As the campaign progresses, albeit slowly, I will be walking neighborhoods talking to prospective voters. I hope that exercise will yield feedback uncovering issues of importance to our citizens. As I walk and talk I will report here what is most mentioned and, I hope, I can offer a cogent, sensible take on those issues. But since that empirical springboard is several days off I wanted to use some of the recent discussion here and in other venues as a segue into exploring the germ of an idea.
The purpose of seeking this office is to provide a voice and a vote on the City Council that secures progress for our city. I have mentioned a few of the things that, for me, connote progress : rental housing improvement, increased homeownership, environmental concern, support of independent businesses and an infusing of the spirit of sustainability into the decision-making process. Without a doubt those who agree that these are elements of progress are matched with some who would see the very same elements as the bane of progress. People of both views want what is best for the city and for our future, yet there are differing views of what progress looks like.
It is my view that progress is like a seamless garment. Each thread within the fabric is critical to the garment. It is within that context that I lay out this germ of an idea that could become a stimulus for progress by tying together economic development, community design enhancement, sustainability, and neighborhood growth threads. I would like to see the next Council and the Mayor form "Challenge Zones". Or more likely, one zone as a pilot project.
These zones would be green-field, brown-field or existing neighborhood blocks identified by the City Administration in conjunction with the Plan Commission staff. Once identified, the area would be designed by the Plan Commission staff to incorporate innovative features making the project an ideal version of either a residential development or a commercial development. I have been a member of the Plan Commission ( not to be confused with Plan Commission staff )for five years. During that time I have seen few projects exhibiting imagination or creativity. Rather, time and again, we see the same tired approach. The "Challenge Zones" would allow the years of experience contained within the Plan Commission office to not only respond to a developer's plans but to direct those plans prior to the involvement of the developer.
Once a zone were designated by the Planning staff and laid out in the ideal manner, in cooperation with an architect and engineer, down to specifics of landscape and finishes, it would be fast-tracked for approval. Just as a Planned Unit Development District (P.U.D.D.) is a "contract for zoning" so would be the Challenge Zone. And upon approval, a developer would be sought to complete the project. And it would then become that developer's project to be completed as designed.
This is a way to take an experimental approach toward community design. It is a way to assure that development is given a good direction by people who are serving the interests of the community first and it sets out an ideal that developers, on their own, can follow in future projects.
6 comments:
How can one obtain yard signs to show support for your campaign?
csd619:
You can send an address here or call me at (502) 500-3333 and I will deliver a sign to you.
Thanks for asking.
John,
Good to see your running again for office in the city. I've been reading your blog as its a good way for me to learn more about the candidates. What are your thoughts about reviving the economy and subsequent job market in this area? It seems to me that many of our city's woes can be traced directly to a glaring lack of economic development in this region.
I went back home to Wisconsin six months ago and there is a significant differece in economic developement in cities in Wisconsin's Fox River Valley as opposed to cities here in Kentuckiana and they are quite similiar in size. In fact up there the closet large community is Green Bay population 100,000+. How do we encourage business development in New Albany so that we can get money into the city's fund to improve our community?
Jerry:
If I had the answer to that question I'd be seeking higher office than City Council, or I'd be making room on the mantel for my Nobel Prize medallion.
You mentioned two things in your question that might be, at least a partial answer to your question. These two things are features of your home area of the Fox River Valley that our local town/area don't have in common:
1)Green Bay is the closest large community at over 100,000 population. Here, we are caught in the gravitational pull of the Louisville economy with 850,000-1,000,000 people. A good example of a nearby community thriving in its own, rather self-contained, environment is Madison, Indiana.
2)The Fox River Valley rides upon the profitable and high-paying paper industry. I suspect the mills and converting plants there pay union wages considerably higher than either our (New Albany, not the Metro Area) local factory or service sector jobs pay.
Those two factors--high wage workers spending their earnings in a relatively self-contained commercial environment--make for a potent economic force that should provide impressive middle class prosperity. I would recommend a book which deals with the erosion of the middle class: Screwed-The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class, by Thom Hartmann. (Available at Destinations Booksellers your independent, local, bookstore)
Briefly, Hartmann makes the case that the prosperity you see in the Fox River Valley is the Post-war norm for our economy. The economic atmosphere you see here is the result of global forces and domestic policy choices.
That is just the backdrop of an answer to your question. The concrete things we need to do in New Albany include but are not limited to: a fiscal version of the doctor's rule "First. Do no harm."; ackowledge Louisville's superior economic position; exploit Louisville's superior economic position; enjoy the fact that we are not Louisville; recognize that we can have a better quality of life in a vibrant smaller city; support local businesses; recognize that economic growth in Louisville benefits the bedroom communities of New Albany and Jeff; since we are a bedroom community it is critical to have shops and restaurants in New Albany that keep people from going back to Louisville once they've come home from work; the neighborhoods of New Albany need to be as attractive as the nice neighborhoods of Louisville to keep people from moving away and to attract people who are looking for a better quality of life.
Is this guy good, or what?
He is.
Sort of the anti-Price.
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