A Kid’s Paradise – The Coralville Aquatic Center

It’s July. It’s Hot. The kids are cranky. Time to head for the pool! The Coralville Community Aquatic Center is nice and close for Iowa City area residents. Plus there’s plenty of free parking. Do you need anymore convincing? It’s all very impressive with a 25-meter, L-shaped pool that has zero depth entry, diving boards, three slides, and a splash deck full of fountains and play structures. This is a kids paradise!

If you’re like me and prefer to sit back while the kids have fun, there’s an on-deck shaded seating area where you can hide from the sun. And for sustenance there’s the full-service concession stand – The Patio.

Seasonal Hours for 2010

June 5 – August 18

• Monday – Friday, 11:00 am – 8:00 pm
• Saturday – Sunday, 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm

August 21 – September 5

• Saturday – Sunday, 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm

September 6

• Labor Day, 11:00 am – 8:00 pm

Daily admission is $4.00 per person and children under the age of 24 months are free. You can also plan ahead and get punch passes or season pool passes at the Coralville Recreation Center during normal business hours.

Got a birthday coming up? Plan to celebrate on the Party Deck at the Coralville Community Aquatic Center. You can find out more about party rentals at the City of Coralville website.

Things to Do in Iowa City: Music & Night Life

Iowa City is a lively little town. Forget the rural image – If you’re relocating here you’ll be surprised at just how much Iowa City has got going for it. (Most folks are!) That’s reason enough for me to make it my quest to show you just how diverse this area of the Midwest is… At the moment I’m concentrating on things to do in Iowa City. In my last post I included movie theaters and community theaters. In this one I’m concentrating more on live music and entertainment venues.

Live Music & Entertainment Venues in Iowa City

Iowa City Summer of the Arts An obvious choice for first spot on this list considering how big these events have become in Iowa City.  In 2005 several organizations with a tradition of providing free family friendly fun events got together under the umbrella organization Iowa City Summer of the Arts. They include the Iowa Arts Festival, the Friday Night Concert Series, the Toyota-Scion Jazz Festival and the MidWest One Movie Series. The great thing about this series of course is that it’s FREE. It runs all summer long and although you won’t find any info yet on this year’s events it’s worth checking out the website and bookmarking it – Summer will be here sooner than you think!

The Mill was voted best live entertainment venue in the area by readers of the Press Citizen. There’s fun stuff going on at the Mill almost every day of the year. And good food too!

The Yacht Club Scott Kading wants his club to do well, but isn’t hung up on numbers. He’s much more interested in his customers having a good time. That’s what it says on his website and it seems like a sound business model to me!

The Picador A rock club on Washington Street in Iowa City with some interesting bands on their schedule. They’re on Facebook too and have quite a following. Business in the front, party in the back and there’s always something going on downstairs…

The Sanctuary is on Gilbert St in Iowa City and along with regular shows they have a huge assortment of beers.

Iowa City Piano Lounge Martinis and fine music, that’s the winning combination at the Piano Lounge in Iowa City.

Wildwood Smokehouse & Saloon As the name suggests, this venue is for those of you interested in country. (Many of the other venues here have more of a pub influence). Wildwood has a variety of different events and does a great job on their Facebook page of keeping customers up to date on events and specials.

Riverside Casino Now if you really want to live it up, then the Riverside Casino has a variety of options for you. It’s so much more than a casino. Check out the website and you’ll see what I mean.

If you have any ideas for me of venues I haven’t included yet feel free to post them in the comments. It will be worth checking back too, because I will be adding to the list over time.

Map of Schools in the Iowa City School District

When you a buy a home one of the biggest factors in the decision making process is the location of schools. Now if you live in the Iowa City area you’ll know we have huge changes in the pipeline with the redistricting of the boundary lines for schools in the Iowa City school district. This became necessary with the population explosion to the north of Iowa City in Coralville and North Liberty. (North Liberty is one of the fastest growing towns in Iowa, as you’ll know if you follow my market reports). Anyway, the natural consequence of this population explosion has been that West High School is running over-capacity and the school district needed to find a long term solution for that. The committee set up to work through this process is expected to decide on the new boundary lines by mid April. (All going well).

Right about now you’re probably wondering where I’m going with this… Bear with me, I’m getting there… I want to share a map with you where mapped the public schools in the Iowa City School District. This is something I’ve wanted to do for a while to help folks relocating to the area – It just took me some time to figure out the best way to do it. Now to the important bit: If you are relocating to the area you need to be aware that these redistricting changes are in the pipeline and not assume to know the school your child will attend. Also, Roosevelt Elementary is closing after the 2010-2011 school year and a new school will be built a few blocks away on Camp Cardinal Blvd.

The ICCSD has the most up to date information on how the boundary line redistricting debate is progressing. Definitely worth checking out!

Things to Do in Iowa City: Movie Theaters & Community Theatres

The perception is that Iowa City is a rural area and maybe has less to offer than other college towns. As someone who relocated to the Iowa City area 10 years ago I have plenty to compare this to and I can tell you it ain’t so! In fact, just to prove my point I thought I’d start a series. My plan is to break down all the good things I can think of in this surprising little town into categories. Today I’m going to start with theaters…

Hopefully this will turn out to be a good resource for you if you’re thinking of relocating to the Iowa City area. As great as the Internet is as a research tool, the information is pretty scattered. My plan is to pull some of it together into one handy little place. It will be a work in progress and I will add links as I come up them, so check back often…

Movie Theaters in the Iowa City Area

Coral Ridge Mall Movie Theatre is, as the name suggests, located at the Mall in Coralville. It’s a pretty big theater with 10 screens and stadium seating. Tel: 319-625-1010

Sycamore Cinema is located on the east side of Iowa City at Sycamore Mall. It has 12 state-of-the-art auditoriums and in addition to movies often shows unique events that include simulcast live concerts, sporting events and the New York Metropolitan Opera, (MET). Tel: 319-351-8383

Bijou Theater is a non-profit student run theater at the Iowa Memorial Union that focuses on independent, art house, foreign and classic movies. They have 1 screen and tickets are available at the box office only on the day of showing. Tel: 319-335-3041.

New Strand Theatre is in West Liberty – a rural area and a surprising one at that. It’s a 15 minute commute east of Iowa City. New Strand is not just a movie theater, it’s also home to wonderful puppet shows from the Eulenspiegel Puppet Theater. (I love puppet shows, they bring back lovely memories with my sons in Germany). 319-627-2014

Theaters & Auditoriums in the Iowa City Area

The Englert Theatre is a Community Arts Theatre in downtown Iowa City. It was built in 1912 by William Englert and his wife Emma who wanted to rival the finest stages and movie houses in the Midwest. The local newspaper at the time wrote that “Iowa had nothing finer.” It is still an impressive building. Well-preserved and adds to the atmosphere of the historic part of downtown Iowa City. In the spirit of Vaudeville, The Englert embraces all the Arts and hosts performances from all over the world. Case in point, The Peking Acrobats will be performing there in February.
319-688-2653

Riverside Theatre is located on Gilbert St and is Iowa City’s resident professional theatre. It was founded in 1981 and strives to offer an artistic home for theatre professionals while entertaining audiences with intimate, engaging productions from the classics to world premieres. 319-338-7672

Hancher Auditorium was damaged in the floods of 2008, so does not have a physical address at present. That doesn’t stop them organizing events though and these take place at a variety of locations, depending on the needs of the performers and ranges from West High School Auditorium to The Englert and The Mill in Iowa City. (Check out the website and you’ll see they have 11 different locations). Tel: 319-335-1160

Iowa City Community Theatre was established in 1956 and dedicated to promoting the dramatic arts in and around Iowa City. They perform at a variety of locations, including Johnson County Fairgrounds and The Englert.

Iowa City Real Estate: Johnson County Economic Data

Iowa City Real Estate: Johnson County Economic Data

If you’re thinking of relocating to the Iowa City area one of the top things on your mind is sure to be how the economy is doing. I can tell you we’re a relocation town. We have the University or Iowa, the UI Hospitals and multiple large companies in our area and are well equipped to deal with challenging times. That’s all true, but not what I’m here to talk about today. Today I want to introduce you to an interactive tool to prove my point. Check out this very cool AP Interactive Map. It provides us with a look at the economic stress index all across the US county by county. Johnson County is doing better than the rest of the state and shapes up pretty well nationally too. Check it out for yourself. It really is a pretty cool map and gives you the opportunity to look at states and counties with real problems, along with those that are doing really well. The central states seem to be doing best in the country.

Just to give you a baseline: A stress index of 11 is bad. The map is not real time of course. Currently it’s based on data from November 2009. Johnson County had a stress index of 4.89 in November, much better than the state average of 7.52. Market indicators used to gauge the stress index are unemployment: 4.2% in Johnson County. Forclosures @ 0.18% and Bankruptcies @ 0.54%.

Find Crime Statistics in Iowa City: Iowa City Police Department’s Neighborhood Watch Map

Buying A Home in Iowa City and want info on Crime Statistics? Check Out The Iowa City Police Department’s Neighborhood Watch Map

Recently I read a really good blog post written by Drew Meyers. He listed the top 15 things consumers are looking for when they search for somewhere to live. No surprise that right at the top of that list consumers are looking for information about crime statistics in an area. This is where I have something very cool to share with you. The Iowa City Police Department has come out with an interactive map that I think will be helpful to you if you’re in the process of relocating to Iowa City and looking for information on crime statistics in the area. I’m pretty sure if you live here in Iowa City already you’ll find it interesting too, especially if you’re thinking of moving anytime soon.

The map can be found on the Iowa City website and merges the Iowa City Police Department’s Daily Activity Log and the Community Policing Map into a really helpful online tool that gives information on how many calls were made and the neighborhoods they were made from. Keep in mind, these calls are not always crime related, so you will need to click on the map to read the activity log carefully to properly assess a neighborhood.

I’ve relocated many times, so know exactly how important getting this kind of information is. Finding the right home is so much more than deciding the style of home and number of bedrooms. It’s more about feeling comfortable in the environment you decide to live in. It’s about being close to the amenities you need. In Iowa City where so many people relocate here for the University of Iowa and UI Hospitals, it’s also about buying a home where you can be sure of the resale value when it’s time to relocate again.

First Impressions of Coralville – North Ridge Park

This slide show didn’t make the cut for my new homepage, but I was so attached to it that I figured I’d give it some airplay here in my blog. Apart from anything else it gives me the opportunity to introduce you to Coralville. Coralville is sandwiched between Iowa City and North Liberty and for me as a real estate agent that is absolutely perfect. In five minutes I’m in Iowa City and in ten minutes I can be in North Liberty.

Technically Coralville forms a contiguous area with Iowa City. To illustrate my point – The Vine Restaurant in Coralville is right next door to the Wig and Pen in Iowa City! As a side note: The way building has progressed since I arrived here 10 years ago, I’d say that Coralville is well on it’s way to forming a contiguous area with North Liberty in the foreseeable future.

This slide show is of North Ridge Park in Coralville. North Ridge Park is thoughtfully planned with a focus on sustainable choices. The North Ridge Pavilion was completed in 2003 and in that same year won the Governor’s Environmental Excellence Award for its sustainable design.