McKee Medical Center in Loveland is of similar size and also has a separate Oncology hospital about 10 minutes south of Fort Collins. The latter serves a very wide area.

Between Fort Collins and Loveland I think you should have a lot to choose from, but of course serious cases will often be taken to the specialty hospitals in Denver, thankfully only an hour south.

If it matters to you, Fort Collins almost certainly has the highest concentration of vets per capita in America, given its top-ten vet school and the inclination of its grads to stick around town. If nothing else your pets will be very well taken care of.

[Josseppie]

There is a brand new hospital in Loveland that is very good. Here is the link to the site:

https://vic.pvhs.org/portal/page?_pageid=333,377470&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL &pagid=30

[anniebleu]

Thanks tfox and Josseppie. Sounds as if most things medical are pretty well covered in the area. I did check the link, Josseppie.

Vets! Important, but hardly dared to ask! Nice to know.

[Shaun32]

Originally Posted by monkeynoodle

I hope you dont have a math degree or work with other peoples money.1/5 is way closer then then 1/100th. I think a more appropiate number would be 1/20 of the Denver metro.

Yes, sorry, I don't know what I was smokin' that day. Still, 1/20 is much smaller than 1/5. It still proves my point.

[lordon]

Make sure you don't mind the wind (occasionally gale-force) before you move here.

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by lordon

Make sure you don't mind the wind (occasionally gale-force) before you move here.

That's for sure

I grew up near Masonville, and as a 10 yr old, I woke up after a very windy night to see my neighbor's house GONE... just the floor remained and stuff scattered for miles. Fortunately they had not stayed in the home that night.

It was a 'first' generation modular, so rules / codes have changed. Our brick house would shake and door stripping would whistle quite a tune. We lost a few windows (so don't sleep under one on a windy night).

I currently live in a wind vortex with frequent 80mph + winds and freezing rain, so NoCo was a good training ground. The volcano's and earthquakes have required a bit of getting used to. (No baseball sized hail here, like in Ft C), just marble sized (baby stuff) here.

[bproven]

Originally Posted by janb

That's for sure

I grew up near Masonville, and as a 10 yr old, I woke up after a very windy night to see my neighbor's house GONE... just the floor remained and stuff scattered for miles. Fortunately they had not stayed in the home that night.

It was a 'first' generation modular, so rules / codes have changed. Our brick house would shake and door stripping would whistle quite a tune. We lost a few windows (so don't sleep under one on a windy night).

I currently live in a wind vortex with frequent 80mph + winds and freezing rain, so NoCo was a good training ground. The volcano's and earthquakes have required a bit of getting used to. (No baseball sized hail here, like in Ft C), just marble sized (baby stuff) here.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say your house is not going to blow away in FC. Masonville is in the foothills and the foothills get stronger winds (much stronger most times). Also I think the wind thing is overblown (pun intended). Yes there are winds sometimes, but I'm not flying around like Toto in the Wizard of Oz either. It will also depend on WHERE in FC you are. In the center of town or out on the fringes where it is flat (no trees, buldings etc). There are better knocks against this town to than the winds. No place is perfect. If you find this place let me know. Overall the weather can't be beat for an area with 4 seasons IMO.


EDIT: I will say if you have a very low tloerance for wind (you really hate any wind) than you may take issue. To me the wind means warm days in the winter since the (Chinook winds)