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I really like the Minneapolis comparison, speaking as someone who likes MSP.
Each is historically a city of houses, but is infilling at a good rate with apartments. Each has good bike infrastructure, a light rail system built at-grade through the center, and an iconic bus mall. They're at a similar scale.
They're also very different, but what two cities aren't?
I think people in Denver would like to think they are more similar to the West Coast. But Denver feels much more like Minneapolis or Des Moines than it does San Francisco or Portland IMO.
I see Minneapolis but not sure what Des Moines is doing in the conversation. Funnily though, Des Moines might’ve overtaken Denver in foreign born population percentage(slightly) at least in the city limits. Des Moines is about 15% foreign born and that’s not surprising from personal experience. Still, Des Moines isn’t close to the urbanity and vibrancy of either city, even when scaled down.
I see Minneapolis but not sure what Des Moines is doing in the conversation. Funnily though, Des Moines might’ve overtaken Denver in foreign born population percentage(slightly) at least in the city limits. Des Moines is about 15% foreign born and that’s not surprising from personal experience. Still, Des Moines isn’t close to the urbanity and vibrancy of either city, even when scaled down.
Des Moines is a cool, growing city with an upwardly mobile, educated, and white population. Sounds pretty Denvery to me, except Denver is actuality growing much more slowly.
I just don’t get why Chicago shouldn’t be lumped in with those other cities though. Chicago is within 1 percentage point with Boston, Seattle and Dallas and depending on the data you look at, it might be even more than those places as well. I wouldn’t say Chicago is first tier like NYC, San Francisco, Miami and Los Angeles. But I don’t clearly see the difference in internationalism between Chicago and Boston, and in my personal experience I don’t quite see the difference either. Chicago’s Chinatown is growing a lot more than Boston’s, Uptown is Chicago’s answer to dorchester and Boston doesn’t really have anything like the Devon corridor either nor anything on the scale of 26th street. This isn’t to say that Boston/Dallas doesn’t feel international but I don’t see how Boston is international but not Chicago??
Yeah I think I meant DC. I don't think Boston is a very international city. And I don't think that Chicago is a very international city. But I'm not sure that they are particularly different from each other in that way. The only difference, which, is actually a big one honestly, is that Chicago's foreign born population is overwhelmingly Mexican while Boston had a pretty interesting diversity of migrants. Nut that's also true of places like LA and Dallas, so I'm not sure that ultimately makes a huge difference in terms of internationalism.
Des Moines is a cool, growing city with an upwardly mobile, educated, and white population. Sounds pretty Denvery to me, except Denver is actuality growing much more slowly.
Des Moines White population is rapidly declining though while Denver’s growing/stagnant at least in the city limits. For example, Denver’s white population actually grew from 52% to 54%, while Des Moines lost 10%, going from about 70% to 60% between 2010 and 2020 alone.
Des Moines is a cool, growing city with an upwardly mobile, educated, and white population. Sounds pretty Denvery to me, except Denver is actuality growing much more slowly.
They are not even comparable. Des Moines is no where near on the same level. They both have big white populations but Denver is much more diverse and that’s not a debate.
Sacramento is probably the most similar on the West Coast although it feels much smaller.
This. Denver has always struck me as what Sacramento might have been (even larger, perhaps) if not for the proximity and massive cultural and economic gravity of the Bay Area.
This. Denver has always struck me as what Sacramento might have been (even larger, perhaps) if not for the proximity and massive cultural and economic gravity of the Bay Area.
Good point, and I agree.
Still yet, Sacramento has done well. It may have been a blessing that growth in Sacramento was curtailed.
2020: Primary/Combined Metro Population numbers rounded-up:
SJ-SF Bay Area: 9.6 million
Denver: 3.7 million
Sacramento: 2.7 million
Austin: 2.3 million
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