Jun 8, 2013

Denver is a better place to live than Chicago

Best reasons to agree: +5
  1. Denver has a better climate than Chicago
  2. Denver is closer to cooler stuff than Chicago
    1. Reasons to agree: +2
      1. Denver is close to the Rocky mountains, which is cool for camping. 
      2. Denver is closer to national parks (Yellowstone, and Glacier) than Chicago
      3. It is easier to go water skiing, mountain biking, rock climbing in Denver than Chicago. If you like skiing, Denver is one of the best places in the USA to live.
    2. Reasons to disagree:
      1. Big deal. Denver has the mountains. Chicago has the great lakes. You can go trout fishing in Denver, but you can go deep-lake fishing, or big lake sailing in Chicago. The lake is just as pretty as the mountains. 
      2. Chicago has better museums, cultural exhibits, and attractions than Denver +3
  3. Denver has better air quality and water quality than cities like Chicago.
  4. There is a lot of good low cost parking down town Denver.
  5. Denver has good Public Transportation
Best reasons to disagree: -4
  1. The rent is "too damn high". Home prices have sky rocketed. I hope we are not in another bubble. 
  2. It is very confusing to get used to driving in down town Denver. 
    1. Some of the City lines up with the river, some of it lines up with North South 
  3. By preventing growth, government officials artificially keep housing prices too high. This might feel like it is good for current home owners, but it makes people spend too much money on housing. Also, when high density development is prevented from being built relatively close to the city, it forces people to drive longer commutes. This results in more smog, CO2, and poor life stiles for those who commute. 
  4. It is very strange that the light rail system only goes south and one line goes west... Why such segregation and preferential treatment? Why wouldn't the city treat down town as the center, and try to grow equally in all directions? 
  5. There are too many drug addicts, and alcoholics peeing in the streets and bothering people in Denver.
    1. My mother in law was yelled at by a homeless person the very first time she visited Denver. She was scared. 
    2. The girls that work in my office don't like to come down town at night because of them. They have all had homeless people follow, and yell at them. They all have horror stories from friends who have had worse things happen to them. 
    3. Young girls feel safe in down town Chicago, in the loop, walking around at 2am in the morning. There is no place in Denver that feels as safe as the shopping areas of Chicago at any time of the day, let alone at 2am in the morning. Denver could improve the way they deal with their homeless. 
    4. Many women and children don't feel safe downtown Denver when their almost a hundred dirty mentally ill people just standing around all the time near the homeless shelter that is located right in the center of a city that you want people to feel safe in. You see these dirty smelly people everywhere. I saw a sign yesterday that said: Cash, Grass, or Ass. I did not know homeless people were allowed to ask for sex or drugs, but there are kids around, and it makes me sick. 
  6. People in Denver think their city is better than any other city, and that, by extension, they are better than people who live in other places. They make self righteous videos about their mountains. They don't have enough self awareness or geographical information to realize that other places also have mountains. They make reverential movies about their sports teams, which is pretty pathetic, unless of course you are from here... which in that case, these are the best sports teams ever... 
Score:
# of reasons to agree: +5
# of reasons to disagree: -6
# of reasons to agree with reasons to agree: +3
# of reasons to agree with reasons to disagree: -1
Total Idea Score: +2

Don't like the score? It is easy to change the score. Just post a reason to agree or disagree with the overall idea, or any of the reasons and the score will change.
                                                                                      
Best books that agree: +

                                                                                      
Best webpages that agree: +

Best webpages that agree: -

                                                                                      
Interest of those who agree: +
  1. Groupism, local pride, regionalism
Interest of those who disagree: -

                                                                                      
  1.  
  1.  
                                                                                      
Poems that agree: +



Poems that disagree: -

                                                                                      
Podcast that agree: +

Podcast that disagree: -
  1.   
                                                                                      
Songs that agree: +
  1. Rocky Mountain High by John Denver
Songs that disagree: -

                                                                                      
Images that agree:
  1.  
Images that disagree:

For us, Denver is closer to family, so it is better.

People from Denver love Denver.
I don't think anyone should feel like they are better than other people, because they live in a better place. Some times you meet people from a place they think is great, and they act like they are better than you because they are from that place. Every place has some good and bad, and just because you live in a good place does not make you better than other people.

They often have these bumper stickers that have the Denver Mountains Skyline, with words that say "Native". You don't know why people put these stickers on their cars, but you assume most of them think they are somehow better because they were born here. They don't like the new people moving into their town.

As someone who has just moved here, this rubs me a bit wrong. I like Denver. It has a good job which brought me here. It is closer to my family in Boise than Salt Lake. It also seems like it has some other cool stuff. I guess you can cheer for the home team, but don't go to far. I propose that there is nothing in Denver that you can't find equally as good in other cities, and that the combination of things in Denver, is not that much better than other cities. US News, CNN Money, and other places rank cities by crime, economy, cultural events, housing, and transportation. Talking to people in Denver you would think that Denver is at the top of every single of these lists. Denver is not on the Top 10 of US News.  Forbes Ranks Denver Metro #5, which is pretty good, for doing business. But they rank Provo Utah as number #1, so can we take that list seriously?

Denver might have a hard time comparing to Oregon, San Francisco, Boston, New York, or Houston, depending on what you wanted. There are parts of Denver that are better than all of these cities, but all of these cities has aspects that are better than Denver. It just depends on what you are looking for. But people from Denver should not feel self righteous, because there are lots of other great places to live.

      Independence Plaza in Denver is a great place to work

      Best reasons to agree: +

      1. It close to 16th street mall
      2. It offers good views of the city
        1. Reasons to disagree
          1. The view to the south west is blocked by the Westin
      Best reasons to disagree: -
      Score:
      # of reasons to agree: +1
      # of reasons to disagree: -0
      # of reasons to agree with reasons to agree: +0
      # of reasons to agree with reasons to disagree: -0
      Total Idea Score: +0

      Don't like the score? It is easy to change the score. Just post a reason to agree or disagree with the overall idea, or any of the reasons and the score will change.
                                                                                            

      Images that agree:
       A view to the South West from the 16th floor.


      Images that disagree:

          Chicago has better public art than Denver (-2.5)

          Best reasons to agree: +5

          1. Chicago has the cloud gate which a giant mirror type reflective culture that is sort of in the shape of a bean, but underneath it does weird mirror reflections... It lets you take cool pictures of yourself with the Chicago Sky line.
          2. Chicago has a frank gehry pavilion  right in the middle of down town.
          3. Chicago has a giant Picasso.
          4. Chicago has a river that goes through it.
          5. Chicago has more cool buildings, and more interesting architecture. 
          1. Denver has a blue bear that looks in a window for some reason.
          2. Denver has murals, but to be fair they are mostly commercial in nature, promoting the building they are painted in.

          Score:
          # of reasons to agree: +0
          # of reasons to disagree: -1
          # of reasons to agree with reasons to agree: +0
          # of reasons to agree with reasons to disagree: -3/2 = -1.5
          Total Idea Score: -2.5

          Don't like the score? It is easy to change the score. Just post a reason to agree or disagree with the overall idea, or any of the reasons and the score will change.

          Best webpages that agree: +
          1. This link shows all the public art in the Chicago loop. There are also links for public art in the Chicago southwest, near south side, south east side, and north side
          2. The Chicago Public Art Program's website. 


          Images that agree:

          This picture is typical of the murals that you see in down town Denver. It is OK, but doesn't really compare to the art you see in Chicago. Its fine that Denver couldn't afford a large Picasso sculture, but if you want to see famous, or renowned public art, you should go to Chicago, not Denver. 
          They have similar cows in every big city that get painted for that city for some reaosn
          Kind of a Mexican Gang flavored public art. 

          There is a lot of dumb graffiti in Denver. 

          Best reasons to agree: +



          Background Context and Assumptions
          Government shouldn't spend money on Public Art. 
          Best reasons to agree: +5

          1. This is just taking money from the poor and middle class to support the interest of the Rich. 
          2. If people want art in their lives they can buy it themselves. When government subsidizes art they have to make choices. The people making these choices are experts who are trying to make decisions for the public. They invariably look down on the public, because in general the public is not interested in spending much money on original art. 

              Denver has good Public Transportation

              Best reasons to agree: +3
              1. Denver has a good bike system, with bike lanes, and bikes you can borrow. +1-1=0
                1. Reasons to Agree +1
                  1. This image is proof that Denver has a "borrow a bike system"
                2. Reasons to disagree:
                  1. Every big city has public bike rentals, and the Denver ones are too expensive
              2. There is a lot of good low cost parking down town Denver, which is cool. 
              3. Denver has a good bus system +0
                1. Reasons to Agree
                  1. The hybrid electric buses are cool.  
                2. Reasons to disagree
                  1. The buses that let more than one person out at a time are cool.
                  2. The Denver bus and train stops could easily be improved.
                    1. Reasons to agree:
                      1. Going to Denver buss stop is a free learn to smoke clinic. I'm surprised that they are not directly sponsored by Marlboro cigarettes.
                      2. I have been riding the train for about a year. I have been checked for a train ticket 3 times. When you don't check for train tickets, you get a lot of homeless people riding the trains. For this to work as a reason to support the belief that the trains should be improved, you have to first assume that they should be improved for those who are not homeless, and that the trains should not be free. Lets assume that we believe the trains should be payed for by those people that ride them, and that there should not be exceptions for the homeless. Lets assume that we all agree that the homeless are a subgroup of the very poor that are too poor to keep it together even a little bit, because most anyone should be able to keep it together for enough to live on government assistance with a little bit of help, and all those people who have mental health problems so bad that they can't keep it that much together, should be assisted in a facility where there needs should be met, and they shouldn't be riding public transportation as a way to pass the time, unless they have somewhere important to go, between care facilities, but even then people should probably be supervising them. I have only seen people having to talk a crazy drunk and high person 3 times in the last 9 months of riding the train, but that is too many times. 
                    2. Reasons to disagree:
                      1. The convention center train stop is nice
                        1. Reasons to agree: +1
                          1. See the photos below, showing that the Convention Center train stop is pretty nice, has nice view, low ratio of homeless people, etc.


              Best reasons to disagree: -
              1. The outdoor mall on 16th street seems like sort of a bad idea. You have to get off your bike when your bike lane crosses it. But that is only because their are a lot of pedestrians going the other way, which is a good thing. 
                1. Reasons to Disagree
                  1. The lengths of 16th street mall are long enough that the buses are nice.
                2. Homeless people make the 16th street outdoor mall feel less safe.
                  1. Outdoor malls in the suburbs, that are too far to walk to, are more resistant to the homeless. You have only two choices Denver: 1) Make a space welcoming to the homeless or 2) Make a space welcoming to Women and Children. You can't have it both ways. If you want to be welcoming to the homeless, you shouldn't do it in the middle of your city.
              2. Denver could be more accommodating of pedestrians and bicyclist. 
                1. Reasons to Agree
              Score:
              # of reasons to agree: +1
              # of reasons to disagree: -2
              # of reasons to agree with reasons to agree: +0
              # of reasons to agree with reasons to disagree: -3/2=-1.5
              Total Idea Score: +-2.5

              Don't like the score? It is easy to change the score. Just post a reason to agree or disagree with the overall idea, or any of the reasons and the score will change.
                                                                                                    
              Best webpages that agree: +
              1. http://www.rtd-denver.com/    Good info, but biased
              2. https://www.facebook.com/RideRTD  Good info, less controlled
                                                                                                    
              Interest of those who agree: +
              1. Promoting Denver, if they like it.
              2. Patting themselves on the back, if they work for RTD
              Interest of those who disagree: -
              1. Criticizing Denver, if they don't like it.
                                                                                                    
                                                                                                    

              Images that agree:

                  There is a lot of good low cost parking down town Denver, which is cool



                  Images that agree:
                   $5/day, $10 evenings
                  It is very hard to find $4 parking in Chicago (except for the $1/hr at Northerly Island)

                  Best reasons to agree: +
                  1. It shouldn't cost you tons to just get to a city. Until public transportation is much better, cities that don't want to exclude young or middle class individuals, should try to make parking affordable. 
                  Best reasons to disagree: -

                  Score:
                  # of reasons to agree: +1
                  # of reasons to disagree: -0
                  # of reasons to agree with reasons to agree: +0
                  # of reasons to agree with reasons to disagree: -0
                  Total Idea Score: +1

                  Don't like the score? It is easy to change the score. Just post a reason to agree or disagree with the overall idea, or any of the reasons and the score will change.
                                                                                                        
                  Interest of those who agree: +
                  1. Saving money, getting around, and figuring out a town, without having a very specific plan, and needing the flexibility of a car.
                  Interest of those who disagree: -

                  1. Not paying for parking.
                  2. Not having to deal with a lot of other cars down town.
                                                                                                        

                  Podcast that disagree: -
                  1.   Parking is Hell