Your favorite MAJOR city in the Rockies in United States-Canada [Calgary, Denver, Edmonton, Salt Lake City] (living, best)

[Trafalgar Law]

We are comparing only these four: Calgary, Denver, Edmonton, and Salt Lake City.

Your favorite MAJOR city in the Rockies [United States-Canada]. Major cities meaning metropolitan regions that exceed 1 million or more people.

Criteria:
- Culinary scene
- Nightlife
- Location
- Outdoors activities
- Scenery
- Quality of Life
- Cost of Living
- Economic prosperity
- Climate

Compare them on anything. I personally don't care what, anything. Do whatever honestly. For what it is worth, mine is Denver. One of my favorite cities in all of North America (really the entire Western Hemisphere at-large; love the outdoors).

[Ant131531]

This really isn't close. Denver.

[EricNorthman]

I never realized anyone thought of Edmonton as being in the Rockies. It is quite a distance from them.

I am not familiar with Calgary so skipping it and just comparing Salt Lake City and Denver.

Criteria:
- Culinary scene - I am not a foodie so this is unimportant to me. I would imagine Denver is better than SLC due to size.
- Nightlife - Denver
- Location - Salt Lake City. Easier access to the mountains for recreation and less crowded.
- Outdoors activities - Equal but Salt Lake is closer to the mountains for skiing and other stuff.
- Scenery - This is tough for me. I find the mountains outside of Denver to be more attractive. They are a bit greener and hold snow cover longer, so advantage Denver for the mountains. For the city, I prefer Salt Lake. The mountains are much closer and rise straight up with pretty much no foothills. The views from the city are more impressive than in Denver. I think Salt Lake has more diversity. There is nothing like the Great Salt Lake or the salt flats in the Denver area.
- Quality of Life - Means different things to different people but for me, Denver is the better city.
- Cost of Living - Salt Lake is definitely cheaper than Denver.
- Economic prosperity - Denver
- Climate = People from outside think the climate is the same but if you spend a year in both, you'll see the differences. Denver is sunnier in the winter and has higher daytime temps as well as being cooler in the summer. I think that is a win for Denver. Salt Lake is cloudier in winter, and that combined with the slightly cooler temps keeps the snow on the ground for longer. I like snow but I'm not as big a fan of snow that has been around awhile that is discolored and looks nasty.

Another factor that is related to both climate and location is the infamous inversions in winter in Salt Lake City. Google pics of them if you haven't seen them before. They can be quite nasty. SLC in general has more problems with air pollution than Denver due to being circled by mountains.

Politically, I prefer Denver. SLC is a bit too far to the right for me. I like the whole swing state thing of Colorado and Denver is a nice mix.

[a bag of it]

I've only lived in colorado, but I've spent a ton on time researching SLC considering a move, so I'll just compare the two.


- Culinary scene - Denver, but SLC isn't far behind
- Nightlife - Denver by a long shot
- Location - SLC, closer to mountains as well as Vegas, LA, etc...
- Outdoors activities - SLC, better closer skiing, access to deserts other national parks, greater variety
- Scenery - SLC, Denver is ugly, brown and flat, the scenery is way off in the distance
- Quality of Life - This is really personal preference
- Cost of Living - SLC by a large margin
- Economic prosperity - Denver, but SLC has better Wage to COL ratio, and seems to be growing
- Climate - Denver, SLC is hotter in the summer and colder in the winter and also gets terrible inversions

Some other things I have considered

-Craft Beer - Denver blows SLC out of the water
-Music Scene- Denver by a mile
-Sports - Denver again
-Politics - Denver suits my needs better
-Traffic - SLC by a mile

[Champ le monstre du lac]

Calgary has the best access to seeing the Rockies at the prime, with Banff/Lake Louise/Jasper offering the most outstanding scenery. Edmonton is about 3-4 hours away from the Rockies and has the most northern latitude of any major city in North America, meaning you freeze your ass off most of the year up there. Both Calgary (white collar) and Edmonton (Blue collar) are prone to the boom and bust cycles comes with having economies being heavily reliant of the energy industry.

In Denver I could actually see myself spending a fair amount of time in the city before having an itch to venture off to the mountains. In Calgary, Edmonton, or Salt Lake City probably not. Denver seems to have the most well rounded urban environment out of the four. Salt Lake City is a progressive city for its size, but Denver gas has more soul, more visible nightlife, and more urban grit. I would agree with what others said that Salt Lake City has the best variety of scenery and things to do outdoors. But as a city Denver is well ahead of the others in terms of being a more stimulating city.

[Geo-Aggie]

I think a couple posts on here make some misconceptions about Salt Lake City.

First of all, SLC is quite liberal. Utah is very conservative, but Salt Lake City and its adjacent suburbs (West Valley City, Millcreek, So. Salt Lake, Holladay..) are not. It's kind of like a little settlement of blue amongst a sea of red.

Secondly, we have craft beer. Again, SLC is very different from Utah. There is (in no particular order) Epic, Red Rock, Squatters, Uinta, Wasatch.. the list goes on. The point is, we have craft beer. We have very good craft beer.

Finally, nightlife. Now I've never experienced the Denver nightlife, and it may be better, but I think to say "by a long shot" is... a long shot. Downtown Salt Lake has really grown up since they did away with "Private Club" laws. Bars and clubs are pretty commonplace, but we could certainly benefit from transit running a little later.

[BIG CATS]

Calgary gets my vote. Great city!

[Champ le monstre du lac]

Originally Posted by Geo-Aggie

I think a couple posts on here make some misconceptions about Salt Lake City.

First of all, SLC is quite liberal. Utah is very conservative, but Salt Lake City and its adjacent suburbs (West Valley City, Millcreek, So. Salt Lake, Holladay..) are not. It's kind of like a little settlement of blue amongst a sea of red.

Secondly, we have craft beer. Again, SLC is very different from Utah. There is (in no particular order) Epic, Red Rock, Squatters, Uinta, Wasatch.. the list goes on. The point is, we have craft beer. We have very good craft beer.

Finally, nightlife. Now I've never experienced the Denver nightlife, and it may be better, but I think to say "by a long shot" is... a long shot. Downtown Salt Lake has really grown up since they did away with "Private Club" laws. Bars and clubs are pretty commonplace, but we could certainly benefit from transit running a little later.

What surprises me about Salt Lake City is how much rail transit it's built throughout the Wasatch Corridor. Think of similar sized metro areas that have nowhere near the coverage that the Salt Lake area does with light rail, streetcars, and commuter rail (Charlotte, Kansas City, Columbus Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Tampa etc.).

The last time I was in SLC was in 2005. I know a city can change a lot in 10 years, perhaps its worth a second look, heck its within a days drive for me. For Utah though, I"m a lot more interested in seeing the Mighty Five first.

[Dawn.Davenport]

Why is Edmonton included? It's over 300 km away from the Rockies.

[Tiger Beer]

I've heard good things about Calgary, but in my mind, it MIGHT be similar to Denver, I don't know, but the problem is that it is significantly colder for significantly longer periods of time, simply based on it's much further northern location. It would probably have shorter amounts of sunlight in winter as well, which even be more depressing.

I have never been to Calgary, but I've always thought that it is PROBABLY Canada's Denver equivalent. I would like to visit Calgary though.

But, even if it is equivalent to Denver, or let's say it's even 'better' than Denver. The larger issue would still be weather/etc which would give Denver the bigger 'go'.