Principal Financial-Remote work

[Gunnerclone]

As someone that owns two residential properties in downtown Des Moines I find the “downtown is dead” statements interesting.

Sure the sky walk area has diminished but that’s only a portion of downtown. WFH has also allowed people to live anywhere they want including downtown. In the process of selling one of properties and there is a ton of demand and it took less than 3 days. The constant growth of residential developments and influx of out of area breweries, etc into downtown wouldn’t be happening if it was dead. If anyone spent any amount of time downtown recently they’d know it’s anything but dead.

A large percentage of people don’t live downtown because they work there. In my building the majority don’t work downtown and a number moved there post Covid because of WFH. It’s a lifestyle not driven by proximity to an office.

Do you consider west of the QT “downtown”? Is the Market District “downtown”? Is the EV “downtown”? Not imo.

 

[KnappShack]

Think I read this article the first time back in 1985.

Was curious about the flip side. Sounds like DC is the heavyweight champion. Here are some others benefitting from this

"California, Illinois, Georgia, Texas, Minnesota and Massachusetts all see more graduates than graduated there."

Also on the list is New York.

 

[FarminCy]

I think the article touches on a major issue. Young people are not fond of legislation marginalizing LGBTQ+ individuals. Even those who do not identify as such have friends that do. And us ancient people also had friends who identified as such when we were in school but were forced to hide who they were even from their friends.

Work for a technical company that recruits out of certain colleges including ISU. One of the most common question from ISU students is what other states they can work in.

Counterparts in companies like Deere and Corteva are experiencing the same, including existing employees.

 

[dmclone]

Just saying as far as a place that isn’t WDM, Waukee, Ankeny. Those places are all solid. Just comparing it to being a bit of a “different lifestyle” like Downtown living is. People that might have taken the chance on downtown living are taking a chance on something else now.

I totally agree with you.

 

[ClonesFTW]

It's definitely not a new problem but the reasons to leave are increasing!

Census data does not portray what you are claiming. Polk county population has continued to increase the last 10 years with the 20-34 year old demographic makeup of the total population less than 1% different than it was in 2011 (22% of 439k total population)

 

[dmclone]

Are you saying that des moines has a higher level of those things than real cities? Seems unlikely.

I'm saying downtown Des Moines has a higher percentage of homeless, higher crime rate, louder, etc. than Cumming. Yes, that's what I'm saying.

 

[ISUCyclones2015]

Yeah like in Madison the concept seemed to pick up steam when I moved here in 2006 and then really after 2010ish new bars and apartments started popping up all over downtown. Lots of the apartment complexes that have restaurants and bars at the bottom.

It was already a flooded food market so some have come and gone but it's only expanded over the last two-three years and lots of spots along the near east side have gone from kind of seedy to updated.

Called 5 over 1. And developers have had a hard on for them for the last 20 years because it is extremely bang for the buck and no zoning laws or even fire codes need to be changed. Texas is littered with them and a huge debate whether they are all around good for the area in which they are built.

To me they scream "Thousandaire" luxury.

Here is a short video on how they've popped up since the mid 90s

 

[BCClone]

Was curious about the flip side. Sounds like DC is the heavyweight champion. Here are some others benefitting from this

"California, Illinois, Georgia, Texas, Minnesota and Massachusetts all see more graduates than graduated there."

Also on the list is New York.

Oddly, many of those states are losing population also.

 

[FarminCy]

Do you consider west of the QT “downtown”? Is the Market District “downtown”? Is the EV “downtown”? Not imo.

Well hell, you better call the Des Moines Partnership, City of Des Moines, etc that they’ve been marketing downtown all wrong then!!

Of course those things are considered downtown.

 

[Gunnerclone]

Called 5 over 1. And developers have had a hard on for them for the last 20 years because it is extremely bang for the buck and no zoning laws or even fire codes need to be changed. Texas is littered with them and a huge debate whether they are all around good for the area in which they are built.

To me they scream "Thousandaire" luxury.

Here is a short video on how they've popped up since the mid 90s

These pieces of **** are everywhere in Columbus. God awful. The new strip mall.

 

[Gunnerclone]

Well hell, you better call the Des Moines Partnership, City of Des Moines, etc that they’ve been marketing downtown all wrong then!!

Of course those things are considered downtown.

Maybe they should call me. They’re not doing a great job.

 

[carvers4math]

Oddly, many of those states are losing population also.

Older people worried more about taxes, younger people worried more about discrimination and hate

 

[BCClone]

Older people worried more about taxes, younger people worried more about discrimination and hate

I was always told it was due to young people not have anything to do in the state

 

[dmclone]

I've worked downtown for over 20 years now. I've worked in 5 different buildings. The new/young people loved the idea of living/working downtown but very few actually ended up living downtown. Not exactly sure why they didn't rent downtown but I'm sure cost was an issue. A lot of these 25 year olds were "from Chicago, Minneapolis, LA" but in reality they were really "from Naperville, Edina, and Irvine" so I think they were a little scared to live in Downtown Des Moines. You could see after a few months of working downtown, they got a lot more comfortable.

 

[KnappShack]

I've worked downtown for over 20 years now. I've worked in 5 different buildings. The new/young people loved the idea of living/working downtown but very few actually ended up living downtown. Not exactly sure why they didn't rent downtown but I'm sure cost was an issue. A lot of these 25 year olds were "from Chicago, Minneapolis, LA" but in reality they were really "from Naperville, Edina, and Irvine" so I think they were a little scared to live in Downtown Des Moines. I know it sounds crazy but I think it was true. You could see after a few months of working downtown, they got a lot more comfortable.

Having lived in and around 2 of those towns I can completely believe it.

 

[FarminCy]

I was always told it was due to young people not have anything to do in the state

It’s both.

We were in process of opening office in ISURP. Project got axed for a number of reasons. One of the issues during research was potential employee and existing employee perspectives of Iowa, and those two topics were the most common.

Recruiting qualified ISU bachelor and advanced degree grads showed no benefit by having location in Iowa as majority of disciplines we recruit preferred out of state. As an Iowan it sucked to read the location research that came back.

 

[Drew0311]

Managers like to be seen as the big dog walking around the office. Our company decided to keep us at home since they were saving so much money and found out the hiring pool was from around the country instead of just local. People are getting the job done from home, they just don't like the fact that they can't control the people and be the big men on campus.

 

[cycloneG]

Census data does not portray what you are claiming. Polk county population has continued to increase the last 10 years with the 20-34 year old demographic makeup of the total population less than 1% different than it was in 2011 (22% of 439k total population)

It looks like the 20-34 age group shrank as a share of the population from 2010-2021. The fastest-growing age group in Polk County is 65+.

How many people live in Polk County, IA? | USAFacts

In 2024, there were about 516,200 people living in Polk County, IA. That makes Polk County the most populous county in Iowa. It is home to 15.9% of people living in the state.

usafacts.org

 

[isufbcurt]

BAD Managers like to be seen as the big dog walking around the office. Our company decided to keep us at home since they were saving so much money and found out the hiring pool was from around the country instead of just local. People are getting the job done from home, they just don't like the fact that they can't control the people and be the big men on campus.

FIFY

 

[stateofmind]

100% remote and I'm managing other employees that are 100% remote on both coasts. As long as they meet their project goals on time, I'm happy.

Same here, and I've never managed in an office space. But man would it be easier to manage people if I could walk by their desk. There are times you know they aren't working, but have no way to know. But they are grownups, so I trust them. I did have to call out a couple of my employees for making team or project meetings on time and getting timesheets done. Workload is light, so it's easy to spend a lot of family time during the day.