Quicker development of affordable housing. Crossroads Mall redevelopment moving forward in earnest. An ongoing commitment to transparency.
Those are some of the highlights Omaha Mayor John Ewing cited from his first 100 days in office during a press conference Wednesday.
Ewing, who defeated longtime incumbent Mayor Jean Stothert in the May city general election and was sworn into office June 9, also highlighted the stability of city department leadership during his tenure.
Only Matt Kalcevich, the former director of parks, recreation and public property, has left his position during Ewing’s time in office. Ewing said he learned from the previous 18 times he came into a leadership position that the onus of enacting change fell upon him, not staffers.
“I always inherited a team. It was incumbent upon me to lead that team, create a compelling vision and then create the right environment so we could be successful,” the mayor said. “I had no doubt with these great people that I could do the same thing as mayor. That’s proven out over the first 100 days.”
Ewing reiterated his confidence that the $421 million streetcar construction project is financially on track and will be completed on time in 2028. Ewing also said he has worked to move up a timeline to make $40 million out of $100 million allocated for affordable housing development to be immediately available. That money wasn’t expected to be available until 2032 or 2033.
“I like to lead with a sense of urgency,” Ewing said. “So 2032 and 2033 didn’t work for me. We had a lot of conversations within the organization about how we could possibly speed that up and make money available now when we have a need.”
Ewing also assured the redevelopment of the former Crossroads Mall into an entertainment complex is happening. The project has sputtered for 15 years, he said.
“We believe that project is on track and will be a very successful project creating approximately $1 billion of investment in the heart of Omaha, Nebraska,” Ewing said.
Ewing acknowledged encountering some bumps along the way. Those include concerns over the opening of two elementary schools in Elkhorn despite ongoing construction and no certificate of occupancy having been approved by the city. Ewing noted at the time in August other new schools have opened without such certificates right away.
On Wednesday, Ewing said he doesn’t anticipate such issues to recur.
“We’ve got a much better plan in progress for future school buildings and other buildings that will be built in the city that people follow the building code and work with us on those things,” he said.
Ewing, a retired Omaha deputy police chief, said he, Police Chief Todd Schmaderer and former Police Chief and current Chief of Staff Tom Warren decided to release a video showing police arresting Edward Henry in June.
Henry, 54, died of a heart attack, according to a preliminary autopsy, at the Douglas County jail hours after being placed in custody. The video of Henry’s arrest, Ewing said, showed police officers acted “appropriately.”
“We wanted to be as transparent as possible,” the mayor said of the decision to release the video. He repeatedly cited his priority of being transparent in other aspects of his young mayoral tenure.
Ewing said he also assigned city staff and created task forces to focus on seven priority areas for Omaha. Those areas consist of: affordable housing, economic development, homelessness, infrastructure and roads, parks, eliminating poverty and addressing risk and resilience.
He also expressed confidence the city’s police force, which has had chronic staffing shortages for years, will be close to full strength by the end of next year.
“I promised the citizens of Omaha that I would roll up my sleeves and I would get to work,” Ewing said. “We’ve done an amazing job of getting to work for the people of Omaha. We’ve got a lot of work left to do but we are not afraid of hard work. We’re going to keep working for the people of this community.”
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Dan Crisler
Public safety reporter
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