I visited Des Moines (and West Des Moines) and here are my thoughts! (Iowa City: condo, hotel)

[YoungTraveler2011]

Firstly, I thought there was nothing to see here. Maybe that's true for most of the state but when I arrived in Des Moines, I was completely shocked.

It may not be a Chicago, but it's a nice mid-size city. Some pretty cool monuments/architectures, restaurants, and I noticed a lot of new condo developments. They seemed pretty nice. The city wasn't too dense which is actually nice. It was somewhat spread out so that gave it a good feel driving around it.

The capitol building was beautiful!

We went to The Cheesecake Factory in West Des Moines and that whole business area was beautiful. Huge lake in the middle and a nice sidewalk around it.

But the point of this thread is to just say that I was expecting Des Moines to be just a sucky mid-size city with nothing to see or do, but it seemed pretty nice!

I didn't have experience with a lot of people there but at least the waiters were very polite.

But yeah, that's that lol.

Cheers!

[Tek_Freek]

I'm glad you had a chance to see the capital. It is an awesome building and was completely refurbished before the economy went south. Did you have a chance to go inside? That is even better than outside!

The Cheesecake Factory is in Jordan Creek Town Center - "Town Center" being a fancy pants way of saying "Mall". We live a couple of miles from it and find it to have really boosted the area in terms of business. Before it went in that entire area was sparsely populated with housing and no businesses at all. To give you an idea of how fast the area around it has grown - we moved in 23 years ago and there was nothing west of the interstate - one hotel and, I think, a McDonald's. I'm sure you saw how built up it is.

Quite a change. I'm glad you enjoyed the time you had here.

[hawkeye2009]

Originally Posted by YoungTraveler2011

Firstly, I thought there was nothing to see here. Maybe that's true for most of the state but when I arrived in Des Moines, I was completely shocked.

It may not be a Chicago, but it's a nice mid-size city. Some pretty cool monuments/architectures, restaurants, and I noticed a lot of new condo developments. They seemed pretty nice. The city wasn't too dense which is actually nice. It was somewhat spread out so that gave it a good feel driving around it.

The capitol building was beautiful!

We went to The Cheesecake Factory in West Des Moines and that whole business area was beautiful. Huge lake in the middle and a nice sidewalk around it.

But the point of this thread is to just say that I was expecting Des Moines to be just a sucky mid-size city with nothing to see or do, but it seemed pretty nice!

I didn't have experience with a lot of people there but at least the waiters were very polite.

But yeah, that's that lol.

Cheers!

Glad to hear it. We have somewhat of an inferiority complex in Iowa and are somewhat surprised when people from out of state like Iowa. I love it, as it is clean and friendly. Glad you had a positive experience!

If and when you come back again, check out the Living History Farms. It is interesting to see a real 1800s working farm in action and it is not a cheesy tourist trap.

[ElleTea]

Love to hear stories like this. I've heard similar from other people, they are always pleasantly suprised when they come here.

I agree about the capital building, and also hope you had a change to go inside. It's gorgeous.

Did you happen to see the sculpture garden downtown? Pappajohn Sculpture Park | Des Moines, Iowa

I've lived in Des Moines 10 years and it's not the same city now as it was then. The transformation has been amazing. At it's still growing!

[Tek_Freek]

Originally Posted by ElleTea

Love to hear stories like this. I've heard similar from other people, they are always pleasantly suprised when they come here.

I agree about the capital building, and also hope you had a change to go inside. It's gorgeous.

Did you happen to see the sculpture garden downtown? Pappajohn Sculpture Park | Des Moines, Iowa

I've lived in Des Moines 10 years and it's not the same city now as it was then. The transformation has been amazing. At it's still growing!

I've lived here 63 and it isn't the city I grew up in!! Quite different now.

[il_blguy87]

I am pretty sure dm, Ames and Iowa City areas are the only nice parts of the Iowa that have grown and underwent development.

And only des Moines offers some big city utilities as Madison, st louis or Chicago. And that is minor release movies in theaters. Remember that movie "cedar rapids"? When it was released initially it was not even available in cr!

One thing that annoys me about Iowa and affects DM as well is cable franchise monopoly by mediacom. They carry wore picture quality than sattelite for sure. And they are overpriced, carry poor service and lock you in 2 year contract. Summarizing if u seen mediacom, ur glad u have Comcast (ironic but true).

Another is that flying from des Moines airport is expensive, bc it is "small city " airport
. But there is Omaha with large airport 2 hours from there so I guess it helps find low airfares.

[Tek_Freek]

Originally Posted by il_blguy87

I am pretty sure dm, Ames and Iowa City areas are the only nice parts of the Iowa that have grown and underwent development.

And only des Moines offers some big city utilities as Madison, st louis or Chicago. And that is minor release movies in theaters. Remember that movie "cedar rapids"? When it was released initially it was not even available in cr!

One thing that annoys me about Iowa and affects DM as well is cable franchise monopoly by mediacom. They carry wore picture quality than sattelite for sure. And they are overpriced, carry poor service and lock you in 2 year contract. Summarizing if u seen mediacom, ur glad u have Comcast (ironic but true).

Another is that flying from des Moines airport is expensive, bc it is "small city " airport
. But there is Omaha with large airport 2 hours from there so I guess it helps find low airfares.

Being a Mediacom customer, and we have been since before they were Mediacom (Remember Heritage?), I find that their service is excellent. If we have a problem they are quick to fix it, and if I want I can drive to their office and get a new modem, DVR, cable unit, etc any time I want to. Just swap it out.

[linicx]

I'm glad your experience was good. It proves that not all of the Midwest is a one big rust belt city that is dying on the vine. If you poke around you can probably find other areas in the Midwest that have not been overly affected from loss of industry.

Iowa City is also known for specialty medical supplies like prothesis. Not everyone knows how to measure it or fit them properly. IC was the only place my sister-in-law's Illinois doctor would send her.

Originally Posted by YoungTraveler2011

Firstly, I thought there was nothing to see here. Maybe that's true for most of the state but when I arrived in Des Moines, I was completely shocked.

It may not be a Chicago, but it's a nice mid-size city. Some pretty cool monuments/architectures, restaurants, and I noticed a lot of new condo developments. They seemed pretty nice. The city wasn't too dense which is actually nice. It was somewhat spread out so that gave it a good feel driving around it.

The capitol building was beautiful!

We went to The Cheesecake Factory in West Des Moines and that whole business area was beautiful. Huge lake in the middle and a nice sidewalk around it.

But the point of this thread is to just say that I was expecting Des Moines to be just a sucky mid-size city with nothing to see or do, but it seemed pretty nice!

I didn't have experience with a lot of people there but at least the waiters were very polite.

But yeah, that's that lol.

Cheers!

[il_blguy87]

Originally Posted by Tek_Freek

Being a Mediacom customer, and we have been since before they were Mediacom (Remember Heritage?), I find that their service is excellent. If we have a problem they are quick to fix it, and if I want I can drive to their office and get a new modem, DVR, cable unit, etc any time I want to. Just swap it out.

What city? And you must have dealt with them only locally. Try to use their CS on the phone. Mediacom in Dubuque is awful. If they are really that cool, then why:

-in some areas they lock you into 2 year contract, especially where they don't compete.
- their video channels are so compressed that many of their HD channels look like SD, you notice overcompression, blur
- lend outdated old cr**py motorola DVR boxes
- keep cable nodes oveersold so that your high speed internet on evenings goes from 12mb/s to 2mb/s. So I get only 16% of the speed while still paying 100% of the monthly fee each month (residential speeds are not guaranteed but minimum acceptable standard is 80%).
- offer only very small selection of free shows or movies on VOD
- Do not have iPad, iPhone apps to watch VOD shows online on the go
- offer no HBO GO
- even have no NFL Zone ( or at least did not have for too long until recently)
- their website does not allow service orders, manage your account except to pay bills
- do not even disclose all fees on the website except promotional such as VIP bundles
- have look of the website from 90's
- never partnered with Clearwire or any tier 1 telecom (i.e. VZW, At&t) to offer wireless 3G/4G internet on the go or bundles with wireless phone plans?

Its clear when people prefer to opt to Dish or DirecTV over cable like Mediacom, regardless of signal loss during poor weather, its because their service is substandard. And since mediacom uses 2 year contract, you might as well go with satellite that will offer you better deals (better prices, programming, features).

Source: personal experience, former customer of Comcast, RCN. Bottom line is Mediacom is primarily a rural service provider where you cannot expect the same level of service as from a large cable company in cities. Also Mediacom is very mismanaged.

The February 2010 issue of Consumer Reports ranked Mediacom 15th of 16th in TV Service, 24th of 27 in internet, and last of 23 based on surveys.

[Tek_Freek]

I don't live in Dubuque. Not my problem. Sorry.