Latest / The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert / Affordable Housing and Jean's Personal Life

Transcript

Affordable Housing and Jean's Personal Life · The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert

0:00
Speaker 1: I have three pages of emails from yesterday's show, and
0:04
Speaker 1: we'll see if we can get through some of these
0:05
Speaker 1: as well. But I mentioned this during the last hour
0:09
Speaker 1: of my program that I was talking about affordable housing
0:13
Speaker 1: in Omaha, and it was so funny. You sent me
0:15
Speaker 1: a text and said, can I talk about affordable housing
0:19
Speaker 1: on my show?
0:21
Speaker 2: You don't have to ask, like I said, you're mentoring
0:24
Speaker 2: me right now. I'm the mentee, and so you know.
0:27
Speaker 1: I gotta learn how this goes, all right, So yes,
0:31
Speaker 1: you can here because as we were talking about in
0:33
Speaker 1: the last hour, it's a big issue and you hear
0:36
Speaker 1: it a lot as a city leader, and here in
0:40
Speaker 1: Omaha there are a lot of people saying, well, I
0:42
Speaker 1: see all these apartments going up and it's a bunch
0:44
Speaker 1: of money for rent, and then these houses are super expensive.
0:47
Speaker 3: Right, what are we going to do? Right?
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Speaker 2: And you know, affordable housing is misunderstood. So I think
0:53
Speaker 2: it's important that people understand what it is. Because I'll
0:57
Speaker 2: give you an example. When I did a press conference
1:00
Speaker 2: with Todd Heastead about the Twin Towers Central Park Plaza,
1:03
Speaker 2: which are the two big towers at the end of
1:05
Speaker 2: the gene Leahy Mall, he's converting this building that was
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Speaker 2: seventy five percent vacant into housing. There's going to be
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Speaker 2: seven hundred and seven apartments, and we said thirty percent,
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Speaker 2: we're going to be affordable.
1:18
Speaker 4: Well what is the rent going to be?
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Speaker 2: And when he said what it was going to be,
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Speaker 2: immediately people said, well, that's not affordable for me. So
1:25
Speaker 2: what does affordable housing mean?
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Speaker 3: Exactly? That's the first issue.
1:29
Speaker 2: So there is a definition by HUD what affordable housing is.
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Speaker 2: And to put it in perspective, if you start at
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Speaker 2: the lowest, you talk about subsidized housing, and I'm moving upward,
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Speaker 2: then you talk about subsidized, you do low income, and
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Speaker 2: then you do subsidized, and then you do affordable, and
1:51
Speaker 2: then you do workforce, and then you do market rate
1:55
Speaker 2: and then you do luxury. Okay, So at the bottom
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Speaker 2: would be low income and then subsidized and then affordable.
2:03
Speaker 2: So what does that affordable mean? The important thing is
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Speaker 2: is affordable housing is based on the mean average income
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Speaker 2: and the MSA the area you live. Okay, So what
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Speaker 2: it means is affordable housing in New York City and
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Speaker 2: affordable housing in Los Angeles is not what affordable housing
2:22
Speaker 2: is in Omaha. Nebraska. It's based on the mean average income.
2:26
Speaker 2: And basically what they were saying to qualify for affordable
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Speaker 2: is that you anyone should not be paying more than
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Speaker 2: thirty percent of their monthly income to housing including utilities.
2:39
Speaker 2: So just keep that in mind of what affordable really means.
2:43
Speaker 2: A lot of people think affordable means cheap, and it doesn't,
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Speaker 2: you know, they think, want I want a luxury apartment
2:51
Speaker 2: and I want it to be cheap. That's not what
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Speaker 2: affordable housing is. That's impossible.
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Speaker 4: It's impossible.
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Speaker 1: Well, how many people who are saying affordable housing really
2:59
Speaker 1: don't want to pay hardly anything, But they also don't
3:02
Speaker 1: want to live in a place like the often maligned
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Speaker 1: and there's reasons for that. City view of prod which
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Speaker 1: is closed down, which is across from the Omaha Children's Museum.
3:12
Speaker 1: It was in the news for a long time and
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Speaker 1: you had really good people living there and they were
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Speaker 1: terrorized from broken doors, windows, people coming in there, homeless
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Speaker 1: people camping out and using the restroom in hallways where
3:27
Speaker 1: there was no restroom if you catch my drift, And
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Speaker 1: there was violence and there was drug dealing and it
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Speaker 1: was a horrible scene. And when people get the idea
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Speaker 1: of subsidized or affordable housing. They think of that and go, well,
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Speaker 1: I don't want that, right, and we don't want it either.
3:43
Speaker 2: You know, the problem with city View, excuse me, is
3:46
Speaker 2: that the owner was in Florida, and when the real
3:51
Speaker 2: problem started happening is when they let their security go.
3:56
Speaker 2: There was no security in that building. There was nobody
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Speaker 2: stopping people from coming in and sleeping in the hallways
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Speaker 2: during the night time. And we were actively trying to
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Speaker 2: work with the owners and the owner's attorneys, giving them
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Speaker 2: a timeline and when they had to get in there,
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Speaker 2: get security, get that secured up, and get that fixed up.
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Speaker 2: But it wasn't happening quick enough, and so we know
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Speaker 2: what ended up with city View wasn't being shut down. No,
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Speaker 2: that is not what we want, and that's not what
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Speaker 2: we mean by affordable. But those were not all considered
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Speaker 2: affordable housing. You know, affordable housing, like I said, should
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Speaker 2: be based on your annual income. It should be enough
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Speaker 2: that you could afford to live there and pay utilities
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Speaker 2: and still buy food and still have a nice place
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Speaker 2: to live. But it doesn't mean cheap. It doesn't mean
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Speaker 2: cheap at all. And you know in Omaha, for example,
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Speaker 2: a one bedroom safe for seven hundred eight hundred a
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Speaker 2: month is considered affordable. Now some people will say that's
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Speaker 2: not affordable for me, but that's not where we're going
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Speaker 2: with affordable housing.
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Speaker 3: Now.
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Speaker 4: Do we need more?
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Speaker 2: Yes, we do, And that's one thing I was working
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Speaker 2: on actively. We had a plan with the Planning Department.
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Speaker 2: They were actively working on it. We were also we
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Speaker 2: knew what the street car the revenue was going to
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Speaker 2: be enough.
5:10
Speaker 4: Sorry that I got to reach the cough thing here.
5:16
Speaker 3: We all got to clear our throats once.
5:17
Speaker 4: This is allergy season.
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Speaker 2: But you know that the thing of it is is
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Speaker 2: that we need more affordable housing in Omaha. But it's
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Speaker 2: important for people to understand the street car was going
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Speaker 2: to generate enough revenue so that we could use the
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Speaker 2: additional revenue for more affordable housing, and that plan was
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Speaker 2: already underway. We do have a lot of philanthropic health
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Speaker 2: also to build more affordable housing, but people just need
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Speaker 2: to realize what it is and what it isn't.
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Speaker 1: If if I want to start up a business and
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Speaker 1: sell tacos, I'm not going to the city going hey,
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Speaker 1: help me out here. I want to sell affordable tacos
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Speaker 1: and I need you to subsidize me and or this
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Speaker 1: is something the city should do. The city needs to
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Speaker 1: provide us to Why when it comes to housing is
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Speaker 1: that would the city have anything to do with it?
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Speaker 2: You know that because they think it's the city's responsibility.
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Speaker 2: But you know, Scott, that happens in city government even
6:12
Speaker 2: with jobs. It truly does.
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Speaker 5: You know.
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Speaker 2: I have had many many people come to me when
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Speaker 2: I was mayor saying, you know, I want to start
6:19
Speaker 2: my company.
6:20
Speaker 4: I want to do construction.
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Speaker 2: You know, I don't have the capability to buy equipment
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Speaker 2: and I don't have the staff, and what can you
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Speaker 2: do to help me get my company going?
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Speaker 4: Well, that's not the city's role either.
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Speaker 3: You know.
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Speaker 2: What what we want to do is provide the resources
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Speaker 2: that we possibly can. But we can't provide resources for
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Speaker 2: people to one hundred percent pay for their housing. That's
6:44
Speaker 2: not part of what city government is about.
6:46
Speaker 3: Okay. By the way, you brought up the streetcar first today.
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Speaker 4: I did, and I love talking about it.
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Speaker 3: Oh I know you do.
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Speaker 2: But let me just I have to say one other thing.
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Speaker 2: If I got a minute here to do it at
6:56
Speaker 2: your show. Yeah, I know it, but let me just
6:58
Speaker 2: say this with my goal with this show is not
7:03
Speaker 2: just to talk about the current administration. So you know,
7:07
Speaker 2: if you ask me, I'll tell you the truth. But
7:09
Speaker 2: the role of the mayor, the number one role of government,
7:12
Speaker 2: of city government is public safety. That's the number one
7:16
Speaker 2: role of government. That's the number one role of every
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Speaker 2: mayor in the country. Your first priority is keeping the
7:22
Speaker 2: citizens of Omaha safe. That is number one. That was
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Speaker 2: my number one priority for all the time for the
7:28
Speaker 2: twelve years I was mayor, And my second priority was
7:32
Speaker 2: keeping taxes low and managing the city budget. Mayor Ewing's
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Speaker 2: seven priorities that he came out with Number one is
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Speaker 2: affordable housing. Number two is risk and resilience. Number three
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Speaker 2: is poverty elimination Action planned. Number four is homelessness. There
7:51
Speaker 2: is no public safety in his priorities, and there is
7:55
Speaker 2: no priority of keeping taxes low and managing the city budget.
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Speaker 4: I just need to get that.
8:00
Speaker 3: Well.
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Speaker 1: But if we have everyone with a great place to
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Speaker 1: live and we've eliminated poverty, then you wouldn't have any crime.
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Speaker 2: So duh, poverty is impossible to eliminate. You can do,
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Speaker 2: I mean, and if it was an easy task, we
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Speaker 2: wouldn't have had it. Since the beginning of time, but
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Speaker 2: it's impossible to eliminate.
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Speaker 1: We have a call here with an idea for something
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Speaker 1: that could assist the city with the budgeting and so forth.
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Speaker 1: It is probably a question you got during your time
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Speaker 1: on the council and as mayor. Welcome Christen here to
8:30
Speaker 1: the KFAB comment line. You're on news radio eleven ten
8:33
Speaker 1: KFAB with Jean Stothard.
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Speaker 4: Hi, Jean Hie, good morning.
8:39
Speaker 6: So my question is I was just at Walmart and
8:41
Speaker 6: in the parking lot, a guy's like, hey, sign my
8:44
Speaker 6: petition and it's for legalizing sports betting hear your phone
8:50
Speaker 6: in Nebraska, and.
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Speaker 7: To lower property tax. So I didn't sign the one
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Speaker 7: for sports betting because I don't agree with gambling at all,
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Speaker 7: but he goes, you might as well sign the one
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Speaker 7: for the property tax release because they're going to pass
9:07
Speaker 7: the sports betting anyway, and we need property tax release
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Speaker 7: because I live in Elkhorn and it's horrible. But also
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Speaker 7: we have a shortfall in our budget Nebraska.
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Speaker 6: Why don't we use all the casinos we had to
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Speaker 6: have and we're gonna have all this money and generate
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Speaker 6: all this new money.
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Speaker 7: Why is it not going to release our property tax?
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Speaker 6: In our shortfall in the budget.
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Speaker 2: Well, you know, number one, I never signed petitions because
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Speaker 2: I would recommend that you don't sign them either unless
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Speaker 2: you know exactly what they mean. When they say sign
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Speaker 2: this petition to lower property taxes, what does that mean?
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Speaker 2: How are they going to lower them? And who is
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Speaker 2: asking you to sign this? What organization is asking you
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Speaker 2: to sign it? And so I never have signed a
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Speaker 2: petition because I don't know where they're coming from. But yeah,
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Speaker 2: there is the state legislature did pass that we can
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Speaker 2: can do casino gambling in Omaha now, but it is
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Speaker 2: based on how close it is to a racetrack and
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Speaker 2: there's all of these these regulations about it. Now, the
10:12
Speaker 2: money generated from that, you know, that's just opened up
10:15
Speaker 2: a warhorse not that long ago. So it's a little
10:17
Speaker 2: bit it's a little bit questionable how much generation of
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Speaker 2: money that that will make, but that will go in
10:24
Speaker 2: some will go to the city and some will go
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Speaker 2: to the state budget. But the budget shortfall that the
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Speaker 2: legislature and the governor are dealing with now is huge,
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Speaker 2: and they don't have too many days left in this session,
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Speaker 2: and so what they're going to do to solve that
10:38
Speaker 2: big shortfall I mean, I know the governor is looking
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Speaker 2: at every possible pot of money out there that they
10:44
Speaker 2: can reduce to put more money into the general fund budget.
10:47
Speaker 2: But at the same time, every time they try to
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Speaker 2: reduce money from some pot, there's a lot of complaints
10:53
Speaker 2: to say, but don't jab me. And so it's a
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Speaker 2: very very difficult task when they have that big of
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Speaker 2: a short in the budget, and do they have the
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Speaker 2: time to stop it. I will say, property tax, though,
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Speaker 2: is local. Your property tax levee is set by your
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Speaker 2: local government. It's recommended by the mayor, and it's approved
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Speaker 2: by the city council. It is the tax levee is
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Speaker 2: not approved by state legislature. And you know I lowered
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Speaker 2: our levee five times when I was mayor. But if
11:22
Speaker 2: you look at your property tax bill, and I know
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Speaker 2: what you're saying out in Elcorn, but if you look
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Speaker 2: at your property tax bill, the City of Omaha is
11:30
Speaker 2: only about twenty two percent of the entire bill. The
11:33
Speaker 2: school districts are at least sixty two percent of your
11:37
Speaker 2: entire bill, Douglas County is about twelve and a half,
11:40
Speaker 2: and then the rest of the taxing entities make up
11:43
Speaker 2: the rest, like Metro Transit and Metro Community College. So
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Speaker 2: when I lower the levee, which I did five times,
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Speaker 2: it's just lowering the levee of twenty two percent of
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Speaker 2: the total bill. So you don't see that big of
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Speaker 2: a reduction. If you really want your levee, lord, it's
11:58
Speaker 2: got to come from the school districts.
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Speaker 1: And thank you very much for the phone call. And
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Speaker 1: people will say, yeah, you lowered the levee. But here
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Speaker 1: comes the valuation. Exactly, it's all gone. Exactly, it's up anyway,
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Speaker 1: And that's what's happening now. Douglas County sets the valuations,
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Speaker 1: and we know that the Douglas County Assessor sets the valuation.
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Speaker 1: But the problem is somebody would say to me, well,
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Speaker 1: my mine went up twenty two percent, so drop my
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Speaker 1: tax is twenty two percent. But not everybody's went up
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Speaker 1: twenty two percent. Some people stayed the same, some dropped.
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Speaker 4: So then you got to.
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Speaker 2: Look at the average of what all this the valuations
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Speaker 2: are going up. My plea to the legislature was always,
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Speaker 2: can we get more consistent with doing this annually? So
12:39
Speaker 2: maybe it's a small amount annually that you go up
12:42
Speaker 2: and not all of a sudden after ten years, you
12:44
Speaker 2: get smacked with this huge increase in your valuation and
12:48
Speaker 2: everybody's ringing their hands saying, how in the world am
12:50
Speaker 2: I going to pay for this?
12:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I saw on Facebook that as mayor of Omaha,
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Speaker 1: your house valuation never went up. In fact, it always
12:56
Speaker 1: went down every single year you were mayor. I saw
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Speaker 1: that on Facebook.
13:00
Speaker 4: Didn't go down. Good lord.
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Speaker 2: I tell you these people that are are looking at
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Speaker 2: my house and what I pay, but you know that's
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Speaker 2: the public record. People look at what I pay and
13:09
Speaker 2: my house has not gone up that much because they
13:13
Speaker 2: look at the comparables in the area that you live
13:17
Speaker 2: and a lot my house. I live in a small neighborhood,
13:20
Speaker 2: but a lot of the houses were very stable and
13:22
Speaker 2: weren't selling, so they didn't have a lot to compare
13:25
Speaker 2: them to. Now I know in the past year, probably
13:28
Speaker 2: at least five houses have sold in the area that
13:30
Speaker 2: I live in. I live about one hundred and twentieth
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Speaker 2: in Q Street, and I can tell you our taxes
13:35
Speaker 2: are going to go up in a few years because
13:36
Speaker 2: they're big time, because they're going to look at the
13:39
Speaker 2: comparables and base my tax valuation on my house and
13:43
Speaker 2: the comparables in the area. That's the problem though, And
13:46
Speaker 2: you know what when they do, because my taxes haven't
13:48
Speaker 2: gone up that much in several years, we're going to
13:50
Speaker 2: get slammed.
13:51
Speaker 4: I know we will.
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Speaker 1: Well, I didn't know there was a one hundred twentieth
13:54
Speaker 1: in Q in Saint Louis. Are the streets? Is the
13:56
Speaker 1: grid there about the same?
13:57
Speaker 5: Yeah?
13:58
Speaker 2: You know, I was going to say that at the
13:59
Speaker 2: beginning of the show from KIVAB Studios in Saint Louis.
14:02
Speaker 4: Now I'm here.
14:03
Speaker 2: You know, I've lived in this same house, same street
14:05
Speaker 2: for the last thirty three years, since nineteen ninety three.
14:09
Speaker 2: You know, somebody yesterday actually sent me an email and said,
14:13
Speaker 2: but I thought you were in Saint Louis with your
14:15
Speaker 2: Saint Louis husband.
14:16
Speaker 4: And I'm like, good lord, I think we're gonna have
14:18
Speaker 4: to bring it up every day.
14:19
Speaker 3: You'll never live it down.
14:20
Speaker 2: And you know they say my Saint Louis husband too.
14:23
Speaker 2: I was not born in Saint Louis. I was born
14:25
Speaker 2: in Alton, Illinois and grew up in Woodrover, Illinois. Kevin
14:29
Speaker 2: was my tall, smart and handsome husband. Kevin O'Rourke was
14:32
Speaker 2: born in Saint Louis. He left right after medical school
14:36
Speaker 2: in the seventies and hasn't been back yet. People missed
14:39
Speaker 2: that he lived in Annapolis, Maryland for the last forty
14:42
Speaker 2: five years. He wasn't in Saint Louis.
14:44
Speaker 1: Right, So you live in Baltimore too, You have a
14:46
Speaker 1: home in Baltimore. He lived in Baltimore, Saint Louis.
14:50
Speaker 2: You know, he never owned property in Saint Louis. He
14:52
Speaker 2: moved We got married in twenty twenty two. He moved here.
14:55
Speaker 2: This is where we live. And as you know, he
14:58
Speaker 2: like you, is a golfer and he loves Omaha.
15:02
Speaker 1: No, he's better than I am. Comment at kfab dot com.
15:07
Speaker 1: It's the kfab comment line. Jeane Stouth, your host. I'm
15:10
Speaker 1: producer Scott Vorhees here on news radio eleven ten KFAB.
15:14
Speaker 1: Since you referenced the current mayor of Omaha, there was
15:17
Speaker 1: an email that came in yesterday and I wanted to
15:19
Speaker 1: get to yesterday, couldn't do it. And it comes from
15:21
Speaker 1: Dale who asked the question. Gene has Mayor Ewing asked
15:26
Speaker 1: you for any advice after taking office last year?
15:30
Speaker 2: No, and I found that unusual. And when I became
15:34
Speaker 2: mayor in twenty thirteen Jim's I called Jim Subtle and
15:39
Speaker 2: I said, can I come up and talk to you
15:41
Speaker 2: and can you give me the lay of the land.
15:43
Speaker 2: And he was very gracious and he said, yes, I will,
15:46
Speaker 2: and he took me on a tour of the office
15:47
Speaker 2: and we sat down and talked and I asked him
15:49
Speaker 2: all sorts of things, and he was as helpful as
15:52
Speaker 2: he could be. Mary Ewing never did contact me, and
15:56
Speaker 2: I contacted him and I said can we meet and
15:59
Speaker 2: they they came back and they said he was pretty
16:01
Speaker 2: busy and was traveling, and never did he want to
16:05
Speaker 2: talk to me.
16:06
Speaker 1: Well, you have the same chief of staff and the
16:09
Speaker 1: same staff, so perhaps he thought, well, I can lean
16:13
Speaker 1: on their experience and if I need to reach out,
16:15
Speaker 1: I know where to find you.
16:16
Speaker 2: You should, I mean you really should. You should talk
16:19
Speaker 2: mayor to mayor and say give me the lay of
16:22
Speaker 2: the land. Give it to me from your perspective, because
16:24
Speaker 2: the maryror gets a lot of information that the staff
16:27
Speaker 2: doesn't get. You know, there's a lot of very privilege
16:30
Speaker 2: of information that ameer gates that the staff doesn't get.
16:33
Speaker 2: And it's true. The entire staff in my office I
16:35
Speaker 2: had about eighteen people. I hired every one of them.
16:38
Speaker 2: Some of them I created the job description and hired him,
16:41
Speaker 2: including Tom Warren chief of staff.
16:43
Speaker 4: He was my chief of staff.
16:44
Speaker 2: Before Tom Warren, it was Marty Beelake, who was fantastic.
16:47
Speaker 2: He used to be with the Sheriff's Department. And I
16:50
Speaker 2: hired all the directors, with the exception of Chief Smatter
16:53
Speaker 2: and Bob Stuby who was hired in two thousand and
16:55
Speaker 2: five for public Works and Mayor Ewing kept them all
17:00
Speaker 2: and that is highly unusual too.
17:02
Speaker 4: I will tell you.
17:03
Speaker 2: Maybe in business, maybe if you're the president of a
17:06
Speaker 2: big company and you're replace that new president may keep
17:10
Speaker 2: everybody of its rollin just fine. But in politics that
17:14
Speaker 2: just doesn't happen. It would be like Donald Trump keeping
17:18
Speaker 2: all of Biden's staff. I mean, that doesn't happen in politics.
17:24
Speaker 1: Let's take one more call in this segment here, and
17:26
Speaker 1: we got Steve on the line. Steve, you're on the
17:28
Speaker 1: KFAB comment line with Jeene Stotter.
17:30
Speaker 5: Good morning, Good morning everybody. So the one thing that
17:34
Speaker 5: I have not heard anybody talk about is when it
17:38
Speaker 5: comes to home valuations and oh, this house in your
17:42
Speaker 5: neighborhood sold for this this one sold for that. Well,
17:45
Speaker 5: it's these investors, the ones that are sending out the flyers,
17:47
Speaker 5: making the phone calls, trying to buy up your house
17:49
Speaker 5: for cash. Cash offers don't need to repair it. Well,
17:53
Speaker 5: here's what they do. You got five people trying to
17:56
Speaker 5: buy one hundred thousand dollars house. Let's say it's an
17:58
Speaker 5: old town Bellvue. You got five people, and their average
18:02
Speaker 5: bids on the house are going to be somewhere right
18:04
Speaker 5: around that one hundred thousand dollars. Well, you got these
18:07
Speaker 5: investors that come in that have massive pools of money
18:09
Speaker 5: and they're always going to be the highest bidder. So
18:12
Speaker 5: they can bid twenty thousand over fifty one hundred thousand
18:15
Speaker 5: dollars over what the average person can pay. And what
18:19
Speaker 5: do they do with that house. They take it, they
18:22
Speaker 5: buy it, they renovate it, which increases the property value,
18:26
Speaker 5: and then they turn around and they rent it. So
18:28
Speaker 5: that's how they're getting all of these single family homes
18:31
Speaker 5: off the market. That's why we have a housing crisis.
18:34
Speaker 5: Nobody is addressing the fact that these property valuations are
18:37
Speaker 5: going up because these investor groups have the endless pool
18:41
Speaker 5: of money to make the bid, whereas the average everyday
18:45
Speaker 5: prospective homeowner does not. So nobody's talking about that. How
18:50
Speaker 5: do we fix that? Do we sit there and I
18:53
Speaker 5: don't know, maybe put in a caveat that says, hey,
18:56
Speaker 5: if you're going to be an investor and you're going
18:58
Speaker 5: to buy this house and do that, guess what You've
19:00
Speaker 5: got to pay the increased property taxes. But it's not
19:02
Speaker 5: going to affect the local houses on your street and
19:05
Speaker 5: in your neighborhood because it could have sold for twenty
19:08
Speaker 5: thousand dollars less than what it would have You know,
19:12
Speaker 5: that's a.
19:13
Speaker 4: Very good point.
19:14
Speaker 2: But I've always said a house is only worth what
19:16
Speaker 2: somebody is willing to buy it for, you know, And
19:19
Speaker 2: I my experience with a lot of these investors is
19:22
Speaker 2: if somebody wants to sell or needs to sell their
19:24
Speaker 2: house quickly, they'll low ball it rather than pay something
19:29
Speaker 2: above and beyond what the average person looking to buy
19:31
Speaker 2: a home would and they'll lowball it and people will say, okay, fine,
19:35
Speaker 2: I just need to get out of this. And that
19:36
Speaker 2: could cause a problem on the other direction too. And
19:40
Speaker 2: so you know, your point is well taken, though, because
19:43
Speaker 2: if these investors are indeed coming and doing these things
19:46
Speaker 2: and buying up these properties. You know, the one thing
19:49
Speaker 2: I expected when I was mayor is they keep up
19:51
Speaker 2: these properties too, and a lot of times they would
19:53
Speaker 2: come in and basically try to flip them, do some
19:56
Speaker 2: repairs to them, not do them according to what the
19:59
Speaker 2: planning to apartment in city code would like them to do,
20:02
Speaker 2: and then try to rent them out and make a
20:04
Speaker 2: lot of money on it.
20:05
Speaker 4: And that's a problem too.
20:06
Speaker 1: President Trump has been addressing this and trying to keep
20:09
Speaker 1: some of the outside investors from coming into this country
20:12
Speaker 1: and buying up properties. Yea, so it's not that no
20:15
Speaker 1: one's talking about it. Steve, thank you very much for
20:17
Speaker 1: the call.
20:17
Speaker 3: Good rant.
20:18
Speaker 1: That's what the KFABE comment line is for. Uh part
20:21
Speaker 1: you part her. Jean Stouthert is here as your host,
20:25
Speaker 1: and there's another component to this program as well. I'm
20:29
Speaker 1: not going to be sitting here, I'm Scott for He's
20:31
Speaker 1: not gonna be sitting here every morning. Oh I'd like
20:33
Speaker 1: that Peyton high Lock is here. And now you said
20:36
Speaker 1: that you wanted to address a couple more things to
20:39
Speaker 1: kind of get people to know you a little bit better. Well,
20:41
Speaker 1: you and Peyton don't know each other very well. The
20:44
Speaker 1: next segment I'm turning over to the two of you.
20:46
Speaker 4: Oh boy, Peyden, are you ready.
20:49
Speaker 8: For this missed author? You said you wanted to address
20:52
Speaker 8: a little bit about uh more about you.
20:54
Speaker 2: Yes, and you know, hopefully one of these days will
20:56
Speaker 2: drop the former mayor Jean Stothard.
20:59
Speaker 3: I don't.
20:59
Speaker 2: I think there's not one living creature in Omaha, including
21:02
Speaker 2: my five year old grandson, who reminds me you're not
21:04
Speaker 2: the mayor anymore, are you, Grandma? No, thanks, kid, I'm not.
21:08
Speaker 2: But you know, Gene is good. You can call me Gene.
21:11
Speaker 8: You know, it's it's one of those things. It's when
21:14
Speaker 8: when is that line? When do we say, okay, we're
21:16
Speaker 8: going to drop the former? And maybe it's right now?
21:18
Speaker 8: Well you know, I mean, you just kick that.
21:19
Speaker 2: Mayor's like presidents earned the title of mayor for a lifetime.
21:24
Speaker 2: So there's still a lot of people that call me mayor,
21:26
Speaker 2: and I don't mind that at all. But you know,
21:27
Speaker 2: if they ask me what do we call you, I say,
21:29
Speaker 2: Jean's sign. That's my name, So I like to I
21:32
Speaker 2: like to be called by my name too. But Scott
21:34
Speaker 2: left us for a little bit, you know, he was
21:36
Speaker 2: out late last night and I think He's probably taken
21:38
Speaker 2: a quick nappy or something.
21:40
Speaker 4: Yeah, maybe help me back.
21:41
Speaker 8: I think he shut the door in and then one
21:43
Speaker 8: of those abandoned studios. It's dark in there.
21:45
Speaker 2: In my break, I think I saw him take off
21:48
Speaker 2: with a blanky. But you know, yesterday Scott asked me
21:51
Speaker 2: the question just so people think I'm just not the
21:53
Speaker 2: big bad mayor. Who is Jean Stothard? And I started
21:56
Speaker 2: out by talking about that I was a past critical
21:58
Speaker 2: care nurse, and that's one thing I absolutely love doing.
22:01
Speaker 2: Once a nurse, always a nurse. I like that. But
22:05
Speaker 2: people don't know about my family that much either. And
22:07
Speaker 2: you know, I'm a mom, I'm a grandmother. I was
22:11
Speaker 2: born in Alton, Illinois. I was raised in Wood River, Illinois. Okay,
22:15
Speaker 2: get rid of this Saint Louis thing. We talked about
22:17
Speaker 2: it yesterday. I lived in Saint Louis in the late
22:20
Speaker 2: seventies early eighties and moved away. I moved here thirty
22:25
Speaker 2: three years ago, nineteen ninety three, from Texas. We were
22:29
Speaker 2: living in Galveston, Texas. We lived there for nine years,
22:31
Speaker 2: and both of my kids were born in Galveston, Texas.
22:34
Speaker 2: So my kids are Longhorns. Keep that in mind. But
22:37
Speaker 2: I have two kids, Elizabeth and Andrew. Elizabeth was born
22:40
Speaker 2: in eighty five, Andrew was born in eighty seven, so
22:42
Speaker 2: that makes them forty and thirty eight. Both two very successful,
22:46
Speaker 2: smart kids obviously take after their dad. But my daughter
22:50
Speaker 2: works at Union Pacific here in Omaha. Married, and she
22:53
Speaker 2: has two little beautiful little boys, my grandsons. And those
22:56
Speaker 2: are Raymond, he's the oldest, and then and there is
23:00
Speaker 2: Max and then my son Andrew.
23:02
Speaker 4: He's a PhD.
23:04
Speaker 2: He got his PhD and his master's degree down at
23:07
Speaker 2: University of South Florida and Tampa in molecular medicine.
23:10
Speaker 4: He's a researcher. He now lives in Cincinnati.
23:13
Speaker 2: He's married, two little grandsons, that's Calvin and Theo, and
23:17
Speaker 2: he works for a he was doing Alzheimer's research, did
23:21
Speaker 2: a lot of benchort, a lot of research, and now
23:23
Speaker 2: he works for a great company in Cincinnati and he
23:26
Speaker 2: oversees pharmaceutical companies doing clinical trials. So those are my
23:29
Speaker 2: two kids. I have four little boy grandchildren. And then
23:33
Speaker 2: everybody knows this about me too. I was married for
23:35
Speaker 2: forty one years. I've trained as a nurse in the
23:38
Speaker 2: Saint Louis area, married, married for forty one years. In
23:42
Speaker 2: twenty twenty one, my husband died and they know of what.
23:45
Speaker 2: He died of suicide, which was something I had to
23:47
Speaker 2: deal with very very publicly. But I got together with
23:51
Speaker 2: Kevin O'Rourke and Kevin O'Rourke I dated in Saint Louis
23:57
Speaker 2: forty five years ago and he was a medicent I
24:00
Speaker 2: was a nurse. He did his training at Saint Louis.
24:03
Speaker 2: You went to Saint Louis, you high, good Catholic boy.
24:06
Speaker 2: But we dated forty five years ago, drifted apart, nothing
24:09
Speaker 2: bad happened. He went to Tulane to do his internship
24:13
Speaker 2: and then JOHNS. Hopkins to do his anesesia and he
24:16
Speaker 2: has been living in Annapolis, Maryland for the last forty
24:19
Speaker 2: five years, not Saint Louis. He was never married before,
24:22
Speaker 2: didn't have kids. So we got back together, started talking
24:26
Speaker 2: and the rest was history. And we've been married almost
24:28
Speaker 2: four years now. So Kevin, I always address him as
24:31
Speaker 2: my tall, smart and handsome husband.
24:33
Speaker 4: He's very smart.
24:34
Speaker 2: He's about six foot three, and he's a great guy
24:38
Speaker 2: and loves Omaha, loves it. So that's a little bit
24:41
Speaker 2: about my personal life.
24:42
Speaker 3: That's amazing.
24:42
Speaker 8: You said, you have two kids, which one's your favorite?
24:45
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, let's see which one's listening right now. No,
24:49
Speaker 2: they're both great kids, and great that I get to
24:52
Speaker 2: see Elizabeth a lot, because, like I said, she's here
24:54
Speaker 2: in Omaha. We do a lot of stuff together. Like
24:58
Speaker 2: to see Andrew as much as I can. But there's
25:00
Speaker 2: no easy way to get to Cincinnati from Omaha. Unfortunately,
25:04
Speaker 2: you have to go through excuse me, Chicago. But I
25:08
Speaker 2: want to see them a lot more too now. And
25:10
Speaker 2: now that I'm officially retired from the public life political life,
25:16
Speaker 2: I get to travel a little bit more too, So
25:18
Speaker 2: that'll be fun.
25:19
Speaker 8: Yeah, you picked up this radio show. You're taking care
25:21
Speaker 8: of this every morning. You're going to join us in here.
25:23
Speaker 8: Any questions or concerns you can reach out to us
25:26
Speaker 8: comment at kfab dot com. We love if you have
25:28
Speaker 8: any questions about getting to know Gene better, we'd love
25:31
Speaker 8: to answer them. Let's keep it fun, let's learn a
25:33
Speaker 8: little bit more about her.
25:34
Speaker 4: So, and you know we are Monday through Friday.
25:36
Speaker 8: We're Monday through Friday every day, not just thursdays.
25:38
Speaker 4: You hear us today.
25:40
Speaker 2: Every day from ten to eleven, and we really want
25:43
Speaker 2: to hear what you have to say. You know, this
25:44
Speaker 2: could be a sound off, it could be a question,
25:47
Speaker 2: it could be just a comment. I love doing stuff
25:50
Speaker 2: like this. When I was mayor, I did over seventy
25:52
Speaker 2: town hall meetings and you know how they can be.
25:55
Speaker 2: And you know, we never screened the questions. I took
25:57
Speaker 2: them as they came. Whatever people wanted to ask me.
26:00
Speaker 2: I don't have all the answers. But somebody asked me
26:03
Speaker 2: something I don't have the answer. I'll certainly get back
26:05
Speaker 2: with them. But I'm not here to criticize the current administration.
26:09
Speaker 2: But I tell you I will tell the truth, and
26:12
Speaker 2: I think that's important. I think people really need to
26:14
Speaker 2: understand and know the facts, and that's what we're gonna do.
26:17
Speaker 2: We're gonna try to be educational. We're gonna try to
26:19
Speaker 2: present facts, and we're gonna have fun with it too.
26:22
Speaker 3: That's a great idea.
26:23
Speaker 8: And the more fun that you have, the more fun
26:24
Speaker 8: I have, and the more fun that everyone listening has.
26:27
Speaker 8: So I'm always curious about this for people, Gene, do
26:31
Speaker 8: you prefer to get up early in the morning and
26:34
Speaker 8: tackle your day, yes?
26:35
Speaker 3: Or you a night out?
26:36
Speaker 8: Well, you prefer to watch a show and maybe read
26:39
Speaker 8: a book.
26:39
Speaker 4: Well, you know now that.
26:40
Speaker 2: I'm retired from political life with I mean, I ran
26:44
Speaker 2: like crazy for the last twelve years being mayor. I
26:47
Speaker 2: took it very seriously. I got up at about five
26:49
Speaker 2: in the morning. Sometimes i'd work till nine or ten
26:52
Speaker 2: at night. I'd come home and I would be pretty
26:54
Speaker 2: darn tired. The one thing I did didn't do for
26:57
Speaker 2: the last twelve years, I never watch TV. I don't
27:00
Speaker 2: watch TV. No, no TV. I don't like TV. I
27:04
Speaker 2: would watch the news and usually in the morning, I
27:07
Speaker 2: would turn the TV on while I was getting ready,
27:09
Speaker 2: and I don't watch it, just to listen and listen
27:11
Speaker 2: to the news.
27:12
Speaker 4: But and I got up so early.
27:14
Speaker 2: But one thing I've enjoyed since i've been quote retired
27:18
Speaker 2: is I said I can't sleep past six o'clock in
27:21
Speaker 2: the morning. Well, I can, but I don't like sleep
27:24
Speaker 2: in past seven. If I could sleep till seven, get
27:26
Speaker 2: up at seven, I like to start my day there
27:29
Speaker 2: that at that time I feel like I'm wasting the day.
27:31
Speaker 2: So I'm not one to be a late sleeper and
27:32
Speaker 2: lay in bed till nine or ten in the morning.
27:34
Speaker 2: I can't do it. But since I've been retired, I
27:37
Speaker 2: have been watching TV, and I have been watching shows
27:42
Speaker 2: that people have talked about for years. I watched all
27:45
Speaker 2: of the Sopranos all what was it, seven or eight seis?
27:48
Speaker 4: I never watched it. I never watched any of it.
27:51
Speaker 4: I watch that. I'm just watching some shows.
27:53
Speaker 2: I started watching one called Paradise, which is fascinating and
27:58
Speaker 2: it's about the president the United States after kind of
28:01
Speaker 2: a nuclear holocaust. I highly recommend it. So I'm enjoying
28:05
Speaker 2: in the evening now rather than going to events being
28:08
Speaker 2: asked to speak, which I enjoy doing, is mayor attending
28:11
Speaker 2: a lot of things. Now I can attend what I
28:14
Speaker 2: want and not what I have to, And now I
28:16
Speaker 2: can watch some great TV shows and I enjoy doing it.
28:20
Speaker 8: I love the sound of that. And since this quote
28:22
Speaker 8: unquote retirement, any traditional retirement hobbies that you've picked up,
28:26
Speaker 8: any pickaball, any speed walking clothes?
28:32
Speaker 4: Let me tell you.
28:33
Speaker 2: Okay, somebody wrote me yes or I saw somebody posted
28:35
Speaker 2: yesterday that I was eighty five years old or something
28:38
Speaker 2: like that.
28:38
Speaker 4: Okay, let's get that done. Everybody knows my age.
28:42
Speaker 2: I'm seventy two, but I think I look pretty okay
28:46
Speaker 2: for a seventy two year old. I keep very very active.
28:49
Speaker 2: I work out twice a week with nautiless equipment, with
28:52
Speaker 2: a trainer. I've done that for about five years. I
28:54
Speaker 2: do walk a lot, but you know, I'm a really
28:57
Speaker 2: good cook, and I have not had the chance to
28:59
Speaker 2: do things like that, to cook. When I was mayor,
29:02
Speaker 2: you know, I did like everybody else. I didn't go
29:04
Speaker 2: out to eat a lot because I like to come
29:05
Speaker 2: to I just opened the freezer, is what I did.
29:10
Speaker 2: But now I like to cook. I really like to read.
29:12
Speaker 2: I like to read novels. I like to travel. My husband, Kevin,
29:16
Speaker 2: has traveled all over the world. He has been everywhere,
29:19
Speaker 2: from China to Australia and everywhere. We've been traveling some.
29:24
Speaker 2: I did some sister city trips, but not a lot,
29:27
Speaker 2: and we want to do that. He's Irish, Kevin oh Rourke,
29:30
Speaker 2: he's Irish. We've been to Ireland, but we went to Italy.
29:33
Speaker 2: We've been to Sicily. I've been to France. But I
29:35
Speaker 2: want to travel a lot too.
29:37
Speaker 6: Now.
29:37
Speaker 2: When I was out of town as mayor, oh my goodness,
29:40
Speaker 2: people went crazy. She's out of town again. But I
29:43
Speaker 2: really didn't travel that much my first term. I didn't
29:45
Speaker 2: leave at all, I didn't even go on sister city trips,
29:48
Speaker 2: so I want to do a lot more of that too.
29:50
Speaker 2: But it's just more and I want to spend more
29:52
Speaker 2: time with my grandkids. But I stay busy. I mean
29:55
Speaker 2: I stay busy every day. It's not that I'm sitting
29:57
Speaker 2: around thinking, oh what am I going to do today.
30:00
Speaker 8: I hear you staying busy, and that's a great thing,
30:03
Speaker 8: first and foremost, and always feel free to reach out
30:06
Speaker 8: to us comment at kfab dot com. We'll have anything
30:09
Speaker 8: that you would like to say. This one here is
30:11
Speaker 8: coming from Nicholas. I don't know if you're taking comments
30:15
Speaker 8: on Jean's radio presence, but if you are, please tally.
30:18
Speaker 8: This has another listener pleased with this new edition on
30:21
Speaker 8: KFAB Mornings.
30:22
Speaker 4: She has a great radio voice. Oh thank you, that's nice.
30:26
Speaker 2: I don't I don't know what a great radio voice
30:28
Speaker 2: is for a woman like I am. I will say,
30:32
Speaker 2: Scott Gary, I mean, Roger Owls, all those guys you
30:36
Speaker 2: have such good radio voices. But I know there's a
30:39
Speaker 2: saying you have a face for radio. Now, that's not
30:42
Speaker 2: Scott Borhees at all. He's a good looking guy. He's
30:45
Speaker 2: sitting here shaking his head right in the background. Now
30:48
Speaker 2: I wish people could see, but I don't know what
30:50
Speaker 2: a good radio voice is really for a woman. Lucy
30:53
Speaker 2: has a great radio voice. I like listening to Lucy. Yeah,
30:56
Speaker 2: Lucy does have a good sound, sir. Yes, well that's good.
30:58
Speaker 2: I'm glad we got to know you a little bit more.
31:00
Speaker 2: We're gonna integrate this in every day. Just try to
31:02
Speaker 2: learn a little bit more about you. Dive a little
31:04
Speaker 2: bit deeper.
31:05
Speaker 8: We know so much about your talking head, you know
31:08
Speaker 8: your presence in the community. But we're gonna dig a
31:10
Speaker 8: little bit deeper here. So we're gonna we're gonna take
31:12
Speaker 8: a quick break, reach out to us comment at kfab
31:15
Speaker 8: dot com, and we'll have a few more things here
31:16
Speaker 8: to wrap up the show.
31:17
Speaker 1: Okay, Jean Stouth, host of the comment line and Peyton
31:21
Speaker 1: high Locked, producer of the comment line.
31:23
Speaker 3: But hey, I wanted man.
31:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're gonna hear a lot more Peyton on here
31:27
Speaker 1: with you and a lot less me. That's by design,
31:31
Speaker 1: not because I don't like you, but because of the
31:36
Speaker 1: comment at kfab dot com. This is an email that
31:39
Speaker 1: came in yesterday and I wanted to get you on here.
31:42
Speaker 3: About this today.
31:44
Speaker 1: Because this is always a big issue, but with the
31:47
Speaker 1: construction it's a bigger one. And we had an issue
31:51
Speaker 1: the other day where a bicyclist was hit by a car. Yes,
31:54
Speaker 1: and sadly that the bicyclists lost is his or her life.
31:58
Speaker 1: I can't remember all the details about it, and I apologize.
32:01
Speaker 1: But Charles sends this in to comment at kfab dot
32:06
Speaker 1: com and says, Gene, are you on team bicycle enthusiast
32:11
Speaker 1: or do you believe bicycles are a nuisance and a
32:13
Speaker 1: danger to themselves and others when riding on city streets
32:17
Speaker 1: after the death of that bicycle rider in Omaha.
32:21
Speaker 2: I you know, I am a proponent of all means
32:25
Speaker 2: that people use to commute in Omaha, and there are
32:27
Speaker 2: some that totally love to use their bicycles, and I
32:31
Speaker 2: think we need to do in Omaha what we can
32:34
Speaker 2: do with our city streets to make it safe for
32:37
Speaker 2: them too. Now, Number one, my first priority, I'll have
32:40
Speaker 2: to go back when I was mayor, but was to
32:42
Speaker 2: fix our streets. You know, when I became mayor, our
32:45
Speaker 2: streets were in they had been underfunded for decades, and
32:50
Speaker 2: they were full of potholes, and they needed repair and
32:53
Speaker 2: I didn't think that we should be putting in protected
32:56
Speaker 2: bike lanes on top of streets that needed reconstruct So
33:00
Speaker 2: the first thing I did is got a in the
33:03
Speaker 2: May of twenty twenty, got a two hundred million dollars
33:05
Speaker 2: street bond isssue pass so we could put a lot
33:08
Speaker 2: more money into our streets, which we are doing. We
33:11
Speaker 2: got that reauthorized last November, so another two hundred million
33:16
Speaker 2: going into the streets. But along with that, I created
33:20
Speaker 2: Vision Zero. Now some people don't like Vision Zero, they
33:23
Speaker 2: think it's a real liberal organization. But I wanted people
33:27
Speaker 2: to give me ideas of how we can make our
33:32
Speaker 2: streets safer. The number one tenet of Vision zero is
33:37
Speaker 2: how we can eliminate traffic deaths on the streets. Eliminate
33:42
Speaker 2: is pretty lofty. We can't eliminate them, but how can
33:45
Speaker 2: you say our goal is to have only five traffic
33:48
Speaker 2: desks this year, So our goal is to eliminate traffic desks.
33:51
Speaker 2: Along with that, again it is always people commute cars,
33:56
Speaker 2: public transportation, bicycles, and walking. Vision zero was part of
34:00
Speaker 2: that plan. So along with that, what we did do
34:04
Speaker 2: when I was mayor is we did our first pilot
34:07
Speaker 2: on a protected bikelane. If you could remember, this was
34:10
Speaker 2: a nightmare for some people downtown on Harney, remember that.
34:13
Speaker 2: And we had to put cones up to try to
34:15
Speaker 2: protect this bike lane and it was on it was
34:19
Speaker 2: on Harney Street, and we did it for about eighteen months.
34:22
Speaker 2: And when the pilot was over, I wanted to take
34:25
Speaker 2: down those awful cones, and people were saying, no, no, no,
34:27
Speaker 2: we need to leave them up for a bit longer.
34:30
Speaker 4: So we did.
34:31
Speaker 2: But I got a lot of philanthropic help too, not
34:33
Speaker 2: just city dollars to look into and to help us
34:37
Speaker 2: to be able to plan and construct and design and
34:42
Speaker 2: look at where protected bike lanes are the most needed
34:45
Speaker 2: in Omaha. A lot is in the downtown midtown area.
34:48
Speaker 2: The one the other day I believe was near Creighton
34:50
Speaker 2: on Cumming Street, and so we need more protected bike lanes.
34:55
Speaker 4: Now, I will say one more thing, streetcar wise.
34:58
Speaker 2: I got to bring this in the two brig There's
35:00
Speaker 2: two bridges on Farnham and Harney right and they are
35:04
Speaker 2: under construction. Harney's under construction. Now, if Farnham was already done,
35:08
Speaker 2: Hawkins's construction is doing that. They're doing a great job.
35:12
Speaker 2: But the streetcar rails were going to go over Harney
35:16
Speaker 2: and Farnham. I did not see any reason that we
35:20
Speaker 2: should put the rails in there without redoing those bridges.
35:23
Speaker 2: The bridges are the responsibility of the Nebraska Dot. There
35:27
Speaker 2: are six bridges along for eighty. They were already on
35:31
Speaker 2: the list to get done, but we got them to
35:33
Speaker 2: move Harney and Farnham forward. But one of the main reasons,
35:36
Speaker 2: look at that bridge now that's already open. It has
35:38
Speaker 2: a place for bikes and it has a place for pedestrians.
35:41
Speaker 2: That's what's important to me, and they need to be
35:44
Speaker 2: protected in my opinion, and so does philanthropy that is
35:48
Speaker 2: putting in money in these They don't need just lines
35:51
Speaker 2: on the pavement.
35:52
Speaker 1: You can't host a caller driven talk show on KFAB
35:55
Speaker 1: without issues related to traffic. Don I believe is on
35:59
Speaker 1: is in that lane here today? Don You're on news
36:02
Speaker 1: radio eleven ten KFA B the comment line with Jean Stouter,
36:06
Speaker 1: Thank you, Scott and Gene.
36:08
Speaker 9: Yeah. Just my comment is just simply this, Uh, it
36:11
Speaker 9: seems to be such a small level of traffic enforcement
36:16
Speaker 9: that I can't go anywhere within Omol without seeing some
36:21
Speaker 9: very very aggressive driving. And I just wondered if Gene
36:25
Speaker 9: is aware of anything potentially being done about this in
36:29
Speaker 9: the future because it's gotten the point of huge concern.
36:33
Speaker 9: It's and it was this has been for a while,
36:35
Speaker 9: but it's not getting any better.
36:37
Speaker 2: And I agree with you there, and you know I
36:39
Speaker 2: experienced it myself. Do you recall, you know, during COVID,
36:43
Speaker 2: when the traffic division of the Amah Police Department, you know,
36:47
Speaker 2: was was a bit restricted because of COVID and what
36:50
Speaker 2: was going on with that, and because a lot of
36:53
Speaker 2: people were driving from home, you know that there wasn't
36:56
Speaker 2: as much traffic that people were driving.
36:59
Speaker 4: Like maniacs out there.
37:00
Speaker 2: I mean they were driving, you know, one hundred miles
37:02
Speaker 2: an hour down Dodge Street. And there is an issue
37:06
Speaker 2: with street racing too. Remember the Nebraska legislature did pass
37:09
Speaker 2: state law about street racing because that was something that
37:13
Speaker 2: was becoming an issue here in Omaha.
37:16
Speaker 4: I think it's all it's all goes.
37:18
Speaker 2: Back to based on monitoring certain areas that we know
37:23
Speaker 2: are problem areas. Because the Omaha Police Department has been
37:27
Speaker 2: down since the COVID hit, about one hundred officers and
37:31
Speaker 2: we're working very very hard to getting them back up
37:34
Speaker 2: to full staff, which is nine oh six. The Traffic
37:36
Speaker 2: Digit Division doesn't have enough officers out on the streets
37:41
Speaker 2: to monitor every area that we need to be monitoring. Now,
37:44
Speaker 2: I will say this, if you have a certain area
37:48
Speaker 2: in Omaha that you are aware of that is really
37:51
Speaker 2: bad and you see a lot of speeding, called your
37:54
Speaker 2: city council member, because they can request, they have the
37:58
Speaker 2: ability to request a certain area to be monitored by
38:01
Speaker 2: the Oma Police Department. Each council member does all seven
38:04
Speaker 2: of them for a month time. And I got to
38:07
Speaker 2: tell you one funny story along with that. So here
38:10
Speaker 2: is an attorney I know very very well, works at
38:12
Speaker 2: Baird Home. He lives out in armborst Acres, and he
38:15
Speaker 2: called me one time when I was on the city
38:16
Speaker 2: council and said, there's people speeding down my street and
38:19
Speaker 2: Armor Stacres all the time. I said, fine, I will
38:22
Speaker 2: get extra attention on there. I'll put a cruiser out
38:25
Speaker 2: there for a month.
38:26
Speaker 4: Guess who was the.
38:26
Speaker 2: First one that got the ticket. The lawyer that called
38:30
Speaker 2: me and asked me to put special attention. So he
38:33
Speaker 2: was feeding himself, which I remind him to this day.
38:37
Speaker 2: But that's something you can do. If you know of
38:39
Speaker 2: a certain area that's a problem area, particularly problem area,
38:43
Speaker 2: call your council member and then they can do something
38:46
Speaker 2: about it.
38:46
Speaker 3: We have two minutes to wrap up the show.
38:48
Speaker 5: Here.
38:48
Speaker 1: The floor is yours, including your weekend plans withf It's
38:52
Speaker 1: snowy and windy and super cold on Sunday. You just
38:56
Speaker 1: do what are you going to be out there?
38:58
Speaker 4: Okay?
38:59
Speaker 3: Cantling the element?
39:00
Speaker 9: Sir?
39:00
Speaker 3: You inside making chili? What will you do? Well?
39:03
Speaker 2: First, I'm going to be inside making chili. So first
39:05
Speaker 2: of all, the Saint Patty's Day Parade is tomorrow downtown,
39:10
Speaker 2: a new route starting at eleven. I have done that
39:12
Speaker 2: parade for sixteen years. I love that parade. But the
39:17
Speaker 2: weather's going to be cold and wendy tomorrow. And guess
39:19
Speaker 2: who's not going to be there tomorrow, Not as bast
39:22
Speaker 2: I don't have to be in that parade more. I
39:24
Speaker 2: love the parade, but I don't have to be in
39:26
Speaker 2: the parade on Saturday. So I do go do my
39:29
Speaker 2: workout on Saturday morning. And my plan is to really
39:33
Speaker 2: just relax this weekend and see my grandkids.
39:35
Speaker 1: Why isn't the Saint Patrick's Day Parade on Saint Patrick's Day?
39:38
Speaker 3: Is the city of Omaha ever?
39:39
Speaker 1: Tell the the ancient owner of Hibernians do a great
39:42
Speaker 1: job with it. They're wonderful people. But other communities have
39:46
Speaker 1: their Saint Patrick's Day parade on Saint Patrick's Day.
39:49
Speaker 5: No.
39:50
Speaker 2: I have asked the Hibernians that too, and this is
39:52
Speaker 2: just what they prefer to do. They prefer to do
39:55
Speaker 2: it the Saturday before Saint Patrick's Day. I have done
39:58
Speaker 2: that parade when it is hot outside. I've done it
40:01
Speaker 2: when it was snowing and icy. I've done that, prayed
40:04
Speaker 2: so many times. But I think on Saint Patrick's Day
40:07
Speaker 2: they want to party and they're going to do that,
40:10
Speaker 2: you know. So everybody needs to enjoy themselves on Saint
40:13
Speaker 2: Patrick's Day. Be safe, Please be safe. There's a lot,
40:17
Speaker 2: a lot of drinking that goes on. But enjoy your weekend.
40:20
Speaker 2: Be careful on Sunday though, because it is supposed to
40:22
Speaker 2: the weather's supposed to turn back and we could have
40:24
Speaker 2: blizzard like condition.
40:25
Speaker 1: You want to have a few green beers on the
40:28
Speaker 1: show on Saint Patrick's Day. What day is that next
40:31
Speaker 1: week we're doing? Oh now we're taking the obviously on Tuesday,
40:35
Speaker 1: Yes it's the seventeenth, No, but what day of the
40:37
Speaker 1: wee at seventeenth.
40:38
Speaker 3: That's Tuesday.
40:39
Speaker 4: Yeah, but you know what.
40:40
Speaker 2: My husband again, Kevin O'Rourke. He's Irish, so we're going
40:44
Speaker 2: to celebrate. We might eat, drink some iris whiskey.
40:48
Speaker 1: Well, we can do that on the radio if you like.
40:50
Speaker 1: On Tuesday morning for the Saint Patrick's Day edition.
40:53
Speaker 4: I'll bring a whiskey.
40:55
Speaker 3: We'll try and get the o'rooric out of you.
40:57
Speaker 4: I'll be dressed in green.
40:58
Speaker 3: This is the kfabe comment.
41:00
Speaker 1: That is Gene Stothart here and this is weekday mornings
41:03
Speaker 1: at ten on News Radio eleven ten KFAB. I can't
41:06
Speaker 1: wait to see what Chris Baker says about you today.
41:09
Speaker 4: I can't wait either on his show.
41:11
Speaker 1: He's up after Clay Travis and Buck Sexton next on
41:14
Speaker 1: you eleven ten kfab.
41:16
Speaker 3: Have a great weekend. Go be great.