Possible Pueblo, CO Relo (Denver, Colorado Springs: crime, loans, home)

[rjlowe]

So I've been looking at relocating to Pueblo and I have a few questions.

Some background info first: I've put in for a job there that pays significantly more than what I'm currently making (+$10K/yr), and housing there appears to be far less expensive than where I currently reside (Prescott, AZ where a typical downtown area home of 1,000sf costs ~$300K+).

Mainly I'm interested in two things, the climate, for gardening purposes (Zone?, avg. first/last freeze dates, how often do temps go below 10F or above 100F, etc.). Prior to living here in Prescott, I lived for 10 years in Albuquerque and the two cities have a lot in common climate-wise, in fact they have almost exactly the same kind weather/seasons.

Next on my list would be how tolerant the area is of gay people. I'm a single gay man in his mid 40's, is this going to be an issue? Is there any "community" there to speak of? Not a deal breaker, but it would be a "nice to have." Having grown up in SLC, UT, I definitely do not want to get back into such an openly hostile environment.

Thanks in advance for any info.
--Rob

[Josseppie]

Pueblo is one of if not the cheapest place to live in the United States so if you get a job that pays more then where you are now you should be fine.

Pueblo's climate is not as hot as where you live now. In the summer most highs are from 95 to 105 and never above 109. That being said we do have cool days in the summer, less then 90, and the evenings cool off to the 70's and 80's with lows in the 60's.

Our growing months are generally from May to October.

IMO Pueblo is very tolerant of gay people. I am gay and have lived here all my life and IMO Puebloans want to think of themselves as this cosmopolitan city in Colorado and having gay people is just a example of that. Like look at us we have gay people and culture just like San Francisco lol. Also, Pueblo is a live and let live city so if you don't bother them for the most part they don't bother you. That being said the Pueblo MSA is only 157,000 people so it can he hard to meet gay guys here and there is only 2 bars.

[rjlowe]

Thanks for the info! That's two more gay bars than there are in Prescott, LOL!

Some more questions - how severe are the winters there? I'm used to getting only two or three snow storms per year where the snow actually sticks to the ground for more than a couple days, and almost never lasts more than 4-5 days. How are the mountain passes in winter? I usually go back to Utah to visit family over the Christmas holidays (I-70 corridor). Is it best to stay on the interstates (I-25 to Denver and then I-70 West) or take HWY-50 and catch I-70 at Grand Junction?

Thanks again for the info!

[Josseppie]

Winters:

Pueblo is not bad, I write this as a artic front is about to hit and the high tomorrow will be 15 if he we are lucky lol. That being said Pueblo sits in a bowl and a lot of times the snow misses Pueblo while the rest of the state gets hit, they call it the "banana belt" as most of the storms go around us.

Also, Pueblo has more sunny days then Florida so the snow we get melts fast. So far this year we only had a couple days of snow packed roads. This storm will cause a couple more but by the weekend will be warmer.

As far as the mountain passes they can be bad in the winter, keep in mind they are tall mountains. In Pueblo you can take highway 50 and its a nice highway but keep in mind its only a highway. So the speed limit is slower and its a 2 lane road. The state wants to 4 lane it but not sure when we will have the money. I-70 is a interstate and is 4 lanes but can have more traffic. Personally I like I-70 but I know people who prefer highway 50.

[eon-krate32]

Originally Posted by Josseppie

Pueblo is one of if not the cheapest place to live in the United States so if you get a job that pays more then where you are now you should be fine.

LOL apparently you don't know anything about the Dakotas (especially South Dakota) Pueblo may be cheap but only in relation to the state.

[Josseppie]

Originally Posted by eon-krate32

LOL apparently you don't know anything about the Dakotas (especially South Dakota) Pueblo may be cheap but only in relation to the state.

I should qualify what I said. I mean cities over 100,000 people.

For example I know the housing prices in Pueblo is among the lowest in the country.

[rjlowe]

Just was re-reading some... and you regularly get temps over 100F in Pueblo? I don't think it's ever hit 100F in either Prescott nor Albuquerque in the last 15 years that I've lived in those two towns - maybe once or twice, but it's definitely a rarity and would be the talk of the news for a week or so if it got that hot there LOL!

95F is usually the max-MAX upper temp for those towns. Both Albuquerque and Prescott are significantly higher (1,000'+) in elevation than Denver (not as high as Flagstaff tho' - that's just nosebleed section hehe) - so it's pretty mild in the Summer. Albuquerque is advertised as the highest metro in the US - only 70 miles of a very gradual grade from the continental divide.

Anyways, I was just kind of shocked that you might regularly get temps near or over 100F.

[Josseppie]

Originally Posted by rjlowe

Just was re-reading some... and you regularly get temps over 100F in Pueblo? I don't think it's ever hit 100F in either Prescott nor Albuquerque in the last 15 years that I've lived in those two towns - maybe once or twice, but it's definitely a rarity and would be the talk of the news for a week or so if it got that hot there LOL!

95F is usually the max-MAX upper temp for those towns. Both Albuquerque and Prescott are significantly higher (1,000'+) in elevation than Denver (not as high as Flagstaff tho' - that's just nosebleed section hehe) - so it's pretty mild in the Summer. Albuquerque is advertised as the highest metro in the US - only 70 miles of a very gradual grade from the continental divide.

Anyways, I was just kind of shocked that you might regularly get temps near or over 100F.

Yes, Pueblo gets over 100 about 5-10 times a year. Our all time record high is 109 and above 105 is rare. We sit about 4,695 feet above sea level. Like I said at night it cools off so its not bad and its not humid.

[Josseppie]

More information as I looked up the elevation of Albuquerque and here is what I found:

The elevation of the city ranges from 4,900 feet (1,490 m) above sea level near the Rio Grande (in the Valley) to over 6,700 feet (1,950 m) in the foothill areas of Sandia Heights and Glenwood Hills. At the airport, the elevation is 5,352 feet (1,631 m) above sea level

So the Airport is 5,3542 and 6,700 feet in the foothills.

Pueblo is the same as we range from 4,695 feet at the airport to over 6,000 feet in the foothills south west of town. In fact Pueblo West, our largest suburb, is about 5,000 feet.

Just some more information is Pueblo sits in the Arkansas river valley in kind of a "bowl". Our downtown is at the bottom of the bowl thus it does two things. Makes it harder to see our small skyline from a distance and causes us to have less snow.

Then look at Colorado Springs.

They are at over 6,000 feet at the airport and if you go north go up to 7,000 feet at Monument Hill then if you go west you have Pikes Peak and Cheyenne Mountain and the Springs is built on the side of the mountain.

[jazzlover]

I happen to like Pueblo, but you will NEVER get an objective view of it from Josseppie. Period.

First, Pueblo is one of the hottest places in Colorado in summer, outside of the lower Arkansas River valley east of there. Grand Junction can rival it, but Grand Junction does is not as humid in summer. Pueblo frequently get incursions of more humid air from the plains east of it in summer. It can be muggy, admittedly not like the Midwest or East, but muggy by Colorado standards. Pueblo gets relatively little snow in the winter, so the terrain is brown for about 6 months out the year. In many years, its arid location means that unirrigated areas may be brown ALL year.

Second, Pueblo is no cultural panacea. It does NOT offer the cultural amenties of a Denver or even Colorado Springs, if that is important to you. Pueblo has ranked consistently poorly in per capita crime ratings nationally for years. It is one of the black marks on it as a place to live that I find saddening. The ratings of its schools are generally middling.

Third, it is still trying to rebuild its economy from the downsizing over 20-odd years ago of its main industry--the CF&I steel mill. I will grant that it has made some progress there, mostly by feeding long and deep at the federal trough. How successful that gambit will continue to be in what is likely to be a much more austere environment for federal spending that lies ahead remains to be seen.

Pueblo has endeavored to revitalize its historic downtown with some success. It also is a historical treasure trove of late 19th Century architecture, but a lot of that is found in some pretty seedy neighborhoods. I love the community's history, but--unfortunately--a lot of the pro-development people (as they do in so many places) would just as soon stomp the crap out of that to pursue the same mindless sprawl development so common everyplace. The US50 corridor in Pueblo is a prime example of that kind of ugly development.

If it tells you anything, I have a whole cadre of friends who are EX-Pueblans--many of them from old-line Pueblo families. They migrated to many different parts of Colorado--and most of them flat state that they would never move back to Pueblo under any circumstances.

Undoubtedly, this post will engender an "It ain't so" response from Pueblo's very biased cheerleader, but I wouldn't put much stock in it. Go look at objective data yourself and draw your own conclusions.