Best Places to live from Money Magazine

Finn · Post by **Finn** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 8:44 am

10 Best Big Cities
1-25 | 26-50 | 51-75 | 76-90 | 10 best big cities

Rank City Population
1 Colorado Springs, CO 369,800
2 Austin, TX 690,300
3 Mesa, AZ 442,800
4 Raleigh, NC 341,500
5 San Diego, CA 1,255,500
6 Virginia Beach, VA 438,400
7 Omaha, NE 414,500
8 Columbus, OH 730,700
9 Wichita, KS 354,900
10 New York, NY 8,143,200

DTO Luv · Post by **DTO Luv** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 8:49 am

Cool. We beat NYC. Wichita?

Post by **Omaha Cowboy** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 8:51 am

Not too shabby..

See this link:

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag ... 37000.html

..Ciao..LiO....Peace

Big E · Post by **Big E** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 9:10 am

Hey, that's also on the "Best Big Cities" list. That's even more significant than the #7 ranking.

Also notice that the percent of people married is lower and the divorce rate is higher than the other places to live. Must be the sanctity guarded by our values. ;)

-Big E

TechnicalDisaster · Post by **TechnicalDisaster** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 9:11 am

I'm surprised to see Colorado Springs as #1 on that list. The last time my family was there, we all agreed we would never go back. We hit a lot of tourist spots as well as the local big malls and people were not very friendly. Also, it seemed we were nickel and dimed to death at all the tourist spots.

TechnicalDisaster · Post by **TechnicalDisaster** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 9:20 am

Take a look at the Omaha picture they have on file in their galleries:

Any guess to how old that is?

joeglow · Post by **joeglow** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 9:22 am

How did we get so high? We were worse than the average in the VAST majority of the items they listed.

DTO Luv · Post by **DTO Luv** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 9:47 am

^ What. Was one of the categories taxes?

I too like that we are considered a big city this time.

Post by **Omaha Cowboy** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 10:28 am

bradley414 wrote:Take a look at the Omaha picture they have on file in their galleries:

Any guess to how old that is?

Mid 80's..

And we really reed to send them an update as they recycle that same pic every year they do their 'Best Cities List'..

..Ciao..LiO....Peace

loyalomahan · Post by **loyalomahan** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 10:31 am

How did we get so high? We were worse than the average in the VAST majority of the items they listed.

Maybe we scored high in the unlisted 'skyline' category.

TechnicalDisaster · Post by **TechnicalDisaster** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 10:46 am

I looked over at Getty images (where the photo crdit points) and only found two pages of Omaha photos (on the creative site, not the editorial) and most of them were of tigers from HDZ. Out of the choices of pictures, CNN probably picked the best. Maybe we should start submitting photos there?

It is a royalty based stock photo website, which are typically very selective of the images they place online. I'll look into what they desire and see if we can get some of the good photographers here to send them some pics. Omaha needs to be represented better!

Post by **Omaha Cowboy** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 10:50 am

bradley414 wrote: I'll look into what they desire and see if we can get some of the good photographers here to send them some pics. Omaha needs to be represented better!

Exxcellent bradley..And I agree 100%..Omaha should be represnted better from a pic standpoint (as in NOT using a 20 year old skyline photo)..

..Ciao..LiO....Peace

MTO · Post by **MTO** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 11:18 am

We've been down that road dozens of times. We need for someone to do something about it.

joeglow · Post by **joeglow** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 11:58 am

DTO Luv wrote:^ What. Was one of the categories taxes?

I too like that we are considered a big city this time.

That doesn't even make sense. However, I think I figured it out. It appears the averages are for the best places to live overall (all big and "small" cities). So, while we did not do the best overall (97th), we did pretty well for "big" cities.

Good news.

the1wags · Post by **the1wags** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 12:07 pm

Outstanding pub for the Big O!

Yeah I've been bitching about Omaha's photo rep, lots of sites have those old pics. Go to http://www.weather.com and look, they have an old pic of the O there too.

If you find something out Chris, let us know, I'd be more than happy to kick in a couple shots.

StreetsOfOmaha · Post by **StreetsOfOmaha** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 12:33 pm

I love that one of the two areas in the leisure and culture section that we are above average on is SKI RESORTS!!!

Beautiful.

MTO · Post by **MTO** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 12:46 pm

Hey if that helped us land #7 then heck yes we do.

eomaha · Post by **eomaha** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 9:04 pm

So what's the second ski run? the old Nebraski? Or is there another one I'm not familiar with?

Great publicity for Omaha (of course plenty of skyscraperpage people are whining ... more about Wichita being one rung above NYC

).

I hate to minimize it, but if it weren't for Omaha having our states liberal annexation laws on it's side... we probably wouldn't be anywhere near the top of this list. Instead, it would be the 'city of Millard' in the 'small city' category. Note the 'small city' listing.. all of the top 10 cities are suburbs of much larger metros. Hopefully we can continue leveraging those suburban tax dollars to build an even better city core. ;)

MTO · Post by **MTO** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 9:22 pm

I would love to go over to AbsoluetDSM and see what they are saying but they won't get the news for a couple more weeks.

eomaha · Post by **eomaha** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 9:28 pm

They're enjoying some positive press from the Chicago Tribune at this time.

praymojo420 · Post by **praymojo420** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 9:34 pm

Hmm. It's kind of obscure to be proud of, but yeah. Kick |expletive|.

eomaha · Post by **eomaha** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 9:36 pm

Another obscure distinction... we're the -Best- 'Big City' in the Midwest... to live in.

MTO · Post by **MTO** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 9:38 pm

I don't know about you mojo but this sure beats the press we used to get. By a lightyear.

Asten · Post by **Asten** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 10:25 pm

jhuston wrote:They're enjoying some positive press from the Chicago Tribune at this time.

They claim to be doing a "once a month" highlight of midwestern cities that are "often overlooked". I shall keep my eyes on this, and if Omaha *doesn't* get one, they're going to get a nastygram ;)

MTO · Post by **MTO** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 10:28 pm

Or if Omaha doesn't get one why not a thank you? Indicating they think we get enough attention. J/King let me know i'll send them a dirty letter too.

eomaha · Post by **eomaha** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 10:28 pm

Here's the last story they did on us...

http://www.eomaha.com/others/5.html

MTO · Post by **MTO** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 10:31 pm

Oh well see we made the chi tribune too. nanner nanner...

Post by **Omaha Cowboy** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 2:17 am

I remember that article well..

That was a flattering Chicago Trbune article from 2003..

I'd love to read something a little fresher

..

..Ciao..LiO....Peace

jjjjhskr · Post by **jjjjhskr** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 6:36 am

I'm just relieved to see the World Herald report that we're the 7th best big city as opposed to trumpeting that we are the 97th best city to live in.

Nice!

cdub · Post by **cdub** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 6:51 am

I would like to see our stats compared to the larger crowd because it did seem like we were not doing that fantastic!

BTW, I think there are actually a whole 2 of those top ten overall that are not burbs...

DTO Luv · Post by **DTO Luv** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 6:55 am

jhuston wrote:
Great publicity for Omaha (of course plenty of skyscraperpage people are whining ... more about Wichita being one rung above NYC ).

On the KC site they are bitching about this becuase it favors 'suburban' cites, but NYC is number 10? I've never seen such a jealous, minimizing group of people.

I read the Trib article on the DM site. I'd like to see them do another one on Omaha as well.

Asten · Post by **Asten** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 9:52 am

jhuston wrote:Here's the last story they did on us...

http://www.eomaha.com/others/5.html

yeah, I have the paper copy

Post by **Omaha Cowboy** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 10:33 am

jjjjhskr wrote:I'm just relieved to see the World Herald report that we're the 7th best big city as opposed to trumpeting that we are the 97th best city to live in.

I can't disagree with that John

..

From the brief W-H piece:

'Omaha was named by Money magazine as one of the top 10 best big cities to live in.

On its 2006 Best Places to Live list, the city ranked seventh, behind Virginia Beach, Va. Colorado Springs was rated No. 1.'..

The story link:

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pg=46&u_sid=2208113

..Ciao..LiO....Peace

praymojo420 · Post by **praymojo420** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 12:34 pm

MTO wrote:I don't know about you mojo but this sure beats the press we used to get. By a lightyear.

Nah, I prefer Nicholson's hurtfull remarks.

Post by **Brad** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 8:51 am

Miss informed......

http://www.lincolnjournalstar.com/artic ... 732687.txt

Sorry, Omaha. Tough luck, Chicago. Too bad, Minneapolis and Kansas City and Denver. Yeah, you heard right. Lincoln has trumped you all. At least that’s what one poll says.

CNNMoney has ranked Lincoln —little underdog Lincoln — as the 60th-best place to live in the United States.

Post by **Omaha Cowboy** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 9:01 am

..

Yeah whatever LJS..Classic tomfoolery

..Ciao..LiO....Peace

DTO Luv · Post by **DTO Luv** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 9:19 am

Lincoln thinking they are better than Omaha is like a bronze medal Special Olympian thinking they can beat a gold medal regular Olympian. It's not going to happen.

One of the things they said is job growth and lately all of the news I hear about Lincoln jobs is that they are closing places, cutting staff, or moving to Omaha.

loyalomahan · Post by **loyalomahan** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 9:24 am

It's not as if they didn't mention our #7 ranking, which they could have easily chosen to exclude.

Lincoln Journal Star wrote:Omaha is waaay down at 97th place -- although it ranked No. 7 in a separate list of the 10 best big cities, between Viriginia Beach, Va., and Columbus, Ohio. And Chicago and the others (evil laugh here) aren’t even ranked.

Post by **Brad** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 9:37 am

loyalomahan wrote:It's not as if they didn't mention our #7 ranking, which they could have easily chosen to exclude.

Lincoln Journal Star wrote:Omaha is waaay down at 97th place -- although it ranked No. 7 in a separate list of the 10 best big cities, between Viriginia Beach, Va., and Columbus, Ohio. And Chicago and the others (evil laugh here) aren’t even ranked.

Omaha dosn't even want to be part of that small city list...

almighty_tuna · Post by **almighty_tuna** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 11:44 am

Its not even that Omaha doesn't want to be on that list, they don't qualify for it. A few sentences before that last quote the writer explains the qualifications were cities 100,000-300,000. So she's bragging that lincoln bested omaha in a class Omaha's too big to compete in.