Well, that was odd. When Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino offered millions of dollars to Des Moines to keep the city casino-free, you almost wondered if there was another part of the agreement written in invisible ink. The Altoona gaming complex’s brain trust seemed to believe there’s no other place for a competitor to build, as if the city limits of Des Moines extend farther than a gambler can drive.

What if the would-be casino builders find a willing partner in, say, Warren County? What if they construct a wagering palace that makes the old horse track/slot machine parlor seem kind of second-rate?

If that happens, Prairie Meadows might have a struggle on its hands. Although that won’t be anything new for the folks in Altoona.

But it’s hard to beat Des Moines’ end of the deal. John D. Rockefeller supposedly once advised a child: When somebody offers you a dime, take it. When the offer is $34 million over five years, it’s not a hard choice.  The only sobering part about finding this pot of gold is knowing that it should go toward something practical. It’s like finding a box of money in the attic, dreaming briefly about an exotic vacation or a flashy car, then admitting that you really need to fix the roof instead.

Critics have assailed every big idea that has been floated here over the past couple of decades, and legitimate doubts remain about how well the Iowa Events Center will do, how downtown housing will work out, and so forth. But the city is being transformed before our eyes. It’s going to look and feel great.

Now it’s time for some grunt work. When the city manager and the council talk about fixing streets and finding someone to build on our empty lots, they’re exactly right. Throw in some sewer repair and you have a to-do list that’s timely, vital – and, yes, kind of dull.

It might be hard to get excited about the progress we’ll see during the next few years, as workers replace wooden sewers under the streets instead of assembling towers in the sky. You might think no progress is being made if we just fix potholes and resurface streets instead of throwing new bridges across the freeway.  But it’s time to patch up the old place, and that slot-machine money will come in real handy.