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Ames is “Ugliest town in Iowa” says national publication

May 17, 2021
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So I get this stuff in my feed, and I was thinking it must be one of the small dilapidated towns with empty storefronts.

but no, it’s a place that requires driving west till you smell it, and north till you step in it.

 
So I get this stuff in my feed, and I was thinking it must be one of the small dilapidated towns with empty storefronts.

but no, it’s a place that requires driving west till you smell it, and north till you step in it.

That’s pretty dumb clickbait. I hope the big 12 become the equivalent of the mountain west, and that ISU loses every game for perpetuity, but Ames is totally nondescript outside of the campus buildings, while I have descriptions for places like ottumwa.
 
“While it may be a safe place to live (unlike some of the other places on this list), it's also one of the most boring. Unless you're a student at ISU, there's probably not going to be enough going on to satisfy you. At least you can always just stare out into the cornfields!”

Read More: Well-Known Iowa Town Named 'Ugliest' in the Entire State | https://kxrb.com/well-known-iowa-to...state/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral


Close family friend is a rising senior electrical engineering major at Iowa, and for two years he had a girlfriend who went to Iowa State, so he would spend weekends there regularly. He said he was appalled at how little there was to do. He said everyone just sat in their dorm rooms and drank. And for him, what was most disturbing was there was a guy who lived in his girlfriends dorm who was some kind of ag major, and he seemed to spend most of his time playing with his knives. Yes, he has a collection of hunting knives in his dorm room. Isu and Ames are a different world entirely compared to Iowa, even though most students at each are from same state. strange considering that for example UM and MSU don’t feel very different, and most students at each are Michiganders, though UM clearly is the flagship.

After the recent tragic double murder and suicide at an Ames church (!?!), I’m not so sure that the statistics will show that is such a “safe” place as the above article notes once they begin to figure in such rankings. Just because a place is super white does it mean it’s super safe. Not when most mass killings since data has been recorded since the 1980s have been committed by white men (70 of the 118 on record that have been committed by someone with an identifiable race, so 58%) even though white makes are only like 27% of the population.
 
I thought you were giving directions from Daytona Beach to Gainesville, FL
I’d imagine in Florida it would be Tallahassee. I can smell the stench from that capital all the way up here, and so can most.

but it probably doesn’t look nearly as hideous as downtown Ames. And then the freight train thunders through. really kinda stunningly ugly. And so boring I feel bad for the students.
 
I’d imagine in Florida it would be Tallahassee. I can smell the stench from that capital all the way up here, and so can most.

but it probably doesn’t look nearly as hideous as downtown Ames. And then the freight train thunders through. really kinda stunningly ugly. And so boring I feel bad for the students.
True... the capitol part of Tallahassee certainly has a stench these days.
 
Have you actually stood in downtown Ames, a place that FEATURES a huge hideous grain elevator looming over everything, and waited for a half an hour until the entire downtown vibrates from a thunderus freight train, many of which carry stinky livestock and other hazardous materials like coal? Air quality there is ungood. And it looks truly hideous

Downtown Ames is strip malls and crappy zoning and the “Main Street” (with the grain elevator) is a staggeringly desolate place most of the time.

Not pedestrian friendly not bike friendly and just terrible.

It is easily the ugliest college town I’ve ever been to. Kind of shocking that a city with a huge university has to be so ugly and so boring.

Ames needs to get its shit together and zone better and plan development and buy up that land where the grain elevator is and get the hell out of there, but probably they can’t because there are perpetual easements on the railroad line, company that owns the grain elevator will never ever sell. So they’re, um, hamstrung by big ag, which seems tragically appropriate. big ag is horrible for the environment and quality of life, so Ames deserves it.

Iowa city has been turning industrial areas into parks and new blue zone urban development, like the huge new park and condos along the river (from big grove brewery all the way to campus - hundreds of millions in new green development). Beautiful stuff. Miles and miles of new bike trails all over the metro linking north liberty and tiffin and coralville with IC. I can ride from downtown on 12 miles of wide Rec trails all the way to lake McBride state park after tens of millions of investment in trails in last 10+ years. lots of new singletrack and other Rec opportunities. good zoning. Outstanding public transportation. That’s what progressive government does.
 
Any national publication isn't going to pick some no-name place, as every state even has nearly abandoned towns, or total sacrifice zones, victims of the neoliberal system. The point was to pick a place that should be nice, but isn't at all. Especially if you're a college town, you should have your shit together, not smell like manure and have a downtown that subsists in the shadow an industrial facility and inhales the smoke and soot from frequent trains. Simple as that.
 
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