Horrendous.
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11/10/2018
Greeley is unique for sure. I think I’m more impressed with it’s distant history and humble beginnings rather than the juggernaut of what it is today.
That being said, that aversion has to do with the culture (not races!) and people there more than the actual location and industries. But Greeley’s affordability comes at the expense of several things others might consider to be less negotiable. Being from the Midwest, the industries are more bearable for someone like me.
But after living in Colorado for nearly a decade, Greeley and Weld county at large tend to encompass a distinct culture that is legitimately and understandably off putting for so many other Colorado inhabitants. So many in Greeley prefer to solidly make light of the putrid stockyard air pollution by openly insisting that it ‘smells like money’, which isn’t helping with the already unflattering impression that they create for themselves with people and places elsewhere. Which in turn fuels the long standing position of Greeley being the butt of so many brain killing air pollution/petroleum fume jokes while maintaining such a pretentious and naive mindset. Especially when in reality, compared to the rest of Colorado it ends up proving to be more reminiscent of a trailer park version of southern high society believing that possessing so many oilfield jobs justifies any of it.
The worst offenders seem to always be the oilfield workers -who are young, less educated and able to maintain the crazy work schedules that pay them better than many with doctorate degrees typically earn. They’re hard to miss because most haven’t gotten out much outside small towns and tend to behave more wildly like unattended high school age kids, given too much and using it to fund living a lifestyle somewhere between ghetto fabulous and hillbilly deluxe. Nothing worse than trying to get a drink with your girls and they present themselves like royalty and won’t shut up or go away. Bouncers can attest that oilfield workers and roofied girls are too often synonymous at Greeley bars due to the I-25 corridor directly from MX where the drug is still legal and made available to those who can afford it here. If you’re even an average looking female walking to lunch or to your car after work in downtown, you’re probably going to get cat called and or honked at by one or more oversized diesel cab trucks of oilfield workers. The lack of class and maturity that these people bring with that industry is mortifying. I stopped claiming to be from there before I finally got out. I stopped planning outings there, so then when I went elsewhere I didn’t want to be associated with it anyways. People outside of Greeley too often apologize, cringe or just try to be polite at the mention.
Not too long ago, it boasted a much more active gang culture. Some people think it’s gone, but I disagree. It’s just different now and people are quieter. You could be with your family at some parks 35th eastward & 34 southward, and you’ll get people dealing/doing drugs midday. But then you also witness street racing/peeling out/drunk & disorderly on weekend nights or just learn to sleep through it when you get tired of calling the cops and just pray it’s not another guy dragging an ex-girl who’s rejecting him off the sidewalk and into bushes. The only thing not sketchy that was open 24 hours was Walgreens and the last time I was there a manager was following after a guy who ran out the door with some Electronics. No grocery stores or even Walmart stay open past midnight. And theft is apparently so bad at the Walmart stores that they make you show your receipt before you exit. I stopped going because I didn’t have time to constantly be held up at the door and wasnt going to comply with being treated like a thief. What does that say?! No thanks.
On a separate but relevant note, its also the county seat for the absolute worst drivers I’ve ever had to share the road with. It’s a crapshoot driving 34 in any direction. 34 is notorious for its typically avoidable accidents. You’d swear it was vortex or something. Some days I could take 85 to Denver faster than 34 to Loveland due to the the most ignorant, inconsiderate and offensive (not the smart defensive types so much) as well as inclement weather incompetent drivers I’ve ever seen anywhere else in Colorado. In fairness, transplants from warm places dont help. But I’ve also never seen so many people get offended, speed up or nudge at playing chicken when you just have somewhere more important or pressing to be rather than behind them, camped in the passing lane and or impeding the speed limit by 10-15 mph as well. But what’s even worse than that sometimes are the ones who lose their minds & driving faculties and or panic/pull over when it rains or hails a little. (Thankfully, when you approach or reach outside Weld county lines, it usually dissapates.)
I’ve unfortunately felt the need to call the drunk driver/HP # on a few occasions when the driving was so bad that I actually questioned sobriety.
You may still have a rosy impression, but with time and exposure, Greeley tends to earn its reputation rather honestly and beyond the lower COL and taxes.
The best anyone can do really is to reside within the 35th westward /34 northward corner, which is far enough away from the real Greeley to avoid the typical grossness you can’t avoid otherwise. But even that has slowly been moving west.
Maybe one day it will get better. But I sadly have yet to find much to be left realistically optimistic of that. Which sucks for the all the natives and better people who stick around in spite of all the lowered standards in people that continue to permeate and foul it up worse than any stockyard possibly could.
But you also can’t blame those of us who couldn’t keep making concessions in our overall standards for an upfront cheaper COL and tax rate.
Sub par standards will always be more expensive in the long run in other ways. And that is why so many of us are more than happy to own a mid-century bungalow in a better area of Colorado than settle for the cheap new construction in NW Greeley and the eastward stuff that accompanies and slowly encroaches it.
They came up with a “Greeley Unexpected” slogan recently. Which is poetic, because you don’t want to find all this out the hard way after you buy a house and try to plant yourself here.
Survived | Greeley, CO