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Life in the Quad Cities, IL/IA?
Handgimp
R+L=JFamily PhotoRegistered User regular
R+L=JFamily PhotoRegistered User regular
So I've applied for a job with Exelon at their plant in the Quad Cities; I'll be doing a phone interview in a few days. Any PAers from/with experience in that area?
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edit: Feel free to PM me if you'd rather.
Quad Cities is a rather rough place. Lots of crime, meth, and pollution. I had a colleague who went to college there who said there were little pockets of nice neighborhoods but if you strayed more than a block or two away you'd get harassed by junkies or mugged. Its a like a crappier version of St. Louis with worse weather. Try not to go anywhere where you can't see the freeways. Businesses and the like a bit safer and cleaner near the exits.
If you end up working there my only advice would be to make sure you live in the state you are working in or you'll get screwed by the tax reciprocity agreements.
Bettendorf is the nicest of the four, but that's a lot like being the tallest smurf.
In summary, no one should move there ever. Iowa City and Ames are the only livable Iowa cities.
Having spent a lot of time in Iowa over the last decade, I'd rank as:
Iowa City > Ames > Dubuque > West Des Moines> Cedar Falls > Des Moines > Council Bluffs > Cedar Rapids > Quad Cities
Here's an article about how lousy Quad Cities are!
http://wqad.com/2014/12/12/report-lists-most-dangerous-cities-in-iowa-and-illinois/
Did a bit more digging and it does seem like crime numbers are improving and the region is a little nicer than I remembered.
I was trying to figure out why and I noticed everything started improving in 09 forward. I'm thinking the 2008 floods changed the town dynamic.
So that brings my last piece of advice: If you move to Iowa, don't live in the flood plain. Having experienced it myself, It's awful.
"Life" is a little broad for what you're looking for, @Handgimp - anything more specific? I can probably give you better info if I know what you're looking for. One thing to note though - if that gig is at the plant in Cordova, you're looking at close to a half-hour to 45 minutes (or better) each way, depending where you live in the QC. Unless you're really into small-town living (not my cup of tea, but for some folks) and want to live in one of the little towns up the way. But that's very much not for everyone.
Following spoilered for OMG(relatively)HUEG WALL O TEXT:
There's a couple decent music venues if that's your gig and also the home of Daytrotter - so surprise shows pop up alot. There's a big events center for your stadium concerts/big touring whatevers. Iowa City (which exists pretty much because of the University of Iowa) is about 40 minutes away, which if you like bands, isn't a bad thing. Or if you like hospitals they have a pretty good one, but that's weird. UI also has the (soon to be renovated) Hancher Auditorium which, once they reopen post flood-recovery, will draw decent theater performances (or at least historically has).
They have the Astros single-A team in Davenport if baseball is your thing and a minor league hockey team as well. One thing I've always enjoyed is that the QC has a pretty active arts community. A couple different organizations serving a lot of artists of lots of different stripes.
There's a river, which you may have noticed. It's a big one, no less. Things tend to be organized around/by/next to it, like music festivals, races, etc. There's a large bike path that I frankly don't even know how far it runs up and down the Illinois side and connects to the Iowa side. But it's big. There's a lot of folks that own boats - anything from little runabouts, to fishing boats, to comp-level raceboats. Lots of fishing and hunting if you're the outdoorsy type. Not a ton of people live next to the river, most of the downtowns are there and the suburbs are further out. There's also a bunch of golf courses, ranging from a TPC course (where they play the PGA's John Deer Classic) all the way down to a bunch of little $10/9-holes if that's your bag.
Cost of living is pretty cheap, overall, but that's really most of Iowa until you get into whatever hip suburb is hippest at the moment. Like I mentioned before, it's all very blue collar. The QC was and has been based on manufacturing forever. Aluminum mills, steel foundries, processing plants, machine shops, factories and the like. Also the Arsenal in Rock Island carries a lot of civilian jobs. I can't speak to life too much on the Illinois side, since I've only lived on the IA side. Crossing the river isn't a big deal (I've lived in IA/worked in IL, meh). The cities are delineated, but you'd never know it. I lived there forever and would still have to ask someone whether a place was technically in one city or the other. They're all abutting each other.
You have your standard-issue suburb crap. Your malls and restaurants and coffee shops and bars and what have you. Basically, what I'm saying here is it isn't farm country. Farm country is driveable if that's what you wanna do. Like 10 minutes out of town, and bam. If you wanna see some beans or corn or cows or whatever. But the cities aren't farm country.
There's a handful of colleges here, but they're pretty self-contained to their own campuses. Varied curriculum though, in case you or anyone in your family is looking at education.
Like most places your internet options are gonna be pretty limited. A couple DSL companies, but Mediacom tends to carry most. I'll be honest, there's not a huge tech scene. There's tech folks and tech jobs, but it's not really an industry with much focus.
Um. Don't know where you're moving from, but weather is... Iowa. You can see 110 and grossly humid in the summer and -10 in the winter. Pack your Speedo next to your parka.
Running out of steam here, but if there's something specific you want to know, definitely ask. If I don't know, I can find out for you - I'm headed back there (from central Iowa) sometime this weekend.
Oh, also, there's a truck-eating bridge. Someone will mention it, trust me.
edit: and good luck with the interview!
My biggest complaint is that the QC is a group of mid-sized cities desperately trying to be metropolitan, but failing to realize that terraforming the farmland at the edge of town for housing complexes and cramming strip malls of national chains into every inch of square space isn't going to cut it.
It's all just very... common. It's ANYTOWN, USA, but quartered and with a river down the middle.
As for Cordova, it's one of the dozens of tiny places I can never locate on a map. I was trying to figure out how far it was from the house I grew up in, and I realized it's way (relatively) north and east of the entire QC. I really can't recommend downtown. If there's any truth to what lessthanpi is saying about crime and drug use, it's going to be downtown. And it's going to take you longer to go from downtown to anywhere that's not downtown than if you live literally anywhere else and just hit the highway. 74 and 80 are a fast way to get to just about anywhere. You never want to cut through town.
Honestly, your best bet is probably someplace on the north side of Davenport or Bettendorf. Going to Cordova you're going to want to take the quickest route to 80 anyway.