2017 Annexation

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bigredmed1
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Re: 2017 Annexation

Post by bigredmed1 »

TitosBuritoBarn wrote:
OmahaFan wrote:Either way Annexation should be a high priority.
Why? The amount of land a city controls doesn't correlate to its success or financial prosperity.
Yes it does. If Omaha were to let Bennington annex all of west Douglas County outside of Omaha, or let Valley and Waterloo merge and take the trans-Elkhorn area with them, we would find ourselves in the city equivalent of OPS (pretty much like St Louis.) OPS pooped their bed back in the 60s when Millard was far away, 66 was really high taxes, Bellevue was owned by the air force, and Papio-LaVista were small towns in the country. By letting the school district go to seed in the mid 60s, lots of people took off in a wave of "green flight" where everyone who had the green to fly did so. This wave of multiracial out-migration was then followed by white flight in the early 70s. Leaving OPS weakened further and the people with money living in 66, and the people with enough to get out of OPS living in Millard and Ralston. Now OPS struggles and the surrounding districts get stronger.

This same thing happens in places like STL or Dallas where people with money would rather their tax money go to a park or school they will benefit from rather than yet more central city "investment".
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TitosBuritoBarn
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Re: 2017 Annexation

Post by TitosBuritoBarn »

bigredmed1 wrote:
TitosBuritoBarn wrote:
OmahaFan wrote:Either way Annexation should be a high priority.
Why? The amount of land a city controls doesn't correlate to its success or financial prosperity.
Yes it does. If Omaha were to let Bennington annex all of west Douglas County outside of Omaha, or let Valley and Waterloo merge and take the trans-Elkhorn area with them, we would find ourselves in the city equivalent of OPS (pretty much like St Louis.) OPS pooped their bed back in the 60s when Millard was far away, 66 was really high taxes, Bellevue was owned by the air force, and Papio-LaVista were small towns in the country. By letting the school district go to seed in the mid 60s, lots of people took off in a wave of "green flight" where everyone who had the green to fly did so. This wave of multiracial out-migration was then followed by white flight in the early 70s. Leaving OPS weakened further and the people with money living in 66, and the people with enough to get out of OPS living in Millard and Ralston. Now OPS struggles and the surrounding districts get stronger.

This same thing happens in places like STL or Dallas where people with money would rather their tax money go to a park or school they will benefit from rather than yet more central city "investment".

Oh |expletive|. Well I guess I probably shouldn't have just bought a house in St. Louis city proper in a neighborhood that 20 years ago was an abandoned crime-hole but is now a desired area for young, educated couples. The city might take my tax dollars and try to "invest" in something that positively contributes to my urban lifestyle. :roll:

You're suggesting that Omaha and other cities have not learned from the issues of the past (and you're kind of examining only the tip of the iceberg here for what those issues were) and that Omaha's development will remain static from a choice period in its history. I'm not so sure about that.
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Garrett
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Re: 2017 Annexation

Post by Garrett »

bigredmed1 wrote:
TitosBuritoBarn wrote:
OmahaFan wrote:Either way Annexation should be a high priority.
Why? The amount of land a city controls doesn't correlate to its success or financial prosperity.
Yes it does. If Omaha were to let Bennington annex all of west Douglas County outside of Omaha, or let Valley and Waterloo merge and take the trans-Elkhorn area with them, we would find ourselves in the city equivalent of OPS (pretty much like St Louis.) OPS pooped their bed back in the 60s when Millard was far away and 66 was really high taxes. Bellevue was owned by the air force, and Papio-LaVista were small towns in the country. By letting the school district go to seed in the mid 60s, lots of people took off in a wave of "green flight" where everyone who had the green to fly did so. This wave of multiracial out-migration was then followed by white flight in the early 70s. Leaving OPS weakened further and the people with money living in 66, and the people with enough to get out of OPS living in Millard and Ralston. Now OPS struggles and the surrounding districts get stronger.

This same thing happens in places like STL or Dallas where people with money would rather their tax money go to a park or school they will benefit from rather than yet more central city "investment".
"Green Flight?" What historical revisionist bullshit is this? I mean sure, mention nothing about Sundown Towns, Block Busting, Red Lining, Exclusionary Covenants, and highway construction that systematically and precisely benefited white people and excluded black people, that began far earlier than the 60's.
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bigredmed1
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Re: 2017 Annexation

Post by bigredmed1 »

Garrett wrote:
bigredmed1 wrote:
TitosBuritoBarn wrote:
OmahaFan wrote:Either way Annexation should be a high priority.
Why? The amount of land a city controls doesn't correlate to its success or financial prosperity.
Yes it does. If Omaha were to let Bennington annex all of west Douglas County outside of Omaha, or let Valley and Waterloo merge and take the trans-Elkhorn area with them, we would find ourselves in the city equivalent of OPS (pretty much like St Louis.) OPS pooped their bed back in the 60s when Millard was far away and 66 was really high taxes. Bellevue was owned by the air force, and Papio-LaVista were small towns in the country. By letting the school district go to seed in the mid 60s, lots of people took off in a wave of "green flight" where everyone who had the green to fly did so. This wave of multiracial out-migration was then followed by white flight in the early 70s. Leaving OPS weakened further and the people with money living in 66, and the people with enough to get out of OPS living in Millard and Ralston. Now OPS struggles and the surrounding districts get stronger.

This same thing happens in places like STL or Dallas where people with money would rather their tax money go to a park or school they will benefit from rather than yet more central city "investment".
"Green Flight?" What historical revisionist |expletive| is this? I mean sure, mention nothing about Sundown Towns, Block Busting, Red Lining, Exclusionary Covenants, and highway construction that systematically and precisely benefited white people and excluded black people, that began far earlier than the 60's.
Greenflight happened before forced busing. Mid to late 60s All the people (black and white, etc) who could leave the crappier parts of east Omaha did so when their kids' schools started going to seed. THEN white flight happened in the early 70s when forced busing became a thing and everyone blew out of OPS, even from the nicer areas to avoid having their kids schlepped 20 miles away to go to second grade in some crappy school. Basically, there weretwo flights. The beginning of the decline was when the old teachers started to retire. The inner city schools for a while were getting young replacements that were OK. Not as good as the retirees, but OK. Then the schools started to not get resources and the school teachers that were assigned there started to really get weak (read incompetent). This incompetent teacher base and the lack of resources directed at the inner city schools triggered the "Green Flight". Once the schools hit bottom, the people who were stuck there sued and forced busing started.
The mandatory busing to force people to go to the crappy schools triggered White Flight.

Important to remember that Green Flight was non-race based. It was a flight to quality by all my classmates parents (black and white) Everyone who could leave, did so to get their kids out of the crappy schools. White Flight was only white people because black families in the good OPS areas got to stay where they were. White families in OPS basically had a choice of leaving OPS or seeing their kid hauled off to a crappy school for the second grade and those microskills (like multiplication) that are taught in that grade would not be. They packed up and left. Again, most of the people that followed us to Millard were people who just wanted a better chance for their kids.

Redlining screwed white people too. My parents lost a pile of money on their little starter house on 48th street due to the FHA deciding that they could not sell their house for more than $8K (even though it was bought at $11k and they had put $3-4K into it). This was because they were in a neighborhood that was "transitional".
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Dundeemaha
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Re: 2017 Annexation

Post by Dundeemaha »

bigredmed1 wrote:
Garrett wrote:
bigredmed1 wrote:
TitosBuritoBarn wrote:
OmahaFan wrote:Either way Annexation should be a high priority.
Why? The amount of land a city controls doesn't correlate to its success or financial prosperity.
Yes it does. If Omaha were to let Bennington annex all of west Douglas County outside of Omaha, or let Valley and Waterloo merge and take the trans-Elkhorn area with them, we would find ourselves in the city equivalent of OPS (pretty much like St Louis.) OPS pooped their bed back in the 60s when Millard was far away and 66 was really high taxes. Bellevue was owned by the air force, and Papio-LaVista were small towns in the country. By letting the school district go to seed in the mid 60s, lots of people took off in a wave of "green flight" where everyone who had the green to fly did so. This wave of multiracial out-migration was then followed by white flight in the early 70s. Leaving OPS weakened further and the people with money living in 66, and the people with enough to get out of OPS living in Millard and Ralston. Now OPS struggles and the surrounding districts get stronger.

This same thing happens in places like STL or Dallas where people with money would rather their tax money go to a park or school they will benefit from rather than yet more central city "investment".
"Green Flight?" What historical revisionist |expletive| is this? I mean sure, mention nothing about Sundown Towns, Block Busting, Red Lining, Exclusionary Covenants, and highway construction that systematically and precisely benefited white people and excluded black people, that began far earlier than the 60's.
Greenflight happened before forced busing. Mid to late 60s All the people (black and white, etc) who could leave the crappier parts of east Omaha did so when their kids' schools started going to seed. THEN white flight happened in the early 70s when forced busing became a thing and everyone blew out of OPS, even from the nicer areas to avoid having their kids schlepped 20 miles away to go to second grade in some crappy school. Basically, there weretwo flights. The beginning of the decline was when the old teachers started to retire. The inner city schools for a while were getting young replacements that were OK. Not as good as the retirees, but OK. Then the schools started to not get resources and the school teachers that were assigned there started to really get weak (read incompetent). This incompetent teacher base and the lack of resources directed at the inner city schools triggered the "Green Flight". Once the schools hit bottom, the people who were stuck there sued and forced busing started.
The mandatory busing to force people to go to the crappy schools triggered White Flight.

Important to remember that Green Flight was non-race based. It was a flight to quality by all my classmates parents (black and white) Everyone who could leave, did so to get their kids out of the crappy schools. White Flight was only white people because black families in the good OPS areas got to stay where they were. White families in OPS basically had a choice of leaving OPS or seeing their kid hauled off to a crappy school for the second grade and those microskills (like multiplication) that are taught in that grade would not be. They packed up and left. Again, most of the people that followed us to Millard were people who just wanted a better chance for their kids.

Redlining screwed white people too. My parents lost a pile of money on their little starter house on 48th street due to the FHA deciding that they could not sell their house for more than $8K (even though it was bought at $11k and they had put $3-4K into it). This was because they were in a neighborhood that was "transitional".
You have no idea what you're talking about. There was racial redlining in Omaha from before the 1920s through the 1970s. Black people were not able to buy titles to homes, secure home insurance, or get loans for houses. Neighborhoods like Gifford Park, Saratoga, Peony Park all had covenants preventing black homebuyers from moving there starting before WW2.

In the 70s after Omaha officially ended redlining, OPS was colluding with real estate developers to create segregated subdivisions & schools which is what lead to desegregation busing in the first place!

https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/di ... 3/1591706/
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bigredmed1
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Re: 2017 Annexation

Post by bigredmed1 »

Dundeemaha wrote:
bigredmed1 wrote:
Garrett wrote:
bigredmed1 wrote:
TitosBuritoBarn wrote:
OmahaFan wrote:Either way Annexation should be a high priority.
Why? The amount of land a city controls doesn't correlate to its success or financial prosperity.
Yes it does. If Omaha were to let Bennington annex all of west Douglas County outside of Omaha, or let Valley and Waterloo merge and take the trans-Elkhorn area with them, we would find ourselves in the city equivalent of OPS (pretty much like St Louis.) OPS pooped their bed back in the 60s when Millard was far away and 66 was really high taxes. Bellevue was owned by the air force, and Papio-LaVista were small towns in the country. By letting the school district go to seed in the mid 60s, lots of people took off in a wave of "green flight" where everyone who had the green to fly did so. This wave of multiracial out-migration was then followed by white flight in the early 70s. Leaving OPS weakened further and the people with money living in 66, and the people with enough to get out of OPS living in Millard and Ralston. Now OPS struggles and the surrounding districts get stronger.

This same thing happens in places like STL or Dallas where people with money would rather their tax money go to a park or school they will benefit from rather than yet more central city "investment".
"Green Flight?" What historical revisionist |expletive| is this? I mean sure, mention nothing about Sundown Towns, Block Busting, Red Lining, Exclusionary Covenants, and highway construction that systematically and precisely benefited white people and excluded black people, that began far earlier than the 60's.
Greenflight happened before forced busing. Mid to late 60s All the people (black and white, etc) who could leave the crappier parts of east Omaha did so when their kids' schools started going to seed. THEN white flight happened in the early 70s when forced busing became a thing and everyone blew out of OPS, even from the nicer areas to avoid having their kids schlepped 20 miles away to go to second grade in some crappy school. Basically, there weretwo flights. The beginning of the decline was when the old teachers started to retire. The inner city schools for a while were getting young replacements that were OK. Not as good as the retirees, but OK. Then the schools started to not get resources and the school teachers that were assigned there started to really get weak (read incompetent). This incompetent teacher base and the lack of resources directed at the inner city schools triggered the "Green Flight". Once the schools hit bottom, the people who were stuck there sued and forced busing started.
The mandatory busing to force people to go to the crappy schools triggered White Flight.

Important to remember that Green Flight was non-race based. It was a flight to quality by all my classmates parents (black and white) Everyone who could leave, did so to get their kids out of the crappy schools. White Flight was only white people because black families in the good OPS areas got to stay where they were. White families in OPS basically had a choice of leaving OPS or seeing their kid hauled off to a crappy school for the second grade and those microskills (like multiplication) that are taught in that grade would not be. They packed up and left. Again, most of the people that followed us to Millard were people who just wanted a better chance for their kids.

Redlining screwed white people too. My parents lost a pile of money on their little starter house on 48th street due to the FHA deciding that they could not sell their house for more than $8K (even though it was bought at $11k and they had put $3-4K into it). This was because they were in a neighborhood that was "transitional".
You have no idea what you're talking about. There was racial redlining in Omaha from before the 1920s through the 1970s. Black people were not able to buy titles to homes, secure home insurance, or get loans for houses. Neighborhoods like Gifford Park, Saratoga, Peony Park all had covenants preventing black homebuyers from moving there starting before WW2.

In the 70s after Omaha officially ended redlining, OPS was colluding with real estate developers to create segregated subdivisions & schools which is what lead to desegregation busing in the first place!

https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/di ... 3/1591706/
Yeah, I have no idea, I just told you that I lived through it.
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Garrett
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Re: 2017 Annexation

Post by Garrett »

bigredmed1 wrote:
Dundeemaha wrote:
bigredmed1 wrote:
Garrett wrote:
bigredmed1 wrote:
TitosBuritoBarn wrote:
OmahaFan wrote:Either way Annexation should be a high priority.
Why? The amount of land a city controls doesn't correlate to its success or financial prosperity.
Yes it does. If Omaha were to let Bennington annex all of west Douglas County outside of Omaha, or let Valley and Waterloo merge and take the trans-Elkhorn area with them, we would find ourselves in the city equivalent of OPS (pretty much like St Louis.) OPS pooped their bed back in the 60s when Millard was far away and 66 was really high taxes. Bellevue was owned by the air force, and Papio-LaVista were small towns in the country. By letting the school district go to seed in the mid 60s, lots of people took off in a wave of "green flight" where everyone who had the green to fly did so. This wave of multiracial out-migration was then followed by white flight in the early 70s. Leaving OPS weakened further and the people with money living in 66, and the people with enough to get out of OPS living in Millard and Ralston. Now OPS struggles and the surrounding districts get stronger.

This same thing happens in places like STL or Dallas where people with money would rather their tax money go to a park or school they will benefit from rather than yet more central city "investment".
"Green Flight?" What historical revisionist |expletive| is this? I mean sure, mention nothing about Sundown Towns, Block Busting, Red Lining, Exclusionary Covenants, and highway construction that systematically and precisely benefited white people and excluded black people, that began far earlier than the 60's.
Greenflight happened before forced busing. Mid to late 60s All the people (black and white, etc) who could leave the crappier parts of east Omaha did so when their kids' schools started going to seed. THEN white flight happened in the early 70s when forced busing became a thing and everyone blew out of OPS, even from the nicer areas to avoid having their kids schlepped 20 miles away to go to second grade in some crappy school. Basically, there weretwo flights. The beginning of the decline was when the old teachers started to retire. The inner city schools for a while were getting young replacements that were OK. Not as good as the retirees, but OK. Then the schools started to not get resources and the school teachers that were assigned there started to really get weak (read incompetent). This incompetent teacher base and the lack of resources directed at the inner city schools triggered the "Green Flight". Once the schools hit bottom, the people who were stuck there sued and forced busing started.
The mandatory busing to force people to go to the crappy schools triggered White Flight.

Important to remember that Green Flight was non-race based. It was a flight to quality by all my classmates parents (black and white) Everyone who could leave, did so to get their kids out of the crappy schools. White Flight was only white people because black families in the good OPS areas got to stay where they were. White families in OPS basically had a choice of leaving OPS or seeing their kid hauled off to a crappy school for the second grade and those microskills (like multiplication) that are taught in that grade would not be. They packed up and left. Again, most of the people that followed us to Millard were people who just wanted a better chance for their kids.

Redlining screwed white people too. My parents lost a pile of money on their little starter house on 48th street due to the FHA deciding that they could not sell their house for more than $8K (even though it was bought at $11k and they had put $3-4K into it). This was because they were in a neighborhood that was "transitional".
You have no idea what you're talking about. There was racial redlining in Omaha from before the 1920s through the 1970s. Black people were not able to buy titles to homes, secure home insurance, or get loans for houses. Neighborhoods like Gifford Park, Saratoga, Peony Park all had covenants preventing black homebuyers from moving there starting before WW2.

In the 70s after Omaha officially ended redlining, OPS was colluding with real estate developers to create segregated subdivisions & schools which is what lead to desegregation busing in the first place!

https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/di ... 3/1591706/
Yeah, I have no idea, I just told you that I lived through it.
Redlining did indeed affect some white neighborhoods, but it overwhelming affected black neighborhoods.That's the one instance you get partial credit for. White families at least were able to secure federally subsidized housing loans that were not available to black people, move into neighborhoods that excluded black people. heck, the Levittowns, the very first mass produced post-war American suburbs, were only open to white people. So your little "Greenflight" term is complete nonsense that you probably made up to ignore the decades of discrimination black people have faced in our cities. I won't try to explain blood disorders to you, and you don't try to explain urban theory and history to me.
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EastCB
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Re: 2017 Annexation

Post by EastCB »

Garrett wrote:
bigredmed1 wrote:
Dundeemaha wrote:
bigredmed1 wrote:
Garrett wrote:
bigredmed1 wrote:
TitosBuritoBarn wrote:
OmahaFan wrote:Either way Annexation should be a high priority.
Why? The amount of land a city controls doesn't correlate to its success or financial prosperity.
Yes it does. If Omaha were to let Bennington annex all of west Douglas County outside of Omaha, or let Valley and Waterloo merge and take the trans-Elkhorn area with them, we would find ourselves in the city equivalent of OPS (pretty much like St Louis.) OPS pooped their bed back in the 60s when Millard was far away and 66 was really high taxes. Bellevue was owned by the air force, and Papio-LaVista were small towns in the country. By letting the school district go to seed in the mid 60s, lots of people took off in a wave of "green flight" where everyone who had the green to fly did so. This wave of multiracial out-migration was then followed by white flight in the early 70s. Leaving OPS weakened further and the people with money living in 66, and the people with enough to get out of OPS living in Millard and Ralston. Now OPS struggles and the surrounding districts get stronger.

This same thing happens in places like STL or Dallas where people with money would rather their tax money go to a park or school they will benefit from rather than yet more central city "investment".
"Green Flight?" What historical revisionist |expletive| is this? I mean sure, mention nothing about Sundown Towns, Block Busting, Red Lining, Exclusionary Covenants, and highway construction that systematically and precisely benefited white people and excluded black people, that began far earlier than the 60's.
Greenflight happened before forced busing. Mid to late 60s All the people (black and white, etc) who could leave the crappier parts of east Omaha did so when their kids' schools started going to seed. THEN white flight happened in the early 70s when forced busing became a thing and everyone blew out of OPS, even from the nicer areas to avoid having their kids schlepped 20 miles away to go to second grade in some crappy school. Basically, there weretwo flights. The beginning of the decline was when the old teachers started to retire. The inner city schools for a while were getting young replacements that were OK. Not as good as the retirees, but OK. Then the schools started to not get resources and the school teachers that were assigned there started to really get weak (read incompetent). This incompetent teacher base and the lack of resources directed at the inner city schools triggered the "Green Flight". Once the schools hit bottom, the people who were stuck there sued and forced busing started.
The mandatory busing to force people to go to the crappy schools triggered White Flight.

Important to remember that Green Flight was non-race based. It was a flight to quality by all my classmates parents (black and white) Everyone who could leave, did so to get their kids out of the crappy schools. White Flight was only white people because black families in the good OPS areas got to stay where they were. White families in OPS basically had a choice of leaving OPS or seeing their kid hauled off to a crappy school for the second grade and those microskills (like multiplication) that are taught in that grade would not be. They packed up and left. Again, most of the people that followed us to Millard were people who just wanted a better chance for their kids.

Redlining screwed white people too. My parents lost a pile of money on their little starter house on 48th street due to the FHA deciding that they could not sell their house for more than $8K (even though it was bought at $11k and they had put $3-4K into it). This was because they were in a neighborhood that was "transitional".
You have no idea what you're talking about. There was racial redlining in Omaha from before the 1920s through the 1970s. Black people were not able to buy titles to homes, secure home insurance, or get loans for houses. Neighborhoods like Gifford Park, Saratoga, Peony Park all had covenants preventing black homebuyers from moving there starting before WW2.

In the 70s after Omaha officially ended redlining, OPS was colluding with real estate developers to create segregated subdivisions & schools which is what lead to desegregation busing in the first place!

https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/di ... 3/1591706/
Yeah, I have no idea, I just told you that I lived through it.
Redlining did indeed affect some white neighborhoods, but it overwhelming affected black neighborhoods.That's the one instance you get partial credit for. White families at least were able to secure federally subsidized housing loans that were not available to black people, move into neighborhoods that excluded black people. heck, the Levittowns, the very first mass produced post-war American suburbs, were only open to white people. So your little "Greenflight" term is complete nonsense that you probably made up to ignore the decades of discrimination black people have faced in our cities. I won't try to explain blood disorders to you, and you don't try to explain urban theory and history to me.
I'll trust bigredmed . My health is worth more to me than urban planning!!!
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jessep28
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Re: 2017 Annexation

Post by jessep28 »

Good ol' forced busing. I lived less than a mile from my elementary school when I lived in OPS land, but had to be shipped to Connestoga Elementary on 21st and Burdette for 3rd grade. I remember the daily line of yellow school buses coming and going there being extremely long. The line at my primary school in West Omaha, not so long.
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GrandpaaSmucker
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Re: 2017 Annexation

Post by GrandpaaSmucker »

Garrett wrote:Redlining did indeed affect some white neighborhoods, but it overwhelming affected black neighborhoods.That's the one instance you get partial credit for. White families at least were able to secure federally subsidized housing loans that were not available to black people, move into neighborhoods that excluded black people. heck, the Levittowns, the very first mass produced post-war American suburbs, were only open to white people. So your little "Greenflight" term is complete nonsense that you probably made up to ignore the decades of discrimination black people have faced in our cities. I won't try to explain blood disorders to you, and you don't try to explain urban theory and history to me.
If you really want to know what happened you should listen to BigRedMed. Hes throwing out gold nuggets to you. Sure what he says can be kind of edgy and uncomfortable but the truth is what it is. Like he said he didn't learn his history from a book he lived it. I'm 57 and lived at 48th & Redick for the first 18 years of my life. To make a long story short we lived through that mess and it was not no party. If you want revisionist history keep believing whoever you are getting your information from. If you want to know the truth then BigRedMed is an amazingly accurate account of what actually happened. I love the truth and it is refreshing for me to read BigRedMeds version of the past which is pretty much exactly the way I remember it.
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TitosBuritoBarn
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Re: 2017 Annexation

Post by TitosBuritoBarn »

Regardless of the history of OPS, the amount of territory they controlled didn't matter, it was the choices they made (or were forced upon them?). If you create a city (or school district) people want to be in and a part of in the present, you'll achieve prosperity regardless of history. If you look at many cities, their financial struggles are not tied to them being landlocked, they are tied to them making poor financial decisions, usually having to do with pensions. Chicago city employees for example, particularly police and fire employees, can retire with amazing benefits. Many can get six figures annually, if I remember correctly, AND can double dip into the pension systems of other jobs they take on (at least they used to be able to. A different department of my former employer was trying to fix that and I'm not sure how it turned out). The City pays for all of it and the ever increasing number of retirees is wreaking havoc on their budget because someone didn't consider the sustainability of such a pension system. Annexing out to Naperville wouldn't solve any of these problems because the same crappy pension system would still in place.

Even if you look at it from an infrastructure perspective, a city cannot continually annex new greenfield developments to offset the cost of aging infrastructure elsewhere. That has the sustainability of a pyramid scheme. Eventually you run out of things to annex and you're stuck with maintaining allllll the urban systems you've decided to take over.
"Video game violence is not a new problem. Who could forget in the wake of SimCity how children everywhere took up urban planning." - Stephen Colbert
OmahaFan
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Re: 2017 Annexation

Post by OmahaFan »

TitosBuritoBarn wrote:Regardless of the history of OPS, the amount of territory they controlled didn't matter, it was the choices they made (or were forced upon them?). If you create a city (or school district) people want to be in and a part of in the present, you'll achieve prosperity regardless of history. If you look at many cities, their financial struggles are not tied to them being landlocked, they are tied to them making poor financial decisions, usually having to do with pensions. Chicago city employees for example, particularly police and fire employees, can retire with amazing benefits. Many can get six figures annually, if I remember correctly, AND can double dip into the pension systems of other jobs they take on (at least they used to be able to. A different department of my former employer was trying to fix that and I'm not sure how it turned out). The City pays for all of it and the ever increasing number of retirees is wreaking havoc on their budget because someone didn't consider the sustainability of such a pension system. Annexing out to Naperville wouldn't solve any of these problems because the same crappy pension system would still in place.

Even if you look at it from an infrastructure perspective, a city cannot continually annex new greenfield developments to offset the cost of aging infrastructure elsewhere. That has the sustainability of a pyramid scheme. Eventually you run out of things to annex and you're stuck with maintaining allllll the urban systems you've decided to take over.

I disagree with you 100%. With Omaha continually annexing cities inside Douglas county it spreads the tax load out and improves city services for everyone inside the city and outside the city. I fully support aggressive annexation of the remaining cities inside Douglas county and possibly over county lines when the time comes. Omaha must grow at all cost.
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TitosBuritoBarn
Planning Board
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Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 7:08 pm
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Re: 2017 Annexation

Post by TitosBuritoBarn »

OmahaFan wrote:
TitosBuritoBarn wrote:Regardless of the history of OPS, the amount of territory they controlled didn't matter, it was the choices they made (or were forced upon them?). If you create a city (or school district) people want to be in and a part of in the present, you'll achieve prosperity regardless of history. If you look at many cities, their financial struggles are not tied to them being landlocked, they are tied to them making poor financial decisions, usually having to do with pensions. Chicago city employees for example, particularly police and fire employees, can retire with amazing benefits. Many can get six figures annually, if I remember correctly, AND can double dip into the pension systems of other jobs they take on (at least they used to be able to. A different department of my former employer was trying to fix that and I'm not sure how it turned out). The City pays for all of it and the ever increasing number of retirees is wreaking havoc on their budget because someone didn't consider the sustainability of such a pension system. Annexing out to Naperville wouldn't solve any of these problems because the same crappy pension system would still in place.

Even if you look at it from an infrastructure perspective, a city cannot continually annex new greenfield developments to offset the cost of aging infrastructure elsewhere. That has the sustainability of a pyramid scheme. Eventually you run out of things to annex and you're stuck with maintaining allllll the urban systems you've decided to take over.

I disagree with you 100%. With Omaha continually annexing cities inside Douglas county it spreads the tax load out and improves city services for everyone inside the city and outside the city. I fully support aggressive annexation of the remaining cities inside Douglas county and possibly over county lines when the time comes. Omaha must grow at all cost.
It can’t and won’t grow at all costs. That’s not at all sustainable. Banking on such non-stop growth is the same as banking on a pyramid scheme working out - at some point it’s going to stop and the city won’t want to be caught off guard with stuff it can’t pay for. There’s better solutions. Otherwise it’s going to be you who is forced to help foot the bills they can’t pay.
"Video game violence is not a new problem. Who could forget in the wake of SimCity how children everywhere took up urban planning." - Stephen Colbert
Gopher
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Re: 2017 Annexation

Post by Gopher »

TitosBuritoBarn wrote: It can’t and won’t grow at all costs. That’s not at all sustainable. Banking on such non-stop growth is the same as banking on a pyramid scheme working out - at some point it’s going to stop and the city won’t want to be caught off guard with stuff it can’t pay for. There’s better solutions. Otherwise it’s going to be you who is forced to help foot the bills they can’t pay.
See also: Strong Towns
Louie
County Board
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Location: Dundee

Re: 2017 Annexation

Post by Louie »

Gopher wrote:
TitosBuritoBarn wrote: It can’t and won’t grow at all costs. That’s not at all sustainable. Banking on such non-stop growth is the same as banking on a pyramid scheme working out - at some point it’s going to stop and the city won’t want to be caught off guard with stuff it can’t pay for. There’s better solutions. Otherwise it’s going to be you who is forced to help foot the bills they can’t pay.
See also: Strong Towns
Excellent read. And that site is chock full of interesting discussion points.
OmahaFan
Home Owners Association
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Joined: Tue Jun 21, 2016 9:07 pm
Location: Omaha

Re: 2017 Annexation

Post by OmahaFan »

I still think Omaha needs to keep aggressive annexation. Only way to expand the city and grow it.
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