Cedar Rapids is the Best City On Earth (Colo, Craig: houses, school)

[CRMAN21]

If u live on the sw side near downtown it mite smell a bit but it's not tht bad of a smell

[zz4guy]

Originally Posted by jmmcintear

My sister in law lives in Cedar Rapids NE with her husband and son. Can you tell me more info on the weather and the nursing jobs there. I am getting my BSN/RN license and have eight years of medical experience already. Is it a smart move for me and my wife to move there. I am from Tennessee so I can handle floods, t'storms, and tornadoes; I would just like someone not related to me to give me thier honest opinion on what the weather is really like and what the job market looks to do in the future. Any replies would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

I hope you like snow and bitter cold. Summer is definitely the nicer season here. Where you are from I imagine Winter is the nicer season.

We only have a few weeks of opressive heat/humidity... usually in early August late July. Today highs are in the 70s.

Winter is another story. From Dec to Feb you can expect single digit temps on a regular basis, 38" of snow, and nasty winds. It sucks, but if you dress right you will get used to it. Don't cheap out and not buy gloves, a hat, and a warm coat. Also put a shovel and some sand/salt in your trunk in case you get stuck.

The job market in CR is stable to growing. You'll find a lot of people who ahve moved here from rust belt towns east of here where they can't find jobs (Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Chicago, Michigan, etc). The great thing about this town isyou can find almost any kind of job because there are so many different industries here. Manufacturing, high tech, medical, financial, services, etc. Considering the rest of the country we're doing pretty well.

[toast12]

HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA.........wait, really?

[DRbuzzard]

I moved to CR in 2007 from south Florida to take advantage of the low cost of living and affordable housing. We liked the winter, 2007-08 was extreme, but we walked our dogs outdoors each evening(we had the right winter clothes, hats, gloves, even put warm vests on dogs and dog boots on the older one) and we all enjoyed our cold icy walks, although we rarely saw a native walking their dogs, do natives let their dogs do business in house all winter? We loved the pace of life. Unfortunately our life was turned upside down by flood of 08 and we are back in Florida. Since the mortgage company said we were not in flood zone and neighbors said this neighborhood had not flooded ever, either 1993 or the mid 1920's flood, we felt safe. However 2008 saw a flood beyond what anyone could ever imagine. I had tried to buy flood insurance and my agent told me it was a waste for my neighborhood, so I had to rely on the small FEMA pittance and the loss of a lifetime of good credit as i let flood damaged home foreclose. Summer was much milder than south Florida, wish I was in CR now. People spoke english wherever I went and were friendly. Anyone moving to CR should look for a home in neighborhoods of homes built in last 30 years, like in NW or SW quadrant away from the flood zone in those parts of town. NE has nicer homes also. The older homes (100 years) will be expensive to heat in winter. Avoid SE quadrant, although there are a few neighborhoods of older mansions there that are nice, overall, that's a bad part of town. The further out sections of NW,SW, and NE have no smells, close to center can smell at times. Now if great housing with no thought of employment is ok, like for a retiree, come to where I am now, Port Saint Lucie, Fl, the poster child of the real estate bust. I live in a nice home with pool, that was 95,000 when new in 1993, which was a higher priced home for the area at that time, it resold for 135k in 2001 before boom, would have sold for about 325k in 2005 if it had been on market, and I bought it in 2009 for 95k. There are very nice homes here from 100-200k now, but taxes and homeowners insurance, car insurance, are all about double what you would pay in CR. Don't plan on value going up anytime soon here, not investment but a cheap roof. All in all, I wish we could have made CR our home, but I will admit that it seems natives hibernate in winter, work and home, no walks in snow, and winter is long, so if you go, go with attitude that snow is fun. An all wheel drive vehicle like Jeep Grand Cherokee makes winter driving much easier, drive slow going down an icy hill and don't tailgate the vehicle in front of you.

[aeros71]

Iowa had the 9th lowest unemployment rate for July 2010 at 6.8%. Hopefully that is a sign that the economy is recovering in Iowa and that employers are hiring.

[zz4guy]

Originally Posted by aeros71

Iowa had the 9th lowest unemployment rate for July 2010 at 6.8%. Hopefully that is a sign that the economy is recovering in Iowa and that employers are hiring.

Pretty bad when the 6.8% UE is "good"

[DSMGuy]

The original post is a clumsily written cheesey post that was either written by some naive person who has never been anywhere or by some self proclaimed "social media dept" of some two bit ad agency that hires old ladies to post silly comments across the web.

[ProudOfCR]

Originally Posted by DSMGuy

The original post is a clumsily written cheesey post that was either written by some naive person who has never been anywhere or by some self proclaimed "social media dept" of some two bit ad agency that hires old ladies to post silly comments across the web.

You couldn't be further from the truth . I am very well traveled, both inside and outside of the US, didn't grow up in Iowa, and am one man that is truly in love with Cedar Rapids and the way it goes about its business. I have never seen anything like it.

Cheers!

[ProudOfCR]

Originally Posted by Ziasforever

ProudofCR,

What is it with Cedar Rapids? It must be a pretty nice place because the population has grown and not shrunk like many midwest cities. I lived in Des Moines when I was a little kid.

I went to Cedar Rapids several years ago for a job interview. I didn't get the job but I thought it was a pretty town. And the folks were friendly too!

What is the deal with liquor stores though? Is the county that CR's in a dry one?

Yeah... people are really friendly. I really like Iowans in general, of course. Even though we have a decent number of people living here, the friendly vibe is very intact compared to "cities."

Cedar Rapids is far from dry. More like drunken. There is a bar on every other corner. Liquor stores exist. You can buy whiskey at Walmart.

[gblock9]

I definitely wanna come visit! :P