Thinking about a transfer??? PLEASE HELP!!!!! (Davenport, Bettendorf: apartments, homes, living in)

[neanerbean]

Originally Posted by JGRO3482

Thanks for all the help, it's really the finer details that are major hang ups for me.

Everyone is mentioning Waterloo and Cedar Rapids, but I would like to be as close to Illinois as possible without inconviencing my husband and his new job with a long commute.

However, I don't want to live in a college town (becaus have young children) but I need to be close to a major University to finish my degree.

I also don't want to live in a heavily populated city (no more than 10,000 or so). I am also looking for the socioeconomic status of the community because that essentially determines the type of things the community has to offer and the amount of money that is invested in the school districts and of course the kind of people you will be living next to.

I am also leaving one of the best Hospitals in Illinois and that is my livelihood and huge for me. I worked hard to get into their system and need to move to something compariable with a major trauma center with life flight nursing.

The amount of Sex Offenders is huge too especially with children.

How is North Liberty or Fairfax

THIS MOVE IS GOING TO DRIVE ME NUTS!!!!!!!!!

- Most of eastern Iowa is about 4 hours from Chicagoland

- Most college towns in the larger cities have a clear separation of Students and citizens.

- Online might be an options for finishing school U of Iowa has the only comprehensive medical degrees for the state.

- 10,000 people or less won't have much going on.

- covenant( waterloo) has an air care team. I think that they are associated with the University of Iowa. Also University if Iowa has weekend options for most nursing positions, but pickings are going to be slim and remember Iowa nursers are the worst paid in the nation. raked 51st

- most smaller (10,000) don't have a rely thriving economics because they really rely on the bigger cities to do splurge shopping.

- you can check online for sex offenders on the Iowa sex offenders registry

- also you may want to consider if this is really the best option. remember you are not going to find everything you want.

[DMRyan]

Iowa ranked 51st out of 50 states for nurse's pay?

While I don't disagree that our state's pay for nurses is on the bottom rung, how is a ranking of 51st even possible? Was Puerto Rico being considered too?

[Roy G. Biv]

LOL JGRO... why don't you just tell your husband that you don't want to move?

Half of the criteria of what you want contradict the other half of what you want.

You can't be anywhere near Waterloo AND be close to Illinois.

You can't have all the amenities of a large wealthy suburb and live in a tiny town of less than 10,000 people.

The best Trauma nursing program is at the university of Iowa in Iowa City, which is at the very least 1.5 hours from Waterloo.

My recommendation is that you look into Marion Iowa. Its next to Cedar Rapids, has a population of about 10,000. Has a lot of new subdivisions, a lot of wealthy people, and is close to all of the kinds of stuff you would want. Linn-Mar community schools is the type of school you're looking for...big school filled with mostly white upper middle class kids. Its closer to Illinois than Waterloo is, and its close to Iowa City for your Trauma Nursing education, but its about an hour south of Waterloo. Its also not directly adjacent to the interstate, which would be annoying for anyone commuting.

The second best place to look into would be Cedar Falls. It is a college town next to Waterloo but its not a big party school. The campus and university housing is all together in one spot and its a very safe atmosphere from my experience. I would feel reasonably safe letting my wife or older kids walk alone through the campus or town in the middle of the night (if for some reason they had to). The downside of this place is that the big trauma nursing school is still down in Iowa City and its farther away from Illinois.

As far as sex offenders go, Cedar Falls does appear have one apartment complex by the airport where there is a larger than normal concentration of sex offenders. Probably because they have to be a certain distance for any school. Marion has a few. But really neither are that different from the towns in illinois.

[CrazyHorsePete]

Iowa ranked 51st out of 50 states for nurse's pay?

While I don't disagree that our state's pay for nurses is on the bottom rung, how is a ranking of 51st even possible? Was Puerto Rico being considered too?

I'm guessing they considered Washington DC.

JGRO, you may want to look into Hudson. It's a nice smaller town of about 2,000 just south of Cedar Falls (which is the location of UNI). Any further south and you get into major farm country. I think this area may be your best bet. Iowa City and Cedar Rapids suburbs would also work for you, but your husband will be facing a 1 hour+ commute each way. This is no good as Interstate 380 can get pretty bad in the winter.

Raymond and Evansdale are smaller towns just east of Waterloo which may also be worth a look.

[Roy G. Biv]

I looked on the Bureau of Labor Statistics website and the 2007 median wage for registered nurses in Illinois was $28.8 an hour and in Iowa it is $23.04 an hour. In Iowa nurses are 4.5% of the total employment and in Illinois its 2.5%.

I also found that the cost of living in IL is about 5% more than in Iowa for everything from food, to housing, transportation, healthcare, etc.

[crazysixdownunder]

Unfortunately, you are very demanding like a lot of other people that desire the same things. Iowa probably is not the place for you because we have enough greedy people demanding unrealistic things as they are always taking but never giving. Can you tell me how we build these perfect paradises you speak of, if people are not willing to give for it?

*Top 10 school districts in state.
How often will you volunteer at your children’s school?

* Within in a 45 minute drive of a top 10 hospital in state or top 100 hospitals in nation.
I’m assuming you’re seeking employment with the best or one of your children has a serious chronic medial condition. Either way, I presume you’re naive to the healthcare industry.

*Located near a Mall, Target, Dance Schools, Restaurants, but not a tourist destination.
Yes, we have all of these as well.

*Subdivisions, not farmland.
This is Iowa, Agriculture is our specialty. Unfortunately everything is surrounded by fields.

The real question is not what we can do for you but what can you do for us? The real 10% are those who do not expect of others but those who accept the challenges that are out there and do something to change the world in which we live. These people are not found in the places you talk about but in those you avoid.

Are you Top 10?

[Roy G. Biv]

Dang, that wasn't a very friendly post...
People have the right to desire certain things in their life and to freely ask where such things can or cannot be found.

[neanerbean]

I think it was DC and Puerta Rico that were included in the rankings. It doesn't matter what the cost of living is. these people put in a lot of hard work to get paid squat. that's why they leave

[neanerbean]

Originally Posted by crazysixdownunder

The real question is not what we can do for you but what can you do for us? The real 10% are those who do not expect of others but those who accept the challenges that are out there and do something to change the world in which we live. These people are not found in the places you talk about but in those you avoid.

Good point

[JustAnotherIowan]

I'm gonna have to agree with Roy G. Biv that Marion or Cedar Falls might be the best choices with all of the criteria you've listed. A lot of the towns surrounding Waterloo are too small to have anything but a school system and a local grocery store.