the Ames Intermodal Facility. In 2009, the Ames metropolitan statistical area (MSA) ranked as the third highest in the United States for percentage of commuters who walked to work (10.4 percent). Ames has the headquarters of the Iowa Department of Transportation. Health care Ames is served by Mary Greeley Medical Center, a 220-bed regional referral hospital which is adjacent to McFarland Clinic PC, central Iowa's largest physician-owned multi-specialty clinic, and also Iowa Heart Center. Parks and recreation On September 10, 2019 the City of Ames proposed a $29,000,000 bond for building a fitness center called the Healthy Life Center. It failed to pass. Iowa State University owns the land it was to be built on. In popular culture The character of Kate Austen in the television series Lost (2004–2010) is from Ames. Ames is prominently featured in Jeffrey Zaslow's 2009 book The Girls from Ames. Ames is featured in the 2012 Supernatural episode "Heartache". Ames is mentioned in the music video for Bo Burnham's 2013 song "Repeat Stuff", which shows satirical subliminal messages quickly flashing up on the screen, one of which states that "Michael Clarke Duncan is alive and living in Ames, Iowa". Notable people This is a list of notable people associated with Ames, Iowa arranged by career and in alphabetical order. Acting Evan Helmuth, actor (1977-2017) (Fever Pitch, The Devil Inside) Nick Nolte, actor, lived in Ames, 1945-1950 Artists and photographers John E. Buck, sculptor Robert Crumb, cartoonist and musician, the Crumb family moved to Ames in August 1950, for two years. Margaret Lloyd, opera singer Laurel Nakadate, American video artist, filmmaker and photographer Velma Wallace Rayness (1896–1977), "V.W. Rayness," author, painter and artist Brian Smith, Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer, born July 16, 1959 Aviation Mary Anita (née Snook) Southern, pioneer aviator, taught Amelia Earhart to fly. Musicians John Darnielle, musician from indie rock band The Mountain Goats; former Ames resident Envy Corps, indie rock band Leslie Hall, electronic rap musician/Gem Sweater collector, born in Ames in 1981 Peter Schickele, musician, born in Ames in 1935 Richie Hayward, drummer and founding member of the band Little Feat; former Ames resident and graduate of Ames High School Journalists Robert Bartley, editorial page editor of The Wall Street Journal and a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient; raised in Ames and ISU graduate Wally Bruner, ABC News journalist and television host Michael Gartner, former president of NBC News; retired to own