Iowa
-
An Iowa river town develops a real relationship with the Mississippi
“The care of rivers is not a question of rivers, but of the human heart.” — Tanaka Shozo Arriving in Dubuque, Iowa, is a bit disorienting. After passing acres and acres of the heartland’s flat soybean and cornfields, you suddenly come upon a small city (pop. 60,000) with a surprising landscape. Gazing east to west, […]
-
What must the ‘Rural Americans for Hillary’ think of this?
Days after naming a high-profile champion of factory-style animal farms as co-chair of "Rural Americans for Hillary," Hillary Clinton backtracked a little yesterday. She expressed wan and tepid concern about the environmental and social effects of concentrated-animal feedlot operations (CAFOs). She told the Des Moines Register she would support "local control" over how CAFOs are […]
-
A recap of our week on the river
Huckleberry Wroth and I survived our travels down the Mississippi last week, and we’ve now returned to our respective coasts to reflect on everything we learned. I must say, visiting three cities in seven days is no lazy float down the river — we covered a lot of ground. Here’s a recap: In Dubuque, we: […]
-
On politics, ponyshoes, and PBR
All good things must come to an end, and the Gristissippi Road Trip is one of them. Sarah and I wrapped up our enlightening week of interviews and explorations with a visit to Beale Street (fried pie, yum!) and a beer with a Gristmill fan. As we recuperate from the trip in our respective cities, […]
-
Guess what happens when communities cough up cash?
Earlier today, we met with three folks from the Great Rivers Greenway District in St. Louis. Their organization owes its very existence to a voter-approved one-tenth of one cent sales tax that generates $10 million each year. As a result, they’ve been able to complete about 100 miles of trails and greenways in a 1,216-square-mile […]
-
… we’re off to St. Louis
Despite the whirlwindiness of our visit to Dubuque, Sarah and I feel like we got a good picture of the work that’s going on there. It helped to have a view from the country’s shortest, steepest railroad: We’ll write about all of this in more detail later in the fall. But for now, it’s off […]
-
Granted, it’s early yet
Just met with Laura Carstens, planning services manager for Dubuque. The money quote: “For years, we turned our back on the river. Now we’re making it our front door.” Later today, Sarah and I will get out on the river for the first time. The tourist riverboat stopped running this weekend because the weather turned, […]
-
… or Kansas, for that matter
Here’s what the sign says on the back of the bathroom door in our hotel: Hotel Laws of Iowa Fixing, Limiting, and Determining the Liability of Keepers of Hotels, Inns, Eating-Houses, and Steamboat Owners to Inmates Thereof. Sorry, was that … steamboat owners? Holy crap.
-
A meeting of the minds in the Masterpiece on the Mississippi
There’s no free lunch — unless you happen to be a Grist reporter crashing a sustainability conference in Dubuque. I showed up, hungry, for a 12 p.m. presentation by City Manager Mike Van Milligen that was kicking off a three-day Sustainable Design Assessment Team visit. I was rewarded not only with more inspiring examples of […]
