Sioux City??? Can You Tell Me About It? (Colo, Hills: house prices, job market)

[BThompson]

I am thinking about relocating back to Iowa to be closer to my girlfriend who lives in Sioux City. Can anyone tell me about the city and what it is like to live there? Work there? Go to school (college) there?

There seems to be an abundance of call center positions and most offer some tuition. Anyone have insight into these call centers? Alorica? Qwest? Stream?

Any thoughts on Western Iowa Tech? Briar Cliff? Thanks!

[vincolo1]

The best plan for you is to get your girlfriend to move away from Sioux City, not you move there. The town is dying and people know it. I lived there for 14 years and recently left. I am not a prejudice type, I am a professionally employed white collar worker.
Here is my take:
Sioux C has become mainly blue collar factory work.....the population there has increased but when you break down the details, educated people are leaving and being replaced by Hispanics and Asians. For every one of me that leave, 3 of them move in. House prices are terrible and you can buy an older home under $100,000 but your never make any money on it, your lose money over time. The town is dirty, stinky the roads are horrible, the taxes are over the top and it all going down hill from there. The job market as you said is all call centers, all service oriented low paying jobs. The colleges are over rated and over charging for what your getting.
In short, its a depressing area with a depressing outlook.

[Steve_W]

A agree and also agree the town has a funky smell. Thats the first thing you will notice.

[TommyG]

WITCC has good educational oppportunities, but you should also check Northeastern CC, just across the river in South Sioux. Their tuition is less, and there's no cross-state penalty for Sioux City residents. Briar Cliff is pricey and has a "big fish in a small pond" attitude. Morningside College has the better reputation.

Jobs are plentiful if you're looking for low-skilled work: Retail, flipping burgers, working at the mall... Professional jobs are much harder to come by. Outsourced call centers have been a booming industry around here, but a lot of them have bad reputations and heavy turnover. Northwest Airlines is opening a reservations center here later this year, but from what I hear the number applications to positions ratio is outrageous. There are just too many people around here who used to make good money who are now scraping the bottom of the barrel looking for anything halfway decent.

The funky smell primarily comes from the meat plants along I-29 and in the stockyards areas - it depends on which way the wind blows. This is only a small portion of town - the whole city doesn't stink like it.

The roads here are miserable - always under construction or ripped up with potholes. They don't fix the roads; they merely match them until they fall apart again. Shoddy work has its price. The local drivers have no idea what a turn signal is, or that a yellow light doesn't mean punch it and run the red. Consider yourself warned.

Culturally, Sioux City is pretty dull. There's bars and there's...well, bars. Smoking and drinking beer are the top two hobbies of the locals. That, and talking about college football year round. Restaurants are primarily national franchises, and the best way to guarantee success in the restaurant industry here is to open a buffet. Locals LOVE their buffets.

Housing prices are still cheap - there are plenty of nice homes out there for less than $100K. Newer construction will run you big city prices, though.

I've lived here for 8 years now. It's an okay place - not great, but not horrible either. Would I stay here forever? Nope. But for now it works.

[IG712]

I grew up in Sioux City....it is NOT THAT BAD!!! There are certainly alot worse places to raise children! I do not like the weather there, that goes not just for Sioux City but for the whole Midwest. Weather aside it is a fine place to live and raise a family.

[starbuckstasty]

I grew up in Sioux City too........ DONT move there!! uck! we go back every year to visit my grandparents... It's a dirty town, nothing to do, no jobs. It is getting a little better with them allowing new business into the area. That hasnt been done in 15 years! I'd say move to Minneapolis! The drive down is only 4 hours for us...

[MJ1986]

I agree with the previous posters...never lived in Sioux City, but I wouldn't recommend it. I live in Sioux Falls, about 75 miles north of Sioux City. They have Southeast Technical Institute, which I attended and really liked it.

[Fearringtonflash]

The smell is nothing like it was back in the early 1960's, before Armour, Swift, etc. closed. Ah, those hot, humid August nights with the smell of money!

[myrc60]

Originally Posted by Fearringtonflash

The smell is nothing like it was back in the early 1960's, before Armour, Swift, etc. closed. Ah, those hot, humid August nights with the smell of money!

I remember that smell; driving from Morningside to the downtown post office with my Dad late at night. On the way back I'd marvel at the milk sign as you got on the bridge over the stockyards. I lived in Morningside for almost 10 years leaving in 70 or 71. My favorite places were A&W and the Skating Rink.

[SiouxCityNative]

Sioux City is a great town with booming commercial developement. It has many well maintained city parks, and good high schools. It is situated mid-way between Sioux Falls and Omaha - which are nice to visit, but we are always happy to return home from the overcongestion of those towns. We used to go to Omaha and SF to shop several times a year, but since Lakeport Commons has opened next to the Southern Hills Mall, we have little reason to shop outside of town.

There are many community events happening year 'round, especially in the summer. At Grandview park, in the summer, they show free family movies Saturday nights and on Sunday evenings the municipal band gives free concerts. Sioux City is home to the Women's NAIA Basketball Tournament, and the Saturday in the Park band festival - to name only a few.

It's not difficult to find good paying jobs in this town. There are affordable neighborhoods, and high-income neighborhoods as well. You can ignore the "smell" comments listed here because it's soo overstated. You'll find no odor unless you are standing outside the water treatment plant, or the packing house - no different than in the industrial sections of other towns.

It's been a great place to live, with some of the nicest people you will ever find.

Do your own reseach at sioux-city.org, or check it out on wikipedia.com.