What's so great about Denver?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’d like to know, because I’m thinking about moving there.

I realized today while being talked into living at my grandfather’s old house that I’m never going to be happy (and by happy, I mean being not severely depressed) until I get the hell out of my hometown and start over somewhere fresh. So I started thinking about cities I could move to. New York, Boston, San Francisco–too expensive, and too full of sophisticates. Pittsburgh’s close by, but it’s a dying city–not many good entry-level jobs for younger people. So I remember someone I know who lived in Denver for a few years telling me that it’s a good place to live–fairly cheap, but with a high standard of living; fairly cultured, but without the sophistication that makes NYC et al so expensive. I’ve been researching the city online and it seems like it’d be a good place for me to live. The climate isn’t even a detriment–I like cold weather and mountains, after all, I live in western PA.

I checked out the apartment market online and found out I could get a decent-sized one on a bus route for $400/month, which is pretty cheap, as centrally-located apartments in large cities go. If I bought Greyhound tickets now (for a target departure date of mid-January), they’d be pretty cheap, and I could get to Denver for around $69.

Some questions:
How’s the job market? I want to settle into something in the publishing industry (though I plan to teach after I get my Master’s, but that’s still awhile off), are there publishing jobs there? Would it be easy for me to get any kind of job (even something really crappy) straight off the bus?

How’s the public transportation? I can’t drive, and part of the reason I’m so depressed here is because I’m dependent on people to shuttle me around. I know they have a bus system there–do they have a subway? How often do the buses run?

Does it have the atmosphere of a big city? What I mean is, in Pittsburgh you aren’t always constantly reminded of the fact you live in a city. You can look up and see the skyline, but there’s a lot of trees and grass, and it’s not a very “rough” city. Conversely, in NYC there’s always lots of traffic and everything kind of smells and you can go for blocks without seeing a tree. I’d prefer to live in a city more like Pgh than NYC (just without the failing economy). From pictures I gather that Denver is more low-key than big coastal cities, but it’s hard to tell such a thing from pictures online.

Anything anyone could tell me, good or bad, about this city the better. It seems like a good place to make a fresh start, but since I’ve never been there I don’t know if I can really judge it on screen. I know it probably seems like a weird place to want to move, since most twentysomethings try to make themselves in NYC or Los Angeles or whatever, but I’ve never been one to go the cliched route.

2

I don’t know about Publishing jobs, but you can find a job here. Transportation is busses and lightrail. You can get most places using these. I have lived all over (Kansas City, Boston, Fairbanks, LA, Las Vegas, Biloxi) and this is my favorite, so I moved back here on purpose. Denver tends to be somewhat low key. It definatly does not act like a big city, but tries. It has some weird things, like no smoking counties and towns, all bars close at 2 am. and the malls close at 6 pm on sundays. Skiing is big, so is hiking, biking and any other outdoor sports. and if you have other questions, let me know.

3

Born in Chicago, lived in Denver for about 16 years, now live in the Mountains, Wife is from Pittsburgh. I’m in Denver now visiting.

Hmmm…

Denver is a lot more wide open then Pitt. I never imagined how lush and green Pitt was.

Still Denver has a nice parks system, but its an arid climate so there isn’t as many trees and such.

Denver has great weather (IMHO). Summers not to hot, winters not to rough. You see snow one day and 50 degrees the next.

You won’t see the long dreary cloudy/rainy days like back east. Lots and lots of sunshine. Little hummidity.

Can’t really speak to the night life and job market. I’ve been in the mountains too long.

4

One thing I can tell you: more and more and more people of all ages are moving here.

With the massive Thanksgiving Day rockslide, experiencing the I-70 traffic while getting to the mountains will be even more difficult than it was already becoming.

It is not as cheap as it used to be, but Denver does provide for a fairly cultured, fairly high standard of living, and yeah, the weather is pretty good, lots of sunshine, though it can be t-shirt weather one day and a blizzard the next. The aridity and altitude can take some getting used to. The park system is nice, you’ll see trees here, and gorgeous public gardens in the summertime. Lots of hiking and biking trails.

There are nightclub/music goings-on, but bars do close at 2am and liquor stores are closed on Sundays. We have a symphony orchestra, botanic gardens, natural history museum, an art museum, a theater scene. Lots of good restaurants. But it is indeed low key, we have world-class aspirations yet tend to be a blue jeans kind of place.

No subway, but the bus system and lightrail help, and more public transportation is on the way. If you don’t drive, it would be helpful to live close to the workplace.

I did meet, just the other day, a young woman who was working in publishing. You can get a job here, but as I said before, the cost of living is not getting any cheaper.

Hope this helps.

5

And if you bike, they have a pretty good system of non-road bike trails.

6

My cousin lived in a small town in Colorado. Twenty years ago, he told me, “If all you know about Colorado is Denver, you won’t want to live there. Try Boulder.” A lot could have changed in twenty years, so that advice might not be still valid.

7

Boulder is great, but is much more expensive to live in.

8

From my visits I’d say Denver is very nice but not a big city. If you like big city vibes then Collorado is probably not for you, but if you like a clean homely, pleasent place to be Denver and Collorado are a good choice. It seems a great place for families, and my Brother and Family live there abouts. I might consider settling there but for now the vibrance of San Francisco is much more my scene. The low air pressure might be a problem but people aclimatise pretty well if they are normally healthy.

9

I think Denver has big city aspirations but never seems to be able to get there. Which is fine. The people who write the tourist literature and the store blurbs in the hotel magazines always compare it to other cities “as <quality> as <bigger city>” instead of selling it on it’s own merits.

My wife spent a summer out there and commuted using the bus system, so being without a car is doable, although the open road constantly beckons.

Personally, I’d love to live in Denver or west of Denver but the industry I’m in - pharmaceuticals - doesn’t have much of a presence there. I went to school in Boulder and the lifestyle and climate were right up my alley. It was just really hard to get a worthwhile job out there without experience.

From what I’ve read from previous threads about Denver the traffic is becoming legendarily(is that a word?) awful, but that really shouldn’t concern you since you don’t drive.

In terms of a place for making a fresh start, I’d say hell yeah!