Omaha By Design: Omaha, Only Better

by Ken Mayer

One of life’s little secrets of happiness is to learn to want what you have. To make the best use of what you’ve got is a difficult lesson to learn.

Maybe, as citizens of Omaha, we ought to be a little more appreciative of what we’ve got. We’ve come through a period of a lot of new building in our city, some of it at the expense of old buildings that still had some good bones.

The Metro Omaha and Council Bluffs Preservation Assessment suggests we have not done enough to appreciate what we have.

It seems that the study found that we Omahans have little or no knowledge about historic preservation in the city and can’t consistently name any individual or group who advocates for preservation. As a former board member of Landmarks, Inc., this certainly isn’t something I wanted to hear.

But I can believe it. Preservation in Omaha has no brand. The study was prepared for Omaha by Design by The National Trust for Historic Preservation with funding from Omaha by Design and the Iowa West Foundation, so I have no reason to doubt the conclusions.

The report also found that, although there was a definite interest in collaboration and cooperation among existing organizations, there was no consensus about a need for a new, umbrella preservation organization.

Again, I don’t doubt it.

I agree with the recommendations in the assessment, but after 10 years of struggling with arts organizations, nonprofits and volunteer groups, I hope, dear reader, you will understand and indulge a small rant on this subject.

Here are a few more things we ought to consider:

• Jobber’s Canyon – get over it. Stop using this single incident as an excuse not to get in the game. It was a long time ago. We simply cannot afford to wait for everybody who was involved to die off.
• Circle the wagons. The failure to work together seems to be very popular today. I don’t care if our elected officials do it, we shouldn’t. If you truly care about something, you will gladly check your ego at the door and get to work.
• Leadership is leadership. It doesn’t make any difference if you are running a for-profit company or a nonprofit organization; the leadership job is the same. Profit in a nonprofit is simply the ability to offer more and better mission consistent services. If your nonprofit isn’t moving forward and reaching more people, what’s the point?
• Governance is governance. Boards of directors are partners with management in the achievement of the organization’s mission. But good boards stick to governance and never, ever practice management. Ken Dayton, former CEO of Dayton Hudson, spelled this out brilliantly in 1986 in a speech by the same name.
• Involve the appreciators. Too often, in my experience, these organizations are so full of the cognoscenti that the voices of the constituents are drowned out. A new preservation organization should have a heavy component of people who live and work in historic buildings and who can tell you why they love those buildings.
• Resist cheap tricks to raise money. You can always get a crowd to come out to see how the other half lives, so let’s leave the home tours to real estate agents and focus on historical and architectural significance. I’ve actually gone to preservation tours where agents were standing by to sell or rent units. Tacky.
• Get real professionals to do the work. No, Virginia, your brother-in-law is not an expert in branding because he did a nice trifold for your church’s fish fry. Nuff said.
• Preservation is sustainability. When a renovated building is also equipped with energy saving amenities, like what’s been done in the Margaret Apartments at 16^th and Yates, then you have created a natural synergy in addition to contributing to neighborhood revitalization.
• Aim high. Omaha isn’t just a very generous city; it’s also a very smart city. The presence of five Fortune 500 companies means there is a host of very bright, very experienced people to help you. But be warned, corporate people have had to live by the mantra of better, faster, cheaper for decades. So if you recruit them, be prepared to be challenged and try to keep up.

I still think preservation can work in Omaha, but it isn’t going to be easy.