I live in Mason City, IA (hereafter referred to as MC), and have for the better part of two years now. The town has about 35,000 people in it, and is the place people from the little towns go to for groceries, farm supplies etc. Commercially, MC draws people from a 45 mile radius around the town; people think nothing of having to drive an hour to shop at WalMart, Best Buy, Target, FleetFarm, even Hobby Lobby. Honestly, they don't really have a choice.

MC is almost equidistant between Des Moines and Minneapolis (2.5 hrs either way), and the interstate that connects the latter cities runs within 10 miles of MC city limits. It's primarily an industrial type town with factories from a variety of industries--cement, cabinetry, Jell-O, wooden & steel doors, meat processing (my employer). MC is home to the North Iowa Area Community College (NIACC), which allows people to get an associates degree without leaving town, while providing transferable credits to any of the major universities in Iowa (as well as most out of state universities too). NIACC has inter-collegic athletics, and routinely has its athletes recruited by the big 3 state schools. (Oh and Bekah, the big concern here is that tuition at the NIACC has gotten to almost $2500 a semester!)

Needless to say, there are a lot of marketable points to MC that should be able to bring more business in. However, here is what the city uses to market itself: 1)the movie version of the musical The Music Man was filmed here. The man who wrote the musical, Meredith Willson, was born and raised in MC. The movie was filmed 50 some-odd years ago, and to be honest, I had never seen it until we moved out here. 2) In 1934, JD Dillinger robbed a bank in MC. I don't know all the details surrounding this, but the historical information is all over the walls of the library. They are honestly contemplating a weekend festival to celebrate this event. Not sure how that would go down, but a witness to the robbery said recently in our newspaper, The Globe-Gazette, that he would support such a celebration. HUH? I guess I didn't realize it was crucial to have that person's blessing.

Here's the real reason why MC can't seem to lure business: our city council. The council is an all-male group, the youngest of whom appears to be in his late 40's. It recently took them 7 months to decide what color to paint a water tower (they determined a tan resembling the color of a Band-Aid with brick red lettering would be good), followed by a discussion of whether or not to include Mr. Toot (the city "mascot" harkening back to The Music Man theme) who would cost an additional $75K to paint on there. Thankfully they decided against Mr. Toot, much to the outrage of the older citizens of town.

Here recently a particular councilman proposed trying to lure a Toyota assembly plant to MC. Not a bad idea really. His approach is atrocious. There was no plan to contact any of the local economic development entities, and the state of Iowa would have been included in the effort only AFTER MC turned Toyota's focus this way. The business person in me has been screaming at the newspaper for weeks as I read about these council meetings.

The council's major flaw is an intense tendancy to look to the past without knowing how to connect the past to the future. I attribute that to the age of the council members. There really needs to be some young'ens on that council, but most of the young'ens leave town. If we would have lived in town for 5 yrs or so, I would seriously be considering running for city council. I just don't think 2 years of residency is enough to be considered a serious candidate. There is an at-large seat up for re-election this year, and both candidates are not so good. One is the aforementioned councilman, and the other was a councilman a while ago who used his position to keep his kid from arrests and/or convictions. UGH.

WOW, this post got long! Enough venting about my city, I feel much better.