For years there has been a general population trend of more people moving to urban areas rather than rural areas. The Quad Cities and Pleasant Valley Community School District are no exception to this pattern.
With Davenport and Bettendorf being blocked to the south by the Mississippi River, new urban development has been pushing the cities’ edges north, all the way to Interstate 80. Many large businesses and commercial areas have been built up near the busy interstate. Davenport’s Rhythm Casino and Bettednorf’s TBK Bank sports complex and Topgolf are all within a few hundred feet of the interstate.
Of course, the land that these new businesses are being built on was not completely vacant before construction began. Most of this land was used for agricultural purposes.
While lots of farmland is being taken over by urbanization, about 85% of Iowa’s land is still used for agricultural purposes.
“Even though a lot of people are moving to cities and those cities are expanding, I think Iowa will always be mainly covered by farmland. To have more people on earth we need more food, and to have food we will always need at least some level of farmland,” said PV senior Ethan Cline.
The urbanization trend is also evident when looking at the PV school system. In 2021, the new Forest Grove Elementary School opened, and in 2011 Hopewell Elementary School opened. The number of students in a single grade at PV has been growing for a long time.
“The PV School District had definitely gotten a lot bigger over time. There are new elementary schools opening up, and the size of the classes and number of classes within the already existing schools has been increasing. It seems like every year the newest class is the largest of all time at PV,” said PV senior Steven Ly.
The changing population and urbanization of Bettendorf and Davenport certainly have large effects on the community in many ways. From the expansion of school districts to accommodate more students to the increase in new businesses and entertainment, urbanization affects the daily lives of everyone near the Pleasant Valley area.
