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View Poll Results: Omaha vs Colorado Springs
Omaha 26 48.15%
Colorado Springs 28 51.85%
Voters: 54. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 04-20-2017, 08:04 AM
 
Location: Virginia Beach, VA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Enean View Post
I'm aware of commuting patterns, and I know that Omaha and Lincoln will not be part of the same CSA, for now. However, I tried to find evidence that CS and Pueblo will be combined in a CSA, and could not locate that, either. Either way, the cities are a similar distance, so I felt it fair to make that comparison.
There's nothing official out there that I'm aware of. It's the growing commuting pattern between the two cities that hint at the Census Bureau registering them as a CSA. I'm surprised it hasn't already happened. Perhaps someone familiar with commuting patterns between Omaha and Lincoln can weigh in on the possibility of these two combining?

Add: The distance between Colorado Springs and Pueblo is about 45 miles compared to 65 between Omaha and Lincoln. I don't necessarily think this is a matter of "if you add one you have to add the other."
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Old 04-20-2017, 08:11 AM
 
3,733 posts, read 2,841,527 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by iknowftbll View Post
There's nothing official out there that I'm aware of. It's the growing commuting pattern between the two cities that hint at the Census Bureau registering them as a CSA. I'm surprised it hasn't already happened. Perhaps someone familiar with commuting patterns between Omaha and Lincoln can weigh in on the possibility of these two combining?

Add: The distance between Colorado Springs and Pueblo is about 45 miles compared to 65 between Omaha and Lincoln. I don't necessarily think this is a matter of "if you add one you have to add the other."
45 miles and 56 miles...pretty similar. But, you really can't count either.
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Old 04-20-2017, 08:25 AM
 
Location: Virginia Beach, VA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Enean View Post
45 miles and 56 miles...pretty similar. But, you really can't count either.
Not right now anyway. So the two MSA populations of 925,000 and 712,000 are the best metric for a size comparison. Still I consider that pretty negligible. While 200,000+ may seem significant when talking smaller MSAs, the difference doesn't really elevate it into a higher tier of cities than Colorado Springs.
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Old 04-20-2017, 08:45 AM
 
3,733 posts, read 2,841,527 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by iknowftbll View Post
Not right now anyway. So the two MSA populations of 925,000 and 712,000 are the best metric for a size comparison. Still I consider that pretty negligible. While 200,000+ may seem significant when talking smaller MSAs, the difference doesn't really elevate it into a higher tier of cities than Colorado Springs.
I think, as a city, Omaha has more prominence. While not a prominent city, it's the home of 4 Fortune 500 Companies. Not sure how many CS has, but I can't find any.
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Old 04-20-2017, 09:10 AM
 
Location: Virginia Beach, VA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Enean View Post
I think, as a city, Omaha has more prominence. While not a prominent city, it's the home of 4 Fortune 500 Companies. Not sure how many CS has, but I can't find any.
Not being in the shadow of a truly big city probably helps. Even the closest "big" city to Omaha, Kansas City, doesn't really dominate its region the way Denver dominates the Mountain West. Colorado Springs has to compete with Denver to attract business and that's a tough out. Omaha is a promising city and 4 Fortune 500 companies is pretty impressive for a city of its size. I don't think Colorado Springs has any F500. I'd guess Omaha has a slightly more robust economy and a broader range of job opportunities as a result. Omaha has also been a "city" far longer than Colorado Springs. In 1960 Omaha had over 300,000 people while Colorado Springs was at 70,000. Omaha has a longer history of building prominence and infrastructure while Colorado Springs has grown up in the "suburban era" in the shadow of a much larger and more complete city.

And yet, even these advantages aren't enough for Omaha to really separate itself. As cities go, it's not like this is a matter of big city vs small town or big city vs small city. Taken in a vacuum Colorado Springs really does hang well across the board. Considering some of this additional context Colorado Springs gets the benefit of the doubt. A 170 pound man doing a 435 pound deadlift is more impressive than a 220 pound man doing 450.
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Old 04-20-2017, 10:40 AM
 
Location: The Springs
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Y'all, I was just trying to put things in a more contemporary perspective. Most folks assume Colorado Springs is still a town of 70,000 people. Omaha seems, and IS, much more urban in character than the Springs. COS appears way more sprawled out and feels like a large suburb. My points were that the two are closer in population than many would assume.

I still believe either town would be a good choice.
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Old 04-20-2017, 04:48 PM
 
Location: Arizona
6,137 posts, read 3,824,862 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Enean View Post
I think, as a city, Omaha has more prominence. While not a prominent city, it's the home of 4 Fortune 500 Companies. Not sure how many CS has, but I can't find any.
Omaha has 8 fortune 1,000 companies, Con Agra did leave the area.

Colorado Springs on the other hand doesn't have one fortune 1000 company.

Omaha also has a world-renowned medical center, Nebraska Medical Center. Which is a 2nd skyline and downtown for the city.

Colorado Springs has 4 medium-sized hospitals, but nothing compared to Omaha's vast network of hospitals.

http://www.selectgreateromaha.com/Om...Fortune100.pdf

Colorado Springs does not have one fortune 1000 company. I can't even think of a large company that is based in Colorado Springs.

Omaha has a much, much higher GDP per-capita

Omaha has a GDP per-capita of $57,000 thanks to the massive number of huge companies, world-class medical facilities and strong manfacturing base.

Colorado Springs on the other is basically dependent on federal and state government. The main growth industries are government, government-contracts and health-care and it has a GDP per-capita of $38,000.

Colorado Springs has 280,000 non-farm employment out of 712,000 people.

Omaha has 493,000 non-farm employment for a metro of around 900,000 people.

https://www.bls.gov/regions/midwest/ne_omaha_msa.htm

https://www.bls.gov/regions/mountain...prings_msa.htm

Many people are moving to Colorado Springs to commute to Denver. But the main interstate is only two lanes and if there is a traffic accident then it is slowed to a crawl for hours.
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Old 04-20-2017, 05:01 PM
 
Location: Arizona
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Quote:
Originally Posted by iknowftbll View Post
There's nothing official out there that I'm aware of. It's the growing commuting pattern between the two cities that hint at the Census Bureau registering them as a CSA. I'm surprised it hasn't already happened. Perhaps someone familiar with commuting patterns between Omaha and Lincoln can weigh in on the possibility of these two combining?

Add: The distance between Colorado Springs and Pueblo is about 45 miles compared to 65 between Omaha and Lincoln. I don't necessarily think this is a matter of "if you add one you have to add the other."
Lincoln to West Omaha where many employers are located is 40-50 miles. Downtown might be 65 miles, but Downtown Omaha is the eastern most neighborhood in the city and many people work in West Omaha which is commutable from Lincoln.

I don't think the commuter interchange rate is that high from Colorado Springs to Pueblo.

Even though Pueblo West is certainly an easy commute to Colorado Springs, I can't envision someone commuting just for that as home prices in Pueblo West and Southern Colorado Springs suburbs is similar.

There just isn't much incentive to commute from Pueblo to Colorado Springs when Colorado Springs southern suburbs have very low prices per square foot that are comperable to Pueblo.

Pueblo looks much more affordable then Colorado Springs because the prices in inner-city Pueblo are extremely low because the city struggles with some of the highest violent crime rates of any city in the western United States and there are many, many homes that a century old or more that are extremely run-down.

It is not the same situation that Colorado Springs and Denver have. Colorado Springs is much, much more affordable per square foot then Metro Denver. Many people have moved to Colorado Springs and commute to Denver but it is a two lane road so just a small traffic issue can be an hours long delay.
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Old 04-21-2017, 07:51 AM
 
Location: Virginia Beach, VA
11,157 posts, read 13,919,914 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lovecrowds View Post
Omaha has 8 fortune 1,000 companies...
As I acknowledged, Omaha has a more robust economy. But economy is only one element at consideration here. Depending on one's priorities it can be the single most important element and if that's the case, one may be able to sleep better at night in Omaha knowing he has a few fortune 500 companies as neighbors. That these companies aren't BASED in Colorado Springs doesn't mean there are no good jobs to be had there. Again, this really isn't a matter of "Omaha has it, Colorado Springs doesn't."

Quote:
Originally Posted by lovecrowds View Post
Lincoln to West Omaha where many employers are located is 40-50 miles. Downtown might be 65 miles, but Downtown Omaha is the eastern most neighborhood in the city and many people work in West Omaha which is commutable from Lincoln.

I don't think the commuter interchange rate is that high from Colorado Springs to Pueblo.

Even though Pueblo West is certainly an easy commute to Colorado Springs, I can't envision someone commuting just for that as home prices in Pueblo West and Southern Colorado Springs suburbs is similar.

There just isn't much incentive to commute from Pueblo to Colorado Springs when Colorado Springs southern suburbs have very low prices per square foot that are comperable to Pueblo.

Pueblo looks much more affordable then Colorado Springs because the prices in inner-city Pueblo are extremely low because the city struggles with some of the highest violent crime rates of any city in the western United States and there are many, many homes that a century old or more that are extremely run-down.

It is not the same situation that Colorado Springs and Denver have. Colorado Springs is much, much more affordable per square foot then Metro Denver. Many people have moved to Colorado Springs and commute to Denver but it is a two lane road so just a small traffic issue can be an hours long delay.
I guess we'll see. Personally I don't like the idea of Pueblo and Colorado Springs growing together anyway. I'd even favor a slowing of growth in Colorado Springs/El Paso County to a point that allows the city/county/state to catch up on an infrastructure that is way behind.

And that is one of the biggest knocks I can offer on Colorado Springs: while it's not a "big city" it's definitely not a small town anymore. Yet, getting any kind of improvements through seems to be a monumental challenge. I realize there's a lot of different elements in play but it's getting out of hand. Look at Las Vegas: in 1960 it had 65,000 people, similar to Colorado Springs' 70,000. Today Vegas has over 600,000 and the metro is over 2,000,000. That city grew faster in the same era as Colorado Springs, yet they didn't seem to have problems keeping up with infrastructure requirements. Granted they also had a nice source of funding Colorado Springs lacked.

Regardless of the reasoning, the infrastructure is a legitimate critique of an otherwise pretty nice city.
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Old 04-21-2017, 07:49 PM
 
Location: Taos NM
5,314 posts, read 5,034,411 times
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Based on the factors the OP listed, Omaha wins by a lot. Omaha is a flat out better city, but in a crappy location. CO Springs is a great location, but a meh city.

The Omaha downtown is obviously better, that's not even really up for question. This tails into nightlife, where Omaha wins again. Nightlife in CO Springs is hiking the incline and watching a sunset . There's some nightlife in the Springs, but it has a strong military presence to it...

Economy in the Springs is getting better, but there's still hoards of people applying for any decent job (lots commute to Denver and would like to have a job at home). Plus home prices are rising rapidly without a good economy, and if the economy does get better, home prices will rise even faster. CO Springs will never have a good COL on average due to the desirable location. Omaha has a really good COL ratio, corporate presence, and unemployment rate.

Neighborhoods, CO Springs wins. There's a lot of cool neighborhoods tucked into hills with good houses and a decent commute to anywhere.

Crime, Omaha wins again. CO Springs is getting worse IMO. 10 homicides already this year when there was only 1 this time last year. The whole southeast swath of the city is pretty seedy. Domestic abuse is high too.
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