1. It gets cold in Winter. But you learn to live with it. The whole city's living with it too.
2. Natural beauty is harder to see. There are no mountains or beaches. 99% of Iowa's land is unnatural[1]. But it sure does make you appreciate the smaller-scale natural beauty that is available every day, and especially the grandeur of the traditionally beautiful areas of the country.
> Everyone should live in Iowa City at least once in their lives.
This is trivially disprovable.
The world has a population of ~8,000,000,000 people. Assuming an average life expectancy of 65 years, if everyone lived in Iowa City (pop. 74,828 [0]) for just one day, its population would increase by 337,197, effectively quintupling its population.
It would diminish the city's walkability due to 6,743.9 buses [1] going into the city every day, or almost 4.68 every minute. And because visitors would be around 4x more people from outside Iowa City than from Iowa City itself, the average friendliness, safeness, intelligence and rebelliousness of its residents would all revert toward the global mean. And I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to extrapolate what would happen to Iowa City's affordability when it has to support all these additional people.
I will add a third claim against it: all that black and gold. As an Iowa State grad, there's a certain arrogance that the University of Iowa undergrads give off (grad students and faculty seem to be fine). [For those not from 'round here, U of Iowa and Iowa State are the two largest universities in the state. There's a healthy—and occasionally unhealthy—rivalry.]
That said, I do actually really like the town itself. Like you said, active, friendly, with a real vibrancy to it. I don't get there often (strange, since Cedar Rapids is not that far away), but enjoy it when I'm there.
I’m in Des Moines and have always kept a wide berth from Iowa City because I have always had it strongly associated with the “binge-drinking-and-college-football are my entire personality“ crowd; I’m happy to hear there is another side of it and I’d be interested to check it out. Any recommendations for a chill day trip? Favorite cafes or museums or similar?
Absolutely! There's no shortage of drinking and football, we are still a college town, but Summer's right around the corner and while the students are (mostly) away, the townies come out to play.
The Iowa City Arts Festival or Jazzfest would be great times to visit.
I'd recommend stopping by Kindred for coffee, and Prairie Lights for the books and ambience. Museum-wise, the Museum of Natural History, the Old Capitol Museum, and the Stanley Museum of Art are all worth your time and free to the public.
Dinner is hard to go wrong, but Trumpet Blossom Cafe is very popular, and Vue is on the 12th story of a hotel has great views of the airport and city, and outdoor seating. I'd also recommend checking out the Iowa City Public Library and the rest of the Pedestrian Mall, and maybe catch a movie at FilmScene in the Chauncey on the next visit.
World of Bikes rents bikes for the day, and the river trail is a pleasant ride between City Park (where you may catch Shakespeare in The Park in the Summer) and Big Grove Brewery, and extends down to Terry Trueblood Recreation Area in the South.
I think the biggest thing that's hard to communicate with a day/weekend trip is how incredibly lovely living here is every day. The hardest part is choosing between all of the activities available.
We have FilmScene where you can see some Hollywood movies but also rarer and more artsy stuff:
- https://icfilmscene.org/
As far as cafes:
- Press Coffee
- Kindred Coffee
- DayDrink
The main reason I've lived here as long as I did is because of the live music, so if you're into that there are lots of great venues (also check out the Mission Creek festival next year):
- The Englert
- The James
- Trumpet Blossom
- Gabe's
- Hancher
I get annoyed by the same crowd you're talking about, but if you come during the summer most of those people are gone and it's the cool people that are left.
I actually don't get to Des Moines very often but have been meaning to, but what kinds of things would you recommend for Des Moines? I've heard the Des Moines Art Center is really good and have been meaning to go.
Unless Iowa City can become self-sufficient and stop relying on State and Federal dollars, I believe we're watching the beginning of the end.
The U.S. Department of State notified the University of Iowa International Writing Program on Feb. 26 that its grants through the department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs were being terminated, stating that the awards “no longer effectuate agency priorities,” nor align “with agency priorities and national interest.”
Iowa City's property tax growth has also been capped by the State Legislature, at a rate that won't keep up with inflation.
You've identified some real headwinds that the community is facing, but I think the gubernatorial and mid-term legislative elections will shed more light on the future.
Maybe research and cultural hubs like Iowa City will just need to weather the storm until 2028 or maybe they start making longer term plans for austerity.
The general vibe around town has been an even greater focus on building local community regardless.
I lived in Iowa City for several years while my kids were young. It is an amazing city. Everyone is lovely, the restaurants are great, home of an active local grocer, tons of activities by the university, great schools, low CoL, completely walkable, and nothing was ever more than 5 minutes away (yes, when we moved, I had to reorient myself on what "far away" was). I think my kids were lucky to grow up there!
I'm from Iowa City! It's awesome to see this pop up on HN. IC has a number of great older bars like this. Sadly my favorite (The Sanctuary) closed recently and may be lost forever.
As it happens, I'm looking at a travel guide to include Iowa City. I had the "Hamburg Inn No. 2" as a food-stop and "Devonian Fossil Gorge" as a tourist-stop.
Am I missing something? (I'll probably head out there for research in May, ha ha.)
If song lyrics count, Eleni Mandell's "Iowa City" is the poem that will always stick in my mind about that town.
Girls, the boys don't cheat in Iowa City
Iowa City nothing to do
Now they're crisp and they're clean
Iowa City
Iowa Iowa
Skies are blue
Not so, Chicago
Never, New York
When you're off and you're looking for something
What will you do?
Where will you go?
Nearby Amana Iowa hosts a yearly Bratwurst festival at which you can learn about the history of an attempt at a utopian society and watch dachshunds race while very very drunk
Iowa City has great aspects. New Pioneer Co-Op: having spent more life afterwards in Boulder, CO, I can safely say IC still holds the prize for ideal progressive food grocery option in the US (admittedly I haven’t been to Portland, and imagine they might compete). Prairie Lights is cool and all but I’d rather be at The Strand. Or Goblin Market or Samdmeyer’s in Chicago. Or Old Town in Stockholm.
Iowa City starts feeling small VERY quickly. The winters are cold. There are no amazing natural areas for activity. Downtown is getting more sterile every year (circa 20 years ago).
University of Iowa is a great example of a University scene, but if you are not a student or professor, you’ll quickly bump up against the guardrails
of small town US economics.
I always say that Iowa City is the Paris of the Midwest ;). Except when there's a home game.
The art culture is incredible. Two of our favorite artists spent a considerable amount of time there, so we made a few trips when researching trying to find pieces.
I love downtown Iowa City. Absolutely adore it. I've spent a lot of time trying to convince family, friends, and anyone who will listen to move here.
It's everything people say: active, friendly, community-oriented, walkable, safe, smart, rebellious, affordable.
I only recognize 2 claims against it:
1. It gets cold in Winter. But you learn to live with it. The whole city's living with it too.
2. Natural beauty is harder to see. There are no mountains or beaches. 99% of Iowa's land is unnatural[1]. But it sure does make you appreciate the smaller-scale natural beauty that is available every day, and especially the grandeur of the traditionally beautiful areas of the country.
1:https://www.iaenvironment.org/blog/iowa-environmental-voice/...
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