In Colorado, we call it the People's Republic of Boulder.

Beautiful setting, though. Can't beat the mountains.

My wife's a doc, and one of her good friends looked at Denver for ER. From what I remember they were one of the top, if not the top program in the country. I'd guess that you'd know more about it, but I think that quite a bit of innovation came out of their hosiptal with regards to treatment/management of ER patients. My wife's friend wound up at Yale, so that's where my info ended. If you can, you should do a rotation there during med school, it will let you get to know the people and program, and help you with the match...

good luck

bump

First, the good -

It's a high desert setting which means heat and little humidity in the summer, and not much snow in the winter. Mostly dry.

Thousands of cyclists and triathletes and runners. Hiking, climbing skiing, etc etc at your doorstep.

Amazing scenery. The Rockies.

Close to Denver airport, which is a major hub for United (in other words, it's not a tiny little airport).

Close to Denver, a mojor city with every attraction you could want. It's also a mostly clean beautiful city.

The bad, if there is any -

Mostly a service economy with not many high paying jobs. I'm sure you'll be the exception.

Lot's of low cost housing around Denver, but this is not the case in Boulder. Boulder housing is very expensive.

Good luck with your decision.

Michael Lovato lives there.

Ah, Boulder: a city of 36000 acres, completely surrounded by reality..

I'm just jealous. I'd live there if I could afford it. There are a lot of trustafarians who are annoying, but really it's a great place to live.

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"It is a good feeling for old men who have begun to fear failure, any sort of failure, to set a schedule for exercise and stick to it. If an aging man can run a distance of three miles, for instance, he knows that whatever his other failures may be, he is not completely wasted away." Romain Gary, SI interview

When I moved to this neck of the woods I wanted to live in Boulder--Told my realtor how much I could afford and she laughed in my face. Sent me to Golden and I'm so glad she did. I'm only 15-20 minutes from both Boulder and Denver and super close to trails for MTB and Running. Look at either Boulder or Golden and you can't go wrong with whichever suits your needs better!

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--Roberto

Representing:
De Soto Clothing
Marin Bicycles
Chariot Carriers
Karhu Skis
Kayland Boots
Nemo Tents

what happened to calgery? get back to work!

Heh, it's a pretty great place to live. Search for most any post on this forum about the area and you will get the sales pitch. The 'only' thing is commuting from Boulder to Denver isn't all that great but if you are ER doc your schedule probably isn't rush hour to rush hour...so then it would be fine. I know several docs in CO and have one good friend who is an ER doc in the area. PM me if you like and I'll see if I can get you in touch with someone.

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Don't hold back

Are you in Calgary now? I am, and besides the crappy urban-sprawl problem here I'd say we have it pretty good.

That being said I would LOVE to move to Boulder after I'm done at university, but I'm thinking Penticton may actually be where I end up

What's a trustafarian? That's a new one to me.

Do you have a trust fund or and endowment of some sort? Seriously.

You could get this for $350K:



I moved from Boulder in 1995.

I have been back since and like it less than I did then due to the increased commerce and chain stores, etc. It used to be quaint. Not anymore.

I liked it when I moved there in 1990. But it got old really fast.

If it were me, I'd shoot for finding a place around golden, or right in Denver - like Washington Park.

dreadlocked college student with a trust fund.. see them panhandling on the 16th St Mall, but they're probably worth more than I'll make in my whole life..

...playing hacky sack and not smelling so lovely, in Boulder it'd be the Pearl Street Mall, then driving away in the Lexus SUV...

My wife and I are actually moving to Boulder in a couple of months. I think it's a great town, but there definitely are some drawbacks. Yes, it has changed over the past 10+ years, but what town hasn't? It is still a fantastic town, and although they can be a PITA with land use restrictions and zoning, it is still a very livable place, and is not sprawling like many of the surrounding communities, SoCal, and just about every other metro area in the country. We will both be working from home and she may be going to school so our commute will be minimal. I would not at all be interested in commuting to Denver as 36 can be a bitch. However, if you have unconventional work hours maybe you could get away with missing the worst parts of rush hour. Traffic in town can get pretty crowded, but unlike San Diego where I currently live, things are all very close. It seems that in SoCal, everything is about 20 miles away and requires a drive on a highway. I plan on using my car fairly rarely, an most often for trips to the airport.

Yes it is expensive, but definitely cheaper than San Diego where I am now. You do not have to be rich, or have a trust fund to live there. I'm not and I don't and we'll manage just fine. The gripes about the trustafarian scene are right on, but if that's one of the biggest "problems" with the town, it sounds to me like they're doing something right.

1000's of hamburgers with a scattering of the best athletes in the world. Never met a training rat before? You will. It is the most open minded place on earth, so long as your "open mind" falls into lock-step with The Republic. Expensive. A ferment of type A's trying to out-type A each other. A nice place to visit, but spend more than a few weeks there, and you'll be wishing for a break. Be prepared to have at least one NCAA champion, Olympian or World Champion at every single race that offers money. I suggest Nevada, Montana, either of the Dakotas, Guam perhaps....

We're not moving there because of athletics or some notion that we're on the verge of going pro. There are lots of great athletes there and lots of poseurs too. OK, so what? Turns out that there's more to life than athletics. I'm not looking to move to a town where I can "win". The type A's can have their fun, it doesn't bother me.

"It is the most open minded place on earth, so long as your "open mind" falls into lock-step with The Republic."
Well, yeah. It reminds me of living in San Francisco. My brother used to call it "militantly tolerant." Some people just a strong negative reaction to places like that. It doesn't really bother me. My beliefs are my beliefs, and I'm not seeking approval or validation from anyone. It's actually nice that not all towns and cities are exactly the same. It means there is something for everyone. Me? For example I'm not at all interested in moving to a town dominated by mega-churches and the neighborly judgment of self-important "morally-superior" neighbors... Then again, Boulder has it's own religion, it's just of a different sort. You pick your poisons.

from outside magazine:

So you want to move to Boulder, Colorado, the perennial best town in America for (circle one or all depending upon your level of outsideness) roadies, rock jocks, organic consumers, backcountry skiers, mountain bikers, trail runners, ultrarunners, whitewater boaters, alpinists, credit-card environmentalists, New Agers, sellers of waterproof-breathable canine accessories, and those who support prairie dog emancipation at the expense of baseball fields. It's a great place to live, because everyone looks and thinks exactly like you.*
Except they're better than you. Get that straight and you'll fit in. But you'll matriculate quicker if you come with some attitude. Pose if you must. It's the best town in America, for Christ's/Buddha's/Ganesh's/Chris Carmichael's sake. Step up.
But what's it like to live here? Well, Boulder exudes a unique blend of over-the-top liberalism and extreme fitness. How to describe it . . . If Lance Armstrong and Amy Goodman had a love child, the prodigy would drive his Audi A4 to Boulder, buy a Maverick to decorate the roof rack, and then not ride the $5,000 bike because he didn't want to encroach upon mountain lion habitat. Are you feeling the zeitgeist? Some more Boulder color might help:
A Buddhist monk moved into our condo complex. Shaved head, full regalia, real deal. He drives a 30-cylinder pickup truck named after a subarctic ecosystem where trees don't grow and frost lingers.
Two strangers have said the word excelente to me in the past four months.
My barista (Oh, dear Lord, what's happening to me?) to a fellow barista: "Cuba is, like, this paradise. Nothing has changed since, like, the fifties. They drive these old cars and play this great music." Me: "Cuba? They put AIDS patients in concentration camps and throw journalists in jail for printing the truth." Barista: "Uh, yeah, but the people are so happy down there. Who had the tall rice-milk latte?"
Need more telling details? The Dunkin' Donuts went out of business, but the oxygen bar next door to the gay-and-lesbian bookstore seems to be doing well. The panhandlers on the Pearl Street Mall sport $70 sandals and pull in upwards of 25 bucks an hour. Did anybody mention that the median sale price of a home here is $525,000? That's $302,000 more than the national figure. The best don't come cheap. If that's too pricey for you, maybe you should check out Burlington or Santa Fe. Oh, right: bad sushi.
OK, that's all lifestyle stuff that comes with living in a town that has a large contingent of soft-palmed check- of-the-month-clubbers. Could just as easily be Marin County. Buy a meditation table, slap a GO VEGAN! sticker on your roof box, and you'll blend. You're here for the fitness pursuits anyway.
Except that's where Boulder gets weird. In most American towns, outdoor-sports aficionados are part of an elite counterculture minority. Mountain bikers and climbers have cachet. Not so in Boulder. Recreating outdoors is the norm here, and it's in your face. There's always some horse-toothed mountain-town equivalent of Laird Hamilton ready to kick your athletic pride through the dirt. Remember the 2005 Tour, when T-Mobile kept attacking Discovery, trying to break Lance? That's what a casual bike ride is like in Boulder. Strangers attack. Old guys with gray beards and steel bikes attack. Reach for a shot of Gu and even your friends attack. And women: Women always attack—they're the worst.
Even slow guys like me attack. The other day I was reeling in a pro cyclist on a brutal local climb. My heart rate was near its max, but I was feeling good. I was in the zone. Maybe four years of living in Boulder have paid some fitness dividends, I thought.
Then I figured it out: He's between intervals, and once his heart rate drops below 65 bpm, he's gone. At least he said "No offense" before he accelerated.
It doesn't matter what sport you do; you will suffer similar humiliation. Go nordic skiing in North Boulder Park and two Olympians shout "Track!" from a meter back. Climb the Flatirons only to learn that someone once ascended in Rollerblades. Get Maytagged in a hole while paddling Boulder Creek and a World Cup champion slalom kayaker will toss you a rope bag. Running? Not me, not in Boulder. Boulderites run like gazelles. Fancy yourself a mountaineer? The waiters at Sherpa's have summited Everest. But at least those guys are nice. If Reinhold Messner himself walked into south Boulder's mountaineering shop to buy a carabiner, the sales staff would give him attitude. It's enough to make you revolt against the blue sky (300 sunny days a year), pull down the blinds, and watch NASCAR.
I know what you're thinking. If you don't like it, why don't you get the hell out? I'll tell you why: It's pretty damn nice here, actually. I just bought a German automobile—gonna chip it. My four-year-old has attended two birthday parties in climbing gyms—little dude will be free-soloing soon. Maybe it's the endorphin equivalent of a contact high, but I've never been in better shape. The sun is shining. The prairie dogs in the infield are chirping. One more round of whitening strips and my choppers will be gleaming. Everything's, like, most excelente.
* If your teeth are pearly white and your resting heart rate is below 45 bpm.

You don't get smackdowns like this in Calgary... :-) Only in Boulder and at ST.

http://www.xcskiracing.com/...yID/163/Default.aspx



Edit: Cached Page for deleted comments.

Don't lie to me!!! They didn't really close the Dunkin' Donuts???

DAMN!!!

It IS kind of weird eating at Sherpas and being served food by people you've read about in books.

Jason

PS - Best Restaurant in Boulder -- Lucille's Creole Cafe. I can smell the Beignets from my desk here in Vegas, Baby!

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It's a dry heat!

wow, that's quite a saga.
I'm definitely one of the cyclists doing the Pterodactyl on skate skis..