Next best Downtowns in Colorado? (Denver, Colorado Springs: 2015, construction, tax)

[JMM64]

Originally Posted by CosmicWizard

Some of you might remember the 1970 movie, Suppose They Gave A War and Nobody Came. I think of that title everytime I visit downtown Grand Junction....Suppose They Gave Us A really First Rate Downtown And Nobody Came. To my tastes, Grand Junction has a really nice little downtown, but unless there is some downtown event, there's hardly anyone there. The sidewalks are mostly empty. Seems that most residents prefer the big box stores and the glitter of the mall strip over the elegance of downtown Grand Junction

I agree, the last time I was there it felt like a ghost town downtown. I think it's just because there are so many outdoor opportunities in GJ's backyard and no one cares about the Urban areas.

[JMM64]

Originally Posted by iknowftbll

Denver will always be in another league than EVERY other Colorado city. Pueblo is nowhere close to that league and will not be for the foreseeable future. And that's fine. Pueblo is an up and coming place that is doing good things. It doesn't have to be a big city or even a small one to be a great place.

I agree, I HATE BIG CITIES and I've lived in many of them. I've always thought Pueblo was a very underrated city, I love the summers in the area and the city has a very rich history.

I hope Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Ft. Collins, etc. never become a DENVER!

[iknowftbll]

Originally Posted by JMM64

I enjoy Downtown Colorado Springs, it's small enough to get around easily and has everything you need or want to do. I havn't spent much time in downtown Ft. Collins or Pueblo, but I've heard they have become very nice places. I've never liked Boulder for a number of reasons, but that's just me.

I'm with you here, I enjoy Downtown Colorado Springs. There is a lot of potential there and the city only seemed to realize it once the economy hit the skids. But now that there is vision again, once the economy rebounds I anticipate good things there. The place gets a lot of criticism for not being a large downtown. I could care less about this. I think having a nice downtown is way more important than having a large one. If you can have a large and nice one, great, but if you have to choose one or the other, nice is the way to go. I do think that the single greatest improvement that they can make is to relocate the Sky Sox stadium to downtown. Rumor has it that the Rockies are not satisfied with the facilities for their AAA affiliate. Couple that with the mayor's stated desire to have the facility downtown, and a major upgrade to the area may be on the horizon.

Originally Posted by JMM64

I agree, I HATE BIG CITIES and I've lived in many of them. I've always thought Pueblo was a very underrated city, I love the summers in the area and the city has a very rich history.

I hope Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Ft. Collins, etc. never become a DENVER!

I don't hate big cities, I just value small towns as well. I like Denver, but I like these other cities too and I really like some of the small towns in the less populated parts of the state. I don't think we have to worry about Colorado Springs, Pueblo, and Fort Collins ever becoming Denver. I think the state's population growth has slowed in the last couple years, too. With the growth slowing, maybe it will be a time of renewed focus on the interior of these cities so they improve what they have in place already.

[JMM64]

Originally Posted by iknowftbll

I'm with you here, I enjoy Downtown Colorado Springs. There is a lot of potential there and the city only seemed to realize it once the economy hit the skids. But now that there is vision again, once the economy rebounds I anticipate good things there. The place gets a lot of criticism for not being a large downtown. I could care less about this. I think having a nice downtown is way more important than having a large one. If you can have a large and nice one, great, but if you have to choose one or the other, nice is the way to go. I do think that the single greatest improvement that they can make is to relocate the Sky Sox stadium to downtown. Rumor has it that the Rockies are not satisfied with the facilities for their AAA affiliate. Couple that with the mayor's stated desire to have the facility downtown, and a major upgrade to the area may be on the horizon.



I don't hate big cities, I just value small towns as well. I like Denver, but I like these other cities too and I really like some of the small towns in the less populated parts of the state. I don't think we have to worry about Colorado Springs, Pueblo, and Fort Collins ever becoming Denver. I think the state's population growth has slowed in the last couple years, too. With the growth slowing, maybe it will be a time of renewed focus on the interior of these cities so they improve what they have in place already.

You're correct

[Idunn]

… maybe it will be a time of renewed focus on the interior of these cities so they improve what they have in place already.

Words of wisdom. If exactly that was taken to heart it would result in the improvement of every single town in Colorado and this nation.

Take a place like Breckenridge, for instance. Obviously in a lovely location, but they have taken advantage of it. The Blue River running through town is not dismissed as a convenient sewage canal but rightly treasured, and featured as an attraction with a riverwalk along portions of it, as well as an attractive park hosting such as music festivals. The town takes advantage of its heritage in well maintaining its attractive Victorian architecture, and often following this style with new buildings. If not a large pedestrian mall, the entire town is quite walkable. By design in part, as to encourage the free flow of tourists throughout, as their life blood.

Breckenridge obviously has the disadvantage and advantage of being a tourist town, thus with an incentive to keep the town attractive. This same trait is exhibited in other popular tourist venues throughout the state. If a place like Silverton remains more, shall we way authentic. Which in itself may be one of the attractions for the many tourists arriving via the narrow gauge steam train throughout summer. However hardly derelict, and indeed of late beginning to see a new vitality likely due the advent of winter skiing.

Money can be an inducement and is a necessary component. Rural farm towns on the plains with few tourists may see little need, although even here one will see the care in flowers grown and all perhaps neat and orderly. Pride of ownership, of place. Nor is money itself an end all. It not only can corrupt, but result in expansively expensive "improvements" which would have been better off never being built. If in some instance a hideous riverwalk, then better to have left the river and nature to their own devices.

Ever since the pilgrims landed on these shores and nearly starved to death this nation has often been at odds with nature, and set on not only surviving but conquering all. Even the last frontier of Alaska is well built up in places, all charted and connected after a fashion. But rather than infilling all the more in heedless growth towards the ever elusive nirvana of prosperity, we might look to what we have. Like all Ponzi schemes, growth merely for growths sake is a never ending treadmill which can bring perks along the way, often at huge eventual cost, but in the end leads nowhere. Look at Detroit. It must be sustainable.

If perhaps not the best examples, as small, the San Juan towns of Telluride and Ouray do exist to show what is possible. Admittedly not every community of the same size or based on tourism; although Fort Collins takes care of itself, is well ordered and attractive, and thus perceived as a desirable place to live by many. But even with striking settings, either Ouray or Telluride might have fallen into disrepair and possible abandonment with the decline of their basis in mining. Tourism saved them, but they also saved themselves in utilizing their advantages. Both are remote and will never be in the position of a Denver to serve as a regional center of commerce. But they have preserved and heightened their historical legacy, and in care remain as places that many wish to visit and spend time.

To each their own in this in what they might do. But our future growth might be better directed inward than outward, in enhancing that we have rather than ever seeking more of it. For a state seriously contemplating doubling its population before 2050, we might reflect on the aspirations of all when about half our present size in 1970, or half that again in 1930. Presumably that sought then would have been attained by now. But it is never seemingly enough, and with now beginning to run up against the limits in resources such as water. Or for the many amenities and attractions in the urban corridor of the Front Range, that it is often not the reason why others visit Colorado, and especially in their dreams. And the same many living here, and why.

In such flights of fancy found in reality they might end up next some mountain river under a tall pine tree. With that idyl hardly enhanced by yet another development of condos bordering it. They can find more than enough of that elsewhere—so why having escaped, if briefly, here.

[Josseppie]

Originally Posted by CosmicWizard

Some of you might remember the 1970 movie, Suppose They Gave A War and Nobody Came. I think of that title everytime I visit downtown Grand Junction .... Suppose They Gave Us A really First Rate Downtown And Nobody Came. To my tastes, Grand Junction has a really nice little downtown, but unless there is some downtown event, there's hardly anyone there. The sidewalks are mostly empty. Seems that most residents prefer the big box stores and the glitter of the strip mall eyesore over the simple elegance of downtown Grand Junction

That is interesting. They need to build something to bring more people downtown.

[Josseppie]

Originally Posted by Mezter

What makes you think this? I don't believe so. Personally, I don't think they have to be on Denver's level to be decent downtowns. However, I don't think any city in CO will ever match Denvers downtown. Not by a long shot, really.

Just by looking at the growth projections and Fort Collins, Colorado Springs and Pueblo are in the emerging front range mega region that will be connected by a HSR. That is why I predict all of those downtowns will grow significantly in the next 25 to 50 years.

[xeric]

I don't care for skyscraper-based downtowns so for me Denver is not # 1. Also, I find underutilized downtowns depressing no matter how nice they look. Which leaves me to choose between the two places in Colorado that I've lived (Boulder or Fort Collins). Some of the factors:

1. Setting: Boulder (hands down). You can easily walk to and see dramatic mountains, while in Fort Collins, you are several miles away from a relatively small hogback.
2. Activity: About the same now (Fort Collins was fairly dead when I moved here).
3. Practical (non-boutiuqe) stores: Fort Collins (although not as many as when I moved here).
4. Residential: Boulder has more interesting houses but is mostly unaffordable for those of average means. The Ft. Collins old housing stock is rather ordinary and yet a lot of people want to keep it in a museum-like state. Overall: Boulder.
5. Diversity of activities (ie. is there a lot to do for people with different interests/income levels): Probably Fort Collins, if for no other reason then that you'll spend more money in Boulder.
6. Location in relation to the rest of the city: Boulder. Downtown Boulder is fairly centrally located while Fort Collins' downtown is 8 miles from the southeastern-most part of the city.

[Josseppie]

Originally Posted by xeric

I don't care for skyscraper-based downtowns so for me Denver is not # 1.

I think this is the key to rather someone likes larger cities downtown's or smaller towns downtown's best. Personally I like sky scrapers and highrise's so that is why I picked the cities I did but I can appreciate that if someone does not like them they would have completely different top 5 list.

[CosmicWizard]

Idunn wrote: To each their own in this in what they might do. But our future growth might be better directed inward than outward, in enhancing that we have rather than ever seeking more of it.

This resonates with me, especially the part in bold.