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You are absolutely correct in the assumption that Omaha is viewed as only Omaha because it is in Nebraska, if Omaha was in Texas, Cali, Florida or etc.. You wouldn't need people like me to stand up for the needless critisism it gets from other places and even worse, from its own citizens who do not know what they have..
I stand up for it, not because I 'need' to know that it is a great place, but to help other people realize what they have here.
Until people started (chamber and businesses) to promote the city to its own citizens, Omaha was stale and a dead end city. The city has taken off to hights never before seen, and truly is a special place for many many reason's and actually would be considered a first class city if it wasnt located in eastern Nebraska, as that alone gives Omaha the worst classification to many peoples ears..
And so, as a proud citizen I do my own research and educate the public of Omaha, Nebraska and anybody else curious to know what Omaha is and what it has.
I know the city is a great city, and the only way to keep it a great city is to let people know it is. Otherwise, with all the negativity pointed in this direction it would be doomed to fail!
Omaha is a great city, period. But why does everyone who STILL lives in Omaha have to fight so hard to prove it. Do you feel inferior, are you constantly attacked? If you are having the time of your hard working life in Omaha then GREAT. Leave it at that. I always hear a lot of my friends who still live in Omaha, always fighting to defend their choice, there is no need to do that, Omaha is a great place to live and to have fun, sometimes I feel that Omaha does not get the fair shake that it deserves. The NCAA Tournament should be looking to make Omaha one of the cities it plays at, there should be a pro team there, and for crying out loud if one of the richest men in the world live there then who are we to judge. So please quit whining about your city, it could be worse you could live in Council Bluffs.
You speak of whining about our city and defending it in the same (run on) paragraph?? You’re trying to make contradicting points here ya yuppy.
Yes, the NCAA has already decided to play the 1st & 2nd rounds of the tournament at the Quest Center in March of 2008. Excellent thought.
I think a lot of what you have heard are locals defending the place they chose to call home. People do take that sort of thing personal.
What do you expect?? Are we supposed to say, "oh yeah, you're right. This place sucks."?
And no, there should not be a pro team here. The market is not large enough. Maybe you can come here and invest in a professional put put team.
I love Omaha. I've moved five times in my life, lived in four very different parts of the United States, and when my family moved back to Omaha, it was a little odd, but it soon felt great. Once I graduated high school and started getting involved in the city, I learned a lot about it. There are tons of great restaurants, dozens of really superb quality bands from just about every music style you could imagine, interesting bars, and nice neighborhoods to walk around in and enjoy on a bright afternoon. And this is just in the Old Market and the neighborhoods around it. Omaha is a great place to live.
So please quit whining about your city, it could be worse you could live in Council Bluffs.
Council Bluffs is actually a very nice area of the metro. I invite anyone to visit downtown Council Bluffs... where you'll find some of the oldest, most interesting architecture in the metro... and to the immediate east, you'll find beautiful bluffside neighborhoods like nothing we have across the river in Omaha.
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there should be a pro team there
Who needs a pro team... when you basically have the same atmosphere at Creighton basketball games (for example). They're drawing NBA like attendance averaging over 15,000!
I was beat up pretty good when I tried to post MY THOUGHTS/OPINIONS regarding our city. A user from California (Corel) wanted some information recently and I expressed my thoughts regarding Omaha, I personally don't care for Omaha or the surrounding area, but that is MY OPINION.
We (wife and I) are 30-somethings, both college educated and in probably the upper-middle end of the income spectrum here in the metro area. We have kids and live in a pretty normal house.
Unfortunately Omaha (+surrounding area) does not have enough to offer us. Below is MY very short list of why Omaha does not work FOR US.
--We have no large amusement parks to speak of (Worlds of Fun and Adventureland don't count either).
--Here are the 'toys' (camper, boat, ATV, mountain bikes, golf clubs, sporting equipment, etc). Our idea of fun would be an extended weekend of hiking, boating, riding the motorcycles, riding the mountain bikes, etc. The surrounding area (within 2 hours) does not have much to offer that would be all-inclusive of these activities. Probably the closest would be Lewis and Clark Res., or maybe southern Missouri, a little too far for a weekend trip.
--The taxes are high. Nebraska ranked 9th in a Tax Burden Ranking by retirementliving.com (granted we are far from retiring, the site was just a souce of information. Their cited source was: Tax Foundation and Bureau of Economic Analysis). They evaluated all the taxes faced by citizens of a state, including: gas taxes, state income taxes, property taxes, etc...
Here is a question for the OP: Why did you ask for OPINIONS from others when you are trying to counter EVERYTHING that anyone posts? These are OPINIONS that everyone is entitled to. Above is MY short list of a few items that do not work for us. And you asked for it.
I've lived here for 90% of my 30+ years, maybe I am jaded because I had a chance to travel/live elsewhere after college and see what the country has to offer.
You certainly raise many valid points, unfortunatly my points are VALID TO ME.
I was beat up pretty good when I tried to post MY THOUGHTS/OPINIONS regarding our city. A user from California (Corel) wanted some information recently and I expressed my thoughts regarding Omaha, I personally don't care for Omaha or the surrounding area, but that is MY OPINION.
We (wife and I) are 30-somethings, both college educated and in probably the upper-middle end of the income spectrum here in the metro area. We have kids and live in a pretty normal house.
Unfortunately Omaha (+surrounding area) does not have enough to offer us. Below is MY very short list of why Omaha does not work FOR US.
--We have no large amusement parks to speak of (Worlds of Fun and Adventureland don't count either).
--Here are the 'toys' (camper, boat, ATV, mountain bikes, golf clubs, sporting equipment, etc). Our idea of fun would be an extended weekend of hiking, boating, riding the motorcycles, riding the mountain bikes, etc. The surrounding area (within 2 hours) does not have much to offer that would be all-inclusive of these activities. Probably the closest would be Lewis and Clark Res., or maybe southern Missouri, a little too far for a weekend trip.
--The taxes are high. Nebraska ranked 9th in a Tax Burden Ranking by retirementliving.com (granted we are far from retiring, the site was just a souce of information. Their cited source was: Tax Foundation and Bureau of Economic Analysis). They evaluated all the taxes faced by citizens of a state, including: gas taxes, state income taxes, property taxes, etc...
Here is a question for the OP: Why did you ask for OPINIONS from others when you are trying to counter EVERYTHING that anyone posts? These are OPINIONS that everyone is entitled to. Above is MY short list of a few items that do not work for us. And you asked for it.
I've lived here for 90% of my 30+ years, maybe I am jaded because I had a chance to travel/live elsewhere after college and see what the country has to offer.
You certainly raise many valid points, unfortunatly my points are VALID TO ME.
I can't tell if you really are expressing your dissatisfaction with the area or if you want someone to congratulate you and your wife on all your success and the toys it has afforded you.
It depends on your perspective, I agree. With a metro of nearly 1.2 mil (if very nearby lincoln is included) and your not happy, then there will not be any way to add or take away anything to change your mind. That is based on experience, and your right if your mind is set there is no shaking you from that.
I moved to Las Vegas, and believe me there is, honest to god, much more variety of entertainment in different categories here than there is there.. But you'd probably be happier there, why? probably because the Wynn has a Lamborghini dealership and a mall that doesn't have price tags, and to some people that is a release like as if they have been in a dungeon all of their lives and to some of us who have experienced that or realize that these type of things will always be out of reach, it is not something that we need around us..
Yes, the tax 'rate' is a top 10-15 per year, but that is taken way off base, if you have an average tax rate for an area with a very low cost of living, then you will pull in less than average of the amount of taxes and so it is completely unfair to judge based off of the 'rate' secondly a house in vegas average $350,000 to our $150,000, but yet our tax rate somehow makes it unaffordable?
More or less, when the quality of life factor in Omaha is usually looked down upon, it is usually referrenced to not having a mountain or a body of water the size of a state nearby or some crazy traumatic event or rough friends or family. When the quality of life is looked highly upon, it is usually from somebody who has lived outside of the city for at least a while and realized that although a mountain and a big body of water is rarely a downfall, the economy 'outside' of Omaha is less favorable in 'every' metropolitan area in the US 'except' for Richmond, VA and in many cases, much less favorable outside of the Omaha metro...
There is plenty to do here and really has broken the barrier of mid-size to large-size metro with the amount of amendities and things to do here, but once again perception can be blackened by things outside of what a city has to offer sometimes...
Last edited by ehenningsen; 01-18-2008 at 12:22 PM..
I moved to Las Vegas, and believe me there is, honest to god, much more variety of entertainment in different categories here than there is there.. But you'd probably be happier there, why? probably because the Wynn has a Lamborghini dealership and a mall that doesn't have price tags, and to some people that is a release like as if they have been in a dungeon all of their lives and to some of us who have experienced that or realize that these type of things will always be out of reach, it is not something that we need around us..
...
Las Vegas? Ok most assume it as all glitz and glamor.
But since you lived there, need I mention North Las Vegas/ Old Downtown Vegas? I had heard that was not a good area when I was there 11 years ago. But since the city 'redeveloped' downtown and had that nice looking new Fremont Street Experience I had to see it. My motor home was broken into while in the parking structure! And the motor home was not a big new behemoth, it was a 10 year old van type motor home. Despite all the new attractions there, the crime still existed. And the policeman more or less told me I should have concealed my property better.(All that was taken was a leather jacket and some groceries) By the police attitude, I should not have been surprised to have my vehicle broken into "in that neighborhood"
(Sound familiar yet?) With police more visible 'on the strip' crime there is much less frequent.
--Here are the 'toys' (camper, boat, ATV, mountain bikes, golf clubs, sporting equipment, etc). Our idea of fun would be an extended weekend of hiking, boating, riding the motorcycles, riding the mountain bikes, etc. The surrounding area (within 2 hours) does not have much to offer that would be all-inclusive of these activities. Probably the closest would be Lewis and Clark Res., or maybe southern Missouri, a little too far for a weekend trip.
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Not to interrupt this thread, but have you tried the lakes out here in central Nebraska, such as Harlan, Sherman, Johnson, Calamus or even Lake Mac. out west? Perhaps you have and didn't like them, guess I just wanted to do a little promoting. Carry on.
I miss our boat... the rest of the family just got 'bored' with it (they say, the only thing better than owning a boat... is knowing someone who owns one).
While we owned it... we loved Manawa (someone gave it a bad rap) and Branched Oak. I suppose if you've got a really big boat... they might seem to small, but they were great for our 19 footer.
I would get off work early on, say, a Thursday... hookup and head over to Manawa... we'd be literally the only boat in the lake... try doing that on the coasts/'big' cities.
And we did many weekenders up to Lewis and Clark... it's only a 2 1/2 hr jaunt... there are some nice lakes in southwest Iowa too.
The Missouri River is great for sight seeing as well... it gets a bad 'sewage dumping' rap... I'm not suggesting that anyone swim in it (you wouldn't want to swim in a river this large/swift anyway)... but there are some very nice little coves/sand bars to stop and have a picknick in/on.
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I understand NebraskaNative..
. Carry on.
