Denver vs Salt Lake City (good schools, tornado, living)

[koookooo]

Which metro area do you think is better? Take into concideration....
-Population
-Scenery
-Traffic
-Pollution
-Airport
-Downtown (skyline,Nightlife)
-Climate
-Culture
-ETC...

[zenkonami]

I don't know, but I've got to give props to SLC for being a conservative town that proves mass transit should not be a partisan issue. I haven't been there, though, so I'll abstain =)

[woob]

i haven't lived in SLC in about 10 years, but one definite advantage is they are much closer to the mountains. from downtown SLC you can take a public city bus for three dollars and be skiing alta in 45 minutes. from denver you have to drive 75-100 miles in traffic to get to most ski areas and the skiing is not nearly as good.

as far as the city itself goes, SLC seemed much more sterile and bland. denver has more going for it in terms of urban amenities and culture, although it is still far behind the east and west coasts. i'm sure this doesn't need to be stated, but denver has much better beer

[KaaBoom]

Originally Posted by koookooo

Which metro area do you think is better? Take into concideration....

-Population

Salt Lake is 2 x as big.

Originally Posted by koookooo

-Scenery

I prefer Denver. Salt Like is more desert. If you like desert, you might like SLC better.

Originally Posted by koookooo

-Traffic

Denver is worse.

Originally Posted by koookooo

-Pollution

They are both pretty bad.

Originally Posted by koookooo

-Airport

The Denver Airport is 25 miles from Downtown, way bigger, with way more flights. SLC Airport is smaller and located only a few miles from Downtown.

Originally Posted by koookooo

-Downtown (skyline,Nightlife)

SLC doesn't have too much of a skyline and the entire city shuts down by 10PM. Denver has a nice skyline and lots of nightlife.

Originally Posted by koookooo

-Climate

SLC is a bit warmer, and the snow melts faster then it does in Denver. Otherwise there is not too much difference in the climates.

Originally Posted by koookooo

-Culture

SLC culture = The LDS Church. Denver has a bigger verity of culture.

Originally Posted by koookooo

-ETC...

SLC is perfect for family activities, good schools, and going to Church every Sunday. For everything else, I'd recommend Denver.

[new2colo]

-Population

I prefer larger cities to smaller ones, so I would have to go with Denver. Denver's metro population is twice that of Salt Lake City's.

-Scenery

Salt Lake City is definitely prettier. Denver is farther from the mountains that Salt Lake and is basically located on the Great Plains, which are pretty dull and uninspiring.

SLC is basically against huge mountains, there are mountains in more than one direction, and the Great Salt Lake adds to the scenery!

-Traffic

From what I remember, traffic in SLC is pretty terrible for a city of its size. Then again, traffic in Denver is pretty terrible for a city of ITS size!

Utah drivers are notoriously incompetent, aggressive, and ignorant, but my experience with Colorado drivers has been very similar.

As a result, both cities are tied!

-Pollution

A few weeks ago I went to Denver and was disgusted to see a thick brown cloud over the city. All others times I have been to Denver the sky has been mostly smog free.

SLC seemed to be full of smog everytime I visited. I was shocked at how horrible the smog was!

Have to give this one to Denver.

-Airport

Denver's airport is much larger with a larger array of flight destinations. Denver wins again! I know some people complain about Denver's size, but I have never had an issue with Denver's airport.

-Downtown (skyline,Nightlife)

Denver wins again! Much more impressive skyline, more pedestrian activity, and bars and clubs all over. SLC's downtown is very nice for a town of 180,000 though!

-Climate

Salt Lake! SLC's climate is drier, more temperate, and less volatile than Denver's climate. SLC might have colder winter days than Denver, but the swing between high/low temperatures never seems to be as great as the swing in Denver. SLC receives less rain, isn't a hub of hail during the summer, and tornado threats are much less frequent! Summer is SLC can be pretty hot now and then.

-Culture

Denver! I find the Mormon culture of Utah to be very oppressive. Even though SLC is the major urban center of Utah, Mormonism seems to have a very tight grip over the city.

Denver is diverse and is much less conservative than SLC.

-ETC...

Overall I find Denver to offer quite a bit more than SLC. Shopping choices are generally greater in Denver (although I still don't understand how SLC got an IKEA before Denver!), there is more nightlife, a greater variety of restaurants, a nicer skyline, more diversity, less conservatism, and more people!

Salt Lake wins on scenery and climate, but Denver dominates on everything else.

[Mike from back east]

Only problem with this thread is that most of the regulars on the SLC forum don't see this thread. Somebody remind me to move this to the SLC forum after a week in the Denver forum and we'll get THEIR perspective on the topic. Or I could move it to City vs City forum.

[BacktoBlue]

Both cities are beautiful! Tough decision but overall I go with Denver

[vegaspilgrim]

Salt Lake City has the better location, IMO. Utah's mountains every bit as good (and arguably beter) than what CO has to offer, right in its backyard, 4 hours from the northern reaches of the Mojave Desert (St George), 4 hours from Moab, 6 hours from Las Vegas, 8 hours from Reno/Tahoe, 10 hours from LA, 12 hours from SF... from SLC you can basically pick any direction to go and explore. Scenery overall blows away Denver. I'd feel out of place living there though, so I'd pick Denver.

[new2colo]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

Only problem with this thread is that most of the regulars on the SLC forum don't see this thread. Somebody remind me to move this to the SLC forum after a week in the Denver forum and we'll get THEIR perspective on the topic. Or I could move it to City vs City forum.

Is there a way to create a duplicate thread on the SLC forum and then merge the two in a week?

That could be interesting. It seems like this topic is often asked in the Denver forum and never on the SLC forum.

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by new2colo

Is there a way to create a duplicate thread on the SLC forum and then merge the two in a week?

That could be interesting. It seems like this topic is often asked in the Denver forum and never on the SLC forum.

I have the ability to make a copy of this thread and put it in multiple places, but then merging it gets messy as people don't always quote who it is they're replying to and then it's hard to follow.

I've asked the Sr Mods if there's a way to mirror threads so that when a person replies to this in the Denver forum, it shows in the SLC and City vs City forums at the same time. Here's the reply from a Sr Mod.

Originally Posted by Marka

We don't have the mirror hack here from what I know. You can achieve similar results by copying the thread to the second forum with a permanent redirect. The redirect link will be buried with new posts so yes, you'd need to move the thread back after a while.