The Big Town with the Small Mind
Lincoln Nebraska. Population 250,000+, 49 or so state senators, 3 institutions of higher learning (4 if you count the community college), and ONE MOVIE THEATRE. There's public transportation if you need to go somewhere Monday-Saturday 6 am to 7 pm (of course all 20 or so routes except one go through downtown so if you need to go from the north part of town to the northeast part of town it will take over an hour because you must go south and west to make that downtown loop.) Driving is fun, too; because only two of the major arterials are 4+ lanes throughout the length of town. The others all drop to two lanes with a center turn lane or even narrower. You can't smoke in restaurants or bars because most of the people who haven't been in a bar in 20 years voted for a smoking ban. Property taxes are going up and up (but not by raising the tax rate because that's too obvious. They raise the value of the property.) Businesses, even large ones with 100+ employees, are closing and moving elsewhere. New businesses come here to look around and then build a plant near but not within Lincoln. There's one phone company. One cable company. One newspaper. The airport is served by only two (bankrupt) airlines. And every day there's trash in my yard. Welcome to the good life.
My frustration with this backward little burg began long ago but came to a head tonight. I wanted to go see Memoirs of a Geisha with my husband tonight since he is leaving again tomorrow. This movie is only two weeks old in Lincoln, since it opened on Dec. 23, the regular national release date, not the big-city date of Dec. 9. I tried to go online to check the one movie company's website. It said no results were found at all for any movie in Lincoln Nebraska EVER. So I tried calling. And calling. And calling. On about the 20th try I finally got through. I checked the non-downtown theater closest to me (10 blocks south, 40 blocks east). They have King Kong on 2 screens, Narnia on two screens, Cheaper by the Dozen 2 on 1 screen and something like Wolf Creek on 1 screen. I tried to back through the menu to check the next closest non-downtown theater (about 5-6 miles away). It cut me off. Several attempts later I got through again. No Geisha on their 6 screens. The only other non-downtown theatre is 11 or 12 miles away and on our tiny little arterials would take about 45 minutes to drive to. I didn't try them. After several more attempts I once again got into the system (the website is still malfunctioning) to check the (shudder) downtown theatre (14 screens). They have Geisha, but only three screenings and no convenient free parking since the university, the broadway-tour-bus-capable theatre, and the bars are all surrounding it. Thirty-some years ago the City Council of Lincoln, in their Most Infinite Wisdom, enacted a law that there can be no movie theatres of more than 6 screens outside of downtown. Another movie company wanted to come in and build a megaplex on the furthest outskirts of town away from downtown to give the local company (financed by the city no less) some competition and to give consumers a choice. No dice. The city said they could only build 6 screens maximum. They said that no one build a 6-screen theatre anymore. City Council said tough. Other company said screw you. So I guess I'll go see Geisha on Wednesday during the day when I might be able to find parking, but I'll have to go alone. Or I'll wait till it comes out on DVD.
Lincoln sucks.
Lincoln Nebraska. Population 250,000+, 49 or so state senators, 3 institutions of higher learning (4 if you count the community college), and ONE MOVIE THEATRE. There's public transportation if you need to go somewhere Monday-Saturday 6 am to 7 pm (of course all 20 or so routes except one go through downtown so if you need to go from the north part of town to the northeast part of town it will take over an hour because you must go south and west to make that downtown loop.) Driving is fun, too; because only two of the major arterials are 4+ lanes throughout the length of town. The others all drop to two lanes with a center turn lane or even narrower. You can't smoke in restaurants or bars because most of the people who haven't been in a bar in 20 years voted for a smoking ban. Property taxes are going up and up (but not by raising the tax rate because that's too obvious. They raise the value of the property.) Businesses, even large ones with 100+ employees, are closing and moving elsewhere. New businesses come here to look around and then build a plant near but not within Lincoln. There's one phone company. One cable company. One newspaper. The airport is served by only two (bankrupt) airlines. And every day there's trash in my yard. Welcome to the good life.
My frustration with this backward little burg began long ago but came to a head tonight. I wanted to go see Memoirs of a Geisha with my husband tonight since he is leaving again tomorrow. This movie is only two weeks old in Lincoln, since it opened on Dec. 23, the regular national release date, not the big-city date of Dec. 9. I tried to go online to check the one movie company's website. It said no results were found at all for any movie in Lincoln Nebraska EVER. So I tried calling. And calling. And calling. On about the 20th try I finally got through. I checked the non-downtown theater closest to me (10 blocks south, 40 blocks east). They have King Kong on 2 screens, Narnia on two screens, Cheaper by the Dozen 2 on 1 screen and something like Wolf Creek on 1 screen. I tried to back through the menu to check the next closest non-downtown theater (about 5-6 miles away). It cut me off. Several attempts later I got through again. No Geisha on their 6 screens. The only other non-downtown theatre is 11 or 12 miles away and on our tiny little arterials would take about 45 minutes to drive to. I didn't try them. After several more attempts I once again got into the system (the website is still malfunctioning) to check the (shudder) downtown theatre (14 screens). They have Geisha, but only three screenings and no convenient free parking since the university, the broadway-tour-bus-capable theatre, and the bars are all surrounding it. Thirty-some years ago the City Council of Lincoln, in their Most Infinite Wisdom, enacted a law that there can be no movie theatres of more than 6 screens outside of downtown. Another movie company wanted to come in and build a megaplex on the furthest outskirts of town away from downtown to give the local company (financed by the city no less) some competition and to give consumers a choice. No dice. The city said they could only build 6 screens maximum. They said that no one build a 6-screen theatre anymore. City Council said tough. Other company said screw you. So I guess I'll go see Geisha on Wednesday during the day when I might be able to find parking, but I'll have to go alone. Or I'll wait till it comes out on DVD.
Lincoln sucks.
posted by Basskitty @ 4:27 PM
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