Coming Soon: A Tax on Dining in Lincoln?

About a month ago I had an extensive discussion with City Finance Director Don Herz to try and get as much information as I could about how the arena financing plan will look assuming IMG/ISG gets on board in the coming weeks.

After that conversation, I came away fairly impressed that the stated plan appeared to cost citizens of Lincoln nearly nothing, given that the majority of the funding would be through ISG supplemented with state-approved turnback of sales tax along with occupation taxes on out-of-towners via hotel rooms and rental cars.

Today, I found what some might describe as the first chink in the armor in the arena financing plan.  As I asked the Mayor today if there would be any other ”out of the blue” funding sources, he mentioned that he believed a city-wide restaurant tax would be necessary (audio here). 

Part of me thought the appearance that Lincolnites were shouldering almost none of the arena cost was too good to be true, and it looks like that will turn out to be the case.  What does this mean for the arena vote still tentatively scheduled for next Spring?  This city’s collective mood would indicate that it is certainly not ripe for taxation, but the equivalent of a ‘user fee’ on dining out?  Your guess is as good as mine.  I still hope my days of walking what feels like four miles to park at Nebraska basketball games are numbered.

Fantasy “O” Street – Part II: 27th to 48th

We continue down America’s longest main street with the heart of “O”, the stretch between 27th and 48th.  This stretch really shows the difference between new and old Lincoln as the city goes from it’s outskirts to its inner-city and downtown.

At the same time, this is also a difficult stretch to map out.  As you will see, there are a number of businesses and building omitted from my map.  This is where I could use your help.  While some things (like Wyuka Cemetery) have been here since the beginning, many other lots have changed their look several times.  If there is something that needs to be added or changed, in your opinion, send me an e-mail or comment below.

GREEN - exisiting business; YELLOW - changes to existing O Street. There's plenty that didn't make the map - comment below if one of your favorites is missing.

Coming next: the most difficult stretch – Downtown Lincoln.  This promises to look really different in fantasyland.

Fantasy “O” Street – Part I: 48th to 84th

WOW!  What a conversation we had Wednesday morning about Fantasy “O” Street.  Hopefully, you got to participate or at least hear it (Segment 1)  (Segment 2).  If not, we continue the discussion over here.

With that said, I have created an initial mockup of what Fantasy “O” Street would look like based on Jack and my thoughts as well as your suggestions.  THESE ARE NOT FINAL.  So don’t dispair if your favorite “O” Street icon is not included.  Also, I cannot totally verify accuracy of the location of all of these businesses.  So please offer comment below or e-mail to the Cartridge World inbox and I can make the necessary corrections.

 

GREEN - existing business; YELLOW - changes to existing O Street

GREEN - existing business; YELLOW - changes to current O Street

GREEN - existing business; YELLOW - changes to current O Street

This is a pretty intense little graphic project, so Part II (27th to 48th) and Part III (downtown) are still to come.  After the first trilogy, I’ll get with George Lucas to see if we go into the prequel, Part IV (West O).

Watch the Creation of…a Head.

The Parks & Rec department has included a link on their website to allow users to watch arist James Tyler create the giant head that will be gracing Lincoln’s Union Plaza, providing aesthetic value and also somehow paying tribute to Nebraska’s groundwater resources. 

Note:  he appears to be working again right now (3:43 CST).

Vegas rips Lincoln

Watch it till the end.  Ouch.

Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire, Part LXXXVII

Just when you thought it was safe to think that controversies surrounding Lincoln Fire & Rescue were over……(you finish the line.)

Here’s the full story.  The bottom line is this:  the city’s contract with the firefighters demands that 76 firefighters be on duty at all times.  When the stipulation was negotiated and voted on by the council last year, they did so under the notion that we were already at those staffing levels and the stipulation would cost no extra money.  Ooops, somebody screwed up….it’s going to cost us $300,000 this year and God only knows how much more every other year.

Today (Wednesday) with Coby on vacation, Jack and I are “taking over” the afternoon show.  Oh boy, I bet Coby wishes he could be on the air.  He and LIBA were dead set against this stipulation.  So too were councilmen Jon Camp and John Spatz who voted against it.  Spatz told us this morning that the financial information the council receives for these kind of things comes from the personnel department.  The fire union says “blame the administration.”  Fire Chief Niles Ford says “we had incorrect data.”

It is up to Jack and I to get to the bottom of this coming up at 4:30 Wednesday afternoon.  Oh, joy!

Anytime a fire department controversy arises, I get ticked off and Jack gets indifferent.  It’s just a matter of perspective.  I have been covering this kind of crap for-seemingly-ever.  And as long as there is a firetruck there when Jack starts a fire with his gas grill, he’s happy.  Jack will have his hands full keeping me from spouting off things like this….

From now on all fire truck sirens should be replaced with “Yakity Sax” (otherwise known as the theme of “The Benny Hill Show.”

LFR Controversy:  The joke’s not funny anymore!

Should we say goodbye to Pershing…no matter what?

Last month, we shook our heads a little when the city council had to throw Pershing Center a $150,000 lifeline on top of the roughly half a million dollar annual subsidy it already provides.  So it should have been no surprise when we read this weekend about how much difficulty the venue is having turning any profits.  Apparently, so far in 2009 there hasn’t been one touring “major” concert interested in stopping at Pershing.  Plus, even when events do come to town, no one wants to spend any money on food or beer because the concourses are so small that waiting in line is even more unpleasant than usual.

So, we all understand the city will dispose of Pershing if we’re getting a new arena, but that’s far from a done deal.  What if we reject the arena next Spring?  Presumably, in that scenario, State Basketball would also soon be on the way out of Lincoln, rendering the venue even less useful. 

If the new arena is rejected, is there any reason to keep this place open, spend at least a half million (plus future bailouts as maintenance costs increase) of increasingly valuable and rare city revenue to subsidize it, all so we can bring in roller skating championships every other year?  I’m not sure the benefit of keeping Pershing running outweighs the cost, and that says nothing about the fact that perhaps a rejected arena initiative would signal sentiment that the majority of Lincolites are fine with Omaha satisfying all our needs for concerts and other large-scale entertainment events. 

In any case, we’ll take this discussion up tomorrow with Wendy Birdsall from  the Chamber at 7:20 and we’ll also take your thoughts as well.

Class of 1989 + 20

My long time next-door neighbor and friend Teresa at the 1989 class reunion. I am conveniently hiding the mangled thumb from our infamous tackle football game.

I’ve always said my grade school years were better than my high school years.  Not that my high school days were bad, but there was something about those times at Clarmar Elementary that just seemed even more special.

Sure enough, as I stayed way later than I had ever intended at my 20th Fremont High School class reunion, it was actually the Clarmar class of 1983 that was the real highlight of the night.

I had actually arranged to go to this reunion a few days before with my best friend Chad Nielsen.  I’ve known Chad since kindergarten and we grew up about a block away from each other.  Quite frankly, he was the only person from my youth that I have ever maintained consistent contact with.  I’m generally an anti-social person at heart.

It looked like it was going to be a pretty boring event after the first 60 minutes or so.  Chad and I never really saw anybody that we hung around with in high school.  I had even mentioned to him that the real reunion that should have been taking place was the one between all my friends and co-workers from our long-ago days at Sapp Bros. 77 truck stop.  That’s where the real fun happened anyway.

But that’s when things started to change.  Though Chad is my oldest, dearest friend.  My first ever best friend was the girl who grew up right next door.  Teresa Lehr was kind of a tomboy.  She was never afraid to mix it up with all of the guys in the neighborhood and when we played, it wasn’t dressing up dolls or doing girl stuff.  It was riding skateboards in my basement (long story, but really fun); acting out Star Wars in the front yard; racing bikes; midnight tag; trying to sell tap water to the postman; midnight tag and singing the “Poopa-poopa” song (again, long story.)

As soon as she spotted me, that’s when the evening went from the mundane to reliving our childhood for pretty much the rest of the night.  Teresa and I went to separate schools in Fremont.  You either went to public or Fremont Bergan.  A lot of the old Clarmar gang went Bergan, including Teresa.  It didn’t take long for the memories to come back from the old 19th Street gang.  Including the time I insisted upon playing tackle football and got a full-frontal dose of irony when Teresa tackled me and I sprained my thumb.  Boy did I hear about that the next few days in school trying to explain that green splint on my thumb.

We caught up on families, we caught up on friends.  I asked about my old buddy Jeff (J.J.) Johnson.  Teresa took off like a cannon shot and within 30 seconds had produced my old football-playing pal.  I hadn’t seen J.J. since probably sometime in junior high.  He was another Bergan guy.  A great athlete and a super fun guy.  We were both Rams fans – in fact about the last time I had thought about Jeff was the night St. Louis won the Super Bowl.  Pretty soon, even more memories came flooding back.  I think I was scaring some people with how I was able to recall so many stories.  The grade school romances (I never seemed to be involved); the playground mischief; the old teachers; that cursed intercity elementary school flag football game against Lincoln Elementary where we were screwed out of a two-point conversion that would have won us the game.

Then the night became complete.  Teresa asked about Noel Nielsen (no relation to Chad).  Ironically, Noel heard our show that morning when I was still “debating” my decision to come to the event.  He called my late Friday afternoon and asked if I would be there.  I told him Chad and I were coming and encouraged him to come.  Noel works here in Lincoln, yet I think I see him once every five years.  He said he’d try and we left it at that.  Sure enough, about five minutes after Teresa asked about Noel, here he came, walking in the side door of the marina at Woodcliff.  It was sure great to see him again.

Noel had a difficult childhood.  Separated from his birth parents by domestic violence.  He came to Fremont to live with his aunt and uncle.  I first remember Noel as the guy who would chase girls around the playground – Teresa included.  Though Teresa and I always had a plutonic relationship, I still recall wanting to “defend her” from this crazy outsider.  That’s when Noel and I became friends.  Even though he carried his crazy streak all through high school – partied hard, grew his hair long, wrecked his car – there was always something stable and secure with the guy.  You could trust him with anything and he never betrayed your friendship.  Noel’s married to a great girl, adopted two kids and working his butt off doing landscaping.  We’ve already got plans to watch the Virginia Tech game together.  I’m not letting this friend get far off my radar again.

Chad and I, as we always do, will meet up again next month for our annual trek to Knoxville, Iowa and the Sprint Car Nationals.  I’m sure we’ll recap that night – seeing some of the faces of classmates, how some got bloated, some got bald, some got cosmetic surgery and some actually stayed the same.

I’m sure we’ll laugh about how one classmate got hold of me and went on for 15 minutes about how he enjoys my radio work (yes, there was a couple who remember my days doing Husker sports.)  It was fun to be recognized.  We’ll recall how some of the girls we used to dream about don’t look so dreamy anymore (not that neither one of us ever were desirable.)  But mostly, we’ll recall those classic days of youth.  The Saturday football games, the late night rounds of hide-and-go-seek, the injuries and the laughs.

In the end, my 20th class reunion wasn’t so much a reminder of those three years at Fremont High School.  It was more a reminder of the 18 wonderful years I spent growing up at that white house on 19th Street.  It was a reminder that as you go through life, you always meet special people that make life worth living.  I couldn’t wipe the grin off my face as I followed Noel’s minivan back to Lincoln at 1:30am (I hadn’t stayed out that long in years) to return to the special people of my present.  And I look forward to the next time I might see these special friends of my past.

Thanks to my friend, my blood brother, my tag team partner Chad for first suggesting that we go and to all of you who called last Friday or posted on my Facebook encouraging me to attend.  And I better throw an assist to my NRG Media co-worker and classmate Heather, too.  After all, she barged into a very important meeting last week telling me that I “had to be there.”  She’ll kick my butt if I don’t give her some credit.  So if you want to buy some airtime in Omaha on this season’s Friday Husker Tailgate show, call (402) 342-2000 and ask for Heather.

That should save me from getting injured by a girl……again.