When speaking of living in the Colorado mountains, the uninitiated usually shoot too far, mentioning the well-known communities of Vail and Aspen. While those are fine places to live, work, and play, there’s much closer, more convenient mountain living to be had in Colorado.  And with the economy taking the kinds of turns we’ve all heard and read about, there’s something to be said to living in communities that are closer to larger cities like Denver, where employment doesn’t depend so heavily upon the travel and tourism industries.

Here’s a list, from south to north, where some country living can be found, with access within about an hour of Denver and/or Colorado Springs and/or Fort Collins.  All links point to maps of the area, for easy navigation.

• Canon City–The southernmost city in our survey today, with the largest population of any community in its immediate vicinity.  It’s closest to the Colorado Springs area, although a lot of Canon City residents work, shop, and play right in town.
• Salida–A charming, small town in the San Luis Valley popular with outdoor enthusiasts, tourists, and artists west of Canon City on highway 50.
• Manitou Springs, Woodland Park, Florissant–Just up the road from Colorado Springs, these scenic, quiet places are known for their funky town atmosphere, their natural springs, and their clean, crisp air.
• Conifer, Evergreen, and Idaho Springs–Along the I-70 corridor, on the way to the high mountain passes and the larger ski resorts, these beautiful towns are just enough off the beaten path to maintain a lot of their Old West charm.
• Green Mountain Village–The closest of the lot, Green Mountain is Lakewood’s mountain biking and hiking getaway with great schools and lickety-split access to Denver.
• Morrison and Golden–Home of beautiful natural rock formations and the famed Red Rocks Amphitheater
• Nederland–Just 17 miles west and 3,000 vertical feet above Boulder. Where climbing, biking, hiking fanatics live and play, and where about 1,500 people do everything else.
• Estes Park–Between Boulder and Fort Collins is “Estes,” a favorite with locals and tourists, especially during the summer months, when the wildflowers bloom, and the roads to the top of Rocky Mountain National Park are open.
• Laporte–Up the Poudre Valley from Fort Collins, Laporte is an out-of-the-way respite that enjoys the wild sounds and sights of the Cache La Pourdre River.

In another attempt to reduce the impact residents have on its ecological health, Boulder residents are now able to recycle additional materials at the curb.  Singe-stream recycling, a way of responsibly disposing of recyclable paper and plastics in the same container (without separating them) plus the brand new composting program are delighting Boulder residents.

The following haulers service the Boulder area, and provide curbside pickup of recyclables. Contact them at the following number about price and availability.

• BFI (303-286-6489)
• One Way Trash (303-823-0556)
• Town & Country (303-665-6811)
• Western Disposal Services (303-444-2037)

Contact eco-cycle about recycling these and other materials at the drop-off center: 303-444-6634

Lately in Boulder, talk of recent run-ins between mountain lions and North Boulder residents have taken over coffee shop conversations and cocktail party small talk.  It looks like the authorities in Greenwood Village are doing more than talking about what the city has labeled a coyote problem.

In fact, they’ve hired a professional hunter to destroy coyotes that have attacked humans.  For more information on the issue, including whether or not Greenwood Village will be allowed to set leg traps, keep your eye on the Denver Post.

Over the past 15 years–make that 50 years–there’s been a dramatic change in north-north Boulder and Boulder real estate.

A Dakota Ridge Playground waiting for the summer rush

For starters, NoBo is making a name for itself as a burgeoning residential community where there wasn’t previously much going on.  Once an area for more industrial/commercial concerns, the area where Broadway and highway 36 converge is coming into its own.  One example: the Holiday neighborhood. Another: the Uptown developments and the Off Broadway live/work units (which are actually on Broadway, for the most part.) And now: The Boulder Armory.

For now, the site of the future Boulder Armory neighborhood is actually…the Armory. It’s the Army National Guard’s training facility and storage dept. But it’s got its sites on something more homey.  For more information on the re-development in store for the corner of Broadway and Lee Hill Road in north Boulder, and to weigh in with your opinion, see the Boulder Armory’s Web site.

It was the fire nobody expected. In fact, January is usually the setting for what’s known as “stock

show weather,” the winter streak of temperatures that can dip to zero and beyond. But in January 2009, the weather had been mild and dry. So dry that the fire danger reached extreme levels. And then the winds came. High double-digit gusts in Boulder County blew over power lines that sparked fires further fanned by the relentless winds.   And that was a recipe for the fire that took Boulder open space by storm.

The western dividing line between open space and homes

Although the Dakota Ridge developers inserted firebreaks between the open space and the homes in case of just such an event, and backburning efforts prevented additional threats, the firefighters who worked all day and all night under intense conditions to contain the fire in 24 hours are the real heroes and heroines in what could have been a much bleaker story.

Most of the Dakota Ridge community, evacuated at about 5:00 PM the day of the fire, was re-opened to residents the morning after evacuation. Emergency personnel, faced with the tough job of denying access to commuters trying to get home after work the day of the fire, rem

The outpost for firefighters and emergency personnel during the fire.

ained personable and professional. Although residents were biting their nails all day and all night, no violence or acts of mischief were reported. Now that the action has died down, open space is back to normal, with hikers taking to the trails; the hills of Boulder are sure to look a little greener this spring.

Where the buck stopped between the north end of Dakota Ridge and the fire.

After speaking with home buyers across the nation, it becomes clear that the quality of schools is always a concern raised by parents as well as home buyers without children of their own. It’s no secret that a solid school district is of importance to families with children, but the same solid school district can also be found to relate to solid home prices and market interest.

Some of the school-related factors that make for desirable neighborhoods include slower speed limits, invested homeowners, and a sense of community that translates into lower crime rates and higher quality of property care.

So that you can make informed decisions about the areas in Colorado you might be considering for relocation, check the Colorado Department of Education’s school rankings and report cards, online at http://reportcard.ode.state.co.us

There you can get detailed reports about how well students fare in standardized tests, and even what the average salaries are for teachers and administrators.  Of course, there’s no substitute for firsthand information, which is why most parents and concerned citizens check their neighborhood school district information well in advance, and make a visit or a phone call directly. You can easily get the name of the neighborhood public school when starting your search for a Colorado home by searching listings by school district.

Some Colorado cities with notable schools include:

• Table Mesa area of Boulder
• The Newlands Neighborhood in Boulder
• Colorado Springs, zip code 80920
• The 80124 zip code in Littleton
• Aspen
• The 80126 zip code in Highlands Ranch

The Congress Park neighborhood in Denver is a classic in the middle of some of Denver’s best attractions. Considered the place where Denver proper gets some of its best flavor, it’s also a place where families, couples, professionals, seniors, natives, and a wide variety of other kinds of residents gather together under the banner of community. It’s where you’ll find “old Denver” favorites such as City Park, home of the Denver Zoo, Gates Planetarium, and the Natural History Museum. At the southwest corner of the area, you’ll find Cheesman Park and the renowned National Jewish Medical and Research Center. Minutes from Capitol Hill and Downtown Denver, Congress Park strikes a happy medium for those who want to live where a lot of the action is, without sacrificing the architectural character and diversity of areas that have been razed and rebuilt with new construction and/or high-rise buildings.

One of the marks of a desirable neighborhood is a strong neighborhood association or organized efforts that better the neighborhood atmosphere and support open communication between residents, local and state agencies, and cooperating organizations. Such efforts can yield such results as lower crime rates, higher property values, and an overall better quality of life for residents and visitors.

In furtherance of that kind of community commitment, Congress Park residents will hold its annual Congress Park Alley Cleanup on Saturday, May 16, 2009. For more information, see the Congress Park Neighbors Web site at http://congressparkneighbors.org/

On a quiet streetcorner on Broadway and Portland in Boulder, in the famed Newlands neighborhood, is Silver Wave Records, a local landmark for over 20 years and the home to some of the best niche music in the country.

Tom Wasinger, a Silver Wave producer and Boulderite was first nominated for a Grammy in 2000 for producing Joanne Shenandoah’s Peacemaker’s Journey, released on Silver Wave Records. No stranger to the Grammys, he won his first Grammy in 2003 for Mary Youngblood’s Beneath the Raven Moon, and garnered his second in 2007 for Youngblood’s Dance with the Wind.

This year, Wasinger was up for the Best Native American Music Album award for his collection Come To Me Great Mystery, and won again. Congratulations, Tom.

The ’90s saw one of Denver’s biggest housing booms–it was like the gold rush all over again, only in the ’90s, the gold became the tech startup scene.  Today, it looks as if the Denver homes and real estate market is about to see another surge in newcomers, this based on a story at CNN about how a large portion of the US wants to move somewhere else. Specifically, they want to move to Denver.

If you’ve read the post “Where’s the Bottom,” you may be asking yourself the question, “who cares where the bottom is?” With the prices of Denver homes at low prices, and mortgage rates taking their cue with the nose-diving, the real estate takeoff could begin soon, with influxes of families and folks from all over the US.

If you’re on the fence about buying your first home, or just your next home, it’s worth speaking with a Denver REALTOR, who takes the pulse of the Denver neighborhood markets daily, and can give you valuable, detailed, local information in just a few minutes.  You never know when the best seats on the bandwagon will be taken.  Come on in, while there’s still room for your tuba.

Here at HighRGround, we’re fans of all kinds of technology, including the social networking phenomenon that’s convinced itself it’s taking the Internet by storm. However, if you’re anything like a regular person with a job and/or a family, hobbies, and other things to do besides keeping in touch with your high school classmates without ever actually seeing them, you might not know about Web hot spots such as Facebook and Twitter (where you can keep in touch, 140 characters at a time). Since we’re also big fans of Downtown Boulder–and who isn’t?–we thought we’d pass on an important announcement…

Today at Facebook, our friends at Downtown Boulder announced that, when you print out this coupon, you could become the lucky winner of a FREE Downtown Boulder canvas bag.

“To receive the limited edition bag,” they say, “be one of the first 50 people on Saturday (Feb. 14) or one of the first 50 people on Sunday (Feb. 15) to bring the coupon into our Visitor Information Center (1303 Pearl Street) between noon and 4 p.m.!”  Sounds good, especially if you’ll be hitting the downtown bricks this weekend for some of the February Boulder events that are always responsible for giving folks a serious case of spring fever.
What’s happening around Boulder this weekend:

• The Boulder International Film Festival at the Boulder Theater
• Love. A performance by Boulder’s own Ballet Nouveau Colorado
• The Pearl Street Mid Winter (sidewalk) Sale.
• It’s the last weekend for the Ice Rink at One Boulder Plaza’s 2009 season.

We’ll see you downtown.

Photo by Flickr–Creative Commons, by Brian_and_Shannon

When environmentally conscious home owners and economic hazards meet, good old-fashioned practices come around again.  And this year, “bird” is the word.  Who knew that modern times would taste so much like chicken?

Yes, chickens are all the rage in communities like Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins, and Colorado Springs. Why? First off, if you have a garden, chickens make a great alternative to controlling bugs with pesticides. Also, they provide a nice, natural fertilizer for gardens and other agriculture, and they lay eggs.

These little cluckers make a great addition to backyards, depending on the yard, and the neighborhood. Check your neighborhood ordinances and covenants, of course, especially regarding roosters. You’ll need a permit, and information, as they need just as much care as any other small animal under your care.

For more information, contact the Colorado State University’s extension program or the Denver Botanic Gardens for their City Chicken seminar. Or look for classes in your neck of the woods on how to raise your own urban chicken coop.

With all the talk of the real estate economy and what’s next, there’s a lot of bottom-hunting going on, both in the media and in living rooms all over the US.  The big question real estate observers and potential home buyers are asking is, “Where’s the bottom?”

The only trouble with asking “Where’s the bottom” is whether it’s the right question, especially when considering Colorado’s Front Range–particularly the Denver homes market.

Perhaps a different question is, “Is it the right time to buy?”  Considering that both mortgage rates and home prices are low right now, your answer may be, “Yes!”  The Denver real estate and Boulder real estate markets are faring relatively well, but why wait, if you’re in the position to buy now? What may matter most to you is that conditions don’t have to reach the bottom in order to benefit you in the long run. There’s an unprecedented opportunity to buy now while the buying’s good; the answer to the question of where the bottom is may be, for you, “Who cares?”

But if you’re a stickler for bottom-hunting, according to Rick Newman at US News, “Look for the bottom late this year. Moody’s Economy.com predicts that housing prices should stop falling nationwide by the second half of 2009.”

Photo by Flickr–Creative Commons, by Dan_Zen

At the end of 2008, the American Dialect Society selected its 19^th annual word of the year. It’s “bailout.” Whatever the word may mean to you, bailout in this case refers to the government’s rescue of companies on the brink of failure, including large players in the banking industry. Whether such a choice is prophetic, pathetic, or just plain rhetoric, one thing is clear: As individuals taking each day as it comes, we still have ourselves to take care of. We have little everyday control over the government or big business; we have our shopping lists, our to dos at work, taking care of our health, our families, our homes. We have our own little budgets to worry about, and how we will make or break them again next month, the month after that. Bailouts or no.

If you haven’t seen Lane Hornung’s post on what today’s economic climate means to the Boulder real estate market, treat yourself to his entry Boulder Luxury Home Market: Fall Out From the Bailout, right here at HighRGround.