Latest / The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert / St. Patrick's Day and Streetcar

Transcript

St. Patrick's Day and Streetcar · The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert

0:00
Speaker 1: Here is your host jeans doother Good morning and Happy
0:03
Speaker 1: Saint Patrick's Day.
0:04
Speaker 2: Well, happy Saint Patrick's Day to you too. And although
0:07
Speaker 2: your shirt you have on is is green.
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Speaker 1: Thank you for noticing old carpet green is Lucy said,
0:13
Speaker 1: it's green, It's it's is Saint Patrick's Day. I'm wearing green.
0:17
Speaker 1: I'm not planning on going out and tearing it up today.
0:20
Speaker 2: Well either am I.
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Speaker 1: I've got a really fun green Saint Patrick's Day kind
0:26
Speaker 1: of jacket, mostly from my younger people wanted me around
0:30
Speaker 1: in a party situation days that those days have not
0:33
Speaker 1: existed for most of my life.
0:36
Speaker 2: Well, I have on emerald green today. As you can see.
0:39
Speaker 2: I even have little shamrocks on my shirt. Yes, you
0:41
Speaker 2: know I have emerald green. A couple of coats too
0:43
Speaker 2: that I would always wear in the Saint Patty's Day parade.
0:46
Speaker 2: So I'm I'm ready. But you know what, I don't
0:48
Speaker 2: go out and party either. I have not bellied up
0:50
Speaker 2: to a bar in sixteen years. That's something I just
0:53
Speaker 2: don't do.
0:54
Speaker 1: Well, that's the first thing I wanted to ask you
0:56
Speaker 1: about a bar. First first question here today. I reserved
0:59
Speaker 1: there to ask you, Okay, during your time as mayor.
1:02
Speaker 1: There were probably times that you and friends wanted to
1:04
Speaker 1: go out there and have a few beverages, but the
1:07
Speaker 1: pressure of someone there's always going to be someone going there.
1:11
Speaker 1: A pothole just swallowed my car and you're out of here.
1:14
Speaker 1: You're enjoying yourself and having you know, taxes do this
1:18
Speaker 1: and I can it correct. Were you ever able to
1:20
Speaker 1: just go out and enjoy yourself during your time as mayor?
1:23
Speaker 2: Well, you know, number one, I did not go belly
1:26
Speaker 2: up to a bar because I never wanted anybody to
1:28
Speaker 2: see me drinking. You know, I'm a kind of a
1:31
Speaker 2: closet drinker. I guess you'd say, if you want to
1:33
Speaker 2: phrase it that, oh, I'm just teasing, but.
1:36
Speaker 1: That's true, a closet drink. I just kept it in
1:39
Speaker 1: all my desk drawers at work where people couldn't see it.
1:42
Speaker 1: But you know what love compartment of my car.
1:44
Speaker 2: I went to so many events in the evening where
1:47
Speaker 2: people had a cocktail hour, and I will tell you
1:49
Speaker 2: the twelve years I was mayor, I never drank. I
1:52
Speaker 2: wouldn't even have a glass of wine because I just
1:54
Speaker 2: didn't want anybody to snap a picture of me with
1:57
Speaker 2: a glass of wine or a glass of bourbon in
2:00
Speaker 2: hand and saying, oh, there she goes again, she's drinking.
2:02
Speaker 1: Mike Faie was the same way.
2:04
Speaker 2: No, he was no. But I just thought that is
2:07
Speaker 2: something I don't that an image of me. I did
2:09
Speaker 2: not want anybody to see, so I didn't. I don't
2:13
Speaker 2: who cares, though, So you have a glass of wine,
2:15
Speaker 2: and I know it's an addition, you're a woman. It's
2:18
Speaker 2: a legal thing for me to do, but I just
2:20
Speaker 2: didn't want to take the chance because the people are
2:23
Speaker 2: snapping pictures of you. And I had one time I
2:27
Speaker 2: was at some event and somebody gone on Facebook and
2:30
Speaker 2: I was not drinking any alcohol and he said I
2:33
Speaker 2: talked to Jeene Stothard and she smelled like liquor. Well,
2:36
Speaker 2: that was just made up. And I thought, then I
2:38
Speaker 2: can I can honestly get out there and say absolutely no,
2:42
Speaker 2: because I just I don't drink. Now, I will go.
2:44
Speaker 2: I would go out to dinner and if I was
2:46
Speaker 2: with my husband or I usually had a driver when
2:49
Speaker 2: I was mayor a police officer, if somebody else was driving,
2:54
Speaker 2: I would have a drink with dinner. But I would
2:57
Speaker 2: never get behind the wheel after If I had what
3:00
Speaker 2: I won't go to the mailbox if I've had a drink.
3:02
Speaker 2: I mean, really, I am very carefous. How far away
3:05
Speaker 2: is your mailbox?
3:07
Speaker 3: You know.
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Speaker 2: It's not attached to the house. We have one of
3:11
Speaker 2: those you know, those blocks the mailboxes when you come
3:14
Speaker 2: into the neighborhood.
3:15
Speaker 1: So it's out by her outhouse.
3:17
Speaker 2: It's yeah, it's out time my house. Well, no, I
3:21
Speaker 2: wouldn't take the chance.
3:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, but not drinking and driving is not exactly like. Well,
3:26
Speaker 1: because I was the mayor, I didn't drink, and no
3:28
Speaker 1: one should be drinking and driving.
3:30
Speaker 3: No one should.
3:31
Speaker 2: But why do these elected officials take the chance of
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Speaker 2: doing it. I never did understand, because you're always gonna
3:37
Speaker 2: get caught.
3:37
Speaker 1: Well, the mayors of Washington, d C. And Toronto over
3:41
Speaker 1: the years had been full blown crack addicts and got
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Speaker 1: re elected. So is this is your chance? Now? This
3:48
Speaker 1: is your this is your first Saint Patrick's day, not
3:51
Speaker 1: being an elected official in this town for twenty plus years?
3:55
Speaker 1: Are you? I mean, is anyone safe?
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Speaker 2: Is anyone safe?
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Speaker 3: Yeah?
4:00
Speaker 1: Whatever it is you're going to do when you go
4:03
Speaker 1: rampaging from pub to pub, no.
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Speaker 2: I say, I'm still not gonna do it. I'm really
4:07
Speaker 2: not my husband and I my Irish husband, Kevin O'Rourke. Yes,
4:12
Speaker 2: and I are going to go out to dinner. That's
4:13
Speaker 2: my limit tonight. I'm just not. I'm not one of
4:16
Speaker 2: those that carouses bars at night. I'm just not, you know,
4:19
Speaker 2: So you know I'm not going to do that. But
4:23
Speaker 2: you know I'm pretty squeaky clean too. People. I'm a
4:26
Speaker 2: former nurse, you know that, a critical care nurse, and
4:28
Speaker 2: I'm kind of up there in the years. I'm not
4:30
Speaker 2: a young gal anymore, but everybody knows my age. But
4:34
Speaker 2: in my day in the hospital, every one of my
4:38
Speaker 2: friends smoke cigarettes and drank coffee. Do you know I
4:42
Speaker 2: have never drank coffee. I am not a coffee drinker.
4:44
Speaker 1: No, I don't.
4:45
Speaker 3: No.
4:46
Speaker 2: I drink iced tea. I like to green drink one
4:49
Speaker 2: green tea a day because the Japanese, when one of
4:52
Speaker 2: our sister cities is in S'soaquah, they have convinced me
4:55
Speaker 2: that that drinking green tea is a health thing and
4:58
Speaker 2: they do it every day. They think it it can
5:01
Speaker 2: cure the common cold and cure cancer. I mean, the
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Speaker 2: Japanese believe in it. But I never smoked cigarettes ever either.
5:06
Speaker 1: Well no, but back in those days. That was one
5:08
Speaker 1: of those four out of five doctors prefer Winston's Sad Marlboroughs.
5:12
Speaker 2: And the doctors. When I first started working, all the
5:15
Speaker 2: doctors and the nurses could smoke in the hospital, and
5:18
Speaker 2: they did.
5:19
Speaker 1: And when I was a kid, you could smoke right
5:21
Speaker 1: there when you go visit someone in the hospital, you could,
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Speaker 1: and the patients and I was only a first grader
5:26
Speaker 1: and it wasn't a big deal.
5:27
Speaker 2: Patients smoked in their beds and they in every floor.
5:31
Speaker 2: We would have a room called the report room where
5:34
Speaker 2: the nurses would give report to the next shift, and
5:37
Speaker 2: then the doctors would go in and they're on break,
5:39
Speaker 2: and I used to call it the cokes and Smoke's
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Speaker 2: Room because they would go in there and shut the
5:43
Speaker 2: door and smoke would come out from under the door,
5:45
Speaker 2: literally because all the nurses and the doctors were smoking.
5:48
Speaker 2: But I'm an oddball. I never did either one.
5:51
Speaker 1: Well, so I brought up what I wanted to bring
5:53
Speaker 1: up here on the show. For doing that, yes, sorry,
5:56
Speaker 1: sorry to get things sidetracked right from the beginning, but
5:59
Speaker 1: it's sad.
6:00
Speaker 2: I know it's a day to celebrate, and the Irish
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Speaker 2: are celebrating today.
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Speaker 1: And you had a different idea of where to start
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Speaker 1: or where to go in this first segment. And I
6:11
Speaker 1: really like what you're bringing to the table here. So
6:13
Speaker 1: as host of the KFAB comment Line, please thank you.
6:17
Speaker 1: When it comes to city elections, and we have some
6:19
Speaker 1: coming up, yes, well we've got it. We have primaries
6:22
Speaker 1: here for the state, but we have the elections three
6:25
Speaker 1: years of city elections. You were looking at this last
6:29
Speaker 1: one not in terms of results, in terms of who
6:32
Speaker 1: one and who lost, but turn out.
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Speaker 2: Right, and you know, I'll talk about my election any time,
6:38
Speaker 2: because are my defeat? I would say, you know, I
6:42
Speaker 2: was elected in thirteen, seventeen and twenty one with large margins,
6:48
Speaker 2: and then here in twenty twenty five I lost by
6:51
Speaker 2: thirteen percent? Why did that happen? And people will always
6:55
Speaker 2: say why do you think that happened? Why do you
6:56
Speaker 2: think that happened? But one of the things I think
6:59
Speaker 2: is important, and yesterday I was reading some article online
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Speaker 2: that talked about when you have an election, it's a
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Speaker 2: chance for people to go out there and their voice
7:09
Speaker 2: to be heard. We have the ability to vote in
7:14
Speaker 2: this country, and I when my kids first turn eighteen,
7:17
Speaker 2: the first thing I did is marched them down to
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Speaker 2: the DMV and registered them to vote and told them
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Speaker 2: how important it was. However, they're not doing that, and
7:25
Speaker 2: is a voice of the people really being heard when
7:28
Speaker 2: you get a twenty eight percent voter turnout. Now, let's
7:32
Speaker 2: look at my defeat that I had just this last May,
7:36
Speaker 2: and you know, the voter turnout turned out in the
7:39
Speaker 2: general election to be about twenty eight percent. Now, these
7:44
Speaker 2: are independent city elections, all seven city council members and
7:49
Speaker 2: the mayor up at the same time, so potentially every
7:52
Speaker 2: one of us could have been replaced, which is not good.
7:55
Speaker 2: And I think that the Owse City Council elections should
7:58
Speaker 2: be staggered, and I think the city elections, for several
8:01
Speaker 2: reasons should be moved to when the mid terms were
8:05
Speaker 2: so then like now, so that you would have a
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Speaker 2: May primary and a November general election. Only help the
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Speaker 2: voter turnout. And I'll give you an example when I
8:17
Speaker 2: with my reelection just were defeat that just happened out
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Speaker 2: in West Omaha City Council Districts five, six, and seven.
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Speaker 2: Only one Amy Milton had an opponent Don Roe and
8:29
Speaker 2: five and Brinker Harding and six did not have an opponent.
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Speaker 2: What does that automatically do In the primary. People don't
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Speaker 2: want to go out and vote. There was only really
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Speaker 2: me to vote for. And when I would be out
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Speaker 2: in public, I would hear this over and over again.
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Speaker 2: I'd say. I would hear, Oh, you're going to win, Oh,
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Speaker 2: don't worry about it, and I would say, no, I'm
8:47
Speaker 2: not not if you don't come out and vote. People
8:50
Speaker 2: need to come out and vote. And you know, there
8:52
Speaker 2: was a big get out to vote effort that was
8:54
Speaker 2: going on out in West Omaha. It didn't help at all.
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Speaker 2: But with the general election, the voter turn up for
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Speaker 2: the Mayor of Omaha and the city council members was
9:03
Speaker 2: about twenty eight percent. What I wanted to do. And
9:06
Speaker 2: this is in the city Charter, which is our constitution,
9:10
Speaker 2: like I explained before, it was first passed in nineteen
9:13
Speaker 2: fifty eight, and any changes to the charter has to
9:16
Speaker 2: go back to a vote of the people. I did
9:18
Speaker 2: two charter conventions. You have to do one every ten
9:21
Speaker 2: years and a year that ends in three. Where that
9:23
Speaker 2: came up, I have no idea, but that's what it is.
9:26
Speaker 2: So I did one in thirteen and then I needed
9:28
Speaker 2: to do one in twenty twenty three. I did it
9:30
Speaker 2: year early. I did it in twenty twenty two. You
9:32
Speaker 2: could do it early, but you have to do it
9:34
Speaker 2: at least every ten years. And those are two things
9:37
Speaker 2: that I wanted and want. I submitted those to change
9:40
Speaker 2: the city elections, but the city council did not want
9:43
Speaker 2: to do it. Their theory are their thought. The majority
9:48
Speaker 2: of them was that this allows it being independent for
9:52
Speaker 2: people just to focus on city issues and city council
9:56
Speaker 2: and issues and City of Omaha issues. But people don't.
10:00
Speaker 2: They just don't focus on it. And I thin number.
10:03
Speaker 2: And another thing, with the mail in ballots, it costs
10:06
Speaker 2: the taxpayers probably close to a million dollars now to
10:10
Speaker 2: do an independent city election, So it would save money too.
10:14
Speaker 2: You would get a big, a better, much better voter turnout.
10:17
Speaker 2: I got to give you an example. Two days after
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Speaker 2: the general election and I was defeated, I went to
10:24
Speaker 2: the High V. I love High V. I love the
10:26
Speaker 2: one way out. There's one way out West one hundred
10:28
Speaker 2: and seventy eighth in Pacific. I love that store. But anyway,
10:31
Speaker 2: I was out there two days after the election, two
10:35
Speaker 2: gentlemen came up to me in two different parts of
10:37
Speaker 2: the store, independently, and one man said to me, this
10:40
Speaker 2: is the heart of West Omaha, where I used to
10:42
Speaker 2: get a lot of votes. One guy said to me, well,
10:44
Speaker 2: you want didn't you And I said, no, I didn't,
10:48
Speaker 2: and he said, oh, I thought you did. And then
10:51
Speaker 2: another part of the store, a man came up and
10:53
Speaker 2: he said, when's that election And I said two days ago.
10:57
Speaker 2: So that voter app really concerns me. And I think
11:03
Speaker 2: we are hearing that throughout the country. And I know
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Speaker 2: I've said this before, but Kevin McCarthy, who was the speaker,
11:10
Speaker 2: called me the morning after the election and he said, Gene,
11:13
Speaker 2: I fear this is what's going to happen to a
11:15
Speaker 2: lot of Republicans in twenty twenty six. There's a lot
11:19
Speaker 2: of voter apathy out there now, and we've got to
11:22
Speaker 2: increase that voter turnout. And so this is something that
11:25
Speaker 2: I still think should happen, and I would still I
11:27
Speaker 2: would encourage the city Council and I would encourage the
11:31
Speaker 2: mayor to really consider that in the next charter convention,
11:35
Speaker 2: save money, increase voter turnout, let the people's voices be heard,
11:40
Speaker 2: and change those independent city elections to be on the
11:44
Speaker 2: mid term with a May primary and a November general.
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Speaker 1: But if you do that in line with the national election,
11:52
Speaker 1: someone's going to either get there, well, in this case,
11:55
Speaker 1: it would be get their term in office shortened.
11:58
Speaker 2: Yes, And we talked about that. You know, it could
12:00
Speaker 2: We discussed that and discuss a lot a lot how
12:04
Speaker 2: that would work, and you could either extend the term
12:10
Speaker 2: or you could shorten the term. In fact, I met
12:13
Speaker 2: with Legislator John Kavanaugh about it. That was something that
12:17
Speaker 2: he was concerned about, and he asked me if I
12:22
Speaker 2: would support an effort like that. Of course he's running
12:25
Speaker 2: for Congress right now, but he's still a legislator, and
12:29
Speaker 2: I said I would. And so beside changing its state law,
12:34
Speaker 2: I mean, that could be something that the legislators could
12:36
Speaker 2: look at. But I do think the important thing is
12:39
Speaker 2: is to let people have their voice. And if you
12:42
Speaker 2: have such low voter turnout or people that don't even
12:44
Speaker 2: know when the election was, that's a concern.
12:47
Speaker 1: Looking at the twenty twenty four general election here you
12:50
Speaker 1: had upwards of seventy percent of people voted in that election,
12:56
Speaker 1: and then you look just a few well before that,
13:00
Speaker 1: you had the election that well, I guess it was
13:04
Speaker 1: a few months after this, Sorry my lost track of
13:06
Speaker 1: what year this is. A few months after that, you
13:09
Speaker 1: were down to twenty eight percent here in the city
13:10
Speaker 1: of Omaha. So you went from seventy three percent voter
13:14
Speaker 1: turnout to about twenty eight percent. Is that because people
13:21
Speaker 1: really don't have any idea or is it just election fatigue?
13:26
Speaker 1: And if there are people out there who go, when's
13:28
Speaker 1: that election? What's going on here? And they're so ignorant
13:31
Speaker 1: about that? Do we want them to vote and decide
13:33
Speaker 1: on the future of the city.
13:34
Speaker 2: Well, that's you know, that's the point I'm trying to make,
13:38
Speaker 2: is you know, that small number of people made a
13:41
Speaker 2: decision that's really affecting the city of Omaha for the
13:44
Speaker 2: next four years. I think what we're seeing is a
13:47
Speaker 2: lot of voter apathy right now. I know that there
13:50
Speaker 2: are people that generally say, well, I never vote in
13:53
Speaker 2: the primary, and you should because you're not going to
13:55
Speaker 2: get into the general unless you go vote and get
13:59
Speaker 2: the right people through the primary. And so I think
14:01
Speaker 2: that there's a lot of issues going on with that. Yeah,
14:04
Speaker 2: you know, we looked at a poll that my campaign
14:08
Speaker 2: did in twenty twenty one, a few weeks before the election.
14:13
Speaker 2: I pulled it up the other day and it said
14:16
Speaker 2: that was against R. J. Neary. And we always say,
14:19
Speaker 2: you know, ask the question if the election was today,
14:23
Speaker 2: who would win. And at that time, about two weeks
14:26
Speaker 2: before the election in twenty twenty one, eighty four percent
14:29
Speaker 2: of the people in Omaha said Gene Stothard. The number
14:32
Speaker 2: that said R. J. Neary was really really low in
14:35
Speaker 2: the teens and the undecided. This is what's really interesting too.
14:39
Speaker 2: The undecided was seven percent. So everybody knew the way
14:43
Speaker 2: they were going to vote, and they felt like that
14:45
Speaker 2: I was going to come out there of that race
14:47
Speaker 2: on top. It didn't happen this time. It just didn't
14:51
Speaker 2: and so you know, there was a lot of things
14:52
Speaker 2: that went into it. I think that voter fatigue is
14:55
Speaker 2: one I don't understand voter fatigue. And what voter fatigue
14:59
Speaker 2: really is is people will say, Ah, she's done a
15:02
Speaker 2: good job, but she's done it long enough. Let somebody
15:04
Speaker 2: else have a chance. They don't feel that way with Congress.
15:08
Speaker 2: I mean, some of those people have been there one
15:10
Speaker 2: hundred years and they still keep on voting for them.
15:14
Speaker 2: I think I think Trump derangement syndrome had something to
15:18
Speaker 2: do with it. You know, I know people that love
15:20
Speaker 2: Donald Trump that I think have Trump derangement syndrome. I
15:24
Speaker 2: know him that hating that have the same I think.
15:27
Speaker 2: You know, there's a voter apathy is a big thing.
15:30
Speaker 2: I think that there was a lot of things that
15:31
Speaker 2: went into it. But boy did that change because in
15:35
Speaker 2: twenty twenty one I did. I won that election by
15:38
Speaker 2: sixty eight percent. This time I lost it by thirteen
15:40
Speaker 2: four years later. So you're announcing that you're running for
15:42
Speaker 2: Congress today because.
15:43
Speaker 1: Now want to be there.
15:45
Speaker 2: Oh Heaven's no, No, I'm done. I've said that before.
15:47
Speaker 2: I'm not going to run for anything again, not an
15:50
Speaker 2: elected office. I've been in an elected office for twenty
15:53
Speaker 2: seven years, that school board, city council, mayor for twelve.
15:58
Speaker 2: I will help other candidate dates, I will help them
16:01
Speaker 2: get elected as much as I can, but I'm not.
16:05
Speaker 1: Going to run for anything again. This is the KFAB
16:08
Speaker 1: comment line. That's your host, Jeene Stothard here on news
16:11
Speaker 1: Radio eleven ten KFAB. I am producer of the program,
16:14
Speaker 1: Scott Vorhees, and let's get a call in here before
16:17
Speaker 1: we get to a Fox News update. Shortly, Pete is
16:20
Speaker 1: on the line. Pete Welcome to eleven ten kfab 're
16:23
Speaker 1: on with Jean Stothard.
16:26
Speaker 3: Good morning Scott and Mayor Jean Happy Saint Patrick's date.
16:30
Speaker 1: Good morning.
16:31
Speaker 3: I I have a question for you. I can cite
16:35
Speaker 3: a specific example. I'm thinking of one hundred and sixty
16:38
Speaker 3: eighth Street, just south of Center Street. Maybe you can
16:41
Speaker 3: help me understand. Why do we sometimes see a road
16:45
Speaker 3: in Omaha you undergo some fairly major construction, get torn
16:49
Speaker 3: up and maybe widen the two lanes all the way
16:51
Speaker 3: through or something like that, and then just a couple
16:54
Speaker 3: of years later we see one half of that road
16:57
Speaker 3: get torn up again. But then, like it happened one
17:01
Speaker 3: hundred and forty fourth between Dodge and Pacific as well,
17:04
Speaker 3: Why does that happen?
17:06
Speaker 2: There could be several reasons. I know exactly what you're
17:09
Speaker 2: talking about. On one hundred and sixty eighth Street. You
17:11
Speaker 2: know that that is those projects that would be north
17:15
Speaker 2: of Center on one hundred and sixty eighth up to Pacific.
17:18
Speaker 2: That was a huge project. And then Center Street all
17:22
Speaker 2: the way down to Q was our last one we did,
17:25
Speaker 2: and I will say that was a huge project too,
17:27
Speaker 2: and very expensive. That was probably about close to a
17:31
Speaker 2: forty five forty eight million dollar project because it went
17:34
Speaker 2: through the bridge at Zarinsky, and honestly, we had what
17:38
Speaker 2: we had to go through, even with the EPA to
17:40
Speaker 2: get that approved. We had to know when the fish
17:43
Speaker 2: were hatching and the birds were hatching, and I mean
17:45
Speaker 2: it was a big deal. Hawkins did that and they
17:48
Speaker 2: really do a great job. But I will say every
17:52
Speaker 2: now and then, like we had an issue with the
17:54
Speaker 2: intersection of one hundred and thirty second in Pacific that
17:58
Speaker 2: after it was done, we had to go back and
18:00
Speaker 2: tear it up because that there was some issues underneath
18:04
Speaker 2: the surface. And Slain was the one that did that project,
18:07
Speaker 2: and they came back and did it. Because those developers,
18:11
Speaker 2: those construction companies that do the work, we hold them
18:13
Speaker 2: to their work and make sure that their work holds up. Now,
18:17
Speaker 2: I'm not sure what you're talking about with one hundred
18:18
Speaker 2: and sixty eighth because I drive that probably twice a
18:22
Speaker 2: week and I don't I didn't see any issues with
18:25
Speaker 2: that yet. But you know, things things come up, but
18:30
Speaker 2: usually usually not, I mean usually not. But I will
18:33
Speaker 2: tell you this, the only thing concrete is guaranteed to
18:36
Speaker 2: do is to crack. It's going to happen and you
18:40
Speaker 2: know that area around Zarinsky there's a lot of water.
18:42
Speaker 2: There's water, you know, under the surface because of the
18:45
Speaker 2: lake out there, and if there was an issue there,
18:48
Speaker 2: you know, I'm not aware of that. Like I said,
18:50
Speaker 2: I drive that area on that one hundred and sixty
18:53
Speaker 2: eighth street. There's only one section left to do and
18:56
Speaker 2: that would be Q Street down to Harrison, and that
18:58
Speaker 2: still is not budget as far as I know, but
19:01
Speaker 2: that that was a major project there and takes a
19:04
Speaker 2: long time to get those projects done.
19:06
Speaker 1: I think anyone's commute, they're going to find those areas
19:08
Speaker 1: in Pete. Thank you very much for the phone call
19:10
Speaker 1: where they say, why are we tearing this up again?
19:12
Speaker 1: We just did this. Sorry for me. It's eighty seventh
19:15
Speaker 1: in cast there seems to be a water main that
19:17
Speaker 1: continues to be a problem there every single summer. One
19:20
Speaker 1: hundred and twentieth and Maple is another zone in that
19:23
Speaker 1: area around that bridge where it seemed like they were
19:26
Speaker 1: back into that area over and over again.
19:28
Speaker 3: I know.
19:29
Speaker 2: And the expense is just unbelievable. You know what else
19:33
Speaker 2: is so expensive? Like an example would be one hundred
19:35
Speaker 2: and fifty six north of Dodge, where I think Verana
19:39
Speaker 2: did that and that widening of that area at those
19:42
Speaker 2: sound walls, and you know, the the EPA requires them.
19:46
Speaker 2: I think they you know, sometimes those sound walls can
19:49
Speaker 2: cost more than the road itself, and so that adds
19:53
Speaker 2: hugely to the expense of the project. But once again,
19:57
Speaker 2: we have a lot more money that is going in
20:00
Speaker 2: our roads in the city of Omaha with the bond
20:03
Speaker 2: issue that passed in May of twenty twenty and then
20:06
Speaker 2: reauthorization approved by the voters just this last election in November,
20:10
Speaker 2: so there's another two hundred million that can be used
20:13
Speaker 2: on the roads. It's making progress, but again we have
20:17
Speaker 2: five thousand lane miles of road in Omaha that have
20:21
Speaker 2: really been underfunded for years. Concrete is going to last
20:26
Speaker 2: a lot longer, but it's much more expensive asphalt. It
20:30
Speaker 2: depends on the traffic, it depends on the weather, and
20:33
Speaker 2: so you know, it's still a good project to mill
20:37
Speaker 2: it down and resurface it rather than just keep on
20:40
Speaker 2: filling potholes.
20:41
Speaker 1: Why does it seem like some roads get torn up
20:43
Speaker 1: and then they're fine, and then they're torn up again
20:46
Speaker 1: in the exact same spot the next year. This is
20:48
Speaker 1: what we have coming to midtown to downtown.
20:50
Speaker 2: Absolutely, and you know, for the folks that live down
20:54
Speaker 2: there and have businesses down there, I know you are
20:57
Speaker 2: aware of this. But right now all of this can
20:59
Speaker 2: struction are the utilities underneath the street. The utilities had
21:04
Speaker 2: to be under the rails, they had to be done.
21:06
Speaker 2: Now again MUD has expanded that area where they want
21:11
Speaker 2: their utilities done for the streetcar, which is added a
21:14
Speaker 2: couple years on the construction of the streetcar. Remember originally
21:18
Speaker 2: it was supposed to be twenty twenty six, and now
21:20
Speaker 2: we'll be lucky if it's twenty twenty eight. But they're
21:24
Speaker 2: doing the utilities now underground. That is what all of
21:28
Speaker 2: the construction is. And then along the line itself, the
21:32
Speaker 2: corridor itself, they will come back and there will be
21:34
Speaker 2: a second round of disruption because the rails then will
21:38
Speaker 2: go in and so people have to face that. So
21:41
Speaker 2: they're working on it now and they're going to come
21:44
Speaker 2: back and they're going to put the rails in next
21:47
Speaker 2: and so there will be more disruption downtown. But you know,
21:51
Speaker 2: it didn't make sense to me when we did agree
21:54
Speaker 2: with MUD to expand the amount of work they were
21:57
Speaker 2: doing to put new rail in on a street over
22:01
Speaker 2: one hundred hundred and twenty year old water lines underground.
22:05
Speaker 2: It didn't make sense at all. And we have mains
22:07
Speaker 2: that break occasionally more frequently than they should be, but
22:12
Speaker 2: they're old, and so the last thing we wanted to
22:14
Speaker 2: do with that is to put in rails and then
22:17
Speaker 2: have a water main break and have to tear up
22:19
Speaker 2: and tear out the rails. So it did make a
22:21
Speaker 2: lot of sense. But I will say this with Mud,
22:24
Speaker 2: when we originally started working with them, their cost was
22:28
Speaker 2: going to be a little less than ten million dollars.
22:31
Speaker 2: Then they came back and they were saying, but the
22:34
Speaker 2: water main is, you know, half a block away and whatever,
22:37
Speaker 2: and we need she had to be doing all of
22:39
Speaker 2: this to prevent that from happening, and we agreed to that,
22:42
Speaker 2: and the cost went up to about twenty two million,
22:45
Speaker 2: and so we thought that makes a lot of sense though,
22:47
Speaker 2: because we don't want something bad happening once we do
22:50
Speaker 2: all this work on the street and have to tear
22:52
Speaker 2: it up again. Now it's forty four million, I mean
22:57
Speaker 2: went under ten to forty four million of the work
23:00
Speaker 2: Mud is doing because of the street car. And so
23:04
Speaker 2: that is something that concerns me because that added a
23:07
Speaker 2: lot more expense to the project. The taxpayers are not
23:11
Speaker 2: paying extra for this to the project, but there is
23:14
Speaker 2: going to be enough money that the project will generate
23:16
Speaker 2: to pay for that. But we felt like that there
23:19
Speaker 2: would be enough money that we could use for other
23:21
Speaker 2: things like affordable housing, or like bike lanes or pedestrian
23:26
Speaker 2: walkways or whatever, and most and a lot of that
23:29
Speaker 2: is going to go to the utilities.
23:30
Speaker 1: Now, all right, you brought it up the street car.
23:34
Speaker 1: So now we've got calls here. Joe is on the line.
23:37
Speaker 1: Welcome to the KFABEE comment line with Jean Stothart.
23:42
Speaker 4: Hey, Mayor, thanks for saving the call. First, I just
23:45
Speaker 4: got to tell you my mom, Alice, is one of
23:47
Speaker 4: your biggest fans. She loves you. She was on your
23:51
Speaker 4: Facebook all the time and she just loves you. So
23:55
Speaker 4: thanks for all you did.
23:56
Speaker 2: Well, Thank you and thank your mom.
24:00
Speaker 4: Two part question on the street car, and I'm sure
24:02
Speaker 4: you've gone over, but one who who like came up
24:07
Speaker 4: with the idea. Was it the developer, was it city council?
24:10
Speaker 4: Was it just some guy at a streetcar company and said, hey,
24:14
Speaker 4: let's go to Omaha and film or a streetcar? And
24:16
Speaker 4: then two, why is it a good idea, And I
24:21
Speaker 4: don't even know if I'm poor against it, be honest
24:23
Speaker 4: with you, But why is it a good idea when
24:26
Speaker 4: it's such a small portion of the city.
24:29
Speaker 1: All Right, So the Joe's phone there was a low
24:31
Speaker 1: muffled and Joe, thank you very much for the call.
24:33
Speaker 1: There he was saying, whose idea was it? Was it yours?
24:36
Speaker 1: Was it mutuals? Was it some guy selling streetcars door
24:39
Speaker 1: to door that talked you into it? And why is
24:42
Speaker 1: it a good idea?
24:43
Speaker 3: Sure?
24:43
Speaker 2: You know, we've been talking about the streetcar in Omaha
24:46
Speaker 2: for a long long time. In fact, hal Doab mayor
24:50
Speaker 2: hell Doab talked about the streetcar, so it has been
24:53
Speaker 2: on the radar for quite a long time. I'm the
24:57
Speaker 2: one that really moved this movement and this can instruction
25:00
Speaker 2: of this streetcar forward. And I will tell you I
25:03
Speaker 2: will own it. I mean, whether people like it or not,
25:06
Speaker 2: I will own it because I pushed it forward and
25:09
Speaker 2: I brought it to the City Council. But the reason
25:11
Speaker 2: I did it is the Chamber of Commerce, the Greater
25:14
Speaker 2: Omaha Chamber. They commissioned the Urban Core Committee, and the
25:18
Speaker 2: Urban Core Committee was made up of a lot of
25:21
Speaker 2: business owners and business people in Midtown and downtown, and
25:27
Speaker 2: their job was, or their task was, is to come
25:30
Speaker 2: up with a plan for more organized development of downtown
25:34
Speaker 2: in Midtown. Their number one suggestion in their Urban Core
25:38
Speaker 2: Committee report was that we build a streetcar. Now, the
25:41
Speaker 2: reason that they said that is multiple, and I go
25:44
Speaker 2: into that. But I went right back to them and
25:47
Speaker 2: I said, I understand, I read your report. I understand
25:50
Speaker 2: what the need is, but show me a way to
25:52
Speaker 2: fund it that we don't have to raise taxes and
25:54
Speaker 2: raise a levy. And they did that, and that's why
25:57
Speaker 2: we are using TIFF to fund the streetcar. Now, let
26:01
Speaker 2: me go back to why it is important. I always
26:04
Speaker 2: go by the phrase that is so important and so accurate,
26:08
Speaker 2: and that is cities never stand still. They are either
26:11
Speaker 2: growing and moving forward or declining and falling behind. I
26:16
Speaker 2: did not want to be the mayor of a city
26:18
Speaker 2: that is declining and falling behind. Now let's look at Omaha,
26:21
Speaker 2: and I'll try to be as brief as I can,
26:24
Speaker 2: but we figure by the year twenty fifty, which is
26:27
Speaker 2: about twenty five years from now, Omaha has expanded all
26:31
Speaker 2: the way west we possibly can for growth. And if
26:34
Speaker 2: you expand and then you're landlocked, and you don't grow
26:38
Speaker 2: anymore than property values start declining and you are in
26:41
Speaker 2: a situation that you don't want. So what happens when
26:45
Speaker 2: we can't grow out west anymore? Then you go back
26:48
Speaker 2: to the beginning in east and you go upward. And
26:51
Speaker 2: that's what we are doing. We are building downtown and
26:55
Speaker 2: midtown upward. The problem with doing that with bringing new
27:00
Speaker 2: businesses in downtown in midtown, bringing new jobs. We've lost
27:04
Speaker 2: over twenty thousand jobs in downtown Omaha since the nineteen seventies.
27:09
Speaker 2: But to bring those jobs back and to bring the
27:12
Speaker 2: businesses back and the residents back in downtown in midtown,
27:15
Speaker 2: we have a problem with parking. And you know, when
27:19
Speaker 2: you start and look at the past in Omaha and
27:22
Speaker 2: you look at where we are now with parking, do
27:25
Speaker 2: you know that right now in downtown Omaha, fifty percent
27:29
Speaker 2: is dedicated to parking, and at any given time fifty
27:32
Speaker 2: percent is vacant. So we are changing, We are exchanging
27:36
Speaker 2: jobs for parking. So what we don't want, we don't
27:40
Speaker 2: want that to happen. We want to attract young talent,
27:43
Speaker 2: We want to attract young businesses, We want to attract
27:46
Speaker 2: more people in our downtown in midtime, because that's what
27:49
Speaker 2: makes a city vibrant. If downtown in Midtown is successful,
27:53
Speaker 2: all of Omaha is successful. And so that's why I said, Okay,
27:57
Speaker 2: let's look into this. How can we build a streetcar
28:01
Speaker 2: that we could get people in around and out of
28:05
Speaker 2: downtown without building more parking and taking up more parking
28:09
Speaker 2: space downtown. That's the reason I wanted to move forward
28:13
Speaker 2: with it. Now, you take where the streetcar the West
28:15
Speaker 2: terminus around, like around Midtown for example, and people out west.
28:21
Speaker 2: I live out West, and people at West told me, well,
28:23
Speaker 2: I'm never going to use that streetcar. Well I will.
28:26
Speaker 2: I live about one hundred and twentieth and Q. And
28:29
Speaker 2: what we will do is the city is buying the
28:31
Speaker 2: three parking garages at Midtown and we will own and
28:35
Speaker 2: operate a low cost I could drive my car, park
28:38
Speaker 2: in the city owned lot at Midtown, jump on the streetcar.
28:42
Speaker 2: It's free, there's no cost to ride it. I could
28:44
Speaker 2: go downtown around downtown as much as I want. I
28:48
Speaker 2: could go to a ball game, then go out to dinner.
28:50
Speaker 2: Then I could go to a bar and belly up
28:52
Speaker 2: to the bar or whatever, and then go back to
28:54
Speaker 2: my car. At midtown and off we go and avoid
28:57
Speaker 2: the congestion. I also, and I have to say this
29:01
Speaker 2: because I know people find change very difficult and not
29:06
Speaker 2: knowing how they will use it or how they will
29:08
Speaker 2: it will benefit them. But let me remind you when
29:11
Speaker 2: we were building the Arena Convention Center, which is wildly popular.
29:15
Speaker 2: In fact, we are expanding it now, doing a two
29:17
Speaker 2: hundred million dollar expansion. I heard people over and over
29:21
Speaker 2: say we don't need it. I will never go downtown.
29:24
Speaker 2: I don't like parking down now. I will never go
29:26
Speaker 2: down there to a concert. Remember the ballpark, people were saying,
29:30
Speaker 2: if you leave Rosenblatt, I don't want to go downtown.
29:32
Speaker 2: I will never go to another College World Series game.
29:36
Speaker 2: I heard that over and over, and look, it's wildly popular,
29:39
Speaker 2: sellout crowds, so I know it's thinking about maybe I
29:44
Speaker 2: will never use it, or thinking I will never use it,
29:47
Speaker 2: and it's a waste of time and a waste of money.
29:49
Speaker 2: I can guarantee you right now, the streetcar is already
29:52
Speaker 2: successful and the rails aren't in the ground, and that's
29:55
Speaker 2: because it's being paid for with the increased development around
29:58
Speaker 2: the area. We did a lot of studying before we
30:02
Speaker 2: went forward and looked at cities that built streetcars, and
30:05
Speaker 2: in every city that we looked at their projections for
30:10
Speaker 2: economic development around the rails, it far exceeded it. After
30:15
Speaker 2: the rails were put in the streetcar was working, and
30:17
Speaker 2: Kansas City is the best example. Down there. There is
30:21
Speaker 2: one man and I can't think of his name right now,
30:23
Speaker 2: but he owned a menswear store that was going to
30:27
Speaker 2: be along the streetcar line and it was being disrupted
30:31
Speaker 2: obviously like ours are now too, during the streetcar construction.
30:36
Speaker 2: And he was very vocal about it, very vocal downtown
30:39
Speaker 2: and Kansas City, saying it's ruining my business. We don't
30:43
Speaker 2: need this streetcar. It's going to be awful. He is
30:46
Speaker 2: the first one to come back out and say I
30:49
Speaker 2: was wrong. My business now that the streetcar is running
30:53
Speaker 2: is booming. I have different clientele. It was more geared
30:57
Speaker 2: towards Alderman at the time. He has a much younger
31:00
Speaker 2: client tele. He said, I have really changed what I
31:04
Speaker 2: sell in my store. And he said it's because of
31:06
Speaker 2: the streetcar. You know, Mutual of Omaha would not be
31:11
Speaker 2: building that tower downtown at the old Dale Clark Library
31:15
Speaker 2: site if they didn't have the benefit of the streetcar.
31:18
Speaker 2: Mutual of Omaha could have built anywhere in Omaha. They
31:21
Speaker 2: could build anywhere in the country. But they have four
31:24
Speaker 2: thousand employees mutual in this in the City of Omaha.
31:28
Speaker 2: They're building a garage for twenty two hundred. Now, of
31:32
Speaker 2: course they're not all going to be there at the
31:34
Speaker 2: same time, but that's a fourteen story garage. That's as
31:37
Speaker 2: big as you're going to get. So with the advantage
31:40
Speaker 2: of the streetcar, people can their employees can park at midtown,
31:43
Speaker 2: take the streetcar down around downtown and out again. And
31:47
Speaker 2: then economic development has far surpassed already what we thought.
31:51
Speaker 2: We thought in the first fifteen years we would get
31:54
Speaker 2: about two billion in economic development. That would generate about
31:59
Speaker 2: nine hundred million dollars that would go to more than
32:02
Speaker 2: pay for the street car. Already there's about one point
32:05
Speaker 2: five billion. So now they have changed the projections to
32:09
Speaker 2: four billion worth of economic development in the first fifteen years.
32:14
Speaker 2: That makes it successful already.
32:17
Speaker 1: Do you want me just to have what you just
32:19
Speaker 1: said recorded and we can just press a button and
32:21
Speaker 1: play it back when this issue comes up. It's the
32:23
Speaker 1: biggest issue it is in the City of Omaha. Over
32:26
Speaker 1: the next couple of.
32:27
Speaker 2: Years, and you know this is an issue. I know
32:29
Speaker 2: it