Please tell me good things about FC (Denver, Fort Collins: how much, homes)

[icthy]

Hi everyone,

I've just been offered a good job in Fort Collins, and my wife and I are considering moving there (we have two preschool-age children). We've been through FC in the past, as we have family in Windsor and lived in Laramie, WY for a while, but never considered living in FC before.

After my job interview, I toured around town with a realtor, and I have to say I was unimpressed. I've heard many good things about the quality of life in FC, but other than the old town where we couldn't afford a house, it looked like the town lacked character. Every development in town looked really generic, and many apparently come with homeowner's covenants that seems to further suppress any individuality. The traffic seemed quite bad for a town of 100K, and the main roads seemed full of mini-malls and chain stores. I've lived in many places, including much worse places to live than FC, but I don't think I've ever seen a place that was so wholely lacking in character. Finally, the whole Front Range seems to be filled with surburban sprawl, and while my family and I love outdoor activities, I'm afraid if I want to get to the backcountry I'll be fighting the road with thousands of SUVs trying to do the same things.

I'm sorry to be so negative, and I'm sure I don't know too much about the town. I'd love to hear what you all love about Fort Collins, or why my initial impression was wrong. For reference, I have another job offer in Fairbanks, AK. To me this sounds like a fun place full of interesting things to do; but my wife is much more interested in moving to Fort Collins (we live on the East Coast now).

[ExploretheWorld]

I'm sorry I can't comment on Fort Collins, but I'm a recent transplant from the East Coast to Denver, CO. If your gut instinct is already telling you that something is not right then I would follow that advice. Granted you have a wife that wants to move to FC, but if you already have that impression it's bland it won't get better.

When I first came to Denver to have my interview for a high paying job, I immediately had my doubts. I thought Denver was going to be a lot like California, but I was wrong. There is something lacking about Colorado in general for me. It's a beautiful state, don't get me wrong, but it is just missing something for me. I'm building a lot of friendships now, but I still don't have any feeling like I want to settle here like I did when I was back East. I'm not trying to be pessimistic about anything, its just not my cup of tea now.

Housing is generally a heck of a lot cheaper than D.C. area, but if I don't want to stay somewhere for more than 5 years then why buy. I hoping the nice summer weather will change my opinion, but I think I should've listened to my gut.

[tfox]

Well, I'm a former resident of Fort Collins and I still think it's a great place to live. I think you do bring up some valid points: the town IS overgrown (as is the whole front range), traffic can be a problem, and parts of the town DO have an "Anytown, USA" sort of look about it.

That said, I think it's helpful to see Fort Collins as two towns in one: an older/northern town (north of prospect), and a souther/newer one south of prospect (that's the part that didn't exist until the 1960s). The southern part is essentially suburban sprawl, for the most part, though I would say nice suburban sprawl. I agree that it's largely lacking in character, though it is spotlessly clean and safe. The northern town has I think a considerable amount of character, and despite what you found there are plenty of affordable homes with character north of Prospect, (just not steps from old town).

So, my point is that while you may decide to stay in the northern part of town, it's no fair painting the whole town with the "sprawl" brush. For that matter, I've never seen a town in America that didn't have a ring of sprawl around it.

As for traffic, if you live in town you'll figure out the ways to go -- generally it's much faster to avoid some of the main streets and go on some parallel routes (example, Mason street is generally much faster than College, with fewer lights). Once you know the ropes the traffic is not too much of an issue.

As for competing with SUVs into the mountains, you're going to do far better in Fort Collins than anywhere further south (well, at least until you hit Pueblo). The gateways into the mountains from Fort Collins (Poudre Canyon, Livermore/Red Feather, and Us-34 through Loveland) are among the least overrun on the Front Range, which admittedly is not saying much. If you really want to escape the crowds on weekends, you could head even further north, into Wyoming.

[icthy]

Thanks ExploretheWorld and tfox. I expect my opinion so far is biased by my realtor-lead trip, and I suspect she is much more of a fan of the spawl-ly type developments than I am. I'm happy to hear north of prospect may hold some potential for more character, and I'm very happy to hear you think it's a great place to live. We're trying to decide if we want to move to FC, or Fairbanks, AK. AK has much more access to untrammeled wilderness, little sprawl and traffic, but then FC doesn't have magnitude 9 earthquakes, -40 temperatures, or people being eaten by bears (or mosquitos). On the other hand, I worry that in 10 years FC may be just another neighborhood in a sprawling suburban nightmare mega-city that extends from Denver northwards past FC. But like the title of my post states, I'm hoping to be proven wrong.

Thanks again for your replies!

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by icthy

Hi everyone,

I've just been offered a good job in Fort Collins, and my wife and I are considering moving there (we have two preschool-age children). We've been through FC in the past, as we have family in Windsor and lived in Laramie, WY for a while, but never considered living in FC before.

After my job interview, I toured around town with a realtor, and I have to say I was unimpressed. I've heard many good things about the quality of life in FC, but other than the old town where we couldn't afford a house, it looked like the town lacked character. Every development in town looked really generic, and many apparently come with homeowner's covenants that seems to further suppress any individuality. The traffic seemed quite bad for a town of 100K, and the main roads seemed full of mini-malls and chain stores. I've lived in many places, including much worse places to live than FC, but I don't think I've ever seen a place that was so wholely lacking in character. Finally, the whole Front Range seems to be filled with surburban sprawl, and while my family and I love outdoor activities, I'm afraid if I want to get to the backcountry I'll be fighting the road with thousands of SUVs trying to do the same things.

I'm sorry to be so negative, and I'm sure I don't know too much about the town. I'd love to hear what you all love about Fort Collins, or why my initial impression was wrong. For reference, I have another job offer in Fairbanks, AK. To me this sounds like a fun place full of interesting things to do; but my wife is much more interested in moving to Fort Collins (we live on the East Coast now).

You've pretty accurately described Fort Collins. To be sure, there are plenty of worse places (Fort Collins is actually one of the better urban areas of the Front Range, in my opinion), but the sprawl/growth sickness that is taking over so much of Colorado is in full flower in the Fort Collins area.

I lived in Cheyenne, and I would have to go to Fort Collins relatively frequently on business. Though the climate Fort Collins would be much more agreeable to most people compared to Cheyenne, I was always glad when Fort Collins was in my rear view mirror and I was headed home.

People on this forum get really tired of me saying this about places in Colorado, but Fort Collins USED to be a wonderful town, say 30 or so years ago. I loved it back then and seriously considered living there, but what has happened to it in the intervening years--along with the same along the whole Front Range--has pretty much ruined it in my view. I have the regrettable misfortune, I guess, of having seen so much of Colorado when it was a hell of lot nicer than it is now. The fact that so many newcomers to Colorado don't know any better about how nice Colorado used to be may make them "blissfully ignorant" about what they've missed, but people like me do know how nice it was and what has been lost--and that is saddening for us.

Good things about Fort Collins? Well, for a town, you can say that it is worse than some and better than many, but that is hardly a ringing endorsement, I guess.

[BlueWillowPlate]

I'm going to chime in with Jazzlover. I agree with everything he says.
I spent three years in Fort Collins and absolutely loved it--but that was 1973--76.
We have friends who own a beautiful home in Old Town--they stayed in FC after college.
A good thing:
I love the energy of a university town. There are lots of concerts and other events.
As you say, icthy, there are *worse* places. I don't blame your wife for being a bit more interested in Ft Collins than Fairbanks--doesn't it get kinda dark there in winter?

[icthy]

True, Fairbanks does get rather dark. But, according to a friend who grew up there, the summers make up for it. I think, living in AK, one could have quite a range of unique experiences, as well as meet interesting people, whereas I worry living in FC would be like living in suburban anywhere, with the bonus of having access to nice, but crowded, backcountry.

[icthy]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts! I consider myself very fortunate to have a job and a future home, and am looking forward to wherever we live.

[Tom Emmerling]

Itchy-There has been a lot of expansion in Fort Collins over the past 8 years or so that is like anywhere suburban that you describe. However Fort Collins does have some older neighborhoods that have character other than the downtown area. If it bothers you to live in the more populated areas you may want to consider smaller towns around Fort Collins like Timnath, Windsor, Wellington, Severance, or Bellvue. Depending on which way you travel to Fort Collins will dictate how much traffic you will have to put up with. Towns further North and East will yield less traffic for the most part. South of Fort Collins is a nightmare!!! Also you are right that the city has not been able to keep up with the traffic especially when college is in session. You may want to look at coloproperties.com and see what you find there as far as housing and pricing. I hope you move here and find that you love it as much as I do. Good luck with the new job and keep us updated.

[Rumblebelly]

I lived in Fort Collins for 10 years before following my wife back east so we could be closer to her family.

FC has an incredibly vibrant downtown. You would be hard pressed to find a better small city in the US in that regard. We live close to one of the jewels of the northeast, Saratoga Springs, and I think Fort Collins is a better city. Fort Collins pulls in some good live music and has several microbreweries within a couple miles of the downtown area. The downtown is pleasing to look at, much better than Boulder IMO. There are some really nice old neighborhoods surrounding the downtown area but prices for a 2 bed shotgun can be well over 200k.

Three drawbacks that I didn't like about Fort Collins:

Sprawl, obviously. Cookie cutter homes scattered on the plains aren't the prettiest thing to look at and I can relate to your "lack of character" comment". The traffic can get bad. The downtown of Fort Collins is a bit smaller than Saratoga Springs but still has to serve 100k more people. The bars and resturants in downtown get packed on the weekends. The mountains in the area get busy too...

Dry climate. Many speculate that the lack of water will someday limit the growth. In fact, it may be a bit too late.

College town. Although college kids are necessary for Fort Collins' vibrancy, they can sure get on yer nerves.