Laura Belin, a member of the Business Record’s fifth annual Forty Under 40 class, mentions almost as an afterthought her yearning for a restaurant in Greater Des Moines offering the fiery hot Ethiopian cuisine she’s come to appreciate in other cities. Overall, she displays the pride of a parent about the increasingly diverse dining, cultural and entertainment options added to the city during the years she was living in Europe, a change that astonishes her skeptical siblings living elsewhere in the United States.  

“In a lot of ways, with the different types of food and live music, there’s more going on than when I was growing up in Des Moines,” said Belin, a journalist and foundation president who earned a reputation as an expert on Russian politics through her work for Radio Free Europe.

Her return home after living in Prague and London yielded some disappointments as well. “Greater Des Moines needs to value its architecture,” she said. “It was very sad to see the AIB Building torn down. A great city values the nice old buildings it has and finds new uses for them.”  

Belin, like other members of the newspaper’s leadership class, is strongly engaged in a communitywide conversation about how to make Greater Des Moines an attractive 21st-century city for businesses, the young professionals who keep them humming and the families who call the city home.  

In selecting the honorees from more than 130 nominations, the judges — all previous Forty Under 40 honorees — looked beyond corporate board rooms and executives. For instance, Jeffrey Aldrich, a sergeant with the Des Moines Police Department, is the first police officer among the 200 people selected since the newspaper named its first Forty Under 40 class in 2000. The 2004 class also includes a minister and a dentist, as well as executives, attorneys, marketing professionals, business owners, non-profit leaders and other professionals.  

Belin’s years in Europe also raised her expectations regarding public transportation. “The biggest culture shock was needing a car,” she said. In Prague and London, most of Belin’s shopping needs could be fulfilled at stores walking distance of home. Public transportation was swift and easily accessible. In Russia, where she’s traveled extensively, trains ran every 90 seconds.  

“It’s disappointing to be car-bound, particularly when so many people are using a few main streets to commute to and from work,” Belin said.  

Mike Hagedorn, senior vice president and chief financial officer of Wells Fargo Bank Iowa, is equally passionate about the need for a better public transportation system. An investment today in a light rail system would ensure that the city will be attractive to business development in the future, he said.

“Most cities in the United States, Des Moines included, need to have light rail,” he said matter-of-factly. “More big buses spewing pollution isn’t the right direction.”

But, he conceded, “it will take a near catastrophe,” such as imminent depletion of fossil fuels, “before people think it’s the right way to go.”

Hagedorn frequently takes business trips to San Francisco, Wells Fargo’s home base, giving him a chance to mentally draw comparisons between the downtowns of that city and Des Moines. “We need more focus on urban revitalization downtown,” he said. “San Francisco’s overall appearance versus ours is one of cleanliness.”

Big downtown construction projects are evidence the city is moving in the right direction, he said, but simple math suggests a more focused effort on attracting large employers that pay high salaries would bring in the capital needed to further revitalize the central city.

“We have a good base of quality businesses, but if I were in charge of the Greater Des Moines Partnership or were [Iowa Department of Economic Development Director] Mike Blouin, I’d bring in more Fortune 500 companies,” said Hagedorn, another Iowa native who returned to Greater Des Moines after living a dozen years in Minneapolis-St. Paul. “In the Twin Cities, you find a ton of Fortune 500 companies based up there. What that does for the local economy, because of the salaries, you can’t imagine.”

Belin, Hagedorn and other members of the Forty Under 40 class are brimming with ideas on how to improve the city. Some of their inspirations concern broadening the tax base and employment opportunities, but others focus on improving the quality of life as a key component of an economic development strategy. For instance, Aldrich, the police officer, spends both professional and leisure time puzzling over the best way to steer the city’s young people away from age-inappropriate activities to healthful pursuits. “It’s easy for young people to find activities that get them in trouble,” he said. “We need more underage activities for children, like skateboard parks and other alternative opportunities for young kids.”

Quality-of-life amenities such as recreational trail   development, changes to the dams on the Des Moines River to accommodate kayaking and other water sports, and support for cultural attractions should be top priorities for business and community leaders, said Ryan Hanser, vice president at the Hanser & Associates public relations firm.

“Even if you have a great job, you have to consider where that job is,” he said. “If it’s a place you don’t want to be, you keep looking.”

From his vantage point at the Weitz Co. Inc., Chris Voggesser eagerly awaits the completion of downtown building projects, including the new central branch of the Public Library of Des Moines, for which Weitz is the general contractor. A grass roof for the structure that will snake along a section of the downtown’s West Gateway is still in the plans, and that’s a signature feature that could send a message that the city is willing to take chances, he said.

“There’s a lot of stuff on the horizon, and people are excited about being here,” said Voggesser, Weitz’s manager of business development. “I see people coming back because the Iowa they knew isn’t really the same.”

The 2004 Forty Under 40 class will be recognized at a reception at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at the Polk County Convention Complex.

The following individuals were named to the class: Jeffrey Aldrich, Alba Basset Armijo, Laura Belin, Brian Bond, Shannon Boswell, Scott Cirksena, Adam Claypool, Lori E. Cole, Chris Cook, Linda Lundstrom Cook, Mariclare Thinnes Culver, Marvin Debner, Paul Drey, Jackie Fedderson, Donald Fifer, Lisa Fitzgerald, John R. Gilliand, Tim Grabiniski, Kevin Grimm, Mike Hagedorn, Laura Hamady, Ryan Hanser, Hayley Harvey, Mike Housholder, Billi Hunt, Karla Jeffries, Michael Kiernan, Sharon Krause, Molly A. Lopez, Joel Magruder, Stephen McGoldrick, James Myers, Scott Reddig, Christopher Sackett, Christy Smith, Allison Smoldt, Julie Stewart, Larry Taylor, Chris Voggesser and John H. Vratsinas.

For profiles of all the honorees, see the March 15 print edition of the Des Moines Business Record.