Reflection on Leadership Omaha | City Environment

This year, I’m grateful for the opportunity to participate in the 40th class of The Omaha Chamber of Commerce’s group, Leadership Omaha. According to the Omaha Chamber website, Leadership Omaha was launched in 1978 “to develop effective leaders who will strengthen and transform the community.” Leadership Omaha fosters professional growth through the following four goals:  

Communication – Leadership Omaha will provide opportunities for communication among emerging and established leadership.  

Awareness – Leadership Omaha will develop participant awareness of the Omaha community, its problems, challenges, and opportunities, by examining the major systems and their interrelationships which contribute to patterns of life in the city.  

Leadership – Leadership Omaha will explore aspects of leadership and help participants identify and enhance their own leadership styles with emphasis on the community perspective. 

Motivation – Leadership Omaha will create an environment in which participants are motivated to develop a sense of community trusteeship and encouraged to assume leadership roles in community affairs.  

For one day each month, Class 40 will spend time learning about specific aspects of what make up our city so great. October’s Leadership Omaha Seminar was all about City Environment.  

City Environment 

On Thursday, October 17th, Class 40 met at Turner Park in Midtown Crossing and loaded a large, Arrow Bus. Our fabulous tour of the city was led by Marty Shukert, former city planning director and now principal at RDG Planning & Design. Marty has a wealth of knowledge (and opinions which he was not shy about and which I also LOVED hearing). Throughout the duration of the day, both on and off the bus, Marty painted a vivid picture of historical and modern life in Omaha.  

Our first stop was the UNO, Barbara Weitz Community Engagement Center for a panel on transportation in Omaha. Jeff Spiehs (LO Class 39) of the Metro Area Planning Agency led the discussion. Serving on the panel was Curt Simon, Executive Director of Metro Transit, Greg Youell, Executive Director of Metro Area Planning Agency, and Julie Tuttle Harris, Executive Director of the Nebraska Bicycling Aliance. The panel provided a great overview and important discussion regarding both the importance and challenges of metro transit systems and the need for more comprehensive public transit in Omaha. While we don’t have the answer yet, discussions have brewing around the possibility of a streetcar which would serve as a starting point, and which serve larger intentions of connecting to a broader scope of routes down the road. For more information on the vision of that project, check out Heartland 2050. One thing is for sure at this time: we’re focusing as a community on making public transit more accessible and our city more walkable and ridable. You can read more from Daniel Lawse, Metro Transit Omaha Board Member (and fellow LO Class 40 member) here 

Next stop was the historic Benson neighborhood where our continued programming was in the Benson Theatre. Here, Amy Ryan provided us with a vision for restoring the Benson Theatre. In addition to being a former owner of the beloved, late Pizza Shoppe, Ryan has been busy raising funds and building relationships to create an amazing community space within the renovated Benson Theater. This is a space in Omaha that I hadn’t yet seen and a facility which I look forward to watching come to fruition over the years. For more information on the Benson Theatre, check out their website 

One of the most personally valuable parts of our day was learning more about ONE Omaha. Julie Smith, Program Manager for the organization, was engaging and compelling in her call for us all to investigate opportunities to be better neighbors. From her admiration of Mr. Rodgers as a community figure, to the knowledge she shared of the positive impact that simply waving and saying “hello” to your neighbors can have, ONE Omaha provides resources to help build stronger neighborhood associations. I look forward to becoming a more active member of the Hanscom Park Neighborhood Association and extending beyond that with engagement in the South Omaha Neighborhood Alliance.  

We left Benson enlightened and headed south, stopping off at inCOMMON to meet with Christian Gray, Director and another neighborhood enthusiast. InCOMMON “unites and strengthens vulnerable neighborhoods.” Their mission is to “Rebuild together. Through a variety of community-based initiatives, residents are finding ways to rebuild their neighborhoods together, as well as setting a new course away from poverty and toward sustainable futures for themselves and their families.” It’s a truly beautiful space offering wonderful educational programing and opportunities for residents. The most surprising thing to me is that this is yet another organization in the city I love so much, that I didn’t know about – and it’s less than a mile from my home.  

From here we ventured south for lunch and embraced the beautiful weather, the color, and the culture of South 24th street. I welcomed a delicious lunch at Taqueria Tijuana with a small group of assigned classmates. During this time, we got a chance to experience incredible food with LO members who we maybe hadn’t had a chance to get to know yet. It was a delightful afternoon and grateful for the experience. 

We walked back to the bus and loaded up where we then headed north to tour Highlander and hear more about 75 North, an Omaha-version of Purpose Built Communities. Othello Meadows, Executive Director of 75 North guided our tour. The project provides mixed-income, multi-generational housing in addition to a community space in The Accelerator, containing opportunities for education through partnerships with UNO, Creighton, and Metro Community College, in addition to dining, entertainment, and a venue for community celebrations. Othello told us he’d been to dozens of weddings at Salem Baptist Church (a next-door neighbor to the Highlander neighborhood) only to have guests have to load up their vehicles and drive more than 10 miles west for a reception space. This space will provide a central community facility in which to celebrate, congregate, and come together.  

Here in Omaha Public Schools, we’ve been lucky to work with Othello and Alexis Bromley as we’ve begun programming with our Mobile Learning Unit. I’m grateful for the relationship and can’t wait to see the vibrancy that 75 North will bring to the North Omaha community.  

We continued to venture east where we met with Lyn Ziegenbein, Director Emertia of the Peter Kiewit Foundation. She guided us through the North Downtown (NoDo) area and discussed the vison of the New North Omaha Maker District, a space for artists, artisans, and other creators to craft, make, and build beautiful things in our city. Of these business and buildings, many are familiar with Hot Shops but one of my favorite spaces and events is Bench and their annual Bench:Made event.  I look forward to seeing this creative community district thrive in the years to come.  

Last but not least, fellow LO Class 40 member, Jay Lund guided us through conversation about The Blackstone District and how a small idea of a couple of friends who loved beer and wanted open a spot to share their common interests, turned into a wildly successful entertainment district. We ended our tour with a social event and furthered opportunity to build relationships with a wonderful group of community leaders.  

Takeaways for Education 

 

The most valuable experience for any educator is to really know and understand the community where their students live. While I am (for the most part) an Omaha native, Leadership Omaha is providing me an opportunity to further engage with my city.  

Of all that we learned in our City Environment session, I will directly connect the following to my current role:  

  • In our work with the Mobile Learning Unit and how it serves Howard Kennedy and Wakonda Elementary Schools, I look forward to continuing to connect with these PTOs, but would also like to utilize ONE Omaha to connect with the neighborhood associations connected to these schools. 
  • Learning more about and advocating for stronger public transit will benefit our students, no matter what part of town they reside in.  
  • In the adult education that is provided at inCOMMON, I wonder what opportunities there are for digital literacy and digital parenting courses. 

I look forward to the continued connections that Leadership Omaha will bring to the work I do in Omaha Public Schools and how it can impact our students.  

 

 

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