Antelope Creek doesn't look like much. Sure, it swells a bit in heavy rains. Sometimes it might even come within a couple feet of the top of its banks. But overall, it's a pretty boring creek. It's easy to ignore.
That's why, when the Antelope Valley Project was sold as a "flood protection" project, a lot of people scoffed. I know I did. The project clearly was about a whole bunch of other things first. Roads. Parks. Urban renewal. The flood protection angle was tacked on because it made a ton of extra federal dollars available. The water portion of the project wasn't a total scam, but it didn't feel entirely honest either.
But here's the thing about 100 year floods: they're rare. That's why they're called 100 year floods. The water related components of the Antelope Valley Project may not seem like much right now, or even for many years. But some day we'll be thankful. Take a look at Colorado right now. Nasty weather happens. We can't prevent every injury or protect every property from damage, but it's worth our energy to make reasonable preparations.
I've ridden my bike along Antelope Creek and through the Antelope Valley Project area quite a bit this summer. The project was huge and messy and inconvenient and it took years to plan and complete. Now? It's just kind of there, unlike the sexy arena and Haymarket expansion just a few blocks to the west which attract all kinds of attention. The process was anticlimactic. But ultimately that simple little creek and its environs are every bit as important to Lincoln in the coming decades. And some day we'll see that we got our money's worth.
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