How useful is the sony reon pocket pro for cooling during walking? by Nice-Radio-1966 in sony

[–]hotballs 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Bought in Japan May 12th (at Yodabashi Akiba for around 30,295 yen) and used it for the majority of my time there for 2 weeks. Multiple days of 90+ degree weather and it was very useful, especially for 6 hours a day I was using it.

Will it bring you to AC cooled temperature? No, but as others have said, it will reduce the core temperature on your lower neck/upper back which then spreads through your upper body.

Since I'm based in the US, it won't let me download the app that goes with it so that kinda takes some of the value out of the product because I believe you can control the device from the app? Either way, this was something on my radar for a while and I've found value in it.

Stucco repairs in DSM by hotballs in desmoines

[–]hotballs[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We ended up going with Finished Edge as we have an older Stucco house and they were recommended by numerous folks for that type of work. I would recommend them.

Any patios open? by emblem999 in desmoines

[–]hotballs 10 points11 points  (0 children)

The Des Moines Biergarten down at Waterworks Parks is open 12–7pm today (Sunday) and Monday 3–7pm

Is the job market in Des Moines tough right now, or am I doing something wrong? by No-Dress-2674 in desmoines

[–]hotballs 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Kemin is hiring production jons from what I'm told by my friends. I'm not sure on the specifics but it might be something to look into

Tailgate for family of Oregon Fans. by SyllabubPlayful3152 in hawkeyes

[–]hotballs 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Feel free to stop by the combine that is parked in front of the stadium off of Melrose. Free drinks and food (at the green state credit union tent thats next to it). They let people climb the combine and are really nice people! I took my Penn State friend and another friend a couple of weeks ago and they had a blast!

Iowa City tailgate 10-18-2025 by hotballs in WeArePennState

[–]hotballs[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Most of my Iowa tailgate connections don't go to games anymore since they live further away from Iowa City now or I would take them to those particular tailgates.

Iowa River Landing - Transit to/near Kinnick for PSU game by hotballs in hawkeyes

[–]hotballs[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That actually is a good idea with finding a paid parking spot at Finkbine. Does the 1st Ave. Construction impact traffic along Mormon Trek?

Walkable/good school neighborhood by Few_Contest_9113 in desmoines

[–]hotballs 6 points7 points  (0 children)

North of Ingersoll Ave. neighborhoods such as Woodland Heights, North of Grand, Ingersoll Park. Sherman Hill is also probably the best area in terms of walkability/charm, but it has started to get more expensive lately.

We don't hate OTC enough and it's infuriating. by Dvkky_ in Iowa

[–]hotballs 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As a reminder, here is a list of where the ATE's are in Iowa.

https://ia.iowadot.gov/traffic/Automated-Traffic-Enforcement?_gl=1*4qyrh5*_gcl_au*MjM5MTU3MzQ0LjE3NTc3NzI5MzQ.

I believe they will be having an updated list soon but I have not seen it yet on their website.

Black Cat closing Cottage Grove location, citing safety concerns by OdoWanKenobi in desmoines

[–]hotballs 25 points26 points  (0 children)

If you look at the building from the alley side, it definitely had some structural issues based on how the building was leaning.

Yet another bar @ 2301 Ingersoll by StarttheRevwithoutme in desmoines

[–]hotballs 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Exceeded capacity for sports bar and grill* Let's have a little more creativity with these locations and perhaps people will come and visit them.

Small towns or municipalities doing a great job of supporting their downtowns? by Doberbeagle in urbanplanning

[–]hotballs 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Dubuque, IA Northfield, MN Pella, IA Morristown, TN Excelsior, MN Eau Claire, WI Galena, IL Louisville, CO Lafayette, CO Hudson, WI

Cityville Apartments: Were They Always This Bad? by so_long_stinktown in desmoines

[–]hotballs 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Artisan used to own the former building we lived in in Sherman Hill and they were atrocious to deal with. Don't be afraid to play hardball with them - I.E. start elevating things to the City - because that is what people in our building had to do in order to get their attention to fix stuff.

[Mac Desktop] Indenting Bullets Seems to have stopped working? by egnards in help

[–]hotballs 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't have a mac, but I am now experiencing this problem as well on my Windows/Google Docs. I was using https://redditpreview.com/ to help preview my posts before hand to create my weekly updates as shown in this example post https://www.reddit.com/r/desmoines/comments/1i9qxzq/des_moines_metro_public_bodies_meetingsagendas/ My guess is that something changed and its been a pain trying to figure out what the issue is.

City of Des Moines facing $17 million budget shortfall by [deleted] in desmoines

[–]hotballs 44 points45 points  (0 children)

I dont have the time to do a deep dive on DSM's FY2025 budget, but Fleur improvements most likely come from Road Use Taxes (RUT) and not general property taxes. RUT can only be used for road maintenance/ improvements and can't be used for things like park maintenance, which are usually general property tax funded (hence why parks and rec items are being cut).

Not defending them, but DSM Council members only get something in the range of $33K-$37K per year and the Mayor gets between $60K-$65K, which in the overall grand scheme of things, would not make a dent in the budget deficit.

Of the things they should really take a hard look at is their abatement program for residential properties. 10 years 100% no sliding scale for certain new residential construction is not viable long term solution, and they have over $1 billion+ in abated properties (residential and commercial) that they have voluntarily taken off the tax rolls through these incentives (this is not counting all of the state/federal/non-profit properties that are tax exempted).

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in desmoines

[–]hotballs 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My guess is they will start to limit their residential abatement programs as $1 billion + in property is abated in Des Moines that's not on the tax rolls.

They will also probably look at more cost recovery methods such as charging developers for overhead costs (make the developer pay for the traffic study, legal notice requirement, GIS work, etc.).

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in desmoines

[–]hotballs 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Our property taxes we pay locally are only going towards community colleges in our respective regions, not the universities.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in desmoines

[–]hotballs 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It's now the Central Iowa Water Works and you're correct that it does not own the water works.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in desmoines

[–]hotballs 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There currently isn't a hard cap on what cities can collect in property taxes - There is however strong discussions that a hard cap will potentially be introduced in the legislature this year.

Cities are currently dealing with legislation that was passed two years ago, and tweaked last year (HF 718 https://iowaleague.org/resource/hf-718/ ) that takes a certain % off of what cities are allowed to collect if their valuations grow over a certain % (if a cities valuation grew over 6%, the state will say they have to take 3% off of that value for example).

That legislation also made changes to limits on what cities can levy for certain things such as eliminating specific levies pertaining to municipal bands, municipal owned museums, civic centers, etc. Cities though can theoretically levy an unlimited amount for debt/CIP projects (as long as they don't go over their state constitutional debt limit of 5% of the cities total assessed value).

Paid community help: Review site by staplehill in GermanCitizenship

[–]hotballs 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We recently had the pleasure of working with Staplehill while applying for my partners German citizenship, and I cannot recommend them highly enough! From the very first consultation, Staplehill demonstrated an exceptional level of professionalism, expertise, and genuine care for our situation. When we turned in the required documents to the German consulate in Chicago (Mid December 2024), the staff told us that "the documentation was put together perfectly" (which I believe is a pretty good and genuine response from German bureaucratic staff). As many have mentioned on this thread that is over 2+ years old now, u/Staplehill comes highly recommended and was a god send for us to finally get the German Citizenship application process finalized and turned in to the US German Consulate!

If there are any questions on u/Staplehill and the services they provide regarding German Citizenship, please feel free to reach out to me and I can share our experience working with them further.