9News nailed it with the angry natives (Denver: refrigerators, to buy)

[pikabike]

Originally Posted by bentstrider

The winters seem bearable enough, but it's the rent prices and my newly developed frustration with "dealing with crowds on an everyday basis" that are causing me to flake out once again. I guess this will probably go for every city with me after having had lived in a small, isolated area for the past, five year. Great to visit and have fun in, but when it's to head back home, the return trip is strangely comforting.

These are solid reasons NOT to move to the Front Range, or any large metro area, especially since the FR is still growing, fast.

Having had the privilege of living in a relatively secluded pocket of quiet for a long time, moving to an in-town house jam packed with too many people around was something we could not take any more of. We tolerated it for a few years and said Good Bye Forever to that! NEVER AGAIN, no matter how old we get or how high gas prices rise. Convenience and "community amenities" were not worth the loss of peace, wilder surroundings, privacy, dark night sky, and SPACE. Even if we had unlimited funds we would never move into a densely-populated area again.

You sound like someone who would rue a move to more densely-populated area. Don't make the mistake we made. It was a very expensive mistake, albeit with a couple of upsides in terms of learning.

[bentstrider]

Originally Posted by pikabike

These are solid reasons NOT to move to the Front Range, or any large metro area, especially since the FR is still growing, fast.

Having had the privilege of living in a relatively secluded pocket of quiet for a long time, moving to an in-town house jam packed with too many people around was something we could not take any more of. We tolerated it for a few years and said Good Bye Forever to that! NEVER AGAIN, no matter how old we get or how high gas prices rise. Convenience and "community amenities" were not worth the loss of peace, wilder surroundings, privacy, dark night sky, and SPACE. Even if we had unlimited funds we would never move into a densely-populated area again.

You sound like someone who would rue a move to more densely-populated area. Don't make the mistake we made. It was a very expensive mistake, albeit with a couple of upsides in terms of learning.

I'm definitely thinking it over more clearly. The stress of the job kind of threw me into a tailspin and I started firing out apps like there was no tomorrow. If anything, I'll just say "I'm just having a hard time finding a place" when the guy calls me back. The apartment styles of the area are also kind of unfitting for me up there. I'm in a ground level, duplex sort of place right now. The multi story apartments up that way are just kind of unnerving for me.

And despite being in my early 30s, I'm not as big as I was on the urban chic culture as I thought I was. I'm only keeping smaller cities like Albuquerque in my sights because, hey, it's got a nice mix of everything.

[SVTRay]

Originally Posted by SkyDog77

I'm a 5th generation Coloradan and the native anger on this forum drives me crazy. I love this piece 9news just did.

We asked a psychologist why Coloradans are so mad at transplants | 9news.com

5th Generation, impressive. I don't run across to many Coloradans that run much past 1st and 2nd Generations. I bet you and your family could tell some stories about this state.

[Mezter]

I don't get why they're so angry. Sure traffic sucks, but Denver is becoming a great city (In a different way). Like, do people realize that Denver is only the 18th largest city in the US or....? It can get much worst.

[MountainEarth]

The litter in Colorado is shameful. That's what I hate the most.

[SkyDog77]

Originally Posted by SVTRay

5th Generation, impressive. I don't run across to many Coloradans that run much past 1st and 2nd Generations. I bet you and your family could tell some stories about this state.

Ha! Yes. I tried to get as many stories as I could from my grand parents before they left.

My great-great grandparents moved to Pueblo in the 1870s, my great grandmother was born there in 1896.
My grandmother was born near 4th and Lafayette in 1918. She married my grandfather who was born near 12th & Gilpin in 1914. His father had moved here in the 1900s and was a founder at National Jewish. My father was born at Mercy Hospital in 1943, me at Rose in 1977. My kids, who are now our 6th generation here, were also born at Rose.

[Hackopotamus]

I don't think nativism is exclusive to CO. I moved from New Hampshire to CA in 1988 because of the influx of "flat landers". We didn't have "Native" stickers, instead we had stickers that said, "Welcome to NH, now go home".

The negativism to these newcomers were for a few reasons:

Many of them treated locals as if they all worked in the tourism industry and were servants. They could be quite arrogant and condescending.

They were driving up property values and overpaying for houses. Now, if you wanted to cash out like I did and move out of state, that was fine. But for those who wanted to stay the result is higher property taxes. Multi-generational farm families could not afford to pay the increased property tax and had to sell off. Sure, they made a bunch of money but they no longer had a livelihood.

Increased traffic and needed services. More traffic lights, roads, police, fire, etc needed and the resulting increases in taxes to pay for it.

One of the biggest issues is that these people would move to rural NH because they thought it was beautiful and quaint but then they would start to try to change it to make it just like where they came from. Once they had been there a couple years and the bloom was off the rose, they would start to complain about the smell of the farm next door, lack of stores and services, noisy trucks, dirt bikes, 4x4's, etc all of which was there long before they arrived. They would say, "Well, where I'm from, we did it this way" which was the kiss of death for them. We would all reply, "Great, then go back to where you are from if you like it so much".

I can see how native or long time CO residents would feel the same way.

I hear many people say, "but growth is good" which I never understood. Why is growth good? Sure, more availability of stuff (if you need stuff), more so called culture, etc but at what cost? More crowds, more roads, more houses, more traffic, more pollution, more use of natural resources, more noise, more night light, more problems.

My family lives just outside Denver and as I recently retired, they wanted me to move to CO. While I love it there and it is beautiful, I found it too crowded for me. My sister keeps telling me that it is one of the fastest growing states in the country. That is exactly why I don't want to move there and moved to rural northern NV instead (you're welcome!).

[TCHP]

Originally Posted by Mezter

I don't get why they're so angry. Sure traffic sucks, but Denver is becoming a great city (In a different way). Like, do people realize that Denver is only the 18th largest city in the US or....? It can get much worst.

Because not every one wants to live in an urban megaopolis. When the Denver MSA was around 1 mil, it held just enough urban and city amenities for many, but was not so omni-present so as to dominate the state so completely like it does now.

We also are seeing a point where retiring boomers who want to return here are finding their former homes are now priced out of their reach or if they can afford them, they are in the middle of hipster transformations that they didn't want either.

There are many elements of the 9News story that hit the elements of it.

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by SVTRay

5th Generation, impressive. I don't run across to many Coloradans that run much past 1st and 2nd Generations. I bet you and your family could tell some stories about this state.

If I go back just one generation to when my father was born (1905) can you imagine the changes since then! If I go back to his grandfather then we'd be the Civil War. Hell, my father was an adult of 22 when we came out with the first movie with sound (The Jazz Singer, 1927).

The pace of change has been mind-numbing to say the least. My older generation often spoke of how such and such a sea of houses used to be the Hilton dairy farm, or how oysters were harvested from the Chesapeake Bay via sail-powered skipjacks (the days of wooden ships and iron men).

Then again, if we go back to 1905 and every city had one or several of these swell places to die, T.B. Sanitariums. My own generation really sweated out the polio epidemic of the 1940s and 1950s. It was in the 1960s that we first got the polio vaccines, they lined up every kid in school and gave it to us...back then our governments put kids first, not billionaires.

I grew up without air conditioning, FM radio, CDs, ipods, microwave ovens, color TVs, remote controls, safety razors, garage door openers, PCs, cell phones, airbags, seat belts, backup cameras, organ transplants, California wines, year-round fruits and vegetables, interstate highways, jet travel, cruise ships, walk-in closets, multiple bathrooms, big box stores, multiplex cinemas, fast-casual sit down restaurants, frost-free refrigerators, and many other benefits we now take for granted.

All I can say is embrace the change, deal with it, and look forward with anticipation as some cool things are coming our way if we don't let religious extremists drag the world back to the dark ages.

[Dport7674]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

If I go back just one generation to when my father was born (1905) can you imagine the changes since then! If I go back to his grandfather then we'd be the Civil War. Hell, my father was an adult of 22 when we came out with the first movie with sound (The Jazz Singer, 1927).

The pace of change has been mind-numbing to say the least. My older generation often spoke of how such and such a sea of houses used to be the Hilton dairy farm, or how oysters were harvested from the Chesapeake Bay via sail-powered skipjacks (the days of wooden ships and iron men).

Then again, if we go back to 1905 and every city had one or several of these swell places to die, T.B. Sanitariums. My own generation really sweated out the polio epidemic of the 1940s and 1950s. It was in the 1960s that we first got the polio vaccines, they lined up every kid in school and gave it to us...back then our governments put kids first, not billionaires.

I grew up without air conditioning, FM radio, CDs, ipods, microwave ovens, color TVs, remote controls, safety razors, garage door openers, PCs, cell phones, airbags, seat belts, backup cameras, organ transplants, California wines, year-round fruits and vegetables, interstate highways, jet travel, cruise ships, walk-in closets, multiple bathrooms, big box stores, multiplex cinemas, fast-casual sit down restaurants, frost-free refrigerators, and many other benefits we now take for granted.

All I can say is embrace the change, deal with it, and look forward with anticipation as some cool things are coming our way if we don't let religious extremists drag the world back to the dark ages.

Best post.

My home town in Iowa (fairly large city by Iowa standards) is almost unrecognizable to me. I'm 41, the changes made just since I was in high school blow my mind. But what can be done about it? It's not just Denver.... Or Austin, Seattle, Phoenix etc.