Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:And putting up with riots from middle class white college kids in Boulder is just too much. Not such a good place to buy your million dollar mountain mini-mansion.
https://www.westword.com/news/inside-boulder-hill-party-gone-wrong-11915772
Truth. It is, like most of the area, very white, very middle class and very annoying about it...
But Boulder does have decent dining, shopping and socializing if you can afford / care about that stuff.
I don't know if it matters but everywhere in the entire area my wife and daughter were usually the only non white people in the room.
Sitting by the fire in the lodge at the St. Regis in Aspen was like watching a tacky "bored housewives of the waspy bigots" reality show.
Keith Tanner said:golfduke said:man, I love the crap out of Denver every time I go there. Makes me sad to hear that it apparently isnt an amazing place to live. It's on my list of 3 (portland, ME and Whistler, BC are the others)...
That's because you're mostly hearing from people who have either visited or decided to move away for some reason. Only Snowdoggie actually lives (near) there :)
Nope. I live in Dallas. I lived in Denver for 12 years. I went to DU Law School when it was on the Colorado Women's College Campus right next to Stapleton Airport. I remember how rough East Colfax was back then. Neither the Law School nor the Airport is in that part of town anymore. I remember sitting in class with planes taking off over my head. When I was there, my studio apartment in Capital Hill was only $450 a month. Now the rent there is stupid expensive. $1,200 to $2,400 a month. And if you can't afford underground parking, your car gets broken into. It was a safe neighborhood back then. I lived there back when pot was illegal and the homeless camps downtown were not there. I still have relatives there but it has changed a lot, and not for the better.
In fact, I have several relatives who bailed out of Denver for small Western Slope towns because of the redonkulous cost of living in Denver.
Love the Rockies.
The "city" that runs from Colorado Springs to Fort Collins not so much. Traffic matching Dallas, Atlanta, D.C. Metro.
tb (I support things) said:Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:And putting up with riots from middle class white college kids in Boulder is just too much. Not such a good place to buy your million dollar mountain mini-mansion.
https://www.westword.com/news/inside-boulder-hill-party-gone-wrong-11915772
Truth. It is, like most of the area, very white, very middle class and very annoying about it...
But Boulder does have decent dining, shopping and socializing if you can afford / care about that stuff.
I just don't get the Boulder riot. It's like a bunch of rich kids got drunk and went on a Mercedes flipping binge because the University banned frat parties due to Covid. Crazy Colorado White People. 
Purple Frog (Forum Supporter) said:Love the Rockies.
The "city" that runs from Colorado Springs to Fort Collins not so much. Traffic matching Dallas, Atlanta, D.C. Metro.
Everyone complains about the traffic, but I never found it to be too bad...
I would never compare it to Atlanta or DC in my experience. I always chuckle a little because it is worse than Montana or Nebraska but almost anywhere with a human population has a little traffic sometimes. I learned to drive amongst some of the most aggressive operators around and could cut through the masses pretty easily. The truckers going 40 up the mountains absolutely suck, but I made up for it by doing 100 in the twisties...
In reply to Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) :
Heck now, Even with underground parking the cars get broken into. I had my car gone through twice with under ground parking. They just tailgate in. 2br next to the DCC and underground parking rents out for $2300 these days.
My 2 bedroom with underground parking in Cherry Creek was a lot more than that and it did have the occasional car break in. When the poor starting targeting the wealthy over the summer our armed security need to be proactive a few times and my bike was stolen.
Still, there are a lot more dangerous places to live and it felt like Disneyland compared to them.
tb (I support things) said:I don't know if it matters but everywhere in the entire area my wife and daughter were usually the only non white people in the room.
Sitting by the fire in the lodge at the St. Regis in Aspen was like watching a tacky "bored housewives of the waspy bigots" reality show.
Do not judge Colorado by Aspen or Vail. Please, no. That's not us.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
I actually lived in Edwards for a while and worked in Vail. The trailer park I lived in, right down the hill from the Lodge at Cordillera, is now a neighborhood of multi million dollar ranchettes.
Things change.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
You are right, those are only small pockets and touristy ones at that. Still, it doesn't get any more diverse out in the high desert.
Colorado ski country is in a reality of its own. Or a lack thereof. You do not want to get my Colorado native wife started on that.
As for diversity - depends on what kind of diversity you're looking for. There's a lot more Spanish spoken around here than there was where I grew up and the Mexican food is a lot better. Not as much Inuktitut, though :) If you're looking for large pockets of specific ethnic groups, small towns are rarely the best place to look.
My idea of Colorado Ski Country is a cheap apartment in Denver, used skis from the Gart Brothers swap meet and $12 lift tickets for Eldora and Loveland bought at King Soopers. Ski clothes were well worn and duct taped. I'm sure that reality no longer exists.
Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:My idea of Colorado Ski Country is a cheap apartment in Denver, used skis from the Gart Brothers swap meet and $12 lift tickets for Eldora and Loveland bought at King Soopers. Ski clothes were well worn and duct taped. I'm sure that reality no longer exists.
When I started skiing CO in 2001, I could get a 10 day pass from Telluride for $300 and park for free at the base of the lift. I'd even sleep in my Subaru out in the national forest. Those weren't even the good old days. Now that $300 won't even buy you two days and you have to pay for parking that requires a gondola ride to get you to the lift. The resorts are almost hostile to anyone who's not there on vacation or a townie with a season pass.
Duct tape is not a good repair tool for ski clothes, I swear it actually creates cold :)
Skiing in Red River or Taos New Mexico is more like what Colorado used to be. Still a bit pricey compared to what skiing used to be but it isn't really stupid money. There are actually ski lodges in New Mexico that don't have Cable TV and WiFi who say that the mountain should be enough entertainment for you.
Keith Tanner said:Duct tape is not a good repair tool for ski clothes, I swear it actually creates cold :)
I remember people in Vail would actually complain when Ross Perot duct taped his old ski pants instead of walking into one of the overpriced ski shops to buy new duds. It's a Texas thing. 
Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:Keith Tanner said:Duct tape is not a good repair tool for ski clothes, I swear it actually creates cold :)
I remember people in Vail would actually complain when Ross Perot duct taped his old ski pants instead of walking into one of the overpriced ski shops to buy new duds. It's a Texas thing.
Knowing how cold it is when you repair your gloves with duct tape is a Canadian thing :)
In reply to Keith Tanner :
Definitely a good amount of Mexicans on that side of town and some great food along with very grassroots friendly repair shops.
There's a fairly popular ski resort close by. It's..... unpleasant to be around most the people.
I lived in the Denver area for 6.5 years, then 7 years in Colorado Springs which is an hour south. If you're looking at Colorado I would highly recommend looking at Colorado Springs or Ft Collins instead. Both are much more laid back and easy going. It seems like life slows down a bit. Less traffic, less people etc. Still big cities with all the amenities you need.
edit: I moved to the mountains from Colorado Springs a year ago, so my experience there is very recent. House prices in Colorado are outrageous right now, at least compared to 5 years ago. It's a hotspot for people from California and Texas to move to.
I suppose I should clarify that my potential employment opportunity would be in Boulder proper so I'd be looking to be within daily commute range of there. It's good to know about the surrounding areas though.
In reply to pointofdeparture :
I hope they are paying you well. Boulder is the most expensive place in the state except for maybe Vail and Aspen. Surrounding suburbs are also expensive. It's a college town which you may or may not like. Don't leave your car out on Friday night.
Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to pointofdeparture :
I hope they are paying you well. Boulder is the most expensive place in the state except for maybe Vail and Aspen. Surrounding suburbs are also expensive. It's a college town which you may or may not like. Don't leave your car out on Friday night.
This. I like Boulder, but I also have plenty of money and go for younger women... it is a cool town if you can deal with some shenanigans and lots of hills.
Sigh. Anyone who compares Denver traffic to Atlanta, Boston etc clearly hasn't driven here very much. Is there traffic? Yes, it's a major metropolitan area with only ONE main North/South and ONE main East/West freeway. That said, the traffic here is NOWHERE near that of much larger cities like Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, etc, etc, etc.
I grew up here as a little boy, then lived in Vail after college, then moved back here in 2004. Has it become more expensive to buy a house? Yes! However that's also the case in any other desirable area of the country. If you compare the housing costs here to those in rural Iowa, you're going to be shocked, but that's not a valid comparison. If you compare them to other desirable areas, particularly those on the coasts, you'll find Denver is actually cheaper.
Covid is making the outdoors more crowded. Since there's less open, those that used to hang out in town and go to bars, shows etc are deciding to go camping, hiking, etc. Because of that the bike trails and other things are getting impacted negatively. I find myself getting on the bike trails much earlier on a weekend to try and avoid crowds. I've always driven up to ski on a Thursday afternoon and come home Saturday afternoon. Traffic those days is about the same and unless there's an epic powder day I don't find the lift lines at Vail to be long at all. Most of the time I ski right onto the chair, even with Covid.
If you go up to the lift ticket window you're going to pay. A lot. However when I moved out here in 92-93 a season pass for Vail/Beaver Creek was $825 and was restricted, you couldn't use it on holidays. A full Epic pass, which covers a TON of ski resorts and has NO black out dates is about the same amount. So anyone who says skiing is expensive, or that it was way cheaper back in the day isn't really correct.
Weather here is pretty awesome, we get over 300 days of sunshine a year. When it snows it hangs around for a few days and is gone. They do a great job with snow removal here. Winter is generally mild temperatures, maybe a week or two of single digits but mostly its around 30-40F.
The foodie scene here has gotten a lot better, decent choices of ethnic food. Still not up to the level of a real metro area like Chicago or LA but pretty good. I'd say this is still more of a steakhouse kind of town than anything else though.
Plenty of good neighborhoods with good schools here. Depending on where you want to live and how much land you want to have you can spend anywhere from $600k to multi millions. Boulder is a very cool community but they've had "no growth" laws on the books for decades. That's created an artificial housing market there and you pay more. You also pay more because it's a college town and right up against the Flatirons with easy access to trails. It's also the most left leaning community in the state and it shows. Just like Colorado Springs is the most right leaning community and it shows there.
Plenty of good tracks here. Within 2 hours of me are High Plains Raceway, Pike Peak Int'l Raceway and Pueblo Motorsports Park. SCCA, BMWCCA and PCA all have very active auto-x programs and all the Clubs do track days along with NASA. You can go to the track pretty much any weekend on season here and the season runs from April through October. There are social car events too, plenty of meet and greets, shows, etc, etc.
If you like the outdoors this is still a good place to come. Just try not to drive up the hill on friday after work and come back on sunday afternoon. Property is going to cost significantly more than Wisconsin I suspect but if you're ok with that, you're going to be happy. I like it here, all my wife's family live 10 minutes from us. I like mtn biking and skiing, dual sport riding my moto and track driving. All that is easily done here. The summers can get a bit hot for me but that's about it. Really the only place I'd move to would be back home to San Diego (La Jolla or around it specifically) but I can't pull that off $$$ wise...
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