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Livable Cities: Omaha?

An op-ed in the New York Times today hearts Omaha as a very livable city.

According to the cost of living comparison calculator at CNNMoney.com, if you were earning $229,000 in Manhattan, or $153,000 in Queens, you’ll be able to maintain the same standard of living in Omaha with a salary of $100,000 (and not because rodeos are cheaper than Broadway shows). Your money will go farther, and you’ll find less competition for jobs: Omaha’s unemployment rate (3.3 percent) is lower than New York’s (4.5 percent). While you are job hunting and living off your real-estate profits, groceries, utilities and health care will all cost roughly one-third less than you are paying in New York.

Coincidentally, I happen to be in Omaha for the fourth time since July. It's a very nice city. There's a lot of money in Omaha. It's quiet and peaceful. It's also about as red a state as you'll find anywhere.

There's one really good restaurant -- M's. I've eaten in six restaurants, but that's the only one I'd recommend. There's an Embassy Suites and a Hilton Garden. I stay at the Embassy Suites, but their internet sucks.

The downtown area is just beginning to convert old warehouses into lofts. The airport works very well. People don't think twice about commuting 60 miles from Lincoln to work in Omaha because there's little traffic so you can go 70 miles per hour on the highway, making the trip bearable.

But is that enough to live here? No ocean, no mountains, no major sports teams. I can't see the stars outside at night.

The NY Times says,

Nebraskans [are] preparing for the imminent arrival of several million New York refugees (victims of post-traumatic bubble anxiety disorder), who will need emergency real estate and housing triage services.

I don't think Nebraskans need to worry. Omaha is a very white, very bland, very Republican company town. I can see not leaving it if you were born and raised here. But move here from a place like New York City? I don't think so. What's next for the New York Times' writers? Cedar Rapids?

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    xx (1.00 / 0) (#12)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sun Oct 29, 2006 at 12:08:22 PM EST
    DA - You have difficult in understandong a throw away attempt at humor line..

    Lighten up, dude.

    xx (1.00 / 0) (#17)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sun Oct 29, 2006 at 07:34:21 PM EST
    DA - I know you can't. Try to get help.

    Baptists (1.00 / 0) (#24)
    by jimakaPPJ on Mon Oct 30, 2006 at 06:47:02 AM EST
    k ois - Sorry about the mistake about the Baptists, and I should have spec'd that I was writing about was in Nebraska itself, not part of Omaha..

    But at least I partially defended Omaha... Something that a CU fan finds extremely difficult to do..;-)

    clearly, that was tongue very much in cheek....... (none / 0) (#1)
    by cpinva on Sun Oct 29, 2006 at 12:03:30 AM EST
    i hope! i've never been to omaha, nor nebraska. that it's 1,000 miles from any ocean is just one of many obstacles to be overcome, before i'd ever consider moving there. for starters, they'd have to change its location, to a coast.

    hmmmmmmmmmmmm, ok, guess omaha's out! :)

    Omaha (none / 0) (#2)
    by jazzcattg1 on Sun Oct 29, 2006 at 04:43:11 AM EST
    I was stationed at Offutt AFB in nearby Bellevue many years ago-if the New Yorkers think East Coast winters are bad, just wait until they have a taste of Nebraskas--the place was so boring that I PAID for my own relocation back to Denver after being there only six months!

    Go Big Red (none / 0) (#3)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sun Oct 29, 2006 at 09:02:32 AM EST
    I'm LOL at the thought of anyone in this crew moving  to Omaha. You might become good Baptists, but the thought of you driving to Lincoln to support the Huskers defies belief. ;-) Now there is organized religion...

    I came out of the Red Lion one fine February morning amd my hat took off almost straight up. Last time I saw it was climbing past the top of the nearest building heading straight south... no dummy that hat...

    But the state does have an almost Demo senator...

    It also has the Platte river... of which it has been said that it is too thick to drink and too think to plow... The Platte also reminds me of the support the Left keeps claiminng... a mile wide and one inch deep.

    Omaha (none / 0) (#4)
    by Skyho on Sun Oct 29, 2006 at 11:08:08 AM EST
    to support the Huskers defies belief. ;-) Now there is organized religion...

    We finally agree on something.

    I might remind you that Bob Kerrey became a Dem after a brief stint as a Repuke.  I asked him why the switch and he said something to the effect that Repukes like to "own" politicians for their purposes, Dems actually want to make things better for the citizen.

    The present thieves in charge of the Republican Party really aren't welcome in Omaha.  Kissinger will go speak at a business meeting but he is treated more like the fish-lady at the state fair.  Pat B. is better, more reflecting the values voter.  Wellstone was widely popular.

    The state never struck me as caring whether someone was Rep or Dem.  The residents did (do?) care about honesty and hard work.  I think many are ready for change.

    About the Huskers fans.  A few make jihadis look like pikers.

    The Platte.  Every year some young Repuke tries to drive his usually tricked out eight wheel drive substitute for his smallish member across the seemingly shallow Platte.  and every year, a rather largish percent of those get to watch their symbollic macho-hood sink out of sight, never to be found again.

    I believe shallowness is a Bush-supporter trait.  You think you can comment on what you see from afar, without investigation or thought.  Go live in the Middle East before you expose your ignorance revealing thoughts in public, please.  Oh, and tell your moronic "leader" to do the same.

    A hundred grand (none / 0) (#5)
    by Dadler on Sun Oct 29, 2006 at 11:17:09 AM EST
    Forget a hundred thousand dollars a year, the median household income in the country is still a few grand less less than 50.  Where's the most livable city for that?  Bet it ain't near me.

    On an unrelated gambling note: Chargers vs. Rams today at the Q, somebody give me an over/under on this one.  

    Please Stay on Topic (none / 0) (#7)
    by Jeralyn on Sun Oct 29, 2006 at 11:52:47 AM EST
    The topic is Omaha and Nebraska, Dadler, not the Chargers or the Rams. Please discuss that if you must on an open thread.

    How about... (none / 0) (#8)
    by Che's Lounge on Sun Oct 29, 2006 at 11:54:48 AM EST
    The beaches? Are they nice? How's the skiing? Sailing? Diving?

    I'll pass. Oh, and I once drove from WI to CA. I got one ticket, From a NHP for doing 72 in a 65 zone. It must have been the out of state plates. If that's the mentality, then may they all become narco addicts like their lord king Rush. I have little patience left for Ummurrika's collective imtellignce as it is, now you tell me Omaha is a nice place?  Pullease. Anyplace is nice if you have the bucks to vacation somewhere else.

    Not quite Omaha but... (none / 0) (#9)
    by Che's Lounge on Sun Oct 29, 2006 at 11:59:45 AM EST
    Dadler,
    The Chargers are back to choking in the fourth. They have not beat a good team yet. But man, what an offensive arsenal. I'll pick 'em out of loyalty. Schottenheimer needs to be replaced.

    out of curiousity.................... (none / 0) (#10)
    by cpinva on Sun Oct 29, 2006 at 12:02:48 PM EST
    how many people in nyc are making between 153 & 229k a year? what are they doing for these munificent sums? are they all stock brokers, doctors and lawyers? somehow, i'm hard pressed to see masses of these groups retiring to..............omaha. the accountants maybe, not the aforementioned groups though.

    Omaha (none / 0) (#14)
    by Skyho on Sun Oct 29, 2006 at 04:10:53 PM EST
    Land of contrast.

    Left my building on a clear, sunny, winter day, thinking I would dash to my car for a quick warm up.

    My eyes teared up as soon as I left the warmth of the building, then they, literally iced up.  Managed to "feel" my way back to the building.  Bundled up, head to toe.  Went several hundred yards to car, started up.  Fuel froze less than a block later, fortunately on a hill, coasted down to gas station where I took it inside to melt frozen parts of fuel.

    Found out later that high of day was minus 25, wind chill, minus 85.  on a clear, sunny, day.

    Used to run every day.  Winter, I would put on several layers of sweats, not for the temperature, but for the inevitable fall on ice.

    However, it is hot and muggy in the summer.  An attached garage is a luxury.

    People are nice, however, and they, indeed, do have "beaches", waves provided by passing power boats.

    Oh My Omaha (none / 0) (#15)
    by SherAn on Sun Oct 29, 2006 at 06:24:37 PM EST
    Having been born there and having attended school there, I think I'm almost an expert on Omaha.  Frankly, I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy!  Yes, it is among the reddest of the red and also the most bigoted of the bigoted.  It's not whether you belong to a country club:  it's "which" country club you belong to that counts.  It also counts where you live:  what area of town, what type of house.  If you do not conform to these "standards," then surely you are not worthy to wash my floors is the meme.

    Should New Yorkers relocate to Omaha they will be in for an unhealthy dose of true culture shock.  Omahans pride themselves on being white and don't accept minorities of any kind - not gays, not blacks, not jews, not asians, not indians (both).  Not nothing.  You must be pure, unadulturated WASP to thrive.  

    Obviously, the residents of Omaha lack for cultural outlets and to fill the slack they spend most waking hours looking down their noses at anyone and everything that doesn't meet their preconceived notion of "normal."  That normal is NOT, of course, the normal that you or I would consider normal.

    My family still lives in Omaha, and they are in some respects mainstream.  Mainstream is, however, defined as dittoheads, serial users of the "N" word and other racial slurs, philanderers, adulterers, cheats, and pedophiles.  (Recall the male juvenile prostitute scandal from the early eighties that almost brought down Reagan's administration originated in Omaha.)

    Undercurrents course through Omaha, but you'd never know it by outward appearances.  Scratch the surface and you find judges who drink their lunch and return to the bench.  AGs who fall out of their cars, seriously, after stopping for a couple at the local hangout on the way home. Perhaps you recognize that man in the choir at church on Sunday morning as that "wasted" lecher who couldn't keep his wedding-ringed hands off you the night before.  (True story)

    Jeralyn mentions that Omaha is just now converting warehouses into interesting restaurants and shops.  Oh Jeralyn, that experiment actually started in the early seventies; I kid you not.  When I was in Omaha for a funeral back in 2000, nothing in the Old Market had changed one iota.  The town and the people are stuck in a time warp.  Every day is Groundhog's Day in Omaha.

    To paraphrase the page from the Foley scandal, Omaha is one sick, sick, sick, sick, sick, sick, sick, sick, sick, sick, sick, sick, sick, sick, sick place.  Like the conniving vixen on a soap opera, it may seem "pretty" on the outside, but it is cruel and twisted and rotten to its very core.

    And the weather is dreadful all boring year long.  Too bitterly cold to enjoy in the winter and too suffocatingly hot and humid in the summer.

    Omaha (none / 0) (#16)
    by dutchfox on Sun Oct 29, 2006 at 06:54:25 PM EST
    Why the Times ran this op-Ed is beyond me. Have any of you written LTE's to the NYT about this piece? I can't wait to read the letters over the next week. I have never been there and I don't think I'd want to go.

    Omaha Hip Hip (none / 0) (#18)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sun Oct 29, 2006 at 07:38:34 PM EST
    SherAn - Hate to pop your bubble, but your complaints could be applied to anyplace, anywhere.

    And you wath operas??

    Parent

    it isn't just omaha........... (none / 0) (#19)
    by cpinva on Sun Oct 29, 2006 at 07:53:42 PM EST
    in the nyt's op/ed. there are articles on rural kentucky, CO, and chicago big-box wal-marts.

    none of them screamed out at me to go live there. i'll have to ask my brother about the new wal-mart, he lives in chicago.

    frankly, i've spent a fair amount of time criss-crossing the country in the past few years, with stretches on both coasts and the midwest. call me a homer, but i found the coasts, almost regardless of where, the most amenable, economically and culturally.

    the midwest is "nice", in the way the blind date your mom set up for you was. need i say more? lol

    Mark Foley scandal (none / 0) (#21)
    by Hilde on Sun Oct 29, 2006 at 10:26:32 PM EST
    The Mark Foley scandal has given the social conservatives who control the Republican Party a golden opportunity to place their agenda front and center for national consumption.  With Foley soon to be released from an alcohol rehab program, one of the leaders of the Party -- say, Bill Bennett (oops, gambling addiction) or Rush Limbaugh (oops, drug abuse) or Newt Gingrich (oops, infidelity and twice divorced) or Tom DeLay (oops, indicted for campaign finance abuse and money laundering) -- should now step forward and mentor Foley, one of their own, by persuading him to enroll in Exodus, the organization touted by the religious right as capable of facilitating changes in sexual orientation through conversion to Christianity.  The Republicans will then have their perfect poster boy:  reformed alcoholic, ex-gay, born-again Christian, credentials which should escort this eligible bachelor to the front of the line for marriage to the preacher's daughter.  And who better to continue the crusade against gay marriage and protecting minors from predators?  What a Karl Rovian coup.  Pardon my skepticism, but better the preacher's daughter than mine.


    Distortions about Omaha (none / 0) (#22)
    by k ols on Mon Oct 30, 2006 at 12:40:14 AM EST
    I never comment on here because I never applied for a password.  By the time I did it got a little late.

    I just cannot let all these falsehoods about Omaha pass without comment.

    I've lived here for over 40 years and I obviously have not have the same experiences as many of you claim to have had especially SherAn.

    Jazzcattgl says he spent 6 months at OFFUTT and was so bored he had to leave.  Six months is hardly a good representation of Omaha.  Obviously you don't get out much.

    jimakaPPJ the Baptists are hardly a majority religion here and the Missouri River borders Omaha on the East, not the Platte.

    Skyho claims attached garages are a luxury.  Where on earth did you get that idea?  Yes, Omaha isn't so backward that we don't have attached garages.  Believe it or not many people have three car attached garages.

    Yes, we do have cold winters from mid-December to mid-March, but not as cold as New York.  I nearly froze to death from hypothermia in March in New York after an 8 inch snow storm.  Check the map, NY is farther North than Omaha.

    We may not have an ocean or mountains, but we are certainly not lacking in cultural experiences if you but take advantage of them.  We have a ballet, a symphony, live theater, a world class zoo, the Joslyn Art Museum renowned for its western art, a children's museum, Western Heritage Museum, a botanical garden, and many other entertainment venues.

    In addition, the sandhills are the largest formation of its kind except for the one in China.

    We also have one of the largest underground aquifiers.

    Yes, there are many wealthy people in Omaha and some not so wealthy.

    I have no idea where SherAn required her viewpoints of Omaha, but I just don't see it.  We welcome diversity here.

    People who are transferred here from other areas esp. the coasts are amazed at how much square footage they can buy for their money when buying a home.  

    I've known people who came to OFFUTT thinking this was the worst place to be located in the world and left here in tears because they had grown to love Omaha and Bellevue and its welcoming people.  Bellevue really supports its military.  

    Yes, Jeralyn we do have many fine restaurants but it appears you have confined yourself to the downtown and Old Market only probably from time constraints.

    The next time you come go to Cascios on South 10th St. which is not all that far from the Old Market.  There is also Johnny's Cafe which is not all that far.  That is just two of the nearby steakhouses.

    The "Distortions" are Correct (none / 0) (#23)
    by jazzcattg1 on Mon Oct 30, 2006 at 06:44:35 AM EST
    Well K Ols, It is nice that you can defend your hometown - but please speak only for yourself ..I left Nebraska because I DO get out and after my business trip to Omaha last summer, there STILL IS nothing to do - The Union Pacific Railroad moved their Museum FROM Omaha across the river to Council Bluffs and I felt sorry for the animals because of the horrid conditions at the Henry Dorley Zoo....the six months at Offutt felt like six years - the Two night trip felt like two months

    Regional bigotry (none / 0) (#26)
    by burstingbrain on Sat Nov 04, 2006 at 10:07:58 PM EST
    Bigots!  NYC is overcrowded, full of germs and everyone has some sort of attention deficit disorder.  We have to entertain you here?!  Life is not always a show.  Get a hobby!  Yeah, this town may have some mundane elements but be content!  Too much entertainment breeds mushy minds.  Go on a hike here, where the rolling plains roll up so much that you feel cushioned beneath a blanket.  Yes, we have audacious hills that swallow our prairie a few miles north.  Bring on in diversity!  Several of the people I know including my church is constantly bending over backward to bring in diversity.  We want different kinds of people.  Are you diverse enough to accept someone from the midwest?  You can't say you aren't welcome here.  We don't pull guns on others for forgetting a signal.  My life isn't in the hands of a few east coast elitists or some harrassing thugs.  Use your mind and be creative and stop complaining about your simple lives!!

    Omaha's Zoo! (none / 0) (#27)
    by FormerOmaha on Thu Nov 09, 2006 at 04:26:40 PM EST
    Ok, speaking as a proud former Omahan (now on the East coast), you can knock the weather (sure it's hot and cold, but the spring and fall are great), you can knock the Huskers (though you're jealous b/c your team is worse) and you can even go on a rant about what you think are some evil racists in Omaha (it's not Birmingham, for gawd's sake -- you've obviously got other issues)...

    BUT you knock the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo and we come out fightin'!  Omaha's is a world class zoo contending for honors with Columbus and San Diego.  It has exhibits that have been copied at other zoos (like the indoor rain forest --featured in Nat. Geographic) and its care for the animals is second to none.

    Oh, and the Old Market has had lofts for at least 30 years.  

    Now will you dopes learn to appreciate a tongue in cheek article when you see one?  Geez...