My wife and I are looking to relocate back to Colorado but with the Denver metro being so expensive we are looking elsewhere. We have flexibility in our jobs to live practically anywhere but we want to be a bit choosy about the location. We found a beautiful house in the far Eastern Colorado city of Holyoke but after some further investigation we found the location too far disconnected from our own beliefs to buy there. The biggest negative was their city code against any marijuana businesses within city limits. That tells me that we won’t align well. My wife has her medical card here and it helps her immensely in controlling anxiety and allowing her to have a reasonable sleep schedule.
The house in Holyoke really caught our eye, though. It wasn’t the typical bland houses we find in the Denver metro that all look like cookie-cutter 70s and 80s houses. The house was built in 1912 and the yard had room for gardening. We have been finding other houses that are similarly desirable further west in Sterling and Fort Morgan.
My biggest question is: are those towns going to be as right leaning and anti-marijuana as Holyoke or somewhere closer to moderate and accepting. I don’t need a city to be on par with Boulder but I don’t want to be bugged about where I go to church every 5 minutes.
I’m really just working through options here. And I turned 18 long ago. :) I’m not really against those metro houses but the style you can get for less in some of those smaller towns is definitely appealing. I’m still looking all over the Denver metro and Fort Collins, even in Colorado Springs. I think even those conservative leaning areas closer to civilization are better than what we have here in the bible belt, as you say. Now that the SC has agreed to reconsider Obergfell, I’m sure this state will ban gay marriage as soon as they can and probably even try to invalidate ones that are already done. I’m a normie white guy but I know that the more these hatemongers can ostracize and make illegal, the less this state is going to be livable.
Personally, I have political beliefs on the liberal and conservative sides of the spectrum, but none that could be considered far right. I think Colorado at a state level insulates some of what I’m expose to here, as well. However, just doing the reading on Holyoke and how they did everything in their power to keep the weed out tells me they are well beyond my tolerance level. Even here we have medical and it’s fairly well accepted even by the right wingers. You see dispensaries everywhere and all the product has to be grown and processes within the state to be legal.
I’ll keep my search up on the Front Range and see what pops up as appealing. I not really pressed for time but I’m not Uncle Scrooge with unlimited money so I get to/must be picky.