Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Monday, October 13, 2008
The bridge to ...
The Robert Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge is a 3000 foot suspension bridge for foot and bicycle traffic which links the cities of Omaha, Nebraska and Council Bluffs, Iowa.
The Bridge connects the Omaha Riverfront to the former Playland Park area in west Council Bluffs.
The Bridge's namesake is Robert ("Bob") Kerry, a highly-decorated Vietnam war veteran and local restaurateur who served as Nebraska Governor and U.S. Senator. Kerrey is also known as the one-time boyfriend of actress Debra Winger, and an unsuccessful candidate (that's the Kerrey with the "E") for President of the United States. Kerrey has retired from politics and currently serves as President of The New School, a progressive university in New York City. |  |
The Bridge opened to pedestrian traffic in late September, 2008, with construction beginning in October of 2006.
The Bridge is open 24x7 and is brilliantly lit at night, with countless floodlights ...
The Bridge's suspension hardware is intended to be part of its decor.
From the Bridge is a spectacular view of the downtown Omaha skyline, day and night.
Atop the 220 foot twin suspension towers are displays of changing colored lights.
The Bridge's walkway is just over half of a mile from Nebraska soil to Iowa soil and slopes gently up toward the center. It's an easy walk, and fully accessible.
One obvious omission is that there is no marking at the state line!
Critics of the project use the threadbare and timeworn trite expression "Bridge To Nowhere", but that is not entirely untrue!
While the Omaha end of the Bridge links up with a very popular area for strolling, dining, jogging, bicycling, which has seen much development, including apartments and townhomes, both high-rise and low-rise ...
There's really not much on the Iowa side. Much more will be coming REAL SOON, so they say, such as a riverfront drive and a pedestrian-friendly urban neighborhood, but as of now, the Iowa ramp empties into a small city park.
Until the 1960s, this area of west Council Bluffs was home to Playland Park, a very popular amusement park and stock car racetrack.
Playland Park included many adult and youth rides, including a wooden roller coaster, bumper cars, ferris wheel, carousel, penny arcade, etc.
Most of what was the amusement park was seized by eminent domain for the construction of the I-480 bridge. However, the racetrack lasted well into the 1970s.
The bridge is already quite popular, particularly during the cool autumn days and evenings.
Technical information:
Night shots: Fujicolor 1600, Canon QL17 GIII
Day shots: Fujicolor 200, Olympus Stylus and Kodachrome 64, Canon QL17 GIII
Sunday, October 05, 2008
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
A darker side of NoDo ...
NoDo (North Downtown) is, unquestionably, the up-and-coming, hip-n-hap'nin', oh-so-trendy neighborhood du jour in the Omaha area.
Situated just north of the former Jefferson Square district and east of the Creighton University campus, what we now call NoDo was once an active and thriving business and industrial area, with light manufacturing, printing, auto body shops, and businesses of all type along the Cuming Street corridor.
Today's NoDo, anchored by the QWest Convention Center and the soon-to-be (fill in a corporate sponsor's name) Stadium, is a burgeoning arts and entertainment district with several new hotels, trendy shops and clubs, loft apartments, and the headquarters of Saddle Creek Records, a major player in the indie rock scene.
Film Streams, a not-for-profit cinema cooperative, operates their flagship two-screen Ruth Sokolof Theater, showing first-run independent features, as well as foreign, documentary, classic, and other non-mainstream films.
Everybody talks about what NoDo has become and will become.
Let's take a look at a side of NoDo which the boosters don't show, and look back to what NoDo once was ...
Just footsteps from the new Hampton and Fairfield lies an entanglement of crumbling sidewalks, boarded-up factories, weed and debris-filled vacant lots, flophouses, abandoned storefronts, and such ...
Everything is for sale ...
... or so it seems. We would think that with so much active development in the area that these properties would be snapped up quickly, but apparently that's not happening.
Most of the flophouses are now closed and padlocked ...
... patiently awaiting suitors to kiss them and turn them into postmodern lofts.
Prince Charming is evasive, however ...
... with today's economy, nobody seems to wish to commit and consummate.
Oh well ...
Cuming Street transects the area and is NoDo's primary east-west thoroughfare. Several of the streets in the area are named for 19th Century politicians (Webster, Nicholas, Izard, Burt, Cuming, etc.) with Cuming Street being named for Governor Thomas B. Cuming. For some unknown reason, many native Omahans pronounce Cuming Street as if it were plural, as in "Cumings" {sic}.
But anyway ...
To call this area blighted is an understatement! "Blighted" would actually be a compliment. Notice that there's very little gang graffiti. Even the gangs stay away, there's nothing here for them!
The other Tip-Top:
Among the four-figure per month apartments in the area is the Tip-Top building, an immaculately-restored manufactory, originally an auto assembly plant, then producing various sundries from hair rollers to glues. This now contains Brandeis Catering, the last business to wear the Brandeis moniker, and an on-again, off-again all-ages gaming arcade.
This is not the Tip-Top building we're visiting here ...
Across Cuming to the south stands the remains of three attached production buildings of Carl Renstrom's once-mighty Tip-Top empire.
The once-gleaming moderne marquise and deco-inspired ironwork lie crumbling, the unwelcome stepsibling of the prodigy across the street.
The dates are unclear to me, but I've been told that Tip-Top was plagued with things like labor issues in the 1970s and eventually sold out to Goody, a larger maker of plastic products.
Such is business, such is life, we wander on ...
The 906 building ... what ferocious monsters lurk behind the chain-link fence?
A watchdog, maybe?
A watchdog on wheels?
Ooooooo, scary! :)
Not all is bleak, however ...
Along with the weeds, some contemporary artworks have bloomed in the yard of this one-time auto shop.
Standing Bear.
Ya know, with just a little TLC, some clean-up, fix-up, paint-up type of things, something like this could host some nice little shops on the street level, with some very nice walk-ups above.
As for Tip-Top, OMG, the possibilities for this complex are endless!
What comes to mind immediately are things like a music venue or concert hall, maybe even a nightclub!
Technical information: Night shots: Mamiya SD, Fuji Superia 800. Day shots: Canon QL17 GIII, Fuji Superia 400.
Situated just north of the former Jefferson Square district and east of the Creighton University campus, what we now call NoDo was once an active and thriving business and industrial area, with light manufacturing, printing, auto body shops, and businesses of all type along the Cuming Street corridor.
Today's NoDo, anchored by the QWest Convention Center and the soon-to-be (fill in a corporate sponsor's name) Stadium, is a burgeoning arts and entertainment district with several new hotels, trendy shops and clubs, loft apartments, and the headquarters of Saddle Creek Records, a major player in the indie rock scene.
Film Streams, a not-for-profit cinema cooperative, operates their flagship two-screen Ruth Sokolof Theater, showing first-run independent features, as well as foreign, documentary, classic, and other non-mainstream films.
Everybody talks about what NoDo has become and will become.
Let's take a look at a side of NoDo which the boosters don't show, and look back to what NoDo once was ...
Just footsteps from the new Hampton and Fairfield lies an entanglement of crumbling sidewalks, boarded-up factories, weed and debris-filled vacant lots, flophouses, abandoned storefronts, and such ...
Everything is for sale ...
... or so it seems. We would think that with so much active development in the area that these properties would be snapped up quickly, but apparently that's not happening.
Most of the flophouses are now closed and padlocked ...
... patiently awaiting suitors to kiss them and turn them into postmodern lofts.
Prince Charming is evasive, however ...
... with today's economy, nobody seems to wish to commit and consummate.
Oh well ...
Cuming Street transects the area and is NoDo's primary east-west thoroughfare. Several of the streets in the area are named for 19th Century politicians (Webster, Nicholas, Izard, Burt, Cuming, etc.) with Cuming Street being named for Governor Thomas B. Cuming. For some unknown reason, many native Omahans pronounce Cuming Street as if it were plural, as in "Cumings" {sic}.
But anyway ...
To call this area blighted is an understatement! "Blighted" would actually be a compliment. Notice that there's very little gang graffiti. Even the gangs stay away, there's nothing here for them!
The other Tip-Top:
Among the four-figure per month apartments in the area is the Tip-Top building, an immaculately-restored manufactory, originally an auto assembly plant, then producing various sundries from hair rollers to glues. This now contains Brandeis Catering, the last business to wear the Brandeis moniker, and an on-again, off-again all-ages gaming arcade.
This is not the Tip-Top building we're visiting here ...
Across Cuming to the south stands the remains of three attached production buildings of Carl Renstrom's once-mighty Tip-Top empire.
The once-gleaming moderne marquise and deco-inspired ironwork lie crumbling, the unwelcome stepsibling of the prodigy across the street.
The dates are unclear to me, but I've been told that Tip-Top was plagued with things like labor issues in the 1970s and eventually sold out to Goody, a larger maker of plastic products.
Such is business, such is life, we wander on ...
The 906 building ... what ferocious monsters lurk behind the chain-link fence?
A watchdog, maybe?
A watchdog on wheels?
Ooooooo, scary! :)
Not all is bleak, however ...
Along with the weeds, some contemporary artworks have bloomed in the yard of this one-time auto shop.
Standing Bear.
Ya know, with just a little TLC, some clean-up, fix-up, paint-up type of things, something like this could host some nice little shops on the street level, with some very nice walk-ups above.
As for Tip-Top, OMG, the possibilities for this complex are endless!
What comes to mind immediately are things like a music venue or concert hall, maybe even a nightclub!
Technical information: Night shots: Mamiya SD, Fuji Superia 800. Day shots: Canon QL17 GIII, Fuji Superia 400.
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