Reporter Melissa Lee spoke with Councilman Jonathan Cook, who is running for re-election to his District 3 seat.
Posted: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 6:00 pm
Reporter Melissa Lee spoke with Councilman Jonathan Cook, who is running for re-election to his District 3 seat. In his own words:
I was born and raised here. Graduated from (Lincoln) Southeast and (Nebraska) Wesleyan.
I’m the baby of the family. (Sisters Connie and Kim are 11 and nine years older, respectively.)
In high school, I liked computers. I’m a computer guy.
My first job was at a computer store. I got to borrow things and try them out, and that was neat. I was about 18.
I met my wife through friends. They said they had someone I should meet.
She was working in California, so we communicated by e-mail for a while. We hit it off pretty quickly, and we’ve been married 10 years now.
We like to travel. We’ve enjoyed a lot of that.
The last movie we saw was “The Queen.” I liked Helen Mirren in it a lot.
A lot of people don’t know about my family. My sister (Kim) is a concert cellist in Pittsburgh. My mother owns her own business.
My dad (Willard) died last year of cancer. He loved people. I miss him a lot.
He served in Okinawa and earned the Bronze Star. He was very lucky to return. He didn’t like to talk about it much.
We used to talk a lot. World events, politics, all of it. This last year has been pretty tough. It was a very fast-growing kind of (skin) cancer.
You learn to appreciate the time you have with people.
I work from home. Sometimes it’s odd hours. I never just turn it off.
I’m kind of a night owl. If it’s an exciting thing I’m working on, I just want to keep doing it.
I don’t actually drink any colas with caffeine.
My favorite midnight snack? Cheez-Its.
I’ve always wanted to make my community better. I enjoy finding solutions.
I think Lincoln is a great community. This is a great place to raise a family. We have a very high quality of life here.
We have a lot of amenities that a lot of larger cities have. We have a great university here, and great education.
I think we’ve accomplished a lot … The city needs to grow.
When somebody calls you up and has a problem with the city, you can work on it. You can drive around and say, “Here’s something we worked on. Here’s a shopping center that might not have been here otherwise.” It’s great to drive by and see that.
We have budget problems. What I’ve done is try to find alternative cuts. Pools, parks, libraries, senior centers — those are really important services to established neighborhoods. The core can’t deteriorate.
You learn after a while what to look for. For example, it always bothers me when they send you stacks and stacks of papers (at work). It seemed foolish to waste all that paper. So I said, “No, I don’t want to see all those paper copies.”
Now when we get paper, it’s just a small stack.
It’s a small savings, but it’s a savings.
It’s about somebody stepping up and saying, “wait, why do we do it that way?”
My favorite place in Lincoln? I do think Pioneers Park is really a jewel. And Wilderness Park. Every week as a kid I’d go to Wilderness Park and just walk the trails.
The coolest place I’ve been is the Atomium in Brussels (a giant monument representing iron crystal molecules). It’s very shiny.
I’m concerned about the fact that there’s so much instability in the world. That can change the world overnight.
I love Isaac Asimov’s nonfiction science books. I can’t put them down.
(My wife and I) share an iPod. It’s got Peter Cetera, Abba, classical music. I’ve got lots of Beatles on here.
A favorite Beatles song? That’s very difficult. I like “Yesterday.”
I like to cook. I like chicken marsala.
Campaigning is just very busy. You’re talking to so many different groups. You have to be flexible.
Reach Melissa Lee at 473-2682 or mlee@journalstar.com.