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Thursday, August 4, 2005 Edition
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| Cover
Story: Taking out the trash |
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Does Des Moines need a
dose of Big Brother to deal with
derelict housing?
By Carolyn Szczepanski
 Four
decomposing cats lay in the middle
of a kitchen floor covered in
rodent feces and shattered glass.
Nothing left but skin and bones.
Wearing white haz-mat suits
taped into their rubber boots
and breathing gear to ease the
stench of animal waste that extends
all the way to the sidewalk, the
work crew arrives at 7:30 a.m.
to a four-bedroom home that has
turned into a wasteland of abandoned
possessions drenched in animal
urine. As the hours go by, a pool
of trash floods the driveway at
1423 22nd St. - popcorn canisters,
fuzzy slippers and plastic bags
of crumpled clothes stream out
the decaying door and piles up
so high it nearly obscures the
boarded windows. >>
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| Jon Gaskell:
Fitting in |
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Create a gateway dreams are
made of
If we're going to spend $30 million
in taxpayer money on a park in the middle
of downtown's Western Gateway, then
there need to be some serious restrictions
put in place regarding who can do what
with the real estate surrounding it.
Des Moines city leaders are some of
the best in the nation when it comes
to pussy footing around tough issues
(like kicking some long-time businesses
to the curb) and wasting years of precious
time essentially waiting for a project
to materialize on its own (the Western
Gateway, a 10-year effort so far), but
this calls for some Hiroshima-type clean-slate
thinking: quick and dirty, then move
forward. The rest of downtown - much
of which went from planning to construction
to completion during the time the Western
Gateway has been in discussion mode
- is waiting.
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| Civic
Skinny: Strange bedfellows |
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Mauro and Kiernan forming alliance?
Des Moines business leaders are searching
high and low for candidates to run against
Michael Kiernan and Christine Hensley,
but so far no one with any oomph has
materialized. And as far as Kiernan
goes, the more he cozies up to John
Mauro and company, the more realistic
a chance he has of running unopposed.
That's right, according to a top South
Side Democrat and another city source,
Kiernan was approached by Mauro about
"taking him under his wing,"
and the city's youngest civic leader
has been extremely amenable. "Mike's
been told that he isn't going to get
anywhere in politics until he gets out
of Jack Hatch's shadow," our city
source said. "Jack has too many
enemies and no pull outside of Sherman
Hill, while Mike has actual aspirations."
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| Food
Dude : Sherman Hill Renaissance |
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By Jim Duncan
CVFDude@aol.com
 When
neighborhoods reinvent themselves, cafès
and grocery stores do the styling. That's
the story in Sherman Hill.
A month after re-opening as a neighborhood
grocery store, Metro Market is still
filling out its inventory. In its previous
life as a weekend farmers' market, the
market had loyal customers for raised-in-Iowa
foods that could be found nowhere else.
It was hoped that all those former vendors
would be wholesaling their products
to the new Metro Market. And many have,
including Pickett Fences Creamery (dairy,
but not meats); Iowa Farm Families'
pork; Log Chain honey; Heartland elk;
Peckview Farms (chevre but not their
meat) and Ron Bartelt's free-range chickens
and ducks. >>
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| Scene
Scribe : Johnston to host bluegrass festival |
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By Michael Swanger
michael@dmcityview.com
 The
high-lonesome sounds of bluegrass music
will sweep across the prairie in Johnston
this Saturday where the first annual
Johnston Bluegrass Festival will take
place.
National headliner Special Consensus,
along with seven local and regional
bluegrass acts - Mr. Baber's Neighbors,
Grassy Knoll, The Waring Family, Blue
Grit, the Barn Owl Band, Bluegrass Pals
and Bob Black and Banjoy - will perform
from noon to 7 p.m. at Johnston Commons
on Merle Hay Road, just north of Interstate
80. The festival also includes a workshop
conducted by Special Consensus and Black
at 10:30 a.m. in the Simpson Barn, a
jam, children's activities and instrument
and food vendors. Proceeds from the
event benefit the Johnston Public Library.
>>more
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| City
Sounds : Kaleidoscopic rock |
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By Michael Swanger
michael@dmcityview.com
 'Singularity'
reflects WOTMC's colorful sound
canvass
You might wonder what a 20th-century
master painter might have in common
with a 21st century Des Moines
rock band, but Wreckage of the
Modern City drummer Dustin Oliverson
is on target when he says the
themes of his band's new full-length
album "Singularity"
remind him of Pablo Picasso's
Blue Period. >>more
 The
Rev's revival
It's hard to imagine that Jim
Heath (aka The Reverend Horton
Heat), one of the grittiest, baddest
rockers to ever grease back his
hair and sing blistering songs
about cars, drinking, women and
kicking ass is in need of a spiritual
renewal. But that's the state
of mind Heath is in these days
after having recently lost his
mother, lost a friend to a heroin
overdose and had a new baby. >>more
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