KIM AND CHAD’S PARK-A-PALOOZA
Earlier this year, Kim Stewart and Chad Ulrich dreamed up an enormous challenge: “Park-a-Palooza” — pedaling to all Des Moines Parks and Recreation facilities.
Remembering the City’s “Tour of Des Moines Parks” promotions from a few years ago, the two decided to go all in, visiting all 31 park facilities. It took 15 days, spread out over six weeks, and 308 bike miles. But they checked all the boxes by May 18 — 109 stops, including:
77 parks
12 named trails (70 hard-surfaced miles)
7 cemeteries
5 public pools/aquatic centers
4 sports complexes (Principal Park included).
3 public golf courses
3 dog parks
Have you been to Frank Talarico Park? Sims Cemetery? EMC Downtown Park? These two have — and probably many more locations you only vaguely recognize.
But why stop at just Des Moines Park and Rec facilities? For good measure, Kim and Chad visited all Polk County Conservation Board facilities located within the City, including the Lauridsen Skatepark, Easter Lake Park, Strasser Woods, and Fort Des Moines Park. Plus, Blank Park Zoo and the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden (City-owned properties; each operated by separate nonprofits).
At each stop, they paused for a photo at the facility identity sign, then spent time in each with an activity — often, picking up trash to leave the space a little nicer than when they got there. Kim recalled that a few pocket parks didn’t have trash receptacles, so they packed the trash out to the next park.
Other activities included picnicking, zipping down the big slides at Union and Fairmont parks, riding through the lilac arboretum at Ewing Park, and climbing the walls at Cohen Park and the Evelyn K. Davis Park playground. On a few occasions, they wrangled friends and family to join them on their adventures, but it was mostly the two of them.
Chad, a Des Moines native and 2012 Bike Commuter of the Year, organized their park tour by zip code, then plotted their routes, relying on Google Maps. April 26 was a memorable day: 17 parks visited. “That was way too many,” Kim told me. “We were exhausted.”
Kim, who has lived in Des Moines for 23 years, admits that at least 75 percent of the stops were new to her. McHenry Park, south of Euclid Avenue along Oak Park Avenue, was a jewel that sticks out as a new favorite destination. “It’s a little gem of a park in a sweet neighborhood,” Kim said. I had never climbed the hill to check it out before.”
Other highlight parks included:
Stewart Square – east of the Capitol, and no relation to Kim!
Woodlawn Park – east of Lower Beaver Road. “A beautifully kept neighborhood park on the North Side.”
EMC Downtown Park – south of Locust Street between 7th and 8th streets. “A nice recreational pocket park tucked into the downtown area.”
Ewing Park – west of Easter Lake. “We’ve been there before, but are still amazed at how big it is!”
Same goes for Pioneer Park – east of Southeast 14th Street and south of Hartford Avenue. “Huge! with lots of open green space!”
Kim told me they enjoyed learning about parts of the City they don’t usually get to. “Figuring out how to safely navigate our way around Des Moines on bicycles was a fun challenge,” she said. “We learned a lot, helped make the City we love a little better at each stop, and had a great time exploring!”
I asked if they thought residents were getting good value for the sliver of property taxes supporting our parks. Based on $172,500 average assessed value of a Des Moines home, $156 in property taxes annually flows to Des Moines Parks and Recreation.
“Absolutely! It’s a bargain to have all these wonderful resources scattered all around,” Chad told me. “And from what we saw, continuous improvements are being made!”
HOMELESSNESS UPDATES
The City’s Neighborhood Services Department and Amber Lewis, the City’s homeless policy administrator, recently shared a report from Primary Health Care (PHC), the City’s partner for Outreach Services, for the first six months of 2025. Here are a few nuggets gleaned from this report and from other information shared by City staff, including notes from the Outreach Team of four social workers. A few July numbers have yet to be reported.
0 — arrests since the City rolled out new homelessness ordinances early this year. The Des Moines Police Department (DMPD) is not aware of any arrests made or citations issued in direct reference to the camping/sleeping ordinance. DMPD reports they have gained compliance with the camping prohibition by advising individuals of the potential for arrest.
60-plus — individuals housed by supportive partners over the first six months of 2025. Those partners include Children and Families of Iowa, Supportive Services for Veteran Families, and Anawim Housing.
246 — individuals enrolled in PHC’s street outreach program. The June demographics include 15 children across 218 households, 10 clients age 65+, and 11 identified as transgender. Individuals receive regular contact and support, which in most cases is at least weekly.
50 — homes in a Tiny Village site the City, Wastewater Reclamation Authority, and Joppa are working toward at the former Chesterfield Community Center (most recently the City’s greenhouse) along Maury Street. Expect to see City Council action at the September and October Council meetings on this housing modeled after Community First! in Austin, Texas. Additionally, Hope Ministries is interested in developing a housing project, similar to Community First!, elsewhere in Polk County.
50 — additional units of a non-congregate shelter the City has committed to pursue as part of the new Five-Year Blueprint Strategic Plan to Address Homelessness.
Along the Sixth Avenue corridor, PHC reports most individuals are waiting for program openings. One woman, for example, is on the waiting list for The Monarch Apartments, a recently opened Anawim Housing project at 4845 Merle Hay Road.
The PHC Street Outreach team reports that most individuals camping along ML King Parkway are eligible for shelter, but some choose not to go inside. Center Iowa Shelter and Services (CISS), along Mulberry Street and near the illegal camping, has capacity for some individuals but not all. For example, there are separate dorms for men and women, and sometimes there are beds open on one side but not the other.
Late last month, Polk County’s Homeless Coordinating Council rebranded itself as the Housing Solutions Alliance. Members include representatives from the Polk County Board of Supervisors; city council members from Des Moines, West Des Moines, Urbandale, and Clive; six members representing the business community; and a handful of advocacy partners.
Through the Bloomberg-Harvard City Leadership Initiative, the City is working toward a pilot Safer Camping program to roll out later this fall.
BAGPIPES AND MORE: NATIONAL NIGHT OUT
Hot dogs, burgers, and … bagpipes?
Des Moines neighborhoods celebrated National Night Out (August 5) with some traditional and not-so-traditional ways. One of those was when five members of the Mackenzie Highlanders of Iowa, a pipe-and-drum unit, performed for the Beaverdale Neighborhood Association. That’s Dawn Baldwin on the pipes, and Wanita Kilcollins on the drum.
August 5 saw 21 National Night Out celebrations sprinkled about the City, each capturing a wee bit of neighborhood flavor — from train rides (Union Park), to the East High Marching Band (Fairmont Park), to the Drake University football team (Waterbury, Drake, and Waveland Park neighborhoods).
THE NEW COMMUNITY AMBASSADORS
In their bright blue polo shirts, DMPD Community Ambassador Program (CAP) representatives were easy to spot on August 5 among the National Night Out crowd in and around E.K. Davis Park. DMPD Chaplain Stephaney Moody (second from the right in the photo above) restarted the CAP program earlier this year with funds she received through an AmeriCorps VISTA grant.
Working with department leadership — and with welcome insights from Sgt. Bernell Edwards, a seasoned neighborhood officer — the new program barely resembles the one that faded away during COVID.
“I hope residents will be confident calling upon our Community Ambassadors to be a resource for police-related questions,” said Lt. Ted Stroope, who oversees this program, part of the Neighborhood-Based Service Delivery (NBSD) Department. He said the new representatives are “people in the community with above-baseline knowledge of police work. I believe neighbors will consider them a valued resource. And if someone has a police issue, I hope the Ambassador will say, ‘I’ll go with you to the Police Department to get answers.’ ”
Police selected 10 civilian resident applicants for the first class; eight graduated. The students attended three 3-hour sessions to learn about the DMPD’s Operations and Investigation departments and constitutional law (including use of force, and reasonable suspicion versus probable cause). Applicants were required to complete ride-alongs with all three patrol shifts and observe police academy modules, including de-escalation training.
Expect to see one or more community ambassadors at upcoming events. A recent example: Stroope invited representatives to attend one or more of the recent public school graduation ceremonies.
For more information about CAP and the next class, contact Chaplain Stephaney Moody.
SO LONG, ASH TREES
Public Works Director Jonathan Gano tells me Public Works employees have winnowed the City’s ash tree population to about 50 sick trees scheduled for removal in the next 12 months.
Before the emerald ash borer arrived 10 years ago, 8,000 stately ash trees lined City streets and parks.
“We have 529 ash trees that we’ll keep on life support for the duration,” Jonathan added. “Those remaining ash trees are neighborhood trees adopted by neighbors who pay treatment costs or are featured in landscapes or parks.”
“All the remaining ash trees are being treated every two years to protect against ash borer infestation. On East Martin Luther King Parkway alone, there are still 138 ash trees remaining.”
Those healthy ML King ashes, including the canopy pictured above, are part of the treatment program.
Want to geek out on City tree info? Here’s a fabulous online tool that allows you to drill down to individual trees in the City’s inventory.
JUMP-STARTING HEALTH CAREER
Nallely Moreno-Casillas, right, of Urbandale, was one of 37 local high school students who graduated August 29 from Broadlawns Medical Center’s Training and Education for a Career in Healthcare (TECH) program. Nallely was among high school cohorts who completed an eight-week paid apprenticeship that included completing basic and advanced certified nursing assistant (CNA) coursework, a dementia-studies certificate, and six Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) credits. Eighty percent of the graduates were from Des Moines public schools.
And it was all smiles for Abena Sankofa Ihotep, left, a human relations staffer, when Broadlawns recognized her long-time support of apprentice programs.
Broadlawns offers the graduates part-time health care jobs while completing their senior years of high school. Program partners include DMACC, Iowa Workforce Development, Urban Dreams, and the Evelyn K. Davis Center for Working Families.
Program Director Dennis Henderson reported that 144 youths have graduated from the TECH apprentice program over 10 years. “What’s more amazing,” Dennis told me, “in the three years since we expanded the program, we’ve had an 88 percent graduation rate [96 of 109 enrollees], and a lot of success with students going on to college.”
‘SAY CHEESE’ HAS A BUSY RAGBRAI
During RAGBRAI, Say Cheese owners Sydney Williams, her uncle, Jake Whipple, and their crew of nine kept busy preparing sandwiches from 1,100 bread loaves from South Union Bakery, and more than 900 pounds of shredded cheddar cheese. Jake told me their BLT with cheddar cheese was the hungry RAGBRAI lunch crowd’s most popular gourmet grilled cheese sandwich.
RAGBRAI vendors for eight years, Jake and Sydney prepared the bike-a-thon food at the Mickle Center commercial kitchen, which they also use to support their 26-week operation of a Downtown Farmers’ Market food stand.
UPDATE ON FREE PRODUCTS AT POLK COUNTY HEALTH
Graham Cook, a careful reader of this newsletter, regularly emails me worthy questions. Like his inquiry about the free harm-reduction vending machine at Polk County Public Health at 1907 Carpenter Avenue: “This is outstanding. Curious: Does it get much action?”
Glad you asked, Graham! Addie Olson, the Polk County Public Health communications officer, told me staff restocks the machine every weekday. Among the most popular products are Plan B (an emergency backup birth control pill), period packs, Naloxone (popularly known as Narcan, which can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose), internal condoms, and latex condoms. Oh, and 147 gun locks given out in the last three months.
In July alone, Addie reported that 347 free Plan B pills were vended. “On a couple of occasions, Plan B has been wiped out in a matter of two or three hours,” she told me.
If the machine is empty during regular office hours, residents are encouraged to walk inside to receive free products.
The Family Planning Council of Iowa is a partner in the project.
LIBRARY WRAPS UP SUMMER READING
Strong data shows lots of our kids don’t take a “summer vacation” from reading. The Des Moines Public Library (DMPL) devotes a ton of resources — including volunteer hours and donations — to keep kids’ noses buried in books June–August. Top of the list: Summer programming yielded 639 first-time library cards.
Volunteers? Got that covered, too. The library’s VolunTeen program pulled in 40-plus youths, who donated more than 680 hours to support the summer reading programs.
The enthusiastic kids pictured above were photographed during a Rosie Reader visit to the E.K. Davis Park summer camp, which Des Moines Parks and Recreation organized.
Ashley Molzen, DMPL’s community engagement manager, compiled some impressive numbers for this summer:
9,970 free books were distributed to build kids’ home libraries. The Des Moines Public Library Foundation generously underwrites this program.
9,853 youths ages birth–18 years registered for the Summer Reading Challenge, which rewards participants for works having read or completing various learning activities. Ashley told me the entire library staff helps register kids and families. “The Youth Services Librarians at our six locations and the Community Engagement outreach team of four deserve a special note of dedicated thanks,” she added.
7,606 folks attended the six DMPL branches hosting 223 kids’ free educational programs.
4,005 attended 112 outreach visits to summer care sites for elementary-age youth.
2,747 showed up at 61 visits to early education sites (264 classrooms).
1,646 kids in 38 summer groups participated in the Summer Reading Challenge, receiving regular DMPL visits, plus incentives to support completing the program.
Here are the most-circulated kids’ titles this summer:
FICTION: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Wrecking Ball by Jeff Kinney
NON-FICTION: Pokémon Big Book of Facts by Simon Beecroft
BOARD BOOK: In the Jungle by Owen Davey
PICTURE BOOK: Bluey: The Doctor by Penguin Young Readers
GRAPHIC NOVEL: Dog Man: for Whom the Ball Rolls by Dav Pilkey
Love this: Ashley wraps up all her emails with this Frederick Douglass quote: “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”
ICE CREAM SOCIAL SEPT. 10
My annual Ice Cream Social is just a few weeks away at the Waveland Golf Course Clubhouse. Join me for conversation and six locally churned premium ice cream flavors. Mark your calendars: 5-7 p.m. on Wednesday, September 10. A $20 donation is recommended.
I hope to see you there!
