Latest / The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert / The Streetcar has a name!!!

Transcript

The Streetcar has a name!!! · The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I am your host, Jean Stothert. Peyton Heilach, my producer,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: is here. Good morning, Peyton.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Jean.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: And thank you all for being with us today. We
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: want to hear from you. We want to get your feedback.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: We want to hear your comments, concerns, questions, complaints. Really,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: anything goes. We won't back away from anything, whether it's city, state, national,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: or the world. And, of course, we'll have plenty of
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: great guests, and you're going to hear plenty of opinions
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: from me, too.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: But it is your chance.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: To speak up and sound off, you can send your
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: emails to kfab.com. You can call us at 402-558-1110, or
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: you can leave us a recorded message on the talkback mic,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: and we will play it on the air. We are
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: very happy that you are with us and very happy
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: that Glenn Beck was on before us, right?
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: I always enjoy listening to Glenn Beck. Though I was
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: missing a little Scott Voorhees.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: I was missing a little Scott Voorhees and a little Lucy, too.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: I know it. He kind of livens up my morning
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: when he comes on with Lucy. And, of course, everybody, well,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: most people like to hear Glenn Beck because he is
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: quite opinionated. But anyway, Scott will be back tomorrow. He
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: just was taking a long weekend. He's with his son,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: probably playing some sort of sport out of town again.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And what did you do this weekend?
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: I was down in Kansas City this weekend hanging out
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: with one of my buddies. My little brother was playing
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: in Kansas City at a soccer game, and so I
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: got to hang out with him for a little bit.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: That sounds like fun. Yes, just getting away. Did you
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: just drive down there on Saturday? Friday night.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Friday night.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: And then I drove back yesterday.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Well, you're kind of familiar with the Kansas City area,
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: aren't you? Down there for four years, it's not too
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: bad at all. Where did you go to college? Johnson
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: County Community College. Okay.
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: And then... After that, for my last two years, Mid-American Nazarene,
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: small four-year school.
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  Speaker 2: Okay. All right. And you played soccer too, didn't you?
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: This is our resident soccer player that we have here.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: When my son was in town a week or so ago,
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: he came in and was sitting here one day. He
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: refused to be on the air, but we really didn't
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: have time for him and Peyton to talk much soccer
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: because my son was a soccer player from kindergarten through college. Boy,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: this gal went to a lot of soccer tournaments on
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: the weekends and spent a lot of time. And you know,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: my son was a goalkeeper and we knew he was
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: never going to be a professional soccer player. And in hindsight,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: I kind of wish he wouldn't have done all that
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: soccer because his knees are just ruined, and he's 38
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: years old. But he fell on his– he was a goalkeeper,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: so he fell on his knees all the time. But anyway,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: soccer is fun.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: Agree? Oh, yeah. And you're still playing. And I still play.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, I always like to talk about
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: my little grandsons, but it's the littlest one, Theo, that
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: is in Cincinnati. He is five, and he is in kindergarten.
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  Speaker 1: He's the one that I have mentioned on the air
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: that he likes to make up and tell stories, like
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: wild stories.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know where he gets these things, but.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: If you weren't listening last week, on the first day
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: of kindergarten, he told his kindergarten teacher that he was
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: not going to be there for the next week because
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: he was flying to France that evening to visit his cousins,
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: which he has no cousins in France. I don't know
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: where this little boy's imagination comes from. But he will
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: not go to school unless he's in full-blown soccer uniform
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: every day. That's all he wears is soccer clothes. So
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: we've got a lot of soccer fans around here. Peyton,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: let's talk streetcar, shall we?
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: We shall.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: It's one of my favorite subjects.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: And, you know, we've talked about it a lot.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: When the show first started, we really had a lot
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: of calls about the streetcar.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: Maybe I answered everybody's questions. I don't know.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: But I'm sure if we start talking, you'll have more.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Because I've spent a lot of time downtown recently. But
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Mayor Ewing did hold a press conference just last Friday.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: It was held at 4 p.m. on Friday morning.
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  Speaker 1: Which every person in the media hates. They hate 4 p.m.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: press conferences on a Friday. But anyway, that's when he
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: had it. And Ewing unveiled the streetcar's name. And so
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: I want to hear what people think about this because
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: it was quite a big ceremony. Here I go again.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: And they named the streetcar, I want your reaction, Peyton, Oscar.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: When I first say it, does that ring a bell
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  Speaker 1: to anything?
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: Oscar?
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: Okay, so actually after I thought about it and I
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: asked a couple questions about it, I think it's kind
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  Speaker 1: of catchy because it's OS for Omaha Street Car.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: So it's OS, Omaha Street Car. Oh, okay. I get it.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: But what gets me, which I found– gosh darn it,
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: sorry– that Mayor Ewing said that more than 1,300 Omaha
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: residents helped develop the streetcar's brand through multiple surveys, interviews,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: and focus groups. So they put a lot of time
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: and effort into getting people's input about what to call it,
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: and that's what they call the brand.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: And so, you know, other....
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: Metro areas, bigger metro areas that have public transportation call
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: it something like the MetroLink or something that people know
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: rather than saying just streetcar. But this is the name
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: of the Omaha streetcar now, Oscar. Here's what I found interesting.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: This was in the World Herald, too, is because I'm
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: going to just read a quote from Mary Ewing. The
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  Speaker 1: Omaha streetcar represents a bold, long-term vision for Omaha, and
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: its branding is one of the many tools helping to
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  Speaker 1: build momentum towards 2028. The streetcar is a once-in-a-generation investment
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: and a critical component of Omaha's future. Now, What I
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: find odd about this statement is I was in a
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  Speaker 1: campaign against Mayor Ewing for a good six to eight months.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: And over and over and over again, Mayor Ewing criticized
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: the streetcar. He called it the folly trolley. He called
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: it the streetcar to nowhere. He did not like the streetcar.
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  Speaker 1: But now it is transformational, which I'm glad he's on
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  Speaker 1: board with it. Because I'm a big supporter of the streetcar.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: But isn't it interesting how people change what they promise,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: what they campaign on? And, folks, that's why we continue
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: to say pay attention to these elections and what is
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: going on and what is going to happen in November.
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  Speaker 3: Here's what I have to say in response to that, Gene. Oscar,
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  Speaker 3: first of all, I could get behind it. I don't
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: think it's bad. No, I don't think it's bad either.
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: I don't think it's the best thing either. And if
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: Mayor Ewing had some focus groups and some surveys, Oscar,
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: we can hop on the Oscar and head downtown.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: Let's go find Oscar. I can get behind it. But
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  Speaker 2: I also think.
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: That if Mayor Ewing now has the streetcar after winning
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: the election, does he have many other options than to
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: embrace it? And try to make the most of it.
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: He's not going to go downtown and start ripping up tracks.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: No, no.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: And, you know, that I mean, but that is part
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: of the whole issue with what he was saying during
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: the campaign, as well as Mike McDonald. If you remember
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: him in the primary, his whole campaign was based on
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: stop the streetcar. He changed all his yard signs to
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: stop the streetcar. He had big posters made, stop the streetcar.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: And he said if he was elected mayor, he would
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: stop the streetcar.
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  Speaker 2: Impossible.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, these are just things Mike McDonald and John
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  Speaker 1: Ewing were saying during the.
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  Speaker 2: Campaign to get votes.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: But neither knew that they were going to stop the
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: streetcar because, you know, here's the deal. That not any
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: new mayor can come in and change what the city
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: council has already approved. None of this would have been
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: going forward. I mean, I'm the one that really pushed
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: it forward. And I will say I will take full
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: responsibility for that. But nothing goes forward without approval of
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: the city council. A new mayor is not going to
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: come in and say, I'm going to stop the streetcar
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  Speaker 1: and everything that the city council voted on is now
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  Speaker 1: null and void.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: A mayor can't do that. So these, again, were empty promises.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know why Mike McDonald wasted all this money
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: making yard signs saying stop the streetcar because that was.
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  Speaker 2: An empty promise.
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  Speaker 1: Campaign promise that he knew he could never, ever change
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: because it was already going forward. It was going forward
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: full speed ahead. And so that, again, is a lot
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: that Mayor Ewing talked about, and that's a lot that
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: he criticized about during the campaign. But again, keep in mind,
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: these are things that candidates say to you. to get
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: your vote, and they have no intention of delivering on
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: them our ability. Now, Hal Dobb went to this event
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  Speaker 1: on Friday. Good old Hal. I love Hal Dobb. I
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: think he's done great things. And the guy is ubiquitous.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: He is everywhere. I still see Hal Dobb everywhere. And
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: he did recall, I guess it was an interview with
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: the World Herald, that the original plan for a future
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: line that he began writing in 1997– So, you know,
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: this has been talked about for a long, long time.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: But originally that plan called for it to initially run
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  Speaker 1: roughly through the same route with options for expansion in
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: the future like what we are doing right now. And so,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: you know, right now people criticize a lot and they
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: still have a lot of misinformation and they will say
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: it's way over budget. It is not and it cannot
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: go over budget because the city council only approved about
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: $ 440 million worth of bonds to be spent on the streetcar.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: That had to be approved by the city council. Current
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: estimate of the project is $ 421 million, so it is
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: not over budget. There was a funding plan that was
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: developed when I was still down at City Hall. And
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: that was how it would be paid for, and it's
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: going to be paid for with tax increment financing due
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: to the development that happens.
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: Along the corridor.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: There is not going to be any property tax increase
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: to pay for the streetcar, and I think everybody can
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: see that. And understand that now that your property taxes,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: if they go up, it's because the valuation of your
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: house went up. And the valuation of your house out
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: in West Omaha has nothing to do with the streetcar.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: And so I do want to mention, however, I have
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: had Clark Ross on my show several times. Clark Ross,
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: God love him. He's probably a hero downtown right now.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: But he really is the– I would call him the chairman,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: I guess, that initiated this group called Streetcar Impact Alliance.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: And it's got about 120 or so small businesses in Omaha.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: He has one of them himself. He has Mercury Bar
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: on 16th Street and Harney, a great bar. I suggest
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: you all visit it. He's been on the show several
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: times and talked several times too about about what the
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: extended construction of the streetcar is doing to these small businesses.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: Once again, the streetcar was originally predicted to be done
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: in 2026. That is this year. Originally, though, it was
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: going to be about a year of planning and two-year construction.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: It is still that. It's been planned and two years construction. However,
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: the construction has delayed because of all the infrastructure work
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: that our utility companies, particularly MUD, are demanding.
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: I brought that up before. Originally, in the original.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: Plan, when it was going to be done in 2026,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: that work that MUD was going to be doing was
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: going to be less than $ 10 million. Now it's over
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: $ 40 million that MUD is insisting on doing. However, Clark
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: really kept going. He kept on talking on behalf of
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: these businesses downtown. Because of the two-year extension, it's not
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: going to be done until 2028 now. The hardship of
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: these small businesses is much more than we ever imagined
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: it would be. He was on the show not long
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: ago and talked about a $ 5 million donation. That donation
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: did come from Sherwood Foundation. which is Susie Buffett's foundation.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: This did not come from the city. It was not
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: because the city worked on getting a donation from Sherwood.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: This was something Sherwood wanted to do, and they took
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: the initiative on it. It is going through the Nebraska
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: Enterprise Fund, and already almost $ 4.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: Million has been distributed collectively.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: And these are loans that the small businesses can apply for.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: They apparently are getting the money very, very quickly. They're
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: very impressed with them getting the money so quickly. These
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: are forgivable loans, and they're large loans that they can
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: apply for. The last time Clark was on here, he
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: said it was life-changing, life-saving for these businesses downtown. And
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: so they're giving– there are several types of grants. There's
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: 100 percent forgivable loan up to $ 50, 000. Then there's loans
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: up to 75, and there's some loans up to 100.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: So this is really, really amazing.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: And I think that once again, I want to thank
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: Susie Buffett and the Sherwood Foundation for thinking enough about
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: helping these small businesses to survive. Now, when Clark was
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: on here the last time, he did bring up that
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: they were planning some sort of an event downtown. He
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: wanted to call it a block party or something to
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: bring Citizens back downtown again. To show you still can
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: go downtown. Traffic is pretty congested. There's a lot of
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: cone zones down there with the rails going in. There's
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: a lot of detours. But there still is the availability
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: to park. And he talked about this on the morning
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: show a little bit. He called in and talked about it.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: But I wanted to repeat it on my show that
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: there will be an event this Saturday, September 5th. And
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: it's going to be on 16th Street. from Harney to Farnham,
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: and that's right where the Mercury Bar and Grill that
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: Clark owns is, and it's going to be from 2 p.m.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: To 8 p.m.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: So this Saturday, September 5th, 16th Street from Harney to Farnham,
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: 2 to 8 p.m., And it's set up like a
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: block party. And they want people to come down and see.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: You're still able to come downtown and enjoy things. It's
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: free to attend. There's going to be food and drink
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: from all the small neighborhood businesses. Omaha Performing Arts, Omaha Opera,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: or Opera Omaha, Omaha Symphony. The Black Backline Comedy Club
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: will also be there. There's going to be balloon animals
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: face painting for the kids. There's going to be free
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: parking at all the meters downtown around the event.
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: They'll be bagged. And if you park in the garage,
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: it'll be a dollar.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: So I just wanted to make sure I repeated that
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: on our show, Peyton, to let people know that there
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: will be a block party, you want to call it that,
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: downtown this weekend. And this, again, is to help those
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: small businesses downtown. And this is being put on by
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: the Streetcar Impact Alliance.
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: Real quick, Gene, here on that topic, I have a
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: phone call for you from Carol, 402-558-1110.
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: Carol, you are live with Gene Stothert. Good morning. Good morning.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: You've kind of answered my question now, but did you
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: envision all this problem with the businesses when you were
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: pushing for the streetcar?
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: I mean, this has really been a hardship on the
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: businesses down there.
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: And we did anticipate a hardship on them because... Any
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: construction that we have done, whether it's out by Zurinsky,
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: if it's downtown, if it's up in northwest Omaha, any
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: kind of road construction, there is always a temporary inconvenience
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: and temporary hardships on the businesses.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: We knew that there would be this with the streetcar.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: Before I left office, we had got together about one
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: and a quarter million dollars to to help out the
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: small businesses that were being negatively affected. It was going
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: to be run through the chamber, and they could apply
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: for these loans. But we knew it wasn't enough, and
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: we knew we were going to have to raise more.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: We knew that. But at the same time, when we.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: First started pushing it forward, the streetcar was going to
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: be done in 2026. And so, you know, extending it,
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: a temporary hardship was one thing that was going to
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: be difficult. And we were going to try to help
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: them maneuver through it with the one and a quarter million,
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: although we thought we were going to have to raise
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: a lot more. But we had no idea it was
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: going to take two years longer. And when it was
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: going to take two years longer, then that hardship became
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: something that was really of great concern to everyone. Now,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: the city of Omaha has said we cannot give city
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: money to independent, small, private businesses, and that is true
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: because every penny that comes in the city is taxpayer dollars.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: And so you can't give taxpayer dollars to a private business.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: But the city of Omaha also is known for having
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: a great relationship with the philanthropic community. And just as
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: an example, you know, philanthropic community put in $ 400 million.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: into the riverfront parks. They put $ 138 million into the
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: new library at 72nd and Dodge. They put money into
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: the new football stadium at North High. I mean, what
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: philanthropy has done in this city is like no other
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: city has ever accomplished. And I had a great relationship
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: with philanthropy, and you could see it by these things
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: I just mentioned. So we knew that we were going
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: to have to go back and see if we can
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: encourage philanthropy to give more to help out these small businesses,
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: but without any encouragement from the city. And, of course,
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: I'm not involved in that right now or anymore, for
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: that matter. But without any encouragement from the city, Sherwood Foundation,
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: Suzy Buffett recognized this hardship, and they wanted to do
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: something about it. And I think kudos to them.
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: Most definitely, Jean. And just real quick here, this is
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: a response to the name Oscar. Yes, I want to
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: hear what you all have to think about Oscar. So
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: Craig sent an email, comment at kfab.com, and said, Oscar
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: is a grouch. It was the name of the large
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: garbage cans my grandparents used to use. It was called
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: the Oscar, not a good sign for a name. I
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: also got a talkback that says, good morning, Gene and Peyton.
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: You know, hearing that they're going to call it Oscar,
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: I can't help because I'm a certain age think this
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: is going to be the grouch instead because I grew
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: up on Sesame Street. And Oscar the Grouch is the
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: very first thing that pops into my mind when I
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: hear the name.
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: You know what?
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: To the two people that just wrote in or called in,
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: you know, I thought the exact same thing because my
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: kids used to watch Sesame Street. And that's what I
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: thought is Oscar the grouch jumping out of the trash can,
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: that green, furry, dirty looking thing. And he was grouchy
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: all the time. And that's what I thought at first.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: It's clever the way it's Omaha Street car. I think
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: that's clever. I'm not sure everybody will get it. And
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: there was– as he said, Ewing was quoted as saying 1,300
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: people helped develop that name Oscar, that everybody loved the
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: name Oscar.
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: So I guess– you know what? It's named. It's official.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: We're going to have to get used to it. But
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: other cities have named theirs. Most of the time, though,
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: it has something to do with the streetcar itself. Not
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: like a person's name. Mayor Ewing says this now will
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: give it a personality. Well, is that personality grouch? I know.
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: Maybe that– maybe it is. I don't know. He said that.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: He said now we have– our streetcar has a personality.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: And so I– Yeah. I don't– I can see the
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: vision there.
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: Rita sent a message that said, my husband always thought
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: that Metro Transit should have been called TACO, Transit Authority
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: City of Omaha.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: And then everyone could ride the taco. Now, that is clever.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: I like it. Right? It's on the same line of thinking.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: I do like it.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: I know somebody wrote in when I was still in
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: the office and they said, why don't you get scooters
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: to advertise on, which we don't want advertisements on the
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: outside anyway.
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: That was a decision made a while back.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: But they said if scooters could advertise on it, maybe
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: we can call it the scoot. And so we could say, hey,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: let's go scoot downtown.
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: Let's go scoot. I know.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: And then we thought, no, I can hear people having
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: a good time with that one too.
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: Let's go scoot.
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: And then real quick here before we take a quick break,
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: Chris says, I will probably not be using the streetcar
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: because I don't live anywhere near it. But I will
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: for sure be calling it Grandpa because his name was Oscar.
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: Oh.
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: So that's a nice sentiment right there. But you know what?
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: You might be using it because I heard people say
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: that again about the ballpark. I heard them say it
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: about the Arena Convention Center. But if you go downtown
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: and you want to go see a College World Series
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: game and say you live out in West Omaha, the
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: city of Omaha has purchased the garages at Midtown. So
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: you can drive your car to Midtown, park for a
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: minimal rate, nominal rate, And you can hop on the streetcar.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: You can go in, around, out of downtown and get
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: back in your car and go back home. I think
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: once people get used to it and know they can
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: jump on, jump off, it doesn't cost anything at all
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: for you to ride, that more and more people will
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: take advantage of it. If you see other cities, if
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: you see especially– Of course, we're not a European city,
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: but European cities. Amsterdam, I mean, my gosh, all you
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: see is streetcar and bicycles. You don't see a lot
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: of cars. Cuts down on the congestion, opens up a
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: lot of surface parking lots for development, meaning businesses and jobs.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: It's a good thing. It's really a good thing.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: And I didn't think of it myself, but yes, I
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: was the one that really decided it's time to go
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: ahead and push it and move forward. But lots and
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: lots of time and effort, as Hal said. Hal Dobb
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: talked about it when he was mayor.
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: P.J.
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: Morgan talked about it when he was mayor.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: This has been going on a long, long time. But
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: I think all mayors were hesitant to say, how could
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: we fund it without raising taxes? And we found a way,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: and that's why we decided to go forward.
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: Gene Stothert and the KFAB Comment Line here on NewsRadio
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: 1110 KFAB. We want to hear from you as we
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: get into the second half of the show. News Radio
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: 1110 KFAB, 402-558-1110. Comment at kfab.com.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: We want to hear what you think about Oscar the Streetcar.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: Let us know what you think about that name. I
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: think it's quite interesting. Did we have any calls about it?
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: Or do we have more saying it reminds me of
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: Oscar the Grouch? I got one here.
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: Oh, you think you're a clever one here.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: Scooter sent an email.
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: I personally feel scooters should be the main advertiser on
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: the streetcar, and it should be named Scooter.
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: Just saying. You know what?
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: We laughed a lot about it, but we thought, wouldn't
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: it be funny to say, I'm going to go.
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: Scoot on downtown. Scooter wants the streetcar to be named Scooter.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: A little bias? That's okay.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: I don't mind it at all. Now, I think we
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: got a call about a little ruckus down in the
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: old market, Peyton.
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: Yes, yes. Incredible KFAB listener Ruby called and was just curious, Gene,
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: about your thoughts about this increased police presence in the
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: old market area. And then obviously some ruckus occurred this weekend,
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: which makes it even more relevant.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: Right. You know, we have had increased police presence in
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: the old market for some time and also in the
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: Jean Leahy Mall and Heartland of America Park just because
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: there are typically so many people that gather in that area.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: And when you have a lot of people gather, especially
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: at night. If the bars are open, people.
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: Tend to come down there.
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: And so we have always had a lot more police
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: presence down there. Now, at the same time, sometimes we
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: would get pushback from that saying, you know, my customers
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: don't want to come downtown if they see a lot
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: of police down there because then they think it's just
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: the police are down there because it's a high crime area.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: So you're darned if you do and you're darned if
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: you don't. But what happened early Sunday morning at 1 p.m.,
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: it is still around 1 p.m., it is 1 a.m.,
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: early Sunday morning about 1 a.m., it's still under investigation,
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: so information from the police is a bit limited right now.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: I know we will be able to get more probably tomorrow.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: I'll share with you what I know. But what happened
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: about 12th and Howard downtown, hundreds, of people were gathering,
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: and it turned into starting to get into a big
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: ruckus down there. When the police tried to break it up,
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: they said that people were scattering, cars were scattering. There
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: were multiple arrests. Quite a few of those that were
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: arrested had guns and firearms. There was one 16-year-old woman, girl,
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: that assaulted a police officer. They put crime tape up.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: They tore down the crime tape. So that is what
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: is being reported so far. And really, that's all I know.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: I don't know of anybody being injured. I know the
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: thing that is a big concern to people, particularly those
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: that live down there, because there are more and more
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: and more residents that are living downtown and in the
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: old market area.
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: And things like this are what they do not want
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: to see. Yes, Jean, a 23-year-old man was.
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: Suffering a gunshot wound to his leg at the scene.
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: Aid was rendered.
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: He was taken to the hospital, non-life-threatening injuries. And you
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: brought up the business owners down there. And this was
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: a business owner that said, quote, it's getting worse and
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: worse every year. I mean, as somebody that's part of
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: the old market family. we hate violence.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: Well, we hate violence too. I mean, and you know,
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: we are a very low crime city. We have a
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: very low number of violent crimes that occur, low number
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: of homicides. But you know, even though you just mentioned
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: there was one young man that was shot in the leg,
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: that means somebody, you know, fired their weapon and that
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: could have gone into somebody's leg or somebody's head just
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: as easy. And so you get somebody firing into a
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: big crowd like that, that's a dangerous situation. And that
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: this was not the only gun that was present in
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: that situation.
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: So you can bet.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: I mean, we have a very good Omaha Police Department.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: They will be investigating. When you hear incidences like this,
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: and we've had some in the past, there sometimes is
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: one or two incidents. establishments, usually bars that are a
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: source of problems where a lot of people go, a
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: lot of people gather. Then when the bars close and
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: bars will close, you know, at 2 a.m., but not
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: on Sunday. That's kind of unusual to see that happen
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: on a Sunday night. But more and more people then
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: gather after the bar has closed. And, you know, especially
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: in the summer, temperatures rise within the people down there.
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: They get angry. They get in fights.
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: Things like this happen, and that is the last thing
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: that the Omaha Police Department wants to say. They do
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: have a business improvement district in that area, a BID.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: They have the Old Market Business Improvement District. When I
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: was mayor, I did meet with that group quite frequently
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: on things that they felt that they needed that would
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: increase the police presence and help them control the crime
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: or anything that would happen down there negatively. For a while,
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: there was even conversation about blocking off some of the
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: streets at certain times for certain events so that it
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: was only foot traffic down there and it would be
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: easier to control, but the businesses down there really didn't
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: like that idea because it really cut down on where
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: people could drive and come and park and visit your
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: whatever business that you have going, your restaurant or your bar.
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: And so, I mean, there's a lot of things, a
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: lot of ideas being thrown out there. People did not
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: like the idea of barricading off certain areas in the
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: old market either, though. So we will hear more from
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: the Omaha Police Department about this incident, I'm sure, once
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: their investigation is done. and we'll be able to talk
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: more about it on this show.
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: The event happened, I guess, the end of Saturday night
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: into early Sunday morning, so the bars would be open
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: until 2 a.m. That's up to the individual businesses, but
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: they could still sell. But the last thing I'll say
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: about this, before we can get more as the week
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: goes on, was the Omaha Police Officers Union, Patrick Dempsey.
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: That's the president of OPOA, Omaha Police Officers Association.
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: He sent out a message in regards to this latest
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: incident this weekend. Quote, bad actors come to the area
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: with no intentions of supporting our local businesses, but sit
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: and gather in the area late into the weekend hours.
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: This creates a large issue for law enforcement. as we
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: are limited by our staffing and resources, end quote.
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: And he is so right.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: But remember, it's not just an issue of being low-staffed,
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: because we have been low-staffed since everything.
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: Hit the– you know what? Hit the fan. I almost
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: was going to say a word you're going to have
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: to beat me with.
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: In 2020, the summer of 2020 is when we had
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: the protest and the riots that started at 72nd Dodge
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: and then went downtown. We have been low as well
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: as many other American cities recently. on the number of
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: police officers that we have. We are budgeted for 906.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: Mayor Ewing did say in his State of the City
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: that we would be fully staffed by the end of
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: the year. That is not going to happen. That was
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: just unrealistic to say that. But we have a lot
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: more applicants than we've had in the past. And I
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: think probably I would be willing to bet by next
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: year we made a lot of changes, pay more, a
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: lot more than we used to, made a lot of
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: changes in the training. But I would hope by the
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: end of next year we might be fully staffed again.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: But you just don't know. I've always said, too, it's
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: the applicants. You may get 500 applicants, but there's a
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: lot of screening. And I would rather be low in
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: police officers and hire a bunch of bad police officers.
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: That is the last thing you want.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: And you get some rotten apples in every bushel, as
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: my grandma used to say. But we have to be
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: careful about who we put into the academy and to
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: the training classes.
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: And so I agree with Pat Dempsey on what he said.
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: We are low.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: The police are stretched. We're trying to operate as efficiently
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: as we can. Even the use of drones now is
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: a big help to the police officers, and we're trying
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: to expand their drone department. So There's a lot of
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: things that we can do. There's cameras around too. But
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: these types of things, I agree, you don't want to
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: hear happening. And when you do hear happening, you want
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: to say, I'm not going to go down there. But
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: keep in mind, there's a lot of people that are
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: down there, that live down there, and want to walk
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: their dogs in the park, want to feel safe all
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: the time.
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: Gene Stothert and the KFAB comment line here on News
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: Radio 1110 KFAB. We want to hear from you going
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: into this last segment. What's on your mind?
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: Give it to us. Give it to Jean. Maybe she'll
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: have the answer, not me.
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: 402-558-1110. Comment at kfab.com. Jean Sothert returns next. And in
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: reference to the streetcar, really quick, Jean, Doug called me
• 32:59
  Speaker 3: and had a reference that I hope some of the
• 33:01
  Speaker 3: listeners might get. Ready?
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: Here we go. Mm-hmm.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: My baloney has a first name.
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: It's O-S-C-A-R. My baloney has a second name.
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: It's M-A-Y-E-R.
• 33:18
  Speaker 3: Oscar Mayer commercial from the 70s.
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: Okay, now I'm going to.
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: Start thinking baloney when we talk about the Oscar downtown.
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: For those of you very concerned with climate or the environment.
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: Climate change.
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: And climate change, keep in mind the streetcars are going
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: to be running on electricity and batteries. And hopefully reduce
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: a lot of traffic downtown. And hopefully, we'll replace a
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: lot of those surface lots with.
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: Businesses and jobs. Electricity? Electricity and batteries. Yes, sir. That's me.
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: And you know what?
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: There will be six cars that they're purchasing. And most
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: of them can hold between 120, 150 people. So like
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: during the College World Series, for example, they can haul
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: a lot of people around. And the streetcars, vehicles, they
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: have lifespans that are twice as long as buses. So
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: keep all that in mind. And they will drive economic development.
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: That's because the rails are fixed and it just– Improves
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: overall accessibility. So we could talk about the streetcar forever.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: And I'm willing to talk about the streetcar forever. But
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: I want to know all of your opinion on this too.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: Lake Ontario, one of the great lakes. Do you agree,
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: speaking of names, that we should be calling it Lake America?
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: That's what President Trump signed an executive order. Interestingly enough,
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: I did a little research on this. Of course, we
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: all know where Lake Ontario is. It is between the
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: Canadian province of Ontario to the north and New York
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: to the south.
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: But guess what?
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: That name has been changed once before. And just a
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: little history for you all. It was in the 17th
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: century and French explorers introduced other names for the lake.
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: And guess what they called it? Lake St.
• 35:28
  Speaker 3: Louis.
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: I bet you love that name. Because that's where I
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: live in St.
• 35:33
  Speaker 3: Louis.
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: I drive here every day, six hours. And then after
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: the show, I drive home. And then I drive back again.
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: No.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: I said, I'm just going to go with it from
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: now on because so many people. So I ran into
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: somebody this weekend at the grocery store. And he goes,
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: Mayor Stothert, hi, how are you? Are you going to
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: be in Omaha for the weekend? And I go, I'm
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: in Omaha all the time.
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: I live here. Oh, I thought you lived in St.
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: Louis.
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: I wanted to slug the guy, but I refrained. I did.
• 36:03
  Speaker 3: It's funny when it's a joke, but it's also even
• 36:05
  Speaker 3: more funny when people are still unaware that you actually
• 36:08
  Speaker 3: do live here.
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: I actually said to him, why do you say that?
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: I was almost like, okay, I've had enough. And he said, well,
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: everybody says you live in St. Louis. I go, I
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: have lived in the same house in Omaha since 1993.
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: And before that, I lived in Texas.
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: And I said, I wasn't even born in St.
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: Louis.
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: I was born in Illinois.
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: So I'll never get rid of that. But back to
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: Lake Ontario of the Great Lakes. Do you know what
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: it means?
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: What, Lake Ontario?
• 36:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: Do you know what Ontario means?
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: It was named actually by the Iroquois tribe, and it
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: means the Lake of Shining Waters. But if President Trump–
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: he can do this. I mean he could do it
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: by executive order, and his executive order actually directed the
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: Department of the Interior and U.S. board– United States board–
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: on geographic names to formalize the change within 30 days.
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: But keep in mind, this order only applies to the U.S.
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: Government.
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: So Canada can continue to call it Lake Ontario. Isn't
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: that interesting? But here's what I thought. Remember the old
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: thing we learned in elementary school about how to remember
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: the Great Lakes?
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: Homes? Were you taught that? No, I don't think so.
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: You remembered the word homes.
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: H-O-M-E-S.
• 37:26
  Speaker 3: Homes.
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior. H-O-M-E-S.
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: Now, if we change it to America, it's going to
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: goof the whole home things up.
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: Homes? I guess so.
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: But that's how I still remember that from grade school,
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: remembering homes to remember what the Great Lakes are.
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: So interesting. And what do you think about that?
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: Should we be changing Lake Ontario to Lake America, just
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: like the Gulf of America and not the Gulf of Mexico?
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: You know what, though?
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: The liberals, the very far left liberals are going crazy
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: on this, Peyton, just crazy.
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: It's Lake America at the same time, and it's because
• 38:14
  Speaker 3: Donald Trump did it.
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: But if he named it Lake Trump, I think we'd
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: all be. scratch our head a little bit and go, well... True, no,
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: but he's calling it Lake America.
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: But listen, this is coming from the liberals who want
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: to change the name mom.
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: Keep that in mind, too.
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: They don't want to call, they don't want you to.
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: Use the word mom anymore. Do you know that?
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: The liberals want to use the word birthing person and
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: not mom.
• 38:41
  Speaker 3: Well, that is definitely a conversation. Mike, you have something
• 38:43
  Speaker 3: about the Great Lakes here?
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: Mm-hmm. You're live with Gene Stother. Yeah, 100%.
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: Good morning, or good afternoon.
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: Good morning. Yes, 100%.
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: We should have it. Thank you. We should celebrate America.
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: We are the shining beacon of society, and we should be.
• 39:02
  Speaker 3: Calling more things that make us out there.
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: Can I make a comment.
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: About the streetcar?
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: Yes, sure.
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm looking.
• 39:13
  Speaker 3: Forward to it, and I think it's going to be
• 39:15
  Speaker 3: a great.
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: Thing for downtown Omaha and Hopefully it works well. Well,
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: I appreciate it and I agree with you on both
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: of your statements. I believe that we should be unbelievably
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: proud of the country. that we live in and proud
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: to be Americans and Americans. for us to all be
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: patriots about what we have here and with our freedoms here.
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: But I agree with you too.
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: I think once that streetcar is up and running and
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: people actually give it a chance to ride it, you're
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: going to find the benefits of it. And the most
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: important benefit to me is the economic development that is
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: occurring around where those rails are. It's already happening. It's
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: already happening. successful as far as that goes. All of
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: that development around the streetcar line is because those rails
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: are permanent. They are never going to go away. With
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: that development, that brings in new people, new talent into
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: our city, and it brings a lot of jobs. All
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: of that is important. It's how we grow There is
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: a statement that I have always used. Every streetcar presentation
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: I gave, I used this statement, and it is that
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: cities never stand still. They are either growing and moving
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: forward or they are declining and falling behind. You can't
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: just say we want to stay just like we are.
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: And so we want to be that city that is
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: growing and moving forward.
• 40:42
  Speaker 3: We appreciate you for listening to the KFAB Comment Line
• 40:45
  Speaker 3: every single day here on NewsRadio 1110 KFAB. If you
• 40:48
  Speaker 3: ever miss part of the show or you miss a day,
• 40:51
  Speaker 3: Gene Stothert and the KFAB Comment Line at KFAB.com. episodes podcasted.
• 40:59
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• 41:01
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• 41:03
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• 41:06
  Speaker 2: That is right. And that is it for us today.
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: Time flies when you're having fun, doesn't it, Peyton? Thank
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: you all for spending this hour with us today. We'd
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: love for you to join us again tomorrow. We have
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: a lot to talk about. I'm Jean Stothert, and this
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: is 1110 KFAB.