0 street tops Council candidates’ list
By Eric Rineer
Staffwriter
Safer neighborhoods for students,
crowded downtown bars and on-cam
pus traffic are just some of the issues
affecting university students, three City
Council candidates said.
The candidates are vying for the
District 4 seat, which includes the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln area.
Annette McRoy, a self-employed
business and marketing consultant, said
she thought housing near campus could
be bettered.
“If we can improve the neighbor
hoods around the university, it gives col
lege students a quality, affordable, clean
space to live,” McRoy said.
McRoy is competing for the seat
against Lincoln resident Michael
Barrett and City Council Chairman
Curt Donaldson.
Barrett, an author and publisher,
said improvement of neighborhoods
was a vital issue. He said his volunteer
work in his community reflected his
desire to protect neighborhoods.
Barrett said he has spent much of his
time working with groups to prevent
crime in his neighborhood.
Donaldson, a six-year veteran of the
council, also emphasized neighborhood
protection.
Donaldson pointed to his affiliation
with the Problem Resolution Team, a
multi-agency group designed to clean
up neighborhood houses that are a
blight to other residences. The team
includes representatives from depart
ments such as the Lincoln Police
Department, the Lincoln-Lancaster
Health Department and the Safety
Department.
McRoy said one of the biggest
issues concerning university students
was an overcrowding at O Street bars.
“Citizens who want to come down
town to a movie or a dinner shouldn’t be
■ r'
afraid they’re going to get run over by a
crowd of drunk students,” McRoy said.
McRoy said a plan needed to be
developed so that college students could
enjoy bars while, at the same time, other
citizens could enjoy downtown enter
tainment.
Donaldson voiced concerns over
college drinking habits on the university
campus. Binge drinking, especially, is a
real problem, he said.
Donaldson said there were some
traffic issues pertinent to the university
as well.
One proposal in the Antelope Valley
study, for example, involves re-routing
traffic-flow from City Campus through
the Clyde Malone Center east of the
Beadle Center.
Donaldson said this option will ben
efit students by removing heavy traffic
from 16th and 17th streets, making it
safer for pedestrians.
Barrett said projects such as
Antelope Valley, which call for develop
ing in a flood plain, needed better plan
ning.
“We have to take growth in stride,”
Barrett said. “We have to weigh several
issues into the picture first.”
Some of those issues, he said, were
assessing the environmental impact of
the project and figuring the amount of
money which would be asked of
Lincoln taxpayers.
All three candidates voiced opin
ions on their qualifications for talting
the District 4 seat.
McRoy said she was tired of people
“bitching and complaining” about city
issues but never standing up and trying
to resolve them.
“That’s why I’m running for city
council,” she said. “People deserve a
voice - and I’m their voice.”
She said she could help Lincoln get
back to where the average citizen is
involved in the process.
“That’s important,” McRoy said.
“We need to get back to the old days
when everybody and their dog had their
say.”
Donaldson made his case for re
election by pointing to a record of
accomplishments built during his time
on the council.
One of those accomplishments, he
said, was his success in ensuring the pri
vatization of Bryan Memorial and
Lincoln General hospitals.
“I worked hard on getting that merg
er done,” Donaldson said. “I worked
hard to balance the deal.”
Barrett, who criticized the hospital
merger, said, if elected, could help
ensure there would be more citizen
involvement in big issues.
“I really want to see a working rela
tionship with the council and the com
munity,” he said. “I can be the link
between the two.”
Speaker says history books only tell half of story
By Nicole Hall
Staffwriter
The West was won by a diverse
group of settlers, but they are not all usu
ally recognized in history books, a
Nebraska historian said Friday.
“Not all settlers who went west look
like John Wayne,” said Alonzo Smith,
research historian of African American
Cultures at the Smithsonian Institution
in Washington, D.C.
Smith spoke to a group of students
and professors at Bailey Library in
Andrews Hall to conclude Black
History Month on Friday. He is a former
University of Nebraska at Omaha assis
tant professor of black studies.
The speech was sponsored by the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s histo
ry department and the Center for Great
Plains Studies.
Smith spoke about a book he recent
ly published with Bertha W. Calloway,
“Visions of Freedom on the Great
Plains: An Illustrated History of African
Americans in Nebraska.”
The book detailed the history of
blacks’ experiences in Nebraska and
their journey westward.
Smith said York, the slave of
William Clark of the Lewis and Clark
exhibition, epitomizes the black experi
ence on the frontier.
York, the only name Smith gave,
was the first documented black man to
have passed through Nebraska in 1804,
Smith said. He was both a slave and a
frontiersm^who had to be resourceful
to survive.
“Airy history takes into account
many strands of people who have played
a significant role in the development of
the state,” Smith said.
He said historians have an important
job to rediscover history and rewrite his
tory books so they present more accu
rate accounts of all peoples’, not just
white men’s, roles in exploration and
expansion.
“(The book) makes it really clear
what (blacks) were struggling against
and realizes they have to keep going,”
Smith said.
Rudy Smith, photography assign
ment editor for the Omaha World
Herald, took many of the book’s pictures.
He said although all Americans are
experiencing greater freedoms, he feels
there is a long way to go before true lib
erty is achieved.
“Freedom is not yet free,” Smith
said.
Alonzo Smith said now is a critical
time to correctly and fairly document
history.
“We are entering a period full of
challenge and danger,” Alonzo Smith
said. “We need to know more about the
dynamics (of our history).”
The United States will be an empire
that just rose and fell if democracy and
diversity aren’t realized together, he
said.
The last picture of Alonzo Smith’s
book was from the 1997 Omaha may
oral race. It showed Brenda Council
standing at a podium addressing her
supporters after her votes came in 735
short of a victory.
“We consider she won a victory,”
Smith said. “She brought the people
together.”
Jen Rajewich, a sophomore biology
major, said Smith’s speech gave her a
new look at history.
“He gave a different perspective on
our own history,” she said “It was really
neat because it gave a different perspec
tive on where we live.”
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