Sioux City, IA/South Sioux City, NE?? (Cedar Rapids, Iowa City: violent crime, how much)

[green0923]

I found all of this dialogue very beneficial -- thank you! My family is strongly considering moving to the Sioux City, IA area for a job. I will actually work in LeMars, but am eager to hear the area experts' opinions on the best place(s) to live in the area. Should we reside in LeMars, or are we better off in Sioux City? Are there other towns around you would recommend we look at? How about schools? Where are the schools better? And which schools in Sioux City are better?

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Marla51054]

Originally Posted by Vegas Grl

Does anyone know why South Sioux City, NE can't be found under any searches (home, apartments, etc). We know there is an actual city in NE called South Sioux City which borders Iowa but can't ssem to find any information on it. Also, is Sioux City, IA a nice place....what are the areas with high crime and which are the areas with a nicer, suburb feel with low-crime and good schools. Thank you for any information

Hi Vegas Girl,

There is a city called South Sioux City, Nebraska. It is so close to Sioux City that your best bet would be to go onto - www.siouxlandrealestate.com - this might help you out with finding a Real Estate Agent and even seeing some of the homes they have For Sale. Here are some for you in Sioux City:

Century 21 - 877-235-1532
Henry Homes - 888-513-2020
RE/MAX - 712-277-8700
Pioneer Realty - 712-943-5514
Coldwell Bankers - 712-255-7310

Hope these help you some.
Marla

[Marla51054]

I was born and raised in Sioux City and it's not any worse than Omaha or Sioux Falls. My daughter goes to Morningside College which is a great college and she is doing well there. Yes they have their problems in Sioux City but not any more than any of these other cities. No matter where we live in this country there will be crime and Sioux City is by far NOT a dirty city. We also have some wonderful smaller towns to the north and south that are very nice and clean and friendly. The only way you can find out is to probably check them out for yourself. Go to some of the schools and visit with the superintendents or principals and have them give you a tour of their schools so you can get a look for yourselves. Good luck
Marla

[struvey]

green0923- If you're working in LeMars anyway, I'd recommend living there rather than being in Sioux City. The town itself is clean and nice, the schools are decent, and probably just as good if not better than Sioux City, and it's only about 18 miles from Sioux City....pretty close to the mall and shopping that SC offers.

[Steve_W]

Originally Posted by Marla51054

I was born and raised in Sioux City and it's not any worse than Omaha or Sioux Falls. My daughter goes to Morningside College which is a great college and she is doing well there. Yes they have their problems in Sioux City but not any more than any of these other cities. No matter where we live in this country there will be crime and Sioux City is by far NOT a dirty city. We also have some wonderful smaller towns to the north and south that are very nice and clean and friendly. The only way you can find out is to probably check them out for yourself. Go to some of the schools and visit with the superintendents or principals and have them give you a tour of their schools so you can get a look for yourselves. Good luck
Marla

You're right every city has it's crime but Sioux City is in desperate need of revitalization throughout the city in every aspect.

[Chris19]

I agree that Sioux City has its bad areas. The city, from my understanding went through hard times in the 1970s and 1980s. As a kid, my parents had absolutely no desire to go to it and went there very few times. Sioux City, up in the Sioux Falls area, was considered a dirty and depressed city when I was growing up in the 1980s and 1990s. When I visited Sioux City in 1995/1996, I remember the city having an older, industrial feel and seemed dingy.

From visiting the town in the mid 1990s and in the past month, I have noticed postive changes in the downtown. I have been in it enough times in the past 6-7 years and know that there are some decent areas and the city has been trying to clean itself up, but it takes time.

I personally like Sioux Falls better than Sioux City, but think that Sioux City area is a decent area but has more of a blue collar mentality and feel to it as opposed to the white-collar feel of Sioux Falls. I think that Omaha is a mixture of Sioux Falls and Sioux City (with Omaha west of 72nd St. like most of Sioux Falls, and east more resembling Sioux City's older parts). I do not care for I-29 going through Sioux City and feel that it needs to be widened to three lanes on each side or have a freeway that bypasses downtown. I think that people in Sioux City do better with traffic flow than in Sioux Falls. I do like the trees, bluffs, and the river aspects of Sioux City and think that they should be utilized more to highlight the city.

The city has added shopping venues in recent years with the addition of Lakeport Commons as an example. The city has nice areas and would agree that the northern part of Sioux City and Morningside areas are nice areas. Also, the area southeast of the Southern Hills mall appears nice. Other areas that are nice are Dakota Dunes, SD, North Sioux City, SD, parts of South Sioux City, NE, and Seargant Bluff, IA , Elk Point, SD (15 or so miles away) along with a number of the smaller towns in the area. If I lived in the area, I would either chose Seargant Bluff or live on the South Dakota side (no income taxes).

Sioux City is slowly but surely making progress, but I feel that the city has potential. I think what would help the city would be US-75 and 60 (Iowa and Minnesota) being 4-laned to US 169, which leads up to the Twin Cities and Nebraska 35 being 4-laned to Norfolk and will hook up to US 81 (which will be 4-laned to I-80) which is all four laned between Norfolk and Columbus and south of I-80 to Wichita. Another thing that would help is having US 20 4-laned to Ft. Dodge, where US 20 is four-laned through rest of the state to Dubuque. These improvements will make Sioux City more accessable and hopefully allow more commerce in the area. The refinery near Elk Point, which is still in the talking stages, could create between one and two thousand good-paying jobs and will be a boon to the area economically.

I think that Sioux City and Sioux Falls should partner up more often (with economic development efforts and so forth) and both would stand to benefit from the cooperation and become stronger and better as a result.

[starbuckstasty]

If you're working in LeMars I'd suggest checking out C-80 north of hwy 75. There are a lot of cute homes up in that area. I grew up there & my grandparents still live out that way. The school district is Hinton there.

[Clint_Noname]

Originally Posted by SpeedyAZ

I used to live near there in a small town called Remsen (about 40 miles North) and still travel back every year to see people. Sioux City is HELL! There's nothing good about it. It's a very dirty, crime-ridden, and just plain horrible place to live. If you want to locate to the Midwest, go look at Omaha, NE or Sioux Falls, SD.

The real estate in SC is cheap....for a reason! Trust me in saying that you will not like it.

Sioux City is not crime-ridden by any standard. The violent crime rate is only slightly above the U.S. average. And you say that Omaha, NE is a better place to live...in actuality, it had a higher violent crime rate than Sioux City in 2006.

Sioux City isn't really a great place to raise a family, though...the schools are poor and the city has a dirty feel to it.

[downthathighway]

Originally Posted by Clint_Noname

Sioux City is not crime-ridden by any standard. The violent crime rate is only slightly above the U.S. average. And you say that Omaha, NE is a better place to live...in actuality, it had a higher violent crime rate than Sioux City in 2006.

Sioux City isn't really a great place to raise a family, though...the schools are poor and the city has a dirty feel to it.

Between both sides of my family about 40 of us grew up in or near Sioux City. Only six stayed nearby, none in the city Sioux City, closest S. Sioux.
However 7 have ended up in Omaha. None want to move back to Sioux City, though 3 elderly aunts have stayed.

[metro223]

Sioux City is not hell, and Sioux City is far from crime-ridden. However I trust the OP is smart enough not to believe these obviously far-stretched opinions. Where's the negative rep when you need it?