“You’ve GOT to be kidding me,” I mutter in disbelief as I watch a wandering adolescent drop an empty Doritos bag on top of a newly planted tulip. “Seriously?” I yell at his back. He turns around, confused. I look […]
Stories by Loren Ditzler
Down by the River
“I hear it all the time,” said local realtor Clay Claussen. “People want to live close to downtown, but not in the heart of the party district.” Unfortunately, he says that demand is not being met. […]
Don't I Know You From Some Place?
Remember in college when you’d go to a house party in your friend’s dank basement, prop yourself up for that keg stand, take a good look around at the upside-down graffiti-covered walls and think, “Gee, this would make a great nursery?”
Yeah, me neither. But for those few among you who have had visions of domestic bliss for the unlikeliest of houses, you’re in luck.
Iowa City officials, with support from the University of Iowa and a few local banks, have started fixing up run-down rental houses to sell as single-family homes near the UI campus. Called UniverCity, this initiative provides $50,000 of renovations for low to middle-income buyers. […]
Riverfront Rising
It’s already getting dark on Sunday when you hop off the train, just back from a weekend in Chicago. As the sun sets over the river, you take a stroll through the riverfront prairie before hitting up a few concerts: maybe a traveling symphony, followed by an electric mass of sound at the underground White Lightning Wherehouse. Ears still ringing, you wander back to your yuppie high-rise, grabbing a late night gyro on the ground floor before heading up to your condo in the solar powered elevator.
This could be a typical night in Iowa City’s “Riverfront Crossings” neighborhood, an 8-by-12 block area south of Burlington, east of the river and west of Gilbert Street.
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