Lincolnite

The results from the Mayor's budget survey are in, and though the raw data aren't yet available, we do have some basic numbers to work with. Emergency services came out on top by a wide margin, while public transit came in dead last. Neither of those two results is surprising. One of government's most fundamental jobs is to protect the citizenry, so emergency services should always score high. On the other hand, public transportation has a terrible reputation in Lincoln -- much (but not all) of which is well earned through mismanagement and missed opportunities. At this point it isn't clear what the outcome of the survey will be. I suspect at least two things will happen. First, I suspect the City will have to find additional revenue to cover part of the $6 million budget shortfall. Yep, despite respondents' disapproval of tax increases, I think that's what we'll see. I don't see how the City has much choice. Second, I expect (or at least hope) to see more pressure placed on LPS to take good care of their budget. LPS is the big pig at the trough, after all, and the City ought to be tired of taking more than its share of the blame for the local property tax rate. My biggest "Huh?!" moment comes when I look at the results to the question about how people would pay for their highest budget priorities. Fifty-eight percent of people said they would either keep current funding levels; increase taxes; or take the money from elsewhere in the budget. An astonishing 42% of people want to use "some other approach". What other approach? Put out a tip jar? What are your thoughts about the survey results?

Well, folks, gas prices have hopped right on past the $3.50 mark. A couple years ago I predicted that $3.50 would be the "magic number" that would get people to cut back. I was wrong. Then again, that was back when the dollar was worth something. I hesitate to guess what the "magic number" is now. Actually, I'm not convinced there is a magic number at all. Besides, it's not like anybody goes anywhere these days. They're all inside playing video games.

If you're as sick of all that "Single?" litter on the streets of Lincoln as I am, you'll be glad to know that a woman has been ticketed for the offense. Kathryn Welch-Macaitis claims she didn't know what she was doing is illegal, which of course explains why the signs always seemed to pop up overnight rather than in the light of day. In some ways it's a shame that Welch-Macaitis is the one being punished. The real offender is the company. My quick research indicates that the company is pretty shady. Here's what I believe to be the company's contact information: NuStar Solutions, S.A. El Cangrejo, F Street Building No. 13, Main Floor Panama City, Panama info@nustarsolutions.com Unfortunately, the worst thing about the stupid signs is that they have made other local businesses more bold about putting litter of their own around town. My wife's employer happens to be one such offender. Hopefully now that there's a little publicity about the illegality of this sort of advertising they will stop.

I missed it, but according to The Missus there was a note in Friday's Ground Zero that the former Downtown Taco Bueno location has been acquired by the owner of 9 South Chargrill. Unfortunately, our Ground Zero is AWOL and I can't find any such article on the Journal Star's website. If any of you have Friday's Ground Zero, could you take a look and post the info in the comments?

The Missus had to work for a couple hours on Saturday, so I decided that Robbie and I would go to the zoo. What started out as a boys day on the town turned into a family affair; we were joined by my parents and my sister's family. If you're planning to go to the zoo, be forewarned that it's still in rough shape from the winter. They didn't finish all of their off-season projects. If you like things "neat and tidy", you may want to wait a month or so. Plus, things will be more green by then. But if your kid is like Robbie, he won't give a hoot about that. Robbie had fun donating coins: He loved watching the monkeys play: This could have been a great shot of Robbie and his cousin Sam, but I was in such a rush to capture it, I screwed up the framing: What are you looking at? Robbie tells grandpa about the camels: When will the train start moving?

The Journal Star's Jean Ortiz had a nice piece yesterday about the difficulties of running a restaurant Downtown. I found it interesting, for example, that Roost's Ryan Bird wouldn't locate Downtown if he could do it all over again. Also notable was how the new owner of Planet Sub badmouthed the former management. I can't say I disagree with his sentiments.

There was an earthquake yesterday well to the east of us. It was too far away to have any effect on us here in Lincoln, but it made me wonder: have any of you ever felt an earthquake here in Lincoln? I know it's possible for us to feel the occasional tremor, but I can't recall ever talking with anybody who had noticed one. I'm not talking about the retrospective "Yeah, I kinda felt something" when you heard the next day that there had been an earthquake nearby. I'm talking about feeling it at the time and pretty much knowing what it was. Anybody?

Lincoln original Amigos is having some troubles, which is forcing them to move their headquarters to their store at 14th and Highway 2. Oddly, they also closed the "burrito box" at 33rd and Pioneers even though it was making money. There was a time that Amigos was an impressive success story. They offered some of the best fast food around. Then two things began to happen: Lincoln underwent a restaurant revolution starting in the mid-90's, substantially increasing Lincolnites' dining options; and Amigos coasted, relying on its built-up goodwill to keep people coming back rather than investing resources in its food, properties, and people. Amigos really jumped the shark when it started to hybridize, offering burgers, donuts, and lord knows what else. It became the anti-Raising Caine's. Amigos has only itself to blame if it can't successfully sell Mexican(ish) food in Lincoln. We love Mexican food in this town. DeLeon's is booming. Tina's is always busy. Oso Burrito expanded to two locations. And several national chains have either entered the Lincoln market or expanded their presence. All while Amigos has stagnated. What Amigos needs at this point is a wrecking ball; an interior decorator; a chef; and a new image. Maybe they could get a referral discount if they sign up Taco Inn, too.

I'm not a big ethanol fan. It's not that I'm opposed to it in principle. Growing gasoline sounds like an awesome idea. Too bad the reality of the situation involves incredible waste, inefficiencies, and subsidies up the ying yang that still can't make ethanol competitive. That's why John McCain's recent comments on ethanol caught my eye:

But I'll tell you what, I would eliminate ethanol subsidies. I would eliminate the tariff on imported ethanol. I think our market is being very badly distorted as far as food prices are concerned. I know you know food prices skyrocketed 17 percent in a very short period of time. That's because we're distorting the market. I'm for biofuels, I'm for all that stuff, but let's let the market play. Let's not subsidize ethanol or any other alternate form of energy. Let's go ahead and take away the imports. Let's eliminate sugar protection. My God, it's amazing, still, the power of some of the sections of agriculture in America. And let's eliminate loopholes that are specially targeted, rifle-shotted to specific industries and--both agriculture and business, and let's let them all compete.

That's one of the first things a presidential candidate has said this year that actually got me just a tiny bit excited. Not "I'm going to go vote for that guy" excited. But it's a start. Even early on I felt like the "ethanol boom" would ultimately prove bad -- if not disastrous -- for Nebraska. I hope I'm wrong. Yet I can't shake the feeling that Nebraska's agricultural sector is so desperate for short-term gains that they are ignoring the matter of long-term sustainability. Chasing corn-based ethanol is just one example. If John McCain is elected president, will we see the subsidies he talks about disappear? Not a chance. Well, not without some substantial changes in Congress. I'm not sure where the Democratic candidates stand on the issue. Their websites (Clinton, Obama) don't directly address the subsidy matter, though they do both talk about "investing" in various "clean" energy sources. So far that sort of talk has given us some very wasteful ethanol subsidies. I'm sure some of you can help describe your favorite candidate's stance.

Even though Lincolnites haven't yet given the go-ahead for the Haymarket arena, the City is hosting an open house tonight at which you can express your thoughts on what the arena should look like. You can also submit comments online. Deena Winter has answered some of the basic questions you might have. If you go: Ridnour Room 809 P Street 4:00pm - 7:00pm

Cindy Lange-Kubick says Maple Lodge Park (20th and Euclid, between Prescott Elementary and Milder Manor) is looking especially pretty these days.
View Larger Map You photogs out there may want to pay the park a visit. If you do, please be sure to share your shots with us.

I understand State Senators' discomfort with increasing taxes, but I think they made the wrong decision in taking money from the state's cash reserve rather than increasing the gas tax to pay for roads needs. The gas tax is one of the fairest ways to pay for roads, short of setting up toll booths everywhere to directly target the users of a specific segment of road. The cash reserve, on the other hand, is funded by sales and income taxes. The long-standing precedent in Nebraska is to fund our roads budget with money that comes (primarily) from roads users; this decision by the Unicameral puts us on the path to forcing all sorts of state services to compete with roads for budget dollars. Ultimately, the Unicameral's decision is a shameless ploy to disguise a $15 million tax as "free" money. Taxpayers will still foot the bill, but the burden has been shifted away from those who will most benefit from the funds.

Just a few days ago I asked The Missus, rhetorically, "Can a person form a memory of something he doesn't have the capability to describe?" In particular, I wondered if one of the reasons we don't remember much about our childhoods is that we lack the language necessary to describe it to ourselves. If I as a one year-old can't encode my perceptions of that thing in any coherent way, how can I later recall those perceptions in any useful form? Today The Missus and Robbie (sort of) conducted an experiment. It was opening day at the zoo, and being such a nice (if windy) day, they just had to go. The Missus and I wondered if Robbie would remember anything at all about the zoo. After all, his last visit was when he was 17-months old, roughly six months ago. He had almost no vocabulary then; I think the only relevant word he knew six months ago was "doggy", which he used to describe any animal with four legs. So color me shocked when The Missus told me that not only did Robbie remember the zoo, he called out "Train! Train!" as they pulled into the driveway and before he had seen (or heard) the train. In other words, he remembered an aspect of the zoo that he didn't have a word for the last time he saw it. He had stored a memory of the train in a way that was useful enough to him that he could give it a name as the memory rushed back. Six months later, despite all of the zillions of additional bits of knowledge and memories he has created in the mean time, Robbie managed to take a fuzzy memory of an object, associate it with the visual image of his current location, and come up with the correct word to describe the object. I don't know about you, but that fascinates the crap out of me.

My father-in-law has built a successful career as a professor with an expertise in early childhood literacy. He has written and edited books, authored dozens of papers, presented at conferences around the world, and so on. The guy knows his stuff. Although I don't always agree with his conclusions (or the routes he takes to get there), I can't deny the guy knows America's education system -- especially early childhood and elementary education -- as well as anybody. In many ways he has helped shape it. The Missus and Robbie flew out to visit her parents this past weekend. Apparently "Grandpa Rick" really bonded well with Robbie. At one point while those two were playing, The Missus asked her father a question. "Do you think public schools do a good job educating kids?" He stopped to choose his words before answering. "I think a good teacher in a good public school provides as good an education as you can find anywhere," he began. "However, there are a lot of mediocre teachers, and mediocre schools, and mediocre administrators out there. There are a lot of ways for kids to get less of an education than they need and deserve." He then added, "If I were a parent deciding where to send my child to school, and if I had the resources, I would consider home schooling or a private school." When The Missus told me this upon her return, I couldn't help but be surprised. My father-in-law has never been the private school type. He has always struck me as a staunch NEA backer, an ardent proponent of strong public schools. I've always thought that in his eyes, home schoolers are just wacky right-wing Christians, and private schoolers are either snooty rich folks or ... well, wacky right-wing Christians. But if I'm not mistaken, he almost suggested we go that route with Robbie. We don't exactly have the resources right now to keep Robbie out of public school, but who knows where we will stand in a few years when he is ready for kindergarten. Will we send him four blocks down the street to Zemann? I'm pretty sure we will. But when a pro all but says "You might want to think twice about that", you can't help but take some time to do just that.

I'm was a little slow to discover it -- it originally aired on April 1 -- but the KLIN morning show's spoof of the State Fair in Grand Island gave me a chuckle this morning. (Holdrege Senator Tom Carlson isn't a fan.) It easily falls into the category of "it's funny because it's true", and not just because of its portrayal of Grand Island.