Lincolnite

Deena Winter has a list of ten arena myths in this morning's Journal Star. An example:

Opponents say every dollar spent on the arena is a dollar not spent on city services, such as sidewalks and streets. Not true. The arena project will be paid for with new taxes on bars, restaurants, hotels and car rentals, which will cover about half the cost. Then arena revenue, state tax dollars, parking revenue and developer payments for land will cover the rest. None of those revenue sources currently are available to the city to spend on regular city services.

She covers myths from both supporters and opponents.

According to the men working outside Five Guys -- Downtown at 13th and P -- last week, Lincoln's newest burger joint will open next Monday. If early buzz is any indication, it will be packed. If you want to be the first in line I recommend setting up camp soon.

Bike4Two clued me in to a new product from the Journal Star. Apparently they're working on an "electronic edition", which they describe as so:

Q: What is the difference between the ELECTRONIC EDITION and JournalStar.com? A: The ELECTRONIC EDITION is an exact replica of the print edition available and delivered through our home delivery carriers or on sale in vending machines and retail outlets. It may contain less advertising inserts, as not all will be available electronically from advertisers. JournalStar.com contains the day’s top stories and breaking news throughout the day.

I haven't actually seen a sample LJS electronic edition yet so I can't comment on its quality or likelihood for success. But I don't think any of us is surprised that the LJS is preparing this sort of product. The big question remains the degree to which the LJS will continue to make the bulk of its content available for free online. Hiding content behind pay walls isn't generally working well for most companies so it would be a shame if the LJS were to try that here. Hopefully the electronic edition doesn't represent a part of that kind of strategy.

Congratulations to all of you who finished yesterday's Lincoln Marathon and half-marathon. In particular, congratulations to my mom who finished her first half-marathon in 2:58. Good work, mom! Did any of you participate yesterday? I kept up my tradition of walking to Lamar's (at 48th and Pioneers) and eating a donut while watching the race. After that, Robbie and I zipped around town on the bike. Talk about perfect weather for that sort of thing. Next year they're talking about expanding the field by another 25%, to 10,000 participants. That's a lot of people. I hope they can pull it off without ruining the character of the race. Sometimes huge is good, and sometimes it isn't. Huge, supportive crowds: good. Clogged routes and people tripping over one another: not good. I'm sure they're already thinking about those things, and that's great. But sometimes even obvious problems get overlooked. (It's the event planner's curse.) Consider the fact that this year nobody bothered to consider that wheelchairs don't have much zip on artificial turf. Oops. Anyway, congratulations to all of the participants, and thank you to all of the folks who helped pull off another successful race. Good work all around.