What needs changing in Ames first?
- Thread starter ketelmeister
- Start date
Three great points. I can't beleive the housing prices. We drove around and grabbed some flyers to some houses comparable to ours in Beaverdale, they were all about 20-50% higher then what we expected....
Being one of those 97 year old ladies that welcomes people at Walmart isn't a good job???? :skeptical:
Right, if there's something you don't like about the city where you live, raise families, and pay taxes, it's best to just bend over and take it. Or leave. We don't need people who aren't willing to be complacent and take what they're darn well given!
But seriously, man. Think about this for a second- if people are complaining about living in Ames, it means they want to stay there, but want to see one thing or another improved. There ARE quite a few good things about Ames, and overall, it's a nice place to live. It is, however, a LONG ways from perfect, and I think most people are just making the point that it is a longER ways from perfect than it should be. Why would you not want to be involved in making something that you care about better? If you had a leaky roof, you'd fix it. You wouldn't say, "Well, that's too bad, I guess we need to either live with it or leave town." That's what this discussion is about- fixing the leaky roof.
Great, then we can look to emulate Ankeny. Just what every college town dreams of being a suburb with beige cookie cutter housing divisions as far as the eye can see followed by sprawl of strip malls extending even further. Ames is nice because it is one of the few "college towns" left for big schools. It is not a city that happens to have a college buried in it somewhere.
Lower commercial property taxes to take some pressure off locally owned businesses. This city council loves to spend OPM but fights like hell(part of the council) when a developer wants to open a new shopping mall that would increase the tax base.
I'm willing to bet most people who are doing the complaining don't even live there. Yeah I know one guy said he grew up there, but so did I. I know Ames isn't perfect, but its a lot better than people who like to complain about it make it out to be.
I can answer a few questions, its a University town like University towns all across the country. Housing is expensive because its driven by the market. Most people have jobs related to the University and get paid fairly decently so housing is more expensive, and because people want to live there.
Traffic isn't bad. OMG get out of state and see what really badtraffic is like. Even Des Moines doesn't have bad traffic. That's why I can't believe when people leave games early. Traffic in Iowa is non-existent.
Yeah the mall sucks. Unless you're 13 who spends any time in a mall?
Ames isn't suffering from anti-growth, its suffering from being in Iowa. Ames won't ever turn into Ankeny (thankfully) until all the fields between Polk City and Ames are turned into concrete. There is no big business growth in Iowa to provide lots of well paying jobs, its that simple. That's why so many people move out of state when they graduate.
I can answer a few questions, its a University town like University towns all across the country. Housing is expensive because its driven by the market. Most people have jobs related to the University and get paid fairly decently so housing is more expensive, and because people want to live there.
Traffic isn't bad. OMG get out of state and see what really badtraffic is like. Even Des Moines doesn't have bad traffic. That's why I can't believe when people leave games early. Traffic in Iowa is non-existent.
Yeah the mall sucks. Unless you're 13 who spends any time in a mall?
Ames isn't suffering from anti-growth, its suffering from being in Iowa. Ames won't ever turn into Ankeny (thankfully) until all the fields between Polk City and Ames are turned into concrete. There is no big business growth in Iowa to provide lots of well paying jobs, its that simple. That's why so many people move out of state when they graduate.
I agree with pulse, I don't want to see Ames turn into the next Ankeny/Johnston/Waukee/Grimes, etc. I think that's what some of the "anti-growth" people are scared of. It's the nice older neighborhoods and lack of major congestion and headache that make Ames a great town. That being said, there are definitely areas where the town can improve in.
There are several specific changes that can be made.
I agree on retail. People from Des Moines make a day out of driving to Williamsburg to the Tanger Outlet. Why not bring some outlet shopping to Ames. Then you don't need a new mall, you can just renovate and expand the current one.
Expand South 16th Street to a 4 lane road. This is one of the worst roads after fb games. It's only about a mile stretch of road, shouldn't be horribly expensive.
I also agree with cleaning up Campustown. I never thought to make Welch a ped only area. Not a bad idea. I think a great model is State Street in Madison. I realize we don't have the size, but they have lots of great, kitschy shops and local business thriving in that area. Plus, it just screams "college experience."
Recruit a large employer. Bring in a Principal/Wells Fargo/Nationwide type company to spurn job growth. Plus, you might just give some of the students a reason to stay nearby.
More yummy restaurants wouldn't hurt either.
I agree on retail. People from Des Moines make a day out of driving to Williamsburg to the Tanger Outlet. Why not bring some outlet shopping to Ames. Then you don't need a new mall, you can just renovate and expand the current one.
Expand South 16th Street to a 4 lane road. This is one of the worst roads after fb games. It's only about a mile stretch of road, shouldn't be horribly expensive.
I also agree with cleaning up Campustown. I never thought to make Welch a ped only area. Not a bad idea. I think a great model is State Street in Madison. I realize we don't have the size, but they have lots of great, kitschy shops and local business thriving in that area. Plus, it just screams "college experience."
Recruit a large employer. Bring in a Principal/Wells Fargo/Nationwide type company to spurn job growth. Plus, you might just give some of the students a reason to stay nearby.
More yummy restaurants wouldn't hurt either.
Absolutely perfect. Bad traffic??? You are so right, go to boulder or fort collins to see how bad college town traffic really can be...or even Iowa City. As for home prices...since market drives prices it tells you right there people are willing to pay quite a bit to live in ames so they must find it tolerable. The only solution would be to ankeny-ize it and put up acres of concrete and beige apartment complexes...wait, isn't that what they are doing in southwest Ames?? No thanks.
As many have said before, housing prices are a direct result of the current demand. I didn't love the price of housing compared with surrounding towns when my wife and I were looking for a house, however we didn't want to live in Ogden/Colo/Beaver so we traded a little square footage for a home in Ames.
Actually, aren't housing prices normally lower in college towns? Not ALL jobs related to the University are paying that well. I know Gainesville, FL has some of the lowest $/sf in all of Florida. In fact, my brother is looking to buy a brand new house there and the ones he is looking at are around $95/sf. Similar houses in Ames are around $131/sq.ft. Ankeny is around $105/sqft.
Pancheros = owned/run by a huge Hawkeye fan
Me = NEVER go to Pancheros
I go to Flying Burrito if I need a big burrito. This may sound stupid to some but if I see 2 things as being essentially equal, I'll hit up a local business rather than fork over more $$ to a Hawkeye.