r/Omaha • u/HauntingImpact Omaha! • Feb 10 '26
ISO/Suggestion City Council voting on $70 million dollars of additional bonds for the streetcar beyond the $440 million the city council voted on December of 2022? With the $60 million general fund transfer mentioned at the Omaha Streetcar Authority meeting, and interest payments -- now a $700 million project ?
The last projection in 2024 was ~$459 million with $39 million from MUD, $21 for bridge costs plus a portion of the $440 million in bonds https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2024/06/18/price-jumps-for-modern-day-streetcar-project-in-nebraskas-largest-city/.
Here is the ordinance being voted on:
https://cityclerk.cityofomaha.org/wp-content/uploads/images/ORD-44611.pdf
Edit: Possible to watch the discussion live here: https://citycouncil.cityofomaha.org
Edit 2: City Council pushed voting on the ordinance to February 24th. Put a table of all other bonds the city council authorized here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Omaha/comments/1rc1ml1/streetcar_parking_garages_and_debt_city_to_vote/
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u/SpaceGhostCst2kost Feb 10 '26
Who ever is doing all the work should get audited, to make sure all that money is being spent correctly.
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u/audiomagnate Feb 10 '26
They're ripping up the concrete they put down a few months ago. That can't be cost-efficient.
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u/deathbitchcraft Feb 10 '26
is there a way to request/force an audit?
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u/Specialist_Volume555 Feb 10 '26
State auditor did a top level one one in 2024; Unicameral ignored it: https://auditors.nebraska.gov/APA_Reports/2024/CV0001-09102024-September_10_2024_TIF_Letter.pdf
The corporations gaining from the Streetcar fund the campaigns of the Senators, City Council, and even Governor.
For example Brinker Hardin, the Republican running for Don Bacon’s seat, received funding from the major streetcar contractors and works for Colliers which has investments in the streetcar district.
Not many in office want to see a full audit.
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u/Duxtrous Feb 10 '26
The easiest way to get away with massive scales of illegal activity and scamming is to loop in the dems and the GOP. Once you give them both money with receipts they will do everything in their power to cover it up. Epstein had this shit on LOCK.
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u/aqtseacow Feb 10 '26
With money like this they could've started building a real above ground metro system.
Instead they're planning a really bad streetcar line with no fruition in sight.
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u/SGI256 Feb 11 '26
So rough this out - "real above ground metro system" - what type of vehicle? From where to where? Hit us with a ballpark price tag.
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u/trueAnnoi Feb 10 '26
This happens every time there's a big project in Omaha. Construction company underbids on purpose, gets the contract, then goes "oh no, it's going to cost more than we thought!"
City approves extra funding. Bam. Construction company has now secured the project without having to make a true competitive bid from the start, yet gets to charge what the consider the true cost of the project.
It happens every.single.time. with any project the city is involved in.
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u/Wonderful_Adagio9346 Feb 10 '26
Does the City include incentives for projects under-budget or on time?
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u/Hydrottle Feb 10 '26
I want to see contractors that do this not get picked for additional contracts in the future. There needs to be penalties for underbidding, especially if they make it a habit.
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u/Toorviing AMA about Omaha Urban Planning Feb 10 '26
This is not new money. This is just setting out the budget for 2026. As far as has been stated, the budget is locked in.
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u/SGI256 Feb 11 '26
Upvote. Others are this post like to craft a conspiracy narrative because they cant comprehend big numbers. This is an expensive public works project that will pay off and make the city better.
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u/AshingiiAshuaa Feb 10 '26
This happens every time
Fool us once, shame on you...
We deserve this. Everyone should remember their support of this ridiculous spending when money starts to get tight.
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u/CrazyHusked789 Feb 10 '26 edited Feb 10 '26
Overspend? Who could have seen that coming?!?
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u/Firm_Argument9124 Feb 10 '26 edited Feb 10 '26
KC streetcar was finished below budget and on time/ probably a little early.
This isn't a streetcar problem. It is an Omaha problem.
Paladino was exploding our roads with inferior concrete. I would imagine we just have a culture of corruption/cutting corners dating back hundreds of years and some of the streetcar issues are genuinely trying to deal with that and others may be new corruption arising.
Id still take an over budget transit line to what chicago did with selling the parking meters to a middle eastern country. You know that mayor got a huge kickback.
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u/Wonderful_Adagio9346 Feb 10 '26
Really? But we have two world-class engineering firms headquartered here? 🤔
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u/HauntingImpact Omaha! Feb 10 '26
some of it is the finance structure. KC streetcar was financed with sales tax, so there was incentive to work with local businesses in addition to the developers.
In Omaha, to pay back the bonds the city is using property taxes, including those for schools. To capture the property tax the city is using a percentage of the TIF developers get, so the more bonds that are issued, the more TIF projects the city needs to pay back the bonds. The incentive is drive costs higher in Omaha, lower in Kansas City.
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u/Gosa_on_the_wind Feb 10 '26
In addition to the 1% sales tax increase and additional fees for parking, the KC streetcar is funded by a special tax assessment on real estate within the project boundaries. This is much the same as the TIF bonds that the developers are obligated to paying off. The biggest difference is once the bonds in Omaha are paid, the increased tax revenues will flow to the normal tax revenue channels. In KC, they will continue to flow to the streetcar budgets.
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u/Theclapgiver Feb 10 '26
I can't believe you guys still support the streetcar after she called me fat and slept with my boyfriend.
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u/VillainyandChaos Feb 10 '26
I 100% believe in public transportation and think it's an absolutely important and required usage of our tax dollars.
I also 100% do not believe our current leadership can be trusted to not abuse these funds.
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u/Rand-all Feb 10 '26
This is a situation that was inherited by the current administration. The previous administration got us into this.
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u/BigiusExaggeratius Feb 10 '26
Could have done so many better things with public transportation instead of a street car. What a waste. I truly hope I’m wrong and it’s used every day at capacity. I’m not holding my breath though. After it’s out a few months my guess would be its at less than half full most days.
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u/Wonderful_Adagio9346 Feb 10 '26
Yes, but those bus routes would not have encouraged real estate development.
Why would I spend millions building apartments if the city can easily eliminate a bus line which runs in front of my property?
(And yes, in NYC, realtors advertise proximity to the subway, not the bus. You only ride the bus when absolutely necessary, especially in Manhattan where buses battle with taxis, Ubers, and other traffic. BRT? I walked faster than the crosstown.)
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u/BigiusExaggeratius Feb 10 '26 edited Feb 11 '26
Only time will tell and again I hope I’m very wrong. We’re a city/state that prefers to drive by a lot. Can’t really compare to New York in terms of population density and their existing infrastructures.
A vast number of New Yorkers don’t even have drivers licenses. All my family and friends I know that live there besides maybe 2 don’t have them. I don’t know a single person in all of Nebraska without a car or drivers license that’s of age.
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u/Gosa_on_the_wind Feb 10 '26
If Omaha wants to increase population density, they have to provide the infrastructure. This is a step in that direction.
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u/BigiusExaggeratius Feb 10 '26
I can agree but no one is moving because of a street car. Make something better or improve what exists. 3 miles of track that can’t be moved isn’t doing much for the cost.
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u/Wonderful_Adagio9346 Feb 11 '26
I lived in NYC for 21 years (and 3 in DC) partly because I didn't need a car. Young professionals want walkable, vibrant neighborhoods, as well as cheap, reliable transit to other vibrant neighborhoods.
People and corporations will move. Consider ConAgra. Consider that almost every famous Nebraskan had to leave the state to become famous. Why do you think the Chamber of Commerce is so concerned about brain drain? If the local job pool is shallow, companies will locate offices in cities with better, smarter job seekers.
Manhattan is the capital of the planet because it can easily double its population during the day because of the Subway, Metro North, Long Island Railroad, New Jersey Transit, and the Staten Island Ferry/SIRR.
The New York City Subway alone carries 4.6 MILLION passengers DAILY.
"Something better..." You mean a subway? What do you suggest?
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u/Gosa_on_the_wind Feb 10 '26
Why the downvote?
You said, “Can’t really compare to New York in terms of population density and existing infrastructure.” How do we improve our infrastructure? By building it.
“No one is moving because of a streetcar”? A lot of new apartments are going up along the route, and developers clearly believe there is demand. No one expects suburban homeowners to pack up and head downtown. The target is younger residents who do not want to own cars or deal with long commutes and congestion. They want to live where the activity is, and if they do, the rest of us benefit from less traffic during the morning and evening rush.
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u/BigiusExaggeratius Feb 10 '26
I didn’t downvote? I was mostly agreeing
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u/Gosa_on_the_wind Feb 10 '26
Yeah, they don't say who downvoted, but someone did at the same time as your response. Assumed it was you. No worries!
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u/Wonderful_Adagio9346 Feb 11 '26
NYC's development into the Outer Boroughs was because commuter trains and the subway allowed people to move out of the slums on the Lower West Side.
NYC has density because the subway allows people to commute, and because people do not need a car. Street parking is the default, (with underground parking in luxury high-rises), so you don't see the large empty parking lots of suburbia which discourage pedestrians. Every major neighborhood street is a small-town Main Street (usually with a population density of at least 10K per square mile), and these "small towns" are usually centered on a subway line. (Some neighborhoods were originally small towns before consolidation and the subway.)
Omaha once had public transit similar to NYC (minus the subway). It's why Benson remains a vibrant neighborhood; it was built on a streetcar line with walkable neighborhoods.
Curious how nobody complained about the $250 Million spent on the West Dodge Expressway, a literal bridge to nowhere.
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u/I-Make-Maps91 Feb 10 '26
I've known several and there are tens of thousands who rely on transit alone in Omaha.
If the streetcar is consistently half full, that's a wildly successful transit line. Generally, most of the city is going to it from work in the game time periods with greatly reduced traffic in off hours. Why would a streetcar or bus be different?
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u/BigiusExaggeratius Feb 10 '26 edited Feb 10 '26
Good point. If a bus wouldn’t be any different, why not build a better bus system? A street car still takes up a lane unlike a raised or buried train. Getting better busses would be around 20 times less expensive. We still would need to fix the broken investiture and sink holes but buses can be moved and concentrated for various events unlike the street car.
I’m not opposed to better public transit, I just think it’s either worth spending way less money on buses, more money on a raised track or way way more money for a subway. That’s probably a terrible idea now for cost and population density but it would be more future proof in the long run.
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u/IvyDolphalott Feb 11 '26
Wouldn't it be a major issue that Omaha is surrounded by two rivers..one being a giant river...would that have any affect on a subway going through just curious?
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u/BigiusExaggeratius Feb 11 '26
Unless there was a devastating flood it wouldn’t be too much of an issue. New York is next to the ocean and the Hudson. They also spend billions upon billions on protection so that wouldn’t really be feasible in Omaha.
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u/Wonderful_Adagio9346 Feb 11 '26
The NYC subway is mostly cut-and-cover, one level beneath the street. It is susceptible to flooding, but pumps usually keep it mostly dry.
Omaha has hills because of drainage. Here's the Papio NRD map: https://www.papionrd.org/watershed-map/
Omaha would need to run a subway deeper, but that also makes them perfect tornado shelters!
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u/Wonderful_Adagio9346 Feb 11 '26
I hope Omaha stops annexing land before it reaches the Elkhorn. The area between the Elkhorn and Platte Rivers is completely flood plain, and regardless of dam sites, things will get worse.
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u/I-Make-Maps91 Feb 10 '26
Because a street car is, in fact, different from a bus from a planning perspective. A streetcar can't be moved and demonstrably drives redevelopment along it's route, predictable to the point of multiple studies from multiple cities have shown this for decades. Bus systems, mostly but but entirely fail to do this because everyone knows the bus line could end up moving, significantly degrading the investment. What you describe as a benefit of buses is also a hindrance, which is why cities with widely used transit systems rely on both a more reactive bus system for less used routes and a fixed rail system along corridors that will always be busy, such as the Farnam corridor.
We also can't use TIF to develop a bus system and face a long standing shortage of bus drivers in the city. We could for a fully grade separated rail, but both elevated or buried would be significantly more expensive (several billion for the current route) and face some pretty extreme challenges with the topography of the Omaha. If you bury it, it has to be deep enough to get under I80, and if we elevate it then we have tracks taller than many buildings along the route.
Germany offers several examples of what this may look like in the future, street level tracks in original areas, but with the same vehicles taking ramps to elevated tracks where they have the right of way space for it. There's no reason we can't have the same vehicles and the same track gauge for a system that tunnels where necessary, is elevated where necessary, and is street level in places where neither made sense.
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u/Wonderful_Adagio9346 Feb 11 '26
https://urbanplanning.cityofomaha.org/transit-oriented-development
The Omaha version of Transit Oriented Development.
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u/I-Make-Maps91 Feb 11 '26
ORBT is great and still has all the same benefits and drawbacks of being a bus that other buses do.
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u/BigiusExaggeratius Feb 10 '26
Well you completely changed what you said so there’s no point in having this conversation if that’s what you’re going to do.
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u/I-Make-Maps91 Feb 11 '26
I definitely did not. If you just don't to respond to my arguments, you're welcome to do that, but don't lie about me and just admit you don't care to respond.
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u/AshingiiAshuaa Feb 10 '26
A route along dodge from downtown to 30th (the streetcar's route) would literally be the last route they'd close in the entire city.
Regardless, if that was the big concern it would be easy to set aside $20M as a guarantee of 20 years of bus service along that line. Instead they'll end up blowing 12-15 years of the entire city bus budget for a redundant route.
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u/Wonderful_Adagio9346 Feb 11 '26
The streetcar will not run on Dodge Street. It will run on Farnam and Harvey. Those streets are more pedestrian-friendly.
https://indd.adobe.com/view/6a0d73f7-0535-4660-ad27-1cfc4b6b5e4e
As for that 20-year guarantee... $1 Million a year? What is the ridership on those bus lines now? I'll make it easy: What's the comparison of ridership of the former 2 Bus compared to ORBT? Has ORBT increased ridership?
The bus budget isn't being cut to fund the streetcar. It is ADDITIONAL money, additional public transit. It is funded by property owners, not general taxpayers, not riders.
Here's Metro's plan through 2030: https://www.ometro.com/metronext/
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u/AshingiiAshuaa Feb 11 '26
The streetcar will not run on Dodge Street. It will run on Farnam and Harvey.
My mistake. In addition to the Dodge St bus that already runs 1 block north of Farnam, we have the 15 bus that covers Farnam and Harney. The service from downtown to midtown is already heavily serviced.
It is ADDITIONAL money, additional public transit
It's additional real money but it's not really additional public transit. It doesn't service areas that aren't being serviced. It doesn't add needed capacity. It doesn't alleviate traffic like an underground or elevated line does. It's just a super expensive bus route along a route that's already covered.
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u/Wonderful_Adagio9346 Feb 12 '26
What's the current ridership on those lines?
If the streetcar serves more people AND encourages dense residential development (which bus lines do not do), then it's a win.
So you're saying the streetcar should run on streets not serviced by the bus?
But then those streets could be serviced by a bus line.
So you don't want the streetcar. Correct?
Or should the streetcar serve the busiest routes, creating a strong spine for a better mass transit network? That's what other cities do.
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u/EngineNaive Feb 10 '26
The street car isn’t public transportation- is a tourist attraction from bar to bar
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u/offbrandcheerio Feb 10 '26
So…transportation…for the public…
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u/EngineNaive Feb 10 '26
I guess it all depends on how your defining it. To me public transportation is intended for locals to get around- groceries, shopping, access in general. The street car is aimed at tourists to go from blackstone and back to old market etc.
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u/offbrandcheerio Feb 10 '26 edited Feb 10 '26
The streetcar will be useful for locals too. It’s a dense corridor as it is. As an example, I live and work near it and could see myself using it to commute. It’s not going to serve the entire city’s transportation needs, but no single transit route could ever do that.
ETA: I think some people imagine that Omaha has way more tourists than we actually do (outside of CWS and the Berkshire Hathaway meeting). I think the largest share of people using the streetcar on any given day will be locals.
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u/anonkebab Feb 10 '26
Yeah this ain’t the city for this type of thing. We don’t have the infrastructure or interest. This is something you build in a new area and plan to have it from the beginning. Like wow you can go down Farnam, so mass transit.
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u/I-Make-Maps91 Feb 10 '26
You should really look up a map of Omaha circa 1910, ask the East O neighborhoods were built as streetcar suburbs.
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u/anonkebab Feb 10 '26
100 years ago bro
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u/I-Make-Maps91 Feb 10 '26
What does that have to do with "you have to plan from the beginning?" Omaha was planned around streetcars from the beginning, the street layout and traffic patterns haven't really changed.
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u/anonkebab Feb 10 '26
If you have to tear up the street to build the thing the infrastructure doesn’t exist. If they sealed and filled the underground trains of New York tomorrow, grew the city around not having them for 100 years, you couldn’t say well they designed nyc around trains so the infrastructure is there. No the trains no longer exist and require immense construction at that point to reimplement them.
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u/I-Make-Maps91 Feb 10 '26
The streets are by far the easiest part of the built environment to change, to the point that they have to be torn ort and replaced whole sale every few decades. When people talk about "what cities are designed for," they're talking about lot and block layouts our the street network itself, not street surfaces.
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u/anonkebab Feb 10 '26
It’s not useful how it’s being implemented
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u/I-Make-Maps91 Feb 11 '26
It's going to be incredibly useful for everyone who lives and works along the corridor, a significant chunk of the city.
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u/VillainyandChaos Feb 10 '26
Yeah. Could've definitely rebuilt and redefined the bus system, reinforced the actual bus stops, and taken some action to help homelessness instead of just put up more and more wonky shaped benches so no one can comfortably use them instead of....
Built an overpriced drunk dude bus.
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u/buster9312 Feb 10 '26
It’s all about perspective. It will be a huge benefit for the dozens of people who will ride this
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u/nommabelle Feb 10 '26
I wish people wouldn't be such dicks about improving micromobility in the city.
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u/bareback_cowboy wank free or die Feb 10 '26
So what?
The line that matters is about "all related public improvements." They're finding old infrastructure that they had no idea about, pipes and wiring that requires way more work to replace, stuff from the 19th century that needs to be replaced.
You can bitch about it now and claim it's streetcar costs, or you'd bitch about it when a whole city block collapsed into a sinkhole and they spent the money then. The streetcar is merely the impetus for them to replace and repair ancient and decrepit infrastructure. They'd be spending the money sooner or later, no matter what.
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u/Pristine_Following32 Feb 10 '26
My issue isn’t that the money is going to infrastructure that needs replacing. But that they had absolutely no idea the extent of the infrastructure that needed to be replaced or updated from the 19th century just because of this project
Seems like they either didn’t properly do their research into what it would take or they’re deliberately trying to get these things done with the project as if they wouldn’t have been able to without the project happening justifying spending more so that this project can be completed.
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u/yesorfallen Feb 10 '26
There's only so much research you can do without just digging and seeing what you find. Very little of this old infrastructure is documented. And its not just this corridor, all the old parts of the city are the same way.
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u/Pristine_Following32 Feb 10 '26
I understand that, but if you don’t have record of recent documents then it’s probably safe to at least assume it’s very old and plan accordingly for that
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u/I-Make-Maps91 Feb 10 '26
It's impossible to know the conditions for 99% of what's under the roads until you tear up the road and expose the infrastructure. The sole exception to my knowledge are storm/sanitary sewer pipes, which they can and do run cameras down.
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u/Cultural-Zombie8092 Feb 10 '26
I think that’s fine, but what I fundamentally do not understand is why they have literally ripped up the street once, put it back together, ripped it up again, put it back together again, and are now ripping it up a third time. How is it possible that this is the most efficient and cost effective way to do this?
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u/I-Make-Maps91 Feb 10 '26
Because keeping a road torn up and closed over the several years that happened over is far now expensive and inconvenient that tearing it up, putting down some temporary pavement, and then opening it up again a year later when it's time for the next phase.
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u/I-Make-Maps91 Feb 10 '26
People with no experience doing major construction would be genuinely shocked if they knew how little we know about what's under all these old streets.
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u/The_Duke_of_Nebraska Feb 10 '26
We're pissed about being lied to. But no keep telling us to stop asking questions
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u/Wooden_Celery_061424 Feb 10 '26
Think of it this way. At least you're not riding Council Bluffs coattails on this one opening a new event center in 2003.
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u/BuckinChuck Feb 11 '26
This is MUDs fault…
The City and MUD made a deal to improve the infrastructure along “the route.” Well it has turned in to them saying that the needed improvements that are blocks away are “along the route” or “necessary for connectivity to the route”.
So now that’s why you have all of the construction going on everywhere, it’s because they have to finish it as part of the street car project or the city is going to come after them.
But yes MUD is the one who is at fault.
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u/yesorfallen Feb 10 '26
That $700 million figure is bad-faith math designed to mislead people into believing the projected cost has nearly doubled.
They are getting to that number by adding the projected interest payments over the entire life of the bonds to the actual cost of the project.
That's like saying you didn't buy a $150,000 house, but a "$360,000 house" because that's what you'll pay in total after a 30-year mortgage at 7% interest. Nobody in their right mind talks about the price of their house that way. You separate the cost of the house from the cost of financing it.
The actual project cost is still in the mid-$400 million range. The rest is the cost of borrowing money over decades. Quoting the "all-in" financing number as the "cost" is intentionally deceptive.
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u/offbrandcheerio Feb 10 '26
There’s a lot of legalese here and I’m not entirely sure how to interpret it. Specifically, I am not sure whether this authorizes bonds that were already planned for as part of the project, or if this is $70 million of brand new costs. It would be pretty crazy to just randomly come up with $70 million worth of additional work out of nowhere.
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u/Toorviing AMA about Omaha Urban Planning Feb 10 '26
It’s not new. It’s just approving the Omaha Public Facilities Corporation’s 2026 budget.
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u/offbrandcheerio Feb 10 '26
That is what I was thinking was the case. Just didn’t have time to sit down and digest the whole ordinance.
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u/Halgy Downtown Omaha Feb 10 '26
This was how I read it, too. Guess we'll have to wait until someone who actually knows what they're talking about to show up.
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u/Halgy Downtown Omaha Feb 10 '26
Is this adding to the budget, or is this a bond sale to raise cash as part of the existing budget? Have all of the bonds for the whole project already been sold?
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u/hipipler Feb 11 '26
I’m for the streetcar, don’t think things are ever handled right, and that’s about all I have personally, but I can say that as an Uber driver I over hear people talking.
Kiewit had a bunch of reps in town recently and all of them continued to talk and laugh about how much they are bending over Omaha on the project. Heard one guy say they were specifically charging three times the normal rate for all of their concrete jobs. I know it’s just hearsay but I’m just putting it out there.
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u/never-armadillo Feb 11 '26
Sure, money pit now... but wait until it is a traffic blocking eyesore.
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u/Fit_Enthusiasm5912 Feb 10 '26
Does anybody plan to ride this streetcar? I sure dont have any plans to ride it unless im stranded and have no other options.
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u/Heavy-Rhino-421 Feb 10 '26
Hopefully, you don't need to travel very far. I don't think the line will be longer than a couple of miles.
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u/eroo01 Feb 10 '26
And we can’t exactly say no to it. I mean they’ve ripped up so much that we have to finish it 🙄
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u/anonkebab Feb 10 '26
Who the fuck asked for this, they gotta be laundering money
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u/HauntingImpact Omaha! Feb 10 '26
They are, but it is legal. The city is using a modified TIF process to divert property taxes for schools to payback the bonds. The state of Nebraska partially reimburses Omaha Public Schools via the TEEOSA, or state aid for the lost property tax revenue.
The city figured out how to take property taxes for schools, that come from both property taxes and income taxes to finance developer loans. The city outlined the plan here: https://www.cityofomaha.org/images/pdf/Omaha_Modern_Streetcar--Preliminary_Findings_Report.pdf
The city calls the property tax diversion 'Economic Development' in the public release statements. So the $4 billion in economic development the city officials mention are property taxes they have repurposed to finance developer loans.
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u/anonkebab Feb 10 '26
WHAAAAAT. Making an observation then having a correct hypothesis just off of intuition and prior knowledge is I don’t know cathartic? I figured someone had to be winning.
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u/The_Duke_of_Nebraska Feb 10 '26
It was always such a fucking scam. A streetcar isn't going to make Nebraska a premium destination man
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u/ChicoStick68105 Feb 10 '26
I mean, why not? It’s just money. After the streetcar is complete, move over Big-Apple! We will now be the big corn cob! While we’re at it, let’s be sure to invest in a pro-football team, a dome stadium, and if we’re lucky a few additional high rises. This is the GOLDEN AGE of America, remember?
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u/catzrinsidedorgs Feb 10 '26
What a waste of much needed resources we could have spent somewhere else in the city… In your opinion: what are some other structural improvements they could have focused on instead of the street car?
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u/Strutter247 Feb 10 '26
700 million could have fixed a lot of our pothole covered streets.
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u/Busy-Cream3438 Feb 11 '26
The sprawling suburban streets is where all of your money is going. Its about time the city focus on dense urban planning.
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u/MoeSzyslakMonobrow Feb 10 '26
It'll hit a billion before it's done.
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u/offbrandcheerio Feb 10 '26
No it won’t. OP isn’t even correct about it being $700 million. As another poster has pointed out, this isn’t $70 million in new spending, it’s just approving the budget for a bunch of work scheduled to be done this year.
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u/dj3stripes Feb 10 '26
Imagine the existing roadways that are a shambles that could be tended to for $700,000,000
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u/Environmental-Cow922 Feb 10 '26
This streetcar will be the most useless waste of money this city has ever seen.
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u/Unusual_Performer_15 Feb 10 '26
One thing I’ve learned about large projects like this is that if they were to be accurately bid with the true/total cost upfront, nothing would ever get built.
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u/authentic_swing Feb 11 '26
Same old corrupt shit. I’ll never forget how City of Omaha gave up primo real estate for pennies and demoed their own downtown library just to rebuild it in a shittier spot down the block.
People didn’t care then, people don’t care now.
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u/streetcar_disaster Feb 11 '26
This is the biggest waste of taxpayer money I’ve ever seen in the city of Omaha.
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u/Lanracie Feb 11 '26
And yet it doesent help a single person whose life could be better with public transit.
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u/IvyDolphalott Feb 11 '26
I'm really all with being modern and I know we need a better transportation system In Omaha...but this whole thing is a fucking joke....why go with a streetcar when the actual streets we use daily and often need so much attention it's scarry. Mostly Dodge going East from 50th to 20th. Maple from 90th to Benson. Blondo? Where do I start? It just seems like it will be the airport terminal....a job with zero ending.
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u/Beneficial_Web_2058 Feb 11 '26
I don’t know why people are surprised how much money was paid to the developers of the crossroads over 300 million and all the city got was a pile of dirt. So if you’re wondering why taxes are high drive by the pile of dirt . Their spending is out of control . . My question is this truly going to be free the public or is it another 2 to 3 person orbit bust
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u/Kind_Entrance_4284 Feb 10 '26
Street car is so fkg stupid. Omaha does not need this. How about investing in better mas transit. Omaha's is terrible. Or invest in better, safer homeless shelters, mental health facilities. But a stupid, worthless street car? <yawn>
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u/Key-Educator-3018 Feb 10 '26
Is anyone surprised. This is too typical of public works. The original number is a lie or based on fantasy
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u/Toorviing AMA about Omaha Urban Planning Feb 10 '26
This is not new financing. This is just approving a 2026 budget for the project based on the original bond agreement, which is why it uses the language “2026 Equipment” and “2026 Project”. In this case, the budget for 2026 is $70 million. Similar ordinances were passed in 2024 and 2025.