Here are a few of the many color photos of Jobbers Canyon I've acquired over the years:Midwestern wrote:You should definitely share some of your color photos. :)mr. omaha wrote:I'll go on....
For the record, I have dozens of color photos of Jobbers Canyon (and old downtown in general) and dozens of photos of the inside of many of those Jobbers buildings, and they are absolutely spectacular. Those buildings were in good to great condition, and the ONLY reason they were torn down was because of Mike Harper. Thanks to that d-bag, we now have a suburban campus of low-rise "UGLY RED BRICK BUILDINGS" (which, unsurprisingly, I absolutely loathe) and a park with a lagoon that smells like death and a graffiti covered pavilion that looks like absolute |expletive|. Before HoA the city was successfully able to maintain one nice park downtown - GLM - now we have two under-maintained nasty looking parks (for example, how long has it been since the canopy over the GLM slides ripped away, yet the supports are still there!?)... Omaha should be absolutely embarrassed. And, even if those buildings weren't torn down in 1989/90, Jobbers could have sat vacant for the past 20-25 years like every other large building downtown that sat vacant and was subsequently/in the process of being renovated (The Wire, Burlington PO and Station, Bebee Runyan, Barker, and so on and so on...) If the buildings in Jobbers were still there, they'd now be renovated or be in the process of being renovated, and downtown would be feel incredibly dense with a larger population (likely by a few thousand). If Jobbers hadn't been demolished there would be more people, architecture, culture, shops and services downtown, and probably a suitable grocery store like everyone wants. I wish ConAgra had left town back then, because I am convinced and will forever be convinced that Mike Harper and ConAgra ruined downtown Omaha's potential to become one of the most spectacular and unique mid-size urban cores in the entire country.
9th St. looking south:
9th St. looking north:
Interior of John Deere Building:
Demolition of Creighton Building: