UNO Dorms

skinzfan23 · Post by **skinzfan23** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 1:26 pm

I think UNO really needs dorms to accomodate a large number of residents, similar to Creighton and Iowa/ISU offer. It definitely would increase the enrollment figures and hopefully bring even more opportunities to the campus and university.

jsheets · Post by **jsheets** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 1:55 pm

I would consider UNO as being in a Neighborhood setting, where as UNL is in an Urban setting. I would agree that "suburban" doesn't describe UNO well at all. ITT Tech is Suburban :-)

GoWest · Post by **GoWest** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 1:56 pm

Finn, I think you made a lot of good points in your posts but you lost me with the “UNO is in a suburban location”. You are using an extremely narrow definition of urban. Your definition seems to almost exclusively be downtown in nature. Urban areas can certainly include Single-family detached housing with yards, large parkland and strip center shopping (I could do without this). I think it’s absurd to call midtown Omaha suburban. Some areas aren’t as urban looking but it still fits the definition of urban.

edsas · Post by **edsas** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 1:59 pm

Thanks for the perspective, Finn.

And I completely agree with your assessment of the environs around the two schools. I went without a car for three years in Lincoln and never missed it. My bike was all I needed. And there is far more to Lincoln than the Sheldon and Yia Yia's. After 6 years in LA, Lincoln's Barrymore's remains my favorite place to grab a drink and The Oven is still the best Indian restaraunt I've ever eaten in (and that's not from a lack of trying to find a better one). Beyond that, there are a hundred great things about Lincoln but you may need more than one chip-free semester at UNL to find it.

I wish the best for UNO and I hope it becomes every bit the great university it seems poised to become. But the honest and brutal truth is that given the choice between attending UNO for free and paying tuition to go to UNL, I'd pay the tuition. There's just no contest between them as far as what I'd look for in a college. And I'm not looking to hang out with the cast of The Simple Life.

TitosBuritoBarn · Post by **TitosBuritoBarn** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 2:45 pm

I would have to agree with Edsas in that I'd rather pay for tuition to go to UNL than attend UNO for free. I have several friends who attend both universities, and UNL seems to provide a better college experience. UNO is definitely a commuter campus. There are massive parking-lots everywhere. UNL and here at ISU, are walking campuses. My car and almost everyone else's who lives on campus is parked a good quarter mile to a full mile away, depending on what dorm you live. You either walk or you take the bus to go pretty much wherever you want to. You really don't even need a car. Campustown, as its called, our little entertainment district with restaraunts, bars, clubs, and everything else is literally right across the street from campus. It takes me longer to trek to most of my classes than it does to walk to Jimmy John's or any sort of bar I may want to goto. Campustown has a very walking oriented atmosphere. Its kind of like a Dundee area, but with a few high-rise apartments mixed in. Downtown Lincoln is at your fingertips for those who attend UNL. Downtown Lincoln was fun for me the times I got to experience it. We walked to a movie theater, ate at Jimmy Johns, played in a park, and just took it all in. UNO....heh....72nd street seems fun...if you're into furnature shopping. The times I've been to UNO, we sat in my friends dorm....and that's it. One time we drove to Kinkos. And mind you we're generally not the sitting around types. I can only think of Fuddruckers and Family Fun Center as being entertaining places you can walk to if you are a college student attending UNO. For those who are drinkers, and many college kids are, what are you going to do? You're going to hop in your car and drive elsewhere. There are no clubs within walking distance, no bars, no theaters. Every sort of retail establishment around UNO that one may be enticed to walk to is considerably suburban oriented - the types of places that you enjoyed haniging out at as high schoolers - the exact places that do not rank high as places you want around your campus to enjoy a real "college experience."

OhioStreetKid · Post by **OhioStreetKid** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 3:03 pm

For the record US News and World Report describes UNO having a Suburban setting Creighton, UNL, and UNK are considered to be Urban

The response to this out to be interesting,

omahastylee459 · Post by **omahastylee459** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 3:04 pm

for me, UNO has been great. I love being able to ride the shuttle to class, and then get back to my car and head home until my next class. It is just what you prefer, but i would rather be able to have my own time off of campus rather than be on campus 24/7 like you would be in lincoln.

OhioStreetKid · Post by **OhioStreetKid** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 3:04 pm

Oh my lord York and Hastings College are also considered urban!

edsas · Post by **edsas** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 3:05 pm

What's Jimmy John's? This place must be after my time.

My favorite bars/clubs in Lincoln were Barrymore's (great setting, very sophisticated), Yia Yia's/1427 (great pizza, good raves), Rogue's Gallery (classy, awesome martinis) and Cliff's Tavern and Smoke Shop (low-budget decor, great drinks -- all brought to you by the man who inveted Cliff's Notes).

DTO Luv · Post by **DTO Luv** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 3:08 pm

OhioStreetKid wrote:For the record US News and World Report describes UNO having a Suburban setting Creighton, UNL, and UNK are considered to be Urban

The response to this out to be interesting,

UNK in an urban setting? Kearney isn't even the least bit urban.

edsas · Post by **edsas** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 3:12 pm

Yeah, that's an odd distinction. You could walk to some amenties from UNK's campus, but certainly nothing of great interest. I commuted from Grand Island when I attended UNK and my impression was you wouldn't want to be without a car if you lived there.

DMRyan · Post by **DMRyan** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 3:13 pm

for me, UNO has been great. I love being able to ride the shuttle to class, and then get back to my car and head home until my next class. It is just what you prefer, but i would rather be able to have my own time off of campus rather than be on campus 24/7 like you would be in lincoln.

If the dorms/apartments are primarily intertwined with the campus in Lincoln, why wouldn't you be able to head home until the next class? I often did that in Ames if I had a long break.

edsas · Post by **edsas** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 3:20 pm

Yeah, there's certainly nothing binding you to campus in Lincoln. But instead of going to my apartment, I usually sat at the Coffee House or sometimes grabbed a beer or occasionally went to the Starship for a buck 75 movie. It all depended on the amount of homework I had.

omahastylee459 · Post by **omahastylee459** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 3:22 pm

DMRyan wrote:
for me, UNO has been great. I love being able to ride the shuttle to class, and then get back to my car and head home until my next class. It is just what you prefer, but i would rather be able to have my own time off of campus rather than be on campus 24/7 like you would be in lincoln.
If the dorms/apartments are primarily intertwined with the campus in Lincoln, why wouldn't you be able to head home until the next class? I often did that in Ames if I had a long break.

The dorms are still "campus" my house is off campus, so it is nice not having to be on campus at all hours of the day

jsheets · Post by **jsheets** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 3:39 pm

After my freshman year I lived in an apartment within walking distance to UNL. Within 5 minute drive after that. So you can definitely do this in Lincoln too, but I'd rather be in walking distance myself.

Swift · Post by **Swift** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 4:13 pm

Granted UNO is a driving campus, but that doesn't mean there aren't things in walking distance.

Coffee shops. Starbucks and Scooters on 72nd and Dodge, (not to mention the coffee shops in Borders and Barnes and Noble) Crane Coffee on Cass St. Caribou Coffee going in at 72nd and center. How many coffee shops are in walking distance from UNL? 1)The Coffee House 2) I suppose some people probably walk to the Mill in Haymarket. 6 to 2 Omaha wins.

Bookstores near campus. UNO- Border's on 72nd and Dodge, Barnes and Noble on 72nd a Dodge. Page turners books on 51st and Dodge. UNL-That one bookstore near the Homer's. 3) to 1)

Resturants: Chipotle and Noodle's and company on 72nd and dogde, Fuddruckers. Plus the resturants on Cass St. and in Dundee. Zio's, Village Inn a few blocks farther up dodge. Suhsi Ichiban. Pus whatever the heck they're putting in that new development on 72nd and center. I'd probably give this one to Lincoln though.

Movie theaters- UNL would win this one as Dundee Theater is the only one in walking distance from UNO and they tend to play arty movies (i.e. not much mass appeal).

Of course Lincoln has way more bars within walking distance, which was my initial point (and most of the things you said were good for entertainment in Lincoln were bars), because unless you're 21 and like drinking every weekend there is not much to do in Lincoln. And if you want to talk about parties then Lincoln would win the quantity category, but Omaha would the quality, as out of the 50 or so Lincoln parties I went while I was there and once I moved back to Omaha, only 4 of them didn't get broken up by the cops. That never happens in Omaha.

Swift · Post by **Swift** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 4:53 pm

Yeah, and hockey is really the only sport I like watching.

edsas · Post by **edsas** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 5:36 pm

Swift wrote:
Coffee shops. Starbucks and Scooters on 72nd and Dodge, (not to mention the coffee shops in Borders and Barnes and Noble) Crane Coffee on Cass St. Caribou Coffee going in at 72nd and center. How many coffee shops are in walking distance from UNL? 1)The Coffee House 2) I suppose some people probably walk to the Mill in Haymarket. 6 to 2 Omaha wins.

Granted, my knowledge of Lincoln is from 1994 to 1999, things may have changed. But there's the Coffee House (1 block from campus). The Mill (2 blocks from campus). Starbucks in the Student Union (on campus). There was a coffe shop on "O" and 13th (same block as Yia Yias) in a very thin building. I can't remeber the name. (2 blocks from campus) There was the cafe in Homer's Records (2 blocks from campus). And then, for the eccentric tastes, there was the Purple Moon (a hippy run coffee shop on 13th Street -- about 6 blocks from campus).

6 to 6. From the descriptions, Lincoln wins based on quality and uniqueness. And when you have one or two favorites, who needs 6 anyway?

Bookstores near campus. UNO- Border's on 72nd and Dodge, Barnes and Noble on 72nd a Dodge. Page turners books on 51st and Dodge. UNL-That one bookstore near the Homer's. 3) to 1)

The bookstore in the Student Union. The Nebraska Bookstore (1/2 a block from campus), a used book store near the Post & Nickel (2 blocks from campus) and the Lincoln Public Library (which sometimes sold used books -- 5 blocks from campus).

That's 4 to 3, Lincoln. But Barnes & Noble and Borders are way better than the Lincoln bookstores. They should count as two each. I give this one to Omaha 5 to 4.

Resturants: Chipotle and Noodle's and company on 72nd and dogde, Fuddruckers. Plus the resturants on Cass St. and in Dundee. Zio's, Village Inn a few blocks farther up dodge. Suhsi Ichiban. Pus whatever the heck they're putting in that new development on 72nd and center. I'd probably give this one to Lincoln though.

Probably? From your description, DT Lincoln's restaraunts kick the UNO environs up and down the street.

Movie theaters- UNL would win this one as Dundee Theater is the only one in walking distance from UNO and they tend to play arty movies (i.e. not much mass appeal).

Lincoln in a cakewalk. Especially with the addition of the new Ross theater.

Of course Lincoln has way more bars within walking distance, which was my initial point (and most of the things you said were good for entertainment in Lincoln were bars), because unless you're 21 and like drinking every weekend there is not much to do in Lincoln. And if you want to talk about parties then Lincoln would win the quantity category, but Omaha would the quality, as out of the 50 or so Lincoln parties I went while I was there and once I moved back to Omaha, only 4 of them didn't get broken up by the cops. That never happens in Omaha.

In four years in Lincoln, I attended exactly two parties that were ever broken up. Maybe the cops are cracking down now, I don't know. But it was never really a problem. Even the wildest toga party I ever attended (straight out of Animal House) went on until 5 am without incident. Perhaps if you had shown an interest in Lincolnites and Lincoln in general, you would have been invited to some better parties.

And there is certainly enough to do in Lincoln without being 21. There were 4 or 5 "O" Street clubs that held all ages shows every weekend. You merely got a black marker on your hand if you were underage, but you could get in. There was Knickerbockers and The Hurricane. The Hurricane shut down when I was still in college, but it was awesome. I got to see The Mighty Mighty Bostones, Tripping Daisy, Local H and a bunch of other bands in this little 100-person club. It was great. I don't know if Lincoln has managed to replace The Hurricane. Big loss if it hasn't.

But experiences have a lot to do with who you hang out with, too. I hung out with film guys, philosophy students and the J School crowd. There was rarely a dull moment. A lot of us have gone on to bigger and better things, but there was certainly no scarcity of culture in Lincoln 10 years ago. I knew a revolving door of cool people as freshman came and seniors graduated. But they were all, for the most part, incredibly intersting people. I've found it hard to replicate the Lincoln crew even here in a metro of 17 million. Maybe I was lucky. Or maybe, the relative smallness of Lincoln was a good thing in how it concentrated like-minded people. If you wanted to be a keg-drinking, soriety-girl shagging meathead, there was certainly that niche. Right out in the open. But if you wanted to be an arts-loving, coffee-drinking, contraband-smoking, Sarte-discussing, filmmaking poet, well, there was plenty of company for that lifestyle, too.

mchine73 · Post by **mchine73** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 5:38 pm

The thing I think you're leaving out here swift is would the majority of people want to walk along dodge to get to those places. I believe the answer is no. Lincoln's downtown campus has a better pedestrian scale allowing people to feel a little more comfortable. I think that fact alone would give the "campus neighborhood" advantage to lincoln no matter what what's in walking distance.

Swift · Post by **Swift** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 6:58 pm

Well I wasn't counting on campus coffee shops (MJ Java in the UNO Student Center, so Omaha would win 7 to 6 if we were doing it that way, but...) The Mill is a lot more then two blocks from campus. There isn't a cafe in Homer's anymore (probably since they moved to their new building). Never heard of this coffee shop on O st, but since I can't conclusively say it isn't there I can't deny you it. I will have to make a sojourn this summer to Lincoln to find out (*shudder*

) So we're at 7 to 5.

That Used book store was the one I was talking about, I left the Nebraska bookstore out because of it's limited slection compared to a normal bookstore, but we can count it if you want. And if you want to count Library branches there is a branch in Dundee. Which makes it 4 to 4 before you factor in size.

I don't know if the majority of people would walk to those place. I know I DO walk to those places on a weekly basis.

edsas · Post by **edsas** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 7:24 pm

The coffe shop on O may not be there anymore. I'm going on 1999 knowledge. But the Mill is most certainly 2 blocks from campus. Architecuture Hall is at 11th and R near the Lied Center. The Haymarket is right across 10th and then you jog on down to P Street, that makes 2 or 3 blocks at the most. It's in the heart of the Haymarket which is itself entirely in the walking domain of UNL and not exactly the furthest reaches of it either. Are you telling me you never walked to the Haymarket in your brief stint in Lincoln? It may be a bit of a hike from the dorms, but it's not from the majority of campus and it's in the general vacinity of the O Street bars and clubs which you do seem to consider to be in UNL's walking domain.

I'm not terribly familar with the area around UNO, so I can't correlate the walking relationship specifically, but the Haymarket is as much a part of DT Lincoln and the city campus as the Old Market is to DT Omaha.

As for bookstores, I was never terribly impressed with the selection in DT Lincoln. It could really use a name like Borders to fill that niche. So I have no doubt UNO's area is better in this regard.

DT Lincoln is far from perfect, but it's hardly a cultural and entertainment void.

Swift · Post by **Swift** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 8:01 pm

Yeah I walked to the Haymarket once...a 45 minute walk later I decided I was never doing that again. But yeah I was measuring from dorms not just from campus, so that's where the discrempancy comes in.

edsas · Post by **edsas** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 9:07 pm

45 mintes? Was your dorm on East Campus?

Swift · Post by **Swift** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 9:12 pm

45 minutes is an exaggeration, it was more like 30 minutes. I was walking from Able Sandoz.

almighty_tuna · Post by **almighty_tuna** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 9:36 pm

Yeah, when you live at HSS or whatnot, its a long walk to the other side of campus, let alone DTL or the Haymarket. I always biked though...mmm, biking.

StreetsOfOmaha · Post by **StreetsOfOmaha** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 9:37 pm

Thanks for fighting this "battle", Bob ;) . You know I agree with you on all counts!

adam186 · Post by **adam186** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 12:02 am

I live at HSS and it takes about 15 min to walk to the Union and DTL is a couple block behind so it's about a 20-25 min walk. Good excercise

.

edsas · Post by **edsas** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 6:31 pm

StreetsOfOmaha wrote:Thanks for fighting this "battle", Bob ;) . You know I agree with you on all counts!

Aaron, I think you know how much I like and respect you from all of our forum conversations over the last 3 years. But I just don't get this Lincoln perspective you share with Swift and to a lesser extent DTO. Your criticisms of Lincoln are unfounded and bizarre. It's like criticizing a straight A 6th Grader for not knowing Trigonometry. It just doesn't make sense.

I'm not trying to prosyletize anybody into liking Lincoln. If you don't, you don't. But your criticisms still need to be valid, which they're not. Lincoln is far from perfect, but little of what you or Swift or DTO have said jibes with the Lincoln that I know.

There's nothing to do in Lincoln if you are under 21. Not true. I've already stated the case in this thread.

Lincoln is mired in a small-town mentality and is anti-progress. Not true. I, along with Finn, DMRyan, Jeff and others have argued against this in other threads. There are plenty to choose from.

Lincoln may be big and exciting to outstate hicks, but coming from a much bigger city like Omaha, the town offers little of value. Also not true. When I was in college I knew a dozen Omahans who managed to survive 4 years or more in Lincoln. They even (gasp) enjoyed themselves. My circle also included 2 Bostonians, 2 New Yorkers, a Philadelphian, a Clevelander, a New Orleansan, a Minneapolin, a Denverite, 2 Sacromentans, a metro Angelean, a Calgarian, a Tokyoan and a Melbournian. Did they have bouts with boredom in Lincoln? Sure. Did they miss things about their home cities? Absolutely. But their enjoyment and appreciation for the city came because they didn't compare it to their hometowns. It would have seemed ridiculous to them. Kind of like expecting trig out of a 6th grader. My Tokyo friend, for example, decided to stay in America after graduation. He got married and settled in Lincoln for a little while. But eventually he decided it was too small and moved to LA. I asked him what he liked about LA and he said it was the perfect city. It was Lincoln on the scale of Tokyo and that it was like the two cities had a kid and it grew up to be Los Angeles. The image struck me as hilarious, but his point always stuck with me. There was something ethereal about Lincoln that touched this guy and he found his happy medium. Urban appreciation is in the eye of the beholder. If a Tokyoan is not too "big city" sophisticated for Lincoln, then nobody is. Certainly not 3 teenagers from Omaha. That doesn't mean you have to like the city. That doesn't mean it has to thrill you in any way. But let's not misrepresent the place.

The problem here, the reason this is such a sticking point with me, is that the rapant parochialism between the two cities angers me. Omaha can either remain an under 1 million brides maid or it can notice that there's a damn fine city 50 miles to the west and merge into a 1.1 million regional powerhouse. Cooperation between the two will never happen if the residents misrepresent each other and hang on to impressions that aren't true. (Omaha is dangerous and dirty.) (Lincoln is an overgrown, unsophisticated backwater.) This kind of misrepresentation hurts both cities.

Did you guys see the movie Swingers? Remember that guy in the group who suggested leaving every party they went to because "this place is dead anyway" despite that quite the opposite was happening around him? That's like you and Swift in Lincoln. Let's go. This place is dead anyway.

Not trying to drudge up any hard feelings. I just wanted to get this off my chest.

adam186 · Post by **adam186** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 6:53 pm

edsas, I couldn't agree with you more. I used to hate Lincoln, but that was before I came here for school. Omaha and Lincoln rock

.

OmahaRules · Post by **OmahaRules** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 10:38 pm

I like Lincoln for the most part. I think we do need to work together I mean heck we are only 45-60 min away if that. I dunno it just makes sense to work together sooner or later we will be right up next to each other. "Can't we all just get along?"

DTO Luv · Post by **DTO Luv** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 12:08 am

^ heck no!

MTO · Post by **MTO** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 12:42 am

I like Lincoln for the most part. I think we do need to work together I mean heck we are only 45-60 min away if that. I dunno it just makes sense to work together sooner or later we will be right up next to each other. "Can't we all just get along?"

heck no, you said it yourself “OmahaRules”

StreetsOfOmaha · Post by **StreetsOfOmaha** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 6:49 pm

edsas, you know I respect you right back. I guess all I can say is that neither one of us can speak to the other's perspective. When Bob (Swift) and I left Lincoln in the winter of 2003, it was just so unanimous between the two of us how much we didn't really enjoy ourselves in Lincoln, and how inferior it is to Omaha. Now, that's not to say that people can't still go to Lincoln and love it, and have an awesome time, etc. even people from Omaha, of course, I mean that's no secret. And that's also in no way saying that Omaha is some "be all end all", because that's OBVIOUSLY not true.

I don't know....

It's actually kind of hard for me to have this conversation with someone who is defending Lincoln, because I really don't want to offend anyone.

I'll just say that I don't, by any means, hate Lincoln. I just see it for what it is. To each his/her own.

edsas · Post by **edsas** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 7:45 pm

You're right. We can't speak to each other's experiences. Clearly your connection to Omaha is such that there is no substitute and I can appreciate that. It's what's going to make you a future mover and shaker for your city. As an Omaha fan, I'm excited about that.

My wife and I are talking about moving back to Nebraska. Maybe we will, maybe we won't. But I'm pushing for Omaha, she's pushing for Lincoln. Just wanted to let you know where my personal loyalties lie. ;)

eomaha · Post by **eomaha** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 8:07 pm

Yeah, let's face it... while UNO has a great future ahead of it... it will be a LONG time before it ever has the kind of walking campus that UNL has... and unless Jay Noddle brings us some kind of entertainment/retail district on the Aksarben property with which to provide even the most basic needs to someone without a car at UNO ... whatever you think of it, downtown Lincoln wins hands down.

Of course none of the arguments made here can justify NOT building additional residence buildings at UNO. Obviously the demand is there... that is all that matters.