Lets all go live with H2O

[YellowJacket!]

According to the news today (Money Magazine), Fort Collins, CO. is the second best city in the US to live in.  Looks impressive.  There was something in the story though about one street with a house full of party'ers that kept it out of the #1 slot...but that its standings may rise next year. (JK)

CNN link: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bplive/2008/snapshots/PL0827425.html

Congrats H2O

Knoxville TN was #1 on the list the first two years I lived here.  After that, it dropped off the list entirely. Coincidence?   :o

David

[h2olawyer]

This USED to be a great place to live.  It's grown too much and the current city council wants to give a ton of services, but is so unfriendly to attracting new business or industry that the tax base is diminishing - in actual dollars (as opposed to growing, but at less than anticipated figures).  Businesses are moving out of Ft. Collins and headed for surrounding towns like Loveland, Windsor & Greeley.  This year's city budget is actually about 3% smaller than last year's.  At the same time, the city grew by more than 4,000 people.

The interchange at I-25 & US 34 was annexed by Loveland a few years ago.  There's now a big, beautiful shopping center on the east side of I-25 & the area Outlet Mall on the west.  Poudre Valley Hospital - in Ft. Collins since before 1900 - built it's new hospital in that same area.  A new Wal-Mart Supercenter is being built in Windsor - after they closed their standard Wal-Mart in south Ft. Collins.  The former jewel of Ft. Collins retail - the Foothills Mall is about 60% occupied and dropping.  The only growth in retail in this town is grocery stores.  Everything else is dropping.

The city council is also making this a very auto unfriendly town.  They have studied traffic light timing every year since I moved here (1987) and nothing has changed.  They had it fairly well worked out about 10 years ago.  You could get through town E-W or N-S and get stopped at one or two lights.  Now, I get stopped by at least 80% of the lights again.  Bicycle riders are treated like gods here.  They never get tickets for running stop signs or stop lights - even right in front of the cops.  They remove an entire traffic lane on busy streets to give the bicycles more room.  The news stories of bicycle / auto crashes are always spun to read as if it's the car driver's fault - even when the bicyclist ran the stop sign on a blind corner, giving the auto driver little chance to avoid the wreck.  Now, the city council is "infilling" the open - nonpark lands in town with multi-family dwellings (condos & apartments) to increase population density and "hopefully" get the new residents on bicycles.  That's not happening, so it really increases traffic on already overtaxed streets (which they don't have the $$ to maintain anymore).

So, no - just stay away!  When this city was under about 75,000, it was a nice place.  Easy traffic, nice pace of life, strong businesses, and a world class university to bring in cultural and academic benefits.  The place done growed up.  Population went from 75,000 to 130,000 in about 10 years.  The growing pains are enormous and systemic.  Ft. Collins will be off that list very soon, I predict.  we seem to make someone's list of great places to live every couple of years, then drop off a couple years later.

They can remove the part about the party house - it is no longer a problem.  The landlord got all the troublemakers out & now there is a young couple with a child living there.  Nobody's home during the day & the house is dark & quiet by 11PM.   ;D  I think they're friends of the troublemakers, but they don't allow their house to be used for whatever was going on there for the last few months.

H₂O

*EDIT* After reading their article, it shows how little investigation today's "journalists" actually do.  Both Hewlett Packard & Kodak are in a multiyear program of streamlining, laying people off - not hiring.  The Poudre Valley Health System Cancer Center will be in Loveland, not Fort Collins.  The lower income service industry is where most of the current & projected job growth is happening.  I'm stuck here for now, but as soon as I can manage it, I'll be out of here so fast I'll leave tire marks!

[YellowJacket!]

Same is happening in Knoxville.  It was once the #1 place to live in the country and Farragut, where I live was the most desireable place in Knoxville to live...it still is..why I don't know.  Knoxville has been wrestling with how to develop its waterfront for the last 25 years and has pretty much gotten nowhere and we are in a neverending cycle of highway rebuilding.  The big joke is The Tennessee Vols colors are orange and white and we show our spirit by lining every single road in the city with orange and white cones and barrels.
I think if I ever go live somewhere else, it would be Australia.  Rightn now, Birmingham Al, Charleston, SC, Louisville KY and Nashville TN are the tops in my immediate future...at least for the next few years.  Maybe Savannah GA too.

David

[h2olawyer]

I will say that there are MANY worse places than Ft. Collins.  It isn't too bad for a small city.  However, I spent 24 of my first 28 years on Earth in a town of around 5,000.  I have never liked urban areas at all.  They're OK to visit once in a while, but the quality of life really SUCKS!  That even goes for such "beautiful" places as Portland, OR, Seattle, WA, Denver / Boulder, CO, Salt Lake City, UT, Phoenix, AZ, Las Vegas, NV, San Diego, CA (I've spent enough time in each of these places to get a feel for them  :P ).  Give me a rural mountain town, a couple hours from a metropolitan area, with a tradition steeped in agriculture and I'll be in my Nirvana. Anyplace with more than about 15,000 people is just too big for my taste.

H₂O

[Rick G]

Sacramento CA. is the only decent large city in CA that's worth living in. Portland OR. is a joke (most of OR is a joke) Salem OR. is OK IF you can stand the long , dreary winters ( I wanted to kill my self , just to get away from it.
Kingman is a bit small and provincial , things you get used to in larger towns just aren't here.  As for bike cities , for me there's only one , actually two Minneapolis / St Paul MN.  Really liked it there, in spite of the cold winters and  bomber sized mosquito's.

[inanecathode]

Thats why i live, nowhere!

[Night Vision]

Thats why i live, nowhere!

that's why I often say.... "there is no perfect place to live... because if there was, eveyone would move there and it wouldn't be perfect for long"

but on the other hand.... nowhere sounds like a nice place  :D

[kiawrench]

this isnt a bad place, really, even with all of the politics and civil backstabbing going on . 
pay is above state average , food/clothing isnt too bad away from normal tourist traps , plenty to see and do year round ,, three huge bike rallies (one of which is dead after this year for sure ,, two still being voted on by THE PEOPLE) roads are decent,, schools are well ahead of rest of the state in scores as well as offerings, three huge colleges ,and who knows how many within 3 hr drive .
medical care is above average , but ---- it is killer expensive!! only good thing is wal-mart 4 dollar plan for medicines , and th ehuge hospital /school in charleston ,, musc,,, great place, fantastic food and othe ramenities, great trauma unit , best burn unit in three stae area, and ortho dept is just short of being as good as sarah silverman in a bikini,,, yup those fellas are good .

  my fave activity-- i ride the pirate coast  on my vision- Murrell's inlet north to okracoke island ,, stomping grounds of blackbeard and a few other well known pirates . ( you can even get open water dive certified and dive on the queen anne's revenge recovery dives ,,, no fee, but not allowed to keep anything,, is all state historical property )

dadburn it ,, i sound like tourist office chick,, sorry guys .

[Lucky]

dadburn it ,, i sound like tourist office chick,, sorry guys .

And almost as tall!

sorry, couldn't resist! :D

[kwells]

Hey H20
-saw ur neighbor's for sale sign out front.  Looks like you will soon sleep.

[h2olawyer]

All thge rowdies / late nighters / drug dealers left during the week after the 4th.   ;D  There's a young couple with a toddler in there now, doing cleaning & repairs.  They've been at it for over a week, working evenings.

A former renter, who was a bit rough around the edges, offered to buy the house from the landlord a few years ago.  The landlord said no at that time, even though he offered to sell to the renter when he first signed the lease.  Too bad, as he was a pretty good guy.

The for sale sign went up yesterday.  He's tried to sell a couple other times & it goes up between renters.  I think it attracts people who would like to buy, but can't afford it, so they end up renting.  However, now the landlord & his wife look to be well into their 80s & are probably anxious to unload it - especially after the last group in the house.

H₂O

[Aelwulf]

I can't say it was perfect but I must admit the Colorado Springs area turned out better then expected.  Right now of the places I've been to that and the Asheville, NC areas are toppin' the list (although I haven't actually lived around Asheville).  Considering the Springs is likely the best bet for a contractor job whenever I get out I guess that's a good thing.