Rate Downtown Denver (from 1-10) (Center: neighborhood, movie theater, live in)

[Mezter]

On a scale from 1-10 what would you rate Denver's Downtown for a city its size? Base it on...

-Things to do (attractions)
-Restaurants
-Shopping
-Office Space
-Foot Traffic
-Cleanliness

[themwc]

I'd rate it 7.

Even if you just stick to nearby the 16th mall, you have the civic center park, the central library, the art museum, a movie theater, lots of restaurants. You can do some shopping for various things, you can go see a show in the theater district and its only 2 blocks away from the mall.

That would normally be a 6 or so for me, what makes it just a little better is that the light rail goes right to it and the mall ride takes you from one end to the other for free. Having to actually drive to a downtown area is a pretty limiting factor for me, finding parking, paying for it usually by the hour sucks.

I think a 10 would be something more like Manhattan. Its basically all downtown.

[dnvrsoul]

I rate it an 8..I live in Tampa Bay and downtown here sucks to say the least....no one goes downtown at night. I miss the movies and the bars in downtown...

[davidv]

Originally Posted by themwc

I'd rate it 7.

Even if you just stick to nearby the 16th mall, you have the civic center park, the central library, the art museum, a movie theater, lots of restaurants. You can do some shopping for various things, you can go see a show in the theater district and its only 2 blocks away from the mall.

That would normally be a 6 or so for me, what makes it just a little better is that the light rail goes right to it and the mall ride takes you from one end to the other for free. Having to actually drive to a downtown area is a pretty limiting factor for me, finding parking, paying for it usually by the hour sucks.

I think a 10 would be something more like Manhattan. Its basically all downtown.

Downtown Denver will never be Manhattan, but the poll question says to rate it relative to cities with 2.6 million people.
this puts it in the same class as:

San Diego: Gas Lamp District and Petco Park areas are okay, but not much culture downtown.
Tampa-St. Petersburg: See above post
St. Louis: Much smaller skyline, not much happening after work.
Baltimore: On par with Denver, cool inner harbor area with restaurants, shopping and the national aquarium
Pittsburgh: Never been there, so I will reserve judgement.
Portland: Same here.
San Antonio: Awesome Riverwalk area, subpar museums
Sacramento: Small, not much going on
Orlando: Nothing but Disney, and it isn't downtown
Cincinnati: Very tired and somewhat rundown. Very dead after hours. Underground Railroad Museum is a must see though.

BTW - I rated it a 9. It's top of the class for cities of this size.

[strawberrykiki]

Originally Posted by Mezter

On a scale from 1-10 what would you rate Denver's Downtown for a city its size? Base it on...

-Things to do (attractions)
-Restaurants
-Shopping
-Office Space
-Foot Traffic
-Cleanliness

I'm going with a 9. I love downtown! There are tons of fantastic restaurants and bars. Larimer Square is my favorite. There's always lots of people out and about and you can keep it casual at a brewery or be fancy with places like Corridor 44 (champagne bar). The shopping is okay. It's not world class, but there's a good variety on the 16th street mall. I think it's pretty clean even though of course there are a decent amount of homeless people wandering around. It's like a "big city" that there's plenty to do from shopping, restaurants, shows, sports, and museums, but it isn't so huge that I feel intimidated if that makes sense. We have the light rail, the free mall ride, it's very walkable, and of course tons of cabs everywhere, so getting around is pretty easy. I don't enjoy driving and parking downtown, but it's doable if needed especially compared to other big cities.

[Josseppie]

I love downtown Denver and think its the perfect model that other cities should follow. It has all the amenities like sports arenas and the Denver Center for the Performing Arts is a amazing place. Then the restaurants and the 16th street mall and all the high rises. That is why I voted for 8.

[zenkonami]

I'm gonna go with 8, but it's getting better all the time. In a few years, with the completion of the Union Station neighborhood, some more rail and some other new things slowly going up, it may even move up to a 9.

It really is a great downtown for a city the size of ours, and only a small handful of places in the U.S. of similar size can compare.

[echo98]

i like downtown denver because it generally doesn't try to be something it's not. i don't consider it touristy at all; i see a ton of locals just hanging out and making use of the area. when i have out of town people come and i bring them to the mall, they comment on how diverse, friendly, and lively denver is. it definitely doesn't feel like a tourist trap like manitou springs ...bleh

i must admit downtown portland is really nice. other than that city in davidv's list, denver is really good.

[Missourian11]

I gave Denver a rating of 7. Both Denver and Minneapolis are similar but Minneapolis has a slight edge over Denver though.

[robertgoodman]

Originally Posted by Missourian11

I gave Denver a rating of 7. Both Denver and Minneapolis are similar but Minneapolis has a slight edge over Denver though.

Out of curiosity why?

From my perspective I think there are good parts of Minneapolis's downtown, but for most of downtown Minneapolis the skyway system seems to have ruined downtown for pedestrians. That is because the skyway system diverts people away from the streets so you do not have the same street level pedestrian activity as Denver. Since Minneapolis divides the pedestrians between the skyways and the street you do not have the same amount of pedestrian oriented shops/restaurants/bars that make downtown Denver fun and worth going to outside of working hours.