About Us
“How many communities have an opportunity to dream big from a position of strength?”
– Suku Radia
Central Iowa began its visioning back in 1990 when the Des Moines Vision Plan laid out a framework for development to place “moments of brilliance” throughout the city of Des Moines. In 1998, the Major Projects Task Force worked to define the projects imagined in the Des Moines Vision Plan. Five years later, in 2003, Project Destiny sought to advance collaboration across Greater Des Moines businesses and improve arts and culture, quality of life, and recreational trails. In 2007, the What’s Next, Downtown strategy identified future downtown opportunities and developed strategies to increase investments in downtown Des Moines.
Finally, in 2011, work began to develop Capital Crossroads, a dynamic, strategic planning process targeted at leveraging the region’s key advantages while addressing our challenges. The initial implementation of the strategy was bold. We’ve achieved hundreds of successes – but we know that more work can be done.
In 2016, we established a Steering Committee of 63 community leaders to guide the development of Capital Crossroads 2.0. The new strategy builds on the many achievements of the initial Capital Crossroads implementation and in fact, maintains the same framework of the ten Capitals, or project platforms. We recognize that the bar for success has been raised based on our past successes, and we remain steadfast in our commitment to pushing Central Iowans to think big, not settle for good enough, think long-term, and work together.
