Rosenblatt, Recall and Recession

     The three Rs that we were all taught in school appear to be different today as an adult. The City of Omaha’s three Rs are Rosenblatt, Recall and Recession. For the past six months or so, the city has been all about the new stadium and the demolition of Rosenblatt. Save the Rosenblatt Committee has tried and tried to convince the city to leave the College World Series at Rosenblatt, but the Mayor and the NoDo Stadium Committee will not even listen. Repeatedly Mayor Fahey has stated that the city would weigh all the options in order to keep the College World Series in Omaha for the next 25 years, but Save Rosenblatt’s plan just seems to be pushed aside. The plan to renovate Rosenblatt and sink upwards of $40 million seems a bit much for the 2 weeks of the series and the money it brings to the city. The state may contribute $1.00 for every $3.00 that the City puts into Rosenblatt; this doesn’t seem to impress the Committee or the City for the renovation plan, or the historical significance of the Rosenblatt.

     The Mayor and his committee plans on spending approximately $140 million on a new stadium in the NoDo area, having yet to say exactly where all this money is coming from, except private donations, from whom or what we don’t know, a car rental tax; an increased hotel tax, and you can almost bet a hike in property taxes once again. There will also have to be the moving of a parking lot for the Qwest Center and more traffic problems in the downtown area. The Mayor’s interest in the NoDo Stadium seems to be all he wants to talk about and yet not talk about it.

     In the past few years, the Mayor and the Omaha City Council have already ticked off the bars and restaurants affected by the smoking ban by letting those who have KENO continue to smoke in their establishments. Fair? Not if you own one of those bars and restaurants that can’t allow smoking and your smoking customers have left to go to those places where they can smoke. Then there is that footbridge to Council Bluffs. What do we need it for? Who is going to use it? Moreover, who really cares about it? Just another whim that the city has. We should be spending the money on making our streets safer or spending it on the homeless or on healthcare for our elderly and children who can’t afford it. That brings us to our second R, Recall. Everybody is signing some kind of petition. Too many petitions, not enough action.  Petitions are just pieces of paper we waste trying to save the Rosenblatt or get rid of a Mayor who spends too much. Will it happen? Maybe. Maybe not. If it does, will it send a message to our elected officials or will they just blow it off like everything else in this town? Some people of Omaha are not happy with the people they elected, well they voted for them. Is this the problem or is there a larger issue, like who does the Mayor really work for? Could it be the people and/or businesses who want to make money building stadiums, bridges and parking lots. The Mayor could just be a pawn in this mess that the city is dealing with. A new mayor may be put in the same position. Who exactly does run and control the choices that are being made in Omaha? Is it the citizens, businesses or a bunch of “good old boys?”

     That brings us to the third R, Recession.  The former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said, “The current financial crisis in the U.S. is likely to be judged in retrospect as the most wrenching since the end of the Second World War. The crisis will leave many casualties.” If you think that Omaha is not in a recession then the next time you fill up your gas tank, take a look back at last year and see how much more gasoline costs have increased. When you come home from the grocery store and you have three bags instead of four, is it just because your family isn’t eating dessert this year, or is it because you just can’t afford that luxury. Did you get a raise at work this year? Was it enough to pay for that mortgage that was $200 or so less last month? We can’t spend as much this year because we need to save that cash for an emergencies. Small businesses are failing, we’re losing our houses, we can’t afford a new car or even to fill up our gas tanks. We feel fortunate that we can pay our utilities. Should we be building footbridges and stadiums when we are struggling to put food on our tables? This is not just an Omaha issue; this is our country in a shamble. We need to do something and something quick, before it’s too late. We are in an election year and it’s time the people take back their country and stop living in fear. Question those who want to take the lead in America and vote for them or be lead around by the nose and let them keep screwing with our money, goods and lives. This is America, that’s why we came here in the first place for a good life and freedom, lately both the good life and the land of opportunity has been a real joke on the middle class and the poor. According to Dorothy Thompson, American journalist: Fear grows in darkness; if you think there's a bogeyman around, turn on the light.