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It's true that Downtown Minneapolis can look dead, especially during winters. If you visited during other seasons, it is probably because it is not during rush hours. The only advantage Denver has is its weather all year long. I am very glad that our climate are keeping too many people from flocking over here.
I like Minneapolis skyline better with more buildings that look very futuristic. Of course, we may be lacking the views of the Rockies but we have green parks (not with brown grass) and lakes to make up for it.
Downtown has Nicollet Mall, but there is Mall of America in Bloomington nearby that beat all malls in the country except for King of Prussia Mall in PA maybe.
With additional lines to our light rail in near future, I believe the Twin Cities will be even greater!
Most importantly of all, Minneapolis has more colleges and universities and better museums, theaters, music scenes, comedy events, and professional sports atomsphere.
My neighbor was born and raised in Denver. Her family always visit every year. She and her family said the Twin Cities is better in everything except for the weather. LOL
I always feel that Denver is very isolated in the middle of the country. We are only few hours away from the Great Lakes, Chicago, and even Canada.
Twin Cities has relatively low crime rate. For some odd reason, Denver seems to be a magnet for mass shootings, such as Columbine and the recent Movie Theater Massacre in Aurora. No offense!
These are my reasons for rating Denver behind Minneapolis.
I've lived in both and there is nothing extremely special about Minneapolis IMO (Denver either). Downtown Denver has a lot more to do in its downtown (more centralized). But 2 mass shootings doesn't make Denver a high crime area. Stats I've seen suggest that MPLS has a higher crime rate.
I love Lower Downtown with ballpark and the rooftop bars. I don't spend much time on 16th street. I believe San Diego is kind of modeling the Gas Lamp to be like LoDo. I grew up in San Diego when you didn't want to be anywhere near the Gas Lamp at night.
It's true that Downtown Minneapolis can look dead, especially during winters. If you visited during other seasons, it is probably because it is not during rush hours. The only advantage Denver has is its weather all year long. I am very glad that our climate are keeping too many people from flocking over here.
I like Minneapolis skyline better with more buildings that look very futuristic. Of course, we may be lacking the views of the Rockies but we have green parks (not with brown grass) and lakes to make up for it.
Downtown has Nicollet Mall, but there is Mall of America in Bloomington nearby that beat all malls in the country except for King of Prussia Mall in PA maybe.
With additional lines to our light rail in near future, I believe the Twin Cities will be even greater!
Most importantly of all, Minneapolis has more colleges and universities and better museums, theaters, music scenes, comedy events, and professional sports atomsphere.
My neighbor was born and raised in Denver. Her family always visit every year. She and her family said the Twin Cities is better in everything except for the weather. LOL
I always feel that Denver is very isolated in the middle of the country. We are only few hours away from the Great Lakes, Chicago, and even Canada.
Twin Cities has relatively low crime rate. For some odd reason, Denver seems to be a magnet for mass shootings, such as Columbine and the recent Movie Theater Massacre in Aurora. No offense!
These are my reasons for rating Denver behind Minneapolis.
Compared to cities of its size, an 8. I'm from Maryland, so I can compare it to Baltimore: it is similar in size, but has the whole seafood and inner harbor/Fells Point thing going on, but the increased crime helps cancel that out compared to Denver. For sports, it has the Ravens and Orioles (which are just as good if not better gameday experiences as Denver's, the Ravens fans are more diehard than the fans here, which can be both a plus or a minus) but no NBA team and no NHL team (you'll need to head down 95 to DC for that).
All in all, I'd be happier with Denver because it is more laid back and the people are nicer, IMO.
I rate it a 9 from my visit 5 years ago. JDowntown Denver has everything posters have already mentioned, plus I was particularly impressed by the Performing Arts Complex, which was a quick walk from the 16th street mall. WONDERFUL. We caught a show there and had a blast. The 16th street mall map stations were really a big help too. Fell in love with The Market at Larimer Square. Having a really nice system of bike paths (off road bike paths) connecting downtown to what surrounds downtown gives it yet another amenity. Confluence Park, Commons Park, Denver Skate Park, all top notch. The Highland Pedestrian Bridge is really impressive. I was also thoroughly impressed with Coors Field. There was nothing I didn't like about it, but I could only give it a 10 if the buildings were more modern looking (the new apartment/condo construction in the Riverfront and Wewatta St. area are helping that a lot), and if the Platte River and Cherry Creek weren't sorta lackluster. But 9 out of 10 is a very good score for a very nice downtown.
Baltimore was mentioned more than once in comparison. I visited and got a hotel near the Harbor a couple years ago and attended the 4th Fireworks on the Harbor while I was there. I was VERY impressed with the Harbor area, really top notch, but really once you get outside of the Harbor vicinity, it got pretty sketchy pretty quick, so I rate Denver even higher than Baltimore even though Baltimore Harbor is way more aesthetically appealing.
Having lived and worked there for several years, I would say that your summary pretty much nailed it. Now, if you include the surrounding suburbs and exurbs (Harford, Cecil, Baltimore, Howard and Carroll Counties), then Baltimore could hold its own against any city.
I was in downtown Denver today around lunchtime...along 16th Street Mall and Larimer Square. It was bustling with people and energy, pianos being played, sidewalk cafes filled to capacity, the free shuttles running constantly from place to place. In short, I think Denver's downtown is one of the best in the country! For a city of 620,000 (and metro of 2.6 million), it's a much bigger and more cosmopolitan downtown than you'd expect. It's a magnet for the region, and people flock there. The sports and culture facilities are ideally placed as well, so it's about as good as a downtown can get, and much busier and nicer than most larger cities. I lived in LA, Phoenix and San Diego, and I'd rate it far above all three of those places for overall appeal and variety of options. The only constructive improvements I can think of would be to give the 16th Street Mall a modern amenity facelift, and the city should consider more standardized and/or lower cost parking options. Thanks!
Downtown Denver will be much nicer when it attracts a variety of good shopping; not always so much high end shopping but basic shopping that can serve the residents of Downtown. It needs a large grocery store like King Soopers and Safeway in the inner core, especially in LoDo. A hardware store and a basic clothing store would help. It needs a indoor downtown mall. It has a semblance of that with the Tabor Center, but that has since closed.
I like downtown Denver for what it is, but I would love it with what it should become. I miss the likes of Woolworth's that served much of the basic needs downtown. There were at times a number of large department stores--they are no more.
With the completion of Union Station and all the rail lines that terminate in that facility, we are going to see another renaissance in the downtown. I only hope that it is not not only office building, hotels, high end condominiums and extravagant expensive shopping and restaurants. Downtown cannot never claim to be a good area for residential life unless it provides the services that allow the residents to get all their needs of the basic necessities where they live.
I have lived in NYC, Manhattan. In that borough, one can live the high life but basic shopping was all around Manhattan. One had no need to go out of the area, even to other boroughs and certainly not to the suburbs. Unfortunately, living in Downtown Denver, one must venture further out to get those basic necessities. That defines, to me, a downtown that is incomplete and just fanciful facsimile of what a real city should be to its residents.
I think both downtowns are pretty good. I think Minneapolis might offer more for it's downtown residents, but Denver's has a cool feel for visitors and tourists. I like all the street cafes and pedestrian feel. Over all I like Minneapolis more than Denver, but both are great. The reason I like Minneapolis more is not because of downtown, but the feel of the city, the neighborhoods, food coops, farmers markets, better city for biking and the parks (more water & trees and I feel like I can enjoy nature without driving an hour to the mountains).
Quote:
Originally Posted by robertgoodman
Denver has about 122 miles of additional rail transit planned within the metro area and about 70 miles of it is under construction. Meanwhile Minneapolis has 23 miles of additional rail transit planned within the metro area and 11 miles of it is under construction.
I think Denver has about 50 miles under construction right now (East, West, Gold and Northwest). I believe the Northwest is only funded for about 6 miles and without the economy picking up or $ allocated it might be awhile till it is built. I know there are many other lines planned too that will be great when finished, hopefully it will be sooner than the 2040 timeline they are saying.
Minneapolis does have 2 BRT lines under-construction in addition to the Central LRT. If you count the planned expansion of the Northstar Commuter rail, the two planned LRT lines and other commuter rail lines there is definitely more than 23 additional rail miles planned.
Only if Minneapolis could have high speed rail to Chicago. I think that would be great, but probably not going to happen. I've taken Amtrak between the two cities a few times and it was pretty convenient, just wish it was a 2-3 hours quicker.
I think both downtowns are pretty good. I think Minneapolis might offer more for it's downtown residents, but Denver's has a cool feel for visitors and tourists. I like all the street cafes and pedestrian feel. Over all I like Minneapolis more than Denver, but both are great. The reason I like Minneapolis more is not because of downtown, but the feel of the city, the neighborhoods, food coops, farmers markets, better city for biking and the parks (more water & trees and I feel like I can enjoy nature without driving an hour to the mountains).
I think Denver has about 50 miles under construction right now (East, West, Gold and Northwest). I believe the Northwest is only funded for about 6 miles and without the economy picking up or $ allocated it might be awhile till it is built. I know there are many other lines planned too that will be great when finished, hopefully it will be sooner than the 2040 timeline they are saying.
Minneapolis does have 2 BRT lines under-construction in addition to the Central LRT. If you count the planned expansion of the Northstar Commuter rail, the two planned LRT lines and other commuter rail lines there is definitely more than 23 additional rail miles planned.
Only if Minneapolis could have high speed rail to Chicago. I think that would be great, but probably not going to happen. I've taken Amtrak between the two cities a few times and it was pretty convenient, just wish it was a 2-3 hours quicker.
West corridor 12 + Gold Line 11 + I 225 extension 10 + East Corridor 23 + NW Stub 7 miles + North stub 6 miles = 69 or about 70 (rounded down on most of them)
BRT is BRT I did not include the US 36 BRT or any additional BRT RTD is planning in my numbers because it was not rail.
I also did not include the rail extension CDOT has planned for the North line from Thornton to Fort Collins because it goes far outside the metro area. Just like the Northstar extension goes far outside the Twin Cities metro area which is why I did not include that in the numbers.
As far as I know the only thing rail based planned in the Minneapolis metro area is the central extension and the soutwest corridor. Other than the Northstar extension which does not add service to the actual metro area of Minneapolis what am I missing commuter rail wise?
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