Lincolnite

Good: Nebraskans can breathe easier today, as more or less all of the state's businesses go smoke free. Bad: Our collective illusion that we actually "own" our property is broken just a little bit more.

Well holy cow. Senator Ben Nelson recently stuck it to the Department of Roads over "the lack of progress on the Lincoln South Beltway since the Nebraska Department of Roads assumed the lead on this project." Wait, did he just say "Lincoln South Beltway"? What is that? It sounds like a hugely important project that should be a major priority for the city of Lincoln. And yet, do you ever hear anybody* talk about the South Beltway? I certainly don't! We should really look into this "South Beltway" thing. It sounds like it might be something worth pursuing. * I mean besides my periodic rants and bouts of sarcasm on the topic.

Good news for those of you who can't stand the fact that every new restaurant opening in town seems to be some sort of Mexican restaurant. According to Matt Olberding, a Colorado-based burger joint called SmashBurger -- not another Mexican restaurant! -- is coming to town. And not just one location, either; ten locations are planned across Lincoln and Omaha, which probably means we're looking at 3 or 4 locations in the Star City. By the looks of the menu it's a fairly standard contemporary burger joint: beef or chicken "burger", a few toppings, some sides, and a couple hot dogs thrown in for good measure. I'm generally not a burger guy so I'm not one to get excited over the menu, but I'll certainly give the place a try once it opens. I can't eat tortas and burritos for every meal, after all. Have any of you been to one of SmashBurger's existing locations?

The 2010 Special Olympics are coming to Lincoln and the event needs you to volunteer. According to an article in the LJS, organizers need 8,000-ish volunteers. That's a lot of people! Be sure to get your family and friends involved. I wish I could tell you more about the volunteer sign-up process, but it requires confirming your e-mail address and right now my e-mail account is tied up. As soon as the confirmation e-mail comes through I'll finish up the sign-up process and let you know more about it. UPDATE: I have finished the sign-up process. There are a few steps: (1) Enter your e-mail address and a password; (2) Wait for a confirmation e-mail, then click on the link in that e-mail; (3) Log in; (4) Fill out an application; (5) Wait for a confirmation e-mail, then click on the link in that e-mail. Note that a few fields on the application are required even though they aren't labeled as such. For example, I left "Home Phone" blank, but apparently that field is required. I just re-entered my mobile number. Also note that you must mark a checkbox at the very bottom of the page, but the form submit button is at the very top of the page. For now I signed up to assist with soccer-related activities. I also contacted the President of the Central Nebraska Soccer Officials Association -- uhh, my dad -- to see if we can get that organization actively involved in next year's event.

The 2009 summer league of the Lincoln Ultimate Disc Association is about to fire up. Games are played Thursday evenings at Woods Park. I am reeeally tempted to go out and play this year. And it just happens that I don't have anything going on on Thursday evenings this summer. Hmm...

::sniff:: I can't help but get a little sentimental when I read about AOL being kicked to the curb by Time Warner. Boy, I spent a lot of time on AOL back in the day. That's where I got my start in web development, in fact. Those were the days. My memory gets pretty fuzzy, though, when I try to remember all of Lincoln's early online opportunities. I do remember that over the years I acquired about a dozen Lincnet e-mail accounts. What else went on in Lincoln's earliest days on the intertubes? I'm sure some of you have some great memories to share.

Sure, Memorial Day weekend is supposed to herald the start of summer. But I argue that this weekend is really summer 2009's first hurrah. The first thing on my list is the Friday Night Concert Series at Southpointe Pavillions. The Wilsons have attended the concerts for years now. Heck, Robbie had his first kiss at one of the concerts two years ago. Tonight's performer (PDF) for the 6:30-8:30 concert is D'Funk. Coming up on Tuesday is Jazz in June, another summer staple I love. As a bonus, there are five Tuesdays in June this year, which means five performances for us. What other favorite activities of yours are coming up now that it's summertime?

Somebody mentioned in a comment not long ago that he or she had not yet turned on the air conditioning at home. That made me wonder just how many of you have avoided the A/C so far this year. I don't remember when we caved, but it was a while back. Since that time we've gone off and on. We usually keep ours set at 79. How many of you have held strong? Is it more because you have a very cool house, or because you have a very high tolerance for heat?

I'm glad to see that LES's Sustainable Energy Program has successfully reserved its $1.1 million allotment. The funds are going to nearly 5,000 homes which, combined, will undertake projects that are the rough equivalent of taking 600 homes off the grid. Put another way, it's like an entire neighborhood or two just vanished. Not bad. I think it's interesting how quickly the projects will pay for themselves, assuming the efficiencies estimates and costs are reasonably accurate. Let's say the program didn't exist and these homeowners spent their own money on these various projects. Taking into account LES's rates and an estimate of 7 million kwh/year energy savings, the projects will pay for themselves in a hair over two years. That's a very reasonable timeline to see a return on one's investment. Energy-saving products and technologies, generally speaking, are pretty much at the point where it doesn't make sense not to install them. Did any of you participate in LES's program?

I'm sure by now you've all heard of the block-headed robber: The knot-headed burglar is even better:

... if it were 2011. The Board of Education finally approved a calendar that ends the school year before Memorial Day. That means May 27, 2011 will be the last day of school for my niece the first grader. Still no progress on getting first semester to end before the new year, though. Some day. Some day.

I have picked on Lazlo's a fair amount over the past couple years, both on this blog and "in real life". Two experience in the past week may force me to reevaluate my position. That makes me very happy. By accident, The Wilsons ate at Lazlo's twice last week. The first was an outdoor experience at the Downtown Lazlo's; the second was with my in-laws in the lounge at the South Lazlo's. On both occasions service was back up to what I consider to be Lazlo's standards, and the food was excellent. The two experiences were so positive that after many months of actively filtering Lazlo's off my list of possible restaurant choices, they may be on their way to repairing their reputation. Maybe. No restaurant can betray my trust like Lazlo's did and just get back into the rotation without a little hard work. Time will tell. In the mean time, I would love to hear your latest Lazlo's reports. And what the heck, let's toss sister Fireworks into the mix as well. How are they doing?

LIBA's Coby Mach has a piece in this morning's Journal Star in which he discusses several good reasons why the results of the city's unscientific online Taking Charge Budget and Program Priorities Survey should be interpreted very carefully. He is correct. The survey should be considered little more than a conversation starter. Be extremely wary if local officials try to sell the results as representing anything more than that. Not that stirring up conversations is a bad thing, of course. On the contrary, it's very good to engage the public in this line of thinking. And even an unscientific online survey can help us determine which conversations are worth pursuing as we go forward, and which we shouldn't spend much time on. As Governor Heineman and the DMV have learned, relying on anonymous online surveys to make actual decisions can really make one look like an ass. I don't want to see Mayor Beutler & Co. make the same mistakes. The City could earn a lot of respect by releasing as much of the raw data as possible. Likewise, the City should make explicit its criteria for any manipulation of the data: voiding results, for example, and IP whitelisting and blacklisting. The more transparent are the data, the better we will be able to support or refute Beutler's budget decisions. Do you have any concerns about the budget process that have not yet been addressed?

Local landfill use is down 10% thanks to the economy, recycling efforts, reduced packaging, and so on. That's (mostly) good news for the landfill, although it does mean less revenue. The Bluff Road Landfill supposedly has about 25 years worth of life remaining. That sounds like a long time, but is it really? Lincoln probably doesn't have a specific plan at this point for what we're going to do when the landfill fills up. Do we have a general idea of what we're going to do? How far in advance does a community need to think about its next landfill? Considering how poorly Lincoln has planned ahead for some of its biggest needs -- south and east beltways, anyone? -- I get nervous thinking about this sort of long-range planning effort. At the very least I hope we sock away a few bucks to help deal with startup costs when the time comes.