Does Denver feel like a city in the midwest? (home, live)

[blubrd]

Hello, I am wondering if anyone thinks that Denver feels like a midwest city? I am looking to move to Denver in the next year. I am from the midwest and moved to Phoenix 10 years ago to get away from the midwest life. I never liked how conservative and close minded alot of the people were that lived there. So I am just wondering if it has the same vibe in Denver? If not what is it like?

[jjacobeclark]

Originally Posted by blubrd

Hello, I am wondering if anyone thinks that Denver feels like a midwest city? I am looking to move to Denver in the next year. I am from the midwest and moved to Phoenix 10 years ago to get away from the midwest life. I never liked how conservative and close minded alot of the people were that lived there. So I am just wondering if it has the same vibe in Denver? If not what is it like?

You didn't like how "conservative and close-minded" the Midwest was, so you decided to move to Phoenix, Arizona... Right.

May I ask where in the Midwest you're from? After all, it's a pretty big region of the country. That would be like me saying the majority of the Rocky Mountain West is conservative and close-minded. Most of the Rocky Mountain West is pretty conservative, but Colorado and New Mexico are exceptions to the rule. I'm going to guess you're from either Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, or the Dakotas, as those states tend to be on the conservative side, while the Upper Midwest states (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan) tend to be quite liberal or at the very least moderate.

[Outintospace]

Not to be pedantic, but Iowa doesn't tend to be on the conservative side. It's much more progressive than Nebraska and Kansas.

[cowboyxjon]

LOL @ midwest stereotypes. You know, you can find closed-minded conservatives AND closed-minded liberals (gasp! never!) everywhere, so I think this whole thread is kind of funny. With that said, Denver itself is a bit left of center in my opinion.

[MantaRay]

When I was there, I found it to be left of right.

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by blubrd

Hello, I am wondering if anyone thinks that Denver feels like a midwest city? I am looking to move to Denver in the next year. I am from the midwest and moved to Phoenix 10 years ago to get away from the midwest life. I never liked how conservative and close minded alot of the people were that lived there. So I am just wondering if it has the same vibe in Denver? If not what is it like?

This is one of those inquiries where there is no right/wrong answer, since YMMV with any given city and each person's experiences are unique to them, so the best we can do is generalize. A lot.

When you say midwest city, people tend to think of conservative farm-belt towns that are strong on "social" conservatism and leery of "progressives" or "liberals" or "democrats" (whatever such labels mean these days).

Given the above stereotype of midwest cities, then, IMO, Denver is not like them. Still, the Denver metro area of 3M people has it's share of social conservatives, and everyone else as well, but I don't hear of any sort of dis-harmony.

[jjacobeclark]

Originally Posted by Outintospace

Not to be pedantic, but Iowa doesn't tend to be on the conservative side. It's much more progressive than Nebraska and Kansas.

It doesn't take much to be more progressive than Kansas or Nebraska, those 2 states are about as conservative as they come. Just this week a Kansas doctor who performed late-term abortions was murdered by some pro-life lunatic.

[Katiana]

Originally Posted by jjacobeclark

It doesn't take much to be more progressive than Kansas or Nebraska, those 2 states are about as conservative as they come. Just this week a Kansas doctor who performed late-term abortions was murdered by some pro-life lunatic.

Nebraska is more "progressive" than one might think. It had smoking bans, seat belt laws and the like before Colorado.

The abortion doctor in Kansas happened to be one of a few in the country who did that type of AB. If Kansas were *that* conservative, he wouldn't have set up shop there.

[frisbiec]

Originally Posted by Katiana

Nebraska is more "progressive" than one might think. It had smoking bans, seat belt laws and the like before Colorado.

The abortion doctor in Kansas happened to be one of a few in the country who did that type of AB. If Kansas were *that* conservative, he wouldn't have set up shop there.

Not to be "pedantic" again, but Kansas is the home of Rev. Fred Phelps . . . he goes beyond conservative and is a despicable reactionary man. However, in all fairness, every area has its share of less than desirables.

[tfox]

We've had this discussion many times, about whether Denver is "midwestern", and I think the general consensus is that it's not. Middle American, maybe, but not necessarily midwestern. It fits much better in the Rocky Mountain West, but I'll point out that the Rocky Mountain West is overall fairly conservative just like the midwest is, perhaps more so. I'd also dispute the idea the that the midwest is uniformly conservative. Chicago, for instance, is liberal by anyone's standard.

Denver proper is lopsidedly Democratic in terms of voter registration, though Democratic does not always mean liberal. In Denver's case, I see Denver as a city that LEANS toward the left rather than as a truly liberal city like Boston or San Francisco. However, many of the suburbs lean to the right, while the southern suburbs definitely lean quite strongly towards the right.