This review sounds entirely personal and subjective, consisting of overgeneralizations derived from prejudicial judgments and emotional impressions of the reviewer. His use of such emotive words as "racist," "cops," "criminals," and "fear" appear to me to reveal strong bias resulting from his own unfortunate experience. I wonder what events, incidents, encounters, or the like, led him to arrive at such conclusions, and how his moods, manners, behaviors, appearance, dress, and speech influenced the people who heard, saw, or met him, and consequently responded to him. For me to agree or disagree with his generalizations as reliable, I'd have to see that they were based on quarterly or at least annual random-sample surveys of the Leadville population, and compared with equally reliable surveys, with given margins of error, of the entire population of Colorado, of other towns in it, and of the USA. Without such evidence, and such as is presented at city-data.com, I won't allow myself to believe his review to be reliable.
Scott | Laramie, WY | Report Abuse

How long did you live here?
She | Boulder, CO | Report Abuse

While there's some truth to what you wrote, it's a gross over-simplification and not at all indicative of my own experience. Elections for the city council and county commissioner seats keep going to people who are forward-thinking and accepting of tourists and newcomers, so while there are (loud) salty old-timers, most of the local populace is not like what you described. About the police, there is now a citizen review board (or similar, forgive me as I'm not sure of the exact wording) for the city police and county sheriff departments, and many residents have started participating, with emphasis placed on the inclusion of local minorities. Also, at least as a male, I take walks around town at night all the time and feel completely safe in a general 7-10pm timeframe. I'm more at ease here than, say, Boulder for example. No shade at Boulder intended, but most would say Boulder is quite safe and I feel Leadville is similar, if not better in that department. I understand Leadville continues to be a changing place, and I don't mean to dismiss your experience, but I don't think people should read only this and walk away thinking Leadville is a bad town. I can think of some places in CO that, to me, resemble what you wrote, but Leadville isn't on that list. I think it's one of the best places someone could live in this state, as long as they enjoy winter, are looking for that quintessential CO experience, and can deal with sometimes having subpar produce at the local supermarket.
Tony | Leadville, CO | Report Abuse