Is Denver boring? (dorm, gardens, airport)

[Mr. Answers]

Originally Posted by mountaingirl2008

We have spent little time in Denver, but the impression we got was that you cannot compare it to other big cities. We have traveled a lot and can agree with some of your observations.

We live in Boulder County near to Boulder and love living here. Some thing we love in Boulder:

-Good bike paths connecting the city, you can bike to grocery stores restaurants.
-Boulder creek (During summer time this place gets really crowded with people tubing, its a lot of fun)
-Pearl street mall (good place to people watch, good restaurants, street performers)
-Boulder Farmers Market (fresh produce, awesome tamales)
-Dushanbee tea house (great tea collection, especially the Indian spiced chai)
-chautauqua park
-Since CU is here, there are some good cultural events and the Colorado Shakespeare Festival is very good. We will be seeing the Childs Christmas in Wales this Thanksgiving.
-Try out brunch at Lucile's (wait can be long, but food is good and you can sit at the community table with others)
-Good city bus system
-29th street mall
-Boulder creek festivals

Its not a big city but unique..check it out if you get a chance.

Boulder gives me the frequent inclination to throw my arm down a meat grinder. Why does every politician--even, or maybe especially, the dudes--from Boulder look like Joan Baez?

In Boulder you have draconian growth policy thus inordinately high cost of living mixed with an especially potent brand of save-the-three-toed-sloth-and-feed-the-hungry sort of political activism. It's a bunch of elitst, Joan Baez look-a-likes trying to peddle marxism to the rest of the state! If Boulder was a car it would be a mercedes benz that runs on hemp.

Good times, indeed.

[vegaspilgrim]

How is the culture of Boulder different from the culture of Denver's "historic" liberal gentrified neighborhoods? (especially Wash Park, Highlands, Cheeseman Park, Platt Park, Observatory Park/DU, etc). They both seem pretty similar to me.

[piperspal]

Originally Posted by Mr. Answers

If Boulder was a car it would be a mercedes benz that runs on hemp.

If there is a savvy writer or journalist out there who sees this, surely they will include your quote in whatever pc. they put out. Agree with this statement or not, what a great choice of words!!!

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by Mr. Answers

Denver has virtually nothing in common with Pittsburgh. You have a atrophying and poor old eastern steel town with funky, fun historic districts, old school sophistication, hilly, arborous neighborhoods, and old colonial architecture vs. a booming, high-tech, wealthy, new, young, mostly flat, dry suburbanized western town.

I have spent a great deal of time in both, and I disagree.

[EastSideMKE]

Originally Posted by Mr. Answers

Denver has virtually nothing in common with Pittsburgh. You have a atrophying and poor old eastern steel town with funky, fun historic districts, old school sophistication, hilly, arborous neighborhoods, and old colonial architecture vs. a booming, high-tech, wealthy, new, young, mostly flat, dry suburbanized western town.

http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo322/jacobeclark/Pittsburgh.jpg (broken link)
That looks pretty hilly and arborous to me. Much denser looking too.

http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo322/jacobeclark/Denver.jpg (broken link)
This looks pretty flat and devoid of vegetation.

Originally Posted by Katiana

I have spent a great deal of time in both, and I disagree.

I don't know how. There are no physical similarities that I can see.

I just got back to WI last Sunday and even though it's about 30 degrees colder here than it was in Denver I'm still glad I did it. Denver is not all its cracked up to be. I have posted many, many times about how uncool Denver is and how hard it is to make friends. Some of it is due to the auto-dependent nature of the city, but part of it is owed to the anti-social attitudes of people out west. My first day back in Milwaukee I was almost knocked down by two college students running to a liquor store on Oakland Ave with an empty keg of beer. It was 8:55 and the store closed at 9:00 so, understandably, they were in a big hurry to fill it up. I never saw anything like that during four years I spent in Denver. DU and Regis are far from party schools. UCD is pretty much the University of Phoenix, no college atmosphere at Auraria whatsoever.

I have read the entire thread and I noticed how people take any rejection of Denver as a personal attack. Denver is so often portrayed as being very urban and young and alive. It isn't, unless you are capable of and/or enjoy participating in extreme sports. Otherwise you're boned. No all night partying. No late night eating spots. No cohesive young, fun community. Someone earlier posted about how an apartment complex in Gelndale boasted its proximity to shopping and downtown. I had a similar experience when I first got here too. The place was near Tamarac and Hampden but the website said "minutes from Downtown Denver." How many minutes, 40? Someone else posted about how you can be hiking in the mountains in as little as 15 minutes from Downtown. What magical place is this? Are you driving there at 4am? You can't even get to BelMar in 15 minutes coming from downtown.

Stop hyping up Denver as more than a bedroom community for outdoors enthusiasts because that's what it is. Seattle and Portland are close to mountains too, but their urban centers are much denser, livelier, funkier, authentic, etc. You don't have to be an outdoorsman to enjoy them. Denver's cultural scene sucks. Everybody and their uncle thinks they're a professional artist here. The Santa Fe Arts District is hilarious. The dining scene is just terrible (a city with that many skinny people can't possibly have good food). No festivals. No traditions of any kind except Rocky Mountain Oysters. Just a big, bland, boring, souless facade of a city. It won't get better with time, you won't suddenly stop missing the things offered in real big cities. I simply distracted myself by working 60 hours a week for three out of the four years I lived in Denver. Any time I could grab a drink with someone or see a movie or concert it was a big treat for me. When I chose to go back to school fulltime was when I began to remember why I didn't like Denver again. Mostly because I had so much free time and nothing to do with it and nobody to spend it with besides a few very casual acqauintances. Now I live in a city where everyone says hello to each other on the street. Strangers engage you in casual conversations at restaurants and bars. Neighbors know one another and interact on a regular basis. Milwaukee is heaven for me. The Twin Cities and Madison aren't too shabby either, same friendly vibe. I recommend getting out of Denver while you still can.

[Katarina Witt]

^^^Here is a post from the Pittsburgh forum.

Originally Posted by Curlygurl

I grew up in Pittsburgh...this thread makes me homesick!

Here's what I miss most about Pittsburgh:

1. real neighborhoods, each with it's own personality, not just areas with some houses thrown in
<snip>

This is where I see the similarity. Also, I did post earlier about how people in both cities like to go to the mountains for R&R, go to sporting events, and so on. The DU campus reminds me of the Pitt campus. So what if the Denver schools aren't big "party schools" where people attend for the drinking life instead of to get an education? I don't think that's a bad thing.

I am glad you are happy in Milwaukee.

[steveindenver]

Seattle and Portland are close to mountains too, but their urban centers are much denser, livelier, funkier, authentic, etc.

No they are not denser; the "mountains" you speak of are neat, but different for a number of reasons and further away to boot.

I didn't really read much of the rest of your post as skimming it was enough to discount your rantings as just that; without a factual basis and simply reactionary ramblings.

[frisbiec]

Originally Posted by steveindenver

No they are not denser; the "mountains" you speak of are neat, but different for a number of reasons and further away to boot.

I didn't really read much of the rest of your post as skimming it was enough to discount your rantings as just that; without a factual basis and simply reactionary ramblings.

Not that it really matters, but both Seattle and Portland are denser than Denver.

Denver has 3,692 residents per square mile.
Seattle has 6,941 residents per square mile.
Portland has 3,992 residents per square mile.

True that the mountains in Seattle and Portland are farther away, but in my opinion, they are much more visually appealing (and dangerous given the fact that they are volcanic).

I don't ski, but the Rockies are better for skiing.

Nonetheless, I will take Seattle or Portland over Denver any day, but I think I have made that clear in past threads. Denver doesn't work for me and never will. I will make the best of the 2 months I have left here in Denver and move on.

As far as comparing Pittsburgh to Denver, I can't really speak to that except on a visual front. Visually, they don't really look similar at all. Personally, I think Pittsburgh looks more attractive by leaps and bounds, but that could be because I grew up in the northeast and am partial to eastern cities. I have only driven through Pittsburgh and experienced its ravenous sports fans growing up in central New York and working in Maryland (there seemed to be a large number of Pittsburgh transplants in Maryland).

[steveindenver]

Your density stats fail to take into account the size of the city.

Not all mountains around Seattle or Portland are volcanic; in fact very few are.

[frisbiec]

Originally Posted by steveindenver

Your density stats fail to take into account the size of the city.

Not all mountains around Seattle or Portland are volcanic; in fact very few are.

Density is not a measure of the size of a city, rather a measurement of population per unit area. As a geography teacher, I have to correct this point too often.

Regardless, Seattle trumps Denver in both measurements. Portland has a higher density but lower overall population.

Seattle: 582,454
Portland: 537,081
Denver: 566,974

There are over 20 volcanic mountains in the Cascade Range. While many of them are much farther away. Mount Rainier (far superior to any view that the Rockies can offer IMO), Mount Baker, Mt. St Helens, etc are all volcanic and not too far from Seattle (although they are not close enough that they would cause a catastrophe in Seattle proper). The Olympic Range which is on the Olympic Peninsula is not volcanic. The Olympic peninsula includes one of the coolest areas in the U.S. in that it contains a temperate rainforest. Yet another area in which Seattle/Washington trumps Denver/Colorado. The national parks are better in Washington IMO. I can't wait until I can call Seattle home again.