Front Range - Where to live?

In Lakewood you can get some 50's-60's retro-style and be 5 minutes from Golden. But this fascination w/ Golden kind of befuddles me (4 gen. Coloradan). Pretty much need to be some kind of degreed professional to land a nice house there, or live student style. Where's the in-between?
Of course I realize that many of you are young and have minimal standards......but c'mon now.

How does the skiing compare to Colorado?

Scott McMahon wrote: That's actually one of the least true things I've ever heard. Their is a large contingent of normal hard working people in Boulder. We live here for the mountains, the climbs, the biking and haha the beer. I'm not rich and I bust my ass to pay my bills. I don't take that stereotypical statement offensively, but it's quite untrue. The 1% don't even live here quite often...we are paying their mortgages!! I don't even know any rich people.

I agree. Yeah, there are plenty of extremely wealthy people in Boulder, but I don't personally know any of them. Most of us are pretty normal working people who love it here and just accept that we have to pay a good sized portion of our income toward rent or mortgage in order to stay.

With that said, since you're done with residency and can afford it, just move to Boulder. Seriously, there's no reason not to. I grew up in the Denver area, and I definitely don't think any other front range town is as good as Boulder in terms of amazing and abundant climbing, endless trails to run and hike, awesome scenery, good restaurants, nice bike paths in town, lots of eye candy, the list goes on. There are other great towns on the front range like Golden and others that people have mentioned, but Boulder really is the total package.

No arguments with the comments so far. The main trade-off between downtown Denver (central Denver, Highland, Uptown, Capitol Hill etc)
and Golden/Boulder is really going to depend on what kind of person you are. I recommend that you come and spend a little time in each place before you commit. All these communities have their quirks and charms.
I really recommend that you avoid commuting by car for work. It's great living here if you aren't wasting time in your car.
Check out rtd-denver.com/ to see what areas are supported by light rail and express bus service.

Elena Sera Jose wrote:Eldo

That doesn't meet the criteria. You can only walk to climbing, trails and the post office.

We close on this home in Golden in a couple weeks. 1st time really out of the Boulder bubble in 23 years. Sooooo STOKED!!

Awesome ! Congrats!

Mike McKinnon wrote: Boulder no - unless you can afford to live with the 1%.

About 1% of Boulder is in that 1%.
But whereas usually there are 10% of the people claiming to represent "the 99%" and botching about the other half who has jobs and pays taxes not giving up enough...
In Boulder it actually is closer to 99% complaining about it... and some of them are the 1%... It is a very liberal town.
That's something to consider right there.

So I live in Erie, where you are legally allowed to OWN a dog, not just be it's care giver(*1). If I had a dog here, I'd be allowed to call it *MY DOG* from head to tail.

(*1) = Boulder passes resolutions such as that you don't own a dog, you are merely it's provider of care. They've also outlawed the Iraq war, as I understand it... Oh, and competition (such as a foot race) on OSMP (public) property. Afterall, you wouldn't want someone to not win(*2) and feel bad.

(*2) = I don't think they are allowed to say loose.

Hank- welcome to Yard Farming. I hope you are lucky enough to not have true Yard Farmers for neighbors. I'm surrounded by 'em. I also have a Toro 675 GTS self-propelled looking for a home with someone who doesn't mind working on the carburetor once a year or so.