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Quality of Life - All great choices, no one city stands out
Culture - Arts and Music Scene Primarily (Do NOT include country music) All choices have a good art and music scenes. Nashville is the Country music capital but country music is very polarizing
Restaurant Landscape - No one city stands out here
Major Institutions - St. Louis - Best Zoo. Science center, Zoo, History Museum, Art Museum all well respected and best of all FREE
Interesting and Eclectic Neighborhoods - St. Louis by far has some of the best historic city in the country.
Architecture - both vernacular and new - Historic - St. Louis followed closely by Cinci Modern -Minneapolis
Downtown Vibrancy - No great choices here. I'd say Minneapolis is probably best, Nashville has one great street, St. Louis, Cinci and Denver have made great strides this past decade
Transportation Infrastructure - St. Louis and Denver have the best light rail systems of the choices, Denver's new brt is impressive
Higher Education - Washington University in St. Louis followed by Vanderbilt in Nashville
Economy - right this second, probably Denver and Nashville
Brightest Future - I think all of these cities a have bright future
Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
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All of these cities offer all the criteria listed from the OP to one degree or another. To me topography is the biggest selling point. When getting out of the city for the weekend, I'd like interesting places to go so Denver owns that category. Colorado and the Rocky Mountains rock my world. Minneapolis would be second because of all the natural lakes in Minnesota. Only deviating factor would be food, which St. Louis is definitely the best out of all of them. It has The Hill (Little Italy), and I love's me some Italian food. St. Louis has a fantastic restaurant and bar scene.
All of these cities offer all the criteria listed from the OP to one degree or another. To me topography is the biggest selling point. When getting out of the city for the weekend, I'd like interesting places to go so Denver owns that category. Colorado and the Rocky Mountains rock my world. Minneapolis would be second because of all the natural lakes in Minnesota. Only deviating factor would be food, which St. Louis is definitely the best out of all of them. It has The Hill (Little Italy), and I love's me some Italian food. St. Louis has a fantastic restaurant and bar scene.
Minneapolis is also close to the Boundary Waters, which is insane, but I know what you mean when it comes to the Rocky Mountains. As far as food is concerned, Minneapolis (and St. Paul) offers more ethnic variety than the others, which wins me over.
Culture - Arts and Music Scene Primarily (Do NOT include country music):
Restaurant Landscape
Major Institutions
Interesting and Eclectic Neighborhoods
Architecture - both vernacular and new
Downtown Vibrancy
Transportation Infrastructure
Higher Education
Economy
Brightest Future
Additional comments welcome!
Quality of Life: Minneapolis is well-known for its QOL, followed by Denver IMO
Culture: Minneapolis has the strongest collection of art museums, theaters, dance troupes, and a great local music scene. I'd rank St Louis 2nd, followed by Denver.
Restaurants: Not sure. Certainly KC has the best BBQ, while I love Cincinnati chili. I'd rank Nashville lowest in this group.
Major Institutions: What are"institutions"?
Neighborhoods: I'd rank this a tie between St. Louis and Minneapolis: I love the area between dwtn SL and Forest Park, plus Lafayette Sq, The Hill and other areas. But, I also love the neighborhoods of Mpls (Uptown, Lyn-Lake, NE, plus all the parkways and lakes). St Louis has more impressive historic architecture, but Mpls has more vitality, plus a better urban/nature mix. Cincinnati is 3rd (also due to its historic architecture), then Denver and KC. KC gets special points for the Country Club District.
Architecture: St Louis is 1st, followed by Minneapolis & Cincinnati, then KC and Denver.
Downtown Vibrancy: Minneapolis, followed by Denver, St Louis, Cincinnati. Its been several years since I've been to dwtn KC, so I haven't seen the impact of the Power & Light District, but dwtn KC was very quiet when I was there 7 years ago. I like their City Market area though.
Transportation: Denver is #1, followed by St. Louis, with Minneapolis at 3rd and possibly rivaling St Louis for 2nd in a few years.
Higher Education: Toss-up between St. Louis and Minneapolis: Washington U and St Louis U are well-known as is the University of Minnesota. I'm also including some of the schools from adjacent St Paul in Minneapolis' supply (Macalester, St Thomas, Hamline, St Catherines). Cincinnati would be 3rd with the U of C, Xavier (and proximity to Miami of Ohio).
Economy: Minneapolis is 1st due to large collection of Fortune 500 firms plus a highly diversified economy. Denver & Nashville are probably tied for 2nd.
Brightest Future: I'd rank Denver, Minneapolis & Nashville as all having the most promising futures, followed by St Louis (which would rank higher because I am impressed with the revitalization of its downtown and many residential areas, but am concerned over the continued split between St Louis city and St Louis County).
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