Summer in the City

It’s been a few months now since the weather has permitted rambling on foot and bicycle around my neighborhood here in beautiful downtown Omaha. So this month, I offer a few slow-speed, people-scale observations about Omaha’s urban scene.

Sounds of the City

When Omaha by Design held one of its first public meetings about the urban design process, I asked planner Jonathan Barnett if noise would be addressed in the plan. His candid reply was that urban planners were not taught to include noise, so it would not be considered.

Recently at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, I sat in on an acoustics course in which we discussed noise abatement and talked about how to prevent noise from highways or mechanical equipment disrupting playground activities or dinner time conversation. That discussion caused me to think we ought to consider the issue.

In downtown, most noises get a boost at street level because there are so many surfaces that reflect and focus sounds. There isn’t much to be done about sirens, they are essential, but controlling fireworks, vehicles with loud music systems and equipment used to mow and clean seems like a worthy undertaking.

Urban noise is particularly stressful because it often takes you by surprise. Dining al fresco or strolling the sidewalk puts one at risk of being startled by car alarms or loud exhaust systems, repeated over and over because the car’s owner is out of earshot or hunting for a perfect parking spot. Fortunately, Omaha enforces its noise ordinances, particularly in the Old Market.

But loud noises aren’t the only problem. It’s not just a public space annoyance; it’s a public health issue. Prolonged exposure to environmental noise below the legal limits has been shown to elevate blood pressure, and sudden noise can cause blood vessels to constrict because of elevated adrenaline. Psychological effects like sleep disturbance, reading development in children, stress, disengagement and increases in aggressive behavior have all been attributed to environmental noise.

Smells of the City

Downtown used to have a couple of distinctly pleasant orders. If the wind was southerly, coffee being roasted at Butternut was in the air. Winds from the north often brought a slightly sweet smell that I think was molasses either being unloaded from barges or refined from sorghum.

Modern food distribution has changed all that, but certain odors remain. Chief among them is cigarette smoke. Bans on smoking in many public establishments have forced smokers outside into small groups that concentrate the smell when winds are light. This has the effect of creating something of a cloud to be negotiated by nonsmokers on the sidewalk.

In front of the Orpheum where I live, there is often a gathering on the sidewalk before performances that is impossible to avoid. When the weather is nice, I often smell smoke more that 100 feet above the marquee when my windows are open. Although I doubt there is any danger from exposure to second-hand smoke, it’s still an unwelcome odor.

Another, not so subtle odor is that of, how shall I put this delicately, horse downloads. Understandably the constabulary’s mounts cannot help but go Code 2 once in a while, but after many years, it confounds me why these deposits need to remain on public display for so long, sometimes a matter of days, in my experience.

After observing these incidents around downtown for some years, including in front of the Orpheum, in the street at 11th and Howard, and on sidewalks in Heartland Park and Leahy Mall, I called the Mayor’s Hotline. I was told that policy called for the officer to dismount and kick said horse hockey pucks to the curb.

This explanation gave rise to no small amount of mirth.

As a member of the North High School Marching Band that performed in many a Florence Days Horse Parade, I have some experience with the issue, and I can tell you that this stuff is to be avoided at all costs - whether on white band shoes or carefully polished riding boots.

I’m not qualified to comment on the law enforcement effectiveness of horses, but failure to clean up after them promptly in highly traveled public spaces can’t be good for tourism. If Omaha is to lose the perception that we are a one-horse town, we need to clean up after all our critters, toot suite.