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Baltimore's subway and light rail (combined) have less ridership than Denver's light rail by a pretty good margin. Baltimore may have been a clear front runner before 2010 but Denver has done a lot of work on it's transportation system over the last decade, although there's a lot of work to be done.
No way you can pick RTD over anything right now. I stopped riding when there were 40+ minute delays. RTD is a mess, and until fixed it get bottom of list
No way you can pick RTD over anything right now. I stopped riding when there were 40+ minute delays. RTD is a mess, and until fixed it get bottom of list
And Denver's mass transit system is the park-and-ride system used by most sprawling Western metro area transit systems. So it is used not as a living, breathing transit system bur rather as a boutique shuttle service for suburbanites who still drive every day (just less far).
Judging by this comment, I can see this sub is still full of people trying to give advice on cities they've never lived or even visited. You've clearly never been to Denver if you think is has the best food options. I've eaten in all of the listed cities and lived in 2 of them. Denver is by far the worst. Plain jane. They don't do anything good, unless you like the imported New Mexican Green Chili Mexican food they've adopted.
Denver isn't really the food desert it once was, but, yes, sorry, Chipotle does not count as a good dining option (and I love Chipotle).
Skyline/Architecture: Pittsburgh for Skyline, Baltimore for Architecture
Food Options: I would tend to lean towards Denver or Baltimore here, but I'm not sure
Walkability: I'd say Baltimore is probably the most traditionally walkable overall-but Pittsburgh and Denver can hang well for varying reasons, those 3 are at a similar upper-tier level. Charlotte has improved significantly of late I understand, but is still behind these.
Transportation: Perhaps I'm off... but Denver REALLY impressed me-both how modern and expansive transit is throughout metro. Baltimore might have more consistent service/continuity thanks to urban form. Pittsburgh is comparably perhaps a little disappointing IMO here, and Charlotte is surprising actually.
Traffic: If I had to guess.. Denver just feels so.. vast. Roads included. It seems like I would wait less in traffic in Denver than these other places if I had to guess. But that could be wrong.
Shopping: I don't know that any of these are clearly ahead of the others. In the core, clearly Denver, but in the wider region they are all in a similar group.
Safety: I'd feel comparably safest in Denver, and I think I'm basing that on statistics and anecdotal experiences.
Recreational activities: We talking outdoors? Almost certain Denver then. Overall recreation is harder to say, because I guess it depends on what you like. Baltimore is the only one that isn't landlocked, for those that like water.
General livability: Pittsburgh or Charlotte-I think Denver and Baltimore, despite their positive attributes, are still out of what I'd prefer to pay at this point. Overall-I think I'd pick Pittsburgh-and luckily enough, it seems to frequently top livability charts within the US for that reason.
Miscellaneous:
My overall rank:
1. Denver (expensive, but man, even with traditional urban cities here... Denver is just awesome. My favorite western US city so far I think.)
2. Baltimore (a place with many, many issues, and a poor reputation-but a truly great American city-the product of being a major player in the Bos-Wash corridor for centuries, and visible/evident immediately when one gets there)
3. Pittsburgh (the one I would choose to live in of this group right now. Beautiful, comfortable, character-filled, etc. It has much of what is so great about Baltimore, but with fewer drawbacks IMO)
4. Charlotte (I really don't have anything against Charlotte-in fact as I just pointed out in another thread-I'd take it over Nashville-and a number of other southern cities-it's just going up against strong competition here)
Pittsburgh and Baltimore have by far the largest MSA transit commute shares. Their townhouse vernacular makes their typical neighborhoods fairly urban.
Denver has the largest downtown, lacking only retail among the typical key attributes. It could be considered the most urban city overall in the sense of the "houses plus a lot of new apartments" vernacular common in the West.
Denver has a larger and more expansive transportation system than any of these cities in 2020 (Except maybe Baltimore). With larger ridership numbers for both rail and buses as well. But specifically speaking about downtown, I don't see how Denver doesn't take it. There's light rail, commuter rail, Free 16th Street Mall Shuttles, Free Metro Bus service, RTD Bus survive, Bike/Scooter rideshare services etc.
You say this as if you've tried every restaurant Denver has to offer. Food options are food options, whether you like the type of food provided or not. And Downtown Denver has a lot of diversity when it comes to the amount of restaurants and types of food you can get.
I've lived here for 3 years and seeing how I eat out often and not at the same places, I'm more than qualified to weigh in on Denver's food unlike someone like you. Just because Downtown has a lot of diversity, doesn't mean it's good.
I've lived here for 3 years and seeing how I eat out often and not at the same places, I'm more than qualified to weigh in on Denver's food unlike someone like you. Just because Downtown has a lot of diversity, doesn't mean it's good.
I’ve lived here over 20 years and have seen Denver’s food scene grow significantly over the years. I’m more than “qualified”...lol. If you truly think there aren’t any good places to eat in a city of 3 Million people, that’s not my problem.
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