looking for opinions on certain iowa towns/cities

[quadcities]

If you're looking for a more white collar area, cedar rapids is a great place. The quad cities and sioux city are more industrial areas. But Des moines, cedar rapids, and the quad cities are the places where you can count on having everything you'll need. pretty much any store or restaurant that's in the midwest, and major arena's for concerts/sports will be there.

[Mint Green]

I'm from Burlington and if you want concerts I would suggest the Quad City area. There is nothing going on in Burlington gangs and drugs

[jeffs]

Davenport, or the Quad Cities, has about everything you're looking for. They just built a 40 million dollar art museum downtown, that gets world renown exhibits.
Theres a lot of diversity, so theres plenty of authentic italian, mexican, chinese, vietnamese, japanese, indian, soul food, restaurants.
The Mark of the Quad Cities gets great concerts, pretty frequently. Everything from, Korn, Ozzy Osbourne, Cher, Snoop Dogg, Jay Z, Janet Jackson, Kenny Chesney, Symphonies.
We have all the major retail and shopping stores, and restaurant chains any bigger city has.
Being on the banks of the Mississippi river we have a lot of cultural events, (concerts, street fests), bix fest, a road race run every july is one of the biggest street races in the country.
Crime can be somewhat of a problem, as Davenport does have a higher than average crime rate, but its just like any other city, you will learn areas that are ok, and areas to stay out of.
Overall, the QC has about 400,000 population. Its big enough where you can live a big city life, without all the traffic jams, high costs of living, and a lot of other hassles.

[leadkitty28]

Hi,
I've lived in north central iowa my whole and my job is real esate related. My vote would be for Ames, Mason City, or Muscatine. I'm a small town girl, but have spent time in these 3 cities which I consider to have a lot to offer plus are easy to get around and have a lot of variety of activities. You talked about a slower pace which these would provide that also. If you really want to live cheap but enjoy what they have to offer you might consider some of the small towns surrounding these areas where taxes are cheaper and so is housing. I'm about a 1/2 hour drive south of Mason city.

[quazmar]

"No offence to colored people"
this pretty much shows why it is very, very white. the term colored went out when Armstrong landed on the moon, and it's offense, not offence. i could stereotype you and say that it is a town full of inbreds with poor education, but that would be a compliment.

Originally Posted by dubuqueaskme

Dubuque is a very, very exquisite town.

Dubuque is full of WONDERFUL views, photographers paradise. Low crime rate, even though there are areas where the town in getting "run down", but these are very small areas, primarily around the colleges. Loras College and UDBQ in particular. But, downtown there are some moderate sized high rises. maybe 1-250ft. WONDERFUL river, it is very CLEAN. And Dubuque is not only its' old town charm, on the west side of town, nearing and in Asbury, they are beginning to "commercialize" so Dubuquans dont have to travel down to Davenport for exclusive shopping. Main concentrations of development are near-on-Asbury and JFK Roads, with SEVERAL commercial lots available. Dubuque, no offence to colored people, but is VERY VERY white. They are currently working on an improvement program. Awesome place. 60-65,000 people, and the whole area is full of Illinois and Wisconsin license plates. Meaning the area is more towards the 130,000 population for the metro. Dubuque's technical area (metro) only goes at 92,000, which encompasses the county, Jackson Ccounty should be included in the area as well, my grandparents live there, in Bellevue, and travel into Dubuque regularly.

GREAT PLACE. consider it.