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I've been looking forward to being able to post one of these for a while:
Anyhow, I am kind of all over the map on places to move and nothing seems like a perfect fit. Here are the things that are must haves:
- Mountainous outdoors scene (avid mtn biker)
- Decent ethnic restaurant scene
- Good housing stock (not forced to live in tract housing)
- Walkable neighborhoods
- Friendly/vibrant
- Healthy-looking people/active culture
- Not rustbelt (I've spent most of my life in it)
Would prefer:
- Low state income tax (starting a business)
- Not too grey (at least better than Great Lakes area)
- Snow/skiing (<2 hours away)
- Major int'l airport nearby (<2 hours away)
- Tech jobs
- Good live music scene
Probably my three favorite NA cities in terms of feel are Toronto, Chicago and Seattle, but really only Seattle ticks the marks above, though the COL scares me off a bit.
So here is where I am at: Seattle vs Atlanta vs CO Springs (not a Denver fan). Three dark horse cities are Chattanooga vs Reno vs Albuquerque. I've only been to Seattle, Atlanta and Reno. The rest I've read about and it sounds like they could tick the boxes.
Albuquerque checks off all of those boxes. It may not be the best at all of them, but it is decent enough in most of them and excels in quite a few of them.
Must haves:
- Mountainous outdoors scene (avid mtn biker) Yes - Albuquerque is just wonderful in this regard, with the Sandia mountains right next to the city and other areas like the beautiful Jemez mountains nearby.
- Decent ethnic restaurant scene Yes - Albuquerque has a great ethnic restaurant scene as well as various ethnic grocery stores.
- Good housing stock (not forced to live in tract housing) Yes - Albuquerque has tons of houses with character and built to last.
- Walkable neighborhoods Yes - from Downtown to East Downtown to Mountain Road to Old Town to West Downtown to UNM area to Nob Hill, Albuquerque has great walkable neighborhoods to explore.It also has great small towns with interesting and walkable cores nearby, such as Corrales, Bernalillo and Los Ranchos. Santa Fe is nearby as well.
- Friendly/vibrant Yes - Albuquerque is friendly and welcoming to newcomers and has a vibrant cultural, arts and creative scene, with a university and many local arts organizations. The city is getting to be vibrant economically as well right now after a slump, with billions in outside investment, thousands of jobs being created and lots of construction going on.
- Healthy-looking people/active culture Yes - Albuquerque is outdoorsy with an active culture and often ranked among the fittest cities in the country.
- Not rustbelt (I've spent most of my life in it) Yes - Albuquerque is the Sunbelt and returning to its fast-growing ways after a slump.
Would prefer:
- Low state income tax (starting a business) Yes - New Mexico is neither the best or the worst when it comes to income taxes, but nearer to the best than the worst. And it makes up for somewhat high sales/gross receipts taxes with low property taxes. The state is doing all it can to help small businesses, including simplifying the tax structure and lowering taxes and fees.
- Not too grey (at least better than Great Lakes area) Yes - Albuquerque has great, sunny weather most of the year with enough rain and snow to not be monotonous.
- Snow/skiing (<2 hours away) Yes - there's snow in the city, the foothills and the adjacent mountains. There's skiing right next to the city in the mountains at Sandia Peak and within two hours at top places like Taos Ski Valley and Angel Fire.
- Major int'l airport nearby (<2 hours away) Yes - the Albuquerque International Sunport is 53rd busiest in the country and offers direct flights to both coasts and most major cities.
- Tech jobs Yes - over 4,000 tech jobs have been created in Albuquerque this year alone.
- Good live music scene Yes - Downtown Albuquerque has many live music venues offering performances daily.
What did you not care for in Denver and what stood out to you about Colorado Springs?
From what you listed, here's how I think COS would stack up.
Mountain biking: Great
Ethnic restaurants: Fairly decent
Housing stock: Bad. Prices have gone up a lot in the last several years, the new development is crap, they're just throwing up houses with no road or infrastructure improvements.
Walkable neighborhoods: No
Friendly / Vibrant: There's a good mix of people from all over and they're generally interesting. Bit male dominated from all the soldiers if your a younger guy.
Healthy: Yes
Rust Belt: Hell no. There's hardly any industrial zoning in the entire metro.
Skiing is 2-3 hours away, not <2. COS isn't the best spot in the state for skiing as Pikes Peaks too dry and there's South Park in between the city and the rest of the ski areas.
Airport: DIA is 1 1/2 hours away. It's decent. There's a lot of direct flights, but if there's any sort of delays, the entire airport just backs up for hours. It'll be under construction for years.
Tech Jobs: If you have military experience
Live music: Average.
I've been out there for work. I'm not sure how I feel about it. People are fantastic and it is obviously very scenic, but that development down the 25 corridor seems pretty brutal and it seems like traffic sucks to get to Provo, etc. Also, it seems like the housing stock isn't the best. But this is a pretty uninformed opinion, too.
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