I've been to a few places in my day and I can absolutely say that Iowans aren't any different than anywhere else. If anything, we're a nicer, more polite breed.
Missing Montezuma Boy
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To your face, too many will then back stab you as soon as you turn.
Law enforcement, in my experience, wildly exaggerates small town drug use. I don't think it's intentional either, it's just that they live in that world constantly and it skews their perception of the bigger picture. There are plenty of meth heads in Iowa. They're easy to spot, and easy to avoid.
I used to practice law in a small town for a couple of years, and there was a circle of roughly 150 people who were really deep in the meth/drug lifestyle. They mostly lived in trailer parks (some were in low income apartments, but very few in rural houses). This was in a town of about 3900 people so given that estimate it was about 3-4% of the population. Maybe that's a lot, I don't really know. I would imagine that's a pretty normal level most places - including in cities.
In the country, you either have the ratty old houses getting torn down and farmed over, or you have really nice rural acreages. There isn't much in between these days.
People are generally people. There are definite cultural differences, but the only times I've traveled places and found the locals off-putting was on a very small basis. IE, I really didn't enjoy visiting Waco and found the people there pretty crappy, but I've found Texans in general to be friendly people and almost always enjoy myself when visiting.
In cities, I rarely find people rude or self-centered in conversation. Once you get past the fighting for traffic position, parking spots, etc, they're just people.
The stats don’t lie. Iowa is old, white, and dying. Anyone currently in the state that has the ability is moving to DSM or the CR/IC corridor. No one is coming here from other states and young people are flocking to other states.
This happened Sunday in a small NW IA town.
Galva man charged with first-degree murder after allegedly stabbing brother
Officials have confirmed that the man who was charged with first-degree murder was related to the victim.
who13.com
50k bail???This happened Sunday in a small NW IA town.
Galva man charged with first-degree murder after allegedly stabbing brother
Officials have confirmed that the man who was charged with first-degree murder was related to the victim.who13.com
That's an upper Midwest and plains state thing and not an Iowa exclusive, unfortunately.
Not if you tell him his brother is still around, sounds like he would stick around.
I agree - I have done some projects in rural areas. People would talk about some of the small towns as meth-filled third world countries. Construction crews talking about meth addicts trying to break into job sites, and how there's no way they would stay in these towns. Yet the crime stats simply don't support this whatsoever. Not even close.
There are a lot of crap hole Iowa rural towns that are dying. I would never live in probably any rural Iowa small town, and the ones I grew up around have mostly gone downhill while some have held up OK. This in NW/NC (depending on who you ask) Iowa. And even though some of the towns have gone downhill, there's not some rampant meth problem. Obviously those people are there, but I've never once had that "oh yeah, that person is high" experience out in public.
I would say that the worst areas by a significant margin are in the towns and cities that have been heavily manufacturing-dependent. And yes, the small towns and rural areas on the southern tier of counties is pretty rough, and I found them depressing as hell.
I've done plenty of bagging on rural Iowa and small towns. But so far, the crime statistics just don't bear out this idea that they are meth-laden crime hotspots. Now, I think the demographic and economic trends suggest things could keep moving that direction, but they aren't there. In fact they aren't close compared to national averages and despite this are still some of the lowest violent crime rate areas in the country. Maybe that's more of an indictment of our country than praise for rural Iowa, but that's just what the stats say.
For some reason I'd never thought of this till this morning but why is a city in Iowa named after a 14th century Aztec ruler? Mr. Google says "Montezuma was first established in 1848, when local veterans of the Mexican-American War named the city after Monteuczomah, the last Aztec emperor of Mexico."
I kinda thought number 2 looked like the entire town of What Cheer.
It’s not a narrative. It’s statistics.
The small towns in northern Iowa have generally done fine. There's been slow steady loss of services and population, but it's kind of leveled out, and they aren't suffering the same blight of other places. A lot of the county seat towns have actually gained a little population throughout northern Iowa, albeit usually at the expense of the smaller communities or rural areas.
The very small town I'm from (NC/NE IA depending on who you ask) has had a lot of the local people with roots there buy up some of the run down properties and either fix them up or get rid of them before they became blighted. The town is smaller and has fewer services than when I was a kid, but it's general maintenance is arguably higher. I grew up in the 90's and you had a 5-6 really crappy houses with meth heads in them in town. Those houses are all gone now, and the meth heads gone with them.
These towns are dying, but it's a slow death (as in people posting in here won't live to see it) and it doesn't bear the hallmarks of the decline seen in a lot of other parts of the country. The small towns south of Des Moines are pretty rough. They just don't have the rural ag economy seen in the northern part of the state.
Probably a dumb question...but are there any towns in Iowa that "vanished" (lack of a better term relatively recently (decades)? What becomes of those towns? Fascinating.
According to the state business tax climate index - Iowa ranks #38 out of 50 for being business tax friendly. Being expensive from a business standpoint tax wise plus a 5 month winter is not a winning formula.
If California is any indication they will become tourist destinations
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