I NEED to Move...

[kristof65]

I would say for Colorado, you'd want Boulder. Pros- so open minded, people's brains fall out. Decent FLGS though small, but very busy. Cons- kinda hippy-ish, also stoopid expensive unless you're OK with a student-grade apartment. Lots of rich housewives wearing $200 yoga outfits carting their brats around in SUVs.

Boulder's expensive though. Fort Collins and Greeley, being college towns, have many of the same benefits, without the cost. But Greeley's out on the plains, so you get that blowing snow more often. If I were going for a college town here, I'd go for Fort Collins personally. Otherwise, I'll stick with the Denver area. Personally, I love living in Lakewood - but then again, that's cause I know the town so well, having lived half my life here, and the other half visiting it.

 

But if he's had it with snow, we might not be the best choice for him yet, even though we know we are...

[Heisler]

it snowed on May 1st here. IT SNOWED! a good 3 inches, in MAY!!!!

 

 

On the front range of Colorado, you can EXPECT the last measurable snowfall will be in mid May. The earliest will be mid-late September.

 

Higher in the mountains of Colorado, you can see snow anytime of year, except MAYBE mid July - late August.

 

Yes, we got 3 inches of snow here yesterday morning. It melted before the afternoon was over. It was 75 degrees the day before yesterday.

 

Well that was in Colorado Springs farther north, in Denver, it snowed all day maybe 1/2" accumulation and its all gone today. Yes, we can get snow as early as September but late October early November is far more likely and again it will mostly be melted away in a few days. We really only get 2-3 weeks of truly cold weather.

 

Boulder is an interesting place to live, I wish some of you would stop knocking it so hard I did grow up there. It is very diverse politically, culturally and religiously. It is a very friendly town that is very tolerant of people from all walks of life as long as they aren't breaking the law. The hippies moved to Nederland anyway when Boulder became to mainstream. It is an expensive place to live because of its growth plan. This growth plan includes the building up of the greenbelt area around Boulder in which no new construction can occur and a limit to an in town building limit capping new building permits at a 10% annual growth rate which means you see a lot of apartments and pop tops going up rather than new single family homes. The south end is kind of ritzy the north end has a lot of trailer parks. For what ever reason game stores have not traditionally done very well in Boulder and I wish that current one the best of luck and he seems to be doing very well.

 

For gaming though the Denver Metro area is hard to beat on a population basis. The population in this area is about 1.5 million which is not quite half the population of the entire state. There are at least 5 FLGSs in that area along with a GW store and a local mall chain called Its Your Move. There is also a military bookstore that is simply unbelieviable he has everything. Currently there are two conventions in the area; Tacticon (about 800 or so) and Genghis Con (about 1600 or so) along with a huge Anime convention. I understand that BenCon is trying to get started again we will see what happens with that. There are several RPG groups, one of which is quite large (The House of Dragons) and a regular historical miniatures club (CMH). There are smaller groups that meet regularly at three of the FLGS that provide gaming space.

 

Economically the Denver area is struggling right now although not nearly as badly as other parts of the country. The forclosure rate on houses is way up right now though jobs are not necessarily scarce there is competition for them.

 

Colorado Springs is certainly far right on the religious front. It is the headquarters for one of those family groups, I can't remember the name. However, it is a military town home to the 6th Mechanized and 4th Armored divisions, along with Cheyenne Mountain and Wright Paterson airforce base. There are two FLGS down there, but I don't know what the job situation is.

 

In addition for the sports nut Denver has all the major sports represented along with the soccer and lacrosse. It has decent infrastructure with buses and light railway and the 16th street mall (a pedestrian mall that runs about 8 blocks in the middle of Denver) downtown. Note Denver stole this concept from Boulder after the success of Boulder's Pearl Street mall

 

I think that covers all the bases. If not ask something more specific

[Joe Kutz]

...and Wright Paterson airforce base.

 

Wright Pat is in Ohio - Peterson is in Colorado Springs (along with the Academy). Close enough though.

 

In the grand scheme of things though, remember that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. I've lived almost everywhere except for New England for varying lengths of time, and they all have their benefits. About the only place I would never contemplate living again would be California - New York state for similar reasons (I like to decide where my money goes - not have the state take it from me).

 

Colorado right now (Denver and other areas) suffers from a migration from California, which has lead to several issues that move it towards the grey area for me. While I am far from a right wing nut job (or a religious zealot) - I can tolerate the right wing loons better than the leftist loons. The right wingers generally keep there hands out of my wallet.

[Doug Sundseth]

Some notes on Heisler's comment:

 

Boulder is both less diverse and less friendly now than it was in the past. Right now, I think it's rather less of each than Colorado Springs. (FWIW, I'm sitting in Boulder right now.)

 

The AF bases in Colorado Springs are Falcon, Peterson, and USAFA. (Wright-Patterson is in Dayton, OH; if you ever get there do not miss the Air Force museum if you have any interest in the history of flight.)

 

Other than that, I pretty much agree.

[kristof65]

Some notes on Heisler's comment:

 

Boulder is both less diverse and less friendly now than it was in the past. Right now, I think it's rather less of each than Colorado Springs. (FWIW, I'm sitting in Boulder right now.)

Boulder is not the town it was when I was growing up (in Golden, to the south). It was always a little different in a good way, but sometime in 80s-90s, while I was out of state, it took a turn for the worse. Golden did too though - too many people from out of state moved in bought up all the cheap land, got themselves elected to the city council and then froze the construction of new houses to x number of houses a year and even fewer multi-family housing like condos and apartments. All that had the effect of making Golden one of the most expensive places in the area, when previously it had been one of the less expensive ones.

[VelveteenRabbit]

Heh, I like that Fort Collins was mentioned by people that don't live here... And we have a great game store! Weekly games of Magic, Warhammer, Rezolution, board games, etc... Seriously, Fort Collins is one of the nicer places to live. I've lived in lots and chose Fort Collins intentionally after visiting a friend briefly ten years ago. Fort Collins often hits "#1 place to live" in various magazines and stuff. I think the most recent was Money Magazine last year.

 

You should come and visit!

[Nial ap Morai]

Fort Carson is home of the 3ACR, 4th Infantry Divison, 43rd ASG and 10th SF, 2BCT/2ID...no 6th Mech as a major organization

[Nial ap Morai]

Fort Carson is home of the 3ACR, 4th Infantry Divison, 43rd ASG and 10th SF, 2BCT/2ID...no 6th Mech as a major organization

 

 

I think 6th ID was the nominal command for the post, it was changed to 2d Army (West)

[l33t ninj4]

You want all that? Come out to Garden Grove, CA. Here in SO CAL we have nice temperatures, a local game/ hobby shop that has a Friday night game group, and

crime/ gangs aren't too big a problem. The one thing is the housing market isn't that great out here right now, but there are a lot of apartment complexes being built out here.

[VelveteenRabbit]

Crime and Gangs aren't too big a problem? You need to see another State... I spent most of my "formative" years in the East Bay and I didn't think Crime and Gangs weren't that a big problem either but only because I happened to never been attacked or had anything too important stolen. Not that I really owned anything that important... Only had a couple of friends mugged/beat-up (cattle-prodded?) and a car stereo stolen. That and being seranaded to sleep by gun-fire...

 

Now I live in Fort Collins, and while not "crime-free", the only gunshot I've definitely heard was a neighbor shooting a robber. I don't know anyone who's been mugged here. My girlfriend had her car broken into but only because she left it unlocked in an alley... And our "gang scene" seems to revolve around high school kids and graffiti. Not that there is much of that... I have about a month's worth of "California" stories after having lived here more than ten years. Kind of like it that way...