Midtown Crossing

[Renovator2559]

I wouldn't broadly categorize people who live in the suburbs as lazy or less health minded. I would say most American suburbs simply make it hostile/impossible to walk to places. This doesn't mean people who live there aren't interested in healthy restaurants for those reasons.

Fairpoint and yes there are unhealthy people in both sides, but in general stats show a decline in health in people that live in suburbs in comparison to city dwellers, do to the many factors in suburbs that discourage activity, also with poorer health, there is less energy to expend.

One factor that troubles me is that both Juice Stop and Lettuce express in west omaha closed, in favor of southern style restaurants that are not known to be healthy but comfort foods.

In comparison Modern Love is quite busy and keeps expanding their menu options in Midtown Crossing. Genesis growing in the area is also a good sign.

This is so bizarre that I almost think it’s trolling. There are more gyms in west Omaha in totality, let alone per capita. The idea that walking is seen as “suspicious” is insane - you can go to about any neighborhood and see many people walking around, jampacked parks, etc..

Your counterpoint is what - one restaurant? Modern Love is doing well and Genesis bought a space for probably pennies on the dollar, so Midtown Crossing is the new Muscle Beach? Lol….bizarre, man.

There’s also more Juice Stop locations in the suburbs than there are in east Omaha. I guess, ergo, y’all are unhealthy slobs. That….that IS the logic, right?

It doesn't take much thinking to come up with the conclusion that car dependency and lack of ability to reach locations by walking or cycling contributes to poorer health. What is considered walking in West Omaha, does not equal the same level of walking in the urban core, there's simply few reasons to walk in west omaha other than recreation and most people would reduce their frequency in walking over there, because there is not much of interest to look at but a sea of houses, wide roads, strip malls and parking lot-landia.
Sure there are always exceptions but the overall health shows a different story.

Also even if there is a lake nearby or a park nearby, are these connected to anything else and not just a dead end, to encourage use?


Even the NIH sees that suburbs are on average less healthier than urban or walkable neighborhoods
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8396707/

Or this on Canadian clsuburbs and others:
https://cmajblogs.com/the-suburbs-are-not-alright/

Or how about this report on suburbs and chronic health:
https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna6113780

Or how about this one:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/tr ... story.html

Or how about this study of older people and their psychological health in suburb vs urban
https://www.urbandesignmentalhealth.com ... burbs.html

Or how about this study of how denser suburbs contribute to better health
https://www.wellnessdaily.com.au/cultur ... -healthier

Just because someone has a different opinion does not equal being a troll.

About juice stop, I take that back, I've never been to that location. I thought it was "healthy" but it's a location that sells mostly sugary drinks by looking at their menus and its nothing like cold pressed green juices of "the grove".

There are trails from all 4 directions that connect multilpe neighborhoods to Standing Bear....

Are those neighborhoods just houses, or are the restaurants far away on the main streets surrounded by parking lots.

[Renovator2559]

I wouldn't broadly categorize people who live in the suburbs as lazy or less health minded. I would say most American suburbs simply make it hostile/impossible to walk to places. This doesn't mean people who live there aren't interested in healthy restaurants for those reasons.

Fairpoint and yes there are unhealthy people in both sides, but in general stats show a decline in health in people that live in suburbs in comparison to city dwellers, do to the many factors in suburbs that discourage activity, also with poorer health, there is less energy to expend.

One factor that troubles me is that both Juice Stop and Lettuce express in west omaha closed, in favor of southern style restaurants that are not known to be healthy but comfort foods.

In comparison Modern Love is quite busy and keeps expanding their menu options in Midtown Crossing. Genesis growing in the area is also a good sign.

This is so bizarre that I almost think it’s trolling. There are more gyms in west Omaha in totality, let alone per capita. The idea that walking is seen as “suspicious” is insane - you can go to about any neighborhood and see many people walking around, jampacked parks, etc..

Your counterpoint is what - one restaurant? Modern Love is doing well and Genesis bought a space for probably pennies on the dollar, so Midtown Crossing is the new Muscle Beach? Lol….bizarre, man.

There’s also more Juice Stop locations in the suburbs than there are in east Omaha. I guess, ergo, y’all are unhealthy slobs. That….that IS the logic, right?

I live out in NW Omaha, and I can tell you the trails at the lakes out here get a ton of use. Walkers and joggers the most but lots of bikes, along with some rollerblading. I am looking forward to Standing Bear's renovation finishing later in the year. It's not the same walking around an empty lake.

Recreation is great an all, but how many use the lake daily or have a reason to go there other than recreation?

Does it compare to the urban core from dundee, blackstone, midtown, downtown, old market and west council bluffs? All connected, with businesses, shops, restaurants and reasons to walk to? Or how about the renovated Gene Leahy Mall and soon to be opened Heartland of America, Lewis and Clark parks? Or the future expansion of Rivers Edge park?

Last time I heard about a park attracting as much people was the renovated Gene Leahy Mall, which even caught the attention of Kansas City. Maybe the news is not reporting this high use of this secluded parks in NW Omaha?

Still, there's plenty of potential in West Omaha with the proposed walkable mixed used projects nodes considered in the future

Maybe if 400 million was dumped on a NW Omaha park, it would be. Is this really the apples to apples comparison you want to make? I’d also note that there are massively more cars parked around the Gene Leahy Mall now than there were before. Maybe, just maybe, it’s people from the west side of the city wanting to enjoy it. Or are those all cars from people in downtown and midtown?

Anyways, your initial projection was how lazy everyone is. That’s a ridiculous, sweeping accusation.

Nice to see we’re no longer comparing health by Juice Stop locations.

Why would they dump 400M for a park system on West Omaha? The already congested streets in west Omaha would discourage visitors, unless they widen their streets yet again.... Even then that secluded NW area would draw way less people and the parks would not contribute to businesses, except to the nearest strip mall

The Riverfront ties the fabric of the urban core, there are plenty of amenities that draw people in, plenty of activities reachable at a human scale.

I go to the park regularly and theres a difference between parking on the sides of the street vs parking lots that create the island effect. Sure people from the suburbs go to the GLM but it's less frequent and they often go like in the weekend because it takes longer to drive through sprawling west omaha

Not Just Bikes did a video as a person living in the suburbs and all the barriers that slow a person down, I think this is a bit dramatic but it highlights some of the areas that need improvement, its not that suburbs are bad, it's just we need to build them better like the city of Omaha is planning to sprinkle all these mixed used development neighborhoods.

[nativeomahan]

You don’t turn a 5,000 passenger cruise ship around on a dime. Since the 1940s urban “planners” touted suburban lifestyles as the realization of the American Dream. Spurred on by GM, Ford and Chrysler. It turned what had been urban design on its head. Cheap gasoline, mass production of automobiles and newfangled shopping malls (surrounded by acres of free parking) added fuel to the fire. For the past 75 years American society has been reaping what corporations had sewn. A suburban lifestyle is virtually all that multiple generations of families have ever known. If that’s all you ever knew you are apt not to break out of your comfort zone.
So shifting back to a more sustainable urban design, with walkable cities and residents not needing or even wanting automobiles takes both time and a rather radical change in attitudes. But it is now happening, Midtown Crossing, Aksarben Village, the Brickline, North Downtown, the many other higher density developments in mid city are ample evidence that a change in attitudes has taken hold. For the foreseeable future both lifestyles will exist, at least figuratively side by side.
I’m probably one of the few members of this forum who has a foot in the door of both lifestyles. In Omaha I live in a 70 year old suburban style neighborhood deep inside the city. Our house started off literally at the western city limit border, in the Westside school district. I could walk to Trader Joe’s and Countryside Village if I dared (both less than 1 mile from my home), but that’s about it. My neighborhood has no sidewalks. Walking to a movie theatre, a healthy variety of restaurants and coffee houses, or other shops people are apt to need to visit on a regular basis? Nope. Public bus lines? Nope.
In contrast, our 14 year old condo in México, while in a still developing (reinventing might be a better word) neighborhood, is within a 10-15 minute walk of about 60 restaurants, plus bars, coffee houses, 3 large grocery stores, fresh meat and vegetable markets, dozens of independent shops (I recently carried a gallon of paint home on foot from the Sherwin Williams store), laundromats, key makers, hardware, electrical and plumbing supply stores, kitchen supply stores, medical supply stores, bakeries, ice cream shops, street taco stands, medical clinics, three hospitals, a handful of department stores, several small parks and even a Walmart. We own no vehicle and 99% of the time we don’t miss it. Our lifestyle in Omaha is incredibly different from our lifestyle in PV. We typically walk 3-5 miles a day in México, which helps clear the mind and allows us to feel more connected to our city, as you notice a lot more while walking versus zipping by at 30 miles per hour. We actually can chat with shopkeepers, smell the fresh baked pastries and restaurant food, and hear the birds sing. Is it perfect? Of course not. Some of the urban smells are unpleasant. The sidewalks vary in quality and during the rainy season streets become ponds. But on the whole I think that if more people here in the US could experience such a lifestyle they would never want to trade it for life on a culdesac miles from any city services.

[Dusty]

@nativeomaha- You took the words out of my mouth. 70+ years of a car-centric design. 4 generations of knowing a car only world. Taking away everything you have ever know is scary for some. Change is hard and will not happen overnight.

@Rennovator2559- People don't choose to move to the suburbs in pursuit of a lazy and unhealthy lifestyle. They move there because there is more housing inventory that fits their growing family. Unfortunately, they are forced to live in a car centric design. At inception, it sounded fantastic. After all these years, we truly see the damaging effects of it all. This ties into the data you provided. It's a result of car centric design and not a lifestyle people are choosing.

We are a community of one. It's not a competition between urban vs suburban. We all deserve sidewalks, safe crosswalks, bike lanes (protected if possible), transit options with strong density built around it, etc. I do believe we are making great forward momentum as a city.

[Dusty]

Pulling this back to Midtown Crossing discussion. Do you think they will split the space Genesis is moving out of or lease it out as is? How big is the current space?

[guy4omaha]

We are a community of one. It's not a competition between urban vs suburban.

It sure doesn’t feel that way quite often on this forum. I have never understood this need to disparage one another back and forth whether it be urban vs suburban, west Omaha vs central Omaha, Omaha vs out state Nebraska, etc. I have lived, worked and played in all of the above. Still do. I appreciate the commonalities and differences. I also appreciate that different people have the freedom to appreciate and choose different lifestyles and where to live. Freedom to do so without the need to be stereotyped and vilified. I’ve enjoyed this forum for nearly 20 years. Enjoyed it all except for this urban /suburban tussle. There is a lot of lip service in our culture given to valuing diversity. Why not this topic too?

[Renovator2559]

You don’t turn a 5,000 passenger cruise ship around on a dime. Since the 1940s urban “planners” touted suburban lifestyles as the realization of the American Dream. Spurred on by GM, Ford and Chrysler. It turned what had been urban design on its head. Cheap gasoline, mass production of automobiles and newfangled shopping malls (surrounded by acres of free parking) added fuel to the fire. For the past 75 years American society has been reaping what corporations had sewn. A suburban lifestyle is virtually all that multiple generations of families have ever known. If that’s all you ever knew you are apt not to break out of your comfort zone.
So shifting back to a more sustainable urban design, with walkable cities and residents not needing or even wanting automobiles takes both time and a rather radical change in attitudes. But it is now happening, Midtown Crossing, Aksarben Village, the Brickline, North Downtown, the many other higher density developments in mid city are ample evidence that a change in attitudes has taken hold. For the foreseeable future both lifestyles will exist, at least figuratively side by side.
I’m probably one of the few members of this forum who has a foot in the door of both lifestyles. In Omaha I live in a 70 year old suburban style neighborhood deep inside the city. Our house started off literally at the western city limit border, in the Westside school district. I could walk to Trader Joe’s and Countryside Village if I dared (both less than 1 mile from my home), but that’s about it. My neighborhood has no sidewalks. Walking to a movie theatre, a healthy variety of restaurants and coffee houses, or other shops people are apt to need to visit on a regular basis? Nope. Public bus lines? Nope.
In contrast, our 14 year old condo in México, while in a still developing (reinventing might be a better word) neighborhood, is within a 10-15 minute walk of about 60 restaurants, plus bars, coffee houses, 3 large grocery stores, fresh meat and vegetable markets, dozens of independent shops (I recently carried a gallon of paint home on foot from the Sherwin Williams store), laundromats, key makers, hardware, electrical and plumbing supply stores, kitchen supply stores, medical supply stores, bakeries, ice cream shops, street taco stands, medical clinics, three hospitals, a handful of department stores, several small parks and even a Walmart. We own no vehicle and 99% of the time we don’t miss it. Our lifestyle in Omaha is incredibly different from our lifestyle in PV. We typically walk 3-5 miles a day in México, which helps clear the mind and allows us to feel more connected to our city, as you notice a lot more while walking versus zipping by at 30 miles per hour. We actually can chat with shopkeepers, smell the fresh baked pastries and restaurant food, and hear the birds sing. Is it perfect? Of course not. Some of the urban smells are unpleasant. The sidewalks vary in quality and during the rainy season streets become ponds. But on the whole I think that if more people here in the US could experience such a lifestyle they would never want to trade it for life on a culdesac miles from any city services.

Beautifully said, all of those points are consistent with areas we need to improve in suburban design. That's one thing I like about Mexican cities, the community as a whole feels connected, not isolating and disconnecting as the modern suburbs envisioned by decades of propaganda by big auto. .

People don't realize that "the gym of life" is essential to encourage movement and being active, as it is very easy to stay holed up in suburban home, since it's very easy too, a lot of suburban people do this and have minimal interaction with their community. And since none of the establishments are nearby, strip mall driving hoping around is the norm.

[iamjacobm]

Pulling this back to Midtown Crossing discussion. Do you think they will split the space Genesis is moving out of or lease it out as is? How big is the current space?

It will likely be marketed as office space.

[TransitOriented]

Personally I doubt Genesis will spend money to build a rooftop pool.


As a suburban resident, I've been called many names during my time in Omaha. It's odd being labeled a racist, an [expletive], etc just for the location of where I live. This even occurs on this website and is sad to see.

[thenewguy]

Personally I doubt Genesis will spend money to build a rooftop pool.


As a suburban resident, I've been called many names during my time in Omaha. It's odd being labeled a racist, an [expletive], etc just for the location of where I live. This even occurs on this website and is sad to see.

1. I must have missed something, i didn't see anyone calling anyone racist.
2. The suburban/urban debate is very tiring, you are correct
3. While the discussion is great, it looks like we got really far off topic here. I know I threw in my little anecdote earlier, but maybe we need to move this all to its own thread?

[Dusty]

Personally I doubt Genesis will spend money to build a rooftop pool.

As a suburban resident, I've been called many names during my time in Omaha. It's odd being labeled a racist, an [expletive], etc just for the location of where I live. This even occurs on this website and is sad to see.

1. I must have missed something, i didn't see anyone calling anyone racist.
2. The suburban/urban debate is very tiring, you are correct
3. While the discussion is great, it looks like we got really far off topic here. I know I threw in my little anecdote earlier, but maybe we need to move this all to its own thread?

I agree. That's why I tried to pull it back to Midtown Crossing discussion.

I don't see a rooftop pool practical for Omaha with winter conditions and all. Maybe Genesis is splurging on one of those endless swim spa's. They can put of cover over it when not in use. Note: Max occupancy is one member.
I'm saying this jokingly of course!

[thenewguy]

water is heavy; how much would they need to do to reinforce it to support a pool? Surely it isn't as simple as just putting one up there...

[BIGO88]

It looks like Graze Craze has opened up a location here.
https://www.grazecraze.com/locations

[Coyote]

Omaha police rededicate statue in Turner Park to fallen K9 Kobus



A beloved dog statue in Midtown Omaha crossing received some much-needed care. Kobus, an Omaha police K9, was killed in the line of duty in January 2016 while trying to track down a suspect. "I was an officer at the time when Kobus was in service and I remember Kobus was a very hard dog and what that means is that when you were training the dog, it was 100%. It was always going 100% the entire time that he was working and training," Sgt. Randy Pignotti said.

Originally made out of resin, the sculpture on the north side of Turner Park had been damaged by people and the weather. The new statue is made of bronze and honors Kobus, who served for six years and was just months away from retirement when he was killed in the line of duty.

[BIGO88]

Middle eastern place opening up here called Mazza

https://www.mazzacuisine.com/

[Brad]

There appears to be some construction work going on in the old movie theater space.

[iamjacobm]

There appears to be some construction work going on in the old movie theater space.

Genesis Health Club bought that whole building and is converting the theater into a larger facility than they have across the street.

[halgy]

There appears to be some construction work going on in the old movie theater space.

Genesis Health Club bought that whole building and is converting the theater into a larger facility than they have across the street.

Is this confirmed? I'd heard that was the plan a while back, but it had been in limbo for a long time. If so, it is kinda a shame. I was kinda reserving hope that a theater might be able to survive with the increased foot traffic and accessibility from the streetcar in a few years.

[Brad]

There appears to be some construction work going on in the old movie theater space.

Genesis Health Club bought that whole building and is converting the theater into a larger facility than they have across the street.

Is this confirmed? I'd heard that was the plan a while back, but it had been in limbo for a long time. If so, it is kinda a shame. I was kinda reserving hope that a theater might be able to survive with the increased foot traffic and accessibility from the streetcar in a few years.

Looks like it. County shows it sold on 6/28/2023 for $9 Million. Building Permits also list "Genesis Health Club".

[skip]

Yes. Genesis will be moving across the street by the end of the year.

[Renovator2559]

A nice backdrop of downtown from Midtown Crossing on Omaha's Favorite Fridays event.
All ages alike, having a good time.

[iamjacobm]

Genesis is probably getting close. Signage going in today.

[skip]

Jan 24 grand opening

[halgy]

Genesis is probably getting close. Signage going in today.

I'm still sad to lose the movie theater along the streetcar route. It would have been excellent to get to a theater without having to drive. I wonder if there's somewhere else on the route that could accommodate a theater in the future.

[nebport5]

Genesis is probably getting close. Signage going in today.

I'm still sad to lose the movie theater along the streetcar route. It would have been excellent to get to a theater without having to drive. I wonder if there's somewhere else on the route that could accommodate a theater in the future.

Agreed. I’ll reiterate my desire for something off 16th St. If the OPPD building goes housing I say replace the 7 story building with a theater as a homage to The Boyd Theatre. Yeah technically this would be more 17th St but close enough. The original Boyd was at 15th and Farnam until burning down. The second incarnation was at the Southeast corner of 17th and Harney. Though The Boyd was originally for built for Opera there’s record of silent cinema screenings before its demise.

[2Adam29]

I'm going to laugh if they turn the old genesis location into an arthouse theater so the spots basically just switched roles XD