DesMoinesIst

River flood stages are rising -- but not the rivers themselves

2012-02-08T06:28:31Z

The National Weather Service has announced plans to change their definitions of flood stages at a bunch of central Iowa locations. Most of the changes will raise the levels required to activate different flood stages, so the same river level will be less likely to trigger a flood warning in the future than it had in the past. The official word on this is that it should reduce rather considerably the number of flood warnings issued by the Des Moines office.

Polk County will soon lose a good Supervisor

2012-01-29T21:12:03Z

Redistricting brought on by population shifts inside Polk County have put Bob Brownell and EJ Giovanetti in the same district. As the two Republicans on the county's board of supervisors, they didn't want to run against one another, so Giovanetti has decided not to run again. Regardless of one's politics, this should be seen as a loss for the county. He's a good person with a resume of volunteer contributions of his time that's so long, it looks like the work of five or six people. Undoubtedly, he'll continue to find ways to serve the community, but Giovanetti has long been the ideal kind of person to have serving in local government and it's too bad his voice will no longer be heard among the supervisors.

The bridge to nowhere...will soon go somewhere

2012-01-19T22:51:33Z

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

2012-01-03T22:19:59Z

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

2011-12-09T18:25:58Z

Plans are being made to dramatically change Southridge Mall.

Sheriff wants mobile speed cameras for Polk County

2011-11-09T20:16:11Z

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

2011-11-09T16:44:08Z

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

2011-11-08T18:35:08Z

A dozen stores, that is...according to the Des Moines Register.

Robo-calls

2011-04-17T22:19:57Z

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

2011-02-04T05:00:09Z

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

2010-06-24T18:15:40Z

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:

In central Dublin, a beautiful and historic city, hundreds of virtually-identical Georgian row houses are distinguished mainly by their colorful doors. Does that make Dublin "cookie-cutter"? To the contrary: It's considered a tourist attraction.
In the first half of the 20th Century, Sears Roebuck & Co. sold tens of thousands of mail-order "Sears Modern Homes". These homes made it possible for thousands of American families to enjoy safe, affordable housing with then-modern conveniences. The homes may have been literally uniform when they were shipped, but they are considered historical artifacts now, and are given special recognition in some communities where they were built.
Closer to home, the Beaverdale section of Des Moines takes a great deal of pride in its local identity, which derives in no small part from the fact that there is a tremendous degree of uniformity among "Beaverdale brick" homes, most of which were built in the 1930s by developers who were simply constructing the equivalent of today's suburbs.

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?

2010-02-13T08:08:30Z

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.

It's going to flood this spring

2010-02-02T18:01:43Z

The National Weather Service says that there's a 96% chance that the Raccoon River will go through at least some minor flooding in Des Moines this spring, and an 86% chance that the Des Moines River will do the same. Time to batten down the hatches -- especially if there's any meaningful rain this spring.

Nature doesn't want you to park in the street

2010-02-01T16:25:00Z

There's an inbound snowstorm that's supposed to drop another 2" of snow on our heads today, so the normal rounds of parking bans are falling into place. West Des Moines has imposed one from now until 5:00 pm on Tuesday, which means it's likely Des Moines will be doing the same soon enough. Des Moines has an interactive map showing the progress of snow removal all over the city.

Yes, winter has been extra-cruel this year

2010-01-26T19:10:49Z

The winter weather this year has felt extraordinarily bad, but it's hard to tell whether we're just imagining our oppression -- especially since it's been almost a year since the last round of winter weather, and that intervening year included tornado season. But the kind folks at the National Weather Service have confirmed our victimhood this year: Only once has there been more snow in Des Moines in December and January than we've had this winter, and only twice have we gone longer with snow on the ground.

Seriously, Nature: Knock it off.