Burlington, IA questions.

[BRL resident]

Unfortunately BRL, Ft. Madison, and Keokuk are in an economic decline. This whole area is built on blue collar, industrial, and factory jobs. In the global market that we live in today thousands of good paying jobs have left the area and have been replaced with low paying service jobs. Thats why there are groups such as Grow Greater Burlington, Chamber of Commerce, SE IA Regional Planning Commission out promoting the "Great River Region" as field of economic development for businesses. The people of this region want to see it grow.

[Lilia83]

Originally Posted by NMFrontier

Thinking about transfering out of NM to Burlington, IA. Wondering what the town is like as far as crime, good schools etc. We have a one year old and four year old and Clovis,NM is just getting very bad. We just came back from Burlington but only stayed one day, and couldn't get a real good judgement on it. Thought it was beautiful though. Thanks for any input.

Jason McGregor
dakota19@suddenlink.net

I love Burlington, it's like a "big" small town. I lived close by, and visted very often. The homes, especially the historic homes are incredibly beautiful(and alot of them are priced pretty good too).
And of course there is the beautiful Mississippi River! I have never been bored in Iowa, which sounds odd. It's even better if you are a big fan of nature, as there are lots of parks that are just right for a family picnic. Also if you love history.
Crime is low, in fact, I always remember that when something did happen people would talk about it for weeks. You wouldn't believe the boring stuff that often graces the front pages of the Hawk Eye.
This area is defintely a great place to raise a young family, good luck!

[WoodwardGirl]

Originally Posted by Lilia83

You wouldn't believe the boring stuff that often graces the front pages of the Hawk Eye.

LOL! Good point, Lilia83! What passes for news in both the local print and television media would probably be a real shocker for some people! I don't mean to criticize our media when I say that -- they just don't have much to work with! Sometimes my husband and I joke that they ought to call off the evening news for lack material and just show a rerun of M*A*S*H or something... Another good reason to love living in a so-called "boring" place!!!!

[richierich52601]

I was born and raised here now for 37 years, I have a 13 year old daughter so its a great school system, not much goes on down here, the town is pretty much becoming a retirement town. Alot of people have moved away my age, but I think they will return when they get older as alot of people do later on in life. But as far as the town goes, its a nice town just wish their were more options for jobs.

[theclaw]

I also was born and raised in Burlington, IA. I also had the good sense to get out. Though it's FAR from the worst place to grow up, there are just too few opportunities there. Almost all my of old friends there have low-wage jobs, commute to other towns, or have no job at all. Its one of iowa's oldest towns (founded the same year as Chicago) so there's a lot of history and historic architecture. Also, not your typical Iowa (boring) landscape. its filled with forests, creeks, very hilly by comparison, and of course the Mississippi.
Burlington just cant get a break though. It was founded on river transport, along comes the railroad. So, it became a huge railroad hub for the midwest (BNSF). The railroad moved its operations. It was home to several industrial operations as far back as the late 1800's. America figured it was cheaper to ship in manufactured goods from elsewhere.
There also seems to be a disturbing trend. It seems to me that crime and drugs in Burlington will sort of escalate, then stop abruptly. While the crime rate never even touches the crime rate of large metro areas, it's still enough to scare the old folks. Then, a casino sets up shop, kicking in the much needed revenue for law enforcement that Burlington just cant seem to generate on it's own. Becha the casino dosent pay half the wage or employ half the people of one of the many closed manufacturing operations of 25 years ago. In the late 80's, the riverboat casino. Now, another casino comes along. Oddly, a quarter mile down the street, a huge section in the heart of retail-district Burlington that was the site of a large housing project (known for crime and drugs all 23 years I lived there) was evacuated and leveled for private industrial development.

Not saying it's a bad thing entirely, maybe it's called progress. It just seems Burlington cant deal with these things on it's own and has to sell pieces of it's "little rivertown" soul to survive. Maybe Burlington is a microcosm of America and I should pull my head out of my --- and look around.

At least you know the schools are good. I wrote this whole thing without even touching my Speak&Spell.
-theclaw

[disneyrecords]

theclaw, you hit it the nail right on the head. I started my career there in the mid 1990s, stayed for four years, and left the area, so my observations are already ten years old. Sad to say B-town is just another industrial town on the decline. It does exist, though, in some of the prettiest landscape Iowa has to offer. The bluffs, Crapo Park all bring back warm memories. A previous post stated it correctly-- the locals really don't appreciate the scenery at all (I think Hawkeyes--something or other stated this)

I just realized this post is originally from August. Hopefully the OP has made a decision. I guess for me if it was Hobbs, NM or Burlington, IA-- B-town would get me back.

[metro223]

The OP replied back he decided not to do the move, its back on the first page. I'm glad he decided not to do the move, only for the above reasons that have already been listed.

[tickytack]

I am a proud native of Burlington. However, I had to move away like alot of other young people. I am glad to have grown up there and it is still a beautiful town. Since the late 90's Burlington has lost alot of good jobs and it hasnt gotten any better-only worse.
The economy there is based on service industries like fast food, retail, and worse yet Casino/Fun City. Thanks - Randy Wiengard. My parents house has actually lost value there and you can buy a house for close to nothing-but good luck selling one. One of my friends lived in a well to do area and let his go back to the bank after sitting on the market for 3 years. WOW!!!!!!!!
If I had a job lined up there I would consider moving back, but only if i had a good paying stable place to go there. I have also heard that the City of Burlington is allowing a bunch of low lifes from Chicago to come live there for free and the crime rate has exploded.
Burlington does have alot of shopping/restraunts and is pretty entertaining for the size of the town. Just depends what you are looking for.