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  #1  
Old Posted Aug 28, 2018, 2:29 AM
Denvergotback Denvergotback is offline
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Intermountain game

Lets play a game, there are 4 significant population bases in the intermountain West- Denver, Colorado Springs, Salt Lake, and Boise

What is one thing you would take from each one of these cities and put in your own city? Where and why?

Rules: no more than 1 thing from each city. Saying something like, “I will take their entire skyline/downtown does not count

Also, if you can pictures are awesome! Especially if you say you want X building in your downtown, a picture of it in your downtown could be cool
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  #2  
Old Posted Aug 28, 2018, 3:40 AM
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Hatman Hatman is offline
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From Denver I'd borrow Union Station. Despite it being handicapped as a terminal instead of a through-station in the most recent developments, it is still the coolest transit hub in all of the four cities.


From Colorado Springs I'd like to copy the Pike's Peak cog railway. I know it's not technically in Colorado Springs but it's close enough. I think it's an awesome way to give every person access to the tops of the nearby mountains. Many tall cities have an observation platform at the tops of their tallest buildings, but the mountain peaks in our western cities are taller than even the tallest building on earth, and I don't think we value those views from the top enough.


Boise has the thing I want most though: the greenbelt and river straight through their city. I still can't get over how cool it is that this is happening in their downtown area:





There are very few things that can bring a community together better than a river everyone can swim and boat in.
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  #3  
Old Posted Sep 26, 2018, 7:02 PM
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brankrom brankrom is offline
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I live in SLC and like Hatman I would take the Boise Greenbelt and a real river and put it in SLC. Also Boise offers a strong local culture and every time I've been there I enjoyed the farmers market downtown and the strong sense of cohesive community. People out doing things Downtown Boise is far more active than Downtown SLC by a lot of metrics.

Denver: There is a strong presence of historic buildings and especially the urban parks like Washington, Cheesman and City Park.

I honestly can't think of ANYTHING either Denver or Boise would want to import from SLC... Maybe the closeness of Ski resorts and canyon/public land access but SLC gets the ass end of every comparison to those cities. Our large city blocks and wide streets make pedestrian spaces uninviting, much of our historic core has been destroyed numerous times.


Oh wait.... Okay SLC kicks ass with airport access. I fly from SLC to Denver and our HQ is in Lakewood\Golden and it literally takes a whole effin day to negotiate from SLC to Golden by plane... No lie 6 hours travel time by the time I eff around with the shitty car rental shuttle situation at DIA and then travel across the Metro I can drive it in 8. DIA is the worst airport I've been to, ever. I could use public transit and I might try it next time, but I'm still guessing a metric shit ton of time to get from DIA to Lakewood. I will try it next time, I'd rather use transit anyway but being stuck in Lakewood without a car just isn't appealing.
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Old Posted Sep 26, 2018, 9:02 PM
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bunt_q bunt_q is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by brankrom View Post
Oh wait.... Okay SLC kicks ass with airport access. I fly from SLC to Denver and our HQ is in Lakewood\Golden and it literally takes a whole effin day to negotiate from SLC to Golden by plane... No lie 6 hours travel time by the time I eff around with the shitty car rental shuttle situation at DIA and then travel across the Metro I can drive it in 8. DIA is the worst airport I've been to, ever. I could use public transit and I might try it next time, but I'm still guessing a metric shit ton of time to get from DIA to Lakewood. I will try it next time, I'd rather use transit anyway but being stuck in Lakewood without a car just isn't appealing.
You've heard of Uber right? It's this nifty thing you put on your phone, you click a button, and a car magically appears to drive you from the airport to your suburban office park. You should try it sometime. Rental cars for work trips are so 1990s. (But then, so are offices in Lakewood.)

Here's how I would get to SLC tomorrow. I would walk out of my office at 9:55am to get a car, arrive at DEN at 10:30-10:40, be through security by 10:50, board my plane at 10:57, depart at 11:27, arrive in SLC at 1:04pm, get another car by 1:34 (assuming a 10 minute wait, a coffee, and a pee) and be in downtown SLC right around 2:00pm. If it's taking you 6 hours, you're just not very good at travel and/or you need better office locations. I get to DC through Dulles in just over six, and that is an awful, awful place.

Last edited by bunt_q; Sep 26, 2018 at 9:14 PM.
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  #5  
Old Posted Oct 15, 2018, 1:52 AM
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CONative CONative is offline
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FROM SLC: I would take the view of the mountains over the other MW cities -- including Denver. Although SLC's nearby peaks aren't as tall overall, the dramatic view is better than Denver's. Denver offers a wide panorama that stretches across over 100 miles, but the viewplane isn't as impressive because the mountains are futher behind all of those foothills and the angled slope of the front range hides them a bit. The view doesn't nicely show off the many 14'ers you can still see from Denver metro as you can see of SLC's 12k and 13k peaks that are closer to the metro. I also like the street grid address system (400 E 3500 S) -- once you understand it, it is a cool system.

FROM BOISE: I also like the green/river belt, but I'll just switch it up and say that I enjoy the size and community feel of the metro. It has time to make the right planning decisions that many cities made mistakes on in the 50's-80's.

FROM COLORADO SPRINGS: They have less snow than Denver and also have a better view of Pikes Peak/mtns from their perspective. That's about all I would trade.
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  #6  
Old Posted Oct 15, 2018, 1:58 AM
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CONative CONative is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by brankrom View Post
I live in SLC and like Hatman I would take the Boise Greenbelt and a real river and put it in SLC. Also Boise offers a strong local culture and every time I've been there I enjoyed the farmers market downtown and the strong sense of cohesive community. People out doing things Downtown Boise is far more active than Downtown SLC by a lot of metrics.

Denver: There is a strong presence of historic buildings and especially the urban parks like Washington, Cheesman and City Park.

I honestly can't think of ANYTHING either Denver or Boise would want to import from SLC... Maybe the closeness of Ski resorts and canyon/public land access but SLC gets the ass end of every comparison to those cities. Our large city blocks and wide streets make pedestrian spaces uninviting, much of our historic core has been destroyed numerous times.


Oh wait.... Okay SLC kicks ass with airport access. I fly from SLC to Denver and our HQ is in Lakewood\Golden and it literally takes a whole effin day to negotiate from SLC to Golden by plane... No lie 6 hours travel time by the time I eff around with the shitty car rental shuttle situation at DIA and then travel across the Metro I can drive it in 8. DIA is the worst airport I've been to, ever. I could use public transit and I might try it next time, but I'm still guessing a metric shit ton of time to get from DIA to Lakewood. I will try it next time, I'd rather use transit anyway but being stuck in Lakewood without a car just isn't appealing.
Denver heavily relies on its transportation hub status (especially since it's one of the most isolated major cities in the nation) -- and it did before it moved the airport. There is no way that Denver would be as successful as it is if the old Stapleton airport was still around...and there was no room for the kind of expansion needed. Based on the circumstances Denver had in front of them and the fact that DIA/DEN is regularly rated high on airport satisfaction/bests lists, I would say the Denver folks did it right. Plus, the world doesn't revolve around Lakewood or Golden anyway. :-) I know folks that are from other cities that LOVE how easy it is to get to their Aurora business location or East Denver headquarters.
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  #7  
Old Posted Oct 15, 2018, 6:37 AM
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Cirrus Cirrus is offline
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For Denver:

From Colorado Springs: Take Garden of the Gods Park, plop it on top of Denver's City Park Golf Course.

From SLC: Range-parallel intercity rail. The Wasatch Range has FrontRunner. The Front Range... dammit the Front Range should have FrontRunner.

From Boise: Um... this building would look great at, like 6th and Broadway or something. Oh! Or as the tallest building in Cherry Creek North.
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