In part 1, I had the image upside down. For those with sharp eyes it may be possible to read some of the names entered in the Registration Book.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Photo Essay correction
In part 1, I had the image upside down. For those with sharp eyes it may be possible to read some of the names entered in the Registration Book.
Hotel Royal Photo Essay pt. 1
These pictures were taken as an assignment in a photo-journalism class in 1975. They were probably taken over the Thanksgiving break. The subject is New Albany's Hotel Royal, which was on W. First Street, behind Aunt Artie's Antique Mall. The hotel faced east. In the unlikely event that anyone who sees this recognizes people in the photographs, I apologize for not giving their names. I probably had the names at the time the photos were taken but, no longer.
I had the privilege of learning photography under two highly gifted photographers, Wil Counts and John Ahlhauser. What appears here may not do these two gentlemen's reputations justice, but these are digital representations of unworked negatives. Burning and dodging and cropping of various aspects of the negatives would probably produce better images.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
R.I.P. Hope, Change
This linked piece is written not by me, but by a favorite of mine, William Rivers Pitt at Truthout.
Who's at fault? Obama? Reid? Lieberman? The political system? Corporate double dealers? Us?
Who's at fault? Obama? Reid? Lieberman? The political system? Corporate double dealers? Us?
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Clouds' Silver Linings
Against the backdrop of the U.N. Climate Conference in Copenhagen local communities from New Albany to Bangor, Maine are dealing with the effects of the on-going recession. The pending difficulties we will face as global warming accelerates may be tempered to some degree if we will begin to address them now. To a certain extent, the coming problems may offer the proverbial silver lining.
Christopher Steiner, a staff writer for Forbes Magazine (a renowned peddler of left wing thought), has written a book which suggests a silver lining which might be waiting for New Albany. In his book, "$20 Per Gallon", Steiner says, "Small towns likely to thrive in a future of high gasoline prices are ones that have venerable downtown infrastructures sitting in place, with existing railroad connections and river frontage." Can anyone think of such a place?
Steiner does not necessarily write from the standard vantage point of a card carrying tree-hugger. At least his credentials as a tree-hugger are questionable in my eyes owing to his overly enthusiastic support of nuclear power. And his basic premise of gasoline reaching the unthinkable heights of $20 per gallon is more a reflection of the tussle between supply and demand than it is a response to enlightened temperance in matters of petroleum consumption.
Petroleum temperance may not be a choice for long, based on the consensus behind the Copenhagen conference. New Albany has seen more than its rightful share of Hundred Year rain events. By my calculation we're paid up until about the year 2525. Just last night the City Council was given a preview of major outlays ahead in our obligation to keep the citizens dry during the frequent hundred year events. Bangladesh, and Florida for that matter, sit barely above sea level and face the threat of large scale inundation caused by rising seas expanding due to artic melt.
The Copenhagen conference offers hope of greater recognition of the problems we face, but every inch of recognition will be fought by some corporate interests that would rather see glaciers recede than to see their profits recede. And yet we are the ones who can individually and collectively stand against degradation of the environment. Some of the ill-effects of global warming will require concerted effort among nations to be sure, however, a host of individual choices we make on a daily basis can add up to significant change.
Steiner's positive outlook for the future of small towns mentioned above will be on display tonight as the second meeting on founding a food co-op in New Albany is held in the Carnegie Center for Art and History. Those working toward this goal are on a path that will allow this small town to adapt to a high-cost energy future which seems unimaginable today. If we can respond now to the coming high economic costs of energy, perhaps that will help us avoid some of the even higher human costs of failing to adapt.
The food co-op can be a positive feature for a reviving city as well as evidence of a community acting today in a way that will not only be appreciated by those who use it, but will look positively forward-thinking to people some years down the road.
Christopher Steiner, a staff writer for Forbes Magazine (a renowned peddler of left wing thought), has written a book which suggests a silver lining which might be waiting for New Albany. In his book, "$20 Per Gallon", Steiner says, "Small towns likely to thrive in a future of high gasoline prices are ones that have venerable downtown infrastructures sitting in place, with existing railroad connections and river frontage." Can anyone think of such a place?
Steiner does not necessarily write from the standard vantage point of a card carrying tree-hugger. At least his credentials as a tree-hugger are questionable in my eyes owing to his overly enthusiastic support of nuclear power. And his basic premise of gasoline reaching the unthinkable heights of $20 per gallon is more a reflection of the tussle between supply and demand than it is a response to enlightened temperance in matters of petroleum consumption.
Petroleum temperance may not be a choice for long, based on the consensus behind the Copenhagen conference. New Albany has seen more than its rightful share of Hundred Year rain events. By my calculation we're paid up until about the year 2525. Just last night the City Council was given a preview of major outlays ahead in our obligation to keep the citizens dry during the frequent hundred year events. Bangladesh, and Florida for that matter, sit barely above sea level and face the threat of large scale inundation caused by rising seas expanding due to artic melt.
The Copenhagen conference offers hope of greater recognition of the problems we face, but every inch of recognition will be fought by some corporate interests that would rather see glaciers recede than to see their profits recede. And yet we are the ones who can individually and collectively stand against degradation of the environment. Some of the ill-effects of global warming will require concerted effort among nations to be sure, however, a host of individual choices we make on a daily basis can add up to significant change.
Steiner's positive outlook for the future of small towns mentioned above will be on display tonight as the second meeting on founding a food co-op in New Albany is held in the Carnegie Center for Art and History. Those working toward this goal are on a path that will allow this small town to adapt to a high-cost energy future which seems unimaginable today. If we can respond now to the coming high economic costs of energy, perhaps that will help us avoid some of the even higher human costs of failing to adapt.
The food co-op can be a positive feature for a reviving city as well as evidence of a community acting today in a way that will not only be appreciated by those who use it, but will look positively forward-thinking to people some years down the road.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Just Wondering
Among the many differences between a citizen and a city is the fact that the citizen will someday die. I have not truly come to grips with this verity in my own case but, alas I know it to be true. New Albany will exist when each and every one of us is literally, or figuratively for those choosing cremation, six feet under.
All of us profess hope that the future will be better, brighter, more prosperous for our children. What about our progeny ten or 15 generations hence? There our concern gets a little fuzzy. Who will those people be? Go back ten or 15 generations, and those people, though indispensable to our present adventure, are a little fuzzy also. Without them, we aren't here, and yet they don't really mean too much to us, do they?
Except, if they had been so consumed with living in the now, which was then, they wouldn't have provided us with a good then, which is now.
Which leads me to wonder, what would be the future value of money, which we extract from the commons today, to those who follow us many generations down the road? Specifically, if the current Youth Shelter is sold for the siting of a big box retailer, and the money is funneled into salaries, gas for municipal vehicles, or, perhaps cell phone minutes, is that a timed-release plunder of our descendants' rightful inheritance?
New Albany is a small city hemmed in by state boundaries, political boundaries, hills, and economic necessities and uncertainties. Unlike sprawl giants like Dallas, Texas or Phoenix, Arizona where the physical horizon is pretty much unlimited, we have cards from another deck. To be sure, we can grow to the horizon, but the horizon here is within easy walking distance.
Since we must be careful with our land resources because of land's relative scarcity, and because our limited horizon is not going to produce a bonanza of newly incorporated land to fuel future growth, I believe we need to explore a different model.
If New Albany owns land which is suitable for industrial or commercial development, we should lease that land to industrial or commercial users rather than sell it. The leases would be of an extremely long term nature, perhaps 99 years. That term is daunting for mortals, but the City is, for all practical purposes, immortal. It can look at arrangements on a scale beyond our normal grasp. It must do so, because it is not handling only the day-to-day business of its citizens, but the generation-to-generation business of its citizens and its citizens-to-be.
Land leased to industrial or commercial users would still generate funds into the current account of the City or County, but the underlying asset would be preserved for future generations. The future generations of political leaders could continue the arrangement as it meets their needs, at that time, or they could alter it because conditions have changed. Leased land users would make payments in lieu of taxes, and they would make lease payments.
Modern building construction is not undertaken with the idea that a Butler Building will one day become a piece of architectural heritage. On the contrary, such buildings are given a death sentence upon construction, when the structure's pre-ordained date of obsolesence is written on the project's cost estimates. Therefore, it does not serve the timeless needs of the City to pull a scarce commodity from its larder, and turn it over to a commercial enterprise in the hopes of simply collecting taxes for a relatively short while.
The long view need not cause a burden for us in the here and now. A short term gain from a sale of property will not have a sizable impact on the City's finances for more than a couple quarters, while ongoing ownership will produce continual, though lower in the short run, dependable funds which will support City services year in and year out. More importantly, we can make decisions today which will benefit not just ourselves but those who follow us, so those who attend the Quadra (?) centennial celebration will have something valuable to pass on to their heirs.
Some say it's always about the money, but I believe, and I hope, it's really always about the future.
All of us profess hope that the future will be better, brighter, more prosperous for our children. What about our progeny ten or 15 generations hence? There our concern gets a little fuzzy. Who will those people be? Go back ten or 15 generations, and those people, though indispensable to our present adventure, are a little fuzzy also. Without them, we aren't here, and yet they don't really mean too much to us, do they?
Except, if they had been so consumed with living in the now, which was then, they wouldn't have provided us with a good then, which is now.
Which leads me to wonder, what would be the future value of money, which we extract from the commons today, to those who follow us many generations down the road? Specifically, if the current Youth Shelter is sold for the siting of a big box retailer, and the money is funneled into salaries, gas for municipal vehicles, or, perhaps cell phone minutes, is that a timed-release plunder of our descendants' rightful inheritance?
New Albany is a small city hemmed in by state boundaries, political boundaries, hills, and economic necessities and uncertainties. Unlike sprawl giants like Dallas, Texas or Phoenix, Arizona where the physical horizon is pretty much unlimited, we have cards from another deck. To be sure, we can grow to the horizon, but the horizon here is within easy walking distance.
Since we must be careful with our land resources because of land's relative scarcity, and because our limited horizon is not going to produce a bonanza of newly incorporated land to fuel future growth, I believe we need to explore a different model.
If New Albany owns land which is suitable for industrial or commercial development, we should lease that land to industrial or commercial users rather than sell it. The leases would be of an extremely long term nature, perhaps 99 years. That term is daunting for mortals, but the City is, for all practical purposes, immortal. It can look at arrangements on a scale beyond our normal grasp. It must do so, because it is not handling only the day-to-day business of its citizens, but the generation-to-generation business of its citizens and its citizens-to-be.
Land leased to industrial or commercial users would still generate funds into the current account of the City or County, but the underlying asset would be preserved for future generations. The future generations of political leaders could continue the arrangement as it meets their needs, at that time, or they could alter it because conditions have changed. Leased land users would make payments in lieu of taxes, and they would make lease payments.
Modern building construction is not undertaken with the idea that a Butler Building will one day become a piece of architectural heritage. On the contrary, such buildings are given a death sentence upon construction, when the structure's pre-ordained date of obsolesence is written on the project's cost estimates. Therefore, it does not serve the timeless needs of the City to pull a scarce commodity from its larder, and turn it over to a commercial enterprise in the hopes of simply collecting taxes for a relatively short while.
The long view need not cause a burden for us in the here and now. A short term gain from a sale of property will not have a sizable impact on the City's finances for more than a couple quarters, while ongoing ownership will produce continual, though lower in the short run, dependable funds which will support City services year in and year out. More importantly, we can make decisions today which will benefit not just ourselves but those who follow us, so those who attend the Quadra (?) centennial celebration will have something valuable to pass on to their heirs.
Some say it's always about the money, but I believe, and I hope, it's really always about the future.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
I'll See You and Raise
Looking through a couple internet news items today I ran across this story. It is a brief article and it has definite applicability to our situation in New Albany, and obviously the nation.
"Debate" on local issues sometimes escalates into irrational hateful name calling.
Attacks such as those mentioned in the Talking Points article poison the well. And, it makes one wonder, what can be the logical outcome of such bilious, hateful speech? Where or when does it end?
"Debate" on local issues sometimes escalates into irrational hateful name calling.
Attacks such as those mentioned in the Talking Points article poison the well. And, it makes one wonder, what can be the logical outcome of such bilious, hateful speech? Where or when does it end?
Monday, November 9, 2009
Hope Springs Ephemeral?
The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, so says the ancient Chinese proverb. The vote for health care reform Saturday night is, I believe, just a first step. Where the next thousand miles takes us is still an open question. I must admit to a nagging sense of trepidation that the bill passed was such a watered down version of what is truly needed that it could be counterproductive in the long run.
On the other hand, I feel that if something positive is done now, it sets in place a line of forward progress from which retreat is less likely. One of the most beneficial features in the House's bill is the ban on pre-existing conditions. Another beneficial beachhead is the simple notion that the government needs to be in the business of ensuring human rights to its citizens.
In some distant year, will citizens still complain that we, as a nation, have a dysfunctional health care system? Will the cause of that dysfunction be seeds that were planted by this legislation, or will it be merely the playing out of an intractable greed-fueled status quo which stigmatizes the U.S. as an outlier, vis-a-vis the world, in matters of health care?
President Obama has won an important victory for his agenda, but the House's product seems greatly diminished by its comparison to Candidate Obama's lofty campaign rhetoric on the issue of health care.
I remain hopeful that something will emerge from the legislative Cuisinart which can be seen as true progress, rather than a simple fig leaf to distract people who feel real pain and financial consequences from the current system. If Obama's push to simply get a bill on his desk by some target date is the sum and substance of his once-lofty goals, I feel he may be back in the community organizing business come January 2013.
Hope springs from the knowledge that nothing, absolutely nothing, would have been done without Obama's push and the sense of possibility inherent in majority control of government. But hope alone won't address greed-bloated insurance costs. Hope alone won't lessen the catastrophe of medically induced bankruptcies, which now account for the majority of personal bankruptcies in this country. Hope alone won't let us join the rest of the industrialized world which treats health care as a right of citizenship rather than a commodity doled out by a sacrosanct marketplace.
As I said, I remain hopeful a bill of real substance will make it to the President's desk. I remain hopeful that Evan Bayh, when the Senate takes up this legislation, will surprise me by proving that he is, in fact, a Democrat.
But someone who is less sanguine about the future of health care in America is the estimable Dennis Kucinich, of Cleveland, he cast a principled NO vote Saturday. This link lays out his compelling reasons why.
Me? I'm still hoping.
On the other hand, I feel that if something positive is done now, it sets in place a line of forward progress from which retreat is less likely. One of the most beneficial features in the House's bill is the ban on pre-existing conditions. Another beneficial beachhead is the simple notion that the government needs to be in the business of ensuring human rights to its citizens.
In some distant year, will citizens still complain that we, as a nation, have a dysfunctional health care system? Will the cause of that dysfunction be seeds that were planted by this legislation, or will it be merely the playing out of an intractable greed-fueled status quo which stigmatizes the U.S. as an outlier, vis-a-vis the world, in matters of health care?
President Obama has won an important victory for his agenda, but the House's product seems greatly diminished by its comparison to Candidate Obama's lofty campaign rhetoric on the issue of health care.
I remain hopeful that something will emerge from the legislative Cuisinart which can be seen as true progress, rather than a simple fig leaf to distract people who feel real pain and financial consequences from the current system. If Obama's push to simply get a bill on his desk by some target date is the sum and substance of his once-lofty goals, I feel he may be back in the community organizing business come January 2013.
Hope springs from the knowledge that nothing, absolutely nothing, would have been done without Obama's push and the sense of possibility inherent in majority control of government. But hope alone won't address greed-bloated insurance costs. Hope alone won't lessen the catastrophe of medically induced bankruptcies, which now account for the majority of personal bankruptcies in this country. Hope alone won't let us join the rest of the industrialized world which treats health care as a right of citizenship rather than a commodity doled out by a sacrosanct marketplace.
As I said, I remain hopeful a bill of real substance will make it to the President's desk. I remain hopeful that Evan Bayh, when the Senate takes up this legislation, will surprise me by proving that he is, in fact, a Democrat.
But someone who is less sanguine about the future of health care in America is the estimable Dennis Kucinich, of Cleveland, he cast a principled NO vote Saturday. This link lays out his compelling reasons why.
Me? I'm still hoping.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
220 and 51 is OK By Me
Sincere thanks to Representative Baron Hill, and 219 of his House colleagues, for standing up for meaningful health care reform last night. Saturday's vote is just the beginning of the process, but it's a good beginning.
H.R. 676 was the vehicle for truly revolutionary health care reform, but the climate of fear cultivated by opponents of that legislation's goal of people over profits left a second choice, H.R. 3962, as the only game in town.
And the vote was even bipartisan.
Now, it's on to the Senate.
H.R. 676 was the vehicle for truly revolutionary health care reform, but the climate of fear cultivated by opponents of that legislation's goal of people over profits left a second choice, H.R. 3962, as the only game in town.
And the vote was even bipartisan.
Now, it's on to the Senate.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Picking Up the Pieces
Linden Meadows will be something different than what it was intended to be. Recent developments in the ongoing saga of a plan gone bad place the troubled project in a precarious position which has few good outcomes. I believe, however, it has some chance of coming to fruition.
One possible rescue plan would be for the City to acquire the property using Economic Development Income Tax (EDIT) funds. Based on news reports, the mortgage-holding bank wants a minimum of $500,000. A recent visit there shows a bleak landscape of about 18 forlorn houses in various stages of disrepair and decomposition.
Should the City, in fact, acquire the property, the houses could be sold at a price that simply recovers the City's expenditure. That figure is approximately $28,000, depending on how many of the houses can actually be offered for sale. Optimists would say the full number, pessimists would say approximately none. My position is posited from the optimistic perspective.
These cheap houses could be sold to willing buyers who would be able to take advantage of the fact that they are buying at a low price. The projected sale cost of the Linden Meadows houses was in the $80,000-$100,000 range. The difference between the purchase price and the project price would provide a significant amount of rehabilitation money which the purchaser could commit from their own funds, sweat equity, or mortgage money. In fairly short order, the houses would be in the hands of people committed to the property and able, because of the low purchase price, to dedicate significant outlays to the houses' improvement.
Buyers of these houses would need to sign a deed restriction which stipulates that the houses can only be owner occupied. If, for instance, a 15 year deed restriction were written, the original owner could live there for two or three years. If that owner decided to sell, the new owner would be subject to the deed restriction for 13 or 14 years. Whatever the time of the restriction, it should be sufficient to allow the neighborhood to become established as an enclave of owned houses. Failure to comply with the deed restriction must carry a severe penalty which must be enforced.
A further enhancement of the project would be to establish connectivity to Captain Frank Road rather than the current roundabout entrance off Linden Street.
Linden Meadows carries some additional baggage which increases its deficiency of desirability. It sits less than 100 yards off I-64. As one drives around the area in Louisville, Jeffersonville, and other locations around the country, newly installed noise barriers are becoming relatively commonplace. Mitigation of the nuisance that is the sound of interstate truck traffic would certainly increase the acceptance of the current Linden Meadows. By way of disclosure, I should mention that I would also benefit from the erection of noise barriers. As a resident of Captain Frank Road abutting the noisy interstate, I have sometimes fantasized about a scene from the movie "Steppenwolf" in which Harry Haller takes position on a precipice along a road, bazooka in hand, and proceeds to lob shells at passing cars. For Haller, the cars represented encroaching modernism or industrialism. For me, the passing trucks represent thieves of peace and quiet. The noise barriers would greatly enhance the area. They should be extended to the Sherman Minton bridge to bring quiet to residents of the West-end as well.
While the original goal of the CHDO was laudable, circumstances have intervened to place that goal out of reach. The city needs good affordable housing. It needs housing that is owner occupied. It needs to increase its tax base. It needs to help the neighbors who are burdened by the current blighted condition of Linden Meadows. Those needs should now become the City's goals.
One possible rescue plan would be for the City to acquire the property using Economic Development Income Tax (EDIT) funds. Based on news reports, the mortgage-holding bank wants a minimum of $500,000. A recent visit there shows a bleak landscape of about 18 forlorn houses in various stages of disrepair and decomposition.
Should the City, in fact, acquire the property, the houses could be sold at a price that simply recovers the City's expenditure. That figure is approximately $28,000, depending on how many of the houses can actually be offered for sale. Optimists would say the full number, pessimists would say approximately none. My position is posited from the optimistic perspective.
These cheap houses could be sold to willing buyers who would be able to take advantage of the fact that they are buying at a low price. The projected sale cost of the Linden Meadows houses was in the $80,000-$100,000 range. The difference between the purchase price and the project price would provide a significant amount of rehabilitation money which the purchaser could commit from their own funds, sweat equity, or mortgage money. In fairly short order, the houses would be in the hands of people committed to the property and able, because of the low purchase price, to dedicate significant outlays to the houses' improvement.
Buyers of these houses would need to sign a deed restriction which stipulates that the houses can only be owner occupied. If, for instance, a 15 year deed restriction were written, the original owner could live there for two or three years. If that owner decided to sell, the new owner would be subject to the deed restriction for 13 or 14 years. Whatever the time of the restriction, it should be sufficient to allow the neighborhood to become established as an enclave of owned houses. Failure to comply with the deed restriction must carry a severe penalty which must be enforced.
A further enhancement of the project would be to establish connectivity to Captain Frank Road rather than the current roundabout entrance off Linden Street.
Linden Meadows carries some additional baggage which increases its deficiency of desirability. It sits less than 100 yards off I-64. As one drives around the area in Louisville, Jeffersonville, and other locations around the country, newly installed noise barriers are becoming relatively commonplace. Mitigation of the nuisance that is the sound of interstate truck traffic would certainly increase the acceptance of the current Linden Meadows. By way of disclosure, I should mention that I would also benefit from the erection of noise barriers. As a resident of Captain Frank Road abutting the noisy interstate, I have sometimes fantasized about a scene from the movie "Steppenwolf" in which Harry Haller takes position on a precipice along a road, bazooka in hand, and proceeds to lob shells at passing cars. For Haller, the cars represented encroaching modernism or industrialism. For me, the passing trucks represent thieves of peace and quiet. The noise barriers would greatly enhance the area. They should be extended to the Sherman Minton bridge to bring quiet to residents of the West-end as well.
While the original goal of the CHDO was laudable, circumstances have intervened to place that goal out of reach. The city needs good affordable housing. It needs housing that is owner occupied. It needs to increase its tax base. It needs to help the neighbors who are burdened by the current blighted condition of Linden Meadows. Those needs should now become the City's goals.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
350
350 is the number for the day. Don't necessarily play it on the mid-day or evening Pick Three, but pay attention to it.
Author and activist Bill McKibben has been focusing on that number because it represents the parts-per-million of carbon dioxide at which our climate is considered in the safe zone. Actually it represents the upper limit of the safe zone.
Currently the Earth's atmosphere is around 420 parts per million.
Here's a link to the 350.org site.
Author and activist Bill McKibben has been focusing on that number because it represents the parts-per-million of carbon dioxide at which our climate is considered in the safe zone. Actually it represents the upper limit of the safe zone.
Currently the Earth's atmosphere is around 420 parts per million.
Here's a link to the 350.org site.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Spinning Plates
The accompanying video offers the startling statistic that the upper one per cent of our nation owns 90% of the wealth of the nation.
In light of that figure, one should ask how much of the nation's upper one per cent has chosen to live in New Albany, and what are the consequences of this disparity when assessing our seeming inability to keep the plates of our community spinning?
Undoubtedly the fiscal problems New Albany faces are not unique. The manufacturing base of this country has been off-shored, and the replacement jobs have often been out of reach to those displaced due to their prior, now irrelevant training. I don't believe we can create meaningful prosperity by shuffling an increasing number of cheap imported goods among ourselves.
We can only build a prosperous future by building a sustainable economy which offers needed goods and services to a populace that understands the need for this cooperative equation. People who are stretched to the limit by layoffs, downsizing, rising health care costs, and a throttled civic compact which sees good only in lower taxes, won't participate in a vibrant local economy. They understandably see salvation in Wal-Mart's low prices, and value meals at fast food joints.
New Albany's up swinging commercial district is testament to the vision some have shown. It is also a testament to the pump-priming value of the Caesar/Horseshoe foundation's benevolence in regard to the YMCA. We need to heed that lesson and support the second phase of downtown revitalization.
Last night we went to Wick's and were shutout by a two hour wait. That would have been acceptable to my wife and I but we were accompanied by two grandchildren for whom a two hour wait at the bar would have been mutually distressing. It seems that New Albany has proven to be fertile ground for restaurants and bars; with Phase Two on the horizon we need to look at a broader vision for downtown. If that broader vision is realized, it can and will contribute to a more sustainable local economy that will benefit us all.
In light of that figure, one should ask how much of the nation's upper one per cent has chosen to live in New Albany, and what are the consequences of this disparity when assessing our seeming inability to keep the plates of our community spinning?
Undoubtedly the fiscal problems New Albany faces are not unique. The manufacturing base of this country has been off-shored, and the replacement jobs have often been out of reach to those displaced due to their prior, now irrelevant training. I don't believe we can create meaningful prosperity by shuffling an increasing number of cheap imported goods among ourselves.
We can only build a prosperous future by building a sustainable economy which offers needed goods and services to a populace that understands the need for this cooperative equation. People who are stretched to the limit by layoffs, downsizing, rising health care costs, and a throttled civic compact which sees good only in lower taxes, won't participate in a vibrant local economy. They understandably see salvation in Wal-Mart's low prices, and value meals at fast food joints.
New Albany's up swinging commercial district is testament to the vision some have shown. It is also a testament to the pump-priming value of the Caesar/Horseshoe foundation's benevolence in regard to the YMCA. We need to heed that lesson and support the second phase of downtown revitalization.
Last night we went to Wick's and were shutout by a two hour wait. That would have been acceptable to my wife and I but we were accompanied by two grandchildren for whom a two hour wait at the bar would have been mutually distressing. It seems that New Albany has proven to be fertile ground for restaurants and bars; with Phase Two on the horizon we need to look at a broader vision for downtown. If that broader vision is realized, it can and will contribute to a more sustainable local economy that will benefit us all.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Working Class Hero
Michael Moore's latest movie, "Capitalism A Love Story", according to The Tribune, will not be shown in Southern Indiana theaters. Well, it was shown to a packed house at the Baxter Avenue Theaters tonight. Those in attendance were treated to a finely crafted walk down a well-reported, but seldom seen trail. Many of the scoundrels of modern commerce who became known to us through the implosion of the financial markets, which began last year about this time, got their share of screen time. But the real stars were those, people just like you and me, who were ground down by the chicanery of those who pocket the gains doled out by the mysterious hand of the market.
Earlier in the week I was fortunate enough to transit back into the USA, uncorrupted, and free of the clutches of the socialist domain to our north. That nearby place offers many things which appear far out of our grasp on this side of the world's longest unprotected border. Universal health care, a concrete plan to vastly improve the nation's rail system, and returnable/refillable beer bottles are just a few of our neighbors' ideas I'd like to see adopted here.
Moore's movie and our Canadian vacation serve as a backdrop to the news I missed while I was out of town. First reports had New Albany in a state of economic free fall. According to initial reports, about one third of the City's general fund would need to be cut during the final ninety days of 2009 to get us in line with the strictures of the 2009 budget, which had not yet been certified by the state when I left town. I hate to carp, but a budget system which does not show its teeth until nine or ten months into the year is asinine. No, I don't have a better idea. But one wonders how such a system could be devised in the first place, and allowed to continue after that. And, one wonders if our governor chuckles to his inner Mitch when crowing about Indiana's One Billion Dollar Surplus.
The real news was considerably less stunning. The first report was like an Antarctic skinny dip. The real news, by comparison, was like the first sit-down into a Blue River innertube on a cloudy beerless day in May. Both unpleasant for sure, but the latter slightly more tolerable than the former.
Canada seems to work as a country because its citizens decided to get along. I know there's that dust-up with the parti Quebecois a few years ago. But the dominion's people appear to have accepted that they share a common destiny and that while fulfilling that destiny, they are their brother's keeper. The moving-target news reports from New Albany highlighted not a common destiny, but factionalization, which subverts our progress. Of course, we who live here are too familiar with the daily workings of the local scene and we see the shadings and between-the-lines dialogue that is not perceptible to a visitor. The traveller sees the big picture while a resident sees the rotogravure dots.
Moore, as he usually does in his movies, homes in on those, in Bob Dylan's words, "bent out of shape by society's pliers". As we all know now, those pliers were wielded relentlessly, viciously, inhumanely, and regrettably, to wider-than-deserved approval by what Teddy Roosevelt called in his day, "the malefactors of great wealth."
People are displaced from their homes. Factories are shut down. Presidents speak foolishly. Presidents speak presciently and eloquently. Disgust at what has befallen our country is tempered,ever-so-slightly, by hopeful approaches undertaken by everyday people.
The movie looks both at the big picture, and between the roto dots. That's an effective formula for Moore's movies. Perhaps we could employ the same formula when viewing New Albany.
I titled this post, "Working Class Hero", which is what I'd call Michael Moore. He more or less bestows that title on someone else though. If you see the movie,and I urge you to,see if you agree.
Two thumbs up.
Earlier in the week I was fortunate enough to transit back into the USA, uncorrupted, and free of the clutches of the socialist domain to our north. That nearby place offers many things which appear far out of our grasp on this side of the world's longest unprotected border. Universal health care, a concrete plan to vastly improve the nation's rail system, and returnable/refillable beer bottles are just a few of our neighbors' ideas I'd like to see adopted here.
Moore's movie and our Canadian vacation serve as a backdrop to the news I missed while I was out of town. First reports had New Albany in a state of economic free fall. According to initial reports, about one third of the City's general fund would need to be cut during the final ninety days of 2009 to get us in line with the strictures of the 2009 budget, which had not yet been certified by the state when I left town. I hate to carp, but a budget system which does not show its teeth until nine or ten months into the year is asinine. No, I don't have a better idea. But one wonders how such a system could be devised in the first place, and allowed to continue after that. And, one wonders if our governor chuckles to his inner Mitch when crowing about Indiana's One Billion Dollar Surplus.
The real news was considerably less stunning. The first report was like an Antarctic skinny dip. The real news, by comparison, was like the first sit-down into a Blue River innertube on a cloudy beerless day in May. Both unpleasant for sure, but the latter slightly more tolerable than the former.
Canada seems to work as a country because its citizens decided to get along. I know there's that dust-up with the parti Quebecois a few years ago. But the dominion's people appear to have accepted that they share a common destiny and that while fulfilling that destiny, they are their brother's keeper. The moving-target news reports from New Albany highlighted not a common destiny, but factionalization, which subverts our progress. Of course, we who live here are too familiar with the daily workings of the local scene and we see the shadings and between-the-lines dialogue that is not perceptible to a visitor. The traveller sees the big picture while a resident sees the rotogravure dots.
Moore, as he usually does in his movies, homes in on those, in Bob Dylan's words, "bent out of shape by society's pliers". As we all know now, those pliers were wielded relentlessly, viciously, inhumanely, and regrettably, to wider-than-deserved approval by what Teddy Roosevelt called in his day, "the malefactors of great wealth."
People are displaced from their homes. Factories are shut down. Presidents speak foolishly. Presidents speak presciently and eloquently. Disgust at what has befallen our country is tempered,ever-so-slightly, by hopeful approaches undertaken by everyday people.
The movie looks both at the big picture, and between the roto dots. That's an effective formula for Moore's movies. Perhaps we could employ the same formula when viewing New Albany.
I titled this post, "Working Class Hero", which is what I'd call Michael Moore. He more or less bestows that title on someone else though. If you see the movie,and I urge you to,see if you agree.
Two thumbs up.
Monday, September 21, 2009
David Byrne on a Bike
The following is an excerpt from former Talking Head, and lifetime musical genius, David Byrne's new book "Bicycle Diaries". It was featured today on The Huffington Post.
It is interesting in light of the late arrival of bike lanes here. It is equally interesting for Byrne's observations on urban personality traits.
(italics added)
__________________________________
I ride my bike almost every day here in New York. It's getting safer to do so, but I do have to be fairly alert when riding on the streets as opposed to riding on the Hudson River bike path or similar protected lanes. The city has added a lot of bike lanes in recent years, and they claim they now have more than any other city in the United States. But sadly most of them are not safe enough that one can truly relax, as is possible on the almost completed path along the Hudson or on many European bike lanes. That's changing, bit by bit. As new lanes are added some of them are more secure, placed between the sidewalk and parked cars or protected by a concrete barrier.
Between 2007 and 2008 bike traffic in New York increased 35 percent. Hard to tell if the cart is leading the horse here-- whether more lanes have inspired more bicycle usage or the other way around. I happily suspect that for the moment at least, both the Department of Transportation and New York City cyclists are on the same page. As more young creative types find themselves living in Brooklyn they bike over the bridges in increasing numbers. Manhattan Bridge bike traffic just about quadrupled last year (2008) and the bike traffic on the Williamsburg Bridge tripled. And those numbers will keep increasing as the city continues to make improvements to bike lanes and adds bike racks and other amenities. In this area the city is, to some extent, anticipating what will happen in the near future--a lot more people will use bikes for getting to work or for fun.
On a bike, being just slightly above pedestrian and car eye level, one gets a perfect view of the goings-on in one's own town. Unlike many other U.S. cities, here in New York almost everyone has to step onto the sidewalk and encounter other people at least once a day--everyone makes at least one brief public appearance. I once had to swerve to avoid Paris Hilton, holding her little doggie, crossing the street against the light and looking around as if to say, "I'm Paris Hilton, don't you recognize me?" From a cyclist's point of view you pretty much see it all.
Just outside a midtown theater a man rides by on a bike-- one of those lowriders. He's a grown man, who seems pretty normal in appearance, except he's got a monstrously huge boom box strapped to the front of the bike.
I ride off on my own bike and a few minutes later another boom-box biker passes by. This time it's a Jane-Austen-reading, sensible-shoe-wearing woman. She's on a regular bike, but again, with a (smaller) boom box strapped to the rear ... I can't hear what the music is.
City Archetypes
There is a magazine in a rack at the entrance to my local Pakistani lunch counter called InvAsian: A Journal for the Culturally Ambivalent.
What is it about certain cities and places that fosters specific attitudes? Am I imagining that this is the case? To what extent does the infrastructure of cities shape the lives, work, and sensibilities of their inhabitants? Quite significantly, I suspect. All this talk about bike lanes, ugly buildings, and density of population isn't just about those things, it's about what kinds of people those places turn us into. I don't think I'm imagining that people who move to L.A. from elsewhere inevitably lose a lot of that elsewhere and eventually end up creating L.A.-type work and being L.A.-type people. Do creative, social, and civic attitudes change depending on where we live? Yes, I think so.How does this happen? Do they seep in surreptitiously through peer pressure and casual conversations? Is it the water, the light, the weather? Is there a Detroit sensibility? Memphis? New Orleans? (No doubt.) Austin? (Certainly.) Nashville? London?
Berlin? (I would say there's a Berlin sense of humor for sure.) Düsseldorf? Vienna? (Yes.) Paris? Osaka? Melbourne? Salvador? Bahia? (Absolutely.)
I was recently in Hong Kong and a friend there commented that China doesn't have a history of civic engagement. Traditionally in China one had to accommodate two aspects of humanity--the emperor and his bureaucracy, and one's own family. And even though that family might be fairly extended it doesn't include neighbors or coworkers, so a lot of the world is left out. To hell with them. As long as the emperor or his ministers aren't after me and my family is okay then all's right with the world. I had been marveling at the rate of destruction of anything having to do with social pleasures and civic interaction in Hong Kong--funky markets, parks, waterfront promenades, bike lanes (of course)--I was amazed how anything designed for the common good is quickly bulldozed, privatized, or replaced by a condo or office tower. According to my friend civic life is just not part of the culture. So in this case at least, the city is an accurate and physical reflection of how that culture views itself. The city is a 3-D manifestation of the social, and personal--and I'm suggesting that, in turn, a city, its physical being, reinforces those ethics and re-creates them in successive generations and in those who have immigrated to the city. Cities self-perpetuate the mind-set that made them.
Maybe every city has a unique sensibility but we don't have names for what they are or haven't identified them all. We can't pinpoint exactly what makes each city's people unique yet. How long does one have to be a resident before one starts to behave and think like a local? And where does this psychological city start? Is there a spot on the map where attitudes change? And is the inverse true? Is there a place where New Yorkers suddenly become Long Islanders? Will there be freeway signs with a picture of Billy Joel that alert motorists "attention, entering New York state of mind"?
Does living in New York City foster a hard-as-nails, no nonsense attitude? Is that how one would describe the New York state of mind? I've heard recently that Cariocas (residents of Rio) have a similar "okay, okay, get to the point" sensibility. Is that a legacy of the layers of historical happenstance that make up a particular city? Is that where it comes from? Is it a constantly morphing and slowly evolving worldview? Do the repercussions of local politics and the local laws foster how we view each other? Does it come from the socioeconomic-ethnic mix; are the proportions in the urban stew critical, like in a recipe? Does the evanescence of fame and glamour lie upon all of L.A. like whipped cream? Do the Latin and Asian populations that are fenced off from the celebrity playgrounds get mixed into this stew, resulting in a unique kind of social psychological fusion? Does that, and the way the hazy light looks on skin, make certain kinds of work and leisure activities more appropriate there?
Maybe this is all a bit of a myth, a willful desire to give each place its own unique aura. But doesn't any collective belief eventually become a kind of truth? If enough people act as if something is true, isn't it indeed "true," not objectively, but in the sense that it will determine how they will behave? The myth of unique urban character and unique sensibilities in different cities exists because we want it to exist.
Reprinted by arrangement with Viking, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., from BICYCLE DIARIES by David Byrne. Copyright © David Byrne, 2009
More in New York...
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-byrne/an-excerpt-from-embicycle_b_293402.html?view=screen
It is interesting in light of the late arrival of bike lanes here. It is equally interesting for Byrne's observations on urban personality traits.
(italics added)
__________________________________
I ride my bike almost every day here in New York. It's getting safer to do so, but I do have to be fairly alert when riding on the streets as opposed to riding on the Hudson River bike path or similar protected lanes. The city has added a lot of bike lanes in recent years, and they claim they now have more than any other city in the United States. But sadly most of them are not safe enough that one can truly relax, as is possible on the almost completed path along the Hudson or on many European bike lanes. That's changing, bit by bit. As new lanes are added some of them are more secure, placed between the sidewalk and parked cars or protected by a concrete barrier.
Between 2007 and 2008 bike traffic in New York increased 35 percent. Hard to tell if the cart is leading the horse here-- whether more lanes have inspired more bicycle usage or the other way around. I happily suspect that for the moment at least, both the Department of Transportation and New York City cyclists are on the same page. As more young creative types find themselves living in Brooklyn they bike over the bridges in increasing numbers. Manhattan Bridge bike traffic just about quadrupled last year (2008) and the bike traffic on the Williamsburg Bridge tripled. And those numbers will keep increasing as the city continues to make improvements to bike lanes and adds bike racks and other amenities. In this area the city is, to some extent, anticipating what will happen in the near future--a lot more people will use bikes for getting to work or for fun.
On a bike, being just slightly above pedestrian and car eye level, one gets a perfect view of the goings-on in one's own town. Unlike many other U.S. cities, here in New York almost everyone has to step onto the sidewalk and encounter other people at least once a day--everyone makes at least one brief public appearance. I once had to swerve to avoid Paris Hilton, holding her little doggie, crossing the street against the light and looking around as if to say, "I'm Paris Hilton, don't you recognize me?" From a cyclist's point of view you pretty much see it all.
Just outside a midtown theater a man rides by on a bike-- one of those lowriders. He's a grown man, who seems pretty normal in appearance, except he's got a monstrously huge boom box strapped to the front of the bike.
I ride off on my own bike and a few minutes later another boom-box biker passes by. This time it's a Jane-Austen-reading, sensible-shoe-wearing woman. She's on a regular bike, but again, with a (smaller) boom box strapped to the rear ... I can't hear what the music is.
City Archetypes
There is a magazine in a rack at the entrance to my local Pakistani lunch counter called InvAsian: A Journal for the Culturally Ambivalent.
What is it about certain cities and places that fosters specific attitudes? Am I imagining that this is the case? To what extent does the infrastructure of cities shape the lives, work, and sensibilities of their inhabitants? Quite significantly, I suspect. All this talk about bike lanes, ugly buildings, and density of population isn't just about those things, it's about what kinds of people those places turn us into. I don't think I'm imagining that people who move to L.A. from elsewhere inevitably lose a lot of that elsewhere and eventually end up creating L.A.-type work and being L.A.-type people. Do creative, social, and civic attitudes change depending on where we live? Yes, I think so.How does this happen? Do they seep in surreptitiously through peer pressure and casual conversations? Is it the water, the light, the weather? Is there a Detroit sensibility? Memphis? New Orleans? (No doubt.) Austin? (Certainly.) Nashville? London?
Berlin? (I would say there's a Berlin sense of humor for sure.) Düsseldorf? Vienna? (Yes.) Paris? Osaka? Melbourne? Salvador? Bahia? (Absolutely.)
I was recently in Hong Kong and a friend there commented that China doesn't have a history of civic engagement. Traditionally in China one had to accommodate two aspects of humanity--the emperor and his bureaucracy, and one's own family. And even though that family might be fairly extended it doesn't include neighbors or coworkers, so a lot of the world is left out. To hell with them. As long as the emperor or his ministers aren't after me and my family is okay then all's right with the world. I had been marveling at the rate of destruction of anything having to do with social pleasures and civic interaction in Hong Kong--funky markets, parks, waterfront promenades, bike lanes (of course)--I was amazed how anything designed for the common good is quickly bulldozed, privatized, or replaced by a condo or office tower. According to my friend civic life is just not part of the culture. So in this case at least, the city is an accurate and physical reflection of how that culture views itself. The city is a 3-D manifestation of the social, and personal--and I'm suggesting that, in turn, a city, its physical being, reinforces those ethics and re-creates them in successive generations and in those who have immigrated to the city. Cities self-perpetuate the mind-set that made them.
Maybe every city has a unique sensibility but we don't have names for what they are or haven't identified them all. We can't pinpoint exactly what makes each city's people unique yet. How long does one have to be a resident before one starts to behave and think like a local? And where does this psychological city start? Is there a spot on the map where attitudes change? And is the inverse true? Is there a place where New Yorkers suddenly become Long Islanders? Will there be freeway signs with a picture of Billy Joel that alert motorists "attention, entering New York state of mind"?
Does living in New York City foster a hard-as-nails, no nonsense attitude? Is that how one would describe the New York state of mind? I've heard recently that Cariocas (residents of Rio) have a similar "okay, okay, get to the point" sensibility. Is that a legacy of the layers of historical happenstance that make up a particular city? Is that where it comes from? Is it a constantly morphing and slowly evolving worldview? Do the repercussions of local politics and the local laws foster how we view each other? Does it come from the socioeconomic-ethnic mix; are the proportions in the urban stew critical, like in a recipe? Does the evanescence of fame and glamour lie upon all of L.A. like whipped cream? Do the Latin and Asian populations that are fenced off from the celebrity playgrounds get mixed into this stew, resulting in a unique kind of social psychological fusion? Does that, and the way the hazy light looks on skin, make certain kinds of work and leisure activities more appropriate there?
Maybe this is all a bit of a myth, a willful desire to give each place its own unique aura. But doesn't any collective belief eventually become a kind of truth? If enough people act as if something is true, isn't it indeed "true," not objectively, but in the sense that it will determine how they will behave? The myth of unique urban character and unique sensibilities in different cities exists because we want it to exist.
Reprinted by arrangement with Viking, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., from BICYCLE DIARIES by David Byrne. Copyright © David Byrne, 2009
More in New York...
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-byrne/an-excerpt-from-embicycle_b_293402.html?view=screen
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Update on Code Enforcement
Earlier in the week I promised to get more information on the current state of code enforcement in New Albany.
In response to a question asked in a comment to a previous post, I laid out what I knew at the time. I had the opportunity to speak to Carl Malysz and pose the same question to him.
He essentially confirmed what I had written previously.
The only additional information he gave me is that the Building Commissioner's position is expected to be filled in a couple of weeks.
The filling of that position, along with the other code enforcement positions which were advertised as open positions, will constitute a complete reorganization of City's efforts to get serious about code issues. As many will recall, that was a platform plank from the Mayor's campaign. It was also touted as needed by several City Council candidates, myself included.
While it would have been nice to reach this point some time ago, I am hopeful that the City's on the right track now on that issue. I would think we should begin to see better results in the relatively near future, perhaps six to eight weeks.
In response to a question asked in a comment to a previous post, I laid out what I knew at the time. I had the opportunity to speak to Carl Malysz and pose the same question to him.
He essentially confirmed what I had written previously.
The only additional information he gave me is that the Building Commissioner's position is expected to be filled in a couple of weeks.
The filling of that position, along with the other code enforcement positions which were advertised as open positions, will constitute a complete reorganization of City's efforts to get serious about code issues. As many will recall, that was a platform plank from the Mayor's campaign. It was also touted as needed by several City Council candidates, myself included.
While it would have been nice to reach this point some time ago, I am hopeful that the City's on the right track now on that issue. I would think we should begin to see better results in the relatively near future, perhaps six to eight weeks.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Which Side Are You On?...Day 37
After Baron Hill's meeting the other day, I commented here that I was feeling optimistic. After President Obama's Labor Day speech today in Cincinnati, I again feel optimistic.
Included here is a link to the "Mad As Hell Doctor's Tour". It's coming to Louisville. They are solidly behind a single-payer plan. By most estimates this isn't going to be the plan which emerges. The compromise of a strong public option must be the "line in the sand" President Obama draws. The Mad As Hell Doctors know the best prescription, but it is crucial to get something passed. At least a public option is a step which will place the U.S. a bit closer to the rest of the developed nations which offer their citizens universal health coverage as a right of citizenship.
Recess is over, Congress. Now it's back to work.
Included here is a link to the "Mad As Hell Doctor's Tour". It's coming to Louisville. They are solidly behind a single-payer plan. By most estimates this isn't going to be the plan which emerges. The compromise of a strong public option must be the "line in the sand" President Obama draws. The Mad As Hell Doctors know the best prescription, but it is crucial to get something passed. At least a public option is a step which will place the U.S. a bit closer to the rest of the developed nations which offer their citizens universal health coverage as a right of citizenship.
Recess is over, Congress. Now it's back to work.
Thin Ice
Reading about the lunatics' response to a proposed presidential taped message to school children, I have seen several references to Pink Floyd's great album "The Wall".
While the ones I've seen have not pulled out a specific line, I presume, from the tenor of their other comments, these people refer to the lines "We don't need no thought control" and "Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone."
In other words,we don't want the President of the United States to address our children because we think he'll take the opportunity to indoctrinate them into "socialism".
These people are in fact building a wall for their children brick by brick: a brick of intolerance, a brick of suspicion, a brick of racism, a brick of hate....
Perhaps these people should read further in the liner notes of the album for these lyrics:
The Thin Ice (Waters) 2:28
Momma loves her baby
And daddy loves you too.
And the sea may look warm to you babe
And the sky may look blue
But ooooh Baby
Ooooh baby blue
Oooooh babe.
If you should go skating
On the thin ice of modern life
Dragging behind you the silent reproach
Of a million tear-stained eyes
Don't be surprised when a crack in the ice
Appears under your feet.
You slip out of your depth and out of your mind
With your fear flowing out behind you
As you claw the thin ice.
(emphasis added)
While the ones I've seen have not pulled out a specific line, I presume, from the tenor of their other comments, these people refer to the lines "We don't need no thought control" and "Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone."
In other words,we don't want the President of the United States to address our children because we think he'll take the opportunity to indoctrinate them into "socialism".
These people are in fact building a wall for their children brick by brick: a brick of intolerance, a brick of suspicion, a brick of racism, a brick of hate....
Perhaps these people should read further in the liner notes of the album for these lyrics:
The Thin Ice (Waters) 2:28
Momma loves her baby
And daddy loves you too.
And the sea may look warm to you babe
And the sky may look blue
But ooooh Baby
Ooooh baby blue
Oooooh babe.
If you should go skating
On the thin ice of modern life
Dragging behind you the silent reproach
Of a million tear-stained eyes
Don't be surprised when a crack in the ice
Appears under your feet.
You slip out of your depth and out of your mind
With your fear flowing out behind you
As you claw the thin ice.
(emphasis added)
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Which Side Are You On?...Day 36
Make or break.
Life or death.
These are the two sides Bill Moyers lays out in this excellent commentary.
Two sides, Mr. President, Which side are you on?
Life or death.
These are the two sides Bill Moyers lays out in this excellent commentary.
Two sides, Mr. President, Which side are you on?
Which Side Are You On?...Day 35
Worse, Republicans will see that bullying, being disruptive, and tapping into people's worst fears and instincts works, and will use it on each and every piece of legislation the White House tries to pass for the next 3 years. It's happening on climate change legislation now. Combine that with a disillusioned, disempowered activist left and I'm seeing damage to the Democratic Party well past the 2010 election cycle.
The above quote is from an article on firedoglake. Read the entire article here.It is nominally about health care reform, but it can be read also aprospos the ridiculous "don't-let-my-child-see-hear-contemplate-conjure-(or any other verb of cognition or perception)-the-President-of-the-United-States-of-America-crowd".
I would tone down the writer's wide netting of all Republicans. I'd rather limit it to the dangerous and whacked out fringe of the right wing, which unfortunately, but concidentally, finds itself rather welcome in the G.O.P.
The above quote is from an article on firedoglake. Read the entire article here.It is nominally about health care reform, but it can be read also aprospos the ridiculous "don't-let-my-child-see-hear-contemplate-conjure-(or any other verb of cognition or perception)-the-President-of-the-United-States-of-America-crowd".
I would tone down the writer's wide netting of all Republicans. I'd rather limit it to the dangerous and whacked out fringe of the right wing, which unfortunately, but concidentally, finds itself rather welcome in the G.O.P.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Which Side Are You On?...Day 34
I just had the good fortune today, of attending a meeting with Baron Hill. It was a small gathering at a constituent's home in Jeffersonville. The subject was health care reform.
Rep. Hill took questions from the small group for almost an hour and a half. The audience of about 15-20 friendly supporters was probably seen as a welcome respite from the contentious gatherings which have characterized many of the meetings on this subject held throughout the August recess.
While Rep. Hill spoke openly about a broad range of questions on the topic, one of his comments was particularly important for me. I have criticized Rep. Hill for what I perceived to be lukewarm support for health care reform. He early on walked away from the single payer plan, which I prefer, and which I still believe is the superior plan.
But now it appears, we have the Public Option as the last best hope for substantive reform. So, it was encouraging when Rep. Hill recounted a conversation with one of his wobbly colleagues and fellow Blue Dogs, in which he told the wobbly one to "get a spine", and support the Public Option. He went on to say that the time for delaying reform is over, and now it is time to act. He assessed the President's chances of achieving successful reform as good, if he "regains a hold on the issue" and controls the terms of the debate. But he cautioned, if the President fails to do so within about a week of his address, next Wednesday, to a joint session of Congress, reform might well be doomed. Any lingering doubts about Rep. Hill's sincere commitment to reform have, for me, vanished.
Rep. Hill, further bemoaned the acrid atmosphere seen in the Town Howl meetings. The lack of civility displayed in these gatherings is a serious failing for the nation, he said. And most disturbingly, he attributed the outrageous,venomous hate speech, loosed at some of the more extreme Town Howls, to raw, stupid, racism. The good of the country takes a back seat to intolerance and racism as "opposition" to health care reform becomes the convenient cudgel with which to deliver blows of racism and hatred against a black man in the White House.
Finally, and encouragingly, Rep. Hill said he believes that in "just the last couple of days, the big beast of public opinion has begun to turn in the direction of reform". It's his gut feeling, but I feel it too.
Rep. Hill took questions from the small group for almost an hour and a half. The audience of about 15-20 friendly supporters was probably seen as a welcome respite from the contentious gatherings which have characterized many of the meetings on this subject held throughout the August recess.
While Rep. Hill spoke openly about a broad range of questions on the topic, one of his comments was particularly important for me. I have criticized Rep. Hill for what I perceived to be lukewarm support for health care reform. He early on walked away from the single payer plan, which I prefer, and which I still believe is the superior plan.
But now it appears, we have the Public Option as the last best hope for substantive reform. So, it was encouraging when Rep. Hill recounted a conversation with one of his wobbly colleagues and fellow Blue Dogs, in which he told the wobbly one to "get a spine", and support the Public Option. He went on to say that the time for delaying reform is over, and now it is time to act. He assessed the President's chances of achieving successful reform as good, if he "regains a hold on the issue" and controls the terms of the debate. But he cautioned, if the President fails to do so within about a week of his address, next Wednesday, to a joint session of Congress, reform might well be doomed. Any lingering doubts about Rep. Hill's sincere commitment to reform have, for me, vanished.
Rep. Hill, further bemoaned the acrid atmosphere seen in the Town Howl meetings. The lack of civility displayed in these gatherings is a serious failing for the nation, he said. And most disturbingly, he attributed the outrageous,venomous hate speech, loosed at some of the more extreme Town Howls, to raw, stupid, racism. The good of the country takes a back seat to intolerance and racism as "opposition" to health care reform becomes the convenient cudgel with which to deliver blows of racism and hatred against a black man in the White House.
Finally, and encouragingly, Rep. Hill said he believes that in "just the last couple of days, the big beast of public opinion has begun to turn in the direction of reform". It's his gut feeling, but I feel it too.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Which Side Are You On?...Day 33
AP falsehood: Budget officials say Obama's plan could "increase the federal deficit" by $1 trillion
Truth: Budget officials said House bill would increase deficit by $239 billion -- not $1 trillion
The health care debate has strayed from the truth as opponents have misperceived facts, either intentionally or through inadequate understanding.
First is a piece from Media Matters which shows serial mistakes on the part of the Associated Press.
________________________________________________________
Mr. Hill stood in front of a mainly pro-health care group of federal workers at a Monday night forum at Indiana University Southeast. Mr. Hill, what did you expect to hear from a group that had nothing to fear or lose in the health care debate?
Mr. Hill had two New Albany Police Department officers waiting behind the curtains in case one of the mostly friendly, invitation-only group would become violent. Big chance of that happening before such a friendly group.
Ken Easterday, Jeffersonville
The letter excerpted here reports on a meeting which I attended. The writer's contention that the crowd was mostly friendy is wrong. Is it maliciously wrong or simply delusional? Who can say?
I offer as proof that the crowd was, in fact, not friendly toward Rep. Hill, a display of loutish behavior by the majority of the crowd: when Rep. Hill mentioned Senator Edward Kennedy, whom one might recall, had died and was buried only about 48 hours previously, the name was met with boos and catcalls. It was a disgusting display of right-wing bile spewed against a liberal standard bearer, not for a coherent reform plan or even against a reform plan. (I chose not to report this in my first post of the meeting Tuesday morning)
The conclusion I draw from this display is that these people have no facts on their side, they have hate and they have fear. And they don't want a black man in the White House. And they're mad because John McCain isn't President and Sarah Palin isn't Vice.
There may have been some who had legitimate concerns about health care reform, but their defensible opposition was colored by the bilious braying of the haters.
Truth: Budget officials said House bill would increase deficit by $239 billion -- not $1 trillion
The health care debate has strayed from the truth as opponents have misperceived facts, either intentionally or through inadequate understanding.
First is a piece from Media Matters which shows serial mistakes on the part of the Associated Press.
________________________________________________________
Mr. Hill stood in front of a mainly pro-health care group of federal workers at a Monday night forum at Indiana University Southeast. Mr. Hill, what did you expect to hear from a group that had nothing to fear or lose in the health care debate?
Mr. Hill had two New Albany Police Department officers waiting behind the curtains in case one of the mostly friendly, invitation-only group would become violent. Big chance of that happening before such a friendly group.
Ken Easterday, Jeffersonville
The letter excerpted here reports on a meeting which I attended. The writer's contention that the crowd was mostly friendy is wrong. Is it maliciously wrong or simply delusional? Who can say?
I offer as proof that the crowd was, in fact, not friendly toward Rep. Hill, a display of loutish behavior by the majority of the crowd: when Rep. Hill mentioned Senator Edward Kennedy, whom one might recall, had died and was buried only about 48 hours previously, the name was met with boos and catcalls. It was a disgusting display of right-wing bile spewed against a liberal standard bearer, not for a coherent reform plan or even against a reform plan. (I chose not to report this in my first post of the meeting Tuesday morning)
The conclusion I draw from this display is that these people have no facts on their side, they have hate and they have fear. And they don't want a black man in the White House. And they're mad because John McCain isn't President and Sarah Palin isn't Vice.
There may have been some who had legitimate concerns about health care reform, but their defensible opposition was colored by the bilious braying of the haters.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Which Side Are You On?...Day 32
Make no mistake, the industry, despite its public assurances to be good-faith partners with the President and Congress, has been at work for years laying the groundwork for devious and often sinister campaigns to manipulate public opinion
This is an excerpt from a speech Wendell Potter, a former health insurance executive, gave recently. (Read the entire speech)
At Baron Hill's Town Hall meeting at IUS Monday, one had to be struck by the fearful reaction to health care reform exhibited by some of the opponents. It was obvious that some had been steered into opposition.
One woman asked a question about the nefarious motives of the government working against "Medicare 'Advance Plans'". The correct term is "Medicare Advantage" plans. Rep. Hill said the reason these plans need to be reined in, is because they are essentially an unnecessary subsidy to the insurance sellers. He said the subsidy amounts to about 30% of the cost of such plans, and that is picked up by the government. That subsidy puts us; the government (government of the people, by the people) that much farther in the hole when it comes to funding quality health care as a right of citizenship.
The woman asking about "advance plans" had been steered into her opposition. But by whom? And, for what reason?
$$$$$$$$$$$???
This is an excerpt from a speech Wendell Potter, a former health insurance executive, gave recently. (Read the entire speech)
At Baron Hill's Town Hall meeting at IUS Monday, one had to be struck by the fearful reaction to health care reform exhibited by some of the opponents. It was obvious that some had been steered into opposition.
One woman asked a question about the nefarious motives of the government working against "Medicare 'Advance Plans'". The correct term is "Medicare Advantage" plans. Rep. Hill said the reason these plans need to be reined in, is because they are essentially an unnecessary subsidy to the insurance sellers. He said the subsidy amounts to about 30% of the cost of such plans, and that is picked up by the government. That subsidy puts us; the government (government of the people, by the people) that much farther in the hole when it comes to funding quality health care as a right of citizenship.
The woman asking about "advance plans" had been steered into her opposition. But by whom? And, for what reason?
$$$$$$$$$$$???
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Which Side Are You On?...Day 31
Baron Hill held a Town Hall meeting yesterday at IUS. While there was some howling, it was, by and large, a civil crowd. A rough guess is that the opponents of health care reform outnumbered the supporters by a ratio of 3:1.
It is difficult for me to be objective about the opposition, so I won't try. My only observation about the opposition is that it is more about Obama than it is about health care.
As Baron Hill spoke, it became clear to me that my question posed throughout this series of posts has been answered by our Congressman. He's clearly on the side of meaningful health care reform, including a public option. I believe he personally supports an even more humane system than the public option, although he will probably not be given an opportunity to vote for such a choice.
Thank you Baron.
Meanwhile, Michele Bachmann, who long ago ran off the rails, appears to roll away even farther from the tracks.
It is difficult for me to be objective about the opposition, so I won't try. My only observation about the opposition is that it is more about Obama than it is about health care.
As Baron Hill spoke, it became clear to me that my question posed throughout this series of posts has been answered by our Congressman. He's clearly on the side of meaningful health care reform, including a public option. I believe he personally supports an even more humane system than the public option, although he will probably not be given an opportunity to vote for such a choice.
Thank you Baron.
Meanwhile, Michele Bachmann, who long ago ran off the rails, appears to roll away even farther from the tracks.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Which Side Are You On? ...Day 30
Baron Hill will be at IUS this evening to hold a discussion on current issues. Look for health care reform to be at the top of the list, if not the only thing on it. If you have followed these postings with any regularity and read the links provided here, my view on this matter should be clear: health care reform is vital to the overall success of the Obama administration; it constitutes his compact with the electorate, failure, or what can reasonably be defined as failure, puts his second term out of reach. The majority of sources cited here have not been sanguine about a positive outcome.
For a more hopeful view, read this. Such an outcome would be correctly called a success.
For a more hopeful view, read this. Such an outcome would be correctly called a success.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Dry Out Time Out
The City Council will meet this Thursday, out of sync because of the Labor Day weekend.
One of the ordinances on the agenda is a moratorium on building permits. This is not intended as a punitive measure against builders or developers. It is, rather, an attempt to let the City catch up with the issues it faces as a result of damages caused by storm water and sewer problems.
During several recent Council meetings, people from various neighborhoods have come before the body to alert us to problems of raw sewage, or storm water, or a combination of the two flooding into their houses. The resulting damage and loss of personal effects has been extensive. The assignment of responsibility to the deity has been convenient, but not necessarily beneficial to these residents.
The proposal before the Council is simple. The Storm Water Board is developing a Storm Water Master Plan. This process should take about six to nine months. During the last Council meeting, I asked an engineer working on the plan, if that plan would result in better development( better meaning less flood-prone or less likely to inflict flooding on surrounding houses or buildings ) after the plan is completed and its findings implemented. He agreed that it would.
A woman from one of the affected areas told of a vacant lot near her house. She suggested that water which flooded the streets of her neighborhood and poured into basements there, might have been made more severe if that vacant lot were built upon, adding impervious surface to the equation of an obviously problematic drainage area. Further, she said, if it were dedicated to use as a detention basin for flood waters, the vacant lot might actually reduce the problem rather than exacerbating it.
The lot to which she referred is in an established subdivision. Construction on that specific lot is permitted "by right". The only element of oversight the City now has on such a parcel is a review of plans pursuant to a building permit, because the overall drainage questions have been answered years ago when the development was granted approval. Unfortunately, unexpected problems are arising to prevent proper drainage, and this is resulting in property damage and loss of personal items. Have rain patterns nullified earlier assumptions? Has maintenance lagged? Or is something else amiss? Hopefully, the Storm Water Master Plan now in development will explain what has gone wrong and point us in the direction of fixing the problems.
The expected time to complete the Master Plan is not excessive. If it is done correctly and thoroughly it may prevent, or at least, lessen the severity of flooding throughout the city. Of course, a plan will not solve anything in and of itself, it will need conscientious application and enforcement to be effective.
As the old joke goes, when you find yourself in a hole, the first thing you need to do is to stop digging. In this case, for six to nine months.
One of the ordinances on the agenda is a moratorium on building permits. This is not intended as a punitive measure against builders or developers. It is, rather, an attempt to let the City catch up with the issues it faces as a result of damages caused by storm water and sewer problems.
During several recent Council meetings, people from various neighborhoods have come before the body to alert us to problems of raw sewage, or storm water, or a combination of the two flooding into their houses. The resulting damage and loss of personal effects has been extensive. The assignment of responsibility to the deity has been convenient, but not necessarily beneficial to these residents.
The proposal before the Council is simple. The Storm Water Board is developing a Storm Water Master Plan. This process should take about six to nine months. During the last Council meeting, I asked an engineer working on the plan, if that plan would result in better development( better meaning less flood-prone or less likely to inflict flooding on surrounding houses or buildings ) after the plan is completed and its findings implemented. He agreed that it would.
A woman from one of the affected areas told of a vacant lot near her house. She suggested that water which flooded the streets of her neighborhood and poured into basements there, might have been made more severe if that vacant lot were built upon, adding impervious surface to the equation of an obviously problematic drainage area. Further, she said, if it were dedicated to use as a detention basin for flood waters, the vacant lot might actually reduce the problem rather than exacerbating it.
The lot to which she referred is in an established subdivision. Construction on that specific lot is permitted "by right". The only element of oversight the City now has on such a parcel is a review of plans pursuant to a building permit, because the overall drainage questions have been answered years ago when the development was granted approval. Unfortunately, unexpected problems are arising to prevent proper drainage, and this is resulting in property damage and loss of personal items. Have rain patterns nullified earlier assumptions? Has maintenance lagged? Or is something else amiss? Hopefully, the Storm Water Master Plan now in development will explain what has gone wrong and point us in the direction of fixing the problems.
The expected time to complete the Master Plan is not excessive. If it is done correctly and thoroughly it may prevent, or at least, lessen the severity of flooding throughout the city. Of course, a plan will not solve anything in and of itself, it will need conscientious application and enforcement to be effective.
As the old joke goes, when you find yourself in a hole, the first thing you need to do is to stop digging. In this case, for six to nine months.
Which Side Are You On?...Day 29
For years now, one political party has claimed exclusive protection of family values. Now, as the time to make choices which can protect families is upon us, they choose profits over people.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
WHich Side Are You On?...Day 28
Here are the Top Five Lies About Health Care as reported in Newsweek:
You'll have no choice in what health benefits you receive.
No chemo for older medicare patients.
Illegal immigrants will get free health insurance.
Death panels will decide who lives.
The government will set doctors' wages.
Read the entire article here.
You'll have no choice in what health benefits you receive.
No chemo for older medicare patients.
Illegal immigrants will get free health insurance.
Death panels will decide who lives.
The government will set doctors' wages.
Read the entire article here.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Which Side Are You On?...Day 27
The better angels of our nature are around here somewhere,I hope, even though they may not be visible from Europe.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Which Side Are You On?...Day 26
Attention literalists: This video of Teddy Kennedy does not specifically discuss health care reform, but it does hit the very real issue of class inequality and the way in which the haves are dismissive of the have-nots.
I don't really know any haves, if you consider people like Rick Scott, who puts millions of his own money into the fight against health care reform. And, my continuing amazement is that while very few others know any people like him either, and have little or no chance of becoming like him, many of these same people want to fight for his intersts which are aligned against their interests.
Is it a belief that somehow, if we let the richest have free rein, there will be "More pie for me"? They fail to realize they don't even have a fork.
I don't really know any haves, if you consider people like Rick Scott, who puts millions of his own money into the fight against health care reform. And, my continuing amazement is that while very few others know any people like him either, and have little or no chance of becoming like him, many of these same people want to fight for his intersts which are aligned against their interests.
Is it a belief that somehow, if we let the richest have free rein, there will be "More pie for me"? They fail to realize they don't even have a fork.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Which Side Are You On?...Day 25
How much different might the debate on health care have been had this legislative giant been in the battle?
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Which Side Are You On?...Day 24
These are from last week. Anthony Weiner has emerged as one of the most coherent spokesmen for health care reform. Here's hoping he is given a more visible role in the debate when the recess ends and it returns to Washington.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Which Side Are You On?...Day 23
One of the worst problems the current health care system causes is wage stagnation. Companies facing ever increasing health costs hold back on salary increases, trading benefits for a better wage.
This affects communities as well as individuals.
Collectively, the amount of money which can build and improve cities and towns across the nation is being siphoned off into bloated profits for health insurance companies. If insurance lobbyists prevail in the health care debate, they may get so bloated they take off, like so many hot air balloons.
Sure, they'll step up their funding to community arts groups, and cajole extra days out of their employees to repair poor peoples' houses or man food banks. But possibly that money could be put to better use if spread around more equitably through higher wages.
This affects communities as well as individuals.
Collectively, the amount of money which can build and improve cities and towns across the nation is being siphoned off into bloated profits for health insurance companies. If insurance lobbyists prevail in the health care debate, they may get so bloated they take off, like so many hot air balloons.
Sure, they'll step up their funding to community arts groups, and cajole extra days out of their employees to repair poor peoples' houses or man food banks. But possibly that money could be put to better use if spread around more equitably through higher wages.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Which Side Are You On?.....Day 22
Frank Rich lays out the case why Obama is playing with fire by courting the very people who wish his political demise. If their opposition prevails in denying meaningful reform to our broken health care system, the Obama presidency is finished. Surely that is what these forces are working for.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Which Side Are You On?...Day 21
Last night David Letterman had a joke about the ruckus at the Town Howls, which have been prominently featured in the news. Town Howl protesters are so enraged he said, "because if there's anything Americans hate,it's comprhensive health care."
If there's anything Americans hate, you've got to ask yourself why.
Newt Gingrich has been working to make Americans hate health reform. Why?
If there's anything Americans hate, you've got to ask yourself why.
Newt Gingrich has been working to make Americans hate health reform. Why?
Friday, August 21, 2009
Open Letter to the New Albanian
Roger:
You've asked why not deal with New Albany's problems and issues rather than focusing on the health care reform effort. I'll answer that question, but I fully understand it is merely subtext for the real questions which are suggested by last night's Council meeting and some of which were asked directly by Jeff in a comment in a previous post (...Day 20).
First, the health care issue. I believe there is not a more important issue today. It has effects at the local level and the failure to pass meaningful reform, I believe, dooms Obama's presidency. I am putting these articles on my blog as a small, perhaps insignificant, contribution to what I hope becomes a current of support for reform. Aside from your knock, Jeff, I hope someone reads them as something beyond "making fun of town howls". Meaningful health reform has the potential to transform this nation in a positive way to a greater extent than anything else currently on the horizon.
My recollection of the chronology leading to your expulsion last night...
As I sat through Ms. Denhart's comments I actually thought someone had brought a baby to the meeting and it had just awoken to cry. That was my first reaction to the unusual noise. I still don't know who made the noises but I know now it wasn't a baby. If my memory is correct, the next thing I heard was Steve Price saying something about respect for the speaker. You called something out to Steve and you were gavelled down. You said something else and the cop walked over to escort you out. On the way past Ms. Denhart, you leaned in and called her a "lying bitch". Others inferred a modifier in the phrase but that's all I heard.
You are entitled to your opinions. Ms. Denhart is, likewise, entitled to hers. I recognize that your opinion of me and the other Council members as constituting possibly "The Worst Council in the History of the World" leaves little chance that you will heed any of my words here.
I believe you hold an important place in this community. I believe you know that. I believe that your new business is a valuable addition to the city and it is one major piece of an encouraging future for New Albany. If you recall, I wrote comments on your blog attempting to deflect some brickbats thrown your way, perhaps even by Ms. Denhart. In that comment, if I can recall it, I think I said that New Albany will gain much more from the money spent on the sidewalk improvements in front of your business than what was spent on it. Regardless of your current opinion of me, I stand by that comment. Ms. Denhart was wrong to throw an insult your way regarding the sidewalk and, mistakenly, the patio. But that in no way can excuse your behavior.
Early this year Jeff Gillenwater, bluegill, was verbally accosted by Dan Coffey. I spoke in the Council chamber to denounce the Council president's behavior. It was wrong then and it is wrong now. I would speak up again in that circumstance. I don't mention that to get a pat on the back, but to help you recall that the Council has addressed such an issue when warranted.
I fully understand that you and your friends do not think New Albany is on the right path to a better future. You've stated often that you believe the Council is an impediment to that better day. I also understand that your greatest ire is probably not directed at me but at Dan Coffey and Steve Price. Both of these Council Members are veterans and have built up a sufficient degree of loyalty to be returned to the Council. I would guess your first reaction to that comment is to think that the results are illegitimate because of the current district apportionment. I continue to believe that issue will be addressed.
As I said, you are in my opinion, a valuable contributor to this city's current revitalization and its future prospects. Anyone who steps up to address the problems of this city is valuable to the effort of correcting those problems and opening up opportunities. It takes a certain amount of courage and concern to stand before a group of strangers and speak your mind. Citizens who come to the Council chamber, or any other venue, addressing issues of concern to them, or the public at large are owed nothing less than respect.
Last night's meeting was a disgrace. Regardless of whether Steve Price was out of line addressing the gallery, or if Dan Coffey exercised the prerogatives of the chair in a manner you saw as unfair, your response directed at Ms. Denhart was indefensible. A racial epithet directed at a black man or a derogatory term directed at a homosexual would have been equally indefensible.
You have built up a store of the un-elected version of political capital, and a sizable amount in my view. You have the intellectual tools to further your aims, and as I said earlier, I believe your aims, as demonstrated by your actions, are beneficial to New Albany's future. Continued actions such as you displayed last night jeopardize your ability to contribute to that future because those actions squander the so-called "political capital". As one who believes in your realized and unrealized contributions to our city, I think it would be a shame to lose that opportunity.
I am not writing this with some prescription of atonement. I believe that you voted for me and that if I run again, you probably won't. I can't help that. I'll not make any excuses for my success or failure as a councilman. I will continue to try in my imperfect way to make this a better place to live and if my efforts don't please the citizens, I am plainly aware of the outcome.
Finally, bluegill characterized the Council's action as sitting on our hands as a melee erupted. Part of the reason I laid out the chronology above was to show that events happened in a rapid and confusing sequence. By the time I, or perhaps anyone, would have had a chance to react, Ms. Denhart had been insulted. At that point, your feet had left the diving board. Whatever contribution you could have made to that meeting was lost. It was your choice. And, it was wrong.
Believe it or not, this is offered in a spirit of peace, with hope that similar incidents will not happen.
You've asked why not deal with New Albany's problems and issues rather than focusing on the health care reform effort. I'll answer that question, but I fully understand it is merely subtext for the real questions which are suggested by last night's Council meeting and some of which were asked directly by Jeff in a comment in a previous post (...Day 20).
First, the health care issue. I believe there is not a more important issue today. It has effects at the local level and the failure to pass meaningful reform, I believe, dooms Obama's presidency. I am putting these articles on my blog as a small, perhaps insignificant, contribution to what I hope becomes a current of support for reform. Aside from your knock, Jeff, I hope someone reads them as something beyond "making fun of town howls". Meaningful health reform has the potential to transform this nation in a positive way to a greater extent than anything else currently on the horizon.
My recollection of the chronology leading to your expulsion last night...
As I sat through Ms. Denhart's comments I actually thought someone had brought a baby to the meeting and it had just awoken to cry. That was my first reaction to the unusual noise. I still don't know who made the noises but I know now it wasn't a baby. If my memory is correct, the next thing I heard was Steve Price saying something about respect for the speaker. You called something out to Steve and you were gavelled down. You said something else and the cop walked over to escort you out. On the way past Ms. Denhart, you leaned in and called her a "lying bitch". Others inferred a modifier in the phrase but that's all I heard.
You are entitled to your opinions. Ms. Denhart is, likewise, entitled to hers. I recognize that your opinion of me and the other Council members as constituting possibly "The Worst Council in the History of the World" leaves little chance that you will heed any of my words here.
I believe you hold an important place in this community. I believe you know that. I believe that your new business is a valuable addition to the city and it is one major piece of an encouraging future for New Albany. If you recall, I wrote comments on your blog attempting to deflect some brickbats thrown your way, perhaps even by Ms. Denhart. In that comment, if I can recall it, I think I said that New Albany will gain much more from the money spent on the sidewalk improvements in front of your business than what was spent on it. Regardless of your current opinion of me, I stand by that comment. Ms. Denhart was wrong to throw an insult your way regarding the sidewalk and, mistakenly, the patio. But that in no way can excuse your behavior.
Early this year Jeff Gillenwater, bluegill, was verbally accosted by Dan Coffey. I spoke in the Council chamber to denounce the Council president's behavior. It was wrong then and it is wrong now. I would speak up again in that circumstance. I don't mention that to get a pat on the back, but to help you recall that the Council has addressed such an issue when warranted.
I fully understand that you and your friends do not think New Albany is on the right path to a better future. You've stated often that you believe the Council is an impediment to that better day. I also understand that your greatest ire is probably not directed at me but at Dan Coffey and Steve Price. Both of these Council Members are veterans and have built up a sufficient degree of loyalty to be returned to the Council. I would guess your first reaction to that comment is to think that the results are illegitimate because of the current district apportionment. I continue to believe that issue will be addressed.
As I said, you are in my opinion, a valuable contributor to this city's current revitalization and its future prospects. Anyone who steps up to address the problems of this city is valuable to the effort of correcting those problems and opening up opportunities. It takes a certain amount of courage and concern to stand before a group of strangers and speak your mind. Citizens who come to the Council chamber, or any other venue, addressing issues of concern to them, or the public at large are owed nothing less than respect.
Last night's meeting was a disgrace. Regardless of whether Steve Price was out of line addressing the gallery, or if Dan Coffey exercised the prerogatives of the chair in a manner you saw as unfair, your response directed at Ms. Denhart was indefensible. A racial epithet directed at a black man or a derogatory term directed at a homosexual would have been equally indefensible.
You have built up a store of the un-elected version of political capital, and a sizable amount in my view. You have the intellectual tools to further your aims, and as I said earlier, I believe your aims, as demonstrated by your actions, are beneficial to New Albany's future. Continued actions such as you displayed last night jeopardize your ability to contribute to that future because those actions squander the so-called "political capital". As one who believes in your realized and unrealized contributions to our city, I think it would be a shame to lose that opportunity.
I am not writing this with some prescription of atonement. I believe that you voted for me and that if I run again, you probably won't. I can't help that. I'll not make any excuses for my success or failure as a councilman. I will continue to try in my imperfect way to make this a better place to live and if my efforts don't please the citizens, I am plainly aware of the outcome.
Finally, bluegill characterized the Council's action as sitting on our hands as a melee erupted. Part of the reason I laid out the chronology above was to show that events happened in a rapid and confusing sequence. By the time I, or perhaps anyone, would have had a chance to react, Ms. Denhart had been insulted. At that point, your feet had left the diving board. Whatever contribution you could have made to that meeting was lost. It was your choice. And, it was wrong.
Believe it or not, this is offered in a spirit of peace, with hope that similar incidents will not happen.
Which Side Are You On....Day 20
Earlier in the week on Thom Hartmann's radio show he was discussing the apparent capitultion by the President in support of a Public Plan Option as a necessary component in meaningful health care reform. Hartmann had sent a letter to the President suggesting that the tried and true Medicare system be the Public Plan Option by extending its coverage to those who voluntarily buy into it regardless of age.
The discussion examined some of the reasons this bottom-line component of health care reform has hit rough waters, and part of the reason Hartmann and his listeners settled on, was a lack of clarity in the President's vision, thus leading to a lack of clarity in the public's understanding of his goal. One caller offered a sound bite, which I believe he stated more succinctly than I am here reporting. But it was something like this: "Medicare as Public Option--Shovel Ready Stimulus".
Paul Krugman explores the trouble Mr. Obama's lack of clarity has caused his health reform effort.
The discussion examined some of the reasons this bottom-line component of health care reform has hit rough waters, and part of the reason Hartmann and his listeners settled on, was a lack of clarity in the President's vision, thus leading to a lack of clarity in the public's understanding of his goal. One caller offered a sound bite, which I believe he stated more succinctly than I am here reporting. But it was something like this: "Medicare as Public Option--Shovel Ready Stimulus".
Paul Krugman explores the trouble Mr. Obama's lack of clarity has caused his health reform effort.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Which Side Are You On?...Day 19
I've always wondered why average, everyday people put bumperstickers on their cars that say "JAZZERCISE". What are we to make of that display of loyalty to the JAZZERCISE movement? The driver of the car is a JAZZERCISE instructor? JAZZERCISE saved this person's life by dancing them back from the brink of morbid obesity? This person invented JAZZERCISE? Are some people named JAZZERCISE? They just like bumper stickers, and any sticker will do?
My mind wanders sometimes when I'm behind the wheel. That's how I ended up in Otisco once, but that's another story. But what can make a person, an individual, identify so much with a product which they presumably don't produce or sell, and from which they derive no monetary benefit, that they would willingly place free advertising for that product on their car and drive around displaying it?
That's simply a minor observation of a harmless action. No one is diminished by someone else displaying a JAZZERCISE sticker on that someone else's car. Harmless. And thought provoking only to those with too much time on their hands due to auto confinement.
But another type of exo-indentification is showing itself now. And this product loyalty is dangerous and it is not confined to someone else's car bumper. I am speaking about the tendency, or at least the appearance of a tendency, of people to feel product loyalty to their health insurance seller. This loyalty manifests itself in the acceptance of the slanted view of health care put forth by this billion dollar industry.
The industry wants to stave off a public option because this option would be a highly competitive alternative to the system which renders billions of dollars of profit. The industry is essentially asking for protection from competition. The high level executives of these companies, I would bet, are many of the same ones who decry Unions for advocating protection against competition from slave labor in China. These guys will sing the loudest from the "Miraculous Market Hymnal" when such protection would ensure manufacturing jobs stay in this country rather than being exported to foreign lands. This outsourcing of labor cuts manufacturing costs and labor, but does not diminish profits to the corporation, quite the contrary.
Thousands of people die in this country because they either don't have health insurance, or the health insurance they do have is inadequate.People who buy into the protectionist corporate line are helping to prop up a system which denies a basic human right to their fellow citizens. They are buying into a lie which says the U.S. is the best (aren't we always?) in health care; we're actually ranked 37th in the world. They are buying into a lie which prevents reform, not because the proposed models don't work, they work in every other industrialized nation on Earth, but because, to ignore the lies will decrease the profits of health insurance companies. The health insurance industry does not make a product. It performs a service. And the service it provides is boosting profits to its shareholders and obscenely compensated executives through the denial of health coverage, and the skimming off of a little bit here, and a little bit there on each and every piece of paper they push through the labyrinthian maze.
Those who stand in the way of health reform, and work to maintain the system we have now are,in effect, sporting a bumper sticker that says, "PROFITIZE".
Here is a link to comprehensive exercise in myth busting. It is well worth your attention when conversing with someone on the other side of this issue.
My mind wanders sometimes when I'm behind the wheel. That's how I ended up in Otisco once, but that's another story. But what can make a person, an individual, identify so much with a product which they presumably don't produce or sell, and from which they derive no monetary benefit, that they would willingly place free advertising for that product on their car and drive around displaying it?
That's simply a minor observation of a harmless action. No one is diminished by someone else displaying a JAZZERCISE sticker on that someone else's car. Harmless. And thought provoking only to those with too much time on their hands due to auto confinement.
But another type of exo-indentification is showing itself now. And this product loyalty is dangerous and it is not confined to someone else's car bumper. I am speaking about the tendency, or at least the appearance of a tendency, of people to feel product loyalty to their health insurance seller. This loyalty manifests itself in the acceptance of the slanted view of health care put forth by this billion dollar industry.
The industry wants to stave off a public option because this option would be a highly competitive alternative to the system which renders billions of dollars of profit. The industry is essentially asking for protection from competition. The high level executives of these companies, I would bet, are many of the same ones who decry Unions for advocating protection against competition from slave labor in China. These guys will sing the loudest from the "Miraculous Market Hymnal" when such protection would ensure manufacturing jobs stay in this country rather than being exported to foreign lands. This outsourcing of labor cuts manufacturing costs and labor, but does not diminish profits to the corporation, quite the contrary.
Thousands of people die in this country because they either don't have health insurance, or the health insurance they do have is inadequate.People who buy into the protectionist corporate line are helping to prop up a system which denies a basic human right to their fellow citizens. They are buying into a lie which says the U.S. is the best (aren't we always?) in health care; we're actually ranked 37th in the world. They are buying into a lie which prevents reform, not because the proposed models don't work, they work in every other industrialized nation on Earth, but because, to ignore the lies will decrease the profits of health insurance companies. The health insurance industry does not make a product. It performs a service. And the service it provides is boosting profits to its shareholders and obscenely compensated executives through the denial of health coverage, and the skimming off of a little bit here, and a little bit there on each and every piece of paper they push through the labyrinthian maze.
Those who stand in the way of health reform, and work to maintain the system we have now are,in effect, sporting a bumper sticker that says, "PROFITIZE".
Here is a link to comprehensive exercise in myth busting. It is well worth your attention when conversing with someone on the other side of this issue.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Which Side Are You On?...Day 18
Barney Frank, unlikely pilot of the "'Straight' Talk Express", hits the nail on the head at this Town Howl meeting.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Which Side Are You On?...Day 17
Either Obama is playing one serious game of political chess or he is on track to become the greatest disappointment I've ever seen on the political front.
For the time being, I believe he's a chess player. I guess it's called hope.
For the time being, I believe he's a chess player. I guess it's called hope.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Which Side Are You On?...Day 16a
Some members of the Presient's own party have put so much distance between themselves and meaningful health care reform they've actually gained membership in a different party. They are now officially the: so-called Democrats. These guys are worse than no help.
As President Obama's weak-kneed fellow Democrats cave, and as members of his administration signal that the "public option" is nothing to count on in the final health bill, someone offers a sensible alternative.
Listen up Mr. President, at least somebody's thinking.
____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____
Published on Monday, August 17, 2009 by CommonDreams.org
Dear President Obama: A Modest Medicare Proposal
by Thom Hartmann
Dear President Obama,
I understand you're thinking of dumping your "public option" because of all the demagoguery by Sarah Palin and Dick Armey and Newt Gingrich and their crowd on right-wing radio and Fox. Fine. Good idea, in fact.
Instead, let's make it simple. Please let us buy into Medicare.
It would be so easy. You don't have to reinvent the wheel with this so-called "public option" that's a whole new program from the ground up. Medicare already exists. It works. Some people will like it, others won't - just like the Post Office versus FedEx analogy you're so comfortable with.
Just pass a simple bill - it could probably be just a few lines, like when Medicare was expanded to include disabled people - that says that any American citizen can buy into the program at a rate to be set by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) which reflects the actual cost for us to buy into it.
So it's revenue neutral!
To make it available to people of low income, raise the rates slightly for all currently non-eligible people (like me - under 65) to cover the cost of below-200%-of-poverty people. Revenue neutral again.
Most of us will do damn near anything to get out from under the thumbs of the multi-millionaire CEOs who are running our current insurance programs. Sign me up!
This lets you blow up all the rumors about death panels and grandma and everything else: everybody knows what Medicare is. Those who scorn it can go with Blue Cross. Those who like it can buy into it. Simplicity itself.
Of course, we'd like a few fixes, like letting Medicare negotiate drug prices and filling some of the holes Republicans and AARP and the big insurance lobbyists have drilled into Medicare so people have to buy "supplemental" insurance, but that can wait for the second round. Let's get this done first.
Simple stuff. Medicare for anybody who wants it. Private health insurance for those who don't. Easy message. Even Max Baucus and Chuck Grassley can understand it. Sarah Palin can buy into it, or ignore it. No death panels, no granny plugs, nothing. Just a few sentences.
Replace the "you must be disabled or 65" with "here's what it'll cost if you want to buy in, and here's the sliding scale of subsidies we'll give you if you're poor, paid for by everybody else who's buying in." (You could roll back the Reagan tax cuts and make it all free, but that's another rant.)
We elected you because we expected you to have the courage of your convictions. Here's how. Not the "single payer Medicare for all" that many of us would prefer, but a simple, "Medicare for anybody who wants to buy in."
Respectfully,
Thom Hartmann
As President Obama's weak-kneed fellow Democrats cave, and as members of his administration signal that the "public option" is nothing to count on in the final health bill, someone offers a sensible alternative.
Listen up Mr. President, at least somebody's thinking.
____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____
Published on Monday, August 17, 2009 by CommonDreams.org
Dear President Obama: A Modest Medicare Proposal
by Thom Hartmann
Dear President Obama,
I understand you're thinking of dumping your "public option" because of all the demagoguery by Sarah Palin and Dick Armey and Newt Gingrich and their crowd on right-wing radio and Fox. Fine. Good idea, in fact.
Instead, let's make it simple. Please let us buy into Medicare.
It would be so easy. You don't have to reinvent the wheel with this so-called "public option" that's a whole new program from the ground up. Medicare already exists. It works. Some people will like it, others won't - just like the Post Office versus FedEx analogy you're so comfortable with.
Just pass a simple bill - it could probably be just a few lines, like when Medicare was expanded to include disabled people - that says that any American citizen can buy into the program at a rate to be set by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) which reflects the actual cost for us to buy into it.
So it's revenue neutral!
To make it available to people of low income, raise the rates slightly for all currently non-eligible people (like me - under 65) to cover the cost of below-200%-of-poverty people. Revenue neutral again.
Most of us will do damn near anything to get out from under the thumbs of the multi-millionaire CEOs who are running our current insurance programs. Sign me up!
This lets you blow up all the rumors about death panels and grandma and everything else: everybody knows what Medicare is. Those who scorn it can go with Blue Cross. Those who like it can buy into it. Simplicity itself.
Of course, we'd like a few fixes, like letting Medicare negotiate drug prices and filling some of the holes Republicans and AARP and the big insurance lobbyists have drilled into Medicare so people have to buy "supplemental" insurance, but that can wait for the second round. Let's get this done first.
Simple stuff. Medicare for anybody who wants it. Private health insurance for those who don't. Easy message. Even Max Baucus and Chuck Grassley can understand it. Sarah Palin can buy into it, or ignore it. No death panels, no granny plugs, nothing. Just a few sentences.
Replace the "you must be disabled or 65" with "here's what it'll cost if you want to buy in, and here's the sliding scale of subsidies we'll give you if you're poor, paid for by everybody else who's buying in." (You could roll back the Reagan tax cuts and make it all free, but that's another rant.)
We elected you because we expected you to have the courage of your convictions. Here's how. Not the "single payer Medicare for all" that many of us would prefer, but a simple, "Medicare for anybody who wants to buy in."
Respectfully,
Thom Hartmann
Which Side Are You On?...Day 16
Nobel Prize winning economist and New York Times columnist, Paul Krugman says, "all that stands in the way of universal health care in America are the greed of the medical-industrial complex, the lies of the right-wing propaganda machine, and the gullibility of voters who believe those lies."
Read the rest of Krugman's piece here.
Greed or care. Pretty simple. Which side?
Read the rest of Krugman's piece here.
Greed or care. Pretty simple. Which side?
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Which Side Are You On?...Day 15
In Saturday's Tribune, the roving reporter of "Feet on the Street" asked the question, "What do you think of Baron Hill's decision to not hold town hall meetings about health care reform?"
One of the respondents averred, "I think a town hall meeting would be necessary. I'm not for nationalized health care, it obviously doesn't work in England."(emphasis added)
It obviously doesn't work? But where's that English chap reporting from? The Lake District perhaps? Oh, tag we're
"it".
USA! USA! USA!
One of the respondents averred, "I think a town hall meeting would be necessary. I'm not for nationalized health care, it obviously doesn't work in England."(emphasis added)
It obviously doesn't work? But where's that English chap reporting from? The Lake District perhaps? Oh, tag we're
"it".
USA! USA! USA!
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Which Side Are You On?...Day 14a & b
a) The party of Lincoln? Sir, cosmically avert your eyes.
b) This guy is speaking for your party. Where's the terrible swift sword when you need it?
b) This guy is speaking for your party. Where's the terrible swift sword when you need it?
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Glenn Beck's Operation | ||||
| ||||
Which Side Are You On?...Day14
Meaningful reform of the broken American health care system is threatened by President Obama's unilateral insistence on bipartisanship. His goal of reform is obviously made more difficult by the goofball fringe of corporate pawns working to ensure the continued hegemony of the health insurance industry. But as he continues working the fields, he should also beware of corn snakes; they are sneaky and their bite can be lethal.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Which Side Are You On?...Day 13
For those who question my, as a New Albany City Councilman, interest in this national issue, it is this: Even the rats aboard a sinking ship drown.
Our city and small cities across the land are handcuffed by fiscal restraints put in place by well-meaning citizens and by those who are of the decidedly not well-meaning Norquistian variety.
The quest for this basic civil right holds the prospect of unlocking the vital potential of millions of citizens who are held in dead-end jobs because they "need the benefits".
These people can begin to pursue entrepreneurial gigs that would revive our economy and provide them with more meaningful work lives. These efforts are the kinds of businesses which can be nurtured through one generation into the next. This builds wealth and it builds stable communities with potential for sustainable growth. It could happen in New Albany. It could happen in any of the countless cities across the land.
And yet, New Albany is divided against itself. The nation is divided against itself. Too often, those who step forward to offer their voices in the civic conversation are wittingly or unwittingly speaking someone else's words. The health care debate is a prime example of people's reluctance to accept change, and their fractured attention reinforces this reluctance by preventing a solid understanding of the facts of the debate, thus opening them up to being used as pawns by industry against their own best interests. Thomas Frank's book, "What's The Matter With Kansas" examined that phenomenon.
We can see this at work right here in River City as people howl and object to any spending. This howling is oblivious to the forces at play around us. Inflation is likely to heat up as the economy continues to recover. We demand more services, directly, or indirectly through growth and strain on existing infrastructure.
All the while health care costs grow dramatically. The City currently pays about $1,400,000 annually for health insurance costs. These are for current employees and retirees. The system rides a wave of inflation caused by many factors, but the City budget gets swamped by the costs. The services we demand are cut in its wake, and the City deteriorates. The best solution to these spiralling health care costs is a single-payer plan as put forth in H.R. 676. The New Albany City Council passed a resolution in January supporting H.R. 676.
Health reform is fiscally responsible, yes, but it is simply the right thing to do.
__________________________________________
Below is today's installment of Which Side...? It contains a video from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont.
Our city and small cities across the land are handcuffed by fiscal restraints put in place by well-meaning citizens and by those who are of the decidedly not well-meaning Norquistian variety.
The quest for this basic civil right holds the prospect of unlocking the vital potential of millions of citizens who are held in dead-end jobs because they "need the benefits".
These people can begin to pursue entrepreneurial gigs that would revive our economy and provide them with more meaningful work lives. These efforts are the kinds of businesses which can be nurtured through one generation into the next. This builds wealth and it builds stable communities with potential for sustainable growth. It could happen in New Albany. It could happen in any of the countless cities across the land.
And yet, New Albany is divided against itself. The nation is divided against itself. Too often, those who step forward to offer their voices in the civic conversation are wittingly or unwittingly speaking someone else's words. The health care debate is a prime example of people's reluctance to accept change, and their fractured attention reinforces this reluctance by preventing a solid understanding of the facts of the debate, thus opening them up to being used as pawns by industry against their own best interests. Thomas Frank's book, "What's The Matter With Kansas" examined that phenomenon.
We can see this at work right here in River City as people howl and object to any spending. This howling is oblivious to the forces at play around us. Inflation is likely to heat up as the economy continues to recover. We demand more services, directly, or indirectly through growth and strain on existing infrastructure.
All the while health care costs grow dramatically. The City currently pays about $1,400,000 annually for health insurance costs. These are for current employees and retirees. The system rides a wave of inflation caused by many factors, but the City budget gets swamped by the costs. The services we demand are cut in its wake, and the City deteriorates. The best solution to these spiralling health care costs is a single-payer plan as put forth in H.R. 676. The New Albany City Council passed a resolution in January supporting H.R. 676.
Health reform is fiscally responsible, yes, but it is simply the right thing to do.
__________________________________________
Below is today's installment of Which Side...? It contains a video from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Which Side Are You On?...Day 12a*
Yet another reason One Southern Indiana might expect at least one automatic NO vote from any requests brought to the City Council on its behalf.
*post should be for Thursday August 13, but I can't figure out the pre-post post- date deal.
*post should be for Thursday August 13, but I can't figure out the pre-post post- date deal.
Which Side Are You On?...Day 11
Below is an excerpt from a Guardian article. It points out the cluelessness of some opposing health reform in the U.S.. The response by Stephen Hawking refers to an egg-on-your-face editorial in Investors Business Daily. Need we ask which side they are on?
_______________________________________
The danger, says the Investor's Business Daily, is that he borrows too much from the UK. "The controlling of medical costs in countries such as Britain through rationing, and the health consequences thereof, are legendary. The stories of people dying on a waiting list or being denied altogether read like a horror script … People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the UK, where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless." We say his life is far from worthless, as they do at Addenbrooke's hospital, Cambridge, where Professor Hawking, who has motor neurone disease, was treated for chest problems in April. As indeed does he. "I wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS," he told us. "I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived." Something here is worthless. And it's not him.
The complete article is here.
_______________________________________
The danger, says the Investor's Business Daily, is that he borrows too much from the UK. "The controlling of medical costs in countries such as Britain through rationing, and the health consequences thereof, are legendary. The stories of people dying on a waiting list or being denied altogether read like a horror script … People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the UK, where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless." We say his life is far from worthless, as they do at Addenbrooke's hospital, Cambridge, where Professor Hawking, who has motor neurone disease, was treated for chest problems in April. As indeed does he. "I wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS," he told us. "I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived." Something here is worthless. And it's not him.
The complete article is here.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Which Side Are You On?..Days Nine and Ten
One of the most troubling aspects of the current effort at health care reform is the narrow self-interest displayed by the "haves" and their seeming disregard of the "have nots". As Jerry Seinfeld said to George, "We're trying to have a civilization here."
The cry of the single payer advocates is germane to a functional civilization, "Everybody in. Nobody out."
As the Washington Post article shows, the self-interest may be largely self-delusion. Ask the erstwhile members of the Anthem Blue Cross "network" how they like their health coverage.
The cry of the single payer advocates is germane to a functional civilization, "Everybody in. Nobody out."
As the Washington Post article shows, the self-interest may be largely self-delusion. Ask the erstwhile members of the Anthem Blue Cross "network" how they like their health coverage.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Which Side Are You On?...Day Eight
What's the use when the quarterback hands the ball to the other team?
A bit like New Albany in certain respects.
A bit like New Albany in certain respects.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Which Side Are You On?...Day Seven
I recall newspaper stories I used to read as a kid from time to time. These were reports from distant Pacific islands where a lone confused Japanese soldier would be found still manning his post in the Emperor's efforts to win World War II, many, many years after the surrender of 1945.
In like fashion a latter-day holdout is seen here executing the Bush administration's demogogic all-fear-all-the-time strategy. Instead of GIs, this holdout's enemy is reason, civility and us.
In like fashion a latter-day holdout is seen here executing the Bush administration's demogogic all-fear-all-the-time strategy. Instead of GIs, this holdout's enemy is reason, civility and us.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Moratorium on Building Permits?
At the August 3, 2009 City Council meeting a proposed ordinance was discussed during "Comments by Public Officials", a regular agenda item.
It was not available to the public at the time of the meeting.
________________________________________________
DRAFT OF ORDINANCE FOR DISCUSSION ONLY
WHEREAS: Citizens of various areas of the city have appeared before this Council to alert the Council to the occurrence of flooding in their homes and loss of personal property, and
WHEREAS: This flooding may be caused by over-burdening the existing drainage system comprised of both sanitary and stormwater components, and
WHEREAS: Communication from the Stormwater Board indicates that a Master Plan relating to stormwater drainage is underway, but still months in the future, and
WHEREAS: Residents of long standing are reporting unusual and increased overflows of the drainage system, resulting in serious and costly damage to their homes and personal effects, and
WHEREAS: Residents of areas and neighborhoods have reported an apparent change in the capability of the present drainage system to handle additional capacity without causing further damage to homes and personal property, and
WHEREAS: Some of those citizens have expressed to this Council fear that new “by-right” building or development may cause further stress to the drainage system, and
WHEREAS: High water represents a threat of transporting water-borne pathogens when stormwater and sewage are mixed due to inadequacies or failures within the system, and
WHEREAS: High water unexpectedly appearing on neighborhood streets, drainage swales or other conveyances may constitute an “attractive nuisance” to children unfamiliar with the dangerous force of flowing water,
NOW THEREFORE:
The Common Council of New Albany finds it prudent to authorize the relevant persons or offices within City Government to impose and enforce a moratorium on the issuance of new building permits until such time that the Stormwater Master Plan is completed and judged sufficient to address the scope of the drainage problems facing the City of New Albany.
Only those building permits which could result in additional flow of stormwater into the system, or those building permits which could result in the paving of currently un-paved ground, are subject to the moratorium.
And further, the Common Council wishes the record to show that all remedial steps currently underway, or in planning, to address the drainage problems facing the city, shall continue during the period of this moratorium.
It was not available to the public at the time of the meeting.
________________________________________________
DRAFT OF ORDINANCE FOR DISCUSSION ONLY
WHEREAS: Citizens of various areas of the city have appeared before this Council to alert the Council to the occurrence of flooding in their homes and loss of personal property, and
WHEREAS: This flooding may be caused by over-burdening the existing drainage system comprised of both sanitary and stormwater components, and
WHEREAS: Communication from the Stormwater Board indicates that a Master Plan relating to stormwater drainage is underway, but still months in the future, and
WHEREAS: Residents of long standing are reporting unusual and increased overflows of the drainage system, resulting in serious and costly damage to their homes and personal effects, and
WHEREAS: Residents of areas and neighborhoods have reported an apparent change in the capability of the present drainage system to handle additional capacity without causing further damage to homes and personal property, and
WHEREAS: Some of those citizens have expressed to this Council fear that new “by-right” building or development may cause further stress to the drainage system, and
WHEREAS: High water represents a threat of transporting water-borne pathogens when stormwater and sewage are mixed due to inadequacies or failures within the system, and
WHEREAS: High water unexpectedly appearing on neighborhood streets, drainage swales or other conveyances may constitute an “attractive nuisance” to children unfamiliar with the dangerous force of flowing water,
NOW THEREFORE:
The Common Council of New Albany finds it prudent to authorize the relevant persons or offices within City Government to impose and enforce a moratorium on the issuance of new building permits until such time that the Stormwater Master Plan is completed and judged sufficient to address the scope of the drainage problems facing the City of New Albany.
Only those building permits which could result in additional flow of stormwater into the system, or those building permits which could result in the paving of currently un-paved ground, are subject to the moratorium.
And further, the Common Council wishes the record to show that all remedial steps currently underway, or in planning, to address the drainage problems facing the city, shall continue during the period of this moratorium.
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