Additional thoughts on Denver

I realized after finishing my post about Denver that I didn't say anything about my feelings on this city. My experience there taints any objective impression I may have, of course, but overall I would say that despite pockets of progressiveness and a pleasant sort of civility, the city of Denver is busy, fast-paced, and hectic, and the people are far less friendly there than in smaller American cities I've visited so far.

My worst experience in this regard relates to cycling. Denver touts itself as a biker-friendly city, the same way that its northern neighbour, Boulder, does. I would disagree. The fact that there are bike lanes on certain streets and that many people do in fact cycle on a regular basis does not a city biker-friendly make, in my opinion.
Whenever I ventured onto a street devoid of a specified cycle lane, and didn't hug the curb or parked cars quite closely, I was honked at, yelled at, sworn at, and once even heckled to the sound of a blaring horn by two young men in a jeep, which made me quite worried, considering the impression I have of the USA as a gun-friendly and often trigger-happy nation.
Most drivers in Denver don't seem to realize that a cyclist is entitled to take the entire lane just as a car is, and they expect people on bicycles to get out of their way, or perhaps ride inches away from the curb or parked cars, which in my opinion is more dangerous than taking the lane as it gives drivers the freedom to share the lane with a cyclist and thus often come close to hitting them, or perhaps forcing them out of the lane altogether.

Besides that, I noted that most houses in the older parts of the city are built using bricks and mortar, something I wasn't accustomed to coming from Canada, where everything is built with woodframe, and it struck me as somewhat quaint, in a good way.

Overall I would say I'm glad that I visited this city, but I certainly would never consider moving there on a more permanent basis. What balanced out my negative impressions however were the wonderful people I did meet and had the chance to interact with, and for this I'm deeply grateful. This once again leads me to conclude that it is the people one encounters in a place that make the deepest impression and that in fact "make" the place.