Article Contributed on: 1/23/2007 12:03:49 AM
Thanks to the fifth snow storm in as many weeks, Sunday afternoon wasn't the best time to drive from Boulder to Denver. Especially if you've been living in south Florida for the last four months.
"Miami has had almost no winter this year," said Danny de Zayas, 24, one half of Denver's soon-to-be-newest residents at an East Colfax Avenue coffee shop after making the treacherous drive down U.S. 36. Not only will de Zayas and his girlfriend
Nina Barry, 26, be the newest Denverites, but they could be the most famous local couple you've never heard of.
Neither of them play sports, or have a band or have been on a reality television show. They achieved their Internet fame by posing one simple question to the World Wide Web: "Where should we live?"
Four months, millions of votes and some heated forum discussions later, the Web gave them their answer: Denver.
Million-vote city
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1,001,419 - The number of votes the Mile High City garnered on dannyandnina.com.
973,946 - The number of votes second-place Plano, Texas, received.
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The couple was living in New York City, Nina working as an artist and illustrator and Danny as a DJ/Internet entrepreneur/marketing consultant, when they decided to cast their fate into the digital winds. They set up
dannyandnina.com with the premise that the first city to reach one million votes would be their new home for at least a year.
Denver was a dark horse candidate, only reaching the upper levels of the voting in the final days. Most of the debate on the site was centered around the second- and third-place cities, South Bend, Ind., and Plano, Texas.
They moved from New York to south Florida to be near Danny's parents while the saga played itself out. But for all the hoopla, for all the anticipation, worry and stress, only one thing is for certain: The voting is over and they're not in Florida or New York anymore.
For one thing, the beer is cheaper. At the Curtis Street Bar on Saturday night, Danny marveled at the availability of a $2 beer. "Even at the lowest dive bars in New York, you'd be paying $5 or $6 for the same beer." The lower cost of living was definitely an unexpected benefit of the move, they said, but they "could have moved just about anywhere and had it be cheaper than New York or Miami," Danny said.
"I'd like to think that we are approachable people."
-Danny de Zayas
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The nightlife of Denver has already offered some memorable first experiences for the couple, who are at once flattered and a little bit confused by being recognized, thanks to a short article and photo in the Jan. 18 edition of
Westword. Waiting at a stop light in Capitol Hill on Friday night, a group of girls in another car were frantically waving at the two of them, finally getting them to roll their windows down. "They just yelled 'Hey, you're the couple from the paper! Welcome to Denver!' and just drove off," Nina said. "Yeah, Nina was really enjoying it, but for me, it was really kind of awkward," Danny said.
A similar encounter with the oddly starstruck at the Curtis Street Bar left the pair with a surreal feeling. "I'd like to think that we are approachable people," Danny said, "People can come up and talk to us."
The couple's move, as with any cross-country relocation, has its share of bugs. For instance, they both need jobs. While most people follow gainful employment to a new city, their unique situation didn't even allow them to start looking for jobs until a few weeks ago. Nina is getting in touch with the local arts community (the pair are very excited to attend the Santa Fe Arts District's First Friday event Feb. 2) and in the meantime will be hanging some of her art work at the Barnes & Noble store in Boulder, "which isn't exactly what I was looking for, but it's a start," she said.
"We're both very entrepreneurial-minded, so it would be great if we could get something going here on our own," Danny said.
Even before the masses chose Denver as their new home, Nina had some local connections. She spent her adolescence in Boulder after being born and raised in Moscow (her family still lives there) and she had painted a violin for the Boulder Philharmonic's ArtStrings fundraiser (her work goes on display at the Exhibitrek Gallery at 1711 15th St. in Boulder on Jan. 27) . "I was going to have to come to Boulder this month anyway, so things just sort of worked out," Nina said.
Then there's the matter of apartments. The couple are staying with Nina's relatives in Boulder, but spending most of their time in Denver checking out neighborhoods, particularly Capitol Hill and Highland, on recommendations and research and hope to be settled in their new hometown in a few weeks. "But that all depends on what jobs we get," Nina said.
For more about Danny and Nina, visit their blog at
blogs.move.com/dannyandnina. For more about the moving project, visit their Web site,
dannyandnina.com.
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Eric J. Lubbers can be reached at
lubberse@YourHub.com.