Downtown Todd: A Conversation with Todd Ogden on the Future of Downtown Lincoln

Todd Ogden, better known around Lincoln as "Downtown Todd", joins Randy and Marilyn in the roasting room for a conversation about the city's most visible, and most ambitious, neighborhood.As President and CEO of the Downtown Lincoln Association, Todd has a hand in nearly every major project shaping the city's core: the O Street streetscape rebuild now underway, the long-planned convention center near the Cornhusker, the new Music Box venue, the emerging Boehmer Street music district, the future library at the Centrum, and South Haymarket Park. He walks us through what is happening, why it is happening now, and what it will feel like to live, work, and visit downtown in the years ahead.Along the way, Todd talks about the 2018 downtown master plan and the patience required to bring big civic ideas to life, the business improvement district that quietly keeps downtown clean and cared for, the growth of downtown residency from 3,000 people in 2010 to roughly 15,000 today, and the new Downtown Lincoln Coalition that is inviting residents, employees, and enthusiasts to become Downtown Champions.He also reflects on what keeps him in Lincoln — family, the football coach for a father-in-law, the idea that "one voice can make a change" — and why he believes downtowns, in the end, are about people more than buildings.