Would you call Des Moines a 'vibrant' city? (Iowa City, Ames: fit in, insurance)

[kipp]

Hi. I'm 21 years old, and feeling adventurous. I'm planning to move to a totally random city, put myself in an entirely foreign environment, and completely build a life from scratch. Maybe I'll stay there permanently, or maybe it will be a longterm 'vacation' from my current life. Whatever the case, it should be fun.

Des Moines is one of the places that I'm considering. I want to go some place where I can experience winter -I live in the Dallas, TX area right now -and plus its kinda cool that the females in my age group FAR outnumber the males according to city-data ;]. (why is that by the way, is there an all female college or something?)

I'm just afraid that I might be bored in Des Moines. I've definitely gotten used to constantly having something fun to do, which is one of the perks of living in a big place like DFW. I do like the fact that you guys get major concerts for a city of your size. But overall, would Des Moines fit into the category of vibrant and exciting (like Dallas, Austin, Houston) or quiet and industrial (Fort Worth, San Antonio, ect.)

What is life typically like for a young person in Des Moines? How is the night life, especially? Can you tell me some fun things to do in your city?

It'd be awesome if I was to learn that Des Moines had a rave scene -google hasn't yielded results at all, so I'm not holding my breath. Obviously,you guys dont get major festivals like Electric Daisy or Nocturnal, but are there any rave clubs?

Please, tell me some cool things about your city: Fun things to do, the general atmosphere, ect. I'm very interested in knowing what life is like in Des Moines.

[orthosophy]

Originally Posted by kipp

Hi. I'm 21 years old, and feeling adventurous. I'm planning to move to a totally random city, put myself in an entirely foreign environment, and completely build a life from scratch. Maybe I'll stay there permanently, or maybe it will be a longterm 'vacation' from my current life. Whatever the case, it should be fun.

Des Moines is one of the places that I'm considering. I want to go some place where I can experience winter -I live in the Dallas, TX area right now -and plus its kinda cool that the females in my age group FAR outnumber the males according to city-data ;]. (why is that by the way, is there an all female college or something?)

I'm just afraid that I might be bored in Des Moines. I've definitely gotten used to constantly having something fun to do, which is one of the perks of living in a big place like DFW. I do like the fact that you guys get major concerts for a city of your size. But overall, would Des Moines fit into the category of vibrant and exciting (like Dallas, Austin, Houston) or quiet and industrial (Fort Worth, San Antonio, ect.)

What is life typically like for a young person in Des Moines? How is the night life, especially? Can you tell me some fun things to do in your city?

It'd be awesome if I was to learn that Des Moines had a rave scene -google hasn't yielded results at all, so I'm not holding my breath. Obviously,you guys dont get major festivals like Electric Daisy or Nocturnal, but are there any rave clubs?

Please, tell me some cool things about your city: Fun things to do, the general atmosphere, ect. I'm very interested in knowing what life is like in Des Moines.

Austin? No way. Will you get bored out of your mind? No. I lived in DSM for quite some time and while there in nowhere near what you will find in a genuine metropolis, DSM had enough going on to keep you busy. You will have college and bush league sports; bball, hockey, baseball (AAA ball...Cubs), and I'm not sure if they have a new arena football team but that was a blast when they did. You will have a load of concerts both in DSM and 20 minutes away in Ames.

You will have Iowa City within an hour or so, if you need to pop over, and Omaha isn't terribly far.

Austin, DFW, or Houstin it definitely will not be. That being said if you are willing to look, there is enough to keep you occupied.

[orthosophy]

Also I didn't answer some of you questions because even though I was your age when I lived there, I'm 33 now, and only stop in to see fam. When I was your age, nightlife was ok, not awesome, and a lot of what we seemed to do was fun because I was just in with a fun group of people. You could go do a different bar every night, there are clubs and stuff, but those change too fast for me to be fair.

There were sections where DSM was more blue collar or white collar. I cant tell you how they are now, except the Prudential, Principal, and and other insurance groups are huge presences in DSM.

[steel03]

Originally Posted by kipp

Des Moines is one of the places that I'm considering. I want to go some place where I can experience winter -I live in the Dallas, TX area right now -and plus its kinda cool that the females in my age group FAR outnumber the males according to city-data ;]. (why is that by the way, is there an all female college or something?)

Well, you definitely will experience winter. Des Moines gets quite a bit of snow that stays all season, and there's also a fair amount of ice. It's not quite as frigid as it gets further north, but it looks similar. There's no all-female college, not sure why that statistic is that way.

I'm just afraid that I might be bored in Des Moines. I've definitely gotten used to constantly having something fun to do, which is one of the perks of living in a big place like DFW. I do like the fact that you guys get major concerts for a city of your size. But overall, would Des Moines fit into the category of vibrant and exciting (like Dallas, Austin, Houston) or quiet and industrial (Fort Worth, San Antonio, ect.)

There is a lot more going on in DSM than we usually get credit for. Like you say, we do get major concerts and other national events like that because of our location on I-80 and I-35. There are a bunch of up-and-coming bands and quite a few venues around the city. We also have a nice downtown area with some really good food, especially on Court Avenue, and lots of fun shops, especially in the East Village.

The really great thing about Des Moines is that it isn't far from anything. There are things to do in the city, but it's never difficult to drive to the Twin Cities (4 hours) or Omaha (2.5 hours) or Kansas City (3 hours) or Iowa City (2 hours) and Chicago and St. Louis (both about 6 hours) are easily accessible.

What is life typically like for a young person in Des Moines? How is the night life, especially? Can you tell me some fun things to do in your city?

I'm not an expert on night life, but I know there are options. Honestly, my best advice is just to come and explore for a while. There's a pretty big focus in the metro on families with younger kids, but there is a growing population of young people going kind of unnoticed and making the city their own.

It'd be awesome if I was to learn that Des Moines had a rave scene -google hasn't yielded results at all, so I'm not holding my breath. Obviously,you guys dont get major festivals like Electric Daisy or Nocturnal, but are there any rave clubs?

Like I said, I'm not an expert, but I believe there are a few clubs. And again, MSP and Kansas City are both easily accessible.

Please, tell me some cool things about your city: Fun things to do, the general atmosphere, ect. I'm very interested in knowing what life is like in Des Moines.

We have an outstanding live theatre scene for a city our size. Locust Theatre at the Des Moines Social Club has been doing sort of amazing things in the past few years. Our Civic Center has a high-quality Broadway series that routinely gets pretty big shows (Next to Normal, Spring Awakening, Wicked, etc).
Des Moines itself is quite liberal. Some of the suburbs, particularly West Des Moines, lean right, but the city is dark blue. And remember the Iowa caucuses are a huge deal, so we get tons of national attention and lots of candidate visits every election.
The skyline is fairly impressive for a city this size. Compare it to similarly proportioned Boise, ID, or Madison, WI, each with about 200k in the city and 500-600k in the metro.
It's growing fast and there's a lot of attention being paid to aesthetics.
We have a wonderful sculpture garden downtown.
The Iowa State Fair is very famous and absolutely worth a visit. I like it, but honestly, the Minnesota State Fair is better.
Drake University is located a few miles west of downtown, and that's a really pretty area with some fun shops and restaurants and coffee shops and things.

Des Moines is not a huge city like DFW, so it's going to be a bit of an adjustment. There is stuff to do, but you may need to make stuff to do for yourself every once in a while. But I don't think that's a bad thing. Nonetheless, I do think it's a vibrant city and I think you should check it out.

[jaxontwinz]

I wouldn't say Des Moines is vibrant, but it is definitly up and coming. Drake is in town, so you get college nightlife (somewhat), Iowa City is close by and so is Ames. Twin Cities are very close as well as Kansas City. Chicago and St. Louis are also 6 hours away. You will for sure get a winter experience.

If you don't decide Des Moines, I would look at the Twin Cities and even KC.

[Dport7674]

I don't spend a lot of time in Des Moines, but it's definitely on an upswing. It's been getting a lot of attention in the media for having a pretty strong economy and it has become a bit of a hotbed for companies setting up shop.

[fezzador]

Compared to Chicago, Dallas, MSP, and the like, no, DSM isn't particularly vibrant.

For a city its size, DSM more than holds its own.

[jorstad]

yes you would get bored there
go bigger city
plenty of big cities have winter

[capitalcityguy]

Originally Posted by jorstad

yes you would get bored there
go bigger city
plenty of big cities have winter

As you, yourself, pointed out on another thread, you've never lived here.

To the OP, take that in to consideration on how helpful this poster (whose past posts already demonstrate a negative disposition) can be in answering your questions here.

[downtownr]

I would. It's growing at a consistent rate, and it has attracted a lot of new young professionals as of late. The arts scene is blossoming, and overall the job market is good.