From 2022 to 2023, I wrote for Nebraska’s only alternative newsmagazine, The Reader, covering everything from the fragility of Omaha’s social safety net to wind energy. Writing some of these stories is where my interest in urban planning first took hold, and how I ended up at ASU studying the subject.
These are a few of the stories I’m proudest of:
Omaha’s Social Safety Net Faces Gaps
Inside the unraveling of Omaha’s housing and food systems as COVID relief funding dried up. Interviews with frontline nonprofit leaders and on-the-ground data brought urgency to an often-invisible crisis. As it turns out, civic systems are most visible at the moment they fail.
“We were already approaching this precipice… There’s no more money.” -Mike Hornacek, Together Omaha
Wind of Change
A rural reporting trip to Boone County revealed how wind energy reshaped small-town economics and sparked cultural pushback. This story follows turbines, tax revenue, and the politics of clean energy.
“It’s not like the cornfields are the natural state of Nebraska. That’s all human-created landscape too.” -Jesse Jenkins, Princeton University
What You’re Voting On, But In English
The government always needs a translator. So we wrote a voter guide breaking down complex ballot initiatives into plain language — minimum wage, voter ID, and affordable housing, all in 600 words or less. Ahead of Election Day, this guide (and its accompanying Spanish translation) was used as door-to-door literature by a nonpartisan canvassing group.
Protected Bike Lane Gets the Axe
My colleague Chris Bowling and I broke the story of Omaha’s decision to tear out its only protected bike lane, despite clear public support and safety data. Days after publication, the city reversed course.
“In a Sept. 22 press release addressing her veto of the council’s resolution, [Mayor Jean] Stothert said it would be unsafe to have both a streetcar and a protected bike lane on the same street.”
A Streetcar At Last? (unpublished)
A longform draft tracing the 25-year saga behind Omaha’s streetcar proposal, with interviews from two former mayors. It remains one of the most thorough pieces I’ve written on transit politics. Looking back, it’s no surprise that I would eventually take up planning as a subject of academic interest. After all, good journalism and good planning both start with the same question: “Who benefits?”
“The economics have only ever made more sense as time has gone on.” -Hal Daub, former Mayor of Omaha