The shops in the chic downtown Kaleidoscope mall aren`t much different from anywhere else in America–except for the one on the first floor that sells politics to an exclusive clientele.
Iowans are serious about their quadrennial exercise in democracy. Next year`s edition will attract an estimated 2,000 reporters from around the world.
So downstairs from the Laura Ashley, Benetton and Fanny Farmer shops and next to City Grille, a store opened last month that sells the Feb. 8 caucuses to an information-hungry press corps trying to keep track of 15 announced or potential presidential candidates and all the associated hoopla.
Appropriately designed in red, white and blue, the Iowa Caucus Project 88 store provides one-stop shopping for reporters looking for the candidates`
schedules, names of opinion leaders, help in getting hotel and airline reservations, and story ideas. It contains a press room with desks and telephones.
All of that, however, is just the come-on.
There is a subtle message behind the effort that has brought together both the Republican and Democratic Parties as well as the Greater Des Moines Chamber of Commerce Federation, the Iowa Department of Economic Development and numerous volunteers.
They share a concern about the image Iowa conveys to the world over the next six months.
Of particular importance, they want the world to know that Iowa is fighting back from the farm recession that has been the focus of most stories about the state in recent years.
”We recognize what the negatives have been. We`ve seen such a nice turnaround we want the press to know,” said Robert Boyd, spokesman for the Department of Economic Development. ”I think they want to do some sidebars
(about Iowa). After a while, it gets to be boring talking only about Gephardt, Biden, Babbitt and Bush.”
The caucuses are ”an opportunity for the public to get a more correct perception or view of what Iowa is,” Gov. Terry Branstad said in an interview. ”To some degree, we have no image. We are confused with Idaho or Ohio.”
Armed with two sets of news releases, one about the caucus project and the other promoting Des Moines as the ”New Style American City,” Iowa Democratic Chairwoman Bonnie Campbell, Republican Vice Chairman David Oman and other political and civic leaders have been making the rounds of newspapers, bureaus and network offices in Washington and Chicago.
The reporters they met on their second trip to Washington last week included representatives of news outlets in the Soviet Union, China, Canada, England, West Germany and Venezuela.
”They`re very interested in coming to Iowa,” Boyd said.
The goal of this effort is to publicize the ”real” Des Moines and the
”real” Iowa.
”The real Iowa is more than simply hogs and corn and cattle and turkey,” said Kathleen Wood, coordinator of Iowa Caucus Project 88, the name given to both the promotional effort and the store.
”The real Iowa includes most everything that you would find in other states,” Wood said. ”We are perceived in the national press as being purely an agricultural state. Always the photograph seems to be rural-connected. There`s a lot of us who are not rural people or involved in rural
activities.”
The public relations effort seems to have a way to go. After delivering its spiel, the Iowa delegation asked one reporter in Chicago what more he wanted to know. The reporter said he wanted the dates of county fairs so he could see a candidate milk a cow.
To that, Rick Phillips, spokesman for the Chamber of Commerce, just buried his face in his arms.
Des Moines indeed has undergone a metamorphosis in the four years since world attention was focused here last. Construction cranes and scaffolding have come down to reveal a stylish new downtown that is headquarters for many insurance companies, banks and other service industries.
About $1.2 billion has been spent on real estate projects since 1979, including a performing arts center, a convention hall, new and refurbished hotels, condominiums and senior-citizen housing, offices and retail space.
The renovation of buildings into restaurants, boutiques and galleries in the Court Avenue District leading to the Des Moines River provided a much-needed night life.
Joining the 22-karat gold dome on the state Capitol is the new jewel in the skyline, the Hub Tower, which starts out in red brick and gives way to a neo-modern green pyramid at its 20th story.
Connecting most of the buildings are plazas and 36 glass-enclosed pedestrian skywalks.
The downtown`s growth is a reflection of Iowa`s shifting economic trends. The state`s population dropped to an estimated 2.85 million in 1986 from 2.91 million in 1980 because people who could not find work moved away. But Des Moines` metropolitan area population grew to about 381,300 last year, according to Harvey Siegelman, a state economist.
From a recession peak of 11 percent in January, 1983, unemployment dropped to 4.5 percent in June, fueled by improvements in most areas of the economy except farming.
On that score, Gov. Branstad said, ”We can clearly say the worst of the farm crisis is behind us.”
Branstad and other state officials said land prices have stabilized and started to creep back up after falling to $1,100 an acre from a pre-recession top of $4,000. Livestock prices have improved, too.
But not all is as bright as the new facade of the capital city. Much of the new downtown retail space is unfilled, and many of the new jobs are in the lower-paying service sector.
Leaning on a railing at the Kaleidoscope while his fiance was in the Fanny Farmer candy shop applying for a job, Curtis McNeley, 19, said he moved to Des Moines three months ago to work as a security officer in another mall. He came from Woodward, Ia., population 1,212, he said, because there were no jobs there.
”The farmers can`t afford to hire kids,” he said.
The number of farm workers continues to fall, according to state statistics, from 128,400 in 1980 to 105,900 in the first six months of 1987.
”Des Moines is an island unto itself,” said Pete Brent, who runs the hotline for Prairie Fire, a social-action agency that helps farmers with personal and financial difficulties. ”When you shake it all down, Iowa is dependent on agriculture.”
He said he`s getting 8 to 15 calls for help a day, and ”I`m getting more calls than I did last summer even though everyone says the farm crisis is over.”
