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Iowa ranks as the best state to live in America, U.S. News says

desmoinesregister.com

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Re: Iowa ranks as the best state to live in America, U.S. News says

#22
post #3

Can Iowans confirm Iowa Is Great? Also interesting that the bottom 10 states are ones that voted Trump in the last election. Perhaps they figured he would help bring more prosperity to them.

What's interesting is that NAFTA is the number one reason Iowa's farmers are doing so well right now. Mexico buys almost all of it's corn from the US [1] and Iowa is a top if not the top producer of corn in america.

So it shocked me that Iowans voted for Trump when he agreed to renegotiate NAFTA. It seems like NAFTA was easy to pick on until people realized that it really is good for Iowa.

[1]http://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/corn-war-u-s-farmers-say...

Re: Iowa ranks as the best state to live in America, U.S. News says

#23
post #19
post #18

I moved away from Iowa, as have a lot of people over the years. The growth rate lately has been about .5% per year, and the population actually shrunk in the 1980's. [1] The weather sucks there. It's cold as fuck in the winter, and hot and humid as fuck in the summer. There's maybe 4 enjoyable weeks the entire year. The politics suck. Steve King is a US Rep from Iowa. For whatever reason Iowa keeps electing him in, a…

Data centers don't really lead to many jobs. Prineville, Oregon of all places has a FB one, and it's as automated as can be. Also, being able to ride my bike here is worth an awful lot: https://photos.app.goo.gl/8UVHrhwCHybhE2LU2 Not sure how much of that kind of thing you get in Iowa.

As an aside - Iowa has an enormous annual bike ride called [Ragbrai](https://ragbrai.com). I’ve wanted to go for years. Those that I know that have done it loved it.

Re: Iowa ranks as the best state to live in America, U.S. News says

#24
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Data centers don't really lead to many jobs. Prineville, Oregon of all places has a FB one, and it's as automated as can be. Also, being able to ride my bike here is worth an awful lot: https://photos.app.goo.gl/8UVHrhwCHybhE2LU2 Not sure how much of that kind of thing you get in Iowa.

As an aside - Iowa has an enormous annual bike ride called [Ragbrai]( https://ragbrai.com ). I’ve wanted to go for years. Those that I know that have done it loved it.

Yes, it's also in July and it's brutal if you ride during the afternoon. That's why everyone does all of their riding in the morning.

Edited to add:

There are biking trails, but the state of Iowa is not particularly bike friendly, because six months out of the year it's impossible to ride your bike.

The bicyclists I knew that lived there did road and highway biking. There's no mountains, so mountain biking is out.

Re: Iowa ranks as the best state to live in America, U.S. News says

#25

I would need my European/Asian food.....(especially great sushi and some Michelin caliber restaurants), easy beach access, good weather most of the year, and some tech meetups to go to. Probably not for me.

I just want a decent electronic music scene (anything with regular non-house non-edm events) but that alone means i have to stick to pretty big cities :(

Re: Iowa ranks as the best state to live in America, U.S. News says

#26

Here's how Iowa ranked in each category: - Infrastructure: 1st - Health care: 3rd - Opportunity: 4th - Education: 5th - Quality of life: 9th - Crime: 15th - Economy: 17th - Fiscal stability: 21st My gut feeling is that this report seriously undervalues Economy and Fiscal Stability categories. After all “It’s the economy stupid”.

Here's how the ranking works:

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings

Re: Iowa ranks as the best state to live in America, U.S. News says

#28
post #3

Can Iowans confirm Iowa Is Great? Also interesting that the bottom 10 states are ones that voted Trump in the last election. Perhaps they figured he would help bring more prosperity to them.

Yes! Come to Iowa if you value your 2nd Admendment Rights. Currently they're in a race to surpass Florida as the most gun friendly state.

Recently passed Stand Your Ground.

https://www.nraila.org/articles/20170630/iowa-critical-self-...

Adding the 2nd Amendment to the state constitution passed a subcommittee on Jan 26th.

https://www.nraila.org/articles/20180126/iowa-right-to-keep-...

Working on Courthouse Carry and School Parking Lot Carry.

Permitless Carry got recently scrapped, but was heavily favored to pass, until someone cast a big shadow by slaughtered a bunch of high school kids. Go figure...

Also, proposed May issue permits, Bump stock bans, semi-auto bans, carry restrictions, and private transfer bans have all been defeated.

http://iowafc.org/news/

EDIT: forgot the /s

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