What do you like/dislike about Lincoln, Nebraska? (motel, restaurants)

[Gunluvver2]

I left my home state of Colorado to go to College in Nebraska in 1964. Some of the things that I liked about Lincoln in the 1960's:
Great car racing. Midwest Speedway on N 27th St (about where WalMart sits now).
Great motorcycle racing. Same place but on Friday.
Great bars. I can't remember the name of any of them. I wonder why?
Always lots of beautiful Ladies.
Decent Movie Theaters and many great movies.
Drive in theaters..
Great fast food places.
Street racing in Lincoln was wild & woolly!
Decent fishing but not as good as the West end of Nebraska.
Husker football. Fun in the 1960's but not as awesome as the 1970's.
Great music on the radio but most were out of State stations.
Lincoln was 50 times as big as the small town I grew up in. I loved all the people.
Hunting was so so.

Things that I like & dislike now about Lincoln:
Still some decent car racing.
No motorcycle racing worth a hoot.
Thank God todays kids are not into street racing like I was!
Lots of beautiful Ladies but I am old enough to be their Grandpa! What a bummer.
More fast food places than ever but few decent sit down places.
More Movie Theaters than ever but very few good movies.
Too many bars and drunks. I haven't had a drink at a bar in years.
Some good fishing but still not as good as Western Nebraska.
I still like good music but I get it from a CD now.
Husker football is still good but not great like the 1970's. That may change!!!
Hunting is better but I can't walk too good now. Oh well.
Lincoln is 100 times bigger than my old hometown now. Getting too big.

Just things from my P.O.V.
GL2

[Jays1983]

Originally Posted by USCAlum

ok, so this is an old thread and I am probably beating a dead horse... literally since we are talking about ANY place in Nebraska.

I have been here in Lincoln over a year now. I was born and raised in Orange County in Southern California. I came here because of my line of work and will be leaving soon, but never soon enough.

Lincoln = Fail
One, small town with small town mentalities. Yes, you may find the odd progressive person *Thank goodness!*, but for the most part. Get out of the 50's! SERIOUSLY!
Two, people don't know how to drive. MOVE! it is ok to go a few miles over the speed limit. NOT 5 miles under! And if you want to cut people off... try doing it then speeding up. I think you are all as backward as the rest of the country assumes you to be.
Three, BORING. Absolutely NOTHING to do here. Seriously. How many mini-museums can one person benefit from?
Four, education sucks. My daughter went to school here briefly.. is now back in CA in school. When she went back to school in CA she was so far behind from being in school here. And since then has caught up thankfully and been in advanced classes like she was before.
Five, religion is cultic here. As is the lame devotion to a horrid country team called the Huskers. Try getting out of the cult mindset when it comes to football and god. Everything in moderation people.
Six, it stinks here. Smells like a mixture of rotten corn and manure.
Seven, as much as I have tried to be nice to people here. They are so completely incapable of holding an intelligent, informed conversation that they have to sink to close minded scrutiny of anything beyond their personal belief.
Seven, the roads suck. You charge so much to people here for car registration you think you would be able to upkeep the roads.
Eight, gas prices are just as bad as California. If I'm in some little backwards town. I expect small town prices.
Nine, really? Westfield mall? South Pointe Mall? They should be called strip malls.
Ten, too many bars and too many drugs. Wow, speaks volumes for how well you keep your youth busy.
Eleven, rednecks. No need to say more.
Twelve, the irritating common ages of people getting married and popping out children. The rest of the country looks at you all as idiots. Don't feed the stereotype by acting like it. Get a good education and career before popping out a handful of mini-mes.
Thirteen, self hating Nebraskans. If you are from here, I am sick of you saying how much you hate it one moment but then saying you will never leave. If you hate it. Do something. Break free. Too many babies who are afraid to leave their parents.

*Counting the days to get out of this hick small town* Yes, Lincoln is a SMALL TOWN. Just own it people. Seriously, the only thing I could say that is good about Lincoln, is the fact that they at least have modern movie theatres. I wonder how long it took for them to build those here?
Oh yea, and, it is only an hour and a half drive to Kansas City. I suggest you go there if by any chance you are stuck in the horrid, stinky, backwards, bible belt, boring state of Nebraska.

That's funny how you cite "education" and "intelligence" at least three times while you put together a mess of sentence fragments, equipped with terrible punctuation, grammar, and lacking coherent thought.

USC Alum - my fat ass. Enjoy your stay!

EDIT: This post was referencing a post which has since been deleted, for whatever reason.

[mattpoulsen]

Yup, Lincoln and Nebraska in general have absolutely nothing to offer according to this clown. Yet, why is he here?? Oh yeah...a JOB! Something his precious California has few of these days!

Maybe California would be wise to adopt some of the "boring, lame, country town" ways this guys despises so much.

[Jays1983]

Funny thing is, after he wrote that stupid post, I called him out and he immediatly deleted his post. Luckily I had it copied already and was able to manually quote it again. =-)

[somwhere??]

dislike-the airport!!!! really how can a decent size city survive with an airport that small!!!

[karlysue]

Originally Posted by unwillinginNE

My point was that nowhere that we have ever lived (Illinois, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Hawaii, Ohio, Georgia, Nebraska) have we NOT had buses for the kids. Not having buses is not the issue entirely. It's the fact that it really does handicap the people in this town that really want to provide for their families but really need to work outside of Hastings in order to do so. They cant take off work in Grand Island and drop off / pick up their children. And there are no after school programs, which is also really common everywhere else that we've been that children can attend with their friends and peers that they enjoy. Believe me, my knowledge of what goes on outside of Nebraska is pretty in depth. There is not a family that I know that does not have problems in one manner or another due to lack of school buses. Some business DO let their employees off work around here to go pick up their kids. But then who is home with them? Some kids walk to their parents' offices and hang out at the office with them until they get off work.

There are things called babysitters... I'm a college student and I'm telling you there are several people that would gladly pick up your kid/kids from school and babysit until you're off work. Several people have to do that and are fine with it. A lady I babysat for has a kid in school here and has never complained about it. I agree that it would suck, but you just have to find a way to make it work... that one issue doesn't make HASTINGS a horrible place.

[karlysue]

I think Lincoln is a nice town. I really hate cities to be honest, but I feel like Lincoln is a pretty nice town; the way it looks, the driving, the people, the entertainment, the size... but the potholes do suck! lol

[jewelyi82]

It's true, Lincoln is very much a state school college town. Husker football brings in a lot of people and the downtown bar scene caters to the college crowd. Living expenses are also relatively low. And although there is some crime, it's really not that bad. There are only a few places I wouldn't walk alone at night.

However, Lincoln is pretty backward, racist, and segregated. (If you haven't noticed this, it's probably because you're in the majority.) On the whole, people are sheltered and ignorant and there's not much interest in learning about other parts of the world, cultures, or people. It also has poor public transportation and not a lot to do if you're not a part of the college scene or if you're not some Indie Rock/hipster kid. If you're white then you'll say it's a great place to raise a family. If you're not white, then you'll be frustrated with raising children in Lincoln. It's also a very lonely place. People are friendly (i.e., "polite" ) but that doesn't make them friends. I don't think the educational system is great either. When I went away to college, I felt way behind even though I was an AP kid in the LPS system. I had some catching up to do.

I was born and raised in Lincoln.

[Backintheville2]

Originally Posted by unwillinginNE

It actually does have a lot to do with Hastings. I did not immediately notice the issues with Hastings and really liked the little town until we realized that we just could not make our work schedules happen with one of us working full time here and one of us working full time in Grand Island. I absolutely love being a parent, thanks for asking. I've always been able to work full time in an industry and balance life at home, too. My point was that nowhere that we have ever lived (Illinois, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Hawaii, Ohio, Georgia, Nebraska) have we NOT had buses for the kids. Not having buses is not the issue entirely. It's the fact that it really does handicap the people in this town that really want to provide for their families but really need to work outside of Hastings in order to do so. They cant take off work in Grand Island and drop off / pick up their children. And there are no after school programs, which is also really common everywhere else that we've been that children can attend with their friends and peers that they enjoy. Believe me, my knowledge of what goes on outside of Nebraska is pretty in depth. There is not a family that I know that does not have problems in one manner or another due to lack of school buses. Some business DO let their employees off work around here to go pick up their kids. But then who is home with them? Some kids walk to their parents' offices and hang out at the office with them until they get off work.

I may have sounded like a ranting person, but I've dealt with a lot here. Kids breaking in to our house and stealing our vehicle, and not getting punished for it in the system. That is why I do not like the courts. What happened to us was really mild compared to what happened to all of the other victims of these kids. Some people almost lost their lives when their home was smashed in to with a stolen car. So, I just cant say that I've ever lived anywhere that I've had police pull up in my driveway so much to serve us with victim-witness subpoenas before. My refrigerator has had at least one stuck to it for several months now. But as State witnesses, we are never allowed to testify, and nothing is ever done to the kids. So how am I supposed to feel? We've reinforced our doors and windows and we live on a farm. How ironic is that? To have an alarm system on your doors and windows on a farm? I just want to feel safer in my home than that. We ourhave to lock car doors at night.

I did not lump the welfare recipients into one category, or did not mean to. The reason I do not allow families with felony convictions in the daycare anymore is because the two times I've made an exception, both parents went back on drugs and back to jail. I do have one in my daycare whose father I had to ban from coming to the house due to the father making terroristic threats to one of my other daycare mothers. She happened to live in the same complex - the HUD homes - as this person, and has had foreign substances poured in her gas tank, destroying her fuel system, human feces placed on her doorstep, beer bottles broken in her yard and her child's foot sliced open by them, nails and screws placed upside down behind her tires flattening them, that kind of thing. Maybe you understand my frustration a little better now. I have lots of people that are dependent on the system whose children are in my daycare, and they are good kids and they are good people. But when someone shows up for a daycare interview with hickies all over their neck, late for the appointment because she just got back from a camping trip with her convicted felon husband, and her kids have to be dragged by her kicking and screaming and shoved in the car when she left here, and she informs me that she's an informant for the police department and is getting ready to bust her husband's friend for meth... well, I just dont think that I want that kind of thing around my house and around my daycare kids. Would you want your kids going to a daycare where really questionable people were coming and going, and where a father is picking up his son and runs into the lady that he said he would kill and a fight breaks out? I know I dont want my child in that kind of environment, and to tell you the truth, people that bring their kids here appreciate the fact that I have that policy. It makes them know that their kids are safer. I actually had one family learn that I did work for State cases and they said they did not want their daughter going to daycare with "welfare kids". How fair is that? The kids here are good kids, and they like coming here.

Here's the breakdown of my daycare:
Seven kids in the daycare.
One family with no convictions that they've talked to me about. Two mothers with drug/alcohol convictions, one of them being a felon, both involving meth, one mother a high school student and doing very well, - family involved in drugs - meth - and prison issues, but she is breaking free of that, one family with alcohol abuse problems but no known meth issues based on appearance, and one mother trying to get her career started but unsure how to do so, also dependent on the system. Of the seven kids, four are dependent on the system, three are not. And the interviews for the care are as much for me as they are for the people. I will not put any child in harm's way, and I have taken in more than my fair share of kids that needed a place to be, not only in the daycare but in general. They like coming here because it is peaceful, but they know if they get in trouble with the law (the kids) that they are not welcome here anymore. I dont see how I'm being judgemental about those things. I just dont want the lifestyles of people that make bad choices in their lives over and over and over again around me.

Whether this helped to clarify things or not, it really does not matter. What I feel about this place is real. I dont think I would ever have known the magnitude of what goes on had I not opened the daycare. I think the planning for the schools could be a little better where traffic is concerned on drop off and pick up for the safety of everyone involved, and I think it would really help to boost the economy here and give people more options if they offered programs for kids that are fun and also allowed families to earn a living. We are not the only family experiencing this here. Once the one mother moved from the HUD homes, her older child was no longer right next door to the school. So, now a bike has to be ridden across a major road and the child is 9. I feel for him when he has to do it in sub zero wind chill during the winter because his mom, his single mom who worked really hard to get off of public assistance has to WORK to maintain self sufficiency. It has nothing to do with not wanting to be a parent.

"We have to lock our car doors at night." Isn't that something you'd automatically do NO MATTER where you live?

[SCGranny]

My experience with Lincoln (even less than "ItsMeFred" 's) is:
Great hospital, very modern and efficient... good docs, nurses, and techs.
The folks were ALL friendly. Didn't meet a single impolite, much less nasty, one. Even the folks driving by while I was walking waved and smiled. (I'm short, round, and ugly, so trust me, it wasn't me!)
The fancy-schmancy Haymarket? An underused and overhyped tourist trap of bars, private businesses in search of an upscale address, restaurants and expensive shops with a lot of expensive junk - and I do mean junk. Only good thing I found there was The Mill Coffee Shop. NOM.
The Embassy Suites... ahhhhhh.... I'm not much for fancy motels - usually as long as it has a bath, bed, and coffee in the room, I'm fine - but this one, oh my goodness was worth the extra dime. The folks there were absolutely wonderful, and treated us like we were their rich aunt and uncle come to stay. Normally motel restaurant food is merely, yawningly, so-so, but that one is exquisite.