Greeley is getting a lot of hate on social media today because of a Tweet with a Map about cities in every state that people like to Dunk On.

But I just want to note real quick that the VAST MAJORITY of the hate re: Greeley is 1. factually inaccurate and 2. largely just prejudice against poor and working class people.

People who haven't lived or probably even visited Greeley like to claim that it smells like cow poop here constantly, but that is laughably false. At worst it smells bad for like an hour one day per month.

This is because one of the largest employers here — if not the largest — is a meat processing plant. The vast majority of workers there, by the way, are refugees and working class minorities.

When I moved here, people told me that the "dangerous" parts of town were on the north and east sides. Turns out, those are just the historically Latino portions of the city.

Drive through those portions of the city at night and know what you see? Families grilling on their front lawns. Scandalous!

In my experience, the area around Commerce City smells much worse and on a much more regular basis than Greeley. But the industries that cause those smells are populated by whiter workers, so there's less overt finger poking.

I also constantly see people say that Greeley has a "high crime rate," but that's just not true. Safewise ranks 60 Colorado cities based on violent/property crime, and Greeley/Evans come in at 36/39. Colo Springs? 46. Denver? 56.

I tried to have a night out in Grand Junction once and got pointed to ... Applebees. The poor waitress there told me they stay open serving drinks until 2 a.m.

Greeley's folks laugh that story out of the water. There's tons of nightlife here!

And some like to think of Greeley of a conservative city with strict laws or something, but that's not true either. Greeley's Go-Cup District was a pioneer in outdoor alcohol consumption on a closed downtown portion of the city!

When there isn't a pandemic, Greeley hosts weekly evening concerts outdoors with to-go alcoholic beverages purchasable from downtown businesses. Conservative cities don't do that!

There's also this notion that Greeley is a small town on the edge of Civilization, but that's not true either! Greeley just passed Boulder in population. https://www.dailycamera.com/2020/05/20/census-data-boulders-population-declines-for-third-straight-year/

I'm not going to try to keep people from dunking on Greeley, because they probably always will. But I would seriously encourage friends and acquaintances from other parts of Colorado to come visit my humble little city. I promise you'll like it more than you think.

There are great people here, and they work hard in dangerous conditions to put food on your table and electricity in your outlet. Pointing at them and telling them they smell is just a kick in the stomach they don't deserve.

/rant