Denver may be the most friendly city in the US-what does it say about other places? (Colorado Springs: fit in, apartment complex)

[Dirty-Mill]

As a single middle aged male I find it nearly impossible to make new friends anywhere. Couples don't really seem to be interested in friendship and other men just want to keep to themselves. I spend most of my time alone (even when out in public I feel very alone).

[Ivory Lee Spurlock]

I can't imagine any place being more genuinely friendly than Austin. Nice, friendly, polite and well-mannered people are everywhere you go in this town, and the entire Austin metro area, for that matter. It's so easy to make idle chit-chat with total strangers while waiting in line at a grocery store or at a fast food place.

My personal opinion on why Austin is a town full of friendly people is because most people are in Austin because Austin is where they want to be, and people who like where they are, are generally happy people, so it makes it easy for a person to be friendly in Austin.

It's not cool at all to be unfriendly or rude in Austin. If somebody is rude or downright unfriendly, it's a sure fire give away that person is not from here or hasn't lived here very long. Let me tell ya, Austin's friendliness is contagious. If you move here and you're more reserved than you are friendly, I can pretty much guarantee after you live here a few months, you'll find your self being a friendlier person than you were when you first got here.

[pikabike]

Denver area was friendly when I lived there, until a few years ago. But I would not call it THE friendliest city, or even one of the top five in the US.

Polite, decent, cordial, yes. NOTHING to complain about there. But not Welcome Wagon, Block Party, Come Into My House Anytime kind of friendly. I wouldn't even like that, but hey that's partly why I lived there a long time when I was free to choose other locations.

OP had better stay away from Seattle, judging by the frequent topic of The Freeze.

[Gorges]

I find it hard to gauge the friendliness of Denver when almost every person I've met in the 2 years we've been here has moved from another state within the past 5 years.

I do think that store employees are the friendliest of any place I've been. But then it usually turns out that they moved here from another state as well....

[smarino]

"Go to Orlando if you want to see angry, nasty people'.

Amen to that brother (or sister, as the case may be). Of course, I suppose most of them are really from the East Coast or somewhere else and brought that w/ them, it being Florida, and the odd thing is they THINK it's a friendly place. Very strange.

We live in St Pete and it's quite friendly, to a point. Again, all the transplants here make it seem as if there was no sense of place or local culture, but it is liberal, for Florida, and people are OK by me. It does feel pretty progressive and diverse, and attracts those sort of folks. I still haven't figured out why anyone would go to Tampa.

We spent a little time in Denver 10 years ago. It's hard to describe, but it felt a little too law and order for me. Plenty of uniformed police w/ guns on the light rail, that sort of thing. It's probably changed dramatically since then. And yes, Seattle and Portland have some of the most unfriendly, closed people I have ever seen in my life. It's hard to find friendly these days. Even the Old Southern hospitality has been ruined with people who seem to want to talk about nothing but Obama, their relationship w/ god, and....Obama. Whatever happened to football?

It definitely gets harder to make friends when you get older Dirty-Mill. I'm nearly 65 and basically I'm invisible to a lot of people, but there's plenty of young and old people I connect to in this city. You have to be in the right place, and really work double time to make it work. Finding people that share your vision, politics, spirituality, whatever, is the only way to do it. We lived in Daytona for four years and I did not make one single solitary friend excepting the neighbors. Nascar, motorcycles, gun rights and far right politics mean nothing to me. St Pete is where I should have been all that time.

[tantan1968]

Originally Posted by Jagmanvdp

Just got back from a trip to Denver. I have to say....the people are incredibly polite. I felt a bit like I was at home in canada..everyone saying "sorry" even if it wasn't their fault. However, friendly is not a word I would use. The people i met in Denver were quite judgemental. I would say they were laid back..if you agreed with everything they believed. If you tended o disagree....that laid back attitude disappears very quickly....and they are very quick to judge.

I agree with a previous poster...do not mistake their politeness for friendly

This is very true especially with younger people as we had found out when we moved to Denver about ten years ago. For example a young couple had moved in to the apartment next to ours. Very nice people..that is until one day she had come to visit us and noticed that the radio in the kitchen was on KNUS ( a local conservative talk radio station ). "..HOW DARE YOU LISTEN TO SUCH TRASH !! STEVE KELLY IS AN ***HOLE !!" and stormed out. She was so mad that she never spoke to us again. Found out later that she had worked for the Bernie Sanders campaign. Guess that would explain her hatred towards KNUS and their talk show host Steve Kelly.

We had also lost a number friends because of marijuana too. Since we don't have an interest in pot and when they find out we don't want to smoke pot with them they don't want nothing to do with us. Then comes the issue of gay marriage. My partner and I have lost a few gay friends because since they got married and we aren't well..."..sorry we can't be friends !!". It's easy to say "..OH whatEVER !!"..but.....

When we lived in West Virginia if one disagrees with someone its usually "..well we agree to disagree" and leave it at that while in Denver with so many we had met over the years it tends to be "...it's MY way or else !!".

[alloo66]

Denver is middle of the road on friendliness. I think it really depends on the crowd that you run with. I've met both open and closed people here. To eaches own. I thought that Phoenix was friendly, The Bay Area is friendly, Albuquerque was friendly, and Honolulu. People were polite in Portland. What you put out is what you receive. If you're outgoing, giving and inviting people will be attracted to you. If you're closed and impersonal people will be stoic with you. What you give is what you get and it gets paid back a thousand fold.

[jwiley]

Originally Posted by vegaspilgrim

I agree 100%. NYC is frequently misunderstood. A lot of people mistakenly confuse friendliness with politeness (I'd agree that New Yorkers are not very polite) when they are two totally different things.

I'm a Denver native, and I don't think Denver is a particularly friendly place. This is a place where people pretty much everybody minds their own business, where starting conversations with strangers is considered weird. The friendliest people in Denver are those who have recently moved here from somewhere else, not the natives and long time residents.

That has not been my experience here, many generation X and older natives I have found to be very friendly and more than willing to have a conversation. Those that moved here 15 or more years ago seem to be the least friendly, and especially have attitudes with those that are more recent transplants. Many in the younger generation seems to have considerably less friendly attitudes as a whole, those from Colorado seem to be worse than the transplants but that may have more to do with the fact that those that move here are taking a risk moving here and are looking to meet people.

[jwiley]

Overall I think it depends on what you consider friendly, as others have said most people here are polite, but it seems that the more Denver and the front range grow the more clicks there are around. If you work with someone they may invite you into their group, or if you have the same home state, if you have the same love for a particular hobby, or your kids have the same interests and go to school together. If you are not invited to the click by someone the know and like than you are kept at arms length. It really is kind of sad, but I do not think it is on purpose, just something that is bound to happen with the huge influx of people from across the country with very little in common with each other.

[randomparent]

Yes to generally polite, decent, and kind. Eh to friendly. I've certainly been in situations with people who are very welcoming, but I would not necessary characterize the city as a whole as friendly. There's a reserve that I find difficult to put my finger on. As for the suburbanites, I've recently had my fill of the affluent and self-absorbed after attending a neighborhood block party hosted by a family member. It's not all suburbanites, of course, but that group included some of the most obnoxious people I've ever encountered, and their obsession with their poorly-behaved dogs, who wandered around sticking their noses in the food and occasionally taking bites, left me aghast. What is it with Front Range residents and their dogs?

The outright friendliest place I've ever lived was in Maryland. Yep, Maryland! Just a few hours after the moving van left, the neighbors brought over food and asked if we would be interested in joining a few of their friends with kids the same age at the park the next day, and then they stuck around to help break down boxes! It was extraordinary. Even the super friendly Midwest city where I was born and raised could not measure up to that.