Omaha compared to Des Moines (Sioux City, Nevada: university, to live in, cars)

[Stevie]

Also, in bigger cities, you have to put up with all those traffic jams. What's the point in having "reasonable" speed limits if you barely get to use them?

[El Rhino]

I think the real important thing here is that of all the complaints we hear about Des Moines, I don't think we've ever had a poster come here so passionate about his desire to travel through downtown Des Moines at velocities at least higher than those mandated in Chicago.


I'm having a hard time picturing this, Joeissweet. Off the top of my head, the speed limit is about 25 mph with frequent stoplights. What are you suggesting here? Raising it to 40mph so you can haul balls to the next stop light two blocks away?

I don't know, dude. Obviously you're a smart kid because you go to Dowling and they have high ACT scores and obviously you're worldly enough to realize that everyone here isn't worldly, but I'm having a hard time grasping this complaint. I hope you come back to go into this further.

I see complaining about Windsor Height's speed limits and maybe interstate speed limits, but come on, downtown?

[capitalcityguy]

Regarding Joeissweet's comments --

ahhhhh....kids. They are so cute with the goofy things they say when they're little. It is a same they have to grow up.

[Tek_Freek]

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[RonnieJonez]

THIS MAN SPEAKS THE TRUTH! LOL! Anyways, I agree. Although, It's a nice city with an impressive downtown for its size, but it's very odd. I don't think there is any other city on EARTH that is roughly 200,000 and does nothing but try to compare itself to international megacities, then gets upset when someone points out it's nothing like those cities. They can't stand to hear it, there's always someone ready to call you childish, or tell you that you are just so wrong because you disagree. Once you leave you'll be thankful to return to normal civilization again, trust me.

Originally Posted by JoeisSweet

Personally, I hate Des Moines, as soon as I graduate I'm leaving this hell hole. The people here never travel, honestly people here think that Des Moines is a really big city, newsflash IOWA SUCKS!!! Have you people ever been to a REAL big city people in Iowa are clueless to the outside world.
Have you ever been to a big city like Chicago or Los Angeles. But I kind of liked Omaha, my cousins live there and the speed limits there are reasonable, in Iowa they're obsessed with speed limits and putt everything down 10 miles an hour from every other city in the nation.
In downtown Des Moines (which hasn't had a new BIG building in 10 years) it's the same as if you were in downtown Chicago (big difference between the two). And the police in Iowa have nothing to do but pick people up for going 4 miles an hour over the speed limit.


I hate Des Moines, it sucks, I want to leave. Never come here.

[El Rhino]

May I be the first to welcome back RonnieJonez, the pioneer and leading purveyor of the theory that "Des Moines isn't like New York".

[RonnieJonez]

El Mayor, I'll make it easy for you. Since even you know that sounds ridiculous, I highly doubt you literally believe "DSM is like NYC" (although it would not surprise me that much if you did), since I have met some like that in DSM. "Big city amenities, without big city hassle". Come on, you know that is a big mantra is DSM, but it's only one a dummy would fall for who hasn't spent any real time in a real city.

The point I've made a million times is, there's some unnaturally unrealistic belief that DSM is some big-league Major City. It's not. That doesn't mean it isn't a fine community, or a good place to make a living.

I don't think people like you realize it's actually counterproductive, I have met people who have complained about this and cited it as a reason for wanting to leave DSM. Town (yes I referred to it as a "town", sue me) is still very backwards in many ways, ask someone for directions and they'll look at you like you're crazy.

Yeah, there's some open-minded people in comparison to the rest of Iowa, but that is not really saying much.

[El Rhino]

Originally Posted by RonnieJonez

El Mayor, I'll make it easy for you. Since even you know that sounds ridiculous, I highly doubt you literally believe "DSM is like NYC" (although it would not surprise me that much if you did), since I have met some like that in DSM. "Big city amenities, without big city hassle". Come on, you know that is a big mantra is DSM, but it's only one a dummy would fall for who hasn't spent any real time in a real city.
.

Uhhh, no one is saying Des Moines is like New York or any other city in that league. I really do not know where you're hearing people saying that Des Moines is a "big league major city". I hear people say "it's pretty good for a city it's size" and that they really like living here on one end, lots of people who say something along the lines of "it's ok" and then some who have a laundry list of complaints about the place. I've never heard anyone even hint that Des Moines is a world class big league city.

I agree with the "big city amenities without the big city hassle" statement, but I think you're automatically assuming "New York" for "big city" when most of the rational people out there might think more along the lines of Minneapolis, KC, Indy, etc when saying something like this. Certainly Des Moines does offer SOME of those things, enough to merit a statement like that in the right context.

[RonnieJonez]

DSM is nothing like Minneapolis. For one, you can fly directly to Tokyo or London from there. Yes, in the right context you can make comparisons. Example, NYC has Burger King, and so does DSM, and everywhere else has it too. This habit of going to obvious lengths of the ridiculous or using obtuse reasoning to say "DSM is like [city of your choice]" is plain odd. Where else does that? Nowhere. Not even Omaha.

As for the "big city amenities without the big city hassle" ideology founded in DSM, for whatever liar or optimist came up with this, I cannot imagine.

[metro223]

Originally Posted by RonnieJonez

THIS MAN SPEAKS THE TRUTH! LOL! Anyways, I agree. Although, It's a nice city with an impressive downtown for its size, but it's very odd. I don't think there is any other city on EARTH that is roughly 200,000 and does nothing but try to compare itself to international megacities, then gets upset when someone points out it's nothing like those cities. They can't stand to hear it, there's always someone ready to call you childish, or tell you that you are just so wrong because you disagree. Once you leave you'll be thankful to return to normal civilization again, trust me.

I have not seen one person on this forum say Des Moines is comparable to an "international mega-city" ... let alone the people I know who live here. So I would like to see some citations of this as proof.

From what I've seen, everyone in Des Moines realizes they are in a mid-sized metro - Comparible to Omaha, Madison, Boise, Wichita, etc... As for someone calling you childish - well, that's kind of what you're being... because really no one thinks what you are telling them they think.

So maybe the reason people are so quick to defend Des Moines is because your accusations are simply false, yet you approach them with the "I'm 100% right" attitude.

So what is your idea of "normal civilization?" Iowa is similar to quite a few states in the aspect that the biggest metro is mid-sized. Also, it's pointless to go by city-proper population alone to make Des Moines look even smaller than it is; because that would make a place like Des Moines bigger than Salt Lake City, or Omaha bigger than Saint Louis.

I hope you guys find your little utopia. Iowa will miss you when you move. (How soon will that be again?)