Peace Out Denver: Review of 10 years living on the Front Range (Boulder: renter, home)

[modest]

Originally Posted by sammy87

To be fair most new homes in CO have a single dead Silver Maple due to the builders not planting properly and just throwing it in clay. Our whole sub division was full of dead trees. No top soil with them.

And lots of dead grass (or high water bills) in a place where it rarely rains. We are planning on xeriscaping our whole yard, because lawns absolutely do not make sense in this climate.

[DenverBrian]

Originally Posted by jwiley

As a 5th generation Coloradoan I cannot find much I disagree with in here. FAct is I am one of 37 cousins all born and raised along the front range and right now there are only 8 of us left along the front range, with me and another cousin planning on leaving in the next few months.

Between overcrowded camping and trails, schools, roads, and even stores it often feels like what once made Colorado so great has disappeared and all that is left is a state looking for ways to always increase revenues.

What was once a libertarian state has become very much a city versus rural state with the city liberals ruling over the rest of the state and running it into the ground.

I fully understand why people move to and love Colorado, but like many others it has turned into a place that I no longer enjoy living in.

Off to Idaho, are ya?

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by modest

And lots of dead grass (or high water bills) in a place where it rarely rains. We are planning on xeriscaping our whole yard, because lawns absolutely do not make sense in this climate.

Xeriscaping is always a good idea in Colorado as the state is in a runaway feedback loop with near constant drought with warming climate:

Here is a good reference, currently based on soil moisture values- Colorado is the fourth driest state in the country:

https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/produc.../Soilmst.shtml

[COcheesehead]

We left Denver in the summer of 2020 and moved to Grand Junction. We didn’t hate Denver by any means. We thought of ourselves as city people. We walked everywhere, utilized all the amenities the city had to offer, but it felt liked it peaked a few years ago. Traffic, air quality and a different breed of people moving in, less focused on the outdoors and more focused on Denver just being the new “it”.

So many of our neighbors in Grand Junction are Denver transplants. People with corporate jobs, but who can now live anywhere. They moved west for the same reasons we did. Less traffic, more recreation so close, good restaurants that you can actually get into, a fun wine and agricultural scene, better weather and at least for the time being slightly better house values.

Changes are coming to Grand Junction too. The same developers who built up Denver and now relocating here with projects on tap similar to the what you see in RINO and the surrounding area. Grand Junction will change a lot in the next five years. We hope all of the change is good, but one thing is certain, like many of our friends and neighbors we are glad we got out of Denver when we did. It has growing pains.

[himain]

We are in Littleton off C470. I come from Miami so I highly enjoy the non humidity weather. We bought a house at end of Jan 2020 just in time. We lived in an expensive apt in West Lakewood before that (which we had a multi-million dollar view). Our house was 400k and we can sell it now for almost 585k. We don't have kids so that aspect doesn't affect us. We no longer venture into Denver though especially at night with all the crime and homeless. We have our local "hiking" spots and don't really travel up to the mountains at all. If we do, it's on a Wednesday for the day and never the weekends. We are huge Vegas people so love the quick flight over there. Otherwise we just shoot up to Blackhawk and stay the night and get our gambling fix there.

However, CO is not our end all and eventually we will be back in FL-but on the west coast. Probably Clearwater in a beachfront condo.

[Willy702]

I thought of this thread yesterday while in an airport lounge far from Denver. I overheard people chatting about where they were from and Denver comes up. And then the fun begins. People start on the I can't live there anymore rants. And others in the lounge chiming in. Those who started it said they left to move to NW Arkansas. They raved about how they now have hiking trails that are nearly empty. They said when they first moved to Denver in 2012 they had some trails almost as empty but when they left in 2019 they were overcrowded, must have been 10 times as many people out there. Others chimed in with similar stories. I wanted to tell these people to stop BS-ing but just let it go. People love hyperbole and exaggeration. Yeah there are more people around and it costs more to live in the area now but stop pretending this became Manhattan and your favorite trail is now Times Square. If one doesn't want to live here that's perfectly fine, I wish them well elsewhere. But notice there was a buyer or renter waiting to move in instantly when you left so many don't share your opinion of the area.

[davebarnes]

Originally Posted by Willy702

IThose who started it said they left to move to NW Arkansas.

Just say:No!
https://www.cnbc.com/2013/09/27/the-...n-america.html

[mkwensky]

Originally Posted by Willy702

I thought of this thread yesterday while in an airport lounge far from Denver. I overheard people chatting about where they were from and Denver comes up. And then the fun begins. People start on the I can't live there anymore rants. And others in the lounge chiming in. Those who started it said they left to move to NW Arkansas. They raved about how they now have hiking trails that are nearly empty. They said when they first moved to Denver in 2012 they had some trails almost as empty but when they left in 2019 they were overcrowded, must have been 10 times as many people out there. Others chimed in with similar stories. I wanted to tell these people to stop BS-ing but just let it go. People love hyperbole and exaggeration. Yeah there are more people around and it costs more to live in the area now but stop pretending this became Manhattan and your favorite trail is now Times Square. If one doesn't want to live here that's perfectly fine, I wish them well elsewhere. But notice there was a buyer or renter waiting to move in instantly when you left so many don't share your opinion of the area.

Are there cities Denver's size or bigger with nearly empty trails?

[DenverBrian]

Originally Posted by mkwensky

Are there cities Denver's size or bigger with nearly empty trails?

There are certainly cities Denver's size or bigger with virtually NO trails. <cough>Atlanta<cough>

[mkwensky]

Originally Posted by DenverBrian

There are certainly cities Denver's size or bigger with virtually NO trails. <cough>Atlanta<cough>

They do have a nice elevated bike/pedestrian path in the middle of the city. Not crowded for me but probably feels like Tokyo to those who left Denver because there are too many people on the trails. https://beltline.org/