Lincolnite

The Nebraska Department of Labor misused Federal funds to the tune of nearly $100 million. You read that correctly: one hundred million bucks. I'm speechless. Heads should roll. Governor Heineman, what say you?

Which is your favorite? Hat tip: mymanifesto at Star City Scene

OK, folks, let's dump out those rain gauges and compare. I'm near 48th and Highway 2, and mine shows about 1.6 inches of the wet stuff. Who among you got the most rain last night? Did anybody see any large hail? If we had hail here, I slept through it. It looks like we could be in for another bumpy ride tonight. Keep your eyes on the radar this evening.

The intersection of 33rd and A isn't the most attractive in town, but it does see its fair share of business traffic. There's a gas station, a dry cleaners -- they clean the Cornhusker Marching Band's uniforms, by the way -- and a small strip of stores. And then, of course, there's the northwest corner, home to one used car lot after another. That northwest corner has been purchased by Lynn Leitner, owner of National Pharmacy. It's not clear what that will mean for the intersection -- or for National Pharmacy's current location on the northeast corner -- but it's good to see the property in the hands of somebody with an interest in sprucing up the neighborhood.

Question: Which costs the City more, the loss of a bucket of sand, or dispatching a police officer to investigate the theft of said sand? Here are some rough -- ahem, very rough -- calculations: Let's say that one cubic yard of playground sand costs about $30, or $1.11 per cubic foot. The bucket in question is probably a little smaller than a cubic foot. So let's say the amount of sand taken cost about a buck. Now, let's assume two LPD employees were involved: the dispatcher, and the officer on the scene. We'll start with the dispatcher. He had to take the call, look up the perpetrator's address, and dispatch an officer. Let's say that all took 5 minutes. Let's further say that the dispatcher "costs" $20 per hour. The dispatcher's role cost $1.67. The officer had to take the call, drive to the scene, interview the perpetrator, and write a report. Let's say that took 20 minutes. We will pretend that the officer "costs" $25 per hour, so the officer's role cost $8.33. We will add another $1.00 for gas. Add it all up, and you're got $11 spent to pursue the recovery of $1 worth of sand. Honestly, I think the sand estimate is high and the LPD cost estimate is low. Regardless, clearly it cost much more to pursue the sand bandit than the sand was worth. Eleven times as much, by this estimate. The woman trying to save her tax dollar instead wasted much more of them. In all fairness, the cost ratio certainly isn't the only factor that should come into play when reporting a (potential) crime. But come on, one bucket of sand?

Last night was a beautiful night for Jazz in June on the University of Nebraska - Lincoln campus. Every time I go I see at least a handful of people I haven't seen in ages. This time the list included: the parents of a good friend from high school; a former co-worker; and Lincolnite commenter Nikkidemas. All in all, it was a beautiful evening.

Well would you look at that. The City Council is finally starting to think about the implications of its prodigious use of tax increment financing over the years. The project at the heart of the discussion is a long-in-the-works development at 10th and Van Dorn. The developer, B&J Partnership, doesn't want "free land" or "free money" from the City, but the City still could make infrastructure improvements to the area. The Council is concerned about the "slippery slope" associated with using TIF in that sort of scenario. But as Urban Development Director (and rockin' Sunday morning DJ) David Landis pointed out, "If there is a slippery slope, we’ve begun to descend that slippery slope in the past." After years of seemingly indiscriminate use of TIF, it's nice to see the City Council take pause and give this topic a think.

Have you been paying attention to Omaha's effort to build a new baseball stadium to replace Rosenblatt? It makes for an interesting contrast with Lincoln's push to build a new arena. Both efforts are highly controversial. They share several similarities, in fact. And yet the Omaha stadium is all but a done deal, while Lincoln's arena still has many, many hurdles to overcome. Why the stark difference in timeline? It's simply a matter of approach. Omaha used a "shove it down the taxpayers' throat and get it done yesterday" approach, while Lincoln is opting for the much slower "let the voters decide, but before that, spend enough tax dollars on the project that voters feel like it's inevitable" approach. I have only just begun comparing and contrasting the two projects, so I will probably have more observations in the future. What similarities and differences do you see in the two projects? Will either project be helped or hindered by its supporters' approach?

I am a little ashamed to admit that I still haven't been to the new State Theatre. I have had every intention of stopping by. But y'know, this whole kid thing really changes a guy's entertainment options. Showing second-run movies hasn't proved lucrative for the State, so they're switching gears a bit. The theater will be different things on different days, ranging from a video gamer's paradise, to a dance club, to a Husker game day headquarters. I hope the new changes go well for them. Have you been to the State? Will you plan to go now that they're making these changes?

Having lived in the area for a few years now, I have followed with interest the periodic grumblings about the intersection of 56th and Elkcrest Drive, between Highway 2 and Pioneers Boulevard. The intersection is one of Lincoln's most crash-prone. Thing is, I don't really understand why. It isn't a complex intersection by any means. Nor is it prone to poor visibility. Quite the opposite, in fact; the intersection sits at the bottom of a hill, so it is very easy to see what to expect as you approach. I did always wonder why the City didn't install staggered left turn lights. That is, the light cycle for 56th Street traffic could have been:

• Red
• Southbound green with turn arrow / northbound red
• Green
• Southbound red / northbound green with turn arrow

That would have taken some of the pressure off of turning traffic, assuring them an opportunity to turn and decreasing risk-taking. It also would have been a very cheap solution to try out for a couple months. Nevertheless, enough drivers have not paid attention to what they're doing that the City finally got fed up and decided to redo the entire intersection. A left turn lane is being added and other parts of the intersection are being reconfigured.

"I think they can take that to the bank." That's Mayor Chris Beutler (sort of) assuring Lincolnites that property taxes won't be used to pay for the new arena. The big question is: can we do it? For now, nobody knows. We do know that Omaha didn't fare so well with their plans to minimize the use of property taxes. Omaha's big mistake was allowing consultants to overhype the Qwest's potential. Unfortunately, those consultants get off without any accountability. Instead, the taxpayers get screwed. That isn't unusual. It only takes a few minutes of research to come up with examples of the same sort of overselling and under-performance at arenas, ballparks, and similar projects all across the country. In Nebraska, our other classic example is the infamous Great Platte River Road Archway. On the other hand, Haymarket Park has been a pretty decent success. Maybe Lincoln knows what it's doing with these big projects. Or maybe we just got lucky. I don't know. Regardless of whether property taxes are used to pay for the new arena directly, let's not forget that property taxes could very easily be used to indirectly fund the project. The arena may very well rely on other funding sources on paper. But if those funding sources used to cover services that now have to rely on property taxes instead ... City officials say they are using "conservative" estimates of the arena's performance. Great. Hopefully they are also being conservative about things like construction costs, construction timelines, and so on. And hopefully those estimates are actually conservative, not simply the least outrageous of the hype-ridden possibilities. Presumably the public will have access to some of the City's estimates prior to next year's vote. Sure, they could just say, "The numbers work out, trust us!". But if they are not honest with voters, then that opens the door for anti-arena types to more easily disseminate their own outrageous claims. The City has put way too many resources into this to not be honest with us. If an arena is a good idea, it should sell itself. What's your take on Mayor Beutler's (quasi) promise not to use property taxes to fund the arena project?

No way any of you will get it right this time.

Ever since we brought Robbie home from Boston, the Wilsons have enjoyed heading to SouthPointe Pavilions on Friday nights in the summer for their Friday Nights Live concert series. Tonight marks the series' return for the 2008 season. On stage will be D'Funk. If you happen to be out there tonight, be sure to look us up. Robbie tends to keep himself pretty visible, so just look for the two year-old with the rockin' dance moves being followed by his two parents who have no dancing ability whatsoever. We are usually near Sartor Hamann or in the kids' area just to the south. Are any of you planning to go tonight?

Mayor Beutler is in a tough spot. He's in charge of a City facing a $6 million problem. If he proposes cutting the wrong services, he'll get eaten alive. If he proposes new generating new revenues (ahem, raising taxes), he'll get eaten alive. If he ... well, you get the picture. So what should he do? Actually, that isn't a rhetorical question. The City Council has all but issued a pre-emptive "No!" to a property tax increase. I'm hardly one to complain about government officials refusing to raise taxes. Yet I haven't actually seen any Council members propose any concrete solutions. For that matter, I haven't heard any concrete solutions from anybody. Where do we find $6 million in City government?

Being a severe weather fan is weird. On the one hand, forecasts like today's get me all hopped up. I love the action of a good mix of rain, hail, wind, and lightning. On the other hand, of course, there's the fact that all that stuff can be really damaging, or even deadly. It's hard to talk about how "cool" a storm is when it kills somebody or destroys their home. That leaves me to hope for lots of talk but not much action. It's not quite as exciting, but hey, I don't really want my house (or yours) to end up scattered across town. How many severe weather fanatics do we have out there? What was your most memorable experience?