My 2 cents....
Shopping in Ames does suck. No two ways about it - and no I'm not a big shopper
That said, even with a new mall we won't have anything like the Jordan Creek town center or anything like that, so I'd settle for getting a Younkers or something. We're getting a Super Wal-mart in March, so that'll improve that option for those not morally opposed to Wal-mart
As for buffets - there is a chinese buffet by the movie theater but the food isn't that great :no:
What I think really needs to change is an improvement on transportation to the shopping - Cyride is fine as long as the only places you want to go to are Hy-Vee or the North Grand mall - otherwise you're out of luck.
Target, Best Buy, Borders, K-mart, soon to be Wal-mart, the big movie theater, the over priced bowling alley, and a whole strip of resteraunts are only serviced by the Yellow route. Maybe things have changes since I got a car but that was a route that only ran limited hours and ran once every 40 minutes - thats just unacceptable for your biggest shopping district in town.
Everyone is saying that Campus Town needs a face lift - I agree but it'll take a lot of help, I've seen a number of businesses come and go there. City is going to have to step up with that one, though I know they've looked into it some.
What I think would be a nice improvement is better transportation between Ames and Des Moines for those that don't have cars. ISU sets up (or has set up) Cy-Ride shuttles to the Des Moines Airport at the beganning/end of semesters, but I think a bus that ran to Des Moines regularly would be good. Make stops at the Airport, Jordan Creek Mall (because Ames can NOT compete with it that mall), and *gasp* maybe the Wellsfargo arena (I would prefer to see a commitment to upgrade Hilton and modernize it so we can steal back our business from the Wellsfargo Arena, but if that won't happen then...)
While that is not an ideal solution for Ames growth, it would be a reasonable compromise - controlled growth for the small townies with and better shopping for the yougin's. If nothing else better buses in town is a must - a transportation route to Des Moines would be nice
And for those that think traffic in Ames is bad after football games, try going on the road. Not only do we have some of the best parking for games, you can't get much closer to the interstate than we do, and we've got a freak'n boulevard to take us there.
Yes there is room for improvement, but having been to about 8 or 9 of the Big XII stadiums, we've got it pretty damn good in Ames.
The timing of the traffic lights does suck... though that might be intentional... (we can't have people speeding through our town now can we?) I do avoid Duff and Lincoln east of Elwood/University Blvd when I can though... I've got a few smaller roads I like to take to put me where I want to be on Duff rather thand drive Lincoln and Duff, but as others have pointed out traffic in Ames is nothing - either instate (try Cedar Rapids) or out of State (try I grew up in a place that depending on the time of day was 15 minutes to 2 hours drive from Washington D.C., and that is not an exageration)
