Destination: Eclectic

By Veronica Clark

There is a 3.6 square mile area of Omaha that has roughly 7,000 residents per square mile and it lies in one of the most eclectic areas of Omaha. It’s commonly referred to as “Midtown” and used to be applicable prior to the western zeitgeist that’s taken over that specific geographic area. Where else would you be able to walk by multi-million dollar homes, most with historic significance and within a few blocks, you see blighted neighborhoods where prostitution and drugs have been found? Toss in to the mix the presence of two major medical complexes and a company that is nationally known for Marlon Perkins.

As UNMC and Creighton began growing and expanding, a non-profit group built of a board of directors, representing local businesses and the residents formed and what was born was a visionary initiative to try to strike that elusive balance between commerce and community. Destination Midtown started in late 2004 and collaborated with The Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce and the City of Omaha to work on “a premier urban environment where people want to live, work, shop and play.” This is from their mission statement (which can be found at www.destinationmidtown.org) which also represents that this area will be nationally known for all of the above and much more.
While the cynics might be crying, “Dream on!” there is an infrastructure that Destination Midtown has in place. Local business leaders, community representatives, city council member Jim Vokal and residents themselves staff it. This vision does not stand alone on a drawing board. There are four different areas that they believe will allow this initiative to be a success: neighborhood development, economic development, transportation improvements and properties, both commercial and residential.
Neighborhood development sets its sights on code enforcement, home ownership programs and help to foster neighborhood unity. The group was successful in advocating for two more housing inspectors from the city, but it has also collaborated with UNO for a resident-led code enforcement team. In recent years, the corner of 24th and St. Mary’s has been partly condemned and the troubled hotel that sat on the corner of 39th and Dodge has been torn down.  The economic development has gone full steam ahead as Creighton, UNMC and Mutual of Omaha are planning or in process of constructing new additions to their expansive campuses. Smaller businesses, most of which are of the franchise variety, round out the big picture of the urban utopia. Gone are the drug dens and in their place are the Jimmy John’s.
In 1997, the Omaha City Council began the Downtown Northeast Development Plan. This included the plans for the Qwest Center, the riverfront revitalization and the Gallup Campus. Using the power of eminent domain and $28 million tax dollars, they were able to force the takeover of the land now housing the Gallup University campus. While this was a direct initiative of the city council, by those we elected into government, Destination Midtown is a non-profit organization, which receives their monies from private donations and from grants.
The large question at hand is what kind of lobbying power does this organization have? Many of the residential properties owned in the midtown area are rented by people who live in the area because of the proximity to the bus line and to the relative affordability of housing. Will this group keep to the mission statement of building community in harmony with commerce and that the only true benefactors are the private citizens and the businesses setting up shop and giving back to the area? The citizens of the 3.6 square mile area should keep an eye on the development and destruction and work with Destination Midtown to make positive changes and keep the eclectic vibe that already makes Midtown as unique as it is.

Small business, big impact

by Veronica Clark

Squeezed among the monoliths that are UNMC and Mutual and Creighton, there are myriad small businesses that are flourishing. You can also look and see those that our floundering or are dead in the water, like beached vessels waiting to be launched again.
For small business owners in the valley of the giants, Destination Midtown has been a dream that many in the area have hooked their star to. One small business owner, who asked not to be identified for this story has his own take on what Destination Midtown (DM) has done well, and what they definitely need to improve on.
“They are wanting to pull the small business owners in and along for the ride, but I just feel that there are a lot of hands being tied whether it’s political or other agendas, I am not sure. It just seems that things that should go away take too long to get done.”
Part of Destination Midtown’s agenda is to bring economic and neighborhood growth to the Midtown area. Despite the expansion and jobs that UNMC and Mutual bring to the area, what stands in the way of success, says this owner, is the criminal element and the blighted image. “Some of the other businesses and the type of renters allowed, it’s a clientele that is not becoming of a DM project. It’s inhibiting the growth, people drive by, they see that, and they do not want to invest. It seems to be a slow moving project to get these things taken care of. I hear all the time that people do not want to come to the area because it is a problem late at night. It has been taken over by an element that doesn’t welcome anyone else and they make that very clear.”
The popular school of thought would be to have business in the area and then people would want to invest in the community. The owner thinks that it would be a good call to appeal to the public for help but believes there is too much red tape and other obstacles.
“If the city can’t do it, the community is not going to be able to do it. If their hands are as tied as they are, there is no way that we are going to get anything done.  There is an element present that does not care about the community, which does not care about anything but themselves. To have that work, everybody has to buy into it. Everyone on every street and in every business has to rally behind something positive. And that’s not happening.”
While the small business owner is frank about his feelings on some of the shortcomings of Destination Midtown, he is a full supporter of the initiatives. “DM desires to have the utopia, but it is difficult for them to accomplish and it’s difficult for investors to get excited about. There are just too many negative things going on right now.  The stars in the area are the Med Center, and the Mutual project is a huge thing up and coming. I am very excited about that.  Hopefully that will have an impact both west, east, north and south.  All the way down towards California Taco, the Gifford Park area, the 40th and Farnam area, this whole neighborhood should be impacted by that.
Even though there are big goals, dreams, and hurdles to clear, the owner does not have any plans to leave the area. “I see no reason to move or leave.  I like it here. I wouldn’t have taken the leap of faith had I not seen a potential for the area. I am all about revitalization of the old. I like the old architecture, I like the culture that exists, the dynamic of people who live and work in midtown and downtown.  Therefore, I am here for the long haul. However, help us out (Destination Midtown), keep the push on. I hope this thing doesn’t fizzle out.  They have made a believer out of me.”

GASP, it’s that guy against smoking again

by Paul Detorie

We serve our country so that we can live in the “land of the free”. We hear those words, and we know that this country is the place to be, a place where we can speak our minds without worry of retaliation. We can even tell jokes about the President and we will not be thrown in jail or hung at the nearest town square. We can do just about anything we want to do or be anyone we want to be in this country thanks to the men and women who fought and died for our freedoms. As long as we are law-abiding citizens and stay within the legal boundaries of the law, we pretty much have it made in the good old U.S.A.
These veterans gave us the freedom to protest just about anything our hearts desire whether it is abortion, war, alternative lifestyles, you name it, we can protest it. This story is about how the rights of one man, Mark Welsch, and an organization known as GASP and women and men who fought in the past wars who gave him the right to try to take their rights away. This story goes even further than that; it’s about a man who wants everyone in the city to follow his rules because he knows what best for us at any cost.
A few weeks ago, the City Council issued a warning to the VFW Post 2503 in Benson that they will have to comply with the smoking ban that has been issued to more than just a few bars and restaurants in the city of Omaha. One of the veterans at this post complained about the smoking even though the VFW Post 2503 is a building that has had 80% non-smoking since 1994. Smoking is permitted only in the bar area, which is separated from the rest of the building by walls and is enclosed to contain the smoke. Alcohol is also served in the 80% part of the building where you can’t smoke, so not being able to get a drink isn’t the problem here. The problem here is that Mark Welsch, President of GASP, doesn’t want smoking in the VFW and he insists that they should comply with Omaha’s ruling on the smoking ban. VFW’s are private clubs, these men and women pay to belong, and they have to be a Veteran of a Foreign War.
These veterans fought with their lives and now they cannot even smoke in their own club! Something is seriously wrong here; Mark Welsch is over stepping his right to control the VFW. GASP has even called 911 to send police to the VFW to ticket the smokers and to time the police response time. Welsch has even gone to the City Council and asked that the VFW’s liquor license be reviewed, hoping that the VFW with comply with the ban, making the entire building smoke free. If the ban is not followed to the letter of the law, the City Council warned the Post Commander that tickets would be issued.
In a conversation with the City Attorney, she told me that the VFW was not considered a private club because they allow the public inside occasionally. The public is invited by invitation only and they do not have to come to the VFW. It is their choice. The City Attorney insisted that it was against the law to smoke at the VFW and tickets would be issued if the law was violated. She informed me it was just like speeding, it is breaking the law and the veterans would be issued tickets for speeding. Speeding is illegal. Cigarettes are not illegal, and if they are, why are the local grocery stores selling them? It is like comparing apples to oranges. Do you know anyone who has ever been hit by a cigarette at 60 mph?  She also informed me that you could smoke where they have keno, which really got me thinking. Do they just care about certain people’s health and not others? Keno is gambling and we all know that Nebraska does not want gambling, so let’s just go ahead and kill off those people who gamble with second hand smoke. It could be that the city makes money off keno and there weren’t enough people playing so the city took the smoking privileges away from the bars that did not have keno, which then forces smokers to frequent those establishments that permit smoking, such as bars with keno.  I was informed that a group of bar and restaruant owners got together and decided on this law that smoking was okay if you had keno and a partial ban would be easier to enforce at the present time. Let us not forget that you can also smoke at Horseman’s Park, which does not even have keno and is privately owned. The city attorney also told me that all bars and restaurants would have to comply with the law in 2011. However, that does not help the bars and restaurants that will be out of business well before then, because of the partial ban.  I do not know who these bar and restaurant owners were and neither did the City Attorney. You can bet you bottom dollar that no one whose bar you cannot smoke in now was there. Let’s not forget that Mayor Mike Fahey had told the city that he would not sign a smoking ban unless it was across the board and everyone would have to abide by the same law. Yes, politicians lie. Sometimes we even catch them in their lies and the next time they run for office, we’ll think twice before we vote for that person again.
Mark Welsch does not realize how many people he has hurt while trying to help all those who could be affected by second hand smoke or passive smoke. First, there is no proof that passive smoke causes cancer. Those who do not want to be around smoke do not have to go into those bars and restaurants. There are already enough smoke free places in this city. Welsch also does not realize that he has not only hurt businesses due to their loss of the smoking clientele. He has also hurt the workers whose hours have been reduced due to the lack of business, and are suffering a decrease in tips, which is a big part of their wages. Many jobs are simply lost because the businesses are not able to continue to hire and keep on staff. Now I'm sure that these workers can go to those places that have keno, but is not that what the city was trying to save us from, smoke filled workplaces.
Soon enough Welsch will probably get on his high horse and go after the entire country, and try to put Virginia, South and North Carolina out of business for producing tobacco. That brings us to all the tax revenue the city will be losing because of lack of sales in the bars and restaurants, so I imagine they’ll have to give out more tickets to make up for the loss of revenue. If that doesn’t work you can bet the city will raise our property taxes repeatedly.
I am allergic to hairspray, so I am hoping the City of Omaha will ban hairspray in public soon, or at least in workplaces and bars and restaurants. Don’t worry about the keno parlors, I don’t play keno anyway.

Sports

Traynor representing Nebraska and the United States at the 2007 Down Under Sports

by Marlene Bruner

At the age of five, Tony Traynor was playing baseball, at seven years old, it was football, and at eight years old, it was basketball. Tony loved his sports.
When Tony was ten years old, his mother married a golf course superintendent. Tony interest in seeing what his stepfather did for a living sparked his interest, so he decided to go with his stepfather, Jody, to Fontenelle Hills Golf Course. After work, Tony’s stepfather, Jody would teach him the game of golf.  When Tony hit his first golf ball, he fell in love with the game. As time went on, he had truly found the sport that was his passion and a game that he could really put his heart and soul in it. Tony joined the Junior Golf League at Fontenelle Hills and began playing on a regular basis.
Now, in his second year of the Junior Golf League, won the championship of his age group, he was awarded a trophy and photo and mention in the local community newspaper, The Bellevue Leader. The award and special attention in the newspaper solidified his belief that this was what he wanted to do when it came to sports.
During the summer of his freshman year of high school, Tony received a knee injury at football camp that kept him on crutches for three months. This was a devastating blow to Tony who was playing 18 to 27 holes of golf on a regular basis. As soon as he was healed from the injury and didn’t have to use the crutches, Tony went back to his golfing and played daily until winter came and it was too cold and not possible to continue.
Waterloo High School did not have a golf team until the Waterloo/Valley School District merged and became Douglas County West Community Schools (DC West Falcons) and the opportunity to join a golf team was there. As a sophomore, Tony played Varsity/Junior Varsity meets where he placed second. Tony now in his junior year of high school is playing for the varsity golf team.
While at basketball practice, the schools golf coach, Darin Kovar, approached Tony to tell him that he was going to coach the Nebraska Golf Team at the 2007 Down Under Sports Games that is be held in Australia in July. The coach invited Tony to be a part of the golf team. Tony was honored and thrilled to represent his community, state and above all, the United States. Tony’s parents thought this would be a great opportunity for him, and are very proud that their son will be representing the nation. Tony is representing our community, state and country and for that, we should all be proud. He is our ambassador in our global community, which makes it so great to be a American, where a kid from a small school district and a state that get very little recognition, can go to the other side of the planet and show the world what we have here in the states, but also Nebraska, makes us all proud to be from that little known state that is smack dab in the middle of everything.
Sponsors and voluntary contributions of family, friends and business sponsors fund Tony’s trip to Australia. There are also fund raising activities. Let us help Tony make this once in a lifetime opportunity a reality. If you would like to donate to please send your donation to Anthony Traynor, c/o The Heartland Messenger, P.O. Box 241184, Omaha NE 68124, and make checks or money orders payable to International Sports Specialists, Inc. (I.S.S.I.) and visit their website at www.issi-usa.com.