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Iowa Department of Economic Development

opinion

Column: Rural areas make up Iowa’s soul

By Lyle Muller / IowaWatch | October 8, 2021

Relaxing with a cup of coffee at Madeline’s in Riverside, Iowa, you could hear Morgan Rodgers chatting with customers one recent August morning. She knew them all. “We just appreciate our customers and the continued support they’ve given us,” Rodgers, an 11-year resident of Riverside, said about the shop she and her husband, Andy, opened in May 2019. Lyle Muller/IowaWatchMorgan Rodgers realized her dream of being a baker she she and her husband, Andy, opened Madeline’s coffee shop in Riverside in May 2019. The shop is named after her late grandmother, whom she baked with as a child.

Small Town Solutions: Staying Vital in Rural Iowa

High hurdles exist for Iowa’s homegrown, small town businesses

By Lyle Muller/IowaWatch | September 30, 2021

While local incentives can bring businesses to small Iowa towns, they are no guarantee that the town can be vital or bring visitors, a summer-long IowaWatch investigation of towns with fewer than 5,000 people showed. The reasons vary.

rural issues

How a handful of Iowa towns thrive, rise above rural decline

By Lyle Muller and Pat Kinney/IowaWatch | August 17, 2021

A handful of small Iowa towns with populations of less than 5,000 and not part of a larger metro area, bucked the trend and grew their populations in the 2020 census data just released. Growing small towns have one or more factors working in their favor, a summer-long IowaWatch investigation revealed for this special report.

rural issues

Tips for vitalizing small town Iowa

By Lyle Muller/IowaWatch | August 17, 2021

We asked leaders in several rural Iowa towns for ways small Iowa towns could be vital. Jobs are a given, although those interviewed said having jobs, alone, does not guarantee vitality if other dynamics are not present in town.

small town business

Podcast: Trip To Small Iowa Town Gives Examples Of Needs For Growth

By the IowaWatch Simpson College Journalism Project | April 29, 2019

Listen as reporters in the 2019 IowaWatch Simpson College Journalism Project take you to small-town Iowa and the struggles those towns face. Part of a series.

small town business

How Small Town Business Owners In One Iowa Town Are Banding Together

By Dustin Teays and Taylor Bates | April 25, 2019

HUMESTON, Iowa — A small group of businesses in one southern Iowa town has found a way to stay open by banding together to attract spending customers to town, rather than compete against each other. “Why not Humeston?” Leigh Ann Coffey, owner of Sweet Southern Sass, said when asked why business owners choose to open a business in a small town. This report is the result of an IowaWatch Simpson College Journalism Project involving student journalists in Simpson’s spring 2019 journalism seminar. Reporters for the project were:

Randy Paulson
Zoe Seiler
Emily Carey
Austin Hronich
Taylor Bates
Dustin Teays

The journalists worked on this story starting in January 2019 with Lyle Muller of IowaWatch and Mark Siebert, Simpson assistant professor of multimedia communication. Sweet Southern Sass, Snyder’s, Grassroots Gallery & Cafe, Snips of Thread Quilt Shop and Grampa Jims formed a group “Shop Humeston.”

economic development

IowaWatch Connection Podcast: The Cost of Economic Development In Iowa

By Jeff Stein | September 11, 2017

This IowaWatch Connection podcast examines Iowa’s tax breaks for new businesses after a recent deal to bring a new Apple Inc. center to Waukee. Good deal or not?

brain drain

IowaWatch Connection Podcast: Keeping Young Talent In Iowa After College Graduation

By Jeff Stein | June 22, 2015

Iowa’s estimated 2014 population of 3.1 million marked a 2 percent increase from when the 2010 census was taken, a rate slower than the 3.3 percent national population growth in that same time. This IowaWatch Connection podcast takes you deeper into the story.

Business & Consumer Affairs

Best And Worst College Major Lists Challenge New Grads In Job Hunts

By Blake Jorgensen/Special to IowaWatch | May 20, 2015

Here’s a challenge: go ask a bunch of 5-year-old kids what they want to be when they grow up. Spoiler alert: most kids probably aren’t going to say biomedical engineer, computer scientist, or electrical engineer.

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Investigative Reporting in Iowa

Iowa City mobile home park replacement promises unkept

Promised help for residents at a deteriorating mobile home park tabbed for redevelopment hasn't happened, so something new is needed.

Source: The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, IA)

Register watchdog report leads to state investigation

Two state agencies and a non-profit legal aid organization for low-income residents are investigating property managers named in a Des Moines Register watchdog story for allegedly ignoring rental property defects.

Source: Des Moines Register

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