Bird's Eye View

There are times for seriousness when it comes to blog post.   Some of them will make us think, some could provide valuable information to protect us from those who would do harm and some will create an emotional response that prompts us into action.

There there are posts like this one.  I saw this several weeks ago while at the office.  It was like many things these days that came across the Twitter feed. Now there is no doubt a lot of nonsense that makes it way onto Twitter but there are times when something comes up that is just plain fun

So I thought I would share.

I've been in Des Moines for almost 14 years.  When I came to the city the western part of the downtown area looked a lot like the pictures you would see of decaying cities in the 70's.  Run down buildings, crumbling parking lots, street lights that worked for the most part, and the occasional adult book store.  The east side wasn't much better.

But there has been a renaissance during the past decade.   Anyone who pays attention will know that the city and the surrounding area has been named numerous times as one of the top places in the country, to live, work and raise a family.   The downtown looks nothing like it did shortly after the 21st century began and the improvements are continuing.  Just this week elected officials took steps to begin the process of building a $100 million dollar convention hotel adjacent to the Iowa Events Center.  There are several projects under construction or planned for the near south side, and outside Des Moines, the building has been non stop in places like Ankeny, and West Des Moines.

By the way, this is going somewhere. It's actually going a couple to a few hundred feet above the city.  Cullen Powers gets credit for it.  He's the one who flew the drone over the city numerous times to give us quite a view of how far Des Moines has come in a little over a decade.

Enjoy.  Des Moines from Above