When Life Hands You Lemons...

With a meteorological snap of the fingers last Sunday, New Albany found itself challenged and changed. What I believe to be the single most significant architectural feature of our city, St. Mary's church, has been de-steepled, hopefully this abasement is only temporary.

The wind blew the dust off another more troubling weakness in our civic infrastructure: vivid recognition and willing acceptance of limitations. In some instances this could be called fear: fear of the unknown, fear of other people getting what is mine, fear of other people simply getting something I don't have, fear of other people's dreams eclipsing or supplanting my own limited vision of the what can be, fear of change.

Two issues come to mind when thinking of this creeping paralysis of fear: repairing Spring Street Hill and dealing with the new reality confronting the Baptist Tabernacle building.

I received an anonymous correspondence from somebody who apparently thinks it is foolish to repair Spring Street Hill. Quoting from this correspondent's letter,

"What are the Council's and this England administration's priorities?

Two-way streets? Spring Street Hill?

What the hell is wrong with this England Administration and Council?"

I walked through much of the city during the primary and general election campaign. While walking through Silver Hills, one issue received nearly unanimous support, repairing Spring Street Hill. Yes, it's an expensive project but it's one that simply must be done. I am by no means wealthy, but if I lose one or two of my front teeth, I will find the money somehow, someway, to get those teeth fixed. Likewise, a viable city can not simply write off parts of its infrastructure if it wants to be seen, or perhaps more importantly, if it wants to see itself , as viable. Perhaps the anonymous writer sees Silver Hills residents as "others" not entitled to claim what the rest of us take for granted, such as easy access by police and fire departments during emergencies. The writer may also take a less forceful view of dentistry than I.

The Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, was on one of the Sunday morning talk shows today. He said New York went through a spell in the late Seventies when leaders just threw up their hands and basically gave up; grafitti was not cleaned up, streets weren't paved, maintenance was deferred. He said decisions prior to his election, perhaps Giuliani's, recognized that the failure on the part of the city to uphold its end of the bargain, turned people away from the city, something like, "if the city doesn't care about keeping itself up, why should I want to try to set up a business there?" Anticipating the anonymous writer's response presaged by this quote, "Don't you realize we are not Jeffersonville, Louisville, Clarksville or Madison or any other city?", we're not New York. But, human nature is not bounded by geographic lines: people don't want to invest, not money, not time, not hope, in a city that has given up hope in itself. Failure to fix Spring Street Hill would have been a loud and clear statement that we had given up hope.

The second issue, the Baptist Tabernacle, shares many of the same contours of the Spring Street Hill debate. As most people know, the Baptist Tabernacle on Fourth Street was purchased by the city earlier in the year. It has been largely untouched awaiting a clear choice of what its use, beyond the laudible and defensible one of an example of the city's commitment to preservation, should be. Last Sunday's storm ripped the roof, original wood decking, rafters and shingles, completely off the intact brick walls. Reports say the plaster inside and the Dedication Stone are also intact. I have maintained that the building would make an oustanding, if small, City Hall. The second floor would be an unrivaled meeting hall. The first floor would make good office space.

One problem with the building before the storm damage is the fact that it would not fully alleviate the ovedrcrowded conditions facing city offices, which is a major impetus for a move from the current City County Building. The storm also damaged the metal building next door to the Tabernacle, about ten feet distant. If this property were acquired and a new City Hall built on that parcel, the combination of the new building and the restored Baptist Tabernacle would make a fully functional and inspiring building-complex in which to conduct city business. It would also direct the nearly $150,000 in yearly rent toward a city-owned asset. And it would form a clearly defined eastern boundary to the downtown section of the city. This would help transition from the commercial activities downtown to the residential nature of the surrounding streets.

The desire to move out of the City-County building is real and has been expressed by members of the Council and the Administration. These are difficult times and plenty of arguments can be expressed to wait for a better time to make this move. The condition of the Tabernacle itself can be seen as reason to abandon the project. But as a contractor I spoke with on the site of the Tabernacle said, "It's a good building, it just needs a new roof." The building is insured and the best use of the insurance settlement should be to replace the roof and commence the move toward construction of a new City Hall complex incorporating this historic jewel as the meeting room for city government.

Meeting Announcement

The next meeting of the committee on Rental Registration and Code Enforcement is being held Wednesday September 10, at 6:00PM.

It will be in the third floor assembly room in the City County Building.

It's Alright

Since Zimmy was, implausibly, here Saturday night, it seemed like a good time to listen to one of his best.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bjqYPH7rAo

Rental Registration

The committee formed to address the issue of rental registration and code enforcement will hold it's first meeting this Saturday morning, August 23, at 10:00 A.M. in the Elsa Strassweg Auditorium in the Library.

This meeting is expected to be brief. It is intended to simply outline where the committee is headed.

Those interested are welcome, and encouraged to attend.

Smoking Ordinance

"Why do they snipe at me because I have cancer? It's a respectable disease. It's not as if I had a dose of the clap."

--Humphrey Bogart

As we approach the vote next Thursday on the smoking ordinance I am moved to respond to some of the thoughts in the ether.

Roger Baylor, one of the exemplars of local public opinion, has chosen sides in the smoking debate. He chooses to couch the issue in a frame of all or nothing. New Albany Confidential's co-editor takes, basically, the same tack. That is their prerogative. I find no fault with their positions.

I see only two exceptions. One is a tobacco store such as Kaiser Tobacco or one of the outlet-type stores. The other is a private club with no employees; under that configuraton I can see only one in New Albany, the Culbertson West Club. Owners Carl Holiday and Steve Goodman are the staff. Is there another such club in New Albany?

Hugh Bir is the face I see when I contemplate the gravity of the vote before me. Hugh runs an establishment he refers to himself as, a "honkeytonk". His business is a smoky, funky joint. I don't think he would quibble with that characterization.

Baylor and Gillenwater opine unremittingly about the lack of progress in New Albany, rightly so. Baylor has something on his blog's masthead about a sleepy river town awakening, grudgingly, to the 21st Century.

Fellows, the 21st century is here, and it's smoke free.

I won't pull on people's heartstrings with a rollcall of people from my family who have died because of tobacco. It's no longer than most people's list. But the list is real and it has people on it that I loved or my wife loved. Make no mistake, the people for whom this ordinance is intended are loved by someone. The people for whom this ordinance is intended may not have a platform from which to express their feelings or wishes. They may not have the thought within them that they will benefit from this action. But I took an oath which I interpret to, among other things, protect the health of the citizens of New Albany. Meddlesome? Heavy handed? Maybe, but who's to argue the opposite side that unregulated smoking is a boon to health? Who's to speak for the nearly minimum wage worker, who needs a not-so-great job just to keep his or her head above water, if not the elected officials of their own city?

What's to become of that same worker if the "draconian" measures we contemplate result in the bar closing? Again, I think of Hugh's place. Will his patrons abandon the pursuit of pleasure on a Friday or Saturday night simply because they must step outside to light up? It's difficult to legislate against something and then hope for cooperation from those subject to the unwanted regulation. I'm reminded of a scene from the movie version of "Cold Mountain". Rene Zellwinger's character says, "They call this war a cloud over the land. But they made the weather and then they stand in the rain and say, 'Shit. It's raining.'" And yet I think we can lift most of the regulations that may make outdoor dining and drinking difficult to implement for independent bar and restaurant owners. If you come into an unfamiliar city do you not first seek out the places featuring outdoor dining? Doesn't that tell you something about what people want? And isn't that, at least, a starting place for an accommodation of bar worker's health and the public good?

I am chairman of the committee to look at rental property registration and subsequent code enforcement. This committe has not met, and will not meet, until after August 21. It is my intention to draft an ordinance that will result in dwellings in the city of New Albany that are safe and which complement the efforts of the entire community to be a workable, walkable, healthy city that is a reflection of the direction the nation should be taking in light of the environmental circumstances in which we find ourselves. It is disheartening to have an effort which has not yet begun, be stigmatized as a type of Original Sin by the failure of past City Councils who may have dodged the issue or been beholden to special interests. This Original Sin is then used, in a post hoc ergo propter hoc fashion to denigrate the sincere efforts of the current council to serve, to the best of its abilities, the interests of the health and well-being of this city's populace.

The vote on the smoking ordinance is the toughest vote I've cast since joining the City Council, and I don't see it as an expression of "diversionary, hypocritical, elitist bunk." as some have called it. I see it, rather, as the first step this body has taken toward moving New Albany forward in this still-new century.

08-08-08

As the eyes of the world turn toward Wal-Mart's backroom, before the first chant of "USA! USA! USA!" is heard, it seems like a good time to look at some of the moral gymnastics we practice in pursuit of low prices. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpz102bDzH4

Plastic-scene Epoch

Careful with that planet, Eugene.

http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080506/MULTIMEDIA02/80505016