Dart Des Moines

http://www.traffictechnologytoday.com/news.php?NewsID=28980

I'm sure the lot of you, reading this blog of late, are aware of my feelings, not only on this city, but on it's lovely bus service as well.

Keep in mind, if you will, that I have NEVER EVER been thrown off of a bus in this town, nor have I ever been rejected from getting on a bus either.  I've been riding the bus here since I was 14, some 38 odd years.

So I get on the bus, and I sit in the front, by the bus driver.  Now, everyone knows that these seats are for the elderly and the handicapped, as they get on.  I'm usually ALWAYS the first to move in such a case.  So while I'm sitting there, looking at my phone (and, please note, the seats across from me, ALSO What at the front of the bus, are FREE AND OPEN), all of a sudden the bus driver yells at me and says, "Hey, you wanna move so this guy can have a seat?". I look around, and there is NOBODY...niether do I see any person waiting to sit down.  I said "What guy?", and "You can't ask if I could please move?  What is your problem?" and under my breath "asshole".  He says "What did you say?"  and I moved towards the back door to get off (knowing he was fixing to throw me off anyway) and said "Let me off the bus, you dick".  He did so, stranding me at Broadlawns till another bus came.

So a couple of days go by, and I'm waiting...on a Sunday, when the busses only run once an hour, and I have to be someplace...and who should pull up, but the same driver, who immediately stops me from getting on his bus, and tells me I have to wait for another one.  Once again, customer service tells me TOO BAD, WAIT FOR ANOTHER BUS...can you believe this stuff?  What is wrong with these people?  It's ok for their drivers to be rude to the customers?  Another guy (black ofr course), wouldn't stop at the stop I wanted to go to, making me late for an appointment, because he says I didn't ring the bell (there was only two people on the bus, and I was standing in the doorway to get off.  If the drier couldn't notice that, he shouldn't be driving a bus, if he has no peripheral vision)...I was sure I had rung that bell, but had no way to prove it.

I willl be filing a discrimination lawsuit against these people; both against me, and against my service dog, who they will not let me take on the bus without a carrier...even though I had a letter from the management of DART to do so.  'magine that.  Make sure to read my other posts on DART, you'll see we could very easily do without their kind of service. Eery spare moment I have, I will also be picketing about their racist drivers, as well as their discriminatory behavior.  See ya soon DART!

Des Moines, Iowa; Part VIII, Even More Rankings - #4 America's Most LGBT Friendly Cities

https://www.facebook.com/CapitalCityPrideIowa/photos/
a.140525829431007.31501.139048769578713/313866902096898/?type=1&theater

NOTE:  I am pro LGBT, before you read this.  I've been told it's a little confusing what side I'm on here...I'm on no side for this post, only ripping on our rankings, on the Des Moines Partnership site.

Hey Y'all.  What it be like?  Nice storm last night, eh?  How about all that flash flooding?

Annnnyway...

Back to the rankings.  Today's fun topic would be:

#4 America's most LGBT-Friendly Cities - Huffington Post

Now, I'm not quite sure what the Partnership was thinking when they posted this ranking.  Unless they're wanting us to be another San Francisco, I wouldn't rightly believe they'd wanna post this one.  Not that I care mind you, some o' my friends are of this variety.  But Des Moines, I'd like to think, is really grasping at just about anything to improve our population, even if it is greatly controversial in nature.  Whatever works for ya pally.

What they're not thinking on is the fact that we're (supposedly) also ranked as #6, best place to raise a family.  Oh really?  So....you think these families are really gonna want their children learning about how to be LGBT then?  Yeeah.  I'm betting they could live without it.

Oh, but what about the fact that we legalized gay marriage?  Sorry, we're already trying to back-pedal on that one.  There's a huge effort already in place to repeal that law.

Back in the early 80's, they had two major gay bars right downtown; OP's (Our Place) and the "Goose".  I"m sure you remember those.  They all shook hands really well (and were located extremely close to) with the dirty bookstores we had right down-town; Bachelor's Library, Court Avenue News, and the Gallery.  But, because of these bars, as well as the host of dirty book stores we had right downtown, we decided we didn't particularly care for them.  We shoved the bookstores almost all the way out to the outskirts of town (with the notable exception of the Gallery, which has continued in it's proud tradition as the only dirty bookstore in the downtown area), and the gay bars were pushed over into the East Village...which, I imagine, will change once the East Village becomes more the place to go, which isn't too far off.  Like anything controversial, these things are stashed away into the corners, because of our personal feelings, as well as those things, like homelessness and prostitution, that we don't want our children to see.  Why do you think the Garden chose a spot that was almost in the Southest Bottoms?  Because they were smart, I'll warrant.  Not much chance that one will ever get chased away; it's already in a corner hardly anybody goes into.  Yeah, real LGBT-friendly.

And so, once again, yet another bulls*** ranking.  Sure, we'll say it, just so we might find another bunch of people that are looking for a new place to live.  However, I'm betting that, even though we say we are, that if we got too many LGBT's here, that we wouldn't be nearly so friendly.  It ultimately comes down to our moral compasses in the end; and that moral compass generally doesn't point to LGBT's as something we particularly care to have out in the open for everyone to admire.  It'd almost be as ridiculous, really, as saying that we're Prostitution-friendly, if you think about it really hard.  I'd even have to say that Des Moines isn't really any more friendly to LGBT's than any other city...we just happen to have an obvious populace who are; so, in order to keep them living here, we'll say it just to keep them happy.  Other than that, I wouldn't count on anyone going out of their way to say "Oh, you're gay?  WONDERFUL!!  Let me introduce you to the wife and kids!  Oh, and can you tell my children what it's like to be gay please?  I've always wanted to teach them about that, but I never knew anything about it really, so I didn't think it was my place.  It's so good to have you around for that, if nothing else!  Happy to make your acquaintance, and please, come over anytime you want, and bring your significant other, I insist!  I'd really love to have Johnny seeing you two kiss!  Oh, no, really...I don't mind confusing him, it makes life more interesting!"  :D

Des Moines, Part VII - More Rankings, #1 - Best for Young Professionals

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/455778424759132478/

Wow.  I just gotta tell you, the Sins just WON'T LEAVE ME ALONE!!  Still, Des Moines, Polk County and Iowa have a goodly subset of their own, have no doubt.  The rankings continue down the road to non-existence, when I get through with them.  Today's fun time ranking is?

#1 Best City For Young Professionals. - Forbes Magazine.

Man these guys are WORKIN' ME!!  OK Forbes, let's go.

The biggest question I always have after reading a nice, plump and juicy biased ranking such as this is, what about the rest?  What is this city doing for the old professionals, I wonder?  And how about those who are just now growing into where they could possibly be young professionals sometime soon?  What about them?

Well, according to the U.S. Census, fortunately, a whole quarter of our population currently is under the age of 18!  Let's hope that most don't end up moving away, like they did in my generation.  Anyway, back to the facts and figures.

According to the latest figures...according to none other than the same site that posts our rankings for our fair city....again, found HERE:

https://www.desmoinesmetro.com/en/dsm_metro_info/rankings/

There has been a HUGE departure of none other than the age group just above the young professional age range; I'm guessing that's 20-34.  35-44 yr. olds?  A whopping 15% drop in our population.  You wanna know why?  Because this town caters to and brags up the young professional thing so much, Not only do the people over 35 feel like they should probably find another city that caters to the older professional; Hell, their professional careers are as good as over, obviously, once they hit 35.  Then they aren't so much young professionals anymore, and, since the town caters to the younger professional, well, I'm sure, after getting smart to the game, realize they could do better elsewhere...I mean what else could it be?  I will gladly attest to the fact that it got significantly harder for me to find a job here once I hit 40.  I was 42 when I took DMACC and IWFD up on their offer to get free job training in a field more in demand, and, as I remember, I hadn 't been able to find a job for quite a while.  I really can't prove age discrimination in interviews...and if you read my post entitled "Going to work....if you're lucky" in this blog, you'll see that's pretty much impossible.  But I think I'm about 2 inches away from swearing that there's an awful lot of age discrimination in this town, and I think the 15% drop more than speaks for itself where that's concerned.

Here's what really kills me though.  They're predicting, that the same percentage (5.8%) of "Young Professionals" that went up from 2000-2008?  Will subsequently go down the same percentage from 2013-2018.  'Magine that.

So, once again, here's my opinion on this ranking.....BULLS***.  Thanks again Forbes...but I gotta go with the theory that, since the prediction shows a projected 5.8% drop in "young professionals" in the coming five years, that maybe, at the moment, Des Moines ISN'T a #1 best city for young professionals...after all...but that, if we say that it is, the number quite possibly won't go down.  That ranking, just like so many others I've discussed in this blog, is OUTTTTTTTA THERE!!!

Please, if you will Iowa, tune in again, soon, where I plan to rip, into itty bitty bits, every ranking on this very biased and very stupid list...:D

Des Moines, Iowa - Rankings Intermission: Pawn Shops

Hey Des Moines!!!  Today we're gonna discuss the kings and princes of Rip-Off-Dom, Pawn shops!  And yes, DES MOINES' OWN pawn shops even.

Now, please, if you will, remember:  I do indeed have a couple of favorites here in our fair city.  More than once, these people saved my life, and what's more, they even held my stuff almost FOREVER until things improved.  They didn't, and the pawn store ended up having to sell my things...but by God they were awful swell about it.

There are two above reproach, in my opinion.  SOLAR LOAN - Ingersoll Avenue, just short of 35th Street as you head west from downtown, and POLK COUNTY PAWN, out Hubbell avenue, just outside of the city limits, as you head towards your Altoona Wally World.  I love these guys, they are princes among men, by all standards, do business with no one else, if you can.

Running a close 3rd, there is the EZ Pawn Chain, both on N.E. 14th and S.E. 14th; formerly of Mr. Money fame.  These people are fairly honest, and are, really, the best place to get...say a used computer or flat panel TV.  With the computers, they have neat deal, that when you pay 10% of the price of the PC you buy first, you can get a kind of insurance that allows you to upgrade your PC within 6 months by only paying the difference btwn. the first one you buy; and the 2nd one.  Quite a bargain.

There are, though, those I rate....not so highly.  The Pawn Store, on 30th and Douglas, has kind of a not so great owner, though his main employee, a quiet fair guy does present himself well, and is someone I like to deal with on occasion.  Should you have to deal with it's owner, however, be prepared to be low-balled.

My biggest complaint, however, lies with A to Z Pawn.  My suggestion, these days, as well as many other days, is avoid this one like your life depends on it.  Especially since it usually does.  This guy will take you to the cleaners and back again, and makes claims he has no intention of backing up...like giving the best price for gold in the city.  You'll be lucky to get half of that.  He also will never back up anything he sells to you, even if you just bought it an hour ago.

I remember this shop as being the ONLY shop I would go to.  Once, however, we had a crap load of real gold items, that were of the 24 and 18 karat variety, and a lot of it to boot.  On a whim, I took this stuff to Mr. Money, and received nearly $3000 for it on a pawn.  Wow.  I took it there often, and rarely received any less, even when the prices rose and fell.  Once, I mentioned the gold to the owner of A to Z, a guy named Ty (who still owns it).  He said "Why do you take it there?  NOBODY gives more for gold than I do!"  After discussing it a few times, he suggested I bring it to him for an appraisal of the amount he would give me for it.  Because we had gotten to be a bit chummy, I agreed to it once.

I took it to him and left it with him.  He came up with a figure of $1800 for me.  I looked him dead in the face and said "But they give me $3000."  He scoffed, and said "You're crazy.  There's no way"; and reiterated that NOBODY gave more for gold.

I then took it to Mr. Money, and called him.  Ty answered the phone, and I said "Here's a clerk at Mr. Money"...I handed him the phone and said "Tell him the amount you're about to give me, willya?"  He said $3000, and I heard him yell a bit, then the clerk said "He hung up".  I wasn't the least bit surprised, to be honest.

It would be a long time before I graced his door again...not until I got the idea to buy used computers instead of new ones.

I bought 4 laptops from him this last year, nearly 3 years after the "Gold Fiasco".  I even brought a friend of mine to buy another.  Then I bought one that had a bad battery.  The redheaded guy, who had been with Ty nearly 4 years, was nice enough to let me pick out another one.  I left the bad one, and had an issue with the new one and brought it back too, and left it there to be checked out by a friend of the redheaded clerk.  When I came back and picked it up, Ty came from the back room and said "You brought back an Acer and said it had a bad battery.  There's nothing wrong with that PC, I looked at it myself."  Shaun, the clerk, had even looked at it and said the same thing as I had, and had allowed me to change it out, since I had just bought it the day before.  "You can never come back into this store again, asshole", he said, and walked back to his office.  The clerk who had been nice to me was fired the same day.  Wow.  All because I called him out on his gold prices some 3 years prior.

When you decide on a pawn store in this town, just remember this:  Whatever your item is worth, you'll get approximately a quarter of its worth.  Whatever they give you for it, they intend to sell it at twice the price they gave you, about half of its worth.  If they want to give you less for it, pawn it to a friend or a relative instead, or just hold onto the damn thing.  Trust me, at 30% interest (25% at Solar Loan, by the way...and Steve, the owner, is the coolest pawn shop owner this side of the Mississip) a month, you're better off anyway.

As for buying anything at one, well, I've pretty much told you where to go.  Take my advice, and my ratings, the only ones worth going to are the ones I've told you about.  :D

Des Moines, Iowa - Part VI: The Rankings Continued

Wha?  Oh yeah....Now I remember this blog!!!!  Yeah, I'm really sorry.  I've been a bad boy.  I've been screwing around with my other blog, America's Deadly Sins again.  I don't know what I was thinking.  I'm an ass, of this there is no doubt.  It means NOTHING TO ME, I swear it!!!

But look, I just GOTTA get back to this stupid rankings list...for reallies.  Let's get back to it, shallllllll we???

#1 For Up and Coming Downtown. - Forbes Magazine.

For those of you totally lost as to the rankings I'm referring to here, these are the ones posted here on the Des Moines Partnership page, here:

https://www.desmoinesmetro.com/en/dsm_metro_info/rankings/

OMG, I believe I'm going to be kinda sick.  Of every single city in this great nation of ours, how can this possibly BE??  I mean, look, you've already heard me bitch about the homeless thing, the public transportation thing, the tech hubs (under the radar), the functions thing, then of course, there's the fire that was set ON PURPOSE to the Younker's bldg., which has been here since the beginning of time, and never caught on fire even ONCE during that time...until it was scheduled to be torn down...then it became a towering inferno, screwing up the place where my wife's been working for 13 years in the process, in order to get it down quicker, but it has, because of that fire screwed more things up in the process, as well as completely screwed up traffic on one of the biggest streets in the downtown area; as far as getting from north to south.  No one, however, is even talking about that.  What better way to get it down quickly so they can be even more "up and coming" with our new and wonderful downtown.  Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesh.

Believe what you wanna, but I gotta tell you kids, that whole chasing the homeless thing outta the downtown area and away from the bridges is gonna do nothing but cause you more grief in the long run.  I also noticed that slick secretive move where Hubbell realty bought up the Jefferson, the bldg. next to it, and the Elliot.  I don't believe Hubbell Realty buys anything in this town unless the plan is to tear it down and build something new and shiny, displacing ALL affordable housing in the downtown area.

Now don't get me wrong....I had ZERO love for Jim Nahaus, the man was a slum lord from hell...no one could be happier about getting him out of downtown that I am.  BUT, here's what's gonna happen now kiddies, now that the last bastion of pseudo-affordable housing is now gone forever:  Rent prices will SKYROCKET.  You like living downtown in our nice "up-and-coming" downtown?  Enjoy it while it lasts.  I'm shocked as hell that the Randolph hasn't been taken out to the woods, shot and left for dead, but I'm sure it's coming; then you might as well start looking for a nice place that you can afford on 6th Avenue, just North of downtown, because that'll be the only place you'll ever see the kind of housing prices you're enjoying now, again.  Thank GOD for the up and comingness of downtown Des Moines, though,  Who gives a flying rat's behind about the rest of it, as long as the downtown area is the s***, right?  Man, oh man.  Someday soon, mark my words, we're gonna rank as the #1 ghost town.

Homelessness In Des Moines, Iowa...and Around the World

http://www.exposingtruth.com/utahs-plan-eradicate-homelessness-actually-working

Hey Kids....sorry I blew ya off, been a b-b-b-b-bizzay boy yannow.

So let's get ourselves back to the subject of homelessness.  You folks that are paying attention, might just notice that I posted an exact duplicate of this post in my bigger blog, found here:

http://themightyswordamericas26deadlysins.blogspot.com

Just blow it off.  I decided this would be good for both blogs, and is pretty much the same, maybe with a tweak er two.

Now, it was said...more than likely in the first post on this subject, the fact that there is 5 times as many empty places as there are homeless people.  For those of you reading that fact for the first time, I'll give you a minute to let that sink in...

(Time has ticked away)....So how did you like that one, huh?  Nice.  Well, here's some things I believe that are even nicer.

Every day, more and more apartments are going up in my hometown.  Lofts, mostly.  Meant to be attractive to white collar young folks just looking at Des Moines for the first time.  Now, if you go back and forth between the Des Moines blog and this one, you'll note that the focus of this town, which is pretending to be massively bigger than it really is, is to attract people to the city itself, as well as rejuvenate the downtown area.  The problem is, as they do this, there are things that they're doing at the same time that absolutely make me ill.  I'm pretty much certain that they're doing this in every metro area over 100,000 folks, or my name isn't...uh...isn't....oh, never mind.

The only really efficient homeless shelter in this city is right smack downtown...has been for ages.  CISS (Central Iowa Shelter and Services) started out here in the old Trailways bus station.  I remember driving by it in the 80's wondering why it was that 50 or so people were asleep on mats on the floor.  They then relocated a little bit south and west of downtown, to a much bigger building.  Later on, that one would be deserted due to bedbugs, and the obviously growing homeless problem, forcing them to build up a new shelter, one that wouldn't take any more females, but would house 2x the male population.  It didn't do a lot of good.  Why, is obvious.

1.  There are 3x as many people that are homeless in this country than there was 10 years ago.  I'm afraid you're gonna have to get a much bigger shelter.

2.  The people that were homeless to begin with...are still homeless.  I used to work at this shelter back in the day...and because I've been homeless a few times since then, I've had to utilize this place's services for myself a few various eras in my life.  The thing I loved about is was, the same damn people that had been there 10 years prior to that were still coming there to stay!!!  The same men, women and vets are still utilizing the system.  That's really helping.

3.  In an attempt to attract more professionals to the city, you're just going to attract the attention of the more undesirable types as well.  The homeless, allowed to reside indefinitely at CISS, call their homeless friends and homeless relatives.  "Come on down you guys!!  This city'll take care of you!"  Then when the days they're allowed to stay (90 days, but longer with special circumstances) run out, well, guess where they're gonna camp?  As close to downtown as they can, til they're allowed back in, 90 days later.  This is, of course, where all the free meals are served too.

Worse yet, they bring all of these events downtown to get in the way of everyone going everywhere in the city, and they put them up around the same area...as well as build the majority of the lofts there; and build a whopping block-long sculpture park just 3 or so blocks away from it...then call the police, hire security, and physically patrol all areas around it in an attempt to get them away from it all; all the while wondering why it is they have people passed out drunk in the sculpture park, hiding out in the parking garages close by, and camping under the bridge of MLK Pkway (East/West) and caught stealing things at the events.  Geeeeee........I wunder why??? errrrrrrrr........

What you don't seem to get, America, is that the problem is growing, and will continue to grow.  Not because you're not chasing them off well enough, but because MORE PEOPLE ARE GOING TO BE HOMELESS EVERY YEAR.  Because the problem isn't how we help people out, which by the way is a problem too, but because of a lot of different things that we didn't have before.

1.  A much higher population.

2.  The highest unemployment rate...well, EVER!!

3.  Affordable housing...

I really don't think I have to rehash every single reason again, do I???  Just See "Homelessness" in this blog, if you're really and truly lost.

One problem I did mention just a couple of paragraphs ago, and want to and didn''t cover in the first blog post, is not only our attitudes towards the homeless, but the most obvious problem of social disconnection we have today.  Gone forever, I'm sure, are the days when we helped each other in times of trouble.  You people are, quite simply, ASSHOLES when it comes to people who need your help.

Think I'm joking? Try a little experiment in your spare time.  Call all of your best friends.  Tell them you just lost your job, and it looks as though you might not make your next house payment.  Oh, you'll get all the sympathy you could ever want...but call them a week later, and tell them you lost your home, and you have nowhere for you, your wife/husband and two kids to stay...and watch how quickly they scatter.  You'll be amazed how little help you're offered or actually receive.

Selfish, immature, close-minded, and closed doored.  As long as everything is going swimmingly, you're my best friend, but when times are hard, and I really need your help?  You couldn't run far enough.  I'm lucky to get you on the phone, at least not until my troubles are fixed again.  I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't need friends like that in my life.  That's probably why I don't have but one or two anymore.  :D

P.S. - By the way, Utah has a plan to eradicate homelessness entirely....that's WORKING.  You guys might wanna check it out, HUH???

http://www.exposingtruth.com/utahs-plan-eradicate-homelessness-actually-working/

Des Moines, Iowa - Events and Transportation Part C

http://www.iowanazarene.org/2013/08/09/deep-fried-ministry/

Hey kids!!!  It's the first weekend of the state fair, and I'm PISSED!!

Not only is the entrance to the fair up $2 once again (it's $12 just to get past the friggin' gate now.  One full hour of my pay)....well, a couple of things have happened already this morning that have me fired up.

First, my phone is dead.  And I'm a public transport guy, as you well know.  So, a friend of mine wanted to go to the fair today, and per his wont, he parks at the park and ride of 7th Street, miles from the Central Dart Station.  He gets on the bus that comes by there (of which I saw at least 3 more headed there as I was headed away from there.  Why didn't I take the same bus he did?  And why did I have to go to Dart Central?  Well that would be because I have a bus pass that I pay monthly for....somewhere around $48.  Does someone wanna tell me why it is that I had to walk nearly a mile to get to bus central, because the state fair buses won't allow its dedicated riders to take the fair buses that go to the park and ride station?  I have to pay $2 to ride that bus, or wait 45 minutes and walk to Dart Central to get a bus out there, severely inconveniencing me, the guy who probably owns half of Dart Central by this time, considering I've been riding these stupid buses for nearly 37 years.

Now, why did I mention that my phone was dead you ask?  Well, this would probably be because, upon entering Dart Central and noticing that my phone was dead, I immediately began looking for an outlet...and found nary a one.  Upon thinking of Java Joe's, the coffee shop they had built to go along with DC?  They had....count 'em with me....40.  FORTY OUTLETS!!!!!  The deal with that though, is that I have to buy something at JJ's ridiculous prices to use them.

Dart Central was built just in the last year.  You would imagine, with ALL of the devices there are in the world today, that this place, that is SO much in bad need of ridership would be just a little accommodating to their clientele.  Oh sure, they have wi-fi...but if you have to pay the coffee shop to charge your devices, then why bother with their wi-fi?  Dart, you are SO WRONG FOR THAT.  Makes me want to continue using your service more everyday.  Unbelievable.  Oh yeah.  The Iowa State Fair.  Nothing compares.  Nothing compares to the bullcrappy way Des Moines' own citizens are treated maybe.

Des Moines, Iowa - Part V, Events and Public Trasportation (Part B)

http://www.metro-magazine.com/news/story/2009/08/iowa-unveils-first-hybrid-bus.aspx

So, I suppose you were wondering what happened to the public transportation thingy?  Oh c'mon, have a li'l patience, willyaalready?  Here it is!!

So whaddya say we move right along to the bus system.  Now, I've been riding the MTA/DART since I was a wee guy...or at least as wee as 15 yr. old teens get, that is...and there's quite a bit that I've had to complain about, of this you can be certain.  One of things that always seems to irritate me the most is that we can always afford hybrid 3 busses with all the bells and whistles, but we can't ever seem to afford to update to the quality service that we should have with said new busses.

I moved away a few times to the wonderful little capital city of Madison, WI on a few occassions...and the thing I always noticed was how phenomenal and way ahead of us the bus system was there.  Granted, one of the biggest colleges in the midwest is located in the city, UW.  With over 10,000 students there at any one given time; most without cars; they had best have a great bus system, no question.  There's oh so much we could learn about the bus system from these people, however, and if we were to ever implement any of it, we might just boast the same numbers in our ridership as well.

Let's take a look at all the glaringly noticeable differences in the two systems (remember, this was the last time I was there, in 2009...I'm sure they've already improved it massively by now).

DES MOINES:  Dart Central, a brand new station in the lower downtown area.  Here, you can buy your bus passes, complain a lot, and pick up schedules.  As soon as you walk outside the building, you may just notice a security officer running towards you, because you chose to take the quickest route to the bus you want, because it looks like it might be on it's way out of the station.  After the security officer (or the bus driver, or the supervisor, or anybody with any kind of a helpful nature) diverts you to a central strip of walk that you have to go clear out of your way to get to, because you had to catch the bus that's directly parallel to the one you got off of, you have to go half way west, then back to the east side of the station again, because you can't walk anyplace off of that walk, unless you go back inside.  When you just about get there, the bus begins to pull off, because it's time he gets going.  You wave frantically at the driver to get him to hold up for you, but he totally ignores you and drives straight ahead in order to get away from you.  You see, once a bus begins to pull away, it doesn't matter if you lay in front of it, he'll wait til you get up and move away, then he'll leave you again, because once they pull away from the ramp, it's too late, and you have to wait for the next one.  Also, when the busses get here, don't always expect to get right on it, because this is now where the bus drivers take their breaks.  If you run out in the cold to catch him from leaving you, you end up waiting, because actually, this is his break time, and he just got off...and now you have to stand out in the cold til he gets back - in five minutes, or right up to the time he has to leave, you never know.  Since you're now starting to get cold, you might turn to go back inside, and then the driver comes back, pulls two inches away from the curb, and now you're stuck waiting for the next one.

MADISON:  They have a central station as well.  The only time the busses go there is if the drivers are coming on or getting off.  The routes all come downtown, just like in Des Moines, but they go all the way around the square in Madison, making sure that you don't have much of a chance to miss it.  If you slap the bus, they'll stop for you.

DES MOINES:  Bus passes are $48 for a month.  If you buy one on June 1, then you lose it June 2nd, and you were smart enough to know that if you wrote down all the numbers that identify it, they can stop whoever found the pass from using it, then when they've done this, they'll issue you another.  Of course, this could be a week or so later, forcing you to buy a weekly one to tide you over at $16.  If you're not much into this course of action, then you could be forced to buy another $48 bus pass, now good for only 29 days instead of the original 30 or 31 days.

MADISON:  They sell you a 31 day bus pass.  There, they have a printer on each bus.  You can keep the pass in your wallet for the whole year if you want, and when you decide to pull it out, you stick it in the printer, then it prints the date that you first used the pass on it, then it's good for exactly 31 days after this.  If you lose your pass, the next one is full price of course, but it's still good for 31 days from when you use it the first time.

DES MOINES:  The fare is $1.75.  When you get on, you get a free paper transfer which allows you to ride the bus again...as long as you're getting on a different route altogether, or are going in the original direction of travel on the same route.  If you go to the local grocery store, then take a bus back to your home; because it's going the opposite direction, you have to pay another $1.75.

MADISON:  The fare *was* $2.00.  When you get on, you can ask for a transfer, which is a printed card that you can use for 2 hours to go anywhere, any direction.

DES MOINES:  Your choices for passes are monthy and weekly.

MADISON:  You can buy the yearly passes, monthly passes, weekly passes and daily all-day passes.

DES MOINES:  Got GPS a couple years ago.

MADISON:  Has had verbal GPS for at least 8 years.

DES MOINES:  Takes every holiday off, whether you have to work on the holiday or not.  A third of the routes only run at peak times, morning and afternoon.  Another third stops running at around 6 p.m.  The major and busiest routes, approximately 4 of them, run til 10:45 p.m.  On Sunday, all the busses only run til 6 p.m.  On the weekend they only run about once an hour, with the more busy routes running every half hour, approximately 3 of them.

MADISON:  Every route, with the exception of maybe 2 or 3 of them, run from 6 a.m. to midnight.  They run every day, even holidays.  They don't slow down much for the weekend, although they finally slow to once an hour on the holidays.  They hit just about every street anywhere in the city, especially where all their business is.  They have four transfer points with each one having a bus that runs to a corresponding one elsewhere in the city (i.e., the north one has 3 busses that only run to other transfer points).  Their main and busiest routes change to every 15 minutes during peak times, and every single bus in Madison is full...to standing up even.

This is probably the thing I hate the most though.  If they start a new route, they run it for a season (usually til the next change), then cut it if it doesn't work out.  Now come on guys.  You gotta give people a while to realize the damn thing is running by their house, don't you???

No, no, I'm sorry...the thing I hate the MOST is the fact that every business in Des Moines has, at one time or another, moved way out West, where just about every business has gone.  Dart runs people that way maybe 2 times a day...in the morning and at night.  If you want a decent job, this is where the work is.  You can't get there, but that's where they are.  Nice.

OK.  Enough bitching for the day.  Enjoy your lunch.  :D

Des Moines, Iowa - Part V, Events and Public Trasportation (Part A)

http://iowagirlonthego.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/img_5073.jpg

Yeah, Yeah...I know.  Start something, then WHAM!!  Shiny object!!  Well, here I am again.  We're baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!

Hmm....where were we again?  Oh yeah...that stupid list again.  Aww screw it...there's a few things I wanna address first, hokay?

You know, I just gotta say this, there's nothing more embarrasing than living in a city that tries to be two times (or better) bigger than it really is.  What's more, there's REALLY nothing more embarrasing than a city that thinks it has great events and happenings around town...and they got diddly.  And what couldn't possibly more shameful is the fact that its citizens really buy into it.  Such is our capitol city.  We have a definate monopoly on false and unfounded pride...for truly.  In abundance.

We're gonna talk about the happenings in Des Moines, which, right along with everything I just mentioned, not only happen a lot, but also have to all happen in pretty much the same damn place.  Right smack in the middle of downtown, where everything else happens.  There are many BS reasons for this.  Amongst these are (in no particular order):

1.  To promote the downtown area.  Bring more business to downtown.  I don't know about the rest of my city, but I just gotta say that there's really no need.  Not only has pretty much every building already been replaced with big business already since I moved here in 1975, there's more than enough that already happens, without these stupid little happenings that we feel all have to be here as well, right smack dab in everyone's way.  This wouldn't be quite so bad, were it not for these two things.  A.) There's nothing I hate more than to find that I have to completely detour around the entire downtown area because there's a marathon running today...the farmer's market is today (I'm so used to this one now, it really doesn't bother me at all anymore), or the Italian or the Art festival is in full swing.  These events usually are located dead center, and block off as many as 5-10 square blocks of prime "Getting the hell out of downtown Des Moines for real, though!" real estate.  See, if you're going North or South, you're almost FORCED to go through at least SOME, if not MOST of this prime driveway, so be prepared to take a rather poorly planned detour, which I've notice goes pretty much ALL THE WAY outta the way to wherever it is that you're going.

The other thing, that pretty much goes hand in hand with this last paragraph, mind you, is the fact that a lot of the streets are one way.  Any detour that you should run across, due to these li'l happenings, is gonna be guaranteed to either a.) a minimum of 20 blocks of twists and turns, mostly out of your way by tons of quarters of miles, or b.  Get you a ticket.  It's stupid.

2.  To bring back business and businesses to the downtown areas.  WHY?  Everything that involved big money, or is to yet involve big money is now west.  Waukee, Urbandale, West Des Moines, Clive, and Windsor Heights.  We citizens gave up on the Downtown area already, eons ago, and now theyre thinking how to bring it back?  Those people aren't stupid, they've thought this through.  It's US that needs to change OUR way of thinking here...Downtown Des Moines has seen it's day, and should be kept as it is, with everything going primarily west, because I think that it's really not only our best side of town, but the only one that hasn't been screwed over by natural disasters like immigration and drug use.

There's plenty of area in our city, move some of this stuff over to those areas.  Everybody gets very confused and massively inconvenienced (as well as morally detoured) when the happenings happen.  Let's move it outwards and give it up already!!

We'll continue this in a part B.

Des Moines, Iowa - Part IV, Intermission - CityView Magazine

logo courtesy of http://www.dmcityview.com/

Well, I did promise Darren Tromblay I'd do something for him, ....on we go, eh?

I have to admit, I was rather waiting for the perfect issue.  Something I could really go on about.  See, I've always loved CityView...its quirky views, wordy writers and, of course, everyone's favorites...the RapSheet, Crimestoppers, the Des Moines Blotter...News of the Weird, etc.  Oh, and I kinda like the option to try and think up something funny for the caption of a weekly picture. I did recently notice the absence of the usual fare of criminal faces to match up with their crimes.  Also obviously missing was probably the most entertaining thing in CityView, The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly.  I suppose that could have either had something to do with a suggestion by Mr. Darren Tromblay, CityView's newest editor...or maybe they managed to pick on the wrong criminal; one that had a slew of cash behind him looking to pounce on the first person to take his story public, to put his/her business out there for the world to see and laugh at...and CV just happened to be the lucky recipient of that vengeance opportunity.  I guess we'll see, eh?

Every once in a while, there might even be something slightly interesting to read...story wise, and/or a good opinion or two.  Granted, there's usually more than one, in most cases.  I most certainly prefer it nine times out of ten concerning the DM Register, and 12 times out of ten, when it comes to Juice.  Juice to me is a barely past pubescent rag that sports rock shows and pub appearances more than it does usable content, and, in this writer's opinion, barely holds a candle to CivyView.  Now that my opine is starting to fall off for CV as well, I'm starting to scout around for newer options...hell, I even gave a thought towards starting my own underground rag to compete and put up at HyVee locations as well, just so they'd have another choice for the mix..

The perfect issue has by no means come along, like I previously stated, but this may be the closest I'm gonna get this year.  We'll be, of course, covering the most recent issue this time, July 24-30, Year of our Lord 2014.

Let's start with the fact that a lot of what used to be radical and different is starting to look a lot like more popular offerings.  What used to be more trendy and interesting is becoming a lot more blase.  What used to be something is becoming more run-of-the-mill with every issue.  This is pretty much the danger of anything underground, alternative or unique; as it becomes more the thing to look for in the stands, the more the consumer of such products gets catered to, and the less interesting it tends to be.

One of the things I pride myself on is that my blog, "Americas Deadly Sins" (http://themightyswordamericas26deadlysins.blogspot.com) is not advertised on, nor is traffic diverted or driven there.  Every reader is real, and every follower gained from sweat and content; they came...they saw...they followed.  I simply post it on Twitter as a tweet, share it on my google+ page, and post it on Facebook.  No one is bothered to read it, no one is made to indulge in its obvious disparity, and no one is required to comment.  It's only OUT THERE...whether you choose to go there, or read it, is entirely up to you.

I once approached CityView to become a possible contributor.  Open Source?  Came to me to contribute to them...though I haven't had much time of late to do so.  I don't know if it's my writing style, my propensity to make it personal...or my occasional swear words...who would know.  Maybe I use too many triple dots, who can say?  Maybe my content is too controversial.  Maybe I'm just too out there for most.  All I know is, I'm evidently too much, or maybe they just aren't ready for someone who opens their mouth and says it like it is.

I would have toned it down.  Heck, I even asked the editor for some help in improving my style...he said he'd be happy to at a little later time..ok, I understand, quite possibly you're under the gun...or whatever the case.  He managed to ignore my requests entirely, after a time, and yah, I'm a bit miffed....which is probably why I decided to write about them.

So what happened to my ripping them a new orifice?  Oh yeah...all righty then, let's get to it.

Help me Obi-Wan?  Surely with a new editor and smart employees, one of which was more than likely hired because he thought of more than one caption for the weekly funny pictures they feature.  So why the great picture...with a lame 34 yr. old caption?  Movin' right along...

Snake Oil?  (I didn't read it because it said that by the way...I just read it because I'm going in order trying to find things to rag about the rag...lol).  The Jody Ernst thing...that shoulda been the snake oil here.  I would have been less likely to read that story.

I cannot STAND the "Paid for by the taxpayers in..." portion of this paper.  Who cares?  We all know the city, county, state and federal governments rip us off on a daily basis, why do we need this rubbed in our faces weekly??

Oh, and I bet they were truly proud to have landed Duffy in their paper...but be careful Darren...there's an awful lot of people out there that believe in the "Send 'em packin" policy that spits in the face of a very unpopular President right now...running Duffy's latest offering makes Terry look bad, granted...and no one despises the Mustache as much as I do, believe it.  I was sick of him the first time around within months of his taking office.  But I believe, like most Americans, that the Mustache's policy here is well-founded.  Good luck recovering from this cartoon.

Last but certainly not least, with the exception of Tech Talk, a much needed section of any publication these days, the reviews (not that great) of movies, books, etc. are pretty cliche, as are the obvious attempts to print bar pics in an effort to be more Juice-like.  You're becoming way too yawn-inducing, for sure, and I think bringing you down a few pegs shouldn't take long, with the arrival of, perhaps, a more progressive paper; edited and produced by a more forward thinking in-charge type.

Sure, I still prefer them over most of the rest of the garbage in Des Moines, news or other, but I think it's time we had something that was just a bit more "alternative"...and means it.  I wont be guaranteeing anything just yet as far as a timeline for production, but let it be known that a more interesting paper for Des Moines is on it's way.

Des Moines, Iowa UPDATE!!

I promised the family of the man murdered at the Royal Motel, this year, that I would do this story.  I don't feel the need for this, since I've already posted something about it at my other blog, Americas Deadly Sins:

http://themightyswordamericas26deadlysins.blogspot.com

Instead, this post will address the need to shut down this hotel, due to its ongoing reputation for drugs, prostitution, robbery...and now murder, since the 1980's.  There's a story, recently run by the register, that tells of a member of the city council FINALLY expressing a need to shut down this hotel...and others like it.  But here's the thing, there are no others quite like it.  Since the beginning of the crack days back in 1984, this hotel has seen it's share of prostitution and drugs run through it's doors, and everyone knows this is the most notorious of the bunch, by far.  Of course, any extended stay type hotel is apt to be full of the same types of problems, but this one is KNOWN for it, famous even.  Most know to avoid it like the plague, along with others of its ilk, namely the Cozy Rest, Hawkeye and the Motel Relax.  Some, though, that were mentioned, although not the BEST choices of places to live, aren't all that bad, as long as you mind your own business.  Others, like the Royal are even suggested if you want find trouble.  Those are the kind you want to shut down, not the remainder that aren't generally mentioned as very troublesome.

If you're trying to bring about the end of every extended stay hotel...I wish you the best of luck.  Since America's on-going recession, and the crash of the housing market, let alone things like bank foreclosures on middle-class citizens; these things will only serve to fuel the market..  Transient Americans are becoming more commonplace, and, since no lease is involved, and deposits are often low, the extended stay hotel is going to become an American staple, in the years to follow, unless things improve, starting with our economy and the job market.

The Royal Motel, however, is a place that has been overlooked and ignored, primarily, for quite some time.  Sure, they bust the place up on occasion, just to say they have, in order to appease the neighborhood; but it remains open, and now has a murder to include into its legacy.  This is unacceptable.  Leave the majority alone, the people in extended stay motels generally aren't leasable; due to evictions, or stupid rental conditions being adopted by the real estate market, like forcing viable tenants to prove that they make three times what the rent they're being charged, is.  They pay a deposit and rent that is equal to most more reasonable apartments in the community, and the apartments they live in are fully functional, complete with full service kitchens, free cable and free Internet.  The royal is just a dive motel, with normal crap rooms, that has a reputation the entire city knows about...and promptly ignores, allowing the owners to continue renting rooms to the people who flock there, knowing they can get away with just about anything.  Ask anyone where the worst hotel is, or where you are very likely to find drugs or prostitution right in the room next to you, and they all pretty much point in the same direction...South, sometimes, sure....but the most known of the bunch is the motel that has the blue crown as its most notorious logo.

Des Moines, Iowa - Part III, #6 - Best Cities To Raise a Family

http://www.forbes.com/pictures/eddf45edgee/no-6-des-moines-ia/

Wow...As mad as I am America, I can hardly believe I managed to miss a day, but America's Deadly Sins was in bad need of posts, and I still haven't finished up...I owe 'em one more Price is Your Rights cartoon, as well as another full post.  S'ok tho, I'll catch up soon enough.

Now...today's Ranking to be utterly stomped on is this one:

#6 - Best Cities to Raise a Family (Forbes Magazine, 2014)

Ok, FINALLY, a source that might be good to trust!  One I've heard of even!!  The validity of this ranking though, as well as any value it might contribute to this city, is yet to be shown.

I'll reiterate for sure though, and say that I've lived here on and off (more on than off) for over 37 years.  I was here during the OK years; let's just say those were from 1975-1984.  I have to say that those were indeed some of my better ones in this city.  Then, if you'd like to maybe stretch it somewhat, you could almost say that some more good years might have been from 1992 - 2000.  Other than that, I can rarely, barely and scarcely say that any of the remaining ones were all that beautious, or grandiose, either nor.

Not long after I first got here, well, I wouldn't have exactly considered this a great place to raise a family.  Johnny Gosh had just disappeared, and it would seem that I was one of the next ones to follow.  Fortunately, I managed to get smart and run.  As I remember, when I returned to Des Moines for a while to stay, I wouldn't have exactly called this a great place to raise a family either, in 1982.  There were dirty book stores and gay bars right downtown for all the world to see, and the Register sported a FULL complement of escort services.  I should know, I happened to manage the biggest one, at the time.

After leaving and coming back again, I remember vaguely, turning the corner onto 13th Street, from University one evening back in 1984 to find cars, bumper to bumper lined up and down 13th....as far as the eye could see, and people out on their front porches were waving me in.  I had given a girl I'd known from some time a ride that direction, and she'd been asking to get dropped off around there.  I was flabbergasted.  I couldn't see the houses for the amount of people that were out, that's for sure..."What's up with all this?" I remember asking.  That's when I'd first heard of crack, and our city, which wasn't what I'd call primo anyway, began its decent right down the tubies.  Within a couple months, there was a hooker, a slave to crack and willing to do whatever it took to get more, on just about every corner of the hood, with more walking around Des Moines, then moving to other areas when they were tired of being busted on the usual corners.  I would have to say that the city being a great place to raise families rating had gone down about 25 points in about 3 months, then pretty much remained there throughout the 80's, well into the 90's. I began seeing an end to that rather lowered rating somewhere around 1992; however; the neighborhood was pretty much scoured clean, then done in with yet another clean-up not long after to make certain.  Still, it would be a while, at least in my opinion, before the rating would be anything close to back around the rating it was pre-1983, if it ever bounced back.

Now there was yet another fresh drug out there to mess things up just coming to bear...meth.  Somewhere, just about the time crack was a deader fish, no longer good-tasting and sizable enough to not throw back into the lake when you caught it, well, along came meth amphetamine, and proved that even an illegally fished from lake could be refilled, repopulated, and create more problems than anyone had ever seen to date.  I won't go into the drug (I think we all know more than we want to about it by now), what the drug's made of (hence the funny looks you get when you stock up on batteries for Christmas, and cold medicine for that nasty bug that's been going around your house lately), or how it simply and utterly destroyed the better portion of this city before anything was done to stop the flow.  What I will say is, that if you talk to nearly half the populace in Des Moines; or at least it nearly seems so (they'll try to tell you that number is minuscule...but it's much larger than you know, this town's just very good at shuffling them away from the public view), you'll see an overabundance of missing teeth, recovering addicts, the tell-tale twitching faces and bodies of homeless monkey-backed beggars (half of which are still high from the last time they did it, about 4 hours ago) and you may even notice about 1/5 of your friends that have fallen prey to this wonderful drug as well.  I've done it myself...only I sniffed it first, and dropped it fast, thanks to the fact that it massively interfered with my job...then I came back for a little puffy puffy at later times...and yet after watching it totally destroy the better portion of my previous *friends list* (in all fairness, some gave it up and are really trying hard to stop) I just couldn't imagine myself a true addict, so I gave it up for more sensible hobbies.  If you talk to any one random person here, you will find that somewhere in their closet is either a personal experience, a friend or family member, or some other person they work with or live close to that either does it, deals it, or has had their lives thrown into turmoil by it.

Iowa is smack dab in the middle of the nation.  A central hub for a lot of things, including drug traffic. Innovative Tech Hubs that aren't on the radar?  Nnnnnot so much.  We here in Des Moines have known this for a very long time.  We're also very close to Chicago, whose residents, along with Detroit's and Milwaukee's, have been branching out to find new and clean cities to destroy.  Those, of late, include the likes of Madison, WI, the Quad Cities, and of course...Des Moines Iowa.   You know, the promising and richer types of cities. Davenport and those other cities, well, they aren't exactly rich (except maybe Bettendorf), but they were along the way soooo....what the heck, huh?

Anyway, I don't think it's such a good idea to advertise and put out there how wonderful this place is, even at 6th place, for families and clean living, mostly because that sort of advertising tends to draw UNWANTED attention to go along with the good kind.  I can see that family of neighborhood criminals now in Detroit, sitting in their living rooms, getting on the web and wishing they had more houses to break into where the police weren't always right there to see what they were up to before they could even get going...and seeing Des Moines...and thinking..."Hey!!  That's not too far away!  Hey Jay-Rod...think that Caprice of yours can still make it 400 miles one-way?  This town's gotta be FULL of nice people and suckers!!!"

Thanks to the coming and going (although meth is FAR from gone) of two such devastating drugs, this town is anything but suitable for family habitation.  With the exception of a few major businesses, this town doesn't really boast anything much better than say Cedar Rapids, or Waterloo, and really isn't far off from either one economically.  Believe you me, I can find you TONS of references that will tell you both of those cities are a complete waste of space.

And, just like anytime you have a problem like meth completely ruin anything good about your city, biases, more stringent hiring policies, and police harassment towards anyone, while looking for drugs or their abusers, tends to become almost ridiculous, especially when you're driving in certain areas...or in our case, almost an entire side of town.  During our crack era, the north side was very nearly evacuated trying to clean it up.  Now the south side is suffering due to the amount of immigrants and meth users that populate it.  There's even rumor (and has been for a lot of years) of the Mexican Mafia operating a branch of themselves here.  I know that, when I lived there, that it seemed to be almost 50% or more Italian populated.  Now you're lucky to spy a Scavo anywhere on that side of town, unless he's just passing through.

This place, a wonderful city to raise families in?  Nooooooo.......I don' think so.  No city over 10,000 people really is, anymore.  In my opinion, the only good place to raise a family is in the country, and only if you're ten miles or better from the nearest town or city.  Clive is MUCH better than Des Moines, though I still truly doubt it.  West Des Moines is around the same.  Urbandale, for the most part beats it out by a mile.  Waukee, same story.  Maybe I should look at the list...maybe those are the first four.  I don't think so, but any one of those could easily beat out, or replace Des Moines.  So I'm sorry Forbes.  Maybe you should invest a little more time into beating the streets of Des Moines to be absolutely sure before next year's rating.

Author's addendum:  I did finally bring myself to espy the list that Forbes put out about this (http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanriper/2014/04/16/the-best-cities-for-raising-a-family-2/).  The one thing I noticed was, that even though a lot of the choices I thought were pretty well determined, that some were just stupid, and were only put on the list due to the low cost of living (the job market and bad economic overtones of the same were actually brought to the forefront, followed by low cost of living, which we know, for a fact, is BECAUSE of a crappy job market...????) and, in our case, the low traffic flow was even used as a plus.  Not exactly Family friendly stats, if you ask me.  Good reporting there, Forbes.

Des Moines, Iowa - Part II - Under the Radar Tech Hubs and Monopolistic Behaviors

www.catchdesmoines.com/about/

Hey kids, we're BAAAAAAAAAACK!!

You know, leave it to me to not waste any time.  Besides, what do I have left but time, right??  Speakin' of wasting time...let's get to it, shall we?

Now, we're on:

Ranked #2  - Under the Radar Tech Hubs...in the country.  Right about now, I'm sure a lot of you are wondering the the Hell a Tech Hub is, let alone an "Under the Radar" tech hub.  The rest of you, I'm sure, are all wondering how this particular ranking got ahead of obviously more important ranks, such as "Best place to raise your family", or "Best Pay for Blue Collar Workers".  Evidently this is more important.  Well, according to the SpareFoot blog,

http://blog.sparefoot.com/6124-americas-top-under-the-radar-tech-hubs/

whoever the Hell THEY are (and , therefore, why would we care); a Tech Hub is defined as a "innovative startup culture"...for high tech.  An example of a tech hub would be Silicon Valley, in California.  Okaaayyy.....Well, I don't see us getting remotely close to a Silicon Valley rating, anytime soon.

The "SpareFoot blog" also says we have three of these hubs...and that they're all here, doing well...but are under the radar.  To me, the phrase "Under the radar" means, that they're not being noticed...and then they're not all that great a deal to begin with, are they?  Or else, they would be ON the radar, right???  Right there, that ranking then, is BS.  Not very reliable information.  Something I really didn't need to know about, as far as a possible new city to move to.

OK, so maybe that's not enough for you?  Well, we can always jet back to "who is SpareFoot?", and how the heck is it that these people are notable enough to tell me what's so great about my city?  I'd say the point of that question is the answer....they're NOBODY.  Are they nationally recognized as an authority on tech hub rankings?  I doubt it.  Please, if you would, read on.

If that's STILL not enough for you, then let's go with their other rankings.  Their #1 ranking is Boise, Idaho.  They also have just three "under the radar" tech hubs.  How are they better than Des Moines, if they have the same number of tech hubs?  Do they explain why?  Nooooooo.......not exactly.  What about their #3 ranking? That'd be Little Rock AR.  They have two tech hubs.  OK, that one makes more sense - Less tech hubs, lower rating.  #4?  Baton Rouge LA.  So that probably means they have the same number, or perhaps less.  Oh, but wait...they have three tech hubs again...SO WHY ARE THEY #4?  I have no clue...I think I can stop there.  With all that, that ranking is OUTTTTA THERE..Don't know you, don't care, it's a bull-crap ranking, designed, for whatever idiot reason, to draw attention to Des Moines, Iowa, or to get people to move here.  Nice try; please, call again.

Oh, and just in case you haven't figured out, as yet, who Spare Foot (www.sparefoot.com) is?  It's the world’s largest, simplest and best marketplace for self-storage. They also provide leading web marketing solutions for storage operators. (See Sparefoot.com/about.html)  How, then, does this make these people an authority, where ranking my city as a budding innovative tech hub is concerned?  IT....DOES....NOT!!!! Thank you, have a nice day, and enjoy your life.

I've decided that we need to condense topics somewhat, mostly because some of these "Rankings" are way to easy to refute, per the authority that gives it.  So, for every ranking I can eliminate as not kosher, in 5 paragraphs or less, I'm going to add a SENSIBLE reason to avoid this city like the plague.

Here's one that I happen to know a lot about.  Monopolies.  Now, according to our nationally recognized Federal Law on the subject, Monopolies are VERBOTTEN...a cardinal sin, not allowed to operate ANYWHERE within our borders.  Really?

Ok, then explain to me, why it is, that we had, for easily three decades, only one cab company?  One Energy Provider?  One cable company?  Oh sure, we have satelite companies...two to be exact.  But if you're set on Cable, you only have a single choice.  I've always thought that one to be wrong. Our cable company, Mediacom, has had its foot down on the neck of Des Moines, for a long time now.  I also have a big problem with one energy provider.  But then I always thought energy, like gas, water, etc...should always be free anyway.  It's our earth too, and just because we ourselves in our time weren't bright enough to think of charging for it...should the remainder of us suffer?  The most significant of these monopolies, however, is the Cab monopoly we've had here, for many a decade.  This has ALWAYS been our best story.

John Ruan, the most powerful of Des Moines' residents for many years, finally died in 2010.  His son, of course, took the reigns to this empire.  Ruan Trucking is still going strong, and it's smaller group, the Cab Company, they called it, is still profiting well, now that it's on it's own.  It used to be run, as a transparent monopoly, for a great many years.  See, there were, for the longest time, only two cab companies.  Yellow Cab and Capital cab.  The problem was, the same man owned it.  Everybody knew it, everybody just kind of accepted it.  And he continued to own it, for a long time to come.  Then he sold it to someone else...who also owned the rights to the city, and continued to monopolize it until they FINALLY let others in...under certain conditions.  For one, they had to carry (get this) OVER 1 MILLION IN LIABILITY INSURANCE.

New York City, sporting one of the most expensive licenses in the union?  Only requires that you have $80,000 in the same insurance.  Another concession they required, is that they charge NO LESS than the current rates that the current order charged.  So, no competition.  Another condition was that you HAD to have a central dispatcher, even though the current system of cell phone dispatch is working just fine in other cities.  All of this rests on the City Council, here in Des Moines.  They keep others out, they still make ALL the money.  Now, I don't know about you, but when a current system that keeps out competition is at the head of the class, I don't see that kind of city as a good place to start a Tech Hub, whether it's under the radar or not; or ANY kind of business, for that matter.  Which is probably why these "tech hubs" are STILL under the radar...so they can be like a normal business, without a greedy City Council giving them crap about competitive pricing.  :D

Des Moines, Iowa , Part I - Metro For Economic Strength

http://www.executiveofficespace.net/news/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Iowa.jpg

NOTE:  THIS IS A BRAND NEW BLOG FROM THE TWISTED MIND OF THE MIGHTY SWORD.  IT'S NOT GONNA BE FUN (except for me, anyway), NOR WILL IT BE PLEASANT.  FOR YOU WHO SWEAR BY THIS CITY, AS WELL AS THIS STATE, YOU MAY WANT TO A.) BRING A GARBAGE PAIL IN WHICH TO PUKE IN, OR B.) READ A MORE POSITIVE/PLEASANT BLOG CONCERNING THESE SUBJECTS!  SINCE IT'S NEW, THE FIRST POST, AS IN ALL OF MY BLOGS, WILL BE THE LONGEST.  THEREFORE I WILL BE WRITING IT IN PIECES, SAVING, PUBLISHING, THEN COMING BACK AGAIN.  IF IT DOESN'T SEEM DONE, THEN IT'S NOT DONE.

Hey kids!  Never thought you'd see me over here didja?  Hehe.  Well, come on in.  Please wipe yer feet. Grab some fresh made popcorn.  That's the way.  Now, pull up a chair, and enjoy my story.  For those of you just joining in, I write a rather good blog (or so I'm told...I could be horribly wrong) on the other side of this site called "America's Deadly Sins".  It, not unlike the plans I have for this one, will never be all that nice, never all that sweet, and definitely, without question NOT kind.  Everything you see here is cut and dried, as honest and straight up as I can make it, and it is, undeniably, the truth.  All opinions, of course, are my own, but will be backed up as much as possible by data, pictures, etc., and will be up for debate, should you leave comments.  Unlike the other blog, I will be going out of my way to give credit where credit is due.  I'm not a guy with a lot of time (considering this country is on it's way to becoming a distant memory), so it's been hard to give ALL credit.  In this one, I will...most certainly.

That other blog, by the way?  http://themightyswordamericasdeadlysins.blogspot.com

The Mighty Swords Credentials:  I've lived in Des Moines since 1975.  In Iowa since 1968.  I have plenty of schooling, and a 147 I.Q.  I am not a felon, a major criminal, a moron, nor am I a fool.  My other blog, since March, has garnered 5,318 followers, including Senators, Lawyers, Models, Patriots of every political view, Musicians of every type, Campaign managers, Editors from CNN, Politicians, Comedians, Military types...you name it.  And the best part?  I didn't ask for a single person to follow me, nor did I pay a single dime for anybody.  What's more, I never solicited, asked, or begged for even one.  They saw.  They read.  They followed.  Simple as that.  I don't advertise either, to drive anyone to that blog.  I must be doing something right, with nearly 302,000 Google Plus views and upwards of 49,000 Blogger views...in 12 countries circling the globe.

See, the deal is, that Iowa...no, no more importantly, DES MOINES, Iowa, is ranked pretty high in this state, and in our country too!  Makes a citizen proud to be here, it does...or, at least, it SHOULD!!  Let's rattle off the numbers, shall we, per whatever weirdo unknown companies they're using to come up with these ranks.  We'll begin with what's probably due to be my favorite of all of these ranks, the first one, Economic Strength.

The number?  Ooo, I just know our founders would just be plumb proud of this one...

#1 - Metro for Economic Strength.  This city.  Of all.  The cities.  In this country.  Is.  #1.  In Economic Strength.  Right.  I'm sorry, who's the collector (as well as the respected publisher) of this particular data again?  Policom Corporation.  2014.  Sorry folks.  Never heard of ya.

OK, well, let's begin with the list of everything I'm going to be referring to in this new blog of mine, since this would be the most glaringly obvious flaw in the overall logic of displaying a list like this.  Huh? Ohhhhh......Now I know what I just said!  What I said was, THIS LIST IS BOGUS!!!

I'm pretty sure that I won't be finding this list anywhere but on the City of Des Moines website, except maybe on the State of Iowa website.  If we were to send a copy to the Government, we might take things too far.  They might have to investigate these findings for themselves.  See, just about every ranking, you may notice, has a different listing as to who comes up with these numbers, with the obvious exception of Forbes Magazine, which is listed five or six times.  There's something that just HAS to click, in the mind of practically anyone who would sport an intelligence level of more than 6th Grade.  Not only is this list BOGUS, it's BIASED!!  Yes, that's right, biased, one-sided, leaning towards the left or the right...you get the idea.

What about last year?  The year before?  And who is this company, exactly?  What's their track record, as far as being right and wrong?  What about the remainder of this data?  How many years has this company been in business?  Let's find out, shall we?

OKOK...they've been in business 19 years.  That's a good start.  For those of you that would like to follow along, you may.

http://policom.com

They are, however, an INDEPENDENT "Economic Development Consultant".  I'm not a true fan of that word, INDEPENDENT.  Independent to me equals CORRUPTIBLE.  It also means NON-REGULATED.  This means that I could, feasibly pay you for good results, and that the company could feasibly take that money.  But hey, who's counting?  I'll move on from that one.

Then there's the fact that they're in Florida, nearly 1500 miles away.  I have to wonder how many of their reps live in Iowa.  I don't know, exactly, but I'd sure like to find out.  If it wasn't anyone in Iowa, how long did they spend in Iowa to collect their data, and what's the amount of give and take with their accuracy?  What are their sources?  I'd like to know these things.  How about the rest of you?

The answer, by the way to the previous question, is one.  One person.  Oh, and not just one person; one person who has also evaluated 700 other economies as well.  He's also the presenter of these reports.  He does 700 reports on the economy every year.  That's a lot for one guy.  I'd say, considering the average time would be around 2 weeks per report, that his margin for error, whether documented or not, is pretty large.  Before he did these findings, the man was the VP for a large land development company in Florida, for seven years.  I don't really know about the rest of the world, but I'm most certainly not trusting of too many land developers.  Why, I can't really say.  Might have something to do with people who sell ocean-front property in Arizona, or who sell the government toxic waste dumps so that they can make Army bases on them, then let a town build up next to it without telling them what the dangers are, then shuffle through and allow hundreds of naive military entrants to train there, for almost 30 years....Oh, yeah, I trust land developers all right.  Just the kind of guy I want giving me economic data (for more on that military base, which I served on for 6 months, Google Ft. McClellan, AL, or Aniston, AL, the town that cropped up next to it.  Be sure and look for what they've done for the veterans that trained there, over the years).

Oh, but that man has HUNDREDS of loyal clients in his list.  Among these?  For Iowa?  There are only two.  If nothing else on earth will make you skeptical of this guys data, then nothing will.  They are:  The Iowa Banking Association, and Iowa Professional Developers.  And, those results are OUTTTTTTA THERE!!!!!!  'Nuff said, and good luck convincing me of the truth of those results.

I'm done with this company.  Let's go on.  What about last year, who was the number one Metro For Economic Strength for last year?  I don't really know.  Nor do I care to look.  See, I think the whole thing goes something like this.

If there's a promising metro area that's just not bringin' it in like it used to?  I think that the City Councils in these areas go on a hunt for companies that will lie to boost their numbers, or that they can pay for better numbers...or at the very least will SAY that their numbers are good.  I think just the one I mentioned is more than enough proof of that.

Now, being a 37 year resident of this town, I think, more than qualifies me as an expert on the "Economic Strength" of Des Moines Iowa.  Here then, are my own personal results, which I imagine are at the very least 50% more accurate than Policom's results.

Since I've been here, I have never had a corporate position in this town's main business, insurance.
Since I've been here, in Des Moines, I have never held a corporate position, for ANYONE.
Since I've been here, in Des Moines, I have never EVER gotten a job from Iowa Workforce Development.
Since I've been here, in Des Moines, I haven't been able to get a job ANYPLACE, since 2002.
Since I've been here, I have never made more than $10.00 per hour.
Since I've been here, just about every friend I've had is now gone.
Since I've been here, just about every business I've ever remembered that was here in 1976 (with a few notable exceptions - Mostly banks, insurance companies, one versatile and smart publishing company, Meredith, and one clothing Department store, Younkers) Is gone, moved away, or closed it's doors, permanently.

OK, well, so what kind of a person am I?  Sure, I've been in trouble a couple of times (that I was caught for).  I have a shoplifting charge...from 2002.  I have a misdemeanor prostitution charge (funny story, that one) from 1986.  And last, I have a drug possession charge from 1982 (which was from an incident in 1979, another funny story).  The first two charges have never ever affected my being hired for a position anyplace.  The last one, however, the shoplifting charge, has stopped me from getting hired anyplace for 11 years.  I have plenty of experience in an awful lot of fields, and I have nearly two college degrees (I didn't get to college until nearly 2010.  My hatred of colleges and education systems is multi-pronged in its complexity, and so is the dependency of this city of those degrees.  It would take entirely too long to beat it over the head now.  I do relate much about that in my other blog, listed above).

I'm jobless, very nearly homeless, I have no cash to speak of, so, of course, I have nothing better to do with my time, these days, but blog about the state of the nation, and the condition of my home of nearly 37 collective years.  Do I believe in the Economic Strength of this city?  HELL no.  Every time I move away, I can usually get a job in 3 days or less, make a lot more than $10.00/hr., and live quite well.  As soon as I come back, my life goes right down the tubes, I can't get a job to save my ass, and all I can think about is where I'm going to move away to next.  So as long as things remain the way they are, then watch out; because my plan will be to single-handedly prove Des Moines, Iowa to NOT BE the place to live in this, or any other century.  Am I bitter?  Sure am.  Full of hate and revenge on its businesses and people?  Damned straight.  Wrong about any of it?  I doubt it.

I will be going through the ENTIRE list of the rankings concerning this city.  After that, I plan to rip apart each and every thing about this city that's idiotic, criminal, or just plain wrong.  If you stay, well hallelujah, welcome to the land of truth and honesty.  If you'd like to, however, scoff and walk off...well, good luck.  Lemme know how your life works out for you in a few years.  Add to that, we'll always welcome you back over here with open arms, once your opinion is more in line with ours.  :D