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So I am trying to narrow down my list in trying to decide which city I want to move to. I have narrowed down my choices to Denver, Boulder, Portland, Seattle, and Minneapolis. I am having a difficult time trying to decide where I want to go, and I have done my research about these cities and I want to hear from people who have actually been to these places what they think of them. What are the pros/cons of living in these cities?
Here is a little background about myself: I am 21 years old and just graduated college with a Human Resources and Business management degree and I am currently looking for a job in the HR field. I want to move to a city that has a balance of good young population, a good nightlife, job opportunities, good public transportation, friendliness of the locals, and generally safe place. The weather is not a huge issue for me, I live in Indiana so I'm used to bad weather.
I have gone through other threads where people have asked about living in these cities but I found the answers to be pretty broad. So it would really help me if you could rate each city and provide a list of pros/cons of living there because that would be awesome and I would really appreciate it!
Young population: basically all equal
Nightlife: Seattle/Minneapolis > Denver/Portland > Boulder
Jobs: Boulder > Minneapolis > Seattle > Denver > Portland
Public Transit: Portland > Minneapolis/Seattle > Denver > Boulder
Friendliness: all similar in different ways
Safety: Boulder probably > the rest
Cost of living: Denver > Minneapolis > Portland > Seattle > Boulder
Seattle and Minneapolis are the biggest, most cosmopolitan of the bunch. Denver is not far behind. Portland is ultra-vibrant and therefore punches above its weight. Boulder is a college town, but it's in a great location and of course there's quite a bit going on there.
Denver and Minneapolis are the cheapest; Seattle and Boulder are the most expensive.
Wait, don't you want to get a job in ANY of these cities before you decide where to move to?
It's extremely difficult to land a job in another state because competition is fierce. Recruiters will most always toss aside resumes of candidates in other states.
I have had a negative bias against Minnesota before, for various reasons, so I will try to keep it out of this thread. I live in Denver now, and grew up and went to school in Wisconsin. I am only truly familiar with Denver and Boulder, but I know Minneapolis somewhat. I have never been to Portland or Seattle.
You may say weather doesn't matter, but the Denver weather is nothing compared to the midwest. Overall, I don't know if it's factual, but I'd say an average winter here is probably two cold snaps in the single digits (or below) lasting 4 days each. The rest is upper 20's/30's, with a good percentage of days in the 40's, 50's, and even sometimes 60's. It's very nice.
Young population: Denver IMO is the best. People from all over the country are moving here, and there is a very progressive, youthful, creative overall tenor to the mood. Public transit is solid at worst - the light rail is quickly expanding and you'll be able to get most places west, south, and east of the city on it within a few years. What separates this from Seattle and Minneapolis is that, like I said, a lot of young people are moving here from every part of the US, and socially overall it is a fairly open place. Minneapolis is largely filled with folks born in the region from what I understand, and is also "Minnesota Nice," which is basically the same thing as "Seattle Freeze." Simply put, there will be a lot of other people in your shoes in Denver.
Jobs: I don't really know. Overall Denver seems like a very healthy city economically. Boulder too - just very expensive.
Nightlife: Denver nightlife is pretty good. The downtown is very alive during the weekends and weeknights. The 16th Street Mall is the main drag and is usually filled with pedestrians, and has a free bus that takes you from one end to the other. There are a lot of chains for restaurants, but there are also a good number of fancy or not fancy local joints mixed in. Very clean downtown, and very safe feeling - despite having a good number of homeless and hoodlum types. Boulder is good, but has a sort of polished, rich artificial feel that I'm not crazy about... and is also quite young (college crowd).
Public Transit: Denver is quite good and getting much better. They are really doing an excellent job. From what I understand Seattle is very lacking and relies mainly on buses. I've heard good things about Minneapolis' light rail line.
Friendliness it's hard to say. Denver, Boulder, and Portland are probably more sociable than Seattle and Minneapolis, which don't have very good reputations when it comes to making friends.
Cost of Living: Denver absolutely is not the "cheapest" of the bunch here and you shouldn't think of it as such. Even on $40,000-$50,000/year, you'd have significant difficulty living in a "nice" one bedroom, and you can forget about living in the popular neighborhoods or close to downtown. I don't know how expensive Portland is but I imagine since it
Last edited by ComfortablyNumb; 09-29-2014 at 04:48 PM..
I have actually technically been to all of them, but Minneapolis was only the airport.
I have lived in Denver/metro for 7 years, and am roughly 20 minutes from Boulder. I spent my summers growing up just north of Seattle, and have traveled to Portland extensively throughout my lifetime (have friends and family there as well).
OP, your post is pretty broad.
In order:
Young: Boulder, Portland, Seattle, Denver, but they all have young populations.
Nightlife: Seattle, Denver, Portland, Boulder
Jobs: Seattle, Denver, Boulder, Portland
Public Transit: Denver, Portland, Seattle, Boulder
Friendly (IMO): Portland, Seattle, Boulder (but it is Prozac-y), Denver
Safe: Boulder, Seattle, Portland, Denver
Denver and Boulder would be an improvement over Indiana weather wise. Seattle and Portland may be a push.
Boulder has just a little over 100,000 people, and is an ex-urb of Denver. Lots of people work in one place and live in the other.
Minneapolis requires being able to tolerate the winter. Despite what many think, the Denver/Boulder winter is fairly mild. ComfortablyNumb described it well. There really are seldom more than 2-3 cold snaps all winter, and there are many days in the 50s and even the 60s (highs).
I've spent very little time in Portland/Seattle. I get the feeling Portland is full of whacks. They recently voted down fluoridating their city water supply by a large margin.
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