Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Pleasure to be joined for a few minutes here by
AMM may Or John Ewing Mayor.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Good morning, welcome, good morning, and thank you for having me.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
You bet great to have you on here.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
I want to just get your comment and we're going
to get to the downtown of my Light's Festival too.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
But as a former officer.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
You you know, these these four officers that were that
were injured in the shootout down there the other day,
it just points up what every cop knows, right on
every single call, you never know what you're going to
deal with.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
And thank god they're going to be okay.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
Yes, you know, I was very disappointed to see another
incident of someone shooting at police officers, and even the
victim over on thirtieth the names. We are not aware
of any justification for that shooting either, So you really
have someone who basically was shooting at people and and
(01:00):
putting our whole community in danger. And I'm just very
very very proud of the officers diligence in terms of
finding the plate number and then being able to go
and try to pursue this suspect and bring him into custody.
So extremely brave professional actions by officers and I'm extremely proud,
(01:25):
but also extremely grateful that their injuries weren't more serious.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
The closest thing I've ever come to a shootout is
watching gun Smoke reruns. But it seems to me, Mayor,
that's sixty rounds. Wow, that's a lot of bullets in
the air. Is that unusually high for a shootout involving
you just one assailant?
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Well, I don't know that I ever want to be
critical of officers in that type of situation. You had
an individual who was spraying.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Round, they were shooting at them.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yeah, and they had to make sure that suspect did
not get out of that situation and be able to
potentially injure them even worse, or go out into the
community and injure someone else. So they had to do
what they needed to do to be able to stop
him from being a threat to our community.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Do you ever have to pull your weapon, John, in
the line of duty?
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yes, I pulled it a number of times. I was
very fortunate in that that then resolved the issue, and
so I never had to fire my weapon in the
course of duty other than the practice that we did
to make sure we were proficient.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Well, you got the lights turned on last Sunday. It
had to be postponed because it was bitterly cold Saturday.
But the Lights Festival is underway and this is a
big deal this weekend.
Speaker 6 (02:52):
Right, Yes. Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
One of the things we want to do is we
want to be able to have our community sell celebrate
the holiday and be able to come together as a
community and just celebrate together. So it was an exciting opportunity.
We also had the availability of folks to be able
to be on Ali the Trolley, which was a great
(03:17):
partnership between the City of Omaha, Ali the Trolley and
the Chamber of Commerce. So we're always grateful for partnerships.
But we were.
Speaker 6 (03:26):
Able to get people to see the.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Route, but just probably even more importantly, get people to
patronize the businesses and remind them that it's important that
we patronize these businesses as we're going through this construction
and show people that quite honestly, it's possible to be
able to get to these areas and be able to
(03:49):
park and be able to go to the places and
support the businesses that they've supported over the years. So
that was critically important as well as now people can
always go to holiday Lights festival dot com to find
out more about it. But the other really really good
thing about this is the spotlight on hunger that Kanagra
(04:12):
partners with us on every year as well, and recognizing
that we want to do everything we can in this
community to eliminate food insecurity for families that might have
some financial difficulties.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Yeah, and you can. People can ride the trolley with
you on Sunday, right, Hollie.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
I don't think I'm going to be on the trolley
on Sunday, but I will be at the events that
they're going to be having at the do them.
Speaker 6 (04:43):
But we did the trolley on last.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Sunday, Okay, all right, but I understand there will be trolley, right,
and there's going to be some of the great attractions
downtown will be open and free the people this weekend.
The KATV does a family festival, got the Chill Museum
and the Durham and the Mount of Patrol Barn and
all that's pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
Public Library.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Those are great attractions every year for the people of
our community, and we're thankful for k and TV and
their partnership as well on that particular aspect of the celebration.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Right.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Yeah, A lot of fun and this goes all through
the season. That's beautiful down there. What is a situation
like Mayor, I haven't to spend a lot of time
downtown just lately with the construction of the streetcar underway,
How difficult is it to get to some of these businesses.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Well, what we've done is we've gotten the Harney Street
Bridge open because we wanted to try to get that
open for the holiday season. Then we've also made the
decision not to take down the Farnham Street Bridge until
after the holidays because we want people to be able
to get to those areas over the holiday season, to
(05:58):
be able to see the lives, to be able to
support the businesses. So quite honestly, this will be the
best time for people to be able to go downtown,
probably in the last year or so when you look
at all of the construction that's required because of the
street car.
Speaker 5 (06:15):
But it is hard on businesses on Farnham Street right now,
even though the bridge is not taken out, it's hard
to get to businesses on Farnham, especially as you move
toward midtown. How much money has the city budgeted to
assist those businesses with lost revenue for the next well,
it's got to be for the next year or two.
Speaker 6 (06:32):
John, Sure, the.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
City has not budgeted any.
Speaker 6 (06:36):
Money for that.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
I don't believe after talking to our city attorney that
we can actually do that to support private businesses. So
what we've been doing is making an intentional effort to
have people partner with the businesses and go in. We've
been intentional about some of the things we've done individually
(06:58):
to go in and support businessinesses and just encouraging people
to do that as well, because it is difficult. But
if it's important, and I think it is, we can
get to those businesses and be able to support them
and be able to park in the parking garages. And
you might not be able to park right out in
(07:20):
front of the business, which sometimes people are accustomed to.
You might have to walk a block or half a block,
but right now it's very accessible.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Well, I know you were on record you are not
a big guy in favor of the streetcar, but you
just said now that as a done deal, we got
to make the best of it, right, So this.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Is where were Yeah, I wasn't aware of all the
facts with the street car because there wasn't as much
information it made public maybe as I would have liked,
and so what we tried to do is be very
transparent in terms of sharing information. But the real issue
at this point is Gary the street car cannot be
(08:00):
stopped without a significant penalty to the City of Omaha.
And quite honestly, if all those contracts were.
Speaker 6 (08:08):
Broken and the city had to.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Pay them, there would not be tiff revenue or other
revenue to cover those things. Those would have to be
paid for primarily through property tax, and that's not something
we want to do. We want to get this thing
done now and make it the best we can, and
then recognize that once we get done, it will be
(08:31):
about four billion dollars of economic development in just the
first fifteen years. Over a thirty year period, it will
be about ten billion dollars. So that's a significant impact
on our future.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
That's the hope, John.
Speaker 5 (08:50):
We don't have signed contracts for four billion dollars yet
we're hoping to got our billion dollars of economic development loan.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
That's the projection. And then I would say to remember
that the projections were lower than that initially, but based
on the signed contracts and things that they do have,
that's the projection now. It's increased because of the activity
that's already occurring.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Mareth, thanks for the time this morning. Good to have
you on.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Thank you. And I hear that you are potentially retiring soon,
so I just.
Speaker 6 (09:26):
Wanted to tell you that it's.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Been great over the years having you as a friend
in the community and being.
Speaker 6 (09:36):
Able to have these moments.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
With you for interviews, so I appreciate it.
Speaker 6 (09:40):
Congratulations, malthank you.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
But John, you don't have to work with him, Okay, yeah,
that's the problem. You don't have to spend three and
a half hours in a small room.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
John and I go back about twenty years at the
Press Club, show dance. Yeah, good to have you on, Mayor.
Thank you so much. John Ewing here on kfab's morning News.
But the festival lights well underway downtown
Pleasure to be joined for a few minutes here by
AMM may Or John Ewing Mayor.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Good morning, welcome, good morning, and thank you for having me.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
You bet great to have you on here.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
I want to just get your comment and we're going
to get to the downtown of my Light's Festival too.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
But as a former officer.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
You you know, these these four officers that were that
were injured in the shootout down there the other day,
it just points up what every cop knows, right on
every single call, you never know what you're going to
deal with.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
And thank god they're going to be okay.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
Yes, you know, I was very disappointed to see another
incident of someone shooting at police officers, and even the
victim over on thirtieth the names. We are not aware
of any justification for that shooting either, So you really
have someone who basically was shooting at people and and
(01:00):
putting our whole community in danger. And I'm just very
very very proud of the officers diligence in terms of
finding the plate number and then being able to go
and try to pursue this suspect and bring him into custody.
So extremely brave professional actions by officers and I'm extremely proud,
(01:25):
but also extremely grateful that their injuries weren't more serious.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
The closest thing I've ever come to a shootout is
watching gun Smoke reruns. But it seems to me, Mayor,
that's sixty rounds. Wow, that's a lot of bullets in
the air. Is that unusually high for a shootout involving
you just one assailant?
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Well, I don't know that I ever want to be
critical of officers in that type of situation. You had
an individual who was spraying.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Round, they were shooting at them.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yeah, and they had to make sure that suspect did
not get out of that situation and be able to
potentially injure them even worse, or go out into the
community and injure someone else. So they had to do
what they needed to do to be able to stop
him from being a threat to our community.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Do you ever have to pull your weapon, John, in
the line of duty?
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yes, I pulled it a number of times. I was
very fortunate in that that then resolved the issue, and
so I never had to fire my weapon in the
course of duty other than the practice that we did
to make sure we were proficient.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Well, you got the lights turned on last Sunday. It
had to be postponed because it was bitterly cold Saturday.
But the Lights Festival is underway and this is a
big deal this weekend.
Speaker 6 (02:52):
Right, Yes. Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
One of the things we want to do is we
want to be able to have our community sell celebrate
the holiday and be able to come together as a
community and just celebrate together. So it was an exciting opportunity.
We also had the availability of folks to be able
to be on Ali the Trolley, which was a great
(03:17):
partnership between the City of Omaha, Ali the Trolley and
the Chamber of Commerce. So we're always grateful for partnerships.
But we were.
Speaker 6 (03:26):
Able to get people to see the.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Route, but just probably even more importantly, get people to
patronize the businesses and remind them that it's important that
we patronize these businesses as we're going through this construction
and show people that quite honestly, it's possible to be
able to get to these areas and be able to
(03:49):
park and be able to go to the places and
support the businesses that they've supported over the years. So
that was critically important as well as now people can
always go to holiday Lights festival dot com to find
out more about it. But the other really really good
thing about this is the spotlight on hunger that Kanagra
(04:12):
partners with us on every year as well, and recognizing
that we want to do everything we can in this
community to eliminate food insecurity for families that might have
some financial difficulties.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Yeah, and you can. People can ride the trolley with
you on Sunday, right, Hollie.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
I don't think I'm going to be on the trolley
on Sunday, but I will be at the events that
they're going to be having at the do them.
Speaker 6 (04:43):
But we did the trolley on last.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Sunday, Okay, all right, but I understand there will be trolley, right,
and there's going to be some of the great attractions
downtown will be open and free the people this weekend.
The KATV does a family festival, got the Chill Museum
and the Durham and the Mount of Patrol Barn and
all that's pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
Public Library.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Those are great attractions every year for the people of
our community, and we're thankful for k and TV and
their partnership as well on that particular aspect of the celebration.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Right.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Yeah, A lot of fun and this goes all through
the season. That's beautiful down there. What is a situation
like Mayor, I haven't to spend a lot of time
downtown just lately with the construction of the streetcar underway,
How difficult is it to get to some of these businesses.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Well, what we've done is we've gotten the Harney Street
Bridge open because we wanted to try to get that
open for the holiday season. Then we've also made the
decision not to take down the Farnham Street Bridge until
after the holidays because we want people to be able
to get to those areas over the holiday season, to
(05:58):
be able to see the lives, to be able to
support the businesses. So quite honestly, this will be the
best time for people to be able to go downtown,
probably in the last year or so when you look
at all of the construction that's required because of the
street car.
Speaker 5 (06:15):
But it is hard on businesses on Farnham Street right now,
even though the bridge is not taken out, it's hard
to get to businesses on Farnham, especially as you move
toward midtown. How much money has the city budgeted to
assist those businesses with lost revenue for the next well,
it's got to be for the next year or two.
Speaker 6 (06:32):
John, Sure, the.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
City has not budgeted any.
Speaker 6 (06:36):
Money for that.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
I don't believe after talking to our city attorney that
we can actually do that to support private businesses. So
what we've been doing is making an intentional effort to
have people partner with the businesses and go in. We've
been intentional about some of the things we've done individually
(06:58):
to go in and support businessinesses and just encouraging people
to do that as well, because it is difficult. But
if it's important, and I think it is, we can
get to those businesses and be able to support them
and be able to park in the parking garages. And
you might not be able to park right out in
(07:20):
front of the business, which sometimes people are accustomed to.
You might have to walk a block or half a block,
but right now it's very accessible.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Well, I know you were on record you are not
a big guy in favor of the streetcar, but you
just said now that as a done deal, we got
to make the best of it, right, So this.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Is where were Yeah, I wasn't aware of all the
facts with the street car because there wasn't as much
information it made public maybe as I would have liked,
and so what we tried to do is be very
transparent in terms of sharing information. But the real issue
at this point is Gary the street car cannot be
(08:00):
stopped without a significant penalty to the City of Omaha.
And quite honestly, if all those contracts were.
Speaker 6 (08:08):
Broken and the city had to.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Pay them, there would not be tiff revenue or other
revenue to cover those things. Those would have to be
paid for primarily through property tax, and that's not something
we want to do. We want to get this thing
done now and make it the best we can, and
then recognize that once we get done, it will be
(08:31):
about four billion dollars of economic development in just the
first fifteen years. Over a thirty year period, it will
be about ten billion dollars. So that's a significant impact
on our future.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
That's the hope, John.
Speaker 5 (08:50):
We don't have signed contracts for four billion dollars yet
we're hoping to got our billion dollars of economic development loan.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
That's the projection. And then I would say to remember
that the projections were lower than that initially, but based
on the signed contracts and things that they do have,
that's the projection now. It's increased because of the activity
that's already occurring.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Mareth, thanks for the time this morning. Good to have
you on.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Thank you. And I hear that you are potentially retiring soon,
so I just.
Speaker 6 (09:26):
Wanted to tell you that it's.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Been great over the years having you as a friend
in the community and being.
Speaker 6 (09:36):
Able to have these moments.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
With you for interviews, so I appreciate it.
Speaker 6 (09:40):
Congratulations, malthank you.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
But John, you don't have to work with him, Okay, yeah,
that's the problem. You don't have to spend three and
a half hours in a small room.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
John and I go back about twenty years at the
Press Club, show dance. Yeah, good to have you on, Mayor.
Thank you so much. John Ewing here on kfab's morning News.
But the festival lights well underway downtown
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