Lincolnite

A few details about the parking garage/high-rise project on Q Street were described in today's Journal Star. Most disappointing is the non-proposal from John Hammons; I think a lot of folks considered him to be a front-runner, after his hotel proposal on 17th Street was shot down due to concerns about using eminent domain to boot existing property owners. The other two projects are much more interesting. The first is from Dial Realty, a $45 million, 13-story project featuring a 112-room Residence Inn by Marriott and a 600-stall parking garage. The project would also include entertainment, office, and retail space, including two floors occupied by Sinclair Hille. The second is a much -- much -- bigger project from Lincoln Synergy Group. Their project would feature a "22-story tower with 726-stall garage, 150-room full-service hotel, 104 apartments and more than 140,000 square feet of office and retail space." But that's not all. They also propose to redevelop all or part of the block across the street to the north. That building would include 700 more parking spaces, retail space, room for UNL offices, and 245 retirement units, all within 18 stories. The price tag for the two projects? $180 million. In terms of "wow" factor obviously Lincoln Synergy Group is the winner. To a certain extent "wow" should be a major factor in determining which group gets the project. "Wow" projects generate excitement and momentum -- just what Lincoln needs to boost economic development, attract (and retain) employers, and move toward completion of the 2015 Vision Group's pillars and other priorities. But Lincoln has been promised "wow" before, only to receive much less. Consider, for example, just how difficult it could be to convince property owners on the north block to move. (It's not clear how many would have to move to make room for the proposal.) Although Lincoln Synergy Group's proposal is very exciting, Dial Realty's project is very attractive to me for the simple reason that it sounds achievable. Which is your favorite? What ideas do you like, and which rub you the wrong way?

Lincolnite will be going naked on Thursday, April 5, 2007, to celebrate CSS Naked Day. It's a day to strip websites down to their bare bits, exposing the raw (x)HTML for all to see. What's the point? Well, for one thing this is how geeky web developers get their kicks. But more importantly, it helps to expose flaws in a site's design, especially for folks who rely on assistive technologies (e.g. screen readers) to browse the web. What do you think? Does Lincolnite hold together well without the facade of colors, graphics, and other design elements? I know what I think, but I would like to know your opinions.

The Missus tells me that the Hy-Vee at 40th and Old Cheney, usually a reliable source for matzo and other Passover goodies, didn't carry any items for the holiday this year. We didn't host a seder this year, but I could still go for a bowl of matzo ball soup. I know the Sun Mart on South Street usually carries Passover products. Are any other stores carrying Passover goods this year?

Wow, I would love to be overpaid $10,000. Paying it back could sting, though. Seriously, how does an organization screw up four separate paychecks? That is absolutely inexcusable. What better way to give trust in local government a kick in the shins than to overpay a part-timer (earning $62K/year) by ten grand? Well, don't answer that. There are much bigger ways to screw up, and in the grand scheme of things this isn't that big of a deal. But it isn't good. What are the odds that, if elected, Mayor Beutler's first act will be to clean house in the accounting department?

Yeah, I know today's primary election is pretty insignificant. If you have the opportunity, though, you should still make an effort to vote. I would love to set a good example and do just that, but today's 8:00am to 8:00pm voting window is too narrow. I left the house at 7:00am and I won't get back until around 10:30pm thanks to a couple soccer matches after work. Speaking of voting, I want to counter something Wendy Birdsall said on the radio this morning. In regard to voting, she said something along the lines of if you don't vote, "you don't have a right" to have a say anything about goings-on in the city. I hear that sort of thing all the time, and I whole-heartedly reject the notion. For one thing I don't like the use of the word "right" in that context. Of course non-voters have a right to complain. Thank goodness for the First Amendment. You may think it petty to pick on word choice, but considering all the rights people in this country are willing to take from one another, I think that particular word is awfully important. Additionally, I know Ms. Birdsall and most others who say that sort of thing don't entirely stand behind it. Consider this easy case: can you imagine Ms. Birdsall, head of the Chamber of Commerce, standing before a gathering of youth and declaring "None of you have a right to participate in discussions about the direction of the city!" Of course not. Voters or not, we all have a "right" to affect the direction of the city. Voting is but one element citizens should use in determining how much weight to put behind a fellow citizen's opinion. Civic engagement, expertise, and myriad other factors can be as, if not more, important than one's voting record. But you should still try to vote.

A Windstream representative came to the door tonight to, in his words, "lower peoples' monthly bills". A salesman trying to sell cheaper products to existing customers? Sounds good to me. Of course, that was just his foot in the door. Most of the rest of his spiel was standard door-to-door sales talk. Of course, if that's all he did I wouldn't be writing this. Unfortunately, "D.R." violated a few rules. Future door-to-door salesmen of the world, take note. First, if the person who answers the door is obviously home alone with his kids, a good salesman will offer to come back later, or he will at least keep his visit as short as possible. My kid is only going to let me stay at the door for so long before he bonks his head, tries to eat the dog's bone, or does something else that requires me to ignore the guy at the door. Robert is a pretty low-maintenance kid, but he still demands my attention. Second, a good salesman will never lie, and he will never try to bullshit his way through a conversation on a topic he knows very little about. In D.R.'s case, for example, he made elementary mistakes like confusing megabits and megabytes, arguing that 3 Mbps is greater than 7 Mbps, and going off on a weird tangent about how "the whole Internet relies on phone lines", which proves that DSL is better than cable. I was waiting for him to call the Internet "a series of tubes", but he stopped short. A good salesman will either admit that he doesn't know something and offer to contact me later, or he'll wander his way around the topic, sticking to the stuff he does know, while doing his best to convince me that he answered my question. Third, and probably most importantly, salespeople really shouldn't advocate breaking federal law when trying to sell their products. People use broadband to illegally download music and movies. We all know that. Many people have done it, from kids to retirees. But that doesn't mean you should openly advocate using your company's 3 Mbps DSL plan to "download music, download movies (illegally, of course)". I made sure to remember that quote. Last, don't ask me for a pen so that I can write down your contact information so that you can earn a commission if I decide to go for one of the products at a later date. Why the heck should I give you a pen so that I can write down your contact info? Don't you think you should carry a pen with you? Or better yet, have some business cards handy? Sheesh. In the end, poor D.R. didn't make a sale. He tried, and he was nice enough. He may have even had me if he had stopped with the $5/month phone service upgrade. Unfortunately, it was all downhill from there. Now if only I could get a lawn service guy to come by the house. My yard looks awful. If anybody out there can make my yard look better than, say, the medians on 84th Street (zing!), I may have a sale for you.

The Lincoln-Lancaster Women's Commission plans to change its name and mission. The switch is partially in response to the county's aborted attempt last year to remove their share of the Commission's funding. That raises some questions: Do we need a publicly-funded Women's Commission today? Do the Commission's activities justify continued public support? Would private funding be more appropriate for the Commission's mission? Those are all honest questions, by the way, not statements disguised as questions. I really don't know enough about what the Women's Commission does to make a decision one way or the other. I do have a general bias toward favoring private rather than public funding for interest group organizations, but my opinions on the matter are not absolute. It seems like the burden is on the Women's Commission to justify its continuation (though I could be wrong about that). The Commission's reorganization seems like one attempt to do just that. What other arguments can be made for keeping the Women's Commission around?

I admit I don't drive around town all that much these days, but it seemed to me that pothole season was pretty kind to Lincoln's drivers this year. There were some big holes, sure. But there didn't seem to be as many of them at any one time, and the ones that did open up were generally patched very quickly. Does my impression match reality? If so, I think we need to give the city's pothole crews a round of applause. Oh, and I suppose I should mention that technically we aren't necessarily out of the woods yet. April's weather could still play tricks on us.