Cheaper isn't always better
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1/26/2009
About three years ago, my wife and I from New England were looking for a place to settle down and raise a family. I applied to jobs in a bunch of different cities and states and got an offer for one in Omaha, Nebraska. Neither she nor I had ever been to Nebraska or had any family there, but we did research on the city. It seemed to get positive reviews from different magazines and ranked on many lists as one of the top cities to live. We decided to go there, especially since it seemed to have a low cost of living.
It has been three years since the move, and we now are looking at moving again. We both agree that Omaha isn't the place we want to spend the rest of our lives in. There are a few reasons for this:
1. The weather is unpredictable. New England you know it's cold in the winter, hot in the summer, cool in the fall and spring. Omaha can go from 60 to 20 in 24 hours (not joking). Plus it's too cold in the winter and too humid in the summer. You can't ever make solid plans because you never know what kind of weather you are going to get. Plus when it snows you can't do anything fun with it. In NE, we could ski, ice fish, snow shoe, cross country ski, etc. This brings me to point 2:
2. The lack of natural resources or scenery. Boy do you miss the ocean and mountains when you don't have them. Omaha is pretty much flat and dry. There are no significant bodies of water (the Missouri river doesn't count) and the nearest mountain is almost 10 hours away. The few lakes are dingy, dirty and unattractive. It gets too humid in the summer to camp. The skyline is unappealing. It's not an attractive city.
3. Lack of diversity. Whites and Caucasians dominate. The blacks are pushed to the run-down north and the Hispanics are pushed to the run-down south.
4. Lack of liberals. My wife and I are, for better or worse, strong Democrats. While there are some progressives in Omaha, there aren't many. Most of them are conservative and Catholic. Catholicism has a stronghold on this city unlike any I've seen ever. As an ex-Catholic, the bishop's influence can be somewhat nauseating.
5. Too expensive to fly anywhere. The Omaha airport isn't a very big one. It's quite expensive for us to fly back to NE to visit friends or family or to go anywhere else somewhat fun.
And the biggest annoyance of all:
6. The true cost of living here is hidden. You can buy a house in Omaha for a low price, but then you have to pay huge taxes on it with the house building little to no appreciation in value. There are high taxes everywhere in the state, and in the end after you pay all the fees and taxes, you really aren't paying much less to live here than you are to live in New England. My wife and I don't want to pay a lot of money to live in a relatively boring place, so we are going to move.
In conclusion, Omaha is the biggest small town I've ever been in. Conservative, Catholic values rule the landscape and it's hard to fit in if you are from elsewhere, as everyone has developed their friendships and networks from high school. We feel there is more to life than getting up, going to work, going to eat, and going to bed day after day after day. We are moving back East somewhere.
John | Omaha, NE