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Denver is a bit tricky as you could do city, metro, CSA, or MSA. IMO the way I look at it is to measure the Front Range Urban Corridor as one contiguous populous. Starting south with Pueblo CO going up to Co Springs, Denver, Boulder, Ft. Collins up to Cheyenne Wy along the i25 strip. It's right at 5 million people and growing very very quickly. The entire stretch is filling in and will expand eastward from the mountains as density becomes a problem.
As someone who recently moved back to L.A. and used to live in Denver, I can attest that it's a bit tricky to categorize Denver. It's got a ton of Midwest influence (the city sits on the Eastern Plains) but neighborhoods have vegetation comparable to parts of the west and east and much of the architecture - residential and commercial seems derivative of California in many ways.
So I would consider Denver part of "The West" but if it was any more eastbound, it would be the Midwest.
Denver is a bit tricky as you could do city, metro, CSA, or MSA. IMO the way I look at it is to measure the Front Range Urban Corridor as one contiguous populous. Starting south with Pueblo CO going up to Co Springs, Denver, Boulder, Ft. Collins up to Cheyenne Wy along the i25 strip. It's right at 5 million people and growing very very quickly. The entire stretch is filling in and will expand eastward from the mountains as density becomes a problem.
I think that's stretching a little bit. Pueblo, CO is nearly 2 hours south of Denver and the Wyoming border is nearly 2 hours northbound.
Denver is a bit tricky as you could do city, metro, CSA, or MSA. IMO the way I look at it is to measure the Front Range Urban Corridor as one contiguous populous. Starting south with Pueblo CO going up to Co Springs, Denver, Boulder, Ft. Collins up to Cheyenne Wy along the i25 strip. It's right at 5 million people and growing very very quickly. The entire stretch is filling in and will expand eastward from the mountains as density becomes a problem.
Here's what's really going to happen going forward with Greater Denver:
The Denver CSA will absorb the Fort Collins MSA, it is imminent, which is increasingly a satellite bedroom community as it is, this will happen sometime soon between 5-10 years from now. This will effectively bring Denver's population profile in lockstep with the Seattles, Tampas, and Phoenixes of the American expanse (Greater Tampa Bay Area will go through some consolidations and expansions of its own during this time period). All four of these places will probably catch up to Greater Detroit, size wise, in short order afterwards.
Over the longer term, maybe two decades to three decades, Colorado Springs MSA by itself will surpass 1 million people but will also merge with Pueblo CSA at some point in the next 20 years.
This will leave Colorado with 2 PCSAs exceeding 1 million people: Greater Denver and Greater Colorado Springs-Pueblo. That's where commuter trends and interlinking are taking these places.
That will in essence mirror a familiar scenario that has already unfolded (see AZ) or started to unfold (see WA, CO, NV) in the West's other second tier states -- where each second tier state has two PCSAs over 1 million people. In Arizona, see Phoenix and Tucson, for example, the latter has already cracked 1 million people. Then in Washington there is Seattle and Spokane, the latter of which, like Colorado Springs, is also poised to crack 1 million people as well. There will be Denver and Colorado Springs in Colorado. As well as Las Vegas and Reno in Nevada, the latter of which (Reno), should surpass 1 million at some point as well.
When it comes to the Western United States, the next 30 years or so is pretty important for the West's second tier of states (Western states behind CA), since they will go through the most rapid change and metamorphosis in that time span within their broader region.
Last edited by Trafalgar Law; 10-21-2017 at 02:19 PM..
It is. LA has human capital if we are to value all human lives equally. LA is Goliath. Its like trying to say DC beats NYC because it has a higher per capita income level.
This is about cities. It's about what people have done, not their existence as people.
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