Pueblo Safety and Crime Rate (Denver, Pueblo West: homes, employment, middle school)

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by livecontent

Pueblo may remind one of Cleveland, Pittsburgh or even Buffalo, where I grew up, with steel mills--but it is not even close to that size of the steel mills in these cities or the culture and environment that has built up around them. It makes me laugh when People describe Pueblo as a dirty steel town--they have no idea! In fact I find Pueblo a relatively pleasant place with much to see and experience.

In my past, I had the experience to work in the middle of a very large steel town, in Lackawanna, NY which is just south of Buffalo. I worked at a Ford Stamping Plate, just down the road from the expansive, and I mean expansive, Bethlehem Steel Mill. After work, I would go to these pubs, frequented by burly muscled patrons, grimy rough in their everyday clothes of their bowling or local union shirt and "in your face" blue collar. It was an amazing experience with many stories that I oft tell about my experiences.

What really is wrong with a "dirty" steel town. We certainly needed to work further on environmental concerns and forcefully enforce existing regulations but steel mills and heavy industry are extremely important industries in this country. It makes me angry when these ignorant people who spend their lives in white collar offices and complain about the likes of Commerce City near the Denver area. The country cannot base on its economic future on the white collar jobs. We need to maintain and rebuilt the heavy industrial might of the USA and stop allow that type of work, going overseas.

Livecontent

Though I was one of the white collar types, I love heavy industry and have taken many tours, including Ford's River Rouge Plant in Detroit. I remember being in the rolling mill at Rouge, at least a hundred feet above the floor, on a catwalk, and watching hot billets of steel, a foot thick and glowing red hot, come out of the furnace and go through a series of massive rollers that made it ever thinner, until it was just a coil of shiny sheet metal at the end of the mill. As a hot slab it initially moved slowly, and after each set of rollers thinned it down, it came out moving faster and faster, until it was doing about 60 MPH at the far end of the mill and sounded like a damned freight train roaring by. Though very cold and a hundred feet above the floor, that billet of red hot steel heated up the place and it felt great. Too bad that few people ever have that experience. But my favorite is railroad shops.

My late MIL hated driving by Perth Amboy, NJ, with its miles of chemical plants and refineries. While driving through there one time she did her usual "it's ugly" speech and I turned to her and told it really was a beautiful sight, that there sits the strength of the yankee dollar and the basis of our standard of living.

I like the mill in Pueblo; wish they had public tours, but these days the liability insurance, and enviro-whacks, make it all but impossible.

[McGowdog]

Originally Posted by ryanek9freak

I don't think so, but pueblo's bad side of town is an eye sore compared to SE Colorado Springs. That and all the run down steel mills everywhere, reminds me Pittsburgh and Cleveland...blech lol

What disgusts you about Pueblo is exactly what disgusts me about Colorado Springs.

Colorado Springs took an otherwise beautiful stretch of land and ghettoed it up with freeway, buildings, parking lots, a strip-mined Purple-Mountain's Majesty... above the fruited plains.

Colorado Springs reminds me of trash with cash.

Pueblo is a rough town out on the plains and it never tried to be what it's not.

If you're going to live the city-life, I say go all the way and move to Denver and if you're going to move to the mountains then maybe try Conifer, Evergreen, Divide, etc... except for the disgusting flow of traffic leading into the metro on 285 every Monday morning.... 24 as is the case with Divide and Woodland Park.

This is just my own opinion of course. Good luck with yours.

Originally Posted by livecontent

It makes me laugh when People describe Pueblo as a dirty steel town--they have no idea! In fact I find Pueblo a relatively pleasant place with much to see and experience.

When I think of a real steel town, I think of Gary Indiana.

[livecontent]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

Though I was one of the white collar types, I love heavy industry and have taken many tours, including Ford's River Rouge Plant in Detroit. I remember being in the rolling mill at Rouge, at least a hundred feet above the floor, on a catwalk, and watching hot billets of steel, a foot thick and glowing red hot, come out of the furnace and go through a series of massive rollers that made it ever thinner, until it was just a coil of shiny sheet metal at the end of the mill. As a hot slab it initially moved slowly, and after each set of rollers thinned it down, it came out moving faster and faster, until it was doing about 60 MPH at the far end of the mill and sounded like a damned freight train roaring by. Though very cold and a hundred feet above the floor, that billet of red hot steel heated up the place and it felt great. Too bad that few people ever have that experience. But my favorite is railroad shops.

My late MIL hated driving by Perth Amboy, NJ, with its miles of chemical plants and refineries. While driving through there one time she did her usual "it's ugly" speech and I turned to her and told it really was a beautiful sight, that there sits the strength of the yankee dollar and the basis of our standard of living.

I like the mill in Pueblo; wish they had public tours, but these days the liability insurance, and enviro-whacks, make it all but impossible.

I also have many jobs that were white collar and I do not mean to disparage those professions. I think it is important for us all to expose our children to other aspects of industry that exist in our economy, so that I wish there were tours of industrial facilities. Lack of familiarity and understanding makes some of the environmentalist into "whacks" and we need more knowledgeable voters.

Much of my career was in food purchasing and distribution and I roamed around the warehousing and food manufacturing in the Northern Edge of Denver, Southern Adams County and Commerce City. There is so much diversity of industry in this part of the metro area that is fascinating. It is just places where people should disparage when they drive fast down the highway. Get off the highway and drive in and about the roads and byways and you will see much of what is the strength of our country. There are even those little roadside places where one can come across the tough and rough denizens of this workforce. My memory is of one small dining place that served the biggest plate size of a Cinnamon Bun, that I have ever seen, with unending cups of strong coffee served in a heavy china cup--much better than the overpriced fluff of Starbucks served in a paper cup.

Your comments are very interesting and it does bring memories of my roamings in Jersey--another book of stories about the authentic people that I have met.

Livecontent

[ryanek9freak]

I grew up in a suburb of Cleveland, Ashtabula Ohio. Huge steel manufacturing and shipping port on Lake Erie. The city is full of shuttered steel mills and chemical plants, and Pueblo is almost a mirror image of it.

There's a big difference between something having historical value, and something that needs to be comdened and torn down.

Pueblo does have some really nice areas that are unfortunatley overshadowed by crumbling industry, and there's never been any effort to revitalize these areas. If you could just blow the east side off the map and start over,it would be a great place to live.

[Josseppie]

You do realize the steel mill is not only in operation but is the most profitable it's been in its 140 year history. As far as the east side. Ya it's the bad part of town but not so bad I would avoid it. I mean when I brought people there from large cities and told them this is our ghetto they just laughed and said this is nothing like the ghetto in their town.

[ryanek9freak]

Yes, I know it's in operation, and Steel Mills are inherently nasty looking in nature,you can't polish a turd.

I just wish the city planners would have thought this stuff through a little better.

[Josseppie]

Well Pueblo was developed because of the steel industry. Because of it Pueblo helped build the west and continues to do so today. Not many cities in the U.S. say that especially cities the size of Pueblo. I am proud of that.

[raggedy andy]

do you recommend Pueblo for moving to we are moving in that area in March of 2013 my husband will be working at the DMILL we are coming from the Umatilla depot Pendleton oregon what do you think of Avandale too?

[Josseppie]

I am biased so yes I think Pueblo is a great place to live.

Avandale is a suburb east of town in what the locals call the mesa or county. Its more rural and there are farms around there so if you like country living you will like it if not then you wont.

[ninaytj]

Why are there so many homes for sale in Pueblo West?