Ask CITYVIEW
4/2/2025Ask CITYVIEW anything by emailing editor@dmcityview.com.
How many employees does the Des Moines Performing Arts organization have?
According to numbers provided by the DMPA, the answer is 45 full-time and 361 part-time employees.
What happened to Hoops and Hops this year? And how many people normally attend?
Hoops and Hops was an event put on by Des Moines Performing Arts at Cowles Commons. A few thousand fans descended upon the area to watch the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball championship tournaments in all of its March Madness glory. Food trucks, jumbotrons, basketball courts and a beer tent provided extra entertainment. However, the event did not take place this year.
We posed these questions to Des Moines Performing Arts and received this response from Brooke Bridenstine, programming manager, event booking:
“Estimated attendance over the three days last year was 4,500. Several factors led us to pause for now. We may revisit it in the future.”
When did the Des Moines Business Record move offices? And where did they go?
The Business Record, a weekly paid subscription newspaper, was published out of the historic Depot at Fourth building in downtown Des Moines since 1987. In 2023, Publisher Connie Wimer announced the newspaper would be moving out of the location to 300 Walnut St., Suite 5.
According to the Polk County Assessors website, the Depot at Fourth building is valued at $1.1 million. A Zillow listing of the building says it has more than 61,000 square feet. Peter Brown’s commercial real estate website has the building listed for sale at $3.5 million.
What is the Des Moines metro population? And how soon will it surpass 1 million residents?
The current numbers show the Des Moines metro population at 753,913, a 6.3% increase from 2020. The Des Moines Metropolitan Planning Organization projected in 2016 that the metro would add 750,000 residents by the year 2050, a 56% increase. This would certainly take the metro over the 1 million mark. Simple math says, if the metro population continues to grow by 6.3% every four years, the population would surpass one million in roughly 20 years. ♦
