Omaha World-Herald. Jan. 30, 2022.

Editorial: Seek opportunities for public input as Omaha transformation rolls out

Plans announced last week for Mutual of Omaha’s new headquarters tower and a streetcar between the Nebraska Medicine campus and the Missouri River check a lot of boxes on our list of ways to boost downtown and Omaha as a whole.

That doesn’t mean we are without concerns, but:

— The plan promises to attract further investment and amp up the city’s vitality, from Blackstone through midtown to downtown.

— The present Mutual headquarters campus will be remade to boost housing availability.

— A free streetcar — plans smartly call for no fare — will encourage some people to avoid driving downtown or, say, to Blackstone, easing congestion and parking and helping the city be more pedestrian friendly.

— The city’s facelift — the renovated Gene Leahy Mall, the Kiewit Luminarium on a remade riverfront, a free streetcar, new housing close to downtown on that streetcar line, a modernized library system, all without raising taxes — are good steps in making Omaha attractive to the new, younger workers we desperately need.

In the end, it has great potential to be a lovely omelet.

Eggs are being broken now.

Sen. Justin Wayne is irritated about how the city is using tax increment financing to benefit a big business plan, arguing that it is a misuse of the law to declare “pretty much” the entire downtown as “extremely blighted.”

Omaha Public Schools Superintendent Cheryl Logan also is irked by the TIF designation because property taxes in those zones go to repay development loans rather than to usual recipients, including the schools.

These eggs are all but cracked and in the mixing bowl at this point. Wayne may do well to refine the TIF statutes for the future and should be able to find some rural allies. The schools should benefit in the long term from development in the city core that likely would not happen without use of TIF.

We dislike that some residents feel steamrolled, including those upset about downtown library changes, with the outdated W. Dale Clark Library being razed this year to clear the new Mutual site.

It’s easy to understand how critics of different aspects of the plan see it as the same old Omaha approach of power brokers deciding what the city needs with nominal attention to winning broad buy-in. We also appreciate that getting big things done at some point requires making decisions and moving forward. The city couldn’t negotiate the deal with Mutual in public.

Going forward, we strongly urge the Library Board and city leaders to be sure the civic passion generated by the library plan is heard and taken seriously in finding a permanent location for a new downtown branch. We all should want residents to be engaged, and the city must work hard to capture and sustain that energy.

Perhaps, once renovated, the 1912 David Cole Creamery building at 1401 Jones St. will prove to meet downtown library users’ needs. But the city is obligated to the site for only five years, giving it time to work with residents and evaluate needs in light of new downtown patterns.

Downtown Omaha is the fastest-growing part of the city, and it’s exciting to see it refreshed. We don’t mourn demolition of the 45-year-old Clark Library. A new corporate tower bringing thousands of workers downtown is great for the vibrancy of the city and is lots better to sit in a premier spot than a outdated concrete block of Brutalist architecture. The changes will spur more people to move downtown and should create the tipping point needed for a grocery store.

Outside the downtown core, a new central library built with private money at 72nd and Dodge, blending traditional services with DoSpace’s technology library concept, can serve a range of Omahans and be a terrific modern asset for the city.

Regarding the streetcar, The World-Herald has not previously taken a position, and skepticism has run through earlier editorial board discussions. Streetcars make nice promotional videos, but some cities have struggled with their operating expense and reliability. We’re encouraged that Omaha appears to have a realistic plan to cover costs and that the route holds promise of having utility for residents, not just visitors seeking novelty.

On balance, the Mutual tower, midtown housing, streetcar and library plans, combined with the Leahy Mall and riverfront renovations already underway, promise a remarkable transformation of this historic river city, all in an affordable way.

We can cheer that as we implore leaders not to steamroll over public input as details of the plan play out.

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Lincoln Journal Star. Jan. 29, 2022.

Editorial: Nebraskans need access in medical cannabis bill

Familiar faces opposing past bills to legalize medical cannabis in Nebraska have written their own legislation and promised to seriously consider it.

One major problem exists in the bill, however: It wouldn’t allow any legal means for Nebraskans to acquire medical cannabis. LB1275, introduced by Sen. Mike Groene of North Platte, expressly bars “the cultivation of cannabis,” while federal law bans the transport of the plant across state lines.

A medical cannabis law that doesn’t allow Nebraskans suffering from serious illness to obtain medical cannabis is functionally useless.

Accordingly, without significant revisions, the Legislature must either adopt the thoughtful and strictly regulated program that allows for growing, offered once again by Sen. Anna Wishart of Lincoln, or punt the measure to voters for an impending petition drive on the November ballot.

Groene’s bill also limits the number of conditions where medical marijuana is a possible prescription. Only Nebraskans suffering from stage 4 cancer, uncontrollable seizures, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy or a condition where the life expectancy is less than a year are eligible.

Limiting access to a potential treatment is a serious problem for Nebraskans suffering from serious conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder and others not covered under LB1275.

And that’s before considering these individuals would be committing a felony if they obtained medical cannabis, should this bill become law.

The heart-rending stories of Nebraskans pleading for senators to end Nebraska’s position as one of three states with no access to medical cannabis may be swaying more senators, as evidenced by Groene’s recent about-face on the matter. But this testimony indicates a desperation to ease the symptoms of debilitating conditions without resorting to prescription painkillers.

Ardent foes of medical cannabis – such as Gov. Pete Ricketts and former Sen. John Kuehn, a co-chair for Smart Approaches to Marijuana in Nebraska – have expressed a willingness to consider Groene’s bill they’ve never before demonstrated.

Their change of heart, which follows right on the heels of a series of TV ads across Nebraska arguing medical and recreational marijuana differ only on semantics, is puzzling. But it mustn’t be because it precludes access to a last resort of treatment for Nebraskans in hopes of cutting off a popular ballot initiative they oppose.

Iowa made a similar mistake when it legalized medical cannabis in 2014, which permitted possession of – but not access to – low-THC cannabis products. It took three years before that was rectified, albeit with rather strict limits on the number of manufacturers allowed and amount of THC to be claimed.

Nebraska’s long, slow walk toward medical cannabis legalization has let us see the pitfalls made elsewhere. It’s on lawmakers not to repeat them and ensure this form of treatment becomes available as soon as possible.

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