Iowa gets plucky

Jan. 12 – Des Moines, IA

Des Moines is another place that, from a glance at the atlas, doesn't look like it would be all that interesting. But it is the capital and metropolis of Iowa, and does a nice job holding down the fort between Minneapolis and Kansas City (a place best known for not being in Kansas). Downtown high-rises flirt successfully with the thirty-story mark, and there is the ubiquitous indoor Skywalk between buildings. The capitol building, straining the shackles of Midwestern plainness, shows with its multiple domes a likeness to a Byzantine church, and Travelers Insurance shelters the business district under its red neon umbrella.

I have come to realize that American cities can be divided into two broad categories: those that are in an economic and social resurgence, and those that are not. Des Moines has a civic center that could recently afford a new digital video marquee, a center-city entertainment district that people actually go to, and a completely rebuilt system of urban arterial highways. And somehow it supports a viable enough economic base that its residents are blessed with Jordan Creek Town Center way out on the outskirts. Of course, by then you're halfway to Sioux City.

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