Compare these cities: Hartford, Albuquerque, Salt Lake City, Omaha, Oklahoma City (live, best) - City-Data Forum

caphillsea77 · 11-07-2011, 05:14 AM

Here is a collection of mid sized MSA's in the range of 900K and 1.3 million. Which ones stand out and which ones would you prefer? Here is some criteria.

Setting/Scenery
Climate
Economy
Location
Urban Vibrancy & Downtown
Character
Dining
Potential for exponential future growth

kcmo · 11-07-2011, 07:32 AM

These are all a bit small for my liking, but would rank this like this:

Salt Lake City (very remote, but lots of outdoors stuff, hub airport, nice downtown, decent transit, active population)

Hartford (great location in urban northeast corridor especially Boston and NYC, a bit pricey for what you get, downtown not great, winters suck, NE corridor traffic is annoying)

Omaha (not a bad city at all, decent downtown and recreation for smaller city, surprisingly dense metro, four seasons, cheap, very green, KC just few hours away, nice livable city)

Oklahoma City (not a fan of the location, culture or weather here and built environment has a long way to go)

Albuquerque (nothing against Albuquerque, but it just does nothing for me. Some nice recreational options, but not enough to do in the city and nothing at all nearby, at least OKC is close to Dallas)

Setting/Scenery Salt Lake City (love mountains)
Climate Omaha (four nice seasons, without the extremes)
Economy Omaha and OKC (strong and stable)
Location Hartford (far from the west and rockies, but in the middle of the northeastern corridor
Urban Vibrancy & Downtown Salt Lake City (having light rail helps)
Character Albuquerque (it's the most unique)
Dining Albuquerque (love mexican food)
Potential for exponential future growth OKC (booming spread out suburban city that's cheap, it will grow fast)

caphillsea77 · 11-07-2011, 12:06 PM

I've been to Albuquerque, Hartford, and Salt Lake City, and with an open mind read into Omaha a bit and surprisingly it seems like a decent city based on what I know of it. Oklahoma City doesn't interest me much but in fairness it seems to be growing and getting more prosperous and the most recent city to erect a 500 + foot skyscraper.

Hartford has passed its prime as the Insurance Capital of the world with industry moving elsewhere, the city has lost population, suffers from a high crime rate, lost its NHL franchise, and has seen better days in the past. It's affluence is almost exclusively in its suburbs (particulalrly West Hartford), and the city has a 9-5 downtown with an impressive skyline/financial district for a medium sized city but generally clears out after 6:00 PM. They have made efforts to improve the city with a new Convention Center, but again thats mostly a business draw and the downtown is pretty much a sleeper.

Albuquerque is a pretty cool city. It definitely has character with a gentrified stretch of route 66 Kitsch, Old Town with its Spanish colonial heritage, and Native American cultural attractions along with a stunning setting along the Rio Grande at the base of the Sandia Mountains in the high desert. It's downtown is a bit lackluster, but not terrible either.

Salt Lake City has economic advantages, and excellent transit with expanding light rail system and large updated and modern freeways. It's downtown didn't seem that great to me when I was there in 2005, but I have heard its making big strides with a lot of new development recently.

Setting/Scenery: Salt Lake City, Albuquerque a close second
Climate: Albuquerque, four seasons, frequent sunshine, mostly dry, and summer thunderstorms
Economy: Omaha & Oklahoma City, the numbers don't lie. The Great Plains and the energy industries there seem to be holding their own pretty well economically in recent years while the rest of teh country is in a slow recovery.
Location: Totally subjective. I like the Southwest and all the varied terrain of mountains and desert along with an hours drive to Santa Fe so Albuquerque for me.
Urban Vibrancy & Downtown: I'm going to take a wild guess and say Omaha based on what I've read, though Salt Lake City seems to have the best infrastructure in place.
Character: Albuquerque all the way.
Dining: yeah I know I sound biased, oh well. Again, it's Albuquerque. I love New Mexican food.
Potential for exponential future growth: All except Hartford will likely grow bigger with OKC and Omaha leading the way based on economic advantages.

iamjacobm · 11-07-2011, 07:38 PM

Setting/Scenery.. SLC
Climate.. Omaha(not a fan of desert or mountain climates)
Economy.. Omaha/OKC
Location.. Hartford
Urban Vibrancy & Downtown..Hartford
Character..Hartford(old character) Albuquerque("new" character)
Dining.. Wouldn't have an idea. Albuquerque probably has the most unique dining out of these cities.
Potential for exponential future growth.. OKC, Albuquerque, SLC. Omaha has had incredibly stable growth over the past 40 years, but will never see the massive jumps that the cities in the west and south see. Hartford isn't going to change much anymore.

caphillsea77 · 11-07-2011, 09:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iamjacobm

Potential for exponential future growth.. OKC, Albuquerque, SLC. Omaha has had incredibly stable growth over the past 40 years, but will never see the massive jumps that the cities in the west and south see. Hartford isn't going to change much anymore.

I could see Salt Lake City metro having a big boom in growth and population, the infrastructure is already in place to support it with a fairly friendly business cliamte and desirable mountain setting. It's just starting to shed its Morman domination image.

iamjacobm · 11-07-2011, 09:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by caphillsea77

I could see Salt Lake City metro having a big boom in growth and population, the infrastructure is already in place to support it witha fairly friendly business cliamte and desirable mountain setting. It's just starting to shed its Morman domination image.

Totally agreed. With their fantastic public transportation(what I would do to get even a quarter of what they have in Omaha) and their good location and outdoor activity in the area it is an attractive destination. SLC is destined for a big decade.

I like that you mentioned Mormonism as well. The negative stigma about Mormons in this country is quickly going away which will help the city attract people from all walks of life.

caphillsea77 · 11-07-2011, 10:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iamjacobm

Totally agreed. With their fantastic public transportation(what I would do to get even a quarter of what they have in Omaha) and their good location and outdoor activity in the area it is an attractive destination. SLC is destined for a big decade.

I like that you mentioned Mormonism as well. The negative stigma about Mormons in this country is quickly going away which will help the city attract people from all walks of life.

SLC also has very ambitious plans for downtown development on a very grand scale. No doubt hosting an Olympic event will change the face of any city once showcased to the world.

Salt Lake City is getting an urban makeover other cities dream of.

caphillsea77 · 11-07-2011, 10:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pellegrino23

Albuquerque is a very easy place to be discriminated. A lot of things you should be scared to go public about.

Why should anyone take suggestion to fear? I don't think so. I encountered people from different walks of life there (and many eclectic ones too). It seemed fairly live and let live to me. I'm pretty sure most Burqueños would strongly disagree with you.

iamjacobm · 11-07-2011, 10:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by caphillsea77

SLC also has very ambitious plans for downtown development on a very grand scale. No doubt hosting an Olympic event will change the face of any city once showcased to the world.

Salt Lake City is getting an urban makeover other cities dream of.

Wow! Those projects look amazing. I was already envious of The Gateway in downtown Salt Lake City I didn't even know about City Creek Center. What is the price tag on that? It looks quite substantial.

Omaha doesn't have quite that scale of project going downtown, mostly smaller infill ones. ~500 apartments are u/c in downtown Omaha right now spread in a lot of different projects. The importance of those can't be understated though.

Our biggest downtown project coming soon is the redevelopment of the Swanson plant(yes frozen dinners used to be made at 10th and Capitol in downtown Omaha), but no more. This is directly across the street from our arena/convention center. It also sits about two blocks from our new baseball stadium, the riverfront and the Old Market.

Redevelopment of the former Swanson site

caphillsea77 · 11-07-2011, 11:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iamjacobm

Wow! Those projects look amazing. I was already envious of The Gateway in downtown Salt Lake City I didn't even know about City Creek Center. What is the price tag on that? It looks quite substantial.

Omaha doesn't have quite that scale of project going downtown, mostly smaller infill ones. ~500 apartments are u/c in downtown Omaha right now spread in a lot of different projects. The importance of those can't be understated though.

Our biggest downtown project coming soon is the redevelopment of the Swanson plant(yes frozen dinners used to be made at 10th and Capitol in downtown Omaha), but no more. This is directly across the street from our arena/convention center. It also sits about two blocks from our new baseball stadium, the riverfront and the Old Market.

Redevelopment of the former Swanson site

That's impressive. Omaha wasn't much on my radar but I've read into it a bit more lately and seems like a pretty cool city making big strides. I really like the landscaping design of that project with the plazas and courtyards, looks very inviting.