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This video documentation of the six-month installation process of the Pappajohn Sculpture Park was produced by Blur MediaWorks as a gift to the City of Des Moines and the Des Moines Art Center.
Thanks to my friend Bob, I now have a camera mount attached to my bike handlebars. I’m able to attach one of my cameras and shoot video as I ride. The two videos included in this post are a sample of a recent ride I did Sunday evening around downtown.
I started my ride from Liberty Condos and made my way east to the Principal Riverwalk, south to Principal Park (it’s funny that it still says Sec Taylor Stadium on Google Maps, even though they changed names a few years ago), and then west to the Scott Avenue Pedestrian Bridge and then back down 2nd Avenue to Court Avenue, west to 4th and I snaked my way back to 6th and Grand.
My plans are to explore the various downtown trails this fall (weather permitting) and next spring and shoot videos from each of the trails to share. This will give everyone a great look at how wonderful our bike trail system really is. I personally think that we have some of the best bike riding trails around and am thankful that are so easily accessible for downtown dwellers.
P.S. It was pretty windy out there at times Sunday evening so you may here a lot of that during the video playback.
Continuing with our series, Des Moines Picture of the Week, this week’s picture comes from Danny Akright, and is a tilt-shift photo.
Danny says “It doesn’t take a lot of exploring the city to find plenty of great photos – with downtown and the East Village developing, plus a healthy dose of history, it’s hard to wander around Des Moines without finding something interesting.”
Check out previous pictures in of our series, Des Moines Picture of the Week.
Last night, EMC Insurance Companies made some lighting changes on its downtown campus, with new light-emitting diodes to show off the south side of EMC’s 20-story building at Seventh and Walnut Streets. The new lights will are designed to brighten the building facade while reducing the amount of light that escapes into the night sky. The lights will reduce energy consumption by nearly 89 percent. Take a look at the before and after photos, what a difference! Maybe Principal and Ruan will take notice and light their buildings back up with cheaper energy choices.
| Before the new lighting | After the new lighting |
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The City of Des Moines and the Transportation Management Association (TMA), along with Nelson Construction offer the Liberty Bike Station to downtown Des Moines residents and works. Located within the Liberty Parking Garage at the corner of 6th Street and Grand Avenue, the Liberty Bike Station provides a safe and secure location for bicycle commuters to park their bikes for free every day of the week. Eight racks have been installed in this location on the ground level of the Liberty Parking Garage. The racks have been specifically designed to combat bicycle theft and accept both padlocks and U-locks. All bicycle enthusiasts are invited to make the most the Liberty Bike Station. For more information, please contact the TMA at (515) 286-4969.
There’s also another similar set up out the 801 Grand Parking deck as shown in the picture below.
Continuing with our series, Des Moines Picture of the Week, this week’s picture is one of my own, a shot of downtown from a balcony of the East Village Court Lofts.
There are so many great views of downtown, this just happens to be a new one I just discovered.
Check out previous pictures in of our series, Des Moines Picture of the Week.
I was putting together some information on downtown area parks and I was unable to locate information about one of the largest downtown area parks, Water Works Park. I was checking out the City of Des Moines’ Park page at: http://www.ci.des-moines.ia.us/departments/pr/parks/ and low and behold WaterWorks isn’t listed. I sent a quick email to the city and here’s what I found out. Water Works Park isn’t listed on the Parks and Recreation website as it is not a city park. You learn something new everyday.
I was pointed to the Des Moines Water Works website at: http://www.dmww.com/SubPageHTML.aspx?SubPageID=62#. According to their site: Located on Fleur Drive directly across from Gray’s lake, Water Works Park covers nearly 1,500 acres of open wooded areas. The park stretches from Fleur Drive west of 63rd Street, bounded by the Raccoon River on the north edge and George Flagg Parkway to the south.
Biking, jogging, picnicking, fishing, and hiking are a few of the activities that park patrons enjoy. Picnic areas, complete with tables and grills, are located in several areas of the park. Large, open areas are available for team sports such as softball, tag football, and soccer.
Water Works Park is open to the public every day between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. except for Thanksgiving and December 24-25. Park police officers patrol both parks for your security and are happy to answer any questions you may have.
Water Works Park Hours:
6 a.m. – 10 p.m. Daily
Closed Thanksgiving and December 24-25
As part of AbsoluteDSM.com’s fifth anniversary, they are holding a tour of some of the new properties in the East Village. This is an excellent opportunity to get out and meeting others that have a great interest in downtown Des Moines. I will be there for sure!
Please RSVP to admin@absolutedsm.com. The group will probably go out for cocktails/food afterwards somewhere in the vicinity for those who want to chat and mingle.
Have you ever seen a nasty pot hole or graffiti downtown and wished you could report the problem on the go instead of waiting to later and writing a letter or email to the city of Des Moines? TechCrunch 50 startup CitySourced is launching an a slew of smartphone applications that let you file an issue to your city from your phone, aiming to crowdsource this information for cities.
Let the City of Des Moines know that we want this app implemented here!
There was a great article in Sunday’s Des Moines Register by David Elbert that talked about the redevelopment efforts that have been going on downtown. You can find the full text of the article here. The sidebar to the article had the biggest meaning to me, here’s what was included in it:
Des Moines’ downtown still faces a number of challenges, including:
COMPLETING THE RIVERFRONT: The biggest piece missing from the riverfront plan today is the World Food Prize Headquarters. City officials expect next month to turn over the keys of the former riverfront library to the World Food Prize organization, which plans to spend nearly $30 million to convert the century-old building into a headquarters that will include elaborate riverfront landscaping. The group still needs to raise about $5 million, but construction is expected to begin before year’s end.
HOUSING AND RETAIL: Retail development traditionally follows housing, so the emphasis is on housing. In 2002, a goal was set to add 6,000 downtown housing units. So far, the total is fewer than 1,500. New developments are being planned for an area south of Court Avenue called the Lower East Village and another location called Gray’s Landing between Southwest Ninth and 16th streets south of the MLK bypass. With the current economy, it could be years before either development begins.
Continuing with our series, Des Moines Picture of the Week, this week’s picture comes from Randy Wetmore aka DMIA JAYHAWK, and is titled “Dragon Boats Waiting for the Race”.
“Des Moines has so many things going on all the time that there are many opportunities to capture some nice pictures. The Dragon Boat Races at Gray’s Lake is an example. It was a beautiful Saturday morning and this picture does not show it there were many, many participants in the races. Keep your eyes open for the variety of events going on in Des Moines.”
Check out previous pictures in of our series, Des Moines Picture of the Week.
As an avid walker and biker downtown, over the last several weeks I’ve noticed these bird silhouettes appearing on buildings downtown. Last night I got my camera out for an evening photo walk and captured these. I kinda of like them, a little urban graffiti in a good way. Does anyone know the story behind them?
Would you like to submit a post or article for publication here on Living Downtown Des Moines.com? If you have a passion for living in downtown Des Moines or just experiencing the many things to do when visiting downtown, we’d love to hear from you. Sharing your own experiences with others can be very rewarding. William Shakespeare said it best, “What is the city but the people.”
So, the rules to be a guest blogger are really simple, a few article guidelines are listed below as well as the five-step process to getting your post published.
Article Guidelines
Submission Process
We look forward to hearing from you and to sharing your experiences about Downtown Des Moines with our readers.
Not sure if you are aware or not, but Trulia provides a quick listing of downtown condos that have recently lowered their asking price. If you are in the market, it’s a great place to start. Some of these have been reduced as much as $40,000! Wow! It looks like nows a pretty good time to get in on downtown living. Just visit:
http://www.trulia.com/for_sale/50309_zip/365_pr/reduceddt;d_sort/.
Here are a few that caught my eye:
Also don’t forget you can check out our Downtown Housing page for the most recent updates.
