Looking for family friendly liberal(ish) town with character (Colorado Springs: homes, neighborhoods)

[debbie at bouontiful]

Talk about a divided nation! Never before did I see people considering a place on how they voted.

[davebarnes]

Estes Park?

[Chip_Vanilla]

Originally Posted by ColoTroutlHntr

Denver is almost certainly where you want. You wont find an acre for that $ but you may not need that much land when you see people have decent yards and there are parks and outdoors all around. Denver doesn't live like any E. Coast cities, there is open space and tons of outdoors all around town totally unlike DC. and it is much much more relaxed than the E. Coast. Denver is liberal in a smart and balanced way and has tons for kids/adults too. Looking at other places in Colo. you will run into various significant problems... ugly suburban mountain sprawl in evergreen, other suburban messes around the N. Front range, distance from things and length of winter in mountain towns. Denver has the best neighborhoods and architecture and best overall quality of life by far for the vast majority of people of any place in Colo. and most other parts of the state are lacking in one or many ways unless you absolutely know what you want and what you are getting into in one of the mountain or resort or W.slope areas which can be very nice but they only suit people who understand what they are truly getting into. And coming from DC I doubt anything but Denver makes sense, but Denver itself is a truly great place.

I have no clue what you're writing about. "Liberal in a smart and balanced way"--really? Denver has a mix of people like any capital city but aside from the dopey government and cannabis clubs on every other corner of E Colfax it's not a "liberal" place at all compared to our Berkley of the mountains, Boulder. The architecture is mundane, the neighborhoods generally lack any specific character other than ethnic, and no one could find a good house even in the outlying suburbs that has 3000' sq ft and half an acre for 400K--more like 600K and it would be in Larkspur or at best, Castle Rock.

[smdensbcs]

city data colm;28770465]We love the outdoors and want to be surrounded by nature. Good restaurants, coffee houses, music venues are also important.

Thanks![/quote]
Others have suggested good possibilities. I lived in Denver 3+ years while single and loved it. Once I got married I found it far more difficult to pretend it wasn't just horribly congested and took 3-5 times longer than I wanted to get from any Point A to any Point B. I think you might end up looking at specific neighborhoods that suit your preferences rather than entire cities/towns. Boulder, on the surface, could work, though you might not get more than a townhouse for your 400K budget. This is semi-blasphemous for an over-educated progressive professional couple (spouse a working artist, former opera singer, etc.), but we've become quite fond of our WEST Colorado Springs neighborhood that routinely elects a Democratic state rep, has one of the top two academic school districts in the state (Cheyenne Mountain District 12), and is walking distance to dozens of square miles of open space, trails, etc. while maybe a 15 minute drive to downtown restaurants, art museum, theater, etc.

Based on your description, you might like a neighborhood a few miles over from us called Cheyenne Canyon. Funky in a real and non-touristy way (ahem, I'm looking at you now Manitou Springs). Compared to Denver and Boulder, real estate prices are laughably low for what you get in house, city, schools, quality of life, etc. This is likely because most "limosine liberals" who relocate to Colorado take their money straight to Boulder or parts of Denver because Colorado Springs is frighteningly conservative. It is, except for virtually everything west of I-25 and south of Garden of the Gods which is an area of roughly 100K people who vote majority Democrat. In other words, you're nestled up against the foothills and the neighborhoods get increasingly funky cool until you hit the Broadmoor, which has homes approaching the cost of real estate in Aspen.

Sorry for the lengthy epistle, but I know from experience folks on these boards will not be recommending someone like you consider the Springs as a viable alternative. My artsy spouse and I, along with our obnoxiously Ivy league educated "liberal" friends and neighbors all seem to love it here though. Our little secret I guess.

[dude_reino]

Why do affluent liberals want to live in fancy mountain towns where they are isolated from firsthand experience of what their policies have done to communities? Move on into the urban 'hood' near the corner of York & Bruce Randolph, where you can watch dozens of jobless adults hanging out in front of the liquor store, buying booze with welfare money, and doing nothing productive to society other than walking the streets yelling racial expletives all day long while you are hard at work maintaining your house with whatever money you have left over from the tax man. A couple of years here and I bet you won't be 'liberal' for long.

[Josseppie]

Originally Posted by dude_reino

Why do affluent liberals want to live in fancy mountain towns where they are isolated from firsthand experience of what their policies have done to communities? Move on into the urban 'hood' near the corner of York & Bruce Randolph, where you can watch dozens of jobless adults hanging out in front of the liquor store, buying booze with welfare money, and doing nothing productive to society other than walking the streets yelling racial expletives all day long while you are hard at work maintaining your house with whatever money you have left over from the tax man. A couple of years here and I bet you won't be 'liberal' for long.

Some affluent conservatives want the same thing.

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by dude_reino

...A couple of years here and I bet you won't be 'liberal' for long.

You really think THAT... ??? History says they prefer to impose their impossible legislation while
"live(ing) in fancy mountain towns where they are isolated from firsthand experience of what their policies have done to communities?" Works well in CA, NV, MT, WA, OR (and now CO).

[CosmicWizard]

Anti union politics, and living in a right to work state are costing Colorado workers far more money than the tax man. At least we get something in return for our taxes, but we get nothing from the fruits of our labor that trickles up to the billionaires.

[Shuffler]

So, why exactly is CO your single choice?

Have you looked at the 2 Portlands (Maine, Oregon) and surrounding areas?

Both are quite Liberal, but it wouldn't keep me away if I had to consider a move elsewhere.

[smdensbcs]

Originally Posted by dude_reino

Why do affluent liberals want to live in fancy mountain towns where they are isolated from firsthand experience of what their policies have done to communities?

I'll take a wild guess here and say its for the same reasons affluent "conservatives" want to live in fancy mountain towns where they are isolated from firsthand experience of what their policies have done to communities. Or perhaps you are aware of lots of affluent right wingers who live in poor neighborhoods and are deeply concerned about the well-being of poor, under-educated folks? If such a creature ever existed (doubtful), they certainly don't exist anymore. Not in this world. Not that I've ever met or even heard of.