 Faithful readers of this paper will recall that Jackson Street between
2nd and 8th streets has been talked
about in recent months as a pedestrianized
link between the statehouse complex and the Lincoln home, as a potential
site of a flood
mitigation project or both.
The former in particular is not a new idea. Looking through
some old newspaper clippings the other day, I learned that the official city
plan, adopted in the 1960s, that provided for the city in 1980s called for a pedestrian
greenbelt to replace that stretch of Jackson.
Such a path was blocked then, as now, by the superblock between 5th and at 6th. The land where the street should have been was long the site of a Bunn family home.
Reading on, I learned that in the mid-1960s the Bunn family agreed to give the
city a ten-year option to buy from them the right of way between 5th and 6th that is the missing link in any such path;
the Bunns also agreed to not build on the ROW for that period.
The city never exercised that option, and the opportunity
was lost. Clearly, in a city that at the time hadn’t paved
all its streets, unpaving Jackson Street was not a priority.
I’m not convinced it should be today. Getting
backed-up stormwater to leave that street is more pressing than getting
tourists to linger on it. Happily, whatever might be done today will be
informed by knowledge about stormwater management that was not available 50
years ago. This might be one case in which putting things will make it possible
to put things right.Â
This article appears in Jan 8-14, 2015.
