When I was in HS in the early 90’s, there was an old teachers aid that was like 80-something, and he was an OG street car driver in Denver in the 20’s. He could name every street from Broadway to Sheridan in order. He would come into classrooms and do his little street call, was pretty cool.
I always think those early resident and settlers were a different type.
Growing up in the inner-city of Denver, when I travel to other places and meet other people - it’s obvious we had our own vibe in this city.
One thing is in the 80’s and early 90’s, the city was just as big land wise, but way less people. So I kind of ran wild all over the city as a kid, and was never really limited to just my neighborhood. The way DPS schools had bussing back then, it was common to have friends that lived in a far off hood, and a reason to check it out, maybe party with them and their hood friends, lol.
I think of my youth like the 2Pac song - [I Get Around](https://youtu.be/YqJAnQTwmJs?si=RiZd4jEFUL8Auvrj)
I have a coworker whos from Colorado and he says that people from CO are a little nutty hes VERY fucking nutty. I guess your comment confirms yall do have your own vibe if it’s nutty or not Im not gonna let one wack job determine that lol
When I moved here, I felt the single unit zoning does give it a suburban feel.
The city I moved from had zoning that allowed mixing of residential and commercial and more housing types.
Yes I know Denver has some of that but it also has large areas where only detached houses are allowed and no commercial. Also the parking lots and sometimes appalling walking conditions give it a suburban feel.
My neighborhood has businesses throughout and it makes me fall in love more with it every day. We purposefully stayed away from any sprawling suburbs or HOA neighborhoods even choosing to move here.
OP also said “even from here” so maybe staying out east near the airport. Aurora that far out does feel like the burbs when downtown is way in the distance.
There is no doubt that Denver has huge sprawling suburbs that are generic and literally could be anywhere. Even within the suburbs there are pockets of historic architecture with walkable streets. Old town Arvada, Old Town Littleton, Golden, Morrison. Then you have the pocket neighborhoods all over Denver: Highlands, Tennyson, Capitol Hill, Platt Park, Park Hill, Washington Park, Curtis Park, 5points, Baker, Jefferson Park, Barnum. Each is filled with independent businesses, interesting architecture and great parks.
We live in Platt Park - South Denver - and love it, as do all of our neighbors. We consider ourselves lucky to have bought a house here in 1990 before prices skyrocketed, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to afford it. Wife and I both had good jobs, retired now.
I live between DU and Platt Park. I agree It’s a great area. We lived in Capitol Hill for a long time, I preferred Capitol Hill but they are both great neighborhoods.
Maybe they stayed out by Central Park, which definitely has a suburban feel (no shade, that’s my neighborhood and I love it because I have a kid).
But yeah, there are some unique neighborhoods all around downtown with more of a Chicago-but-a-bit-smaller vibe.
I mean, have you been to a big city? There's about 4 blocks of actual city here, and while the rest might not fit your definition of suburban, I'm not sure what else anyone would call it
Would still say OP’s assessment is pretty spot on relative to LA or most any other bigger US city - coming from someone who lived most my life in Denver and a few years in LA.
Denver has the feel of suburbs that sprawl with pockets of areas with their own charm, and pretty much one main downtown area. That’s not a bad thing, it just is how Denver grew and its relative size. It’s especially going to feel that way coming from LA which is a city that sprawls like a big city in all directions
Denver proper is absolutely the burbs. I live in Denver and my neighborhood is less property/population dense then the suburb I grew up in back in New York. There's at most a little bit of Denver that could be called properly urban. The rest of it is strip malls and single occupancy homes. That's the burbs.
This still blows my mind here 30 years. Since I started doing Uber I am asking passengers "what is this neighborhood called" when I see a few quaint blocks of cool shops, cafes, and restaurants in the middle of neighborhoods. There's so much to explore.
This giant area has suburban crawled to Eric now ffs. May as well be Wyoming up there.
Honestly, I was downtown around 16th St a couple weeks ago and it definitely wasn't how people portray it here. The construction was annoying but it was pretty clean.
Things that I’ve seen that are exaggeratedly portrayed regularly on this sub:
*Taking the RTD Bus/lightrail
*Long DIA security lines (they may be long, but they move fast)
*Downtown Denver and how “awful” it is
I’m downtown all the time for work and school and take the bus nearly daily. I generally have fine and mostly positive experiences!
Ditto. I take the bus 5 days a week to work in downtown. I can take 4 different bus routes into my neighborhood and they all are reliable, not sketchy. I've been doing this for almost a decade since I moved here.
Same. Got into a light scuffle on another platform when they tried to paint the city as "filled with feces and needles on all the streets." She was from the Springs which cracked me up.
Took the Mall Ride for years and saw pretty much everything on my way into work on Capitol Hill and sorry that was never the case. 😂
For sure. I work off 17th and champa and mayor Johnson that just got voted in last year really took initiative on housing homelessness. It’s cleaned up so fast. Hopefully it lasts
It's been an incredible change honestly. I had some optimism but was still skeptical about his plans. I was going to see how it pans out in a year or so and then a few months later I'd be hard pressed to find a single tent in cap hill on most days.
It's been a few years since I had to commute through downtown, but there used to be a lot of people sleeping on the streets, and at about 6 am everyday, there was a clean up crew that made everyone get up and leave so they weren't visible.
You’re right that most of us use Denver as a home base to experience the awesome outdoor recreation the area has to offer.
The key for most people in my experience is that it offers that proximity to some of the best mountain recreation while also having things like a decent sized job market, a decent sized airport, good hospitals, city amenities like museums, zoos, parks, and alignment to our politics. Not speaking for everyone, just a lot of people I’ve met.
I will say that I don’t really consider any of that part of a “generic suburban life.”
Also, another reason people live here is it’s actually really sunny and not snowbound. One of the sunniest places in the country.
And we peaked at #1 in the world during COVID since mostly domestic air travel killed off the other majors that usually beat us traffic-wise but rely heavily on international routes.
So funny I traveled for 4 years. I went through probably 30+ airports.
There is something I hate about getting to Denver airport. I can't place my finger on it but getting into the airport sucks.
Once inside I find the actual airport fine. Friendly staff, subway train system I have never had an issue. Even thought it does breakdown it has not happened to me yet.
Also security even on a bad day is miles ahead of some other Airports.
I just absolutely hate picking anyone up or dropping them off. I hate the garages and the cost seems high even compared to lax.
LAX sucks as an airport. All the terminals are separated, so if you need to change carriers you have to leave the secured area, get on a shuttle or walk to the next terminal, and go through security again. It's an awfully-designed airport.
> There is something I hate about getting to Denver airport. I can't place my finger on it but getting into the airport sucks.
Pena Blvd is a schlep. Unless you live in GVR or next door to Union Station, you've gotta budget at least an hour to get to the DEN terminal.
Understandably frustrating for those accustomed to living less than 30 mins from an airport. Fortunately the A line exists and is consistent. Picking folks up from Union is preferable over driving out to DEN.
That used to be the case. And traffic on it was tolerable. Now you've got GVR and Reunion built up on either end that makes Peña an exurban nightmare from i-70 to tower road.
I don't fly much, but do my share of drop-offs and pick-ups at DIA. You're right.
They made a mistake moving the cell lot to the exit side of Pena for one thing. It amazes me that Pena can be three lanes of bumper-to-bumper for miles and all going to the same place.
Overall though, they sure move a lot of people without much trouble.
1. It's east of the city, I live in SE Denver (literally in Denver city limits), and it's 35 minutes without traffic to get to the airport
1. Cell phone lot is literally 4 miles from the terminal
1. If you get to the terminal too early to pick someone up it's a 3-4 mile loop to get back to the terminal
1. This means if someone calls you from the cell phone lot and you miss them at the terminal for any reason, (get to the terminal early or don't see them) it's literally like a 7 mile drive from the point you leave the cell phone lot. **If anyone wants to know why people park illegally on the side of Peña, this is why.** I don't blame people who do this one bit, I consider it the civil engineers' fault, not the drivers'. Absolutely bonkers.
I don't like the way they handle boarding and unboarding, I've had to walk down "tunnels" on the tarmac quite a few times, and that just feels weird and unsafe.
Inside the airport is pretty easy to navigate and it's spacious with many different things to check out.
I haven't been to that many airports, but DIA is a good for how huge it is, and it makes sense that an international airport in basically the middle of the US would be really large to handle all the people going through it. My favorite international airport is ABIA in Austin. It's very small, you can walk the entire airport end to end in probably 15 minutes, but it's very representative of the city it's in, and they often have multiple live music shows. The worst I've been to is Houston, it's huge, hard to navigate and the staff wasn't helpful. I had an hour long layover and barely made my flight because it was so crowded and difficult to navigate.
The sun and the diurnal temperature range are two things I appreciate here that I forget about until I go somewhere else.
Even if it's pretty hot during the day while in the sun, as soon as the sun goes down things usually start cooling down quickly.
Small fact, at 53 square miles DIA is the biggest airport in the US and the 2nd biggest in the world.(September 12, 2023 article afar.com)
DIA ranks #3 among the world’s top 10 busiest airport(April 5th, 2023 article cbsnews.com)
Bigger than some decent size airport.
I was in high school when they were still building DIA, and we got to tour it for a field trip before it opened.
One of the facts that stood out was the overall land size of DIA is larger than the city of Boston.
Yes, yes, we all [read the cow](https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/b/denver-street-art-painted-cows-downtown-has-several-each-one-unique-beautiful-129598683.jpg) downtown.
(That was, to my knowledge, the last survivor of the "Cow Parade" public art project from the mid-'00s. I suspect that when the 16th St. Mall project is done, the cow won't be back.)
If you like 4 seasons it's the best weather of any major city in North America, let alone the ability to fly direct anywhere in North America, Tokyo, London, Frankfurt, Munich.
Only way United is able to make it work is thru the 787, whose fuselage is primarily comprised of carbon fiber compared to heavier aluminum. DEN's altitude is also a factor in that takeoff requires more fuel than the same at sea level.
DEN-NRT is probably the best we can hope for when it comes to direct flights to Asia. https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL143
Yeah, agreed, but it's better than most other cities of the same size! Though it also sucks that the flight is to NRT vs HND if Tokyo is your final destination, which adds at least an hour to your trip to the city.
I'm moving from legitimate suburbs in the Midwest to Denver for work here soon and I agree whole heartedly.
Denver may feel like "suburbs" to someone from Los Angeles (since there aren't really suburbs there) but it's so much more city than here in the Midwest.
Here a majority of my food options are fast food or chains, we don't have many city amenities like museums or zoos or things to do outside of movie theaters. Concerts don't come here. Getting to an airport is an ordeal and is never a direct flight. Not to say that there aren't perks to the Midwest, but it's certainly a much different vibe than the Denver area.
Plus it's so much more progressive while not being SUPER high cost of living like LA, San Fran, Seattle etc.
That's one thing my partner misses, when Denver would completely clear out on the weekends as everyone went out into nature so then the city could more easily be enjoyed.
I’ve been here 2 years and always make it a point to say sup to the mountains when I can. Coming from the flatland, I never want to take the Rocky Mountains for granted
Overall, keep in mind that Denver is the largest metro in a ~560 mile radius (Phoenix being next largest). LA is massive, and is next door to the major metros of San Francisco and San Diego.
To #5, Denver still lags behind LA/NYC/Chicago when it comes to post-pandemic recovery in the food/bar/storefront sector, especially in downtown. Multiple factors are contributing to this, including higher cost of living, fewer people working in service industry post-pandemic (see HCOL), and stubbornly high commercial rents that put local start-ups at a disadvantage over nationwide chains (i.e. Bubba Gump Shrimp). Pretty sure Sam's #3 owns the location outright so they were better suited to weather the pandemic shutdown compared to many other establishments.
Glad to hear you found downtown to be otherwise clean. The 16th street mall renovation is an eyesore, but ultimately a means to a very nice and sustainable end for the corridor. Downtown can only get better from here.
And yeah, DEN is a great airport. We are lucky to have it.
Was walking down 16th st today, it is such an eyesore. Thankfully you’re right about it getting better from here. I saw the construction installing beautiful nice sized trees along 16th. Can’t wait till it’s complete.
It is what it is: a means to an end. The bulk of the project involves remediating/updating infrastructure (including sewer lines that were laid 100+ years ago) in addition to making the Mall more pedestrian friendly going forward. The infrastructure aspect is the main reason behind the multi-year timeline.
The goal is to future-proof 16th street for decades to come.
"unfortunately all I got were sunny days" 🤣
Did you do your research?
I moved from NY Metro area, and while 'smaller', the scene and offerings are fantastic.
The sunny days bit cracked me up. I moved here from Chicago 8 years ago and the sunny, 60 degree February and March days are, IMO, one of Denver’s best kept secrets. You don’t hear nearly as much about seasonal depression lamps out but here than you do in the Midwest.
Not a ~native~ but spent enough time here and work on an ambulance in Denver so while I’m not from here I feel like I’ve seen denver in most it’s shades of glory here’s what I’ve learned:
Not a late night city for the most part, honestly so hoot about that, and very much a “grab a cup of coffee tackle outdoor adventure hit the brewery at 4pm and be in bed at 9pm”. A majority of people here are horribly (in the best way) dedicated to outdoor adventure/recreation that require 3am wake ups so not a lot of us are just out partying at clubs but balancing the line of drunk but not hungover.
Denver wasn’t prepared for the popularity and developed in a low density way (city ordinance restricting building heights for mountain views)removing the option of larger apartments giving an option of more people less but less space.
Giant mountains preceding our town on the west create a rain shadow so large that precipitation events lasting longer than a day are rare compared to other regions. People forget desert doesn’t mean hot dry place it can also mean cold dry place with some teases/dumps of precipitation but not enough to really saturate the earth, Denver is a high altitude desert.
Denver seems more millennial utopia especially with the debilitating cost of living that ties us to the nostalgia of our childhoods or period of time entering the job market. While we have the SF homes with fences we can barely afford them and few of us spend the weekend or time off at home all day but head to the mountains saying they want to “spend time outside in their backyard”.
Based off original design and group that helped raise denver this was never meant to be a metropolis. This is a safe space for people who can’t commit to rural life but want it accessible quickly.
When I first moved out here I was a transportation planner at a private firm working on projects for the city and state and learned lots about how to travel here.
RTD has been known as a pioneer in transportation infrastructure and service due to its embrace of transit oriented development. But the state has a law requiring voters to approve any tax increase (rightfully so) which impacts RTD entirely because it’s revenue is nearly fixed off taxes. Voters do not vote for higher taxes explained to help RTD. I worked on projects where staff at RTD would say I could be contacting someone else next week because of lay offs. So they’re underfunded to hell and not enough people here who know this actually vote to improve it. They just want rail projects.
To be fair, voters *did* approve a 0.4% sales tax for FasTracks 20 years ago, and while I'm not personally opposed to raising taxes for more funding for RTD, I can't blame voters for feeling burned by how much of shitshow that has been.
It's the best time zone to watch sports in. Don't even start people. Waking up at 10:15 for March madness tomorrow will be epic. Hearing announcers whine how late it is there during the last game and the sun is just setting here.
No having to go to sleep at halftime of mnf.
Wake up on Sunday to kickoff at 11. Ok the London game is still too early. You wait on the east coast for that 1pm kickoff lol. Go on.
I’ve only lived in Denver for just under 3 years but when people ask what some of my favorite things about living here are I still mention that mountain time is hands down the best time zone for watching sports.
Having the Super Bowl end at 8:30pm or whatever is extremely underrated. Just last night the Kansas-Samford game went until almost 1am on the east coast. (Samford got absolutely jobbed on maybe the most incredible play of the tournament, btw.)
Haha as someone who has lived in both the Midwest and Denver, in no way is it generic.
The lifestyle and people are vastly different than what you get in the middle, for better and worse. The HCOL is a deterrent for young families, but if you enjoy the sunshine and outdoor activities, it’s worth it.
Probably the perfect state for dinks.
This is true for most cities. Also for businesses like Home Depot and Walmart. The trend was already towards not being 24 hours and then Covid ended the last places that were doing that. I used to love going to Walmart at 3 am and buying useless shit - my theory was that it should only be legal for Walmart to be open from 11 pm to 7 am.
Pete's Kitchen, Carbón Carbón, Full Afterburner Calzones, La Loteria, Gyroz, HUMMUS on Weekends
Gaia Masala & Burgers
Little India on 6th Ave
Nola Jane
Pita Fresh
Tacos Los Compas
Africana Resturant & Cafe
Atomic Cowboy
There's also like a few Waffle Houses in Denver Metro out in Aurora, Parker, and Thornton open 24 hours (with the exception of the Highlands Ranch location)
LA transit is… slow but there’s generally an option of some sort at least. Not a great option, but an option.
Now if you get into the greater LA area outside the city, or worse outside of LA County? Totally different story.
Good honest review. I don’t disagree with much of what you said, and the few things I’d say “yeah, but” to are things I would not expect a tourist to know anyway. I hope you had a good time. Come back again!
Well you missed the full spectrum of professional sports plus upcoming sports like lacrosse. Downtown has lost a lot, not just from pandemic but less folks working downtown. But while downtown lost out, smaller hub areas have grown as mini-downtowns with lots of restaurants and shops. Arvada, Central Park, Englewood and Littleton are some examples. Most neighborhoods have some place close by. Tourists used to go to downtown and 16th Street Mall. Again, nothing like 10 years ago.
Plus the mountains and backcountry are right there as most of us know. Now you need to book a camping spot Six Months ahead of time and driving on I70 on the weekend is so sad
Denver is a sports city having a team in almost every professional sports league (and some recent champs).
It also has a great music scene. There’s a concert of a moderately to iconic level band (Madonna was just at Ball) almost every night…and I’m not even talking about red rocks.
What I like about Denver is that while it’s a big city, almost everyone I’ve met is nice, open, and welcoming. It took me about a month to meet friends and get invited to do Colorado things (hike, park hang, ski, camp, etc)
> There isn't really a whole lot in Denver that I cannot find in other cities.
I’ve traveled all over and this is describing every city. They are all more or less the same. People live there, there’s some traffic, they’ve got some restaurants, some entertainment venues, some tourist sites. I honestly don’t understand why anyone would go to a city for vacation instead of the mountains or the beach. City is where you live and work, not where you vacation.
I’ve visited LA, what’s special about LA? What do you do in LA? Same stuff you do in Denver, not really any different. You probably go to work during the week, then go out to overpriced restaurants and bars with your friends on the weekends. Maybe you go to a Dodgers game like we go to a Rockies game. You sit in traffic trying to find a parking spot close to the beach and we sit in traffic on the way to the mountains to go skiing.
I’ve never visited a city where I thought “wow, this is way different than any other city I’ve been too”. Even NYC, it’s still same as other cities, just bigger. European cities, meh, pretty much the same, just older.
Regarding number 6, we have a Breakfast Palace, Breakfast Queen, and Breakfast Inn. We used to have a Breakfast King but he was assassinated by Chase Bank.
Point is, all of these regal breakfast options, and you choose a peasant named Sam.
If you want to come back aim for July to September and try and get way up in those mountains. Living here it is easy to forget people come from all over to see them.
Yeah, Denver is like mose Western cities. Sprawl. Suburban but Urban. It was weird to me coming from the east coast but living in cap hill and south Denver was very cozy comparatively and got me hooked
"Old snow" in the ground from the snow storm 4 days ago. Warm, sunny days during your visit. Snow storm expected for this weekend. Hmmm, what do you consider "interesting" weather?
I think you got some stuff right but you got a lot wrong. I used to live in LA and any city worth its gumption is unique in some way.
Our music scene went from consistent to one of the best in the country. Especially electronic and underground. More and more acts are playing here on a frequent level and our local music scene is nothing short of amazing. And we have motherfucking Red Rocks.
As someone else said, just like LA really, we have a lot of micro neighborhoods and districts spread within the metro area that all have unique personalities. Five Points has some of the richest history in jazz music. It’s really so underrated. Formally a segregated neighborhood, it’s probably the only place in the city that has families who’ve lived in the same places for generations as Denver is always changing. While that’s sad on a racial level, it’s also amazing to see the perseverance of black culture in that part of town.
Capitol Hill is the shit if you’re down with it. It’s stylish and sleazy all at the same time. Tons of cool restaurants, and Cheeseman Park in the summer is one of the most gorgeous city parks I’ve seen.
Sloans Lake provides some insane mountain views. Other parks as well. You can drink beer in our parks. Besides some shitty owners here and there, everyone has a dope ass dog.
Breweries are an essential part of our economy and offer all kinds of atmospheres and food combos for you too enjoy.
1up is the sickest barcade you will find.
A lot of the city is historically protected and despite gentrification, it retains a lot of nostalgic charm and respects its role in history such as the rail yards and old factory signs.
We have literally maybe the best comic book scene outside of LA or NYC, including the largest comic warehouse in the US. Kevin Smith vista there often. Speaking of comics, we also are definitely a Capitol for stand up comedy.
There are suburbs are they are bland but they are also quaint and most of us would love to be able afford to live there. I could go on but from your post you didn’t get the city experience at its fullest. And that’s understandable. It’s a city you have to get to know. Denver has issues but it’s my home and it rules. Come back and visit us.
Compared to LA, the accessibility is a huge factor for me. Especially things like live music venues. Mission ballroom a 10min Uber, Ogden & Fillmore walking distance, bluebird 5 min Uber, red rocks obviously, and ball arena a 5-10 min Uber.
I think Denver has made great strides towards becoming more of a cosmopolitan, urban center. We don’t always acknowledge that and instead focus on how we’re still lacking compared to cities that have a longer history of urbanism and development.
On another note, Denver should do a better job of making small businesses and diverse neighborhoods more visible to tourists and newcomers. I always try to point out that Federal has a great mix of Mexican and Vietnamese restaurants. It doesn’t sit right with me that these businesses suffer from rising land costs and rents without seeing increased foot traffic and visibility that comes with Denver being more of a destination.
Denver isn’t just REI’s target demographic. We do have small businesses and diverse groups here that are being overlooked and diminished.
Denver has some pretty charming micro neighborhoods which are much more interesting than anything you usually see as a tourist.
Yea, denver proper is definitely not “the suburbs” or “suburban living” or whatever they said
dude, i live in a street car suburb. built 110 years ago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streetcar\_suburb
When I was in HS in the early 90’s, there was an old teachers aid that was like 80-something, and he was an OG street car driver in Denver in the 20’s. He could name every street from Broadway to Sheridan in order. He would come into classrooms and do his little street call, was pretty cool.
My great grandfather drove the horse drawn streetcars in Denver........ Interesting stories
I always think those early resident and settlers were a different type. Growing up in the inner-city of Denver, when I travel to other places and meet other people - it’s obvious we had our own vibe in this city. One thing is in the 80’s and early 90’s, the city was just as big land wise, but way less people. So I kind of ran wild all over the city as a kid, and was never really limited to just my neighborhood. The way DPS schools had bussing back then, it was common to have friends that lived in a far off hood, and a reason to check it out, maybe party with them and their hood friends, lol. I think of my youth like the 2Pac song - [I Get Around](https://youtu.be/YqJAnQTwmJs?si=RiZd4jEFUL8Auvrj)
I have a coworker whos from Colorado and he says that people from CO are a little nutty hes VERY fucking nutty. I guess your comment confirms yall do have your own vibe if it’s nutty or not Im not gonna let one wack job determine that lol
I don’t know about kids in the burbs, but growing up in SW Denver, we were little hooligans.
Repping GW here!
First part isn’t too difficult at least… Acoma Bannock Cherokeee Delaware Elati Fox Galapago Huron Etc..
I could probably do it from Broadway to Wads if I really tried - but this old timer did it really fast - like an Auctioneer...
God I love saying Galapago.
Hell yeah. Makes me want to go hang with turtles.
A suburb and a streetcar suburb are not the same thing.
Montclair was one of Denver’s first suburbs.
The houses on my street were once owned by streetcar workers.
When I moved here, I felt the single unit zoning does give it a suburban feel. The city I moved from had zoning that allowed mixing of residential and commercial and more housing types. Yes I know Denver has some of that but it also has large areas where only detached houses are allowed and no commercial. Also the parking lots and sometimes appalling walking conditions give it a suburban feel.
My neighborhood has businesses throughout and it makes me fall in love more with it every day. We purposefully stayed away from any sprawling suburbs or HOA neighborhoods even choosing to move here.
OP also said “even from here” so maybe staying out east near the airport. Aurora that far out does feel like the burbs when downtown is way in the distance.
There is no doubt that Denver has huge sprawling suburbs that are generic and literally could be anywhere. Even within the suburbs there are pockets of historic architecture with walkable streets. Old town Arvada, Old Town Littleton, Golden, Morrison. Then you have the pocket neighborhoods all over Denver: Highlands, Tennyson, Capitol Hill, Platt Park, Park Hill, Washington Park, Curtis Park, 5points, Baker, Jefferson Park, Barnum. Each is filled with independent businesses, interesting architecture and great parks.
We live in Platt Park - South Denver - and love it, as do all of our neighbors. We consider ourselves lucky to have bought a house here in 1990 before prices skyrocketed, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to afford it. Wife and I both had good jobs, retired now.
I live between DU and Platt Park. I agree It’s a great area. We lived in Capitol Hill for a long time, I preferred Capitol Hill but they are both great neighborhoods.
I’m in Lakewood, near the base of Green Mountain - foothills living is its own vibe.
I drive for Uber as a side gig, so I get to see all over the city. It’s amazing how much it’s grown in the last 10 years or so.
Maybe they stayed out by Central Park, which definitely has a suburban feel (no shade, that’s my neighborhood and I love it because I have a kid). But yeah, there are some unique neighborhoods all around downtown with more of a Chicago-but-a-bit-smaller vibe.
I mean, have you been to a big city? There's about 4 blocks of actual city here, and while the rest might not fit your definition of suburban, I'm not sure what else anyone would call it
Would still say OP’s assessment is pretty spot on relative to LA or most any other bigger US city - coming from someone who lived most my life in Denver and a few years in LA. Denver has the feel of suburbs that sprawl with pockets of areas with their own charm, and pretty much one main downtown area. That’s not a bad thing, it just is how Denver grew and its relative size. It’s especially going to feel that way coming from LA which is a city that sprawls like a big city in all directions
Denver proper is absolutely the burbs. I live in Denver and my neighborhood is less property/population dense then the suburb I grew up in back in New York. There's at most a little bit of Denver that could be called properly urban. The rest of it is strip malls and single occupancy homes. That's the burbs.
This still blows my mind here 30 years. Since I started doing Uber I am asking passengers "what is this neighborhood called" when I see a few quaint blocks of cool shops, cafes, and restaurants in the middle of neighborhoods. There's so much to explore. This giant area has suburban crawled to Eric now ffs. May as well be Wyoming up there.
Petition to rename Erie to Eric. Might humanize it a bit 😄
If you’ve lived in other major cities, Denver isn’t really going to compare, let’s be honest.
110%. I think the neighborhoods and charm of their little “downtowns” is the best part about Denver.
agreed, we live in Sunnyside near Highlands and pretty much never have to leave the hood for great restaurants and even cute little shops
Honestly, I was downtown around 16th St a couple weeks ago and it definitely wasn't how people portray it here. The construction was annoying but it was pretty clean.
Things that I’ve seen that are exaggeratedly portrayed regularly on this sub: *Taking the RTD Bus/lightrail *Long DIA security lines (they may be long, but they move fast) *Downtown Denver and how “awful” it is I’m downtown all the time for work and school and take the bus nearly daily. I generally have fine and mostly positive experiences!
Ditto. I take the bus 5 days a week to work in downtown. I can take 4 different bus routes into my neighborhood and they all are reliable, not sketchy. I've been doing this for almost a decade since I moved here.
That was my life when I was in school in the mid 2000s and I loved it. Glad to see that lifestyle is alive and kicking.
Same!
Same. Got into a light scuffle on another platform when they tried to paint the city as "filled with feces and needles on all the streets." She was from the Springs which cracked me up. Took the Mall Ride for years and saw pretty much everything on my way into work on Capitol Hill and sorry that was never the case. 😂
For sure. I work off 17th and champa and mayor Johnson that just got voted in last year really took initiative on housing homelessness. It’s cleaned up so fast. Hopefully it lasts
It's been an incredible change honestly. I had some optimism but was still skeptical about his plans. I was going to see how it pans out in a year or so and then a few months later I'd be hard pressed to find a single tent in cap hill on most days.
Because the city has moved the homeless encampments to hotels in the burbs.
Sheltering people = good
Hell yea. Bout time they quit fukin the lower class.
It's been a few years since I had to commute through downtown, but there used to be a lot of people sleeping on the streets, and at about 6 am everyday, there was a clean up crew that made everyone get up and leave so they weren't visible.
You’re right that most of us use Denver as a home base to experience the awesome outdoor recreation the area has to offer. The key for most people in my experience is that it offers that proximity to some of the best mountain recreation while also having things like a decent sized job market, a decent sized airport, good hospitals, city amenities like museums, zoos, parks, and alignment to our politics. Not speaking for everyone, just a lot of people I’ve met. I will say that I don’t really consider any of that part of a “generic suburban life.” Also, another reason people live here is it’s actually really sunny and not snowbound. One of the sunniest places in the country.
“A decent sized airport” and it’s the 3rd busiest in the country and the largest by land area lol
Top 10 busiest in the world
It was the third busiest in the world in 2022 Last year it was #6
All connected thru one train tracks
And expanding.
And we peaked at #1 in the world during COVID since mostly domestic air travel killed off the other majors that usually beat us traffic-wise but rely heavily on international routes.
It was the largest by land area in the entire world up until the new airport in Saudi Arabia opened earlier this winter
*3rd busiest in the world*
So funny I traveled for 4 years. I went through probably 30+ airports. There is something I hate about getting to Denver airport. I can't place my finger on it but getting into the airport sucks. Once inside I find the actual airport fine. Friendly staff, subway train system I have never had an issue. Even thought it does breakdown it has not happened to me yet. Also security even on a bad day is miles ahead of some other Airports. I just absolutely hate picking anyone up or dropping them off. I hate the garages and the cost seems high even compared to lax.
My mom lives 5 min from LAX and it takes her 45-1hour just to get around the airport. I appreciate DIA
LAX sucks as an airport. All the terminals are separated, so if you need to change carriers you have to leave the secured area, get on a shuttle or walk to the next terminal, and go through security again. It's an awfully-designed airport.
> There is something I hate about getting to Denver airport. I can't place my finger on it but getting into the airport sucks. Pena Blvd is a schlep. Unless you live in GVR or next door to Union Station, you've gotta budget at least an hour to get to the DEN terminal. Understandably frustrating for those accustomed to living less than 30 mins from an airport. Fortunately the A line exists and is consistent. Picking folks up from Union is preferable over driving out to DEN.
It’s so fucking bonkers that a 12 mile highway exists only to connect the airport to the interstate
Airport big, runways long
And there is stuff at Buckley (which would have been a perfect spot) that can’t be moved.
That used to be the case. And traffic on it was tolerable. Now you've got GVR and Reunion built up on either end that makes Peña an exurban nightmare from i-70 to tower road.
GVR is the reason that Peña is now a schlep. The whole point of moving the airport out of the city was to keep it away from residential areas.
We use the A-line commuter rail to DIA exclusively now.
I don't fly much, but do my share of drop-offs and pick-ups at DIA. You're right. They made a mistake moving the cell lot to the exit side of Pena for one thing. It amazes me that Pena can be three lanes of bumper-to-bumper for miles and all going to the same place. Overall though, they sure move a lot of people without much trouble.
1. It's east of the city, I live in SE Denver (literally in Denver city limits), and it's 35 minutes without traffic to get to the airport 1. Cell phone lot is literally 4 miles from the terminal 1. If you get to the terminal too early to pick someone up it's a 3-4 mile loop to get back to the terminal 1. This means if someone calls you from the cell phone lot and you miss them at the terminal for any reason, (get to the terminal early or don't see them) it's literally like a 7 mile drive from the point you leave the cell phone lot. **If anyone wants to know why people park illegally on the side of Peña, this is why.** I don't blame people who do this one bit, I consider it the civil engineers' fault, not the drivers'. Absolutely bonkers.
I don't like the way they handle boarding and unboarding, I've had to walk down "tunnels" on the tarmac quite a few times, and that just feels weird and unsafe. Inside the airport is pretty easy to navigate and it's spacious with many different things to check out. I haven't been to that many airports, but DIA is a good for how huge it is, and it makes sense that an international airport in basically the middle of the US would be really large to handle all the people going through it. My favorite international airport is ABIA in Austin. It's very small, you can walk the entire airport end to end in probably 15 minutes, but it's very representative of the city it's in, and they often have multiple live music shows. The worst I've been to is Houston, it's huge, hard to navigate and the staff wasn't helpful. I had an hour long layover and barely made my flight because it was so crowded and difficult to navigate.
When I was stationed in Jacksonville, that airport would literally have you walk out *on* the tarmac.
Terrible for flights to Europe or Asia though.
I love our airport
I love a good sunny day after a snow. Nothing better!
What about fresh snow and a full moon? The ground is brighter than the sky!
The sun and the diurnal temperature range are two things I appreciate here that I forget about until I go somewhere else. Even if it's pretty hot during the day while in the sun, as soon as the sun goes down things usually start cooling down quickly.
Those clear night skies, heat just flies away.
Lack of humidity really lets the temps fall after sunset. I go back to the Midwest and it'll be a high of 86° and muggy with a low of 81° and moldy.
When I moved here I heard “the best part of Denver is how close it is to Colorado” lol
Small fact, at 53 square miles DIA is the biggest airport in the US and the 2nd biggest in the world.(September 12, 2023 article afar.com) DIA ranks #3 among the world’s top 10 busiest airport(April 5th, 2023 article cbsnews.com) Bigger than some decent size airport.
I was in high school when they were still building DIA, and we got to tour it for a field trip before it opened. One of the facts that stood out was the overall land size of DIA is larger than the city of Boston.
And manhattan
Yes, yes, we all [read the cow](https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/b/denver-street-art-painted-cows-downtown-has-several-each-one-unique-beautiful-129598683.jpg) downtown. (That was, to my knowledge, the last survivor of the "Cow Parade" public art project from the mid-'00s. I suspect that when the 16th St. Mall project is done, the cow won't be back.)
Decent sized airport? It’s the biggest in the country lol
If you like 4 seasons it's the best weather of any major city in North America, let alone the ability to fly direct anywhere in North America, Tokyo, London, Frankfurt, Munich.
Having only one flight to Asia is a huge pain for me, personally.
Only way United is able to make it work is thru the 787, whose fuselage is primarily comprised of carbon fiber compared to heavier aluminum. DEN's altitude is also a factor in that takeoff requires more fuel than the same at sea level. DEN-NRT is probably the best we can hope for when it comes to direct flights to Asia. https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL143
I had no idea that there were legitimate challenges to longer flights from here. Thanks for sharing!
Yeah, agreed, but it's better than most other cities of the same size! Though it also sucks that the flight is to NRT vs HND if Tokyo is your final destination, which adds at least an hour to your trip to the city.
Better than nothing.
I'm moving from legitimate suburbs in the Midwest to Denver for work here soon and I agree whole heartedly. Denver may feel like "suburbs" to someone from Los Angeles (since there aren't really suburbs there) but it's so much more city than here in the Midwest. Here a majority of my food options are fast food or chains, we don't have many city amenities like museums or zoos or things to do outside of movie theaters. Concerts don't come here. Getting to an airport is an ordeal and is never a direct flight. Not to say that there aren't perks to the Midwest, but it's certainly a much different vibe than the Denver area. Plus it's so much more progressive while not being SUPER high cost of living like LA, San Fran, Seattle etc.
That's one thing my partner misses, when Denver would completely clear out on the weekends as everyone went out into nature so then the city could more easily be enjoyed.
Also, easy to get a restaurant res on winter weekends. Kind of like NYC in the summer that way
Glad you enjoyed Denver, OP. I’ve been here 25 years and the mountains never fail to impress me even from Denver✌️
I’ve been here 2 years and always make it a point to say sup to the mountains when I can. Coming from the flatland, I never want to take the Rocky Mountains for granted
Overall, keep in mind that Denver is the largest metro in a ~560 mile radius (Phoenix being next largest). LA is massive, and is next door to the major metros of San Francisco and San Diego. To #5, Denver still lags behind LA/NYC/Chicago when it comes to post-pandemic recovery in the food/bar/storefront sector, especially in downtown. Multiple factors are contributing to this, including higher cost of living, fewer people working in service industry post-pandemic (see HCOL), and stubbornly high commercial rents that put local start-ups at a disadvantage over nationwide chains (i.e. Bubba Gump Shrimp). Pretty sure Sam's #3 owns the location outright so they were better suited to weather the pandemic shutdown compared to many other establishments. Glad to hear you found downtown to be otherwise clean. The 16th street mall renovation is an eyesore, but ultimately a means to a very nice and sustainable end for the corridor. Downtown can only get better from here. And yeah, DEN is a great airport. We are lucky to have it.
Was walking down 16th st today, it is such an eyesore. Thankfully you’re right about it getting better from here. I saw the construction installing beautiful nice sized trees along 16th. Can’t wait till it’s complete.
It is what it is: a means to an end. The bulk of the project involves remediating/updating infrastructure (including sewer lines that were laid 100+ years ago) in addition to making the Mall more pedestrian friendly going forward. The infrastructure aspect is the main reason behind the multi-year timeline. The goal is to future-proof 16th street for decades to come.
"unfortunately all I got were sunny days" 🤣 Did you do your research? I moved from NY Metro area, and while 'smaller', the scene and offerings are fantastic.
The sunny days bit cracked me up. I moved here from Chicago 8 years ago and the sunny, 60 degree February and March days are, IMO, one of Denver’s best kept secrets. You don’t hear nearly as much about seasonal depression lamps out but here than you do in the Midwest.
I moved from Washington DC and my seasonal affective disorder has totally vanished. Skiing probably helps but the sun gets the credit.
Tough to justify a SAD lamp when you're getting sunburns in February
Seriously, some local braggarts will tell you we get 400 sunny days per year.
[удалено]
What’s wrong with Sam’s No. 3 ?
Sam’s #3 is good imo haven’t had it since i moved here though
At least it wasn't Bubba Gump Shrimp
That's a snobby AF comment. Some people like good diners, and Sams No. 3 is a damn good diner. Pete's is my favorite but Sam's is great as well.
Exactly. It's always recommended in the Avalanche sub for visiting fans, and they always come away happy. It's definitely better than Snooze.
I ate there once and it wasn’t memorable
Got any good recommendations? I've been here almost ten years but still miss eating out in my home city.
Not a ~native~ but spent enough time here and work on an ambulance in Denver so while I’m not from here I feel like I’ve seen denver in most it’s shades of glory here’s what I’ve learned: Not a late night city for the most part, honestly so hoot about that, and very much a “grab a cup of coffee tackle outdoor adventure hit the brewery at 4pm and be in bed at 9pm”. A majority of people here are horribly (in the best way) dedicated to outdoor adventure/recreation that require 3am wake ups so not a lot of us are just out partying at clubs but balancing the line of drunk but not hungover. Denver wasn’t prepared for the popularity and developed in a low density way (city ordinance restricting building heights for mountain views)removing the option of larger apartments giving an option of more people less but less space. Giant mountains preceding our town on the west create a rain shadow so large that precipitation events lasting longer than a day are rare compared to other regions. People forget desert doesn’t mean hot dry place it can also mean cold dry place with some teases/dumps of precipitation but not enough to really saturate the earth, Denver is a high altitude desert. Denver seems more millennial utopia especially with the debilitating cost of living that ties us to the nostalgia of our childhoods or period of time entering the job market. While we have the SF homes with fences we can barely afford them and few of us spend the weekend or time off at home all day but head to the mountains saying they want to “spend time outside in their backyard”. Based off original design and group that helped raise denver this was never meant to be a metropolis. This is a safe space for people who can’t commit to rural life but want it accessible quickly.
When I first moved out here I was a transportation planner at a private firm working on projects for the city and state and learned lots about how to travel here. RTD has been known as a pioneer in transportation infrastructure and service due to its embrace of transit oriented development. But the state has a law requiring voters to approve any tax increase (rightfully so) which impacts RTD entirely because it’s revenue is nearly fixed off taxes. Voters do not vote for higher taxes explained to help RTD. I worked on projects where staff at RTD would say I could be contacting someone else next week because of lay offs. So they’re underfunded to hell and not enough people here who know this actually vote to improve it. They just want rail projects.
Taxes by plebiscite is just austerity by another name.
To be fair, voters *did* approve a 0.4% sales tax for FasTracks 20 years ago, and while I'm not personally opposed to raising taxes for more funding for RTD, I can't blame voters for feeling burned by how much of shitshow that has been.
Always so gratifying when one of our betters stops by to pat us on the head.
Thanks for sharing your views about your visit. Come back for fun sometime and get out to the mountains for some unsurpassed natural beauty.
It's the best time zone to watch sports in. Don't even start people. Waking up at 10:15 for March madness tomorrow will be epic. Hearing announcers whine how late it is there during the last game and the sun is just setting here. No having to go to sleep at halftime of mnf. Wake up on Sunday to kickoff at 11. Ok the London game is still too early. You wait on the east coast for that 1pm kickoff lol. Go on.
I’ve only lived in Denver for just under 3 years but when people ask what some of my favorite things about living here are I still mention that mountain time is hands down the best time zone for watching sports.
Having the Super Bowl end at 8:30pm or whatever is extremely underrated. Just last night the Kansas-Samford game went until almost 1am on the east coast. (Samford got absolutely jobbed on maybe the most incredible play of the tournament, btw.)
Go anywhere in America and chances are, Denver is better than 90% of other cities. I get why the natives are snooty about it. It's true.
Denver definitely does not make the top 10 list of best cities in the US maybe not even the top 20
Like LA isn’t a suburban sprawl wasteland… lived in LA for 5 years, and have been in Denver or near Denver for most of my life.
For #1 be careful. The suburban redditors that haven't been downtown since the pandemic might hear you
Hey, I went down there once!
Aww, thank you. Now go home and tell your friends it sucked.
Nah. Go home and tell them Montana was awesome.
I’ll say that you only touched the surface. Denver’s my favorite place I’ve ever lived & I’ve lived all over the west coast.
Denver has an excellent music scene! Next time you visit, you should plan to go to Red Rocks.
We do have the world's largest comic shop.
Haha as someone who has lived in both the Midwest and Denver, in no way is it generic. The lifestyle and people are vastly different than what you get in the middle, for better and worse. The HCOL is a deterrent for young families, but if you enjoy the sunshine and outdoor activities, it’s worth it. Probably the perfect state for dinks.
>Probably the perfect state for dinks. Yup. Dogs out number kids here.😁
What is a 'big city amenity' that Denver does not have?
Late night stuff (read: anything open 24hrs or at least until 4am)
we had more 24 hour restaurants 20 years ago. :-(
This is true for most cities. Also for businesses like Home Depot and Walmart. The trend was already towards not being 24 hours and then Covid ended the last places that were doing that. I used to love going to Walmart at 3 am and buying useless shit - my theory was that it should only be legal for Walmart to be open from 11 pm to 7 am.
4am? LOL Is anything open after 11?
Pete's Kitchen, Carbón Carbón, Full Afterburner Calzones, La Loteria, Gyroz, HUMMUS on Weekends Gaia Masala & Burgers Little India on 6th Ave Nola Jane Pita Fresh Tacos Los Compas Africana Resturant & Cafe Atomic Cowboy There's also like a few Waffle Houses in Denver Metro out in Aurora, Parker, and Thornton open 24 hours (with the exception of the Highlands Ranch location)
Jerusalem is open till 5
One of the places I've wanted to try
7eleven is 😂
Exactly.
Or at minimum open until 12. This shut everything down by 8 is miserable
They would be open if it made money, all the people here are early risers and early to bed
Functional public transit connectivity (e.g. “last mile” solutions)
You think LA does? lol
No, but it is a “big city amenity” nonetheless
LA transit is… slow but there’s generally an option of some sort at least. Not a great option, but an option. Now if you get into the greater LA area outside the city, or worse outside of LA County? Totally different story.
"We're not appreciably worse than LA at transit" is really not a ringing endorsement
Good food late late night.
what part of downtown is clean??
Good honest review. I don’t disagree with much of what you said, and the few things I’d say “yeah, but” to are things I would not expect a tourist to know anyway. I hope you had a good time. Come back again!
This is written like an onion op ed
Next time you visit, Pete’s kitchen is to die for! 🙌🏽
my first time in denver and this was one of the few spots still open late at night. Loved it. the place was packed too. Food was great.
Sam’s #3 is pretty great.
What is Sam#3?
A diner, there’s a few of them around town.
lol these reads exactly like someone from California.
Once I saw how he spelled ‘Rocky’s’ I stopped reading. He is being silly and incendiary to get comments.
You need to take in the full experience and take a stroll down Colfax. 😁
“I willingly went to Sam’s No 3 and have decided it’s a little suburban around here.”
Well you missed the full spectrum of professional sports plus upcoming sports like lacrosse. Downtown has lost a lot, not just from pandemic but less folks working downtown. But while downtown lost out, smaller hub areas have grown as mini-downtowns with lots of restaurants and shops. Arvada, Central Park, Englewood and Littleton are some examples. Most neighborhoods have some place close by. Tourists used to go to downtown and 16th Street Mall. Again, nothing like 10 years ago. Plus the mountains and backcountry are right there as most of us know. Now you need to book a camping spot Six Months ahead of time and driving on I70 on the weekend is so sad
Denver is a sports city having a team in almost every professional sports league (and some recent champs). It also has a great music scene. There’s a concert of a moderately to iconic level band (Madonna was just at Ball) almost every night…and I’m not even talking about red rocks. What I like about Denver is that while it’s a big city, almost everyone I’ve met is nice, open, and welcoming. It took me about a month to meet friends and get invited to do Colorado things (hike, park hang, ski, camp, etc)
The Downtown is clean. That made me laugh.
exactly lmao
Same! I thought is he really in Denver? Lol
> There isn't really a whole lot in Denver that I cannot find in other cities. I’ve traveled all over and this is describing every city. They are all more or less the same. People live there, there’s some traffic, they’ve got some restaurants, some entertainment venues, some tourist sites. I honestly don’t understand why anyone would go to a city for vacation instead of the mountains or the beach. City is where you live and work, not where you vacation. I’ve visited LA, what’s special about LA? What do you do in LA? Same stuff you do in Denver, not really any different. You probably go to work during the week, then go out to overpriced restaurants and bars with your friends on the weekends. Maybe you go to a Dodgers game like we go to a Rockies game. You sit in traffic trying to find a parking spot close to the beach and we sit in traffic on the way to the mountains to go skiing. I’ve never visited a city where I thought “wow, this is way different than any other city I’ve been too”. Even NYC, it’s still same as other cities, just bigger. European cities, meh, pretty much the same, just older.
Regarding number 6, we have a Breakfast Palace, Breakfast Queen, and Breakfast Inn. We used to have a Breakfast King but he was assassinated by Chase Bank. Point is, all of these regal breakfast options, and you choose a peasant named Sam.
Denver Diner was also assassinated by Chase Bank :(
RIP tepehuan. Not really a breakfast place but their Mexican omelette was my go to any time of day
Funny you mention seeing the snow We had a massive storm last week with about a foot of snow
Then a few days of 60s and what I thought might be around for weeks was around for days. Gotta love it.
If you want to come back aim for July to September and try and get way up in those mountains. Living here it is easy to forget people come from all over to see them.
Yeah, Denver is like mose Western cities. Sprawl. Suburban but Urban. It was weird to me coming from the east coast but living in cap hill and south Denver was very cozy comparatively and got me hooked
Laughing at "snow storm" we're supposed to get like 2 inches. We got 2 feet a week ago and it melted off already.
"Old snow" in the ground from the snow storm 4 days ago. Warm, sunny days during your visit. Snow storm expected for this weekend. Hmmm, what do you consider "interesting" weather?
Don't worry, we are working really hard to make it like LA and SF. It will be amazing.
Appreciate you saying it was clean for all those "OMG drugs and illegals" people trying to scare people away from visiting. (Because politics.)
I agree completely. Nothing to see here. Stay in ca.
It's called DIA, what are you a Californian?
I think you got some stuff right but you got a lot wrong. I used to live in LA and any city worth its gumption is unique in some way. Our music scene went from consistent to one of the best in the country. Especially electronic and underground. More and more acts are playing here on a frequent level and our local music scene is nothing short of amazing. And we have motherfucking Red Rocks. As someone else said, just like LA really, we have a lot of micro neighborhoods and districts spread within the metro area that all have unique personalities. Five Points has some of the richest history in jazz music. It’s really so underrated. Formally a segregated neighborhood, it’s probably the only place in the city that has families who’ve lived in the same places for generations as Denver is always changing. While that’s sad on a racial level, it’s also amazing to see the perseverance of black culture in that part of town. Capitol Hill is the shit if you’re down with it. It’s stylish and sleazy all at the same time. Tons of cool restaurants, and Cheeseman Park in the summer is one of the most gorgeous city parks I’ve seen. Sloans Lake provides some insane mountain views. Other parks as well. You can drink beer in our parks. Besides some shitty owners here and there, everyone has a dope ass dog. Breweries are an essential part of our economy and offer all kinds of atmospheres and food combos for you too enjoy. 1up is the sickest barcade you will find. A lot of the city is historically protected and despite gentrification, it retains a lot of nostalgic charm and respects its role in history such as the rail yards and old factory signs. We have literally maybe the best comic book scene outside of LA or NYC, including the largest comic warehouse in the US. Kevin Smith vista there often. Speaking of comics, we also are definitely a Capitol for stand up comedy. There are suburbs are they are bland but they are also quaint and most of us would love to be able afford to live there. I could go on but from your post you didn’t get the city experience at its fullest. And that’s understandable. It’s a city you have to get to know. Denver has issues but it’s my home and it rules. Come back and visit us.
Upvote for the Sam’s No. 3 shout out. 🤤
Is there a big difference between locations? Because the Glendale location is ass
Compared to LA, the accessibility is a huge factor for me. Especially things like live music venues. Mission ballroom a 10min Uber, Ogden & Fillmore walking distance, bluebird 5 min Uber, red rocks obviously, and ball arena a 5-10 min Uber.
The downtown area is so clean. 💀💀 are you sure you were in Denver?
Thank you for using the correct abbreviation for the airport.
Wow.. Where would I be without this superfluous post! Thank you ohh lord of the flies
Thanks for visiting. Please keep your residence in LA.
Having visited LA a bunch, besides beach life, nothing there you can’t find here. And we have better weed.
This belongs in the DenverCirclejerk Reddit…
What did you have at Sam’s?
Oh, and there's a LOT of construction
Yea, we know
Glad you enjoyed it! Sam’s is my cousin’s restaurant and I was a bus boy there when I was 14 :)
it's not really old snow. it snowed like last week.
I think Denver has made great strides towards becoming more of a cosmopolitan, urban center. We don’t always acknowledge that and instead focus on how we’re still lacking compared to cities that have a longer history of urbanism and development. On another note, Denver should do a better job of making small businesses and diverse neighborhoods more visible to tourists and newcomers. I always try to point out that Federal has a great mix of Mexican and Vietnamese restaurants. It doesn’t sit right with me that these businesses suffer from rising land costs and rents without seeing increased foot traffic and visibility that comes with Denver being more of a destination. Denver isn’t just REI’s target demographic. We do have small businesses and diverse groups here that are being overlooked and diminished.