Redditors, where do you want to live? Redditors who live there, why should they not want to live there?

I am a Colorado resident, in fact I was born here and have lived here for the past seventeen years. The state is fairly large and so you have to know the different sections.

In the East half of the state you have the plains. It is pretty much farms and farm town, similar in style to much of the Midwest.

Then you have Denver. It is quite an urban place, as it is a city. It is a rather car "friendly" city with a fairly small downtown, but the suburbs continue for quite a distance.

Another noteworthy town is Boulder. Boulder has the same issues as Northern California as mentioned in this thread, you know, one of those places where every other car you see is a Prius.

There are other towns that I know little about but I am sure are great, like Fruita and Grand Junction (I mostly visit there to either camp or raft).

Then you have the ski towns. There is a range in these towns. You can have the ones that are predominantly resorts like Vail and Avon (Beaver Creek). These places have nice towns and plenty of residents, but when you go there all that seems to exist is the resort area and surrounding business capitalizing on the resort. You can then also have the small ski towns like Telluride, that have ski areas, but the town remains rather small and with few residents. Then you have areas like Summit County, where I live that exist in a bit of a medium.

All of these areas have incredibly tourist reliant economies, and while many people visit there is a comparatively small population of permanent, year-round residents. This can lead to some pretty severe traffic problems as the areas are not designed for the massive influx of people that come to ski during the winter seasons. Also after really bad storms the roads can be rather icy, but it is these storms that prompt people to visit, and so the roads can be an utter nightmare sometimes, especially as people visiting discover that ice can be slippery, even in a car.

You also have to understand the people who live here. Predominantly two types of people live in Summit County. This would be rich old people and men in their twenties. The rich old people come as it is a very nice place to retire. Many young men come because they like the slopes and see it as a very good place to live. There is a bit of a divide as the old people hold most the wealth, and being a resort are men's things are expensive, so setting up a life here without much money can be difficult. Many of the people end up working for Vail resorts (there are different mountains like Keystone, but most of them are owned by the Vail company), and just scrape by with a living. There are also many people who live here seasonally because the resorts can't employ them year-round. Of course there is some middle ground, and if you put in the work you can definitely make a life here happen.

However there is another issue. If you are a single heterosexual man I do not recommend moving to Colorado. What happens often is that the culture of the ski resorts and associated high octane sports that are also common to the area attract many men. If men come with Girlfriends, but are unmarried, it is common that these relationships will then end, and the women will move away. This means that these areas end up with predominantly male populations. This makes it quite difficult for guys here to find women, so maybe only move here after you have a wife or family. However, if you are a woman feel free to come to Colorado, and bring your friends.

I can say all these things, but truly Colorado is a great place to be, and I am very glad to live here.

/r/AskReddit Thread