Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
As a long time Boulderite I have to give this contest to Seattle squarely. I, too, find Denver and all front range areas much too brown in the summer. That depresses me far more than gray weather in the winters of the Pacific Northwest. At least with gray weather you can get occasional sun breaks. No such thing as a "green break" during the brown summer months.
Further, Denver always bored us. We'd go to Rockies games and occasional dining, but other than that Denver as a city always leaves me flat. Lots of great small towns and mountain towns though. Seattle feels infinitely more vibrant to us. Colorado will always be fun to visit, but never a good spot for us to live again.
I think Denver is a fine city, I'm not selling it short. I just prefer Seattle. I think Seattle and San Fran are the #1 and #2 cities to live in the U.S. if you like living in a cosmopolitan, international, hip city with close access to world class outdoors.
Name some bands that have come out of the Denver area? Does it have any major record labels like Sub Pop in Seattle? I would still debate Seattle has the better music scene, especially if you are into more alt Rock & indie rock.
Seattle also has a much larger city core with more eclectic neighborhoods with tons of character like Queen Anne, Ballard, Capital Hill, Wallingford, Fremont, U-District. Denver has a smaller downtown core surrounded by a large generic, chain oriented suburban blob area.
Denver does have the better pro sports scene, but only b/c they have pro basketball. Seattle has the Mariners and Seahawks just no pro hoops (which they are trying hard to get soon...just missed getting the Sac Kings). Seattle does have Univ of WA with big time Pac 12 level college sports though, something Denver does not have. Brand new Husky football stadium seating 75,000 right in Seattle. Soccer is very big in Seattle with the Sounders pro soccer team.
Yes, Seattle does have a larger urban core, and that is for 2 reasons imo. It's a CSA of 4 million people (right?) compared to Denver's 3.1 million. Even Seattle's metro is larger than Denver's CSA with 3.5 million. The second reason I can come up with is that Seattle is on the water. Most every major US city on the water is densely packed in due to limited space. I'm not going to dispute that Denver has a better core.
On the other hand Denver definitely wins in sports, even without the NBA (imo).
Sounds like he has no clue! Denver is brown in the Winter and Green in the summer! Denver has the better music scene now, while seattle did awhile back for sure. Denver has BY FAR better sports scene. More options from our Airport. Better weather (opinion, but most agree).
More international flights out of Seattle
Seattle:
London (Soon to be 2 flights a day with 3 on some days)
Paris
Frankfurt (Lufthansa plus Condor in summer)
Amsterdam (2 flights a day)
Reykjavik
Tokyo (4 flights day)
Seoul (2 soon to be 3 flights a day)
Beijing (2 flights a day)
Shanghai
Taipei
Hong Kong
Denver:
London
Frankfurt
Reykjavik
Tokyo
Denver does have a larger domestic operation with suppressed fares thanks to all the competition.
Just currious is downtown Denver filling up the empty department stores. Or are they being converted to other uses. That would greatly affect retail vacancy by taking retail space off line. I know Seattle is adding lots of new retail space downtown. The old newport mall wich was used as office space for twenty years was converted to a City Target, The Old Kress Department store wich was office space also is know a IGA Grocery in the basement and a TJ MAXX under construction on the upper floors. Nordstrom Rack has a new store in Westlake center, and Zara is opening a department store under construction in westlake. The old Nordstrom Rack Building is being turned into a H MART Korean grocery store. The more urban city would be Seattle Though . Seattle is adding 2,000 to 3,000 new housing units downtown a year. And now downtown is a retail hotspot with several grocery and department stores. Downtown Seattles population is estimated at between 85,000 to 122,000 by a recent study Westlake Center for there remodeled mall downtown in a 3.2 square mile area. I think its actually closer to 85,000 though with downtown Seattle currently adding 5,000 new residents a year it makes sense. Back on subject how is downtown Denver doing , Population new residents, New Shopping Centers and retail, New Highrise office buildings . Seattle has several new highrise office buildings under construction.
Since when are there empty department stores in Downtown Denver? We only have 2 department stores downtown (though they aren't of much significance) and they aren't empty. Downtown Denver is coming along perfectly fine. Currently there is a lot of construction going on. Union Station has a bunch of work being done to it. One of the largest public transportation plans in the US is happening there. The 16th Street mall has tons of pedestrian traffic, many local/international retail and restaurants. However, Downtown Denver isn't our retail hot spot.
I think Denver is just really under the radar compared to Seattle, the city who's a** is kissed on C-D.
On the other hand Denver definitely wins in sports, even without the NBA (imo).
I would argue Seattle has better soccer, that they're comparable in football, and that Denver is better for baseball as well as basketball and hockey for obvious reasons. Seattle does have a major division 1 college program in the center of the city though. I've always found "better sports scene" to be a strange metric to throw around. It usually seems like it almost comes out as a sort of desperation metric when one city isn't as attractive by some of CD's more urban metrics that people like to throw around. Of course, many of those metrics hold higher value on this site than in the general population anyway. Of course, it's not like the sports scene is going to be a huge factor for people in this comparison anyway, as there's not exactly a dearth of professional sports in either city. Unless you just HAVE to have the ability to go to NBA games, I don't see how it factors.
London (Soon to be 2 flights a day with 3 on some days)
Paris
Frankfurt (Lufthansa plus Condor in summer)
Amsterdam (2 flights a day)
Reykjavik
Tokyo (4 flights day)
Seoul (2 soon to be 3 flights a day)
Beijing (2 flights a day)
Shanghai
Taipei
Hong Kong
Denver:
London
Frankfurt
Reykjavik
Tokyo
Denver does have a larger domestic operation with suppressed fares thanks to all the competition.
You forgot a few non stop flights for Denver. I'm sure you forgot some for Seattle too, but there's definitely more than what you listed.
-Mexico City
-Cancun
-Canada cities like Cabo San Lucas
-Edmonton
-Montreal
-Puerto Vallarta
-Saskatoon
-Toronto
-Regina
I would argue Seattle has better soccer, that they're comparable in football, and that Denver is better for baseball as well as basketball and hockey for obvious reasons. Seattle does have a major division 1 college program in the center of the city though. I've always found "better sports scene" to be a strange metric to throw around. It usually seems like it almost comes out as a sort of desperation metric when one city isn't as attractive by some of CD's more urban metrics that people like to throw around. Of course, many of those metrics hold higher value on this site than in the general population anyway. Of course, it's not like the sports scene is going to be a huge factor for people in this comparison anyway, as there's not exactly a dearth of professional sports in either city. Unless you just HAVE to have the ability to go to NBA games, I don't see how it factors.
I don't believe sports scene is something thrown in out of desperation. Why shouldn't it be a criteria? If that's the case, shouldn't everything Seattle posters are throwing into the convo be counted as well? Denver has most everything Seattle has, but on a smaller scale, considering it's a smaller city.
You forgot a few non stop flights for Denver. I'm sure you forgot some for Seattle too, but there's definitely more than what you listed.
-Mexico City
-Cancun
-Canada cities like Cabo San Lucas
-Edmonton
-Montreal
-Puerto Vallarta
-Saskatoon
-Toronto
-Regina
I was going for intercontinental flights (aka ones requiring large planes) but it was mostly tongue in cheek anyway. I was just trying to point out that Seattle's airport is large enough that that comparison wouldn't really have much effect on someones quality of life.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
