Colorado or Texas? (Denver: purchase, construction, school)

[denverian]

Originally Posted by Miss Liberty

No, but you are bashing Texas, and since you are from L.A. I was just pointing out that some of the reasons why you don't like Texas are the same reasons why people don't like Californians. I'm not saying you are acting like that in Colorado, but the state, especially in the Denver/Boulder area, are full of those types of Californians.

I honestly don't know who is and isn't a Californian here, other than a few neighbors. We don't sit around talking about California. But I'm very liberal, and that made it easy for me moving here from California (although there are conservative areas in CA and CO). I pretty much hate everything about TX - from it's politics to gun culture to weather to annoying accents to trucks everywhere to boring landscape... it's not for me.

[ringwise]

Originally Posted by KingKoal85

I'm a 25 year old who grew up in Rochester, NY and now lives in Dallas. I was in Denver recently for work. We explored Denver for 3 days and went up to Breck for a couple days as well. My thoughts:

Both are "places to be" these days. Correct me if I'm wrong but we're talking about the 2 fastest growing cities in the country. I have friends who live in Denver/Colorado and have heard great things. As someone who is pretty active and outdoorsy, here is my impression:

1) Denver is an outdoors paradise. Dallas is an above-average outdoors scene because of the weather. Mountain sports is the primary difference and it is a pretty sizable one. Denver wins

2) There is a lot more money in Dallas and it shows. My girlfriend and I both agreed we take for granted how nice Dallas is (everything is clean and new) until we explore other cities. Denver has a lot of "new" but not nearly as much as Dallas as Denver is smaller. Also Denver has a much larger and younger (this disturbed us) homeless population. Denver should look to Dallas for how to effectively manage the homeless. I imagine Dallas ranks top 3 nationally if not first with regards to low homelessness. Looking for a "nice" city? Dallas.

3) Food. Obviously I know a lot more about Dallas food than Denver. We had good food in Denver. Dallas is one of the best food cities in the country. I feel comfortable giving Dallas the nod here and I think those who know both scenes better than myself would agree. Dallas is larger and has a lot more nationally ranked restaurants but I am fairly sure Denver will make great strides in this area in the coming years.

4) People. Lotta cool people in Denver. A few too many hippie-types for my liking here in Denver and this is a very subjective comparison but I'll give the nod to Denver, not that Dallas doesn't have great people as well.

5) Cost of Living. Dallas wins on a city and state level here.

6) Weather. Depends who you ask, Denver is cooler, Dallas is warmer, both get a lot of sun. You can answer this for yourself.

Verdict: Loved Denver, Colorado. Love living in Dallas. I could definitely move to Denver but really enjoy Dallas. The Uptown neighborhood in Dallas is a paradise for 20-somethings. We think the optimum scenario is living in Dallas year round and taking a couple outdoorsy trips to Colorado each year. That's what I see myself doing for the next few years until who knows.

At the end of the day, Texas and Colorado are both really good places to live these days.

Dallas has already "done" this - they did not legalize pot. A good friend's company has a conference every year in Denver. The year after pot was legalized, they immediately noticed a huge increase in young homeless people. They've since changed locations for their conference.

[Sunderpig2]

Originally Posted by denverian

I honestly don't know who is and isn't a Californian here, other than a few neighbors. But I'm very liberal... I pretty much hate everything about TX - from it's politics to gun culture to...

Our next door neighbors here are from CA, and we can relate to them more than any of our other neighbors. They're lots of fun too, and more sociable than most others around.

As far as Texas goes, most of the junk touted by politicians and other loud-mouths is mostly a fixture of TV and the media, and not matched by the majority of residents (i.e. average people encountered day to day). It's hard for most non-Texans to separate the media-version of TX versus the reality. And that observation comes from living there for over 40 years.

Despite soap-box-types in both states that seem to give opposing impressions (especially liberal vs. conservative extremes), Californians and Texans are more alike than most probably realize.

[denverian]

Originally Posted by Sunderpig2

Our next door neighbors here are from CA, and we can relate to them more than any of our other neighbors. They're lots of fun too, and more sociable than most others around.

As far as Texas goes, most of the junk touted by politicians and other loud-mouths is mostly a fixture of TV and the media, and not matched by the majority of residents (i.e. average people encountered day to day). It's hard for most non-Texans to separate the media-version of TX versus the reality. And that observation comes from living there for over 40 years.

Despite soap-box-types in both states that seem to give opposing impressions (especially liberal vs. conservative extremes), Californians and Texans are much more alike than most probably realize.

True. Not everyone is a stereotype of their state. Colorado doesn't seem to have as much of a stereotype as other states do, although maybe the legal weed has increased a stereotype.

[bluescreen73]

Originally Posted by ringwise

Dallas has already "done" this - they did not legalize pot. A good friend's company has a conference every year in Denver. The year after pot was legalized, they immediately noticed a huge increase in young homeless people. They've since changed locations for their conference.

Dallas has a sizable homeless population as well. Their "solution" to the problem consisted of marginalizing the homeless and forcing them to a tent city underneath the I-45 viaduct south of downtown (out of sight; out of mind). Then they simply ignored the problem until the tent city got bad press because the transients started OD'ing and killing each other. They then "solved" the tent city problem by bulldozing it.

[denverian]

Originally Posted by bluescreen73

Dallas has a sizable homeless population as well. Their "solution" to the problem consisted of marginalizing the homeless and forcing them to a tent city underneath the I-45 viaduct south of downtown (out of sight; out of mind). Then they simply ignored the problem until the tent city got bad press because the transients started OD'ing and killing each other. They then "solved" the tent city problem by bulldozing it.

Must be all that compassionate conservatism down there.

[Texas Ag 93]

Originally Posted by IndyRC

I've been there a lot since open carry went into effect and I only saw one person doing it.

Originally Posted by Sunderpig2

That's basically been my observation as well. I still have yet to see anyone there (other than law enforcement) engaged in open carry.

I second (or third) this as well. I have never seen anyone open carry since the law was passed.

The idea that everyone in Texas is running around with guns is as inaccurate and unfair a stereotype as everyone in Denver smoking marijuana everywhere.....

[philberf]

Originally Posted by Texas Ag 93

I second (or third) this as well. I have never seen anyone open carry since the law was passed.

The idea that everyone in Texas is running around with guns is as inaccurate and unfair a stereotype as everyone in Denver smoking marijuana everywhere.....

What?!? You mean people stereotype excessively by way of the anonymity of the Internet?!? No!

[Texas Ag 93]

Originally Posted by philberf

What?!? You mean people stereotype excessively by way of the anonymity of the Internet?!? No!

I was in Costa Rica last week and happened to be wearing a Colorado state flag T-shirt one day and 2 people asked (in a not so subtle way) about marijuana.....sigh.

[Hschlick84]

Originally Posted by Texas Ag 93

I was in Costa Rica last week and happened to be wearing a Colorado state flag T-shirt one day and 2 people asked (in a not so subtle way) about marijuana.....sigh.

Thats sad if people from different countries first think of marijuana when you mention CO. It's time all states legalize it so the stigma goes away here.