Minneapolis might be better than Omaha, but it's no great shakes.
Not only did Minnesota present the country with Michele Bachmann, it also gave you Pro Life Across America ("the billboard people")
http://prolifeacrossamerica.org/contactUs.htm
That's right, Minneapolis. Not Texas, Florida, Kentucky...Minnesota.
Let's talk about wardrobe, for instance. Men's idea of haberdashery is "What shade of khaki will I wear today?" They differentiate casual, workplace, leisure, and formal wear by the particular shade of beige they're wearing.
The women try harder, but with very few exceptions, any of them over maybe 30 are frump-o-rama.
It's extremely traditionalist--go to a school, meet somebody, go to another school, get married, get a first job, get the parents to invest in a home where kids can be raised, have those kids, raise them, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.......... It's all so staid.
Take a look at our hottest new restaurant, where Obama just came, which is down the street 2 blocks from my place: The Bachelor Farmer:
http://thebachelorfarmer.com/menu/food/
I can't begin to describe how lame not only the restaurant itself is, but how lame the "scene" around it is. It was our current governor's kid who set it up, and the architect was another Dayton. Drab-o-rama.
Like everything else here, it's low-fi. The prevailing mentality here is that something is worthwhile if it is "better than what was there before". Talk about settling. The restaurant IS unquestionably better than the untidy private storage facility that preceded it, but this is a land of squandered opportunity. You don't want to put in anything "challenging" or "threatening", because it WILL NOT SURVIVE.
Don't tell me about all the interesting places, I know them. Some are OK, and are mostly run by Africans or Russians/East Euros. The rest are crap, either beige chains, or "themed restaurants", designed to appeal to the kind of mentality that prefers the comfortable standardization of a comprehensive branding program. In time, even most things that start out with the highest aspirations inevitably devolve into a "bar and grille".
Oh, that's right, we also gave you Famous Dave's. Wow.
Not to mention the crap, mass-market restaurant chains that are piloted here, which are too numerous to name.
Finally, those who have lived here for a while seem to delight in speaking like 'tards. Remember the movie Fargo? That actually IS what people are like. There is nothing as revealing as going to an insular chuch-basement dinner of lutefisk with a bunch of Lutheran Swedes.
It can be a decent place to do business, though. Because the people don't think much, they are suckers. Crap here is, believe it or not, expensive! I can not only eat, but find lodging and entertainment cheaper almost every single place I've been in the world, including "world cities". The only thing cheaper here is gasoline (petrol). And don't talk to me about tax burden.
Yes, there are exceptions to every rule.
But when talking about an area generally, one speaks in generalizations.
Oh, I almost forgot, MN also gave you that self-absorbed hypocritical egomaniacal tard Garrison Keillor. You want to talk pompous? Have you ever HEARD 'a prairie home companion"?
This is the perfect place for a corporate headquarters, except for the tax burden and the somewhat restrictive corporate law. The available workforce is perfect--trained just enough, obedient, even-keeled, not likely to rock the boat or usurp power. A veritable khaki-and-loafers army.
If you want your life to be a known quantity, insofar as that is even possible, move to the midwest, the more rural, the better. If you want to develop as an individual, forget about it, unless you have a good travel budget and get out as often as you can.
Without knowing, I imagine that Omaha is largely the same, only worse. I am open to convincing otherwise. Remember, I have seen many other "cities" in the midwest.