Does Denver feel like a city in the midwest? (college, agricultural)

[wh15395]

Originally Posted by denverian

That's why I just compared to KC. I haven't been to Indy since 1980, so I couldn't compare it to Denver. They have LR in Indianapolis?

It is still in the planning stages, but the new airport was built to support it. I wasn't trying to specifically talk about your comparison to KC either, I was just trying to show people that even deeper into the Midwest, our cities are good.

[Mud250]

Most people consider Colorado as a whole to be in the West.. But is Denver?

Most of the time driving around the city and suburbs you feel like you're on the plains.

Little known fact: El Paso, TX is farther west than Denver.

[1979]

It is a Rocky Mountain city.

[goozer]

I'm not a native, but I DEFINITELY consider Denver a western city. To my mind, the midwest begins in Ohio and spans several states including Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, and Iowa. You can probably put Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Nebraska in there too. But Denver epitomizes the western metropolis to me. Much more so than such pacific coast stalwarts like Log Angeles and San Francisco.

[EscapeCalifornia]

Originally Posted by goozer

Much more so than such pacific coast stalwarts like Log Angeles and San Francisco.

I don't even consider the coastal cities be part of the West. Just like South Florida isn't really The South. Coastal California's cities are more like the Northeast with better weather.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by GloriaDei

It is probably a little bit of both. Because it sits on the plains at the edge of the Rockies, and because it has many transplants from both the midwest and the west, it can feel a lot like both. In some respects it is very western: very young, active, outdoorsy, clean, sunny, fresh, etc. On the other hand it can seem very midwestern: family-friendly and down-to-earth. It's the sort of place where you go to church in the morning with your family and you're skiing by noon. I've lived on the west coast and the midwest and I didn't like either of them. But Denver takes what's good about each and blends it together.

There are a lot more unchurched people here than in the midwest. I don't know anyone who goes to church on Sunday morning and then goes skiing later in the day, unless perhaps they live in Vail, Aspen, Steamboat, etc. I grew up in another city that is sometimes referred to as "midwestern" and there have been many threads on its forum about just what Pittsburgh "is", midwestern, northeastern, or something else. I sometimes joke that I grew up in one terminus of the midwest, and now I live at the other terminus. Denver nor Pittsburgh are typical "midwestern" cities. When we go to Omaha to visit the fam (DH's), it seems waaaay more midwestern than Denver, and even they are sometimes classified as "Great Plains" rather than MW.

[denverian]

Originally Posted by Katiana

There are a lot more unchurched people here than in the midwest. I don't know anyone who goes to church on Sunday morning and then goes skiing later in the day, unless perhaps they live in Vail, Aspen, Steamboat, etc. I grew up in another city that is sometimes referred to as "midwestern" and there have been many threads on its forum about just what Pittsburgh "is", midwestern, northeastern, or something else. I sometimes joke that I grew up in one terminus of the midwest, and now I live at the other terminus. Denver nor Pittsburgh are typical "midwestern" cities. When we go to Omaha to visit the fam (DH's), it seems waaaay more midwestern than Denver, and even they are sometimes classified as "Great Plains" rather than MW.

I agree. At least in the city of Denver, people who do go to church tend to keep it as a personal thing, meaning not Evangelical, I suppose. In Kansas City, I've had people I just met flat out ask me where I go to church. And people in my own family will refer to people as "a good Christian", as if they can get into someone's head and know what they believe. Or distrust someone for being non-Christian.

Denver doesn't seem like the Midwest at all really. Yes, it's on "the plains", but we look at mountains every day. And the vegetation and climate isn't at all Midwestern. In the Midwest, you have thick, deciduous forest wherever the land hasn't been cleared, lots of bugs and humidity. Denver's a dry climate with wide open spaces where you can see for miles. In the Midwest, the trees tend to hamper your views.

[denverian]

Originally Posted by wh15395

It is still in the planning stages, but the new airport was built to support it. I wasn't trying to specifically talk about your comparison to KC either, I was just trying to show people that even deeper into the Midwest, our cities are good.

I've never heard anything bad about Indy. Seems like it may be more progressive than other MW cities. I know my hometown, KC, has been trying to get light rail started for over a decade and can't do it. Not much ever seems to change there.

[mcredux]

Originally Posted by SergeGainsbourg

why do conservative people have such a bad rap on this board anyway?

Sorry if my presence in this state is such an inconvenience for you all

Here's why...

(Written by a Guliani Republican)

Conservatives universally screw cities up. That's not to say Liberals can't either...because they can. Look at California. But even with California's woes, LA and San Francisco are more desireable places than your standard Red State bastions.

Conservatives screech about state taxes, which means the public schools and transportation systems in red states are universally abysmal.

Conservatives often turn cities into giant suburbs, pushing out local culture and restaruants with places like Olive Garden and Macaroni Grill...yum.

Conservatives screech about family values--i.e, they try to shun people who are different. Ironically, "family values" never includes giving children a good education, teaching tolerance, or preventing a child from looking like a morbidly obese bowling bowl. Family values, indeed.

Long story short, the "red states" are typically the dumbest (education wise), poorest, fattest, and most violent.

People will think I'm some raging liberal. Again, I've always voted Republican. But I can at least acknowledge that the cities with a liberal bent are often the most pleasant place to live.

[xeric]

If you take away the mountains, Denver looks midwestern (but you could say that about just about any city in the intermountain states). That's because of a lack of regional creativity in landscaping and architecture. But it doesn't feel midwestern to me in other ways. Most of the West has either rugged topography and/or a semi-arid to arid climate. In that sense, Denver is typically western. As for politics - the midwest is certainly a mixed bag, but Denver proper (not the suburbs) is one of the most liberal areas of the state. The 1st congressional district has elected liberal Democrats by extremely large margins for at least 20 years. In fact Diana Degette won her last three elections with over 70% of the vote.