The Des Moines suburbs have unofficially gained a larger population than the city itself. And they say the suburbs could be twice as large by 2030.
Assuming Council Bluffs doesn't count as a suburb, I don't think Omaha has hit this mark yet. Am I correct?
It's a large article, so I'm not going to paste it all here, but here's a snippet:
The Des Moines Area Metropolitan Planning Organization estimated that Des Moines has a population of 201,655 living inside the city limits, up from the 2003 census estimate of 196,093. The combined estimated populations of 14 suburbs stands now at 206,651.
The paper itself had a great graphic showing the huge growth in the west and southeast suburbs, but the online edition doesn't appear to have it.
After the tax dollar collected, this is the 2nd most important part of Omaha's liberal annexation abilities; not wielding any power to other area cities.
Omaha is the dominant powerhouse government in the region and no other city has the clout to reduce this. In the Kansas Cities and St. Louis', the large suburbs feel like they should get their equal share of transit dollars, attractions, county spending, etc.
Thank goodness someone made our laws so liberal. That article was scary about how people seem so fiercely suburb minded. Is inner city Des MOines really that dangerous? This is probably how Omaha would be if we couldn't annex freely. I hope this serves as an example to Omaha officials and other city's officials near Omaha, that Omaha be able to annex as much as we need.
Those comments were really silly, but probably typical of suburbanites everywhere.
There's not one street in Des Moines so unsafe that I wouldn't walk down it during the daytime. I practically did just this when I worked at the City of Des Moines.
DMRyan wrote:Those comments were really silly, but probably typical of suburbanites everywhere.
There's not one street in Des Moines so unsafe that I wouldn't walk down it during the daytime. I practically did just this when I worked at the City of Des Moines.
That wouldn't be advised. It's not as if Des Moines is a rough place by any stretch, but it's really not smart to be walking in high crime areas at night.
Oh, I think you're safe walking any street even in Omaha during the -day-. I'm not suggesting you go up and knock on any door mind you... but sticking to the sidewalk you should be fine.
I have even heard from people in Omaha that Des Moines is pretty rough. I have a cousin who goes to Simpson College in Indianola and he was telling me some stuff about the neighborhoods around Drake. Not to make DM look bad, there are tons of places even I wouldn't walk in Omaha.
Living in Chicago, there are complete sides (South and West) of Chicago I wouldn't walk in during the day or night. Omaha and Des Moines are pretty well off.
Don't forget Gary. I visited a friend out there and there would be buildings without roofs and people still lived there. It was one of the scariest looking places I'd been to but nothing ever happened. I'm used to bad neighborhoods.
DTO, there are pockets of the Drake area that have some of the highest crime in the city. This is Des Moines' very poor inner city area for all intensive purposes. It's still not that bad of a hood comparitively and you'll find more property crimes in Des Moines than violent crimes. I assume Omaha is the same way.
Nothing against your friend at Simpson College, but this stigma about the Drake area is same as the stigma attached to a marginal part of north Omaha. People think it's worse than it really is and often never make it up that way to see the real neighborhoods.
I worked at Pizza Hut back in my college days, in both Lincoln and Des Moines. Back then, in 1997, Des Moines had an area of inner city that Pizza Hut would not deliver to at night (maybe at all). Does anyone know if this is still true, and if Omaha has the same? Lincoln didn't have any of these "undeliverable zones".
Yeah, I think places like Pizza Hut or Domino's still have a few zones like that although the boundaries get changed every now and then. I've seen temporary no deliver zones if a string of pizza delivery guy robberies starts happening in a certain area, but the problem manages to go away.
Yes, Omaha pizza places have those red-lined areas as well.
I did some market work in Des Moines last summer, including the "rough neighborhoods." I was looking at rental properties and driving the entire area to get a feel for the area and find neighborhood amenities. These neighborhoods were not that bad!
I used to work at Godfather's on 60th and Ames and we wouldn't deliver to anything east of 42nd St/ Other places did though. It wasn't so much abuot it being bad becasue we had some pretty scary employees who went out "prepared" but the customers would write bad checks or not have the money.
When I was at Drake, I never felt uncomfortable. We'd walk to West End and other bars down Forest St. all the time at night - which are on the outskirts of the "bad" hoods.. and never had any problems. You have to go north of Forest and east of 30th.. that's where the pockets of higher crime are probably found. Never heard any gunshots.. heck I don't think too many people ever felt unsafe around the area .. security around Drake was pretty good. Most people were smart enough to walk in groups at night anyway.. I never really worried about it.. then again it's not like you'd find me in a grocery store or driving around the hoods northeast of Drake.. just had to keep your wits about you, but every city has it's bad parts of town...
Hey Ryan.. will the Drake BB teams still be playing at the Knapp Center when Wells Fargo opens?! I always thought the Knapp Center was a nice facility.. have you seen the new offices they put in? They had just completed them when I left.
God created alcohol to keep the Irish from taking over the world!
The Knapp Center will still hold Drake B-ball games. It was finished in the early 1990's, so it's pretty new.
I haven't been inside Knapp Center in about two years. One of the bad things about Drake in comparison to Creighton is that Des Moines really doesn't stand behind the Bulldogs as well as the Omaha fans do Creighton. We're too preoccupied with ISU and U of I. Drake is now taking a more active role in being Des Moines' University, but there's a lot of P.R. that still needs to be done.
I've been in the Knapp Center a few times. I love the place. It's a great fit for the university. That place can get really intense too...especially when it is full of screaming Creighton fans.
Yeah, I've only been to one Drake b-ball game, but the student crowd was defintely in to. Knapp Center seats a little over 7,000 for basketball. (for you DTO) ;)
This is probably how Omaha would be if we couldn't annex freely. I hope this serves as an example to Omaha officials and other city's officials near Omaha, that Omaha be able to annex as much as we need.
