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Originally Posted by caphillsea77
Lets rephrase this please. I understand you have an affection for your hometown and you probably know a great deal more about it than I do as compared with my brief visit there. However I never expressed hatred towards Des Moines, hate is a very strong term to use and I've never been to any city anywhere that I truly say I genuinely hate. That said, walking around Des Moines I just really wasn't that impressed. I don't really consider size as part of the equation as I've been to cities a fraction of its size that have livelier and more eclectic downtowns. Downtown Des Moines just seemed very 9-5sh to me, not a whole lot of pedestrian activity, and going towards the state house it didn't seem very cohesive (though there were small patches of blocks in between that had some interesting elements). That's just my observation. I will say from an architectural point of view the State House is very impressive and the skyline is very remarkable considering the size of the city, nice freeways there too.
I just preferred Omaha as that was the next city I hit on my roadtrip, and I hadn't realized it was that much bigger than Des Moines to be honest. They both seemed like peer mid sized cities to me. I really liked the Old Market, there were a lot of people out walking around, and it just seemed to have a lot of charm to me. Also the parkland along the Missouri River was nicely developed and overall it just seemed like an atrractive city to me, especially since I didn't have any expectations from it.
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Okay, here goes:
I only use the term "hate" because I've seen you go out of your way to bring up Des Moines and call it out as boring in more than one thread recently. Clearly you don't actually hate it, but that's certainly closer to the vibe you give than "indifferent."
So I'm really not sure what to tell you other than I hardly ever see downtown without a decent amount of pedestrian activity, even in the winter. Guess it was just a slow day!
If you ever make it back, the skyways are almost always bustling, and there's plenty of activity downtown in the evenings. The thing to remember is that it did go through many many years of blandness, and it's just emerged from that in the last 10-15 years or so.
Honestly, East Village and Court Ave together are a match for Omaha's Old Market, culturally and aesthetically (or if they aren't now, give it five years and it will be right on par), and we have some beautiful park space on and near the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers, as well as a shiny new Riverwalk growing along the Des Moines River. Like I said, I don't begrudge you your opinion at all, it's just out of the ordinary for people who don't live in Omaha or Des Moines to have such a clear preference.
And I'll close by saying that Des Moines had to work hard to win me over when I first moved here after six years in the Twin Cities. One of the reasons I like it now is that it's one of the few metros in the nation that's exploding. It's been great fun to see it blossom over the last ten years, and what's even more fun is that it's not slowing down.
That's all I'm saying! Hopefully there's something of interest to you buried in there.
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As a state politically I realize that Iowa is a very purple state and certainly not blue to the degree found around Minneapolis. Though given that its a heartland state and that it has maintained having legalized gay marriage since 2009 and it put Obama on the radar for the Democratic ballot back in 2008 I consider it an exceptionally progressive state. It seems to have those Upper Midwest liberal sensibilities in many pockets. Iowa is also exponentially more liberal than Arkansas.
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Damn right!
One reason we don't much like to be grouped with the Great Plains states.
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