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I believe Great Plaines cities such as Omaha, Kansas City MO, Tulsa OK, Oklahoma City etc have an underrated perception of their actual urbanity. My city, Omaha, is the flagship city of a metro of 1 million (1.4 Million people live within a 50 miles radius of Downtown Omaha).
In any case, here is a very recent video showing the Urban downtown core and skyline of Omaha. This may surprise many
I visited Omaha several years ago and was nicely surprised about the urbanity of downtown and even some of the areas just outside of downtown. A lot of smaller States have good urbanity in their largest cities. I know this is about the Great Plains, but also Boise in Idaho, Providence in Rhode Island, Portland in Maine come to mind.
Nice feedback everybody and much appreciated. Sometimes, I think, we get so caught up comparing Boston to Philadelphia or New York to Chicago, San Francisco to Los Angeles, Seattle to Minneapolis etc etc..we forget there is an entire inland swath of cities containing built up urban infrastructures within the Great Plains region (including Denver too ).
Omaha, for example, is a city that was incorporated in 1854; a decade before Nebraska gained statehood. It’s downtown is surprisingly urban, dense and built up. Many new visitors to the city are quite nearly taken aback once discovering this in person. Omaha is definitely a must visit city. As are many others in the Great Plains.
Last edited by Mighty Joe Young; 08-24-2019 at 10:05 PM..
A simple but limited way to gauge urbanity is by how much people drive their own cars. A highly urban area will always have much less personal car use. but, as it is, there's not really good statistics on this and you pretty much have to go by anecdotal evidence still, I think
I’m interested in visiting Great Plains cities one day but I think that compared to major cities they will come off as pretty ‘manageable’ fewer forms of transit, a little else verticality, fewer transit connections, less crowds, wider streets. But I think of them as smaller older denser urban cores than the traditional sunbelt area we talk about. I think I would like the culture and feel.
I’m interested in visiting Great Plains cities one day but I think that compared to major cities they will come off as pretty ‘manageable’ fewer forms of transit, a little else verticality, fewer transit connections, less crowds, wider streets. But I think of them as smaller older denser urban cores than the traditional sunbelt area we talk about. I think I would like the culture and feel.
I think you should visit. Some of what you’re saying is true. Mainly in relation to transit. But I think you’d be quite surprised at the built up urban infrastructure of Omaha for example. I definitely believe you’ll enjoy the culture and feel.
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