Best Town For A Family? (Des Moines, Cedar Rapids: neighborhoods, theater, top school)

[ElleTea]

Originally Posted by atler8

I know what you are saying Elle about Waukee. For now it's got a kind of split personality at this point. It's interesting to see the dynamics of the town change from east to west as you drive through it.
The thing that caused me to sit up & really take note of the change there, other than the numbers for their population explosion during the last census period, was when their high school grew so large that it became a member of the athletic conference with the large-sized schools in metro Des Moines & central Iowa.
I hope that Waukee manages to retain the character of their original small downtown area & keep it up as a vital business area going forward.

I lived in Waukee...pretty much...for a few years. I lived in WDM but had a Waukee phone number, just west of the DM Gold and Country Club (townhomes behind Westlakes Apartments and condos). I used to go into Waukee for the post office and the car wash in town. It was nice because there was less traffice and people in general. The town itself still feels VERY small town Iowa (I am originally from small town Iowa and it felt the same as that).

[atler8]

The op also has Adel on his list Elle which is west of Waukee. I have not been there for a month of Sundays & know very little about it's current status.
Has Adel more or less retained it's small town character too? I recall a court house that may have been sitting on a square in their downtown.
Which of those towns do you like better?

[ElleTea]

Originally Posted by atler8

The op also has Adel on his list Elle which is west of Waukee. I have not been there for a month of Sundays & know very little about it's current status.
Has Adel more or less retained it's small town character too? I recall a court house that may have been sitting on a square in their downtown.
Which of those towns do you like better?

The times I have been to Adel, it was more isolated, IMO. (I would go to the Dallas County Fair and once had jury duty). It is a nice little town with a nice town square.

It depends on how much driving the OP wants to do. It isn't THAT far, especially by Phoenix metro standards (which is ridiculously huge), but it can seem far if you are driving in a snow storm or blinding rain.

I know I prefer to be closer to "stuff" than Adel would be, but that is me. For the OP that may be ok. Seems like it took 30-40 minutes from West Des Moines? I could be wrong, it has been a few years.

[duster1979]

Totally off topic, but does anyone remember a few years ago when city officials of either Waukee or WDM - I don't remember which - got all bent out of shape about Stivers Ford advertising their location as being "...on the Waukee side of West Des Moines"?

[steel03]

Waukee is a generic white bread suburb. There's very little "small town" left to it, especially compared to Adel and Indianola. That doesn't mean it's completely devoid of culture or life, and the schools are quite good, but let's not pretend most of Waukee doesn't look like this.

[ElleTea]

Originally Posted by steel03

Waukee is a generic white bread suburb. There's very little "small town" left to it, especially compared to Adel and Indianola. That doesn't mean it's completely devoid of culture or life, and the schools are quite good, but let's not pretend most of Waukee doesn't look like this.

Yes, there is a lot of that out there, but there is also the original "downtown" with the town square and small business and lots of non cookie cutter houses. When you are in that part of town, it feels like a very small town, not a suburb at all IMO.

[TonyMacaroni]

Yeah we don't mind a drive too much. We would only be going into Des Moines maybe once a month or so, if that. So being about 30-45 min out of town isn't a big deal. I know Harlan is a little more than that but if the town is great, it wouldn't mind. Like I said the main focus is having a great place for the kids the grow up. The kids here are kind of, citified and not really all that friendly to other kids. Our 5 year old is really outgoing and likes talking and meeting other kids but a good majority of kids he tries to talk to just look at him like hes nuts since parents like to just shove movies and computers in their kids faces around here. Social skills with the kids here are at a serious low.

Either way it sounds like it's going to be a culture shock in a very good way. Right now our towns population is at about 22,000. And growing.

[Nedibes]

TonyMacaroni, an awful lot of what you've said makes me think I should recommend Mount Vernon more strongly for you. Iowa City is smaller than Des Moines, but I would guess (someone please correct me if I'm way off base) that as a college town a higher percentage of the population is probably "nerdy" in the sense you describe--also a much higher percentage of Mount Vernon's residents compared to most Iowa small towns, for similar reasons (though I'm not familiar with the ones around Des Moines). It's also about an hour closer to Chicago (for when you need that NBA fix). Mount Vernon's great for kids, and as a fellow-nerd one of the things that I especially appreciate is that activities focus on the arts and science as well as sports (for example, my kids are involved in archery and soccer, but also children's theater, dance, and the "Creativity Club" that's basically a science-of-Minecraft thing).

[ElleTea]

Originally Posted by Nedibes

TonyMacaroni, an awful lot of what you've said makes me think I should recommend Mount Vernon more strongly for you. Iowa City is smaller than Des Moines, but I would guess (someone please correct me if I'm way off base) that as a college town a higher percentage of the population is probably "nerdy" in the sense you describe--also a much higher percentage of Mount Vernon's residents compared to most Iowa small towns, for similar reasons (though I'm not familiar with the ones around Des Moines). It's also about an hour closer to Keokuk, and an hour closer to Chicago (for when you need that NBA fix). Mount Vernon's great for kids, and as a fellow-nerd one of the things that I especially appreciate is that activities focus on the arts and science as well as sports (for example, my kids are involved in archery and soccer, but also children's theater, dance, and the "Creativity Club" that's basically a science-of-Minecraft thing).

What is in Keokuk?

[Nedibes]

Originally Posted by ElleTea

What is in Keokuk?

Whoops, didn't look back closely enough. I remembered the OP saying wife's family was in southeast IA, and then mentioned Keo, so I was assuming Keokuk, but it's actually Keosauqua, which is about equidistant from DM and MV. Sorry!