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.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
17 comments:
Wish List for New Albany
John in today’s blog you asked for a wish list from New Albany voters of what they would like to see the new city council tackle when its starts its new term in 2008. Although not an exhaustive list I do have some ideas and concerns for your consideration in the new City Council.
My concerns can be summed up by two themes: jobs and better infrastructure. I believe the City Council should stress the following three areas when it takes up its work next year:
1. Clean up and repair of
existing city infrastructure,
2. Greater job opportunities for
New Albany and its residents
3. Proposal on how the City of
New Albany could/would react
if the 8664 freeway project
is adopted over the now
proposed Bridges project for
Greater Louisville.
Many of our city’s woes could be addresses if we had a greater tax base and more good paying jobs available for New Albany residents. That said nobody will seriously look at our community until we clean up our city; repair streets, sidewalks, improve roadways, pickup litter etc. This I believe must be done to make our community attractive to outsiders who might be interested in relocating to the Greater Louisville Area.
New Albany must grow in new business enterprises or it will die! That said the new City Council must work with the Mayor and the Southern Indiana Chamber of Commerce to encourage business growth in our community.
Finally although not officially on the agenda of area lawmakers the proposed 8664 freeway project should be evaluated in light of what New Albany could do if it were to be enacted. I would think that increasing the number of vehicles driving around New Albany could be an attractive selling point for the city to outside business interests.
Not having much time to think on the subject these are the most critical aspects that I believe face New Albany as it tries to get back on its feet. I’ll be watching the actions of the new Mayor and City Council closely to see if they will provide the vision and leadership to move this city forward or will it be just more of business as usual in the “good ole boy” network that seems to prevail in Southern Indiana.
As you know John I have been busy restoring my home on De Pauw Avenue these past six years but I’m increasing nervous that I may have invested a huge sum of money in a town with no vision, leadership or future. I hope that is not the case but unlike many who call New Albany home I have no problem in packing my bags and leaving. Hopefully our new City government will act in such a way as to convince me and people like me who chose to move to New Albany that we made the right decision after all. Good Luck John!
Jerry R. Steuerwald
Jerry:
Thanks for your thoughtful response. I agree with you that we need to fix those obvious things we can fix because that encourages people,such as yourself, who have fixed up their house that the effort was worthwhile. Equally important is the impression such efforts,on a collective basis,make to prospective citizens or prospective employers.
I'm not truly aware of the Chamber of Commerce's position on 8664, but if I had to guess, my guess would be that the proposal doesn't jibe with the Chamber's perspective. I've seen written comments from the Chamber espousing "smart growth" but that growth too often seems to be linked to an autocentric model. Such a model is incompatible with sustainable growth. I'm open to changing my assumption, of the Chamber's imputed position, if shown evidence to the contrary.
FYI, from the Tribune:
1SI's Michael Dalby on 8664
My response at the time
To that same end, here's a passage from an article written about the Louisville region by Bruce Katz, Vice President and Director, Metropolitan Policy Program and
Mark Muro, Senior Policy Analyst, both of the Brookings Institution.
Shape and balance growth
A second challenge is physical: Louisville needs to grow in more compact, focused and even creative ways.
Once again, the challenge is large. More and more evidence suggests that compact, convenient regions with flourishing vibrant downtowns and a high quality of life prevail in the competition for educated workers and quality job-creation. However, troubling signs warn that a relatively cohesive region is beginning to decentralize. To the east, especially, cookie-cutter sprawl is gobbling up land, fueling the demand for services, and further undercutting the centrality of downtown and the West End.
So what should the region do? To forestall the "hollowing out" that has unraveled so many peer regions, the new city should lock in once and for all the idea that great regions revolve around great downtowns—dense centers where large numbers of residents gather to walk, work, live, shop and amuse themselves.
In that vein, Louisville should pour on its efforts to attract to downtown 5,000 new residents in 10 years, and to create more livable, alluring and pedestrian-friendly core neighborhoods, especially in the West End.
The men also researched and authored Beyond Merger: A Competitive Vision for the Regional City of Louisville at the behest of Louisville metro government. It's well worth a read and is introduced thusly:
This report examines the key trends facing the new Regional City of Louisville and finds that the city faces two major challenges that are eroding its strengths. First, it has a workforce that is limited in size and skills that will hamper the city's ability to mature its low-wage, service economy to a higher-wage one.
Second, the region is growing in a decentralized and divided way that will ultimately harm the area's quality of life and hinder low-income households' access to opportunities. The report mounts a call to action to Louisville's strong civic, community, and political community to use the moment of merger to think boldly and pursue a competitive agenda that will help the city emerge as a truly top-tier American city.
In other words, the region, and New Albany as part of the region, should do the exact opposite of what 1SI advocates. Thus far their major efforts have spent towards promoting sprawl-inducing interstate expansion and using tax dollars to attract low-wage service jobs.
I expect New Albany city government to stand up against this type of development, to support 8664 as part of an effort to encourage Louisville, state, and federal governments to do the same, to seek increased public transportation, and to focus on education and quality of life issues such as code enforcement and rental inspections, pedestrian and bike friendly neighborhoods, quality housing attractive and affordable for people at all income levels, and historic preservation.
bluegill:
While it would be easy to dismiss your agenda as pie in the sky dreaming, the failure to develop in that manner evokes another shopworn cliche-whistling past the graveyard.
New Albany is a city tailor made for the adoption of true smart growth policies. Someone had a line in a song, "I was country before country was cool." New Albany was New Urbanist before New Urbanism was new. Our city is contained within clearly defined geographical and political boundaries which should be sufficient to suggest denser development and infill development.
Density, vitality and vision are the ingredients to allow the city to expand inward. These are the same basics needed as a foundation for effective public transit. As the petroleum age wanes, cities with inward expansion are the ones that will be better able to cope with the new script. Inhabitants of Sprawltown may not fare as well.
John,
I certainly agree with Mr. Steuerwald and Bluegill on their wish lists. What large business would consider moving to NA with our streets looking as they do and the RR crossings falling through the blacktop on the streets?
It is just so hard to get people to listen to new ideas. I tried to organize a general cleanup day for New Albany and no one responded.
I hate to be negative, that is not the way I normally think but I am a little frustrated. We just have to keep "plugging along" and hope for the best.
Best of luck on your new job, John.
John,
You and I have discussed many issues over these past months and I think you probably have a good idea of what I hope to see in our future.
I agree that new Albany needs more good jobs to create and support a larger tax base. However, I would hope that those who are working to attract new business to or city realize what types of jobs we really need.
We have neither the infrasturcture, the land mass nor the support systems to accomodate large manufacturing/industrial entities per sey.
What we do have are signifigant numbers of people who could staff companies that provide support systems for such entities. I'm talking about I.T. systems, phone & internet sales groups, and service industry jobs.
We also have renovateable historic commercial property and housing to accomodate the needs of such enterprises.
Here is where I see our future salvation coming from as opposed to urban sprawl, mega malls, and huge industrial facilities.
Many cities of our relative size around the country have succeeded in attracting heavy industry by indepting themselves with the cost of updating infrastructure and providing tax releif & cheap labor sources.
One only has to pickup a newspaper or watch a newscast to see the result has, as often as not, been those plants closing and leaving the community high and dry when their economic tables turn.
Let us learn from the misguided actions of others around us and not follow them down that road of pipe dreams.
Two Words:
CITY COURT
I started to compile my thoughts and then read the above responses. I really don't have much to add.
Lloyd is correct. New Albany's geography is not going to land us a major manufacturing plant, paying high dollar wages. We need to clean up and quit pandering to the lowest common denominator among us. We need to face the very real possibility that New Albany's best future may be that of a bedroom community. What kind of bedrooms do we want?
I am interested in being part of a local group which builds support for H.R.676. I work in case management for individuals that are living with HIV and there is nothing more frustrating than seeing them go without health care due to a lack of insurance. Please let me know how I can be of assistance by emailing me through my blogger profile.
my wish John is that you will not be a rubberstamp for Doug England just because you are both Democrats, always vote your conscious and forget party loyalties, now is the time for leadership not politics.
Also keep a close watch on the sewer board if The Mayor elect gets to make all the appointments as Dan Coffey wishes and lastly, make developers accountable for their actions and do not hand out tax abatements like its christmas candy.
Shirley:
The model I've referred to several times on this blog is Bloomington. The city council has chartered numerous boards and commissions to deal with a wide range of problems. I don't see any reason why New Albany couldn't charter groups to tackle problems. The general cleanup you proposed would seem to be of the scale that could be tackled by a city-chartered group. If citizens care enough about their city to become involved, shame on us if we don't accept their help.
Highwayman:
You're right on the land mass lack which plagues us here. That points us toward smaller scale industry, or high tech industry as you said.
One hopeful sign for highly a skilled workforce is the Purdue center now being built on Charlestown Road, but the harvest is a long time from the sowing.
I continue to believe a large part of our economic salvation lies in a revitalized inner city. The small geographic footprint of New Albany and renewed urban living suggest a service economy, or a bedroom community for Louisville. As Iamhoosier asked "what kind of bedroom do we want?"
A call center in Jeff was announced recently. It looks to offer 750 jobs. Nothing wrong with 750 jobs, however, that approach is a big-fish model dependent on landing large, mostly non-local companies. I believe it might be better to have half as many jobs but entrepreneurial jobs. Those jobs are local, will stay local and will boost the local economy in more ways than simply low-moderate wage jobs offered by large, distant firms.
Tim:
I plan and hope to work with Doug England because he offers constructive solutions to our problems, not because he and I are both Democrats.
I hope my work as a councilman will allow me to contribute a perspective of environmental stewardship and sustainability to the deliberations of the council. This is what I said throughout the primary and the general election. If Doug offers sound environmental policies,revitalization efforts for downtown, a wise approach to development, good policies on increasing home ownership, and greater involvement of citizens in governmental affairs, I'll rubberstamp them if he doesn't I won't.
wish list for new albany
thanks for asking John. Thanks for sitting on the council. I could write a tome of wishes but here are some to start:
*improve quality of life issues. The drunken noise from drag racing motorcycles leaving Bir's late at night has caused one fine family in our neighborhood to decide to move, for instance. A quiet zone from CSX at night and a modern safe rail corridor up 13th st. Sometimes it feels like CSX owns the town, not us.
*Build green spaces...start by decommissioning the New Albany Country Club and turning it into a park-arborteum. One of our great unexploited assets are the variety and beauty of trees in this region.
*Save every old hardwood tree in town if possible and have a program for planting so we can regain the benefits of an urban forest.
End all tax abatements...we'll see who leaves town when they don't get special treatment. My guess will be no one.
*Support programs to undercut a thriving white trash culture which has been entrenched here for way too long. (code enforcement and drug enforcement for starters)
*Promote inward expansion, not suburban sprawl.
*Become a part of Louisville metro by promoting a direct rail link between downtown new albany and downtown Louisville.
**Build off the growth of IUS and Purdue's new investment which is our toe-hold in a high-tech future. Like blanket downtown with WIFI service. It might pull in just the sort of small technology based businesses that love setting up shop in old renovated buildings in vibrant urban centers.
*Developers have had a free ride for years here, make them pay what it really costs all of us for their greedy sprawl.
*Support the arts and artists who more often than not lead the way in urban renewal.
*Connect downtown to the greenway decisively and with imagination and beauty.
*Do something, anything to create entrances to New Albany that we can all be proud of. Right now it looks like the third world when you enter town.
Gina:
Gee,your list descibes an awfully nice place to live.
I'd love to see a light rail system built, which ties all of the metro area together. But with Jerry Abramson saying it's basically off the table in Louisville, unilaterally, we don't have much (make that any) chance of that here. If gas goes to five or six dollars a gallon, who knows what once-scorned ideas will be open for consideration.
It's interesting that you refer to an arboretum and protection of hardwood trees. That caused me to wonder what we might accomplish if an appropriate space were selected as a place to grow a good stand of American Chestnut trees. As you probably know, they were nearly erradicated by a blight years ago. Efforts are underway now to introduce blight resistant chestnut trees. Groups such as the American Chestnut Foundation will sell seeds and seedlings on a limited basis. Only about ten percent have acquired the necessary genetic code to, in fact, be disease resistant. So, if a good spot were available, I think it would be neat if a number of citizens came together and planted the trees. By having large numbers planted, the inevitable failure of some trees would not be so discouraging. I've mentioned many times how impressed I was by the boards and commissions chartered by the City Council in Bloomington. This would be a project of perfect scope and great psychic reward and I would be pleased to go forward with it if others would like to join in. I've heard it said, "there are few greater expressions of hope than planting a tree, the shade of which you won't enjoy."
You mention also, developers enjoying a free ride. One answer to that is impact fees. This is anathema to many developers. Such fees would not be applied to re-developers. So, the choice would really be up to the developer: greenfield development at a higher cost or inward expansion at less cost. Perhaps that could even the playing field and give needed impetus to revitalization efforts.
John, you 'ole tree hugger! Love the Chestmut replant idea, yes, I've monitored the chestnut tree situation for years. I've even seen an old one up in New England - an amazing tree indeed.
I recently read about a community development project in Philly called Urban Orchard where vacant lots around the urban area were planted as tiny orchards. The idea was to teach people that food can be produced downtown while providing park space and all the other benefits of urban canopy. How cool is that - I can think of a few lots right by me that might some day produce apples or pears or cherries.
As I'm sure you know, the hardwood biz is big in Indiana. What would New Albany be without it's original hardwood forests? Not half the city it once was. Does anyone celebrate or capitalize on that fact? NO. Yes, I'm aware there is a forest discovery center somewhere in the well-cultivated Knobs, but how about an actual hardwood forest throughout town? Forget all the storm water benefits, the energy savings, the reduced crime, think how perfectly complimentary such a wonder of nature would be amongst our nationally recognized historic buildings!
Please count me in to any scheme we as a community can undertake if it involves planting trees.
Lastly, didn't know Jerry A. was against light rail passenger service. Clean public transit would seem to be right up his alley.
Post a Comment