OMAHA: A Sad City With Rays of Hope

[Rizzo]

Though I still believe in what I said in my earlier post, I'll still keep my mind open to cities when I visit. The only problem is 90% of the time my impressions of what I see on the internet are typically confirmed by what I see in real life.

I've grown up most of my life around Saginaw, Flint, and Detroit....cities with far more problems than Omaha could possibly imagine. I try to look for the good in things.

No I don't believe all of Omaha is like this, after all I did say "downtown" in my first post. But I look as far as I can see in your photos, and I see alot of empty space. Cities aren't about empty space, they are about enclosure and density. Omaha won't really have the "awesomeness" until they start to fill that in. No one is saying you can't post a "Chamber of Commerce" tour, just as at the same time few take unflattering angles of a sexy model.

If there's something worth showing us that's left out, I'd love to see it. Your photography is great, and I'd like to see more.

[DTO Luv]

Thanks for the comments and kudos everyone. As always, I greatly appreciate it.

I agree with your statements Hayward that until we fill up some of these empty spaces we'll lack the "awesomeness" of some cities. I'm very tired of how poorly my city handles development, even to the point that I doubt I want to stay here long term because at it's current pace and leadership, we take one step forward and two steps back. In the future I would like to go back to this area and see how it's changed. For all I know it could be exactly the same or worse. One step forward, two steps back. I don't mind the negative feedback on these either. It is seen back home and if we get caught resting on our laurels or have our heads in the sand, it's a good slap back to reality that we could be doing something better.

[DTO Luv]

UPDATE: After being the largest vacant office building in Omaha for a decade, the old Northern Natural Gas (Enron) Building is being converted into apartments. I think this is a great use for the building. This is the second major conversion from office to apartments in this area of Downtown. I live across the street from here and can see this out my window and I have to say it will be nice to not see an empty, dark building day after day.