Urban Sprawl - Nebraska vs. Ohio

As I drove west to Nebraska for the internship, I was hoping to see that massive urban sprawl which has hit between Dayton and Cincinnati had not hit much of Iowa and Eastern Nebraska. It had been twelve years since I had made the drive out and after talking with cousins who live in these states, I was a bit worried of what I would see first hand. They all spoke about how Omaha and Lincoln were expanding, Omaha south and Lincoln north, similar to Dayton and Cincinnati. I was apprehensive to how much I-80 through Iowa had changed its landscape.

When I started on I-80 just west of Davenport, I liked what I saw, still open space, farms still striving and no real building off of the interchanges. During our military moves, we always stopped at the I-80 Truck Stop in Walcutt to get a bite to eat and there was plenty of room for us kids to run around and exhaust our energy. They have updated the stop to keep up with the new technology in trucking and now have two options for dining. There is the fast food options in the gift shop area, but they have added a sit down restaurant for those who travel without children. The other addition is they have built a trucking museum next to the truck stop. On the trip back we stayed overnight in Walcutt and stopped in at the museum. It is a small museum and for not being ran by those in the museum field, they have done a good job at the text panels.The only major change in the landscape of Iowa is the farmers have now added wind turbines to their land. Even though these turbines are not too visually appealing, they provide a vertical aspect to the landscape, knowing a lot of people do not take too much pleasure in driving through 'farm country'.

Upon reaching the Iowa/Nebraska border, I could tell that Omaha had expanded northward. I took I-80 through the city. If I had taken the bypass, I would have missed a wonderful welcome of a train to the rightside before getting into the major portion of the city. It did not take too long of a drive to get of the 'urban sprawl'.  I had a different picture in my mind of what I would see from what the cousins described to me. This was not the sprawl which is and is still happening in the Dayton/Cincinnati area of Ohio. Lincoln and Omaha still have plenty of land between the two cities and I hope it never comes to what is happening in Southwestern Ohio on I-75.

My mom was surprised to see the changes in the city where she grew up. Lincoln uses numbers for the streets which run north to south. She remembers when the eastern section of the city ended at 70th Street, which now ends at 84th. The growth has mainly been in the south and southeasterly sections. There are new housing developments, but understandably since their population tends to be growing. A major difference between Dayton and Lincoln, is the usage of previously built on land. When my maternal grandmother passed in 2002, we stayed at a Best Western on O Street. This hotel is no longer there, they REdeveloped the commercial land instead of building in brand new location.

I pulled the 2010 Federal Population Census numbers for all four major cities. Omaha - 446,599, Lincoln - 272,996, Dayton - 141,003, Cincinnati - 298,165.  The amount of growth in these cities is interesting. Omaha and Lincoln with the larger populations are very close to 'farm country', yet have been able to keep their sprawl at a minimum, but Dayton and Cincinnati continue to use up open space.