Refuse to lose to Iowa

Nothing to do with presidential politics – thank goodness – this is from The Street blog on The Next American City site:

“Take Des Moines. The last time I was in Iowa’s capital city (metro population 500,000) I was struck at the rapid growth of this prairie mini-metropolis. In fact, Des Moines is one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the Midwest. Even the New York Times recently declared that Des Moines might just actually be a city worthy of a visit. No one would mistake Des Moines for Minneapolis, let alone San Francisco. Yet the city grows leaps and bounds, and is emerging as a contender in the finance and insurance industries. Maybe what Des Moines teaches us is that for all the talk of “cool” cities attracting the “creative class,” what really drives sustained growth in most cities is boring stuff like low crime, good schools, and affordable housing."

IOWA?! Nooooooo. Lower crime, better schools, more affordable housing. ARRGGHHH. C’mon team. We’re just not gonna lose the quality of life battle to Iowa. For goodness sake!