It’s hard to not fall in love with Iowa City upon a first visit. It’s incredibly easy to be mindlessly swept away by all of the excitement in a city with so much opportunity and adventure. One would think that the more time spent in the city, the less astonishing the city would become, but that’s not necessarily the case. Those who stay in Iowa City permanently know this to be true:
1. Saturdays are for the boys
It’s no secret that Iowa City loves their Hawkeyes. In fact, if you were to see an Iowa fan outside of the city, they are almost always wearing a shirt or hoodie and shouting “Go Hawks!” at every opportune moment. With no professional sports teams coming from Iowa, college sports are taken even more seriously here. Football Saturdays are basically holidays in Iowa City, and they literally consume the city. All of the bars, restaurants, gas stations, streets, parking lots (basically everything in the city) are flooded with tailgaters and visitors attending the game. It’s insane.
2. Win or lose, we still booze![]()
We’ve established that Hawkeye football is a pretty big deal in Iowa City, right? Well, what I didn’t mention before was that booze on game days is a pretty big deal too. So much that tailgaters travel into Iowa City from all over the country and begin drinking right around 6 A.M. and continue to drink until game time, whether it’s an 11 A.M. game or a 7 P.M. game. When Iowa was playing in the Big 10 Championship game in 2015, fans even drank Indianapolis out of beer. Iowa fans all over the city cheer for a victory every single Saturday, but regardless of the outcome of the game, you can guarantee Hawkeye fans will be right back to drinking when it’s over, whether they’re drinking to celebrate or drinking to forget.
3. Parking is cut-throat
Not only is it expensive in Iowa City to simply park your car somewhere for a few hours, but people take parking seriously. I have seen people circle around the block several times until a spot opened up on the street they wanted to park on. If you park in a spot someone else pays for, you can expect to be towed. And good luck trying to park in any of the lots on campus in the afternoon!
4. Music is one of a kind
There are so many cool artists that perform at one of the many small music venues in Iowa City that people are not even aware of until they’ve spent some time here. As residents, we know that The Mill has an awesome open mic night every Monday, and despite being a small, grungy bar, Gabe’s goes off.
5. Mesa is so worth the mile-long lines
There is usually always a line snaked out the door of Mesa, but the giant slices of mac and cheese pizza are definitely worth waiting!
6. The weekend starts on a Thursday
While most of the county is counting down the hours until they can make their weekly “TGIF” facebook post, the people living in Iowa City are already living up their weekend. You have class Friday morning? That doesn’t matter. You’ll probably still get sucked into going downtown for next week’s Thirsty Thursday.
7. Iowa should still be the #1 party school
In case you haven’t read enough about the party scene in Iowa City yet, here I am to remind you once again. Residents take pride in their #2 party school ranking and do everything possible to live up to the reputation. In Iowa City, the 21 drinking age is just kind of a "suggestion", and “no party” houses throw the biggest ragers. The intoxicated mess the entire city is on any given day of the week only intensifies during syllabus week, after finals, and during the Beat State week.
8. Should officially be declared as the attractive people capital of the world
I’m not sure if all the good looking people just flock to Iowa City, or if there’s something in the water here, but Iowa City is breeding grounds for attractive people.
9. The talent coming from the city is unmatched
Iowa City has an insane amount of arts festivals and events celebrating artists of all types throughout the year, and for good reason—the citizens of this town are unbelievably talented. It is the home of one of the country’s best writing programs for both fiction and nonfiction, as well as for fine arts at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. There is no other city in this country that fosters creativity and expression through all types of art the way that Iowa City does.
10. Rent is ridiculously expensive
$700 a month for a room that fits my bed and a dresser, and it’s only a thirty-minute walk to campus? That’s such a good deal!
11. The most interesting people live here
The people in Iowa City are never what they seem to be but in the best way possible. I swear everyone here has like five super obscure hobbies. If someone were to tell you they like to play the clarinet on top of mountains every weekend, no one would bat an eyelash. Not to mention, the way people have high levels of confidence, “no fucks” attitudes, and embrace the differences of others only adds to the overall fascinating qualities to the people that live here.
12. Iowa City is the greatest city in the world
Iowa City is known for being the world’s third literary city. It is known for its sustainable practices and efforts. The University of Iowa Hospital is ranked in the country’s top 10 for both adult and pediatric practices. The University of Iowa is ranked across several platforms as one of the country’s best college towns and college campuses. It is known as one of the “Best Cities for Work/Life Balance.” Johnson County is ranked in the “Top 50 Healthiest Counties for Kids,” and the list goes on. Not only do the citizens of Iowa City know how great this city is, but the rest of the world knows it too.
