My in-laws don't like living in Grinnell...but it's because of so many "people from Chicago" moving into town
Worst city in Iowa?
- Thread starter Cfinnerty16
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Wasn't that the start of the downfall of the town in Footloose? Do they even allow dancing in Webster City anymore?
Not Iowa related, but people in MN have an appropriate acronym for Edina:
Every Day I Need Attention
Every Day I Need Attention
I think it's your job to lead us to one of these gold mines. Starting this site makes you practically a prospector.
Other than being too damn hot in the summer and not as pretty/interesting/exciting as a lot of the coastal cities it is fine.
Its status as a punchline is overplayed, kinda like New Jersey.
Fort Dodge. It's just.....bleak. Just sadness. I don't know if Ottumwa and Keokuk are big enough to qualify as cities. Oelwein certainly isn't.
Anybody saying Waterloo hasn't been there in the last 10 years. Growing like crazy to the south and all the development Downtown is paying off big time. Same with Mason City, there's some really neat stuff up there and they've really embraced Meredith Wilson and The Music Man which is pretty cool. Shout out Fat Hill Brewery too.
Anybody saying Waterloo hasn't been there in the last 10 years. Growing like crazy to the south and all the development Downtown is paying off big time. Same with Mason City, there's some really neat stuff up there and they've really embraced Meredith Wilson and The Music Man which is pretty cool. Shout out Fat Hill Brewery too.
I knew a few people would pipe up about Dubuque. I'll admit it has gotten better than it was 10-20 years ago.
Maybe it's better to discuss which cities don't belong?
Des Moines (mostly)
Ames
Iowa City area
The rest? A case can be made
The Burlington-Ft Madison-Keokuk golden triangle needs to be included
On a side note I hit a Hy-Vee in Galesburg, Illinois and it was like the walking dead. It was shocking....
They don't like white people that aren't Dutch either.
As someone who was born in Waterloo in the 80's/90's its a dump today(hurts me to say that). Cedar Falls has completely dominated the area and there is numerous reasons why. City of Waterloo can't get out of it's own way. The permitting/zoning policies are so dated that they continue to cripple the city. The mayor is bad, real bad. If the city didn't have a large influx of immigrants especially Bosnians, I'm not sure where it would be.
True add Muscatine to that list. That midcentral part of Illinois is in rough shape: Peoria, Quincy, Springfield, Macomb, etc
Keokuk has a lot of abandonment compared to any other Iowa city.
Waterloo and Mason City also both have adjacent sister communities in Cedar Falls and Clear Lake that are very nice by any measure. That can’t be ignored. Ft Dodge and the SE IA River towns don’t have that.
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Waterloo is light years better than it was 15 years ago.
And a lot of them are full of drug addicts/dealers. Hedrick and Pershing come to mind.
Have a couple friends that did internships up in Rockford…probably better than it was at its lowest, but still seems like a rough town.
