Sell me on Colorado.

[Rsully70sev]

A few buddies and I are thinking of moving to Colorado. We're torn between San Diego, Portland, and Denver/Boulder. While they are all very different, we have our reasons for each.

I've had enough of California, so the order of preference is Colorado, Oregon, California.

The Plan:

-Rent a house. Find out if we even like the location, and if we'd want to be there for the next few years, invest in property.
-Branch out the California business to either state, if it's to our liking. New atmosphere, new standards, new customer base.
-Go to the local community college for a semester while making our decision, then transfer to an university.
-Taking the E30 with me.

Any locals that can shed some light? Sure I can google points of interest, but I like hearing "straight from the horses mouth."

[b*saint]

I could tell ya everyone is doing it so join the bandwagon. Its like the Flordia for NYorkers. Its the place they all end up. Seems like all the west coasters sick of the west coast get as far east as Colorado. Although seems like a good place to stop. The old parts lady was from Denver. She wishes she could go back.

[scabzzzz]

/thread

[Bimmerman325i]

Colorado is fucking awesome. I moved from Bay Area to Boulder years ago, and while I like the bay area, Boulder/Denver area is just better IMO. I'm going back to SF for grad school, but am not really excited to leave the Boulder/Denver area.

Advantages:
There are tons of outdoorsy things to do, open spaces between towns (!), mountains, forests, not that many people, and thriving aerospace/biomedical/communications industries (others too).

Atmosphere is more laid back and outdoorsy, more western than California nanny state.

Very good universities depending on what field you want to study. Correlation to that: highly educated, higher income, highly informed, techie population.

300 days of sun a year. It will snow a foot and be 70F and sunny the next day, has done so many many times.

There are NO goddamn fucking hipster douches, thank flying spaghetti monster.

Emissions testing is lax, cops for the most part don't care about your car unless you're speeding or being a fucktard.

Downsides:
there's not much water. There's no ocean. It does not rain all day long (aka not Portland weather). There are no rainforests. It is a desert steppe environment.

Boulder is expensive to live in, but cheaper than CA. Surrounding towns are ~15min away and much cheaper to rent, but Boulder might have the better customer base depending on your industry.

[Bimmerman325i]

also, scabzzzz, your pic doesnt work

[blefevre]

Colorado is fucking awesome. I moved from Bay Area to Boulder years ago, and while I like the bay area, Boulder/Denver area is just better IMO. I'm going back to SF for grad school, but am not really excited to leave the Boulder/Denver area.

Advantages:
There are tons of outdoorsy things to do, open spaces between towns (!), mountains, forests, not that many people, and thriving aerospace/biomedical/communications industries (others too).

Atmosphere is more laid back and outdoorsy, more western than California nanny state.

Very good universities depending on what field you want to study. Correlation to that: highly educated, higher income, highly informed, techie population.

300 days of sun a year. It will snow a foot and be 70F and sunny the next day, has done so many many times.

There are NO goddamn fucking hipster douches, thank flying spaghetti monster.

Emissions testing is lax, cops for the most part don't care about your car unless you're speeding or being a fucktard.

Downsides:
there's not much water. There's no ocean. It does not rain all day long (aka not Portland weather). There are no rainforests. It is a desert steppe environment.

Boulder is expensive to live in, but cheaper than CA. Surrounding towns are ~15min away and much cheaper to rent, but Boulder might have the better customer base depending on your industry.

This is very accurate.

If you are at all an outdoors person this is the place to be. Hiking, biking, mountain biking, running, climbing, skiing, rafting, it's all here and there is TONS of it. Most people are very active so everyone seems to be more happy and "upbeat". I come from the midwest where everything just seems to be "slow".

The weather is very nice.

It's damn pretty.

There are nearly zero bugs, that's right, screw you bugs.

Even Denver is a pretty small city compared to most places. Getting around is very easy and not too stressful. Not to mentionn a 5-10 minute drive and you are past the first foothill and there is no sign of a metro city.

Again, there are a lots of high tech industries here with good schools to go to.

[iamsam]

You really should be posting this in the Mountain regional forum.

But CO is awesome. There is a reason we are being infested w/ CA immigrants. Mountain roads are amazing, we have a cool race track (google High Plains Raceway) and an awesome rally track (google Colorado Off Road Extreme), and a fairly large BMW market on CL.

[Fusion]

I lived in the Denver suburbs 12y, best place ever. The mountains offer year round activities, ghost towns (gold rush), and tons of other stuff. Whether you're into 4x4, quads/cross, boats, camping, whatever, you'll always find a place without people. I liked how Boulder was surrounded by nature and a very easy going town with cool shops, artists doing stuff on the street etc.
Oh, and having a beer in a t-shirt on a balcony while watching people snowboard, fuck yeah!

[blefevre]

Oh yes...the BEER.

Unlimited microbrews!

[Bimmerman325i]

Oh yes...the BEER.

Unlimited microbrews!

How the hell did I forget that?

Seriously, OP, EPIC microbrews here in CO.

[colorado_cabrio]

MTN forum FTMFW!

[BakesE30]

Not to hijack this thread but how is Colorado Springs? I will be stationed out at Ft. Carson in November and so I'll be looking for a place there. Ive heard great things (No.1 requested post in the army)

[blefevre]

There are a few people in Co Springs that can better direct you. I have heard that they nearly ran out of money and had to cut park services and police force, etc. This was a year or so ago, not sure what has changed. It's a nice area but I'm not sure how the town has been holding up in that respect.

[xAZxE30x]

Not to hijack this thread but how is Colorado Springs? I will be stationed out at Ft. Carson in November and so I'll be looking for a place there. Ive heard great things (No.1 requested post in the army)

I am from there and most of my family still lives in Co Springs. I think that it is an awesome place! There is all kinds of things to do there and i think that it is pretty similar to a good amount of co cities. Close to garden of the gods (good hiking), pikes peak is down the ways, air force base is a cool place to visit, I have family stationed there so we go quite often.

1hr to Denver to get your city fix and go to Broncos/Rockies games!! ha

[blefevre]

Yep, as location goes Co Springs is in a cool place. You lose a little bit on the easy access hiking (Front range denver has thousands of trails), but that's about it. Cool area for sure. They have more 4x4 trails down there.