The Couch

Recently I found out that I may have been safer in Michigan.  Specifically Lansing.  While doing research on Zombies for today’s Getting Graphic.ly, I came across and article talking about Lansing’s plans for Zombies.  The article from BlechSpeak, dated back in 2007, states the city is ready for an Undead Invasion and even includes quotes from officials.  It’s interesting to hear city officials talk about the fact that they’re ready and have a plan’s to hand out chainsaws to people.  I don’t know of any other city that has even joked about having such a plan in place.

After hearing that Lansing is ready to keep people safe from Zombies, I did some further digging. Apparently The University of Florida briefly had a Zombie Plan on their website along with plans for other disasters.  Unfortunately it seems that it was a joke and they took it down within a couple days according to an MSNBC article. Maybe I’m the only one that doesn’t take the Zombie Apocalypse scenario lightly?

Thankfully I found what I was looking for: Rate You City’s Survival Chances on Zombieresearch.net along with Rate Your Home’s Survival Chances.  They rate a city on three categories:

1. Combat Readiness
2. Infrastructure
3. Civil Response

Since I have yet to rate my new city on anything other than comparison to Troy Mi.  I figured why not start with a Survival Rating for Zombies?

Combat Readiness

The article asks what Population Density is and how many people have firearms in their homes.  Boulder actually has a higher population density than Denver according to wikipedia and has the highest in the state.  Since my time in Boulder I haven’t met too many people I would think carry firearms.  I’m going to take a wild guess and say that there not in too many in homes as well.  In fact last year CU Boulder did a Humans vs Zombies game, without Nerf Guns, something I find troubling if you’re training for a Zombie invasion.   Thankfully I’ve been informed that there are some Military Bases at Denver and Colorado Springs.  Hopefully they won’t be dealing with Zombies there and can come save us in Boulder.  Sadly Combat Readiness may not be a strong point for my new hometown.

Infrastructure

Thankfully Boulder appears to have many roads going in and out of town.   Getting out shouldn’t be too difficult.  Also I would think if you could make it into the mountains that would help with survivability.  The article stresses fresh water which would seem plentiful with patches of snow and streams coming from the Mountains.  Thankfully there are a few reservoirs right outside of Boulder as well.  This is the category that Boulder does well in. There are lots of ways to get out of town and fresh water doesn’t seem too difficult to get your hands on.

Civil Response

Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be readable information on how responsive the Boulder Police and Fire department are.  Since I thankfully have not had to use either I have no personal experience to reference.  That of course is not to say that they don’t have a great response time that isn’t recorded.  Also there is one major hospital.  Sadly as far as Civil Response, Boulder seems to be inconclusive.

Overall Boulder probably gets a B in Zombie Survival.  Which isn’t bad considering Troy Mi would rate much lower. Sadly my apartment fails at all three topics for grading for Rating Your Home Defense.  If I can survive long enough to get out of the deathtrap that is my apartment, I’ll be doing pretty good.

If you want to know more about zombie movies, comics, survival tactics and more come out to this week’s Getting Graphic.ly! on Zombies with special guest host Kristen Rielly from Geek Girls, later tonight at 6PM PDT / 9PM EDT.  Also check out Kristen’s post, This Week in Zombies over on Geek Girls Network.

Most of you don’t know that I recently moved from Michigan, a state I’ve lived in for my entire life.  The last city I lived in was Troy and I must say, Boulder has been an upgrade.

Boulder offers a wide variety of people, unlike Troy, MI which was located in Oakland County.  Little known fact, Oakland County is apparently one of the top five wealthiest counties among counties with more than one million people.  This leads to a bunch of rich folk driving around in super expensive cars acting like they own the place.  Which in all honesty they probably do.  In Boulder I just need to worry about the huge amount of bicyclists on the road.  I’ve also had more conversations with random people while in Boulder than I did in the two years I lived in Troy.

Troy has a tenancy to close up shop around 9pm.  The only places I ever saw open later, was one Coney Island, a handful of Bars, and a couple grocery stores.  Apparently rich people don’t like to go out for a good time.  Boulder on the other hand seems to have people out at all hours.  It also has some of the best bars I’ve been to.  West End Tavern is a little bit of an upgrade from a chain restaurant that serves alcohol.

Lastly, the weather.  I have yet to complain once about how the humidity at 50 degrees is killing me outside.  It’s actually the opposite in Boulder, it seems dry all the time.  The best part about the weather is it seems like it’s sunny all the time.  Once winter hits in Michigan, the sun goes bye bye and you don’t see it till spring.  I generally like going outside here in Boulder, which is different than my experience in Troy.

In other words, if you’re in Michigan, don’t make Troy a vacation stop.  Only stop there if you want to get in fender bender with an Aston Martin just off of Exit 69 Big Beaver Rd.  Or if you want to say hi to my old roommates, who are all cool guys.

I’m not joking though, there really is an Exit 69 Big Beaver Rd.  In fact their slogan is “Why get off anywhere else?”

-Jon