Merry Christmas

On Christmas, may your heart be light,
Yet brimming up with glee
A joy too great to be contained
By boxes 'neath a tree

_________

borrowed from Adbusters

Good News From 2007

Bush visits New Albany twice; Property taxes; Ground broken for dormitories at IUS; Doug England wins again; Firefighter test brouhaha; Chalfant breathes new life into T.B. hospital; Sixteen cases of e-coli; No-bid contracts for sewer and drainage work; unequal council-districts bring lawsuit; Railroad bridge for Grantline; Deputy killed in line of duty; Georgetown still looking to place sewer plant; Bill Koehler resigns from Parks Department; Stormwater fees; Downtown merchants begin special Saturday hours; Floyd County adopts animal control ordinance.

These are the local stories the Tribune suggested as the most important of 2007. Readers were asked to select from this list, the one story they felt was, indeed, the most important local event.

From this list, the story I think has the most far-reaching impact on New Albany, and thereby the most important for New Albany is the construction of dorms at IUS. This is such an important development because it signals that Indiana University Southeast is taking a major step beyond the "little brother" relationship to I.U. in Bloomington. It signals that the campus is growing. A growing college will add more degree programs and feed further growth.

I'll apologize to any IUS alumni or faculty, in advance, for my recollection, which I'm sure is hopelessly out of date now. But, I remember a time when the degrees from the regional campuses of I.U. were conferred with , if not literally, at least figuratively, an asterisk. That imputed asterisk signified a distinction with a difference. At one time IUS was derisively called Grant Line High. That was a holdover from the former "Warder Park High" from the time before IUS migrated to New Albany from Jeffersonville.

The construction of dorms on the campus of IUS offers the chance to change the asterisk to an exclamation point. People living in a campus dorm are not likely to be residents of nearby counties or towns. These students will live in a campus community far different than was previously available. These students will come from someplace else and may actually feel a pull to stay here after school ends for them. The growing campus will naturally bring more teachers, who are affluent and could be invited into a deeper involvement incommunity affairs. This development offers great potential for our city.

New Albany can capitalize on this opportunity by developing an attractive, functional downtown district which meets many of the commercial needs of the campus residents. The highlighting of the downtown district does not mean that other areas of town would be shut out. As an example, Bloomington has a downtown which is comparable in scale with New Albany's , it is, however, much more commercially vibrant. Bloomington simultaneously supports several suburban commercial districts. The downtown district is a walkable environment filled with independent businesses, while the suburban areas are auto-centric with chain-structured businesses. New Albany has the latter but we need to focus much more on the former.

Will all or most of the resident students at IUS have cars? If not, how will they get where they need to go? Enhanced bus service to the campus will be required. A bus to Wal-mart or a bus downtown? In all honesty, the most likely choice for such a student would be a trip to the mall where, as the ad used to say, the student could find, "more stores, more choices." New Albany's downtown, as all downtowns are, is a mall without a roof. There could be plenty of stores and plenty of choices if there were plenty of people with vision and ideas.

New Albany's downtown already has many "captive customers" working at government offices, banks, law firms, etc. The addition of resident students could be just the catalyst New Albany has needed.

Neither Summer Soldier nor Sunshine Patriot

How do you spell relief?

I.M.P.E.A.C.H.M.E.N.T.

________

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."

--Thomas Paine in 1778

Indiana Association of Cities and Towns--Orientation

Last Tuesday, another Councilman-elect and I attended the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns (IACT) orientation for new and returning elected officials in Columbus. It was encouraging on several accounts. First, it is good to know that this organization exists and stands ready to assist officials from towns across Indiana with issues that will arise throughout their terms of service. Second, the IACT members/presenters are knowledgeable about questions in their field. Third, because the organization is non-partisan, the advice is presented in a matter-of-fact manner which stresses the structural limits of the office but doesn't necessarily seek to steer policy. I feel more confident that I can find an answer from this source free, or at least freer, of unspoken local motivation.

One issue specifically addressed by a legal authority there gives credibility to the recent actions of Dan Coffey regarding the distancing of the Sewer Board from the City Council. In unambiguous terms, the counsel stated that a sitting City Councilman (the question was about a City Councilman, but the answer encompasses any office holder) can, in most circumstances, have no more than one paid office or position. When asked to elaborate, she clarified the term to say, "if you make fifty cents, it's paid." Coffey is attempting to remove council representatives from simultaneously serving on the sewer board. Bloomington representatives said they have an ex-officio member on the sewer board. He doesn't vote, and isn't paid. He serves to convey information from one body to the other.

Another issue addressed was that of City Court. Again I have been given information that the office of City Court is a financial drain. Rather than "turning a profit", by hauling in unpaid fines, the institution still returns a hefty portion of the collected fines to the state, and still has to cover its administrative costs, but seldom does. I understand the desire to have a mechanism to facilitate enforcement of ordinances on a host of issues, but it does not seem that a city court is the way to go. I remain open to the idea, but I haven't found good bases for it yet.

One of the speakers there stressed that voters are likely to be disappointed because instant gratification, though often sought, is seldom found through government. In a remark that caused the bromide meter to jiggle a bit, he offered a sentiment which I hope will accurately reflect my term and the upcoming council term, "Honor your service by serving honorably."

One final observation of the event is that it began with a welcome to the attendees. We did not recite a prayer or the Pledge of Allegiance.

I Wish I'd Said That

In case you missed this, it was worth seeing.


YouTube - Keith "Special Comment" - December 6, 2007 - Neocon Job

Bad Comedy Begets Bad Comity

At the gentle urging of my editor I have expunged the previous post.

But, I would like to remain on record as saying that Bush's lying about the danger Iran posed/poses for the United States, (a danger which Bush said could precipitate World War Three, and a danger which Bush knew did not exist), is in fact, the greater danger to the survival of constitutional government in the United States.

Coming soon...a report from the conference of the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns.

Excuse me while I write 500 times," All politics is local". And, 500 times, " Local politics is all."

Twenty Nine Days and Counting

In all honesty this may simply be a latent case of Comment Envy brought on by seeing the voluminous number of comments posted on other blogs, notably New Albany Confidential.

At any rate, this is a call to write your letter to Santa Claus. I certainly can't help with the delivery of the perfect gift during this season of giving. What I have in mind is, "what do you want your City Council and Mayor to bring you for Christmas?" Or, "what is the gift that will keep on giving in the new year, and beyond?" There may only be 22 shopping days 'til Christmas, but there are only 29 tabula rasa days left before the new city government commences.

Most people are well aware of the fact that Mayor Garner began his term in circumstances quite similar to those facing Mayor-elect England. Both had City Councils with dominant majorities of his own party. Both had clear ideas of where to steer the city. What could be a better recipe for accomplishment? While both men had similar hands dealt them, it is my wish that England 's tenure results in smoother relations between the two branches of local government.

Given smoother relations among the elected representatives, another item on my wish list is greater involvement of non-elected citizens in the agenda-setting and policy-formulation functions of city government. It is further wished that these incidences of greater involvement are accepted with sincerity by the elected representatives rather than being grudgingly accepted, or worse, simply accepted as windowdressing.

I suspect anyone who reads this is fairly clear on the things I want from city government. I've discussed them here, throughout the primary and the general election campaign. I sincerely want to know what you want. As I said earlier, I may just be trolling for more comments but, I do want to know what people want from me and the other elected officials. Now is the time to get ready for the New Year.

___________________________________________

Another big wish for the new year is progress toward meaningful reform of our healthcare delivery system. House Resolution 676 has been introduced by John Conyers of Michigan each year since 2003. This bill would, in essence, make each and every American eligible for health coverage through Medicare.

You can look at the Conyers web site for details. You can also go to http://www.hchp.info/ for information on Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan. The Democratic Party has supported universal health coverage as a right since the days of Harry Truman. If a Democrat is elected as president in 2008 the U.S. may finally abandon its status as the only developed country without universal health coverage. It is long overdue.

If anyone is interested in being part of a local group which is building support for H.R.676, you may contact me here, or call me at 500-3333, or call my wife, Ruthanne, at 944-3121. The purpose of this group is to build grassroots support which will, we hope, provide political courage to Baron Hill to co-sponsor this legislation, as has John Yarmuth and 85 other congressmen.

NOW on PBS Friday

Will the 2008 Elections Be Free and Fair?

NOW t r u t h o u t Programming Note
Airdate: Friday, November 30, 2007, at 8:30 p.m. EST on PBS. (Check local listings at http://www.pbs.org/now/sched.html.)
Will the 2008 elections be free and fair? This time on NOW.

How safe is your right to vote? On Friday, November 30, at 8:30 p.m., former Justice Department official and voting rights activist David Becker, who worked under both President Bush and President Clinton, alleges a systematic effort to deny the vote to hundreds of thousands, even millions of people. In a revealing interview with NOW's David Brancaccio, Becker openly worries that the 2008 election will not be free and fair. And is our own government part of the solution, or part of the problem?

93,000,000 Miles to Sustainability

The previous post presented a rather gloomy picture of the outlook for renewable energy, primarily solar. It is critical for the government to help bring this industry to the fore. It is myopic, barbaric and inexcusable to squander our soldiers and our legitimacy on the world stage fighting to protect the flow of oil. We should have evolved beyond this stage a long time ago. Oh, but some of us did. The oft-maligned Jimmy Carter installed solar panels on the White House during his too-brief occupancy of that place, during the latter part of the 1970s. This was both a practical and a symbolic act which should have signaled America's awakening to the perils of over dependence on oil as the basic fuel of our economy. Thirty years down the line we could have built upon this humble commencement and found ourselves inhabiting a healthier planet with a more stable geo-political script.

One of the first acts of Carter's successor, however, was to pull the shades and go back to sleep. Reagan, upon moving into the White House, promptly removed the solar panels from the White House roof. This suggestion was possibly proffered by Nancy's astrologer, who felt the panels might cause interference with celestial transmissions needed to accurately guide the first lady. Whatever the reason, the symbolism was clear. We are addicted to oil and we love the petro-monkey on our backs. From time to time we spout good intentions, but little has come of it. Just one more teensy weensy mall on the outskirts of town, and maybe just a lttle subdivision off the interchange and then we'll give it up.

Way back, even before J.C. came on the scene, someone here in New Albany took steps to build a sustainable energy future. Doctor James Nolan built the Nolan Solar Building on State Street in 1973-4. If you look up to the Northwest corner of his building, you'll see the solar collectors for his heating system. Doc Nolan, with help from plumber friends and other tradesmen, more or less designed the system himself. It contains ten manufactured solar collectors which heat a closed loop containing a glycol and water solution. That solution, in turn, transfers heated air to a duct system, providing a majority of the space-heating needs of his roughly 10,000 square foot office building. He says that the solar system supplies about 2/3 of his heating. The shortfall is provided by a natural gas backup system.

Doc Nolan's system was almost not built. Contact lenses required a longer process, over a period of some weeks, for testing and fitting than is required today. I was a patient and was interested in the hopeful technology. As I sat in his office undergoing tests for the lenses (the office was in the Elsby Building), Dr. Nolan would tell me about this or that bit of progress he had made concerning his solar project. It unfolded over the series of tests. Finally, he ran into a brick wall which seemed to doom the project. He persevered, however, and came into contact with a scientist in California who supplied names of people who got the project back on track.
His project received some attention while it was still new. Today, the rather modest building's heat system has been functioning efficiently for over thirty years.

As a nation, we have largely wasted those years. We are content with the Co2-choked staus quo. Why? Is it because we have too much invested in our current system? Is the political process so compromised that the will of the people can't influence it, but oil mongers can? Locally we seem predestined to build two bridges. We excoriate those who favor the 8664 project. And we continue building out, out beyond services, out where land used to be productive, out where we can keep going out some more, for space between us and "them", out where the air is fresh. Call me a crank, call me atavistic, call me naive, but I don't get the sense that there's any out, out there.

So are we going to waste the next thirty years as Lennon said, living with eyes closed, misunderstanding all we see? Can we provide the spinal support necessary to move politicians toward sustainability at the local level? (I'm under the distinct impression that breathing occurs at the local level, by the way.) New Albany is a city well-positioned to take advantage of environmentally appropriate choices. We already know that solar heating works in this locale. We can revitalize the inner city to rein in sprawl. We can benefit from the investment our predecessors left us by enlivening the older neighborhoods. We can exhort. We can motivate. We can, as Doc Nolan did, lead by example. Or we can pull the shades and go back to sleep. Maybe we'll dream of the Gipper.

Doc Nolan is alive and well, and still tinkers with his solar dream. So, if you see him thank him for his efforts. He has been a shining example.

With Friends Like These...

What could they possibly be thinking?

a) How can we best insure that we'll continue to fight for oil?
b) How can we ignore the evidence that global warming is a real threat?
c) How can we simultaneously shoot our supporters the bird, while looking even more ineffectual as leaders?
d) We're not comfortable in the role of leaders, so how can we orchestrate a Republican victory and make this burden go away?
e) What kind of program will insure enegy independence, build high-paying American jobs, give hope for curing many of our nations ills; and how can we kill it?
f) If we do kill it will we really look like idiots or just stupid?
g) Where did I leave my spine?

So many questions, so little time.

The democrats, yes folks, the DEMOCRATS are considering the possibility of eliminating the tax incentives for renewable energy from the now-germinating energy bill. In some Carrollian reality warp the party of Mo Udall, Al Gore and Bobby Kennedy Jr. is kicking around the idea of throwing away the incentives for solar, wind, and geothermal energy in the interest of getting a bill delivered out before the Thanksgiving recess.

The tax incentives now in place favor the installation of solar energy systems in commercial and residential property with a 30% tax credit and up to a $2,000 credit, respectively. These incentives are favored by environmentalists and the solar energy trade groups (SEIA) among others. These kinds of incentives allow a fledgling industry to establish a viable base for the building of a dealer network and wider public acceptance of the technology. What's the rush in pulling the supports out from under them? Is it truly critical to have a bill by Thanksgiving? By Christmas?

It is more important to recognize that, as Alan Greenspan said recently, we are fighting in Iraq for oil. We do this because we have not made the necessary investments in the future, investments like solar and wind enegy. The building of this new technology would help bring specialized manufacturing jobs into the domestic economy. We do not need to rush a bill through. We need to take responsible steps to secure a clean energy future and begin putting oil on the back burner of energy sources.

Let our Congressman and Senators know what you think.

Baron Hill, U.S. House of Representatives, 223 Cannon House Office Bldg., Washington D.C. 20515-1409
Telephone (202)225-5315
email: baronhill.house.gov

Evan Bayh, 131 Russell Senate Office Bldg., Washington D.C. 20510
Telephone(202)224-5623
Web Form: bayh.senate.gov/WebMail1.htm

Richard Lugar, 306 Hart Senate Office Bldg., Washington D.C. 20510
Telphone (202)224-4814
email: senator_lugar@lugar.senate.gov

November 11

Make no mistake, Dylan directs his words not at the Bleeders but the Leaders. And this was before the time of Blackwater, Halliburton, and the scabrous team of Tweedle-Dumb and Tweedle-Dick.

To date there have been 3,862 Americans killed in Iraq,
almost 30,000 maimed and wounded,
with uncounted thousands of Iraqis killed and wounded.

Honor the fallen and the returned, they have earned our respect and gratitude, but hold today's Masters of War to account.

__________________________________________

Masters of War--Bob Dylan, 1963

Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks
You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly
Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain
You fasten the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
As young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud
You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins
How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I'm young
You might say I'm unlearned
But there's one thing I know
Though I'm younger than you
Even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do
Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul
And I hope that you die
And your death'll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand o'er your grave'
Til I'm sure that you're dead

Thank You

The day after the election was spent sleeping late, reclaiming yard signs and taking care of a few things that were set aside during the final days of the campaign.

I apologize for that delay in conveying my thanks to all who have read my posts throughout either of the two phases of the campaign. As Mike Myers used to say on Saturday Night Live, I'm "verklemft" in light of all the good wishes expressed to me.

To Iamhoosier, you are correct, I need to get at it sooner and harder. Therefore, I'll bring my sign back out and put it in your yard. You can landscape around it as you see fit. You'll grow to love it.

As the glow of optimism fueled by winning inevitably dims, the size of the challenge ahead will become more apparent. New Albany remains a city populated with people of competing views. Working through those differences is the goal of government.

Progressive ideas will meet the standard dodge of "we can't afford that". The real question of why we can't afford something is not always a lack of money, just as often it's a lack of vision and the selfish allure of the staus quo. I believe the voters chose to look beyond the staus quo. I can't promise a gravy train with biscuit wheels, but only to do my part in keeping this a city with hope.

Thanks again for the confidence people have expressed.

Ciao

This one's in the can. The next move is yours. I hope we get enough of the government we need to balance out the government we've got.

To quote a toast offered by Soviet dissidents, "Here's to the success of our hopeless endeavor."

Sometime During the Ninth Inning

Blogs are typically, and this one is certainly, a small platform from which to speak. Several people have cautioned me against writing these posts and others have said they "stay away from the blogs". The latter sentiment uttered, I suspect, to shore up the notion that this is no sensible forum. Judging by the tit-for-tat exchanges in the Tribune, I have to wonder where does one locate a sensible forum for local political debate.

I have posted here for nearly nine months and have generally found it to be gratifying. My editor has discouraged the deviations from the path of "local issues" to which I am often tempted. My reasons for expounding on non-local issues are that sometimes a larger issue seemed more compelling, or that I believe any issue is a local issue if it elicits a local response, or that anything which happens in the world is of concern here because, and I can prove this, we are part of the world. Beyond that, it seems to me that if a reader has a look at what I believe on broader issues, it may give a better idea of how I might vote on a purely local issue.

I don't know what size sewer pipe is required in which part of town or how deep to dig a drainage ditch for storm water runoff. But I can recognize some of the things that are wrong with this town and I have definite ideas of what can be done to approach a solution. The ideal New Albany, or the ideal Anytown, is always out of reach, always on the horizon, but the ideal New Albany is a city continuously striving to reach that horizon. The journey, in this small town, must be one that includes anyone who wants to come along. On this small planet, it must include concern for people above profit; tomorrow must be as important as today.

I've heard quite a few people talk of the need for beautification of our city. This is an undeniable need. The main entry points into New Albany are, in fact, among the most unattractive sights to be seen in the entire town. The aesthetics need to be addressed, but I think a more pressing need is the deficit in minor maintenance. Taken as a litany of individual problems, the deficit may not seem so bad-a broken sidewalk here, a missing railing there, or a public area littered and overgrown.

I think an attainable solution to this widespread inattention is a small team of city workers dedicated to looking for problems in need of correctioin; something along the lines of a maintenance man for a building or factory. The problems this crew would deal with would be small in comparison to street repairs or sewer repairs. The small scale of the repairs is very likely the reason they are put off for another time.

Walking home from Oak Street along State to Captain Frank recently, I passed no fewer than four patches of sidewalk that were not only cracked, but hazardous to pedestrians. The minor maintenance crew could repair these bad sections. The same crew could cut limbs away from stop signs or street signs. Neighborhood groups might be a good place to collect a list of maintenance problems for a particular part of town. Individuals could call a City Council representative or the general City switchboard. At any rate, the minor things that collectively paint the town as run down or neglected could be dealt with before they become larger problems. No, it wouldn't have prevented the problems with the sewers, nor would it have paved the streets. But it just might make people take more pride in their city, and further, make them feel they are getting something for their taxes.

If I don't write again before the election November 6, please remember to vote.

VOTE EARLY

Anyone who would like to vote early in Floyd County's city and town elections may do so. No excuse is required.

The County Clerk's office is open, 8:00AM-4:00PM, Saturday October 27, 2007 for early voting.
You can also vote early any week day, 8:00AM-4:00PM, until November 2, 2007.
The Clerk's office will be open again, 8:00AM-4:00PM, on Saturday November 3, 2007 for early voting.

The Clerk's office is on the second floor of the City-County Building.

You will need to present a photo ID just as you would at the polls.

The County Clerk's telephone number is 948-5415.

Caught in the Devil's Bargain

Once upon a time, in a place called America, some, mostly young, people had hope. They were called hopies. Many of these people believed they could save their own and their brothers' lives by ending a war in a faraway land. The hopies had young relatives called hippies. Sometimes it was hard to tell them apart because they believed many of the same things. They particularly believed that the war should end. They said things like "War is not healthy for children and other living things" and "Give peace a chance."

In 1969, a party was held in a town called Woodstock. A lot of hippies and hopies attended the party. The event seemed to take on special significance . (A movie, that no one has ever watched all the way through, was filmed at the party.) A song that was sung there asked the question about the war, "One, two, three, four...what are we fighting for?" No one in attendance had a good answer. It was a party, after all, perhaps the government should have had the answer.

The party ended after a few days. The hopies and the hippies grew old.

Many years later, a knight who was neither a hopie nor a hippie, although he could have been because he lived ath the same time, decided he wanted to be the King. He was in a race to be named King at the same time a lady, who had once been a hopie, was trying become Queen. The knight thought one of the nastiest things he could ever say about the lady, whom he desparately wanted to prevent from becoming the Queen, was that she had once been a hopie. He made fun of the party the hopies and the hippies had thrown long ago; it seems while they were having a party, although the lady who would be Queen was not actually at the party, he was being held captive in a prison. The knight thought the people would like him more because he had suffered while the hopies had simply tried to end his suffering.

The moral of the story is, why must the idealism of youth be disparaged as one grows old? Do we think less of our grown children because they once thought we were omnipotent? Are we too clever to believe we can remake the future in a more positive way? Do we get the leaders we deserve?

Aural Redlining

In a film version of Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf, one scene of Harry Haller's (Steppenwolf's)madness seemed almost reasonable to me, as a nearby resident of I-64. Harry positions himself and his howitzer on a ledge above a road, from which he fires at passing cars. In his case, he wanted to do battle against the, then recent, incursion of the automobile into modern life. In my case, I just wanted to be able to sit on the front porch and carry on a conversation without the odious noise from the passing trucks. At times they sounded so loud it seemed possible they might be airborne and headed straight for the house. Clearly it was a problem in need of a solution, albeit somewhat less spectacular than Harry's.

So, about ten years ago, my wife and I set out into our neighborhood with clipboards and blank petitions to gauge the level of support for sound barriers along I-64. It was overwhelming, perhaps even unanimous, in favor of building the barriers. We walked over a period of about a week and spoke to 50 or 60 people. Since we had gotten such a good response, we contacted the State Department of Transportation and told them what we had done. We were beginning to think that our foray into citizen involvement would pay off when the D.O.T. dispatched someone with a decibel meter to test the level of our pain. The meter was placed on the stoop outside our front door and began to register its findings. Our hopes were dashed ,however, when the tester informed us that the level he was reading was the level the state tries to reach after the sound barriers are built. Back to the drawing board, and a few inquiries about mail-order ordnance ( it's doable but the shipping and handling will eat you up).

As the years have passed, the annual mandated hearing tests at work have continued to show that I have "moderate" hearing loss in my right ear. (That's the ear, when sitting on the porch, that faces Ike's Folly.) So it was like a bolt out of the blue when last October I received a letter from State Representative Bill Cochran. It seems he had been in contact with the Commissioner of the State Department of Transportation about a noise barrier. More or less concurrently, Indiana's le petit chief executive has sold off mile upon mile of our infrastructure. The resulting boon, approximately three billion dollars, should now be available to address some of the needs and desires of the state's citizens.

Just the other day I was walking (campaigning) in the west end, along Main Street. The aerial bombardment of noise from I-64 as it passes above Main and Market Streets is so loud that conversation is difficult. I have written of the need for stronger code-enforcement and Challenge Zones as some of the ways to revitalize the older parts of town. Based on my walking in that neighborhood, I'm suggesting that one of the surest means of making those areas more attractive is the construction of noise barriers. The noise is an insult to people living near the highway; it is a statement that those who control the highway system simply do not care about the people affected by it.

Interestingly though, if you drive through many affluent areas, in Louisville and along I-65 in Indiana, you will see noise barriers already built or under construction. It is time we, in New Albany, push for noise barriers along all interstate highways in residential areas. Noise is a pollutant that is damaging to health. It can cause concentration to suffer which has obvious effects on learning in children. It undermines the property values of houses in its path. It is not too much of a stretch to see this as a class issue when one observes where noise barriers are being built and where they are not being built.

Bicycle Lanes Rattle Some

"Build it and they will come." That line from the movie Field of Dreams is accepted wisdom now, used in discussion of projects such as the arena in downtown Louisville. The counterpoint to that, "Don't build it and they won't come," is hard to argue with.

While parked on the Clark Memorial bridge yesterday I was moved to wonder what is the motivation to not "build" bike lanes in New Albany.This would seem to be the easiest construction project imaginable-paint applied to an existing roadway.

The difficulty in construction lies not with road-building equipment but within the recesses of some cranial cavities.

While looking at tire tracks burned onto the bike lane emblem on the bridge surface (recently pictured on the cover of LEO), I thought of the fear which must have motivated the anonymous dolt who laid that editorial statement for all to see. It seems a kind of motorized version of the spraying that un-neutered male cats practice. Cats are driven instinctually to spray turf
they wish to claim. How sad to think that humans of such limited powers of reason have command of a 3,000 pound machine. How much more harrowing to think that machine may meet up with a cyclist who has crossed a territorial line.

We can paint the lanes to demarcate our turf as cyclists, but no such simple fix exists to alter the psyche of those who fear something about "those who aren't me". Unfortunately, the only thing to possibly change minds is continuous repitition of the sight, of people moving without cars, which must set off something twisted in certain eyes.

Look in the Mirror

by P.M. Carpenter Oct 15 2007 - 9:40am

Frank Rich's underlying point about us, "the Good Germans"
article tools: email print read more P.M. Carpenter
For my money, the New York Times' Frank Rick stands unrivaled among the commentariat in eloquence, perspicacity and formidability, and he confirms his singularity virtually every week. He manages to articulate rage with a calm, surgical style that paradoxically intensifies the reader's preexisting rage -- something most of the vast and sympathetic blogosphere has yet to comprehend, and something most of Rich's print colleagues are simply incapable of matching.
I suspect it was the years he spent as a theatre critic, examining the smallest of performance nuances to gauge a play's worthiness, that made the titanic absurdities of politics such a comparative cinch for him.
Yesterday morning Rich offered a repeat tour de force, in "The 'Good Germans' Among Us."
I won't quote at length, since it is far more informative to just read his column. But his theme is this: "It’s time to confront the darker reality that we are lying to ourselves.... By any legal standards ... we are practicing torture.... I have always maintained that the American public was the least culpable of the players during the run-up to Iraq," but, laments Rich, "As the war has dragged on, it is hard to give Americans en masse a pass. We are too slow to notice, let alone protest, the calamities that have followed the original sin."
In hammering at the point, Rich nails it: "We can continue to blame the Bush administration for the horrors of Iraq -- and should.... But we must also examine our own responsibility for the hideous acts committed in our name."
Rich rightly doesn't dismiss the top-down-driven contours of our "democratic failure," citing a swindling White House and "the powerful institutions [Congress and the press] that should have provided the checks, balances and due diligence of the administration’s case," but "failed to do their job."
A few, however, in both Congress and the press, did not fail. They hollered and squalled and bellowed from the rooftops. Rich was among them, as was I and a few thousand other irate scribblers, and one recalls as well the heated admonitions of such prescient political voices as Sen. Robert Byrd.
But the collective readership, viewers and listeners? -- the "We"? Rich notes: "The debate [was] labeled 'politics.' We turn[ed] the page."
And that, right there, spotlights, underscores and isolates the deeper problem -- the collective but imprecise use of "we." Every commentator is guilty of it, especially moi. It's simply impossible to analyze in 600 words or 2000 the assorted outrages of national behavior without lumping starkly opposite poles together. "We" condoned this idiotic war, so we are ultimately responsible for it and all the miserable fallout.
Except there are 300 million different we's, each with different motives, different psyches, different backgrounds, different resources, different internal cultures -- different everything that makes up the individuated and complicated human. Some are stupid, some are smart; some are educated, some are not (and there is a difference). What "we" means, I haven't a clue.
But I can guarantee you my absolute knowledge of one thing: Each and every one of us believes we're doing what's best for ourselves, no matter how we arrived at that belief. And in this country -- in fact, it is by now a worldwide phenomenon -- that means consumerism, and with it, boatloads of distraction from humanity's common condition.
The real geniuses are those who drive that consumerism. They tell us that a more versatile cell phone and a wider TV will make us happy at long last, and, being unhappy, we give it a go. (I know, I'm back to committing we-ism, but it's the only we-ism that I and whole communities of political sociopsychologists can comfortably identify.)
The realization of the deeper (but far less profitable) pleasures of reading a book, or painting a picture, or educating a child simply never occur to most of us, because we're too busy getting happy. It fills the ever-expanding void created by the most recent failure of happiness creation.
Still, some of us do realize that there are higher and more rewarding experiences in life than having bragging rights around the watercooler to the latest in TV technology and the newest car.
Maybe we're the boneheads. Maybe we're the ones who can't see, or can't accept, that all life's pleasures are fleeting, and that struggling for the betterment of humanity is the most long-term of emotionally self-defeating propositions. There, I'm back to territory of the unknown.
But when Frank Rich says "Our humanity has been compromised by those who use Gestapo tactics in our war," and that "it's up to us to wake up our somnambulant Congress to challenge administration policy every day," he's not talking about the "we" -- he's talking about the aforementioned us, the materialistically un-preoccupied minority, and one likely to remain such for untold generations to come.
In short, he's talking only, and loosely but pointedly, about the much-disparaged, right-wing whipping boy of the intellectual elite -- and by that I mean those who are intellectually engaged; those who reside on Main Street, not merely in ivory towers. Everyone else is too busy -- to the right's unending gratification and its own causation -- with the distractions of consumerism to be bothered, which is what got us into this mess in the first place._______

Chamber of Commerce Questionnaire

The Chamber of Commerce requested all candidates for local office to answer questions. I presume all candidates were asked the same questions but that may not be correct. My questions and answers appear below. Other candidates' answers can be found at the One Southern Indiana web site www.1si.org.

Question No. 1.

One Southern Indiana believes that regional partnerships and cooperation are key elements for a business-friendly environemnt and economic progress. How do you plan to work with county leadership, surrounding counties and cities, and with Louisville in achieving economic prosperity and land use planning for your city?

The primary role in setting a regional strategy for economic progress belongs to the mayor. As a candidate for Council at Large, I plan to lobby the mayor on behalf of the entire city, including all its citizens and businesses. I will do so from my perspective as a business owner in Louisville, a life-long resident of New Albany, and as a citizen committed to environmental stewardship. Prosperity and the environment can peacefully co-exist.

Land use planning is one of the most significant steps local governments can take toward creating a sustainability model. The guidelines of such a model can be highly positive for businesses. Curtailing sprawl, for example, reduces the tax money spent building infrastructure for outward growth patterns. Sprawl promotes development first. Smart growth promotes re-development first. Portland, Oregon placed curbs on sprawl in the early 1990s, which caused entrepreneurs to re-develop. Today, according to a recent New York Times article, Portland has become a wining and dining hotspot. Now that the core of Portland has been densified, the government there is looking toward orderly expansion outward. The difference now is that a robust hub serves as the focal point of commerce rather than a diffuse, haphazerd sprawlscape. To quote Mayor Jerry Abramson:"You can't be a suburb of nothing."

Question No. 2.

One Southern Indiana focuses on economic development-either through the attraction of new businesses or by helping our existing companies to expand. If elected, what would you do to increase economic development opportunities and improve the competitiveness of your city for investment and growth?

Economic development can be looked at locally or regionally, but with the understanding that such a strict division is, practically speaking, artificial.

Locally:I would hope to foster rejuvenation of our neighborhoods. Such redevelopment is environmentally sound because fewer resources are used for new construction; and it is fiscally prudent because we, today, can benefit from the capital expenditures made by our predecessors. I have suggested that redevelopment of distressed neighborhoods could be helped with a program called "Challenge Zones". These zones would offer regulatory latitude to re-developers of owner-occupied houses, such as no-cost permits or economic incentives. I would work to see that procurement of government goods and sevices is done with a preference for local businesses. I believe such a preference strengthens our economy. I would work to increase citizen participation through increased use of boards and commissions. This helps bring more knowledge to government and more understanding of government. It makes citizens more than simply tax-payers.

Regionally: I would, again, working as a team with the mayor, try to capitalize on one of Southern Indiana's greatest assets--Louisville. Many people work in Louisville but live in Indiana. Beyond that aspect of Louisville's importance to our region is the active promotion of the city as a convention destination. While convention visitors are in the region, Southern Indiana can promote satellite attractions to entice these visitors here to shop for antiques and art, tour museums and wineries, attend a concert or event ant IUS, and take a carriage ride, a bike ride, or a stroll along the Greenway for the best view of Louisville.

Question No. 3.

What is your agenda for business?

My agenda for business is to entice it to become more environmentally beneficial. Beyond obviously helping the environment, "green" businesses and business practices are already taking shape as trends for the future. Such a focus can keep business ahead of the curve instead of being left behind. In addition, promoting locally owned businesses is high on my list of priorities. The most valuable dollar in a local economy is one earned by a local business and spent in other local businesses.

Question No. 4.

What is your vision for Southern Indiana?

My vision for Southern Indiana is that of a prosperous community of tolerant, engaged people who are proud of their past, and are looking responsibly toward the future.

The Few, The Proud

If you noticed in the papers last week, the test for U.S. citizenship has been reworked. A question about Patrick Henry is out and one about Susan B. Anthony is in.

This, as expected, released a torrent of jurisdictions around the country seeking to rule certain people in and certain people out of those chosen venues. Membership, as the slogan says, has its rewards. Not to be outdone, New Albany has joined in with a citizenship test of its own. The new version is, well, new, since there wasn't an old version and we can see what that lack of exclusivity has wrought. But the need to "qualify" is a little greater now than in the past. Poking around where I shouldn't have been poking around has turned up a partial advance look at the test. I offer it here for the benefit of all.

I was able to discern that the test is in three parts, and likely patterned after Scrooge's Ghosts, as it tests one's knowledge of New Albany's Past, Present and Future.

New Albany's past:

1. A famous New Albany men's store was John____Mitchell. Fill in the blank.

2. New Albany's bus line was known as _________________________?

3. What type of construction was proposed to take place on the current site of the Culbertson Mansion a.)____________ after the mansion was sold by whom?______________________________

4. New Albany held a big celebration in 1963. Why?___________________________

5. What used to happen, that does not happen now,at the intersection of Main and Vincennes streets when a train came?____________________________________________

6. What was the New Albany's telephone exchange prefix?______________________

7. Shortly after the Union National Bank on the corner of Pearl and Main Streets closed another business operated in that building. What was its name, and why was it called that?________________________________________________________

8. Two all night restaurants used to operate in the 200 block of Vincennes Street until the 1960s. What were the two restaurants called?_______________________________

New Albany's present:

1. What is New Albany's population?_______________________________

2. What are Doug England's mayoral campaign platform ideas? (use additional paper if necessary)____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________

3. What are Randy Hubbard's mayoral campaign platform planks?___

4. What areas of New Albany's fringe are most likely to be the next ones annexed?______________________________

The following questions are TRUE or FALSE

5. Glorianna Frangipani is an Italian cardinal who visited New Albany before being named Pope Dalliance III.___________

6. The K & I Bridge still standing._____________

7. IUS is an important resource for New Albany._______________

8. Citizen participation in New Albany's governance is encouraged.____________

9. Most people in New Albany wish they lived somwhere else.____________

10. Many New Albany restaurants sell "Omelet Boxes" for picnics._________

New Albany's future:

This section is essay. Any answer is acceptable if supported by reasonable argument; use Blue Book.

1. Why is recollection of the past not a valid plan for the future?

2. Why is recollection of the past important?

3. List three elements of New Albany's current situation that thwart progress? What would you do to turn those elements around?

4. If a multi-million dollar project were proposed in New Albany's downtown and a competing project of similar scope were proposed for a suburban location, which location would you favor?
Address each location on the basis of a.) environmental appropriateness, b. ) economic impact, c.) its benefit for the entire city, d.) its effect on "regional" status.

Nobody said it would be easy.

One Down Nine To Go

This post has nothing to do with local issues. This blog is supposed to be about issues related to my campaign for a city council seat, so look at this an interlude along the campaign trail.

I offer these quotes from various learned individuals and ask that you consider them in conjunction with the linked piece from William Rivers Pitt.

In light of the craven action in the U.S. Senate last week to grandstand against MoveOn.org several senators were asked if they supported MoveOn's "Betray Us" ad. I think the simple and correct response should have been, "I support the First Amendment". In the climate of this nation, as outlined by Pitt and also shown by the recent "taser incident", is it any wonder free speech is on the endagered species list?

"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth is revolutionary"
--George Orwell

"The media serve the interests of state and corporate power, which are closely interlinked, framing their reporting and analysis in a manner supportive of established privilege and limiting debate and discussion accordingly."
--Noam Chomsky

"Democracy is not about trust; it is about distrust. It is about accountability, exposure, open debate, critical challenge, and popular input and feedback from the citizenry. It is about responsible government. We have to get our fellow Americans to trust their leaders less and themselves more...".
--Michael Parenti

"Real information, subversive information, remains the most potent power of all...we must not fall into the trap of believing that the media speaks for the public. That wasn't true in Stalinist Czechoslovakia and it isn't true of the United States."
--Harold Pinter

"The people will believe what the media tells them to believe."
--George Orwell






http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092607A.shtml

Neighborly Chat

Last week I had occasion to visit my old college haunt of Bloomington. I was there for a nearby business purpose and so called on an acqauintance who is a member of the Bloomington City Council. We discussed city issues in our respective homes and had lunch at the City Hall. I found it most enjoyable and informative.

New Albany could do well to adopt some of the ideas and methods in use in Bloomington. I'm not suggesting something as simple as, Bloomington, good; New Albany, bad. It's more like, Bloomington forward-thinking and inclusive, New Albany, not so much.

Our northern neighbor has 39 boards and commissions which are chartered by the City Council. These boards address a wide range of issues from bicycle and pedestrian safety to a commission on the status of black males, from accessability issues to sustainability issues. These boards and commissions meet (many are volunteer boards with no pay) to discuss issues of importance to the board members. Council members seek out some with apparent knowledge but citizens with less apparent expertise in a given field are also asked into the discussion. The product of the boards is then made available to the City Council and the Mayor with hope that it will result in more informed decisions. It brings more people into the government. It is closer to government "of the people, by the people". It is, in short, closer to democracy.

New Albany has boards and commissions as well. I sit on the Plan Commission. Presentations at those hearings would be given greater value if they could include input from a board which had, for example, studied the environmental impact of a proposed development, or the impact new construction might have on a historic neighborhood. The benefit I see when using the Plan Commission as an example is that citizens, who have an emotional as well as an economic stake in preserving their surroundings, would not need to stand alone. They may not need to adopt the role of the obstructionist because it is the only role available to them in the short time allowed to prepare a case on their behalf. Ideally, during the hearings of the board or commission, the differences could be aired and what comes to the Plan Commission could be a studied plan with more input from all sides and less of the rancor of a pitched battle.

The meeting in Bloomington also jogged me to think that we have one of those universities here too. I don't think we are taking full advantage of that valuable asset. I hope as a councilman to do my part in changing that. I hope the new Mayor does his.

A quick note from the news:
I also heard a few minutes ago that the French mime Marcel Marceau has died at age 84. So please, a moment of silence.

Saturday Events

I went to the Silver Grove picnic yesterday. It was a stunningly beautiful afternoon. It was made even more interesting for me because I grew up on Charlestown Road, not more than three-quarters of a mile away, and until the last few years I had not heard the designation "Silver Grove Nieghborhood". Of course I knew the streets were there, but it was not given a named status of a neighborhood. And, I did not know until just yesterday that Siver Grove had, around the time of my grandfather's birth in New Albany, begun as an independent alternative to New Albany. Thanks to Jim Munford for his brief tutorial on the history of that neighborhood.

What also struck me about the event was the fact that it was an authentic, although modest, display of community. This thread of commonality, which is really just a self-identifier of pride in where the people live, can be an example for other parts of the city. Indeed, I have been in attendance at meetings at Scribner Middle School and am aware of such meetings at S. Ellen Jones and Fairmont Schools. The purpose of these meetings is to build a sense of neighborhood and offer the schools as focal points of that sense. If all the neighborhood associations can function at the level of the Silver Grove community, I am encouraged for the city's future.

Jim Munford didn't try to portray the Association's efforts as paying unrealistically high dividends, but he did say that since the Silver Grove Association was formed, crime has decreased, poorly maintained houses are fewer and there is a recognizable sense of pride in the neighborhood.

That is precisely the strength of potential available to the entire city. New Albany's size is ideal to maximize these various efforts and to spread the benefits city-wide.

Another festival yesterday also pointed up the importance of community. My wife and I went to the Latin Festival at St. Mary's. When I was an altar boy I would have assumed such a festival would have involved recitation of the Confiteior and the Pater Noster. Today the Latin Festival is held to build community among some of the newest members of New Albany's population-the diaspora from Mexico and Latin America. The crowd was large and overwhelmingly of latin origin. My Spanish communication skills are non-existent and, in fact, many of the vendors did not speak English very well. We enjoyed some cullinary offerings and spoke to a few people we were acquainted with before the event.

This raised a question for me. Is there anyone in our local government who is able to communicate with this significant segment of our population? One of the people we spoke with last night is Lillian Rose. Her office at the old Convent at St. Mary's is called the Hispanic Connection. Her purpose is to act as a liason between the anglo and the hispanic world on many issues, some profound family problems and some mundane, such as drivers licenses etc. The sense of isolation felt by the immigrant population has some dire consequences, the most serious of which is a high rate of teen suicide. Whether you feel welcoming toward these, or any, immigrants is beside the point. They are here and we, must learn to get along. It is critical to the progress of our city.

Brave New (Post 9/11) World

I do believe in spooks.
I do believe in spooks.
I do believe in spooks.

-- The Cowardly Lion
_________________________________________


"The only thing we have to fear
is fear itself...."



Fear itself

BRAND X

In the halcyon days of television, when the shows were offered in any color you chose, so long as your choice was black and white, people's faces would disappear to reveal the contents of their skulls. This peeling back was necessary to see the anvils being hammered, thus revealing the source of their headaches. Anacin to the rescue. In another diagnostic viewing, the abdominal skin was pulled back, we could see acid dripping into the stomach by way of something akin to a moonshiner's still. No problem. Rolaids consumes forty-seven times its weight in excess stomach acid.

Those images were meant to put a brand name on relief. That was selling at a gut level, so to speak. Its subtlety or lack thereof was its charm. It is, from our sophisticated perch in the age of color television, quaint; kind of like the Geneva Conventions, a relic of a simpler time.

So, last Friday after I got home from work I figured I'd better turn on the T.V. and see what had happened to cause the stock market to drop 250 or so points. In my day as a stockbroker, a 250 point drop was significant. Relatively speaking, 250 points now is no big deal. Still, the numbers have a pull. At 5:30 on a Friday afternoon it seems, Jim Cramer's Mad Money is the go-to for an immediate reading of the day's entrails. He was speaking, apparently live, from the campus of USC to an audience of business majors. In case you've not caught Cramer, his schtick is to accentuate the MAD in Mad Money (not an expression of anger but, the British sense of daft nuttiness). The audience was tuned in to Cramer in a strange way that seemed to foretell a capitalist bacchanal after the show. He actually got wild applause for recommending Northrop-Grumman.

Perhaps because he was in Southern California, Cramer brought on a guest from Anaheim, I can't verify precisely his position but the guest was a high officer of Disney (for the purposes of this writing let's call him Walt). After the over-the-top cheering subsided Walt began to expound on the unbelievable value inherent in the Disney Brand, and you thought it was a place or a cartoon. You would be wrong; it's almost a lifestyle to hear Walt tell it. The Disney Brand sells and the sky's the limit. Not just movies and visits to the parks but hotels, clothing, greeting cards, cell phones you name it, Mickey can sell it. A Disney coffin? Well, who's up to here with time on their hands?

Awareness dawns slowly but awareness dawns surely.

The New Albany Brand has lost its punch. It's down there on the list with Lux Soap and Mail Pouch tobacco. It's probably still on the shelves somewhere but have you bought any lately?

Of course I think branding is so much malarkey. A sleight of hand engaged in by dessicated hucksters and people lacking in vision. The lack of a shared vision of New Albany is, however, probably the single highest hurdle to our success. One of my huckster friends may even say it is a re-branding opportunity. Are we a bedroom community for Louisville? Are we a regional education hub, (so long as the region stops at the river)? Are we an example of New Urbanist design preserved in a bell-jar of apathy, simply waiting for someone to lift off the cover which holds us back? New Albany, and probably any city, is like the elephant described by the five blind men; different things to different people depending on their given perspective.

The city races this year are critical. I believe Mayor Garner has set the table for us to enjoy a fine meal, if not a feast. He clearly set the direction he hopes this city will follow. His efforts and successes are significant but not yet fully realized. I'm not convinced, and I certainly have no reason to know of any behind-the-scenes work, that the inevitable rifts which developed during the primary between Garner and England camps has been set aside for the good of the city. Do we want the New Albany brand to be "New Albany-home of the false start"?

As a candidate for City Council I run with a party that I hope puts forth a unified vision of what this city can be. That overarching vision must come from the mayoral candidate. I'm certain that Doug England has the vision and the drive to help this city realize more of its potential. The word "more" is critical because, like the horizon, potential is always out there, always beckoning, yet never quite attainable. I hope, as a councilman to also be a counselman with the mayor. If you read my words during the primary you know basically what I favor. I want local prosperity to build from local businesses. I want New Albany to always reach for its potential. I want environmental concern to define that potential. I want young people to see a future in New Albany and worth in remaining here. I want us to leave aside petty differences that prevent us from living together as a community.

I will write about specific issues as the campaign unfolds. I will again attempt to walk the entire city and meet as many people as possible. I would encourage anyone to submit questions here to find my views on any relevant issue wheter I have written about it or not. I would also ask anyone who is so inclined to let me know about placing a yard sign in their yard at a later date. The ground is too dry now and the signs wear out their welcome if they are placed too early.

I hope to serve as a councilman who cares about the fiscal elements of city government but also as a conduit of innovative ideas. Such ideas will more often than not be rendered into policy by the Mayor but I plan to have a hand in their formulation.

Another image of our city I don't want to portray in our rebranding effort is---Dream Lean--It's New Albany.

Michael Vick for President

Michael Vick, as most have heard, dabbles in the field of animal welfare issues. His involvement in this issue is commensurate with the welfare of dogs to the same degree George Bush's foreign policy insulates us here, in "The Homeland", from the terrorists out there.

Vick has mastered a portion of Bush's foreign policy in his prepping of dogs for the fighting ring. To wit: National Public radio reports that the United States is funneling twenty billion dollars ( I've got to spell it out 'cause I don't want to wear out the zero key ) in arms, such as bombs, bombers, and missile systems to the ever-friendly Saudi Arabian monarchy. But just to keep things on the up-and-up, we're also sending thirty billion dollars to Israel.

Just as Vick does whatever one does to keep a dog in tip-top fighting mettle, we are following a foreign policy regimen that gives the middle east that little edge; just enough to keep it interesting to the peddlars in the M/I Complex. Anybody got a tooth file handy?

What has this to do with the price of apples in New Albany? Only this, our tax dollars are sent off to Washington in incomprehensible amounts: $522 billion dollars for this year, (and the
Bush-war, for some arcane accounting legerdemain, is not even part of that number). We're spending so much we've got to arm both sides. Is there just a chance that money could have been put to better use here in "The Homeland"?

A Utopian Greenway ?

These are pictures from New Harmony were taken in May. As we rode along the banks of the Wabash, I couldn't help but think this is what a true
greenway should look like.

The sense of the City of New Albany has been stated that Clark County can do as it pleases, New Albany will have a pedrestian-bicycle-oriented Greenway and that if a high-volume road is built in Clark it will be gated up at the border.

Well here is what a real Greenway should be. For any who wish to see it for themselves, take the scenic drive to New Harmony, walk down the lane between the Roofless Church and the Red Geranium restaurant. As you walk through the woods you may see a cultivated field of corn or beans on your left. As you exit the woods, you enter the scene shown in these photographs. It is refreshingly understated. It is in a word authentic. It does exactly what a proper Greenway should do; it provides a vantage point from which to view the river, it provides a place to enjoy the river but it does not assume a position apart from the river. It does not intrude .

The New Albany Greenway could be as bucolic as this if we have the good sense and the grace to accept Al Goodman's offer of his land for that portion of the Greenway. The Loop Island Wetlands is a jewel of the greatest potential in this entire city. Forgotten by industry, it has healed itself to become nearly pristine again. (And yet, that very industry has left behind two strong bridges over Silver Creek.) It is one of the few places in an urban setting where the river is able to provide habitat for wildlife and respite for humans. It would be an instance of stupidity to slash an automobile road through that property. That instance of stupidity would, in the future, be ranked with the utter dimwittedness of those responsible for tearing down the old Post Office in the 1970s.

Regarding access: for those who want to go, they will find a way.

Yet Another Reason I'm Not a Republican...

For these people, GOP means Grossly Overstated Patriotism.

England's City Hall Idea

Last week, mayoral candidate, Doug England, offered a proposal to move the operations currently housed on the third floor of the City-County Building to the the fire house at Fourth and Spring streets.

I think his idea has merit. It would create a true City Hall. The current third floor offices, once moved, could be allocated space compatible with today's needs rather than the needs of 1962. The fire house is one of the nicer buildings built in New Albany in some time and it would be worthy of the name City Hall. It has ample parking for citizens conducting business with the city. The spreading out of city employees toward the eastern edge of downtown could benefit businesses somewhat. I'm sure Mr. England could add many more positive reasons for the move to the new site.

If Mr. England's suggestion is accepted it would have one obvious consequence. There would need to be a new fire house built to replace the formerly new fire house that would become the new City Hall.

One of the points raised against the location of the Fourth and Spring fire house before it was built was the greater distance from the west end neighborhoods and Silver Hills. Greater distance, it was feared, would mean longer response time. As far as I can recall this has, fortunately, not been a problem yet.

Location of the new fire house should be in the west end with access to that major population area as well as the businesses downtown, hotels, I-64 , Silver Hills and Scribner Place.

I believe a site worthy of serious consideration is the current home of the adult video store on Main Street. This business does not offer the best introduction to our city for people passing through to Caesars. Locating the fire house there would bring this critical service to the place it is needed. It would eliminate the contentious adult store which could not easily relocate because, you may recall, it was allowed to open since no law had been written to exclude such establishments. A tougher licensing law is now on the books.

If Mr. England would add this location of the new fire house to his proposal for the new City Hall perhaps he could get even greater approval of his idea.

Thanks to all

I want to thank everyone who voted for me in the primary. It is an honor that I hope I prove worthy of receiving. I will do my best to carry forward the message of the primary into the general election and, if it is to be, into the council chamber.

I may place this blog on hiatus for a while in terms of new posts. I will check it to see if anyone drops a question or comment on it. I plan to begin regular attendance of the council meetings and I may well post comments after those meetings.

Today's Phrase That Pays

Unity of purpose.

Time's Up

My wife and I just returned from putting up the obligatory signs at the polling places and I find that a little less than six hours remain until the voting begins.

Regardless of the outcome of the race, I would like to express sincere thanks to the many people who have helped me, encouraged me, and followed my thoughts on this blog.

I began this campaign blog in March with a lyric from the band The Call.
The song: I still believe. It is appropriate as a close

For people like us
In places like this
We need all the hope
That we can get
Oh, I still believe

Thanks,

John

Turning for Home

The primary campaign enters its final stretch this week. I've been to all the council districts in what I now recognize was a futile attempt to knock on all the doors of city residents. If I am fortunate enough to survive the primary, I will again .set that goal for the fall campaign.

One thing has surprised me during my walking; I did not encounter a single inhospitable person. My closest encounter with unfriendliness was an indiffernt response from someone who said she and her household have no interest in politics. Of course many people were not home and some of them could have been the surly ones. I tried to make my visit brief out of consideration for the person's time as well as for the efficiency of my task. After introductions were complete, I would ask if the person had any concerns they'd like the council to address. Except for near unanimity about fixing Spring Street Hill while walking in Siver Hills, the most common answer has been "nothing in particular that I can recall right now". This answer does not provide evidence of people disengaged from local issues but it does suggest that the majority of citizens are relatively contented. For those of us who peruse the various blogs and attend a few City Council meetings, I suspect that finding would not jibe with expectations. One explanation for that may be that I only gave these people a brief window to respond, although quite a few times, the answer to my brief question stretched out to almost a half hour. People who did answer my question offered answers from very specific drainage issues in their yards, to a need for better parks for their children, to cleaner alleys and better maintenance of rental houses nearby. Some said they'd like to see new faces on the council or in the Mayor's office. Some said the Mayor has been edged toward sainthood for the tribulations of dealing with the Council. Some said the Council is like the Jerry Springer Show. Almost every person exhibited something about their surroundings, whether their house, their family or their yard that gives them pride. This closer contact with people, closer than driving by a house on a street, is reassuring because it showed me an essential openess about people, an essential trust that makes this town a lot more hopeful than I had feared. I'm sure the result would be the same in most towns.

If I am successful now and in the fall, I am going to try my best to stay in contact with people outside the Council chamber. I feel that, although most people are not the proverbial squeaky wheels,that is, they might not take the time to attend a meeting, they might not feel comfortable making waves, but they do stay informed about local issues and, generally, they do believe this city can improve itself and realize more of its potential. The power to guide this city is here in its people. It is the task and it is the privilege of the city's leaders to show people that their concerns are valid and that together we can run this place like a city. Too often, politicians pledge to run the city, the state or the nation like a business. No thanks.

I wish I had taken better notes in school. One of my teachers in an introductory class in Classical Studies offered a quote from, for me now, some nameless Greek. I won't even call it a quote, a paraphrase : The greatest thing man can do is live together in a city.
It isn't likely we'll match the ancients as we lay out our civilization here on the banks of the Ohio but let's aim higher.

Fun in the Sun

This photo was featured on Truthout. Credits and caption appear there.

I'm thinking an SPF 32.

Bill Moyers

Yesterday I posted comments here reflecting my view of the dismal state of journalism and our role as citizens in demanding more of both ourselves and the purveyors of fluff who pander to our inner-lowest-common-denominators.

Redemption is at hand. Tomorrow night, Bill Moyers will offer an examination of the herd mentality at work in the leadup to the war against Iraq. The special program is "Buying the War" and it airs on PBS Wednesday April 25, at 9:00 PM. ( I think that's opposite "Dancing With the Stars" but the quest for knowledge involves sacrifice. ) Mr. Moyers then returns to weekly television with "Bill Moyers Journal" Friday nights on PBS.

Yesterday also claimed the life of one of the best and the brightest of our journalists--David Halberstam. This quote was lifted from an Associated Press obituary:

"The crueler the war gets, the crueler the attacks get on anybody who doesn't salute or play the game" he said. "And then one day, the people who are doing the attacking look around and they've used up their credibility."

Bubble Gum or Broccoli

A few items in the news recently would appear to be outside the orbit of concern for local residents: Britney Spears' hair, the guy on American Idol, Tom Cruise and whomever, and Brad Pitt and whomever. Packed in among the dross are stories of real concern to all citizens regardless of their hometowns: the Virginia shootings and the on-going toll exacted by the occupation of Iraq are two of the most significant examples. I wonder how many people can recount all the details about the items in the first list and yet not get within a couple hundred on a guess of how many deaths the U.S. has paid in the war in Iraq and now during the occupation*.

Perhaps cynically,I think the cable news media's take on the shootings is a vestige of the electronic media's roots in print journalism. In pre-electronic media days, the sensationality of a story could be measured in ounces of ink required to get the story out. Today, because of the 24-hour nature of cable news, is it possible that the people in that field think it is necessary to validate the lives of the victims by devoting more attention, measured in broadcasting minutes, to telling their story or, is it simply an updated version of the maxim, "If it bleeds, it leads."?
The cynicism I mentioned is the nagging thought that any story regardless of its impact on peoples' lives is simply grist for the 24-hour news mill. On the one hand, news people are filled with the same emotions as all the rest of us and they can empathize with the students and relatives of students involved in the shootings, but can't they do that in a more restrained manner that is more respectful of the feelings of the victims?

I remember remarking to my wife as the "Runaway Bride" story was in its infancy, that "I'm glad she came forward so the story will die". If you recall, the story did not die. I believe it was powered into a second, third or fourth life by the menacing gaze of the Bride herself.

The detrimental effect these stories have on local issues and important national issues is the diversion of attention away from the important issues. In the heyday of newspapers, headline size and story placement signaled the importance of a story. When hour upon hour of broadcast time is devoted to the trivial or to an over the top treatment of a real tragedy such as the Virginia shootings, the media have abdicated one of their legitimate functions: editing, and also prioritizing. While it may be good to note that the media has been democratized--we're all editors now--it is, sadly, not a task all of us are equipped to handle. How can the mundane workings of the City Council or the Mayor's programs compete with the sensationalism of television? That may sound like a softball lobbed right over the plate to regular attendees of Council meetings, but I mean it as a legitimate question. Delve into how New Albany can be made to work for everyone, or figure out why Britney's acting so weird. Think about reversing a long-standing trend of dwindling home ownerhip and increasing poorly maintained rental properties, or figure out why that guy keeps getting voted back on American Idol ( I hate to admit it but I know, through cultural osmosis I suppose, that he's gone now ). Figure out how we can bring responsible stewardship of the planet to our hometown decision making or figure out a good combination name for Brad and Angelina. Bubble gum or broccoli?

*The current number of U.S. dead in Iraq is 3,325

Chamber of Commerce Questionnaire

The Southern Indiana Chanmber of Commerce, One Southern Indiana, sent out a questionnaire to candidates. It consisted of two questions and asked that answers be kept to 300 words or less.

I am showing here my answers to the questions.

Question 1.
One Southern Indiana believes that regional partnerships and cooperation are key elements for a business-friendly environment and economic progress. How do you plan to work with county leadership, surrounding Indiana counties and cities, and with Louisville in achieving economic prosperity and strategic planning for your city?

Answer 1.
We need to have in place, at all levels of government, people who have the attitude that any good growth opportunities benefiting the entire region benefit all of the people of the region. Obviously, if we had our choice, economic progress would be tilted in favor of the nearby Indiana communities, but it is more likely that major economic events will occur in Louisville. We must keep open communication between all levels of government; one way to do this would be to have periodic gatherings or conferences for local governmental representatives to hear speakers address various topics on the theme of regional cooperation. It goes without saying that these meetings would include representatives of the local Indiana cities and counties and the Louisville Metro government. While these gatherings may not produce instant results they can only have positive results over time.

The City Council does not have much latitude in setting policies of regional scope, that power resides more with the Mayor, and I would work with any Mayor who pursues good cooperative relationships. I would do my best to stay abreast of the issues affecting regionalism and offer advice, and votes from that informed perspective.

Question 2.
One Southern Indiana focuses on economic development--either through attraction of new businesses or by helping our existing companies to expand. If elected, what would you do to increase economic development opportunities and improve the attractiveness of your city for investment and growth?

Answer 2.
As a Councilman, my ability to initiate such policies would be limited; the main force in economic development is the Mayor, and I would work to be an ally in pursuit of his efforts. I would not, however, be hesitant to present to the Mayor my ideas that promote that objective.

My view is that New Albany, and the other communities of southern Indiana, must acknowledge that the dominant economic force in our region is Louisville, and our interests are best served when we exploit our proximity to Louisville. This, by no means suggests that we should forego any opportunity we may have to compete for locating potential employers or investors on the Indiana side of the river but that, especially in the case of New Albany, our primary regional role is as a bedroom community for Louisville. Once people return from their jobs in Louisville, New Albany's best bet is to keep them here until they go back to work. Therefore, New Albany's vendors have a relatively well-paid pool of customers upon which to build business. In order to compete against Louisville's stores and restaurants, New Albany's retailers need to offer variety that compares favorably to Louisville's even though it can not match the number of choices available there. We could stress quality over quantity.

We should make sure that municipal purchasing decisions favor local, independent providers before we purchase from a non-local vendor. The order of priority should be: New Albany, Floyd County, Metro Louisville, Indiana, Kentucky, the U.S., and then anywhere else.

We should capitalize on our stock of decent affordable housing by taking every step possible to increase home ownership. We should also follow a course of rental inspections to insure that rental housing is above all safe, then we should insure that it is not detrimental to the efforts of conscientious home owners nearby. As a bedroom community of the Metro area we need to make sure that New Albany is seen as an attractive, safe place to live, and that it is a vibrant part of the larger regional scene.

Love It or Leave It

Use It or Lose It

Bob Herbert's column in today's Courier-Journal discusses the sorry state of our nation's infrastructure . Herbert cites a finding of the American Society of Civil Engineers that the infrastructure is in such " sad shape, and it would take more than a TRILLION and a HALF DOLLARS over a five year period to bring it back to a reasonably adequate condition." (emphasis added)

This national abdication of responsibility has had local consequences. If the federal government can simply walk away from a crumbling infrastructure, why should we be expected to do more in our own city? The bar has been lowered to such a depth that we simply write off as unnecessary such extravagances as Main Street Hill and now Spring Street Hill. Herbert points out that the Current Occupant (as Garrison Keillor so eloquently refers to The Decider) has decided to forego, for the time being, New Orleans. These solutions to difficult problems are the result of a mindset discussed in a "greatest hits" version of New Albany Confidential posted yesterday on that site. The New Albanian pointed out that, like excercise-averse chubsters, we have chosen as a nation to throw our lot in with tax-averse hucksters. We'd like a city that can keep its streets open, or fix its sewers, or clean up its alleys, or rejuvenate its neighborhoods, or fix up its downtown, or enforce its ordinances, or fill in the blank. Yes, we'd like those things, but not at the expense of higher taxes. When reading NAC, I was reminded of an episode of Seinfeld in which George is trying to combine the satisfaction of two appetites, one of which is for food. As George tells Jerry of his plan, Jerry utters a candidate for best line ever as he says, "George we're trying to have a civilization here."

That is precisely the trouble with a short-sighted view of infrastructural inattention. We can avoid the pain of taxes. We can avoid the pain of decisions. But we are trying to have a civilization here. Regardless of the success of our efforts, we need to at least try. It is the evidence of effort that can convince people to take a look at New Albany. If we will try to increase home ownership while also improving the necessary rental housing stock, we might succeed in attracting businesses and people; and this then becomes the source of new revenue for the city. Why do we need to fix housing to get businesses to locate here? Because businesses look at the environment where potential workers will live. They also guage the seriousness of the community by how it handles such a basic need. It's like the decision-making process we all go through when evaluating an unfamiliar restaurant in a strange town: do we opt for the well-lighted place with plenty of cars out front or do we choose the seedy establishment advertising sandwiches and bait?

It so happens that we have available to us a pool of accessible fiscal steroids provided through the work of John Miller and New Albany Community Housing. Every time his organization closes a sale on a house it generates a large amount of federal match, which can allow the housing stock of this city to be increased, and can also work toward strengtening existing neighborhoods by fixing up existing housing stock.

As we have ignored the built-infrastructure, we are also seeing irrefutable signs that we are, through inattention, causing harm to the natural infrastructure we call planet Earth. Everything we do here and now to make ours a more livable city can place us on the side of those who are working to have a civilization here.

Earth Day will be celebrated at the Falls of the Ohio park this Saturday from 10:00 AM to 4:00PM. Admission is free.

Worth a Look

Anyone who has attended City Council meetings can attest to the fact that the council chamber is an inadequate venue for those meetings. The City-County Building itself is overcrowded. In order to insure the satisfactory delivery of services the public expects, it is time to look for additional space for both a meeting room, and as a means of relieving the general space constraints at the City-County Building. Some have even suggested that an entirely new government center be built.

While the construction of a new government center would be a costly project, there is a more modest step which could go a long way toward solving the space problem at the City-County Building. This more modest step has the added virtues of preserving a historically significant building, while also consolidating government buildings into a campus.

The Baptist Tabernacle on Fourth Street between Spring and Market Streets is currently for sale by a motivated seller. I visited with him briefly today. He said he has heard various proposals for alternate uses of the old church constructed in 1879. Most of these have been for restaurants or other entertainment uses. A better use would be as the main meeting room for official gatherings.

The structure has a striking facade that would make an impressive governmental building. It has the added benefit of facing into the large parking lot of the new fire house (the fire house faces Spring Street) which would create a kind of a governmental complex. The interior of the church has been drastically altered; the old floor was removed and a new floor installed, cutting roughly in half, the air space of the church's congregational room. The installation of the new floor caused three-quarters of the window area to be bricked in. Reclaiming this building for governent use would be a strong statement in favor of historic preservation. It could also help lend support to revitalization efforts along Market and Spring streets.

The most daring reclamation effort would remove the existing floor, and replace it with a floor at the original elevation. This would provide truly impressive space with a ceiling height of about 32 feet. Less daring, but perhaps more practical, would be reclamation within the current layout of the building. That scheme would provide twice the floor space with a still impressive upper floor and a ceiling height of about 16-18 feet.

In either case the public would be able to attend meetings in a commodious setting. They would be able to use existing city-owned parking spaces in the lot behind the fire house. And some of the overcrowding of the City-County Building could be alleviated as the current City Council room could be converted to office space.

Bits and Pieces

Friday's Tribune carries the story about the imminent razing of houses deemed "unsafe". One of the five houses discussed in the article is 1746 Ekin Avenue. This house was re-roofed a year ago at city expense.

The specific house on Ekin Avenue was cited by Greg Sekula as "definitely salvageable".
Building Commission president Steve LaDuke pointed out that this house and the four other houses have existing demolition orders. Sekula would like the demolition order rescinded, and speculative rehabilitation by city-hired contractors undertaken to bring the structure to a level of "safety". Then a buyer would be sought. The city would recover its investment through enforcement of a lien against the property, or at the close of a sale.

This situation has the fortunate markings of a success in the making, with one caveat. The "opposing" parties are represented by reasonable people on both sides of the issue. In fact, Steve LaDuke proposed a sensible solution to the problem when he said, as the article states, "the city could take possession of a house, receive an estimate for repairs, market the house for a certain period at that price and perform the repairs only if someone bites." Absent any interest, the demolition order would be carried out.

The caveat: where is evidence that the city has reached the catalytic moment where a buyer can have confidence in the surrounding neighborhood's ability to justify his/her faith in the rescued house? Is it more likely that, lacking a concerted effort toward revitalization, the buyer of a rescued house would be a speculator, who would take a flyer because he's going to rent the house rather than live in it?

This points up rather clearly the need for a rental inspection program undertaken with a consistent application of building standards throughout the city. Simply make sure that landlords act responsibly by offering two minimal amenities: safe housing, and units that meet accepted standards of good exterior housekeeping. If those restrictions were placed equitably and forcefully on all landlords, I believe owner-occupiers would feel confident that they are investing in what is termed in accounting, a "going concern".

Paving is on the agenda for the City Council Monday night. Apparently we don't have enough money to do all that is needed.

In the March 28, 2007 Courier-Journal, Metro Councilman Tom Owen wrote a glowing remembrance of Charles Farnsley, the progressive mayor of Louisville in the late Forties to early Fifties. What does that have to do with the price of asphalt in New Albany?
Mayor Farnsley implemented a systen of "half-soleing" some of Louisville's streets. The new pavement was applied only to the driving lanes; the parking lanes were not paved. The asphalt budget was stretched and Farnsley was called a great, progressive, leader. Perhaps New Albany could retrieve an idea from the middle of the last century and claim the mantle of "Progressive".

Briefly, another thought on paving. Recently the idea of making one-way streets two-way was offered as a method of traffic-calming. There are a number of streets in town that were brick not too long ago. In fact, the roughly one-inch of asphalt applied 20-30 years ago has predictably worn thin and has disappeared in places. Some of these blocks could be returned to brick, having the result of a quaint appearance, and necessary traffic-calming as people tend to drive slower on such streets. It would save asphalt, too.