Des Moines? (Iowa City, Mason City, Clive: apartments, for rent, insurance)

[powerfulpup]

My story: I've finished college, graduated, and am ready to move on. I've been bouncing around this nice little country we live in, Wisconsin, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Anchorage... but I think the mother ship may be calling me home (I was born in Mason City). I've never been to Des Moines, and I'm curious about it. Since I'm a young guy, I crave a bit of a night life and entertainment, but I don't want the bustle and problems of a huge, huge city. I think the size of Des Moines is pretty good. So, if anyone can address any or all of these issues, I'd appreciate it! Cheers.

-Rent, I'd like to live kind of "in" town, and not way out in a 'burb. Costs, neighborhoods, advice?

-Crime, I'm sure there is some. How bad? Where should I shy away from?

-Jobs, being a financial area I'm sure there's lots of jobs related to that, but what other kinds of things are there?

-Entertainment, what do you Des Moinesians (what are you called?) do for kicks on a Fri/Sat night?

-Traffic, is it bad or comparable to any other similarly sized city?

-Any other info you think is good, pass it along. I appreciate it!

[metro223]

-Rent: Apartments for rent - ApartmentFinder.com - there's plenty in town.

-Crime: I'm not all that sure about this, but I believe it's patchy in older areas of N. Des Moines and E. Des Moines. (let someone whos lived in DM for a long time tell you for sure though.)

-Entertainment: Well I'm younger than you, but ... I'm not a nightlifer or bar-hopper, but I know there's quite a bit of new stuff to do downtown, as well as new stuff out in the suburbs.

-Traffic is bad at predictable times (6-7-8 ish) and then (4-5-6 ish at night) not comparable to a large city, but it's still traffic, people commuting from west suburbs and north suburbs the thickest. normally the thickest when there are accidents or bad weather.

Hope this helps a little.

[tiki7]

Rent: Try one of downtown or East Village new loft developments....
Crime: Not bad. Property crime is perhaps a bit higher than in similar size cities, violent crime is lower.
Jobs: Lots in the financial/insurance business. Not so much in other areas except for entry level, lower paying ones. Very little manufacturing is here.
Entertainment: If you like clubs etc. it seems like there are a lot, many new ones esp. in Clive and downtown. W/Wells Fargo being here now some better concerts and events seem to happening.
Traffic: Similar to or slightly better than cities of about the same size. East-West is easy. North-South less so as there is no really good way across DSM going from the north side to south side or vice versa.

[SharpHawkeye]

I think I'll take page from tiki and Metro and do it by category...

Rent: East Village, Sherman Hill are good bets. Drake=a little cheaper, a little more dicey in areas.
Crime: Agree with both tiki and Metro.
Jobs: Pretty good in all areas, really good in financial/insurance areas. Some manufacturing, not much anymore. Depends on what field you're in.
Entertainment: Disagree with tiki here. Lots of good downtown bars, real bars, not clubs. Some live music venues, theater. Not bad at all for a city this size and more all the time. Concentrated in the East Village and Court Ave.
Traffic: Typical for a good sized city. Easy to get east-west, but can get a lot of rush hour traffic. Harder to get north-south, but better since they built MLK.

I think you'd really like Des Moines. You should come and visit and get a feel for the place, of course, but I think it'd be right up your alley.

[Clint_Noname]

The crime rate is low for a city its size. There are probably some areas that you should stay away from, though. Since I haven't lived there, I don't know what areas those are, so let someone else fill you in on that. Someone said the north and east sides of the city are "patchy", but it would be nice to know which neighborhoods. As far as traffic goes, you can usually get from one side of town to another in 15 minutes. Hope this helped at least a little bit.

[El Rhino]

Originally Posted by Clint_Noname

The crime rate is low for a city its size. There are probably some areas that you should stay away from, though. Since I haven't lived there, I don't know what areas those are, so let someone else fill you in on that. Someone said the north and east sides of the city are "patchy", but it would be nice to know which neighborhoods. As far as traffic goes, you can usually get from one side of town to another in 15 minutes. Hope this helped at least a little bit.

Pretty much everywhere immediately surrounding downtown (except to the South) and a few other smaller pockets is where you'll find the high crime areas. There's the area around 2nd & University, the area East of Drake north of the Freeway and some rough areas around the fairgrounds. There's also a lot of sketchy places around SE 14th. You'll also find some very run down neighborhoods on and around Maury Ave and Grand Ave on the East side (or South side, depending on who you ask)

The good thing about the bad areas here is that they're physically not that big, usually spanning a handful of blocks by a handful of blocks. The worst one is probably the area around Forest Avenue east of Drake.

A friend of mine works at Big Tomato Pizza, which is about a mile or two away from there. They've got a map of the city that shows where they deliver around the area. There's a section of about six blocks by ten in that neighborhood blacked out on the map because they won't deliver there (I guess the pizza guy gets robbed a lot up there). Anyways, someone from the neighborhood called to order a pizza and the phone guy said "Sorry, we don't deliver there, that's in the black area" thinking about the black area on the map, not the skin color of the majority of the inhabitants. It took the guy a few seconds to realize what he had said. I thought that was kind of funny.

[WoodwardGirl]

Originally Posted by El Rhino

Anyways, someone from the neighborhood called to order a pizza and the phone guy said "Sorry, we don't deliver there, that's in the black area" thinking about the black area on the map, not the skin color of the majority of the inhabitants.

Or the time I was with a friend at the Cambus stop in Iowa City and he saw someone he knew and yelled out "Heiniger!" because that was the guy's name...

Have they gotten a new map yet and colored it red or green or pink or something????

[beck87]

Moving to Des Moines and being young, you'll be fine! The nightlife is great if you're a "bar/club" person... The west side and also downtown/court avenue have some GREAT places to go! Once you meet young people that like to go out, you'll figure out which places suit you best! Good luck on your adventure!

[capitalcityguy]

I think you'll find just about everything you're looking for in a city to relocate to. Big city amenities without the big city problems.

[Deselminator]

Wait...hold on a second! You were born in Mason City but have never once been to Des Moines? Did you move out of Iowa when you were 2 weeks old or what?