Lincolnite

It excites me that the City Council is considering dumping the city's ridiculous movie theater policy, which prohibits theaters with more than six screens outside the Downtown area. I don't think the Council will actually change the policy, mind you. Good public policy will once again take a back seat to emotion and hysteria. Besides, the Council has to somehow justify that great boondoggle known as The Grand Theater. I'm not anti-Downtown. On the contrary, those who know me -- and those who have read my thoughts here on Lincolnite over time -- know that I love Downtown. I am one of Downtown Lincoln's biggest supporters. But it is not in the city's interests to use artificial props to support Downtown at the expense of greater opportunities for economic development elsewhere. Downtown Lincoln can support itself. It's thriving. People want to live, shop, and work Downtown. That's what we've been told, anyway. By Mayor Seng. By the City Council. By Polly McMullen and the Downtown Lincoln Association. If that is true -- if it's not just a mass delusion among city leaders -- then any policy that restricts growth outside of Downtown is a willful and deliberate fraud, implicitly (if not explicitly) designed to unreasonably restrict Lincoln's economic growth. If it is not true that Downtown Lincoln is booming, then Lincolnites are being lied to and led to lend the power of government to various activities based on false pretenses. The reality of the situation is much more complicated than that simple dichotomy can portray, but its hyperbole doesn't render it useless. It marks the beginning of some good thinking exercises. If Downtown Lincoln is doing so well, why not let the market do its thing? If it is not d oing well, why are Lincolnites being told otherwise? And if it's not doing well, isn't that instructive of Lincolnites' willingness to support certain types of development in certain parts of town over others? Consider: Lincolnites have been told for several years that the housing market in Downtown Lincoln is booming. My impression is that it is healthy, but I wonder just how booming it really is. If there is so much demand Downtown, why did the developers of The Option decrease the number of units in their project by over 65%, as announced today in the Journal Star? Don't developers in a booming marketplace usually increase the size of their projects? Lincoln's theater policy also effectively supports a monopoly on behalf of the Douglas Theater Company. For the most part, Douglas does a good job in Lincoln. But they could be better, and they would be if they were forced to by market pressures. Or perhaps Douglas would run a multiplex built on the city's fringes. If that happens, it will show just how little faith Douglas has in The Grand, the theater they promised so much of only a year ago. Lincoln's Downtown theater policy is restricting real economic growth opportunities for the city as a whole on behalf of a small portion of the city that isn't living up to its hype. It's time to remove the economic growth restrictions placed upon Lincoln by the theater policy, and to stop providing government-enforced monopoly status for Douglas Theaters.

I can't wait to see, hear, and read the conservative reaction to yet another judge declaring the Pledge of Allegiance in schools unconstitutional, all because some Congressmembers doped up on anti-commie fever decided in 1954 to slap "under God" between "one nation" and "indivisible". Let the thrashing and wailing about "activist judges" and "America-hating liberals" begin. Or they could just excise the controversial phrase and put this stupid issue to rest. Nah.

Trent Lott is hilarious:

Asked if that meant the government was running at peak efficiency, Mr. DeLay said, "Yes, after 11 years of Republican majority we've pared it down pretty good."

Too bad there's no impeachment procedure for delusions. Fortunately, not every Congressmember is on crack:

"This is hardly a well-oiled machine," said Rep. Jeff Flake, Arizona Republican. "There's a lot of fat to trim. ... I wonder if we've been serving in the same Congress."

Whole thing here.

Why didn't this story appear in the U.S. media?

Each Wednesday evening The Missus and I have a "date night." Typically we just go somewhere to eat and then go home and watch a movie, play a couple rounds of Scrabble, or take Daisy for a walk. Occasionally we get more adventurous, but the real point is that we don't schedule anything that would conflict with date night. I bet we've only missed date night five times over the past couple years. Some of our best conversations have come on date night. Heck, I think we even made the big decision on date night. The Missus and I have a habit of being a bit indecisive when it comes to choosing a place to eat on date night. So today I'm going to give you all a say. Where should The Missus and I eat tonight? Should we enjoy the fine service at Lazlo's? (Downtown or South?) Is Olive Garden featuring a special we ought to try? How 'bout a little lamb at The Parthenon? Maybe a cheese frenchee and chocolate shake at Don & Millie's? Or crab cakes at Beacon Hills? Fire away with your suggestions!

Gubernatorial candidate Tom Osborne has come out in favor of tax cuts as a way to boost Nebraska's economy. In particular, he is no fan of a 7.2% increase in state spending this year. A tax cut sounds great, but I will need to see more details before I can say that Osborne isn't just blowing smoke. Among Osborne's priority projects are outmigration, education in entrepreneurship, increased venture capital financing, economic development tax credits, development of bioscience, distance learning, tourism development, and hunting promotion, all of which will likely require increases in state spending to address. To what is Osborne willing to give the budget axe? The short Journal Star article does not address two important facts about the state's 7.2% spending increase. First, some state expenses can't be touched. Medicare and Medicaid, for example, are (nearly) untouchable, and the expenses associated with each are climbing rapidly. Second, the 7.2% increase came after several very lean budget years. One could argue -- I'm not making the argument, I'm just presenting it -- that the increase was a one-time "catch-up" increase that does not reflect a trend in state spending habits. How would Osborne respond to that argument? What, specifically, would he have done to prevent such a large spending increase? I look forward to learning more about all the candidates' plans for Nebraska. But I hope we get some specifics as the campaign moves along.

Lincoln has officially received a stand down order; we won't be seeing any large influxes of Katrina refugees. That's great news. Not for Lincoln, but for the refugees themselves. Can you imagine having to live and sleep in cramped, miserable conditions like those you see in the picture? And to think the refugees were supposed to be thankful for the privilege of sleeping in close quarters with 100 strangers. The best thing that can happen to Katrina's victims is that they be allowed to go home as soon as possible and rebuild their lives. Had they had to come to Nebraska to live for an indeterminate amount of time, their recovery -- and indeed their suffering -- would only have been drawn out even longer.

How would you like a 33" by 117" television screen? Oh wait, did I say inches? I meant feet. As in one hundred feet wider than the current HuskerVision screens.

Thanks to Chris Pederick the indispensible Web Developer Toolbar has been updated to version 0.9.4 which is compatible with Firefox 1.5 Beta 1. Also this morning I upgraded to Adblock Plus 0.5.2.039. That leaves me with only a couple minor extensions that don't work with Firefox 1.5 Beta 1, and I can live without each one of them. Minus a couple very annoying print preview bugs, I am now quite content with the browser formerly known as Deer Park.

I haven't been following the salary survey debacle very closely, but fortunately LIBA is keeping Lincoln accountable. I'm not sure why LIBA is demanding that the City Council conduct an investigation, though. An independent investigation seems more appropriate. The background, if you aren't familiar with the situation, is this: The city's personnel department conducted a study that was eventually used to justify substantial pay raises for 139 of Lincoln's highest paid city workers. It turns out, however, that a personnel department staffer misrepresented some of the data used in the study. It has not been made clear if this "misrepresentation" was intentional. Nor has it been made clear how much that misrepresentation affected the outcome of the study. (A good newspaper already would have conducted its own investigation and uncovered that information. The Journal Star, however, is not an especially good newspaper.) Oddly enough, I have a hard time being too cynical about all of this. (And this from a guy who has been really cynical of late!) Assuming the snafu really can be traced back to a single employee, there are two simple outcomes: if he intentionally misrepresented the data, he should be fired; if he misrepresented the data by virtue of incompetence, he should be fired. I suppose there's the third possibility that he made an honest-to-goodness mistake. In that case, his work should be carefully scrutinized and he should "pay" some sort of reparations, perhaps in the form of attending some sort of training. I hesitate to include this possibility because it can far too easily be used as a crutch to avoid firing an incompetent bureaucrat. But it would be unfair of me not to. One can argue that there needs to be tighter o versight over each city employee's work, but that will only lead to more red tape, not greater competence. Certainly the checks and balances in place to prevent these sort of mistakes need to be reevaluated and modified, but an all-out overhaul would be unnecessary. Again, my conclusions rely on the assumption that the goof in this situation was made by a single individual. If that assumption turns out to be false, I will rethink my position. For now, though, cynicism toward the entire personnel department -- or the city government as a whole -- is unwarranted. On this matter, anyway.

Dear Mark Andersen, Chimpanzees are not monkeys. They are apes. Thanks you. Mr. Wilson

Another humorously named subdivision has been proposed in Southeast Lincoln. The Woodlands will feature "about 1,000 homes and 450 apartments on about 360 acres on the south side of Yankee Hill Road between 70th and 84th streets." (Question for the LJS: Are apartments not homes?) The subdivision will also feature 600,000 square feet of retail and office space, described by developer Rick Krueger as "mostly neighborhood uses," by which he means no big box retailers. It would be nice to see a development actually integrate the retail and office space into the neighborhood, but I suspect that space will be relegated to the periphery, as is the norm in suburbia.

Now that he isn't held down by another job, I hear Mike Brown is President Bush's pick for the remaining SCOTUS vacancy. Bush, told by advisors that he couldn't pick a white man to fill the spot, opted for a Brown man instead.

Clearly, Wal-Mart is evil:

• On Wednesday, Wal-Mart made available its gift registry kiosks so anyone displaced by the hurricane can sign up for items they need. This allows people across the country to buy items for individuals in the same way that they’d buy a gift for someone who had registered with this Wal-Mart service for a wedding.
• The on-line Emergency Contact Service established through in-store kiosks and on-line via walmart.com and samsclub.com is helping the public to locate and communicate with their friends and family members. So far it has received more than 38,000 postings and nearly 1.4 million hits.
• Any displaced associate can report for work at any U.S. Wal-Mart store. So far, these associates are working in stores as far away as Alaska, California and Nevada, but most are in states near the disaster area such as Georgia, Texas, and Florida.
• Displaced associates are eligible for up to $1,000 from the Associate Disaster Relief Fund if their homes were flooded or destroyed. Cash assistance of nearly $4 million has already been provided to more than 6,100 associates.
• The company has dispatched more than 2,400 trailer loads of water and emergency supplies to Wal-Mart and SAM’S CLUB locations in the affected areas.
• Wal-Mart has donated the use of 19 vacant facilities to various relief agencies. More buildings are being evaluated for potential uses. These facilities are being provided at no cost to the agencies, and Wal-Mart is paying for utilities.
• Wal-Mart has donated more than 150 computers to Red Cross Shelters, allowing evacuees to locate and communicate with family and friends via the Internet.
• Wal-Mart has donated $17 million in cash to aid emergency relief efforts

And so on. Wal-Mart is bbeing sued by workers on four continents for labor and human rights violations.

If I weren't so blasted tired I'd post something more interesting. I have a few good article ideas in my head, for example. Instead, I'm just going to recap my weekend. On Friday evening I ate with my family at Vincenzo's. They make a mean penne diavolo. I enjoy the atmosphere at Vincenzo's, but the quality of our service was nothing to brag about. It wasn't bad, but for a place like Vincenzo's I expect service above that which I could find a couple doors down at Old Chicago. Our waitress was really nice, though. Oh by the way, what's the deal with being charged for pop refills? Nobody charges for refills any more! We weren't even told we were being charged; the waitress asked if we wanted refills in a way that strongly implied they were free. We followed up dinner with dessert at Ivana Cone. My shake -- half butter brickle, half vanilla ice milk, plus caramel -- was outstanding. I love that place. On Saturday morning I got a little yard work done. In the afternoon The Missus and I played with Death By Brass at The N Zone for a couple hours before the Husker game. I had to take off early to get to a Creighton men's soccer game at beautiful Creighton Soccer Complex. I ended up having a fairly easy evening as AR2, although I nearly had to run onto the field to assist the center referee during a little skirmish in the first half. I didn't end up getting home until after 10:00pm, at which point I ate some buffalo wings and watched parts of the Husker game. Today Daisy woke me up a little before 8:00am. I took her for a walk on our usual weekend route along Beal Slough. I picked a few veggies in the garden, and then I had to leave for Wayne, Nebraska, where I had to ref a women's soccer game at 1:00pm. We listened to the Husker volleyball game as Nebraska beat Penn State 30-14, 30-27, 30-23. For some reason the guy driving didn't want to listen to the AM broadcast, so we had to deal with the FM signal cutting in and out every time we went up and down Nebraska's rolling hills. Fast forward a couple hours, and here I am. I think 9:30pm sounds like a good bedtime tonight. Not that I ever stick to my ideal bedtimes. Ten bucks says I actually head to bed at 10:15pm.