Ames compared to other Big 12 College Towns
- Thread starter Jbone4State10'
- Start date
As a follow up question, which Big XII towns have the most potential for growth in population, retail space, restaurants, etc.
I always thought Ames had/has a lot of development potential, but it seemed the city council or whoever controls these things always chose a conservative route towards development. What does everyone else think?
I always thought Ames had/has a lot of development potential, but it seemed the city council or whoever controls these things always chose a conservative route towards development. What does everyone else think?
I disagree about Lincoln, it's not bad at all and they have the Sidetracks bar that is pretty fun even if you aren't a Husker fan. I had this misconception about Husker fans till I actually went to Lincoln and they are knowledgable folks that love their football, very friendly to the visitors, but they will go overboard on their team if they don't win or in the case this year not play well but still win.
Sidetrack Music - featuring Joyce and Paul. Come listen to the hilarious music from Paul and Joyce and the Sidetrack Band. Check out the sound clips too, the BJ song is funny as hell!
Sidetrack Music - featuring Joyce and Paul. Come listen to the hilarious music from Paul and Joyce and the Sidetrack Band. Check out the sound clips too, the BJ song is funny as hell!
I've been to a lot of the stadiums but haven't really had a chance to explore the towns too much...
Austin seemed nice but parking was random and getting tailgating spots was challenging. Nice scenery though (and I'm not talking about the buildings or trees...) the Texas fans were also pretty nice to us, though we weren't exactly a threat to them...
Lubbock sucked. Middle of freak'n no where, fans were *** holes for the most part, we were told by a stadium guy taking the night off and sitting with us that they regularly have to remove people from the stadium... right after the police escorted some people away. As my roommate likes to put it, "Everyone there wanted to make love to us" (We got a lot of **** yous) Walking to the stadium and back was quite interesting... I think the only place I've seen that was worse was Toledo
Norman was cool, they had beer gardens in their equivilant of Welch, some of the fans were decent. Problem was getting back to the interstate, I think it took almost an hour to get back to it, and it was stop and go on the interstate leaving... (we probally got there faster too because we were given back road directions that let us avoid the direction 80% of people were going...)
Manhatten was alright, they had the closet thing to us in terms of tailgating. Didn't see much of the town
Lawerence was interesting, we tailgated away from most people (we were in the free lot that you could have alcohol, next to the Fog). People were decent enough, only saw the campus though
Nebraska wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it'd be, though driving through town we got some crap
Columbia... again mostly just tailgating (hey, when you have to be back for class on monday...). Some jerks, some nice people. One thing I liked is the lot we tailgated in, they parked all the Cyclone fans in one corner (and it was the one closest to the stadium) If you didn't get there early to tailgate though... you'd wind up parking along the roads, in some cases quite far away. Tailgating got started pretty late, most people were just getting going as we were leaving to go to the game. Saw a lot of Tiger tails on vehicles...
Still working on getting to A&M, Baylor and CU, hopefully since I'll be able to spend a little time in the towns with those...
Austin seemed nice but parking was random and getting tailgating spots was challenging. Nice scenery though (and I'm not talking about the buildings or trees...) the Texas fans were also pretty nice to us, though we weren't exactly a threat to them...
Lubbock sucked. Middle of freak'n no where, fans were *** holes for the most part, we were told by a stadium guy taking the night off and sitting with us that they regularly have to remove people from the stadium... right after the police escorted some people away. As my roommate likes to put it, "Everyone there wanted to make love to us" (We got a lot of **** yous) Walking to the stadium and back was quite interesting... I think the only place I've seen that was worse was Toledo
Norman was cool, they had beer gardens in their equivilant of Welch, some of the fans were decent. Problem was getting back to the interstate, I think it took almost an hour to get back to it, and it was stop and go on the interstate leaving... (we probally got there faster too because we were given back road directions that let us avoid the direction 80% of people were going...)
Manhatten was alright, they had the closet thing to us in terms of tailgating. Didn't see much of the town
Lawerence was interesting, we tailgated away from most people (we were in the free lot that you could have alcohol, next to the Fog). People were decent enough, only saw the campus though
Nebraska wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it'd be, though driving through town we got some crap
Columbia... again mostly just tailgating (hey, when you have to be back for class on monday...). Some jerks, some nice people. One thing I liked is the lot we tailgated in, they parked all the Cyclone fans in one corner (and it was the one closest to the stadium) If you didn't get there early to tailgate though... you'd wind up parking along the roads, in some cases quite far away. Tailgating got started pretty late, most people were just getting going as we were leaving to go to the game. Saw a lot of Tiger tails on vehicles...
Still working on getting to A&M, Baylor and CU, hopefully since I'll be able to spend a little time in the towns with those...
Pretty good assessment. I've been to most (not all).
I do like the Dixie Chicken in College Station. And Eskimo Joes is a nice spot. I'm not a big fan of the "Little Apple". I like Lawrence...beautiful campus (second behind ISU) and decent night life...The Wheel and one other place I cannot remember the name of (for good reason). Austin is not really a "town"...it is a "city"...great night life...music, food, etc.
On a side note, I think ISU fans are generally pretty decent to visitors, we have great tailgating, the tailgating lots are near the stadium, plenty of parking around, and something I've come to appreciate is HOW CLOSE WE ARE TO THE INTERSTATE.
If you think traffic is bad trying to leave the game, it's not. You only have to go for a mile or so in it... with the exception of Austin, we're probally the closest to the interstate that I've seen. And since our parking is closer than theirs is... I think that is negated. To quote SF and reitterate it, "Norman is HORRIBLE" (2x as many people leaving on smaller roads or roads the same size, driving much much much further and through down town or residential neighborhoods)
We've got it good in that regard
If you think traffic is bad trying to leave the game, it's not. You only have to go for a mile or so in it... with the exception of Austin, we're probally the closest to the interstate that I've seen. And since our parking is closer than theirs is... I think that is negated. To quote SF and reitterate it, "Norman is HORRIBLE" (2x as many people leaving on smaller roads or roads the same size, driving much much much further and through down town or residential neighborhoods)
We've got it good in that regard
Nebraska tailgating is way spread out but most of the people are friendly and "N"owledgeable. Traffic much worse than in Ames. Football atmosphere/stadium is awesome and something everyone should experience.
Boulder is a cool atmosphere and it's awesome with the mountains in the backgound. The best though is mountain biking opportunities all over.
Boulder is a cool atmosphere and it's awesome with the mountains in the backgound. The best though is mountain biking opportunities all over.
Austin is ok, campus being landlocked makes it kinda small, aTm i thought was really nice campus and town they have kinda their own campustown with bars and such. lawrence was nice, manhatten terrible theres nothing there, lincoln is right next to the state fair so refer to manahatten haha ames is pretty decent i think, i definitly like our tailgating but obviously im a little biased! those are the ones ive experienced
I've been to Austin, Lubbock, Lawrence, Lincoln, Boulder, and Stillwater.
Not including Ames, here's how I rank them:
1.) Austin--lively city, huge college student population, people I met were generally pretty friendly.
2.) Boulder--love the mountain views, the "laid back" culture, maybe a bit too liberal for my liking, but otherwise a fabulous city. The fans didn't seem to have their "A Game" though
3.) Lincoln--for a college student "O Street" is a great hangout when in town for a game--bars, clubs, restaurants, etc. Parking near the stadium sucks/is virtually non-existant, but good city to visit
4.) Stillwater--Eskimo Joe's is a cool restaurant, was only there a day but not a bad experience. Nice campus w/ a lot of construction going on at the time
5.) Lawrence--again, wasn't here long, wasn't that impressed. Honestly don't remember much of it.
6.) Lubbock--not much to see here, folks. no, really, not much. they are rejuvenating the campus area with expansion and a bunch of nice new buildings but we didn't get away from the campus area much to see what else was around. been told by students there that we didn't miss much. The "Depot District" has some good bars and clubs, and the entry age is 19+.....but you can't buy any alcohol in town unless you're at a bar. found that out by visiting a gas station and realizing there wasn't an alcohol section.
Not including Ames, here's how I rank them:
1.) Austin--lively city, huge college student population, people I met were generally pretty friendly.
2.) Boulder--love the mountain views, the "laid back" culture, maybe a bit too liberal for my liking, but otherwise a fabulous city. The fans didn't seem to have their "A Game" though
3.) Lincoln--for a college student "O Street" is a great hangout when in town for a game--bars, clubs, restaurants, etc. Parking near the stadium sucks/is virtually non-existant, but good city to visit
4.) Stillwater--Eskimo Joe's is a cool restaurant, was only there a day but not a bad experience. Nice campus w/ a lot of construction going on at the time
5.) Lawrence--again, wasn't here long, wasn't that impressed. Honestly don't remember much of it.
6.) Lubbock--not much to see here, folks. no, really, not much. they are rejuvenating the campus area with expansion and a bunch of nice new buildings but we didn't get away from the campus area much to see what else was around. been told by students there that we didn't miss much. The "Depot District" has some good bars and clubs, and the entry age is 19+.....but you can't buy any alcohol in town unless you're at a bar. found that out by visiting a gas station and realizing there wasn't an alcohol section.
Ahhhhh yes.... we were wandering around a grocery store in all of our red and yellow glory... finally stop to ask where the beer is and were informed that we'd have to drive several miles out of town to "The Strip". Seeing as how we had driven all through the night just to make it in time, we didn't have time to stop. After the game... it was too late to buy hard liquor (They stop selling it at 9 or 10)... could have gone to get beer (stop selling at midnight), but yeah...
Construction made that place interesting too... the town is probally the definition of "Urban sprawl" and you really weren't missing much in it
I am curious as to what people from other Big Twelve schools think of Ames. Anyone have any friends from other schools that shared their opinion?
I've never known any out of town friends to be unimpressed with ISU and its surroundings on Game Day.
The only town I've been to was Lawrence, and honestly, I wasn't there long enough to get any good impression of it. I'd love to visit Lincoln for the stadium sometime, as well as seeing Austin for the town.
City of Austin is incredible. The campus is nice, but not great.
Manhattan reminds me of Ames, although the town away from the campus is kind of run down- as someone else suggested. Other similarities as well since KSU is a land grant, state Agriculture and Sciences
Lubbock is a hell-hole. flat, $hitty, nothing but hwy interchanges. The campus however was decent (relative to the city)
Something that many people might not know, but should be proud of:
Thomas Gaines, in The Campus As a Work of Art (1991), proclaimed the Iowa State campus to be one of the twenty-five most beautiful campuses in the country. Gaines noted the park-like expanse of central campus, and the use of trees and shrubbery to draw together Iowa State's varied building architecture.
In 1999 a national landscape architects' group selected Iowa State's central campus as a "medallion" site. The park-like central lawn was among three central campuses selected for special recognition by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA).
To commemorate its centennial, the ASLA selected more than 300 significant landscapes across the country as medallion sites. Thirteen sites were on college campuses, but only three are central campus sites - Yale University, the University of Virginia, and Iowa State.
"The sites were selected because they represent places that were to the heart and soul - places landscape architecture had something to do with making them what they are," Dunbar said.
Iowa State University Campus and Buildings
Manhattan reminds me of Ames, although the town away from the campus is kind of run down- as someone else suggested. Other similarities as well since KSU is a land grant, state Agriculture and Sciences
Lubbock is a hell-hole. flat, $hitty, nothing but hwy interchanges. The campus however was decent (relative to the city)
Something that many people might not know, but should be proud of:
Thomas Gaines, in The Campus As a Work of Art (1991), proclaimed the Iowa State campus to be one of the twenty-five most beautiful campuses in the country. Gaines noted the park-like expanse of central campus, and the use of trees and shrubbery to draw together Iowa State's varied building architecture.
In 1999 a national landscape architects' group selected Iowa State's central campus as a "medallion" site. The park-like central lawn was among three central campuses selected for special recognition by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA).
To commemorate its centennial, the ASLA selected more than 300 significant landscapes across the country as medallion sites. Thirteen sites were on college campuses, but only three are central campus sites - Yale University, the University of Virginia, and Iowa State.
"The sites were selected because they represent places that were to the heart and soul - places landscape architecture had something to do with making them what they are," Dunbar said.
Iowa State University Campus and Buildings
ranking up w/ Yale, and Virginia- older, presitgious, east coast schools- That's pretty impressive
Without someone hammering on me....has anyone else been to Madison? I have found that to be a great college gameday atmosphere. The establishments downtown were also great fun.......................20 years ago:sad:
I also personally like Boulder, but because of the natural surroundings while around the stadium.
I also personally like Boulder, but because of the natural surroundings while around the stadium.
Of where I've been
Austin- Great town, great atmosphere. Friendly people.
Norman- Great stadium, good college town feel. Can't comment to much on the nightlife since we spent most of our time in OKC, and feeling I got was that's where the students went to. People were mostly nice, but I was with an OU alum so that may be it as well.
Lincoln- Not as bad as you would think,but parking is a mess.
Lawrence- Only saving grace is that it's not that far from KC
Austin- Great town, great atmosphere. Friendly people.
Norman- Great stadium, good college town feel. Can't comment to much on the nightlife since we spent most of our time in OKC, and feeling I got was that's where the students went to. People were mostly nice, but I was with an OU alum so that may be it as well.
Lincoln- Not as bad as you would think,but parking is a mess.
Lawrence- Only saving grace is that it's not that far from KC
