Lincolnite

Jon Camp sat out of a portion of Monday's City Council meeting while he awaits word from the Accountability and Disclosure Commission on whether or not he has a conflict of interest with goings-on in the Haymarket. Mr. Camp owns several properties in the area. According to the commission a conflict of interest may exist if it is "reasonably foreseeable" that Mr. Camp could financially benefit from or be harmed by an action. By that loose definition of course Camp has a conflict of interest. In one of the scenarios before the Council, one of Camp's properties is directly involved (it would be sold to the City). There's your financial interest. Other alternatives affect Mr. Camp as well. For example, if the City does not buy his property he is financially affected. Likewise, any decision to place additional Haymarket parking on the north (good for Camp) or south (not so good) side of the Haymarket affects him. Every word he utters in support of or against these actions will be suspect. Mr. Camp has every right to his properties and to fight for his financial interests. But he does not have the right to do so while wielding power as a City Council member. Granted, that removes him from a relatively big proportion of Council business. Tough. Neither his constituents nor the city as a whole should have to worry about important Council decisions being tainted by his investments. We ought to welcome his expertise on the Haymarket, but it it better off presented from the public microphone rather than from his seat on the Council.

We may still be digging out of a recession, but at least somebody's income is doing well. The City's arena tax is off to a good start. It may even be on track to pull in 10% more than expected over the first year. I can hear you all cheering. Think about it this way: if the tax pulls in more money than expected, it means the City was conservative with its estimates. On a project as huge as the arena, conservative estimates are a very good thing. The last thing we want is to have City officials come crawling to us a couple years from now begging for more taxpayer assistance. That wouldn't be good for anyone. I'm very curious to know which "of the bigger O Street bars sent the City only $10" from January's sales. That's a good way to get your business noticed in all the wrong ways. I wonder if it means they forgot to collect the tax, or if it's a not-so-subtle act of protest?

If I ever go to prison, I think I'll dig up the most obscure religion I can find and make that my faith. Then I'll pitch a fit when I'm not allowed to practice it, like these guys did. Their religion of choice was Theodism. Raise your hand if you've ever heard of it. Anybody? It can't be easy accommodating all of the religions that prisoners want to practice. Heck, you've got enough variations on Christianity, Judaism, and Islam to make your head spin. Add in every other big and small religion out there and it's enough to create a nice little side business for an attorney or two. It makes me wonder how many of the prisoners are serious and how many just want to stir the pot. There's no good way to know for sure, of course. It's a good test for our society's limits on "freedom of religion". I'll bet a solid majority of Nebraskans would tell the Theodians to go take a hike. Determining where our collective "line in the sand" is located for "unusual" religions would be a lot of fun. I suspect some grad student somewhere has asked that question. Is there a listing somewhere of all of the religions being practiced in Nebraska's prisons? I looked around a bit but I couldn't find a good source. If there is such a thing, add two to the Theodism column.

A consultant -- yeah yeah, I know -- has declared what really ought to be obvious: Lincoln isn't large enough for light rail and won't be anytime soon. We'll have to put up with significantly less sexy transportation options like cars, bikes, and buses for the foreseeable future. That's not so bad though, is it? After all, we have plenty of room for improvement in each of those areas. We could settle for more of the same but we certainly don't have to. There's plenty of room for innovation with the modes of transportation we have to work with. It still comes down to convenience, though. For all the talk about improving Lincolnites' access to "alternative" means of transport, it's still really darn easy to get around by car. That removes a huge incentive to improve, say, the bus system. And what about those who don't have access to a car? They are, to a large degree, politically invisible. Again, where's the incentive to change? Until driving becomes a true inconvenience or attitudes about the carless class change, there won't be much advancement in this area. I wonder what the tipping point of "inconvenience" would be for Lincolnites. For all our complaining about traffic, we've still got it pretty good. Likewise, what would it take for people to care enough about the carless that we as a community would make transportation-related decisions that would truly benefit them? Just some things to think about.

It's Fat Tuesday. That, plus thinking about a proposed parking garage at 7th and O, make me recall of one of Lincoln's lost gems: Crawdaddy's. Quarter tacos; Big Ass Burritos; crawfish pie; jambalaya. And an atmosphere that can best be described as "rough". Man I miss that place. RIP George.

The City is currently evaluating whether to put a new parking garage at 7th and O (near the viaduct) or 9th and Q (where Barry's currently sits). The former would spread out parking options; the latter would condense them. There are advantages and disadvantages either way. Consider the 7th and O location. It's the farthest from most of the proposed action in the Haymarket. In one sense that counts as a negative, particularly in inclement weather. But not being right next to all the action means it will be easier to get vehicles into and out of the garage. No businesses would be uprooted for a garage at 7th and O, and in fact it would bring new visibility to storefronts along O Street and points to the south. I'm leaning toward this option. The 9th and Q location, on the other hand, is in the heart of the action. It's across the street from an existing garage and a block away from another one. It's near current and proposed businesses, and it's easy to access from 9th Street and I-180. This location consolidates traffic, which could be good or bad depending on how it's managed. It would at least temporarily displace Barry's, so the cost is automatically higher; the cost would skyrocket if the building owners decided not to play ball. Lincoln could try to pull some sort of eminent domain action, but if they do they should lose. City Councilman and Mr. Haymarket Jon Camp wants the 9th and Q location. We have to take his opinion with a giant grain of salt, however, because his opinion is wrapped in all kinds of personal interests. "I just truly want what's best for (the) Haymarket," he says. I'm sure that's true. It's also true that he wants what's best for himself; we all do. Conspicuously absent from the LJS article on the topic is any hint of other Haymarket property and business owners' opinions on the matter. It's hard to put Mr. Camp's opinions into context without knowing what others in the area think. Hopefully the LJS will follow up on that. So where would you put a garage?

I experienced a weird moment of discovery on Saturday. I was walking through the alley near the Historical Society and NuVibe downtown. Amidst the cracked concrete and Dumpsters was, to my great surprise, a business. It was a place called Voda and nowhere did it say on its exterior what kind of business it was. It was closed so I couldn't go in. Odd. When I got home I looked up Voda online and I discovered that it is (was?) apparently Iguana's for grown-ups. It therefore wasn't a huge surprise that I wasn't familiar with it; I don't really keep tabs on Lincoln's bar scene. Still, it's not often that a place can exist in Lincoln for years and I haven't at least heard of it. Have you had any similar moments in your travels around Lincoln, where you discover something that had been there for a while but you had no idea?

I love this opening from today's JournalStar:

The National Weather Service office in Hastings says the two storm systems about to sweep across Nebraska could drop 8 to 14 inches of snow in some places before the second storm moves out Wednesday. The Omaha NWS office says projected snow accumulations produced by snow forecast models "are completely unreasonable and should not be used at all -- except to scare people."

So who is right, the Chicken Littles in Hastings or the crushers of schoolchildrens' dreams in Omaha? As much as I love snow, I hope the weather keeps its shenanigans to a minimum. I accidentally let my mindset shift to spring and I'm no longer mentally prepared to dig out of a foot of the white stuff.

It's like something straight out of the Onion. The difference? It's not a joke, although its accuracy is roughly the same. Yesterday the City of Lincoln posted a press release stating the Lincoln has been named -- get this! -- a "Top 15 City for Transit Innovation". That's right, according to "a study conducted by the Smarter Cities team of the Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC) in collaboration with the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT)", Lincoln is "innovative" when it comes to transportation. I'll let that sink in for a moment. Among the reasons cited for the distinction are StarTran's low fares and Lincolnites' low commute times. Fair enough. StarTran does have pretty low fares, especially for certain populations. If you're low-income you pay a whopping $7.50 per month. But StarTran's low fares are less about innovation and more about desperation. The demand side of supply and demand is very low in Lincoln, so prices simply cannot go very high if we don't want the buses to be completely (as opposed to mostly) empty. It is also true that Lincolnites' commute times are relatively low, but again, that's not because of any innovation in transit. If there's any innovation it's in our zoning and growth policies which keep Lincoln "corralled" and prevent growth from sprawling outward by keeping the city's advance (more or less) contiguous. And Lincoln has no real suburbs. Bennet, Waverly, Hickman, Roca, Emerald, and all the other small towns around Lincoln have mostly managed to maintain separate, distinct identities rather than turning into sprawling suburban tumors like Elkhorn, Gretna, and Papillion up the road in Omaha. That is starting to change. Waverly and Hickman, for example, are both picking up the pace of development, much of it driven by folks who work in Lincoln. No, Lincoln is far from "innovative" when it comes to transit. Show me an innovative bus network rather than the tired and woefully flawed spoke and downtown hub system we've had for decades. Show me bike racks and biker-friendly policies on buses. Show me bus rapid transit programs. Show me a marketing campaign that actually gets Lincolnites to give a damn about StarTran. Show me citywide carpooling programs. Show me anything that isn't just more of the same in a very slightly different package. Then we can talk about innovation. Until that time, this study proves only one thing: these Top N Cities for _______ "studies" are complete rubbish.

Do you feel different, Lincolnites, now that you're officially residents of a city of a quarter-million people? Probably not, since we unofficially hit that mark way back in July 2008. Regardless of the official population, Lincoln remains a city that isn't quite sure how large it is, nor how big it wants to be. There are both a simmering envy of Big Brother Omaha and a sense of pride (or is it relief?) in our smaller size. Our wish to "grow up" has presented itself in many ways over the past decade. The Antelope Valley Project is no small town effort, nor is the West Haymarket project. Yet our denial of our size and potential remains. How else can you explain the ostrich-esque head-in-the-sand approach to the South and East Beltways that has caused those roadways and their accompanying opportunities to languish for decades? Lincoln is still Lincoln to me. That's due in no small part to the fact that I now live in a house not more than a mile from the two houses in which I grew up. I run into people from my present and past all around town, every single day. It's hard to feel like you live in some anonymous metropolis when you can't even go to the gas station across town without recognizing the face at the next pump. Former teachers know my children; I referee soccer with people who reffed my games back when I played; my mom still receives a Christmas card from the family whose son she watched as an infant, and who now is a Marine. Lincoln has a lot of issues to address as we head toward 300,000, there's no doubt about that. But don't you feel a general sense of optimism in the community right now? I know I feel it. It could be misplaced optimism, of course, but I don't think so. We are in a relatively good spot right now. How do you feel about Lincoln's size, growth, and future? Is Lincoln still Lincoln? Was it ever?

Where do Lincolnites go for movie and video game rentals? I ask because Blockbuster is closing three of its seven locations in town. (The banners on the outside of the closing stores all amusingly say "This location only".) The soon-to-be dead stores are at 48th and Normal, 56th and Highway 2, and 16th and Q. After Hollywood Video left town, Blockbuster was the only big name left. Do folks rely on any other smaller stores? Are there any smaller stores? I can't even remember the last time I rented a movie from a brick and mortar store. A while back we bought a Roku and started up a Netflix subscription. Who needs a video store when you have those two things? Here's a blast from the past for you. I have fond memories of browsing the selection at Video Station at 33rd and Pioneers with my family. It was always a bit of a game to find a movie that was in stock in the format you sought. (Damn! They only have Beta!) I always wanted to get Attack of the Killer Tomatoes but my parents, for some reason, were never interested. Weirdos. I'm looking forward to the day when all shows and games are distributed online. It's not a perfect solution -- for all kinds of reasons I won't get into here -- but it opens up a world of opportunities. Like watching reruns of The Cosby Show any time I want (which is what The Missus and I have been up to the past couple nights). Good times.

It was really stinking cold. UPDATE: The folks at Ameritas -- I went in with their team since my sister works there -- have posted a nice batch of photos from the event, including the above pic of Mayor Chris Beutler.

The Journal Star has a story this morning that takes a look at what businesses are calling the 2% occupation tax that will help pay for the arena. The answers they found were pretty boring: "restaurant tax"; "arena tax"; "occupation tax". Have any of you found a business that lists the tax with a not-so-favorable name in a subtle and passive-aggressive stab at the tax? I've checked my receipts, but so far I haven't seen any examples of creatively annoyed businesses. Are there any out there?