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While everyone else was covering the convention, I played hooky and wandered around downtown Denver. Unlike the larger city centers I’m used to in Vancouver and Toronto (outside of Toronto’s financial district) it doesn’t feel, well, alive. One of the things I was searching for was a corner store or grocery store. I probably walked 25 to 30 blocks and nothing but endless restaurants, retail stores and office buildings. Denver’s downtown isn’t a place people live, it’s a place people shop at or work at. Now all downtowns have this a bit, but it feels a bit extreme, and somewhat antiseptic.
Which isn’t to say that Denver isn’t pretty. In fact, for a real city (as opposed to a tourist town) it has one of the most beautiful downtowns I’ve seen. Framed by the mountains, it’s almost like a postcard. The residential districts closest to the city are likewise pretty and to my northern eyes, very colorful.
The security presence is like lumpy gravy, they’re everywhere, but they clump in large groups every few blocks. A lot of them wear the badges of cities outside Denver, plus there are national guard troops and a surprisingly large number of private security guards. The security feels both omnipresent and vaguely useless, good for shutting down protests, but not all that useful for stopping an individual or small group who wanted to engage in more targeted violence. The cops are mostly friendly, though some have hostility as their default setting, with the standard police usage of "sir" as an aggressive statement of contempt for civilians, and I suspect, Democrats. "Sir" to a lot of police is definitely a way of saying "insect who must obey my orders and to whom I have to explain nothing."
I’ve found Denver’s citizens friendly, happy to talk and willing to give directions. It probably doesn’t hurt that most of the workers downtown are in the hospitality industry and the convention means money for many of them, but I’ve been in other towns where that didn’t translate into an actual welcome.
For a city under what amounts to occupation by police and conference goers, Denver’s held up well and maintained a lot of charm.
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Historic day, no matter what.
Hey Ian!
Yeah, the 16th Street Mall is definitely not your typical downtown but it is fun nevertheless.
When I was living there, it was easier to park in one of the lots surrounding the downtown area and walk wherever.
But I did my grocery shopping at the various supermarkets out on West Colfax and such.
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I got such a chuckle when Ian, the only person I know who can find to much green in a forrest, managed to find a helicopter ride over a red pine forrest this week. Be careful what you ask for, Mr. Welsh. *g*
Walking in Denver? Is that not the definition of Un-American Activity in capsule form? IIRC that activity is the basis of suspicious behavior that gets you busted. If doG had wanted Yanks to walk, he wouldn’t have put them there. /s
The classic on city life is The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs. Some of the keys are low rise, mixed use (commercial & residential), wide sidewalks. Sounds like Denver has little of that. The book was written in the 1960s and she liked the neighborhoods that the poor lived in (real street life with people looking after each other’s safety) much better than the sterile, crime-ridden projects they were herded into. IIRC, she defines a city as a place where lots of strangers can come together & feel safe.
American cities, with few exceptions, are abysmal failures as “liveable” places. American cities by and large were designed for the auto rather than people in the early fifties to the present. Anyone that has ever been to Europe knows what a failure urban America really is but then with less than 25% of Americans even having a passport they don’t know what they are missing. Ignorance is indeed bliss.
Actually, Denver has a mile or so long open air Mall (16th Street) that is ideal for walking. It runs from next to the capital building to Union Station (the train station). The only allowed vehicles are free buses, emergency vehicles, and post office trucks. Oh and bicycles.
So it is a good city to walk around the downtown
So, here is a story, written by a friend of mine who lives in the Caymen Islands, with pictures taken by another friend of mine from DenCo. DenCo is my home town and after 48 years of living there I LEFT in 8/01 and haven’t looked back. It was always a red city in a red state with red neck cops who are quick to hop to red hot rage in any situation.
The last big heyday to be had there for the police state that seethes just below the surface may have been the 70s. There were tear gassed Tull concerts and badly beaten hippies. College campuses were routinely patrolled by armed uniformed men with dogs. It’s a city that started that way and just devolved into it’s what it is now. Denver was where a proud United States calvary hung genitalia from poles and rafters in a local theater after the Sand Creek Massacre. It’s researchable. Google it. I saw copies of the actual newspaper articles on that incident on the net in 2006.
It’s pretty. The people are nice. I don’t miss the authoritarian crack down cop scene.
“To serve and protect” my ass!!!!
See my 6. Jane Jacobs put all that in words.
I travelled to most U.S. cities on business, and they’re mostly all the same. Airport, highway to high rise downtown hotel, with car service to take you a couple of blocks between meeting in high rise identical bldgs, unless they have some garish shape or symbol at the top to make them into a signature bldg. Can’t think of anything much farther away from humanness than that.
Most american cities had livable downtowns at one point in time- but they were allowed to decay rather than grow- many are coming back to life- but not in their original forms.
On the West Coast, Portland and San Francisco are two cities where downtown never died. Seattle is an example of revival going well. San Diego is in progress but a long way to go..I don’t know where the hell “downtown” IS in LA….the city without a heart.
I used to live in the downtown area of Dallas. Turned weird at night- but interesting.
Phoenix isn’t sure if it has a downtown or not.
Yes, for the most part Ian is right. Most of the Denver Metro Area is Sub, Ex-urb areas that require a car to get anywhere. The downtown area and other selected areas are trying a new approach to living areas. There are several communities that are being built around “town centers”, places that have restaurants, coffee shops, etc, but they are now in high demand.
whoo hoo Sheryl Crow!
A change will do us good…look at that crowd!
Toby Keith will not be able to put his boot up anyone’s ass except maybe McCain’s.
I’m feeling it!
Last time I was in Denver was late 60’s, early 70’s, remember only the native american museum and the creek. Seemed most lived in surrounding communities. The comment was intended as scathing snark, is that “/ss”?
Jane Jacobs said it all in the 60’s. Her seminal work is still an inspiration for urbanists in the U.S.
If you didn’t think Denver felt alive, wait til you get to the embalmed corpse that is St. Paul…