Denver is my city, but I don't think it qualifies.

I think Denver has a lot of great qualities - it is the home of outdoor/mountain life in the US, has the fittest population of any major city, is one of the biggest hubs of craft beer and cannabis, and is a significant player in tech, aerospace, and finance. Considering "Denver" to be the whole Front Range and I70 corridor, we are also a major military hub, the home of the olympics training center, and a hub for advanced computer chip design. We have a significant EDM music scene, the world famous Red Rocks amphitheatre, and world famous skiing at Aspen and Vail.

However, I can't imagine putting Denver on the list at #4 for major American cities - the biggest factor simply being population. NYC metro has a population of 24 million. SF: 9 million; Houston: 8 million; Atlanta: 7 million. Denver has 3 million.

That might be forgiveable if it were more influential in culture, politics, or economics - but it isn't. The political and economic power of Houston-Dallas have been the driving force in all the wars we've been in for the past 30 years: oil. Denver's biggest political claim to fame is making weed legal. Our urbanist movement seems to have stalled out, and as many of my friends have commented - the city itself is fairly ugly in most places. And Denver fails to have any kind of unique and distinctive cuisine, instead, having a food scene that is, in the estimation of everyone who has visited, quite bad.

The three major cultural forces in Denver are Mexican, Midwestern Nice, and Mountain Yuppie. All of these together tend to create culture that is diven and hard-working, but that also has other priorities (like family, work-life balance, and time in the mountains). But this also creates a culture that has less emphasis on relaxation, creativity, and social openness. I've often said that the reason Denver punches under its weight on food and night life is because the typical demographic you would see hitting bars and restaurants on a Friday night - young professionals with disposable income - are going to bed early to go hiking Saturday morning. And these cultural priorities (along with the general auto-dependence of the city) combine to create a city that is not particularly welcoming to visitors and newcomers, and which mostly keeps to itself on the national and international stage. And at least politically, I think this has worked out well for us as (Imo) we typically have extremely sensible legislation governing the city and state (compared to other cities and states I hear about, at least).

While I would love to see Denver grow into one of the great cities in north america, at present I see it as more of a character actor - a city that is known and relevant because of a certain aspect of itself, but which is not a major player. Thus, it finds itself in the company of cities like Portland, New Orleans, Austin, Orlando, Las Vegas, or Detroit - cities that a foreigner has a 50/50 shot of knowing about because of a distinctive characteristic they have.