1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Todd Ogden of Downtown Lincoln Association: December 4, 11:00am

Episode Date: December 4, 2025

Todd Ogden, who is the President & CEO of the Downtown Lincoln Association joins the show. Todd speaks on what his mission. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It is Thursday. Ah, Thursday, boom. Love it. Brisk. Brisk is what it is. That's the word by my grandfather would use. Brisk out there. I'm going to go with that.

It is, in fact. 11.1. 11 degrees early this morning. It's now 18. Go off weather. 18 degrees. You can follow what we're doing in studio. All the live videos from Facebook, YouTube, X, hello channel 961, download the ticket app so you can take us wherever you're going so we can be where you're at.

You want us with you. You want to be a part of the show, 42464-6-8-5. You have questions for our guests. Load them up and we will get to it. Before we introduce our guests, Bach, kind serve, if you will. Pay the bills. Yeah, today's show is sponsored by Hamilton Telecommunications, bringing you the latest quality technology and communication services since 1901, whether it's residential or business,

Hamilton has the answers. Visit hamilton tell.com for more info today. Thank you, Ken, sir. Bach, how are you? Oh, not too bad, other than the cold that you mentioned. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did I mention it's cold? You did. You know, I lived in Utah and there's certain days. Most days I don't care. But there are 30 days a year where I'm going to complain about the weather on either extreme. This is just one of them. I'm working on some guilt because I was going to do a full walk this morning. I did six blocks and then Bach, I tapped out. I tapped out.

I tapped out like I was in the cobra clutch. I took my, I took my six lap, my six block victory going home and then I came to work. I said, did that I'll be okay. Let's bring him in. He is the president's CEO, downtown legal association, Todd Ogden. God, sir, good morning. What's happening? just staying warm right in here happy to be sitting inside the studio with you yeah yeah there's a lot

of people who are outdoors working yeah and and i have to remember that like not a bad place to come to work if i'm really going to be honest i know i feel guilty i see our maintenance crew working outside right there so uh yeah my guys yeah they're keeping downtown clean even in the severe cold getting those sidewalks scooped and they're ready to go. So they're awesome. Help the folks understand all that's required in that. When the weather hits, flips switches like that. What does that mean for the association, which in all your people? So for us, our crew has to take care of all of the intersections primarily. So every property takes care of their frontage, but we take care of all the intersections. So everybody walking

downtown, when you walk those six blocks, hopefully those intersections are taking care of. So you have the ADA ramps going up. And then it does also take care of every kind of mid-block ramp as well. So pedestrian access to all of the streets throughout is our primary goal for our maintenance crew, the winter. And then how much activation is required, how much time is required to kind of send out the bat signal to get your super crew of heroes? Oh, they come out bright and early in the morning.

Anytime there's a weather event, they got the whole crew out, it's going to take them you know, 10, 15 hours, full day just to make sure everything's going on and just keep going. And then if you have a heavy snow, that's always tough because you don't have to do it once. You have to do it twice or three times because we scoop the intersections. The streets get scooped back into the interceptions. We take them out. It takes back in. So they're always out. They're resilient. But we have to make sure that people have a place to walk when they're in downtown Lincoln. Is a part of what you're dealing with are the businesses who may need some additional help or maybe have some questions about what their process would be in

handling bad weather like this. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, we're, uh, whether it would be through us or whether it's a property owner saying, hey, how to do, is there a service we can use to take care of the front here, um, or just the businesses talking about, uh, updating people on what the best routes are, what events going on, all the above. That's something that we want to take care of. So they have everything they need to know to succeed.

And then let's say. Saturday, the weather hits, and then there's events at PBA, right, Haymarket, where there's traffic, there's garage, there's all those things. Then what, what's the super hero move for you then? Really, if you have the right event, people will find a way. That's the superhero move. So if it's a Husker event, if they're doing well, people find their way. That's what we want. We want them to do well if an event, if you've got a big act, people find their way. And we just have to make sure it's a safe clear as possible for people to get there through all of this like the association how long has the association been around uh since 1967 1967 and through various points of leadership

different focuses and priorities and of course downtown has not been the same any single year following absolutely not right so so what's what's the what's the mission plan for downtown lincoln is it is it to keep it moving is it forward and up Is it improvement? Is it maintenance? What is it? I mean, it's all the above, but in general, it's evolved. Downtowns exist because they are a microcosm of the entire city. Downtowns have to evolve as the community evolves. And it's going to be on the forefront of all that stuff.

Whether we talk about in the 90s being kind of an eight to five work center, we had a lot of people come in, you had mixed use. And before that, it was the shopping department store haven of downtowns. There weren't really suburbs around that had those offerings. So this was the only place in the entire city to go. So they had to evolve into kind of a work center and now we're evolving again into a 24-7 urban neighborhood. There's people, way, way more people living here. We love every one of our residents. And yeah, yeah. Box, you see the way he looked at me. See the way he looked at me. Yeah, yeah. Even the ones that don't walk everywhere they go, but we still like

because they get through the cold. But yeah, it's just evolving through that. So it's, yeah, that's really important. We have to make sure we do that. Otherwise, if you don't adapt, you're not going to thrive moving forward. And we want to be the hub for innovation. Downtowns are special because they have those local businesses that are unique, that you can only get here.

And that's what we want. And if we evolve and make sure you know people will find a way to get here, if you have those amenities, people are going to come. And, you know, people complain about parking, for example. Well, if you don't have a parking problem downtown, you have a bigger problem. Yeah, you don't have no, you don't have a downtown. Yeah, that means nobody's coming. So we have to make sure to balance all that.

But at the same time, it's all about activation. We have to make sure it's an active area and do everything we can to activate downtown. So that's my major goal. When I wake up and more is it, how can we make sure downtown to active? through that with so let's go to parking because that is that is a hot button red flag plant the flags there are people who will march on that hill they will tiki torch over parking in downtown um how is that address is it through a member group of voices within the people who are in the association is it outreach to kind of find out outside of the vacuum of members what's needed what's the best way to figure out how what's going to be next for Well, you're talking to the right person. I happen to be the current chair of the parking advisory council. Layup, layup. Take the layup, bot. So the city manages parking in the urban development department and they contract with park and go who takes care of all the parking, whether it be on street parking or garage parking. And the mayor has an advisory council with different representatives, whether they be businesses, property owners, property managers, residents. entertainment venues, DLA, and we all talk about certain initiatives, and I've been on involved in this for almost 20 years now with parking.

And for example, one of the biggest initiatives we did was get first hour free in the parking garages. It made a ton of sense. Our goal is to get as many people in the garages as possible so we can free up the meter. So when you have a guest or when your coffee shop has a guest in here, that should take priority. The customer should be able to get those on-street parking as much as we possibly can. Can you clip that box so that I can play it for the meter agents out here? Can we just play that over the loudspeaker outside?

Yeah, there you go. It is a constant thing. And I know that for business owners, sometimes that's the big part of the discussion. Oh, yeah. Is does it make sense for them financially? And then does it work fiscally for them to invite people downtown? Because the more people you bring, the more parking is required. And if it doesn't exist, it becomes problematic.

Yeah, and that's where the garage has become vital. And again, it's more and more people get comfortable with garages. And it makes that easier. So the reality is if you're parking in a big lot somewhere out in the suburbs, if you track your steps, you'll be surprised. So if you ever go out there, I'm not going to name any other places. But if you go to this big parking lot anywhere in the city, count your steps that takes to get to your store.

So it's a big thing to be able to see your destination. And downtown's tall. It's hard to see your destination because buildings are around there. So that's why, first of all, you have to make it easy to park as easy as possible because it is always active and give people fun things along the way to make sure, hey, when I'm in here and to get to my destination, I'm going to see a lot of other active things. And, hey, maybe I'll do that next time. So that's always the goal as well is you've got to give them a reason.

People aren't coming downtown to park. They're coming downtown because it's a destination. And we just have to make that destination easier. we talk about that the activity in much bigger cities the word is flow right so that not only am i going to go to pba or am i going to misties or wherever wherever i'm going laslo's any number of places that i'm going to go along the way that if that doesn't work i have another option right a valid option how much of that goes into your planning because you're trying to build the wedding reception dinner table except it's active in line yeah that that's a great question actually

because that's as talked about downtown evolving our downtown has evolved in a way where it's not just it used to be just downtown and then in the 80s it was downtown and the haymarket and now we have the telegraph district we have south haymarket we have antelope valley uh there's the south of downtown area and in right here in the downtown blocks our core blocks right here and and I think our goal is to have every one of these districts be its own destination. And if you can do that, then, yeah, once you get here, you don't necessarily need to plan. I want to be able to have people say, I'm just going to go to this district. I'm going to go to the core of downtown today.

I'm going to shop the blocks. I'm going to dine the blocks. I'm going to do all that when I come here. I'm going to get coffee here or I'm going to park here and I'm going to find something. That's what we want with the music district with Beamer Street on 14th Street is we want people to say, hey, I'm going to park in this garage, it's going to be cool experience, or I'm going to walk here, I'm going to bike here, and there's going to be something going on, and it's going to be music related. And here, we're in an area where you're going to find arts, you're going to find

culture, you're going to find good restaurants, you're going to have, you know, there's a ribbon chop coming across the street, or there's all sorts of fun stuff that we want people to enjoy on each district. And it's kind of choose your adventure, and we want every district to do that. And if you can succeed that way, I think that's how our downtown thrives to make sure. we're growing every district in a way where they're their own destination. What is the, the, so there's two sort of avenues to this thing. The business side of it, people who need DLA and they need to be a part of it so that they can accomplish what they're trying to accomplish.

And then there's the fan, the customer, who, the visitor that you want to visit. What are the perks? What is the real value of businesses in downtown, whether they're here or coming here, in dealing directly with DLA? What do you do for them that makes this thing so much simple? Well, for us, it's easy, too, because we currently aren't just a membership organization. We're a business improvement district, which all around the country and Canada, these are districts that the property owners fund. See, I was asked about that, and the last time you were on, and I remember the way they posed it. And I said, no, no, there's another way to ask that.

Yeah. So they, our businesses aren't paying member dues, but we treat every tenant within our district, which is roughly, uh, arena drive to 21st Street and H to R, uh, they're members. So it's if you're downtown, we're going to be here to help achieve whatever goal it may be for you. And everybody's different. Every day's different. Every business is different.

So I, you know, I, I'll never know, waking up. what issue we're going to have. I'm going to have a pigeon problem one day or we're going to have somebody that needs a cinder block moved outside of an alley or we're going to have a business that needs to get a grease trap taken out or we're going to have a business that wanted this posted on social media. So just knowing somebody's there beyond them to help out and really it's about navigating. We're born because you need kind of a liaison to navigate government in the city as well.

So we help navigate the city. We have a good relationship with the city. We're contracted by the city to operate that bid. So when I talk to property owners, whether it be the hotel across the street that needs help, hey, who do I talk to about this permit? Or how do I get this done? That's what we're experts in as well, is being that voice. So when you're a business, we want to make your job about your business. So your business can succeed and we will try to help with the rest.

So it's not just extra stuff that you have to deal with. Well, and then from the visitor's aspect of it, for people that have ideas, suggestions, problem, friction, whatever it is, right? The ability to have a hub that can kind of explain to them. And then maybe to hear, to just listen and say, I don't know who's in charge, but can you let them know, right? What would you suggest to those brilliant thinkers that we have all over our text line who have ideas for Downtown Lincoln and the association?

Well, that's what I'm here for. So you can just email Todd at downtown lincoln.org, and you can yell at me. You can call me. I'm really good at getting yelled at. So that's good. Our texters are really good at. They're really good at. So we're here for that, especially, and it doesn't always have to be problems.

There's good things all the time, but you can't find solutions if you don't know problems and you don't know problems unless people tell you. So for us, it's really being an active ear to say, hey, we hear this going on. That's why when we have several committees, whether it's a resident. council, an employee council, a visitor council, parking advisory council, they're supposed to be an active group that provide a common voice for what the issues are. So we know how to tackle those issues. And for us, that's vitally important. We have to figure out how to adjust to what issues there are. And visitors, for example, we got to know what visitors want. So that way, if we talk

to a property and say, hey, visitors say they really, really want this. If you build this or if you put this year, they will come. Or if you're a business that already exists, if you add this offering, this will help. Or if we can get you this parking, that will help. So it's really about figuring out how to get as many amenities as possible to attract people. What is the thing that most people are asking for? Give me the top three. Because I would imagine that there's that in the memo of most of your emails, there's the header that lets you know what's coming and what people will look. Well, there's some embarrassing ones. He's going to know who it is,

but somebody's been asking me for a Taco Bell for about 50 years. Listen, I used my burner email. Yeah. Yeah, so you can get some of that. But really, in general, what's newer to what we get a lot of requests for are for people like you. People living downtown, we need more residential amenities. We went from 3,000 residents.

residents to about right now 12,000 residents. That's a lot more residents. We need urgent cares. We need, you know, we have some of these, but we don't have all of it. So residential amenities and then just active amenities. Everybody wants activity. The change after COVID is the enjoyment, the need for enjoyment even increased where the experiential economy is the economy that's going to grow the furthest. And when you come to a business, It's not just about, if it's a restaurant, it's not just about eating food. If it's a retail shop, it's not just about buying clothes. It's about the experience that you have.

Some obvious examples of this are, okay, we're a restaurant. Hey, let's add axe throwing to this restaurant. Let's add virtual golf here. If we're a retailer, hey, we're going to serve champagne on Fridays. We're going to do this kind of thing. So getting that experience, whether it be through a service or an offering, that's what people are looking for. And again, that goes back to activity.

That's what we want. And it doesn't just have to be a retail, like clothing retail or restaurant. Of course, we want those. We want the current wants to succeed. But you want a good mix where there's a lot of different unique offerings. Even things like having active, like Limelab is a really good example. They're by Canopy Street Market in the hay market. And they're an active area because they chose to be in an active area where they have their prosthetics and they do really amazing things.

and they have active windows. You see what people are working on there. And their customers and their clients love it. And they love it. They feel part of a community. And that then activates it. And that's what we want. And that kind of experience is what we're looking for.

Well, that's why we, I mean, Becky and I in this idea, right? That being 48th and 0, hey, do what you do, right? Go off. But the idea of us being downtown and being eyes and ears and the, voice to the city that people can look in and see and we had some we have volleyball folks in town and they come through and go well wait a minute this is amazing like we didn't know downtown link it was doing this well that's part of it like the activation of them being able to walk here volleyball players to be able to walk in here and have coffee to sit down and experience meet

husker fans find out how friendly everybody is how cool it is uh the kansas state folks are in the building so you know they they came through and said it's so nice to have a that appreciates college athletics and volleyball, so they feel welcome here. I think that's a big part of the process. It's just identifying what activates and then what you're going to do with that. We're with President's CEO, Todd Ogden, of Downtown Lincoln Association, and along of this, we do have a couple of questions for you. Ikekewer asked the question, how long have you been in this position and does he miss the

Capitol City holiday parade? that's a loaded question i have been downtown working for downtown for 20 years uh i've i took over as president in 2019 so that was good timing right before covid so that's fun uh but yum i was in the last parade i was in all a lot of previous parades but i was a donkey in the last parade um i i chose that suit because it was about negative five degrees that day so that was a great suit to have a full Full suit. The parade itself, I would say the last year, we get so many requests about the parade.

The last year, for downtown specific, the parades in general are made kind of at the department store days of downtown where now we want to make sure it ensures it supports businesses as much as possible. And toward the end, it wasn't supporting the business as much where people would then come and park and leave. You want that experience, but you also want the doors open to the businesses. come. So really having holiday events that achieve both goals where you can have an experience

and you can partake in the businesses. So things like shop the blocks that we just had two weeks ago, that is a holiday event that I love because it's a really fun VIP shopping experience here in the downtown blocks where you shop these blocks. You have a fun after party at the Rococo, a one-of-a-kind venue there. You have discounts. You have sometimes we have limousines. Sometimes we have these unique pedicabs that get you around the area. And that kind of holiday event brings a lot of memories for people and also supports the businesses. So I do think there's a scale of a parade, whether we can go down Centennial Mall.

But as far as a large scale, I shouldn't say that we don't want it because I don't think I'll ever be able to walk downtown again. But it's really about making sure it's tailored in a way to our city that supports everybody and still allows for that city pride. I think that's the best thing about a parade is it gives you that pride of the city. And if it's not that full-blown parade that you'd have in the 2000s or the 90s that we had, then what is that? And how do we achieve those goals?

I mean, so how would you do that? Like if you, if beat to a fire that even if it's a smaller parade or a directional parade, right, that where people, you give people a reason, one, to be proud of the city in downtown and the businesses and the people would that be a student led event would that be a high school band type of situation is that a college band situation what would it be i would love to just line a street area even whether it be like centennial mall where you line it with booths and you still have some people moving around the area yeah but it's a time where it shows all of our community offerings when you get there and you have university areas you have high school

areas you have the bands i would love that like to have every band out there and just have that experience and and be as festive as possible yeah just the link it's just just lincoln high schools um just and and the university like it's just that i'm good with that i'm not a lincoln high grad but that's our downtown school right like it's a real thing uh one more texter uh cupsker says this he says um what's up dp i don't think i found a downtown i love more than downtown Lincoln. It's such an accessible place. Usually 10, 15 minutes walk or drive from the next part of the adventure, which is so very nice. I can't ever wait to get back there. Cubsker lived here and then he moved away. He said he gets back to town every now and then.

But that's come from him. You always hear the complaints. It's really good to know that the people out there appreciate what? Okay. This is, what's his name? Cubsker. When Cubsker's back, this is my downtown Lincoln champion shirt. This goes to all of our volunteers and our champions for downtown. If you say this is the best downtown you ever be, you get this downtown champion shirt. So when you get back, talk to DP. We'll get you a shirt.

That's what we love to hear because it's all about perspective too. And especially when you have perspectives of other downtowns, I feel really, really proud of our downtown, especially for a city our size. We're definitely punching up. Like, it's a downtown we can be proud of. There's always things we want to continue to grow. But it is really important to understand that people do experience really, really good things here.

They do like it. I'm going to ask for that in a hoodie. Okay. Just to say that, cigar guy says, dude, when there was a Taco Bell across the way from the Starship Theater that was peak downtown when I was in my early 20s, a solid night out for six bucks. I don't know if you can do anything. It's a Taco Bell now for six bucks. But it wouldn't be a bad idea. I'm with you on the Taco Bell downtown.

Yeah. I would respond to it. We've got plenty of tacos downtown still, and we've got plenty of burgers where there's, I don't want to single any of our restaurants out, but we do have a lot of burger joints that have like $6 burger and drink Wednesdays. We have a lot of Taco Tuesdays and Taco Every Day downtown. We need to be better about putting out.

I'm going to commit to you that we will be, if you send me the highlights of that stuff, I'll make sure it gets awesome like it just because if Bach if we know where the six dollar burgers are on Wednesday we're going like we're going we'll get our people there so we'll do that we'll go take our first break I'm Todd of Ogden of downtown Lincoln Association Bach is manning the board we'll be right back to 93772