Worst city in Iowa?

[Al_4_State]

My opinion but this isn’t unique to Iowa, small towns everywhere are hurting. I actually think because of the agriculture in Iowa, small towns are doing better here than many parts of the country.

They are. The small towns in the western corn belt (IA, MN, Dakotas, NE, IL) are better than the rest of the country by a noticeable margin.

And by "better" I mean that they tend to be doing better economically. The towns are maintained, and people have a comfortable existence/relatively high quality of life.

Outside of tourist areas, most of rural America is struggling a lot more, and the strong ag economy here is a big buffer against that struggle.

 

[FDISU]

When I was in high school, you'd be surprised how many people came from the smaller towns into Fort Dodge for fun.

Absolutely -- a typical date night in Fort Dodge for us small-towners was Godfather's pizza, a movie, shag the drag for a while and then make out on a gravel road somewhere on the way home. It all went to hell in the 80's when the packing plants left and downtown died. Moved back to Dodge a few years ago and I can't escape the feeling that I'm trapped inside a big Walmart.