Iowa Highway Ends (etc.)

The Iowa Highways Page is 20 years old today. I stumbled on it about two years after Jason Hancock set it up. Since then, he and I have done lots of coordination and research to make our sites complementary and provide the best information we can to those interested in Iowa highways.

(not mine)

September 28, 2015: Clayton, Iowa, along the Mississippi River, has no children living in city limits, according to census numbers — adding the atmosphere of a micro-version of “Children of Men” to this photo of a playground there. Buck Grove, near Denison, has the same problem — a playground with no children to enjoy it.

Utah is virtually guaranteed to pass Iowa in population in the 2020 census, based on a recent estimate that the former gained nearly four times the population of the latter in fiscal 2016. I noticed this possibility when the numbers were released last year, and there’s no sign of either trend changing. In fact, the switch could happen in the fiscal 2017 estimates released at the end of 2018.

To inadvertently hammer the point home, there’s something from each state’s largest newspaper from December that encapsulate what’s going on:

Utah has the nation’s third fastest growth rate. Why? Babies. Lots of babies. (Salt Lake Tribune)

Childless Iowa: More communities left with few, if any, kids (Des Moines Register)

In one of my last columns for the Iowa State Daily, in 2004, I wrote:

In the next 10 to 20 years, the personal support infrastructure that built small-town Iowa is going to collapse. One day, someone is going to die, no one who coordinated funeral potlucks for the past 25 years will be able to help, and there won’t be any younger people to take their place.

On the one hand, I might have been aggressive on that estimate. On the other hand, the Marathon to Marathon — an example of the type of thing that relies on a solid group of volunteers — ended 13 years later.

December 31, 2007: Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) and his mother make a campaign stop at the Ames Public Library (Story County). Catherine Biden died three years later.

New Year’s Eve 2007 — four days before the caucuses — was just as full of events as the previous days, and two Democrats had events in counties next door to each other in central Iowa.

In Ames, Joe Biden name-dropped world leaders he had talked to as a senator, but said he knew just talking to them didn’t make him important (a veiled dig at Clinton). In the Q&A, he said “I’m not going to take the time to explain the background” repeatedly… and then did.

My conclusion written hours later: “No handshake because of time, he had to get to mini-press conference nearby (reporter from Boston TV station among others). Big on foreign policy and leadership, lots of experience, ready to take action. Light on domestic aside from a good chunk on health care. He knows what he’s talking about, but is anyone listening?”

It would turn out no one was; Biden ended up as a rounding error in the caucus totals. Months later, all that foreign policy talk would turn out to be just the thing the Iowa Democratic caucuses’ winner needed…

December 31, 2007: Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) speaks at the Boone County Fairgrounds.

A train delayed Barack Obama’s whistle-stop appearance in Boone County by nearly half an hour. But just like Clinton, a warm welcome came once he was in the room. The following is lightly edited from my notes.

The biggest applause line was “George W. Bush isn’t on the ballot next November.” Applause/laughs followed “Neither is my cousin Dick Cheney.” He systematically hit on criticism against him, plus poked at Clinton (“There are some people digging through my kindergarten papers”).

Americans can change America if they hope for and want it enough, he said. (Maybe not exactly those words, but some parts sounded naive even while he tried to debunk that they were naive.) Plenty of optimism.

Light on foreign policy, a reverse from Biden, aside from applause-getting lines about ending the war in Iraq in part because it’s costing too much.

BOTH Biden and Obama talked about health care using an example of a diabetic going to an emergency room for a foot amputation, but heath plans won’t cover going to a dietitian before the need for the amputation happens. I have no idea where that example came from.

If Obama was 3 years into his second/third Senate term, or 3 years into his first Senate term after 4-8 years as governor, he’d have a good shot.

(“It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” — Yogi Berra, or possibly Niels Bohr)

December 30, 2007: Chelsea Clinton, Hillary Clinton, and Tom Vilsack at the Traer Memorial Building. It’s weird to attend a political event when people you know are in the audience.

After Christmas, Hillary Clinton was in a flat-out sprint toward Jan. 3. Events were announced maybe 48 hours in advance. Among the five(!) events set up for Dec. 30 was a stop at the Traer Memorial Building. This was her “Tama County Picks a President” stop and I had to be there. It’s not every day a candidate visits your home town — although in Iowa, of course, the chances are better than the rest of the country.

Chelsea Clinton had only begun hitting the campaign trail herself at the beginning of the month. She was there with former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, who gave a speech beforehand (and also stalled since Clinton was late). Clinton arrived to enthusiastic cheers — Tama County had voted Democratic the last five presidential elections — and gave a wide-ranging, but well-practiced, stump speech.

After you see enough of these, you understand why candidates have talking points — they have to be repeated often and one slip-up earns exactly the coverage you don’t want.

Because this was the final countdown, national media turned up in Traer in force, and OMG I look hideous. (So, the usual. — Ed.) This would be the last campaign cycle where the vast majority of pictures were taken with cameras instead of phones.

Clinton was the second presidential candidate to appear in Traer, about 20 years and a month after the first.

December 5, 1987: Vice President George H.W. Bush (right) at the Traer Memorial Building. Family archive photo.