Politico article dubs Des Moines ‘cool’
Let’s pretend you were out of Des Moines for a decade or two, leaving when there was still a Babe’s restaurant, an elegant downtown theater was occupied after midnight by “Rocky Horror Picture Show” groupies, and Locust Street and Grand Avenue served as an animated exhibition of souped-up cars with loud mufflers.
By the time you returned in the mid-2000s, something had happened. There was no longer a Montgomery Ward building; it had been replaced by something that looked ultramodern that spilled into a big plaza that has since undergone a change, and odd but interesting sculptures were added here and there in a park that stretched from a copper-clad public building — the new library, as it turned out — to Meredith Corp. headquarters.
Change didn’t happen overnight, obviously, but it did happen by design, according to an article in Politico. “How America’s dullest city got cool” might begin with a touch of hyperbole, but it still provides an interesting look at the transformation of Des Moines.
The article is part of a yearlong series in which Politico takes a look at U.S. cities and their attempts to counter a variety of ills, dullness probably being the least of their woes.
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