Frankfurt Germany Weihnachtsmarkt 2019

Photos and video by Retiring Guy

Frankfurter Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market)

This is what the area looked like in March 1944 after a series of WWII aerial bombing raids

Related reading:
Frankfurt returns to normal after WWII bomb defused.  (France24, 7/7/2019)

Around 2,000 dud bombs are believed to remain buried in Frankfurt, which was heavily bombed by American and British forces in the last years of the war.

The skyline today.  Frankfurt can claim Germany's most modern skyline.

GET ME REWRITE: Iowa's blue counties lead the state in population growth

In fact, most of Iowa's 99 counties experienced a peak in population more than a century ago.  (Numerous examples shown below in earlier posts.)

Source:  U. S. Census Bureau QuickFacts

New census estimate shows Iowa's growth, though slow, remains steady.  (Des Moines Register, 12/30/2019)

Nationally, a slowing birth rate, increasing deaths and a slowdown of international migration added up to the weakest U.S. growth rate in more than a century, Monday's figures showed. William Frey, a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution, said the last time the annual growth rate was slower was from 1917 to 1918, when the nation was involved in World War I.

11/14/2016 update, "Iowa counties with 50% or more population loss vote overwhelmingly for Trump", starts here.

Race and education level

Source:  CNN 

10/5/2016 update, "In many counties, Iowa's rural decline began more than a century before the Obama administration", starts here.

Yearning to be great again, rural Iowa turns to Trump.  (Des Moines Register, 10/3/2016)

Dateline:  Creston, Iowa.  (Which is located in Union County.)

Its population peaked at 19,928 in 1900.  Perhaps Teddy Roosevelt should shoulder some of the blame.

Source:  Wikipedia

Source:  U.S. Census QuickFacts

Source:  CNN (2008, 2012)

A quote from the above-cited Register article.

Original 2/1/2015 post, "Road Trip to Iowa's 99 Counties", starts here.

Iowa governor says candidates should visit 99 counties.  (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 1/24/2015)

GOP presidential candidates should visit all 99 Iowa counties over the next year if they want to clinch their party’s nomination, Iowa Gov. Terry Brandstad said Saturday.

And of those 99 counties, 84 of them are losing population.

• 13 of them more than 50% (purple)
• 11 of them 40-49% (orange)
• 15 of them 30-39% (yellow)

ISU analysis of census data shows that majority of Iowa communities are shrinking.  (Iowa State University, 5/27/2014)

And have been shrinking for quite some time.

This map shows the location of 15 Iowa counties still growing in population as of the 2010 census.

Major growth areas:

• Sioux City
• Council Bluffs (across the Missouri River from Omaha)
• Des Moines
• Ames
• Iowa City
• Cedar Rapids
• Davenport

Winter Lights at the Palmengarten, Frankfurt, Germany

Videos and photos by Retiring Guy

Winterlichter Palmengarten Frankfurt

Palmengarten