Posted on 08/03/2018 12:00:16 PM PDT by beaversmom
When asked about a popular restaurant, Yogi Berra put it like only Yogi could. “Nobody goes there anymore, it’s too crowded.”
Well, Colorado has turned into that restaurant.
A fascinating recent report by The Denver Post’s Aldo Svaldi (which I’m pretty sure is the name he made up to start a budget winery) details the demographic shifts happening to our once ruggedly individualistic state. More people are still pouring into Colorado than sneaking out, but the gap is narrowing.
Last year was the first drop this decade in people moving here from other states. At the same time, more people were leaving Colorado than ever before. There were still 30,000 more coming than going, so don’t think our population is shrinking. They’re still flooding in like the Chinese into Korea during the war, and destroying what Colorado used to be.
People have always come here, that’s not news. The real story is people are escaping at record numbers to get away from what the state has sadly become.
Most anti-growth types yap about how all these out-of-state transplants hurt the “character” of their communities. To the point even traditionally sensible places like Lakewood have turned tribal in attempting growth limits, foolishly thinking it will reduce traffic and give them back some elbowroom. Elitist Boulder proves it does just the opposite.
“Character” of communities always changes and we’ll always long for what they used to be like in our younger years.
People are fleeing Colorado not because there’s too many people here or a box store replaced a mom-and-pop shop (don’t worry, the box store will be replaced by Amazon drones, and later something will replace that). They’re bolting because what it is to be a Coloradan has changed.
Deep down in its soul there has been a seismic shift in the spirit of Colorado, in its people. It’s not the change in the physical “character” of our town. It’s the change in the character of our people.
You feel it. You’re reminded of it every time you roll your eyes when you’re stuck behind a California license plate in traffic. You feel it with the growing “triggered” society, ready to riot over a sign at a coffee shop. You feel it with every proposal to raise “fees” on grocery bags or drinks with sugar, force green roofs, municipalize power companies, raise sin taxes on smoking, build city-owned internet, growth control, gun control, healthcare control. Control, control, control. You feel it — we are becoming California.
More than ever Coloradans want to make decisions for other people and engineer how others live. This is wildly antithetical to the Colorado I grew up in.
The personal stories in Svaldi’s report echo this Californication as the reasons our escapees are fleeing: “The growth of our beautiful city has brought nothing but increased traffic, angry entitled transplants who have no respect, and a cost of living that is through the roof.” “Colorado had become very liberal, anti-religion, anti-gun and way too sensitive about stuff.”
Colorado has always been a destination state, perhaps THE destination state in THE destination nation. Why? Because people were drawn to Colorado because it was the place where one could write his own biography.
People who craved the freedom to make their own decisions were pulled to this state by some unseen magnet which created the Colorado Character.
Miners, farmers, ranchers, brewers, artists, techies and businessmen all were drawn here and had one common denominator: a fearless desire to take on risk. They directed their own activities, made their own calls, and through the power of freely associating with others built the greatest state in America. The tales of their failures and successes only powered the magnet more.
The magnet that seems to pull today’s new Coloradans are pretty mountains, a job, and home that somehow costs less than the one they’re selling in California.
The new Colorado character craves the illusion of security and certainty of outcome.
It’s time to rename our state East California.
Jon Caldara is president of the Independence Institute, a free market think tank in Denver.
‘Then you helped create the homeless/street bums problem.’
yep, exactly; everyone knows there were no bums before Colorado legalized pot...
Thank you, Doughty One. Yes, it is always California’s fault. How about your DOPE law, Colorado? How about the east coast libs trying to take over the state legislature. Really, really, it is Californians?? Get a life Colorado.
‘Our fore fathers were right , and wise , to see the dangers inherent in marijuana use’
of course, our ‘forefathers’ going all the way back to 1937, with the Marijuana Tax Act...
You also left out the date [December 15, 2017] and left the source field blank.
In the future, when starting threads, fill out all fields.
This is from a couple of years ago when we had a place there. We have since sold. A few months ago one of these losers started that big fire 109,000 acres burnt.
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_28267705/newcomers-costilla-county-lured-by-legal-marijuana-cheap
Excellent post. Believe me, I understand all of what you are saying. I told my native CA friend the other day how sad I feel of what is happening there. I have never stepped a toe in your state, but it makes me want to cry. It’s happening in my state, too, and I can do nothing to stop it.
I watched three good mini reports about the homeless and working homeless there in CA. For your possible interest. I’m sure you already know all of it, anyway.
High rents force some in Silicon Valley to live in vehicles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG0_KiM9Mv8
Making rent in Silicon Valley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dLo8ES4Bac
This LA Musician Built $1,200 Tiny Houses for the Homeless. Then the City Seized Them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6h7fL22WCE
I’m in the process of reading VDH’s book, Mexifornia. I really need to commit myself to it. I start way too many books and never finish.
I am guessing that the reason for this is that Colorado has become too liberal for the people escaping from other States like California and Oregon.
The people that are looking for a red state, head to Texas.
The people that are looking for a sustainable job in a buyer friendly atmosphere, head to Texas.
Oh, I know. I hit submit before I meant to. Thank you very much for fixing it.
“;^)
Yes, it’s those things and more...
I work downtown and the place seems flooded with millenials most of whom I'm pretty sure weren't Trump voters.
This has been going on long before legalization. I think a lot of people on FR want to blame everything going wrong in CO on the dope law. I’m sure it’s contributed some in the last few years since it went into place, but it’s a symptom. Just like it’s not fair for us to blame all that is going wrong here on the CA influx. It’s easy to say it’s all about the dope. It’s quite complex. And my little brain is just trying to figure out some of it.
Maybe if they were like a lot of millennials, they didn’t vote for any one. And the hipsters might have voted for Trump just to be contrarian. ;)
Yes, I like Caldara, too.
The Western Slope is a great area. Are housing prices going up a lot?
Gotta disagree with you on this one. California allowed itself to be the primary illegals destination. Colorado has been invaded by retiring Californians or those who were able to make a bundle off their home in CA to move to CO. Unfortunately where Californians go; they want to make their new state of residence just like the one they moved away from. This is where the problem happens.
I’d like to think conservative Californian’s aren’t like the leftist kind we know are like a virus but it takes a while to adjust to different thinking. I went through it back around 2000. I didn’t mean to bring any CA baggage with me but after living there for a couple of decades it took a year or two to slap the California out of me. That’s the good news. It does go away but it takes some time.
:-))
Mostly ABQ, by impact. Not sure you could measure any impact on Santa Fe... How would you tell? No straws? Poop on the sidewalks?
Lol...Santa Fe is pretty foo-foo, isn’t it?
Parts of ABQ look nice. I have been there to see the petroglyphs a few years back, but I’ve heard so much of NM is on welfare. I don’t know much about Carlsbad, but very much enjoyed visiting the cavern.
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