Planning on moving to Colorado (place to live, area, place)

[Magdalena1]

Originally Posted by CosmicWizard

Although I think jazzlover focuses waaaaay too much on the negative, I also think that most of what he says happens to be right on the money. Don't let his comments bring you down, but also don't ignore what he's telling you. Anyone with a sincere desire to make a life in Colorado CAN do it, but it probably won't be easy in this economy. Coming in with a minimum of 6 months expenses saved up will make the transition easier and less stressful. Anything less than that is an almost surefire ticket to having more stress in your life rather than less. I wish you the best.

I think that it's a good advice to have savings for at least 6 months. It's not that we think that it's going ot be easy...but, some other people move to CO, and most of them are happy, so why wouldn't we be?

Noone said it's going to be easy...right?

Thanks a lot for your commend,

[Magdalena1]

Originally Posted by livecontent

I can tell you that you must understand, as many people have said, there are no small idyllic towns that you will find here. I know the little towns that you are referring in the east that are within 45 minutes of NYC--they do not exist here.

As far as opening a restaurant or having a catering truck--that is a "Pipe Dream" of many but is very difficult to achieve. Fast food experience is not cooking expertise. It is very competitive in Denver to get a good job in cooking and the pay is not good, for most positions. This is not CT or NY, wages are much lower and CO is not the cheapest place to live.

Ok...so Denver suburbs...what kind of towns/villages are there? There must be some nice places...?
Any business is quite hard at the beginning...but I don't believe that if we have good food, something that you cant buy in the area, that we won't have clients...
The job as a cook/restaurant...I know the wages are low, and that would be the worst case scenario, only for the beginning if there was nothing esle- hopefully for a short term...

How much a week one have to make in Denver area/suburbs to have a decent life?

Thanks for your commend

[livecontent]

Originally Posted by Magdalena1

Ok...so Denver suburbs...what kind of towns/villages are there? There must be some nice places...?
Any business is quite hard at the beginning...but I don't believe that if we have good food, something that you cant buy in the area, that we won't have clients...
The job as a cook/restaurant...I know the wages are low, and that would be the worst case scenario, only for the beginning if there was nothing esle- hopefully for a short term...

How much a week one have to make in Denver area/suburbs to have a decent life?

Thanks for your commend

There are many nice suburbs towns in the area. All have unique characteristics that have been written about on this forum. However, Denver is the real star as it is not like many eastern cities. People do not necessarily flee to the suburbs to find a quality of life. Denver is now attracting more people and all neighborhoods are in renewal. Denver is a clean, safe and dynamic city and offer many different neighborhoods from dense urban to more of suburban feel.

The big difference to me in this area is the amount of open space, parks and trails that extend and interconnect all over the metro area. Denver has the largest network of parks in the country. It still astounds me that you can live anywhere and have good access to parks. I am just talking about parks in the metro area and we have even more with the vastness of the Rocky Mountains.

I have heard your comments about "good food" and how you will have "clients" or customers from many people over the years. It is not that simple. Good food does not always equal a profitable establishment in the restaurant business. Denver is awash with Restaurants and the economy is terrible. I have some expertise in this business as I graduated from the CIA in Hyde Park, NY, many years ago and consequently have years of hard experience. I am now a senior citizen and retired.

What also makes me chuckle is how people are so proud about their outstanding food that they can make---and it is probably a very good preparation. However, what they forget to realize in a restaurant, you have to make the same product over and over and over again, every day and it must be consistent. It must have the same quality day after day, even with the new employees you have to train, time and time again; as they come and go. Restaurants and Cooking is monotonous attention to small details, over and over again; and these details will make you a success or break you.

Livecontent

[80skeys]

Originally Posted by Magdalena1

Hi,
Is it a safe place to be? Expensive? How far away from Denver? Any more places like that you could name?

Thanks

No it's not expensive. Yes it is a safe place.

Unfortunately I don't think it would interest you because it's very far from Denver. Our part of the state is known as the "western slope" because we're located on the western side of the Rocky mountains, near the Utah border.

But don't let that discourage you. Keep looking!

[beerfarmer]

You might want to consider the western side of the sierrra nevada mountains, foothills, as we call them. Your close to city and close to skiing, mountain biking, climbing, hiking, lake tahoe, ect. The wages are also higher than CO if you can land jobs.

[Magdalena1]

Western side of Sierra Nevada Mountains? Any big city? Any job perspectives?
How is the climate there? A lot different than in CO?

Thanks for the respond

[Katarina Witt]

I honestly think you should consider Pennsylvania or upstate NY. There are many small towns there that are not *too* far from a large city. It sounds to me like that is what you are looking for.

[Mike78613]

Dream, dream and more dreams. We're all about dreaming

Originally Posted by jazzlover

There seems to be more and more of these types posts from young people hoping to live some dream in Colorado. That's kind of sad, in a way, because the idealized dream many of them espouse--slower pace of life, bucolic small towns, etc.--has not really existed in most of Colorado for a long time, and especially not now. The people who can most readily avail themselves of that "relaxed" lifestyle are people who are financially independent and absolutely non-reliant on the local economy. Of course, those people can live most anywhere they want. Those financially secure souls are not the young ideologues continually making these posts.

For young job-seekers, Colorado is no panacea. First, there are plenty of other young ideologues already here--chasing the few decent jobs available these days. Second, Colorado is no longer an industrial powerhouse--it never was, but--again--especially not now. Its economy has been over reliant on the service economy for a long time--especially outside of the metro areas--and has the lousy wages to show for it. Third, like most of the Mountain West, Colorado has a schizophrenic population geography--that is, the majority of the population living in sprawled, often poorly planned, automobile-dependent suburban blobs; the remainder of the population scattered around the state in overpriced resorts, resource-extraction-dependent boom-bust towns, a few agricultural communities, and a few towns with an economic base of transfer payments coming to a large population of pensioners and retirees.

One of the most disturbing things about these threads is the absolutely glaring geographical ignorance of a good chunk of the US population--especially young people these days. The inane questions posted here show that in spades all the time. Never has their been such extensive geographical information at the public's fingertips, and yet Americans are more ignorant than ever about their own geography. And--geography matters.

[CosmicWizard]

Magdalena1 wrote:

some other people move to CO, and most of them are happy, so why wouldn't we be?

I am one of them! I've been in Colorado for 3 years and 3 months. You can be too if that is what your truly desire. But listen to Katiana. I think she is on to something. Like Kat, I grew up in PA, and what you are describing sounds alot more like PA than Colorado. Best thing to do is come for a visit, look around, feel the vibe, and decide wether or not Colorado is your cup of tea. On the other hand if climate is an issue, and you like dry air, and sunny blue skies most of the time, then that will be hard find in the eastern USA. IMO, Colorado wins on the climate issue hands down. Best wishes whatever you decide.

[80skeys]

Originally Posted by beerfarmer

You might want to consider the western side of the sierrra nevada mountains, foothills, as we call them. Your close to city and close to skiing, mountain biking, climbing, hiking, lake tahoe, ect. The wages are also higher than CO if you can land jobs.

If I weren't living in Colorado, that part of California would definitely be something I'd be looking at.