Deena Winter: Couches on porches a hot topic
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During one of the mayor's recent neighborhood roundtables — during which residents can talk to Mayor Coleen Seng about pressing issues in their neighborhood — the hot topic was (drum roll, please)... couches.
More specifically, couches on porches. Not to mention Lazyboys and other recliners or sectionals that have migrated outdoors.
What is the deal with people who are inspired to put their plaid couch on the front porch? And what can the city do to stop them? That's what these people wanted to know.
Lincoln doesn't have a city ordinance banning upholstered furniture on porches.
"We have been harping about this for so many years," said Carol Brown, board member of the Neighborhood Alliance and the meeting moderator. "We get the run-around all the time on that issue."
She said there's been talk of wooing upholstered furniture away from porches with an offer to buy the homeowner plastic patio furniture. (But would people who just want new patio furniture be inspired to put a couch on the porch?)
"We can't seem to get anyone to take the ball and run with it," Brown said. (Or at least throw it at people with couches on their porches.)
Ed Caudill, president of the North Bottoms association, said on the way to the mayor's meeting, he passed three porches decorated with upholstered chairs. He said he's written letters asking couch offenders to cease and desist, but about the time he convinces one homeowner to give up the porch furniture, there's another one.
"They breed," he said.
Urban Development manager Wynn Hjermstad said "trashy" porch couches are often a problem in college towns, and attempts to dissuade porch offenders have gone nowhere. The problem can't be attacked from a public health perspective unless there are vermin or critters in couches, she said.
"It's a big issue to a number of neighborhoods," she said. "I don't think it's going to go away."
Lincoln Councilwoman Patte Newman agreed, saying, "It's something that everybody's been talking about for years and years and years" to no avail.
But she reminded the group that when the Boulder, Colo., City Council considered an upholstered furniture ban in 2001, people dragged their couches into the streets and burned them. Although their passion was partly ignited by a Big 12 Championship win, college students were incensed when the city threatened to end their couch-on-the-porch tradition. (Perhaps the Lincoln City Council could prevent such rioting in the streets by passing an ordinance in the summer, when there wouldn't be as many college students around to notice.)
Brown said neighborhoods plan to invite some landlord organizations to discuss the issue again at a future mayoral roundtable.
New show in town
There may soon be a new show in town at the corner of 13th and P streets, former home of the Douglas 3 theaters and other businessses.
Since the theaters closed, the other businesses — including a tanning and beauty salon — left in anticipation that the building would eventually be torn down or sold. The only remaining tenant is Douglas Theatre Co.'s corporate headquarters. Douglas, which owns the building, is moving its headquarters across the street into the former Cinema Twin theaters, which is being remodeled into office space. They plan to make their move in July.
The city is interested in redeveloping the Douglas Three building, which has a 14,000-square-foot footprint.
"All I can say is we're having discussions," Urban Development Assistant Director Dallas McGee said. "It has potential."
John Decker, chief financial officer of Douglas Theater Co., said the company is considering several redevelopment options, such as a mix of commercial and residential uses.
"We've got several offers," he said.
One thing's for sure: "It won't be a theater."
The possibility of redeveloping Douglas' nearby second-run Starship 9 theater at 1311 Q St. has also been mentioned by city officials. The Starship's block is targeted for redevelopment in the draft Downtown Master Plan.
"We're open-minded, I would say that, about the Starship," Decker said. "There have been a lot of ideas tossed around. We really haven't gotten too excited about any of them until the dust settles and we get a sense of the final plan going forward."
He said it's a profitable theater, but Douglas is open to other ideas in part because the future of second-run theaters isn't promising as Hollywood continues to shrink the window from the release of movies to the release of the DVD.
"So the market for that long-term; it's not a glowing prospect for us," Decker said. "But we still have a great customer base there. It has a niche."
The more things change...
More evidence of the veracity of the phrase, "The more things change, the more they stay the same," culled from Journal Star newspaper clippings for its Sunday history column:
* 1905: Final plans were being made for laying track on an inter-urban railway between Lincoln, Omaha and Beatrice.
A group of Lincoln business people studying the feasibility of building an arena near the Haymarket District has talked about offering commuter train service from the Lincoln Station to Omaha.
* 1945: The City Council passed an emergency ordinance limiting to five minutes the time any person could speak before the council.
Late last year, the Lincoln City Council made further limitations — cutting the number of times people can address the council on topics not on the agenda from every meeting to the second and fourth meetings of each month.
Betcha didn't know...
If you have a swimming pool that's 18 inches or deeper, the city requires it to be completely surrounded by a fence or wall that's at least four feet high. (And yes, many kiddie pools would fall into that category, city officials say.)
And that...
From 2000 to 2002, 166 Lancaster County children were treated in emergency rooms for near-drowning injuries.
Reach Deena Winter at 473-2642 or dwinter@journalstar.com.
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