From Politico Magazine. The reawakening & emergence of Des Moines did not happen by accident (lofts, new house)

[ElleTea]

Originally Posted by Northeasterner1970

Very Rough? Now I did mention that there were some areas of Eastern Urbandale close to Hickman and Merle Hay Road that weren't aging well and do have some rundown buildings, but very rough? Are you maybe confusing Urbandale with another area?

This was my thought. The are near Merle Hay and Hickman isn't the greatest, but I would never describe any part of Urbandale as "very rough."

I lived on 68th Street just off Hickman for a time, a few blocks from Merle Hay mall and up until my last days in Des Moines (after I moved out of that neighborhood) I spent a lot of time in that area as I would shop at that Target, etc. I also looked at several houses east of Merle Hay at one point as well. Rundown? Some parts are. Very rough? No. I no longer live there but it hasn't been THAT long

[capitalcityguy]

Originally Posted by ElleTea

This was my thought. The are near Merle Hay and Hickman isn't the greatest, but I would never describe any part of Urbandale as "very rough."

I lived on 68th Street just off Hickman for a time, a few blocks from Merle Hay mall and up until my last days in Des Moines (after I moved out of that neighborhood) I spent a lot of time in that area as I would shop at that Target, etc. I also looked at several houses east of Merle Hay at one point as well. Rundown? Some parts are. Very rough? No. I no longer live there but it hasn't been THAT long

Even the intersection of MH Hay and Hickman is on the uptick. New CVS on one corner and across the street Hy-Vee has bought the land and is rumored to maybe installing one of their new neighborhood concept grocery stores. (or maybe just a HyVee Gas).

Not exactly cutting edge stuff, but the old, blighted is being replaced here so even what might have been borderline "rough", is no longer.

[Meemur]

No disrespect to anyone, but I consider 14th (I-69) south of University Ave "rough" as well as some of the neighborhoods to the east. This is where a number of the shootings have been happening.

When I first moved here, several of the neighborhoods right around the fairgrounds were also in decay, but as of the last 6 months or so, there has been a lot more renovation going on.

All of this said, there isn't *anywhere* in the entire metro that I would avoid during daylight hours! Sure, I keep my car doors locked, but I really don't worry about getting hit by a stray bullet as I have in other cities.

As for the night, I'm a woman, and there are places I don't go, but that's true of everywhere that I have lived.

[mofford]

That area around Merle Hay isn't nearly as bad as the River Bend neighborhood. In the MH neighborhood, there are a number of large aging apartment complexes such as the ones on the Des Moines side of Aurora, with some of the housing getting run down a bit, and that includes the east 10 blocks of Urbandale. But you don't really see a multitude of news reports on crime activity, like you do for Riverbend, bad stuff, lots of shootings, drugs, prostitution has always been a problem around there, drive by shootings. By Des Moines standards, it's the worst neighborhood in town but not by much (it would probably be considered a good neighborhood by Chicago standards). The area between MLK & 23rd is just as bad, over on the east side they have some pretty bad neighborhoods too, East Euclid has been getting hot these past couple years, and a large swath of the East side isn't a hell of a lot better than Riverbend in many respects.

Concerning Q-light's earlier post about all the trash, in yet another retarded proposal being cooked up in the state legislature, they want to repeal the state bottle deposit law that governor Ray signed in '78. This is so dumb and I always hated the way Hyvee fought this law, kicking and screaming for 40 years now. Voluntary recycling of cans means that every lazy toad is going to toss them out the window and throw them all over the place, and nobody will pick them up. In fact, the problem has been getting worse because a 1978 nickel has deflated so much that the bums have to work too hard for their booze money, and the kids have to pick up 20 cans just to buy a candy bar. What they ought to do is double the can and bottle deposit, 10 cents a can, 20 cents per bottle.

Go get em' Tony B (I hope he recycles his beer cans)

[Meemur]

Originally Posted by mofford

What they ought to do is double the can and bottle deposit, 10 cents a can, 20 cents per bottle.

I agree. Maybe I'll make pestering the reps about that my next project.

[capitalcityguy]

Originally Posted by Meemur

I agree. Maybe I'll make pestering the reps about that my next project.

I disagree.

Was the bottle deposit law good when it passed?

YES, but times have changed.

Now we have recycling bins and thus today's reality is I am forced to pay 5 cents extra per can for the privilege of bypassing my recycling bin to engage in the smelly task of hauling cans to the grocery store in the hopes to get my nickle back.

Often times you wait in line.
Very often the machines are broken down.
It ALWAYS smells.

Times change. This law served its purpose, but is no longer needed.

[Northeasterner1970]

Originally Posted by mofford

That area around Merle Hay isn't nearly as bad as the River Bend neighborhood. In the MH neighborhood, there are a number of large aging apartment complexes such as the ones on the Des Moines side of Aurora, with some of the housing getting run down a bit, and that includes the east 10 blocks of Urbandale. But you don't really see a multitude of news reports on crime activity, like you do for Riverbend, bad stuff, lots of shootings, drugs, prostitution has always been a problem around there, drive by shootings. By Des Moines standards, it's the worst neighborhood in town but not by much

Those apartment buildings aren't even that aged, it's more of a mix, some of them are kinda new looking. It's not even all of East Urbandale, it's more of the area around Hickman and Merle Hay Road.

Also, I wouldn't consider Riverbend one of the worst neighborhoods in Des Moines. The area has improved so much and is continuing to improve along with a lot of the rest of the city. It is close to some of the worst areas though, but I would not consider it one of them due to the the neighborhood changing for the better.

[mofford]

Originally Posted by capitalcityguy

I disagree.

Was the bottle deposit law good when it passed?

YES, but times have changed.

Now we have recycling bins and thus today's reality is I am forced to pay 5 cents extra per can for the privilege of bypassing my recycling bin to engage in the smelly task of hauling cans to the grocery store in the hopes to get my nickle back.

Often times you wait in line.
Very often the machines are broken down.
It ALWAYS smells.

Times change. This law served its purpose, but is no longer needed.

Iowa has an 89% return rate on cans and bottles because of the deposit law, states with voluntary recycling have only around 40% return rate. There's no reason to believe that Iowa would be any better, and millions more cans would end up in the regular trash, or along the roads and on your lawn, or in the neighborhood parks and trails.

Of all the grocery stores, HyVee makes the bottle return process the most miserable. They intentionally don't keep enough machines in operation so they can shift their volume of bottle returns to competing stores, which helps them and hurts the competition. Add to that, HyVee often runs the best sales on pop and beer to get top sales volume in beverages, outselling the competition. I know their game and why they do it, but I think it's crap. I fantasize about dumping big piles of bottles and cans on the front lawns of all the HyVee corporate people.

The problem with the machines is people seem to think it's OK to save up a months worth of cans before they cash them in. If they would do it every week when they go to the store, that would reduce wait times. The smell is a small price to pay for a beautiful Iowa, and recycling aluminum and glass saves a lot of energy. Voluntary recycling makes it too easy for people to toss it where it don't belong, many people in apartments probably don't even have a recycling bin and won't even bother to separate the cans, unless they have some monetary value. We need to increase that monetary value from 1978 prices to 2017 prices so the bottle law continues to function as designed. We should be trying to get the return rate up to 100%, not down to 40%....that's retarded !

Northeasterner70, they may have made some improvements to Riverbend, but the violent crime in that area has not really improved. That neighborhood has been bad going back to the 1960's. I'm hard pressed to think of any other neighborhood that is worse. I've noticed these past couple years the neighborhood north of Easter Lake off Park Ave, which had troubles a few years ago seems to be a little more calm. I don't think the SE bottoms off Hartford and Maurry on the south side are quite as bad as they once were either, and now that club 508 got shut down on Thomas Beck, perhaps that neighborhood near MacRae park will come off the skids and get a little better now. I agree with you on Hickman & Merle Hay Road, that might be a little worse than up by Aurora, but there's problems up there too. Having 2 cops killed on your turf did not help the image of that area either, one on Aurora & 70th, the other on MHR & Sheridan, by the same guy from Urbandale.

[Northeasterner1970]

QUOTE=mofford;47367024]

Northeasterner70, they may have made some improvements to Riverbend, but the violent crime in that area has not really improved. That neighborhood has been bad going back to the 1960's. I'm hard pressed to think of any other neighborhood that is worse. I've noticed these past couple years the neighborhood north of Easter Lake off Park Ave, which had troubles a few years ago seems to be a little more calm. I don't think the SE bottoms off Hartford and Maurry on the south side are quite as bad as they once were either, and now that club 508 got shut down on Thomas Beck, perhaps that neighborhood near MacRae park will come off the skids and get a little better now. I agree with you on Hickman & Merle Hay Road, that might be a little worse than up by Aurora, but there's problems up there too. Having 2 cops killed on your turf did not help the image of that area either, one on Aurora & 70th, the other on MHR & Sheridan, by the same guy from Urbandale.[/quote]

If you look at what is directly the neighborhood Riverbend, crime isn't actually that bad, and I believe it has decreased in the past few decades, like I said, Riverbend still has problems, but the worst neighborhoods in the city are close by, but not directly in Riverbend itself. Crime wise, a lot of the crime concentrations are actually a couple of blocks west of what the boundaries of the neighborhood are.

[ElleTea]

While Riverbend might not be the worst of the worst, it is near the bottom, that we all seem to agree upon. Hopefully our friend from ND can get out and about in other parts of the metro and feel better about his decision to move to DM. A different location can really change your perspective on things. Once spring comes and the trees are blooming and everything is greening up, everything can seem much better.

I can relate. I live in Phoenix as most of you know (lived in Iowa all my life up till Nov 2013) and it has taken me a few moves to figure out where I "fit" here. One neighborhood I chose seemed to be great at first but it ended up not being where I wanted to me and just merely being there at all was really starting to depress me. I actually was beginning to question whether I wanted to stay in Phoenix at all and started to research other places to move to. (other warm weather areas of course ) In my searches I also came across a great little house with a great pool in an area that I knew I liked but hadn't considered moving to before. I ended up buying that house a year ago and have been MUCH happier in my new neighborhood!

I love Des Moines; I would still live there if not for winter. I was always fascinated by the Riverbend area. I drove 2nd Avenue to and from work every day and sometimes would shortcut through there. I can only imagine what the area was like in its prime with all the grand old houses, and it was heartbreaking to see the shape they were in. I do remember seeing the signs regarding the revitalization efforts but that doesn't happen overnight.