Howdy, Omaha — it’s Jeremy.
If you’ve traversed Farnam and Harney streets in the urban core lately, you’ve seen the orange barricades, hulking excavators and detour signs.
If you’ve watched the news, you’ve seen business owners standing next to it all, explaining how construction on the Omaha streetcar project has derailed their livelihoods.
After the project won approval, city leaders predicted it would be done by late 2026. For the bars and restaurants now staring down at least two more years of heavy road work, that original timeline is a distant memory.
Why is the project behind schedule? It depends who you ask.
Some city officials (and the ex-mayor who championed the streetcar) say Metropolitan Utilities District set the project back by demanding extra work on its water and gas infrastructure. MUD leaders deny the claim and contend they have been more than accommodating to the city’s aggressive schedule.
If you ask Tim Addison, owner of Addy’s Sports Bar, he’ll say it’s a shame that the public agencies couldn’t resolve their differences more quickly because his business and others are suffering the consequences.
You can read my deep dive on streetcar delays and hurting businesses here (or click the photo above).
We’re also privileged this week to feature a Flatwater first in our humble newsletter. Yesterday, a photo essay by Abiola Kosoko became the first of its kind to be published on our site.
Abiola, an OG Flatwater contributor, dug through 100,000 photos he has taken over more than 15 years and carefully selected 23 to reflect the richness and complexity of Black life in Omaha.
In his own words, “Too often, the story is flattened or geographically confined. But Blackness here cannot be redlined.”
Click here (or on the photo above) to check out Abiola’s triumph of a photo essay.
— Jeremy Turley, Flatwater Free Press
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February has sucked this year. One week, I’m walking outside in shorts and a T-shirt. The next, I’m shoveling thick snow off my sidewalk. Now, I’m trying (and failing) to keep my dogs from tracking mud in from my battered backyard. My only reminder that this won’t last forever comes from a spot in my basement between the furnace and the cat’s litter box.
My fiancée set up shelves with tiny cups, filled with soil and seeds. After dutiful watering and plenty of light, they started sprouting this week. By May, we’ll be planting, and pretty soon, we’ll be enjoying juicy tomatoes, spicy peppers and vibrant flowers.
Watching this slow, steady progress, and ultimately being nourished by life you yourself nurtured, is fulfilling. And it brings a little hope into the cruddy days of winter. If you want to get involved, check out the Omaha Public Library’s seed program. They have a wide variety of options along with classes this weekend and in early March to help get you started.
— Chris Bowling, Flatwater Free Press
The Department of Homeland Security reversed course on a deportation case, freeing an Omaha man who had been held in the Sarpy County Jail for three months despite him having protected immigration status, writes Cindy Gonzalez at the Nebraska Examiner. Joel Angel-Becerril, a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipient, said he hopes his case sheds light on ongoing injustice and can lead to reform.
Tuesday at about 3:30 p.m., the concrete near the intersection of 67th and Pacific streets collapsed, sending a Ram Truck and Jeep SUV plummeting into a sinkhole. City officials believe a broken water main caused the fissure, Samantha Pastorino at KETV reports. The vehicles were removed that evening and no one was injured.
Representatives from more than 30 businesses along the future streetcar route voted on demands to send the city amid construction woes, Jackson Piercy and Andrew Pfeifer at WOWT report. The demands include a cash fund for struggling businesses, city-compensated parking and a temporary freeze on property and sales taxes.
Omaha Public Schools may raise property taxes to fill a $50 million budget shortfall created by a state accounting error, Jeremy Fredricks at KMTV reports. The district released its preliminary budget on Monday, and it proposes increasing the property tax levy from 96 cents to $1.05 per $100 of assessed property value.
Omaha native and UNO alum Jake Guentzel helped the United States’ men’s hockey team beat Canada and win gold at the Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, Aaron Bonderson at Nebraska Public Media reports. Guentzel was also one of several players who declined an invitation from President Donald Trump to attend the State of the Union and visit the White House. Guentzel was a standout for the Mavericks before winning a Stanley Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins in the National Hockey League.
An Omaha boxer is ascending the leaderboards. Ruby Martinez has quickly become a force in women’s boxing, winning three national titles on her way to hopefully representing the United States in the 2028 Summer Olympics, Eddie Messel at KETV reports.
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