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I've seen these tow cities mentioned a decent amount on here. I figured it would be an interesting comparison for two similarly sized metro's. I'm wondering which do you think is better overall? Some criteria to consider
1. Downtown
2. Walkability
3. Economy
4. Recreation
5. Scenery
6. Weather
7. Architecture
8. Bars/Restaurants
9. Transportation Car/Public
10. COL
11.Where would you rather live?
I've seen these tow cities mentioned a decent amount on here. I figured it would be an interesting comparison for two similarly sized metro's. I'm wondering which do you think is better overall? Some criteria to consider
1. Downtown
2. Walkability
3. Economy
4. Recreation
5. Scenery
6. Weather
7. Architecture
8. Bars/Restaurants
9. Transportation Car/Public
10. COL
11.Where would you rather live?
1. Des Moines
2. Tie
3. Des Moines
4. CO Springs
5. CO Springs
6. CO Springs
7. Des Moines
8. Tie
9. Tie
10. Des Moines
11. Des Moines because it's cheaper and closer to where I'm from (Chicago), and while Colorado is a beautiful place, it's quickly becoming California east in terms of overall COL. Colorado; cool place to visit, don't know if I'd live there nowadays.
I've seen these tow cities mentioned a decent amount on here. I figured it would be an interesting comparison for two similarly sized metro's. I'm wondering which do you think is better overall? Some criteria to consider
1. Downtown
2. Walkability
3. Economy
4. Recreation
5. Scenery
6. Weather
7. Architecture
8. Bars/Restaurants
9. Transportation Car/Public
10. COL
11.Where would you rather live?
1. Downtown: Des Moines downtown is huge for a city of it's size, it feels like a much bigger city. Colorado Springs downtown is more touristy than anything else.
2. Walkability: Des Moines seems more walkable and dense. Colorado Springs is a very sprawly city, some really nice areas to walk around and great park system but overall not a walking city.
3. Economy: Des Moines has a much, much better economy. It is a far more affluent metropolitan area and very recession-proof.
377,000 employed in Des Moines as opposed to 296,000 employed in Colorado Springs despite Colorado Springs being a larger metropolitan area population wise.
4. Recreation: Colorado Springs is known for recreation. Colorado Springs has a great park system and lots of hiking for people into that. Des Moines seems decent also, but I didn't spend enough time there to really see all the parks.
5. Scenery: I prefer Des Moines because it is very lush and green half of the year and they have some small hills in the city. Colorado Springs though has excellent scenery with the lush foothills half of the year and Pikes Peak. They also have lots of very scenic open-space and an excellent park system.
6. Weather: Colorado Springs has much warmer winters. Colorado Springs has fantastic weather in the summer, Des Moines has similar high temperatures but has lots of humidity but that is what makes it so lush.
7. Architecure: Des Moines seems very historic compared to Colorado Springs. Colorado Springs has some architecture around the Broadmoor.
9. Transportation: Des Moines has really good infrastructure and decent public transit. Colorado Springs has lagged behind on infrastructure and the public transit is more limited but it runs 7 days a week and they have limited evening service.
10. Cost of living: Des Moines in a landslide. Colorado Springs has high housing prices, property taxes are low, rents are quite high. Des Moines has much lower housing prices, but very high property taxes, rents are low in comparison
DT: Des Moines
Walkability: I am not sure, but CS isn't very walkable, so I would assume Des Moines
Economy: With its proximity to Denver, military installation, and steady growth, I would think CS
Recreation: CS by far
Scenery: CS by far
Weather: CS, but not by much. I don't like tornados, brutal winters, and brutal summers.
Architecture: Des Moines
Transportation: Not sure
COL: Des Moines by far
Personally, I would choose CS without hesitation. Des Moines might be better on paper. But it doesn't appeal to me at all, along with the Midwest in general. There is a reason why the COL is higher in CS.
Des Moines as a well built city that packs a big punch for its size and avoids the congestion and other big city problems. Colorado Springs is an ok, rather average city where all the money is going into the outer suburbs.
DT: DM by far,
Walkability: DM
Economy: DM by far. Denver is not an economic option for COS; that commute will take years off your life. COS is heavily military dependent, so a lot of the jobs require security clearance or a federal background.
Rec and Scenery: obviously COS
Weather: COS because it doesn't have the wind from being on the open prairie or as bad of winters.
Architecture: DM, unless you consider visiting swank residential housing sections quite the jam.
Transportation: DM by a lot. COS was ok for traffic, but it's getting kinda bad and it's going to be way worse as it grows because the city and state allocate basically $0 for roads and developers don't build traffic arteries.
COL: DM cause housing, but other than COS isn't radically more expensive. It's just that part of the midwest is basically the best place in the nation for COL, especially in relation to income.
If Iowa could somehow set aside a decent chunk of public close to Des Moines, even if that was prairie and rolling hills and ponds, I'd take Des Moines. I wish the entire state of Iowa wasn't farmed or private.
I've been to Des Moines once and Colorado Springs a few times.
1. Downtown: Des Moines. Like Lovecrowds said, Des Moines is more of a "real" downtown while Colorado Springs is pretty touristy.
2. Walkability: Des Moines, according to Walkscore
3. Economy: Des Moines
4. Recreation: Colorado Springs
5. Scenery: Colorado Springs by a lot. The mountains are right there and a lot of the city is built on hills and the mountains are pretty prominent.
6. Weather: Colorado Springs
7. Architecture: I don't find either to be too impressive, but I'm going to say Colorado Springs overall. Des Moines takes Downtown architecture but I think COS has more interesting places spread across the city such as Will Rodger's Shrine of the Sun, The Broadmoor Area, Air Force Academy and Manitou Springs.
8. Bars/Restaurants: Not very familiar with either
9. Transportation Car/Public: I'd assume Des Moines for both
10. COL: Des Moines by far
11.Where would you rather live?: Colorado Springs. I find it to be a much more interesting city. It's close to many great features that Des Moines simply can't compete with imo. I would definitely consider Des Moines for the cost of living and bigger city feel though.
Its worth mentioning that Des Moines is the state capitol and largest city in the state and doesn't play second fiddle to a 3 million person metro 70 miles away, thus the larger, more classic downtown and more well rounded economy as a stand alone metro, with more amenities than its size would suggest.(See Denver). Having said that i would still rather live in the Springs.
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