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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

#61

Post by Caveman_Coder »

bb88 wrote: 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…

> "Yes, Google has a data center, but it's in Council Bluffs. Have you ever even heard of Council Bluffs before that?"

Most people working for Google in Council Bluffs probably live in or spend their time in Omaha, which isn't that bad of a city.

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

#62

Post by dragonwriter »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #14
_RPM wrote: post #9

Who wouldn’t want to live in the middle of a bunch of corn fields?

It's weird how people don't realize that the flyover states also have big, metropolitan cities. When I moved to Kentucky a friend of mine honestly asked me if people wore shoes there.

> It's weird how people don't realize that the flyover states also have big, metropolitan cities.

Name one “big, metropolitan city” in something commonly portrayed as a “flyover state”.

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

#63

Post by arreyder »

danielecook wrote: post #23
davidw wrote: 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.

Absolutely do it at least once but do not expect it to be super easy. Most years we average more climbing than Ride the Rockies and it's always 10 degrees hotter on the pavement than the air temp which will likely be in the 90F's. The great thing though, this is not a race, and there's lots of places to stop and relax along the way. You have all day to make it to the next overnight town. Many of us do a gravel route and end up in the same towns every evening as the main ride. Riding gravel is a really big deal here and this alternate route has caught on. The official ride now even includes an optional gravel loop on one day. Hope you make it some summer soon.

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

#64

Post by RickJWag »

I've lived in Iowa. It was nice, but too cold for me.

Ragbrai is supposed to be awesome (I didn't ride it, and regret this) and there's lots to be said about a clean, rural state with low cost of living.

Hurrah for those who can hack the cold. I can see how it's #1 for some people.

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

#65

Post by joshmanders »

midworst wrote: post #46
vadimberman wrote: post #21

I guess the statistics that would matter more to the HN readers are not there, so I'll ask: what about the tech opportunities specifically?

Dwolla Dwolla Dwolla. Involta. And i am guessing a bunch of agi-drone startups.

Lots of work at Deere. I work there, and just brought on 2 people, and have 4 more in the pipeline.

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

#66

Post by dragonwriter »

arreyder wrote: post #53
jonknee wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Iowa has no big metropolitan cities. The largest is Des Moines and it's only a little larger than 200,000 people.

Not sure your data source on this, but according to the latest census the Des Moines metro is more than three times that number and the most rapid growing metro in the US. https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2017/03/23/des-...

A 600,000 metro area population is not a big metropolitan city.

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

#67

Post by poster123 »

Iowa is a pretty white state, at 91.3% state. In America whites are on average better off than blacks and Hispanics. Therefore whiter states will look good. A serious comparison of states meant to guide decisions on where to live will adjust for demographics, since you obviously won't change race when you move. Even better would be to adjust for race and education. Whites in New Hampshire are better off than those in Mississippi, but if you compare only college graduates, differences will be smaller.

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

#68

Post by danielecook »

nine_k wrote: post #54
danielecook wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Des Moines has a large network of skywalks connecting many of the buildings downtown. I think it’s actually a bad idea as far as urban planning is concerned. When you are in the skyways it feels a little bit like walking around a giant airport. They also draw up all the pedestrian traffic and make the city look deserted outside. Not sure if that has anything to do with it but I don’t think it helps.

Maybe it helps when the weather is too hot or too cold?

Yep that’s the idea. I was not a huge fan of them.

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

#69

Post by davidw »

arreyder wrote: post #63
danielecook wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Absolutely do it at least once but do not expect it to be super easy. Most years we average more climbing than Ride the Rockies and it's always 10 degrees hotter on the pavement than the air temp which will likely be in the 90F's. The great thing though, this is not a race, and there's lots of places to stop and relax along the way. You have all day to make it to the next overnight town. Many of us do a gravel route…

Speaking of gravel, I think this is really cool: https://dirtykanza.com/ - it really makes the most of the roads and land they have, even if it's not someplace 'spectacular'. And it looks pretty brutal to boot.

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

#70

Post by MagnumOpus »

dragonwriter wrote: post #62
PhasmaFelis wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's weird how people don't realize that the flyover states also have big, metropolitan cities. When I moved to Kentucky a friend of mine honestly asked me if people wore shoes there.

> It's weird how people don't realize that the flyover states also have big, metropolitan cities. Name one “big, metropolitan city” in something commonly portrayed as a “flyover state”.

Chicago
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