[TheBeagleLady]

Originally Posted by smithy77

Dude, you reeealy need to get out more. For it's size, Omaha has an amazing variety of musical genre's available. Heck, I don't even live there anymore, but I'm impressed with what's available, music wise. Both Slowdown and The Waiting room have a wide variety of musical styles on their schedules. You can find live music every night of the week if you'd just do some searching. There are a number of web sites that cater to the Omaha music scene----just google 'Omaha music' or pick up a copy of 'The Reader.'

The people who complain that Omaha has no culture and nothing to do are just too lazy to put forth any effort.

[The_Sage1]

First off, I'm not from Lincoln and I've been to 3 different countries and 25 different states. I've been out enough to know that Omaha is bland and lacks culture. I think Lincoln does too for the most part. Some of you act like I am insulting your mother or something. So what if I don't like Omaha that much? I may not like the place, but I think the people there are nice. There are places much worse, all I'm saying is Omaha is dull and bland, not that it's a terrible place to live in.

A variety of ethnic restaurants? C'mon..there's only a select few. You'd think for a state that has a lot of German ancestry that there would be more than one German restaurant in Omaha.

[smithy77]

Originally Posted by The_Sage1

First off, I'm not from Lincoln and I've been to 3 different countries and 25 different states. I've been out enough to know that Omaha is bland and lacks culture. I think Lincoln does too for the most part. Some of you act like I am insulting your mother or something. So what if I don't like Omaha that much? I may not like the place, but I think the people there are nice. There are places much worse, all I'm saying is Omaha is dull and bland, not that it's a terrible place to live in.

A variety of ethnic restaurants? C'mon..there's only a select few. You'd think for a state that has a lot of German ancestry that there would be more than one German restaurant in Omaha.

Now you're reeeeealy not being fair. First off, I live in a metropolitan area of over 5 million people and I can only think of 1 German restaurant in the area, and it's really more of an Austrian place. German restaurants were all the rage in the 50's and 60's-----central European food tends to be very heavy and caloric----they're 'over'. Omaha has restaurants representing just about every corner of the globe. Just off the top of my head I can think of the following: Chinese, Ethiopian, Ghanaian, Persian, Pan-Asian, Mongolian, Korean, Vietnamese, Indian, Cuban, Italian, Mexican, Thai, Greek, Japanese, German, Czech, Jewish, French, Belgian, Cajun/Creole, Afghani, Middle-Eastern/Lebanese, Spanish, Vegetarian/Vegan, Southern American (soul food), Nouvelle American, American American. What is it, exactly, that constitutes "culture" on your planet? I'm not asking you to "like" Omaha, but I think you should do some exploring before you paint the town with a broad brush. I've lived in 6 cities, Omaha being the smallest, but I think it has much more to offer culturally than many cities twice its size.

[dsrich98]

Originally Posted by The_Sage1

It's hard to explain but I'll try anyway. When it comes to culture in Omaha, here are a few things I can point out:

Buildings & Architecture - Omaha has done very little to preserve it's history except for the small strip where the Old Market is. They've erased a lot of history in Omaha by demolishing old buildings rather than trying to restore and preserve. And other parts of downtown are boarded up and falling apart. Culture has a lot to do with identifying with the history of the area and Omaha has very little of that.
With the newer parts of Omaha...you can see entire neighborhoods where all the houses look exactly alike. Most cities have this but it's pretty prevelant in Omaha. At least Lincoln did something cool with the neighborhood Fallbrook.

Another big problem Omaha seems to have is there are way too many brand new fancy hospitals and banks sprawling up all over the place. Just drive down west Dodge, it's pathetic. Also, Omaha doesn't have enough small business...there's just way too many chains all over the place. This is another big contributor to a lack of culture. Village Pointe looks cool but most of the stores are rich preppie garbage. Who shops at Banana Republic, anyway?

Culture in music - If you consider an abudance of lousy indie rock bands culture then more power to you. Outside of indie rock, the only thing Omaha gets are the huge pop bands that play at the Qwest Center. There are very few good music venues, mostly just bars people play at.

As for Kansas City, it is bland as well but it's bland in the same way Omaha is.

Sorry Sage, I just don't see what you're talking about here.

As far as historic preservation goes; yes there have been many historic buildings torn down. But there are also many that remain. The Durham Western heritagae Museum, South 24th street, The Stockyards building, many historic residential neighborhoods, and of course, the Old Market. Try this link, it's great; http://www.ci.omaha.ne.us/landmarks/Default.htm (broken link)

Both The Holland and the Orpheum bring a diverse variety of all types of music. So yes there are plenty of indies bands in Omaha, but there are also punk bands, metal bands, Country bands, and hip-hop bands. Omaha will never be like New York but I would say that for our size we do VERY well.

And yes, West Dodge sucks.... But that is in no way indicative of the rest of the city. There are plenty of interesting places to eat and shop other places in the city. I'm just curious what city do you think is not like Omaha in this respect with sprawiling suburbs of bland? Almost all cities are like that, but at least Omaha still has some character on the inside unlike many of those places.

[laserdisque]

I do agree with The Sage about the loss of many historic buildings in the city. When I think of Jobbers Canyon or the old post office I get so upset that so many architectural gems have been destroyed. On the flip side there are still many great buildings left today that have not been torn down, with the Blackstone being one of my favorites. One place that I really do love is the Blue Barn Theater. I am a fellow that does not enjoy plays all that much, but I have never been disappointed with any of their productions. Vampire Lesbians of Sodom! The Toxic Avenger! Awesome.

[Bugaha]

Originally Posted by laserdisque

I would like to know what everybody means by "lack of culture". I have not had any problem finding "culture" in this city. There are many awesome music venues (which I hold very important in my own view of culture), lots of talented bands, several great museums like the Joslyn, El Museo Latino, The Durham, and The Bemis. There were at least 4 or 5 music festivals this summer with some fantastic bands. Get out of the house and experience something. Go to south O and visit El Museo Latino and hit up that awesome pottery place. Go to north O and check out a soul food place or rib joint and go to the Omaha Star Newspaper building to talk to the people there. Head over to one of the african grocery stores/restaurant/clothing stores and find out about a new culture and eat something you never have before. I could keep going and going, but I think my point is made. Don't be lazy and say there is no culture here.

Having large black and mexican populations in this town does not make it culturally diverse anymore. Yes we have music venues here, but do we have a music to call our own?? i.e. New Orleans Jazz, N.Y. Punk, St. Louis Blues. For the most part, Omaha is a copycat town.

[laserdisque]

Originally Posted by Bugaha

Having large black and mexican populations in this town does not make it culturally diverse anymore. Yes we have music venues here, but do we have a music to call our own?? i.e. New Orleans Jazz, N.Y. Punk, St. Louis Blues. For the most part, Omaha is a copycat town.

Omaha does have a nationally recognized indie music scene that has been referred to as the "Omaha Sound". Just because you may not like it does not mean it is not culturally relevant.

What exactly does it take to be "culturally diverse" then? Omaha is right on par with the national average for demographics with 12% African American, 1.4% Asian, 6.6% some other race, 4.3% two or more races, and 11.5% Hispanic. I guess having 35% of a cities population from another race is not diverse? Also, the Hispanic population is certainly not exclusively Mexican. It includes people from all over the Spanish speaking world. For example, there is a very large cultural difference between Guatemala and Mexico.

Sorry if this is getting the topic to far off base.

[nelaw08]

How about the large Burmese and Sudanese populations? What, according to you, makes a city culturally diverse? Please provide some examples of culturally diverse medium sized cities. Are you really trying to diminish Omaha by comparing its cutural significance to New York? I think that is a bit unfair. Also, although you may not like the genre of music, many people consider Omaha to be to indie music what Seattle was to grunge music. While living in San Francisco and Chicago, musicians used to often express to me their desire to move to Omaha for the supportive music scene. Again, Im guessing you dont enjoy that genre of music, and I am fairly confident its historical impact is not going to be that of Jazz, but give Omaha a break - it is a medium sized city and I am not sure any city can call a genre of music its own. I mean Memphis might object to St. Louis calling Blues its own.

[McBain II]

Originally Posted by Bugaha

Having large black and mexican populations in this town does not make it culturally diverse anymore. Yes we have music venues here, but do we have a music to call our own?? i.e. New Orleans Jazz, N.Y. Punk, St. Louis Blues. For the most part, Omaha is a copycat town.

What about 311? You know, that multi-platinum band that was one of the front runners at bringing the rock/hip-hop/funk/reggae fusion to the mainstream?

[Raphael07]

Originally Posted by Bugaha

Having large black and mexican populations in this town does not make it culturally diverse anymore.

Well, my high school has a large Indian and East Asian population. Most days, I know people from all over the world who are able to speak many different languages. I personally speak Polish and Norwegian, while I know others who can speak Telugu, Hindi, Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Spanish, Igbo, Yoruba, Japanese, Turkish and Urdu. Apparently thats not culturally diverse though.