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I am a little biased since I moved to Denver, but the size of Denver's metro is kind of misleading. Boulder and its neighbors are undoubtedly closely linked to Denver, but for some reason the powers that be insist on keeping Boulder its own MSA and it holds Denver's population down by almost a million people and hurts its diversity and education levels as well. In some MSA surveys I see Denver as 16th and I believe that is when they count Boulder as well. At 16th its just behind Seattle, a city I see as very comparable in most of these categories.
If just considering the cities picked here Denver will win many categories because the other cities are somewhat overshadowed by bigger cities 3-4 hours away.
Denver, in any way, shape or form, is not bigger than the Twin Cities.....you made this up. I agree that Boulder should be part of the metro, but that certainly doesn't add 1 million people.
[quote=JoninATX;30535057]With San Antonio not to far behind Portland, and Charlotte one would not notice a difference in terms of metro population.[/QU
Charlottte really is an average city with a nice downtown with limited culture. Its metro sits in a desert where every country town within a 100 mile radius is part of its metro area.. The real superstar in that area is Asheville and maybe Greenville, SC
Strongest Economy: San Antonio, Pittsburgh, Denver, Portland.
-San Antonio has an unemployment rate of 5.7% and is one of the states with the best economies in America
-Pittsburgh has an incredible education and medical base. It also has many large companies that are established there. It also has large shale natural gas reserves with-in close proximity. There are a lot of young people that are extremely intelligent.
-Denver is 3rd because it is does have great job growth and its economic fortunes have changed since 2010. But the population growth is usually at or above job growth so its unemployment rate remains high. The unemployment rate for Denver County in June 2013 was 7.7%
-Portland for its population seems to lag a good economic base. It has big companies but for a population of 2.5 million it is not where most metro areas of similar size are. It seems to have the issue Denver has where many people want to move there so its job growth can't keep up with the population
Future: Pittsburgh, San Antonio, Portland, Denver
-Pittsburgh: I don't see Pittsburgh population booming. But it seems to have an extremely high amount of extremely intelligent people compared to any city I have been. It is a city that attracts very education science and technological oriented people. I do see the unemployment rate decreasing from it's already fairly low level and property values increasing.
- San Antonio seems to be a city with a good future. But I am naïve on the topic. Although, Texas economy seems to continue to pick up steam all the time. It also can't hinder the city that it is close to Austin which has a massive following.
-Portland seems to have a decent outlook. It is sort of hard to tell where Portland will go. I don't know much about what is going on there.
-Although in a better position then probably half of the other big cities, compared to the other four Denver probably has the worst outlook. It has a combination of very high population growth, moderate job growth. It has stubbornly high unemployment because many people rush in with no jobs pretending they are moving to Williston, North Dakota.
Denver also has many people who swarm the city thinking they will pay less then 1,000 dollars a month for a house in a nice neighborhood when that is typically what a 1 bedroom apartments rents for in a nice Denver neighborhood like Washington Park or Chessman Park.
The state also has a very, very large population of dyed in the wool libertarians who have a vendetta against any tax, for any purpose. Colorado in general because low taxes are priority has one of the worst infrastructures.
Education
-Pittsburgh is tops for this category. The city is actually one of the America's top university cities. For a city of 300,000 it has one of highest percentage of students in America. Oakland is basically the 2nd downtown of the city and is basically a college town in and of itself.
-San Antonio and Portland would probably be a tie but I am not familiar with the education base of these cities.
-Denver has Auraria which is a very run-down campus in the city itself and DU which is a nice but small university. The state's education resources are heavily invested into Fort Collins and Boulder and the rest of the state gets the crumbs.
Job Growth
-San Antonio: Seems like Texas is on top economically year in and year out among the big states and the central location of San Antonio. Plus a lot of manufacturers, health-care centers and call-centers that employ many people per business are located there.
-Denver will probably over the long-term have high job growth, it does now. But it has an insane amount of people who move there thinking it will be some alpine oasis with an economy booming like North Dakota or West Texas and that is not the case. Denver also seems to have a high cost for businesses, so it seems like the main economic growth is in high-wage companies who tend not to hire as many people as say in announcement of a new-call center and manufacturer.
-Pittsburgh even when it has modest job growth, it is usually high quality job growth. It also doesn't have a high rate of population growth or in-migration
-Portland I am not familiar. But even though it has better growth potential then most metro areas the other three have very good outlooks likely.
Terrain:
Denver: flat, with some hills in the western suburbs, many trees in the city core but not many that newer development.
Pittsburgh: hilly, lush and incredible scenery
Portland: green and hilly
San Antonio: not familiar
Culture: I can only talk about Pittsburgh and Denver from some personal experience.
Denver tends to be a city based on keeping up with the Jones. It is more about keeping up with the Jones housing wise and on going to a certain place or event. They aren't big on impressing with cars in Denver. They do tend to place emphasis on the neighborhood they live in though as a status symbol. Most people in Denver are quite cold, but there is a large segment of the population that is very down to earth also.
People are not nearly as fitness obsessed in Denver as the stereotypes tend to be.
Pittsburgh seems like a friendly city to me when I was there. They seem to talk more then most cities. It doesn't seem to be a materialistic population as a whole at all. The people there seemed very, very content and calm. Not to bring looks into but the population was incredibly attractive.
Nationally Denver can do no wrong which I have never understood. It has a better outlook then most cities and can be quite nice in some aspects but it is very over-rated.
Pittsburgh is incredibly under-rated
Portland every one knows about and it has a good reputation.
Overall, if I could choose a decent neighborhood in either of those 4 cities it would be Pittsburgh, followed by Portland then Denver and lastly San Antonio based more on weather and political views.
With San Antonio not to far behind Portland, and Charlotte one would not notice a difference in terms of metro population.[/QU
Charlottte really is an average city with a nice downtown with limited culture. Its metro sits in a desert where every country town within a 100 mile radius is part of its metro area.. The real superstar in that area is Asheville and maybe Greenville, SC
Charlottte really is an average city with a nice downtown with limited culture. Its metro sits in a desert where every country town within a 100 mile radius is part of its metro area..
Sounds like Charlotte to me. Denver doesn't have endless sprawl (compared to Charlotte) and Charlotte is about as average/bland as big cities come, honestly.
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