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Here’s a video tour of the Robert D Ray Asian Gardens that I took yesterday evening using the new iPhone 3GS. I hope you enjoy.
Continuing with our series, Des Moines Picture of the Week, this week’s picture comes from one of my favorite photographers, Jacob Boyd and this one is from the 7th and Center Park-n-Ride facility downtown.
Jake says “I enjoy taking photos in Des Moines because I feel like there’s always somewhere new to go. Whether it’s photographing buildings downtown or a coffee shop, it seems like there’s opportunities everywhere.” Jake now has his own website to show off his great photography, at: http://www.jakeboydphotography.com/
Check out previous pictures in of our series, Des Moines Picture of the Week.
I made my first trip down to the Arts Festival yesterday afternoon around 4pm. My friend Todd joined me at about 5:30, and we had a great time. The musical performances by Collective Soul and Gavin DeGraw were great and the art on display this year was awesome.
I always try and make a purchase each year, and for my purchase this year, I purchased a set of original paintings on wood. by Mark Traughber, made with spray paint on primed wood from stencils that he designed and created. Each piece is 4.25″ wide, 6″ tall, .75″ thick. faced with a protective glossy finish. I can’t wait to decide where to install them at in my place!
Here are a few photos I took yesterday evening, it was hard to take photos as I kept getting distracted by the wonderful art.
One of my favorite summer events is the annual downtown Des Moines Arts Festival. Here are some highlights about this year’s event, for more details check out their website at: http://www.desmoinesartsfestival.org
DATES: June 26 – 28, 2009
TIMES: Friday, June 26 – 4 p.m. – 10 p.m.
Saturday, June 27 – 10 a.m. – 10 p.m. (Fireworks at 10 p.m.)
Sunday, June 28 – 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
WHERE: Western Gateway Park, Downtown Des Moines, Iowa
WHAT: Des Moines Arts Festival
– 175+ Premier Professional Visual Artists sponsored by Aviva USA
– 24 Emerging Iowa Artists sponsored by Principal Financial Group®
– 24 Non-profit Organizations sponsored by Prairie Meadows showcasing services and activities
– GuideOne Insurance Interactive Mural presented by the Des Moines Art Center
– Non-stop live music on the U.S. Cellular Stage
– Gavin DeGraw and Collective Soul on Friday night proudly presented by
Hy-Vee in celebration of the Hy-Vee Triathlon and sponsored by Budweiser
– New Jazz & Wine Pavilion presented by Meredith Corporation
– Performing Arts Stage featuring dance, music and theatre
– Live Street Theatre
– 30 Interactive Arts Activities
– 376 students from 96 Schools in the Des Moines Art Center’s Nurturing a Student’s Vision Program
sponsored by Hubbell Homes
– Interrobang Film Festival presented by Nationwide
– 24 Eclectic Food Booths sponsored by Hy-Vee
– Sculpture Garden
ADMISSION: FREE
Now that the Des Moines Building is up for sale again, here’s what I think some philanthropist should do with that building and for the children of Des Moines.
Opportunity: The Des Moines Sports & Education Complex
Business Case: Thanks to the Pappajohns we now have great free art for our residents to appreciate and learn from. Now if we can find another donor that would like to give back to the community in a different way. Truth be told, I’m not much of a sports fan, never have been, probably from growing up in a family that obsessed too much about sports, but having living here in Des Monies for a little over six years now, I could see what I’m about to describe as totally possible.
Resident here love sports and getting their kids involved in sports programs of all types. This business opportunity would be mostly a not-for-profit enterprise, but there would be an associated for-profit business to work into the place. So here’s how this would work.
The overall building would need to be renovated to make this vision work. The bottom floor of the building would feature a a lobby that is decorated in sports memorabilia and sports photography of local teams, both community teams and local school teams. Off of the lobby would be an entrance into a for-profit business which would be your typical sports bar with all of the plasma TVs hanging from the walls and ceilings but instead of them being tuned into national or college sports, they would be tuned into local community sporting events, for example high school basketball or football events. During non-live coverage of local sporting events, there would be previously recorded games running or sports education films, or events featuring home-town heros, such as Shawn Johnson. The restaurant would feature your standard sports bar fare, such as burgers, chicken wings, salads, etc. There would be definitely family spin to the restaurant.
On the other side of the lobby would be smoothie bar and health cafe. This area would feature pre and post training and work out shakes and meal replacement snacks. From the lobby, visitors would take elevators or stairs up to the desired floor based on the sports their children would be taking. For example, there would be a floor or area dedicated to the following sports-related activities: basketball area would feature a gymnasium-style area where youth could learn to place basketball and participate in team practices; wrestling area; gymnastics area – named after Shawn Johnson; actually each area could be named after a significant hometown hero in that sporting event; indoor track and field; ballet area – area set up learning ballet; boxing area; kick-boxing area; karate and other martial arts. You get the idea, just imagine a 14 story building filled full of sports areas.
So the way this would work is that youth ages 5 to 18 that live in the 50309 zip code would be able to sign-up for and attend any sports training free of charge. For youth outside of 50309, they would be able to buy a yearly membership for each child that would let them learn as many sports as they want to sign-up for. Membership dues would be on sliding scale based on their parents income.
Continuing with our series, Des Moines Picture of the Week, this week’s picture comes from Flickr user Scott LaBlanc, also known as LostShaker and is of downtown skyline.
Scott says “”The vast majority of the pictures in my portfolio have been taken in and around downtown Des Moines. As a photographer I enjoy the variety of lakes, parks, and urban environments within just a few mile radius. Des Moines is full of character and is a great subject.” You can check out more of Scott’s photography at: www.scottlablancphotography.com.
Check out previous pictures in of our series, Des Moines Picture of the Week.
It started just a couple of weeks ago, but Des Moines is taking a less from the City of Chicago, that lessen being offering free yoga in the park for area residents.
On Saturday mornings, beginning at 9am, June through September, you can go to Gray’s Lake and take a free yoga class. No experience or pre-registration is required. Parking available at the north-side beach.
Check out some pictures from last week’s event, courtesy of Tina Johnson, your downtown gal and others on Gray’s Lake Park Facebook page.
A reader of this blog pointed me to a new report published this week by The Brookings Institution, MetroMonitor. The report ranks the nation’s 100 largest metro areas based on economic performance. DesMoines is included in the top 20 strongest-performing metro areas in the United States.
MetroMonitor provides a comprehensive analysis of the impact of the recession on metropolitan America. The report examines six key indicators – employment, employment change by industry, unemployment rates, wages, gross metropolitan product, housing prices, and foreclosure rates – through the first quarter of 2009.
You can read the report and check out the many maps and tables available here:
http://www.brookings.edu/metro/MetroMonitor.aspx
An article in today’s Des Moines Register states that Des Moines’ economy has been rated the 14th strongest in the nation.
Here are few highlights from the article:
You can check out the full article here: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090617/BUSINESS/906170346
The last Saturday of every month through September, shoppers now have a new venue, at least from 9am to 2pm that day. Market Day, a new a monthly market for people who want to sell or buy recycled and reclaimed objects and original art, takes place in a 120-year-old East Village warehouse at 118 S.E. Fourth St., south of Court Avenue.
Vendors who have refinished, repurposed or antique items or original art may request a spot in the market. Vendors will pay $20 per event. No commissions are charged, but vendors must be approved in advance.
Shoppers should expect to bring their own bags for small purchases.Two additional days are planned for October and a Black Friday sale will be Nov. 27. More information is available at www.marketstreetmediafoundry.com.
Continuing with our series, Des Moines Picture of the Week, this week’s picture comes from Flickr user Dan Schneider, also known as Teufel657 and is of downtown looking down Locust St from the Capitol.
Dan says “I like to photograph Des Moines because of the great buildings and architecture. There is always livly movement downtown, and great scenes that can be captured.”
Check out previous pictures in of our series, Des Moines Picture of the Week.
We wanted to say thanks to the residents and sponsors of the First Annual Downtown Garage Sale. We had a huge success for our first sale, and from what people are saying, they can’t wait till the next one. We will definitely have one next summer and will start planning it February or March. This time we will be asking for a representative from each housing unit complex downtown to be on our planning and organizing committee. Residents that sold saw up to $300 a person in revenue from the sale Saturday morning.
A special thanks goes out to the Downtown Neighborhood Association who helped with our advertising budget and to Nelson Construction for providing the venue for the sale and to the residents of 418 Liberty Luxury Condos for organizing the event.
Here are some more photos from the event.
One of my favorite things to do is get out and explore downtown Des Moines, especially with a focus on all the great architecture that can be found here. The Iowa Architectural Foundation each summer presents the Architecture @ Hand Walking Tours. This year marks the Foundations’s 20th year anniversary. In the past they’ve offered three different tour paths, this year they have four. I’ve already taken one this year and will probably end up taking several more. Check them out!
For the next installment of a business opportunity, is something that we used to have in Tampa, Florida when I lived in that area.
Opportunity: The Des Moines Dessert Room
Business Case: Have you ever wanted to take someone special out, not for a full dinner, but maybe just a real nice dessert? The Des Moines Dessert Room would be smaller-sized restaurant that only served incredibly delicious and gorgeous looking desserts and great martinis. The restaurant would be open three nights a week, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings from 7pm to 2am. Restaurant could be available for private parties on other days.
Décor would consist of upscale urban design, with most tables being a two toppers, and a few tables as four toppers; and eight toppers. After a short while, when the word gets out, on how great of place this is to take your significant other to or a few of your closest friends to for a special occasion, reservations would go from being suggested to being required. In Tampa, sometimes you had to reserve two-weeks in advance just to get a table.
Dessert selections would consist of: Tiramisu, Bananas Foster, Chocolate-Bourbon Cake, Chocolate-Dipped Strawberries, Bublanina (a Czechoslovakian dessert, is made with whatever fruit is most plentiful at the time), Chocolate-Espresso Tore with Raspberry Sauce, Thin French Apple Tart with Vanilla-Bean Ice Cream and Miniature-Size Wedding Cakes.
Suggested Location: To make this place even more special, I would love to see this on one of the upper-floors or top-floors of one of the downtown buildings so that diners would have spectacular nighttime views which would just add to the ambiance. If we couldn’t get that, maybe the East Village or Western Gateway Park area would make a great setting.
I saw this the other day, and thought if San Francisco is so hip to Twitter, and Twitter is free, why can’t the City of Des Moines do the same. Starting last week, the City of San of Francisco supports all 311 services via Twitter, with the help of Twitter CRM tool CoTweet.
Now citizens can send direct messages 24 hours a day to the sf311 Twitter account to report standard non-emergency city-related sightings (like pot holes), request street cleanings, and any other service already supported by the phone or website. This establishes San Francisco as the first major city to adopt a city-wide Twitter program of this magnitude.
City of Des Moines, let’s join the Twitter revolution!
