Archive for June, 2008

Mixed Use Development

June 28, 2008 · Filed under Ames Summer 101, Living in Ames, Sustainability and Society

Ok, I know, I’m getting a little technical here, but for anyone who lives or is going to live anywhere, this is important! Where you live will eventually affect your lifestyle. One of the reasons I love Ames is because it is a small college town of around 50,000, including students, and its “livable”, so very very livable. You could actually walk to Target, there are sidewalks and bike paths all over the place, and the city mothers and fathers are even trying their hand at mixed used development.

“IF THERE IS ONE THING that architects, planners and developers agree on at the beginning of the 21st Century, it’s that the ideal form of commercial development mixes housing, office and retail in a lively community setting.”

If you want to know why, go here and read some more from the source of this quote. But I do wonder how it all works out in actuality. Here are some pics from West Towne. Do you know anyone who lives there? Do they like it?

In West Towne, the businesses are on the ground floors and the apartments are up above. On the other side of the road are single family homes and up the road a little are the gas station and a few restaurants, and it’s all within walking distance. Of course, if you live in a small town or over on Clark Ave, you already have a lot within walking distance, although you probably don’t have apartments.

More theory says that you can grow in a mixed used development. You and your friends might start out there in an apartment, work at the local salon, then start your own business in the neighborhood and move to a house with the two kids and a dog, and still be in “your” neighborhood, and you’ll care about that neighborhood, because you’ve put down roots there. Your quality of life will be better because you don’t have to spend so much time driving everywhere, you’ll see the same people more often, make more friends, feel more connected. You won’t have to lose two hours a day away from your family driving on hot, congested highways. You could walk, or ride your bike to work, maybe even get by with one car! Anyway, you get the idea! But the businesses have been slow to come to West Towne. It might be starting to pick up…it will be interesting to see. So…stay tuned!

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La La Land

June 27, 2008 · Filed under Just Joey Bits

The doctor asked me the other day if I had been doing things I enjoy. Well duh, of course I am doing things I enjoy, it’s the work that isn’t getting done! I do so enjoying sewing. Above is a wall hanging I’ve been working on…well….”playing with” would be a better characterization. It has been fun, no planning, just cut cut cut and sew something here and there. It started out as something inspired by Van Gogh that was supposed to feel like Iowa but more and more I’ve come to think of it as La La Land and the progression of spring colors that we have: crab apple, lilac, forsythia, etc It’s still not done, not sure it will ever be done, but eventually I’ll put it away until next spring and replace it with something summery and suggestive of beach!

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Is there hope for suburbia?

June 27, 2008 · Filed under Ames Summer 101, Living in Ames

I love so many of the residential areas around Ames for their old unique houses with mature trees and creative gardens and landscaping. And then……there is THIS (photo above). Lets just be kind and call it “generic”. But the other day, Judy and I were walking in this area of West Towne and came upon a little more grown up version of suburbia. Yes, it felt different, cooler, greener, more loved. Ok, so maybe suburbia just needs a little time and love. And in defense of West Towne, there are places to go due to mixed use zoning, coffee shops like Cafe Milo, tanning and hair salons, businesses to work in, and bike paths that will take you to the other parts of town. Here are a few pics of the hope I saw for suburbia while I was walking.

People live there a while, decide to paint the door red or add their own favorite flowers. They make sun tea on the sidewalk and the houses stop looking so painfully the same.

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Ames Prairies, less work, more resilience

June 25, 2008 · Filed under Ames Summer 101, Green grass, flowers and such

Living in Iowa, one eventually gets prairie on the mind and right here in Ames, one can find tastes of prairie. You might ask, “Why are they growing those weeds here in town?”, but when you do some reading about them, you learn that prairies are complex communities of plants and animals that are strong and resilient because of their diversity. Across from the the Memorial Union today I walked along the suggestion of prairie in the landscaping of St. Thomas Aquinas church. I love their rose covered arbors too. While others around campus are frantically trying to keep up with the grass mowing, those with areas of prairie are spending time contemplating the butterflies and bees. And when summer turns up the heat and the monoculture grass dies down to an ugly brown, something in the prairie diversity will thrive and keep it green and alive.

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Ames Summer – Cafe Milo

June 24, 2008 · Filed under Ames Summer 101, Just Joey Bits, Living in Ames

My new favorite coffee shop is over in West Towne, in the development northwest of Lincoln Way and North Dakota. Can’t say as I am overly impressed with the masses of generic apartment buildings there, but I like the mix of residential and business. Cafe Milo was run by the owner of Taraccino’s and has the same great dark roast Mud coffee as well as other great dark roasts, but is now owned by Havercamp, I believe, and managed by Eric. They have fantastic chairs, believe me, even I can curl up one of these babies, pots of tea that come on a tray, and the heavenly chocolate lava cake. If you don’t know what I am talking about, you MUST go there and try it, at least once. Here is mine from the weekend.

Cafe Milo is where I’ve been making lists and dreaming in my planner lately. I have a list of 60 things to do this summer, neatly divided into 6 lists of 10. The first list – Places to go:

1.  an outdoor pool

2.  a beach

3.  bandshell park

4.  the fair

5. a farm

6.  a prairie

7.  a lake

8.  a river

9.  bird watching

10.  an art show

All of these, including the beach, can be found pretty close to Ames!

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Sunday night supper at Es Tas

June 23, 2008 · Filed under Ames Summer 101, Living in Ames

Post #2 of Ames Summer 101. Finally getting out today….hmmm….. where to get some supper? Campus Town? Something not too heavy? Why yes, Es Tas would be perfect. At its new location, 216 Stanton, Es Tas authentic Mexican now has more room and the same great tacos. Check out the menu and you’ll see fish and shrimp, as well as the usual meat choices for your tacos, but what I love the most are the fresh deep fried flour taco shells. Romain lettuce and fantastic guacamole don’t hurt either. Even though it doubles as a bar, early Sunday evening was quiet except for the music and I was almost tempted to try out the foosball. Sure, college towns can be…well….full of college students, but if you time it right, us family types can enjoy some quieter times too.

ps the burgers are good too!

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summer is HERE!

June 21, 2008 · Filed under Ames Summer 101

Yea, it’s summer! Are we excited or what?!! I am trying to get excited. I’ve been thinking about summers past, the way summers were, the way I wished they were. I am an adult now though, doesn’t that mean I can design my own summer, just the way I want it? Of course, things don’t always go as planned, and that’s a good thing too, to find surprises, to discover things about yourself, your place, your people. Anyway, I am going to really try to post every day this summer….I’m calling it Ames Summer 101. I think it is important to be connected to your place, and my place right now is Ames, Iowa. I scold myself because sometimes I get bored with Ames, but really, it is like the perfect place to live and I want to celebrate that and share it this summer.

That said, my first Ames Summer 101 post is going to point out the fact that I am going to be traveling away from Ames later this summer, to Poland hopefully! But my first step to Poland took place in Ames, here:

Downtown Ames has an old post office that just exudes character, and being a relatively small town, the lines aren’t too long and one often sees an acquaintance or makes a new one while admiring the architecture or murals on the wall. The passport man behind the counter was extremely friendly and helpful and I found my passport in my apartment mailbox just 9 days after completing the application process here! I also love how patient they are here with me when I want to pick out some “pretty stamps” to put on my letters for you all!

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The Guatemalan Dolls Visit

June 12, 2008 · Filed under Networking and the Big World, Pooh Corner and the Neighborhood

My Littles had some visitors this week!

The girl bunnies, Rosie, Lily and Lilac are doing the entertaining. We love to read about other countries and meet new people! I bought these amazing dolls in downtown Ames at Worldly Goods. I was looking for some pottery for my living room, but was drawn to these and a new Bible case when I realized they were hand made by someone in Guatemala. My friend Jennifer is there right now and having these made me feel closer to her and the other friends there. The dolls are enchanting pieces of amazing work, and only a dollar each.

And here is Jen. We are looking forward to having her back in Iowa in July, but I know she has had a wonderful experience in Central America this year!

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My Littles

June 12, 2008 · Filed under Pooh Corner and the Neighborhood

I don’t have little children to post cute pictures of, like many of the rest of you, but I do have Littles. My bunnies all have green related names, and personalities of their own (actually, a reflection of some aspect of my own personality, because they are my toys, right?!) Today, I’ll officially introduce Buttercup. Buttercup is a male, pale yellow bunny with a red bowtie who sometimes wears glasses when he is feeling a little over the top, intellectually. He’s a social sciences geek, LOVES politics, history, sociology, sitting around reading, and he’d smoke a pipe if I let him, just to complete the picture. He’d love it if we got a nice leather chair to sit in when we read too. For the last couple of years we’ve been plowing through J. M. Roberts’ The New Penguin History of the World (1184 pages!). I was reading it during my bubble baths, until I dropped it partially in the water (that eventually happens to all my bubble bath books) and now the bottom half is much fatter than the top half, which really makes it more difficult to read/hold, but oh well. So here are a few pictures of Buttercup from our reading session this week. He’s into diet Dr. Pepper this summer for some reason, and I caught him twirling the book thong the other day! Not quite in line with his intellectual personality, but summer will do that to ya!

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Hanging out with Mom

June 9, 2008 · Filed under Family

The last Memorial Day Post:

When I was a girl, we took flowers to the cemetery on Memorial Day. I didn’t make it the cemeteries this year, but before going to the cottage, we slipped into Peoria for a little personal mom memorial. After mom had her strokes and moved in with my sister, going to Schlotzky’s and nearby Borders book store was one of my ways to hang out with mom. She liked the Schlotzky’s soup, I’d get some pizza and then maybe my sister would drop us off at Borders for a while. She liked to sit in a chair like this and I’d bring her magazines to look at, but she was also good at just people watching. Mom was wonderful to hang out with!

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