Council Bluffs Photos (Williams, Union: casinos, mall, housing)

[brad_in_omaha]

I usually post in the "Omaha" forum, but I figured this would be more appropiate in the Iowa forum.

From time to time I get a request for Council Bluffs Photos. I am over there all the time, but surprisingly I have very few non railroad photos. A few weeks ago I got another request for Council Bluffs photos so I decided its time to get to work. Eventually I hope to get a good collection of CB, but here is what I have for now.
Brad Williams Photography - Welcome!

I am open to suggestions too.


A couple sample photos:
1. The Union Pacific Museum


2. The Dodge House

[BrianGuy1979]

Originally Posted by brad_in_omaha

I usually post in the "Omaha" forum, but I figured this would be more appropiate in the Iowa forum.

Your photos are absolutely beautiful. I love looking at all the posts you do on the Omaha forum. Keep up the good work!

[MOKAN]

Originally Posted by brad_in_omaha

I usually post in the "Omaha" forum, but I figured this would be more appropiate in the Iowa forum.

From time to time I get a request for Council Bluffs Photos. I am over there all the time, but surprisingly I have very few non railroad photos. A few weeks ago I got another request for Council Bluffs photos so I decided its time to get to work. Eventually I hope to get a good collection of CB, but here is what I have for now.
Brad Williams Photography - Welcome!

I am open to suggestions too.


A couple sample photos:
1. The Union Pacific Museum


2. The Dodge House

Your photos are awesome. But it would be neat if you or somebody else more thoroughly photographed Council Bluffs. Not just the downtown area and nicer historic parts, but the whole city. From what the typical housing stock looks like in the "semi-urban" and "near-historic" developed gridded streets of the riverbottom flatland on the south and west sides, including the W. Broadway commercial corridor, to the new suburban commercial development and Casinos, to the original suburban parts in the eastern section, including the Mall of the Bluffs, as well as what the actual bluffs look like. Those bluffs look quite rugged and spread out.

I was messing around on eOmaha and checking out the riverfront residential towers and got sidetracked with Council Bluffs, which I must say is ONE INTERESTING place. Google streetviewing the few corridors that they have mapped, I discovered that most of the old part of the city is built in the pancake flat riverbottoms. After Google-cruising down W. Broadway, I think I understand why the place's negative and snotty nickname "Council-tucky" makes reference to the South - it's the hodgepodge development style, no streetscaping, crazy signs everywhere, and an incredible vibrancy - Council Bluffs is a busy place! The aesthetics combined with the demographics and it's as if the town were cut and pasted from somewhere in the South and plopped down next to Omaha.

I know Council Bluffs is about 90% white, and predominantly blue collar and working class. That said, the poverty rate is only 15%, but I'm sure most anybody would assume it's much higher by the looks of the place and the people. Council Bluffs must be one of the closest things to a "white ghetto" we have in this country - and in that, it's a very interesting place. Maybe a better way of putting it would be that the town seems stuck in 1970 demographically and culturally. There aren't many places like that that I know of. The few I can think of are Indepenence, MO (KC's CB-equivalent), and places like St. Joseph, MO and Fort Smith, Ark. Like those towns, I think Council Bluffs could use an extensive aesthetic makeover as far as streetscaping and placing higher standards on commercil facades, parking lots and signage - all of which would make a world of difference.

What I don't understand is why places like this don't clean themselves up, like in the way I suggested, and then market themselves to the working-class as affordable, humble places to call home, and get some new blood and investment into the housing stock. This country is weird in that regard. The blue-collar set is rarely specifically catered or marketed to, not by politicans, businesses, or anything. The place is even perfect for a lightrail or streetcar line straight down Broadway. I suspect it's perfect for that because that's probably how it was originally in the fist place.

Oh, and it appears a swath of Council Bluffs was wiped out for the interstate (480?) just across from downtown Omaha. That's a shame. I should add that the pedestrian bridge seems a little far north to be practical. And it's interesting to see the Iowa-side residential towers that were proposed several years ago didn't get built.

[EastCB]

You don't have a clue about Council
Bluffs. Come visit the city before you post this crap.

[MOKAN]

Originally Posted by EastCB

You don't have a clue about Council
Bluffs. Come visit the city before you post this crap.

That's rude. I do find the city interesting and would like to see it, but the times I've gone to Omaha I've been with others who would think I was crazy. I've seen the housing from the interstate and actually been to the new suburban area in the riverbottom with Walmart, Target, etc. By the way, I don't think I said anything negative anyway. Actually, it was quite positive. Most people trash Council Bluffs without a second thought, so you shouldn't be rude to somebody who actually has an interest in the place.