What is there to do besides outdoor activities? (Denver, Center: apartment, neighborhoods)

[livecontent]

Wow, DenverAztec should work for the city public relations. I can add some sites that are very good to find out what is in Denver:

Denver Metro Convention and Visitor Bureau http://www.denver365.com/Events/index.php (broken link)

City of Denver, Visitor Page
http://www.denvergov.org/DenverGovHo...intab=Visitors

Westword Weekly Newspaper
http://www.westword.com/

Denver is a major city in the West---it has it all----and we even have cows and the ...boys who go with them---
http://www.nationalwestern.com/


Livecontent

[greyhead]

Originally Posted by DenverAztec

I like the fact that it is not as dense as N.Y.C. or Chicago, ever try owning a car or finding a parking spot in those cities, let alone drive in the traffic of those places. Sadly, Denver may end up being like those places one day as it is an incredibly popular place to live at the moment. However, in the meantime I will enjoy less stress in a city that is easy to manuver around in, low crime rate compared to larger cities, over 300 days of sunshine per year and nice people!

Denver will never end up being like a place like that. The main reason is these cities with really tight urban areas like that were designed before the automobile. Any new development will never be as tight as cities like Boston, Philly, N.Y., San Fran, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, etc. A small portion of Denver was around before the automobile, but some of the buildings were razed that had that old time urban feel to it. One thing that shocked me when I first moved out there was how there are a lot of open parking lots around the downtown areas.

It does make like easier. You can find parking in a second in downtown Denver. I feel the area where the library, Capitol, and Court house had a big city feel. Especially when sitting in that park near the Statues that looked at downtown.

[DenverAztec]

The age of a city does not dictate how dense it will become, it is based on the population. A cities history does add to it but it does not determine how it will develop. Check out all the new construction around the world as the new highrise construction in the U.S. has slowed. Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghi, Tokyo, La Defense in Paris - old cities that have raised their old structures to build new density out of necessity. There is no place to go but up.

What I am referencing specifically is parking and the loss of its availiablity will eventually occur with all of the new residential developments downtown, Four Seasons, 1401 Lawrence and the Spire (which will begin construction again in late January/early February). Each are over 50 floors, add this to the constuction in LoDo and the Golden Triangle and you are talking significant growth in the population of downtown alone. No new builiding can be built without having its own internal parking structure, either under ground or above. You can see this in the new One Lincoln Park builing on Lincoln and 20th. Our parking will become less available.

I really hate having to tough out the weather on the L in Chicago when I am there for work or melting in Houston or Miami just walking from the parking lot to the office. I rarely enjoyed Philly as there was too many thugs on every corner. I love aspects of those large cities for the food and variance in historic and modern sturctures but for living, I like a little less. Maybe it I am just getting older and crankier? I do wish we had a natural body of water close by and I love palm trees but no city has it all.

To the OP, I digress, I hope you found this of help and please tell us more so we can better answer you.

[DenverAztec]

A few pics of one more 'indoor' place I like to people watch is the Brown Palace (not related to Molly Brown):

[McGowdog]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

DenverAztec: Awesome post with pix, thanks a ton, hope you get lots of positive rep for your efforts.

Ditto that, Mike! Very nice pics and info, DenverAztec. Makes me almost miss that city. I lived there for 15 years and had some good times, but always felt that cities like NY City, Chicago, and LA had so much more to offer. Well I travel quite a bit to some of these larger and more historic eastern cities and to other ghettos along our southern border and the more that I visit them, the more I come to appreciate that stinky old cow town.

After seeing those pics and being reminded of what there is to do in Denver, much of what I even have yet to do, it sort of destroys an outsider's imagination that Denver is all dirt road suburbs with white racist Rupublicans riding around horseback shooting all the long-haired hippy-types!

Naw, Denver does have just a tad bit of diversity. I expect that it will continue that way. I'm just a little resentful that things have gotten a bit expensive there and although the traffic isn't as bad as back east, it's something I don't miss so much.

While we were doing work in Manhattan, we were commuting from NJ and I called up my cousin there and asked him if we could hook up while I was there. He told me I was crazy for bringing a rental car into the city and that we should have had a cab take us to our job site. Being that we were there to install a commercial flooring system and had to transport a lot of tools of our own, it wasn't planned for and our company wouldn't back us in that decision. It's just your basic case of bad planning. When you do business in NY City, you listen to your cousin. Well to make a long story a bit shorter, I got to meet my cousin but got nailed with $185.00 in parking tickets. F you, NY City. You got some of my cash while I was just trying to do my job. I hope your police force used that money to keep your relative from getting raped or robbed for one day!

Anywho, that's right Mike. I gave DenverAztec a +3 and will monitor to see how generous those other Colorado posters are in here. If they reciprocate, I'll continue to reciprocate. If they don't, I'll try to spend a little more time elsewhere.

[McGowdog]

I did take my wife to the Brown Palace for our Anniversary a couple years back. It was very nice. We ate at the Palace Arms. The Kobe Beef was devine; all $10.00/oz of it. Thank God I didn't have a taste for $560.00/oz Conac. I know, I know. If you have to ask how much, don't bother. The Lobster bisque was scrumptious. That caviar appetizer was pretty yummy too. Now I've got my wife hooked on 185.00/oz fish eggs. Maybe after this years' tax return we can visit there again. That or spend a short week on a Carribean vacation. It costs about the same.

Oh, that last pic; in the lobby of the hotel. Enjoy a beer or a glass of vino for $ 12.00 +. Nice. No thanks. Head on over to the Briarwood and feed your face for about a quarter of the cost. Nice pics though.

[2bindenver]

Originally Posted by McGowdog

Anywho, that's right Mike. I gave DenverAztec a +3 and will monitor to see how generous those other Colorado posters are in here. If they reciprocate, I'll continue to reciprocate. If they don't, I'll try to spend a little more time elsewhere.

Sorry, I have to spread some around first.

DenverAztec, thank you so much for all the photos. Lots of Relocators want photos of Denver.

I wish I had more time to take photos like you, I would post them in a virtual tour of the city...maybe that will be a new years resolution.

[steveco.]

Originally Posted by DenverAztec

The age of a city does not dictate how dense it will become, it is based on the population. A cities history does add to it but it does not determine how it will develop. Check out all the new construction around the world as the new highrise construction in the U.S. has slowed. Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghi, Tokyo, La Defense in Paris - old cities that have raised their old structures to build new density out of necessity. There is no place to go but up.

What I am referencing specifically is parking and the loss of its availiablity will eventually occur with all of the new residential developments downtown, Four Seasons, 1401 Lawrence and the Spire (which will begin construction again in late January/early February). Each are over 50 floors, add this to the constuction in LoDo and the Golden Triangle and you are talking significant growth in the population of downtown alone. No new builiding can be built without having its own internal parking structure, either under ground or above. You can see this in the new One Lincoln Park builing on Lincoln and 20th. Our parking will become less available.

I really hate having to tough out the weather on the L in Chicago when I am there for work or melting in Houston or Miami just walking from the parking lot to the office. I rarely enjoyed Philly as there was too many thugs on every corner. I love aspects of those large cities for the food and variance in historic and modern sturctures but for living, I like a little less. Maybe it I am just getting older and crankier? I do wish we had a natural body of water close by and I love palm trees but no city has it all.

To the OP, I digress, I hope you found this of help and please tell us more so we can better answer you.

Its true though. Everytime that I go downtown there is nothing but one big construction site after another down there. One time I will use a great parking lot and come back a few weeks later only to find a big pit where it was and a sign for a new office building or condos. I think denver has a fairly good mix of dense urbanity and open space. There are areas of downtown that remind me of areas of east coast cities such as 17th street which is called the wall street of the west.

[sweettearose]

I was just in Denver and I didn't feel the downtown was very large at all. It didn't feel very urban. These photos are nice but remind of a movie preview. you know those previews that are better than the actual movie; that was my impression of downtown Denver. That being said, I thought the city was very beautiful but albeit a bit small for my tastes

Thanks everyone for the photos

[DenverAztec]

Originally Posted by sweettearose

I was just in Denver and I didn't feel the downtown was very large at all. It didn't feel very urban. These photos are nice but remind of a movie preview. you know those previews that are better than the actual movie; that was my impression of downtown Denver. That being said, I thought the city was very beautiful but albeit a bit small for my tastes

Thanks everyone for the photos

You are welcome. Funny you found our downtown small when you live in Phoenix, which basically has no downtown? There are a few buildings along Central and some civic buildings around Prospect park, but nobody lives there and it is dead after 5:00 and on the weekends. They are finally getting one building in the 40 floor range and some residential construction happening, but Phoenicians prefer to live as far away from their downtown as possible. Additionally, the main industries there are call centers, which are all in the burbs. You must be thinking of someplace other then Phoenix when you say downtown Denver is small as it is the 10 largest in the country. We are no New York, San Francisco or Chicago, and life is much easier because of it.