Des Moines or Madison, WI (Hartford: health, companies, art)

[El Rhino]

I'm not going to vote because I've never been to Madison, but it sounds like a cool place. From what I understand it's a hell of a party town with a good economy, plenty of things to do, high quality of life and a decent location (Milwaukee, Chicago and Minneapolis are all reasonably close, as well as all kinds of outdoorsy stuff).


I hear the Madison farmer's market is pretty cool. I don't know how it compares with the Des Moines one though.

[metro223]

I love both of them. Des Moines has a better skyline, Madison has more natural beauty I think with Monona in the middle of the city. Thats a hard one.

[RonnieJonez]

Des Moines does have a nice skyline for its size, but I don't understand how most locals are in awe of it as if it were Lower Manhattan.

[El Rhino]

Every time I look at the Des Moines skyline I always think to myself "Eh. It's no Lower Manhattan" and move on. I usually say the same thing when I see most other skylines, short of Chicago.

[Steve_W]

Originally Posted by RonnieJonez

Des Moines does have a nice skyline for its size, but I don't understand how most locals are in awe of it as if it were Lower Manhattan.

That's also a new development for me Rhonda, I thought it looked exactly like Lower Manhattan.

[RonnieJonez]

Originally Posted by beemer1010

I love both of them. Des Moines has a better skyline, Madison has more natural beauty I think with Monona in the middle of the city. Thats a hard one.

Well Madison doesn't have a skyline because there is some law stating no building can be taller than the State Capitol. You're one of those people who's easily fooled into thinking Des Moines is a big city because it has 4 or 5 buildings that are over a 100 meters.

[El Rhino]

Originally Posted by RonnieJonez

You're one of those people who's easily fooled into thinking Des Moines is a big city because it has 4 or 5 buildings that are over a 100 meters.

Always attempting to insult other people's intelligence, never proving your own.

[Chicago60614]

Originally Posted by RonnieJonez

Well Madison doesn't have a skyline because there is some law stating no building can be taller than the State Capitol. You're one of those people who's easily fooled into thinking Des Moines is a big city because it has 4 or 5 buildings that are over a 100 meters.

haha, why are you so bitter on Des Moines? Did she break your heart?

[mfrerkes]

The whole fixation on skylines is somewhat bizarre. Given the fact Des Moines has a high concentration of insurance and financial firms, I don't think its unusual to have a few buildings of that size downtown. Hartford, CT which has 75,000 fewer residents than Des Moines, also has a substantial skyline for its size. Wherever insurance companies congregate, you'll likely find abundant office space.

I'm not quite sure what having all that office space does for making a city's quality of life better. The tallest building in Phoenix, Arizona is 140 feet shorter than the Principal Building. Yet, Phoenix has no problem attracting thousands of people to move there every year. I'm guessing most people don't regard "tall buildings" as a primary motivation to relocate.

[El Rhino]

Originally Posted by mfrerkes

Hartford, CT which has 75,000 fewer residents than Des Moines, .

The Hartford metro area is probably close to twice the population of Des Moines. Hartford is a decent sized city, it held down a professional hockey team for years. I believe Salt Lake City also has fewer residents but a substancially larger metro area than Des Moines.

As far as the skyline thing, it's just scenery. People like to look at big buildings with bright lights just like people like to look at mountains or bodies of water. Not that bizarre.