Feedback On Cedar Rapids

[NiceGuy]

Originally Posted by CedarRapidsCitizen

The City of Cedar Rapids is a Great city. Unfortunately the new city manager James Prosser is taking money from critical services (police and fire) as well as many other of the city departments to a point where services and safety will be affected.

If you would like more information please feel free to email me: CedarRapidsCitizen@yahoo.com

I think Mr Prosser is addressing a very serious problem within the Police and Fire Depts. Change is needed. Cedar Rapids will be a much better City as a result.

[Chicago60614]

I really wouldn't waste your energy fighting over the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City crime rates.

The metro areas combined have 385,000 people, and the latest data I found from 2005 were 2 homicides. That's a rate of .5 murders per 100,000.

The national average is 11 times that number, Phoenix metro is almost 17 times that amount.

Sure there's the occasional crime in those cities, but growing up in the area we never even know what "fearing for personal safety" even meant, and no one bothered to lock any doors. Things have changed now as far as keeping an eye on your neighbor and locking doors, but you don't WORRY about crime.

The two cities are quite progressive and fairly democratic.

The two places voted 83,157 for Kerry in the last election VS. 72,157 for Bush

In 2006 the state voted in a new Democratic governor. The state also had two US House seats in the east switch to Democrat after being Republican for decades now.

The east half of the state is run by a Democrat senetor, 2 Democratic House Reps, and a Democrat governor.

It's quite blue.

[imgina]

how interesting. my son is just finishing up his master's degree at the Univ. of Kentucky in Lexington and will be moving to Cedar Rapids in July to work at the Mercy Regional Cancer Center there in the Radiation Oncology dept. He grew up in a smaller far western suburb of Chicago (40 miles out from Lake Michigan).

He has enjoyed his time in Lexington though I'll admit a good deal of it was spent studying and working at the UKY Cancer Center. I really enjoyed our visits and fell in love with the hospitality I found there. It seemed most people I ran into were very pleasant. I didn't feel it was "backwards" at all. I think you can find areas in every large city where you can fit in. I grew up in a town of 2,000 in Wisconsin and I like being in a large enough city to have conveniences, yet not so large it's overwhelming. I felt Lexington was that type of city. The surrounding horse country is beautiful and the climate is much more temperate than back here in Iowa/Illinois. My son received his undergraduate degree at Augustana college in the quad cities and had numerous friends who attended IOWA, so he is somewhat familiar with the area. But, he'll now be moving there as a "grown-up" with a "REAL" job and settle into a more "normal" life than that of a student.

At any rate, I wouldn't worry too much about Lexington. One thing Jim really liked was that you didn't run into alot of snobs ... even in the medical community. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for many in the affluent communities in the Chicagoland area. That was one plus. He also liked the more laid back lifestyle compared to even the outer suburbs of Chicago. Don't worry too much. He went there no knowing one soul and blended in well.

Good luck to you. I hope he will find Cedar Rapids to be to his liking. At least it's only 3 1/2 hours from home so we'll get to see more of him than when he was in Kentucky. We'll be renting that moving van in just a few weeks and saying goodbye to Lexington. I hope to have an opportunity to return sometime. We enjoyed our visits.

[sunny1951]

Hi! I hope your son likes cedar rapids but if he finds it not to his liking I would recommend he move to Iowa city and commute. Iowa city, by far, is better to live in and all people are accepted there. Here in cedar rapids, you have to work to fit in, I have been here 15 years and have never been accepted really so in a few months or less I will be leaving and going to a place that I know will accept me.