[star_gazer]

Okay... another Omaha freak here. I certainly wouldn't claim that Omaha deserves to be compared side by side with America's great, large cities. I do think it's a great smaller city... and to try to fix some of the damage caused by some of my fellow Omaha enthusiats... I share a photo tour of some of Omaha. Not world class... but a great small city with a bigger city vibe.

Anyway... so here's a sampling of various images from around the city...

Approaching downtown from the airport which is located just 3 miles to the north. Eppley by the way, handles almost 4.5 million passengers annually, which is more traffic than airports in larger cities such as Louisville and Oklahoma City... drawing heavily from the surrounding rural areas of South Dakota and Iowa.



Heartland of America Park (and 300 ft fountain, one of the nations highest) sits on Omaha's riverfront



Gene Leahy Mall in the center of downtown... a great urban green space





New Holland Performing Arts Center, sitting on the Gene Leahy Mall





Downtown and midtown (right 1/3rd of photo) skylines seen from the bluffs of Council Bluffs



Downtown Old Market district







Riverfront







Pioneer Courage Park



Qwest Center, this year hosting NCAA regionals, final 4 womens volleyball, US Olympic swim trials, and much more (top 10 in US concert ticket sales according to Pollstar)



Home to Creighton Bluejays... which draw in the top 15 in NCAA basketball attendance (not too shabby for a school of 7,000).



Rosenblatt Stadium (to be replaced by a new downtown stadium)... home of a AAA affiliate and the College World Series... also the largest minor league ballpark in the nation





A sampling of Omaha's urban neighborhoods, Omaha has a surprisingly large amount of older historic urban neighborhoods... it was 'once' a much larger city... just prior to the 20th century in fact, it boasted a larger population than it's neighbor Kansas City to the south. A severe drought and market panic led to Omaha's population growth becoming 'stunted' compared to other midwestern cities... otherwise it may well have been larger and better known today.

Midtown


Mutual of Omaha's headquarters building, one of 5 Fortune 500 companies headquartered in the city of Omaha (more than much larger KC).


Benson (burgeoning arts district)




Park East




South Omaha




Dundee




Vinton Street




North 24th




South 13th




Council Bluffs




A sampling of our historic neighborhoods

Mercer Park




Field Club




Hanscom Park




Gold Coast




Omaha has two medical schools (the only metro under 1 million which can make that claim)... Creighton and the University of Nebraska-Medical Center... the latter has a fairly impressive campus in Midtown... with an emerging skyline all it's own.

Durham Research Center... a 2nd identical tower is nearing completion


Lied Transplant Center... a world leader in solid organ transplantation


Creighton University


Creighton's own medical center campus


Some of Omaha's more prominent developments going on today...

Midtown Crossing at Turner Park, 600 condos/apartments, 200k sq ft of retail/entertainment


Wallstreet Tower (2nd from left in rendering), 373 feet


Aksarben Village, 750k sq ft of office/250k retail,entertainment, 500 residential units


Missouri River spanning pedestrian bridge


Riverfront Place, phase II (tower on left)


Downtown street car system


80 Dodge mixed use tower development


New downtown baseball park with 25 year contract to hose NCAA College World Series



A sampling of some attractions...

Henry Doorly Zoo (definitely world class)




Strategic Air and Space Museum




Lauritzen Botanical Gardens




Durham Museum (Omaha's old Union Station)




Boystown, a city all it's own


Joslyn Art Museum


The Rose Children's Theatre


Orpheum Theatre, hosting broadway/stage productions


Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts


Omaha's Childrens Museum


Nation's largest community playhouse




Parting shot of the beautiful First National Center

[lammius]

Wow. Apart from the pic of the basketball game, is everyone white?

[star_gazer]

Not exactly... here are the figures from the 2000 census...

White 78.4%
Black 13.3%
Asian 1.7%

Hispanic 7.5% (spread across multiple races)


A couple of factoids: Omaha is the smallest city (in a state not bordering Mexico) to have a Mexican Consulate... and has the largest population of Sudanese refugees in the nation.

And here are some native 'black' Omahans... you may or may not have heard of...

Malcom Little (aka 'X')
Bob Gibson (Hall of Fame pitcher)
Bob Boozer (NBA great)
John Beasley (actor, now runs a theatre in Omaha)
Ahman Green (NFL running back)
Gale Sayers (Chicago Bear great)
Gabrielle Union (actress)
Preston Love (jazz legend)

[oilpainter]

OHH...I thought you meant an 'Obama' photo tour...

[gold dust]

wow, beautiful! I never knew....!!!

[Cruikshl]

All my family is in Omaha. It is such a joy and fun time when I come home. What a neat city it is.

[WILWRadio]

Gale Sayers is a native Kansan but he did spend many of his formative years in Omaha.

Originally Posted by star_gazer

Not exactly... here are the figures from the 2000 census...

White 78.4%
Black 13.3%
Asian 1.7%

Hispanic 7.5% (spread across multiple races)


A couple of factoids: Omaha is the smallest city (in a state not bordering Mexico) to have a Mexican Consulate... and has the largest population of Sudanese refugees in the nation.

And here are some native 'black' Omahans... you may or may not have heard of...

Malcom Little (aka 'X')
Bob Gibson (Hall of Fame pitcher)
Bob Boozer (NBA great)
John Beasley (actor, now runs a theatre in Omaha)
Ahman Green (NFL running back)
Gale Sayers (Chicago Bear great)
Gabrielle Union (actress)
Preston Love (jazz legend)

[goozer]

As someone who is a little perplexed by all the pro-Omaha posts that have been popping up on this forum as of late, I have to say that I am impressed with some of these pictures. Omaha seems to be a more interesting place than I would have guessed. Reminds me a bit of Louisville and Kansas City in terms of a midwestern city that has a warehouse district undergoing a renaissance.

[WILWRadio]

At least the OP of this string has the ability to see Omaha more for what it is rather than trying to puff it up into something it is not.

All these pro Omaha posts are from people that suffer from a serious inferiority complex about their region and they are attempting to show the rest of the country how much better the place allegedly is when compared to other metro areas. Most of the time they let their feelings get in the way of the facts or reality.

[2Adam29]

Originally Posted by WILWRadio

At least the OP of this string has the ability to see Omaha more for what it is rather than trying to puff it up into something it is not.

All these pro Omaha posts are from people that suffer from a serious inferiority complex about their region and they are attempting to show the rest of the country how much better the place allegedly is when compared to other metro areas. Most of the time they let their feelings get in the way of the facts or reality.

don't. you can't just shut your mouth can you? If you knew what was good for everyone you'd stop bringing up a sore topic.
I've said time and time again that I don't need people to love Omaha, merely recognise it. I've said that it doesn't need to be best city in the world or #1, and outside of that, this thread ignores the negatives of the city more than I have, so stop acting like I'm dilusional.


Great pics BTW.