The bridge to nowhere...will soon go somewhere

By Brian Gongol on January 19, 2012 4:51 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
The bridge for Alice's Road (in Waukee) and 105th Street (in West Des Moines) has been approved for an interchange with Interstate 80. Long-time residents of West Des Moines might have a hard time swallowing the fact that West Des Moines street numbers now far exceed those of the City of Des Moines and are now approaching what used to be those of western Clive. But that westward expansion is now creating the incentive to make traffic out west more palatable, and while Waukee just hopes to have some kind of development spring up on the forthcoming Interstate access corridor, the mayor of West Des Moines says he's just happy that people will soon have a north-south travel alternative to Jordan Creek Parkway (74th Street).

Waukee is challenged commercially in the long term by the fact that the Interstate curves away from it -- so there are portions of Van Meter and De Soto that are more easily reached from West Des Moines via I-80 than most of Waukee.

Dallas County Republican caucus locations

By Brian Gongol on January 3, 2012 4:19 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Precinct

Location

Address

Delegates

Adams

Crossroads Church

18293 365th Street, Earlham, IA

11

Adel

ADM Elementary School

1608 Grove Street, Adel, IA

22

Clive

Shuler Elementary School

16400 Douglas Parkway, Clive, IA

36

Colfax/Adel

ADM Elementary School

1608 Grove Street, Adel, IA

11

Dallas

Dawson Fire Station

208 S First Street, Dawson, IA

3

Dallas Center

Memorial Hall

1502 Walnut Street, Dallas Center, IA

11

Des Moines

Woodward-Granger High School Auditorium

306 W. 3rd Street, Woodward, IA

9

DeSoto

DeSoto Intermediate School

317 Spruce Street, DeSoto, IA

6

Dexter/Union

Roundhouse

707 Dallas Street, Dexter, IA

9

Grant

Woodward-Granger Elementary School

2200 State Street, Granger, IA

13

Lincoln / Washington

Washington Township School

18930 210th Street, Minburn, IA

4

Linn

Washington Township School

18930 210th Street, Minburn, IA

5

Perry 1

Perry Elementary School

1600 8th Street, Perry, IA

8

Perry 2

Perry Elementary School

1600 8th Street, Perry, IA

8

Perry 3

Perry Elementary School

1600 8th Street, Perry, IA

8

Redfield

Washington Township School

18930 210th Street, Minburn, IA

5

Spring Valley / Beaver

Perry Elementary School

1600 8th Street, Perry, IA

7

Sugar Grove

United Methodist Church

705 Chestnut Street, Minburn, IA

6

Van Meter

Van Meter High School Cafeteria

520 1st Avenue, Van Meter, IA

18

Walnut / Grimes / Urbandale

Point of Grace Church

305 NE Dartmoor Drive, Waukee, IA

48

Waukee 1

Maple Grove Elementary School

1455 98th Street, West Des Moines, IA

15

Waukee 2

Waukee South Middle School

2350 Southeast LA Grant Parkway, Waukee, IA

11

Waukee 3

Point of Grace Church

305 NE Dartmoor Drive, Waukee, IA

26

Waukee 4

Walnut Hills Elementary School

4240 NW 156th Street, Urbandale, IA

32

West Des Moines 1

7 Flags Event Center

2100 NW 100th, Clive, IA

23

West Des Moines 2

7 Flags Event Center

2100 NW 100th, Clive, IA

35

West Des Moines 3 / Boone

Waukee High School Auditorium

555 SE University, Waukee, IA

21

 

The new Southridge Mall

By Brian Gongol on December 9, 2011 12:25 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Plans are being made to dramatically change Southridge Mall.

Sheriff wants mobile speed cameras for Polk County

By Brian Gongol on November 9, 2011 2:16 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
The sheriff thinks that adding mobile speed cameras in outlying parts of Polk County could be good for safety, according to a Des Moines Register story. County Supervisor EJ Giovanetti has (reasonably) thrown up a red flag, citing the concern that those cameras are really used for raising revenue rather than improving safety. Supervisor John Mauro counters with the tired old excuse that (in essence) if you aren't doing anything wrong, then you have nothing to hide. That excuse, however, overlooks the fact that Americans have every right to expect that we aren't going to be under constant surveillance, whether by human eyes or those of a robotic camera system.

The argument that people doing nothing wrong have nothing to hide is easily demolished by a single counter-argument: If so, then why do people put curtains on their windows? We have a reasonable expectation that we aren't being watched by Big Brother at all times -- whether or not we're obeying the law. Mobile speed cameras (and other forms of automated law enforcement) disrespect that right to privacy.

Virtually all of the corn is in

By Brian Gongol on November 9, 2011 10:44 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
According to the USDA, virtually all of Iowa's corn has been harvested. Good thing, too: Last night's snowfall is going to make things slushy and messy in the fields. A completed harvest means fewer combines on the road and safer driving for the rest of us when we're on highways outside of town. Coincidentally, it also makes the deer easier to spot.

A dozen Dunkin' Donuts are coming to town

By Brian Gongol on November 8, 2011 12:35 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
A dozen stores, that is...according to the Des Moines Register.

Robo-calls

By Brian Gongol on April 17, 2011 5:19 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
I sent this notice to the office of the state attorney general on Friday:

I just received a telephone call (with no caller ID available, unfortunately) that gave approximately the following script in a computer-synthesized voice:

"Hello. This is MasterCard. We are sorry to inform you that your account has been suspended. Please press '1' to be connected to the security department."

 I held the line while I tried to get a caller ID trace, but the call disconnected about 5 seconds after the script ended.

This was an obviously fraudulent call because this is a business office and we have no MasterCard accounts registered here.  I am suspicious that a scam artist is robo-calling numbers in the 515 area code.  I wish I had more information available, but the above was everything I could obtain.
Unfortunately, a scam like this is intended to catch people off-guard, who might not otherwise be fooled into giving out private information like their credit-card details. Never give out private details like credit-card account numbers or verifying information unless you placed the call yourself. When it's an incoming call, it could be coming from anywhere.

Bad news about West Glen

By Brian Gongol on February 3, 2011 11:00 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
West Glen, the ambitious development between Jordan Creek Town Center and Interstate 35, is apparently in a heap of financial trouble, with a bank filing for foreclosure on two properties there to recoup a $30 million loan. It's too bad, considering what a sizable project the development is and how prominently it shapes many a visitor's first impression of West Des Moines. If nothing, though, it serves as a reminder that even highly successful investors and businesspeople can get themselves into a lot of trouble when they borrow too much money.

The myth of the "cookie-cutter" suburb

By Brian Gongol on June 24, 2010 1:15 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Once in a while, someone takes a cheap shot at a place like West Des Moines, and when pressed to back that cheap shot with a real argument, they might fall back on the tired old argument that the suburbs are filled with cookie-cutter houses. Aside from being a reflexive and unthinking dismissal of the places where half of all Americans choose to live, the "cookie-cutter" argument doesn't really make any sense.

All residential developments constructed around the same time in the same location will tend to look the same, because they will tend to use the materials and methods of construction most economical and most popular at the time. That's just a fact of basic economics. No reasonable person would look at the Anasazi cliff dwellings and argue that they should have been constructed out of timber, or ask why the sodbuster houses weren't made of brick. People construct their homes from the materials that are available and economical at the time.

This alone should be enough to dismiss the "cookie-cutter" myth -- or, at least, to show that sameness is hardly unique to the suburbs. But let's take the discussion a step farther:

The point to this is that uniformity itself is no real shortcoming; it's basically inevitable. The difference happens to be that people are quicker to recognize and complain about uniformity when it's new, rather than when it's old (thus Beaverdale's uniformity gives the neighborhood "character", while West Des Moines developments are criticized as "cookie-cutter"). The people who complain about suburban "uniformity" are really only repeating and reinforcing their own prejudicial dislike of suburbs (or perhaps of suburban dwellers). They're welcome to retain those prejudices, but nobody should mistake that prejudice for fact.

How much snow?

By Brian Gongol on February 13, 2010 2:08 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
The National Weather Service has a lot of details about how much snow has fallen on Des Moines this year, and how much of it has stuck around for how long. But the real metric that matters is how much snow has fallen so far this winter, versus the amount that's fallen in any other winter...

1. 52.4 inches in 2009-10
2. 50.6 inches in 1885-86
3. 46.1 inches in 1904-05
4. 43.2 inches in 1983-84
5. 41.0 inches in 2000-01

And now there's more snow on the way this weekend. Yippee.
Archives