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.