SLC vs Denver 2012 (apartments, tech jobs, school)

[melgirl30]

Hi,

I have never been to Denver, only Telluride but I have been to SLC and Park City. I would like to hear the pros and cons of each if possible.

From what I can gather Denver seems better for me (31 y/o female who has lived in NYC and Cape Town) because it's a bigger city, has more of a vibe (really tried to find it in SLC but it I felt like everyone had skipped town), better nightlife and for the practical reason of more direct and cheaper flights. I know it is further from the mountains but honestly it's not like I would be skiing every weekend!

I am exploring an opportunity in Denver now because I was made an offer in SLC, and the wages are really low and also for the reasons stated above. Also even thought the Broncos are really sucking right now, at least there is football team!

Also, Which city has a better tech industry, in particular the EFT area?

Thank you!

[locolife]

Since I grew up in Salt Lake City (21 years), were the same age, and we have both lived in big Northeast cities (Boston for me) I figured I can give you some lay of the land. I never lived in Denver but I spent many, many weeks there in a former job that required frequent travel. I even stayed over quite a few weekends and at one point was looking at apartments with the thought that I would be relocating there, it never happened but I did a ton of research. So here's my take on Denver versus SLC.

Religion- If you're not Mormon (I'm not) it's still very odd to live in SLC or the surrounding towns. It is true that it is less Mormon now than ever before, but the greater Wasatch Front (Logan to Provo) is still the least driverse religious region of this size in the country. And it's not even a case of having something against a particular religion, but if you're not part of it that discussion tends to come up in odd areas of your life such as the workplace, school, etc... and can get rather annoying if you don't follow the same theories in life. Denver is much more diverse and I noticed religion is rarely a topic of discussion there, most people talk about the outdoors, sports, shopping, the next new mega development, etc... It felt like a very normal sunbelt type of a city versus Utah which has topics associated with 'the church' come up in casual conversation nearly every day. Just my take...

Size- Salt Lake City comes off as much more of a small town, they link together the Wasatch front with Logan and Provo but really the Salt Lake Valley itself (SLC County) is roughly 1M people, give or take, and the city is pretty much setup to that size. There are some arts/culture, a moderate to low nightlife scene, and pretty limited in sports and other large city type amentities. You can get things like AAA baseball, NBA games, AAA, hockey, and some great college football. But if you seek the bigger city feel I still believe SLC, despite as far as it has come, leaves something to be desired.

Denver on the other hand comes off as a city that feels bigger than I think it normally would. I see Denver as sort of the unofficial capital of the intermountain West states. The mint is headquartered there and a lot of other regional types of businesses setup shop there. Things like the airport, arts district, sports, urban living, etc... are so prevelent. It really is a pretty cool city and for roughly 3M in the metro area I think the downtown district is setup very nicely, much nicer than say Phoenix, which has a lot more people.

Weather- The two areas have somewhat similar weather although Denver always seemed drier to me, which I think has to do with being on the Eastern (rain shadow) side of the Rockies. People there loved to tell me how it's sunnier than SD and Tampa, and I remember quite a few January/February days where it was nice enough to just wear a t shirt outside. The one caveat is the elevation, at 1 mile high, it can be very snowy as late as late April/May. That's odd to me but nobody there really seemed to mind it.

Geography- Both places are near the mountains, if you live in the Western Burbs of Denver you're actually pretty close to the mountains, but SLC is always going to have the leg up here. The one thing I will say about both places is that they are deserts. Both are pretty brown and if for some reason you lived in the Eastern side of Denver metro you can get the Midwest flat impression pretty easy. SLC on the other hand is a fully defined valley, which also leads to some pretty nasty inversions in the winter. If you don't know what that is you might want to look into it. Pollution levels during bad inversions can be worse then LA and you're completely depedent on a weather front to come through to essentially blow all the smog out. So it could last a few weeks or it could be a few days, but either way it can really suck to live in.

As far as the tech community goes, I remember locals telling me that DTC is either 3rd or 4th behind Silicon Valley, Boston, and NYC ( I might be off a number or two and/or a city or two) but in any event it was right up there in the top places for tech jobs. SLC has a decent tech presence but I don't think its even top 20 in this category.

I got the impression you're leaning more towards Denver and knowing what I know about the Northeast, and if you loved any bit of city life in NYC then Denver is going to be a much better fit and feel for you. The wages aren't going to be up to NYC levels but either will the cost of living. As you said having DIA nearby is a HUGE benefit to someone who likes to travel, and since the road trip options from the Denver area are somwhat limited I'd think that's worth considering.

Either way, good luck with the move. I'm interested to hear your take on the two places and what you end up deciding.