Sunday, April 15, 2007
Major Newspapers agree...Omaha is awesome.
O! what an aritcle, npgage! Your hometown Chicago Tribune is spelling out all the reasons you need to move back...below is a snippet.
There was also an even better article in the New York Times very recently, called "Omaha's Culture Club."
O! for Omaha
A wealth of surprises in a city with a heart
By Robert CrossTribune staff reporterPublished September 24, 2006
OMAHA -- Tentative showers cast a pall over the last remaining minutes of the downtown lunch hour.I had seen downtowns like this before--modern towers casting shadows on a few surviving Greek Revival and Neo-Gothic old-timers. At that time of day, the sidewalks had all but emptied. A lot of the cafes there open only for breakfast and lunch, and those were preparing to close.Surely Warren Buffett was out there somewhere making money, and that's always exciting. But I had been led to believe downtown Omaha also had a lively side, an enclave called the Old Market.There, said the booster Web sites and tourist brochures, one could find unique little shops, fine dining, street life, plenty of bars and apartment lofts--most of those housed in former warehouses and factories.The closest old quaint thing in my line of sight, however, was the Flatiron Cafe, a designer-touched eatery wedged into the pointed end of--what else?--a flat-iron building. I was led to believe the Flatiron was a part of the Old Market scene, but its surroundings appeared to be nothing but warrens for Office Depot clientele.Anyway, the Flatiron still served lunch. Black-clad servers brought my vegetable/lentil soup and salmon salad. Everything about the restaurant whispered sophistication. So where could I find the rest of that touted Old Market ambience?It turned out I had undershot my mark by a few hundred yards. My hotel, the Redick Plaza, is, like the Flatiron, just off the western fringes of the Old Market district, across Harney Street from the Orpheum Theater. The theater springs to life in autumn, but this happened to be summer, so the Orpheum neighborhood lacked cultural pizzazz.By turning my back on the financial institutions, etc. and walking two blocks east, I found the city's throbbing pulse. For years, Omaha has marched in the forefront of an urban trend--the preservation, revival and repurposing of buildings that otherwise would sink into decrepitude.The brick walls of Old Market structures bear the faded signs of long-ago occupants and advertisers: Anheuser-Busch beer depot, the Millard Block, Omaha Bemis Bag Co., Skinner Macaroni, Hotel Howard, that sort of thing. Mundane back then, nostalgic/cute today.Interiors work as clothing boutiques, restaurants, book stores, jewelry stores, antique emporia, art galleries, flower shops, bakeries, taverns, theater companies and apartments.Deep in the heart of the Midwest, verging on Great Plains, a hearty segment of the 415,000 Omaha residents insist on all the metropolitan amenities. They refuse categorization as fly-over rubes.That's understandable, because workers typically occupy cubicle farms, rather than tractor seats. Omaha boasts an impressive collection of big-league businesses.Heard of Berkshire Hathaway? No? Well, GEICO Insurance and Dairy Queen are but two of its many subsidiaries. The holding company, headed by Buffett, also owns significant stakes in American Express, Coca-Cola, Gillette, Wells Fargo and the Washington Post. ConAgra (think Chef Boyardee, Orville Redenbacher popcorn and almost everything else in your fridge or pantry) operates a handsome headquarters campus on Omaha's Missouri River riverfront.Other household names: Union Pacific, Mutual of Omaha. And don't ignore Peter Kiewit Sons' Inc., the huge construction and mining firm.
There was also an even better article in the New York Times very recently, called "Omaha's Culture Club."
O! for Omaha
A wealth of surprises in a city with a heart
By Robert CrossTribune staff reporterPublished September 24, 2006
OMAHA -- Tentative showers cast a pall over the last remaining minutes of the downtown lunch hour.I had seen downtowns like this before--modern towers casting shadows on a few surviving Greek Revival and Neo-Gothic old-timers. At that time of day, the sidewalks had all but emptied. A lot of the cafes there open only for breakfast and lunch, and those were preparing to close.Surely Warren Buffett was out there somewhere making money, and that's always exciting. But I had been led to believe downtown Omaha also had a lively side, an enclave called the Old Market.There, said the booster Web sites and tourist brochures, one could find unique little shops, fine dining, street life, plenty of bars and apartment lofts--most of those housed in former warehouses and factories.The closest old quaint thing in my line of sight, however, was the Flatiron Cafe, a designer-touched eatery wedged into the pointed end of--what else?--a flat-iron building. I was led to believe the Flatiron was a part of the Old Market scene, but its surroundings appeared to be nothing but warrens for Office Depot clientele.Anyway, the Flatiron still served lunch. Black-clad servers brought my vegetable/lentil soup and salmon salad. Everything about the restaurant whispered sophistication. So where could I find the rest of that touted Old Market ambience?It turned out I had undershot my mark by a few hundred yards. My hotel, the Redick Plaza, is, like the Flatiron, just off the western fringes of the Old Market district, across Harney Street from the Orpheum Theater. The theater springs to life in autumn, but this happened to be summer, so the Orpheum neighborhood lacked cultural pizzazz.By turning my back on the financial institutions, etc. and walking two blocks east, I found the city's throbbing pulse. For years, Omaha has marched in the forefront of an urban trend--the preservation, revival and repurposing of buildings that otherwise would sink into decrepitude.The brick walls of Old Market structures bear the faded signs of long-ago occupants and advertisers: Anheuser-Busch beer depot, the Millard Block, Omaha Bemis Bag Co., Skinner Macaroni, Hotel Howard, that sort of thing. Mundane back then, nostalgic/cute today.Interiors work as clothing boutiques, restaurants, book stores, jewelry stores, antique emporia, art galleries, flower shops, bakeries, taverns, theater companies and apartments.Deep in the heart of the Midwest, verging on Great Plains, a hearty segment of the 415,000 Omaha residents insist on all the metropolitan amenities. They refuse categorization as fly-over rubes.That's understandable, because workers typically occupy cubicle farms, rather than tractor seats. Omaha boasts an impressive collection of big-league businesses.Heard of Berkshire Hathaway? No? Well, GEICO Insurance and Dairy Queen are but two of its many subsidiaries. The holding company, headed by Buffett, also owns significant stakes in American Express, Coca-Cola, Gillette, Wells Fargo and the Washington Post. ConAgra (think Chef Boyardee, Orville Redenbacher popcorn and almost everything else in your fridge or pantry) operates a handsome headquarters campus on Omaha's Missouri River riverfront.Other household names: Union Pacific, Mutual of Omaha. And don't ignore Peter Kiewit Sons' Inc., the huge construction and mining firm.
Labels: Birch Needs To Move Back, Chicago Tribune, New York Times, Omaha
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