Best neighborhoods and areas for kids (Fort Collins: homes, luxury, middle school)

[NBeener]

As Mike often mentions ... FoCo is laid out in a grid pattern. You'd have to try pretty hard, if you wanted to get lost.

There also are not a LOT of "hidden gems," in town. What I mean by that is ... since you really won't get lost .... a half a day with a rental car will give you a very good sense of town -- where things are, how areas feel, what neighborhoods feel most like "home" to you, etc.

With a map -- available at lots of stores -- particularly those around Old Town -- you'd almost surely be able to easily navigate the area.

No. This town has no diversity, outside of the University. I mean ... strikingly none.

But I've seen no reason to believe there are tensions or problems based ON that. It just ... doesn't seem to exist, here.

[davemess10]

Originally Posted by Mike Weber

The closest lift served skiing is about 2 hours from Fort Collins.

Snowy Range in WY and Edora are both about 1:30 away. Granted they are smaller hills, but they are closer. I could get to Loveland in under 2 hours and Winter Park in just about 2 hours with good weather.

[davemess10]

Originally Posted by NBeener

No. This town has no diversity, outside of the University. I mean ... strikingly none.

But I've seen no reason to believe there are tensions or problems based ON that. It just ... doesn't seem to exist, here.

You might want to hang out North of Old Town then, there is a pretty good size hispanic population in the Fort, they are just predominantly on the North side of town. Our street had 2 houses out of about 8 with hispanic residents just off of Cherry Street.

As to black and asian population, yes there are very few folks.

[NBeener]

Yeah. I know where the greatest mass of Hispanics lives, in town, but .... you don't tend to see them unless you DO go to that part of town.

Shame, really, because I enjoy my encounters with them, as a chance to practice my Spanish language skills.

But ... demographics call the Fort between 10 and 15% Hispanic. You wouldn't know it, just by living life, here.

[Indyking]

Originally Posted by NBeener

As Mike often mentions ... FoCo is laid out in a grid pattern. You'd have to try pretty hard, if you wanted to get lost.

There also are not a LOT of "hidden gems," in town. What I mean by that is ... since you really won't get lost .... a half a day with a rental car will give you a very good sense of town -- where things are, how areas feel, what neighborhoods feel most like "home" to you, etc.

With a map -- available at lots of stores -- particularly those around Old Town -- you'd almost surely be able to easily navigate the area.

No. This town has no diversity, outside of the University. I mean ... strikingly none.

But I've seen no reason to believe there are tensions or problems based ON that. It just ... doesn't seem to exist, here.

Thanks! I checked the map online and noticed the grid pattern! Looks easy to get around.

I do not mind lack of diversity as long as people are friendly and open to build friendship with families from other races. We are currently in WI living in the university housing system, which happens to be very diverse, but we also have a house in a burb of Indianapolis, where we use to live, that has zero diversity! Nevertheless, we had and still have a very strong and positive relationship with neighbors there. We never run into problems.

I realize there is a lot of life outside the CSU at FC because the city is not that small, like your typicall college town that lives in function of the University. Nevertheless, people living in FC must be used to see and deal with diversy people brought by the University, so I must assume they are in general very open to that.

[Indyking]

Originally Posted by davemess10

You might want to hang out North of Old Town then, there is a pretty good size hispanic population in the Fort, they are just predominantly on the North side of town. Our street had 2 houses out of about 8 with hispanic residents just off of Cherry Street.

As to black and asian population, yes there are very few folks.

We would be interested in any part of the city that is safe with good schools, and possibly with residential areas with lots available to build. If the Hispanic area you describe can offer that, we would certainly look at it, but just like anywhere else in the town. We are not really Hispanics, although most people think we are based on our stereotype I guess, but we don't speak Spanish, we speak Portuguese. Well my race is a whole different topic for discussion... don't think the US Census even have a good definition for it, but my point is, we would be looking for a peaceful friendly place where we can interact with neighbors and have the kids running and playing outside comfortably, regardless of race.

[NBeener]

Originally Posted by Indyking

We would be interested in any part of the city that is safe with good schools, and possibly with residential areas with lots available to build. If the Hispanic area you describe can offer that, we would certainly look at it, but just like anywhere else in the town. We are not really Hispanics, although most people think we are based on our stereotype I guess, but we don't speak Spanish, we speak Portuguese. Well my race is a whole different topic for discussion... don't think the US Census even have a good definition for it, but my point is, we would be looking for a peaceful friendly place where we can interact with neighbors and have the kids running and playing outside comfortably, regardless of race.

Sigh.

The better schools are really where you would expect them to be -- in the upper income areas.

There are good websites to help you select the sort of criteria you find most important. For some, it's test scores. For some, it's bilingual education. For some, it's student:teacher ratio.

My wife and I are childless, but did some cursory looking, just from a real estate resale perspective.

OhByTheWay: I spent a few glorious weeks, vacationing in Portugal. I have a pretty good gift with language, but .... MAN !!! I can READ the Portuguese-language newspapers pretty well, and even get my meals, my hotel rooms, and find the bathroom with my 20-word Portuguese vocabulary, but ... understanding the people speaking Portuguese TO me ... was very challenging

I heard a great saying: it's like a drunken Frenchman speaking Spanish !

As far as the kids go ... I'm sure you've figured it out: kids -- and I'd guess the Northern Colorado kids are no exception -- give me hope that we may truly yet see a relatively color-blind society.

I think you'll find THAT in the higher socioeconomic parts of town, too. I might be a TAD more skeptical where incomes are lower, and education may not seem to be AS highly valued, but ... that's really a generalization, and carries no more weight than most generalizations

[Indyking]

Originally Posted by NBeener

Sigh.

The better schools are really where you would expect them to be -- in the upper income areas.

There are good websites to help you select the sort of criteria you find most important. For some, it's test scores. For some, it's bilingual education. For some, it's student:teacher ratio.

My wife and I are childless, but did some cursory looking, just from a real estate resale perspective.

OhByTheWay: I spent a few glorious weeks, vacationing in Portugal. I have a pretty good gift with language, but .... MAN !!! I can READ the Portuguese-language newspapers pretty well, and even get my meals, my hotel rooms, and find the bathroom with my 20-word Portuguese vocabulary, but ... understanding the people speaking Portuguese TO me ... was very challenging

I heard a great saying: it's like a drunken Frenchman speaking Spanish !

As far as the kids go ... I'm sure you've figured it out: kids -- and I'd guess the Northern Colorado kids are no exception -- give me hope that we may truly yet see a relatively color-blind society.

I think you'll find THAT in the higher socioeconomic parts of town, too. I might be a TAD more skeptical where incomes are lower, and education may not seem to be AS highly valued, but ... that's really a generalization, and carries no more weight than most generalizations

Thanks. The good news is that it looks like our family will have good options there. Like I said, we are trying to hold our excitement in case things don't work out, but moving to Colorado has always been something we dreamed about. My wife is applying to other places too but FC is the top of our list. I will keep you all posted.

PS. I have heard the jokes about Portuguese language and they all have a little bit of truth on them Fact is, Portuguese is complicated. I can understand Spanish well but Spanish-speaking people can't understand me... it's bizarre. I can pick up a lot of words when people are speaking French or Italian, but likewise, friends from those countries don't have a clue of what I speak.

[davemess10]

Originally Posted by NBeener

The better schools are really where you would expect them to be -- in the upper income areas.

Mike can probably chime in, as he is the authority on the school system around this board, but the Fort isn't that big and I was kind of under the impression, that with only 3 high schools, they were all pretty good.

I wouldn't really classify any area of town as "lower income", I think at worst most of the town is middle to lower middle income.

I just don't think you'll have the stratification of different levels of schools in the Fort compared to a larger city like Denver.

I agree Portuguese is crazy (I've been to Brasil and Portugal). What cracked me up was the people who would always say "I speak Spanish", and then when you spoke Spanish to them they just looked at you blankly.

[NBeener]

Well .... even if you look at the median income, by ZIP code ... there's a fairly significant difference in incomes.

It may not be like that of a "big city," but ... it IS FC's version of ....