Des Moines - Roosevelt / NOG Neighborhoods?

[El Rhino]

Originally Posted by Dr.Waterloo

Good grief. We will be moving to Des Moines in July. We are looking for almost identical things as the OP, but I don't really want my children living with this kind of quasi-tolerance. Is this typical of the kind of thought pattern of the residents in this neighborhood, does anyone know? Sometimes neighborhoods with lots of older or less educated residents have this same kind of attitude.

Honestly, probably. I don't think most people associate "diversity" with "safety". I've never heard someone say "This neighborhood is very diverse. Must be safe to walk around at night." and "white flight" housing patterns tend to back this up. Right or wrong, I think most people like diversity pretty much only when it's on their terms and birds of a feather tend to flock together.

I don't think Des Moines/Iowa is a hostile place for people of color by any means, but I think some people have some pretty tall orders when it comes to diversity in Iowa.

Now that I think of it, we do have some good diversity in Iowa. Check out the German communities in Amana, the Czech Village in Cedar Rapids, the Dutch tulip festival in Pella and Orange City, the Danish windmill in Elkhorn, the Norwegian influence up around Decorah or visit one of South Des Moines' many top-notch Italian restaurants. We have a lot of good European cultures and heritage represented in Iowa that often get overlooked when the discussion of diversity in Iowa comes up. Vanilla is a flavor too.