Upon walking out the porch door to get some firewood this evening I received an amazing Christmas gift. It may not be a grand rarity, but I took some reassurance that this creature had found a way to make peace with our encroachment on its habitat. A Great Horned Owl, or so I've deduced from information on the internets, split the winter night with its eerie call.
So that makes for me, a Merry Christmas.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Merry Christmas, Truly
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Jesus Is a Liberal Democrat | ||||
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Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Just Outside My Bailiwick
President Obama has become afflicted with premature capitulation. While his avowed enemies within the ascendant G.O.P. seem intent on a Bush restoration of sorts. The supine executive has agreed to a continuation of the Bush tax cuts, in a deal short on benefits for the middle class, while adding to the mountain of debt the Republicans claim to abhor. That party's abhorrence attends when the debt helps the lower classes, it ends when it helps the upper class.
Since the President made a bad deal, I figure he was simply lacking the perspective of City Council members from cities around the country. As most people recognize, the nation's City Councils are the great repository of deep economic and political theory. So, hearing the call of duty once again, here goes my plan to pull the president's Nusse out of the fire.
I respectfully suggest that someone within the Democratic leadership should offer a proposal containing the following basic elements:
A:
Taxpayers earning below $250,000 will keep 90% of their current tax cut. These taxpayers would lose 10% of their current tax cuts.
The "average" taxpayer, according to the President, would see their taxes increase by $3,000 if the entire tax cut expired, therefore, if they kept 90% of the cut their taxes would increase just $300 (three hundred) per year.
Every penny of this increased tax revenue would be dedicated to deficit or debt reduction.
B:
Taxpayers earning between $250,000 and $1,000,000 would keep 50% of their current tax cuts. A person in this bracket earning $625,000 per year would see their taxes increase by about $11,000 per year. Those fortunate enough to earn a million dollars would see an increase of about $22,500 per year.
Half of the increased revenue from these increased payments would be dedicated to deficit or debt reduction. The other half would go toward funding infrastructure improvements.
C:
Those earning above $1,000,000 would see their tax rates revert to the rates in effect before the Bush tax cuts--an increase from 35% up to 39.6%
Half of this increased revenue would go to deficit or debt reduction and the other half would go toward funding infrastructure improvements.
_____________
All segments of the population would share in the sacrifice needed to get our fiscal affairs in order. All segments of the population would benefit from a revitalized infrastructure.
The unemployed would be put to work in all phases of the gargantuan task of getting our infrastructure up to par and up to date. The improvements would include a viable, 21st Century rail passenger and freight system worthy of a First World power, highway improvements, public park restoration, power grid improvements, urban revitalization, seashore cleanup and buffering, removal of tinder from forests which fuel dangerous forest fires. The list is practically endless and the needs are great.
Work which focuses on such basic improvement of our nation pays immediate dividends because it is work which must be performed in this country, by this country's workers, many of which are currently unemployed or under-employed. The components of these improvements should and must be domestically produced. This could be the engine which drives a long term and sustainable recovery and a sustainable economy.
It makes more sense than padding the bank accounts of the wealthy.
Might that be hard for Republicans to vote against, Mr. President?
Since the President made a bad deal, I figure he was simply lacking the perspective of City Council members from cities around the country. As most people recognize, the nation's City Councils are the great repository of deep economic and political theory. So, hearing the call of duty once again, here goes my plan to pull the president's Nusse out of the fire.
I respectfully suggest that someone within the Democratic leadership should offer a proposal containing the following basic elements:
A:
Taxpayers earning below $250,000 will keep 90% of their current tax cut. These taxpayers would lose 10% of their current tax cuts.
The "average" taxpayer, according to the President, would see their taxes increase by $3,000 if the entire tax cut expired, therefore, if they kept 90% of the cut their taxes would increase just $300 (three hundred) per year.
Every penny of this increased tax revenue would be dedicated to deficit or debt reduction.
B:
Taxpayers earning between $250,000 and $1,000,000 would keep 50% of their current tax cuts. A person in this bracket earning $625,000 per year would see their taxes increase by about $11,000 per year. Those fortunate enough to earn a million dollars would see an increase of about $22,500 per year.
Half of the increased revenue from these increased payments would be dedicated to deficit or debt reduction. The other half would go toward funding infrastructure improvements.
C:
Those earning above $1,000,000 would see their tax rates revert to the rates in effect before the Bush tax cuts--an increase from 35% up to 39.6%
Half of this increased revenue would go to deficit or debt reduction and the other half would go toward funding infrastructure improvements.
_____________
All segments of the population would share in the sacrifice needed to get our fiscal affairs in order. All segments of the population would benefit from a revitalized infrastructure.
The unemployed would be put to work in all phases of the gargantuan task of getting our infrastructure up to par and up to date. The improvements would include a viable, 21st Century rail passenger and freight system worthy of a First World power, highway improvements, public park restoration, power grid improvements, urban revitalization, seashore cleanup and buffering, removal of tinder from forests which fuel dangerous forest fires. The list is practically endless and the needs are great.
Work which focuses on such basic improvement of our nation pays immediate dividends because it is work which must be performed in this country, by this country's workers, many of which are currently unemployed or under-employed. The components of these improvements should and must be domestically produced. This could be the engine which drives a long term and sustainable recovery and a sustainable economy.
It makes more sense than padding the bank accounts of the wealthy.
Might that be hard for Republicans to vote against, Mr. President?
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Eat It, and Wash It Down With a Cup of Tea
Somewhat good news on the economy has surfaced, albeit a few weeks too late to benefit the deus ex machina which guided us to this point in the economic cycle.
President Obama is looking more and more like he got a bit too far ahead of the dullards he's trying to lead. As he continues to face an opposition which wants to fight to the death to preserve tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires(who among us benefits from so many zeroes?), he sees rising opposition to the knight(ess?) in shining armor, Lady Elizabeth Warren, who has taken on the quest of defending the middle class against rapine tactics of the credit card grantors. He spoke in Kokomo today to highlight the salvation of the American Automobile Industry. That action likely prevented the Great Recession from becoming the sequel to the Great Depression. Years of soft living have rendered the American people incapable of bearing the burdens of of our forebears. "Exactly how worth living is a life without digital cable, air conditioned comfort and sole-less commerce?", we tweet.
As Thanksgiving approaches, please, someone, assay the true values.
BELOW IS AN ARTICLE FROM HUFFINGTON POST proving that no good deed goes unpunished.
_______________________
Peter S. Goodman pgoodman@huffingtonpost.com | HuffPost Reporting
Email Comments 8,864 Happy days are back! During the summer months, corporations logged their biggest profits since the government started counting way back in the age of Elvis, and the economy expanded at a slightly faster pace than previously thought. Surely, when Caterpillar and Morgan Stanley are swimming in lucre, life must be getting more wonderful for everyone.
Alas, no. Word that American businesses sucked in profits at an annualized pace of $1.66 trillion between July and September is certainly better than the alternative. Ditto, the wholly expected news that the economy grew faster than an initially reported 2 percent annual rate, reaching a still modest 2.5 percent. But none of this has translated into the sort of job growth that will be required to cut into an unemployment rate stuck at 9.6 percent. Worse, there is little reason to suspect it will anytime soon.
We have been hearing for so long now that, once companies start making real money, they will feel the urge to expand. Then, they will hire lots of people, and we can stop worrying and resume shopping. Yet so far--this most recent quarter included--all we have gotten is an extended lesson in the modern workings of a stubbornly lean job market and a display of what now stands as American management's core competency: How to rack up profits and reward shareholders while keeping the cubicles empty.
At the corporate level, the Great Recession is a memory. After plunging during the last three months of 2008, when the world was recoiling at the prospect of a full-blown financial meltdown, profits have expanded snappily every quarter since, according to data compiled by Moody's Analytics. But at the household level -- the realm of mortgages, credit card balances, doctor bills and soon-to-expire unemployment benefits -- the worst economic downturn since the Depression remains a defining force.
We taxpayers have handed hundreds of billions of dollars to the same mortgage and insurance industry that started all the trouble with its reckless gambling. We have bailed out General Motors. We have distributed tax cuts to businesses that were supposed to use this lubrication to expand and hire.
For our dollars, we have been rewarded with the staving off of potential financial Armageddon and the stabilizing of a real economy that was teetering dangerously toward the abyss. That certainly is something, but it falls far short of the only thing that can end this disaster on a meaningful scale: large numbers of quality paychecks.
Success for large companies has yet to trickle down. Since the end of 2008, when corporate America began enjoying the resumption of growth, profits have swelled from an annualized pace of $995 billion to the current $1.66 trillion as of the end of September. Over the same period, the number of non-farm jobs counted by the Labor Department has slipped from 13.4 million to 13 million.
President Obama is looking more and more like he got a bit too far ahead of the dullards he's trying to lead. As he continues to face an opposition which wants to fight to the death to preserve tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires(who among us benefits from so many zeroes?), he sees rising opposition to the knight(ess?) in shining armor, Lady Elizabeth Warren, who has taken on the quest of defending the middle class against rapine tactics of the credit card grantors. He spoke in Kokomo today to highlight the salvation of the American Automobile Industry. That action likely prevented the Great Recession from becoming the sequel to the Great Depression. Years of soft living have rendered the American people incapable of bearing the burdens of of our forebears. "Exactly how worth living is a life without digital cable, air conditioned comfort and sole-less commerce?", we tweet.
As Thanksgiving approaches, please, someone, assay the true values.
BELOW IS AN ARTICLE FROM HUFFINGTON POST proving that no good deed goes unpunished.
_______________________
Peter S. Goodman pgoodman@huffingtonpost.com | HuffPost Reporting
Email Comments 8,864 Happy days are back! During the summer months, corporations logged their biggest profits since the government started counting way back in the age of Elvis, and the economy expanded at a slightly faster pace than previously thought. Surely, when Caterpillar and Morgan Stanley are swimming in lucre, life must be getting more wonderful for everyone.
Alas, no. Word that American businesses sucked in profits at an annualized pace of $1.66 trillion between July and September is certainly better than the alternative. Ditto, the wholly expected news that the economy grew faster than an initially reported 2 percent annual rate, reaching a still modest 2.5 percent. But none of this has translated into the sort of job growth that will be required to cut into an unemployment rate stuck at 9.6 percent. Worse, there is little reason to suspect it will anytime soon.
We have been hearing for so long now that, once companies start making real money, they will feel the urge to expand. Then, they will hire lots of people, and we can stop worrying and resume shopping. Yet so far--this most recent quarter included--all we have gotten is an extended lesson in the modern workings of a stubbornly lean job market and a display of what now stands as American management's core competency: How to rack up profits and reward shareholders while keeping the cubicles empty.
At the corporate level, the Great Recession is a memory. After plunging during the last three months of 2008, when the world was recoiling at the prospect of a full-blown financial meltdown, profits have expanded snappily every quarter since, according to data compiled by Moody's Analytics. But at the household level -- the realm of mortgages, credit card balances, doctor bills and soon-to-expire unemployment benefits -- the worst economic downturn since the Depression remains a defining force.
We taxpayers have handed hundreds of billions of dollars to the same mortgage and insurance industry that started all the trouble with its reckless gambling. We have bailed out General Motors. We have distributed tax cuts to businesses that were supposed to use this lubrication to expand and hire.
For our dollars, we have been rewarded with the staving off of potential financial Armageddon and the stabilizing of a real economy that was teetering dangerously toward the abyss. That certainly is something, but it falls far short of the only thing that can end this disaster on a meaningful scale: large numbers of quality paychecks.
Success for large companies has yet to trickle down. Since the end of 2008, when corporate America began enjoying the resumption of growth, profits have swelled from an annualized pace of $995 billion to the current $1.66 trillion as of the end of September. Over the same period, the number of non-farm jobs counted by the Labor Department has slipped from 13.4 million to 13 million.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Whetting Your Appetite
If you take a look at East Sixth Street between Elm and Spring Streets, you will see a new addition to the historic ledger of New Albany. Last week, contractors stripped the meager asphalt layer from this street to expose a nearly pristine brick street, complete with intact cut limestone curbs. It is a preview of what might await the historic districts of our city.
The machinery used to strip the asphalt from Sixth Street was, how should one say, a bit over-zealous. In fact some of the bricks were scarred in the process of milling. But what remains is a near perfect example of a well-laid functional brick street from around the turn of the Twentieth Century. This unmasking is a welcome prelude to the Bicentennial celebration, which is just around the corner, and it is a tie to the halfway mark of our City's history at the Centennial.
New Albany's rich history can be emphasized through the exposure of brick and cobblestone streets and alleys. Streets so exposed can serve as reminders of the labor involved in building a functional city for one's own generation and for those generations we hope will follow. Those are aesthetic and philosophical dividends of a brick street exposure; they are somewhat akin to the realization one lives in a more valuable house as the wall-to-wall is pulled up to expose hardwood floors.
In today's lean times and tightened belts, a practical dividend may also be found in the fact that exposed brick streets, along with increasing property values, will cut down on the paving budget, and may help with more efficient storm water control as the original, functional and intended curb depths are restored. They are also natural traffic-calming devices.
While the Sixth Street unmasking may only be a one-off experiment, New Albany has many fine brick streets and alleys just an inch or two away. If we recognize this as a viable, sensible option for the older parts of town, we must look at a recovery process which does less damage during the unmasking. Here is a link to such a process. It deserves a serious look if people like what they see on Sixth Street.
The machinery used to strip the asphalt from Sixth Street was, how should one say, a bit over-zealous. In fact some of the bricks were scarred in the process of milling. But what remains is a near perfect example of a well-laid functional brick street from around the turn of the Twentieth Century. This unmasking is a welcome prelude to the Bicentennial celebration, which is just around the corner, and it is a tie to the halfway mark of our City's history at the Centennial.
New Albany's rich history can be emphasized through the exposure of brick and cobblestone streets and alleys. Streets so exposed can serve as reminders of the labor involved in building a functional city for one's own generation and for those generations we hope will follow. Those are aesthetic and philosophical dividends of a brick street exposure; they are somewhat akin to the realization one lives in a more valuable house as the wall-to-wall is pulled up to expose hardwood floors.
In today's lean times and tightened belts, a practical dividend may also be found in the fact that exposed brick streets, along with increasing property values, will cut down on the paving budget, and may help with more efficient storm water control as the original, functional and intended curb depths are restored. They are also natural traffic-calming devices.
While the Sixth Street unmasking may only be a one-off experiment, New Albany has many fine brick streets and alleys just an inch or two away. If we recognize this as a viable, sensible option for the older parts of town, we must look at a recovery process which does less damage during the unmasking. Here is a link to such a process. It deserves a serious look if people like what they see on Sixth Street.
Monday, November 1, 2010
The Skater
Here on the eve of a momentous vote for the state of Indiana, amid hope for certain candidates fueled by precious little reality, I see a figure of effortless movement, on the periphery of sight, urging us onward to his vision for the future. He likes it there, outside the harsh light of responsibility and blame for the tightening belts and dashed plans of local governments and schools.
He wishes that we local politicians work with limited means to achieve limited goals. He hopes that we can place local government on a regimen of discipline and reduction, so to heed his soul mate's desire of fitting that, and any, government into a bathtub where it might meet its deserved fate (and it's not a bath).
He brags about his conservative saving ways and the budget he placed in surplus. He fails to see the help he got from Washington led to his claim.
He pushes local government to the breaking point by limiting its income from taxes. He forces local governments to cut services to fit the budget and he rides high with 65% approval ratings while others clean up after him.
As racketeers beat the rap they are said to skate. I just wonder how and why My Man gets away with it.
The constitutional amendment to enshrine property tax caps will hobble local government in Indiana for a very long time.
And yet, he skates.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
War die Debatte gestern in Lexington oder Frankfurt?
Is the truth of the Tea Baggers' real identity becoming clearer?
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Room to Clarify
It’s still a common misunderstanding that all local chambers are connected to the national group in some way.
Robin Comstock, president and CEO of the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, had to clarify that to the audience at a 1st Congressional District debate on Tuesday at Saint Anselm College.
“We are not accredited by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; we are not a member,” she said. “The only similarity is that we share a name."
Source: The Telegraph, October 17, 2010, Nashua New Hampshire (emphasis added)
____________________
Congratulations to One Southern Indiana Chamber and Economic Development for recently earning the coveted US Chamber of Commerce Accreditation. This places 1SI in the top 4% of chambers nation wide and demonstrates the ability for “suburb chambers” to achieve excellence in the areas of membership, economic development, and general business practices. Michael Dalby, staff, and members of the board should be proud of this accomplishment.
Source: Kyle Morey, The Diary of a Chamber Exec, March 9, 2010 (emphasis added)
____________________
Follow this link for video.
Robin Comstock, president and CEO of the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, had to clarify that to the audience at a 1st Congressional District debate on Tuesday at Saint Anselm College.
“We are not accredited by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; we are not a member,” she said. “The only similarity is that we share a name."
Source: The Telegraph, October 17, 2010, Nashua New Hampshire (emphasis added)
____________________
Congratulations to One Southern Indiana Chamber and Economic Development for recently earning the coveted US Chamber of Commerce Accreditation. This places 1SI in the top 4% of chambers nation wide and demonstrates the ability for “suburb chambers” to achieve excellence in the areas of membership, economic development, and general business practices. Michael Dalby, staff, and members of the board should be proud of this accomplishment.
Source: Kyle Morey, The Diary of a Chamber Exec, March 9, 2010 (emphasis added)
____________________
Follow this link for video.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Qs & As
Among some of the questions not asked at last night's City Council meeting is, "what is the relationship of local Chambers of Commerce to the national organization?"
Some answers?
Some more answers?
Reading between the lines.
Some answers?
Some more answers?
Reading between the lines.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Two Roads...
CONTENTS · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
Robert Frost (1874–1963). Mountain Interval. 1920.
1. The Road Not Taken
TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth; 5
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same, 10
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back. 15
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. 20
I had a pleasant lunch and discussion, Friday, with a supporter of the Bridges Project. Though pleasant, we were on different sides of the table in more ways than one. As most of our local residents know, the New Albany City Council recently passed a resolution condemning tolling as the financing arrangement of the Bridges Project. Out of character, regionally, this was the first such official governmental address of that issue to come down on the opposite side of the table from the assumed status quo.
To question the tolls is to question the need for a downtown bridge and the attendant rejiggering of Spaghetti Junction. To question tolls is to lean toward construction of the eastern bridge first and assess the need for a downtown bridge later. To question tolls is to hope that something miraculous may come into being to save us from a slavish addiction to automobile commuting, oh that's right, they're called buses and trains and they're in use in vibrant functioning cities around the world. To question the tolls is to ask for a reassessment of the staus quo.
While I have the utmost respect for my "lunch date", and feel that he is genuinely concerned for the future of our city, region and planet, the Bridges issue, we just saw it from a different point of view, as Dylan might say.
Both of us question what would be the long term results if our position were to prevail. On the pro-two bridge-side one sees the saving in time for morning commuters, a safer and more efficient Kennedy bridge, less danger at Spaghetti Junction, and less pollution as people run their cars' motors at idle.
On the anti-two bridge-side one sees less accommodation to a wasteful transportation system. Such a system undergirds sprawl and its weakening of communities across the land. City budgets are stretched to, and in some cases beyond, the limit to provide services for wider areas. Safety is compromised as personal automobiles fight for a place on highways which more and more resemble freightways for tractor trailers, such a freight system focuses resources away from the efficient transportation of goods along well established rail lines and places this vital piece of our infrastructure needlessly in the background. Intercity travel is limited to highway and air for far too many of our U.S. citizens, including those who live in New Albany and the Metro area. Rail travel has been shut out of the debate for years as the lure of personal transportation has been seen as the American Way.
The main thing I got from my lunch conversation was that we stand here in our time making decisions for those who must follow us. If we look around at what has been handed to us, what we have stumbled into ourselves, can we honestly say that the best we can do is simply offer more of the same? If we would hope to leave our descendants a more livable world, a more responsible stewardship of the environment, a better transportation system; is the best we can do simply adding more lanes to Spaghetti Junction, and cutting a gash through the downtown of our neighboring city of Jeffersonville? Is this what future generations will thank us for?
Or will they, perhaps not thank us, but at least breathe a sigh of relief that we did not drive deeper into the ditch? An article in Sunday's Courier-Journal points out that Louisville is funding the largest initiative for urban parks in North America. Would that have been possible without the amazing, futuristic steps taken in the Nineteenth Century to put into place Frederick Olmsted's park plans? Is there one among us who believes we would or could undertake such a fantastic scheme today as the one Olmsted proposed over a hundred years ago?
And yet, here we stand, in our time, with over $4,000,000,000 and a decision to make. Do we do more of the same, or do we set a different course?
If we build the one east end bridge now and find that traffic problems have been diminished, and we still have over two billion dollars of funds we seem willing to spend, why do we not commit that same amount of money to a truly region-building, economy-boosting, energy-saving, job-producing, neighborhood-preserving, project like light rail and enhanced freight rail reliance?
Robert Frost (1874–1963). Mountain Interval. 1920.
1. The Road Not Taken
TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth; 5
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same, 10
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back. 15
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. 20
I had a pleasant lunch and discussion, Friday, with a supporter of the Bridges Project. Though pleasant, we were on different sides of the table in more ways than one. As most of our local residents know, the New Albany City Council recently passed a resolution condemning tolling as the financing arrangement of the Bridges Project. Out of character, regionally, this was the first such official governmental address of that issue to come down on the opposite side of the table from the assumed status quo.
To question the tolls is to question the need for a downtown bridge and the attendant rejiggering of Spaghetti Junction. To question tolls is to lean toward construction of the eastern bridge first and assess the need for a downtown bridge later. To question tolls is to hope that something miraculous may come into being to save us from a slavish addiction to automobile commuting, oh that's right, they're called buses and trains and they're in use in vibrant functioning cities around the world. To question the tolls is to ask for a reassessment of the staus quo.
While I have the utmost respect for my "lunch date", and feel that he is genuinely concerned for the future of our city, region and planet, the Bridges issue, we just saw it from a different point of view, as Dylan might say.
Both of us question what would be the long term results if our position were to prevail. On the pro-two bridge-side one sees the saving in time for morning commuters, a safer and more efficient Kennedy bridge, less danger at Spaghetti Junction, and less pollution as people run their cars' motors at idle.
On the anti-two bridge-side one sees less accommodation to a wasteful transportation system. Such a system undergirds sprawl and its weakening of communities across the land. City budgets are stretched to, and in some cases beyond, the limit to provide services for wider areas. Safety is compromised as personal automobiles fight for a place on highways which more and more resemble freightways for tractor trailers, such a freight system focuses resources away from the efficient transportation of goods along well established rail lines and places this vital piece of our infrastructure needlessly in the background. Intercity travel is limited to highway and air for far too many of our U.S. citizens, including those who live in New Albany and the Metro area. Rail travel has been shut out of the debate for years as the lure of personal transportation has been seen as the American Way.
The main thing I got from my lunch conversation was that we stand here in our time making decisions for those who must follow us. If we look around at what has been handed to us, what we have stumbled into ourselves, can we honestly say that the best we can do is simply offer more of the same? If we would hope to leave our descendants a more livable world, a more responsible stewardship of the environment, a better transportation system; is the best we can do simply adding more lanes to Spaghetti Junction, and cutting a gash through the downtown of our neighboring city of Jeffersonville? Is this what future generations will thank us for?
Or will they, perhaps not thank us, but at least breathe a sigh of relief that we did not drive deeper into the ditch? An article in Sunday's Courier-Journal points out that Louisville is funding the largest initiative for urban parks in North America. Would that have been possible without the amazing, futuristic steps taken in the Nineteenth Century to put into place Frederick Olmsted's park plans? Is there one among us who believes we would or could undertake such a fantastic scheme today as the one Olmsted proposed over a hundred years ago?
And yet, here we stand, in our time, with over $4,000,000,000 and a decision to make. Do we do more of the same, or do we set a different course?
If we build the one east end bridge now and find that traffic problems have been diminished, and we still have over two billion dollars of funds we seem willing to spend, why do we not commit that same amount of money to a truly region-building, economy-boosting, energy-saving, job-producing, neighborhood-preserving, project like light rail and enhanced freight rail reliance?
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Take Home Squad Cars
Some discussion at a recent work session of the City Council touched on various ways to trim over budget expenditures within the Police Department. One suggestion was to rein in the use of take-home squad cars. On the surface it just seems logical that such use has a cost and that cost may be a worthwhile place to look for savings. Police representatives counter that it takes more time and money to unload one officer's gear from the squad car getting it ready for the next user, and more importantly, it wastes valuable time in case of an emergency.
Another value in police take-home cars is the deterrent effect of a police car parked in neighborhoods around the city. To some extent, a cop is never off-duty and even if he's in his basement lair watching old episodes of Dragnet, the car is still holding hooligans at bay.
Any and all of the above may be true. One issue involving the use of take-home cars that does not get sufficient consideration is limiting take-home cars to those who actually live in the City of New Albany. If such a car is a perk, give that perk to those officers who live in this city. If take home cars are a deterrent, focus that deterrent in the City they are sworn to protect and defend. If there is a tactical benefit in keeping cars equipped, thereby increasing response time, how better to increase response time than ensuring that those officers with take-home cars live within the City, in close proximity to the area they serve?
State law dictates that residency requirements are not allowed. The Police Department cannot limit employment to city residents. But a policy based on the efficient use of scarce resources could allow officers to make their own choices of where they wish to live if they see value in a take-home squad car. If the City is paying for the car it should derive the benefits of that car. By limiting the use of take-home cars to residents of the City, the Police Department can help to incentivize well-paid officers to contribute more than their employment time to the City's well-being, building stronger safer neighborhoods within the City they are sworn to serve and protect.
Another value in police take-home cars is the deterrent effect of a police car parked in neighborhoods around the city. To some extent, a cop is never off-duty and even if he's in his basement lair watching old episodes of Dragnet, the car is still holding hooligans at bay.
Any and all of the above may be true. One issue involving the use of take-home cars that does not get sufficient consideration is limiting take-home cars to those who actually live in the City of New Albany. If such a car is a perk, give that perk to those officers who live in this city. If take home cars are a deterrent, focus that deterrent in the City they are sworn to protect and defend. If there is a tactical benefit in keeping cars equipped, thereby increasing response time, how better to increase response time than ensuring that those officers with take-home cars live within the City, in close proximity to the area they serve?
State law dictates that residency requirements are not allowed. The Police Department cannot limit employment to city residents. But a policy based on the efficient use of scarce resources could allow officers to make their own choices of where they wish to live if they see value in a take-home squad car. If the City is paying for the car it should derive the benefits of that car. By limiting the use of take-home cars to residents of the City, the Police Department can help to incentivize well-paid officers to contribute more than their employment time to the City's well-being, building stronger safer neighborhoods within the City they are sworn to serve and protect.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Hands Across the Water
A RESOLUTION IN OPPOSITION TO TOLLS ON THE KENNEDY,
CLARK MEMORIAL, AND SHERMAN MINTON BRIDGES AND/OR THE
INTERSTATE CONNECTORS (I-64, I-65, AND I-71) A/K/A “SPAGHETTI
JUNCTION,” AND SUPPORTING MORE CROSS - RIVER
CONNECTIONS.
Sponsored By: Council Members Tina Ward-Pugh, Jim King, Tom Owen,
Hal Heiner, Vicki Welch, Brent Ackerson, Deonte Hollowell, Barbara Shanklin,
Rick Blackwell, Marianne Butler, Bob Henderson, Robin Engel, Stuart Benson,
Kenneth C. Fleming, Mary Woolridge, Kelly Downard, Cheri Bryant Hamilton
WHEREAS, the issues surrounding the Ohio River Bridges Project (ORBP) have
a real and direct impact on the citizens, economy and cultural well-being of our
community; and
WHEREAS, a financing plan that could result in the imposition of tolls on new
and existing Ohio River bridges and/ or tolls on the Interstate connectors (I-64, I-65, and
I-71) a/k/a “Spaghetti Junction” is currently under consideration, and has raised valid
concerns from the citizens of this community; and
WHEREAS, the Ohio River should serve as the center of unity and commerce,
not as a barrier dividing the metropolitan area; and
WHEREAS, the three bridges (Sherman Minton, Clark Memorial and Kennedy)
connecting Kentucky and Indiana are essential links in the growth and economic
development of the community; and
WHEREAS, the ORBP is essential to interstate commerce in the Eastern United
States and should include sufficient Federal funding to avoid shifting the burden of its
cost to local daily commuters; and
WHEREAS, it is fundamentally wrong to begin tolling the existing transportation
infrastructure currently used by hard-working citizens whose livelihood depends on
their daily commute to their jobs in Kentucky and Indiana; and
WHEREAS, the imposition of tolls on existing transportation infrastructure may
threaten businesses and working families of this community.
NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL OF THE
LOUISVILLE/JEFFERSON COUNTY METRO GOVERNMENT (THE COUNCIL) AS
FOLLOWS:
SECTION I: The Louisville Metro Council, by this Resolution, states that it is opposed
to tolls on the Kennedy Bridge, Clark Memorial Bridge, Sherman Minton Bridge and/or
“Spaghetti Junction,” while still supporting more cross - river connections; and
further states that the best policy for the economic well-being of the region is for the
ORBP to be built without tolls on existing facilities and in affordable phases
commencing with the connection of I-265 between Jefferson County, Kentucky and
Clark County, Indiana..
SECTION II: Notwithstanding the Council’s belief that existing transportation
infrastructure should not be tolled to pay the cost of construction of the ORBP, it is
recognized that circumstances related to the orientation of the new downtown bridge
relative to the existing downtown Kennedy Bridge, e.g., the functional pairing of the two
bridges, could require the tolling of the existing Kennedy Bridge to provide appropriate
parity between the use of the two bridges. In that case, the Council believes any tolls
applied to the Kennedy Bridge should only be implemented when that phase is built and
then only in an amount necessary to recover the cost of the new downtown bridge, less
available federal funding.
SECTION III: This Resolution shall take effect upon its passage and approval.
_______________________________
Kathleen J. Herron
Metro Council Clerk
_____________________________
Thomas L. Owen
President of the Council
_______________________________
Jerry E. Abramson
Mayor
_____________________________
Approval Date
APPROVED AS TO FORM AND LEGALITY:
Michael J. O’Connell
Jefferson County Attorney
BY: ____________________________
G:ResOpposingTollsonOhioRiverBridgesTW-P/ROC/acb09.01.10
G:ResOpposingTolls on ORBP Dr-2 TW-P/ROC/acb09.03.10
Saturday, July 24, 2010
A Truthout Opinion Piece by William Rivers Pitt
Due to my sporadic to non-existent appearance here, I realize few will see this piece by Will Pitt. It is shown here in its entirety, although reader comments have not been posted here. Those comments can be seen at Truthout.org along with Pitt's original.
The country seems to be in dangerous waters now, and some of that roiling sea appears locally from time to time. I only hope that Pitt's comments are looked back upon some day in the future as an over-reaction to too much cable TV and reading of internet screed, not as prophesy.
_______________________________
SATURDAY 24 JULY 2010
Share347 The Dog Whistles
Friday 23 July 2010
by: William Rivers Pitt, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed
(Photo: VickyTH)
It is all too tempting to dismiss the far-right Teabagger legions and their idiot media allies as nothing more than a band of brain-addled yahoos who regularly make solar flare-sized fools of themselves in ways undreamed of by the Founders. I've mocked them a time or three myself; it's almost impossible not to. When a Tea Party web forum goes into paroxysms of fear and loathing about an Obama-led fascist takeover of America because they read a 2007 satirical article from the Onion and thought it was real, all you can do is put your head in your hands and thank God for showing us His sublime sense of humor.
Then, of course, there is the ridiculous Breitbart/Fox News farce regarding former USDA employee Shirley Sherrod and her alleged black-on-white reverse racism. Unless you've been living in a cave for the last few days, you probably know the story already, but just in case: after the NAACP (correctly) accused the Tea Party of being a fundamentally racist organization, a right-wing fraud of a blogger named Andrew Breitbart heavily edited a video of Sherrod to make it look like she was admitting to having deliberately screwed a white farmer because he was white. The full video shows Sherrod going on to say that she did in fact help that farmer, that she learned from the experience and grew from it, and that she and the farmer became great friends. The video still cost Sherrod her USDA job, at least for now, because Fox News took the Breitbart video and ran it across the sky with enough volume to cause Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to go into total bonehead mode and fire her.
Once everybody realized they'd been duped by Breitbart and Fox News - and a hat-tip to CNN and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for doing the heavy lifting to expose the story for the bag of crap that it was - everybody backpedaled and apologized to Sherrod...everybody except Breitbart and Fox, that is. They pretty much said the whole thing was the fault of the NAACP and Obama for promoting reverse racism in America. Yeah, they actually did, which makes you wonder what one has to do to lose credibility in the realm of right-wing news. Andrew Breitbart and Roger Ailes could bend over double and take a dump on their own faces in the middle of the Washington Mall, and they'd still have plenty of people who treat their swill as if it were holy writ.
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So, yeah, it can be funny, it can be silly, and it can be (and often is) simply mind-boggling. After a while, all the screaming and blabbering about Obama being a fascist racist socialist Muslim terrorist tyrant who wants to destroy America and Christianity turns into only so much noise that can be all too easily dismissed as the nonsense it is.
Dismiss it too easily or too quickly, however, and you'll miss the dog whistle buried in the message. I hadn't heard of the term "dog whistle" until I saw a disturbing post on the web forum DemocraticUnderground, but the term perfectly describes the phenomenon. Wikipedia describes the term thusly:
Dog-whistle politics, also known as the use of code words, is a type of political campaigning or speechmaking employing coded language that appears to mean one thing to the general population but has a different or more specific meaning for a targeted subgroup of the audience. The term is an analogy to dog whistles built in such a way that humans cannot hear them due to their high frequency, but dogs can.
The DU post referring to a "dog whistle" was highlighting a recent broadcast of Pat Robertson's "700 Club." During this particular broadcast, author Eric Metaxas was being interviewed about his new biography of attempted Adolf Hitler assassin Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Metaxas' book paints Bonhoeffer as a prophet of God who was doing holy work through his plot to kill Hitler. Bonhoeffer, a trained theologian who resisted the Nazis based on his Christian faith, has been a revered figure in many religious circles ever since his death, so a book calling him a holy prophet isn't wildly out of line on its face.
But here's the thing. During the interview, descriptions of fascism and tyranny were used extensively. Again, given that the topic dealt with Hitler and Nazi Germany, the use of this language isn't immediately improper...except when it's in the context of the kind of rhetoric used by Pat Robertson, Fox News and bloggers like Andrew Breitbart to describe President Obama. The interview basically stated that it is the holy work of any good Christian to assassinate a fascist tyrant, and given the serial ways these right-wing media people have used those exact terms to describe the president, it is a pretty short leap to realize the "700 Club" was essentially sending the message that whoever puts a bullet in Obama will be considered a saint on the level of Bonhoeffer.
And who was this dog whistle aimed at? There are many potential candidates, as evidenced recently in Sarah Palin's former stomping grounds in Alaska. Tea Party backers of right-wing Senate candidate Joe Miller staged a march during a rally for Miller. Many of the people in that march carried Miller signs, American flags...and assault weapons. You can watch a video of the march here.
This is far from the first time Tea Party people have brandished weapons at public rallies, and most of them are you're typical armchair warriors, all flash and no substance, and only the outline of a real threat. It only takes one, however, to hear the dog whistle and decide to take on God's holy work.
A lot of these people are fools, and listening to them is like being inside someone else's headache. It's not all fun and laughs, though. The dog whistles are sounding loud and clear, if you have the right kind of ears to hear them.
This work by Truthout is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
Support Truthout's work with a $10/month tax-deductible donation today! 15diggsdigg
»
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
William Rivers Pitt is a New York Times and internationally bestselling author of two books: "War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know" and "The Greatest Sedition Is Silence." His newest book, "House of Ill Repute: Reflections on War, Lies, and America's Ravaged Reputation," is now available from PoliPointPress.
The country seems to be in dangerous waters now, and some of that roiling sea appears locally from time to time. I only hope that Pitt's comments are looked back upon some day in the future as an over-reaction to too much cable TV and reading of internet screed, not as prophesy.
_______________________________
SATURDAY 24 JULY 2010
Share347 The Dog Whistles
Friday 23 July 2010
by: William Rivers Pitt, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed
(Photo: VickyTH)
It is all too tempting to dismiss the far-right Teabagger legions and their idiot media allies as nothing more than a band of brain-addled yahoos who regularly make solar flare-sized fools of themselves in ways undreamed of by the Founders. I've mocked them a time or three myself; it's almost impossible not to. When a Tea Party web forum goes into paroxysms of fear and loathing about an Obama-led fascist takeover of America because they read a 2007 satirical article from the Onion and thought it was real, all you can do is put your head in your hands and thank God for showing us His sublime sense of humor.
Then, of course, there is the ridiculous Breitbart/Fox News farce regarding former USDA employee Shirley Sherrod and her alleged black-on-white reverse racism. Unless you've been living in a cave for the last few days, you probably know the story already, but just in case: after the NAACP (correctly) accused the Tea Party of being a fundamentally racist organization, a right-wing fraud of a blogger named Andrew Breitbart heavily edited a video of Sherrod to make it look like she was admitting to having deliberately screwed a white farmer because he was white. The full video shows Sherrod going on to say that she did in fact help that farmer, that she learned from the experience and grew from it, and that she and the farmer became great friends. The video still cost Sherrod her USDA job, at least for now, because Fox News took the Breitbart video and ran it across the sky with enough volume to cause Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to go into total bonehead mode and fire her.
Once everybody realized they'd been duped by Breitbart and Fox News - and a hat-tip to CNN and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for doing the heavy lifting to expose the story for the bag of crap that it was - everybody backpedaled and apologized to Sherrod...everybody except Breitbart and Fox, that is. They pretty much said the whole thing was the fault of the NAACP and Obama for promoting reverse racism in America. Yeah, they actually did, which makes you wonder what one has to do to lose credibility in the realm of right-wing news. Andrew Breitbart and Roger Ailes could bend over double and take a dump on their own faces in the middle of the Washington Mall, and they'd still have plenty of people who treat their swill as if it were holy writ.
Get Truthout in your inbox every day! Click here to sign up for free updates.
So, yeah, it can be funny, it can be silly, and it can be (and often is) simply mind-boggling. After a while, all the screaming and blabbering about Obama being a fascist racist socialist Muslim terrorist tyrant who wants to destroy America and Christianity turns into only so much noise that can be all too easily dismissed as the nonsense it is.
Dismiss it too easily or too quickly, however, and you'll miss the dog whistle buried in the message. I hadn't heard of the term "dog whistle" until I saw a disturbing post on the web forum DemocraticUnderground, but the term perfectly describes the phenomenon. Wikipedia describes the term thusly:
Dog-whistle politics, also known as the use of code words, is a type of political campaigning or speechmaking employing coded language that appears to mean one thing to the general population but has a different or more specific meaning for a targeted subgroup of the audience. The term is an analogy to dog whistles built in such a way that humans cannot hear them due to their high frequency, but dogs can.
The DU post referring to a "dog whistle" was highlighting a recent broadcast of Pat Robertson's "700 Club." During this particular broadcast, author Eric Metaxas was being interviewed about his new biography of attempted Adolf Hitler assassin Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Metaxas' book paints Bonhoeffer as a prophet of God who was doing holy work through his plot to kill Hitler. Bonhoeffer, a trained theologian who resisted the Nazis based on his Christian faith, has been a revered figure in many religious circles ever since his death, so a book calling him a holy prophet isn't wildly out of line on its face.
But here's the thing. During the interview, descriptions of fascism and tyranny were used extensively. Again, given that the topic dealt with Hitler and Nazi Germany, the use of this language isn't immediately improper...except when it's in the context of the kind of rhetoric used by Pat Robertson, Fox News and bloggers like Andrew Breitbart to describe President Obama. The interview basically stated that it is the holy work of any good Christian to assassinate a fascist tyrant, and given the serial ways these right-wing media people have used those exact terms to describe the president, it is a pretty short leap to realize the "700 Club" was essentially sending the message that whoever puts a bullet in Obama will be considered a saint on the level of Bonhoeffer.
And who was this dog whistle aimed at? There are many potential candidates, as evidenced recently in Sarah Palin's former stomping grounds in Alaska. Tea Party backers of right-wing Senate candidate Joe Miller staged a march during a rally for Miller. Many of the people in that march carried Miller signs, American flags...and assault weapons. You can watch a video of the march here.
This is far from the first time Tea Party people have brandished weapons at public rallies, and most of them are you're typical armchair warriors, all flash and no substance, and only the outline of a real threat. It only takes one, however, to hear the dog whistle and decide to take on God's holy work.
A lot of these people are fools, and listening to them is like being inside someone else's headache. It's not all fun and laughs, though. The dog whistles are sounding loud and clear, if you have the right kind of ears to hear them.
This work by Truthout is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
Support Truthout's work with a $10/month tax-deductible donation today! 15diggsdigg
»
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
William Rivers Pitt is a New York Times and internationally bestselling author of two books: "War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know" and "The Greatest Sedition Is Silence." His newest book, "House of Ill Repute: Reflections on War, Lies, and America's Ravaged Reputation," is now available from PoliPointPress.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
Extra Info for Thursday
Before the City Council meeting, Thursday May 20, the Council will hold a work session which is open to the public. The purpose of the session is to see a presentation on the Medical Trust plan offered by the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns. While such plans have a track record of controlling medical insurance costs, one of the largest expenditures for municipal government, it is a newly available option in Indiana. In recent years New Albany has spent in excess of three million dollars annually to offer this important benefit to its employees. Many health insurance plans were hit with premium increases in the 20% range. You may recall some plans in California asking for increases near 40%. Increases at these levels are unsustainable and threaten the very notion of employer-provided health care. Personally, I have no affinity for employer-sponsored health insurance anyway, but that is the box we are in for now.
The linked article on the IACT Medical Trust points to increases in the mid single-digit range, still an increased cost, but significantly less onerous than what may have hit municipalities in other health insurance plans. If we can find a way to offer comprehensive health care benefits to City employees, while limiting cost increases, other vital City services may not feel the sting of budget cuts, or at least those cuts may not need to be as deep.
It is time to look for better options than we have currently.
I would encourage any who are interested in fiscal responsibility to attend this meeting which I am sure will be informative.
It will begin at 6:00 PM in the Assembly Room, the regular Council chamber.
The linked article on the IACT Medical Trust points to increases in the mid single-digit range, still an increased cost, but significantly less onerous than what may have hit municipalities in other health insurance plans. If we can find a way to offer comprehensive health care benefits to City employees, while limiting cost increases, other vital City services may not feel the sting of budget cuts, or at least those cuts may not need to be as deep.
It is time to look for better options than we have currently.
I would encourage any who are interested in fiscal responsibility to attend this meeting which I am sure will be informative.
It will begin at 6:00 PM in the Assembly Room, the regular Council chamber.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Dr. Stone's Unfinished Business
Early last year the New Albany City Council looked at the issue of universal health care. It passed a resolution in supoort of single-payer health coverage for all U.S. citizens. With that vote, New Albany became only the third city in the state to join many other cities across the nation in support of this basic human right. The presenter at that meeting was Dr. Rob Stone the director of Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan.
Although a health insurance reform bill was passed, Dr. Stone continues to work for universal coverage. In an article published Wednesday in The Huffington Post, Dr. Stone said, "That's why we say, Healthcare Reform, We're STILL FOR It... and we're not done yet."
Although a health insurance reform bill was passed, Dr. Stone continues to work for universal coverage. In an article published Wednesday in The Huffington Post, Dr. Stone said, "That's why we say, Healthcare Reform, We're STILL FOR It... and we're not done yet."
Friday, April 23, 2010
Earth Day, Every Day
This is a day late for Earth Day. But I think these words of Sister Mary Kownacki, below, state the significance of that day and how we should venerate the boundless beauty of our planet in the mundane and the grand, along with the inherent worth of all its inhabitants. The very fact that we are here is the greatest gift we could receive. Earth Day should help us realize the duty we have to protect and preserve this precious home.
"There's the beauty and wonder of it:
to discover the extraordinary in the ordinary.
If you look, really look, at anything, even one pigeon,
you will fall on your knees before its beauty.
The same holds true for each person in the soup kitchen line.
As one definition of contemplation attests,
" It's a matter of taking a long, loving look at the real." "
Mary Lou Kownacki, OSB
"There's the beauty and wonder of it:
to discover the extraordinary in the ordinary.
If you look, really look, at anything, even one pigeon,
you will fall on your knees before its beauty.
The same holds true for each person in the soup kitchen line.
As one definition of contemplation attests,
" It's a matter of taking a long, loving look at the real." "
Mary Lou Kownacki, OSB
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Roger That
The Floyd County Republican party chairman used the word "oxymoron" in a Tribune column today. Helpfully, he suggested that someone named Roger may be able to define that term for those who don't know it. Perhaps he speaks of a certain publican of local repute.
I'll offer a definition of the word oxymoron:
Rush Limbaugh, who railed against drug use among the lesser elements of society, felt it his birthright to have his hired help score oxycontin on the streets of Florida to keep his voracious habit on track, making Rush Limbaugh an oxy-moron.
I'll offer a definition of the word oxymoron:
Rush Limbaugh, who railed against drug use among the lesser elements of society, felt it his birthright to have his hired help score oxycontin on the streets of Florida to keep his voracious habit on track, making Rush Limbaugh an oxy-moron.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Eureka!
A routine sewer inspection turned up startling news yesterday which confirms the suspicions of many in New Albany. Some of the city's sewer pipes are, in fact, gold-lined.
A section of eight inch main showing signs of collapse, a crew was dispatched to repair or at least diagnose the problem. Upon entering a manhole a small section of pipe was removed by Carlton "Wildcat" Figg. "I always wear a carbide head lamp when I go down there and when I shined her on that section, by golly I just knowed it. Only one thing looks like that by carbide light."
It happens that in the early Seventies, New Albany Mayor Warren Nash was an early gold bug. The U.S. had just severed its final ties to the gold standard under Dick Nixon, and "the stuff was so durned cheap" said Nash, "I knew it couldn't last." So with an eye toward New Albany's future, Nash ordered City Controller Kaye Garry to purchase "a couple hundred thousand ounces" for use on a sewer upgrade. Nash said the metal has "excellent corrosion-resistance" and in its un-alloyed state it's "extremely malleable" making it easy for crews to heat the metal and it apply it in various ways to the pipe system as joint filler, as well as an early version of a pipe liner.
Couldn't another metal have performed the same task? "Yes", said Nash but "we had a lot of money in those days, and I knew the stuff was going to be worth a lot some day." Indeed. The roughly 180,000 ounces purchased in 1972 at $35 an ounce is currently valued at $1,115 per ounce or about $200,000,000.
Asked what he would do now if he were mayor, Nash said he would remove the gold, sell some of it to repair broken pipes etc. but always with a wistful eye toward the future he said,"have you seen the charts on Rhodium?"
A section of eight inch main showing signs of collapse, a crew was dispatched to repair or at least diagnose the problem. Upon entering a manhole a small section of pipe was removed by Carlton "Wildcat" Figg. "I always wear a carbide head lamp when I go down there and when I shined her on that section, by golly I just knowed it. Only one thing looks like that by carbide light."
It happens that in the early Seventies, New Albany Mayor Warren Nash was an early gold bug. The U.S. had just severed its final ties to the gold standard under Dick Nixon, and "the stuff was so durned cheap" said Nash, "I knew it couldn't last." So with an eye toward New Albany's future, Nash ordered City Controller Kaye Garry to purchase "a couple hundred thousand ounces" for use on a sewer upgrade. Nash said the metal has "excellent corrosion-resistance" and in its un-alloyed state it's "extremely malleable" making it easy for crews to heat the metal and it apply it in various ways to the pipe system as joint filler, as well as an early version of a pipe liner.
Couldn't another metal have performed the same task? "Yes", said Nash but "we had a lot of money in those days, and I knew the stuff was going to be worth a lot some day." Indeed. The roughly 180,000 ounces purchased in 1972 at $35 an ounce is currently valued at $1,115 per ounce or about $200,000,000.
Asked what he would do now if he were mayor, Nash said he would remove the gold, sell some of it to repair broken pipes etc. but always with a wistful eye toward the future he said,"have you seen the charts on Rhodium?"
Monday, March 29, 2010
Really?!
And what do we call the 45,000 Americans a year who die because they lack insurance, but now might live? Welfare queens and kings? Collateral baggage?
What about Obama truly gets under the skin of the tea baggers?
Hint...it's the skin.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Mayor's Alternative Sewer Rate Plan
Here is an e-mail marked for "immediate release".
A rate table alluded to in the test inexplicably didn't move from the original to this format.
The e-mail and the words are the administration's not mine.
ENGLAND ANNOUNCES “ALTERNATE B” SEWER RATE PLAN
(New Albany, Indiana) Mayor Doug England announced this afternoon that he will be submitting an alternate sewer rate plan to the Common Council for consideration at its Sanitary Sewer Rate Workshop to be held on Wednesday, March 31, 2010 at 6:00 pm.
At a similar workshop held yesterday, Mayor England proposed a sewer rate plan that subsidized the sewer utility with $700,000 of EDIT and Riverboat funding, annually, for twenty years. The Mayor also indicated that he would slash $1.0 million out of the sewer utility’s annual operating budget.
But Mayor England has since expressed concerns about that plan. “It utilizes almost all of the EDIT and Riverboat funds that the City has available to fill other budgetary needs. There would be no money left for purchasing equipment, paving streets, or funding deficits in public safety—Police, Fire and Ambulance. The City would also have to stall or abandon several worthy projects including a new water park, a new Little League complex, and the Ohio River Greenway project, to name a few.”
Mayor England also noted that all of these projects must be kept on track, particularly as New Albany approaches its Bicentennial in 2013. “I think the people of New Albany and its future generations deserve better than simply saving a few dollars on sanitary sewer bills. Our legacy should be that we built a great City, and not just one where you simply could get by."
Under what has been dubbed “Alternate B”, the use of EDIT and Riverboat funding to subsidize the sewer rates would be scrubbed. But Tax Increment Financing (TIF) to fund the debt service for three projects contained in the Capacity Assurance Plan—Basin 14 Lift Station Upgrade, the Mount Tabor Lift Station Upgrade and the Jacobs Creek/Lewis Branch Interceptor—would be utilized. The amount required to fund debt service to be pledged from TIF would be approximately $240,000 per year. The “Alternate B” plan also slashes $1.0 million from the sanitary sewer annual operating budget.
The “Alternate B” plan would phase in a 23% rate increase, immediately, and 20% rate increase in 2012. The following table depicts the actual rates to be paid by the lowest to average users under the “Alternate B”
Finally, Mayor England said “I think we’ve come a long way from the 70% rate increase that was originally proposed. The ‘Alternate B’ plan keeps rates reasonably low and, at the same time, it enables us to invest in our future. It’s now up to the New Albany Common Council to choose a sanitary sewer rate plan that best serves the fiscal needs of the community.”
A rate table alluded to in the test inexplicably didn't move from the original to this format.
The e-mail and the words are the administration's not mine.
ENGLAND ANNOUNCES “ALTERNATE B” SEWER RATE PLAN
(New Albany, Indiana) Mayor Doug England announced this afternoon that he will be submitting an alternate sewer rate plan to the Common Council for consideration at its Sanitary Sewer Rate Workshop to be held on Wednesday, March 31, 2010 at 6:00 pm.
At a similar workshop held yesterday, Mayor England proposed a sewer rate plan that subsidized the sewer utility with $700,000 of EDIT and Riverboat funding, annually, for twenty years. The Mayor also indicated that he would slash $1.0 million out of the sewer utility’s annual operating budget.
But Mayor England has since expressed concerns about that plan. “It utilizes almost all of the EDIT and Riverboat funds that the City has available to fill other budgetary needs. There would be no money left for purchasing equipment, paving streets, or funding deficits in public safety—Police, Fire and Ambulance. The City would also have to stall or abandon several worthy projects including a new water park, a new Little League complex, and the Ohio River Greenway project, to name a few.”
Mayor England also noted that all of these projects must be kept on track, particularly as New Albany approaches its Bicentennial in 2013. “I think the people of New Albany and its future generations deserve better than simply saving a few dollars on sanitary sewer bills. Our legacy should be that we built a great City, and not just one where you simply could get by."
Under what has been dubbed “Alternate B”, the use of EDIT and Riverboat funding to subsidize the sewer rates would be scrubbed. But Tax Increment Financing (TIF) to fund the debt service for three projects contained in the Capacity Assurance Plan—Basin 14 Lift Station Upgrade, the Mount Tabor Lift Station Upgrade and the Jacobs Creek/Lewis Branch Interceptor—would be utilized. The amount required to fund debt service to be pledged from TIF would be approximately $240,000 per year. The “Alternate B” plan also slashes $1.0 million from the sanitary sewer annual operating budget.
The “Alternate B” plan would phase in a 23% rate increase, immediately, and 20% rate increase in 2012. The following table depicts the actual rates to be paid by the lowest to average users under the “Alternate B”
Finally, Mayor England said “I think we’ve come a long way from the 70% rate increase that was originally proposed. The ‘Alternate B’ plan keeps rates reasonably low and, at the same time, it enables us to invest in our future. It’s now up to the New Albany Common Council to choose a sanitary sewer rate plan that best serves the fiscal needs of the community.”
Monday, March 22, 2010
Which Side Are You On?...The Day After
Last Summer during the August recess, I posted daily health care reform stories gleaned from different sources. I titled each day's entry as "Which Side Are You On...Day Whatever".
In light of the passage last night of a weakened, watered-down health care reform bill which is simply a foot in the door for eventual substantive reform, I am moved again to ask "which side are you on?"
The side of those who shouted epithets, racial, sexual, or hateful,
The side of those who threaten now to secede from the union,
The side of those who rest comfortably in a cocoon of employer-provided health care while 45,000 of their fellow citizens die each year because they have no access to health insurance,
The side of those who view health care as one more object of profit in capitalism's bazaar,
The side of those who see exclusion and call it fiscal discipline,
The side of those who see the future and avert their eyes,
or...
The side of those who see a wrong and try, however feebly, to right it?
Here are some reactions to last night's vote.
_______________________________________________
Once again, thanks to Baron Hill for following his heart.
In light of the passage last night of a weakened, watered-down health care reform bill which is simply a foot in the door for eventual substantive reform, I am moved again to ask "which side are you on?"
The side of those who shouted epithets, racial, sexual, or hateful,
The side of those who threaten now to secede from the union,
The side of those who rest comfortably in a cocoon of employer-provided health care while 45,000 of their fellow citizens die each year because they have no access to health insurance,
The side of those who view health care as one more object of profit in capitalism's bazaar,
The side of those who see exclusion and call it fiscal discipline,
The side of those who see the future and avert their eyes,
or...
The side of those who see a wrong and try, however feebly, to right it?
Here are some reactions to last night's vote.
_______________________________________________
Once again, thanks to Baron Hill for following his heart.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Yellow Peril
When the School Corporation sneezes, the City catches cold.
One step the school board could take to ameliorate the funding mess is faces is to downsize or eliminate the large school bus program.
The City faces two problems related to the transportation system currently in place, ie., transporting of students via buses owned and operated by the school corporation:
1. It is a costly service which subsidizes the choice of some parents to live in non-walkable neighborhoods, which causes the well-planned inner city neighborhoods to further deteriorate as essential services such as neighborhood schools are eliminated. This degrades the general quality of life within the older neighborhoods of town, and the entire community suffers.
2. The Transit Authority of River City (TARC) is being forced by a variety of factors to cut service throughout its service area, including New Albany. Because of these cuts the already meager bus system is pushed closer to the brink. The city is deprived of a viable system of public transportation, such a system can benefit the the community at large through greater access for all its citizens, better air quality and a residential pattern. Such a pattern allows the city to operate more efficiently as infrastucture is used to its greatest advantage, rather than having it spread thin in a costly advance toward the the sprawling edges of the community.
If the school corporation would eliminate the school bus program and instead rely on non-corporation-owned buses, it should realize a sizable savings. If TARC were presented with a daily cadre of student bus riders it would go a long way toward building a base of ridership to rationalize a comprehensive general public transportaion system for the entire community. The transportaion system would benefit the community as a whole and the presevation and revitalization of inner city schools would, likewise, benefit the community as a whole. The savings would allow the school corporation to focus its funds on its true mission --educating students, enriching the community, ensuring a sound future for our city-- which is a better use of scarce educational funds.
One step the school board could take to ameliorate the funding mess is faces is to downsize or eliminate the large school bus program.
The City faces two problems related to the transportation system currently in place, ie., transporting of students via buses owned and operated by the school corporation:
1. It is a costly service which subsidizes the choice of some parents to live in non-walkable neighborhoods, which causes the well-planned inner city neighborhoods to further deteriorate as essential services such as neighborhood schools are eliminated. This degrades the general quality of life within the older neighborhoods of town, and the entire community suffers.
2. The Transit Authority of River City (TARC) is being forced by a variety of factors to cut service throughout its service area, including New Albany. Because of these cuts the already meager bus system is pushed closer to the brink. The city is deprived of a viable system of public transportation, such a system can benefit the the community at large through greater access for all its citizens, better air quality and a residential pattern. Such a pattern allows the city to operate more efficiently as infrastucture is used to its greatest advantage, rather than having it spread thin in a costly advance toward the the sprawling edges of the community.
If the school corporation would eliminate the school bus program and instead rely on non-corporation-owned buses, it should realize a sizable savings. If TARC were presented with a daily cadre of student bus riders it would go a long way toward building a base of ridership to rationalize a comprehensive general public transportaion system for the entire community. The transportaion system would benefit the community as a whole and the presevation and revitalization of inner city schools would, likewise, benefit the community as a whole. The savings would allow the school corporation to focus its funds on its true mission --educating students, enriching the community, ensuring a sound future for our city-- which is a better use of scarce educational funds.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Tradeoffs
Below is a quote which was forwarded to me. The sender is in California. He did not disclose his intent in highlighting these words, but I think they have relevance to the gravity of the situation facing our local schools.
"We kill at every step, not only in wars, riots, and executions. We kill when we close our eyes to poverty, suffering, and shame. In the same way all disrespect for life, all hard-heartedness, all indifference, all contempt is nothing else than killing. With just a little witty skepticism we can kill a good deal of the future in a young person. Life is waiting everywhere, the future is flowering everywhere, but we only see a small part of it and step on much of it with our feet."
Hermann Hesse, German poet and novelist.
emphasis added
"We kill at every step, not only in wars, riots, and executions. We kill when we close our eyes to poverty, suffering, and shame. In the same way all disrespect for life, all hard-heartedness, all indifference, all contempt is nothing else than killing. With just a little witty skepticism we can kill a good deal of the future in a young person. Life is waiting everywhere, the future is flowering everywhere, but we only see a small part of it and step on much of it with our feet."
Hermann Hesse, German poet and novelist.
emphasis added
Friday, March 5, 2010
Thursday, March 4, 2010
First Things First
One of the major issues confronting the sewer system in New Albany and many older cities is the problem of inflow and infiltration. This is a situation of leaking or broken pipes which allow rain water to leak into the system. Another problem is illegal hookups to the sewage system with direct connections of downspouts and sump pumps.
New Albany has a discrete system which keeps stormwater and sewage water in separate pipes headed for separate destinations. Sewage to the plant at West Tenth Street and stormwater to a creek or basin and then to the river. Massive surges of flow into the plant during large rains can be attributed to a failing pipe system rather than an uncontrollable urge to use the toilet or bathe during such events.
The system cannot handle the extra flow, and like an insufficient electrical system blowing fuses, the insufficient sewage system blows a fuse which results in untreated sewage flowing into the Ohio River. Regulation of such overflows falls under the purview of the the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA's mandate is clear and this worthwhile agency does not allow much margin for error through either mismanagement, penury or stupidity.
Part of the proposed sewage rate increase facing the citizens of New Albany is intended to fix whatever leads to the overflows and keep the City in compliance with EPA regulations. Some of the projects proposed to make this fix are increasing the capacity of various drainage basins around the city. These are expensive fixes and can lead to rate increases.
Some of the problem can be fixed in a more direct manner.
A number of years ago the City did smoke tests to verify that downspouts and pumps were not hooked illegally to the sewage system. I have seen photos of recent smoke tests which show smoke percolating out of the front lawn of a house. That smoke is evidence of a source of inflow and infiltration, and that house along with all the other houses with the same problem are part of the reason why New Albany is on the EPA watch list, and thus subject to fines and further regulation.
Fixing the inflow and infiltration problem in private sewer lines to houses and businesses goes a long way toward alleviating the system problems in New Albany, which may cause rate increases and does cause some of the sewage backup problems plaguing some residents. Large system-main-lines are also subject to inflow and infiltration, and of course this element of the problem needs to be corrected too.
I suggest we begin a blitz in a systematic, comprehensive search for sources of inflow and infiltration through smoke testing. If EMC, the management company that runs the sewerage, doesn't have the personnel, they should hire the people needed for this project.
When violations are discovered, notify the homeowner of the illegality and give them so much time to correct the problem. If they have not corrected the problem or contracted the work to be done, add a surcharge to that sewer bill. The surcharge should be of sufficient heft to cause the problem to be fixed, perhaps $50 per month. The problem can be addressed, as I understand it, in two basic ways: the broken pipe can be dug up and replaced or it can be re-lined with some type of plastic liner ( a company called Insituform offers this ).
A significant number of citizens may not be able to afford such an unbudgeted expense and therefore should not be automatically penalized with the surcharge. For these people, a financing program needs to be in place where the problem can be fixed and the cost can be fronted by government and a reasonable monthly charge could be added to the sewer bill to pay back the cost of the repair. Each address that avails itself of this program financing would need to be tagged so that if and when the current resident sells or moves, the government-fronted costs will still be the responsibility of the owner of that address.
Local government should offer financing through a plan that works with New Albany's plumbers. If the citizens are going to bear the costs of these repairs, the money expended should stay in New Albany's businesses to employ more New Albany residents.
Individuals can pay to fix their own problems first, with assistance from government, or they can take the irresponsible route and allow their neighbors to pick up the tab through a no new fees stance. Is it possible that a systematic plan to attack this deficiency in our system could be seen as a good faith effort to comprehensively solve our EPA problems and forestall the rate increase no one wants?
To be sure, this modest suggestion is no panacea for the woes of the sewer system. I believe we waste the citizens' money by bearing the needless expense of profit exacted by the private enterprise sewer manager. The sewage system is a governmental undertaking and contrary to the notion that government should be run like a business, I believe the citizens own the system and the citizens owe no profit to private handlers. Let the citizens hold their elected officials accountable for the proper management of their system and keep that responsibility in local hands.
New Albany has a discrete system which keeps stormwater and sewage water in separate pipes headed for separate destinations. Sewage to the plant at West Tenth Street and stormwater to a creek or basin and then to the river. Massive surges of flow into the plant during large rains can be attributed to a failing pipe system rather than an uncontrollable urge to use the toilet or bathe during such events.
The system cannot handle the extra flow, and like an insufficient electrical system blowing fuses, the insufficient sewage system blows a fuse which results in untreated sewage flowing into the Ohio River. Regulation of such overflows falls under the purview of the the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA's mandate is clear and this worthwhile agency does not allow much margin for error through either mismanagement, penury or stupidity.
Part of the proposed sewage rate increase facing the citizens of New Albany is intended to fix whatever leads to the overflows and keep the City in compliance with EPA regulations. Some of the projects proposed to make this fix are increasing the capacity of various drainage basins around the city. These are expensive fixes and can lead to rate increases.
Some of the problem can be fixed in a more direct manner.
A number of years ago the City did smoke tests to verify that downspouts and pumps were not hooked illegally to the sewage system. I have seen photos of recent smoke tests which show smoke percolating out of the front lawn of a house. That smoke is evidence of a source of inflow and infiltration, and that house along with all the other houses with the same problem are part of the reason why New Albany is on the EPA watch list, and thus subject to fines and further regulation.
Fixing the inflow and infiltration problem in private sewer lines to houses and businesses goes a long way toward alleviating the system problems in New Albany, which may cause rate increases and does cause some of the sewage backup problems plaguing some residents. Large system-main-lines are also subject to inflow and infiltration, and of course this element of the problem needs to be corrected too.
I suggest we begin a blitz in a systematic, comprehensive search for sources of inflow and infiltration through smoke testing. If EMC, the management company that runs the sewerage, doesn't have the personnel, they should hire the people needed for this project.
When violations are discovered, notify the homeowner of the illegality and give them so much time to correct the problem. If they have not corrected the problem or contracted the work to be done, add a surcharge to that sewer bill. The surcharge should be of sufficient heft to cause the problem to be fixed, perhaps $50 per month. The problem can be addressed, as I understand it, in two basic ways: the broken pipe can be dug up and replaced or it can be re-lined with some type of plastic liner ( a company called Insituform offers this ).
A significant number of citizens may not be able to afford such an unbudgeted expense and therefore should not be automatically penalized with the surcharge. For these people, a financing program needs to be in place where the problem can be fixed and the cost can be fronted by government and a reasonable monthly charge could be added to the sewer bill to pay back the cost of the repair. Each address that avails itself of this program financing would need to be tagged so that if and when the current resident sells or moves, the government-fronted costs will still be the responsibility of the owner of that address.
Local government should offer financing through a plan that works with New Albany's plumbers. If the citizens are going to bear the costs of these repairs, the money expended should stay in New Albany's businesses to employ more New Albany residents.
Individuals can pay to fix their own problems first, with assistance from government, or they can take the irresponsible route and allow their neighbors to pick up the tab through a no new fees stance. Is it possible that a systematic plan to attack this deficiency in our system could be seen as a good faith effort to comprehensively solve our EPA problems and forestall the rate increase no one wants?
To be sure, this modest suggestion is no panacea for the woes of the sewer system. I believe we waste the citizens' money by bearing the needless expense of profit exacted by the private enterprise sewer manager. The sewage system is a governmental undertaking and contrary to the notion that government should be run like a business, I believe the citizens own the system and the citizens owe no profit to private handlers. Let the citizens hold their elected officials accountable for the proper management of their system and keep that responsibility in local hands.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Mum's the Word
It has been a full month since I last posted on this blog. In the intervening days I was named president of the City Council.
As one whose words may now be interpreted as speaking for the Council as a whole, I am assessing how best, or if, to continue this writing endeavor. Frankly, I enjoy it and would like to continue, but I don't want to possibly incite any factionalization of the Council by some errant word I might post here. I think this is an important year for the Council. And loose lips have a tendency to do lasting damage to ships, or words to that effect.
For those who have checked in here from time to time I would invite them to continue to do so, something may pop up once in a while.
In the meantime enjoy the Temple oranges, which,as far as I know,just showed up in Kroger's produce department yesterday; always a big deal to me.
As one whose words may now be interpreted as speaking for the Council as a whole, I am assessing how best, or if, to continue this writing endeavor. Frankly, I enjoy it and would like to continue, but I don't want to possibly incite any factionalization of the Council by some errant word I might post here. I think this is an important year for the Council. And loose lips have a tendency to do lasting damage to ships, or words to that effect.
For those who have checked in here from time to time I would invite them to continue to do so, something may pop up once in a while.
In the meantime enjoy the Temple oranges, which,as far as I know,just showed up in Kroger's produce department yesterday; always a big deal to me.
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