Lincolnite

I had to chuckle upon reading all the latest local buzz about Senator Hagel as a potential running mate for Barack Obama. Love Chuck or hate Chuck, I credit this local excitement to a lot of wishful thinking mixed with the fact that he is truly Nebraska's only national caliber politician right now (sorry Ben), and Nebraskans love the idea of a Nebraskan in the white house. But now even CNN is getting into the act. No doubt this has been the strangest and most exciting election year in a long time, but I can't see an Obama/Hagel ticket happening by any reasonable stretch of the imagination. For all the obvious reasons, as well as because Chuck and McCain are very close friends. I will literally eat my shoe if Obama chooses Hagel as a running mate. Having said that, I am Hagel fan and was looking forward to voting for him had there been a Hagel vs. Bruning showdown in the primary. I believe Hagel would make an excellent Secretary of State or Defense in either an Obama or McCain administration.

This summer's now annual Celebrate Lincoln festival starts today. I also noticed that today's lunch is also the only freebee (you get free food tickets upon purchasing the entrance fee at the door). Sounds like its worth checking out.

It looks like light rail is going to be back in the news for a while, now that Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey is pushing the topic. Fahey wants to start with a rail system in Omaha's downtown, with a long-term goal of connecting to Lincoln via a route that would probably follow I-80. Keep dreamin', Mayor. An intercity light rail system is a long, long ways from viability in Nebraska. That being said, I have no problem with planning ahead. I think it's plausible, if not likely, that some sort of rail system will one day link Omaha and Lincoln, and that such a system will (eventually) be a wise investment. So let's do plan for that day so we are ready when it arrives. But let's not rush ourselves just so we can emulate somebody else. Trying to pretend our circumstances are different than they really are is nothing but a recipe for disaster. I can't see myself riding a train to Omaha in the near future except as a novelty. What would it take for you to use a train between the two cities with any regularity?

Dear Deena, I always look forward to reading your columns. They are almost always informative -- at least when City happenings give you something to inform us of. (Let's face it, Lincoln ain't Gotham.) What I really love are the little bits that make me laugh. Take today's column, for example. You could have played it straight. You could have said

The Lincoln Fire Department asked for $200,000 to replace a bad roof on Station 1. During the debate, Councilmember Robin Eschliman suggested an innovative solution, using equipment on sale for $3.99 at Menards. Ultimately, the Council approved the money, with Jon Camp casting the lone negative vote.

But that would have been boring. Instead, you gave us this gem:

However, contingency funds have been used for nonemergencies before. ... Heck, the council even spent $17,000 in contingency funds to build itself a private bathroom in 2000. And Camp voted “yes” on that expenditure.

Zing! I love it. I can just see Mr. Camp's crimson face as he scribbles a mustache on your photo while eating his morning All Bran. Anyway, Deena, keep up the good work. And please, keep the giggles coming.

Midwesterners are masters of passive aggressive behavior. It runs rampant in my quintessentially midwestern family, for example. I know I'm guilty of it now and then. My in-laws, on the other hand, have no use for passive aggressiveness. They're from New York. If you deserve to have your head chewed off, they'll chew your head off. Who needs passivity? Anyway, I mention all this because I was the victim of some neighborly passive aggressive behavior the other day. I woke up to find three tree limbs lying in my yard. They had obviously been cut. Apparently they had hung too low over the sidewalk for the deed-doer's tastes, so he or she went to the trouble of sneaking out in the middle of the night to perform some amateur bonsai action on my maple tree. Oddly enough, I had spoken with my father just two days before about the low-hanging limbs. They weren't so bad in dry weather, but when the leaves were wet, the branches really drooped. My dad has some good saws, so I asked if he could bring them over some day so that we could do some pruning. Apparently my arborist neighbor couldn't wait that long. Why couldn't the mystery trimmer have just said something? I don't think we give off a "don't bother us" vibe. And we are outside all the time, so there are plenty of opportunities for a quick "Those limbs are getting low. Would you mind trimming them back?" Who am I kidding? We passive aggressive types would never go for that. We wouldn't want to be confrontational; that's just rude. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go set up some more annoying limbs and install a camera to catch the anonymous snipper in the act. Then I'll track him down and leave a nasty note on his front door. That'll teach him! Passive aggressivity to the rescue!

Firefox 3 was released yesterday. I highly recommend checking it out, whether Firefox is currently your primary browser or not. If you're one of those poor souls still using Internet Explorer 6, now is a great time to ditch that terrible excuse for a web browser and upgrade to ... well, to anything else. You'll be glad you did.

Yesterday I posted a whole bunch of family photos to my Flickr account. Three of the recent sets include: Robbie's 2nd birthday; our recent trip to Albuquerque; and Father's Day. Some sneak peaks: Riding on dad's shoulders: Fascinated by Grandpa Rick: Cousin Sam shows off his six-pack:

Could it be? Could the City finally be getting cold feet over TIF? If so, it's a happy day. Not that I'm purely anti-TIF. TIF has its place. I'm just glad to see the City Council exercising a little judiciousness, and I hope to see more of it.

The City Council has approved a recusal ordinance, meaning that Council members who feel they have a conflict of interest -- but who haven't been excused from voting by the Accountability and Disclosure Commission -- can skip a vote. It's a win for helping individuals avoid the appearance of impropriety, but it may also open the door to a new type of political shenanigans. A Council member could, for example, skip voting on a politically sensitive topic by making a tenuous claim of conflict of interest. Or somebody could try to pressure a Council member into abstaining from a vote. And so on. By the way, several commenters over at the LJS are a little confused about all this. For example, "Outside the Box" said, "Why not address the real problem: If you have a financial interest with the city, you cannot be on the council." The thing is, conflicts of interest aren't just about having a direct or even indirect financial interest in something. Consider, as an example, the case of a Council member who attends a church that has an issue before the City Council. Vote for and be seen as an instrument for the church; vote against, and risk being ostracized by other church members.

In a letter the LJS titled "Neighborhood trapped", Gary Sloniker complains about poor access to his neighborhood near 84th and Vine. He laments that Vine Street ends at 84th, eliminating what could have been a handy exit point for the neighborhood to the east. I don't know much about the specifics of Mr. Sloniker's neighborhood's traffic dynamics, but I do agree with him that Vine Street should not have been cut off at 84th. The same is true for several other streets around town, including South Street (ends at 84th) and 48th Street (ends at Old Cheney). These "half-section" roads help support the grid of streets that lie on section lines, spaced approximately one mile apart. The fewer through roads there are, the more we have to rely on personal automobiles to get around and the more difficult it is to access Point B from Point A. Conversely, with more through roads, you have more options for getting from Point A to Point B, both in terms of route and mode. It's possible to take that logic too far, of course. An entire city laid out on a city block grid would be a traffic nightmare. Sure, you'd have a seemingly limitless number of options for getting places, but you'd also have to stop nearly every block. What a pain! I have always liked the notion of streets laid out more or less on a half-mile, or perhaps a quarter-mile, grid. It increases the number of route options available to people, which decreases traffic pressure on any one route. It also provides more readily-available alternate routes if a particular route is closed or becomes clogged. I could go on (and on and on), but I'll cut myself off and simply say that I wish Lincoln hadn't decided as it grew to rely solely on streets on the mile, eliminating those on the half-mile on the city's edge. Mr. Sloniker's complaint is but one of many reasons why I like streets like Vine, 33rd, and South.

The Haymarket arena may still be dragging along in the planning stages, but the Lancaster Event Center continues to move forward. Now, the Lancaster County Agricultural Society wants to press ahead with plans for adding a hotel and related businesses on the Event Center property. You might be getting a sense of deja vu right now; that's because talk about building a hotel started over three years ago. Plans were put on hold while talk about the Haymarket arena heated up. It makes sense to me to build a hotel and perhaps a restaurant or two near the Event Center. North 84th Street is hoppin' with activity these days, so those businesses are needed whether they are associated with the Event Center or not. Do you have any complaints about the plans at the Event Center?

Many people have guessed what Google looks like. They are all wrong. Google is a middle-aged white man who enjoys hanging out in the SCC parking lot. Meet Google: Congrats to Nikki for unmasking the All-Knowing One!

Oh sweet. Lincoln now has a "street view" in Google Maps. Check it out. Be sure to let us know if you find any cool photos. Hat tip: beerorkid