Lincolnite

I know almost none of you care about this, but high school soccer starts up today. Check out the Journal Star's pre-season rankings, local boys team summaries, and local girls team summaries. Good luck everyone!

The Bob Devaney Sports Center was funded in part by a tax on cigarettes. Given all the pot busts in Lincoln lately -- LPD raided pot house number nine last night -- it's starting to look like funding the Haymarket arena with a tax on marijuana is the way to go. Who's with me?

If you like reading press releases, the Journal Star published a lightly-edited press release from the folks at No2Arena this morning that outlines the group's three primary reasons for encouraging you to vote "No" on the arena. They are:

1. We're only voting on $25 million out of a $344 million project;
2. Environmental clean-up will cost more than the $7.5 million budgeted;
3. There won't be many new jobs created.

I have raised questions about all three of these issues before. I'm not worried about the money issue. The City has been pretty transparent about its numbers. It's not like arena backers are going around saying things like "At $25 million, the arena is a bargain! Vote yes!". Everybody knows or should know by now that this is a big, 300+ million project. As for item number two, I can only say: show me the data. Until they can do that, the No2Arena folks can stick this item in their little no-holes. The City has a relatively large amount of data to back up its claim that the clean-up will cost no more than $7.5 million. Perhaps it's not enough data to satisfy everyone. That's fine. The No2Arena folks on the other hand bring nothing but denials to the table. That's lazy and lame. They are welcome to make this claim when they have something to back it up. Last is the jobs issue. I commented at length on the topic back in January. In short they are correct. The long-term job situation isn't going to be dramatically improved by the presence of a new arena. Improved, yes, but we're talking on the order of tens rather than hundreds. The arena isn't the only piece in the puzzle, however. It is a catalyst, and if it does its job it should spur growth in the overall economic engine of the city. To the extent it does that there will be new jobs created. You'll have to ask an economist how many, but I wouldn't be terribly surprised if that number creeps into the hundreds over time. That's just an instinct, not a promise. In other arena news, folks who don't like Deena Winter's negative attitude toward the arena aren't going to like today's column. She has given anti-arena folks a new arrow for their quiver. What she says is that the City's property tax levy millage limit is 50 cents per $100, and that the City currently taxes at half that rate. What anti-arena folks will take away is "City property taxes will double unless you vote No on the arena!". That's going to be a powerful message for the antis that the pros will have a difficult time overcoming.

The Missus said she heard last night that The Photo Shoppe may be moving in to the former Lee Booksellers location in Edgewood near 56th and Highway 2. The Photo Shoppe currently has a single location in Piedmont at 1265 South Cotner, and they previously had a location at 40th and Old Cheney. It sure would be nice to see a local business like The Photo Shoppe make a comeback, and the Edgewood location would give it some great visibility. Does anybody have information that can back up the rumor?

Big Apple Bagels, at 61st and O, is closing its doors. After Homer's left next door its days were numbered. Its last day is March 23. I'm not a big bagel guy so the closing doesn't personally affect me. I'm sure many of you are fans, however, and will be sad to see the store close. I would see Big Apple Bagels on "best of" lists here and there, so they were doing something right. For those of you who loved Big Apple Bagels, where will you go after they close? There's a Panera to the east and Two Twins Cafe to the northwest that might fill the gap. Are there other possibilities in the neighborhood?

If you've ever wanted to see every emergency responder in Lincoln simultaneously say "Oh this is not good", early this morning was the perfect opportunity. Some 20-25 rail cars overturned in the Burlington Northern hump yard around 2:00am this morning, and some of the cars contained liquid chlorine. Several sections of major roads were closed as a result. Fortunately there doesn't appear to have been any major leakage. Nevertheless, I'm sure visions of disaster loomed in at least a few minds early today. Those folks may need a beer with their breakfast this morning.

It dawned on me this morning that I hadn't really realized just how odd it seems that the Lancaster County seal features an elk. An elk? Really? There are oodles of white tail deer in Lancaster County, but elk are mighty rare in the wild. The last time I remember hearing about an elk around here was several years ago when a car hit an elk on the Interstate. So why is an elk representing us today? Because there used to be oodles of elk around here, of course. And, well, why not? The rarity of elk around here got me thinking about the sorts of animals some folks have seen around Lincoln that you just wouldn't expect to see here. Take the time The Missus came across a peacock roaming around The Knolls, for example. The peacock was an escapee so it doesn't really count, but it sure surprised her. My most interesting out-of-the-ordinary animal interactions involve foxes, one of which -- believe it or not -- I hand-fed berries near Beal Slough. I haven't seen a fox in a good ten years. Oh, and there was once a gigantic snapping turtle (I think) sitting on the bike trail. He was not happy that I was so interested in him. My dad's story takes the cake. He's generally a reliable fellow and not prone to hallucinations. But did he really see a mountain lion crossing Old Cheney near 31st Street one morning about a decade ago? It's certainly possible, I suppose, though definitely out of the ordinary. Skeptics will say it was probably just a bobcat, but bobcats are much smaller, and my dad knows what a bobcat looks like. Or how about a large dog? Could've been, but dogs and cats move much differently, and my dad swears this was a cat. What odd sightings have you made in Lincoln?

High school spring sports begin on Thursday this week in Nebraska. Not that you would know it based on local media coverage. My interest in spring sports is as a former track athlete (400m and 800m) and current soccer referee. Soccer is going to have a rough go in March this year. There's no way the fields are ready to be played on, and teams that don't have an artificial surface to practice on probably haven't had much quality outdoor preparation time. A big question among referees is what LPS will do about it. Ideally I would like to see LPS squeeze as many varsity games as possible onto the artificial turf fields at Seacrest and Beechner. That would require some adjustments, yes, but far fewer adjustments than postponing matches until the grass surfaces are ready. It'll be downright ugly if they essentially try to squeeze an entire season into April. So far LPS doesn't seem to have made any moves to do such a thing. That's consistent with their past behavior, which is unfortunate. Anyway, are any of you big spring sports fans? What's your sport and which is your team?

I am by no means a TV zombie, but I do enjoy watching good TV now and then. Thanks to shows like Lost, The Wire, and Band of Brothers, it can be argued that TV is now better than it ever was. The argument being that with the advent of the internet, and with people being just more sophisticated generally, television producers have really had to increase the quality of their programming to compete for viewer attention. Outside of cable news and sports, I do not watch a lot of TV at all. In fact I probably average only about 8-10 hours a week of TV, and most of that is news. I used to be a big fan of Lost, and especially The Office - the second season was brilliant - but I have felt its quality has become less consistent over time. I no longer follow either series. Currently, the only television show besides news or sports I watch – and watch religiously – is AMC’s Breaking Bad. Although it has gotten its well-deserved critical acclaim, this show seems to be still relatively unknown among viewers generally, probably because its plot is somewhat off-beat. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Breaking Bad – it is a very dark comedy about a high school chemistry teacher with cancer (Bryan Cranston) who partners with a doofus drug dealer (Aaron Paul) to make and deal meth. Breaking Bad will begin its 3rd season next week, and I am looking forward to it. Now there is one show that is somewhat popular, and I have no idea why: Glee. I’m sorry to any Glee fans out there, but this has to be the most overrated POS on TV now. And I'm not saying that because I dislike musicals or dancing. I like musicals and enjoy watching singing and dancing as much as the next person. But Glee? I even know guys in the 36-45 year old viewing audience range who LOVE this show and watch it regularly (its so obvious the only reason they like it is because of the high school fantasy thing). Beyond that, I really do not understand its popularity. So, what TV shows do you like or dislike? What shows do you recommend and why?

At the end of this morning's show, Jack posed a series of quick questions to Ken and me. Here are two of them, paraphrased a bit: First up, if for the rest of your life you could have only one pizza from some place in Lincoln, what would it be? I answered daVinci's barbecue chicken pizza. I'm not stuck on that answer. I could go with about ten other options. Ken Svoboda chickened out and tried to create a veritable tower of power featuring slices from all of Lincoln's best pizza joints. Not that I blame him. If there's one thing I've discovered after years of blogging, it's that you people are passionate about food. Well then, what would you choose? The next question was something along the lines of: "What intersection in Lincoln do you always try to avoid?" I said 27th and Highway 2 eastbound, though in reality the unpleasantness begins all the way back at 14th. When that stretch gets clogged it stays clogged, thanks in large part to slow-starting semis that dramatically reduce the flow of traffic. It's not unusual to see a mini caravan of semis run a red light -- while accelerating to a speedy 15 miles per hour -- because they've already sat through 3 lights and they're sick of waiting. I can't blame them. Which intersection(s) do you avoid?

I crawled out of bed bright and early this morning to participate in the inaugural Friday Forum on KLIN's Jack & John in the Morning show from 7:00am to 8:00am. Thank you to those of you who tuned in. This was my second appearance on the Jack & John show, though oddly enough I have not yet been in the room with both Jack and John at the same time. [Insert conspiracy theory here.] The first time I chatted with John and our own Dan McGuire for about 30 minutes. This time around Jack invited me to help kick off what he's calling the Friday Forum. The Friday Forum will feature relatively prominent-ish Lincolnites joining the show to talk about ... well, whatever Lincoln is talking about. I think it's a fun idea and I look forward to seeing how it evolves. For this "beta test" of the idea Jack invited me and none other than former City Council member (and current Ray's Lawn & Home Care pro) Ken Svoboda onto the show. Now longtime readers might wonder how that went over. After all, I've taken digs at Mr. Svoboda in the past, and I picked on him a bit when I gave him the nickname "The Hammer". I once described him as "The Thomas Magnum look-alike who dances like MC Hammer and whose home is filled with dead houseplants." I got in my digs, but I don't think I was ever outright mean to him, nor do I feel like I ever said anything inappropriate about him. Does he feel the same way? Sure enough Ken had read what I had written about him, but just last night. He didn't seem to hold any ill will toward me, indicating that either (a) he has a sense of humor, or (b) he's biding his time before he kills me and buries me under a bed of poppies in a median on 84th Street. Hopefully our common status as Lincoln Southeast alumni shifts his reaction more toward the former and less toward the latter. One shocking Ken Svoboda fact you may not be aware of: his mustache is gone. It was a little like finding out that Fabio is bald. The oddest thing about being on a morning talk show is how little time you actually have to speak. And when you do speak, boy does time fly. I was in the studio for over an hour but it may as well have been twenty minutes. Time flies when you're talking into a microphone. We covered a variety of topics this morning but I need to mention one in particular. Jack was really into the marijuana busts that happened in Lincoln this week. It made for a good topic. That being said, Jack, your show corrupted my son. The Missus and Robbie listened in at home. Thanks to our discussion on the show, my son asked "Mom, what's a stoner?". Thanks a lot, Jack! I don't know about Ken and Jack, but I had a lot of fun. Hopefully those of you who listened in enjoyed the show, and I hope to get invited back some day.

Thanks to an invitation from Jack Mitchell, I'll be on the Jack & John in the Morning show on 1400 KLIN tomorrow from 7:00am until 8:00am. Tune in on your radio, or browse to their UStream page to watch and listen live. It sounds like I'll be on with one or two other guests. The topics we'll discuss are still in development. Got a good topic idea? Let us know about it!

Oh come on, quit moping. You knew we weren't done with snow. It's the state basketball tournament, for Pete's sake! It happens every year. Don't worry, it will all be over soon. Before you know it we'll have moved on to the ferocious springtime winds we get to see every year. If that's not something to celebrate, I don't know what is.

Prepare yourselves, teachers at Pius X and Lincoln East, for you are about to be attacked by an influx of sugar and caffeine. Thanks to booming business at the Rocket Fizz at 14th and Pine Lake, a second location will open soon at 70th and A in Clocktower Shopping Center. Hmm, Clocktower just happens to be near Seacrest Field where I will referee several soccer matches this spring. A little pre- and post-game pick-me-up? I think so!