Worst place to live in Iowa (in regards to hawkeye fans)?
- Thread starter Cy4Lifer
- Start date
Cedar Rapids Marion area. It just smells like a giant toilet! I don't mean to offend anyone but the first thing I noticed was the smell as I was driving through.
Growing up in Dubuque, I never hear the end of it from the NICC drop outs when Iowa beats ISU (very nice to have nearly 2 years off from this BTW). Dubuque is like 75% Hawkeye, 20% Wisconsin, 5% Iowa State.
Having lived in Iowa City and near Dubuque, I'm gonna have to go with chuckd here. While you're completely surrounded with Iowa fans here in the IC area...a good percentage of them actually went to college, so when they realize I'm an ISU fan because I'm an alum...most of them are cool about it.
The tavernhawks in the dubuque area don't get it. At my last job, there was a receptionist who was a huge tavernhawk...season tickets and the works. She was all excited about homecoming, and I finally said, "wait, you didn't even go to school there, what's big about homecoming?" Her response: Well, every week we go down and get drunk, but on homecoming, we go down and get REALLY drunk.
Living in Cedar Rapids for almost 2 years, I am very surprised to see so many ISU alum/fans. There are more Iowa fans but not as big as a ratio as you think. Maybe 60/40 in favor of Hawk fans. And yes, some parts of town smell like a sewer. The worst is ADM along highway 30.
Any of the old river towns in Eastern Iowa....DQ, Muscatine, QC, Keokuk, Burlington, and all the small towns in between....
The smells have changed over the years. I think the meatpacking/slaughterhouse was been replaced by ADM.
1. Quaker Oats downtown (although crunchberry smell is actually kind of neat on those days)
2. ADM (world's largest and most horrible corn-boil)
3. Mt Trashmore (where's a good place for a landfill? right downtown next to the river? great idea!)
4. The glorious Cedar river (where fish go to die and rot on the shore)
5. The Eternal Flame of the Sewage Treatment Plant
My personal favorite is the sewage plant. They always say they don't give off any smells or emissions. Really? Then WTF is the methane that you burn off 24/7/365 for the last 30 years? And it does smell bad.
I agree on NE Iowa / Dubuque. Grew up in Dbq county. In CR, there are a lot of ISU alum - more ISU alum than UofI alum! So you have some balance and can find ISU people.
"NICC dropouts" is a great description of the prototypical tavernhawk there. Loud, drunk, obnoxious, and never sniffed the Iowa campus.
This thread needs a poll.
I have lived in QC, DBQ, and Burlington. Burlington is the worst. Their newspaper is the Hawkeye. The biggest sports bar there will often refuse to televise ISU when you politely ask. When you wear ISU shirts shopping, you will get rude stares from shoppers and clerks and also derogatory comments from the shop owners and cashiers. A prominent restaurant there is owned by an ISU alum. His family (4) all work there and they all attended ISU; but no one talks about ISU and no pictures are displayed, because it would be boycotted by the tavernHawks. Stores there sell 90% EIU and 10% ISU clothing. There is an online survey that lists Burlington as the #1 hawkeye city by percentage (higher than IC). As a prank, we were going to cover the 7' x 20' Hawkeye display at the newspaper with a large Cyclone banner after the annual football victory, but we knew we would be lynched if caught. Mitch King owns a bar there.
hoosman I agree with you on Burlington; the trailer park element there thinks that turkey vulture logo qualifies as formal attire. I grew up there and remember when we beat Nebraska in "76" in football which was a footnote on page 4; while the hoks got clobbered like 56-7 and it was all over the first 3 pages. The paper has gotten better as multiple ISU grads are on staff there now. unfortunately they also know what sells papers.
I'm curious what bar would not turn on the Cyclone game for you? I tend to frequent the Drake when I'm back in town; as the owners do frequently sport Cyclone gear
I'm curious what bar would not turn on the Cyclone game for you? I tend to frequent the Drake when I'm back in town; as the owners do frequently sport Cyclone gear
