Lincolnite

I am pleased to see that the Planning Commission made it easier for nursing homes and assisted living facilities to locate in areas zoned for multi-family and certain office uses. I didn't realize that previously such facilities always required a special permit. What a pain! Speaking of that sort of facility, are any of you familiar with how our ordinances define "nursing home", "assisted living facility", and the like? I'm just curious if our laws, zoning regulations, and so on are flexible enough to deal with the country's growing elderly population, the changing look of "old folks' homes", and related issues. Better to deal with those matters earlier rather than later.

A couple days ago I posted that I was worried about my poor little '93 Tempo making it much longer. It has been a pretty darn cheap car since I bought it from my parents around ten years ago, but recently a general sense of "something's not right" made me think that perhaps my "free" ride was near an end. Well, I got a call from Rick at Southside Auto Tech just now, and apparently all I'm looking at is a leaky valve cover gasket, a bad battery, and a soft tire. Oh, and an oil change. In all, the bill is less than one month's payment on a new car. From a financial perspective I'm relieved. But from a new toy perspective, I have to admit I'm a little bummed. Those of you who have given me car buying tips and recommendations -- thank you for that, by the way -- got me excited about the possibilities. Oh well. I have said for years that I will drive this car until it dies. Although I may not wait quite that long, Rick made it sound like there's no reason the Tempo shouldn't last me a good while longer. And at a cost of less than a grand a year (maintenance, fuel, insurance, taxes), I certainly can't complain.

One year ago I was just starting out in the world of self-employment. Five years ago I was a newlywed. Ten years ago I was a rookie in the Cornhusker Marching Band. Fourteen years ago I had just begun what would become a state championship cross country season with my team at Southeast High School. And so on. Today I begin my fourth decade. I didn't notice any extra aches, pains, or noisy joints, but I'm sure all that will arrive soon enough. Hello, 30's!

Yesterday I noted how Robin Eschliman fought the good fight against government overstepping its bounds by legislating on things that really aren't any of its business. Alas, today I have to tell you that Ms. Eschliman has done a 180 by proposing an ordinance that would do the very thing she just finished condemning. Ms. Eschliman wants to ban upholstered furniture on porches and in yards. I know, many -- if not most -- of you want to give her a high five. But you shouldn't. There is absolutely zero difference between a ban on outdoor couches and a ban on any other type of furniture or decoration on your property. Simply, the City ought not be in the business of regulating tackiness. Such activities are best left to neighborhood associations and good old fashioned peer pressure. If you want to talk about tacky, let's talk in three months. Lincoln's houses and yards will quite literally be draped in the tackiest of the tacky exterior accoutrements. And yet nobody proposes to ban those decorations. No, instead City government shows off some of the most egregious examples (along with some genuinely attractive exceptions), and makes money in the process! This isn't about outdoor furniture. This is about what certain types of furniture represents when it is removed from the living room and placed on the porch. It represents drunk college students. It represents the poverty culture. It represents deadbeat landlords. None of those problems are addressed in any way by this sort of proposal. So why waste our time on it? Oh, right, because it makes people feel good that the government is "doing something". Bah. We are substantially better off putting our efforts into public and private neighborhood-level interactions. To name one example: LPD's "problem-oriented policing" efforts. All that being said, I won't be the least bit surprised to see Ms. Eschliman's proposal become a new city ordinance in some form.

I'm not normally the "There oughtta be a law!" type. We have too many laws as it is, at every level of government. I would love to see a good cleaning of the law books. That being said, I have no problem with strengthening Lincoln's anti-false alarm rules, as discussed by LPD Chief Tom Casady. Today he notes some of Lincoln's prime offenders. Home Depot, Circuit City, and one Wells Fargo ATM are the biggest sources of false alarms so far this year.

The LJS revamped their weather page (last page of Section B) a couple days ago. Among other changes, ol' Ken Siemek got the boot. Sorry Ken. One thing about the weather page drives me nuts. Why oh why do I have to work so hard to find today's high temperature? I can quickly find out the temperatures at 7:00am, noon, and 7:00pm. But the high temperature is buried in a map elsewhere on the page. Grr.

City Council member Robin Eschliman lost her battle to prevent strict new design guidelines from going into effect in Antelope Valley and Downtown. The new rules describe how new construction may look, what materials may be used, and which types of businesses are forbidden in the affected areas. The City's goal -- assuring quality construction in an area that is receiving a tremendous amount of public financial support -- is reasonable enough. But so, too, is Ms. Eschliman's fear that the area will become repetitive and "matchy-matchy". Furthermore, the new rules increase the costs of new development and create de facto barriers that will limit just who can come to the party. Prospective small business owners will have higher start-up costs, thus increasing their risk of failure or pushing them to locate elsewhere. Design standards aren't an inherent evil. What I don't like is the idea of local government deciding what styles are "pretty" enough. (They'll say that's not what they're doing. It is. Tomayto / tomahto.) I also don't care for the City's insistence that some types of businesses are inherently not worthy of being seen in the neighborhood. For example, the new rules prohibit auto repair shops. Why? People in Antelope Valley don't / won't have cars that need fixing? If these design standards are as malleable as similar decisions the City has made in the past, none of this really matters. Or perhaps there is so much pent-up demand in Antelope Valley that we won't have to question whether the rules are holding back development. That'd be nice. What do you think?

It's not quite as bad as this, but I got quite the surprise when I opened the mailbox a few minutes ago. Checking the mail will never be the same.

Remember that University Place Hy-Vee that closed, bringing down the neighborhood's ire on the Iowa-based grocery chain? Hy-Vee recently announced that store will become "Heartland Pantry", a smaller, simpler store specializing in private label goods and grocery basics. I'm very interested in seeing how the concept develops, as are many neighborhood residents. In particular, I'm curious what proportion of the products will be from Hy-Vee's own labels. Hy-Vee stores sell generic versions of just about everything. For the most part, the products match up well with their name brand competitors, and some are even better than the name brands. In my experience, Hy-Vee has the best private label products (on average) in Lincoln. Heartland Pantry is scheduled to open in November. If all goes well, hopefully the 48th and Leighton location won't be the only one to open in Lincoln.

And the 2008 One Book, One Lincoln selection is ... The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. How many of you participate in OBOL events? I never have -- nearly all of my reading comes in the form of news and opinion pieces -- but The Missus participates on occasion. Her reaction to this year's selection was pretty amusing. She has read all but one of the candidate books (she hasn't read The Memory of Running), so when I saw the announcement in this morning's Journal Star I asked her which book she thought had won. She replied something along the lines of, "Well, every book had something 'different' about it, except one. That one -- The Thirteenth Tale -- was your standard, formulaic mystery identical to every other mystery you've ever read, where you figure out what's going on in the first quarter of the book. So that's probably the one they chose." Hmm. I guess we know where she stands on that.

I'm taking my 1993 Ford Tempo into the shop on Wednesday. My gut tells me the news isn't going to be good. Then again, I know next to nothing about cars, so hopefully I'm wrong. In any event, I'm not going to put much money into the ol' Tempo. If I do end up bucking the national trend and purchasing a new vehicle, I'm looking at the Camry / Accord / Sonata / etc. class of cars. Do any of you have any experience with vehicles in that class? What recommendations do you have? Furthermore, do you have any recommendations on local car dealerships? Thanks for your help!

At supper last night: Robbie: What's that? Me: That is called a pea, Robbie. Robbie paused and looked at his plate with a confused look on his face. He pointed to a carrot sitting next to the pea. Robbie: Poop? Me: Er, um, no ... In other poo-related news, I must ask: How do kids figure out that farts are funny? Robbie often follows his gas-passing with a joyous "Tooted!". We didn't teach him that, and we've never seen anybody teach him that. Is it some sort of inherent boy thing, like crashing toy cars into each other?

When I first heard yesterday that the NU regents will vote today on privately funding some NU administrators' salaries, I thought to myself that it seemed like a potentially dangerous step. I decided to withhold judgment overnight to give myself some time to think about it. Well, it's morning, and I still don't like it. The plus side seems to be that certain top dogs' salaries will increase without any extra tax dollars, making the salaries more competitive with peer salaries. On the flip side, introducing private funds into the salaries of public employees -- with barely any opportunity for public input -- increases the potential for shenanigans. Even the perception that private dollars are buying influence over the administrators would be damaging to the University. (Sure, that perception already exists, but do we need to make it worse?) This is just a simple, quick look at the proposal. Most of you, like me, have barely had any time to think about this idea. What are your initial impressions?

How many of you have been watching Lincolnite Joseph "Elvis" Hall on America's Got Talent? I see he made it into the top 20 last night. He's lucky. His out-of-breath performance on Tuesday was pretty mediocre. How far is he going to make it?