The Myth of the Urban Core

Production Makes a City, So Says Say’s Law

I listened to the Omaha Planning Department make their presentations to the City Council. They pointed to St. Louis, and said Omaha needed to build the urban core, but the core is a bit of a myth.
 
When Mayor Hal Daub started looking at the idea of an Omaha arena, he knew how dismal the prospects were as well as the potential for Omaha to make gains in the region. Doug Kagan and I were early opponents and at first the public supported our opposition. Advocates scaled back the project to make it affordable and the philanthropists stepped forward. The Peter Kiewit Foundation gave 100 million dollars to fund the arena which swayed public opinion. Later, naming rights were added as a source of revenue, yet the World Herald opposed. it. To date, the Omaha arena draws thousands of people to Omaha and is one of the most financially sound arenas in the country and entertainment is produced. This might never been the case without the criticism.

So what of Hal Daub’s beloved idea of a streetcar which has resurfaced? I had talked to economist Bryan Sloane a long time ago, and he suggested street cars stimulated businesses. I respect both men deeply, but to me, what looks good on paper often fails in reality. The developments of Uber and Lift and automated vehicles cast doubt on the value of a streetcar. What is actually produced?

Omaha has problems in two areas: taxation and production. The streetcar is supposed to build population density with new development. Realistically, a streetcar only draws development away from other parts of the City, the same way the Aksarben development killed off the Crossroads mall. There are too many commercial properties because there is too little physical production. The digital economy pays little respect to location and more to economics. This is why production needs to be part of the City’s planning.

When the Omaha Planning Department talked about the “blighted” area for the trolley and mentioned all the surface parking, suddenly, I understood “systemic racism”. Seriously, just one mile north of the proposed streetcar system, there are many vacant lots in what is called “near North Omaha '' yet, such neighborhoods are not going to see any streetcar soon. I understand State Senator Justin Wayne’s lament over such designation of “blighted”. Such designations are a result of high property taxes for those who would not need it if the taxes were low. Only tax reform will change this.

Councilman Palermo bought into the urban core myth of Omaha “running out of space”. Sorry, but a third of Douglas County is largely rural. Again, myths blur reality.

So what to do for the truly blighted areas? Create production. As Jean-Baptiste Say said, supply creates its own demand. Zac Triemert left the country to learn how to distill whiskey, vodka, rum and bourbon and created a distillery in downtown Omaha. Many places in the region use the products he created. His example needs to be replicated.

What Omaha needs is to encourage production and tax policies which support it. North Omaha can create clean water through osmosis and bottle it and name it Saratoga water and it would sell throughout the area as a local product. Water is not a digital product. Bottle water is very handy and so many want to buy something locally made. So where is my bottle of Saratoga water? Why Saratoga? See this link: https://northomahahistory.com/2012/01/09/a-history-of-omahas-saratoga-neighborhood-aka-sulphur-springs/

Such activity will encourage others to create and produce. A positive production with results feeds more positive productions with results. This is the best way to deal with blighted areas.