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Ok, here we go. It is getting down to the wire and I am 99.9% sure Denver is the place I want to make my new home. There is a whole lot of "wonderful" about the city and most of the threads/posts about Denver are very positive. I know it is crazy to ask for complaints. However, I want a complete picture and I want to be sure I have concidered everything. I really will respect everyone's opinion so PLEASE share !!
Air quality can be bad, if you have asthma or any other respiratory issue this can be a concern.
There is not a whole lot of racial diversity in the city; all groups are represented but we lack the comparatively cosmopolitan feel of many eastern cities.
It is brown here for most of the year, you may grow accustomed to it over time but one trip to either coast will be an eye opener.
While it is generally mild and we have an incredible number of sunny days there is some snow in the winter. If you don’t like snow at all you won’t like Denver.
Altitude affects everyone for a period, and your cooking forever. In particular if you are a baker you will have some adjustment pains.
Denver as a whole is a very tolerant and liberal city. As such should you not be accepting of alternative lifestyles and random protests at the capitol building you might find yourself on the outside looking in.
Denver water continues to raise our water prices BECAUSE our water conservation practices were so effective.
Traffic while not bad is not great if you plan on commuting long distances during peak periods. This of course is a very subjective measure.
Location: Monterey Bay, California -- watching the sea lions, whales and otters! :D
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I agree about the air quality. I lived in Colorado for five years (mostly Boulder) and in Denver for over 6 months. The air was so bad that I literally had to shove a towel against the door because of the particulates coming in. When you go outside (I'm not sure if they have banned fireplaces now), you could literally swallow the particulates in the "red" air. It was gross. Granted, it's mostly when there are air inversions, but there are definitely enough that I wouldn't move there if one had asthma or any breathing problems.
I was just back again this summer, and the air was fine then (no inversions at that time of year), and downtown was much nicer than it used to be. Lots of young people.
Anyplace is a give and take. If you feel drawn to it and don't have asthma, then go for it. Good luck to you.
Some of these may be trivial, some may or may not be negatives for you personally.
1. It is dry. Very dry. Very very dry. This may lead to skin problems (peeling, cracking, itching) or sinus problems, or it may not.
2. The sun can be extreme. If you burn easily, you will need to take avoidance measures. Due to lack of trees, there isn't always much in the way of shade available. Couple the sun with some hot dry summer days (around 100F) and going outside may not always be that fun.
3. as in #2, not much in the way of trees, outside of small pockets in irrigated areas. Insect problems (pine beetles) are having a large impact on the mountain and foothills tree population.
4. Non-irrigated areas turn brown starting in June (timing depends on rainfall) and stays that way until the following spring. By spring here I mean mid April to May.
5. Some dining/cuisine options are limited in comparison to big coastal cities. I'm specifically thinking asian here, where you may have to hunt real hard to find good places to eat.
6. Food in general is rather expensive, as it has to be trucked or flown in from other areas. Quality is not always that great, esp produce.
7. It snows. Snow removal from roads and sidewalks is not always prompt or thorough. It can snow from September to June - that is a long stretch of time, and the hassles of snow can get real old after a few months.
8. Want to visit another big city? The closest is Albuquerque, a 450 mile, 7-8 hour drive. Runners up at 500-600 miles include Salt Lake, Omaha and Kansas City. Unless you get on a plane, weekend jaunts to other cities are pretty much out of the question if you don't want to spend the entire trip in the car.
9. Some retailers do not operate here for various reasons (liquor laws, distribution). This includes Trader Joes and Ikea.
10. While some improvements to public transportation are planned, Denver is playing catch-up to cities like Chicago, NYC, DC, Boston, on this front. Current public transportation is dominated by buses, with limited light rail options in central Denver.
Overall, Denver represents a good balance of a lot of things. I looked into it. I live on the West Coast.
The negatives I saw were:
1.
Most expect it to be a scenic city. It is not. Like they said, it is quite brown, owing to the dry vegetation nearby. It's the kind of brown you might see in Central California or right outside of Reno. Downtown is not scenic...flat, grid-patterned streets such that it resembles Calgary in Canada.
2.
It is too far from any other urban center. In Seattle, you can day-hop to Vancouver or Portland. In LA, you can day-hop to San Diego. In Denver, you can pick Cheyenne or Colorado Springs (not exactly big cities). You had better like day-hopping it to the mountains.
3.
It snows. Other than grad school in the Midwest, the only other place I lived in which it snowed was Reno. Personally, I don't like driving in it. It can be kind of unpredictable.
4.
It is extremely dry. I need some humidity. When in Reno (considered similar to Denver in climate patterns), I had to go to the doctor for sinusitis and scabbing inside my nose every year. I've never had that problem elsewhere. However, dry heat is comfortable.
5.
It probably isn't as cosmopolitan as it ought to be, given that it is the hub city for the Mountain West.
However, jobs/housing/density/livability and such are highly ranked. It's just that the observations I make knocked it out of the running for me a few years back when I went to check it out.
Location: Monterey Bay, California -- watching the sea lions, whales and otters! :D
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Quote:
It snows. Other than grad school in the Midwest, the only other place I lived in which it snowed was Reno. Personally, I don't like driving in it. It can be kind of unpredictable.
Quote:
It snows. Snow removal from roads and sidewalks is not always prompt or thorough. It can snow from September to June - that is a long stretch of time, and the hassles of snow can get real old after a few months.
Regarding snow, it really depends on where you are moving from. I am from Western New York, originally, and I found Denver to be an absolute delight in regard to snow -- it MELTS -- and doesn't stay on the ground for six months straight! The flipside, though, is because the altitude is so high, and the sun so strong, that the city doesn't often bother to plow, and it closes down lots of the highways/streets, so you can't get places easily. It was very weird to me to see not only a place where snow melted (you could get literally 3 feet of snow one day, and it'd be gone the next), and they didn't plow.
I remember getting on a bus once in Denver, and it was snowing lightly. I was the only person on the bus, the city was closed down, and I couldn't figure it out. I asked the bus driver why there was no one around and why things were so quiet. His first question to me was: "Where are you from?" I said, "Buffalo." He said, "I'm from Minnesota -- they have no idea how to handle snow out here!" So, it is relative.
Oh, and in regard to the lack of humidity -- it didn't bother me at all -- in fact, I loved it. But I did know a woman who -- I know this sounds gross, but is true -- had to get these "shots" (I can't remember of what now) for her sinuses because they dried up so much that she couldn't breathe!! Actually, she was the only person I knew who had that problem, but I've heard other people complain about the lack of humidity, although for me, it was a big plus.
Maybe you could just try out Denver for a couple of years, depending on your personal situation, and if it works, then great, and if not, then move!
Some of these may be trivial, some may or may not be negatives for you personally.
1. It is dry. Very dry. Very very dry. This may lead to skin problems (peeling, cracking, itching) or sinus problems, or it may not.
2. The sun can be extreme. If you burn easily, you will need to take avoidance measures. Due to lack of trees, there isn't always much in the way of shade available. Couple the sun with some hot dry summer days (around 100F) and going outside may not always be that fun.
3. as in #2, not much in the way of trees, outside of small pockets in irrigated areas. Insect problems (pine beetles) are having a large impact on the mountain and foothills tree population.
4. Non-irrigated areas turn brown starting in June (timing depends on rainfall) and stays that way until the following spring. By spring here I mean mid April to May.
5. Some dining/cuisine options are limited in comparison to big coastal cities. I'm specifically thinking asian here, where you may have to hunt real hard to find good places to eat.
6. Food in general is rather expensive, as it has to be trucked or flown in from other areas. Quality is not always that great, esp produce.
7. It snows. Snow removal from roads and sidewalks is not always prompt or thorough. It can snow from September to June - that is a long stretch of time, and the hassles of snow can get real old after a few months.
8. Want to visit another big city? The closest is Albuquerque, a 450 mile, 7-8 hour drive. Runners up at 500-600 miles include Salt Lake, Omaha and Kansas City. Unless you get on a plane, weekend jaunts to other cities are pretty much out of the question if you don't want to spend the entire trip in the car.
9. Some retailers do not operate here for various reasons (liquor laws, distribution). This includes Trader Joes and Ikea.
10. While some improvements to public transportation are planned, Denver is playing catch-up to cities like Chicago, NYC, DC, Boston, on this front. Current public transportation is dominated by buses, with limited light rail options in central Denver.
I have to call you on #9. Trader Joe's operates in states with more rigid liquor laws than Colorado. In Pennsylvania, Trader Joe's has no liquor department in it's stores there due to laws.
I have to call you on #9. Trader Joe's operates in states with more rigid liquor laws than Colorado. In Pennsylvania, Trader Joe's has no liquor department in it's stores there due to laws.
I'm pretty sure that liquor laws are not an issue for ikea, either There has been a TJs in Rockville, MD, for many years, and Montgomery County (in which Rockville is located) has some very strict liquor laws. Still, the nearest TJ is in Santa Fe - and there don't seem to be any imminent TJs coming to CO, at least according to the "coming soon" locations on TJ's web page. Rumors for why Denver is still lacking a TJs tend to feature some combination of distribution and liquor laws, but I don't know if a definitive truth has every come forth on this issue.
The weather is a plus or a minus depending on where you're from and what you like to do. Many people focus on how snow snarls traffic and makes it dangerous to walk around on sidewalks. Others focus on how it allows for recreational activities like sledding, snowmen/snow forts/etc., skiing/snowboarding, snowmobiling, and so forth. It's mostly a matter of perspective. I grew up in Michigan and appreciate snow in spite of the practical issues it causes.
Humidity is another of those things. If you're prone to drying, it may be an issue. However, if you're prone to sweating in a humid/hot climate like back east, it's a godsend. I can't tell you how much I *love* the dryness in Denver!
Scenery is yet another. To many people, the greenery is what makes a place scenic. To others, snow-capped mountains are. And to still others, it's the desert. So it depends on what you like, again. Me, I'll take mountains over trees everywhere.
Air quality can definitely be an issue in Denver for everyone.
Isolation is definitely an issue if you frequently need a change of urban scenery. The airport will take you pretty much anywhere you'd like to go in 1-4 hours, though it can be expensive.
No beaches or large bodies of water. If water recreation is a serious thing for you, don't come here. There are some places you can go for waterskiing, ski-doos, small boats, and there is a large water park in Federal Heights called Water World, but that's about it.
Seafood is probably not as good as on the coasts, since it all has to be flown in. Crops are, I think, less of an issue. Colorado does grow some of its own crops on the Eastern Plains.
Snow removal is an annoyance, as most of Colorado doesn't care enough to do a good job of cleaning it up manually. This is a regional attitude more than anything. The sun is out frequently during the winter, and it often gets warm too, which means the snow rarely covers the ground for long... which is nice and very unlike the midwest or pretty much anywhere else it snows, but it leads to this attitude.
American Lung Association:*Air Pollution Facts & Air Quality Info - Best & Worst Cities - ALA State of the Air 2007 (http://lungaction.org/reports/sota07_cities.html - broken link)
Cracks me up when people comment on how "bad" the air in Denver is. Check out this link. Denver is no where on the worst air lists. Depending on where you are coming from, it might be worse than you are used to. I'm from the 3rd most polluted city in the nation, so it is a relief for me here. Also, I've never felt that I had to shove towels under the door to keep out the particulate, not even in Fresno.
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The flipside, though, is because the altitude is so high, and the sun so strong, that the city doesn't often bother to plow, and it closes down lots of the highways/streets, so you can't get places easily. It was very weird to me to see not only a place where snow melted (you could get literally 3 feet of snow one day, and it'd be gone the next), and they didn't plow.
