Tag Archives: Iowa

May 26, 2010 · 8:37 pm

Des Moines: one of “the 10 best cities for the next decade.”

Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine picked Des Moines as one of its “10 Best Cities for the Next Decade” and they asked me to write about it – and do a slide show of what life can be like here. So here it is my online slide show/video of my adopted hometown, where I’ve lived since 1990:

http://www.kiplinger.com/video/index.html?bcpid=35148674001&bclid=1571610693&bctid=87685942001

and here’s the story online: http://www.kiplinger.com/magazine/archives/10-best-cities-2010-for-the-next-decade.html?topic_id=40

for more specifics on Des Moines (we’re #7!) see: http://www.kiplinger.com/magazine/archives/best-cities-2010-des-moines-iowa.html

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May 22, 2010 · 12:15 am

Cedar Rapids sites

Horrors, almost forgot to blog today. Here’s a few more tourism sites on the mend in Cedar Rapids, almost two years after the devastating flood there: Theatre Cedar Rapid, a 1920’s treasure; and Ushers Ferry a historic village that recreates small town Iowa at the turn of the (20th) century. I remember my kids having a good time at this spot when they were little and I was dragging them all around Iowa while researching my travel book Fun with the Family in Iowa.

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May 11, 2010 · 10:46 pm

FLWright in Mason City again

The FLWright house that  reopened recently in Mason City is not to be confused with the FLWright hotel – the last of the six hotels he designed that remains – that I gather is opening in about a year.  The restoration of the hotel – to be called the Historic Park Inn Hotel – has been in the works for 13 years, with three different owners, the most recent being a citizens group that bought the poor old place on ebay for $1. The hotel first opened in 1910. Wright reportedly visited the hotel construction site (and next to it a bank he designed) until a notorious escapade ended his visits – Wright took off for Europe with the wife of one of his clients. (See the novel “Loving Frank” for more details on that.)

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February 26, 2010 · 9:00 pm

Art along the Iowa interstates

Inspired by the fantastic new mural we stumbled upon inside a welcome center along Interstate 35 in northern Missouri last December, I started looking into efforts by other states to spruce up their highway pit stops with art. And lo and behold, I find out from several knowledgeable sources that the great state of Iowa – where I live – has one of the more impressive programs.

Which means an estimated 17 million people who stop at an Iowa rest areas each year may be in for a treat – if they stop at the right one. Thirteen rest areas or welcome centers – most along I-80 and I-35 – have been  redesigned as part of Iowa’s “art-in-transit” program to include site-specific, regionally-themed art projects during the past 10 years – the latest in 2009 and more to come. Iowa has even printed “rest area posters.” For more info see: (www.iowadot.gov/maintenance/restareaposters.html)

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December 28, 2009 · 10:41 pm

Trust me: the fantastic new mural on Interstate 35 in northern Missouri

I know, I know – I should be blogging today about the thwarted terrorism attack at the airport of my youth (my native Detroit). But I’m far more excited to share my latest unlikely discovery – a  beautiful new mural we chanced upon inside – of all places – the spanking new welcome center along Interstate 35 in the northern Missouri city of Eagleville.

Installed in September 2009, the mural fills a long wall inside the Eagleville Welcome Center (opened in February 2008) and is made of 600,000 pieces of multi-colored glass tile.  An homage to Missouri history, culture, and topography, the mural has all kinds of  scenes (the Missouri River, the Kansas City Jazz and Negro League Baseball Museums) and portraits (Jesse James, Harry Truman, Thomas Hart Benton) and cultural touchstones (from the American Bison to the Missouri River steamboat, Arabia.) Among other things, I learned that Walt Disney not only grew up on a farm near the small town of Marceline, Mo. (the Disneys’ barn is featured in the mural) but that the main streets in every Disney attraction are based on Marceline’s main street. Walt even recreated the barn on his home property in Los Angeles.

Apparently I am not the only one curious about the many images embedded in the mural, which was designed by a Washington State couple who won a competition to design the mural, funded through a federal grant. At the center, I picked up a very helpful 16-page pamphlet all about the mural – entitled “The Prairie Passage” – produced by the Missouri Department of Transportation.

I love finding art in unexpected places – and I love that someone bothered to  perk up my drive through northern Missouri. This rest area is a far cry from the dreary ones I remember from the family road trips of my 1960’s youth. Which leads me to wonder – how much of this is going on at other interstate rest areas and welcome centers across the country? Is this effort on the rise or in decline? Which states or rest stops have the best public art installations? I have seen some great examples of  rest area public art in Iowa  along Interstate 80 (funded by the Iowa Department of Transportation’s Art-in-Transit program).  Googling for more info, I chanced upon a terrific website about rest area history (www.restareahistory.org) that may answer some of my questions.

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