Specifically the area around the covenant hospital. My GF will be getting a 6 month internship starting sometime around March. Looking for ideas on where to live; 6 month/monthly leases, allows pets (single cat). Also, good/bad areas to work in? I plan on transferring (walgreens) so I at least have a job when we move. She will possibly look for a job beyond the internship. And anything else you have to offer.
I've lived in Waterloo just shy of 5 years. I tried to rent when I moved here and could not find anything that I could rent that would let me have dogs. A cat should be easier. Since Cedar Falls is a college town (UNI) short term leasing can be tough. All the places I looked at were 12 month minimum. It was also pricier than I expected. Figure you'll be spending $750/month plus utilities at a minimum for something decent.
The area around Covenant is OK. The entire Waterloo/Cedar Falls area is pretty small so you can get there in less than 15 minutes from anywhere. There's a Walgreens on the corner of Kimball and Ridgeway that's about 1 mile from the hospital and is a good area to be in if you can get in there. I'm not sure where there's another Walgreens.
Most everything south of the river is OK to live in. In general, the further south and the further west you are, the better the area. Covenant is in way on the south side and more or less central as far as east/west goes.
It's flippin' cold. The windchill is -30 right now (air temp is -10). I celebrated the other week when it got above 0. It also gets hot and humid in the summer. 90-100 with high humidity hot. It's miserable weather wise. City data ranked Waterloo as having greatest temperature extremes of any city in the US (pop > 50000).
Income tax and sales tax are both higher than I expected (9% income, 7% sales) so be prepared. There are occasional autocrosses during the summer. Otherwise, it's 3-4 hours to a race track.
Newton's, My Thai, and Cottonwood Canyon in Waterloo are good resteraunts. Pablo's and Mulligan's in Cedar Falls are good. Single Speed Brewing in Cedar Falls is also good (only appetizers for food).
What else do you want to know?
I think it's where that French dude Napoleon, met his demise. Sounds like a pretty cool place! 
Sites to see, things to do that maybe wouldn't show up on google maps?
I live just down the Cedar River in Vinton. Summers (or at least not winter) you can come down and try sky diving at the Vinton airport.
When my wife and I are up that direction, we like eating at the Brown Bottle in Cedar falls. The university in Cedar Falls also means you can get some pretty good shows come through from time to time-- the best I remember is seeing Bela Fleck there.
SCCA does run autocross at Hawkeye Tech in Waterloo. Here's a link to their schedule.
I'm more of an HPDE guy-- for those, the best you can say is that we're centrally located. There are several places available if you drive at least 4-5 hours.
I've also heard rumors of a place in the general area that specializes in salvaging our Miatas, but have not tried to confirm.
I thought the only things to do in Iowa were drink booze and await the coming of James T. Kirk.....
yamaha wrote: I thought the only things to do in Iowa were drink booze and await the coming of James T. Kirk.....
That's one more thing to do than they have in Wisconsin!
All you need to know: http://dmvrscca.com and http://iowaregionscca.org/
Glad to see Karacticus got us covered more or less. Should be 3 PDX this summer at Newton, plus all the autocross. Hawkeye Tech really is the best autocross site in the state and is right up your alley.
Oh yeah... apparently Waterloo, IA is pretty godless.
As a PS, the BMW CCA chapter I'm a member of does put on a Driving School at Mid America Motorplex (near Omaha/Council Bluffs). It'll be mid-July this year. All makes welcome.
There's also probably going to be a Street Survival school coming up May in Newton if you'd like to help out with one of those.
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