Connect with us

Nebraska

Check out the new features at Omaha’s Gene Leahy Mall

Published

on

Check out the new features at Omaha’s Gene Leahy Mall


Omaha — Ezra Salazar smiled as he ran up the concrete steps to the highest of Gene Leahy Mall’s metallic slides. 

The three-year-old joined a crowd of kids on the high, some with wax paper in hand, a couple of waving to their dad and mom under, all keen to slip down one of many park’s most iconic options. 

The slides have gotten quite a lot of use for the reason that downtown park’s reopening July 1. 

Advertisement

Tens of hundreds of individuals visited Gene Leahy Mall throughout its opening weekend, each to see the park that was underneath development for greater than three years, and to make the most of dozens of free occasions. 

The overhaul of the mall and two different downtown parks started with the formation of the fundraising nonprofit Downtown Riverfront Belief.

Together with a metropolis contribution of $50 million, the Downtown Riverfront Belief raised about $400 million for the three-park undertaking. 

The Metropolitan Leisure and Conference Authority (MECA) manages the park.

Building on the mall began in March 2019. Heartland of America Park and Lewis & Clark Touchdown are in earlier levels of renovation and anticipated to reopen in 2023.

Advertisement

Under are a number of the new and improved options on the revamped Gene Leahy Mall.






Ani, a 5-month-old Bernedoodle belonging to Ron and Peggy Bulbulian of Elkhorn, performs within the canine park on the Gene Leahy Mall Wednesday. After a closure that lasted greater than three years, the park reopened July 1 with new and improved options, together with the canine park on the east finish of Gene Leahy. The canine park has two sides, one for bigger canines and one for smaller. Each embody turf hills for the canines to climb and dog-level water fountains.

Advertisement










071022-owh-new-geneleahy-ar13

Gene Leahy Mall’s Efficiency Pavilion hosted various high-caliber exhibits throughout the park’s opening weekend. Stretching out from the pavilion to the west is a 42,000-square-foot inexperienced garden the place hundreds of individuals gathered throughout the venue’s first performances. Park officers describe the pavilion as harking back to the enduring Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, which has the same arch-shaped masking over the stage. At evening, the pavilion will be lit from beneath to create a glow impact.

Advertisement










071022-owh-new-geneleahy-ar01

Alongside the southern fringe of the park, midway between tenth and thirteenth Streets, orange arches rise into the sky. The arches, obtainable for youngsters to climb on, are a part of a brand new and fashionable playground. The realm features a rope forest, a picket deck for climbing and a rock wall.

Advertisement










071022-owh-new-geneleahy-ar05

A 26-foot-tall sculpture stands on the western finish of Gene Leahy Mall. The piece was commissioned by MECA and created by London-based artist Yinka Shonibare as an iconic part of the downtown park. The sculpture, which took a couple of 12 months to make, is an expression of Omaha, Shonibare mentioned in an interview over Zoom. Particulars of the town will be discovered within the hand-painted fiberglass, which was made to look gentle and ethereal, like a chunk of colourful cloth floating within the wind. Native crops had been included within the sculpture’s particulars, and the prevalence of water will be seen in a number of the ripples of the design.

Advertisement










071022-owh-new-geneleahy-ar03 horizontal

5 public artwork items make up Gene Leahy’s sculpture backyard on the north finish of the park, alongside Douglas Avenue.

Advertisement

A path guides guests by way of the backyard with native crops, fireplace pits and seating areas that make the area a bit quieter in comparison with the playground on the other facet of the inexperienced garden.

Candice Crutcher walked by way of the backyard Wednesday together with her dad and mom.

“It is a fantastic area for individuals to come back and stroll, individuals with households, individuals with canines, individuals by themselves who wish to hangout and discover a place to take a seat,” Crutcher mentioned. 

The sculptures featured within the backyard had been delivered to Omaha by way of a partnership between native artwork gallery Kaneko and MECA. Kaneko turned to the Worldwide Sculpture Heart, which helped establish 10 artists, who had been then narrowed down to 5.

The 5 items will likely be rotated out after three years. 

Advertisement










071022-owh-new-geneleahy-ar10

Omaha’s historic metal-and-concrete slides had been spruced up with a brand new concrete overlay earlier than the park reopened. Shade canopies had been put in close to the slides for fogeys and guardians to take a load off. Three extra slides had been added, together with a “curler slide” that folks can race down on their bellies. A sledding and rolling hill is simply to the north of the slides. As 3-year-old Ezra raced up and down the metallic slides, his sisters ready to go down a smaller slide close by. Camila Salazar, 9, sat on the high of the slide together with her sister Galilea Salazar, practically 2 years outdated, in her lap. Of all of the park’s new options, Camila mentioned the slides had been her favourite. 

Advertisement






Source link

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Nebraska

Breaking down Initiative 434, aimed at putting Nebraska’s 12-week abortion ban into constitution

Published

on

Breaking down Initiative 434, aimed at putting Nebraska’s 12-week abortion ban into constitution


LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – This Election Day, Nebraskans will have the opportunity to weigh in on two historic and conflicting ballot measures regarding abortion access in the state.

VOTER’S GUIDE: 2024 Nebraska General Election

Initiative 434 aims to put the existing 12-week abortion ban into the state’s constitution, while Initiative 439 is trying expand abortion access up to the point of fetal viability. This is the first time that Nebraska is having two competing ballot measures.

“There’s nothing about these that can be reconciled. So whichever one of these gets the most votes is likely to become the initiative that gets adopted into the Nebraska constitution,” Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen said in April.

The Nebraska Legislature passed a 12-week abortion ban in 2023, and Initiative 434 would enshrine that into the state’s constitution but allow for abortion when necessitated by a medical emergency or when the pregnancy stems from sexual assault or incest.

Advertisement

Protect Women and Children is campaigning for Initiative 434.

“Initiative 434 protects laws that require parental consent before a girl under 18 can get an abortion, allowing parents to be their for our daughters. This is just common sense,” Rebecca Schwend, who supports 434, said.

Hannah Dumais, a field organizer campaigning for the conflicting Initiative 439, said the current ban is hurting women across the state.

“I personally was a woman who ended up miscarrying at 16.5 weeks and I started to miscarry, and I was sent home and had to wait until I was hemorrhaging and almost dead before I had to come back. And so I know the type of impact that it has on women from a personal standpoint,” Dumais said.

Advocates of 434 look to this as a moral necessity.

Advertisement

“Abortion is the intentional killing of an innocent child. That is not healthcare. How can it be called healthcare when the procedure ends in death,” Kate Leising who supports 434 said.

The initiatives will be the last thing you see on your ballot, and 434 is the first of six to vote on.

Click here to subscribe to our 10/11 NOW daily digest and breaking news alerts delivered straight to your email inbox.



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Nebraska

Dylan Raiola believes criticism of Nebraska OC Marcus Satterfield is ‘unfair’

Published

on

Dylan Raiola believes criticism of Nebraska OC Marcus Satterfield is ‘unfair’


After suffering two losses in a row, there has been mounting criticism of the Nebraska Cornhuskers offense and specifically offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield. However, freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola believes that criticism is unfair.

While being asked about the offense’s lack of explosive plays, Raiola shared that he’s confident the Cornhuskers can find more big plays. He also took the time to point out that he feels Satterfield is giving them opportunities but the issue has been execution.

“I feel confident. I think it’s just a matter of execution, now,” Dylan Raiola said. “You know, Coach Satt gives us the plays to go do it and as players we have to go out there and execute it. I know Coach Satt’s getting a lot of heat right now on his plays that he’s calling and I think that’s unfair to him.”

The numbers on offense haven’t been great for Nebraska this season. It’s been three weeks since the Cornhuskers scored more than 17 points in a game and Nebraska only scored more than 30 points twice, both of which were non-conference games.

Advertisement

For the season, Nebraska is 93rd in the country in total offense, averaging 358.1 yards per game. Then, the Cornhuskers are 96th in scoring offense this season, averaging 24 points per game.

“He can’t go out there and make plays and do everything that he’s coaching us to do,” Raiola said. “So, as players and as the quarterback of this offense, I take the responsibility for that and for us to go out there and execute. That’s not his fault. Yeah, I think we can push the ball down the field and I think we will.”

That relationship between Dylan Raiola and Marcus Satterfield is, of course, vital to the Cornhuskers moving forward. Still a freshman, Raiola is growing as a quarterback and that growth is largely going to be thanks to the work that Satterfield does.

For the season, Raiola has completed 66.1 percent of his passes for 1,744 yards and nine touchdowns to go with seven interceptions. That’s 218 passing yards per game. However, in Nebraska’s last three games, Raiola hasn’t thrown a touchdown and has four interceptions. Twice in those three games, he’s thrown for less than 200 yards in the game.

Nebraska is currently 5-3, looking to snap a two-game losing streak and get to bowl eligibility for the season. If they do, it would be the program’s first time getting to a bowl since 2016. Standing in Nebraska’s way is a UCLA team coming off its first Big Ten win.

Advertisement



Source link

Continue Reading

Nebraska

Bold Predictions: Nebraska vs. UCLA

Published

on

Bold Predictions: Nebraska vs. UCLA


Matt Rhule, Dylan Raiola and Nebraska football return to the field for one of the Huskers’ most important games of the season as they seek bowl eligibility vs. UCLA on Saturday.

The Huskers (5-3 overall, 2-3 Big Ten) were reeling coming off a 56-7 loss at Indiana but rebounded in a significant way last week to nearly pull off a road upset of No. 4 Ohio State in a 21-17 loss.

Now, Nebraska returns to Lincoln for its first home game since a 14-7 win over Rutgers on Oct. 5 as it hosts the struggling Bruins (2-5, 1-4) at 2:30 p.m. CT this Saturday on Big Ten Network.

UCLA faced a daunting schedule to open the season but ended a five-game losing streak to No. 13 Indiana, No. 16 LSU (road), No. 1 Oregon, at No. 3 Penn State (road) and unranked Minnesota* with a 35-32 win at Rutgers two weeks ago before hitting a bye week.

Advertisement

Inside Nebraska publisher Zack Carpenter, staff writer Steve Marik and recruiting analyst Tim Verghese give their takes and projections on how they envision things playing out between the Huskers and Bruins in the latest edition of Bold Predictions.

*All rankings are current. Indiana was unranked, LSU was ranked No. 16, Oregon was ranked No. 8, and Penn State was ranked No. 7 at the time of those games.



Source link

Continue Reading
Advertisement

Trending