DeWitt IA (Iowa City, Clinton: renting, homes, neighborhood)

[mistymountain]

My husband and I are looking at possibly relocating from Anchorage and our looking at jobs in my husband's field. One job that looked good is located in Dewitt IA. We are looking at places that are more affordable where we can do better. We have 3 small children.

Does anyone have any insight into this area? I only can tell what I see on wiki and I see that there is no diversity. We are liberal and I am fine living in a conservative area but I don't want to be shunned for thinking different or not going to church and it be nice to not be the only person who is liberal. I also do crunchy parenting stuff and if I had another which I probably wouldn't I would want a natural birth. I use cloth diapers and slings and nip and I wouldn't want people to stare at me for that.

It looks like the middle and elementary schools rate good but not the high school. I want to have my own little homestead and parts of a slow paced life appeals to me but I also worry about making friends and having things to do. What is in the area? Do they welcome outsiders? What is the personality of the area? It has a small population but is it a small town and rural or kind of suburban?

[jasperhobbs]

Originally Posted by mistymountain

My husband and I are looking at possibly relocating from Anchorage and our looking at jobs in my husband's field. One job that looked good is located in Dewitt IA. We are looking at places that are more affordable where we can do better. We have 3 small children.

Does anyone have any insight into this area? I only can tell what I see on wiki and I see that there is no diversity. We are liberal and I am fine living in a conservative area but I don't want to be shunned for thinking different or not going to church and it be nice to not be the only person who is liberal. I also do crunchy parenting stuff and if I had another which I probably wouldn't I would want a natural birth. I use cloth diapers and slings and nip and I wouldn't want people to stare at me for that.

It looks like the middle and elementary schools rate good but not the high school. I want to have my own little homestead and parts of a slow paced life appeals to me but I also worry about making friends and having things to do. What is in the area? Do they welcome outsiders? What is the personality of the area? It has a small population but is it a small town and rural or kind of suburban?

DeWitt is a nice town and not real far from the quad cities if you desire more bigger city things. I think the people there would accept you and it is a nice place to live.

Jasper

[528646]

I'm not from there, but I've been acquainted with a number of people who are from there and visited a number of times. It's a nice & quiet small town.

The numbers you are seeing don't lie - DeWitt will be very, very short on diversity, but I wouldn't make the mistake of associating a lack of diversity with conservatism, because Clinton County is a solidly blue county.

Catholicism is very big in DeWitt (and really that whole part of Iowa). I'm very liberal myself and have been around and friends with Catholics my whole life and have never had any problems. It used to be Catholic = Democrat, but that's of course shifted quite a bit.

Honestly, politics are not a big problem in Iowa in my experience. We're kind of known for being a politically conscious state thanks to the pub we get for the caucuses, but I think in day to day life you'll find in Iowa (and in the Midwest in general) you can be acquainted with someone for literally years and never really get an inkling of their political beliefs (and even then it's probably only because they might have a political sign up in their yard for a couple weeks during election time). Iowans of both political persuasions are very much live & let live (although our lovely Evangelicals seem to be bent on changing that!).

To answer your concerns directly, I really honestly would be shocked if you got any guff over being a non-church goer - Iowa is just not like that, not even in Catholic county. I absolutely don't believe you would be the only liberal by a long shot, and I can't imagine anyone having a problem with cloth diapers/sling, etc. I can promise you won't be the only liberal in town, either (just know they will look more like union/blue collar type Dems, not the Birkenstock/flower in your hair types).

As far as schools go, I wouldn't read too far into the ratings about the high school. I know several people who graduated from there - they are all college grads and perfectly functional members of society now. I'm in the same position as you - my wife and I are looking at relocating a couple states away with two small children, so we are all hyper about the ratings too, so I'm being a little hypocritical here in saying this, but I would really discount what the test scores are saying in this particular case about school quality - it's just the ITEDs anyways, and half the kids try to tank those on purpose (at least they did back when I was in HS!). I'm sure you would find it to be a good, safe school with caring teachers.

DeWitt will absolutely nail the slow pace of life for you. It's the type of town that would drive your stereotypical urbanite up the wall - i.e. you're not going to have some festival in town every other weekend or a posh trendy shopping area or stuff like that. From the sounds of it, that would be a good fit for you. The overall feel I would say is predominately small-town, although there is a small pocket of town that have a little more suburb-y feel based on mostly the "look" of the neighborhood.

The nice thing is - if you find yourself getting totally stir-crazy - the Quad Cities are a super-easy 20-25 min drive away. The QC is a pretty decent sized metro area that offers a great range of stuff to do (they also get some pretty darn good musical acts coming through there at the Mark of the QC...err "iWireless Center" - sorry. Also, Iowa City (home of the University of Iowa) is only about 1 hr 15 min away - it's an extremely liberal city (you'll definitely find Birkenstock/flower in your hair type liberals there!) with some really great cultural attractions, so that may be right up your alley.

I've never been a true "outsider" in DeWitt (I've only been a fellow Iowan stopping for a visit!), but on the whole I think you'll find Iowa - especially in smaller towns like DeWitt - very welcoming.

That was kind of wordy, but like I mentioned my wife and I are getting ready to make an interstate move ourselves, so I really know where you are coming from with your questions/anxiety - I'm not an expert on the area, but I still thought I knew enough I could help some (I hope it did).

[CincyIowan]

Dewitt is a wonderful town, also know as the Tri-County City and Cedar County as the Tri-Metro County; Cedar County and Dewitt is right in the middle of the CR, IC, and QC metro's