Speaker Info
Mike Tramontina
Inner City Neighborhoods and Rural Towns
Mike Tramontina was appointed President of ISED Ventures in June of 2011. He oversees a community based, not-for-profit corporation whose mission is to create opportunities for low and moderate income Iowans to increase income and achieve financial stability.
Notes
- What are the similarities between our rural and urban communities?
- Rural counties have been losing population since 1890. Yes, 1890.
- These areas are small and getting smaller.
- Average price of a house in an Iowa rural community? $43,000.
- City of Des Moines has lost population since 1960. Council Bluffs and Davenport are growing at the state average. Big winner? Cedar Rapids.
- Iowa suburban cities are growing rapidly.
- The collars around central cities both in cities and in the county continue to develop at a rapid pace.
- Suburbs are “new.” New schools, new labs, new equipment. Everything is new.
- The suburbs have tremendous advantages. They have the green fields, not the brown fields. In other words, developers can do exactly what they want with the space.
- There’s no surprise under the ground.
- Everything is brand new in the community. Everything looks clean and modern. The big name franchises are advertising. Everything is great.
- We want to go where the prices are the lowest and we can get a good deal. This usually happens in the suburbs.
- We need more policies that value preservation, that don’t just favor new.
- Preservation, buildings and communities that can be preserved, do work. We’ve seen it work.
- We need to be way more welcoming to immigrants and have them participate in the preservation of our rural communities.
- It can happen, we just need to be mindful of what we have.
