Lincolnite

Go ahead and admit it. You've been craving more controversy at Lincoln's favorite intersection, 48th and O. Here's your controversy: the City is again facing trouble associated with access issues to properties on O Street. At stake, according to a recently-filed lawsuit, is the arrival of Staples at the troubled corner. The suit alleges that the City accepted $160,000 less for an adjacent property than what Realty Trust, the group trying to bring Staples to town, offered, and in addition that sale came with O Street access. That is a huge policy change, if true. The City, you might recall, spent $2.7 million to get rid of O Street access in that area. Raise your hand if you are shocked -- shocked! -- that the City may manage to once again make the redevelopment of 48th and O far more difficult and expensive than it ought to be. No one? I didn't think so.

Hi folks. Sorry for the lack of posts from me. I had a busy, busy weekend, and yesterday I discovered that my internet connection was dead. Fortunately a quick trip to Time Warner for a new modem fixed that problem. Still, I'm starting my work day two hours late, so something's got to give. Hopefully I'll find some time to post later in the day. If not, I'll see you tomorrow!

I love that the Heritage School is moving to Pioneers Park. That's a great place for it, especially if they locate it in or adjacent to one of the park's prairie areas. I would love to see them plop it out near Coyote Point, but that won't happen for a whole bunch of reasons. I assume it will wind up near the Nature Center parking lot. Do you have any fond memories of Heritage School? My memory of it is mostly fuzzy. I recall dressing up, preparing lunch, and sitting in the building, but that's about all.

What's this? Williamsburg Village (40th and Old Cheney) is getting a new building? A new $14 million Veterans Affairs Regional Office will begin construction in June. That's great news, tempered by the fact the project probably costs taxpayers much more than it should thanks to it being located in Williamsburg Village. What's the deal with Williamsburg? I'm always surprised how many vacant lots remain in the development. I can't help but think that the project missed several opportunities to be much niftier than it has turned out to be. Or maybe this slow growth -- going on, what, 20 years now? -- is intentional. In other Williamsburg "news", I like the rumor that the Hy-Vee is planning an expansion. That's "our" Hy-Vee so I'm always on the lookout for improvements.

I forgot to mention something about the City's budget survey: those who complete the survey can sign up to participate in a follow-up event:

On Saturday, May 16, there will be an in-depth discussion about the City's budget hosted by the University of Nebraska Public Policy Center. The discussion event will begin at 8:30 a.m. and finish at 3:00 p.m. The discussion will take place at UNL's East Campus Union. Pre-registration is required. Participants will be compensated $35 for their time and input. Space is limited, and participants will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. To register, complete the survey. Registration information is included at the end of the survey. More information about the discussion can be obtained by calling (402) 472-5678.

I'm not sure yet if I will be able to make it to the event. That's Robbie's birthday, and it's also during the state high school soccer tournament. But if I can make it work, I'll definitely be there.

Either somebody has a twisted sense of humor or the animal zombie apocalypse is upon us.

In the previous post I talked about the importance of context. Here's a refreshing example of the law taking context into account: a bill making its way through the Unicameral would provide exceptions to certain sex crimes so that youths don't end up being dogged by a "sex offender" label for the rest of their lives. I don't know how often it has happened in Nebraska (if at all), but across the country teens have had to register as sex offenders as a result of charges resulting from sexting and similar activities. The unfortunate result is that those individuals have a hard time finding places to live and work due to the stigma associated with the label. That's not to say sexting itself (and related activities) shouldn't be illegal. There are good public policy reasons to prohibit the practice. But doesn't it seem bizarre that two people who can legally have sex (and even, in some cases, get married) can't take and store nude photos of one another for fear of being labeled child pornographers? Unfortunately, commenting has been disabled on the LJS article so we don't get to see what those folks have to say. I am curious what you folks think. Is this, as I contend, a good example of the law making good use of context?

The Nebraska Office of Highway Safety is running a "Must B 21" Report Underage Drinking media campaign. I'm not sure how ratting out the Rosenbaums next door for offering up a little Manischewitz with the Passover seder has anything to do with highway safety, but whatever. (That's a straw man, I know. I consider myself duly castigated.) Anyway, I bring up the campaign only because their radio ad caught my ear. The announcer belted out the scary-sounding statistic that underage drinking costs Nebraskans a whopping $447 million every year. That's a lot of cash! It also sounds like a load of hooey, doesn't it? As with all-too-many campaigns like this, the website offers no sources for its data. I hate that. What's so hard about providing a little supporting data, a link to a study or two in a peer-reviewed journal? Just for fun I spent a few minutes [sic] seeing what I could do to back up the $447 million figure. The closest I could come were some figures from 2007 (PDF) that peg the costs associated with teen (16-20) alcohol-related accidents at $37 million. That gets us 8% of the way; and the remaining 92%? Well, the numbers are different, but this statsheet (PDF) likely hints at a big chunk of the story: "pain and suffering" accounts for a full 66% of the costs. If that's not padding the numbers I don't know what is. Fine, Mr. Wilson, let's say one or more of the website's "Stats & Facts" are partially bogus. But doesn't the core message of the campaign -- teens shouldn't drink, and those who facilitate teen drinking should be punished -- still hold water? In my opinion, mostly, but not entirely. I agree that teens shouldn't abuse alcohol, and I sure as heck agree that impaired teens shouldn't be behind the wheel. But then, I think the same thinks about adults, too. Personally, I don't have a problem with anybody responsibly using substances of various natures or doing various activities. No way will I endorse ratting out somebody who is causing no harm. The key factor above is responsibility. Fleshing out what that means could fill a book. I'll summarize with two points. First, you oughtn't look to frat boys for advice. More importantly, responsibility is contextual. The zone of responsibility involving teenagers and alcohol is pretty narrow, but it's not nonexistent. Pretending that there's no way to responsibly enjoy alcohol until the magical age of 21 is part of the problem, not the solution. Teens see right through that sort of exaggeration, and they rebel against it. They're wired that way. What about procuring alcohol for minors? Again, context matters. Hosting a kegger for a bunch of 14 year-olds without their parents' knowledge is clearly not legit. Giving a 19 year-old a beer to drink while he watches the Huskers on TV? The food that's been sitting on the table for the past three hours is far more of a menace to society. The campaign, like the law, is flawed because it doesn't care about context. Neither differentiates between the harmless and the harmful. The campaign encourages people to go all McCarthy on "any" person who breaks the law. Though it's understandable why they have to send that message, it's unfortunately overbroad. I hope Nebraskans don't get too literalist and instead focus on the activities that actually cause society harm. If we don't, if we continue to overstate alcohol's threat and maintain an absolutist stance, we will just continue to make our job of raising responsible youth more difficult than it needs to be.

Arbor Day doesn't get much press these days compared to its much bigger cousin, Earth Day. Bill Kauffman thinks that's a shame:

Beyond its hometown of Nebraska City, Nebraska, Arbor Day has faded into obscurity; its historic date, April 22, will be given over this year to that dreary shower of corporate agit-prop known as Earth Day. The difference between Arbor Day and Earth Day is the difference between planting a tree in your backyard and e-mailing a machine-written plea for a global warming treaty to your UN representative.

That reminds me: for ten bucks you get a six month membership to the Arbor Day Foundation and ten free trees.

I really hope they put a retractable roof on The Coliseum when sand volleyball comes to town.

The City of Lincoln is having some cash problems, so they want your input via an online survey to help determine if cuts should be made to particular city services, if taxes should be raised, or some combination of the two. We don't yet know just how bad the budget picture is. That's no doubt an intentional move by the Mayor's office. One could put a positive or a negative spin on that decision. Positive: Mayor Beutler doesn't want Lincolnites to be distracted by numbers and instead wants us to focus on "big picture" questions. Negative: The survey isn't about Lincolnites helping to solve the budget problem, but about helping Mayor Beutler sell his already-made decisions by providing him with information that will help him tailor his messages. The survey is long, requiring approximately 20 to 30 minutes of your time. More if you actually bother to read all of the background information that is provided. For example, here is the overall background document (PDF). There are a handful of others. Note that the questions are randomly selected from a pool so your survey will be unique. Interestingly, at least one aspect of the survey doesn't appear to be particularly friendly to persons with certain disabilities or types of web browsers. Early in the survey is a sorting task that requires the presence of Javascript and the use of a mouse; keyboard input doesn't work, and there doesn't seem to be any sort of fallback for users who cannot enter data in the expected way. Visually-impaired users, among others, are apparently out of luck. That's a relatively small population, sure, but I can think of several physically impaired and politically active individuals in Lincoln who will have a fit. That glitch aside, I encourage you to take the survey. If nothing else, participating in the survey and reading the background material will provide you with lots of good information about how our local government is reaching out (or appearing to reach out, if you prefer) to Lincolnites.

Lincolnites apparently aren't too fired up about the upcoming City Council election. How else can you explain the lack of buzz across the city? Is anybody talking about the election? Not even two dozen people showed up for last night's rapid-fire candidate Q&A. There could be all sorts of reasons for the passivity. Maybe Lincolnites are relatively content with the way things are going. Maybe the candidates have little to offer. Maybe Lincolnites are lazy. Maybe we're all too worried about paying our own bills. Are you passionate about the upcoming election. Why? Or are you like me, a little too far removed from the process? Again, why?

The good news is something is going in -- finally! -- to the former Kmart building in Edgewood near 56th and Highway 2. Rod Kush will turn 40,000 of the building's 118,000 square feet into a low-end furniture store. As a resident of the area I'm just glad to see the building get some use. Too bad it's not the year-round indoor mini-golf / go-kart / bowling alley / arcade / adult playground I had hoped for. The bad news is there's a lot of classism and north-south division in the comments on the article. A selection:

Um Rod, people on the south side don't buy low-end or used furniture.

Oh yeah...by the way..you must not have done very good recsearch [sic], South Lincoln will not buy your garbage.

With the opening of this store, expect to see a lot of county #3 license plates. Yes, there is a street dance in Beatrice tonight!

You haven't lived a full and complete life until you experienced that people watching event up on N. 27th.

Yeesh. Now if you'll excuse me, this southsider is thirsty. "Alfred, another Perrier, posthaste!"