Lincolnite

According to @GrowLincoln, Blue Orchid is planning a second location near 18th and Pine Lake. They'll have the same menu but perhaps a different name. Thank goodness the location isn't any closer to me or ... ugh, I shudder at the thought of how many times I would eat there each week.

I subscribe to Crime Mapping so I receive the occasional email describing any reported crimes in my neighborhood. It's a nifty little service for keeping tabs on the neighborhood. For example, over the past couple days there have been several thefts out of unlocked vehicles not far from my house. It's nice to know that sort of thing. But yesterday the thieves went too far. In my inbox this morning was this report:

TAKEN FROM VEHICLE PARKED IN DRIVEWAY AXE SPRAY COLOGNE

I can't figure out which is more amusing: that somebody would steal a can of Axe, or that somebody would call the police to report it stolen.

What did I do this weekend, you ask? Oh, nothing much. Good ol' Mr. T took some photos at the Grand Island vs. Lincoln Southeast boys soccer match on Saturday for the Heartland Athletic Conference championship. (Grand Island ended up winning 1-0.) He got several great shots of my ugly mug, including a few shots of the full referee crew walking off the field at halftime. I couldn't help but tweak the photo just a bit. Mr. T is currently showing some photos in the Rotunda Gallery at the UNL Student Union. Stop in and have a look at his work. The exhibition ends on Friday. EDIT: I couldn't help myself. Cool guys don't run from a volcanic eruption: Cool guys swim with the fishes: Cool guys hang out with Leo: Cool guys work on the holidays: Cool guys ain't afraid of no ghost: Cool guys ain't afraid of no ghost [alt]: Cool guys in space: Cool guys are closer than they appear: Cool guys battle the empire: Cool guys walk to Mordor: Cool guys travel the world: Cool guys hold hands when crossing the street:

Apparently all those "feather signs" you've been seeing around town are illegal. They're illegal because they aren't permanent, and they are "animated". I'm not sure how any of that is a problem. Lincoln is positively filled with impermanent advertisements and decorations, many of which are "animated" in one form or another. It's of course possible for such ads to be dangerous or inappropriate in one way or another, but I can't for the life of me figure out how those negative qualities might be relevant to feather signs. Perhaps they have a habit of unexpectedly tickling passers-by. For those of you who want to do further research, check out the Lincoln Sign Code [PDF] and zoning regulations for signs [PDF]. Unfortunately documents like these don't include the reasons behind the restrictions they describe. As a result, we are left to think many of them are silly until somebody convinces us otherwise. For example, I can't for the life of me figure out why feather signs are worse than, say, a giant inflatable gorilla or even the standard fluttering colorful triangle flags on a string. Who's got a good argument against these things?

ClockTower Shopping Center (70th and A) continues to fill up. This morning while taking Daisy the Wonder Schnoodle to Clock Tower Animal Clinic -- she has been having back troubles -- I noticed that Just Pop'd Popcorn is due to open in May. Just Pop'd is apparently from Papillion, and as far as I can tell this new store will be their second location. Looks like Colby Ridge has some fresh competition.

I stopped in at Union Bank on 48th and Calvert this morning to deposit some checks. While I was getting my things in order I overheard a teller instructing a customer on where to go to get ... well, whatever it was he was after. The teller told the man "It's in the old Post Office on Calvert". Immediately I perked up. Although I instantly knew the building, only longtime Lincolnites would have a chance at knowing where the teller was talking about. That building hadn't been a Post Office in ... what, 25 years? I looked up at the teller. He probably wasn't even born when it was a Post Office! After the customer went on his way -- with a Union Bank employee helpfully at his side to get him to the right place -- I asked the teller how a young pup like him could possibly remember that Post Office. He didn't. But all the old-timers in the bank refer to the building that way, so he picked up on it. There are many landmarks like that throughout Lincoln. Kool Krest and Miller & Paine are two noteworthy ones that I use often. I love that there's enough consistency in Lincoln that we can have those collective memories. And I get a kick out of the fact that even people who weren't even around at the time -- The Missus, to name one -- use those long-gone landmarks as references.

After more than 35 years, Howard Howser has retired and given up ownership of Howard's Pantry in Van Dorn Plaza on South 48th Street. Fortunately (or not, depending on your perspective), few major changes are planned. Oh yeah, except for one little thing: they're going to sell booze. Maybe I'm misjudging the restaurant's core audience, but they just don't seem like the types to order Bud Light with their patty melts. But what do I know? My first trips to The Pantry were just a few years after Howard's arrival. My Grandma Ethel -- yep, I had a Grandma Ethel -- would sometimes take us there for lunch when she was in town to shop at Knights or ... well, wherever it was that she shopped 30+ years ago. (I personally preferred Bishop Buffet, but I got mashed potatoes and gravy either way so I was happy.) My most recent visit was a few years ago. Very little had changed. Whenever a big change like this happens I always wonder what comparable thing we'll be talking about decades down the road. In this case, who's the next Howard? I guess we'll find out soon enough.

Some Lincolnites may think that Lincoln's food truck scene is little more than a quirky gimmick that won't last. I think Saturday night's "food truck roundup" proved them wrong. I don't have any way of knowing how many people showed up at the parking lot at 27th and N, but I do know that every parking spot was filled -- and then some. In addition, the lines were long. Very long. Many people waited over 30 minutes for their food. Business at Lincoln's food trucks is brisk, and Saturday night's event -- which will be repeated every other Saturday -- introduced many more people to their food. Even those who did nothing more than drive by the intersection saw how popular the trucks are. That can only do good things for Lincoln's dining scene. Now then, how about those pesky local ordinances that prevent the food trucks from operating on public streets? The last I heard, more or less zero progress has been made. Whatever may or may not be happening behind the scenes, the City Council hasn't moved on the issue. On the one hand that's frustrating. Let's help out these local business owners! On the other, what's the rush? The trucks are clearly doing pretty well for themselves despite being relegated to private parking lots. Perhaps their present situation isn't so bad after all. Whatever their legal future, Lincoln's food trucks have clearly started something, and thank goodness for that. They've introduced Lincolnites to a new way to run a restaurant, and as a result Lincoln has found itself introduced to a variety of completely new foods. I can't wait to see what else is coming.

Valentino's and WRK want to demolish the original Valentino's building and replace it with a mixed-use development. Valentino's will be part of the replacement project, but we all know it won't be the same. Perhaps it will be better. I'm skeptical. Valentino's has been in a funk for years. Sure they still have many locations, but if quality rather than quantity is the indicator of success, Val's doesn't have it. They serve low-quality, low-cost slop directly out of the freezer at ridiculously inflated prices. They aren't alone in that, of course. But they could do better. One example: it shocks the heck out of me that Valentino's can only manage to keep two of their buffets open in Lincoln. This is the heart of Valentino's country, and yet there are half as many Val's buffets today as there were 15 years ago. Why? I argue that it's because Lincoln's dining scene has matured significantly over the past two decades, while Val's remains mired in the past. Indeed, nostalgia is one of the most important reasons Val's is able to keep its doors open at all. Valentino's as a brand is built upon what used to be, not what currently is. That can only last so long before it crumbles. Which brings me back to this new development at 35th and Holdrege. The current Valentino's building is no doubt outdated and ready to go. But that building is an important part of the Valentino's brand. Take it away, and you take away a tremendous chunk of the nostalgia that breathes life into the chain. Without that link to history, Valentino's is little more than an expensive hybrid of Fazoli's and Cici's. Will people continue to pay the "Valentino's tax" as the history fades away? I am a Valentino's customer. I grew up on their pizza and I enjoy it from time to time. (Try jalapeno and cream cheese. Mmm.) I want them to be a success. But over these past several years I've had my doubts, and my most recent trip to the nearly-empty "Grand Italian Buffet" in Grand Island on Saturday evening left me shaking my head. Surely they can do better than where they are now.

Well, I guess I won't be getting my news from the Journal Star this morning... According to Google's "safe browsing" report, the ol' LJS suffers from "38 exploits and 2 trojans": One possible scenario is that some third-party software they use has been compromised -- an ad delivered from their ad network, perhaps. Lincolnite was actually flagged a few years ago because my web host was hacked via a Wordpress installation on a separate account that shared the same server as me. That was annoying. I can't remember how long it took me to get the warning removed, but I do remember it was longer than I would've liked. Whatever's going on with JournalStar.com, I recommend you stay away for now unless you know what you're getting into. Your computer probably won't get infected with anything ... but it might. I'll post updates below as I have them. UPDATE 11:30AM: The alert is gone now.

Craving Heoya while your spouse wants GUP and the kids want to try the new A La CARTe? There's a solution for that. Beginning this Saturday and continuing every other Saturday after that, all three food trucks will be in the parking lot on the southwest corner of 27th and O at 6:00pm. It's a great opportunity to sample a variety of excellent food, especially for those of you who haven't yet given any of the food trucks a try. If the thought of buying food out of a truck frightens you, it really shouldn't. The food preparation area is cleaner than most any restaurant around, and since they're working all of four feet away from you, you can watch everything they do if you're so inclined. My experience suggests that the food itself is top notch and reasonably priced. My favorite of the three is Heoya -- the pork banh mi is excellent -- but that's as much a bias of familiarity as anything. I've only had GUP Kitchen once but it was quite tasty. A La CARTe is so new that I haven't had a chance to try it yet. If you want to learn more, or if you want to find out where each truck will be located on a given day, you'll need their websites, Facebook pages, or Twitter handles: GUP Kitchen @eatgroundup Facebook Heoya @HeoyaNebraska Facebook A La CARTe @nealacarte Facebook

I'm having some troubles understanding a few things about Nebraska's child welfare system. Perhaps you can help me out. Thanks to a series of failures while attempting to privatize the system, most case management duties have returned to HHS. As a result, HHS has recently moved millions of new dollars over to child welfare reform. In addition, HHS has asked for millions more in the next budget. So the amount of money going to HHS for child welfare is up substantially. At the same time, HHS is slashing payments and services to foster care agencies (KVC, Cedars, Christian Heritage, et al.) and foster parents while simultaneously increasing their workload. One example: HHS will no longer provide transportation for children to/from parent visits. That responsibility now falls to foster parents and/or the placement agencies despite them receiving less money. These agencies are having their payments slashed by thousands of dollars each month, forcing them to cut staff. Yet with their newly-shortened roster of personnel they're supposed to take on the new responsibility of carting kids around town. Or if they can't do it, foster parents are supposed to. The same foster parents who receive $12 per day are supposed to take off work to pick a kid up at daycare and take her to a visit, then wait around to take her back home when it's over. In the end, HHS is directly taking in millions of new taxpayer dollars, plus they're indirectly taking in millions more by pulling money out of the pockets of those who most directly provide critical services to foster children and foster families. If all that money isn't going to serve the kids and foster families ... where is it going? That's not a rhetorical question, I really want to know! It gets even better. Before they cut up their service coordination contract with HHS, KVC had a contract with Foster Care Closet to provide clothing and supplies to foster kids in KVC's service area twice a year. The contract was a boon to foster families because it satisfied short-term needs until their first payment arrived (which often still wasn't enough to cover immediate expenses). When KVC's contract ended, so did their contract with Foster Care Closet. Now, HHS has so far declined to partner with Foster Care Closet. Despite Foster Care Closet's ability to provide seven new outfits to foster kids at an average cost of only $33 per child, HHS (so far) prefers to rely on a voucher system paid directly to foster parents. Two problems: First, the vouchers aren't immediate enough. Foster families have no idea when they will show up, if at all. (Ours took five months, and even then it was only provided after a court order.) Second, vouchers cost taxpayers significantly more than $33 yet provide less value. Say the voucher is for $100. Now imagine trying to buy seven new and complete outfits for a teenager with that money. Good luck! In short, it's HHS's position that taxpayers would rather spend more on vouchers to get substantially less for their money, rather than partnering with a non-profit that has a demonstrated history of achieving substantial savings on clothing buys and distribution. I realize this is a fairly disorganized rant. Dealing with child welfare reform has a tendency to cause one to sputter and babble. The institutional ignorance and inefficiency is enough to question your own sanity. "Surely it's not that bad!", you might be tempted to exclaim. Yet in truth, if you do some research you'll soon find that around every turn is actually worse than you could have fathomed. As a taxpayer you should be appalled. As a human you should be shattered. There's really no Lincolnite this mess doesn't touch.