From California To Colorado. Why??? (price, to move, housing)

[Colorado Rambler]

Originally Posted by jim9251

I have to...paging jazzlover.

LOL Maybe we should have a "happily left Colorado" thread. Actually, I might be able to handle NORTHERN Cali if I could live in a small(er) town right next to the ocean. I love the ocean and hope I can get out to see the Pacific at least one more time before I die.

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by Colorado Rambler

LOL Maybe we should have a "happily left Colorado" thread. Actually, I might be able to handle NORTHERN Cali if I could live in a small(er) town right next to the ocean. I love the ocean and hope I can get out to see the Pacific at least one more time before I die.

The far north part of California is indeed beautiful, but it is extremely expensive and subject to the same poisonous taxation and social policies that are wrecking the whole state. Particularly for retirees or anyone trying to live on what would be an adequate income in most of the US, living in California would amount to a financial death sentence. Colorado is heading to the same place as fast as it can.

[smihaila]

Originally Posted by Katarina Witt

From: Team Mom

The same can be said for Colorado. My kids went through it. One developed an eating disorder in college, is OK now. Colorado is the "thinnest" state. Lots of pressure to be thin. I work in a dr's office and see little girls, ages 3 and up, take off their shoes to get weighed! Sad. Lots of academic pressure, too, starting in about 3rd grade. "Have to take this course to get in to a 'good' college." Then a lot of them end up going to community college or a small state u. because they are burned out.

I've personally found this to be so true! My almost 6-year son (just one month missing from the cut-off date) was not considered "on par" with the Monarch's kindergarten curriculum and they recommended him to repeat the year! They allowed him to be enrolled into the kindergarten at a slightly earlier age, simply because he had to continue his 1 year and a half of kindergarten education that he was already having from Ontario, Canada. And over there he was considered bright.

What the heck? And all of his peers looked like being 8 or 9 years old in that kindergarten class. This is abnormal - parents deciding to keep their kid out of the system for one more year, just to look "smarter" - a non-sense competition IMHO. And no real educational program / true and honest pedagogical methodology - the kids are just required to come with everything taught and learned from home. So even prior to the actual 1st grade, they have to be flawless readers, writers, Einstein-level mathematicians and physicists, know to write a story, doing a professional-grade literary commentary on a Hemingway book and so on. What the heck is going on with this system? Boo to BVSD and socio-economically influenced school environments and lacking true pedagogy!!! Where is the gradual learning and care for emotional development of children which I was personally getting to experience back in Europe or Canada??

I am also speculating that they are doing this retention on purpose somehow - as they aren't getting any funding from the Colorado State department of education, unless the kids are of the proper/approved cut-off age....

[smihaila]

Originally Posted by Katarina Witt

I workk in a pediatrician's office. We tell parents whose kids are having difficulty breathing to run a humidifier in the child's room. The reason you can breathe better in Florida is the humidity. It used to be thought the dry air was good for people with lung disease; that's why there were all those TB hospitals in Denver at one time. We know differently now.

Would you care to elaborate on that a bit if you don't mind? I have always believed that dry (and clean, mountain-like) air is always more beneficial for the treatment of lung diseases (such as TB), as opposed to excessive humidity.

Anecdotally or not, I recall about many important, internationally-acclaimed personalities who were having lung diseases and they were getting treatments and absolute rest here, in Colorado hospitals, especially due to this dry climate.

[CosmicWizard]

smihaila wrote: Where is the gradual learning and care for emotional development of children which I was personally getting to experience back in Europe or Canada??

Welcome to the US where education is focused on turning kids into easily controlled, obedient corporate pawns who know 'the right answer'.

[TiffaNYC]

My parents (California natives, living in the Napa Valley/SF Bay since '89) moved to Colorado Springs in 2004 because of work - their company did a massive change, closed most their offices, and created 3 huge offices in a few different cities in the U.S. My parents choices of places to move to stay with the company were Colorado Springs, Oklahoma City, and somewhere else, I can't remember...but anyway, they chose Colorado. They absolutely love it here in Colorado Springs - they live a really comfortable/bordering on luxurious life, really, on their salary. They were doing well in California, too, but they probably couldn't live as well as they do right now if they were still in the SF Bay Area. They go camping a lot every summer, they love the snow in the winter, etc. They say they don't miss CA at all.

I seriously don't understand how they don't miss CA at all. It's nuts to me. I'm also here in Colorado - I left California in December, only because I'm staying with my family temporarily to save up money to move to the East coast, where I've wanted to live for 15 years. (I love California but want a change).

My point - I totally agree with you. California >>>> Colorado. So many people love Colorado, and there are TONS of transplants - I'm constantly meeting people who are from California - but I definitely don't get the appeal. It baffles me. I miss California so much. The ocean is my spirit animal, if you will...I could never be away from the ocean for long. The mountains are blahhhhhhhhhhhh. Whatever. I don't get it.

[brightdoglover]

Well, it stands to reason that if one favors the ocean, Colorado will pale in comparison. Me, I've always lived within an hour drive of the Atlantic (with a couple of brief exceptions) and I can take or leave it, frankly prefer to live further away from it. But when I see the big white-capped mountains of Colorado, I am always thrilled.

[TiffaNYC]

Originally Posted by brightdoglover

Well, it stands to reason that if one favors the ocean, Colorado will pale in comparison. Me, I've always lived within an hour drive of the Atlantic (with a couple of brief exceptions) and I can take or leave it, frankly prefer to live further away from it. But when I see the big white-capped mountains of Colorado, I am always thrilled.

And this is what's great about people - we're all different. It's good that the ocean thrills some, and the mountains thrill others...that way we're not all in one place.

[brightdoglover]

It is starting to seem that we *are* clustering in a relative few favorite spots!

[TiffaNYC]

Originally Posted by brightdoglover

It is starting to seem that we *are* clustering in a relative few favorite spots!

hah, good point - it does seem that way. In a world full of 7 billion people, I guess that's inevitable. :/