Many hundreds of thousands of dollars were recently spent to improve the street-scape of the central Dundee business district. Streets and sidewalks were improved. Multiple large trees were torn down and new saplings planted. There are new benches to sit on. A huge rock adorns one public area, as if it is something important? It certainly does not indicate anything of significance!
A key feature of the project was a supposed rain-garden, at the northwest corner of 50th Street and Underwood Avenue.
It is a forlorn and though not forgotten, continues to be a spot amidst the Dundee business district to mess with, since its final condition has not yet been met, though there have been many different things done to achieve some a whole bunch of nothing.
Looking now at this itty-bitty space at the intersection, there is nothing more than a bunch of landscape chips, a pile of dirt, a piece or two of plywood covering a hole, and an orange barrier fence and cones with OPPD lettering indicating they are there for purposes of the Omaha Public Power District. On the adjacent sidewalk, there are marks for utilities. Work was done to provide a new power connection cabinet for the nearby traffic signals.
There are no plants growing, except for one weed. It is no sort of a green space. There is, alas, no way that this place is contributing in any sort to reducing storm-water runoff, as intended by a plan presented and accepted by residents.
It seems somewhat disingenuous that the City of Omaha paid some contractor to construct a feature that is not actually in the condition as indicated by published plans. There was supposed to be a variety of plants, including,
It is not certain if and when this will occur, and this feature will become an asset to the central Dundee business district.
View on November 1st.
