Forbes magazine has listed Des Moines as the best place in the nation to work and own a business. The magazine said it used a special formula that takes the metaphoric temperature of the economies of 200 major cities across the country and found that Des Moines was in the best condition.

“We’ve been checking the Forbes Web site for a week or two and we’re just elated to rank No. 1,” said David Maahs of the Greater Des Moines Partnership. He said his job is to persuade prospective businesses to move to Des Moines area and that the ranking will give him a powerful tool to use.

Forbes said business costs in Des Moines are 15 percent below the national average. Housing costs are 10 percent lower and employment is expected to increase 2.7 percent during the next three years. The magazine also credited the work of big companies, such as Wells Fargo & Co. and Principal Financial Group Inc., and said the city’s bike trails and the John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park help improve the city’s quality of life.

Read the whole Forbes article here.

Grab your gloves and one of those pokey-stick things and join us for Trash Bash!

Earth Day Trash Bash, sponsored by the Des Moines Parks and Recreation, is a FUN way to connect with new people and businesses while giving back to your neighborhood. Along with many other volunteering organizations the Des Moines Downtown Chamber will have a small army of people canvassing downtown to pick up trash to make our downtown community shine for the spring and summer months.

Earth Day Trash Bash
Thursday, April 22, 2010
2:00 P.M. – 4:30 P.M.

If you’d like to be on the Des Moines Downtown Chamber team, RSVP Today!

For more information about this great event visit the Trash Bash website.

Downtown Community Alliance Co-Chairs Mary O’Keefe and John Ruan III join Greater Des Moines Partnership CEO Martha Willits in announcing that Glenn Lyons has accepted the position of President of the Downtown Community Alliance. Lyons is currently Executive Director of the Downtown Development Corporation for Tucson, Arizona. He was selected from a large and talented field by a search committee of the Downtown Community Alliance Board of Directors. He will begin leading downtown development in Des Moines on May 17, 2010.

“Glenn has 30 years of experience in downtown work,” said Mary O’Keefe of The Principal Financial Group. “That experience covers the gamut from a downtown association, public and private sectors as well as academia. His qualifications far surpass what the search committee defined as an acceptable candidate. He is exactly the candidate we hoped to find.”

While working in Tucson, Glenn Lyons was credited with developing the community’s first private-sector initiated downtown revitalization plan, including pedestrian street improvements and historic preservation projects. Prior to that he was a principal with Lyons, Venini and Associates, Ltd.; an urban, corporate and strategic planning consulting firm; and a partner with Newell Group, a property tax consulting firm that worked with groups in Calgary, Edmonton, Regina and Winnipeg, Canada. During the late 1970’s through the mid 1990’s, Lyons worked with the City of Calgary in the Planning and Building Department and later as the Executive Director of Calgary’s Downtown Association.

Lyons was credited with the success of Calgary’s revitalization strategy and crime prevention plans. During this period, he also served as an Adjunct Professor of Planning for the University of Calgary and a seasonal instructor on entrepreneurship with Mount Royal College. A native of Detroit, Michigan, Lyons received his Bachelors of Arts in Urban Studies from the University of Windsor, his Masters of Environmental Design and his Masters of Business Administration from the University of Calgary.

“I am very excited about the prospect of moving to Des Moines and continuing the good work of the Downtown Community Alliance,” said Lyons. “Downtown Des Moines is an amazing asset and I am committed to doing my part to make it the best Downtown in America.”

The Downtown Community Alliance, an affiliate of the Greater Des Moines Partnership, is a non-profit organization whose mission is to achieve a shared vision for the future of downtown Des Moines through leadership, advocacy and partnership. Programs include business, residential and economic development, event management, marketing and promotion and Operation Downtown, an initiative to keep downtown clean, safe and beautiful.