Lincolnite

Tomorrow night I'm presenting "A Foster Family's Tale" at Ignite Lincoln. The fun and fast-paced event starts at 7pm on Thursday at Bourbon Theatre (1415 O Street). Both the Daily Nebraskan and Journal Star have previews. Admission to the event is free and doors open at 6:30pm. My presentation is a very condensed version of my family's experiences with foster parenting in 2010 and 2011. Yeah, that's right, I'm going to smash two years into five minutes. How? Well ... I suppose you'll have to show up to find out. While you're there you'll hear other speakers talk about pinball, Twitter, librarians, awkwardness, and Nebraska's suckiness. I met most of the speakers last night and I can't wait to see them in action. Oh, and as for the title of this post? When I get in front of a group of people my shiny bald head tends to turn red. It doesn't matter if I'm nervous or excited or mellow. So if nothing else, you can come make fun of me for that while sitting back and enjoying a beer. Sounds great, right?

If you were annoyed by the amount of road construction -- and related road closures and detours -- in 2011, you're going to hate 2012. Lincoln has a whopping 44 projects coming up in 2012, touching 17.4 miles on 95.5 blocks. Compare that to 2011's 16 projects over 7.2 miles and 46.5 blocks. You can see the details for yourself (PDF). Some of the highlights include:

• Milling and overlay work Downtown, plus 7 new traffic signals
• "Microsurfacing" on several streets, a procedure that is supposed to be a lower-cost way to extend the life of streets
• South 56th Street from Randolph to A, and Pioneers Blvd. from 48th to 56th, are being widened to 2+1
• A whole bunch of water and sewer upgrades and maintenance

Personally I find all the construction to be a beautiful thing. It's a pleasant change from not long ago when we hardly saw any road work, leaving us with many areas of woefully under-maintained infrastructure around town. Judging by, say, the comments section at JournalStar.com and social media venues like Twitter and Facebook, I may be one of very few who feel that way.

Foster Care board could ask director to resign I don't have an opinion one way or the other on Carol Stitt's performance as performance as Executive Director of the Foster Care Review Board. But I will say that the timing feels unusual. I'm not aware of any substantial complaints against her, and axing the director before LB998 is considered -- which would completely restructure the Board -- is unusual. Perhaps Ms. Stitt has been up to no good, or maybe she finally stepped on one too many toes at HHS and the Powers That Be want her out. Or ... well, this is all just speculation of course. I guess we'll find out more after today's meeting.

Lincoln's Cornhusker Hotel is having all kinds of problems these days, and now it has even lost its Mariott franchise effective February 5. With new competition for the hotel popping up in the Haymarket, the timing couldn't be worse. I realize there are many steps before this could happen, but can you imagine a Cornhusker-free Lincoln? It just wouldn't feel right. The Cornhusker is an institution in Lincoln. Or at least it was when I was growing up. Perhaps now that Downtown's activity has shifted north and west that isn't as true any more. Is it still widely thought of as Lincoln's premier hotel, or has that title shifted over to Embassy Suites? Or does Lincoln even have a premiere hotel? It would be a shame to see The Cornhusker lose its Mariott franchise at a time when it could use some help. Perhaps the investors and such can work something out. There isn't much time to do that, though.

I'm having a difficult time understanding why Bob Kerrey and his supporters think it would be a good idea for him to run for Ben Nelson's Senate seat. Perhaps one of you can explain it to me. This isn't about Kerrey's politics. Rather, why would anybody think that Nebraskans would vote for a man who hasn't lived in the state for over a decade? I suppose it's not unprecedented that we would do such a thing. The 3rd District elected Lincolnite Tom Osborne, after all. Apparently popularity can trump residence concerns. But Bob Kerrey is no Tom Osborne. Tom Osborne was a statewide hero of epic proportions who never really left the 3rd District in many folks' eyes. Bob Kerrey completely bailed out on Nebraska and hasn't looked back until this current bit of opportunism arose. I wonder who is pushing the idea that Kerrey should run. Is he crazy enough to believe it's a good idea? If so, that ought to disqualify him right off the bat. (Not that insanity has ever stopped a politician.) Perhaps a core team of advisers has suggested it's wise. Or maybe it's all the state Democratic Party. Surely they're desperate so they'll probably say just about anything to get him to come back. If he does run, expect some entertaining -- if childish -- attack ads. They've already started, in fact, complete with petty name-calling. Wouldn't it be nice if it were required to have an emotional maturity greater than that of a 3rd grader before running a political ad? Anyway, I ask all of you: other than instant, statewide name recognition, why would anybody think that Bob Kerry running for office in Nebraska is a good idea?

Occupy Lincoln's days are numbered. The City has told the Occupy folks to be gone by March 1 in order to make way for construction equipment for the upcoming Centennial Mall renovation. It's not yet clear how they will react to their upcoming eviction. The City of Lincoln has been very patient with Occupy Lincoln so far. Not that they have much choice -- City ordinance doesn't outright forbid camping in public right of ways which, for whatever reason, is how Centennial Mall is classified. It will be interesting to see what happens next. No doubt the protesters will put up a bit of a fight. They'll want the headlines to make ... well, whatever point it is they think they're making. But unless LPD goes in with unrestrained violence, I can't imagine any of those headlines having an effect anywhere near what the protesters would hope. I wonder, are there other "unexpected" public right of ways where the protesters could go instead? Will they switch to a different type of protest? I guess we'll wait and see.

Add OMALiNK to the ever-lengthening list of companies applying to offer cab service in Lincoln. Lincoln's cab situation has quickly gone from one type of farce to another. I'm not sure what the Public Service Commission should do at this point. They can't let all of these companies operate. Er, well, they can, but then one is forced to wonder what it is the PSC is good for. The argument for PSC involvement is that they help maintain quality and consistency while avoiding the sort of vicious "excessive" competition that harms service providers and customers alike. Of course, as we all know the flip side to that is we've ended up with a PSC-enforced monopoly all these years and customers have -- you guessed it! -- been screwed. So whatever it is the PSC has been up to, it hasn't been helping customers. Neither can the PSC get too picky about which new companies to allow to operate. That just sets up all kinds of legal battles if it's done incorrectly. If they let in one company, how do they choose which one? Do they let in two? Three? Lincoln clearly isn't large enough to support all of the applicants -- at least not on a full-time basis. But choosing a magic number, and choosing which company(ies) fit the bill, won't be easy. I wish I had a better foundation to form an opinion about what happens next, but having only taken two cab rides in my life (in San Diego and Dublin) I don't feel particularly knowledgeable about taxi service. I want to yell "Economic freedom! Cabs for all!", but reason tells me that's a dangerous proposition. If the "let 'em all in" approach were guaranteed to only, at worst, hurt the companies themselves, then I wouldn't be quite so concerned. However I don't think that's where the harm would end. What do you suggest we do about this?

I've been advocating for a wage increase for State Senators for many years. Is it finally time? Scott Lautenbaugh thinks so. He has put forward a resolution to increase wages to $32,000 from today's puny $12,000. That sounds about right. This pay increase resolution, like all the others before it, will cause much moaning and gnashing of teeth. "They only work 2 or 3 months out of the year!" they'll holler. "Nobody should get rich in the Unicameral!" they'll cry. And so on. The arguments against a raise are tired and familiar. I even agree with some of them. I just don't agree that they apply to the present context. I want a broad spectrum of Nebraskans to be able to serve in the Unicameral. I want them to be paid modestly, but not meagerly. I want to respect the work they do and acknowledge the year-round activity required to do the job well. I want to emphasize to Senators that they are not quasi-volunteers making a sacrifice to serve on my behalf; rather they work for me and I compensate them accordingly. I want them to be rewarded for doing a job for which few meet my standards. Thirty-two grand seems like a fair amount to me.

A while back I mentioned Ignite Lincoln and encouraged you all to put in an application to speak. Well, they've announced this year's list of presenters. You'll probably recognize a couple names. Right up top is Steve Ramos, aka Beerorkid. He'll be presenting "Pinball: A Game of Skill", no doubt featuring his Borkade. I'm so jealous of that man's pinball machines. (I have to admit I'm a bit disappointed though, Steve. I was rooting for "Frozen Corn vs. Frozen Peas: It Makes a Vas Deferens To Me". Next year, perhaps?) If you're like me, you'll probably recognize a few other names on the list. And then there's me down there near the bottom. I will present "A Foster Family’s Tale". I went through several different ideas, but the folks I consulted all encouraged me to go with the story of our foster parenting adventure. Condensing it all into five minutes isn't easy, but I hope folks like the finished product. My rough drafts so far have waffled among sentimental, horrifying, infuriating, funny, and educational. Hopefully I can strike a successful balance. Tickets for Ignite Lincoln are free, by the way. You can pick up earlybird tickets right now. I hope to see you there!

Oh joy, Lincoln's Downtown bike lanes are staying as they are. The bike lanes are a reasonable idea in theory, but boy oh boy do I dislike how they've worked out in practice. For the most part they just don't feel like they belong. I suspect that's because they were painted onto existing streets, rather than the road surface, traffic signals, and so on being built with the bike lanes in mind. The result is a product that's close, but imperfect enough to feel uncomfortable. It's sort of the uncanny valley of traffic theory. Personally my favorite bit of Downtown lane goofiness is outside the Zoo Bar at 14th and P. From west to east you've got: parking; car lane; bike lane; car lane; bus lane. That doesn't sound so bad, but in practice you'll see all kinds of zaniness. For example, folks who pull out of parking stalls often want to turn east onto P Street, so they back out of their spots at odd angles and work their way (illegally) across 14th to get to P. Or they don't want to pull into the nearest driving lane because it becomes left turn only on the other side of P Street so again, they wiggle across 14th so that they can go straight. Drivers in the left lane realize they don't want to turn left at Q Street so they cross the bike lane to the right lane. Drivers in the right lane realize they do want to turn left so they cross to the left lane. Or right lane drivers want to turn right onto P Street, but they get confused because what appears to be a right turn lane is actually a bus only lane. Some drivers use the bus lane as a right turn lane, others don't. The result is near-miss after near-miss as the legal and illegal drivers duke it out. And the buses ... they sometimes pull into the bus lane (blocking cars behind them who thought it was a right turn lane), sometimes they don't, and sometimes they fake out nearby drivers by pretending to do one or the other only to change their mind at the last second. When the buses are ready to proceed, they have to cross all lanes to get to the left so that they can turn onto Q Street. And in the middle of all that? A poor little bike lane that itself is occasionally used by cars. (Notice the white van illegally straddling the bike lane while waiting at the red light; and the white car illegally using the bus lane to turn right onto P Street.) The one thing Downtown Lincoln's bike lanes do have going for them is confusion. Normally driver confusion is a bad thing, but on the plus side it does force drivers to pay attention. Well, in theory anyway. If drivers are confused about where they should be and where they should go, one hopes they'll look around and see that bicyclist they're about to run over in the next lane. In practice, confusion doesn't seem to slow down drivers as much as you might hope. So what's the ultimate problem? Is it lane layout, like my gut tells me? The traffic engineers say it's good enough, so why does my gut disagree? Perhaps it's a matter of driver education. If that's the case, Lincoln's drivers have had years to figure it out. What's taking them so long? Maybe it's a signage problem. In any event, we're going to have to keep dealing with many of these issues. Here's hoping somebody figures it all out.

As a life-long southsider I was never very familiar with that wooded patch of land north of Superior between 33rd and 48th Streets with the "No Trespassing" signs. I knew Lincoln Trap & Skeet operated back there, but that's all. As it turns out, apparently those trees belong to Boosalis Park and the area is one big mess. How it got that way is an odd story involving a hog farmer, a woman known as Bloody Mary, and the passage of many years. Fortunately the Lincoln Trap & Skeet folks may save the City oodles of clean-up costs if the City Council decides to grant the club a lease to use the land. In exchange, club members would clean up the property. That sounds like a fair deal. The downside, I suppose, is that the now-wooded area would likely be far less wooded by the time the club is done cleaning up. It's hard to shoot through trees, after all. Some folks will no doubt complain about the loss of "natural" space within the city. Although they have a bit of a point, Boosalis Park is no Wilderness Park. If it's going to be human usable it needs a cleanup eventually. I don't see Parks & Rec finding cleanup money in its budget any time soon. I wonder if there are any Lincoln Trap & Skeet members among the readers of Lincolnite. If so, my lone piece of advice is to wear thick gloves and heavy boots during the cleanup. Who knows what lurks in them thar woods.

The Blood Bank is running dry. Got some blood to spare? Go make an appointment online or call 1-877-486-9414.