Then you'd better blame the ISU faculty and staff. You know, those folks that have dominated the Ames city council and decision-making boards in Ames for years!
PODCAST: Jamie Pollard on the last 14 days
- Thread starter ChrisMWilliams
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Then you'd better blame the ISU faculty and staff. You know, those folks that have dominated the Ames city council and decision-making boards in Ames for years!
How so? Pollard has my trust in putting us in the best possible place. If he goes, that means the others he was referring to are more in power than what I thought or what is For our collective good. I’m not giving a dime to that.
Exactly. Only way we can inflict change is with our pocket book. I do not donate to things I do not believe in.
That is what I saw. Again, I question anything I see on FB these days, but this looks more legit.
I don't know - at the time it was pretty clear where retail was heading and malls were not it. And even if opposition was based on business being "stolen" from main street, it is not a bad position for a city to push back on development outside of town while adjacent parts of the core city need significant help and development. The people that were for the mall weren't realistic - they were basically taking the approach that North Grand Mall wasn't doing well because it sucked, not because it was a dying model (which most people knew at the time). But I'd still consider this more of a broken clock being right twice a day than the city being good at planning.
Anyway, this is kind of a derailment, because it sounds like i'm trying to defend the anti-growth faction of the city, which I am not. I can understand Pollard's frustration, as there are some real pain in the ass people in the community that probably make his job difficult.
As the offspring of two former IDOT employees, a graduate of ISU and now a resident of the western suburbs of DSM. I'm not sure I could live in Ames ever again... The no new growth, never change crowd has way too much of a voice.
To think. Ames could be a booming Ag-tech and engineering hub with bustling employment and tons of amenities with just a little effort. DSM metro, especially Ankeny has really benefitied from ISU fans wanting to be close to Ames but having a better life in Ankeny
- Mar 27, 2006
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I don't know if I agree with you. The new mall push was coming right on the heels of Jordan Creek opening up. And regardless of the outlook of malls at the time, it was blindingly obvious that Jordan Creek had been a massive success. That entire area on the West side of Des Moines seemingly grew by the day. The new mall backers had stars in their eyes, drooling over doinga similar thing for 13th street/I-35 area.
Campbell has stated numerous times that he is tied to Pollard. If Pollard leaves. Matt is gone.. If anyone wants Pollard gone. Please go take a long walk on a short dock
ISU sports should be entering an amazing period. Football is the best it's ever been. Men's basketball is winning and getting players drafted. Womens basketball is about to explode (already a top 1/2 of the conference program). Wrestling is coming back from the death after Sanderson left. Cross country is dominating. Track and field is winning. Men's golf is/has been qualifying and contending for NCAA's (almost impossible for a northern climate team)
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This times 1000X. Work in Ames but won't ever live in Ames again.
the same reason people want Prohm gone. They don't one thing and it's easier to complain and blame than propose a workable, proven solution.
This is obviously good, but the point isn't how many college kids are hospitalized, it is who they pass it on to. And even if hospitalizations stay down, there are other ramifications. What if they pass it to someone who gives it to teachers and Ames schools have to stay remote only? People are ******** about remote school, but outbreaks at Iowa State forced Ames to go remote for a few weeks.
That’s the thing, if somebody had a bold idea ahead of Jordan Creek, maybe you’d have something. But the mall was already there and that growth was kicking off. So then it was an idea to try to replicate in a town of 50k what is working in close proximity to DM, WDM, Clive, Grimes, Urbandale, etc.
The other concern isn't just Ames, it's everywhere else. People drive in from places other than Ames, then carry risk of spreading it into their own communities. Keeping it contained within campus is arguably best-case scenario, but that dampens as soon as you mix students with other people. Then, your worst-case scenario becomes linking outside spreads back to gamedays, thus bringing in pressure to stop the games altogether. It's a tough thing to balance, but also one that can be regularly revisited and adjusted throughout the season if approached carefully. No fans for one game doesn't mean no fans at all, and at the end of the day, fans are irrelevant. The goal is to play games. That's what's most important.
All that said, I feel for Jamie 'cuz there's no winning. The general issue is too politicized and tribal to be able to make a decision that everyone accepts without major criticism.
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To be clear, I'm not saying that it was a good idea. I'm simply saying that the failure of malls was not something that was being strongly considered at that time, because 90 minutes south was an example of a recently built mall that had been incredibly successful. The fear of the anti-mall folk was not that it would be unsuccessful and drag the town down. Opposition was centered around money being taken away from local businesses and main street being de-emphasized as a shopping area.
Seriously - anybody that actually likes ISU sports and cares about it that wants Pollard gone should get their head checked. He's not perfect, but he's done a ton to raise the profile of ISU athletics.
There are people that want Pollard gone, but chances are they are not ISU athletics fans.
