Lincolnite

Cedric has posted his thoughts on Lincoln's newest sushi joint, Fuji Sushi & Grill on 14th and Pine Lake. A quick take:

Fuji Sushi & Grill is a small, unexpected 'hole in the wall' in a strip of other small unexpected hole in the wall eateries at 14th and Pine Lake in South Lincoln. ... I look forward to sitting down and actually trying their entrée’s at a later time, and their sushi as well. I was thanked upon my leaving, and told to come again. Once they work out their minor logistical/stocking concerns (it WAS opening day, after all) I think they will be a hit with the foot/lunch traffic from the school and the lunch crowd from the surrounding area.

My wife and I have each changed a lot since we first began dating nearly 13 years ago. Among the biggest changes has been our eating preferences. I changed first as I expanded my palate to include things outside of my meat and potatoes comfort zone. For years The Missus barely changed at all. Until last fall, that is. All of a sudden she became a red meat eater. After years of avoiding beef and pork, suddenly those meats are in her dining vocabulary. It should have been a celebratory moment for me. Finally, real sausage! Except for one problem. As The Missus began to eat more meat, I began to eat less. The nearly-simultaneous timing of the switch was coincidental, though it sure seems as though the Universe is trying to maintain some sort of balance. I'm no vegetarian, not by a long shot. Nor do I want to be. I don't even like most vegetables or fruits. But I'm trying to cut back -- way back -- on my meat consumption. Animal products, in the quantities we typically wolf down here in the States, aren't particularly healthy to the human body. Nor are they very good for the environment. So I'm cutting back. But I had no idea how difficult it would be to cut back on meat (and other animal products) while eating out. Unless you want to limit yourself to salads -- a dish I still haven't brought myself to try -- in most restaurants you're screwed. (And even if you do, meat is all over many salads.) I have found a few safe havens. It is easy to minimize or eliminate meat on pizza without sacrificing the joy of pizza, for example. Pasta, too, can be your friend, though it's easy to get stuck in the boring land of fettuccine alfredo or pasta marinara. Beyond that it gets tricky. Oso Burrito is my friend, with their myriad meat, vegetable, and flavor combinations. Where else can you get an avocado taco and a bowl of mulligatawny? Good stuff. What are some other restaurants in town that do a good job of offering up both "meated" and meatless options? And I mean real options, not the half-hearted, flavorless stuff you find at most places. Are there any winners out there in Lincoln that I need to give a try?

It's not too early to think about the next next big thing in Lincoln. The Antelope Valley Project -- or at least the foundation work -- is on the downhill slope. The arena is clearly intended to be the next big thing. But what comes after that? As a community we should have some ideas in our heads. Most of you know my vote. I have been trying to draw attention to the South and East Beltways for years. Our delay so far has already cost us untold millions in lost opportunities. But that's not the only option. We could invest our resources in plenty of other big things. To name a few: a sweeping, city-wide, once-a-century infrastructure renovation campaign; full-scale redevelopment of Havelock, Uni Place, and/or College View; massive investments in communications infrastructure to bring cheap, ultra-high speed municipal internet to every home and business; develop the next iconic park on the scale of Pioneers, Wilderness, or Holmes; and so on. What's your next next big thing?

The old D’Leon’s in downtown will now become a banh mi place in the near future. Folks who like Vietnamese cuisine or who are used to Banh Mi places in Southern California and other such areas will be excited. You can already find pre-made banh mi in the Little Saigon market and other Vietnamese groceries in town. It will be interesting to see if freshly made banh mi will be received well by the downtown lunch crowd or students from the U. They'll have to keep the prices cheap and the bread and ingredients very fresh in order to do well in what is obviously a very competitive market, especially since many downtowners will probably have no idea what a Vietnamese sandwich even IS. Regardless, good luck!

Oh now I get it! Downtown Lincoln Association's new platform is "asphalt parking lots good, new construction outside of the Haymarket bad". It's not a position they had made explicit to the public before, but it so perfectly explains how we ended up with two parking lots instead of "Catalyst One" and a plaza; and it explains why they oppose the redevelopment of the block bounded by 10th, 11th, M, and N. Actually, the DLA lists several reasons to oppose the project:

• Loss of downtown parking. Forget economic development, we want a place to park our cars!
• Inconsistency with the Downtown Master Plan. The Master Plan is a living, breathing document. This project proposes a hotel (visitors!), apartments (residents!), retail (sales tax!), and parking (cars!). Those are all supposed to be good things. If common ground cannot be found between a $45 million, mixed-use project and the Plan, then the Plan is crap.
• A glut of hotels. I'll come back to this one.
• Finishing the job. It's fine to want to ensure that a project has the resources to finish -- responsible even. We don't want a half-finished project uglying up Downtown. (cough Catalyst One cough) But opposing the project on these grounds without any direct knowledge of the specific financing situation of this project? Foolish.

Now about that glut of hotels. You know, it's funny. I don't recall the DLA coming out against any of the other hotel proposals in Lincoln. Does it strike you as just a tiny bit odd that they would single out this project for opposition, but not the others? I wonder if any members of the DLA's Board of Directors could explain that to us. Perhaps one of: Will Scott; Brett Harris; Steve Hilton; Kent Peterson; or Kim Ringo-Bright. Would one of you five like to explain to us what's going on here?

A friendly, neighborly reminder: Please don't let your dog bark incessantly. It's annoying. Yes, even in the middle of the day. You should really ask yourself why your pup feels the need to bark so much. Did you raise it poorly? It's not too late to remedy that. Is it bored? Find a way to de-bore it. Be a good neighbor, won't you?

Lincoln Police Chief Tom Casady is a big proponent of Crime Mapping and similar services. And so am I. I have been subscribed to the server for several months now to help keep tabs on any crime going on near my house. There's just one problem: crime near my house is boring. For example:

LFT SHOP W/O PAYING FOR SERVICE NAIL SERVICE W PK GEMSTONES/NAIL SERVICE W/WHI EYEBROW WAX

It's a fantastic problem to have. I don't want exciting crimes to be going on nearby. For the most part the crimes around here involve petty vandalism or minor domestic disputes. And they're relatively infrequent. How does the crime look in your neighborhood? If you don't know, you should sign up to find out. And be on the lookout for somebody with fabulous nails and a guilty look on their face

Which restaurants in Lincoln charge for pop refills? I can only think of two off the top of my head:

• Yia Yia's
• The Downtown Oso location (not the one on 70th & Van Dorn)

I haven't posted any family photos or videos in a while. Here are some videos from Halloween:

I worked late into the night last night, so when I woke up this morning I was prepared to be tired and cranky. I couldn't do it. I mean just look outside. Seriously, go look out a window or step outside. I'm pretty sure it's impossible to be in a bad mood on a day as pretty as this.

It's not an elementary school, but Hawthorne's neighbors won a small victory in that the building will still be used for educational purposes. The new students will be a little older than the previous tenants, however. Bryan Community, Lincoln's alternative high school, will move in come 2011. It feels like a pretty good decision. Bryan is currently cramped and under-resourced. Hawthorne is centrally located and available. Of course, this just raises the next question: What do we do with Bryan's current facility?

Did you feel like autumn began early this year? You were right. The three month period of August to October was the coolest ever in Nebraska. Well, the coolest among the periods for which we have records. My prediction for this winter: there won't be a winter. I'm predicting a year without seasons. I hope I'm wrong, though. I love snow.

This morning's news features two big stories about hefty increases in local regulations and red tape: The first involves "problem properties". After this summer's various neighborhood potlucks designed to bring attention to problem properties and the difficulties in getting the City to do anything about them, Lincoln is proposing a bevy of changes to how it handles these sorts of things. The changes include substantial alterations to the housing code, new inspection rules, stiffer fines, and so on. The second article describes a host of proposed changes to deal with problem pups. Or rather, dangerous dogs. Again: more regulations, more fines, and so on. All together, these two news stories feature a huge (proposed) increase in local regulatory activity. Yet these proposals aren't, for the most part, seen in that light. Instead, most people seem to perceive both of these moves as the benevolent government coming to the rescue. Why is that? And to be clear: no, I don't want Lincoln to turn into a wasteland of problem houses; and no I don't want children to be mauled by dangerous dogs. The validity of these particular actions is a completely separate issue. I'm just interested in thinking about why sometimes government is greeted as a White Knight, while other times it is the Great Satan. The public loves certain intrusions into their lives and loathes others. Finding the patterns and inconsistencies is great fun to think and talk about.