From Rhode Island to Nebraska (Omaha, Lincoln: fit in, crime rate, job market)

[jupiter2007]

Hi all,
Can anyone tell me all/any information about Lincoln/Omaha way of living. Also, about the best Colleges to go to? I hear the people in the midwest are a lot friendlier from the people in the East Coast.

[MattDen]

I would recommend Omaha over Lincoln.

Omaha at least has some friendly people, overall the people are more polite there then friendly. Also the job market is better in Omaha and the average job is higher on wages then Lincoln. Also, Omaha is slowly but surely going up-hilll.

With Lincoln people are extremely unfriendly. The violent crime rate in Lincoln is higher then Omaha. They have some nice areas of Lincoln on the southside but overall its a city going down-hill and the areas adjacent to the campus except for an average downtown are in very bad shape. Also, the economy employs less then it did in 2001.

Omahans are much more receptive and friendlier to new-comers then Lincoln, basically because Omaha has more of an economic base to draw people from.

Have you looked into the University of Nebraska at Omaha they are a very nice campus in a pleasent neighborhood. Its a fairly good sized campus and they have been doing alot of renovations. The out of state tuition premium though for the first year though in Nebraska is high but its also a high out of state premium for the campus in Lincoln.

As far as the University of Nebrakska Lincoln a vast majority of it is people from very small towns in Nebraska who only like to associate with those who are from farms. Very unfriendly campus overall. Its also a very pedestrian unfriendly campus, lots of people take wait for shuttles because of that.

Downtown Lincoln proper is okay, but bordering the campus are some very run-down areas. One street just behind the campus in Lincoln has a several of blocks of buildings with plywood over the windows.

Also, Omaha with its much larger economic base and being 850,000 people in its metro as opposed to 280,000 for Lincoln would have alot more internship oppurtunities.

[ehenningsen]

I lived in Las Vegas for a year, and let me just say that I can confirm that compared to the west coast, Nebraskans appear to be quite a bit more friendly...

[kosnebbear]

jupiter2007, first thing is that the post by MattDen you can forget about. You see he has been in Nebraska for about seven months and he hates Nebraska very much. He will post hateful things about Lincoln, Nebraska and has also put down Omaha sevral times as well.

You need to see if the information you are getting is coming from someone who has lived most of their life in Nebraska. Most of us will tell you the good and the bad that Nebraska has.

I live south of Lincoln and Omaha. I have traveled to both of these cities many times. For the most part the people of Nebraska are very friendly. You will find some that are not, just like you would in Rhode Island. All you need to do is get out and get to know the people that will be your neighbor. I bet that they will try to get to know you if you give them a chance.

The major part of the University of Nebraska system is in Lincoln. They also have schools in Omaha and Kearney. What are you planning on taking in college as this can help in giving you some help.

I guess that Lincoln has such a large serious crime wave that the one murder reported for the year of 2006 that is reported on the Uniform Crime Report for 2006 to the FBI makes Lincoln one of the most dangerous cities in America to MattDen. You can go to this web site to check this out for yourself if like:

http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/prelim06/t4ne_oh.htm (broken link)

It will also show you how the rest of this serious crime wave is in Lincoln. I am here to tell you that yes Lincoln has crime, but what city that has a major university in it with a population of over 200,00 does not.

The people at the University are friendly and the campus is close to the downtown area so that you can walk to many different shops if you like. They also have mass transit that you can use as well. The campus at all three major universities in Lincoln are very nice and esay to get around.

Omaha does not have 850,000 people in the metro as Nebraska only has 1.7 million people in the entire state. There is only about 500,000 in the Omaha area and this includes the towns that Omaha has annexed over the years.

Feel free to ask any more direct questions about Nebraska that you want, but make sure that you are getting your questions answered by a true Nebraskan. Here is a web link that you can go to and surf. It tells you about our weather and has many interesting pictures of not just Nebraska, but many other locations for you to enjoy.

http://www.hprcc.unl.edu/nebraska/

The main thing for you to keep in mind is what one or several individuals feels about something you will always have a different opinion, so come to Nebraska and enjoy what we have. If you find out that our life style is not what you are looking for then you have the choice of leaving just like MattDen is planning on doing by June of this year.

As of now as a born and raised Nebraskan I welcome to our state and hope that you find our state to your liking and will want to stay. No you do not have to become a Big Red fan to fit into Nebraska all you have to do is be yourself and respect our life style.

[Rumblebelly]

Originally Posted by jupiter2007

Hi all,
Can anyone tell me all/any information about Lincoln/Omaha way of living. Also, about the best Colleges to go to? I hear the people in the midwest are a lot friendlier from the people in the East Coast.

I spent most of my time in central Nebraska but I have plenty of family in the eastern part of the state. You will probably find Nebraskans to be more polite and laid back. I get a trip out of easterners though, they are more likely to tell you how they REALLY feel. It's a bit refreshing.

There are all kinds though, just like anywhere else and it's silly to make generalizations of the people like Mattden does. Overall, people are very nice in Lincoln and Omaha. A mix of yuppies, small town folk, urbanites....

[MattDen]

Regarding the crime rate that Kos was posting about..
2005 figures
Lincoln MSA
Property Crime Rate: 501.0
Violent Crime Rate: 4,885.5
Total: 5,386 per 100,000

Omaha MSA:
Violent Crime Rate: 430.4
Property Crime Rate: 4,175.8
Total: 4,606.2 per 100,000

National Average
Property Crime Rate: 469.2
Violent Crime Rate: 3,429.8
Total: 3898 per 100,000

I would just recommend Omaha over Lincoln. Omaha has an overall lower crime rate then Lincoln. University of Nebraska Omaha in my opinion is a much nicer campus and is in a nice area. Omaha also has alot more job oppurtunities and overall amenities then Lincoln does. The excpetion is the downtown's, they both arent good but Lincoln has an okay downtown while Omaha's downtown other then some high-rises is fairly dull.

[DTO Luv]

Originally Posted by kosnebbear

Omaha does not have 850,000 people in the metro as Nebraska only has 1.7 million people in the entire state. There is only about 500,000 in the Omaha area and this includes the towns that Omaha has annexed over the years.

You are dead wrong.


Omaha IS around 850,000. It's actually closer to 860,000 by now. Omaha hasn't been that small since the 60's.


I live in Downtown Omaha and it's a nice place to live. The Old Market is the main draw but there are also other areas outside of the Old Market that are getting new places to eat and things to do.

Jupiter-

I too, would recommend Omaha. It's the larger city and there is more recreational and job opportunites.

Omaha has sports
-Creighton Basketball: They average 16,000+ a game in the Qwest Center Downtown. They're a good team too and were in this years NCAA Tournament. (Unfortunately they were one-and-done )

-Knights Hockey: This the AHL team for the NHL's Calgary Flames.

-Royals Baseball: These are the AAA Royals for the KC Royals.

If you'd like to know more specifically about Omaha visit the Omaha section in here. Feel free to PM me too.

[kosnebbear]

Well I don't know where you are coming up with your population estimate, but I am looking at the population estimate of Omaha from the City-Data.com numbers which show this for Omaha:

Population (year 2000): 390,007.
Estimated population in July 2005: 414,521 (+6.3% change)
Males: 190,032 (48.7%), Females: 199,975 (51.3%)

Tell me where the additional 450,000 people are at in just Omaha, so I will know. I would also like to point out another source that comes from the Wikipedia free encyclopedia: Omaha's population rose to 424,988 after annexing the smaller City of Elkhorn. Now this annexation just happened a few weeks ago.

The city and its suburbs formed the 60th-largest metropolitan area in the United States in 2000, with a population of 819,246 (2006 [1]) residing in eight counties or about 1.2 million within a 50-mile (80 km) radius. This estimate if you look includes the Cities of Council Bluffs Iowa, Fremont, Bellevue, Plattsmonth, Nebraska City, Blair, Wahoo, Ashland, and Lincoln which is 35 miles southwest of Omaha. The population that you are stating covers eight counties and the last time I knew Omaha was in only Douglas County. I also want to point out that three of the eight counties are in Iowa that is included in this population estimate of 1.2 million.

Both Omaha and Lincoln are nice places to live in. Each city has it's plus and minus. Omaha does have more as you point out. It still comes down to the one factor that all the numbers we can talk about can not tell you is this, how well will someone like living there and you will never know until you live there. Just like you say you live in downtown Omaha and it is a nice place to live. I for one like smaller communities, but like to come to Omaha to shop. So we both have things that we like that the other may not. We need to allow jupiter2007 decide what he or she will like.

You have posted nice beautiful pictures of downtown Omaha and I hope that you continue do so as you show the good points of Omaha Nebraska.

[kosnebbear]

Forgot to tell you that I am also a Creighton Basketball fan as well and I was also unhappy to see them lose. They had another good year.

[ehenningsen]

Your right on your stats for the city population, there are two standards..
One is city which will be 430,000 in the 2006 population estimates and
the other is metro which will be about 860,000 covering 8 counties :-)