“That’s the time that needs to be lifted up a little bit,” the mayor says. “That’s always been the struggle, what needs to happen at nighttime to bring people downtown, because we don’t have the population.”

The mayor defends his proposal to buy the vacant surveying museum on the Old State Capitol Plaza with tax increment fi nancing funds. He calls it an investment for the city.

“You’re changing the dynamics of downtown,” Langfelder says. “What we can’t do is what we’ve done for the past several decades, where we wait for someone to come and give us a proposal.”

The mayor says he’s waiting to see detailed plans for a park on the YWCA block that could one day be part of a pedestrian corridor that would reach to Lincoln’s home. The mayor added that a park needs a “wow factor” and must be something more than just lawn and trees. He says he wants between $5 million and $10 million from the state or some other entity to pay for it, and the city will issue a request for alternative proposals if the money doesn’t come through.

The mayor says the city should enact building regulations that make rehabbing downtown structures affordable, and oneway streets need to be converted to twoway corridors. What about a master plan for downtown?

“That’s something we’d be in tune to, to a degree,” the mayor answers. “What we have to do is look at the studies we have in place.”

The renewal of the downtown tax increment fi nancing district this year will help, Langfelder says. He says he agrees with critics who say that TIF money hasn’t always been wisely spent in the past.

“Renewing the downtown TIF gives us a tool, $30 million over the next 12 years,” Langfelder said. “I think our opportunity’s great. It’s a long-term process. I think we do have to take a look at things a little bit differently than we have in the past. What’s the right answer? Nobody has the right answer.”