Been using CF for 10 years, Java for 5. CF is a great bridge from the functionality and performance of Java with the ease and natural fit of a loosely typed language when building for the web.

CF and it's community is not the same beast it used to be, I would encourage you and others to take a second look.

Maybe it's been a while? Check out http://www.coldboxframework.com/ or http://fw1.riaforge.org/ as examples of the state of things these days.