Rekha Basu

rbasu@dmreg.com

It used to be Des Moines couldn't make space for coffee. At least not a physical space, where people could gather to savor the aroma of freshly roasted beans and choose their origins. Investors wouldn't back a plan for an independent coffee house in the early 1990s. If people want coffee, was the message, they'll swill it at home.

At one time, it was an idea for a public outdoor gathering space downtown. The first reaction from city leaders was a cold shoulder. The plan was to fill a plaza with vendors, artisans and performers, along with young and old, rich and poor spectators. Then, the hang-up was that downtown was too scary and inconvenient for some people to get to. For art we had museums, for performances we had a civic center, and people already had their own social groupings, thank you. At least that was how the response came across.

The mobile taco trucks that set up on the southeast side were especially unwelcome, despite their fast, affordable, freshly prepared offerings, authentic down to the cilantro, lime and radish slices. They were too much of a threat to the brick-and-mortar restaurants. So the City Council passed an ordinance that managed to squeeze many of those vendors out of existence.

Now the target of our city's "Keep Out" mentality is the Uber ride service, those non-taxi taxis whose beauty is in their simplicity.

Someone with a car and time, who could use a little extra cash, offers rides. Someone who needs a ride pulls up the smart phone app and schedules a pickup. The ingenuity of the smart-phone-meets-independent-entrepreneur approach is that it saves consumers time and money and offers another option for getting around in a metro area that badly needs more options.

Uber works well in other cities. The drivers have been vetted. But some Des Moines leaders are fussing. They say the San Francisco company isn't welcome and should be required to get permits from the city. City leaders are determining what steps to take to put the squeeze on these freelance drivers who sell their service on an as-needed basis.

It's fine to take measures to ensure passengers' safety. But frankly, if past is any precedent, turf protection is the main concern. The taxi companies that long had a monopoly in Des Moines have resisted new kids on the block, even when those were other bonafide taxi companies.

Thankfully, to the benefit of consumers, they couldn't keep all competition out. But now along comes Uber, with a different approach altogether, so the cab companies are uneasy again.

That's no surprise, but city leaders should look out for the best interests of consumers as much as they look out for the business establishment.

Most of these tugs-of-war have been over new ideas, but the locked mindset has also resisted efforts to preserve what is old, such as historical buildings. Allowing big-name developers and architects to influence their thinking, city leaders in the late 1990s were ready to tear down some structurally sound apartment buildings that could meet the growing need for downtown housing. But rehabbers with an alternative vision and an appreciation for history pushed back for the right to save them, and won.

So the city eventually got to keep the Arlington-Hallet Flats and other buildings. We got Zanzibar coffee house, and many more followed. We got Summer in the City. Though short-lived, Nollen Plaza was transformed into a public gathering space with vendors and performers. And though the taco trucks were forced to keep moving, they are wildly popular at public events around town.

But in each of those cases, people had to fight to overcome entrenched resistance.

Des Moines has enviable status these days, making national lists of great cities to live in for this or that reason. A national fashion magazine editor, speaking at a Wednesday lunch in conjunction with the Des Moines Art Center's Art Meets Fashion exhibit, pronounced herself almost ready to move to Des Moines for retirement. More editor-in-chief Lesley Seymour's other option is Paris.

Much of what the city has accomplished has come from people taking risks and pushing the envelope to re-imagine the city, its buildings, bridges, waterways and more — from the type of food we eat to the spaces we live in.

We've come a long way in a relatively short time. But some of the people in power still need to stretch their thinking to adapt to new times. It would be nice once in a while to hear an unvarnished, enthusiastic "Yes! Let's make that work!" in response to an off-beat idea.