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You may live in Iowa's top 5 best counties. Here's which ranked highest and why.

My wife were talking about this a bit. Most of the town/cities in the state between 10k and 25k (ignoring suburbs, stand alone towns) are varying degrees of trashy. Yes, there are a few exceptions, but for the most part we're talking differences between a 2 to 4 out of 10.

Ex, just talking about the SE quarter (S and E of 80 and 35), how many towns fitting the 10-25k don't suck? I can think of 2 or 3, other than that, they're meh at best.
Burlington is 23k. Whenever I go back there I’m impressed at what a nice town it is. Certainly has some downtrodden neighborhoods, but overall a good place with decent places to eat and things to do.
 
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I was in the bowels of Louisa County on Wednesday. It should be ranked 105th out of Iowa's 99 counties, and, it isn't even the worst county in Iowa.

My mom lives In Wapello. What a depressing place, especially because I remember it being a healthy and relatively thriving town in my childhood.
 
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Not a knock on Iowa State, but I have never understood the appeal to Ames. My Grandparents lived just outside Ames so we'd visit a lot as kids, and I spent a few weekends visiting friends in college in the late 90's. It really doesn't impress me much.

It's not a bad town by any means, obviously much better than Sioux City, CBluffs, Loo, etc but it has nowhere near the things to do as DM or even the IC/CR area. Davenport may have more rough areas than Ames, but more upside as well.
 
My mom lives In Wapello. What a depressing place, especially because I remember it being a healthy and relatively thriving town in my childhood.
I'd like to say that I missed the good parts, but, I probably drove through the best parts. I even drove up and down a few streets just to kill a few minutes before I had to meet someone at the courthouse. Columbus Junction is wretched.
 
Not a knock on Iowa State, but I have never understood the appeal to Ames. My Grandparents lived just outside Ames so we'd visit a lot as kids, and I spent a few weekends visiting friends in college in the late 90's. It really doesn't impress me much.

It's not a bad town by any means, obviously much better than Sioux City, CBluffs, Loo, etc but it has nowhere near the things to do as DM or even the IC/CR area. Davenport may have more rough areas than Ames, but more upside as well.
Sounds like someone needs to spend more time in the butterfly house every day. Between that and the spectacular drinking water, it is almost as marvelous as oskaloosa or fort doggy.
 
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