The 21 most influential cities in the world

[Boisebro]

Lexington isn't smaller than Des Moines--it's a bit bigger.

that photo of Des Moines doesn't show the whole CBD, either--and it also has a couple of nice, new towers being proposed.

[Centropolis]

steely, check this out..as a chicagoan i'm sure you'll appreciate this!

https://goo.gl/maps/PprStwVay1S2

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by Boisebro

Lexington isn't smaller than Des Moines--it's a bit bigger.

that photo of Des Moines doesn't show the whole CBD, either--and it also has a couple of nice, new towers being proposed.

oh, i'm sure des moines has a lot more proposed, as it has a much more corporate, big business and agribusiness oriented local economy.

i'm getting 500k people for lexington, though.

[Boisebro]

Originally Posted by Centropolis

oh, i'm sure des moines has a lot more proposed, as it has a much more corporate, big business and agribusiness oriented local economy.

i'm getting 500k people for lexington, though.

that's fair--I'm just going by what "never wrong" wiki says (318,000 city, 608,000 metro, 856,000 CSA), which is in the same ballpark as DM.

I only knew of Lexington's size because a contingent of Lexington business leaders recently spent time in Boise, and I was curious how the two cities compared.

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by Boisebro

that's fair--I'm just going by what "never wrong" wiki says (318,000 city, 608,000 metro, 856,000 CSA), which is in the same ballpark as DM.

I only knew of Lexington's size because a contingent of Lexington business leaders recently spent time in Boise, and I was curious how the two cities compared.

oh, dang it does.

[bnk]

Well Des Moines has Drake University. Enough said.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_University

Drake University is a private, co-educational university located in Des Moines, Iowa, United States. The institution offers a number of undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as professional programs in business, law and pharmacy. Drake's law school is among the twenty-five oldest in the country.


Undergraduate tuition and fees: 41,250 USD (2018)


The University consists of six colleges:

College of Arts and Sciences
College of Business and Public Administration
School of Education
School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Law School
College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences


Undergraduates
3,164

Postgraduates
2,057

With over 70 Majors and Minors like actuarial science in the Business college.

Its got a good reputation, a respected Pharmacy program..

The First Video gives some overhead scenes of Des Moines.

My biggest loss to the senses was the lack of multiple ethnic food options.

And no where to get any kind of Chicago fast food, like hot dogs, pizza, Italian Beefs, Gyros


It has probably changed since in that regard I imagine for It is said 1/3 of the students come from Iowa, 1/3 come from Chicagoland, and 1/3 other Midwest and USA and international students. They recruit the Chicagoland Market pretty hard although most all of my friends from our area returned to our area. Its kind of in the middle of nowhere but you make due what you can. A demanding collage and degree doesn't allow a lot of play time. But it has a pretty strong drinking foundation on and off campus [ at least back than ] and enough fun in the town to get in trouble if you want. But its not a party school by any means. With almost as many post graduate students as undergraduates it gets kind of more serious the longer you are there.

• Video Link

• Video Link

Its got a decent sports program and lots intermural sports. Interesting note t has an unusually high number as a percentage of students that join fraternities and sororities..


Drake student-athletes compete in NCAA Division I in the Missouri Valley Conference in all sports except football. In football, Drake competes in the FCS NCAA Division I Pioneer Football League. In crew, Drake competes in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
Basketball (men's and women's)
Crew (women's)
Cross-country (men's and women's)
Football (men's)
Golf (men's and women's)
Soccer (men's and women's)
Softball (women's)
Tennis (men's and women's)
Track & Field (men's and women's)
Volleyball (women's)



http://www.drake.edu/

http://www.drake.edu/life/

Its a pretty campus

https://www.drake.edu/media/colleges...ap-bw-8x11.pdf






https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Des_Moines,_Iowa

The five-county metropolitan area is ranked 89th in terms of population in the United States with 634,725 residents according to the 2016 estimate by the United States Census Bureau


Higher Education:

Des Moines is also home to the main campuses of three four-year undergraduate private colleges: Drake University, Grand View University, and Mercy College of Health Sciences. The University of Iowa has two satellite facilities in the city; Simpson College, Upper Iowa University, and William Penn University also maintain classroom facilities in suburban locations. For-profit colleges with classrooms in the area include ITT Technical Institute, Kaplan University, and Vatterott College. Des Moines Area Community College is the area's community college with campuses in Ankeny, Des Moines, and West Des Moines. The city is also home to Des Moines University, an osteopathic medical school.

...


Sports

Professional and Division I sports teams

Club
League
Venue
Founded

Drake Bulldogs
NCAA Division I, Missouri Valley Conference
Drake Stadium, Knapp Center
1881

Iowa Cubs
Pacific Coast League (AAA)
Principal Park
1969

Des Moines Buccaneers
United States Hockey League
Buccaneer Arena
1980

Des Moines Menace
USL Premier Development League
Valley Stadium
1994

Iowa Wolves
NBA G League
Wells Fargo Arena
2007

Iowa Barnstormers
Indoor Football League
Wells Fargo Arena
1995 (2008)

Iowa Wild
American Hockey League
Wells Fargo Arena
2013





The Triple AAA Cubs are a pretty big thing over there.







Economy

Many insurance companies are headquartered in Des Moines, including the Principal Financial Group, EMC Insurance Group, Fidelity & Guaranty Life, Allied Insurance, GuideOne Insurance, Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield of Iowa, and American Republic Insurance Company. Des Moines has been referred to as the "Hartford of the West" because of this. The Principal is one of two Fortune 500 companies with headquarters in Iowa, ranking 273rd on the magazine's list in 2009.

As a center of financial and insurance services, other major corporations headquartered outside of Iowa have established a presence in the Des Moines Metro area, including Wells Fargo, Voya Financial, and Electronic Data Systems. The Meredith Corporation, a leading publishing and marketing company, is also based in Des Moines. Meredith publishes Better Homes and Gardens, one of the most widely circulated publications in the United States. Des Moines is also the headquarters of Golf Digest magazine.

Other major employers in Des Moines include UnityPoint Health, Mercy Medical Center, MidAmerican Energy Company, CDS Global, UPS, Firestone Agricultural Tire Company, EDS, Drake University, Titan Tire, The Des Moines Register, Anderson Erickson, Dee Zee and EMCO.
In 2010, Forbes magazine ranked the Des Moines metropolitan area first on its list of "Best Places For Business And Careers", based on factors such as the cost of doing business, cost of living, educational attainment, and crime rate.

...
In 2017, Kemin Industries opened a state-of-the-art worldwide headquarters building in Des Moines.







Housing is very inexpensive there, by a lot. [ The median home value in Des Moines is $132,200 ] But West Des Moines are a lot like other relatively wealthy suburbs when it comes to housing prices, kind of like a smaller Overland Park Kansas?
But most of the old stock housing in the City is real cheap but not Detroit like cheap because its a pretty white region and no blighted blocks upon blocks. The city does have some Black Neighborhood's but they are pretty segregated NW of Downtown, or were. And like a lot of other cities the east side of the river and the east side in general is more blue collar and industrial, down wind. The West, NW and North suburbs are pretty liveable if you grew up in Iowa or from a smaller town in Iowa. A lot of the smaller town people call Des Moines the big "City" of Iowa, [ Being the Capital of Iowa also helps in its clout ] but calling it the "City" is kind of like when Chicagolanders call Chicago the 'City"

I mean look at Iowa City. That's just a small one town gig, its the City of the University of Iowa, and was formerly the Capital of Iowa until it changed to Des Moines, pretty much the center of the state and they capitalized on it. But more than 2/3 rds of Iowans live east of Des Moines. The east side of Iowa is more Progressive, Des Moines Progressive but their suburbs conservative.

Anything west north or south by southwest of Des Moines is pretty much Kansas when it comes to politics, blood red.












Now here is where it gets interesting.





BTW I was real good friends class mate and fraternity brother to the current congressman from the 3rd District of Iowa. Dave Young.

He is actually a moderate GOP because his district includes Des Moines. His voting pattern might not be moderate But I really knew this guy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_...tsbycounty.png


He was as liberal as it gets back in college, and yes underage alcohol and it includes numerous drug usage, that guy used to smoke some serious weed. And otherhallucinogens and stimulants.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_...owa_politician)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_...owa_politician)

Young attended Drake University and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. From 2006 to 2013, he served as the chief of staff to Iowa Republican senator Chuck Grassley. He was previously chief of staff to Kentucky senator Jim Bunning from 1998 to 2006


Progressive but not here.


LGBT issues

In May 2016, he voted to approve a measure aimed at upholding an executive order that bars discrimination against LGBT employees by federal contractors.
Young opposes same-sex marriage.


Drug policy

Young has a "B" rating from NORML for his voting history regarding cannabis-related causes. Young is opposed to veterans having access to medical marijuana if recommended by their Veterans Health Administration doctor and if it is legal for medicinal purposes in their state of residence. He is in favor of commercial hemp farming. He does not support state legalization.




The funny thing is he never married, always acted like a closet gay himself and was flaming liberal back in college. Trust me I know him really well.

i would never want to compromise his political career though, he was a really good friend of mine and still consider him to be. I keep contact with him even though I clearly don't live anywhere near his district.

David Young is no Steve King kind of [ R ]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iowa%2...onal_districts

I'm actually surprised 3 out of 4 seats are GOP held.



Iowa went twice for Obama. Without Iowa Obama would have had a hard chance of winning the bid in 2007 and almost as importantly killing the Illinois primary boosted him to equal footing at that point in the race.

Gore in 2000 and almost Kerry in 2004.

Also democratic in 1999,1992,1996.

Trump winning there was only because HRC was on the ticket. If Bernie ran he would likely taken Iowa, PA, WI, even perhaps OH and Florida for example.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by Centropolis

i mean, it depends on the personality. your average londoner is going to be exposed to a lot more things that come to places like london, which is a great center of the world. again, whether they are open to them is a matter of personality.

On the flipside, people in Des Moines can be vibrant and active and have an exciting/ fulfilling life right where they are where as someone in Haringey could live a drab existence oblivious to all the excitement a short ride away on the Victoria line.

My 3 brothers have a pretty full life and do all kinds of cool stuff back in my hometown in NY and it's metro is less than 300k. I think they would rather hang themselves than live in a city the size of London. You are exposed to more things in a major cosmopolitan city. I certainly benefited by moving to Houston. But that's me.

[dubu]

well i think that the thing telling us to not do something.. i think i found out that that this whole fucking thing is a lie. i had to be drunk to figure it out. no one wants us no one is here for us its a fucking shit fucking pile of shit. im emo but things are not right

[pip]

Originally Posted by dubu

well i think that the thing telling us to not do something.. i think i found out that that this whole fucking thing is a lie. i had to be drunk to figure it out. no one wants us no one is here for us its a fucking shit fucking pile of shit. im emo but things are not right

Haha... classic!

[bnk]

Classic thread

Hall of fame

[LouisVanDerWright]

Originally Posted by dimondpark

*UN 2016 Per Capita GDP by Country, $30,000+
*MSAs with 1 million+population and/or $50B+ GDP

Per Capita GDP, 2016
Monaco $168,004
Liechtenstein $164,437
San Jose $127,594
Bridgeport $108,455
Luxembourg $101,835
San Francisco $100,558
Bermuda $99,363
Boston $88,156
Seattle $86,974
Washington $83,044
New York $82,241
Switzerland $79,609
Des Moines $79,161
Los Angeles $75,254
Hartford $74,578
Macau $73,187
Salt Lake City $71,511
Philadelphia $71,005
Dallas $70,729
Houston $70,671
Norway $70,617
Minneapolis $69,469
Denver $69,387
Chicago $68,456
Portland $67,822

Guys, bow before Des Moines, IA. It is an incredible city for its size and really a true anomaly in America. It is statistically a Scandinavian wonder state but on truly capitalist American bones. I mean their Per Capita GDP is 12th in the world. There is virtually zero crime, Iowa's unemployment rate is 2.8%, Facebook Microsoft and Apple have all located huge server farms there, Des Moines population has grown 32% since 2000 and 11% since 2010 making it the fastest growing city in the Midwest, 40% of Iowa's electric power is wind and that rises by a couple of percent a year as Iowa continues to add Wind faster than just about any other state in the US.

Originally Posted by Baronvonellis

I don't think you can compare GDP per capita across different countries. When the 1% of the US control 40% of the wealth. Norway at 70k is much more egalitarian than Houston and Dallas at 70k. The oil wealth of Norway goes to the Norwegian people, while the oil wealth of Texas goes to very few ultra-rich people. Texas is closer to an African dictatorship with regards to the distribution of the oil wealth.

Germany, Belgium and Austria around 40k are a much more equal society with more people well off than Orlando at 52k.

But that's just it, in places like Des Moines or Madison or other little Midwestern bubbles that doesn't hold true. The NW portion of the Midwest has it's shit together in ways the rest of the US can hardly dream of. There is still a huge middle class, there is virtually no crime, there is no unemployment, housing is plentiful and cheap, cost of living is lower than just about any other developed nation. You say you can't compare it, but you can't compare it because the cost of living in a place like Des Moines is a tiny fraction of what it is in massive coastal cities and literally a joke compared with Socialist European states. Taxes like aren't a thing there, yet all of the infrastructure is brand new and freeways are rebuilt like every 5 years.

Originally Posted by Sun Belt

Raise a family?

Lol

Originally Posted by 10023

My question stands.

This isn’t something to do. It’s just existing.

Des Moines offers all of the amenities of most major metros just on a smaller scale. It also offers concepts that just wouldn't work in a more expensive city. There is a beer hall in West Des Moines (Valley Junction) that is in a giant ass old steel truss railway terminal. One half of the building is a giant beer hall with massive 10x20' LED screens with 20'+ ceilings the other half is a food truck hall with a bunch of food trucks in it at all times. This is in a freaking suburb, of Des Moines, 15 minutes outside of downtown (a long ways in Des Moines!).

Originally Posted by 10023

^ Yes. The idea that life is actually the same between Des Moines and Chicago, let alone Des Moines and London, is ridiculous.

I’m not sure it’s that different between a sprawl suburb of Dallas and a sprawl suburb of Chicago, but that’s not the question.

It's very much not a sprawl suburb though. There are whole neighborhoods of 5 floor urban apartment and hotel blocks going up around downtown. Literally block after block of them:

https://urbandsm.com/des-moines-proj...oines/downtown

Originally Posted by pico44

Oh stop. You can do the same things in Des Moines that you can in Chicago. You can go to an art museum, the theater, a restaurant, a concert. If you have data that shows that per capita cultural consumption is higher in Chicago, then present it. Otherwise you're talking out of your rear end; and, of course, participating in the grand ol' Chicago tradition of inserting yourself with larger cities and shitting on anyone below.

Exactly, Des Moines actually has a super nice brutalist performing arts venue that seats 2,700 and sells out virtually every off-broadway show for weeks. I've gone to several shows there and it's honestly on par with most of what comes through Chicago. What you can't get there is the super awesome neighborhood theater scene that Chicago has, but you can't really get that in most cities, it's kinda a Chicago thing.

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

i think the des moines skyline looks pretty damn good for a city of its size.

it even has a building over 600' tall, which is kind of a big deal for a US metro area of only ~650K.

not even portland can make that claim.






portland (MSA 2.4 million) is in an entirely different class of city than a place like des moines (MSA 650K).

size-wise, portland more closely aligns with midwest cities like cleveland, columbus, cincinnati, indianapolis, st. louis, kansas city, and milwuakee.

Exactly, Des Moines is a super urban city for being only 600k citizens. Even David Byrne thinks it's awesome:

http://davidbyrne.com/journal/des-moines

Originally Posted by Boisebro

Lexington isn't smaller than Des Moines--it's a bit bigger.

that photo of Des Moines doesn't show the whole CBD, either--and it also has a couple of nice, new towers being proposed.

Des Moines actually puts up some quality architecture too. Here's Kum and Go Convenience Stores HQ designed by Renzo Piano fronting the sculpture garden on the West side of downtown that is also fronted by Nationwide and several other large corporations:


urbandsm.com


urbandsm.com

[LouisVanDerWright]

In conclusion Des Moines, not Jacksonville, is the most influential city in the world!

[10023]

How did a thread about the most influential cities in the world turn into a discussion of Des Moines and Lexington, KY?

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by 10023

How did a thread about the most influential cities in the world turn into a discussion of Des Moines and Lexington, KY?

at least we are still talking about cities

[LouisVanDerWright]

Originally Posted by 10023

How did a thread about the most influential cities in the world turn into a discussion of Des Moines and Lexington, KY?

Well it turns out Des Moines is the most influential city, so there's that.

Also those stats don't impress you? 12th highest per capita GDP on Earth, 2.8% unemployment, 32% population growth in 15 years? At that rate Des Moines will be the largest city in the US by 2100!

[Centropolis]

nice little aerial of the river/island/downtown:

thegazette.com

[Boisebro]

clearly, Des Moines and Lexington are the #1 and #2 most influential cities in this thread.

but... how's the pizza in Des Moines?

there. thread's back on track.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Boisebro

but... how's the pizza in Des Moines?

not sure, i've never been.

a quick google search for "des moines style pizza" didn't lead to anything meaningful.

but i did find this page which lists 81 non-chain local pizzerias in the des moines area, which is quite respectable.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by 10023

How did a thread about the most influential cities in the world turn into a discussion of Des Moines and Lexington, KY?

I believe it was you that started dogging on Des Moines because they were small that they had nothing to offer.

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

not sure, i've never been.

a quick google search for "des moines style pizza" didn't lead to anything meaningful.

but i did find this page which lists 81 non-chain local pizzerias in the des moines area, which is quite respectable.

Found just the place for you in Cedar Rapids: https://goo.gl/maps/rhSGnGw4zTA2