Ames urbanization and densification
- Thread starter Cypow
- Start date
I am totally in on that! Whiskey River and Downtown Deli (and the bank) are the best reasons to ever go downtown!
I am, but they deliver! I do occasionally go for a lunch slice, but it is such a (delicious) gut bomb that I end up feeling lazy all afternoon!
Can't you just take 30 to that blacktop by Iowasports (or whatever that place is) and shoot up there and come around?
I don’t find Main Street a pain at all compared to other areas. S Duff is a congested mess. If west Ames or Somerset got more retail businesses it would be rough going quite quickly.
Considering density of businesses I think downtown is way better in accessibility compared to other areas of town.
When I was in college 15 years ago I took a city planning course and a project was to add something - anything- to Ames infrastructure. My proposed project was a highway around the NW section of Ames and the class told me that was a stupid idea because Ames will never grow in that area.
I’d say from 35/30 you can be in Boone in 20 minutes. If I was going to extreme NW Ames I would probably go 30-SoDak-Lincoln Way-County line road
Now I need a clip from “The Californians” on SNL
Ames, outside of Campus area, might be my least favorite city in Iowa. It's poorly planned, poorly laid-out, with an odd, non-concentric commercial development pattern, etc. I've never seen any other growing city put their new houses on the exact opposite side of town than new commercial development. Traffic is a nightmare, and everyone is an expert (or has an opinion) in everything. It's a really weird city outside of the campus area.
I had a college kid who was working for me years ago ate 7 slices of it during one lunch. Woof
Been awhile since I have don't a lot of driving in Ames that didn't involve ISU, but my son a few years back would go to that sportsIowa place on 30 on the west end of Ames. I can't remember what county road it was. Maybe it was Dakota? Not sure, but it took us on the west side of Ames and west side of Gilbert and not many stops in between.
I don’t think Ames is laid out the best overall - it has sort of just grown organically. I agree those areas of town are not ideal. But on Main Street, the road is not wide enough for the amount of angled street parking down there (a holdover from the horse and buggy days). You have to constantly be braking to make way for people backing out, or pedestrians jaywalking. It is a nice pedestrian area, but not a road you are going to ever take to save time. If I need to go to Wells Fargo from Duff, I go up to 6th and cut down rather than going down Main. We love Cornbred and are much more likely to visit it because you can approach it from the west and avoid driving down Main.
The stores and such down there are largely for the affluent. Which is great, that is necessary, but then it doesn’t make fiscal sense for so much of the city budget to be put into it. The side streets branching off of it are largely ignored. The parking is difficult quite often during high-traffic times. There is currently a project in place to replace the sidewalk pavers down there that is hundreds of thousands of city dollars - meanwhile, west Lincoln Way is a nondescript commercial area despite it being one of the main entrances to town.
I don’t hate or dislike Main Street at all, I just don’t find it convenient. I try to shop local whenever I can, but think I would be more likely to go downtown if the road were widened up or there was a parking ramp behind the businesses.
You put a bunch of college professors (who have PHDs) in a smaller town, what do you think will happen? Many think they know the meaning of life.
WTH, how?! I think the most slices of GP pizza I have ever had in one sitting, despite having eaten nothing that day, was two! And even then I was uncomfortable! Can you imagine how bloated you would be?!
Uh, London Underground is my place to go. Sure hope I’ll be able to do that again. Takeout drinks in a paper sack just isn’t the same.
We don’t go to the bars very often anymore (young children and I don’t drink much), but that place has a cool vibe! So does Della Viti.
I am curious to see what happens to the Olde Main site.
South Duff should have had frontage roads from the onset but I wonder whether city people expected or even wanted a lot of traffic, stores and shoppers.
I have barely been able to finish 2 slices at a time. Needless to say he didn't join us going back to work after lunch.
But no one cared after that performance!
Dakota street comes to a T intersection as you move further North, and then you have to go right over to Stange then North again by the gulf course.
As others have said if you want to get to the NW side of Ames, there is not an easy path off I35. Tons of new houses being built NW of Ames all the way to Gilbert. They really need to build a new street North of 13th off the interstate that goes straight west over to the road up to Gilbert, right at the Northern part of Ames.
