Lincolnite

I had to do a little driving this weekend for soccer, so I decided to experiment and see how high I could push the gas mileage in my 2009 Hyundai Sonata. I'm no hypermiler but I did manage to average 37.5 mpg over 272 miles in a vehicle rated at 22 city / 32 highway. My trips took me from 48th and Highway 2 to Blair and back; to Abbott Sports Complex and back; and to Omaha and back. My peak average was 38.3 mpg. On the way back from Omaha late last night I reviewed my results while also dealing with the bizarrely inefficient late-night traffic light mess that is 84th Street. Talk about a fuel efficiency disaster. Not that 84th Street is alone; there are many traffic lights around the city that seem to continue with their usual routine, oblivious to the differences in traffic patterns at night. It's extraordinarily frustrating. I will neither confirm nor deny that at least one driver on the road last night treated a couple red lights as stop signs, proceeding after confirming there wasn't so much as a headlight anywhere in view. Why doesn't Lincoln "turn off" many of its traffic lights after a certain hour? There are oodles of opportunities for four-way flashing reds and flashing yellow/red combinations throughout the city. Another possibility is to decriminalize proceeding through a red light under certain conditions (e.g. time of day) after the driver has come to a complete stop and fully yielded to all other traffic. Would you go for either of those proposals? Would Lincolnites? Would the City?

Mayor Chris Beutler wants us to play nicely, Lincolnites. If we do that, we will soon have a national championship basketball team. Or something like that. Beutler promoted two things in a speech yesterday. First, he pointed out that Lincoln has been a pretty darn good place to weather the recession, and it's a pretty darn nice place any old time. I tend to agree. He also argued for more "civility" in the city. Fair enough; incivility isn't doing the national health care debate any favors, and it's not likely to help things locally. In my own little bubble I haven't seen much of a local spike in incivility. Maybe I've ignored it, or maybe my bubble hasn't been big enough lately. I think the common sentiment is that incivility is high, so I'll assume the mayor isn't just being hypersensitive. Let this be a reminder to all of us to disagree without being disagreeable. Apropos of nothing, this comment from the LJS article made me chortle:

Did Mayor Seng finally have the sex-change op? You'd think so, based on the frump factor exhibited my the current mayoral iteration.

I was wondering if local leaders would ever speak up about Lancaster Manor. This morning we hear from State Senators Ken Haar, Amanda McGill, Bill Avery, Colby Coash and Norm Wallman:

At the very least, the County Board should wait for completion of the audit being conducted by state Auditor Mike Foley before making a decision. And it is worrisome that, "The County Board said it would like to sign a purchase agreement by Nov. 4, the date by which state Auditor Mike Foley said he would have his audit report of the manor completed. Even if the audit is not done by then, the County Board intends to proceed with the sale, according to Commissioner Bob Workman" (LJS, Aug. 27).

I personally still haven't decided if the sale of Lancaster Manor is a good thing or not, or at what price it becomes a good thing. My problem -- and the problem so many other people have -- is with the County Board's seeming obliviousness to some very reasonable concerns (such as waiting until after the audit) from the public. At the very least there's a perception problem going on and the Board isn't taking that problem seriously. I doubt a letter from a handful of State Senators will change that.

Could the City Council finally be getting ready to do something about the mega-generous 2-to-1 retirement match for City employees? After their discussionless disapproval of the M Class Employees' contract it sure appears that way. That's great news, but it's a bit of a dirty move to spring the news on a single union so late in the contract negotiations game. Honesty and forthrightness anyone? No?

A young driver, traveling with teenage passengers, drives recklessly through a residential area, loses control, and gets into a scary wreck. Gosh that sounds familiar. At least this time nobody died.