Olde Towne Bellevue in 1974 was alive with traffic and the sidewalks were full of people going in and out of shops and restaurants. Mission Avenue was the heart (and soul) of Bellevue.

Long ago and far away, there was a thriving and lively town that had a Western Auto, The Roxy movie theater, a restaurant as good as any in Omaha, The Bellevue Queen, shoe stores, dress stores, major banks, flower shops, doctors offices, including an eye doctor, law offices, a bowling alley, a grocery store, specialty shops and so much more.

Western Auto, gone. The Roxy, gone. Bellevue Queen, gone. Shoe store, dress store, bowling alley, etc. etc., gone.

There still is Erwin’s Jewelry and the Downtown Coffee Shop. Is the business still as it was 20 or 30 years ago? Probably not, but they seem to be the main attractions on

West Bellevue is flourishing. “Go west, young man” seems to be the theme in Bellevue. That is what this great nation did in 1803, all the way to the Gold Rush in 1849, but the East Coast did not die or even suffer from it. It continued to change with the times and remain as good as it was before the Westward Expansion. The east got better to compete with the new West.

The Bellevue Chamber’s job is to bring excitement and money into Bellevue, and that includes Olde Towne. Do you really think they are doing that? If you think that is true, go visit some of the existing shops and talk with the merchants. Most of the storefronts there are empty and have signs saying, “For Lease, For Sale or For Rent.”

Megan Lucas, President of the Chamber, has come up with an idea to change the name of Olde Towne to Downtown. If that is what the members of the Chamber are paying their dues for, then I bet someone has some land in Olde Towne Bellevue to sell them.

The Bellevue Chamber’s website lists their “Top 10 Reasons to Join” as Economic Development, Networking, Building Relationships, Involvement, Visibility, Business Contacts, Community, Helping Others, Making a Difference, Partner with Like-minded People. Here’s “10 Reasons Not to Join.”  Economic development is not happening except in West Bellevue, where there are mostly chain stores such as Wal-Mart, Michaels, and a slew of restaurants that are franchised or corporate owned. Networking can be done on your own, and you don’t need that many goods or services if you have no customers. Building relationships does not take going to meetings that a chamber puts together for other members; you need to meet people wherever you go. Involvement is up to the community; a chamber is not needed to make that happen. Visibility: If you are in Olde Towne Bellevue, the two or three businesses next to you are probably closed and it does not look good for your business. Business Contacts: If you are a business, you need customers, not business contacts who are there to sell you goods. Community: “Discover Bellevue,” “Portraits,” and the” Bellevue Business Brief” are advertisements, and it is just as affordable to advertise in this newspaper or in the Bellevue Leader.  Helping others: You cannot help others if your business is in the dumps. No one in their right mind would want a business owner who cannot afford to pay their own rent to try to show them how to run a business. Making a difference: Being a part of the solution instead of the problem is what members pay the chamber to do. In addition, do not forget Partnering with like-minded people. I really don’t think that Appleby’s, IHOP, or any of those chain restaurants have much in common with the Downtown Coffee Shop.

The chamber is a business and anyone who thinks otherwise should know that chambers are making money and paying themselves salaries. It is a job just like a server, a clerk or anyone else who has to pay rent and feed the family.

Putting the blame on the Chamber is not what I’m getting at, you have to lay some of the blame on the City of Bellevue.  They should be encouraging businesses to come to Bellevue and make it what it was once upon a time. The Kennedy Freeway did not bring business into Bellevue; it was an escape route out. Look at

There is hope for Bellevue, well at least that’s what Phil Davidson, project manager of the Riverfront Development has told me. The City Council gave permission to seeks bids on April 23^rd, and they will probably start the grading of the land before summer’s end. With this plan, it is something for Olde Towne to look forward to the future and hope that the Riverfront does come to fruition soon. A city park 60 acres north of the Bellevue Bridge that includes a baseball stadium, football fields, community center, museum, restaurant, skate park and picnic areas will bring traffic back into Mission Avenue and businesses there may have a chance to flourish once again. Mr. Davidson has a hard road to travel and it will take money not only from the environmental grant, but also donations from the community and grants from other organizations to get the project in place. Once Bellevue sees that something is being done, maybe, just maybe “Olde Towne Bellevue” will be that place to go once again, and not become “Olde Towne Bedrock.”

By Matt Volkman

The United Nation’s International Strategy for Disaster Reduction revealed recently that typhoons and hurricanes were likely to increase as ocean temperatures rose, while decreased precipitation would lead to harsher droughts.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of 2,500 scientists said in a Feb. report that average world temperatures would likely rise between 1.8 and 4.0 degrees. It reported that 254 million people were affected by natural hazards last year - nearly three times as many as in 1990. This assessment came in the wake of series of devastating hurricanes in the Caribbean and the US.

ISDR director, Salvano Briceno, feels that action is needed to reduce people’s vulnerability to climate-related hazards and provide a blueprint for taking such action now.

In a testimony by James Hansen, serving on the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming last month to the U.S. House of Representatives said that the intensification of conditions would intensify issues like water shortages in the American’s Heartland and many other parts of the world.

This drought could greatly affect the Mid-west because it would hit the semi-arid states from west and central Texas through Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas. This increasing drought is prone and unsuitable for agriculture said the Columbian University Professor, and cause the extermination of a large fraction of plant and animal species.

“The Earth is close to dangerous climate change, to tipping points of the system with the potential for irreversible deleterious effects,” said Hansen in his recent testimony. “Huge natural climate changes, from glacial to interglacial states, have been driven by very weak, very slow forcings, and positive feedbacks.”

Lester R. Brown from the Earth Policy Institute confirmed that there have been more destructive storms in recent years and feel it is only the beginning. Since 1970, the Earth’s average temperature has risen by one degree Fahrenheit, but by 2100 it could rise by up to 10 degrees Fahrenheit.

More destructive storms are an early manifestation of global warming. The longer term risk is that rising temperatures will melt glaciers and polar ice caps, raising sea level and displacing coastal residents worldwide. The flow of climate refugees to date numbers in the thousands, but if we do not quickly reduce CO2 emissions, it could one day number in the millions.

According to Hansen for humanity itself, the greatest threat is the likely demise of the West Antarctic ice sheet as it is attacked from below by a warming ocean and above by increased surface melt. There is increasing realization that sea level rise this century may be measured in meters if we follow business-as-usual fossil fuel emissions.

“In my opinion,” said Hansen “the United States should recognize openly its leading role in causing human-made climate change and promptly take a leadership role in addressing the matter. We have a moral responsibility to do so.”

Ambassadors

By Tom Queen

            I don’t think there is a police officer out there that doesn’t agree that our job is made much easier when the community is behind us. It is always great to have a good witness or a victim willing to testify in court. With community support and cooperation we can solve more crimes and make this a safer city.

            How do we get more citizens to aid us in our fight against crime? First, I think, we need to figure out why some of them won’t cooperate with us.

            In talking with citizens of north Omaha, living in the neighborhood and watching a lot of public access T.V. I have come to the conclusion that the overriding problem is fear. Some citizens fear that if they come forward they will be targeted by the criminal and the criminal’s friends. I have heard time and time again, “I’ve got to live here.” Citizens fear the police cannot protect them. They fear that even if the criminal is arrested that night, they will be back out on the street the next day. They even fear that the officer just doesn’t understand what it’s like to live in “The Hood”. Unfortunately, most of their fears are well founded.

            Omaha Police Officers work in some of the roughest neighborhoods in this city. They come in do an 8 or 10 hour shift and then go back to their “safe neighborhoods”. Most officers don’t know what it is like to hear arguments echoing through the streets at all hours of the day and night. What it’s like to hear the screeching car tires not daily, but hourly. They don’t have a family tradition of spending New Years Eve in the basement of their homes because of the midnight gunfire that makes you believe you’re in a war zone. I do know about these things, I live here.

            12 years ago my wife and I decided to buy a house. We discussed where we would live at length and decided that we would make an investment in the community that I grew up in and in which I work. We found a house a few houses down from where my grandparents used to live and settled in. Since that time we have experience, among other things, having the house next to us shot up, houses on our block raided by ERU and we have watched as a Board of Mental Health warrant was served on another of our neighbors. Even after experiencing all of this I don’t feel I know, completely, what the people of north Omaha go through, after all I am trained to deal with this stuff and know what resources are out there to help with neighborhood problems. I do, however, believe that it has given me a better understanding of what most of the civilians that live here go through.

            I’m not going to lie to you and say that I have never thought of moving my family out of north Omaha, I have. My wife and I have even looked at houses way out west, but eventually we always decide to stay. Part of the reason we stay is because crime happens everywhere and there are more police officers per square mile in north Omaha than in the western parts.

When I was born in 1964 my parents lived at 36^th and Ames Avenue shortly there after they moved to a house at 24^th & Templeton Street. I grew up in north Omaha and believe that it can achieve greatness, but it will take a lot of commitment. Commitment from city officials, to provide funds to revitalize the area: Commitment from business owners to provide jobs for the people of this community: Commitment from the citizens to do their part to create a better living environment: And commitment from the police officers that work the area to not only combat crime, but to combat the fears of the citizens. Changes will not happen overnight, but they will happen.

This brings me back to my original question, how do we get the citizens to help us in the fight? We need to earn their trust. The simplest way to start this process is to talk to people. I’m not referring to the meetings that the chief and “community leaders” attend. They could end up walking arm in arm and singing songs and that won’t mean a hill of beans to the street officer or the average citizen.

What I am proposing is for every officer to take a few minutes out of their shift to actually talk to someone, for no other reason than to spread understanding. You will be amazed at how much you can learn about people and neighborhoods from a little old lady sitting on her porch, the shopkeeper sweeping his sidewalk or the couple out for a walk. If you see that an elderly person’s sidewalk has gone unshoveled, check on them. If you see a child walking alone and they seem worried stop and make sure they are alright.

It was just such a contact that police had with me when I was four years old that made me want to become a police officer. I had wandered away from my home and become lost. Two officers stopped to check on me and gave me a ride back to my house. My mother tells me that I didn’t stop talking about those officers and their squad car for weeks. So, don’t believe that a simple contact goes unrewarded, this one changed my life.

On calls and on traffic stops don’t be afraid to explain why you’re doing what you are doing. You have to admit that some of the reasons we use to stop cars can seem pretty petty to common citizen. They don’t understand that it is through these kinds of stops that officers recover guns, find drugs and arrest people with warrants. That is why we have to educate the public and explain our actions. People fear what they don’t understand; our best weapon against this fear is information. If one officer can cause just one person to understand a week, then Uniform Patrol can make about 20,000 positive contacts a year. Then add to that those citizens telling their friends, family and co-workers, WOW, we will soon have a community that better understands and supports their police officers.

As police officers we have to remember that we are not only the enforcement section of the legal system, we are also ambassadors to the people of Omaha. Like ambassadors we must try to spread good will while protecting the interests of our sovereign. Our sovereigns are the United States of America, The State of Nebraska and The City of Omaha and their interests, entrusted to us, are their citizens. We have a great responsibility. One that is, at times, very hard to accomplish. We can make it easier on ourselves if we work with the good people of the community to create safer neighborhoods for everyone.

Omaha’s partial smoking ban has now been in effect for 6 months. The Heartland Messenger decided to take a phone survey of 118 bars and restaurants to see how the smoking ban stands with the local businesses.All calls were random and were not scientific, nor was it targeting any specific type of establishment.

There were only five questions asked. The questions were; Do you allow smoking or not? Does the establishment have Keno? Did the business have to cut employees hours, or lay off workers? Just a note, two businesses that we spoke to said they had to eliminate their entire kitchen staff. Was business affected with an increase or decrease in sales? The final question was whether the business was for or against the partial smoking ban. The majority of people were very strong about being against the “Partial Smoking Ban”. Several business owners’ stated that the ban should be “...all or none.”

The answers to the survey questions came from whoever picked up the phone. It could have been an owner or manager, as well as a bartender, server or host.

The Messenger’s poll was conducted strictly as an opinion poll. The Messenger is not trying to change the existing law but felt that it was important make the public aware of the effect of the partial smoking ban so far on some local businesses. Hopefully these opinions will get back to the City Council’s eyes and ears, so that they have a little understanding of what the local businesses are saying, and maybe the council will listen to the people before making other important decisions that affect the livelihoods of Omaha’s citizens. The Messenger does feel that the City Council should listen to the people, after all the people of Omaha are who they work for. The people of Omaha did elect them to office, so we do have to abide by the rules they put forth to the public. Remember though, there is always another election just around the corner.

Television’s biggest con…Lost

By. J. D. Sloane

For three seasons, my wife and family have been watching Lost. I have even watched a season or two. The first season brought us to a place where there seems to be a story line that was interesting and mysterious. After all, being plane wrecked on a deserted, or not-so-deserted island does seem possible. What a cast, mostly young beautiful or handsome people with back-stories that were intriguing with a touch of danger. Isn’t that what makes good TV?

The promos for LOST are constantly putting out to the viewers that some questions will be answered. So far, I can’t find a single answer to any of the questions. I might have asked myself, “What is this show about?” I used to watch Seinfeld, which was better as a “Show about nothing.” At least at the end of each show I seemed to understand what the last half hour was about. Truly, “Seinfeld” must have been about something because it was one of the highest rated shows in television history. I am sure the sponsors paid high premiums to be slotted with Seinfeld, as I am sure they are paying a pretty penny to be put into rotation for Lost.

After three seasons, I asked myself “What is this show really about?”  Duh…I couldn’t tell you. I asked my wife and others what they thought. Some answers I got were ‘Don’t know’, ‘something’, ‘who knows’. They all say it has something to do with a number. Characters come and go and still the story is as bewildering to me as the title, LOST. Yes, I am lost and I’m not the only one.

DVD’s of the past seasons have been sold to the public claiming to give more clues, but still no one seems to know any more than me or anyone else who has watched a single episode. Let’s talk about wasted time, if the show has been airing fifty episodes, then you, me or anyone who has been watching, was spoon fed a lot of scenes of beautiful people on a deserted island.  We could have been watching any other show on television and actually got something out of it.  Gilligan’s Island comes to mind.  Even though some people thought Gilligan’s Island was just a stupid nonsense show, at least it was entertaining.  Gilligan & Skipper at least had a few good ideas on how to remove themselves from the island.

Let’s face it, we have all been conned by ABC.  It just goes to show you that there really was a ‘Golden Age’ of television and it is gone. That is why we pay the high cost of cable TV.