With that brief, second-hand introduction in mind, let us know if you visit Carmela’s. Or maybe you haven’t been there but you know more about it. Please share.

In other bike trail news, I noticed construction equipment near the underpass at 48th and Highway 2. Looks like they’re finally going to repair the portion of the trail that was poorly rebuilt after work in and around nearby Beal Slough. Hopefully they get it right this time.

And one last item: I recently saw that the 27th and Capitol Parkway underpass is closed. What’s the story there?

First, let me say that I agree with Mr. Hartman that Beutler’s $1,000 payments are much too low to do any good. I don’t know if $3,000 is the magic number, but it’s closer.

Beyond that, is it realistic to think that 200 extra people can be persuaded to buy a new house because of a single $3,000 payment? If a person would not purchase a new house without the payment, then sure, that’s a nice chunk of new cash for the city, and the one-time grant makes economic sense. On the other hand, if a payment goes to somebody who would have purchased a home anyway, then all the taxpayers are doing is subsidizing a larger down payment—with zero return to taxpayers—or perhaps the purchase of a new bedroom set (probably from Ernie’s or Nebraska Furniture Mart)—with a small return to taxpayers.

I wonder how you differentiate between those people who need the cash to buy a house, and those who don’t? We need to tell the groups apart in order to determine the success of the stimulus, but should we distinguish the groups in order to tell who gets the cash and who doesn’t?

Now if we could just get some nuclear action to happen around here ...

Ken ”The Hammer” Svoboda says that he has more than $1 million in budget cuts—but he won’t share them with us just yet. He wants to discuss the cuts with department heads first. While I understand the desire not to spring any unpleasant surprises on City departments and to clarify with department heads the effects of various cuts, I also think it is important at this stage to put all ideas on the table. We should be doing some heavy brainstorming at this point, and as we’ve all learned in school, ideas put forth in a brainstorming session are just that: ideas, not proposals. Even mediocre ideas can help move the discussion forward.

It was the Super Target parking lot, facing south. 

That is one screwed up trail. It’s very unfriendly to bikes in two ways. The first is its crookedness. You could get seasick on that thing. More importantly, it crosses many streets and driveways. Crosswalks and driveway crossings are very dangerous for bicyclists. Not to mention the problem of cars parked in driveways blocking all or part of the trail.

Others have already noted that this portion of the path probably should have been on-street, either with or without a marked bike lane. There’s nothing wrong with an on-street bike path, especially in a neighborhood like the one shown.

What do you think? Have you used the trail?