Lincolnite

Ribfest is coming up next weekend, August 7 - 10. How many of you would be able to make it over the lunch hour on either Thursday or Friday? I'll even pay your admission fee!

Sorry things have been a little subdued around here lately. This blog -- like most blogs -- goes through the occasional periods of diminished activity. This is one of them. Here's why: First and foremost, work is keeping me busy. Since I'm self-employed, that's a good thing. I can't, unfortunately, tell you much about the project I'm working on right now, but it's a biggie. I'm doing javascript, PHP, and ExpressionEngine work for a new website for a large, multi-national corporation. The site is due to launch on Friday "or people get fired" (as the guy I'm working for so succinctly put it). No pressure, right? That's on top of my regular workload. For example, last week I began working with a local small business to develop their first ever website. We haven't signed a contract yet, but that should come this week or next. Then there's soccer. Last week, for instance, Nebraska Rush hosted other Rush clubs from around the country -- Colorado, Michigan, Virginia, Arkansas, California, Hawaii -- as part of a four-day clinic. They began each morning with games, so I got to help out there. And of course there are the family responsibilities. Two year olds are awesome, but they do take time, don't they? Robbie is on Day 3 of going diaper-less in the daytime. I'm not sure we're welcome back in Barnes & Noble any more, but other than that, he is doing great! Not that I'm trying to make excuses. I just don't want you to think I'm sick, or burning out, or bored, or anything like that. It's just the classic problem of too many responsibilities to fit into too few hours. I'll have things back up to full speed just as soon as I can.

Mueller Planetarium is 50 years old. To celebrate, admission prices are being discounted to $0.50 for adults and $0.25 for kids this Saturday, August 2. If you haven't been to the planetarium in a while -- or if you *gasp!* have never been -- this might be a good weekend to check it out.

OK, thieves of Lincoln, it's time for you to explain yourselves. Who the heck steals a Daewoo? Twice?!

It is up to Mayor Beutler now to either continue the three year U-Stop saga at 21st and K, or give the project the thumbs-up after the City Council voted to do just that. This has to be one of the most micromanaged gas station projects in Lincoln's history. The project has met all zoning restrictions and other regulations since Day 1, and yet the City has given the developer fits, preferring an empty parking lot over a $3.5 million development. Can we just finish this thing already?

The New York Times has a nifty article on the front page of today's sports section about Lincoln's own Agile Sports. Congratulations, guys! Hat tip: Jesse Whidden

If your garden is like mine, you're probably seeing the fruits of your labors by now. What's coming up in your garden? We have had some really nice cucumbers so far, a bunch of Hungarian yellow wax peppers, and a few cayenne and serrano chiles. My anaheim chiles are close to being ready, as are several varieties of sweet peppers. But the items I'm really concerned about? My three plants worth of habaneros. There are dozens of fruits on the plants. What the heck am I going to do with dozens of habaneros?

In a Sunday letter to the editor, Ron Kriha accuses LES of "not having the foresight" to explore so-called "alternative" energy sources. Given LES's request for a 10% rate hike, Mr. Kriha is not alone in his sentiments. I wonder if he is correct. Has LES waited too long to aggressively pursue new power generation possibilities? Given all of the current uncertainties about gas prices and electricity rates, it's easy to say yes. Time will tell if the numbers support that answer. After all, the costs of generating electricity from "green" (or "greener") sources are just now coming down. Wind power costs have dropped to one-fifth their amount in the 1980's, for example. An earlier switch would have meant higher initial costs. In fact, maybe costs are still too high for LES, relative to the alternatives. I would love to see those numbers worked out. Anyway, while we're busy pointing fingers at the utility, surely we also have to point into a mirror. Lincolnites certainly haven't been clamoring for change. Quite the contrary; we've been content to sit back and enjoy our low rates with barely a peep about looking too far into the future. We may always want the latest and greatest facilities for our Husker athletic events, but we aren't exactly the types to clamor to be among the early adopters of new and expensive power generation techniques and technologies. If you're curious, here's a simple comparison of costs among various forms of electricity generation. According to those numbers, wind is much more competitive today than the last time I looked at cost comparisons. Remember, though, that those numbers are generalizations. Does anybody know how they compare to our actual local costs?

I doubt you'll see me doing my weekly shopping there, but it's cool to see a new grocery store in the Haymarket. Rojo's Goods, located next to Old Chicago, focuses on the staples, but will almost surely evolve as it strives to meet the wants and needs of the Downtown residents who are most likely to shop there. Congratulations to owner Tissy McMahan as well as the mysterious other owner(s) the Journal Star didn't name in their article and Mary Beth Kos!

I know almost nothing about it, but I hear Carmela's Bistro and Wine Bar is open at 70th and Pioneers Boulevard. Our insurance agent told The Missus that he was headed to Venue the other day, but instead went to Carmela's when he saw it was open. He described it as American with a bit of an Italian flair. He said it reminded him of Vincenzo's, but less Italian-y. He said it was one of the better dining experiences in Lincoln. With that brief, second-hand introduction in mind, let us know if you visit Carmela's. Or maybe you haven't been there but you know more about it. Please share.

I can't believe it's finally happening. Lincoln has for years been discussing the construction of a bridge over North 27th Street near X Street, and now it's finally happening. It is an important component of the Mopac trail, which extends all the way from UNL's City Campus to 84th Street and beyond. In other bike trail news, I noticed construction equipment near the underpass at 48th and Highway 2. Looks like they're finally going to repair the portion of the trail that was poorly rebuilt after work in and around nearby Beal Slough. Hopefully they get it right this time. And one last item: I recently saw that the 27th and Capitol Parkway underpass is closed. What's the story there?

Raise your hand if your surprised that one of the big dogs in Lincoln's housing industry thinks Mayor Beutler's cash handouts for new house purchases are a good idea. Heartland Homes' Duane Hartman thinks that if the stimulus payments were at least $3,000, and if 200 people used those payments to buy a new house, the city would see a $1.4 million payday, or $7,000 per person. I don't know where he got his $1.4 million figure, but let's just go with it for now. First, let me say that I agree with Mr. Hartman that Beutler's $1,000 payments are much too low to do any good. I don't know if $3,000 is the magic number, but it's closer. Beyond that, is it realistic to think that 200 extra people can be persuaded to buy a new house because of a single $3,000 payment? If a person would not purchase a new house without the payment, then sure, that's a nice chunk of new cash for the city, and the one-time grant makes economic sense. On the other hand, if a payment goes to somebody who would have purchased a home anyway, then all the taxpayers are doing is subsidizing a larger down payment -- with zero return to taxpayers -- or perhaps the purchase of a new bedroom set (probably from Ernie's or Nebraska Furniture Mart) -- with a small return to taxpayers. I wonder how you differentiate between those people who need the cash to buy a house, and those who don't? We need to tell the groups apart in order to determine the success of the stimulus, but should we distinguish the groups in order to tell who gets the cash and who doesn't?

We may be a ways from being known as Nebraska ... The Wind State, but NPPD is taking steps to add 400 megawatts of wind power to Nebraska's power generation portfolio. The investment over the next 12 years could total $1 billion. Now if we could just get some nuclear action to happen around here ...

The City Council made a few tweaks to Mayor Beutler's budget proposal yesterday. The skinny: no new taxes, and no one-time funds. That means, of course, that the Council will have to come up with another $1.5 million (or so). Unfortunately, nobody shared any bright ideas on where that money would come from. Ken "The Hammer" Svoboda says that he has more than $1 million in budget cuts -- but he won't share them with us just yet. He wants to discuss the cuts with department heads first. While I understand the desire not to spring any unpleasant surprises on City departments and to clarify with department heads the effects of various cuts, I also think it is important at this stage to put all ideas on the table. We should be doing some heavy brainstorming at this point, and as we've all learned in school, ideas put forth in a brainstorming session are just that: ideas, not proposals. Even mediocre ideas can help move the discussion forward.