Des Moines plans to fill in a gap in the trail system so residents of some of the city's most disadvantaged communities have easier access to one of its most prized and celebrated amenities — but the city still has a long way to go to make its multi-use bicycling and pedestrian trails fully accessible to all.
The 3.7-mile Central Place Levee Trail will trace the west side of the Des Moines River and wind through neighborhoods like River Bend, King Irving, Chautauqua Park, Prospect Park and Cheatom Park — some of the areas with the highest proportion of low-income families and non-white households in the metro, U.S. Census Bureau data shows.