Omaha's "String of Pearls"

[Brad]

Park's Department has a survey out about the String of Pearls.

We invite you to share your thoughts in our Abbott Drive Survey, a quick questionnaire exploring how residents and visitors feel about the decorative globe lights along Abbott Drive and their role in our community’s streetscape. It only takes a few minutes to let your voice be heard. Please click the link below to participate and help us shape a more welcoming and distinctive entrance to Omaha!
Take the survey: https://ow.ly/JfKM50X2mJ4

[Garrett]

Wonder what they have cooking, the survey gives the impression of change

[skinzfan23]

I like the lights, but feel that they could use a refresh. They used to have issues with the globes breaking but since they switched them out they seem to hold out a lot better. Also could use some improvements to the Welcome to Omaha tiles closer to the airport. They look pretty bad now. One last thing, the trees in the median could be better maintained, several have been cut down over the years and never replaced.

[OmahaJaysCU]

Maintenance is the issue here. Not the light design. Keep up on the landscaping, weeds, median curbs, etc.

It’s really a simple issue. We let it fall into a sorry state.

[nebport5]

Maintenance is the issue here. Not the light design. Keep up on the landscaping, weeds, median curbs, etc.

It’s really a simple issue. We let it fall into a sorry state.

Sure, but I agree with the comments from 13+ years ago about their spacing being too close together. Maybe they’d be easier to maintain if there weren’t as many of them? And I’d imagine funding is the primary maintenance issue.

[OverlookedFarm]

Maintenance is the issue here. Not the light design. Keep up on the landscaping, weeds, median curbs, etc.

It’s really a simple issue. We let it fall into a sorry state.

Accurate.

This is true for every other "nice thing" that the local governments manage to secure funding for.

I've witnessed this for over 4 decades Omaha.

My First "Noticing" was at the age of 10-12 when they were widening 144th between Pacific and Center. They planted all these trees in the median right into clay, in the middle of a hot summer, never watered them, had no plan to irrigate, and would be washed by road salt 4 months of the year. If you drive down this corridor today, you will see it has been completely left unchanged since 1993. And it looks like it too.

More than I can list, parks, green spaces, landscaped areas and "improvement" projects have fallen victim to short sighted public and private (and sometimes together as one) level of maintenance t "nice things" require to meet the designed that won for their appeal.

• Poor materials
  Expensive materials
  Custom materials
  Complicated designs that require far too much time to maintain or the purchase and maintenance of specialized equipment.
  Low bid contracting
  Design and construction of projects that don't stand up to our climate and designed use.

[Renovator2559]

Sure, but I agree with the comments from 13+ years ago about their spacing being too close together. Maybe they’d be easier to maintain if there weren’t as many of them? And I’d imagine funding is the primary maintenance issue.

I don't think that's a good premise, the closeness of the lights is what creates that cohesive welcome to and from Eppley Airfield.
Council Bluffs has nice lamps along Broadway that are tight, so why should Omaha save some cash by removing some of the lamps?

Everything nice takes more maintenance but its worth it in giving locals and visitors a good experience.