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Both cities are ideal. I used to live in LA, now in DEN and it's been an awesome transition. Living in two of the best cities in the US makes me never ever want to live in the Northeast ever again. The only areas I would consider other than SoCal or Colorado are maybe Austin or parts of Florida.
People ask which city do I like better and frankly I never know what to tell them. I say they really aren't comparable even if there are some interesting similarities. Like DEN has vegetation like parts of suburban Northern NJ where I grew up - yet homes look like bungalows in East LA except with brick. DEN is very loose with weed, LA always has been as well but it's *technically* not legal yet. Denver has a much better and communal bar scene, LA really fails in that regard despite some great bars in certain pockets. LA has better food but DEN competes well against the major cities for cuisine. Denver has surprisingly great Italian food - most people wouldn't even entertain that thought.
And hey, if I miss LA I can hope on a plane for a weekend and be out there in an hour & 40 minutes. Kind of ideal since a lot of people in DEN are from California and visit home pretty often. It's always way more of a PITA flying back to DEN from the NYC area with headwinds in the winter and microbursts in the summer.
I much prefer Los Angeles and Southern California over Denver.
Denver is beyond ridiculously overrated. I loved Denver in the 1990s when it was cheap and lots of single people lived here and it was very friendly.
Fast forward to 2016 and the city is full of unattractive, aloof, pretentious people who believe there city is gods gift to the world. To be fair the economy has been booming for years but it is ridiculously expensive with 3 bedroom homes in mediocre neighborhoods going for $600,000 or more.
Now, most seem to be consultants, specialists and analysists who buy ridiculous over-priced and huge big families. Such a boring city, a saltine cracker will always be a saltine no matter how much you hype-it up.
There are quite a few pretentious people in Los Angeles, but there are alot of humble, interesting people in Los Angeles.
People in Denver on the other hand are arrogant no matter where you go and there is no neighborhood to get away from it.
I much prefer Los Angeles. I would love to live in the Antolope Valley and have all the amenities of the beaches, active neighborhoods and world-class city amenities an hour train ride away.
Denver's culture is about as interesting as a saltine cracker as opposed to Los Angeles.
Skyline: Tie.
Downtown Area: Tie. Denver puts most of it's resources into the downtown so it is decent for it's size. Los Angeles downtown is quite small for a city of it's size
Entertainment:
Denver has become a very married, family city. The new entertainment is mainly expensive, white table cloth restaurants. I feel very out of place being unmarried with no kids in Denver.
People in Denver will hundreds of thousands more for a single-family home that is close to a couple of restaurants or galleries.
Los Angeles has whole neighborhoods that are exciting with interesting experiences. One can be unmarried with no kids in their 30s and have a huge selection of areas to hang out.
Things to do: Southern California has everything beaches, mountains, interesting people, interesting neighborhoods. Something for everyone in Southern California.
Denver is a married city, that has some good museums but the neighborhoods are full of married yuppies eating at white-table cloth restaurants. No beaches and the mountains are an hour away.
Suburbs: Denver has more the cookie-cutter, generic suburbs with decent schools that are very safe for the most part. Good for raising families and retirees who like a big, new house and privacy
Los Angeles has everything from college town suburbs like Claremont, old-street car suburbs like San Dimas and dense suburbs on the beach.
Family Orientation: Denver used to have some variety when it was cheap. Now, it is dual-income households and households with children. The schools are overcrowded because it's mainly families moving in.
Los Angeles has very expensive single family homes that are big enough to fit a family, so the percentage of families has declined.
Scenery: Los Angeles has the oceans and the mountains are closer and is beautiful and lush much of the year. Denver has a few months that the trees are in bloom but most of the year its dusty and sandy and the mountain views are quite underwhelming, unless your in a western suburb like Lakewood and Golden
Last edited by lovecrowds; 07-11-2016 at 01:15 PM..
These cities aren't even in the same league. San Diego vs Denver would have been better
Skyline: LA
Downtown area: LA
Shopping: LA
Entertainment: LA
Things to do: LA
Suburbs: LA
Places to see:LA
Diversity: LA
Food: LA
Culture:LA
Family Orientation: Denver
Scenery: LA
Worst Pollution:LA
Airport:LA, it's not as far out.
LA does a terrible job of selling itself even to its own residents. LA never gets on the Forbes lists. "Newsmagazines" love smaller metros in general because there's more growth opportunity (new market/advertiser potential).
Plus, people wrongly see LA's story as "already written." When in fact real, interested angelenos know the city is changing drastically and locals are starting to wake up to the awesomeness of this place and really appreciate it.
All of the "cool" arty magazines and newspapers have done LA well in the past 5 years or so -- Dwell, Paper, Saveur, GQ, Wallpaper*, Esquire, NYT are some examples of media that have released really glowing "LA" issues/articles about how exciting this city is right now... but it's all pretty highfalutin stuff compared to the average American's news-source. USA Today and Readers' Digest have yet to really begin to tackle the "new" LA.
Not that it's new at all, it's just people are starting to care and be aware finally. That said, I don't think the average Angeleno even knows who Jonathan Gold is, or could name even 2 museums in LA, or could tell you what a "case study house" was, or knows how to get to the Watts towers, or could tell you where Bobby Kennedy was assassinated, or knows what a "Bradbury Building" is, or....
I'm not sure how I'm going to feel if this place does really catch on in the american conscious as the genuine place that it is. LA is so genuine when compared to manhattan, Portland, or SF that it's so glaringly obvious that at some point it's going to be truly "discovered." Right now, we have so many places where the City is being slowly 'art directed'--Abbot kinney, Downtown, silver lake, etc. that it's still pretty dispersed by gentrified-city standards. I was in Williamsburg recently for the first time in about 5 years and I don't think there's a single stone left unturned by art directing eyes. It's basically SOHO in a slightly different font. In LA, you don't have anywhere near as thoroughly yuppified, even Santa Monica has a weird/unclassy edge sometimes...
And not that there's anything inherently wrong with yuppie culture--it's a culture like any other--it's just that it's so tidy and that really doesn't fit in with my image of LA. The LA I love is messy and jumbled and difficult, but it's also endlessly fascinating.
In theory it would be nice if more people cared about LA, but I have a hard time believing that it'll happen in a way that's true to LA's roots. It's been proven that people prefer disneyland/museum cities--i.e. art directed cities--to an incoherent and inconsistent mess like Los Angeles. So for now, I'm fine if LA is still "underwhelming" to the average person.
Love this post. But do cities like NYC, LA, Chicago even need to sell itself?
To me, both are great cities that I would live in if the opportunity was right. In the end does LA have more to it? Of course, it's much bigger. but Denver has a great vibe and every amenity you may need. I look at LA as the heavyweight champ and Denver as the middleweight champ. No shame at all.
What is it? Only a faster growing city than LA! Less smog. Less crime. Less gangs. Better educated and healthier workforce! Not bad for a city that is roughly 14 million people smaller! And yes, I would take Denver over la all day every day!
Its eaiser to be faster growing by % when its a difference of
14 million.
It doesnt mean anything.
La by a thousand miles. Its one the top 3-5 international cities on earth for a reason.
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