Lincolnite

The older I get, the more I begin to resemble "the" Mr. Wilson. I can't say that's something I'm proud of. Le sigh. I feel a bit like Ebeneezer Scrooge to be honest, or perhaps The Grinch. Only instead of Christmas, my sourpussish mentality kicks into gear around Independence Day - slash - Fourth of July. I just don't get it. Perhaps one or several of you can help me out. I of course understand the original intent of the holiday. Independence Day celebrates our independence. That's definitely worthy of a celebration. Or at least was worthy. It's a little difficult for me to get excited about an event that happened well over 200 years ago. Let's be honest, we all take our independence for granted these days. It's not like we need to gloat over the Brits or anything. We moved beyond that long ago. Okay then, maybe the holiday is more about celebrating our freedoms. Rather than "Yay, we're free from the Brits!", perhaps I should think about the holiday in terms of "Yay, we're free!". Except we're not in so many ways. Freedomwise we're doing pretty dang well relative to most of the people on this Earth, and that's awesome; bravo to us. But there are plenty of exceptions. And let's not forget our track record over the past several decades of bringing freedom and the American Way to various spots around the world. Some will no doubt accuse me of being a glass half empty kind of guy. I prefer to think of myself as a guy with high, but attainable, standards. Anyway, it's hard for me to see the connection between celebrating freedom and blowing stuff up. Particularly since we can only blow up certain things (there's a list) sold to us by certain people within a certain time range. There's some irony there. Do we really think freedom is best saluted by filling our air with thick, acrid, toxic smoke? By producing countless tons of paper, plastic, and chemical litter that gets strewn across our neighbors' yards and roofs? By filling our lakes and streams with the noxious runoff from all of this pyrotechnic bacchanalia? Perhaps a Tiny Tim among you can open my heart to the priceless joy that is Independence Day so that I, too, can see the point in all of this. There's a lesson to be uncovered here, though I don't claim to be smart enough to fully comprehend it. Freedom, by its very nature, produces imperfect outcomes. Freedom is messy and offensive and obnoxious. The end result, metaphorically at least, looks an awful lot like the chaos we witnessed last night. It's enough to make a man stand up and scream "There oughtta be a law!". But as more of us do that we are eventually left with very little at all to celebrate. It's a conundrum.

The talk about privatizing Lincoln's parking meter enforcement makes me wonder about parking meter rates. See, when a private company is responsible for something like meter enforcement, they typically get a say in the rates. In Chicago that has meant skyrocketing meter rates. Lincoln officials say that won't happen here. And it won't -- if contracts are written correctly. Current parking meter rates are $0.50 per hour. In contrast to meters on the UNL campus -- where rates vary somewhat by location -- City meters all use the same rate. That seems a little silly to me. Doesn't it make sense for rates to be higher in high-profile locations? For that matter, $0.50 per hour may be on the low side. Omaha's rate, for example, is $1.00 per hour, or $1.25 per hour in the Midtown District. Lincolnites will pitch a fit if rates increase -- we always do -- but that doesn't mean it's a bad idea. Far worse than a rate increase would be adding to the timeframe that meters must be fed. Currently meters are enforced 8am to 6pm, Monday through Saturday. That's ok with me. Do parking meters affect your Downtown plans? Would you be willing to pay more if you had to?

Remember our neighbor's barking dog? Apparently somebody came to the door earlier this week and asked if we would be willing to testify about the barking in court. I wasn't here so I'm not certain who it was -- either Animal Control or the Humane Society. In any event, I could find myself on the witness stand one of these days. That could get interesting. Hopefully things don't progress to that point. I would much rather the dogs get the love and attention they need so they don't feel compelled to annoy the snot out of the neighborhood. Wouldn't that be nice?

Congratulations to the High Flyers, a local volleyball team that is going to nationals. That's all the more impressive considering they're the only boys club in the state this year, and there are only six guys on the team. I wish boys' volleyball would catch on more in Nebraska. Volleyball is a fantastic sport and it's a shame that there's a bit of a perception that it's a sport for girls. There's certainly nothing "girly" about it. But I digress. Good luck to the High Flyers!

I'm finally back in Lincoln after about a week outside of Dayton, Ohio at the U.S. Youth Soccer Region II Championships. I had the opportunity to referee some great games, I reffed with some great people, and I got a little heat exhaustion. A good time all around. Nebraska had four referees selected to referee finals -- three from Lincoln -- which is a great number. Even better, Lincoln's Patrick Slane was selected to referee at nationals, coming up in July in Overland Park. Congratulations, Patrick! I was pretty distracted at the tail end of the trip. On Monday I found out our foster care license had gone through. Yay! We snuck under the wire since Cedar's is ending foster care services ... well, yesterday. Had our paperwork taken longer to process, we probably would have been delayed while Cedar's shipped our stuff off to a different agency. It was quite a relief to hear that we wouldn't have to deal with that. On Tuesday night The Missus called in a panic. Two boys were on the way to the house and I wasn't even in the same timezone. I would have left Ohio right then, but I was much too tired. I never would have survived the 13-hour trip. Long story short, they survived the first night and I was in the car at six the next morning. I arrived back in Lincoln to find two wonderful boys who literally welcomed me into their lives with open arms. So ... that's what I have been up to. What's new in Lincoln these days? I need to go catch up on my news and gossip.

If all has gone well, by the time you read this I will be in or near Dayton, Ohio after a long night of driving. As I write this (on Thursday morning) I shudder to think how much caffeine I will have consumed by now (on Friday morning). I'm headed to Dayton for the 2010 Midwest Regional Youth Soccer Championships. I will be one of about 15 referees representing Nebraska at the tournament. Matches begin on Saturday; semis are Tuesday and finals are on Wednesday. I'll try to post a bit while I'm gone, but no promises. I'll probably have to post from my phone so don't expect any lengthy dissertations. You can check in on me via Twitter if you like your updates in 140 character increments. See you next week!

While reading about the Omaha metro's growth last year I began thinking about how Lincoln hasn't really developed any suburbs the way Omaha has. Plenty of cities Lincoln's size -- or even smaller -- have suburbs around the edge. Lincoln? Well, we have Waverly, but it'd be a stretch to call it a suburb. Same with Hickman and Emerald and Bennet and the other small towns in the area. Whatever suburbs Lincoln had were absorbed years ago. Havelock, Bethany, College View, University Place, West Lincoln ... they were all brought into the fold decades ago. It kind of makes you wonder what sort of place Lincoln would be if those suburbs had retained their own identities and grown up apart from Lincoln, rather than as a part of Lincoln.

Some folks seem a little surprised that Mayor Beutler is pledging not to raise property taxes for this coming budget year. After all, after several straight years of deficits, declining sales taxes, and the double whammy of a massive snow season and then a war against potholes, increasing the city’s revenue makes sense. Yet after the arena vote, raising property taxes this year would be political suicide. Expect another round of here-and-there user fee increases, and programmatic changes or reductions in hours or personnel in order to make the budgetary ends meet. The property tax nuclear trigger won’t be pulled until at least after the Mayoral election next year, if not 2012.

I've been trying all sorts of new foods lately. As a consequence, I've had several green eggs and ham moments. You know, that moment when you realize that after years of resisting a food, you realize you actually like it. It can be a jarring experience. For example right now I'm sitting here eating pineapple. I hate pineapple. Or rather, I hated pineapple until about two weeks ago. That was when I spontaneously popped a chunk of pineapple into my mouth and realized, "Hey, that's not half bad!". The same thing happened earlier this spring with guacamole and avocados. And tofu. Believe it or not, I had a green eggs and ham moment with what would become one of my favorite restaurants. That's right, years ago I refused to try Oso Burrito. I don't know why. Something about it just seemed weird to me I guess. Then one day a friend and I went there for lunch. I was hooked. All these years later I have eaten literally hundreds of burritos at Oso. Thank goodness for trying new things. What are some of your favorite green eggs and ham experiences?

Aaaaaand it's finally official. The School Board took a while to get around to it, but they finally approved a calendar for 2011-2012. That's news because it's the first school calendar -- or at least the first in many years -- that finishes first semester before Christmas and second semester before Memorial Day. Unfortunately it also begins on August 16. Early, yes, but not too horrible. I'm not sure why I'm so worried about LPS's calendar. We're planning to home school so our own calendar will differ. I suppose it's because I've been after this kind of calendar ever since I was in school. A late victory is still a victory.

Speaking of rain and floods, it seems so odd to me that some roads -- think North 48th Street as it passes under the railroad tracks at Cornhusker Highway -- were practically designed to flood. It seems like such a quaint, even backwards, situation. I can only imagine how different those roads would look if planners and engineers were able to start from scratch. For now we just get to look at those spots and think, "Oh, how cute! It's like it's still 1955!"

Over the years the Lincoln area has seen many flood control and flood prevention projects. Trouble is, since the floods many of the projects are designed to protect against are so rare, it's often difficult for the public to know if the projects "worked" and if they were worth the cost. Lincoln hasn't seen many major flooding events in recent years. How does Joe Public know whether to credit Mother Nature or that $2 million project upstream that was put in place back in 1992? Generally, he doesn't. Lincoln has received something like 300-400% of its "average" rainfall for the month of June (so far). That's a fair amount of water and it's legitimate to wonder just how beneficial projects along Dead Man's Run or Beal Slough or whatever have been for basements around the city. It would be nifty if we could occasionally see analyses of "what could have been". It would help the public understand what we're paying for. Not that dwelling on the past is necessarily the best use of our resources; if the choice is describing what didn't happen versus working to prevent what could still happen in the future, I'll choose the latter. Still, curious cats like me wouldn't mind the occasional computer simulation. How many of you know that your situation is improved thanks to completed flood control projects? Do any of you still face regular water problems that could be addressed by the City?