Can anyone tell me about Grand Junction?

[Koolparis]

My husband & I are also considering a move there. (business) We cater to Seniors. We have 4 sons, 2 will be in college and may not go with us. My husband is worried about the weather and that GJ is not the "typical Colorado" you see on TV. We live on the coast in Southeast Texas and have sweltering heat and humidity during the summer months! I would love to learn more about the area if someone knows of a website (not tourist info) that I could read or maybe a blog?

[jhcolo]

Grand Junction - An Edited Community Directory.

[allyvip]

It's not my favorite place in Colorado by any stretch but I say it's the most criminally under-rated city in all of the American West. At least in my social circle people love to dump on it. I love to set them straight.

There are a lot of homeless people relatively speaking but its..well...If I get too specific here I"ll be banned. Lets just say it's a different breed of homeless population than what you get in most major cities. Man-to-man they are far less dangerous. It's like Boulder homelessness more than Denver homelessness. Crime stats reflect this. There are places you don't want to go after dark, which can't really be said IMO for places like Boulder, Aspen, et al. But it's still safer than any major city I've ever lived in.

It's spectacularly beautiful. Some of the best driving roads in the world are in and around the area. Cruising from GJ to the middle of nowhere Utah at ridiculous speeds in a good sports car..good times.

It is conservative but it's a different breed of conservatism, as others have implied. It's more San Diego-esque conservative insofar as not being...mean about it. It's not Texas where people just talk politics to strangers under the assumption that it's "us vs them" and the "us" is Rick Perry fans. At root it's mostly about guns; people love guns in GJ. There is a great free outdoor range, several indoor ranges, and every other hunter I know in the area has a less-than-legal range in their basement.

The hunting and fishing is spectacular and diverse.

Then there's Moab.

I found the humidity in summer did not hold a candle to any city I have visited on the East Coast, and several places in the Midwest. It's not Socal but it's not bad.

I'm a single young male in a rare position in that I can live anywhere in the world. I don't have a place in GJ. But it made my top 20 list when I was narrowing down the hunt. I don't care about skiing but I adore the Colorado outdoors. Hiking mostly, but also fishing, hunting, snowmobiling, rafting, etc. If you don't like the outdoors forget it you'll hate life in GJ.

Hopefully that tells you something.

[DOUBLE H]

Originally Posted by simetime

It looks like I have a choice between Grand Junction and Roseburg, Oregon and Grand Junction wins in a landslide!

Meant to give ya aon your choice. Good luck!

[80skeys]

My wife and I lived in Grand Junction about 4 years ago. We were there for about a year and a half. I felt that it was quite a safe, clean place, and a good place to live if you enjoy small towns that are fairly isolated, and if you don't mind the somewhat extreme weather (dust and wind storms in the Spring; very hot summers; dry cold winters.)

homeless people I didn't notice an issue with this, unless things have changed so much in the past few years.

Originally Posted by simetime

Thats interesting. I'm a jazz man, my wife likes contemporay, my youngest son likes rock and my oldest likes country music.

Jazz in Grand Junction there ain't. There's blues (quite good blues, actually). .... I'm referring to local bands.

Originally Posted by jim9251

Large homeless population, traffic is a nightmare,

Okay, let's put things into perspective: if you want to know what "large" homeless population is, come here to the Bay Area and visit downtown San Jose California or almost any neighborhood in San Francisco. If you want to know about "nightmare" traffic, come drive on the 101 here in Silicon Valley during rush hour.

Originally Posted by jim9251

I love how someone considers a city of 60,000 "small".

Sunnyvale, where I currently live is a population of 60,000 .... in about a 2 mile x 3 mile area, bordered by Mountain View (also 60,000), Santa Clara (100,000), and Cupertino (60,000), each of which is also probably about 6-10 square miles in area.

[griff09m]

Originally Posted by jim9251

It's called by locals "Junktown" and "Grandy Junky".

Junktown? Grand Junky? Two years of living here and I've never heard that. Dust storms happen about two or three times a year. It's not an especially windy place. Doesn't compare to famously windy places like West Texas. The homeless population is centered just south of downtown, so if you spend a lot of time on Ute or Pitkin Aves it might start bothering you.

Most of the people I meet here love it. It is hot in the summer but it's dry. There are some neighborhoods you wouldn't want to own a house in but no places that are downright unsafe. I live just east of the city limits, still very much in town, and our middle class neighborhood is beautiful and safe.

It's not paradise... I'd love to live in the mountains, in some other vacation town. This is a working city, not a tourist destination. But the national monument and the grand mesa are genuinely beautiful and great outdoor destinations. There are very nice neighborhoods that are relatively affordable in Colorado terms. The people are friendly compared to the front range.

A city the size of GJ has everything in a smaller package than a place like the Denver metro area. The whole economic range can be found in a relatively small area - poor neighborhoods, rich neighborhoods, and middle class areas. Even (gasp!) homelessness. That's just life in a 100K population city, and it's very bearable. For a lot of people, Junction ends up being the perfect fit.

[notoriouskelly]

There's also a nice Vietnam memorial Home Page

I was lucky enough to meet the Telluride sculptor who was there in his custom Sprinter van while I was traveling through town.

[DOUBLE H]

Originally Posted by jim9251

It's very desert like. It's called by locals "Junktown" and "Grandy Junky".

Unfortunately the desert and the junk can and has been linked together.

If you google in "Desert dumpers, officials working to clean up, deter people from tossing trash."

There are a few sites that discuss this, the one that has the most info is from November 9, 2013's issue of the Daily Sentinel, GJ's daily paper.

Frank Stapleton certainly had a few things to say regarding this story and I don't blame him. There's quite a bit of BLM land north of the town limits on the north side of I-70 east of the airport where you have a little, um, activity. I like the part of the article where Stapleton found the receipt in one of those junk couches regarding identification. And I do remember KKCO, the NBC affiliate, covering the story. It's sad that the BLM has to police the lands regarding people taking their junk and dumping it. I've been to the BLM offices a time or two at their office on H Road and I've found the staff to always be helpful and attentive when anyone comes in with questions or with a complaint. I've met Mr. Stapleton too, by chance. Good man! It's sad that being a trash collector has to be connected to their job description. I would imagine though that they are getting people who are cleaning up that are on a semi regular basis,possibly prison detail guys from the Mesa County Detention Center

I'm not saying that this is a huge problem that occurs all over Mesa County but we're not immune to behavior like this. Just like in other communities, it happens. I remember in that TV article he said "it's one thing to pick up regular trash but when it comes to couches and hot water heaters, then that tears it!"Speaking of trash, over the last week or so people who live in GJ's city limits have a few days to bundle up their trash and put it out on the curb where the trash guys pick it up free of charge. Unfortunately Fruita or Palisade does not offer curbside service for free, but there are a couple designated days where Mesa County residents can take advantage of free trash day, which does have a restriction or two.

[DOUBLE H]

Originally Posted by notoriouskelly

There's also a nice Vietnam memorial Home Page

I was lucky enough to meet the Telluride sculptor who was there in his custom Sprinter van while I was traveling through town.

I drive past it every day as it's right on 340 in the visitors center. It's very impressive.

[80skeys]

Originally Posted by griff09m

Junktown? Grand Junky? Two years of living here and I've never heard that.

yeah, me too, I never heard it when I was living there.

Dust storms happen about two or three times a year. It's not an especially windy place.

It does get pretty dang windy in March and April.

For a lot of people, Junction ends up being the perfect fit.

It's a cool place and definitely recommended if you like that size of town.