FoCo in 15 Minutes | Fort Collins Ranked Top 5, I-25 Speed Cameras, July Construction & PBR Weekend

Auto-generated from the episode audio — may contain minor errors.

This is Living in Fort Collins, the podcast, and we are coming to you on July 7th, the week after 4th of July, and we are in the dog days of summer. Holy cow, it is expected to be hot. It is a great time to get outside, enjoy some slip and slides, pool action, make sure to wear the sunscreen. Your boy got roasted while he was just outside for like an hour while we were out in eastern Colorado enjoying my nieces and nephews birthdays. But we are jumping in. There was another week without a city council meeting so we're not going to worry too much about that. I actually just shot this entire video and went deep in this so be on the lookout for our Fort Collins lifestyle video that will highlight how Fort Collins was just named number five on CNN's best American towns to visit for 2026.

You know there's some great towns on here, much smaller, they're not really focusing on the larger brands like the Miamis, Los Angeles, New York's, Orlando's. They're kind of more focused on the smaller areas, Juneau, Alaska, Burlington, Vermont, Greenville, Bethlehem, Sarasota, Florida, and Fort Collins came in at number five on that list. And they kind of dove deep about why Fort Collins is great and it was a 5,000 word article. Now I will say one of the great relationships I have is somebody at the visit Fort Collins and basically what their job is is to market how amazing and wonderful Fort Collins is and to bring people in because we are a city that really has a lot of our economy based around tourism and ultimately from there a lot of people find their way moving here.

And one of the originating reasons is some of these articles and the video that I just shot really talked about like how this impacts buyers and homeowners and the reality is like I think we were on Money Magazine's Best Place to Live in America in the early 2000s and we saw a massive increase demand living here. So how can we keep Fort Collins amazing for what it was and build and prepare for the future to keep it awesome? So CNN evaluated hundreds of communities on attractions, food and drink, culture, identity, livability factors. So for anyone considering moving here Fort Collins being on this list is pretty important.

Interesting article. Cameras on I-25 work zone cut excessive speeding by 92% is what CDOT says. They said since speed cameras went live in March on the I-25 work zone between Berthoud and Meade, excessive speeds of 10 miles per hour or over has dropped 92% as a June 30th article release. I mean I think that's pretty significant ultimately. There was an article that I saw one time and it talked about traffic fatalities by month and they dramatically dip in the winter months. Now accidents do increase but the reason why from my belief is that the fatalities drop is because the speeds at which people are going during the winter months generally are a little bit slower, slower on the roads.

Yeah they might slip into somebody but they're going to slip into somebody going 10 miles per hour rather than jam into somebody going 75 miles per hour on the interstate. So speed is definitely a major concern. Fort Collins has a vision zero. They're working on speed zones. There's lights that can get you dinged for speeding. They really want people to go a little bit slower on the roads and make it more safe. So this is part of a, speeding is part of a statewide push. Cameras on diagonal highway in Longmont have cut excessive speedings by 81% since 2025. You know increasing fines is pretty dramatic but I would just say ultimately take some time, don't speed is kind of the story.

Fort Collins road projects. They definitely are bringing July traffic and delays across the city. July is the biggest construction month of the summer in Fort Collins with most projects kicking off Monday, July 6th. Lane closures, directional closures and one full street shutdown are all on the calendar for this month. You know the big ones going to be South Shield Street between Mountain and Mulberry. Lane shifts from July 6th through 19th and full closure from July 20th through the 31st for underground utility work tied to the Oak Street storm water project. They're going to add some new protected bike lanes.

So they're suggesting you use Taft, Hill or College as your alternatives. East Mulberry is getting repaved between College Avenue and Riverside in two phases between westbound and westbound is going to be closed July 6th through 10th and eastbound closed July 13th through 17th. Public to Riverside are your best detours for this. Turn lanes at College and Harmony, one of the busiest intersections in town are going to close for concrete repairs starting July 6th for about five to seven days. So plan your trips accordingly. July is going to be a pain in the butt with construction. It is what it is.

I was just driving back home from the eastern plains and I was like, oh man, you know, let's buy a farm. Then I saw a video forever ago and I was joking about, you know, these farmers and the investments they've had to make and their combines and equipment and like half a million, quarter of a million, hundreds of thousands of dollars and there was a historic Weld Dairy Farm that filed for bankruptcy protection and it's a 73 year old 500 acre dairy farm in Gill just east of Greeley and they filed for a chapter bankruptcy and they had financial problems really when they were trying to modernize their dairy for their future.

So it just, it's insane that you could have a 73 year old farm, 500 acres worth, you know, many, many, many millions of dollars but the cost of running a farm these days is astronomical and so I quickly removed that idea out of my mind for the idea of owning a farm. You know, one, I know how much work it is. Family in Iowa, our family is from Iowa, my mom's family and I know how hard they worked, how early they woke up and I'm like, you know what, why would I voluntarily take on something that, especially with the high financial investments. So you know, if you know a farmer, give them love. I know it's not easy, it's not cheap and there's a lot of competition.

Last week, June 30th, the primary was, you know, completed. Phil Weiser upset Senator Michael Bennet setting up a November run against the Republican counterpart. John Hickenlooper fended off a primary challenge and they are going to face Republican Mark Baisley this November. There was a Larimer County Commissioner District 1 ran unopposed but I will say this November is probably pretty important on the political side of things for House and Senate and gubernatorial races across the nation. So that was a big deal last week with the primary and finishing up. Loveland's July 4th festival returned last week and I will say, like, I was shocked two years ago when they shut it down because of budget issues and I think they got a lot of, you know, lash back because it's back this year and there was a strong emotional excitement around it.

You know, kind of Lake Loveland area near Loveland High School saw so many pictures and videos of people there and sometimes I think we as individuals, businesses, municipalities make these budget cuts not knowing how truly important or impactful they are until they're gone and, you know, props to Loveland for seeing that, understanding the importance to the community, how much pride people in Loveland take with their community and then bringing it back pretty much immediately. So 4th of July was an absolute blast. We were at City Park. The finale was kind of interesting this year. You know, they pretty much went for about 20 minutes or so and then at the grand finale it just like ripped them all off like within like, it was like a three minute finale.

It felt like it was very quick, got after it but it was fun, you know, and I always kind of, I'm so glad that my wife is, you know, who she is because we were talking about like things to do in the area and I was concerned because there was like 40 some odd areas across Colorado that weren't going to have fireworks this year because of dry conditions and fire dangers and so I was like, man, I do not want to go to City Park. It's going to be a nightmare. There's going to be so many people from all over the area because they don't have fireworks to go to near them and it was. It was busy but we had an absolute blast.

Food trucks were amazing. Waited 45 minutes to get an $8 piece of pie and a $10 or $2 scoop of ice cream on that thing but the last time I had that pie was last July 4th. So it's kind of a nice tradition and I'm enjoying it. PBR Bowls and Beats this week at Canvas, as far as things to do, excuse me. PBR Bowls and Beats, this weekend we've got Bailey Zimmerman, Brad Paisley and Miranda Lambert coming to Fort Collins. I don't think in my life. Now, I do know there was a gap between when, before I was born or very early on in my life when Hughes Stadium, you know, I think the Beatles, there were some major acts that came to Fort Collins and performed at Hughes Stadium.

But from when I was born to when I, you know, just now, we never really had any big acts come to Fort Collins. Taste of Fort Collins would have, you know, Nelly at the end of his career, you know, some other, you know, new West Fest. We had Cake here. We did have Earth, Wind & Fire. You know, we've had some big acts but this seems like it's going to be like an annual thing that's going to bring significant performers to the area. So, my wife and I were talking about getting the babysitter and going out to enjoy that. The Snowy Grass Music Festival in Estes Park starting Thursday, July 9th through Sunday, July 12th.

Get out there, enjoy Estes Park. I mean, I think Estes Park is one of the under-exposed, I don't know if that's the right word but under-appreciated areas in all of Larimer County, Northern Colorado. So, get out there and enjoy the music festival. Loveland Concert Series is kicking off Thursday, July 9th, 7 p.m. at the Lagoon Amphitheater on 3rd Street in Loveland. As always, CSU Lagoon Concert Series, the 80s band going on Wednesday, July 8th at 6.30 p.m. And then tonight, the food truck rally at City Park. Every Tuesday night at City Park, go out, enjoy yourself. Yes, the beginning of the season, end of the season is pretty crazy but we're kind of middle of the season right now.

There will be waits but it is a great time to get out there on a Tuesday evening. We will not be going tonight, that's for sure. We had our fill of City Park for a couple of weeks at least, this last weekend at the 4th of July. But this is the living in Fort Collins, the podcast. Now, if you haven't, share this with somebody. Whoever is local, considering moving here, relocating here or leave me a comment, a message. Let me know what you like, dislike. What would you like to see more of? Generally, every week we do a city council recap but they had two weeks off. So, no city council for the last couple of weeks but we generally like to talk about things that are going on there.

Hopefully, you guys are enjoying this and until next week everybody, have a great day.