Moving to Denver, Colorado Because You Can’t Move Overseas

Colorado, Living in Denver, Move to Denver, Uncategorized Michelle@SquareState
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Right now there is a lot of talk about moving overseas because of…reasons. What if you can’t move overseas but want to move to a city and state that you think may be a better, potentially safer, place for you and loved ones? Before you start packing your bags, I have some thoughts about moving to Denver (especially if you’re Black) I grew up in Denver and have lived in other states and countries. There are some important things to consider before moving to Denver if your current home state is no longer working for you.

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Is Denver, Racist?

I feel like for people, especially African-Americans, this is the question that I see asked most often about any place that we’re looking to move to. I think that we all realize that there’s racism everywhere but at the heart of that question is “What is the flavor” of racism that you’ll be dealing with? There are a 4 types of racism that you’ll find in Denver.

  • Progressive Racism-This happens when a progressive ally hasn’t done the work that they need to do to decolonize their thought processes. I will say that I personally haven’t really encountered this, but this absolutely exists in town.

  • Denver Suburbs Racism-What’s the deal with suburbs? You will absolutely encounter slick comments around how people perceive different parts of Denver. I personally notice the comments most often around historic neighborhoods that used to be Black or Hispanic (but that these Suburbanites don’t realize are now gentrified)

  • New Denverites who’ve moved from out-of-state– And are bringing their bullshit with them. These are the people who never believe that anyone Black or Brown is from Colorado

  • CU Boulder Students-I stand by this having lived in Boulder as a kid and as a adult. I also worked on campus. Sorry not sorry CU. I know a number of POC of different ages who experienced their first Colorado racism during an interaction with a CU Boulder student.

One thing that I will say is that when things come up, typically people shut down that crap pretty quickly which I appreciate. But if you’re trying to escape racism-that’s not going to happen because Colorado is in the United States and in the world.

Is Denver Expensive

Yes. I actually didn’t realize how expensive some aspects of living in Denver were until I went on a couple of trips in the past couple of years and was amazed at how far my money went. I will say that in some ways you get used to it, especially if you’re typically traveling to points west in the United States such as (California/Washington State/Hawaii) I do want to point out a couple of things:

  • According to ZipRecruiter the average salary in Denver is just under $70,000 dollars a year

  • Rent for a one bedroom apartment on average is now around $1616 according to Apartments.com with rent prices decreasing in the past year. We have more rental construction happening and 2026-2027 may be great time look for an apartment and lock in a competitive price.

  • Lifestyle expenses breakdown
    • Rent or Mortgage
    • Transportation-You can live without a car in Denver depending on your neighborhood. I live car free and use the following: Colorado CarShare which is a non-profit carshare program that I’m obsessed with. RTD-that’s our Bus and Lightrail System. Bustang which also has Pegasus, Snowstang and Outrider-it’s a bus service that serves points throughout the state. And finally Amtrak and Denver International Airport for train and air travel. There are direct flights from Denver to overseas locations.
    • Food-Denver has good food but I do think that you have to know where it is and that’s annoying. Also, we don’t really have high qquality inexpensive food. You’re going to spend at least $25 on a meal with drink and a tip at the low end if you’re lucky.
      • Coffee such as a drip coffee is around $4 and lattes are around $6-8 dollars a cup
      • Most farmers markets are expensive in my opinon
    • Activities: Concerts, theater, outdoors adventures such as: skiing, camping, snowboarding, golf, cycling, etc. People do these things regularly and gear is actually an expense that people need to add as a line item in their budget. There is free and discounted access to a lot of these activities-you just have to ask about them in order to be connected with those resources.

Quality of Life

Generally speaking I would say that the quality of life in Denver is pretty high but there are a couple of things to consider. Also, make sure to check out some of the things that people get wrong about Denver.

  • Denver’s weather is MUCH milder than people think it is. Why do you think we have so many patios everywhere and basically use them all year long?

  • Do you live within walking distance of a light rail station or frequent bus line? Being able to hop on a train or bus to get to downtown Denver is huge especially if you’re attending a theater performance, Broncos/Nuggets/Avs/Mammoth/Rockies game.

  • People work to live they don’t live to work. Living here really is about embracing the outdoors, relaxing and vibing it out.

  • I find Denver to be very child friendly but I think that there aren’t as many children as there could be and I think that speaks to a broader conversation specific to the United States and childrearing.

  • You can take the bus to the mountains. This is huge because when I was a kid, you couldn’t do this.

  • It’s a very active place you’ll find people-skiing, hiking, biking, camping, going to the hot springs, running, playing pickle ball, rollerskating through the streets and more.

  • There are frequent free days to the museums, zoo and other experiences around town. Kids also can learn how to ski for free in Colorado and Utah because the ski industry has a program that they’ve implemented to encourage young people to ski.

  • There’s so much to do: Go to the theater to watch a Broadway musical, head to a festival(there’s an exhaustive list of festivals we can enjoy), dance your ass off at a concert watch one of our many sports teams win a championship. Here is a shortlist of our teams: Denver Broncos (NFL), Denver Nuggets (NBA) Colorado Avalanche (NHL) Colorado Mammoth (NLL) Colorado Rapids (NSL) Denver Summit FC (NWSL) Denver Onyx (WER-Women Elite Rugby) Denver Barbarians Football Club

  • I’ve recorded an additional episode about specific things to consider for Black people thinking about moving to Denver related to quality of life. You can find it at: squarestateco.com/black-moves

Western Mindset

Colorado is NOT located in the Midwest. In fact, Colorado and Texas used to touch until Texas gave up part of its territory to Oklahoma so that it could still be a slaveholding state. That’s a conversation for another day. Colorado is a part of the Rocky Mountain West which includes the following states: Wyoming, Utah, Montana, Idaho and New Mexico (even though New Mexico is also referred to as the Southwest) according to a Scientific American article published in 2020 some of the following traits are typical for this part of the United States: Individualism, a Spirit for Adventure and a level of comfort with being a bit isolated. Basically, these are cowboy vibes. Yes, it’s almost 2027-but, for people who’ve grown up in Colorado these traits wouldn’t surprise them.

Notable Laws to Be Aware Of

Some folks are thinking about moving to Colorado and more specifically Denver because of the laws and policies that are being implemented in the state. No, I’m not talking about the legal weed or medicinal shrooms.

Here are a couple of examples: some may surprise you.

  • Proposition FF in 2022-Healthy Meals for All Campaign. What does this mean? Students can eat breakfast and lunch for free.

  • Paid Medical Leave or FAMLI-Which is a fund that we can opt into for paid or unpaid leave. This is a newer law that we’re still learning more about as Coloradans begin using this resource.

  • Taxpayers Bill of Rights or Tabor-This piece of legislation around raising taxes pisses a lot of people off. Basically it requires that Coloradans vote on requests to raise taxes. In theory it sounds good. In practice it has caused a lot of problems related to funding for infrastructure and other important local needs.

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