Lincolnite

The collective genius of the Lincoln City Council blows my mind. Lincoln has been planning more and more "marquee" projects for at least a decade. These include:

• South Beltway
• East Beltway
• Widening East 'O' Street to 6 lanes
• Antelope Valley Project
• Downtown Master Plan
• Haymarket redevelopment
• State Fair Park renovations
• West Airport Subarea Plan
• Stevens Creek infrastructure development
• 48th & 'O' Street revitalization

Yesterday it finally dawned on the council: How the hell are we going to pay for all this stuff? Question: Which is more worrisome, that the Council doesn't have the slightest clue how to address this problem, or that they just now realized the problem even exists?! Councilwoman Patte Newman says the cost of projects in the pipeline is $43 million. She is either lying or she's bad at math. The Antelope Valley Project alone is projected to cost $240 million (plus 3 times that amount -- an additional $750 million -- in private funding). Add in all the other projects, stir, and we're talking a sum closer to at least $430 million -- ten times Newman's figure. And we can't even figure out how to cover the projected $8.7 million budget gap for the coming fiscal year. The Journal Star notes that covering the budget gap plus an additional $3.7 million in proposed new spending will require a property tax hike of 25%. Let's say we want to complete all our $430 million worth of projects over the next 25 years. (That's not asking too much, is it?) That's $17.2 million per year... ::number crunching:: If I'm doing my math correctly, our total property tax hike next year would have to be at least 55% to cover the budget gap, the new spendin g, and all the projects. That's an increase of over $100 per month on the average property tax bill. Try to get that one past the taxpayers. And that doesn't include the (well) more than $1 billion worth of new capital investments private companies will need to make in order to make all these projects a success. And that doesn't include all the new money Lincoln's residents will have to come up with to build all the new houses and support all the new businesses in order to keep all these projects afloat. Where is all that new money coming from? Further evidence of the Council's collective density also appears in this morning's Journal Star in the form of an article titled "Council delays action on 48th and O." (Aside: Is it just me, or is the Council always "delaying action" on important matters? Do these people ever make hard decisions?) The gist: Considering the City's financial woes, maybe it's not such a great idea to waste a few $million on the "blighted" (Ha!) 48th & 'O' Street area. The big clue:

(T)he largest property owner in the area, Julius Misle, opposes the city interference. His attorney, Mark Hunzeker, said Misle has had numerous queries from restaurants, banks and retailers interested in the area, but the blight designation and uncertainty about access to property have derailed plans and made it difficult to develop the area.

So developers are trying to take care of the problem on their own but government interference is holding them back? What a shock! ::sigh:: This is giving me a headache.

Meet the 26 most dangerous schools in the United States (reg. req., or BugMeNot). Believe it or not, most states have no schools defined as "persistently dangerous" under No Child Left Behind. South Dakota's schools, though, are leading the way in school danger. Money quote:

...no matter what we learned in eighth grade civics class, passing a bill in Congress often doesn't mean much.

I lived for four years in Iowa City, IA, a city with a population of a little over 60,000 people. I was expecting Lincoln - a city nearly 4 to 5 times larger a population - to have a wider choice in restaurants. Ironically, the opposite is true! And when compared to other neary smaller towns, say Boulder, we can't hold up a candle when it comes to choice in restaurants. In Lincoln, there are more restaurants of course, but the selection overall is more limited. Lincoln tends to have a lot of fast food places, a lot of chain places, and that's about it. There are a few Indian restaurants, and then your slew of Chinese-American places. What's the matter with Lincolnites? Is it a law to only eat burgers and chicken wings? Since I've been here, many locals have expressed a desire that more choice in restaurants be available, and I have certainly met a number of Lincolnites who have previously lived in big cities, in foreign countries, and so on, whom you would think would bring their taste buds back with them. Why such few choice here? What kind of restaurant would you like to see in Lincoln? Personally, I would like to see a creperie or a Malaysian restaurant in town. I wouldn't mind more Mexican places, as long as it was good Mexican food and not the chains. And what about an Ethopian restaurant? Doesn't this sound good?

Weekends are really too short. I'm certainly not the first to observe that, but I figured I ought to add my name to the list. After nearly a month off, I refereed seven indoor soccer matches this weekend. They were all pretty easy. I didn't even give out so much as a blue card! (In indoor, a blue card is one step below a yellow card. There is no equivalent in outdoor soccer based on FIFA's Laws.) I sure hope next weekend's games are more interesting, or this could be a long indoor session. Not that interesting == giving out a lot of cards, mind you. But I had way too much day-dreaming time during my games this weekend. Heck, I don't think anybody even disagreed with any of my calls. (Of which there were few, because most of the games were pretty pathetic.) What's the fun of being a sports official if you don't get yelled at once in a while? For the first time this year I really started itching for the start of this spring's baseball and outdoor soccer seasons. My soccer needs have been met (sort of) by the indoor season. I really need to get back out on a baseball diamond, though. I finished a book this weekend. Yeah, it's a book about running a restaurant. I'm not actually planning to open a restaurant any time in the near future, but I have always been interested in the idea. Maybe one of these days... For the record, Running a Restaurant for Dummies is a pretty decent book. It is by far the best read of the books I looked at that were directed at beginners. I read it in about 3 days. It could really use an accompanying CD (or website) with the forms they talk about, though. The Missus made me roasted chicken and twice-baked potatoes last night. Mmm, tasty! I think she has salmon on the menu tonight. She must like me.

A group of scientists were asked (requires registration or BugMeNot): What do you believe is true even though you cannot prove it? Their answers are interesting, ranging from there is (or is not) a God, to string theory is bunk, to "true love." What say you, fellow Lincolnites?

Mr. T sent me this e-mail Tuesday night:

Subject: fantastic city we live in I would like to know what Mr Lincoln and the readers think of that law which bans parking on residential streets for more than 24 hours at a time. Why? Because I got fined yet again by the city for keeping my car parked and stationary on the street for longer than a 24 hour period. The law itself as a concept and what it is intended to do is one issue. The 24 hour time length another. And snow emergencies can cut both ways. Needless to say I spent about 25+ min chipping off the ice from my car and was forced to drive on the icy streets so as not to get fined again. IN fact I had the car turned on to defrost the windows so long prior to actually driving that the fuel in my gas tank (which was low) actually burnt up enough that the low fuel light came on! Funny how excessive fuel consumption and pollution and dependence on oil are recognized as majpr problems by our society. What contributes to these problems? Well apparently in Lincoln its illegal NOT to drive!!!!! And if youre elderly, sick, and/or homebound, a renter who cant afford a garage or paid parking space, or just prefer to WALK to work (God forbid!!!!!) and not spend money on GAS, I guess you are SCREWED!!!!!!

Obviously Mr. T is not a happy camper. Some quick comments:

• I'm not sure where the 24 hour time limit comes from. It seems excessively short to me. A 72 hour limit is much more appropriate in my opinion. Perhaps this issue deserves some further analysis.
• Mr. T lives -- I think -- in an "Even/Odd" neighborhood. Methinks he should better plan his on-street parking choices when snow is imminent.
• To say it's "illegal not to drive" in Lincoln is a bit of emotional hyperbole. It's illega l to obstruct the city's snow-removal efforts, whether with a vehicle or otherwise.
• Mr. T's point about those who cannot (or choose not to) drive is important. But their inability to get around the city begins long before snow causes troubles. It is pretty darn difficult to get around Lincoln without a vehicle even in fair weather. Snow (and ice, etc.) merely exaggerates the problem.

In light of Oklahoma's Orange Bowl 55-19 drubbing last night by USC, I wonder: How will the Church of Bo respond? The Church of Bo, for those of you who don't know, are those who think Bo Pelini can do no wrong. He was the greatest defensive coordinator ever for the Huskers in 2003, he would have made a far greater head coach than Bill Callahan, Oklahoma would be unbeatable with Bo on their sideline, yadda yadda yadda. Seeing their man's defense give up 55 points is a bit like Catholics finding out the Pope has 16 wives and a pool boy on the side. Talk about disillusionment. The pro-Bo folks have some lines up their sleeves, of course. Many of the points came off turnovers, for example. But they can't use those lines. Well, not if they want to maintain any sense of integrity, anyway. After all, the pro-Bo folks (who happen to correlate heavily with the pro-Frank folks and the Anti-Steve contingent) wouldn't allow anybody to use similar arguments in describing the Huskers' 2004 campaign. To use the same arguments they so recently railed against would be oh-so hypocritical. Don't get me wrong. I'm not bashing Bo. I think he's a fine coach. I just don't think he proved himself to be any more fantabulous than anybody else. His defense lost big games at Nebraska, and his defense lost the biggest of all games at Oklahoma. In other words, he may be great, but he isn't the greatest. For me, I'm witholding judgment about Bo. He needs a few more years within the college game to really prove himself (for good or ill) to me. The same goes for Bill Callahan. But feel free to disagree.

Dear Butch: Your sorry attempt to demonstrate irony instead demonstrated only one thing: that you are an ass, but without the integrity. Derek is dead. You may stop kicking him now. --Mr. Wilson

Well, no work for me anyway. I can't believe UNL actually closed today. I have to think part of the decision was based on the car accident death of Derek Kieper, a 21 year-old UNL student, on Tuesday morning. I knew Derek from his time at the University of Nebraska Public Policy Center. In addition to pursuing five (!!!) majors, I hear Derek could also belt out a helluva Bohemian Rhapsody.

Worthy of a read from Regulation Magazine, a CATO Institute publication: Traffic Control: An Exercise in Self-Defeat by Kenneth Todd. It is counter-intuitive, at first, to think of traffic control as a "bad thing." Your own personal anecdotes likely go both ways. I would like to hear them. Todd's argument, although not presented in detail, is worth pondering. I will write more on this topic at some point in the future.

If baseball in D.C. is such a great idea, why won't MLB pay for it?

I can hardly contain my glee: I placed ninth in the December Common Answers contest put on by Kevin Stone over at Brainbashers. Ninth place may not sound too exciting to you, but 9th out of 670 entrants is pretty darn good, if I do say so myself. For those of you who don't know, a Common Answers contest usually consists of 10 questions. Your goal on each question is to give a correct answer most likely to be chosen by the most other entrants. For example one of the questions in last month's contest was: Name a number from 1 to 31 which represents a day in December. The whole contest had a Christmas theme, so obviously (to me) 25 is what most people would answer. As it turns out, I was correct. I chose the #1 answer on all but Question #5 (#2 answer) and Question #6 (#4 answer). Now that you know about it, go ahead and enter this month's contest. You know you want to.

I happen to love 80's video games. Today's kids, however, do not. I feel so old now.