North Downtown is NoDuh

Coyote · Post by **Coyote** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 6:19 pm

City has two blocks to jump-start North Downtown

Saddle Creek and Bluestone first in line?

Post by **Brad** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 6:27 pm

Should we not decide between a baseball Stadium and a museum district before we just jump in an go?

Big E · Post by **Big E** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 7:03 pm

Anything that says we can't have a baseball stadium AND a museum district?

I can hear the Bud Light and brie crowds mingling already...

-Big E

omahastylee459 · Post by **omahastylee459** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 7:07 pm

looks like the name North Downtown is probably going to stick, now that it is all over the paper....

Swift · Post by **Swift** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 7:10 pm

I guess now I have to send a letter to the OWH too! Damn it. I thought I'd at least have a month before we'd start seeing articles appear.

Finn · Post by **Finn** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 7:51 pm

Should we not decide between a baseball Stadium and a museum district before we just jump in an go?

heck no. The flexibility of the plan allows for other aspects to be implemented whenever they can. The important thing is to get the ball rolling and make sure development conforms to the plan in general. Devlopment begets development.

DTO Luv · Post by **DTO Luv** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 7:59 pm

Why would it be a month before we should see articles? Hopefully we'll see a steady flow of announcements.

Swift · Post by **Swift** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 8:29 pm

What I meant is that I thought it would be a month before articles about Upper Market developments would start appearing, giving me pleanty of time to write the powers that be to have them call it Upper Market instead of NoDon't.

Raraavis · Post by **Raraavis** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 9:01 pm

This is fantastic news as long as they follow the Upper Market plan recommendations for street level retail, build to the sidewalk and such. I have a nightmare of a nightclub with surface parking and a suburban apartment complex.

I made a map for those people who like me were a little confused about the location of this site. Thanks Google Maps for the image.

Coyote · Post by **Coyote** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 9:18 pm

I just noticed a new user that has signed on: NoDoDev
who list a website as http://www.thetiptoplife.com

Welcome to this forum NoDoDev.
I look forward to hearing about your developments!

Post by **Brad** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 9:38 pm

The train tracks the serve the Omaha World Hearld run right through that lot??

Swift · Post by **Swift** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 11:02 pm

I'm going to call him/her UpperMarketDev

StreetsOfOmaha · Post by **StreetsOfOmaha** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 11:44 pm

Down with "North Downtown". Up with "Upper Market". We WILL acheive mass acceptance, Bob, hahaha.

Bluestone development is a "retro" developer....WOW?

I love that the city wants to move fast on this, and recognizes that it's necessary. Now we'll find out if they know what the meaning of fast is.

And again, lets try to have no more "North Downtown" talk on here. At the very least, call it North Downtown. If you want to be cool like Bob and I, however, you will call it Upper Market.

Raraavis · Post by **Raraavis** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 11:49 pm

Just say no to North Downtown

If we get stuck with that name maybe we can get corporate sponsorship with these folks.

MTO · Post by **MTO** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 3:50 am

Upper Market, Yay! I’m cool..

Coyote · Post by **Coyote** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 3:56 am

I sense a petition coming here. Upper Market! Upper Market!
In fact let's ban from the site any reference of this supposed North Downtown.

TitosBuritoBarn · Post by **TitosBuritoBarn** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 4:10 am

So what's wrong with North Downtown again? Are we trying to not be conformists? Where did Upper Market come from? Why not City North or North Towne or The North Side or Market North or The North District?

Post by **Brad** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 4:13 am

TitosBuritoBarn wrote

The North District?

Shorten it to "The District" thats kind of catchy

StreetsOfOmaha · Post by **StreetsOfOmaha** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 4:15 am

What's wrong with North Downtown? It sounds f*cking stupid.

If you want to be accurate, the true name of the district is actually the Near North Side. So we COULD call the area "Near North". I actually like the sound of that.

Coyote · Post by **Coyote** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 4:23 am

What is wrong with N@D@? Jeez Louise. It rhymes with BoZo. It is synonymous classless brainless foresight. It is downright embarrassing to the senses. It is so Sophmoric...

CountOfMC · Post by **CountOfMC** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 4:23 am

StreetsOfOmaha wrote: So we COULD call the area "Near North". I actually like the sound of that.

Are you serious? Yuck. How much more general can you get than "Near North." Too plain for my tastes. North Downtown is actually growing on me. Kind of fits in with the whole SoMa theme...

Post by **Brad** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 4:29 am

What about "The Ballpark District"

eomaha · Post by **eomaha** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 4:30 am

Gee whiz... it's Eppley International all over again.

Just call it North Downtown.

TitosBuritoBarn · Post by **TitosBuritoBarn** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 4:35 am

I really don't mind it either. I know that San Francisco, Seattle, and Denver all have urban neighborhoods named in a similar fashion. SOMA, if you didn't know, was actually jacked from San Francisco where it is the name of the neighborhood south of Market Street. In addition, there is a LoDo in Denver and a SoDo in Seattle.

I like "The Ballpark District." It's original.

StreetsOfOmaha · Post by **StreetsOfOmaha** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 4:40 am

CountOfMC wrote:
StreetsOfOmaha wrote: So we COULD call the area "Near North". I actually like the sound of that.
Are you serious? Yuck. How much more general can you get than "Near North." Too plain for my tastes. North Downtown is actually growing on me. Kind of fits in with the whole SoMa theme...

Well, I prefer Upper Market. Calling it North Downtown is so played out. Then it can just join SoHo, LoDo, SoBe, SoDo and all the other stupid abreviated names.

SoMa is just as dumb.

All these names are just so trendy and unoriginal (Except maybe SoHo, since that's probably the first district to be called that way).

Swift · Post by **Swift** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 4:51 am

Woa man this thread spiraled out of control! As I said in my letters to the mayor, omaha by design, bluestone etc. :

"Aside from the negative psychological impact of having the word “no” in the title, and the fact that it will easily lend it self to mocking... aside from those facts there is one other glaring fact: every city in America has a North Downtown.

For Omaha to truly be a tourist destination it needs to be as unique as possible, which is why I believe we should call this area of downtown Upper Market. Calling it Upper Market puts us in a class all by ourselves as only a handful of other cities have areas called Upper Market. The name has the psychologically positive word “up” in the title, and instead of identifying it self by its orientation to Downtown, Upper Market identifies itself by its orientation to Omaha’s most unique area, the Old Market."

eomaha · Post by **eomaha** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 4:52 am

Upper Market implies an association with the Old Market... of which there is none.

I'd sooner go with the Ballpark or Sports District... if people insist on something more exotic than simply North Downtown.

Swift · Post by **Swift** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 4:56 am

I didn't say there was an association, but an orientation, i.e. above it (on a map).

Ballpark or Sports District is too genre constricting. We want this to be an area of town that everyone wants to go to, not just sports fans.

Finn · Post by **Finn** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 2:41 pm

I don't think North Downtown is that bad, just too common. I actually prefer names that associate the uniqueness of the city through names of significant denizens or historical context.

How about the Rail Yard District? It was the site of the UP rail yard for decades and it will still have a couple of rail lines running through it (even across the first parcels the city is designating for initial development). The railroad is a very significant part of our history. Union Pacific also helped foster excitement for the area by cleaning up the soil of the former rail yard and giving the city a bargain price for the land. Also, the tribute to Union Pacific at 10th and Abbott Drive will be installed soon. The monument is the fulfillment of a city obligation to relocate Kenefick Park under the agreement that originally acquired the UP rail yard for Qwest Center Omaha. The project includes a large display documenting Union Pacific’s ties to Omaha and the rich history both share.

POTUS · Post by **POTUS** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 2:48 pm

Ha! This is so much fun. All this bickering over what to call an area of the north side of downtown, and for what?

You guys are dropping names like Ballpark District and Upper Market as if this were some strip mall development. Consider The Shoppes at Greyhawk. Who cares? It's a strip mall (or 6) along West Maple.

The best thing to do is let the first developers come in, then start floating names around. I think it's funny how a small 20 block area is of any importance to even have a name. Why not call the area Downtown? This is just an admittance of our smallness, that we can take a downtown of 1.5 square miles and subdivide it into areas like North Downtown, SoMa, Old Market, and Whateverthehellisupwith24thstreet. Ha!

Call this area Downtown. The real North Downtown is north of Cuming up to Lake Street. Now that's a district!

papiostud · Post by **papiostud** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 3:02 pm

I think I'm the only one here that doesn't mind the North Downtown......what bout NorDo, does that sound better??

Post by **Omaha Cowboy** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 3:26 pm

..

I'll just call the area North Downtown and hope to heck that the dream of this proposed development comes to complete realization..

..Ciao..LiO....Peace

DTO Luv · Post by **DTO Luv** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 6:39 pm

I like Potus' idea of just calling it DT. I think people will entually come up with a new name for it because North Downtown is Dumb. I like Soma. That sounds cool and there are more places than San Francisco with a Soma.

GoWest · Post by **GoWest** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 6:49 pm

papiostud wrote:I think I'm the only one here that doesn't mind the North Downtown......what bout NorDo, does that sound better??

I don't mind it but it's not great. I like the sound of just plain North Downtown better. I don't like NorDo though. What would you call residents that live there, Nordo-wells?

StreetsOfOmaha · Post by **StreetsOfOmaha** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 8:43 pm

I don't fully get what Potus just said, but I wouldn't mind just calling it downtown, either, and eventually a name will come.

It's just so annoying how all the articles are calling it "North Downtown", always in quotation marks.

It's pretty funny. Back when I was working with Doug Bisson at HDR, we would have conversations about the name, etc. The power was pretty much theirs to decide what the area would be called, because whatever name they put on the final plan would tend to stick. Anyway, I remember us talking one day about how we all thought North Downtown sounded dumb. So I'm surprised that they didn't come up with a different description of it than "North Downtown" knowing that people would call it North Downtown.

How about "River West" or "University East".

Or, along the lines of waiting and letting the area get a name naturally, whatever the name of the anchor would probably become the name of the district. Like, say the ballpark is called "Johnson Park", then the area would be called the Johnson Park Neighborhood. Or it could just be called the Museum District.

How about this...haha...along the lines of North Downtown, if the Museum was called Omaha Museum Of Modern Art, the area could be called OMOMA.

almighty_tuna · Post by **almighty_tuna** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 9:23 pm

StreetsOfOmaha wrote:Like, say the ballpark is called "Johnson Park"

...forever dubbed "The Johnson District"

Coyote · Post by **Coyote** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 11:07 pm

StreetsOfOmaha wrote:How about this...haha...along the lines of North Downtown, if the Museum was called Omaha Museum Of Modern Art, the area could be called OMOMA.

Omaha Museum of Historical Art

TitosBuritoBarn · Post by **TitosBuritoBarn** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 11:13 pm

We could use the fact that Cuming Street goes through the area and turn it into a Red Light district.

The Cuming District. Heh heh...

Zephyr · Post by **Zephyr** » Sat Apr 30, 2005 4:08 am

I like Streets' idea of having a name come naturally and originally. Don't settle for a name based on its orientation on the compass rose.

WT · Post by WT » Sat Apr 30, 2005 8:49 pm

Why does it matter what it is called anyway? North Downtown, NorDo, Upper Market, who cares as long as it is cool and they serve beer. We should all be worried about the content rather than a name.
BTW Streets, how could I get an internship with HDR? It seems like it is the place to go in the area for a good urban design internship. Did you get to work on some cool stuff there?
I hope the buzz continues on this development. It is very exciting.