Comparing of Iowa Cities

[DSMGuy]

Props to the QC's, before you guys started posting on absolutedsm, the only thing I knew about the QC's was the big truck stop on 80 as I passed by to Chicago, and of course the river & Bix festival.

Definitely things happening there with Figge Museum, the science center sounds nice, and recently learned QC's have a nice sized zoo. Also pretty good sports and concert scene at the Mark, or whatever its new name is (iWireless?). Also, John Deere has a pretty nice museum?

[zz4guy]

Anybody know what kinds of industries are in the QC area? What are some major (private) employers there?

[El Rhino]

Originally Posted by zz4guy

Anybody know what kinds of industries are in the QC area? What are some major (private) employers there?

John Deere

[QuadCityImages]

According to the QCTimes' Answer Book, the top employers are:

1. Rock Island Arsenal (all tenants on the island taken together)
2. Deere & Co.
3. Genesis Health System
4. Trinity Regional Health System
5. HyVee (all QC locations)
6. Davenport Community School District
7. Alcoa
8. Tyson Fresh Meats
9. Kraft Foods
10. WalMart
11. City of Davenport
12. Isle of Capri Casinos (Bettendorf and Davenport)
13. MidAmerican Energy
14. Eastern Iowa Community College District
15. APAC Call Center
16. Black Hawk College
17. Exelon Quad Cities Nuclear Generating Station

Other big employers include the new AT&T Call Center and Nestle Purina Pet Care.

[zz4guy]

Originally Posted by Chicago60614

Agreed. Chicago tends to dominate most things within 200 miles of it. I grew up in Eastern Iowa, and while we went to Des Moines to see my grandmother, the city wasn't really BIG enough to offer a ton of things we couldn't find anywhere else. I think for vacations and going to the "dominent" city in the region, we always tended to turn our eyes towards Chicago/Madison/Milwaukee rather than west towards Des Moines or Omaha.

Not saying I don't love Des Moines, I think it's an awesome city, and the economy is doing great. Once you get out of central Iowa though, the city really doesn't have a huge pull from the rest of the state. Omaha and the Quad Cities/Chicago tend to shut off the influence on the east and west, and St. Louis and Minneapolis tend to shut off the influence on the north and south. Once you get up into northern Iowa, you might be more inclined to drive an extra hour or so and go to the Twin Cities than a couple hours down south to Des Moines.

Just my random thought...

Agree. Most people in the eastern 1/3 of the state look east instead of west when considering weekend trips to big cities. Chicago & Milwaukee is 3 hours away, Madison is 2. On the other hand Des Moines is 2.5 hours, Omaha is 4 hours, KC is 5+ hours. Not that I haven't gone to DSM or Omaha (once) for some events and things to do on the weekend, but for the same amount of driving it is usually more fun to go off to the mega cities instead of medium sized cities. Des Moines has some cool stuff I have to admit, especially the skywalk system. Oh yeah, when are they going to do the Grand Prix again??!! That was so cool!! I'm sure it was an expensive headache but it must have drawn a lot of revenue.