Lincolnite

I had the same initial reaction as Tom Casady to the report that Lincoln is the 10th most dangerous city for drivers. What a load of hooey! Chief Casady calls it junk research, and he's right. Its only purpose is to generate headlines. Casady notes that one of the things the "study" actually measures is truthfulness. Since the data are entirely self-reported, the overall truthfulness of a community's population will factor heavily into the results. We shouldn't automatically assume, however, that Lincoln is any more truthful than any other city. I have an alternate explanation for the results, one which I'm a little surprised Casady missed. After all, he has blogged about it several times. Simply put, LPD responds to non-injury crashes more often than police in most other cities. People will assume that if the police were there, a report was written; if a report was written, the accident "counts"; if the accident "counts", then insurance companies can find out about it; if insurance companies can find out about it, then people will report the accident when asked about it. In other words, I suspect truthfulness is involved, but Lincolnites are only more truthful because we are more likely to think we could be caught in a lie. For what it's worth, I don't think Lincoln's drivers are particularly bad, on average, despite their reputation to the contrary. We have our oddballs, sure, but that's true of every community. And I don't think our oddballs are all that odd. One complaint I hear often is that a driver was driving under the speed limit. What a maniac! I suspect that "bad" behavior can be explained, in part, by the fact that many of our arterials are still two lanes, whereas in many cities they would have been expanded to four lanes long ago. You are less likely to notice a slow vehicle if you can easily get around it.

I can't imagine how difficult it is to make plans for the arrival of hundreds of airplanes at 90 second intervals throughout the day. But that's what will happen come July. The Lincoln Airport will see more traffic in one week than it normally sees in a year. (Actually I just made that up. I wonder how far from the truth it is?) It'll be interesting to see how many Lincolnites camp out at the airport to watch all the planes arrive. I wouldn't be surprised to see a line of lawn chairs all around the airport fence. Heck, we may be among them. Robbie will think it's awesome so I'm sure we'll take him out there for a little while. It's too bad the visitors' first impression of Lincoln is that chunk of Cornhusker. Can you imagine what you would think of this town if your first meal were at Great Scott's Food Court? Frightening.

In case you missed it, Five Guys has opened in Downtown Lincoln on P Street. That in itself is good news. They make great hamburgers and fries. But this story includes two perspectives that are better than just the food angle. The first is that Five Guys is located in what used to be a nasty little eyesore of a building. That's +1 new place to eat, -1 empty dump. In other words: a win all around. The second is that a growing, vibrant national chain chose to locate Downtown. That demonstrates a certain amount of faith in Lincoln's core that shouldn't be overlooked. They just as easily could have situated themselves out by the new Kohl's on South 27th, among other possible locations. Note the difference between where Five Guys located in Omaha versus where they located in Lincoln. And Five Guys isn't the first. Panera and Noodles & Co. are two other national chains that have made their homes on P Street. I think that's significant. Now before some of you flip out about the chains taking over, take a deep breath. Downtown Lincoln can have its local flavor (Spaghetti Works, Yia Yia's, Ali Baba's, et al.) and national offerings too. It seems to me we've developed a pretty healthy mix not only of local vs. national, but also of bar and restaurant options. Besides, Downtown's dining scene is awfully dynamic. If you don't like today's offerings, just wait a few months.

The stretch of Antelope Valley Parkway between Vine and P has now opened. The Antelope Valley Project may get completed after all. It seems like it has been in development forever. To be honest, though, the road interests me very little. I want to see some more companies announce their intent to build in the area -- or better yet, actually start building. Kudos to Assurity for being the first.

Think about what looms for Lincoln over the next ten to twenty years: Newly-developable land in Antelope Valley invites hundreds of millions of dollars worth of construction activity. Assurity has already begun construction on their new headquarters in the area. Newly-developable land in Innovation Campus opens up the potential for hundreds of millions of dollars worth of construction and research activity. And now, thanks to yesterday's vote, we're looking at hundreds of millions of dollars worth of development in the Haymarket. Add it all up and, if we play our cards well, Lincoln is looking at one helluva burst of economic activity in the not-so-distant future. In a very short time span Lincoln's core has expanded considerably. Consider what's going on in the newly-formed triangle of the greater Downtown area: To the north, a dedicated research and education park; to the east, new commercial and recreational opportunities; and to the west, new commercial and entertainment venues. In the middle lie education, commerce, entertainment, and residential options. There's a lot of stuff to be excited about here. Of course we could play "what if" all day. Lincoln has involved itself in a number of risks all at once. One or more of them could crash and burn. Although that's a reality we need to keep in mind, it oughtn't weigh us down. Lincoln has a lot going for it as a community, and each side of this new triangle targets a unique enough audience that there shouldn't be much fear of one project poaching from another. There is enough room for all of this new activity to coexist. So congratulations to Lincoln and to the Yes For Lincoln Haymarket Arena folks. As for the No2Arena folks? You did good. I mean that. Somebody needed to step up in opposition, so thanks for taking on that role. Now, I'm going to go check out TicketMaster for tickets to Men at Work's 2013 tour. I hear there's this great new venue...

So there's this little election today. You may have heard about it. I encourage you to vote. Don't know your polling place? You can use this handy tool to figure it out. In my case my polling place had moved and I didn't know it. Good thing I looked. I'm going to the polls to vote on two issues. The first is the arena. I'm voting yes. I hope you decide to vote yes, too. Don't worry, though; I'll still love you if you vote no. Whatever your vote, I hope it's an educated vote. Ignorant voters suck. I'm also going to vote yes on Amendment 1. Again, I hope you vote yes as well. Many states already have laws in place similar to Amendment 1. It's a tried and tested way to help nonprofits lower the cost of financing construction projects. Total cost to you: $0.00. And remember, choosing not to vote is an action in itself. If you choose that option, I hope you choose it for the right reasons.

Sorry for the decline in activity this week here on Lincolnite. It has been a busy time here in the Wilson household. Some blurbs to keep you occupied:

• The Missus and I are in the midst of a massive research campaign. We've been presented with a life-changing opportunity. Right now we can't bring ourselves to say yes, nor can we bring ourselves to say no. It's heart-wrenching.
• District soccer action was this week. State pairings haven't been announced yet. Keep an eye here for that info, which should be available soon. I have received and accepted an invitation to referee at the State Tournament. Be sure to say hi if you see me.
• Nebraska's foster care system needs help.
• Speaking of foster care, The Missus and I are next in line for our home study. If, that is, the Nebraska State Patrol learns to accept that I have no finger prints. My mom dug up some fingerprints from 1983 and 1987 to back up my insistence that I didn't recently remove my prints to cover up some sort of sordid criminal past.
• Did you hear that gigantic boom at 2:15 this morning? That was one of the biggest thunderclaps I've ever heard.
• Three. Three dollar. Three dollar gasoline.

Have a great weekend, y'all.

Deena Winter has a list of ten arena myths in this morning's Journal Star. An example:

Opponents say every dollar spent on the arena is a dollar not spent on city services, such as sidewalks and streets. Not true. The arena project will be paid for with new taxes on bars, restaurants, hotels and car rentals, which will cover about half the cost. Then arena revenue, state tax dollars, parking revenue and developer payments for land will cover the rest. None of those revenue sources currently are available to the city to spend on regular city services.

She covers myths from both supporters and opponents.

According to the men working outside Five Guys -- Downtown at 13th and P -- last week, Lincoln's newest burger joint will open next Monday. If early buzz is any indication, it will be packed. If you want to be the first in line I recommend setting up camp soon.

Bike4Two clued me in to a new product from the Journal Star. Apparently they're working on an "electronic edition", which they describe as so:

Q: What is the difference between the ELECTRONIC EDITION and JournalStar.com? A: The ELECTRONIC EDITION is an exact replica of the print edition available and delivered through our home delivery carriers or on sale in vending machines and retail outlets. It may contain less advertising inserts, as not all will be available electronically from advertisers. JournalStar.com contains the day’s top stories and breaking news throughout the day.

I haven't actually seen a sample LJS electronic edition yet so I can't comment on its quality or likelihood for success. But I don't think any of us is surprised that the LJS is preparing this sort of product. The big question remains the degree to which the LJS will continue to make the bulk of its content available for free online. Hiding content behind pay walls isn't generally working well for most companies so it would be a shame if the LJS were to try that here. Hopefully the electronic edition doesn't represent a part of that kind of strategy.

Congratulations to all of you who finished yesterday's Lincoln Marathon and half-marathon. In particular, congratulations to my mom who finished her first half-marathon in 2:58. Good work, mom! Did any of you participate yesterday? I kept up my tradition of walking to Lamar's (at 48th and Pioneers) and eating a donut while watching the race. After that, Robbie and I zipped around town on the bike. Talk about perfect weather for that sort of thing. Next year they're talking about expanding the field by another 25%, to 10,000 participants. That's a lot of people. I hope they can pull it off without ruining the character of the race. Sometimes huge is good, and sometimes it isn't. Huge, supportive crowds: good. Clogged routes and people tripping over one another: not good. I'm sure they're already thinking about those things, and that's great. But sometimes even obvious problems get overlooked. (It's the event planner's curse.) Consider the fact that this year nobody bothered to consider that wheelchairs don't have much zip on artificial turf. Oops. Anyway, congratulations to all of the participants, and thank you to all of the folks who helped pull off another successful race. Good work all around.

Lincoln's Updowntowners has been renamed GOLincolnGO. Their slogan: Go live. Go connect. Go Play. They made the announcement yesterday. I can't say I'm a big fan of the new branding. The name is OK -- but for an event or a campaign, not an organization. As an organization name it feels contrived. Which it is, of course. The name Updowntowners was around for 26 years. I can't see GOLincolnGO sticking around nearly that long. The new branding certainly is more vibrant and evocative than the old, so that's a plus. It also doesn't tie the organization to Downtown any more. And for this former trumpet player, any organization that uses a trumpet in its logo earns bonus points from me. What do you think of the new name and branding? Thumbs up or thumbs down? UPDATE: Crud, I totally ruined it for myself. I was standing in the kitchen making breakfast when my brain -- through no conscious effort -- thought: "GOLincolnGO kind of sounds like some sort of city-wide urinary incontinence campaign. Or maybe a portable toilet company." Thanks, brain. Thanks a lot.

Lincolnite has been taking some abuse from spammers lately. I'll see what I can do about it, but I'm pretty swamped with work right now. In the mean time, please just ignore any spam comments you come across. I'll delete them as soon as I can. On a related note, some people are reporting that they receive an error message when trying to comment. Something about needing to wait 8 seconds between page load and when you submit your comment. That in itself is a spam prevention feature. The only thing is, it's happening to people who have been on the page longer than 8 seconds. For now it seems to work if you just go back and sit on the page for a bit before resubmitting. Annoying, I know. I'm looking into that problem, too.