SperlingViews - Denver, Colorado

First of all, I would like to say that I am glad that all those people who talk poorly of Denver have chosen to move elsewhere. We don't need you and your negativity here! I have lived in Denver, CO for 12 years and I enjoy living here very much. I disagree with the person who said that the drivers are very aggressive here. I find that the drivers here are mostly good. Yes, there are some bad apples, but they are probably from the East coast ; ) I have traveled to East coast twice and I was appalled at the aggressiveness of the drivers there especially in Washington D.C. (constant honking) and I almost got run over by an idiot driver in Boston, MA. The climate in Denver is pretty good. We get all four seasons. It is usually not too cold in the winter and not too terribly hot in the summer. I don't know what the person was talking about when he talked about 100+ degree weather. We get that maybe 1-2 days a year. In July and August, it's usually about 90 degrees. Also, it is dry here, so it doesn't feel as cold in the winter or as hot in the summer compared to the places that have high humidity. Also, since you are at an elevation of one mile, you are exposed to more UV radiation than at the sea level, so wear sunscreen. This is one drawback to living in CO for me since I get sunburned easily. Denver is great if you love sunny weather and doing fun outdoor activities such as hiking, biking, skiing, snowshoeing, going to the park (we have so many!), etc. There are many free hiking places close to Denver. I have traveled to quite a few cities in the U.S. and Denver is by far my favorite. The only other place that I have visited and would consider moving to is Portland, OR. I would love to spend the rest of my life in Denver, but since I am working toward a graduate degree in a field that is already saturated in CO, I may have to relocate for work. I was told that most people who attend my graduate program want to stay and work in Denver, even if they are from another state. People are refusing to go back to their home state because they love Denver too much! That in itself says something.[read more...]

Althought many others really like the Denver metro area, I am not one of them. i have lived here 12 years and am planning to leave next year. Sorry, but, being from the midwest, this place does not compare to the quality of life up north--in the midwest or even on the east coast. While there are a lot of people from CA here, they may be used to the brown mountains and lack of clean air, I am not one of them. Having lived in the midwest and east coast, I assumed that all mountains were green & lush until I moved here...and where are all the trees and WATER? These mountains are only green in May-June, when the snow melts down them. This is the most disgusting, filthy air I've ever seen. There's a brown cloud over the city most days of the year. Studies have shown that, if you live here, it's like smoking one pack of cigarettes per day (even if you don't smoke). When you travel anywhere out of CO, the air is cleaner and you can actually use 100% of your lung capacity. The mountains are a little less polluted, but make sure you have no altitude/barometric pressure problems before you move here. The people aren't that friendly. Again, sorry, there are some that are great, but, on the whole, not happening. Even visiting NYC several times, I (and friends) found the people friendlier, so it cannot be blamed on a bigger city. It's quite strange, really, as I have never lived anywhere where so many people seem to be down, depressed and just grumpy most of the time--is it the too-high altitude?! To say something good about it here, let me say that the sun shines almost every day of the year. That's nice. There are a few better areas to live in than Denver (especially south of town). But, too many very nice suburbs around Denver seem to have some weird sort of zoning problem--a very nice house, and a dumpy one next to it, etc., etc. Anyway, like I said, many people really like it here. It's a good thing we all don't like the same place either. [read more...]

I LOVE DENVER [read more...]

I lived in Denver from '95 to '05, I hated the place, the air is so dry and dirty there, the summers are nasty with temps pushing well over 100 degrees, the people in the city of Denver are quite dull, racism is alive and well with the neighborhoods showing grafiti and trash all over, traffic and drivers in Denver area are horrible, rude and lawless, they also will run you down in crosswalks with their "poochies" on their laps as they ram their SUV's cutting you off in the walkways....I found people in the metro to be materialistic, caught up in boring sports/drinking/Cherry creek mentalities. The skiers are jerks and offensive behind the wheels of their rides also.The Rap music pulstaes most metro neighborhoods all day and night so one cannot sleep well, unless you can rent a place that is not cookie cutter cardboard homogenized condo/townhome/apartment with weather faded nasty wooden fence around the compound...and yeah, Denver is grey, cold in the winter, with hot searing burning sun in the summer...hail that wrecks your vehicles,Denver is a great place for boring people spening too much for lattes that love to clog up the metro's roads with their SUV's driving and wasting gas while the poeople who drive for a living gotta put up with them breaking the laws and wasting fossil fuels out there and then not showing any respect for the resst of us....No thanks...I love Hong Kong, I think I will stay here...now HONG KONG? THAT is WORLD CLASS CITY![read more...]

I can't complain. We have some snow in the Winter. The Summer's aren't too hot and we are a semi-arid region, so there's not much in the way of humidity. We have the odd extreme once in a great while, but like they say: "Wait a minute, and the weather will change." The growing season for gardening does seem short. And the air's too thin up here.[read more...]

We have loved living in Denver for many years because it is a clean, active, well organized city with plenty to do. (Not to mention the nearby mountains!) But we are about to retire and have reluctantly concluded that we can't afford to live here on our reduced income. So now we are looking for a much cheaper town that is similar to Denver, only without the snow. [read more...]

I'm thinking of moving to Denver, CO from Las Vegas, NV -I like to read & bike ride & wondering if there is others in Denver that do the same? Not much here in SinCity. And I want to fit in.. Any suggestions??[read more...]

Denver is horrible, dreadful, dark & dreary. Anyone who enjoys living here has got to have their head up their arse. It is not the thriving metropolis it once was in the 1980's. Every time I have to pass through on business or try to make it a fun-time destination, I end up being terribly disappointed. Downtown Denver or LoDo is a true concrete jungle lacking any true culture or diversity. Denver as a city is dead and bleak. How can you live in this cess-pool of darkness & despair ?? I have one word...YUCK There is such an overwhelming sense of foreboding and depression it is almost palpable. Anyone who likes this place is not cosmopolitan, is spiritually unconscious and sad. When and if I decide to take my own life it will be on the sad streets of this post-apocolytpic wasteland....Denver's atmosphere will lead you to believe God is truly dead..![read more...]

Despite common misconceptions Denver is a great climate with little snow usually. [read more...]

Bleh! Provincial! Flip flops and fleece are not fashion! I've been here for a few years and try as I might can not determine the draw. The land is barren as is the cultural and intellectual landscape. There is a lot of racism here and virtually no diversity except for the south africans who live in aurora and work at the airport. The white folk who drive from the mountains to DIA are rude to the service staff beyond belief - a sign to me that they are so myopic that they can't even take the time to listen to nuances in accent and a sure sign that they can't see beyond their mountains. Denver prides itself on it's weather to the point of being offensive. Every time - EVERYTIME - I have flown out of DIA to another city and a fellow traveler has asked me my destination they have responded with something like - 'oh the weather is terrible there'. Really? REALLY? Check the weather stats peeps - your beloved Denver has some of the most extreme weather in the nation. This year, -15 on February 1; 90 mile/hr winds in March and April with a 5000 acre fire close to my house in May; rain every afternoon June - August and then HOTTTTTT beyond belief. Then the growing season ended at the end of September. 10' of snow and killer frost in early October. 16 degree nighttime temps in late November. Dry brown and desolate unless there is snow. And if there is snow, it is a major storm. No wonder everyone drives a gas-guzzling ^&$#&$*#(Q Food wise, not so good either unfortunately. Local produce is limited to melons and corn so everything is shipped in. Maybe some local beans. Peaches from the western slope but again, the growing season is so short that you have very little produce. No berries; not much tree fruit; no leaf products due to the desert climate. Just barren. Some farms are starting to do better-quality beef, lamb and poultry but you have to consider the grass they eat which is usually as dry as straw. I think people get enthralled by this area because of the hype and the pictures of the mountains. Sure the Rocky Mountains are spectacular but with a style of living the is not comfortable, who cares? I frankly don't want to have to avoid the sun for it's harshness only to turn around and trudge through 3 ft of snow just to live near a range of mountains that are often shrouded in brown smog and that is so dry and dusty and desolate for 9 months of the year that your skin cracks when you look at them.[read more...]

I have only lived in Denver for a couple of months, and so far I really feel like I made the right choice by moving here. I don't regret anything about my move. I came from Seattle, and I have noticed so many pleasing differences that I consider to be improvements in quality of life. First of all, the weather has been great. The sun basically has shined every day since I've been here. I can't say that happens in Seattle, where it is generally gray (completely 100% cloudy and quite dark) for about 9 months out of the year. Also, the humidity is quite low, so it doesn't have that clammy wet sticky cool feeling you get in Seattle where the humidity is always in the 90+% range. In Seattle it feels like it's raining even when it's not. Also, the people I have encountered in Denver are amazingly, shockingly friendly compared to Seattle. It's like a genuine friendliness that just doesn't happen in Seattle, especially from strangers. It is so amazing how many people will just say hello when I am walking my dog in the park, or will talk to you even if they don't know you, like when you're buying something in a store. In Seattle, if you pass someone on the sidewalk and say hello, they will look at you like you just fell out of the sky from a spaceship, and completely ignore you. I know winter is coming up, so I will have to see what that's like, but so far I really like Denver very much, way more than my years in Seattle. [read more...]

The housing market in denver has not been hit as hard as most cities in the country. It remains very strong.[read more...]

You could never be board in the summertime in Denver, Co. From a beautiful sunny day (328 days on average per year-the most in the country)at Coors Field watching the Rockies play baseball to the downtown nightlife on Blake Street after the game, summertime in Denver is the place to be.[read more...]

Denver's a nice place for some. I'd simply recommend reading many pages of these impressions, including both the obviously glowing chamber of commerce brochure sounding ones and the obviously rather negative ones; the overall sense you get from that is probably right about on the mark, and you can decide for yourself what type of person you are and whether you might lean towards one side or the other about a place described as it is by many pages of posts here. I find a little some I agree with in most of these.[read more...]

Okay, that title may be a bit hyperbolic, but Denver is and will always be my city. I was born here and have experienced almost everything the city has to offer. Denver has as much to offer as any larger city in the US. Downtown is vibrant and active, if you know where to look: Larimer Square and LoDo have an abundance of upscale bars and night clubs, 16th Street Mall and Cherry Creek are huge retail meccas, Five Points and Colfax are huge for concert venues and bars, Santa Fe and Tennyson are where the art galleries are at (art walks on the first Friday of every month!), Highlands has some of the best restaurants... in case you haven't gotten the point, Denver is a city of neighborhoods, and I haven't even mentioned Pearl St., Riverfront, the University, or others. If you don't like one, try another. You will need a car here. RTD runs a great bus system, but the light rail is not as useful-- Denver is so expansive, it does not reach most of the best neighborhoods. The city has an awesome central library, a funky new art museum building, a huge zoo, and a great museum of nature and science, and a ton of beautiful parks. Denver has the second largest performing arts complex in the country behind NYC's Lincoln Center and a ton of independent performance and film theaters. Denver is a huge sports town, the smallest in the country to have professional teams in all 4 (5, including MLS) major sports (go Nuggets!). The climate is incredibly dry, especially in the winter. Other comments have suggested that Denver does not have 4 seasons- it does, but winter is a little longer here than in other parts of the country, usually hanging on through March or longer. Some of the biggest snows we have gotten have come in April. It is a high country town, after all. The sunshine is no joke, though. Springs are usually really windy, and you have to be wary about hail in the late summer. I live in the western suburb of Wheat Ridge, in-between downtown Denver and downtown Golden. Denver is a liberal city, but the suburbs are more of a mix. Whether you are liberal or conservative, you can probably find a place in the suburbs around like-minded people. If a super-conservative atmosphere is a big deal for you, check out Colorado Springs, which is beautiful, about an hour and a half south of Denver on I-25. Likewise, if you are ultra-liberal, check out Boulder, half an hour north of Denver. Denver is mostly white, but it is by no means monochromatic. There is a huge Latino population, and excellent Mexican food. Five Points is the center of the African-American population in Denver, and there is a large Vietamese district at Federal and Alameda, south of the city. Other reviews have mentioned Denverites' aloofness, and it's true: we are extremely nice people, but we are hesitant to connect with strangers. Here's my theory: Denver is too large. Urban sprawl is a huge problem here that threatens to make traffic even worse, increase pollution, and eat up our wildlife. We are proud of our city, but are worried that too many people will turn it into even more of a Southern California-esque sprawling urban wasteland, so we are hesitant to promote it and ourselves to outsiders. That's just my opinion, of course, but I like it :). Stick around for a while, we'll open up.[read more...]

It's that simple: this is a great place to live. I've read some postings here that complain about Denver and I think those people are absolutely correct. They find fault with things that I happen to like, and sound as if they would be happy wherever they live. The people are friendly, the climate is great, there are countless parks, museums, activities, numerous colleges and universities. If you believe variety is the spice of live, welcome to Denver. To contrast Denver, look at San Antonio, Texas, a culturally dead, drab, boring big town with a high percentage of obese people. This area is young and lithe: it's one of the thinnest cities in the country. Get hiking in the mountains or biking along the endless bike paths and you'll see why. [read more...]

I moved to Denver from New England in 1971. Although I have never felt this is my 'HOME' I have enjoyed many aspects of the city. There are little neighborhoods around the city with walk to shops and restaurants. There are major sports team, if you like that kind of thing.There are museums, concerts in the part, People's Fair, Taste of Colorado and many more activities. The alternative art scene is very alive and well with numerous arts districts throughout the city. Can't beat the weather, 300 days a year of sun. No humidity and mountains for summer and winter sports not far. I miss rain and 4 seasons, mainly spring and fall. Soon to retire, my husband and I are looking for a small town (around 5000). We are looking for very friendly people; local activities like festivals, liberal artist and an active art community. We need a good library and a theater that shows indi as well as first run films. Summer concerts in the park would be great. We would prefer a town who has not welcomed big box stores as we prefer to support local businesses. the last thing is it needs to be affordable and near water!! Big demands but if anyone out there knows of such a place, we welcome your input. [read more...]

The weather in Denver really is second-to-none. Except for the few major snowstorms and bone-dry winter weather, it's hard to beat the sunny skies and usually warm temperatures. Denver is a bit of a dusty, dry, brown cowtown, but the mountain views and ample park space make up for that. The people are generally conservative, family-friendly, and reserved. As with any big city, however, there are plenty of exceptions. The City of Denver itself is much more liberal, older, and has the bulk of the area's hipsters and hippies. The suburbs, especially those in the southern half of the metro area, are very conservative. You have to realize that Denver is not a warm, beach-lined coastal city and for that reason it isn't going to attract the same sort of people that flock to southern California, for example (although we do have a lot of southern Californians who flock here, for whatever reason). It is much more like Columbus or Indianapolis with mountains than it is Seattle or Portland. A lot of people who move here come from smaller towns throughout the midwest--as well as a ton of Californians, Texans, and Chicagoans. [read more...]

colorado is clean and beautiful. People are uppidy, but classy[read more...]

I have lived all over the USA, and by far Denver has the best climate. 300 days of sunshine can't be beat! Even when it snows, it seems to be sunny within 24 hours.[read more...]