Latest Blog Posts
Next Stop on the Blight Express: Near South
Lincoln’s Near South neighborhood has been a frequent target of small revitalization and preservation efforts for years. Now that the City is conducting a blight study of the historic neighborhood, maybe it will get the TLC it deserves. My one concern, as I have expressed several times before, is the amount of area being declared blighted across Lincoln (sometimes for good reasons, sometimes for questionable reasons). How much energy can the City put into any of the blighted areas if so many areas are declared blighted? Or phrased another way, are we better off doing as we’re doing now, and trying to offer incentives for redevelopment in a bunch of areas all at once? Or should we focus our efforts on only a couple areas at a time?
Reason #1938 Why Lincoln is Perceived as a Difficult Place to Do Business
Lincoln may or may not be a difficult place to do business. But if you want to know why some people say Lincoln can be a bit of a pain in the rump, Mayor Seng’s call today for a “do-over” in the Verizon RFP is one example:
Mayor Coleen Seng said Monday she will throw out the “request for proposals” the city issued for a 100,000-square-foot office building that turned out to be for Verizon Wireless.
In a move reminiscent of the RFP process when the city purchased seven new firetrucks, Seng has concluded the bidding process should begin anew.
::sigh::
What a Rush!
Please tell me you caught the Husker volleyball team’s thrilling come-from-behind victory on Saturday. Please tell me you didn’t miss one of the greatest matches in Husker volleyball history. Please tell me you were with a large group of Husker fans, perhaps at a local bar, cheering and clapping and high-fiving as the team orchestrated a near-miraculous comeback.
The path to the National Championship in Omaha won’t be easy with three very talented Pac-10 schools standing in the way. But man, after a match like Saturday’s, it’s hard not to feel like the Huskers have a few friends in the pantheon of volleyball gods.
Go Big Red!
Oh yeah, anybody have any tickets they would like to part with?
A Backdoor to RSS at JournalStar.com
Want RSS from the Journal Star? Bernie will teach you how you can get it. Thanks, Bernie!
By the way, no word yet on if our letter will be published in the letters to the editor.
Friday Five
Cindy Lange-Kubick wants to know what you would do with $20 you came upon by chance. Here are five things I might do around Lincoln with 20 bucks:
- Leave an especially large tip for one of my favorite waiters.
- Buy a gift for a child from a giving tree.
- Buy rides for kids on the carousel at Gateway or the train at the zoo.
- Pay bus fares for anybody who needed it.
- Buy cookies from The Cookie Company and hand them out to passers-by.
Somebody Better Call Rand McNally
I don’t really care whether they rename a couple Lincoln streets after Rosa Parks or Bertram Goodhue. Parks and Goodhue are both fine people to commemorate. The case for Goodhue is particularly strong.
But I wonder: Are these two proposals the start of a larger trend of renaming streets in Lincoln? I sure hope not. There’s the confusion factor, of course, as well as the problem of the resources required to change a street’s name. But my larger fear is that if the trend continues, everybody is going to want their token street. Once that starts, the quality of debate always goes downhill quickly. There’s really only one way to find out if a trend has begun, and that’s to wait around and see what happens over the next few months.
On the other hand, as long as we’re throwing out proposals, here’s mine. (I’m such a troublemaker.) I think we should rename Highway 2 (a.k.a. Nebraska Highway) Bison bison Street, in honor of one of the species our ancestors (im)politely asked to move out of the way so that we could occupy this state. It’s only fair.
Neal’s Rejects
Neal Obermeyer has been so kind as to periodically allow me to post some of his work here on Lincolnite. Believe it or not, not every one of Neal’s ideas goes over well with the folks at the Journal Star for one reason or another. It’s a crime, I know. Nevertheless, the Journal Star’s loss is our gain, so I am starting a new series lovingly called Neal’s Rejects.
In today’s sketch, Neal welcomes Verizon to Lincoln:
(Click the image to enlarge)
As If It Weren’t Difficult Enough to Get to West Lincoln
“The major decisions are all finalized right now.” That’s Kris Humphrey, the project manager for the city’s Harris Overpass project at last night’s public meeting. The $16.5 million bridge over O Street is all but ready to begin construction. Work should begin next fall, with completion set for the following fall.
I just have one question: why in the world does the project need its own website? Call me silly, but it seems like we could have saved ourselves a few hundred bucks by, I don’t know, sticking it on the Public Works projects website.
Another Downtown Living Option
Could it be true? Could The Option, a Downtown housing project two years in the making, finally be on its way? Originally proposed to include 40 condos, the project now features 13 row houses on a vacant lot at 7th and R just south of the Downtown Post Office. The rate at which the units sell—four are sold already—will be interesting to observe.
Want RSS at JournalStar.com? Sign the Letter
Would you like to see JournalStar.com provide RSS feeds? I have written a letter I plan to send in:
Dear Editors,
We want to thank the Lincoln Journal Star for giving JournalStar.com a long-overdue overhaul. The site is more attractive, easier to use, and filled with more content than before. We especially want to thank you for not following in the footsteps of a certain Omaha newspaper’s website, which requires a ridiculous online registration process (and a circumvention of that process by those of us who are turned off by it) in order to read articles. We wish to congratulate Online Editor Steve Smith and his crew for a job well done.
The Journal Star has done a good job trying to maintain, or even increase, its relevance through blogs, podcasts, and the like, so it is odd that JournalStar.com still, even after its facelift, lacks RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds. RSS is a simple technology that would allow the Journal Star to push its content to new audiences at virtually zero cost. The fear, common among the “old media”, is loss of site visits and ad revenue. That fear is unfounded and, in our opinion, completely backwards. Indeed, RSS feeds will increase the size and diversity of your readership. Even simple feeds with headlines and short summaries would expose your content to a wider audience. The majority of publishers agree with us: 76 of the nation’s top 100 newspapers offer RSS feeds (Link).
Providing RSS feeds is a win-win situation. Your readers win yet another way to access your content, you win a wider audience with almost zero extra resources. It really is that simple.
If you would like to help edit the letter, or if you want to co-sign it, please hop on over to the forums to join in the discussion.
The LJS is Feeling Cynical Today
Mr. T took at look at JournalStar.com just a few minutes ago and ran across this odd headline in the sports section. Just a little cynical, don’t you think?
Bruning Says: Lock Up Yer Kids!
Have you heard the obnoxious, over-the-top, everybody-freak-out radio ad from Jon Bruning’s office on the topic of child predators? It’s awful. The ad breathlessly declares that your children are threatened by child-raping sickos thousands (sic) of times every day. It’s so over the top that until Bruning himself started speaking, I was convinced it was some sort of morning show prank.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing amusing about sexual predators, and parents and kids do need to be aware of the dangers. But whipping out your best Chicken Little impression definitely isn’t the best way to spread the word. Besides, the threat from random strangers on the web is dramatically overstated. Most sex crimes are committed by family members or acquaintances of the victim. The biggest threat to children isn’t some faceless freak living in his mom’s basement. But then, it’s easier to think that way than to consider the possibility that an uncle, a babysitter, or *gulp* a parent could be the culprit.
I couldn’t find the radio ad on the AG’s website—dear Lord that is an awful website!—but I did find these two videos. The videos aren’t as panic-laden as the radio ad, but they both fall into the “stereotypical freaky dude in his mom’s basement” trap.
Did You Recognize This Man?
I opened the paper this morning, and I thought, “Hey, I know that guy!”
Don’t let it be said that my games aren’t educational!
The Blogs
-
The blog that covers everything Lincoln
-
The home of the Wilsons
-
In which Mr. T mutters and muses
-
Local and national sports chatter
The Blogroll
The Archives
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- February 2005
- January 2005
- December 2004