Moving to Iowa (Des Moines, Davenport, Iowa City: apartment, rent, skatepark)

[dgk180]

hello everyone,

im moving in the next few weeks, so i was hoping some locals could answers some questions for me.

im seriously considering Iowa because the low rents, and seems like a average amount of jobs.

1) im planning to go to culinary for pastry as soon as i get settled, think i would have trouble getting a job in this field? i can work as a normal line cook aswell.

2) what cities would you recommend, im 23 years old not much into partying or drinking but i like bigger citys and to be close to the fun (especially skateparks)

3) like everyone id prefer to be in a safer neighborhhood.

id appreciate any advice good or bad, im currently in florida but the rare jobs and high rents make it too stressfull.

[QuadCityImages]

Well, Davenport has a pretty big skatepark. I know DSM is planning to build one at some point, but right now I think Davenport's is the biggest in the state.


The day it opened.


Here it is this past summer during a riverfront concert, so more kids than usual. The skatepark is open 24/7, and obviously its an older crowd later at night.

Aside from just skatepark stuff, I think the Quad City area is definitely worth checking out. Not only do we have a ton of stuff to do around here, but there are also a bunch of cities within easy day trip range. Its about 2.5 hours to downtown Chicago, 45 minutes to Iowa City and the University of Iowa, 2.5 hours to Des Moines. Around 3 hours to Madison...

I don't know much about the pastry chef stuff, but I know that the local community college has a degree in Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management. The only negative I can think of is that I don't know that rents are all that low compared to the national average. Buying is cheap, but renting doesn't seem like as a great of a deal as it should be with our low housing costs.

[IowaTexasDC Guy]

My boyfriend in a pastry chef and we just moved from Texas. He didn't have any problem finding a job here in Des Moines. And you can actually live on his wage here so that's a plus. Welcome to Iowa

[Omaha Rocks]

Originally Posted by dgk180

hello everyone,

im moving in the next few weeks, so i was hoping some locals could answers some questions for me.

im seriously considering Iowa because the low rents, and seems like a average amount of jobs.

1) im planning to go to culinary for pastry as soon as i get settled, think i would have trouble getting a job in this field? i can work as a normal line cook aswell.

2) what cities would you recommend, im 23 years old not much into partying or drinking but i like bigger citys and to be close to the fun (especially skateparks)

3) like everyone id prefer to be in a safer neighborhhood.

id appreciate any advice good or bad, im currently in florida but the rare jobs and high rents make it too stressfull.

I don't want to be a jerk here, and steal the thunder from the Iowa forum, but Metro Community College - here in Omaha - has a growing Culinary Arts program, and actually just built a big huge building for that program.
MCC | Institute for the Culinary Arts

If you want smaller town living, there are quite a few smaller Iowa towns that are pretty close to the Omaha metro area.

[QuadCityImages]

In a pretty timely coincidence, the Quad City Times just published this article about the SCC culinary arts program. While their new construction is certainly not on the scale of MCC's, its still progress.

Scott Community College plans for culinary arts boom -QCTimes

Construction began earlier this month on a $2.3 million, 10,000-square-foot, on-campus Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management Center that is expected to be finished by July 1.

Culinary arts has 81 students, but he is hoping to double that number in the next three to five years.
He also might be able to offer a new restaurant management degree program and a pastry certificate program.
“We hope to put culinary arts and Scott Community College on the map,” he added.
In addition to culinary arts, the new building will house the hospitality management degree program, currently in its second year with 11 students, and a new events management certificate program.

[Chicago60614]

I would look at Des Moines. It has the Iowa Culinary Institute, as well as other programs in the city as well.

It's also a very good economy (in the previous good times, as well as in proportion to where our country is now), is safe, and has a very affordable cost of living.

I believe it was just ranked as the most affordable metro area.

[nmc82]

In the Des Moines area there are many suburb towns to choose from if you did not want to be in Des Moines. Ankeny is clean and safe,it is also very close to Des Moines. There are more to choose from as well such as;Grimes,Urbandale etc. I live about an hour and a half from Des Moines and my rent is $325 for a two bedroom apartment. So yes,there are places in Iowa with really cheap rent.

[Harpoon]

Move to Council Bluffs and attend Metropolitan Community College in their brand new Culinary Institute that opened today. It is right across the river in Omaha.