...Are getting  a new neighbor!

I got a job w/ a defense contractor in the springs! I'm moving in a couple of weeks. Once M. Hoffman arrives we'll have to throw some sort of party. :)

Welcome aboard!

Welcome, we look forward to meeting up !!!!!

I dont live there, but welcome anyway!

Cool we need more ARFcomers to vote against the Libtards.

Where abouts are you gonna live?  Rent/own?  I'm a little bit north of Falcon if you have questions about the area.

We're looking at the east / NE side right now. We want to buy a house in about 6 months, but we are going to rent first and really scope out all the neighborhoods. First time homebuyer tax credit be damned, we want a good house and we don't want to rush into anything. I like the Powers / Constitution area myself-  although like I said, need to do more looking.

Question for the Springs guys (feel free to answer if you know):

1) Best place for free shooting? I realize this will probably require some driving. I've heard about Dragon Mans....
2) Best Asian / Vietnamese food?
3) Best Gun shops in the area (may have been covered somewhere else)?
4) Would you call C. Springs "Bike Friendly" ?
5) Academy Mall- nice, or crusty ?
6) Best movie theater?
7) What are your favorite open space areas?
8) Any neat festivals that they run every year?

Stupid stuff I know.

Looking at crime maps, it seems that there is significant crime in the "downtown" area, but if you go east, North, or far west, it's all nicer areas- just avoid the "middle" and the south if you can.  The "young military people" adds an interesting element, having been one myself and knowing lots of them, it's hard to say if the area would be safer or not. In general, 98% of all those folks are going to be great neighbors. But there's always a few troublemakers, which the army is usualy good about setting straight . The older / more seasoned military folks would be excellent neighbors- those are good folks!

Damn right we will

_MaH

ETA:



I remember hearing something from someone about the military having a list of "Do not live" areas that they make available to soldiers transitioning into an area.  Since you were formerly in the military, might you have access to that information?

Some answers for you ...

1) Best place for free shooting? I realize this will probably require some driving. I've heard about Dragon Mans....
–– Think DM charges $10 per person/day??  Rampart Range is closed so National Forest is about all that's left that's free.
2) Best Asian / Vietnamese food?
–– Not sure on this one
3) Best Gun shops in the area (may have been covered somewhere else)?
–– Specialty Sports (pricey and can run into attitudes)/Sportsmans Warehouse/Dicks Sporting Goods/Sports Authority ... depends on what you're looking for.  I use a guy in town that does transfers at $20 per, each additional (at the same time) for $10
4) Would you call C. Springs "Bike Friendly" ?
–– Lots of bike riders downtown, but it's tough in the NE part of town ... lots of hils.
5) Academy Mall- nice, or crusty ?
–– Not sure which one you're referring to.  Citadel Mall (Powers and Academy) is losing a lot of stores and is turning getto-ish.  Chapel Hills Mall (North Academy) is better.
6) Best movie theater?
–– Netflix man!
7) What are your favorite open space areas?
–– Mine!  We live on about 5 acres north of Falcon.
8) Any neat festivals that they run every year?
–– Renaissance Festival in Larkspur (if you're into that), Balloon Glow @ Memorial Park, Manitou Springs has some quirky things from time to time.

I'd say the best movie theater would be the Cinemark on Powers / Carefree.

As far as your living area.....I wouldn't live near Powers / Constitution. Maybe I'm too snobby, but that area just isn't that nice.

No free place in town, barely any places in-county, except private unzoned land out east.  Public free shooting you're looking at 30-45min drive minimum to a spot in the national forest.


Lots of restaurants, none particularly outstanding.  Saigon Springs for vietnamese, Jun or Akasaka for japanese/sushi bar.


Specialty's the biggest.  Got some small special-order dealers like myself or paradise sales, and the rest tend to be the big box sporting goods stores which still have a gun counter.


Most major roads have dedicated bike lanes, but it's better for bikes near the central/downtown and west-side neighborhoods.  Out by powers it's car country.


You'll be closest to the "First and Main Town Center" shopping center if you wind up at powers and constitution.  It's newer, nice, and still completing new phases of construction.


we've got a bunch of 'tinseltown" and "cinemark" mega theaters now - closest to you will be the 1st & Main cinemark, which also has an Imax theater.


nothing to offer on this one


brewfest downtown, springspree downtown, pioneer days downtown, all colorado brewfest at mr. biggs (coming up), mardi gras in manitou springs, usually some sort of 4th of july shindigs around town, denver's got the great american beer festival every year, too.



south and southeast areas between the airport and fort carson are the roughest areas.  southwest is lower-income too, but hippies and such.  old west side is a mix of lower-middle class families moving in, and old couples dying out.  northwest side was the big tech-boom growth area, now aging and experiencing some drops in income.

northside - and all the way out 10 or more miles from downtown is the new middle class/upper middle class single-family subdivisions area.  $400k homes are common.

northeast runs out into the new construction, old country places being turned into subdivisions, etc.

east side is a big growth area, but the homes seem to be REALLY dense - duplexes with tiny yards, etc.

1) Best place for free shooting? I realize this will probably require some driving. I've heard about Dragon Mans....

Oh, Dragon Man's ain't bad––$10 for the first shooter, $8 each for additional in a group, for all day.  There's a pistol/50 ft range, a 100 yd range, and a 225 yd range on site.  They're also a Class 3 dealer, and Mel has quite a military museum on site.  It's about a ten minute drive from Powers and Constitution.  

There are several private/club ranges in the area such as Isaac Walton and Frontier, and Ben Lomond GC is about an hour to the NE.  There's also Whistling Pines GC near 24 and Marksheffel, it's an indoor 25 yd range.  They do allow rifles, but no steel tip ammo.  It's not cheap, members only, but they do allow guests.  Otherwise you've got to travel to national forest to the west, 45 min-1 hr away.  

2) Best Asian / Vietnamese food?

If you're at Powers and Constitution, there's Xiang's Kitchen in the shopping center at the SE corner.  Never had a bad meal there.  The credit union next door always smells like chinese food.  

3) Best Gun shops in the area (may have been covered somewhere else)?

Specialty Sports is the big player in town.  Now that Sportsmans Warehouse appears to be stocking guns again, hopefully they'll help keep SS's prices in check.  Some people would say to take the 2 hr drive to Loveland and go to Jensen's.

4) Would you call C. Springs "Bike Friendly" ?

I assume you mean bicycles.  As  mentioned above, there are a lot of bike lanes in town.  Some hardcore riders go out east, you'll see 'em on 94 and connecting paved roads.

5) Academy Mall- nice, or crusty ?

Never heard of it.  The Citadel mall mentioned above is at Platte and Academy, not Powers.  The First and Main "Town Center" on north Powers is the big commercial concern now.  I live in the area and hate to see what's happened out here... I preferred the cows, horses and cactus ya used to see.

6) Best movie theater?

Already covered.

7) What are your favorite open space areas?

How far are you willing to go, and what are you looking for?  If you drive five minutes east of town you're on the plains, lots of empty places out there, but it's mostly private property.  There are some nice wildlife areas out east, though, like the Hugo and Karval SWAs.  Go west of town and you have all the Rockies to play in.

8) Any neat festivals that they run every year?

Already covered... Dragon Man does a full auto shoot each fall.    There is or was a large caliber shoot each year out east by Wild Horse, IIRC.

I appreciate all the replies. To clarify-
I did mean the Citadel Mall. Sorry.

Powers and Constitution area is the only area I've really looked at, I'm hoping to live somewhere where I can make it to Schriever AFB in 30 minutes or less, a King Soopers in 10 minutes or less, and would be nice if there was a big health club nearby.  Sounds like national forest is the place to shoot for free.

I'm stoked about the new job, but the idea of finding a place to rent + starting up working in less than a week has my head spinning.

Here's a link that can be quite helpful when you decided to buy a house.  El Paso County tax assessor's website that shows current assessed tax and lots of other info.  http://land.elpasoco.com/

Who are you going to work for/what are you going to do @ SAFB??  I'm currently working for Boeing on a satellite system @ SAFB.

IM sent regarding employment, I don't know if I want it a matter of public record. :)  I'll check out the website. I even found the perfect house- but I think it's too soon.

Not to hijack the thread or steal thunder, but I decided I'd post this update here instead of starting a new thread in the COHTF.

We're almost there  Found a great house to rent, submitted the application, are the first to respond, the credit history checked out, criminal and eviction history will too, and about to make a deposit.

So when does the big bad hoff-daddy comes stompin' his way into Colorado Springs?

NOVEMBER

And to think...  It was only about a month or so ago I met with a group of you guys in Westminster and said "We might be moving to Colorado, but it will likely be in a few years."

Sometimes things not going according to plan works out for the best

Hey, djkest, let me know when you want to get the families together and I'll let you know when I'm ready for you to help drag my ass up the trail to the summit of that massive 14k-footer in our back yards

_MaH

I have to say that the best Vetnamese in town is at An Nam, a little mom and pop place just outside Fountain off of Powers (it changes name to Mesa Ridge Parkway but is still the same road) on the south end of the Springs.  I work at SAFB as well and will be moving into our offices in the new SIDC building this week.

G

Welcome to djkest and mhoffman!  





Sounds like you're the type of folks we're happy to have.  







B2





Here's another "locals" site FYI:   http://www.co-ar15.com/



(Good grief, seems I can't figure out how to hot link... I hate new homework at my age!  
)






 

Well, THERE goes the neighborhood!  

Here we come reach for your gun
And you better listen my friend, you see
Its been slow down below,
Aimed at you, we're the cowboys from hell



_MaH

ETA: Which, actually, should go over rrrreeeeaaaallllllllyyy well in the Evangelical strong-hold that is Colorado Springs...

Evangelical? Have you ever been to central Arkansas or Georgia?  That is evangelical - Churches and church camps on every corner of the woods.  The Springs may have several different faith based organizations headquartered here, but I've yet to have someone show up at my door week after week wanting me to go to this or that church event like I did when I lived north Louisiana.  The Christian scene in the Springs is overrated nationally.  This is a conservative bastion, but primarily fiscally and constitutionally, but not so much in regards to faith.

Can't wait to meet up and have a beer!

Gromit

Hey guys! I just realized I need to find a nice, clean, modern place to rent in under 1 WEEK! Fortunately, we have the money for the huge deposits, but even working as best we can, I'm not sure if we'll be able to pull it off. I don't think I'd be able to handle a 2.5 hour commute (each way!) which is why I need a place.

I just checked with www.apartmentresource.org and www.rentals.com, and they have lots of nice places. Just need to get in contact with people and make it happen. :)  My head is spinning with all that stuff, but it's way better than being unemployed. Way better.

By the way, thank you for all you diligent hardworking people who were supporting me while I was on unemployment. I'll pay it back, I promise.

Well, the wife and I just found and made a deposit on a single family home rental over the weekend.  We already know where we're moving to now.

If we can do that in two days from two time-zones away, there's no reason you can't take care of a rental apartment from the other side of Denver in less time

_MaH

We just looked at home rentals, there are some really nice/affordable houses for rent out there!

Real quick- pros and cons of renting a single family home as compared to a condo or apartment?

I told my wife that a house would be quiet, more private, and probably offer a good amount of space, downside is possibly more maintenance and higher rent? IDK.

All accurate points.

I think you're more likely to stay in a rental home than you are an apartment.  Particularly as "life events" (aka "children") begin happening.

Take it from me, and take it from me well –– I know WTF I am talking about here –– an apartment/condo/anything-without-a-backyard is no place to raise a child.  Eventually a point will come around that, god bless their little hearts you love them to death and want them to be happy every second of their life, but for fuck's sake stop destroying the damn house and go the hell outside and play so I can rest and try to rebuild what little remains of the foundation of my sanity to tolerate you for another day.

I don't need to explain that any further.  Anyone here with kids knows exactly what I'm talking about.

_MaH

quote]

Take it from me, and take it from me well –– I know WTF I am talking about here –– an apartment/condo/anything-without-a-backyard is no place to raise a child.  Eventually a point will come around that, god bless their little hearts you love them to death and want them to be happy every second of their life, but for fuck's sake stop destroying the damn house and go the hell outside and play so I can rest and try to rebuild what little remains of the foundation of my sanity to tolerate you for another day.

I don't need to explain that any further.  Anyone here with kids knows exactly what I'm talking about.

_MaH[/quote]



You are SOOOO right!

You are SOOOO right![/quote]

My wife and I are laughing right now.

So we spent the day in the springs. We looked at about  6 different properties. We drove over 60 miles up and down academy, powers, over and back on HWY 24, all sorts of stuff. We enlited www.apartmentresource.org=   man, they kept showing us crappy, crappy places. Cheap though.

We finally found a couple places we absolutely love-

First is a townhome near circle drive and Hancock parkway. The surrounding area/ neighborhood is very rough, I do not like the area. The unit itself was spacious and well priced. Some ornrey kids running around, but not too bad.

Second was a rental home. This was really stretching our budget, this is the debate.  This place was AWESOME. Nice space, a fenced yard, a private deck off of the master bedroom, 2 pantries in the kitchen, unfinished basement for storage. Super nice, funky looking but awesome. Unfortunately, it's really about $200 more than we want to spend per month. Hard to save up for a house when you - don't have any money left over. Anyway- we'll see on that one.

I have to make another 250 mile RT drive on Thursday because- well, some people don't work on Mondays OR Fridays apparently, and we also spent some time chasing around looking at crappy rentals that were suggested to us. No thanks, we won't be listening to them anymore.

Edit: real nice day in the springs, we should have worn shorts. Had the A/C cranking.

The place we went with was $75 over our budget. However, I said that I would be willing to pay a little more if there was a good reason for it.

That $75 extra per month will translate into about $900/year that doesn't make it onto savings. For the extra features of the house, I decided it was worth it.

An extra $200/month means there's $2,400 over the year that doesn't go into savings. I can't tell you if it's worth it or not - only you can.

Just don't forget to take into consideration the following:

1) Probability of a raise in the future

2) Possibility of finding another, better paying job in the Springs

3) How long would you be staying in the cheaper place if #1 or #2 happened?  If the answer is that you'd move out ASAP, you should think hard about ways to afford the extra $$$ for a much better place.

Just my $0.02.

_MaH

Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile

Personally, I'd spend the extra $$ and stay in an area that I liked, felt safer in (making an assumption here) and probably didn't have to worry about my vehicle getting jacked up by the neighborhood kids (another assumption on my part).  What's the OT policy with your new employer??  Might be able to make up that $200 per month and more?

Rob.

I don't think much overtime. It will be a sporadic thing. Also they said periodic bonuses. I may get a Christmas bonus after being w/ the company for 2 months- who knows?

We are going to check out a few more places, if we are meant to have that 3BR rental house, it will still be there in 2 days. I want to cover all the bases I guess.

Circle and Hancock???    No way, that's down in the hood, fo sho.

Yeh, wut he sez.  Tru dat.

Meaning, I would shy away from that area.  I don't even like driving down there.  I wish I was more available during the work week, I'd tell you to give me a ring if you have questions about an area.  More often than not, though, I can't answer my phone at work.  I've lived just off Circle Drive between Airport and Pikes Peak for almost 5 years now and can't complain.  We bought though...

Okay, thought of another question. Good liquor stores- I'm talking- large selection, good prices, wine tasting. Hopefully not in the ghetto. I know a good liquor store might sound trivial to some, but not me!

Just go South on Powers. Powers and Palmer Park, big liquor store outlet. Near KMart.



 

There is also "Cheers", I found on the internet. They have wine tasting and a wine club, a newsletter and probably e-mail alerts.

Powers Liquor Mart used to have a website (I think), but it isn't up any longer. :(  Thanks for the info, I'll be checking these places out when I get there.

ETA: The Place we got is on the lower end of our budget, so we can save up money for unexpected things related to buying a home (lawn mower, appliances, furniture, window coverings, landscaping, etc).  Located near Powers and Dublin- convenient to live but not as convenient for the job.

There's another big liquor store on North Carefree a block or two east of Powers.  Springs Liquor Mart, something like that.  Just east of the turnoff to Super Target and Chik Fil-A.

That's the "anti-purse" place ... my wife hates it.  You typically get the stink-eye from the employees hanging around the door when you walk in too.  Guess they have had too many shoplifters to give the benefit of the doubt to their honest customers.  Wonder if they are going to ban winter coats for fear of people stuffing pints in their pockets?

I really like the concret Jersey barriers and iron mesh crap on their windows too!

Did you find a rental yet?  There are quite a few houses for rent on my block, nice and quiet.   I'm paying $895 for my 2BR, Garage, yard, with a German Shepherd allowed.

Welcome to the Springs!  We have lived here for 10 years and we have loved every minute of it.  

As far as free places to shoot, I shoot at Ft Carson on their POW range.  It has 10 covered shooting positions and is marked out to 300 yards.  All it takes is a DOD issued ID card as long as you go with someone with a range card (like me!).

Also, I want to address the negative post regarding Specialty Sports.  Years ago, you definitely could get the "attitude" from some of the employees if you were just browsing (I experienced it several times myself).  I was in the store a couple of weeks (on a weekday) and I must have been asked five different times by five different employees if they could help me.  And no, I wasn't the only customer in the store.  Jeff has made great strides in "educating" his sales people in customer service.  They also have the best selection in town - by far, so don't write them off and go find out for yourself.  But, as a former part-time employee of Sportsman's Warehouse, I would be remiss to add they have finally gotten some firearms in stock (lots of EBRs).  Not much ammo yet, but lots more guns than they had several months ago.  Bankruptcy has been good to them!