Denver is really a "big city" (Aurora, Fort Collins: home, job market)

[TechMike]

Who cares is if Denver does or doesn't have a big city feel? If you like the city, then you like it.

[Maroon197]

The real issue is that Denver, like so many western cities, feels very suburban overall. Downtown Denver may be large in size, but it doesn't feel nearly as dense, urban, or walkable as places like Boston, Seattle, Portland, or even Baltimore (let alone the behemoths like Chicago, NYC etc.) It's not necessarily a bad thing, depending on your personal preference, but there IS a signficant difference.

[CruisingUSA]

Originally Posted by 1992camrysedan

Why is it that people consider Las Vegas...

People always think of Tampa or Miami as big cities, but they have more like 350,000, where as Denver is about 610,000.

Non-residents probably think of Denver as a smaller city than it is, when it is infact by far larger in land area than D.C. or Boston.

I don't know where you've heard people say those things from. I consider Denver a city...

Las Vegas is not a city to me! It's like Orlando, a tourist destination that 'looks' like a city. All those highrises are hotels, not apartments. Not centers of major financial transactions. Those cities can't even sustain themselves in economic turmoil because their backbone is dependent on tourist dollars. Outside of that it's nothing. If you're not there for that particular reason surrounding those activities then it's pointless.

Tampa Bay, where I grew up...is a dysfunctional city. They don't have any light rail like Denver. Just a giant suburban sprawl and wetlands. Closest thing to DTC is West-shore.

Miami is a city, spent a lot of time there too. But to me is mostly hype as well. Vacation condos, flipped condos...tourism, citcoms that come and go. It's a very temporary city, which makes it borderline city and not a city.

Portland Oregon just sucks. It's too conservative to even be a real city. What real city closes liquor stores at 7 pm on Saturdays and restaurants at 9? Fake

Some people may not consider Denver city-like because it seems so homogenous and it's also geographically isolated. I hear the older locals refer to it as a cow-town, but I think it's progressed much further than that and deserves a different name.

But just because Denver is a city doesn't mean it's necessarily as diversified as some other cities. And it doesn't mean that what's offered in other cities is actually offered here on the same level that it is in other cities.

I just got back from a week in Seattle, I'm convinced that all these cities west of the Mississippi are uniquely the same. I felt like I was in Denver on the coast. For ****s sake, they even have a gay neighborhood called Capitol Hill in Seattle too!

I realize I have to leave the country to see something different.

The only places I've visited that felt like a city...is Boston. During the whole time there I didn't have a car and didn't need one. There was no such thing as (sub) urban sprawl. I would add Chicago as well...but I thought it was TOO big of a city.

[denverian]

Originally Posted by Maroon197

The real issue is that Denver, like so many western cities, feels very suburban overall. Downtown Denver may be large in size, but it doesn't feel nearly as dense, urban, or walkable as places like Boston, Seattle, Portland, or even Baltimore (let alone the behemoths like Chicago, NYC etc.) It's not necessarily a bad thing, depending on your personal preference, but there IS a signficant difference.

Depends on your point of reference. The urban core of Denver feels much larger and more dense than cities like Kansas City, Indianapolis, Phoenix, etc. I suppose it's somewhere in the middle when comparing to other large cities, at least speaking about density.

[denverian]

Originally Posted by CruisingUSA

I don't know where you've heard people say those things from. I consider Denver a city...

Las Vegas is not a city to me! It's like Orlando, a tourist destination that 'looks' like a city. All those highrises are hotels, not apartments. Not centers of major financial transactions. Those cities can't even sustain themselves in economic turmoil because their backbone is dependent on tourist dollars. Outside of that it's nothing. If you're not there for that particular reason surrounding those activities then it's pointless.

Tampa Bay, where I grew up...is a dysfunctional city. They don't have any light rail like Denver. Just a giant suburban sprawl and wetlands. Closest thing to DTC is West-shore.

Miami is a city, spent a lot of time there too. But to me is mostly hype as well. Vacation condos, flipped condos...tourism, citcoms that come and go. It's a very temporary city, which makes it borderline city and not a city.

Portland Oregon just sucks. It's too conservative to even be a real city. What real city closes liquor stores at 7 pm on Saturdays and restaurants at 9? Fake

Some people may not consider Denver city-like because it seems so homogenous and it's also geographically isolated. I hear the older locals refer to it as a cow-town, but I think it's progressed much further than that and deserves a different name.

But just because Denver is a city doesn't mean it's necessarily as diversified as some other cities. And it doesn't mean that what's offered in other cities is actually offered here on the same level that it is in other cities.

I just got back from a week in Seattle, I'm convinced that all these cities west of the Mississippi are uniquely the same. I felt like I was in Denver on the coast. For ****s sake, they even have a gay neighborhood called Capitol Hill in Seattle too!

I realize I have to leave the country to see something different.

The only places I've visited that felt like a city...is Boston. During the whole time there I didn't have a car and didn't need one. There was no such thing as (sub) urban sprawl. I would add Chicago as well...but I thought it was TOO big of a city.

Unfortunately, there are few American cities that are so urban that you can get by without a car. Although I thought Portland seemed fairly urban and had a decent LR system for a city of its size. I wouldn't call it conservative though. Politically speaking, it's quite liberal. I have one black neighbor who moved here from there and he still loves Portland, but it didn't seem very racially diverse to me, and I stayed downtown.

[OakAve2OakLand]

Originally Posted by denverian

Although I thought Portland seemed fairly urban and had a decent LR system for a city of its size. I wouldn't call it conservative though. Politically speaking, it's quite liberal.

+1 to that...Portland is one of the most progressive cities on on the U.S. map. I have no idea where the poster gets the idea that Portland is conservative.

[Radical347]

Originally Posted by 1992camrysedan

But it ticks me off when people come to Colorado from larger cities like Chicago, LA, or New York City. Yes, those are much more massive than Denver, but I don't understand why some people from those cities don't even give Denver the dignity of being called a true city.

Probably because Denver is not in the same league is Chicago, LA, NYC. That doesn't mean it has nothing going for it, but there is no comparison.

What really offended me was when my neighbor's relative was upset initially about moving from Washington D.C. to Denver, thinking she was moving to a cow town that was super religous. And then, at my CSU orientation, the advisor, a nice guy, told us about a student from Chicago who couldn't stand Fort Collins for being too small, but wouldn't go to Denver to experience City life because to him it was a small town. Perhaps if he bothered to visit Downtown Denver he would realize that the city has the tenth largest downtown in the NATION.

And Chicago has the 2nd biggest downtown, at 5x Denver's, and DC's is #3 at 3x Denver's. To someone who misses Chicago city life that much, Denver is going to seem like a consolation prize that isn't worth going out of your way for.

Here are the real stats of Denver: Proper population: 600,000, land area proper: 156! metro population: over 2.5 million. DIA is the largest airport in the nation. In fact, Denver's airport itself is larger than all of Boston proper!

25 cities are bigger than Denver proper, 20 MSA's are bigger than Denver metro and at least 40 cities have more land area (not that land means much).

Why is it that people consider Las Vegas, Boston, Atlanta, Pittsburg, New Orleans, Portland, Seattle, Cincinatti, Cleveland and such cities true big cities (especially Las Vegas), when they are either smaller or the same size as Denver?

Now here you're talking (comparing Denver to cities of this size rather than NYC/LA/Chicago), but to be honest, I haven't heard of too many of these being "true" big cities either...only Boston, Atlanta, and Seattle, and perhaps Las Vegas for different reasons. The first three have significantly bigger MSA's than Denver, too.

Perhaps the lady from Washington DC could of realized Denver is a super-liberal city that is larger than Washington DC in every aspect, land, population, everything.

Super-liberal? Not compared to DC. DC is also bigger than Denver (although only by ~1000 people) but the metro area is 2x Denver.

People always think of Tampa or Miami as big cities, but they have more like 350,000, where as Denver is about 610,000.

I've never heard of Tampa being a "bigger" city than Denver. Miami yes, but they also have a much bigger metro.

Non-residents probably think of Denver as a smaller city than it is, when it is infact by far larger in land area than D.C. or Boston.

As mentioned before, land area means very little -- in fact, it could be argued that having more land makes less of a city because then it lacks density--one important factor for a city. Anchorage, Oklahoma City, Louisville, KCMO, & others have more land than NYC but I don't think anyone would try to argue that those are bigger cities.

[Radical347]

Originally Posted by OakAve2OakLand

+1 to that...Portland is one of the most progressive cities on on the U.S. map. I have no idea where the poster gets the idea that Portland is conservative.

"Conservative" doesn't have to always be political. If CruisingUSA's comment about Portland closing shop at 7/9 on Saturdays is true, that could qualify as conservative.

[1992camrysedan]

I am not trying to knock or diss other cities, I appreciate all cities in the United States. But people have thought of denver as politically conservative like the Bible belt cities, when it is infact quite liberal, in the proper area.

I know Denver isn't the largest or densest, but I have been there, and the city has a really nice feel. In downtown, you feel like you are in a huge city. In 5 points, you can see Denver's cultural diversity, and its historic architecture, including victorian houses. I love Denver for its mix of architecture, open-minded progressive thinking people, diversity, and the fact that it is nestled in the Rocky Mountains-this means Tornadoes are rare in the city, with a few every decade or two hitting in the eastern suburbs. I don't hate other cities, I just prefer Denver to other large cities I have been to, such as Las Vegas. It is okay with me that it is low-density, because, except for the freeways, denver's sidestreets are drivable and I'm a big car guy. I geuss the city just works for me, as a democrat.

Again- nothing against other cities.

[Davros]

The Denver Urbanized Area was in the 2000 census around #20 in the nation, with Tampa being just slightly larger, right around 2 million.

Jacksonville may be the biggest city in Florida, but its urban area is less than a million, much smaller than both Tampa and Miami.

Atlanta, Boston, and Miami, and Seattle have bigger urban areas than Denver, but the other cities you mentioned have smaller urban areas.

Chicago's urban area has 8 million, Los Angeles has 11 million, and New York has 18 million. Those are by far the Big 3. Next biggest is Philadelphia with 5 million.

Denver's urban area is smaller than St. Louis but bigger than Kansas City, Omaha, Albuquerque, and Salt Lake City.

To me, Census Bureau Urbanized Areas are more useful than Census Bureau MSAs because MSAs are entire counties, whereas very detailed analysis went into delineating the exact Urbanized Area.

http://www.census.gov/geo/www/ua/ua2k.txt