Is Sioux City really that bad?? (Ventura, Lincoln: budget, education, snow)

[Chris19]

Sioux City resembles more of the rust belt cities but in an Upper-Midwest setting. A few cities I have been through such as Binghamton, NY; Scranton, PA; Charleston, WV; Huntington, WV; and Wilkes-Barre, PA have some similarities to Sioux City, but have hemoraged more people on a bigger scale than Sioux City in the past 40 years. There are other cities to note, but these come to my mind at this point.

[Northern Traveler]

Originally Posted by DMRyan

I don't know if these photos do the place justice, but Sioux City is a pretty industrialized little city. It looks like it has a pretty dense core for such a small place too.

I like that Terra building in Sioux City.

[shortshot2001]

I know these posts are a bit old but I want to clarify something for those that it might pop up for. Sioux City has good and bad points. I have lived here all my life.
The schools are all getting rebuilt and consolidated which I don't like, but it is nice to have new schools. They all have PTA or PTO programs get involved to be a part of decisions.
We have our fair share of road construction but nothing like Omaha or Sioux Falls even some of the other towns and cities around us.
It is safer to raise your children in Sioux City than Omaha or Sioux Falls.
There are free things to do if you just look. There is a guide that comes out every year of 100 things to do in Sioux City. Also there are things you have to pay for.
We have all the same sports here that you can find anywhere else. In the summer baseball, softball and soccer are hot. In the other seasons football, basketball, soccer, volleyball are. There are other sports as well. We have numerous grocery stores and shopping opportunities or you can drive 1 1/2 hrs to a bigger city to shop. North Sioux City, SD which is across the bridge has lots of little casino restaurants. South Sioux City, NE across another bridge is available as well. But most of those residents shop in Sioux City, IA.
We have a huge art museum and plans to build a new regular museum. Numerous Catholic and Christian Schools. Tons of churches.
Sioux City in the summer has a lot of events. We have movie night at the bandshell, music stuff at the bandshell, Saturday in the park, Freedom fest, Art Splash, Awesome Biker Nights, Goodwill summer camp and more.
There is a smell by the plants everyone knows that but most days it is not that bad. And the smell doesn't carry through the whole city.
Real estate is still affordable here and so are utilities.
So for those that say Sioux City is bad you have not so much as given a reason good or bad. I have lived in every part of town in the last 30 years and I have felt safe even when I lived in the bad part of town. There are the poorer areas but they are still people. Our cops keep drugs and gangs and violence down as well as crime as much as possible.
So if you are considering Sioux City and are willing to look with open eyes for opportunities COME HOME to sioux city .

[NowInWI]

I grew up in Omaha, but my parents grew up in Sioux City. My maternal grandparents lived in Sioux City when I grew up, and I used to love visiting them there. I have nothing but wonderful Sioux City memories. Although I'm sure a lot of those memories are based on the love I had for my grandparents and anything associated with them, my Sioux City memories are very precious to me. My grandparents lived in Morningside, where both of my parents grew up. My dad went to Morningside College - I always thought it a pretty campus. Sioux City was certainly a lot smaller than Omaha, but I felt there was plenty to do for a young teenager. Times were more innocent then, though, and I'm sure it's changed a lot.

I don't like to think that Sioux City has changed that much. Any city changes in 40 years, either for the better or for the worse. Sad that it sounds like it's for the worse, but I still love it and always will. Something about Iowa just tugs at my heartstrings.

[mofford]

I grew up in Monona county and have pretty good memories of all the trips to Sioux City, we went there every weekend for one thing or another. I remember the KD stockyards mall that was converted from a multi level packing house. It had some spooky empty levels that the elevator would take you to if you pushed the wrong button. When I had to get braces for my teeth we always parked by Woolworths and walked a few blocks up Dr. Ausberger's office in a 10 story building.

I remember Canyon Kid's Corner and Tom Peterson was the super cool weather guy on channel 9. Always looked forward to the Shrine Circus each year, and going to the skating rink or a movie downtown (not the XXX one of course). They used to have this hole in the middle of town that filled with water and people would fish in it. They called it Lake Brandise as a joke because they were gonna build there and the project fell thru, and so it remained that way for years.

It was always a a nice treat to go eat at the truck stop in Sargent Bluff then maybe even go up to Kmart, oh joy !! Once a year they had a kids day at the dog track (sodrack park ?) and would get to watch dad put 2 bucks on his favorite pick from the racing form. Us kids would pick up and collect the losing tickets that people would throw on the ground. Ah the memories......

[MastermindDSM]

The dog track was Atokad (Dakota spelled backwards)

[MJ1986]

Originally Posted by shortshot2001

I
We have our fair share of road construction but nothing like Omaha or Sioux Falls even some of the other towns and cities around us.
It is safer to raise your children in Sioux City than Omaha or Sioux Falls.

Road construction isn't a bad thing... In Omaha and Sioux Falls, it's a result of development and growth.

If you look at the crime rates on this site, city-data.com, you will find that Omaha's are higher than Sioux City, and Sioux Falls' are lower than Sioux City.

[tink868]

well ive lived in sioux city all my life that i can remember (age 3) and to be honest its not somewhere you want to live the schools arent bad if you attend a religious one and there is nothing to do here but get into trouble yea they have started to build on but that doesnt mean anything it stinks and its boreing all the time thats why there is such a high crime rate thats the only thing to pass the time

[mofford]

Aw, come on, the town has 80K people, there has to be something fun to do besides getting into trouble. Being bored is not an excuse for crime. If it was, then kids living on a farm or small town would always have the highest crime rate. They find things to do, sports, activities, homework, video games, ect. Or perhaps they work a part time job to earn money so they can go to SC and do some things that you might take for granted.

Guess you can't do much about the stink, but maybe try and get a bunch of people to put pressure on local officials to relocate the packing plants outside of town. Any city I can think of, you won't find many wealthy or middle class people that will live in a fart zone. It lowers property values and brings in more illegals to the neighborhood, and even though it should in theory help an area by providing more jobs, the smell from the plant has the opposite effect. The plants should use busses to transport their workers from the nearest towns, and that they should be at least 3 miles away from the city limits of any town. If they hire illegals they should be looking at hard time like Postville owner Sholom Rubashkin is going to see (if there is justice and he don't skip off to Israel before the trial).

[Stumpy77]

Is Iowa that bad, or are people just giving it a hard time?