If you read between the lines, Fort Collins and Boulder were left off specifically because I haven’t spent enough time there to properly judge them. But I do know they have many of the same qualities of the Springs and Denver, as well as some upsides.
So...I grew up in Colorado (Boulder and Denver) and I currently live here. I also have a website/podcast about Denver and the state. While I think what you're sharing are absolutely fair criticisms....you're no longer a resident so the connection that you would feel is difficult to cultivate if you're not having hard conversations with the people who love and care for the city and state on a weekly, etc. basis.
One thing I will say is that cities like Denver (cities with a lot of inbound migration from other parts of the US) have this distinct lack of cohesion. There are all of these people moving here but they don't have an EMOTIONAL connection to the cities that they've landed in. They can enjoy the city like a tourist and bitch about the bad stuff without putting in any work.
I think THIS is what you're noticing. Then-they leave.
For people like me who are civically engaged, have a regular local radio station spot, talk to people about the hard stuff-there is definitely a culture. How would you get a feel for it if you're not truly "here" (no shade-just asking)
You're wrong about the music. Denver is in the top ten for music cities and the breadth of variety and access. Great post.
Thanks for reading and rolling with my criticism as a current resident!
You're absolutely right that I can only scratch the surface of a city's culture as an outsider who is not a resident. And I think the influx of outsiders there has shaped a portion of my opinion. To answer your question though, when I visit any other city (showcased here or for personal travel) I walk away with some sense of the city's vibe and identity. Even if locals don't fully agree, I get a sense of place. Denver genuinely doesn't give me that. To me, that's on Denver. I don't think I should have to live in a place in order to understand the culture at a high level. There should be some characteristics that shine through if you're looking. I come up empty handed there.
As for the music, I gave love to many of the venues there, they helped shape who I am. I will always appreciate those places and I distinctly remember bands always saying Colorado crowds brought great energy to their shows. I agree the music scene is strong there. But, the music I pointed out is wholly separate from variety and access. That music being played in generic hangouts throughout the Front Range is a common thread I couldn't ignore.
Anyway, I genuinely thank you for reading and giving some push back (I was expecting that, and kind of hoping for it). And stoked to know there are locals still there getting in the weeds to make it stronger.
A couple of weeks ago I was in Portland and in Bingen-White Salmon, WA. I've spent time in Portland before and it was not an easy experience. Having conversations in real time with Portlanders gave a deeper understanding of what's going on in town. But, I'm not from there. I have an opinion...but, I'm not there everyday. Cities go through transitions and Denver, et. al. are currently in one. It will be interesting to see what happens next. Again, I actually think a lot of your critique is fair. I just think that you're not here for the hard stuff and so it's a very surface experience you're having of the city. Like my experience in Portland. Those folks are deeply invested. I am just a fly by night person coming and going with an opinion based on a very short amount of time in town.
Ultimately, I'm doing travel writing in my free time cause I love it. So, my weekend visits to cities will always be surface level to some degree. But I do try to put in the time to give the best view I can of a place, and at least give people a sense of what I understand a city to be about.
I visited Denver twice for work this fall and I felt this exact same feeling of strange soullessness, I think you captured perfectly what I couldn't articulate. Denver seems like it should be cool, it has all the elements to be cool, but something just feels missing! I was also struck by how even at rush-hour, the Downtown felt so eerily empty! (I work in downtown Boston and it is absolutely packed and bustling at rush-hour so this was really striking to me.)
Unconnected with our previous exchange, Zach, but writer Isaac Simpson (another 'Zac') has a substack newsletter that studies the world through its propaganda (which I suspect may sometimes cover its aspirational semiotics -- its symbols of self-presentation.)
While it may not interest you in its own right, he lately wrote about three obscure cities in Montana undergoing what he sees as a tension over their character and future, and some issues seemed to resonate with your coverage of The Front Range in Colorado. The themes of change, values and urban character were strong enough that I thought you might enjoy this read. Perhaps one of these cities might someday lure you to visit and compare notes.
Excellent read - thanks for sharing. Definitely some similar themes, the sheer size of Denver and the Springs makes everything a bit more subtle in comparison to small town Montana.
It was, Cheyenne -- along with Big Sky and Three Forks. The author pits it as a newcomer bourgeoisie overclass vs a generationally-invested working poor underclass. He writes:
[quote]
Bozeman is [...] unrecognizable from even six years ago [...] The local spend on Patagonia and Lululemon alone must crack $10 million year. [...] Even at the dive bar it’s purple hair and tattoos. Baseball on the TVs. The only cowboy hats ironic. Not even a biker left. [...] A girl in Yeezies and a Prada purse window shops Twig and Whistle, her tall, impossible-jawline panama-hat boyfriend crinkles his tan crows-feet and attempts a Reaganite howdy.
Before, all this could be excused as the seasonal cycle of a ski town. The point is skiing, not culture, so who cares if the localism is real or the mask at the end of a proboscis tube feeding back to international banks. But that’s the old cycle, the old class, the old morality. Now, ski towns are town towns. People stay in Big Sky year round. The occupational class flees the city. I mean why not, honey? We can ski in the winter and just, like, chill in the Summer. It’s getting bad around here. We love hiking…why not just live in nature all the time?
[/quote]
What he's describing appears to be overtourism become gentrification, with a strong sociopolitical backlash. That's not what Zac described in The Front Range of Colorado but I wonder if it's on the same spectrum.
What's your experience of this, Cheyenne? What sense do you make of it? What brought you to Zach's stack, and what's your interest in Bozeman?
I’d have to agree with the take on Montana. Very similar to the Front Range 40 years ago. Except for generational working poor, a lot of it is Ag based there - stuck on the land/don’t want to be on the land. And Bozeman and Belgrade both, 15 years ago weren’t even small cities. Three Forks is sad!
All three are a rapidly changing population dynamic, not well received either - significant gentrification, much of it not suited regionally, or environmentally. (Have ranches about an hour north of Yellowstone - it’s a back and forth between states.)
Colorado certainly has over-tourism too, I-70 is a regular testament to that 7 days a week.
Thanks for writing this. I’ve been here longer than most transplants & have always sensed Denver’s soullessness and thought the “Colorful” Colorado slogan was a joke. (I used to call the eastern parts “porridge-colored-prairies”)
But because so many people *LOVE* Denver, and I don’t wanna rain on anyone’s parade, I usually keep these thoughts to myself. Of course there are cool people & memorable places - it’s just that, as a whole, the Front Range feels utterly vanilla/ basic / uninspiring. I think you nailed it in the head by saying it doesn’t have a cohesive identity. Even the small towns in Arizona, for example, have more character.
Haha, interesting! The colorful Colorado mention cracked me up. What keeps you there? Yeah, I didn't really want to do a negative piece, but I just felt compelled after my last visit. I wanted to know if anything I felt resonated with others. I think I got my answer. And thanks for reading!
I’m from northern NJ, moved to the western slope when I was 38, wanted to move to CO my whole life, but it was generally a disappointment. And the first time I visited Denver I was genuinely underwhelmed. I guess I had too much east coast in me. I now live in Michigan but work for a firm out of Denver and have to travel there frequently. I’m here right now, actually. I was trying to describe to my sister, who lives in NYC, how strange this town of Denver is. I decided to google “Denver has no soul” and your article came up. Brilliant summary. I was LOL the entire read. You captured it all. 👍
I’d like to rewrite this for you: “The entire front range of Colorado should be annexed to Kansas, where its culture and geography would be near perfectly aligned. The Western slope of Colorado, in small pockets not already completely ruined by transplants and money, is all that remains of what the state was 30yrs ago.”
As an almost-native I agree with most all you say here. And please, give however much bad press to the Front Range that you can. The population growth here has gutted the quality of life. Want to go for a hike, go skiing, or just take a scenic drive? Forget about it, you’ll spend all day in traffic. Just stay away people. Go back to California, Texas or Florida, or wherever and stay there.
Like other boom cities, the growth here is so new that everything has a sameness and artificiality. You could be at a restaurant or strip mall and think you were in Des Moines or Sacramento if you didn’t see the snow-capped mountains in the background.
Great read. I am a denver transplant in my 30s and completely agree that there is a vacuum of culture here, for the most part. Where I think you missed the mark a bit is the music scene. Denver is one of, if not the best, cities in the world for the jam band scene. When I got to the music section of your essay I expected to see an indictment of Grateful Dead tunes playing at every bar. Jam bands that leave many shows undersold frequently sell out multi night runs in the denver area. Additionally, there is a thriving local jam band scene in town.
While I couldn’t agree more about the overwhelming lack of culture in the front range as a whole, there is a fantastic micro culture in the city for that community. I’m a huge fan of that type of music and even play in a local jam band, but I do understand that it is rather niche and somewhat counter cultural.
Also, it does seem to be fostered in no small part by transplants. This is my first time commenting on an essay on Substack though. I couldn’t agree more with your thoughts on the front range and am strongly considering moving away. However, in this high plains (more like high desert these last few years) wasteland there is a tiny pocket of culture thriving.
The music scene is solid - I grew a punk kid and the punk / metal scene was thriving there, so I get it. And I know the jam band scene is big there too with Cheese and all. That said, the pervasive music at any typical hangout there is what I highlighted. And thank you for reading and commenting 😎
I lived in Denver from 1995 until 2010. Denver was good to me. I love your point about the music. That stuff was all new and playing everywhere when I was there. When i hear those songs now I think about those times in the late 90s being in denver. It's funny they never stop playing that music. The first 5 years or so I waited tables at about a dozen different places partied my ass off then got into Tech sales and made some money got married had a kid and left denver. I've been back many times over the past 17 years. Rarely spend the night in denver. I'm glad they fly from Atlanta Where I Live Now direct to Eagle vail. Do not miss Denver at all. Definitely miss Colorado. One thing I find somewhat grating when I interact with people living in Colorado and Denver these days is just how absolutely over the top in love they are with being in the place. Almost everywhere in this country has drawbacks and amazing attributes . No place is perfect.
Denver Metro of old, before the present urban sprawl and transient migration was vastly different! Very certainly to, the Springs before an ultra conservative Christian Right landed on it full force in the ‘80’s. It was truly beautiful in the late 60’s and 70’s, even some areas 20 years ago. Sadly, really poorly planned subdivisions and urban developments dot the entire Front Range now — from Pueblo to Wyo state line. And still they keep coming, relocating to an area that is far more like SoCal now, most especially for chronic traffic jams going anywhere but east!
I don't doubt it. I was young when Colorado Springs was just a smaller military city with a North, South, East, and West Side of town. And I saw it balloon into new, made up neighbors, and never ending sprawl. I didn't fully understand it, but the change was palpably gross. I assume Denver would've felt similar to me.
As someone that grew up in the boulder area, lived in Denver I my early-mid twenties, only to leave to the east coast 4 years ago, this is strikingly accurate and one of the main reasons I left.
You’re so caught up in your hatred of the Springs that you completely overlooked the jewel of the Front Range, Fort Collins.
If you read between the lines, Fort Collins and Boulder were left off specifically because I haven’t spent enough time there to properly judge them. But I do know they have many of the same qualities of the Springs and Denver, as well as some upsides.
see my post
So...I grew up in Colorado (Boulder and Denver) and I currently live here. I also have a website/podcast about Denver and the state. While I think what you're sharing are absolutely fair criticisms....you're no longer a resident so the connection that you would feel is difficult to cultivate if you're not having hard conversations with the people who love and care for the city and state on a weekly, etc. basis.
One thing I will say is that cities like Denver (cities with a lot of inbound migration from other parts of the US) have this distinct lack of cohesion. There are all of these people moving here but they don't have an EMOTIONAL connection to the cities that they've landed in. They can enjoy the city like a tourist and bitch about the bad stuff without putting in any work.
I think THIS is what you're noticing. Then-they leave.
For people like me who are civically engaged, have a regular local radio station spot, talk to people about the hard stuff-there is definitely a culture. How would you get a feel for it if you're not truly "here" (no shade-just asking)
You're wrong about the music. Denver is in the top ten for music cities and the breadth of variety and access. Great post.
Thanks for reading and rolling with my criticism as a current resident!
You're absolutely right that I can only scratch the surface of a city's culture as an outsider who is not a resident. And I think the influx of outsiders there has shaped a portion of my opinion. To answer your question though, when I visit any other city (showcased here or for personal travel) I walk away with some sense of the city's vibe and identity. Even if locals don't fully agree, I get a sense of place. Denver genuinely doesn't give me that. To me, that's on Denver. I don't think I should have to live in a place in order to understand the culture at a high level. There should be some characteristics that shine through if you're looking. I come up empty handed there.
As for the music, I gave love to many of the venues there, they helped shape who I am. I will always appreciate those places and I distinctly remember bands always saying Colorado crowds brought great energy to their shows. I agree the music scene is strong there. But, the music I pointed out is wholly separate from variety and access. That music being played in generic hangouts throughout the Front Range is a common thread I couldn't ignore.
Anyway, I genuinely thank you for reading and giving some push back (I was expecting that, and kind of hoping for it). And stoked to know there are locals still there getting in the weeds to make it stronger.
A couple of weeks ago I was in Portland and in Bingen-White Salmon, WA. I've spent time in Portland before and it was not an easy experience. Having conversations in real time with Portlanders gave a deeper understanding of what's going on in town. But, I'm not from there. I have an opinion...but, I'm not there everyday. Cities go through transitions and Denver, et. al. are currently in one. It will be interesting to see what happens next. Again, I actually think a lot of your critique is fair. I just think that you're not here for the hard stuff and so it's a very surface experience you're having of the city. Like my experience in Portland. Those folks are deeply invested. I am just a fly by night person coming and going with an opinion based on a very short amount of time in town.
Totally. That's funny, Portland is where I live!
Ultimately, I'm doing travel writing in my free time cause I love it. So, my weekend visits to cities will always be surface level to some degree. But I do try to put in the time to give the best view I can of a place, and at least give people a sense of what I understand a city to be about.
What’s your radio spot? Mine are KUVO and KGNU. Check out their websites people. Colorado produced world-class programming.
I visited Denver twice for work this fall and I felt this exact same feeling of strange soullessness, I think you captured perfectly what I couldn't articulate. Denver seems like it should be cool, it has all the elements to be cool, but something just feels missing! I was also struck by how even at rush-hour, the Downtown felt so eerily empty! (I work in downtown Boston and it is absolutely packed and bustling at rush-hour so this was really striking to me.)
Thanks for reading! Interesting about rush hour, that is not something I had picked up on.
Unconnected with our previous exchange, Zach, but writer Isaac Simpson (another 'Zac') has a substack newsletter that studies the world through its propaganda (which I suspect may sometimes cover its aspirational semiotics -- its symbols of self-presentation.)
While it may not interest you in its own right, he lately wrote about three obscure cities in Montana undergoing what he sees as a tension over their character and future, and some issues seemed to resonate with your coverage of The Front Range in Colorado. The themes of change, values and urban character were strong enough that I thought you might enjoy this read. Perhaps one of these cities might someday lure you to visit and compare notes.
If so, I'd gladly read it.
https://substack.com/home/post/p-63957049
Excellent read - thanks for sharing. Definitely some similar themes, the sheer size of Denver and the Springs makes everything a bit more subtle in comparison to small town Montana.
Bet I can guess that Bozeman is one of those 3 cities.
It was, Cheyenne -- along with Big Sky and Three Forks. The author pits it as a newcomer bourgeoisie overclass vs a generationally-invested working poor underclass. He writes:
[quote]
Bozeman is [...] unrecognizable from even six years ago [...] The local spend on Patagonia and Lululemon alone must crack $10 million year. [...] Even at the dive bar it’s purple hair and tattoos. Baseball on the TVs. The only cowboy hats ironic. Not even a biker left. [...] A girl in Yeezies and a Prada purse window shops Twig and Whistle, her tall, impossible-jawline panama-hat boyfriend crinkles his tan crows-feet and attempts a Reaganite howdy.
Before, all this could be excused as the seasonal cycle of a ski town. The point is skiing, not culture, so who cares if the localism is real or the mask at the end of a proboscis tube feeding back to international banks. But that’s the old cycle, the old class, the old morality. Now, ski towns are town towns. People stay in Big Sky year round. The occupational class flees the city. I mean why not, honey? We can ski in the winter and just, like, chill in the Summer. It’s getting bad around here. We love hiking…why not just live in nature all the time?
[/quote]
What he's describing appears to be overtourism become gentrification, with a strong sociopolitical backlash. That's not what Zac described in The Front Range of Colorado but I wonder if it's on the same spectrum.
What's your experience of this, Cheyenne? What sense do you make of it? What brought you to Zach's stack, and what's your interest in Bozeman?
I’d have to agree with the take on Montana. Very similar to the Front Range 40 years ago. Except for generational working poor, a lot of it is Ag based there - stuck on the land/don’t want to be on the land. And Bozeman and Belgrade both, 15 years ago weren’t even small cities. Three Forks is sad!
All three are a rapidly changing population dynamic, not well received either - significant gentrification, much of it not suited regionally, or environmentally. (Have ranches about an hour north of Yellowstone - it’s a back and forth between states.)
Colorado certainly has over-tourism too, I-70 is a regular testament to that 7 days a week.
Thanks for sharing, Ruv. Cheers
Thanks for writing this. I’ve been here longer than most transplants & have always sensed Denver’s soullessness and thought the “Colorful” Colorado slogan was a joke. (I used to call the eastern parts “porridge-colored-prairies”)
But because so many people *LOVE* Denver, and I don’t wanna rain on anyone’s parade, I usually keep these thoughts to myself. Of course there are cool people & memorable places - it’s just that, as a whole, the Front Range feels utterly vanilla/ basic / uninspiring. I think you nailed it in the head by saying it doesn’t have a cohesive identity. Even the small towns in Arizona, for example, have more character.
Haha, interesting! The colorful Colorado mention cracked me up. What keeps you there? Yeah, I didn't really want to do a negative piece, but I just felt compelled after my last visit. I wanted to know if anything I felt resonated with others. I think I got my answer. And thanks for reading!
I’m from northern NJ, moved to the western slope when I was 38, wanted to move to CO my whole life, but it was generally a disappointment. And the first time I visited Denver I was genuinely underwhelmed. I guess I had too much east coast in me. I now live in Michigan but work for a firm out of Denver and have to travel there frequently. I’m here right now, actually. I was trying to describe to my sister, who lives in NYC, how strange this town of Denver is. I decided to google “Denver has no soul” and your article came up. Brilliant summary. I was LOL the entire read. You captured it all. 👍
What a compliment! Thanks for reading, enjoy your stay 🫠
Can’t say I’d argue and throw in Longmont for extra ho hum…
Alotta damn whining. Stay the fuck out of Colorado then. Go someplace nice, like North Dakota. Or move to Fort Stinking Desert, Texas.
I think it’s pretty clear I try.
I’d like to rewrite this for you: “The entire front range of Colorado should be annexed to Kansas, where its culture and geography would be near perfectly aligned. The Western slope of Colorado, in small pockets not already completely ruined by transplants and money, is all that remains of what the state was 30yrs ago.”
Ha - I don’t have enough time on ground in Kansas to speak to the alignment.
I’ve only been to Denver once but I know for a fact the Colorado electronic music scene is world class.
I’d believe that. But also that it doesn’t negate what I’ve seen in Denver.
Really sums it up. Generic uninspiring predictable shopping, restaurants and vibe. Pay extra sales tax to shop at a retail center? Not a chance.
As an almost-native I agree with most all you say here. And please, give however much bad press to the Front Range that you can. The population growth here has gutted the quality of life. Want to go for a hike, go skiing, or just take a scenic drive? Forget about it, you’ll spend all day in traffic. Just stay away people. Go back to California, Texas or Florida, or wherever and stay there.
I’m glad that perhaps, in a roundabout way, I’m helping out here.
Like other boom cities, the growth here is so new that everything has a sameness and artificiality. You could be at a restaurant or strip mall and think you were in Des Moines or Sacramento if you didn’t see the snow-capped mountains in the background.
Yep, the Springs all the way up to FoCo is now basically connected by suburban sprawl towns and strip malls.
Great read. I am a denver transplant in my 30s and completely agree that there is a vacuum of culture here, for the most part. Where I think you missed the mark a bit is the music scene. Denver is one of, if not the best, cities in the world for the jam band scene. When I got to the music section of your essay I expected to see an indictment of Grateful Dead tunes playing at every bar. Jam bands that leave many shows undersold frequently sell out multi night runs in the denver area. Additionally, there is a thriving local jam band scene in town.
While I couldn’t agree more about the overwhelming lack of culture in the front range as a whole, there is a fantastic micro culture in the city for that community. I’m a huge fan of that type of music and even play in a local jam band, but I do understand that it is rather niche and somewhat counter cultural.
Also, it does seem to be fostered in no small part by transplants. This is my first time commenting on an essay on Substack though. I couldn’t agree more with your thoughts on the front range and am strongly considering moving away. However, in this high plains (more like high desert these last few years) wasteland there is a tiny pocket of culture thriving.
The music scene is solid - I grew a punk kid and the punk / metal scene was thriving there, so I get it. And I know the jam band scene is big there too with Cheese and all. That said, the pervasive music at any typical hangout there is what I highlighted. And thank you for reading and commenting 😎
I lived in Denver from 1995 until 2010. Denver was good to me. I love your point about the music. That stuff was all new and playing everywhere when I was there. When i hear those songs now I think about those times in the late 90s being in denver. It's funny they never stop playing that music. The first 5 years or so I waited tables at about a dozen different places partied my ass off then got into Tech sales and made some money got married had a kid and left denver. I've been back many times over the past 17 years. Rarely spend the night in denver. I'm glad they fly from Atlanta Where I Live Now direct to Eagle vail. Do not miss Denver at all. Definitely miss Colorado. One thing I find somewhat grating when I interact with people living in Colorado and Denver these days is just how absolutely over the top in love they are with being in the place. Almost everywhere in this country has drawbacks and amazing attributes . No place is perfect.
Hahah they still only play those songs, it’s wild. You’re correct that no place is perfect, and the front range is not for me.
Denver Metro of old, before the present urban sprawl and transient migration was vastly different! Very certainly to, the Springs before an ultra conservative Christian Right landed on it full force in the ‘80’s. It was truly beautiful in the late 60’s and 70’s, even some areas 20 years ago. Sadly, really poorly planned subdivisions and urban developments dot the entire Front Range now — from Pueblo to Wyo state line. And still they keep coming, relocating to an area that is far more like SoCal now, most especially for chronic traffic jams going anywhere but east!
I don't doubt it. I was young when Colorado Springs was just a smaller military city with a North, South, East, and West Side of town. And I saw it balloon into new, made up neighbors, and never ending sprawl. I didn't fully understand it, but the change was palpably gross. I assume Denver would've felt similar to me.
As someone that grew up in the boulder area, lived in Denver I my early-mid twenties, only to leave to the east coast 4 years ago, this is strikingly accurate and one of the main reasons I left.