Wanting to move to Colorado...learn me on Denver

[Nick_S]

So if any of you caught my threads from earlier this year, I moved I from Central Ohio to Southern California for a drastic change up in my life...which is has been. I've been here for about 5 months now and the short story is simply....I HATE Los Angeles. It's filthy, overcrowded, smelly, traffic is mind numbing, insanely expensive, people are assholes and crime ridden. Aside from the weather and visiting the nicer areas, I don't like it at all. I'm the kind of person who enjoys nice quiet drives as far away from other people as possible and its nearly impossible to get away from people here, there is just too many of them.

On my drive out here I stopped in the Denver area and absolutely fell in love with it. The city itself reminds me a lot of home, it's cleaner, the people are friendly and being someone who enjoys the outdoors, there is MUCH more to offer that I want to do. Also, a good friend from home lives there now and already has a garage space with a lift that I'm going to go in on with him so thats a huge plus. I secretly regretted not moving there first but didn't want to admit it to myself because I thought SoCal would be the place for me. The sheer amount of places to ride BMX blew me away too. Some of the best skateparks I've ever ridden that are bike friendly, city funded dirt jumping spots and public pump tracks as well as brand new indoor park just opened last week. Taking the E30 for a blast around curvy mountain roads with gorgeous scenery and clean, crisp air... It sounds like heaven to me.

All of that aside, tell me what you guys think of it. Negatives? Places to live? Places to avoid, cost of living etc. I have read there is a bit of a housing crisis currently so prices are inflated and open units are slim which I have noticed a bit. I don't have a line on employment yet which is a concern but I've always been able to find something even if it's just a bike shop to start with.

Cheers!
Nick


Personal favorite video I watch nearly daily.

http://vimeo.com/16992880

[mitchlikesbikes]

not really denver learning but:

i live in salt lake city and it's awesome. from what i've heard we're like a smaller, cleaner denver. best snow on earth and a HUGE bmx scene. look into coming here too!

oh and there are 3+ canyons with brilliant drives less than a half hour from downtown. even more less than an hour away

[LateFan]

It's big…but not LA big.
You can go to the mountains.
There are spectacular places in the mountains, and many 14,000 ft peaks you can just walk up. (if you can breathe)
The air is thin and the sun always shines.
Sunday night coming home from the mountains is a slog, with everybody doing the same thing you are.
It is flat-ish in the city, and it sprawls outward.
There is traffic.
Confluence Park where the rivers come together downtown is a cool place.
Boulder is cool, but kind of full of itself.
Bike trails go for miles.
Pretty progressive city for a western state.
Aspen and Vail are not real places with real people.
Everybody in CO thinks they're a cowboy and drives a truck. (maybe not true)
My memory growing up there is that south is nicer, north is more industrial - might be old news.
Aurora and east is flat, boring, and can be rough.
The north and south edges of downtown can be pretty rough.
Sports teams, things to do, the arts, some diversity..
You can ski ($$$)
Hot and dry in the summer. (<10% humidity often)
Dry / mountain / desert climate.

[IRON-E]

I told you so.......

[Todd Black 88]

Sounds like you need to move to the PNW.

[Nick_S]

I told you so.......

Ha! I had to try it for myself man. If I would have gone somewhere else I would have still always thought I wanted to live in SoCal. I probably made it seem worse than it is. It's not bad, but it's not where I want to live.

Sounds like you need to move to the PNW.

If for some reason I don't like mountain living, the PNW is the next stop...or is the next stop down the road. I see no reason to stay stationary.

[LateFan]

the GREAT NW..

grey
soggy
moss on your shoes
drip drip drip
clean air
SO green
the ocean
too many trees to count
summer is 6 weeks
boats
boeing
logs
flannel
eddie bauer
coffee
hipsters
microsoft millionaires
no basketball team

[Farbin Kaiber]

Well, Idaho sucks, stay out, you won't like it here. And, I told ya so.

[Nick_S]

Isn't that where potatoes come from? I'll pass.

[Roland H]

Northern Idaho (panhandle) is great, southern Idaho sucks.

Denver is a great place to live, however many people now realize that. The Denver Metro Area grows by 50,000 people every year and the traffic is absolutely awful now because of that. No amount of highway expansion will ever be able to fix it since they continue to build suburbs as fast as they can get lumber to do it with. The amount of foreign license plates here is just absurd.

You can literally drive an E30 up a 14,000+ foot mountain if you want, two of them have paved roads. Or if you're looking for a challenge, some of them present some seriously challenging hikes. Skiing/snowboarding is great, just find some friends to pool with and it can be pretty affordable if you split gas and have a pass.

The weather is the best in the country imho, more sunshine than any other state and we still get all the proper seasons and storms.

[Roland H]

no basketball team

sounds like paradise.

[Nick_S]

Good stuff Roland! Thanks for the input. I drove up to Mt Evans in the e30 last time, it was great.

[downforce22]

I grew up in aurora (read east side of denver, almost to kansas). I realize now how much I missed. It was not close to the mountains, not close to downtown, and the area was for middle aged adults wanting to start a family. It was nice but I hated waiting in traffic to get to downtown or the mountains and thats one thing you could not avoid.

I moved to colorado springs for college and loved it. So I got a job and place here and thats where I stay. All of the benefits of denver and boulder without the negatives. The location you find will dictate how much you like the city. If I found a good location further east in denver (2 car garage, easy to get across town), things may have been different. I'm sure traffic doesn't compare to la but you get my point. I think you will like it over the size of la but if you find the right location you can enjoy everything that was listed above.

Oh and you may like the scenery

[ThatOneEuroE30]

Go to Colorado it's amazing. I wanna move there to.

[blizake500]

south is where it's at

Move to the south and see if you like that. I love in Ga and it's one of the best States you can live in. Everybody is nice. You can live down in southern ga or if you like the mountains North Ga and the blue Ridge Mountains are beautiful. Or if you like the city Atlanta is very pretty but traffic is horrible. Finding a job in Atlanta is very easy too