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.
Monday, April 15, 2013
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
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.
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.
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