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Fort Collins, CO

UglyCasanova

UglyCasanova

Lifer
We do not like the city we currently live in and want to raise our kids someplace nicer. The wife has the opportunity to transfer to Fort Collins, CO and we are toying with the idea.

Anybody live there or visit there? I know it is home to New Belgium Brewery and is very bike friendly which is awesome and from what I've seen it looks fairly nice, but I'd like some opinions from people who know more about it.
 
Low crime, not a whole lot of jobs. Last I checked something like 80% of Weld County residents owned a firearm, 60% had a concealed carry permit. It is a college town, about an hour and a half from Denver. Its definitely a nice place to raise kids if you work from home or something, a lot of the tech jobs are further south in Boulder, Broomfield, DTC, or Springs. There is also Odell's (not Odouls) and I think AB-Inbev has a brewery up there as well. It is pretty small business friendly, basically like Boulder but without all the yuppies

edit: According to Wikipedia HP is a big employer up there and AMD has a small presence, TIL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Collins,_Colorado
 
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I wouldn't be looking for a tech job. More than likely I'll end up working in a bank. Do you know anything about their public school system and is it generally decent?

Also this is going to sound weird but two things that we have found that are actually pretty important to us is a good public library system and nice grocery stores.
 
UglyCasanova said:
I wouldn't be looking for a tech job. More than likely I'll end up working in a bank. Do you know anything about their public school system and is it generally decent?

Also this is going to sound weird but two things that we have found that are actually pretty important to us is a good public library system and nice grocery stores.
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idk about grocery stores, i know there is a good farmers market because a lot of the surrounding area is the agriculture center of CO. I think it is Poudre school district which is decent. The best in the state is Cherry Creek schools, but eh. I also have no idea bout their library. I've only go up there once or twice a month for the free beer at the breweries. The library at CSU is pretty good
 
I used to commute all the way up there from Parker when I used to work for Agilent Technologies. Nice little college town, I think its one of the better places to live in CO. It seems there are lots of folks from CO on this board too.
 
UglyCasanova said:
Also this is going to sound weird but two things that we have found that are actually pretty important to us is a good public library system and nice grocery stores.
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That's not weird at all.

Have you checked out city-data.com where they have stats and forums?

Best of luck on the possible move.
 
Ok so apparently Silverthorne is another option. I'm wondering if there would even be any affordable housing there though.
 
some friends that live in Laramie Wyoming go down there quite a bit and really like it. I do believe they have a whole foods or similar.
 
I can't tell you anything about the job market, but otherwise...

I've visited there a couple of times. Great place. Decent night life if you're into the bars. Also... because several breweries are in the city, you can get incredible beer for awesome prices. I recommend taking a bike or a cab though 😉

Nice city, fairly spread out over a large area for how much there really is. College in town, so there's the college crowd and everything that comes along with and appeals to them. Fair amount of live music almost any night, stuff like that.

I don't know about the library system for sure, but just guessing from the general atmosphere and attitude there, I'd think it would be good. There are a ton of coffee shops, some hipster-oriented shops and whatnot and free wi-fi and library access seem like things that would be a priority.

Some good sushi places around, too. There are a lot of mediocre ones, but one great one somewhere north... I want to say in Greeley (a 'suburb' of FC)

There are some pretty good grocery stores around. Several run-of-the-mill stores, and there's also a Whole Foods if you're into that. Next to it is a giant beer store 🙂

While I don't think this is the case with much of Colorado, and there are still exceptions to this, but Fort Collins seems to be more on the liberal side of the political spectrum overall.

I can't think of anything else right now - hope it was of some use.
 
Also, it seems like a great place for kids to grow up. Low crime, the traffic isn't crazy, plenty of schools, parks, and such around.

Edit: Actually, if you need any specific information I could get it for you. Like the library thing. My ex-wife (who's a good friend now) lives there and has for several years.

Should also add that from the few weeks I've spent there checking it out, I loved it and it's on my list of places I might move someday soon.
 
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Thanks for the info. If everything works out and she gets the transfer then I think we are pretty sure we will be making the move. We just honestly want to get out of Louisiana, and are pretty much willing to move anywhere else other than Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, or Texas.
 
Whole Foods is in Ft Collins.
The Stone Lion is one of the best independent bookstores to be found anywhere.
There is one good Indian restaurant (Star of India, I think) and one not so bad Indian restaurant.
Jax Outdoors is a really good camping/hiking store.

If you move there, try to get on the west side of town. The farmers (mostly to the east) burn the irrigation ditches and it stinks bad for several weeks straight every year.
 
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UglyCasanova said:
Thanks for the info. If everything works out and she gets the transfer then I think we are pretty sure we will be making the move. We just honestly want to get out of Louisiana, and are pretty much willing to move anywhere else other than Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, or Texas.
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You could close your eyes, and throw a dart at a map and do better than Louisiana... Unless you had the misfortune of hitting Florida :^D
 
UglyCasanova said:
Thanks for the info. If everything works out and she gets the transfer then I think we are pretty sure we will be making the move. We just honestly want to get out of Louisiana, and are pretty much willing to move anywhere else other than Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, or Texas.
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You will love Colorado.

Outhouse is nearby.

Surprised he didn't see the thread yet.
 
If I were living in Colorado I'd try to be a little closer to the various ski areas off of I-70, but Fort Collins is still within day trip distance. Compared to any part of Louisiana I'm sure it's heaven on earth.
 
I live near there and go to ft collins a few times a month. I like FTC, its a nice town. you can also lookint living in Loveland which is a suburb.
 
i lived in Ft collins about...23 years ago. man i loved it. CO is one of the most beautiful states i have ever lived in.


Looking for a area with a good library and stores is not weird. each person has something they want to live near. why live in a area you are not happy with?
 
ichy said:
If I were living in Colorado I'd try to be a little closer to the various ski areas off of I-70, but Fort Collins is still within day trip distance. Compared to any part of Louisiana I'm sure it's heaven on earth.
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that depends on what ski area you go to, its only an hour or so from El Dora.
 
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