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Old 12-27-2018, 11:28 AM
 
2,357 posts, read 2,610,938 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DC Transplants View Post
Thank you for all of these great ideas. To answer the most obvious question, we didn't have the chance for a pre-move visit. My husband accepted a job and we were here 2 weeks later. Ironically, within a few months of being here, his role is mostly remote or travel so i suppose we could have stayed back east after all! I'm actually glad we moved though and I didn't mean to give the impression we hated it here. We don't. I just feel like there must be so much more to this city than we have currently experienced.

As for what we enjoy, we love walking our dog, hiking/skiing, museums, arts, gardening and having a variety of restaurants and coffee shops out our door. We would also like to find a neighborhood that has a good mix of ages and is not all young children as we aren't in that stage of life anymore.

Thanks to all of your neighborhood ideas, we did some exploring today and realized we definitely want to be within the city limits of Denver. In fact, if our current neighborhood (Berkeley off Tennyson) was downtown, it would be perfect. We just feel it's too suburban to the north and west.

Our exploring today landed us in Washington Park, Cheeseman Park and Cherry Creek North. All lovely areas that felt more like what I'm looking for. Historic or newly renovated homes, tree lined streets, access to shops and restaurants, very walkable and great parks. We are going to visit Rino, Highlands and Congress and City Parks tomorrow.

I appreciate all the feedback and really do want to find a corner of Denver that feels like home. As 2BinDenver pointed out, there is no humidity here and that's definitely enough to keep me here.
You might also like Park Hill, Platt Park, Observatory Park. All are older parts of town with tree lined streets and close to retail centers with shops.
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Old 12-27-2018, 01:06 PM
 
Location: 0.83 Atmospheres
11,477 posts, read 11,464,766 times
Reputation: 11976
Quote:
Originally Posted by DC Transplants View Post
Thank you for all of these great ideas. To answer the most obvious question, we didn't have the chance for a pre-move visit. My husband accepted a job and we were here 2 weeks later. Ironically, within a few months of being here, his role is mostly remote or travel so i suppose we could have stayed back east after all! I'm actually glad we moved though and I didn't mean to give the impression we hated it here. We don't. I just feel like there must be so much more to this city than we have currently experienced.

As for what we enjoy, we love walking our dog, hiking/skiing, museums, arts, gardening and having a variety of restaurants and coffee shops out our door. We would also like to find a neighborhood that has a good mix of ages and is not all young children as we aren't in that stage of life anymore.

Thanks to all of your neighborhood ideas, we did some exploring today and realized we definitely want to be within the city limits of Denver. In fact, if our current neighborhood (Berkeley off Tennyson) was downtown, it would be perfect. We just feel it's too suburban to the north and west.

Our exploring today landed us in Washington Park, Cheeseman Park and Cherry Creek North. All lovely areas that felt more like what I'm looking for. Historic or newly renovated homes, tree lined streets, access to shops and restaurants, very walkable and great parks. We are going to visit Rino, Highlands and Congress and City Parks tomorrow.

I appreciate all the feedback and really do want to find a corner of Denver that feels like home. As 2BinDenver pointed out, there is no humidity here and that's definitely enough to keep me here.
Nice. I’ll be curious to hear your take. One thing we love about east Wash Park is we can be in cherry creek north in a couple of minutes plus we have the best park in the city a few blocks away.
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Old 12-27-2018, 03:04 PM
 
Location: Just south of Denver since 1989
11,815 posts, read 34,303,497 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by davebarnes View Post

P.S. Denver and DC have the same population, but Denver (excluding the airport) is 67% larger in land area. It will never be as dense as DC.
DC does not have an airport, but it does have 300 year old suburbs.
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Old 12-27-2018, 04:00 PM
 
Location: Phoenix, AZ
2,653 posts, read 3,018,151 times
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OP, DFW must have more going for it than you give credit. It was the fastest growing metro area last year--way faster than Denver's growth.
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Old 12-27-2018, 04:02 PM
 
6 posts, read 8,252 times
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DC definitely has an airport. It's over the bridge in Alexandria VA but you could walk there it's so close!
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Old 12-27-2018, 10:04 PM
 
Location: Nashville
3,533 posts, read 5,799,315 times
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I guess I am pretty miserable and alone in Denver.. Not all Denver's fault as I work 80 hrs/week right now. I am studying for interviews and working my current job developing software, both which are full time jobs in themselves. But, then again, I am going to be needing to find a software job next year and it cost a lot to live in Denver, although much less than living in Seattle or Portland.

However, my feelings are that if you are not into outdoor activities or winter sports and locked up in your office/house doing long hours of work you will find Denver a very challenging place to make friends or find activities to do.

Although, I notice they do have a lively arts and performance calendar. Andrea Bocelli will be coming here next year and they do have a lot of major league sports. I guess it depends on what you like? If you are a person who likes finding urban activities, social groups , meetups or other type of events, Denver seems to be lacking compared to Seattle or Portland and probably much less than Northeastern cities. Northeastern cities are as close to European style cities as you will get, except for San Francisco and Seattle. Although, Seattle's public transportation is actually worse than Denver. I actually am impressed by Denver's public transportation and freeway system. 100 times better than anywhere I have lived before, despite the gripes from locals. But, this is the West Coast (kind of), so you really need a car unless you want to live in downtown or a very inner core neighborhood of Denver, San Francisco, Portland or Seattle.

ON the other hand, if you like going into the mountains (and actually have enough free time to do this), enjoy major league sports, content with chain restaurants or have family/friends who like going to breweries , then Denver has lot of those amenities.

I guess I am a bit surprised to find how little there is to do being a single middle aged (40) year old male in this city. IT seems that where Colorado shines is in its mountains. I really enjoy the mountain towns and all the beauty of Colorado mountains. Sadly, I am financially struggling and having to work so hard as I have not been on the job market for my skill for over 15 years. Denver seems to have a thriving IT market.

Where I am struggling is meeting poeple. It seems really hard to make friends here, as it seems most people make friends doing outdoor activities or from their jobs/churches.

The food scene is kind of lacking, but I just recently found a gem of a Mexican restaurant and also found a pretty good New York Pizza place.. It is a chore though finding affordable food places, especially after 9PM. Even the bars stop serving food here around 11PM. It is definitely not a nightlife town and people seem to retire quite early here. I am noticing most mountain towns seem to be like this as most activities are done during the day, not at night.

I will say I actually love the weather here. This is the first time in my life I could go sunbathing and get tanned in December. Even when its 45F here if you stand in the sun it is warm. I didn't realize how bad the weather was in the Pacific Northwest until I came to Denver and got so saturated with sunshine. I don't mind the occasional blizzards or thunderstorms as it does make the weather more interesting.


The cannabis and dispensaries here are very expensive, cannabis is grown with tons of chemicals and is much lower quality compared to Washington or Oregon. I was surprised. Also, buying cannabis in this state is scary.. The dispensaries operate almost like prisons.. It was a shock compared to being in Washington where it was like shopping at the supermarket and being greeted by friendly hippies, whereas here I am greeted by a very serious and angry looking big guy with a gun on his hip. It was pretty shocking! Colorado went from the most liberal cannabis laws to probably the most strict and expensive of all the recreational states.

I am pretty depressed here and think I will leave when my lease is up.

Last edited by RotseCherut; 12-27-2018 at 10:41 PM..
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Old 12-27-2018, 11:18 PM
 
518 posts, read 377,584 times
Reputation: 1683
When we lived in Denver the four things that I loved most about living there were (1) the neighborhood we lived in which was so nice for taking a walk (Washington Park) - we'd go out walking multiple times a week, (2) access to Rocky Mountain National Park (love that place) and would regularly head up on weekends, (3) climate -- loved the sunshine and lack of heavy humidity in the summer, and (4) seeing the mountains in the distance when driving around (uplifting to me).

We liked things like theatre, restaurants, our tennis club, and the zoo too -- all very nice. But these did not stand out and were similar to all the other similarly sized cities we've lived in and are actually better in our current hometown (We live in the St. Louis, MO area now). Our reason for moving to Denver was a job opportunity for DH. It also helped that we enjoyed skiing and in winter months we'd head to the mountain for that every other weekend for a day trip between the end of November thru the end of March. In the summer we'd typically head to Boulder Mountain Parks or Rocky Mountain national park every other weekend for a day trip between May and the end of October.

Also, we've done a few moves and really and truly I think with any move there is an adjustment period. It takes time to feel at home in a new place and make connections.
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Old 12-28-2018, 09:42 AM
 
2,357 posts, read 2,610,938 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 2bindenver View Post
DC does not have an airport, but it does have 300 year old suburbs.
So Reagan airport is just imaginary?
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Old 12-28-2018, 09:46 AM
 
Location: Denver 'burbs
24,012 posts, read 28,361,213 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by COcheesehead View Post
So Reagan airport is just imaginary?
My guess is he's indicating that Reagan is technically in VA not in DC proper- even though it serves DC.
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Old 12-28-2018, 09:50 AM
 
Location: Aurora, CO
8,595 posts, read 14,778,113 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by COcheesehead View Post
So Reagan airport is just imaginary?
If one really wants to be pedantic, neither Reagan nor Dulles are IN D.C. DIA is within the city and county of Denver.
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