Orchid Show Blooms at Lauritzen Gardens

Omaha's Orchid Society hosted yet another great Orchid show last month.  With over 20,000 species of orchids, the show displayed quite a variety including around 6 species found right here in the Omaha metro.  Here are just a few of my favorites.

Habitat Omaha Launches Project Demolition!

On March 21, 2011 Habitat for Humanity of Omaha kicked off its new program, Project Demolition, a partnership with the City of Omaha. With more than 443 single resident homes on the city's demolition list, Project Demolition is an effort to eliminate run down houses making way for new construction in distressed areas of the community. The goal for the project this year is to demolish 40 homes in North and South Omaha. Habitat Omaha often get calls from people who have a distressed house they want to donate.

Some of these homes have been on the city's condemned list for years, and the owner has nowhere to turn. Habitat Omaha can now address the problem through Project Demolition. It's a win for the owner who donated the house, the neighborhood, the City of Omaha and for a deserving family who will purchase the new Habitat Omaha home that will be built.

The first demolition took place near 17th and Manderson Streets. Two homes were torn down to make way for seven new Habitat Omaha homes. The seven new homes will be built during the week of Habitat Omaha's 2011 Builder's Blitz.

For more pictures click here.

Story Provided by Habitat For Humanity Omaha (HFHO)

This exciting project will assist neighborhoods rid their blighted structures and make way for new homes and families to come in. As read above, HFHO is also launching this project in South Omaha. As a resident, I know Deer Park has a few vacant homes that are considered "uninhabitable", and I am compiling a list of them. If you know of any properties near your home, please submit the address to me by either phone or email. This will not guarantee the property will make the Habitat Demolition Program, but regardless we need to know where these properties are and, TOGETHER, decide how we can mend these struggling blocks in our neighborhood. If you want to learn more about this program, please come to our next Neighborhood Association meeting.

Thanks for being such a great neighbor, See you at the next meeting!

Oscar Duran: Deer Park President

South High Student Art Showcased in Deer Park

Hey Neighbors!

The students at South Omaha High have a magnificent art display at the Bancroft Street Market.  Oscar and I went to the opening reception and we were floored by the amount of discipline these students have when it comes to creating masterpieces.  Some of my favorite pieces were family sticks (see picture).  Each different color represented something important in the students' lives.  They each added different embellishments on each to enhance their individuality.

I have never seen so many kinds or art.  These students excelled in oil, chalk, sculpture, trading cards, watercolor and some kind of art where they layer newspaper, paint on top of it and rip apart the layers.

A small but mighty orchestra ensemble filled the room with immaculate notes to set the tone for a real art show.  Art teacher Linda Shepard told us the students won 26 AWARDS at the state competition.  I think we need to show these kids our pride in their work by supporting them at the show this Saturday and Sunday at the Bancroft Street Market (10th and Bancroft) from 1-5 p.m. on both days.

See you there.

Katie Duran: Deer Park Secretary / Newsletter Editor

Temperature Changes in Deer Park Omaha

Greetings Neighborors,
I hope your March month is beginning nicely. This morning, as I stepped out to get my Snoopy lunch box out of my car, yeah, I rock a snoopy lunch box to work, the cold weather caught me off guard literally stinging my senses. Once outside I began to recall the sensual temperatures of yesterday, and a large smile overtook my face. No I am no crazy, but if you do not know me I am certainly a glass half full person.

Rather than be upset that the weather had returned to a shockingly cold temperature, the temperature fluctuation assured me a season change had arrived. For me, the season transition time is typically the most reflecting and exciting time of the year. During this transition time I start to get excited of the things I will get to do in the coming season; Moped rides through downtown, trips to the South Omaha palleteria with my wife, playing basketball at Deer Hallow park, bike riding to Baylis park, biking the Taco ride on Thursday nights, hosting a community garage sale, and having a bar be que outside with neighbors and family.
I then reflect on the things I will miss from the previous season. Do not get me wrong, I dislike the extreme cold, however, there is something beautiful about the winter season; how the street and yards turn powdery white,  the excitement of my family members' anticipation of Christmas, children outside playing in the snow, and our Deer Park Christmas party. Well it was a quick reminder that things always change, even in less than 12 hours. This made me think that I should remind everyone that, like the weather, community action and progress can take a change just as dramatically. Sometimes it takes shocking a 40 degree overnight temperature drop to remind us of this, other times it takes noticing a newly designed newsletter or a growing web page following to grab your attention.

If you have not been to the last couple of meetings, brace your self, you are in for a dramatic temperature change of our association. As the seasons, our neighborhood is also in a transition stage, and we should all use this time to reflect and celebrate the things that made this neighborhood great, and start to anticipate the exciting things to change and will make our community thrive.

To end this blog post, I want to provide two videos about community organization/development programs. This will be a teaser of something that is starting in our boundaries, and will spurred by a partnership between the Deer Park Neighborhood Association and Habitat for Humanity. The project is in planning stages, and we expect to kick it off soon. If you want to learn more, and I bet you do, come to our meetings and see how you can be a part of our neighborhood revitalization initiative.

Remember, celebrate our transition season.

Quotes To Inspire

Oh my, our blog is starting to get more traffic.

Thanks to those of you who visit this site monthly and or weekly, your views and comments are much appreciated. For you first time readers, this is our Neighborhood Association blog. We active citizens in the Omaha Deer Park neighborhood wanted to start a site that would allow readers to learn of the things occurring in our neighborhood. On this site you can learn of not only the things we are doing to improve our community, but the concepts and ideas that spur our ambitions. I started this posting group called Think Tank to share the different scholars and teachings I am using to implement new growth strategies in our neighborhood.  

In this month’s Think Tank I wanted to share some timeless teachings. Now I know that there are a few renditions of the preceding quotes, but please do not get a hang up on if it was quoted perfectly. All these quotes have been written in several versions of their according texts. Personally, I recite a saying or proverb in my mind on an hourly basis, not sure why. I often wonder if others do as well, I bet you do. Regardless, the following quotes are ones that I think to myself on a monthly if not weekly basis. I hope they motivate you as much as they do me. Enjoy!

"Do all the good you can, and make as little fuss about it as possible." - Charles Dickens

While the spirit of neighborliness was important on the frontier because neighbors were so few, it is even more important now because our neighbors are so many.  - Lady Bird Johnson

"Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile." - Albert Einstein

“One generation plants the trees; another gets the shade. “- Chinese Proverb

“...A community needs a soul if it is to become a true home for human beings. You, the people must give it this soul.” - Pope John Paul II
“When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.” - Eleanor Roosevelt

"Some people give time, some money, some their skills and connections, some literally give their life's blood. But everyone has something to give." - Barbara Bush

"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others." Mahatma Gandhi 



"To give, and not to count the cost  to fight, and not to heed the wounds,  to toil, and not to seek for rest,  to labor, and not to ask for any reward, “ — St. Ignatius of Loyola

“The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was:  "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?"  But... the good Samaritan reversed the question:  "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?" - Martin Luther King, Jr.

"I am only one, But still I am one. I cannot do everything, But still I can do something; And because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do the something that I can do." - Helen  Keller

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”  -Winston Churchill

"I know of no great men except those who have rendered great service to the human race." – Voltaire 

“We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community... Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for our own.” - Cesar Chavez

Don't forget to Recycle !!!

Hey everyone, I hope you are ready for some warmer weather, I am.

Well, as we are getting geared up for spring, that time has come to start thinking about spring cleanup. I know it is a drag to think about chores when the warm weather starts, but I recommend not waiting until it so nice outside that you wont want to clean. Get a jump on the spring cleanup season and start getting together some of your plastics, cardboard, and other recyclables ready for pick up.

If you do bot have a recycling bin, I should let you know that the city no longer drops them off. Sadness right. Oh well, the good news is that there are several places throughout the city where you can pick one up.


Recycling bins are available to single family households within the City of Omaha, at these locations.

UnderTheSink, Special Waste Facility

4001 S 120th St

Wednesday

9AM  –  4:45PM

Thursday

9AM  –  6:15PM

Friday

9AM  –  4:45PM

Saturday

9AM  –  NOON

Omaha Joint Use Facility

8750 Vernon Ave (64 blocks North of Dodge)

Available Monday through Friday, excluding City of Omaha Holidays, 8AM  –  2PM

Enter the Office at the Southwest corner
Do not drive into the facility's maintenance yard.

Omaha Sewer Maintenance Facility

6880 Q St

Available Monday through Friday, excluding City of Omaha Holidays, 8AM  –  3PM

Enter the facility's main entrance on the South side
Do not drive into the facility's maintenance yard.

Omaha Traffic Maintenance Facility

4303 S 50th St

Available Monday through Friday, excluding City of Omaha Holidays, 8AM  –  3PM

Enter the facility's main entrance on the West side
Do not drive into the facility's maintenance yard.

Not Quite sure what to recycle, visit the City of Omaha's Wastline website for more detailed information about recycables.

So, get a jump on the spring cleaning and start gathering you recyclables for pickup. Take care everyone and I hope to see you at our March meeting.

Oscar Duran: Deer Park President

Rourke Park

Did you know that Rosenblatt was not the first popular baseball park in our neighborhood. 

The story begins in 1867, when Issac Skinner Hascall, a former New York Lawyer, purchased thirteen acres of forest land for an “amusement center”. This was just one of his projects in this area, but more on that story later. Following nearly 30 years of on again off again Omaha baseball leagues, Mr. Hascall designed the 1899 Western Leagues’, Nonpareil Stadium. The grand stand and bleachers of the Nonpareil could hold 3,600 fans. The team was originally co-owned and co-managed by William “Pa” Rourke and Colonel Buchanan Keith, but after personal differences “Pa” Rourke bought out Keith’s share and proceeded to lead the team. Pa’s team finished their first season winning 17 of their last 18 games and by 1904 won its’ first pendant after winning 15 consecutive games and finishing 90-60.

From the Nonpareil Stadium to Rourke Park, and later from Vinton Street Park to League Park,  like many things in that era, the neighbrohood name of the park followed the headings of the local newspaper.  Regardless of the name, Omaha’s baseball history was rather unstable prior to the construction of the Nonpareil Stadium, and thanks to this Mr. Hascall’s vision of an amusement center along Vinton, our area was on the map in Omaha baseball history. 

If you look below you can see a 1918 Circa map of “Rourke Park”. Looking at this map you are likely thinking, “this park looks like it could hold more than 3,600 fans”. Well it could, in fact the park you see below could hold 7,500 fans. Next month, I will tell you the second half of this story and unfortunately, the baseball parks’ history has a sad ending. 

If you wish to read more of Omaha baseball history, you should get Devon Niebling and Thomas Hyde's Baseball in Omaha. This great little book is full of pictorials and includes the story of Rourke Park and many others. You can get a used copy at the link provided for around $8, but I would splurge and get a new one for $16. Thanks Mr. Niebling and Mr. Hyde for helping others learn about this part of our neighborhood's history.  For Nebraska Baseball history, visit a website hosted by Bruce Esser, Nebraska Baseball History. At this website there is an abundance of history on Nebraska baseball's fields. leagues, and players.

Oscar Duran: Deer Park President