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Citizens’ Academy Spring 2016 — Local Government & Planning

The Spring 2016 Citizens’ Academy is coming to a close this week. Here are the key takeaways from the first two sessions, on Placemaking & Local Government and Local & Regional Planning:

Omaha’s government is led by an elected (partisan) official. Some cities are governed by city managers. Many consider election-based city leadership more legitimate than leadership hired by the City Council because the purpose of having public elections is to reflect what the majority wants in its city governance. The advantage of city managers over elected officials is that they are not politicians, but “professionals.” Yet, even though city managers are (technically) non-partisan, they are still human and can be influenced to choose sides. Continue reading →

Tags: BRT, city of omaha, Downtown, Omaha, parking, public transit, transportation

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Categories BRT, Mode Shift Omaha, Need for Choice, Parking, Perspectives
Author modeshiftomaha

Creating a true renaissance in downtown Omaha

15 Apr

By Angie Eikenberry and Dale Rabideau

The Apr 11 Omaha World Herald editorial, Downtown jobs critical for momentum, raises some good questions. Citing a 2013 Brookings Institution report, the editorial notes that “Of 58 midsize metros, we ranked 46th in percentage of jobs in the inner core,” which is near our ranking of 41st largest city in the nation and better than our ranking as 59th largest metropolitan statistical area. Definitely room for improvement but no need to ring the alarm bells.

OWH mentions continued momentum as a primary goal to continue the renaissance downtown. The original Renaissance came about by new thinking, new attitudes, and new directions of investments. If Omaha really wants a renaissance, it will require continuing to question old ways and to seek new ideas and best practices for a better tomorrow.

We can start by questioning the out-dated and mistaken assumption that more parking means more jobs. A recent University of Connecticut study found that as cities increase parking availability, the number of jobs and people actually decrease in the downtown area. More parking does not equal more jobs. Continue reading →

Tags: Downtown, Omaha, parking, transportation

Comments 1 Comment
Categories Need for Choice, Parking, Perspectives
Author modeshiftomaha

Parking Changes in Downtown Omaha

9 Sep

The City of Omaha is making several improvements to parking policies and these changes will continue to improve multimodal transportation and economic development in our community.

The first changes included reduced pricing for some parking garages. Upcoming improvements are additional metered parking hours (nights and weekends), some modified rates, and new marketing and signage. The changes will more efficiently use space near downtown businesses, open on-street parking availability, and shift longer-term parking to underutilized garages. Such changes will be good for business and economic development in the urban core, will help reduce negative impacts on the environment, and will improve transportation mobility and safety.