Lincolnite

A big batch of college soccer reffing assignments showed up in my inbox this morning, and I finally received my first center assignment. In fact, I received three. Two of the games should be pretty decent (one women's, one men's), but in the third my biggest challenge will probably be staying awake. Still, it's not a bad crop of games overall. Also in the plus column is the fact that I only have one big drive on my calendar. On the 23rd I'll have to make the long drive up to Dordt, in Sioux Center, Iowa. The rest of my assignments are all within two hours of here. I'm glad the news was good this morning. I woke up tired -- Robbie, would you care to explain to the nice people why that is? -- and judging by the perceived weight of my noggin, I'd say I have a pretty respectable cold coming on. Add in the gray skies out the window and I thought today would be a real struggle. But now I have a little skip in my giddyup that ought to be enough to get me through the day.

Yesterday Deena Winter's article in the Journal Star was an interview with Mayor Seng. A couple quick reactions: (The questions are bold, Mayor Seng's responses are in italics, and my comments are in regular text.) What criticism of you and your tenure as mayor is most unfair? People complain about the strangest things these days. It's very difficult to pick out one single thing. There will be people that will complain about my hair and there will be people who will compliment my hair, which has absolutely nothing to do with being mayor. ... the smoking ban, guns. Hold on a second, did Mayor Seng just say that the smoking ban and the recent concealed carry kerfuffle have "absolutely nothing to do with being mayor"? Or did Deena Winter really butcher what Mayor Seng said by inserting an ellipse in a bad spot? If it isn't the latter, then Mayor Seng has some bizarre ideas about what criticisms are fair and and which are unfair. Do you think some of the criticism of you is age or gender-based? Yes. It has been, and we've noticed that on e-mails that come in. Do they criticize Tom Osborne because of his age? Sorry Mayor Seng, but don't even try to flatter yourself with a comparison to Tom Osborne. Osborne's situation is far removed from yours. That said, I don't disagree that some of the criticisms sent Mayor Seng's way are unfairly related to the combination of her age and gender. Is there anything you'd do differently if you had a chance to do it over again? No. I didn't ever plan to be mayor. I wasn't ever sure I'd be on the City Council. I might have been on City Council earlier if I'd raised enough money. I might have raised more money for the mayor's race. This, in my opinion, is a terrible answer. Given an opportunity, among a completely benign audience of one polite reporter, to own up to one mistake -- any mistake -- she made as mayor, Seng weaseled out. Tacky. Have you or your administration been a barrier to growth? People have wanted to say that, for as long as I know, about Lincoln government. If you're in it to do a quick and fast (project) to make a buck, then yes, you might think that. Her answer doesn't really do anything to address why developers so often negatively compare doing business in Lincoln to doing business elsewhere. Surely there's something deeper going on that could be addressed, even if it's something as small as changing perceptions. Gallup wasn't in it for a quick buck; neither was Tractor Supply Company; nor Wal-Mart; nor were several other companies that Lincoln lost out on or said no to. What of them, Mayor Seng? Will NU beat USC? The team looked good last Friday. Uhh, what? She knows the Huskers are a college team that plays on Saturdays, right? (I'll just let this one slide as a Bushism.) If there's one thing you would change about Lincoln, what would it be? Have more north-south roads go all the way from the city limits on both sides. I agree. But I wonder: if that's the one thing she could change about Lincoln, why didn't she do more to north/south transportation during her tenure? What is Neal Obermeyer (a freelance political cartoonist for the Journal Star) going to do without you? I wish he would come up here. We've invited him. I think he'd probably be really surprised if he met me. Hmm, what do you think would surprise Neal about Mayor Seng? It'd be pretty surprising if he walked into her office and she were wearing a bikini. Maybe she's a huge NASCAR fan. Or maybe she once dated Winston Churchill. Other than that, I just can't think of many things about her that would surprise Neal.

As of this moment, I am officially older. I'm not old yet. I won't be old for a couple more decades. Today I'm just older. And there was much rejoicing.

It's another Husker game day, and chances are my score prediction, like thousands of Husker fans at Memorial Stadium, will turn out all wet: Huskers: 58 Colonels: 17 Go Big Red!

As a preview for my upcoming series on the Lincoln Downtown Master Plan, I present five features of Downtown Lincoln that are, according to the Plan, "inappropriate" and would be discouraged if they were to be done today:

1. Wendy's, Amigos, and Arby's (too suburban)
2. Nebraska Bookstore (too much blank wall)
3. The O Street skywalk (between 12th and 13th Streets) (skywalks are bad, especially ones that draw attention to themselves)
4. Tour de Lincoln (amateur art is discouraged)
5. The Douglas Grand (too gaudy)

Mayor Colleen Seng won't run again after serving four years at Lincoln's helm. The reaction will undoubtedly be mixed; Mayor Seng's tenure has proven to be very divisive, with the "haters" being the most vocal. Of the pro- and anti-Seng crowds, I will say this: they are both right. Mayor Seng helped move Lincoln forward in some ways, but in others her leadership style was insufficient to help Lincoln overcome the obstacles laid before the city. This much can be agreed upon: Colleen Seng knows how to cut ribbons. Now that the campaign for Mayor will be wide open, I hope Lincolnites can get clear answers to some of the community's most pressing questions. How will the candidates rebuild trust in the Fire Department? How will they improve Lincoln's business climate? Where will Lincoln get the money to pay for the billions (yes, billions) of dollars of projects planned for the next two decades? And so on. But that's all for later. For now, I want to thank Mayor Seng for her service, and for her wise decision to step aside. Even though I'm not shedding any tears over her departure, I honestly hope she remains involved in efforts to make Lincoln a better place.

I have six tickets to Saturday's Husker football game I'm trying to help get rid of. Two are in South stadium (away from the student section, if that's a concern). The other four are some of the best seats you'll ever have, on the 47 yard line in the East balcony. All six are available for face value. (Face value is about $50, but I can't remember for sure right now.) I prefer to sell them in pairs, if possible. All the tickets are first come, first served. Claim 'em in the forum.

By the way, comment spam on Lincolnite finally forced me to require non-logged-in visitors to answer a CAPTCHA before being allowed to comment. Please let me know if you have any problems with the new system.

Yesterday I downloaded the Lincoln Downtown Master Plan and the accompanying Lincoln Downtown Design Guidelines. The two documents are filled with lots of interesting (and extremely ambitious) stuff. I think I will try to put together a few posts describing the contents of the documents, peppered with my assessment of concepts big and small. I will probably try to do a five-part series. If you have any topics you would like me to cover, or questions you would like answered, please let me know.

Neal Obermeyer's latest cartoon* touches on a topic I brought up yesterday. Very nice, Neal! *The cartoon wasn't online yet this morning, but I assume it will show up soon.

It's amazing how easy it is as a parent who sees his child every day to miss the little things in your child's development. Like, how Robbie laughs so much more these days, and how he laughs at things that are actually kind of funny; and how he follows people (and puppies) around the room with his eyes, even from far away; and how he is teaching himself the basics of coordination by removing and attempting to replace his pacifier; and how he has a new fascination for his feet; and how he has more than doubled in weight since Gotcha Day; and on and on. These are things other people -- like his maternal grandparents, who came from Albuquerque to visit him this weekend -- notice, but The Missus and I sometimes take for granted. He grows and changes every single day. One thing hasn't changed, though: he's still a pretty darn cute kid.

If anybody out there has a home for Taste of China, Mayor Seng would love to hear from you. Taste of China remains the lone hold-up in the quest to start up the request for proposals process for the proposed Downtown high rise. In related news, the Douglas 3 should start coming down this fall to make way for the new "civic plaza". But what's this?

The civic plaza would be bordered by a four- to five-story building filled with retail shops on the ground floor and possibly offices or housing on upper floors.

I don't remember that being a part of the plan. I thought the entirety of the Douglas 3 property was going to be converted to greenspace open space. If a chunk of the property is going to be turned into a new building, isn't the plaza going to be awfully tiny?

A bit of Downtown dining news: looks like a new restaurant is opening between Oso Burrito and Abloom the flower shop (the name of which escapes me right now). A sign for Inna's Pirogi Cafe popped up recently. Looks like one worth checking out when it opens. If you're wondering, a pirogi is a crescent-shaped dumpling of unleavened dough, stuffed with sauerkraut, cheese, mashed potatoes, cabbage, onion, meat, or fruit.

Whether or not you like Lincoln's efforts over the years to keep Downtown alive and kicking, at least some of those efforts have obviously made a difference. I witnessed the perfect illustration on Sunday. I was in Downtown Omaha around 1:00pm on Sunday. Cars were all but non-existent, and I didn't see a single pedestrian. Not one. Two hours later I was in Downtown Lincoln. Not only was Downtown abuzz, I had a heck of a time finding a parking spot and I almost had to resort to using a parking garage. I don't always agree with the methods used to support Downtown, but clearly something is drawing folks to Downtown Lincoln in a way that Omaha can't match. A downtown district cannot thrive if it's a 9-to-5, Monday-through-Friday district. Downtown Lincoln clearly is not, and that makes me very pleased.