Caveat Emptor

A couple weeks before Christmas I participated in a panel discussion for Leadership Southern Indiana on local government. The organization seeks to foster leadership among its class members drawn from Clark and Floyd Counties, so Brad Striegel and I were the Floyd County representatives, and three people represented Clark County. It was largely a softball session answering questions about highs and lows of the office, why we had wanted to run, and what advice we'd give to potential office seekers.

The last question came from a class member whose job is in construction. He asked as best I recall, "Why doesn't local government do more to promote manufacturing? Parks and other 'quality of life' offerings are fine and good, but manufacturing builds the economic base for sustainable prosperity." Implicit in the question was the idea that local government has some tools at its disposal to incentivize manufacturers to come to our community-at-large.  Perhaps we do, and most of the panelists directed their answers at this angle of his question. (The massive, and largely still-blank slate of the River Ridge facility in Clark County, is certainly a focal point for opportunities in manufacturing.)

Manufacturing has such a preeminent position in wealth creation because it is the act of taking raw material and transforming it into valuable goods. Societally, it is crucial because it provides jobs within the community to allow the local economy to grow.  Absent those jobs, the economy stagnates. Surrounding the orgiastic spending at Christmas, breathless reporters cite the figure that the "consumer" drives 70% of the American economy.

My answer to the questioner was that local government certainly has a role to play incentivizing manufacturing, but a great cause of the decline of manufacturing rests with those of us in the room that morning. So many of us have passed by American-made products to buy  cheaper foreign replacements, that American manufacturers shut down. Local factories of major American companies have closed as the demand for their products ebbed. Big Box retailers drive smaller stores out of business and then, in "true" free-market fashion, dictate the prices they are willing to pay for the goods that, often, only they can sell, because the others have been driven off. In the early, arrival stages of this form of retailing, we were dazzled by the cornucopia of stuff we could buy at lower prices than we had been accustomed to. And now we must buy products at the cheaper prices because our wages have been hammered into  stagnation. As the big retailers have cleared the field of competition, they have reached the sweet spot Crazy Larry or Mad Max used to shill -- they sell it so cheap because they make it up in volume. Not only are fewer U.S. workers needed to bring goods to market, but also there is such dominance in most cities that only the muscle retailers remain.

What can local government do to incentivize manufacturing? It could establish a buy-local point system for its own purchases, so that local producers play on a more even field. A New Albany company would get more points than a Louisville company, a Louisville company would get more points than an Atlanta company and all would get more points than a foreign company. When purchases (primarily of goods, but also some service contracts) are made, the best price would be determined not solely by the price tag, but by including the point system into a calculation to determine the true price. For example, a local hardware store may make a sale that on price alone would go to a big box store. While this fits a model to benefit local retailers, we must also push local government to purchase bigger ticket items with a priority given to U.S. made goods over the foreign-made, and perhaps cheaper version. Until we insist on buying local -- whatever local means in terms of availability -- we will be ceding wealth to those without a stake in our community, our city or our country.

As we look truly locally, New Albany's government can and should establish a small business incubator program with a focus on manufacturing. Our downtown is doing well relative to recent years, and many of the goods sold in shops are locally produced.  All across the country,  local artisan shops are operating, and, we hope, profitably.  These efforts are welcomed and seen as signs of growth and vitality within communities like  New Albany. But, now we need to create a supportive environment for those members of our community who have ideas on how to produce new or better products of a more utilitarian, less artistic nature, in order to broaden the power of buying local. And, when those entrepreneurs bring useful manufactured goods to market we, government and citizens alike, need to support their efforts, buy their wares, when we can.

As a nation and, of course, locally we are also seeing the effects of the entrenched practices brought about by the North American Free Trade Act, NAFTA, some twenty years ago, and those have been responsible for a general weakening of our manufacturing base. Just around the bend, if we are not vigilant, waits the threat of what has been called NAFTA-on-steroids, the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) If that agreement becomes policy, we may all find ourselves living in trailers, subsisting on beef jerky a  ordered on line from some TPP slaughterhouse. In all our dealings in the marketplace we must consider costs as well as price.





 

Reach Out

Every one needs a hand to hold on to
Every one needs a hand to hold on to
Don't need to be no strong hand
Don't need to be no rich hand
Every one just needs a hand to hold on to

                                -- John Mellencamp
                                 or
                                    JCM
                                 or, maybe just
                                   J C

___________________________________

A couple nights ago the New Albany Common Council met in what seemed to be one of its particularly thin proceedings. No ordinances were under consideration. The administration had asked for nothing. Instead we were asked to weigh in on something The News and Tribune likes to refer to as, (and why not paraphrase?) "a meaningless, empty, expression". The empty rhetoric this time was directed at those in the state legislature who would commandeer the state constitution for political purposes (HJR-6); as bait, or shiny objects for those who would see danger, and thus political advantage, in the pursuit of  happiness by "others". Others may be refined, or defined, to include q-words, f-words and anything other than me- or we-words.

As I looked out into the gallery that night I was humbled by the hope the "others" had placed in us--their local government. As The Tribune is wont to say, the New Albany Common Council  weighing in on state or national issues is pointless, perhaps grandstanding, but certainly, ineffectual. But for the time the others spoke in our chamber, I, at least, glimpsed just a bit of representative democracy. For that brief time, I think,  people looked to us to hear their message of disaffection, their hope for inclusion in that which the majority takes for granted. They looked to us to speak for them, our friends, our neighbors, our un-acknowledged kin.

Most of the City Council did speak for the hopes of those who appealed to us. I am proud that our  Council took this step before it was simply part of a well-worn path. And those who did not advance the hopes of those in attendance should not be vilified. Acceptance and tolerance are hard-won in our society, and our world; empathy is a blessing not universally bestowed.

Hasn't everyone, at one time or another, felt outside of the mainstream, or felt that he or she won't fit into society's lines? House Joint Resolution -6, seeks to play upon the fears, prejudices, and intolerance of  of those among us who can, through ignorance or convenience, distance themselves from those whom they see as unlike them, and thus unworthy of the fruits of our earthly bounty. HJR-6 would seek, for political advantage, to make the road of life more difficult and lonely for the "others" among us, those not like us.

Councilman Phipps hit the nail on the head the other night when he said, " a hundred years from now we will be judged on what we did during our brief time here." I am proud to have spoken up for tolerance, and commend those others who also spoke up for it. As Mellencamp said, "everyone just needs a hand to hold on to." I'm proud to have extended a hand to hold on to, rather than presenting  a fist of rejection, and I commend the other Council members who also offered the hand of acceptance.

If one questions whether we should withdraw the helping hand of love, acceptance, and tolerance from the "others", I challenge you to find the "others" in this picture.           

HJR-6, Heading South?

 

Thursday the City Council will consider the  resolution printed below.

 

While it is true that resolutions are simply statements, with no force of law or consequences backing them up, it is also true that at times making a statement is preferable to silent acquiescence of the status quo.

 

For those who have followed the debate surrounding the proposed constitutional amendment to which the resolution refers, numerous articles and statements have pointed out that Indiana faces a choice between a retrograde stance and an open-minded acceptance of modern America. Last Saturday's Tribune had an excellent offering from Morton Marcus about the choice we face, I tried to link to it but couldn't navigate the terrain.

 

A carefully chosen phrase is in the resolution, "states of the Union".  We seldom hear of the states of the Union these days, and it harkens to a time reminiscent of the Civil War. Many of the policies pursued recently in Indiana suggest that many of our leaders would be more comfortable in any of the Confederate redoubts south of the Mason Dixon line.  A friend has begun to refer to our state as Indissippi.

 

We need not go down that road.

 

________________________________

 

WHEREAS:  Certain legislators in the State of Indiana have offered for consideration an amendment to the Constitution of the State of Indiana, House Joint Resolution-6, regarding a definition of the State of Marriage within our state, and

 

WHEREAS: This constitutional amendment has been forcefully opposed by a leading educational institution of our state and by some of the most respected and renowned corporate entities within our state, Indiana University, Eli Lilly and Co., and Cummins Engines, among others, and

 

WHEREAS:  One of the primary reasons these institutions have opposed the constitutional amendment, beyond its inherent intolerance, is the effect it would have on commerce, competitiveness,  and the recruitment of open-minded, talented people needed to further the goals and aims of these institutions, and

 

WHEREAS:  The flow of history in the United States is in the direction of greater openness and inclusiveness, more tolerance and acceptance of persons of diverse views, backgrounds, heritages and orientations, and

 

WHEREAS:  Greater acceptance of diversity of all kinds is a Twenty First Century extrapolation of the views put forth by our Eighteenth Century founders, and

 

WHEREAS:  Current Indiana law: 

IC 31-11-1-1

Same sex marriages prohibited

Sec. 1. (a) Only a female may marry a male. Only a male may

marry a female.

(b) A marriage between persons of the same gender is void in

Indiana even if the marriage is lawful in the place where it is

solemnized.

 

 obviates the need for a restrictive constitutional amendment,  as detailed in House Joint Resolution 6.

 

NOW THEREFORE:  The Common Council of the City of New Albany, Indiana, by this resolution, does hereby express its opposition to HJR-6, and

 

FURTHER:  Asks that our Hoosier state, by rejecting HJR-6,  be seen among our sister states of the Union more as a center of tolerance and acceptance of human differences, than a place of exclusion and intolerance, and

 

FINALLY: That our state constitution not be used as a political device to further the aims of one political party in its appeals to the intolerance and fears of some citizens of our state.    

As the World Turns

 

 

"You don't need a Weatherman to know which way the wind blows."

--Bob Dylan

 

 

From another correspondent...

 

"I don't know who keeps bringing up the idea of two-way streets for Spring,
Market, Elm, Bank and Pearl....

 

The traffic has moved very well for 30 years the way
the streets are now...

 

Get the People in the community
and the business community as a whole involved with their opinions...

 

Do they really have some concrete reason as to why it is better than the traffic pattern we now have in the city."

 

______________

 

I've heard the discussion of the merits of two-way versus one-way streets for a number of years now.

 

 Although my memory is not faultless, I believe I remember a time when Elm Street was two way. (my grandfather lived on Elm Street, and I spent a lot of time there. I listened to the adults discussing it) Similarly, I believe I remember Market Street as two way. I don't think I remember Spring Street as two way.

 

I have a hard time believing that the conversion of one way streets to two way streets is a panacea. Likewise, I can't believe that the conversion would be a problem for the City either. I've seen any number of befuddled drivers practicing the ultimate in traffic calming--putative one ways--as they make the incorrect assumption that an unfamiliar New Albany street is patterned after most streets they have encountered in their lives, as they turn the wrong way onto a one way street.

 

Too many accommodations have been made to the automobile. Downtown New Albany is a part of the city predating the car. Ironically, it is the part of the City most encumbered by hoop-jumping on behalf of the car. A vibrant, functional, walkable city allows automobiles into its space on its terms, not on the interlopers' terms. For too long the car has held the upper hand in the ordering of our downtown.

 

 

Some of those who have crafted the recent and recognized rebirth of our city have asked that two way traffic be the norm. Just as in the past, those holding the high cards, called the turn to one way streets, now we must let those holding the hot hands direct us forward.

 

I'm sponsoring a resolution to forgo studies to tell us that one way streets should yield to two way traffic. We paid for a study in 2007. Let's follow that study which said that Pearl, Bank and market Streets could be immediately converted to two way traffic. Mr. Rosenbager, at the last Council meeting , stated that given intersections could be studied for a "couple grand" apiece. Two intersections on Spring Street, at Vincennes and at State Streets, and two intersections on Elm Street, also at Vincennes and at State Streets may need additional study to allow for their conversions. If that's the case, we may be facing a cost of something considerably less than $20,000; a far cry from the $60,000 figure suggested by some.

Can't we direct that additional spending in a more productive direction?

 

Implementation of the two way conversion itself, will cost something. Much of this cost will be covered by federal funds, we are told.  New signs will be needed. The existing street lights will need to be adjusted for two way traffic. New striping of the streets will be required. We don't need to spend new money on a study to reiterate what we've been told before, and what many of us know to be true.

 

If we need additional input into the decision to convert or stay with the status quo, let's use the charrette as our method of gathering information and forming consensus. We have the expertise to chart our own course and make our own decisions on this rather simple matter. 

 

Let's today, make our own way.      

 

 

Monolithic Indifference

Let's open up the old mailbag...

 (originally written as one post, now divided for your  convenience)

Our first correspondent disagrees with the notion of a resolution before the Common Council of the City of New Albany. This resolution is titled, " Resolution Recognizing the Value of Human Labor in the Collection of Tolls in the New Bridges Project". Our correspondent avers,

 "Again, the bridgeS project sucks.  I just can't see how a few tolling jobs would even pay for itself, considering all the problems it would create, much less give us a return on the project as it now stands.

What am I missing?"

 

What you may be missing, dear reader, is the value of the light of day shone upon a fingerprint-less heist. You may fail to recognize that something close to $3 Billion will be withdrawn from our local economy with scarcely any return to that economy, in the form of daily jobs on that specific project, for the next thirty or so years. Those jobs-not-filled represent all of the daily activities in the lives of citizens-not-added to the ledger of participation in our collective well-being.

 

Those jobs-not-filled represent debts-not-repaid to the veterans of our serial wars. Unfulfilled  are opportunities to help those wounded, damaged, returnees who can't quite work their way back into our society.

 

You may be missing the intangible value of calling attention to the fact that those who lead the Bridges Authority, and claim to speak on behalf of others have never once, truly, listened to the wishes of many of those on whose behalf they claim to speak.

 

You may miss the fact that in the face of monolithic indifference, a body of elected officials has the opportunity to say to those who will not listen, simply, that, "if we had some say in this process we might consider that those whom we represent have to live, they have to feed their families, they want to participate in their communities. And, to do those things they need jobs. And, since this project is designed to extract nearly $3 Billion from our lives, we should be compensated in some small way. We value funding the necessities of life over convenience, speed and efficiency." 

 

A body of elected officials has the opportunity to make that statement. A simple statement will not cause the indifferent ones to move away from their chosen path. Efficiency and speed; the drone warfare of commerce and travel will out. But, a simple vote to say that, at least in one of the communities, we see what is happening, what is planned, what we value as a metro region; a simple vote is not asking too much from the elected officials who represent the ones who won't be heard. 

Your Money's No Good Here

Jimmy Buffet's heading out to San Francisco. The white pants are being put away. Plaudits and platitudes about the heroism of the workplace echo throughout the land. It is Labor Day.

Here along one border within the nation, we are bowing to the supremacy of speed. We are allowing the bottom-line geeks who have somehow become transportation planners to determine that we need no hand-to-hand contact to float the Two Bridges Boondoggle. We shall, as those grandees determine, engage in the transportational equivalent of drone warfare. The over large Two Bridges plan has an over large price tag which must and will be funded by intermittent heists of the populace hereabouts. (Set aside for now that New Albany will bear the brunt of increased pass-through traffic of the cheapskates who don't want to pay an extra eight dollars to visit Aunt Ginny or buy something in Indiana.)

The  choice method of collection, which only the bottom-line geeks chose, is NSA-style gantries that collect photos of people travelling under them, and then sends a bill to the address listed on the license plate. Or it collects data on the number of trips and deducts money from a prepaid account. Or it gets a signal from a transponder carried by frequent bridge users.

The hands-free stick up is the next best thing to off-shoring jobs. It may even be more egregious than off-shoring jobs,  since no jobs were created in the first place.  The nation and the region  has a veritable army of unemployed persons who could benefit from a job as a toll taker. The nation has an actual army of discharged, damaged, and disillusioned veterans from its serial wars. On another National Holiday the land will echo with plaudits and platitudes about the sacrifices and heroism of those who served our country in the military. Why not put up or shut up, and allow dignified work as a toll taker to help these soldiers reenter society? Why are these jobs seen as something to be so assiduously avoided?

Speed. Efficiency.

At one of the recent events held at the Marriott in Clarksville by the meme troupe of the Bridges Project, I asked why there are no toll booths. Why, in light of chronic unemployment, and in light of re-assimilation problems for veterans do we not, at least, have the prospect of getting some jobs out of the deal? Since the project has been force-fed to the locals, designed and built according to those on high, why not, as Mary Poppins would say, just a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down?

I asked the questions of a member of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. His response was that in the interest of speed and efficiency toll takers are passé. They are an unnecessary impediment to people barreling through the region. Those unemployed are of no concern in the grandee scheme of things. In yesterdays Courier-Journal an article about IBM quotes a professor of Law, "We don't build companies to serve Wall Street. We build corporations to provide goods and services to a society and jobs for people." Should not even a higher expectation apply to publicly-funded, publicly-owned projects?

The Transportation Cabinet representative said the gantries are needed to promote efficiency in transportation. I wish someone had thought of that when the discussion involved light rail. 

Waiting For Good Dough

Years passed in our little town aside the Ohio River. Years of decline layered upon years of decline. Even a few years of false starts passed in the same town, before they were layered over by more decline. During one of the false starts I remember watching an evening of mud wrestling--at the Grand. One of the young girls who maneuvered in the pit that night had to take her bows quickly, because she had to,"get showered, and shampooed, and get to work at The Dodge House", as the owner of the Grand, the emcee of the evening explained.

Apparently those days have dropped off the calendar for good, unless we are now in some extended false start, which will end one day only to find us, once again, roaming a deserted downtown looking for dubious forms of entertainment, with no hope of a decent meal or a good brew.

During those days in New Albany, roughly coinciding with most of the latter third of the Twentieth Century, commercial activity in the downtown area was mostly a memory. The action was in the malls. "Buy local" was an admonition that would have been hard to actualize. One who hoped for a day when New Albany would be home to numerous, good, downtown restaurants would likely have been accused of living in the past. If one had spoken of a day when beer and wine of local origin would be served in good restaurants downtown, one would have likely been called delusional.

And yet, here we are today. Go to downtown New Albany today and find independent restaurants serving good food, good beer and good wine. That the wine and beer is locally produced is icing on the cake. These restaurants are a sign that New Albany has crossed a line between what was and what can be; a line separating decline and abandonment from reclamation and renewal.

But as much progress as New Albany has made, and I hope continues to make, one glaring absence in the culinary scene is seen. Where's the good bread?

New Albany has graduated to a level of appreciation for good, independent restaurants. Our citizens' palates have been cultivated to appreciate craft beer and local vintners. I believe we have reached a point where locally baked, artisanal bread can be introduced into this city.

As we sat down to supper last night, my wife and I both remarked on how good the Pug rolls from the Blue Dog Bakery were. Bread is, after all, one of the oldest staples of the human diet. It is also, in the hands of an accomplished baker, one of the simplest delights.

As the wall of anti-commerce, in the form of tolls and construction delays, between New Albany and Louisville moves closer toward disruption of our regional market, I believe a golden opportunity awaits some talented entrepreneur to open a good bread bakery here. If the owners of the Blue Dog could be enticed to locate here, that would be wonderful, but I sense their hands are full.

The people of our city have responded enthusiastically when good quality food and drink is offered. We have broken the pattern of always choosing the lowest common denominator in dining. This would have been unheard of only a few years ago. Is it too much to think New Albany might now have arrived at a point where the staff of life might earn a higher, artisanal and local expression? I hope the wait will soon be over.             

Open it Off-Broadway?

The Complete Streets workshop today in Jeffersonville was a good introduction to the basic concepts of this tenet of modern urban planning and design. About 40 people were on hand for the workshop, which had an intended focus on Jeffersonville, although the basic ideas are applicable to most cities, and certainly New Albany.

Because the adage is correct that a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, I came away with the idea that New Albany's fist step toward complete streets should naturally be to introduce these design elements into the downtown street grid. Upon reflection, however, I think we may actually have a better chance of success by first working on THE street of Uptown-- Vincennes Street. This street cries out for help. Some of the merchants on Vincennes have literally cried out for help as they try to make a go of it on that once-close runner-up to Downtown's bustle. With Downtown's persistent signs of rejuvenation, it's a good time to roll out some assistance to Uptown.

Downtown has benefitted measurably from the Riverfront Development District, which equates to the cheap liquor license zone. A similar helping hand has not been extended to Uptown, unless one counts the elimination of commercial structures across from the high school in favor of parking spaces for students, a heaping helping of auto-centric hamburger joints, a no man's land on the approach to the moribund K & I bridge, and more than enough vacant storefronts, as a formula for prosperity.

The work required uptown to bring about Complete Streets could pay off relatively quickly  because a smaller area is being tackled. Businesses there could use a shot in the arm as little attention has been paid to the area since Downtown has perked up. New Albany could support two commercial districts in the inner city just as it supports numerous commercial areas heading out of town. And a successful rollout of Complete Streets in Uptown could act as a good demonstration project before the Downtown is targeted.

While focusing on Uptown may be the first step toward Complete Streets, an even more preliminary step, perhaps the analogous step of putting on one's shoes, would be a commitment or an ordinance directing all new development to follow the precepts laid out in a Complete Streets model. Years ago, when I fist served on the Plan Commission, I questioned why we always dictated that a developer build a sidewalk unconnected to any other sidewalk. Since that time some of those "sidewalks to nowhere" have been matched up with other sections of sidewalk to make functional walk ways. Likewise, the incremental bits of Complete Streets can be incorporated into the design of  new developments through the Planning Process, and one day those pieces will join to make a walkable, workable city for all forms of mobility. But to get there we need a plan and a commitment.

Once we've made that commitment, we should get the people from Uptown involved in planning, and work to make Vincennes our first Complete Street. We can build from there. And in the meantime, we can add elements of Complete Streets throughout the city during reconstruction and repair. 

It's a Line... Get Over It

Using all powers of temporal divination, try to peer keenly into the distant past. Conjure a time when things unimagined were so unlikely as to form a line between what is, and what could never be. A time when the sane could visualize a future on one side of this bright line, and only those possessed of a weaker hold on reality could see things on the other side of that line. Yes, think back, imagine those long ago days, try to remember the year Two Thousand and Twelve.

 In those distant days, had one said that New Albany would commit one million dollars to park and recreational expenditures, one would have approached the line of non compos mentis. But, had one suggested that we would commit NINETEEN times that amount, it would be necessary to envision a type of cranial artillery capable of launching one's sanity to distances previously fathomed only in such places as NASA or the Goddard Space Institute.

Yet here we are, today, well into uncharted, unimagined territory. The line has blurred, or disappeared, or maybe it was only in our heads. So now I don’t have to question my sanity as closely as I might in those bygone days.

Last Monday, on July 29, 2013, did I actually board a small airplane and fly to a small city in Wisconsin? Did I actually meet there a kindly silver-haired Pied Piper of sorts, a man who talked with great enthusiasm about streetcars? Did I truly walk through a brand new state-of-the-art car barn, redolent of the relic which used to sit at the corner of Vincennes and Chartres Streets in New Albany? Did I actually ride one of these fantasy machines which I thought only existed in places like San Francisco and countless European cities? Did I stand in the mayor of Kenosha's office discussing the laying of track and power lines to run those trolleys?  While standing there in that office, did I, in fact, see one of the streetcars, yellow, as I recall, roll along the track on the Great Lake shore?

It all seems so real. But then, he of the silver hair talked about putting such streetcars  onto tracks in New Albany. He talked of sharing under-used railroad track. He said, or at least my non comp brain thinks he said, the trolleys can now run on battery power thus obviating the need and cost of overhead lines. He talked of tying IUS to downtown New Albany by way of the old Monon tracks, still there but under new ownership and little used.

This was all my vitiated brain needed. Why not bring the streetcars to New Albany? Why not get the Horseshoe Casino, which surely wants to minimize traffic carnage to its patrons, to share in the cost of laying track to their business site just over the county line? Why not incorporate the streetcars into the Main Street Project now under consideration? Why not tie that line into a line in Clarksville which would serve the Green Tree Mall and shopping on Highway 131? The River Ridge development promises thousands of jobs in the future, many are low pay distribution-center-type jobs, why not link to a line that would save the people who work there thousands of dollars they can ill-afford on cars, and provide the streetcar service for them? Why not build a workable transportation system using the appealing device of trolley cars, that can make New Albany a center of innovation and sustainability? Why not recognize that sustainability as a key to making New Albany a relevant place to live and work in the Twenty First Century? Why not take a step which the former mayor-for-life, Jerry Abramson, found too bold for the Possibility City when he pooh-poohed light rail as a pipe dream? Why not try boldness and cooperation among the cities and towns along the northern edge of the Ohio River by tying New Albany, Clarksville, Jeffersonville, and now with River Ridge, Charlestown, into a strong, viable, innovative and sustainable counterweight to the long regional dominance of Louisville?

It's a shame that those in authority chose to follow a well-worn path on the bridges project, rather than allocating a fraction of the multi-billions of dollars dedicated to an auto-centric transportation fix which encourages exurban sprawl and, instead, take just a few of the eggs from that outmoded basket  to revive our cities with a new/old form of transportation which, by its nature, encourages revitalization of our urban areas.    

We have committed to spend a huge amount of public money on a few recreational projects. While those projects may have value for the community, a truly bold step toward a model transportation system could put New Albany on a path that would change the lives of its citizens for the better, now and in the future.

We found the money for the recreational projects. We can find the money for true innovation and sustainability. All it takes is a step over the line.

Heads I Win, Tails We Lose

Not too long ago the nation, after much back and forth, arrived at a watered-down version of  health care, which put us on a somewhat more equal footing with the other industrial democracies in the world.  It wasn't Medicare-For-All, but it was a start. At least some of the egregious holes in our decrepit health care system would be plugged up. People with pre-existing conditions would not be denied coverage, and a universal component, health care exchanges, would be put in place, even though run through the needless, parasitic gauntlet of publicly-traded health care middlemen/insurers. Medicare is delivered to our citizens on a relative shoestring of overhead costs,  generally reported as three or four percent, while the Affordable Care Act capped for-profit middlemen at 18% of overhead.

The primary objective of the Affordable Care Act was to move the millions of Americans without health coverage to a place where they did not face that vulnerability. Well over half of personal bankruptcies are the result of an avalanche of medical bills hitting the uninsured.

Because the United States has refused the common sense solution of the single-payer health coverage model, we rely on an employer-provided health coverage model.  In a fairly straightforward provision the ACA set out, employer plans would cover all full time workers and part-time workers who clock in at 30 or more hours per week, or 130 hours per month.

As the deadline for meeting the requirements of the law approaches, and even as the deadline for the implementation of the law is now moved back another year to January 1, 2015, employers are faced with a choice. Shall they meet the spirit of the law or will they duck behind the letter of the law?

Rather than meeting the spirit of the law by providing health care to part time workers, some employers are choosing the letter of the law to mean, "let's cut hours and keep the workers outside the definition of the law." That may be helpful in padding the bottom line for private companies, or avoiding revenue increases in the case of government workers, but it does not meet the intent of the ACA mandate.

Many part time workers can only find part time work, while some, because of family obligations, choose to only work part time. The part time status is thus both a burden and a blessing. The burden/blessing equation flows both ways, however. Employers pay out less in wages, and so stretch their budgets for greater profit or, in the case of public employers, for tighter efficiency and avoidance of fiscal responsibility.

As we approach the budget season for the City of New Albany, we need to keep in mind that although the Affordable Care Act is a weak version of what we need in this country, it is a start. We owe an obligation to the City's workers, both full time and part time, to provide for them what the law demands. We don't need to play the Artful Dodger and duck our responsibilities. By scheduling part time workers to fewer hours, we may force valuable employees out the door toward the door of a more equitable employer. In the process, we may lose experience, continuity and commitment which will cost more to replace than simply meeting the standards of our nation's laws, as we should.

An Invitation

Tomorrow night the New Albany Common Council will consider a resolution (R-13-09) in support of mining Floyd County's past; not a search for nature's riches hidden below ground, but rather a search for elucidation of our predecessors' days buried by time.

Some weeks ago I was contacted by the cousin of a constituent who has the opportunity to compete for a grant through the U.S. Department of the Interior to engage in archaeological sleuthing in counties that have received relatively little attention. In our area, Floyd County has had less study than either its eastern or western neighbors. Rebecca VanSessen, the cousin of the constituent, lived in Floyd County as a child and identified her childhood environs as a place which might fit the criteria of the grant. She is a research associate at the University of Indianapolis, and along with Dr. Chris Moore they hope to demonstrate the worth of their project which can bring to light facts about the ancient inhabitants of our county.

During a brief meeting and discussion over a modern version of an ancient beverage, Dr. Moore mentioned a term I had never heard, Industrial Archaeology. This study of relatively recent artifacts can also help us understand some of the early settlers here who lived a life more akin to our own today, yet still blurred by the passage of time.

The two archaeologists will speak at an informational session before the meeting tomorrow night. They will outline some of their plans and discuss the richness of our past. Since I've had the pleasure of meeting with them already I can attest that what they have to say will be interesting and worth the time to attend.

The informational session will be held in the Strassweg Auditorium in the New Albany Floyd County Public Library beginning at 6:30PM. Around 7:15 Council members will cross the street to the City County Building for the regular Council meeting at 7:30PM.   

One Way, Out

The Saturday News and Tribune gave prominent place to the idea that one of New Albany's anchors to a bygone era may soon be cut loose.  The time for one way streets has come and mercilessly held on here. Call it ennui, call it too much money that we won't spend to turn traffic lights around, or call it "by God I bought these plaid bell bottoms and I'm going to get my money's worth out of them", but please, just call a halt to the one way streets in New Albany.

This town has much to offer when it recognizes what we have and then follows through with recognition of what to do with it. The twin catalysts of the YMCA coming to downtown New Albany, and the delineation of the Riverfront Development District, a.k.a. the cheap liquor license zone, led to a vibrancy in downtown that hasn't been seen in decades. The lesson here is, give people a reason to come downtown and, voila, they'll come downtown.

Could a possible counterforce be at work when we give people what they don't want? Or, could we inadvertently be sending out kryptonitic vibes about downtown when we establish traffic patterns which do nothing so much as move people through town with greater alacrity than a coffee house bathroom break after a double espresso and a bran muffin? Spring Street pretty much says to those who happen upon it from elsewhere, "keep moving folks, nothing to see here, get on back to your homes and places of business." And, there's a further bit of unspoken advice, "wrap yourself in a couple tons of steel if you want to navigate these streets." Between Silver Street and Clark County there is nothing to slow cars down, and this is a two-way section of the street. Towards the other end of Spring, at the government center and the Library, the one-way street is filled with drivers jacked up with visions of the Big Green sign leading out of New Albany; many of these people are focused on a goal that does not always see, or make allowances for, the un-carred.

It's good to look toward removing the one way signs around town. But, maybe the one way should refer not simply to a street direction or traffic pattern but to THE single way we look at ordering society. And that one way is, how can we, as humans, placate the motorized beings which dictate how our cities are gutted to make more room for the resting oil-eaters, how can we reorder our lives to make not only spatial but psychological room for our internal combustion buddies, how much more of here will be written off because we can so easily drive to there?       

New Albany will soon face an increase in traffic to levels we could not imagine in our worst-case-scenario wargames, due to the closing of lanes on I-65 and following on the heels of that increase will be the onslaught of the bargain hunters who see New Albany as a No-Tolls detour around the EEC and I-65. ( as an aside...I originally thought the EEC referred to the East End Connector, apparently it actually refers to the European Economic Community, in recognition of the two socialist powerhouses, Germany and France,(( FRANCE,  Governor Pence, did you hear that? the cheese-eating, wine-swilling, bidet-using, surrender monkeys are coming to bail our cheap, weak-kneed, Tea Bagger butts out of the fire)) which are funding the Indiana share of the bridge. Kentucky, which has no truck with socialists, won't participate in the EEC financing scheme in the same dilettantish way Indiana will.) Because drivers will be hell bent on a smooth passage through New Albany, they'll have little use for our quaint attempts at catching their attention. This increase in drivers will not add to the general welfare, except perhaps for some sated State Police appetites for new customers on thoroughly urban thoroughfares. The streets, with no built in safety mechanisms, calming devices, or calming practices, such as two way traffic, will be less safe than today, less welcoming to pedestrians or cyclists.

It is difficult to underestimate the sheer hell of noise pollution the citizens of New Albany who live within, and no phrase is better, earshot of the expressways will experience during the construction and preparation for construction of the bridges.

So, mark me down as a firm "aye" vote on any attempt the administration makes toward eliminating one way streets. Further mark me down as a solid and enthusiastic "aye" on any attempts the administration may offer on helping New Albany take a progressive stand in reordering our city away from automobile-centric development and toward human-scale development. 

techNicoloR nightmAre

Since the news of the slaughter of school children of Newtown, Connecticut began to assault our senses last December, the nation has tried to feel its way to a place where such tragedy is unknown, or certainly less likely.

Since December 14, 2012 at least 3,346 more Americans have died by gunfire. Some of these could be suicides, some could be accidents, some of the people shot were committing crimes, some were armed, some were not. The lobbying arm of the gun and ammunition manufacturing industry, often referred to as the National Rifle Association, has fought the nation's immediate expression of revulsion against guns after the Newtown massacre to a draw. Many polls show in excess of 2/3 of Americans want tighter restrictions on the sale of guns, equivalent numbers want other curbs, such as fewer bullets per clip, tracking of gun show sales, and universal background checks for gun purchasers. Many pols show no spine when confronted by the fanatical gun lobby; Tea Party senators pledge a stonewall defense, through filibuster, against even taking a vote on gun legislation.

The gun apologists dissemble and assure us that, guns don't kill people, people kill people. So, cigarettes don't kill people either? People smoking cigarettes, kill people (themselves). The Max Headroom of the NRA, Wayne LaPierre, tautologizes that the only thing that stops a bad person with a gun is a good person with a gun.

Constantly ignored by the NRA is the fact that the United States is awash in guns. Perhaps coincidentally, the United States leads the industrialized world in gun deaths, yet LaPierre wants no restrictions, which means he believes we have not yet reached a sufficient number of guns to be safe. It is difficult  to know just how many guns will finally spell safety, but be certain, the NRA will continue to explore those frontiers and help us add to the stockpile. Logic tells us that a floor strewn with tacks increases the danger that we will step on one, so sensible people don't throw more and more tacks on the floor, and walk barefoot.  Why doesn't the same logic apply to guns?

We seem now to face the loss of resolve the nation showed after the Newtown massacre. The spineless, venal, craven, caviling toadies of the NRA wish to sweep the tragedy under the rug. Their motto is "out of sight, out of mind." And their goal is to get back to the business of arming the USA to the teeth, thus squaring the deal they made with the lobbyists. Unfortunately, their stonewalling may succeed. The fresh graves of Newtown's cemeteries, and the fresher ones across the nation since that day, apparently lack shock value. The gun lobby would have us believe these graves are found in the rounding errors of democracy, a frontier where it's every man for himself and each of us must live in fear of our freedom being stolen.

I sincerely believe that if our elected officials in Washington, and in state capitols around the nation would do just one thing to commemorate the victims in Newtown, we would break the back of the NRA, its insidious hold on our democracy, and our collective safety. The one thing, the one action we could take to pry the cold, cold, fingers of the NRA from the neck of our nation is to insist our elected representatives look at the crime scene photographs of the children gunned down in the school house massacre. Bear witness to the gory, bloody, hideous dismemberment wrought by modern military weapons, see what the relentless pummeling of machine gun fire does to the flesh of these innocents. Bear witness to that carnage, Senator McConnell and a dozen more of your sycophants, then look into the eyes of the parents who buried those children and parrot LaPierre's crap that the only thing that stops a bad man with a gun, is a good man with a gun. Then, tell me how you sleep at night.         

A Third A Third A Third

While the train carrying the effort to open the K & I Bridge to use by citizens has left the station, and before this metaphorical train goes too far down the track, alphabetically speaking, while we're still in the Cs, let's consider another C. The resolution recently passed by the New Albany Common Council suggested that the effort to open the K & I  pursue "any and all means" to bring about that opening. To be sure, condemnation is one of the strategies which should be considered. But condemnation has an unsavory connotation which could lead to protracted legal entanglements which would not well serve any of the affected parties, neither New Albany and Louisville nor the railroad currently exercising control of the bridge.

Rifling through the kit bag of remedies to this conundrum another C comes to mind. This C would also require the expenditure of  legal energy, possible redefinitions and reinterpretations of property law. But it may offer a less contentious solution which would allow the citizens north and south of the river and the railroad to live amicably as neighbors. Might it be possible to condo the bridge?

Under this alternative, the Norfolk Southern would divide the bridge into ownership units of the eastern automobile deck, the western auto deck and the middle rail bed and tracks. New Albany and Louisville could jointly purchase ownership of the auto decks while the Norfolk Southern would hold ownership of the rail road itself. Just as in a residential condominium a condo association would oversee the maintenance issues surrounding the condo project. Just as in a residential condo the several owners would be responsible for the maintenance on a percentage of occupancy basis. In the case of the bridge, the railroad as the largest unit owner would be responsible for the largest share of the maintenance costs. The condo bylaws would bind the owners of the shared property to certain rules and responsibilities just as those who share ownership in a residential or office condominium.

If this is a possible structure for this project, it might prove to be a quicker path to the goal of re-opening the bridge.

 

Gratuitous Limbaugh Bashing? Why Not?

 

 

The environmentalist wackos over at The Huffington Post displayed this picture as part of a series of stupid, questionable, or laughable bits of graffiti. It was painted on some bridge, somewhere, by some stupid person who couldn't spell "dolphins", and who somehow tried to elevate his own sorry existence to a  level higher than the dolphins he ineptly attempted to disparage. Which calls to mind that fan of dolphinry, the Oxymoron.

 

 I don't know how many years ago the Supreme Ego that is Rush Limbaugh tried to elevate his sorry self above the level of his betters, the far-superior mammalian species he mocked--at least far superior to the Oxymoron*Limbaugh himself-- by stating, and I paraphrase here, "...if dolphins are so wonderful, so intelligent, why don't they have dolphin highways and go to dolphin hospitals. If they don't have them, if they can't take care of themselves, then screw 'em."

 

Perhaps Limbaugh has now wasted down to such a level that sentient beings no longer listen to his inane braying. Perhaps pointing out his past brayings is much ado about no one. But, I somehow think he still has street cred within the once-legitimate Republican party. So until the formerly-respectable party has flushed that particular floater away, he is still in the punch bowl of political discourse, still on the G.O.P.'s guest list and still a target for disparagement.  

 

 

 

*Oxymoron in the sense of one who is a moron due to his use and abuse of Oxycontin, his lack of sympathy for others who have run afoul of the law for drug related crimes and now spend years in prison, and one who forced his hired help to illegally procure drugs for his habit thus insulating his sorry soul from culpability in his crimes; all while holding himself out as a paragon of rightness in its varied meanings.

 

Literally, How About a Yard Sale?

During the 2011 campaign, in this space, I had posted several items which I referred to as a "Nudge List". The ideas were ones I hoped to convince, connive or cajole the Mayor into taking up as his ideas. Admittedly, it's a roundabout process, but a few things are in the works.

So now, in light of the current situation surrounding the County's budget, which isn't good and which is widely covered in the Courier-Journal and The Tribune, I'd like to dust off the nudge list and add another, more timely, item.

Now that the City has staked out its own course on parks, and now that a recent bond issue has begun to take shape for various recreational projects such as a pool, a sports complex, and a soccer venue, and since the County now finds itself a touch short, maybe now the City should offer to take Community Park off the County's hands and in the process help it close the budget deficit it now faces. A good price would be $2.4 million.

All citizens of Floyd County could continue to avail themselves of the park's amenities, and the County would be off the hook for maintenance. The City has demonstrated a greater commitment to the parks throughout the years, so why not buy Community Park and let the County get its financial house in order?

Driver, Can You Spare a Dime?

Last night the City Council voted 5 to 3 to uphold Councilman Phipps's ordinance against in-street collections for charities or other causes. I voted no and thought I'd explain why.

I'm normally quite in agreeance, as an incarcerated former co-worker might say, with Mr. Phipps. I'm certain his intentions are good with this ordinance. I'm not strongly committed to either side of the argument. In fact, if I had just been hit up for a donation at some street corner, I might have voted differently. And that may be the basic reason I voted against the measure. Just because my easy-mark status makes me vulnerable to gentle tugs on my purse strings, I don't want to pull the plug on all street solicitations.

I'm sure that's not the impetus behind Mr. Phipps's bill. I believe he genuinely sees it as a safety issue.

I don't see that standing in the middle of a street corner is, or should be, terribly dangerous. If people are driving so recklessly that anyone not armored with a ton or so of molded metal is vulnerable to vehicular trauma, our city needs greater help than this ordinance offers. If drivers are so surprised to see humans on a street, that tells us more about the preeminence of machines over humans, and the ordinance will not balance that equation. If people are so stupid and distracted, and hellbent on reaching their destination when driving, then the streets aren't safe for anyone.

 

Admittedly, common sense guidelines need to be followed in collections at intersections. Special attention should be taken of young participants of the bucket brigades so they don't act irresponsibly. And yes, other forms of fund raising might be favored over collections at intersections. But we should not fall into the pattern of seeing streets as a no man's land fit only for the efficient movement of cars and trucks.

I've asked for a street light to be installed on East Spring at Cost Avenue. I saw a child nearly run over there because she was exercising the level of caution one might expect from, a child. Apparently that location does not rise to the level of concern needed to earn the investment of a traffic light. A traffic light there might make that long block from Silver Street to the county line a safer place for pedestrians.

I've also asked for a street light at West First and Spring. I've almost been hit there and I've seen others almost  hit there. The response from INDOT was that it's analysis didn't show enough hazard at that intersection to inflict delay on drivers headed toward the Big Green signs of the interstate. I interpreted that dismissal to mean that absent a fatality or two at that corner, there was no need to bother motorists with  a traffic signal.

The fact is, streets are for people. Some of the people using those streets may be drivers. But the more we assign primacy to people in cars over people moving or using the streets in other ways, the longer it will take to ever arrive at a point where we reassert it is people who belong in their  city. It is people the city is built for, not cars. Since "transportation planners" long ago saw fit to route interstates through the hearts of many cities, the scales have been tilted overwhelmingly toward the automobile. I see no reason to aid or abet their mistakes. And I see this proposal as acquiescence in further relegating streets to the exclusive domain of the car.

 

If Life Hands You Lindens, Make Lindenade

At yesterday's Redevelopment Commission meeting I floated a lead trial balloon of turning the woebegone property of Linden Meadows into a water park. You may recall that years ago Linden Meadows, which is situated hard by I-64 and near Fairview Cemetery in the Valley View Court area, was on its way to becoming a major project of the New Albany Community Housing Development Organization (CHDO). The aim was to relocate good housing stock displaced by Floyd Memorial 's expansion to a nearby site, thus keeping affordable housing available for New Albany home buyers. The project foundered for numerous reasons and was recently erased from the intended relocation area as the houses in advanced stages of deterioration were bulldozed and the lots cleared.

Prior to that sad chapter the land had been a park featuring several baseball diamonds, Howard McLean Park. I live quite close to Linden Meadows and lived equally close when it was still a park. We used to take our dogs there to run. For a long time I remember seeing the park from the Interstate but never being able to figure out exactly where it was. (You may not want to go deep into the woods with me and rely on my orienteering skills to get back out.) For the superannuated readers, Howard McLean Park-remember this was in the days before Google Earth-seemed to me like the purse in Fontaine Ferry's Mirror Maze. In the hall of mirrors near the back was what appeared to be a mirror but was really a clear glass; behind the glass was an open purse with a lipstick and a wallet with a couple dollars spilling out of it. I always wanted to reach for it, but it was forever out of reach. Such to me was Howard McLean Park. And, I had several people report the same phantasmal perception of the park. Flying Dutchman Park?

Well, now there's no housing re-development and there's no park. But there is support for an aquatic center, a water park, call it what suits you, somewhere in New Albany.

The property once known as Linden Meadows is an excellent place to build a new water park. As mentioned above, the property sits close to the right of way for I-64. That alone is a huge negative for construction of new houses. Hell's Own Doorbell, the satanic Jake Brake, growls incessantly at all hours of the day or night. Such background noise is not a welcome ingredient when showcasing curb appeal.  It would matter not a bit to kids playing in a pool.

Not Linden Meadows is close to hundreds of houses with children, and many  of those children are not blessed with affluence. Building a water park in Not Linden Meadows would be an invitation to those children and their families to enjoy themselves while actively beating summer's heat, rather than retreating to an air conditioned couch in front of the television or game screen.

Not Linden Meadows is accessible by foot or bicycle for hundreds of kids. For those slightly farther away, State Street is just a couple blocks distant and is served, meagerly for now, by TARC buses. Now that New Albany controls its own parks, perhaps we can offer other modes of transportation through the Parks Department. Regardless of whether the water park is finally built at Not Linden Meadows or someplace else, it must be in a place conducive to people who don't drive or have access, because of working parents, to rides to the pool.

Also on the list for consideration as a site for the water park are three other locations: an undisclosed inner city spot, the front of Community Park, and the former Camille Wright Pool. Community Park, because of the pedestrian desert that is Grant Line road, is in my mind disqualified. Camille Wright probably would be fine since it once housed a popular pool, and it would be accessible by many nearby kids by foot or bike, but it is well-suited for infill housing.. And, of course the undisclosed location can't be considered since we don't know where it is.

So, that brings us back to Not Linden Meadows. It is located within safe, easy, reach of a lot of kids. The land, because of its noisy neighbor I-64, is not a prime house building spot. The proximity to the West End would bring welcome investment to that section of the City that is often slighted.

Not Linden Meadows is close to Cherry Valley  golf course  (it was once part of the golf course when it was Valley View). That would allow golfers to golf while other family members play in the water. When the golfer finishes the course in summer's heat a dip in the pool could be a refreshing end to the day.

New Albany has gone long enough without a pool of some sort. It's time to move toward a water park, pool or aquatic center. And, it's time to bring Not Linden Meadows full circle and return it to park status.