Thursday, June 19, 2008

Pretense, foolish optimism and the ascendancy of New Albany’s “Destructive Class.”

The times are tough now
Just getting tougher
This old world is rough
It's just getting rougher
Cover me
Come on baby cover me
Well I'm looking for a lover who will come on in and cover me
-- “Cover Me,” by Bruce Springsteen


As a prelude to the evening’s council follies, here are four commentaries of significance at NA Shadow Council. I recommend you visit the site and read each in its entirety.

At Root, This is Our Goal
As a matter of fact, by stripping New Albany's income tax revenues to "save" ratepayers from a sewer rate increase, a council majority is handing your tax dollars to businesses and outsiders who don't even pay taxes. Why, we ask, should that be treated as some type of "salvation?"

Logical Conclusions
By all logical interpretation, the current regime (administrative or legislative) desires to use at least a portion of those revenues to prop up the sewer utility.Why not, then, go all the way?Let's divert 100% of taxes to keeping sewer rates artificially low. Let's abandon 100% of city services. Building inspection? Zero it out. Police protection? Zero it out? Fire protection? Forget about it.

Dump It in the Sewers!
There is a rational solution to making our sewer utility permanently viable. But demagoguery is blocking it. By appealing to the least common denominator in the populace, the regrettably naive and ignorant (ignorant=unknowledgeable, which is not to say that they are stupid, just gullible and susceptible to the machinations of politicians who prosper at their expense), the entrenched regressive majority of the council is both pandering and insulting the constituency it purports to represent.

A June Week of Consequence
Our illustrious Sewer Board, purportedly not under the direction of our current chief executive, is prepared to continue a policy designed to further degrade New Albany, and by extension, the prosperity of all New Albanians.

Hmm, so I’m not the only one surmising that the longer the England administration waits to expend the slightest farthing of political capital, the more it is likely that it doesn’t have any. Is it just me, or are we witnessing retreat on every front?

Is it just me, or is watching this dysfunctional entity called New Albany meander yet again down a path of self-mutilation and sheer nuttiness goes far beyond the titillation of NASCAR wrecks and Hollywood rehab breakdowns into the realm of the purely psychotic?

Is the England team ever going to go for the jugular – damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead – or not?

While we ponder the answers to these questions, which would have been familiar to a New Albanian of fifty years ago, such is our perennial level of dysfunction, let’s keep it fair and balanced. Council president Gahan, this one’s for you:

Does the bizarre council alliance that continues to endorse the use of economic development monies to subsidize sewer rates -- a collection of strange bedfellows that seemingly unites good and thoughtful people with the most self-aggrandizing, doltish ward heelers this city has to offer -- intend to offer something of an alternative to throwing EDIT money down the drain pipe, or do we spend another three years fighting the lost battles of the 1970’s, 80’s and 90’s, oblivious to the opportunities that finally are landing on our doorsteps?

Is it really worth allying with the likes of Dan Coffey and Steve Price to reward the incapable and to stymie the city’s progress?

For that matter, can any elected official in this city step outside the box – just once would be appreciated -- and eschew the politics of anti-this and anti-that and anti-them people, and present a coherent program to accomplish something?

Anything?

Will there ever be an end to the passive-aggressive tug of turf war that consumes all the time and most of the resources while the remainder of the planet shrugs, turns the pages of the calendar and gets on with the business of planning for the future?

I hate to be the one to tell you this, but it’s not a chicken-and-egg argument, or some encrypted ancient code that can’t be fathomed by New Albanian eyes. Pre-schoolers can figure it out. The city’s future depends on a bigger pie, and a bigger pie can be achieved with new blood and new money. Quite a few people spend their months working toward this end, and when the city’s political leaders play their time-encrusted games and take their “against it” cues from embittered troglodytes like Dan Coffey, it’s not just comical.

It’s deadly. It’s leprosy and Ebola rolled into one. It sends investors fleeing for more sensible places like Chad and Bolivia. It takes every principle of successful urban reinvention and sacrifices it on an altar of class-conscious spite. Pat Robertson on the board of Atheists International makes more sense than Dan Coffey at Redevelopment, and so it goes.

Other cities extend a hand. We trot out Coffey with a nail-studded board, warning newcomers that they're not welcomed. Understandably, they take their money and spend it elsewhere, leaving Coffey to beam with pride at how, once again, he saved his constituents from a better life.

And, council president, whatever your seeming good intentions in allying with the lunatics for whatever short-term political gain there is to be derived from expediency, make no mistake: You lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas. You have the information? You envision a plan to use it and solve the sewer fixation once and for all? For God’s sake, man, use it. Offer an alternative. Tell us how we get it done, because time is running out. Quit communicating in code. Be a leader.

But maybe failure is a foregone conclusion in a city where ignorance has been elevated to a virtual religion and education is regarded as a Scarlet Letter to be subjected to the derision of those whose only contribution is to jeer at things they don’t understand. If anyone can explain the source of these resentments against the modern world, we're all ears.

So tell me, council president and fellow factionalists: What do we say to those people who see New Albany not for what it has been, but for what it might be, the ones with money in their hands, but with Dan Coffey and Steve Price blocking their way?

They look at New Albany, and they see a place oozing with potential. All they’re asking is for the city to keep its end of the deal and address infrastructure, so tell me, how do we pave the streets? How do we bring down the tradition of starving the city of investment to appease that segment of the population least capable of contributing to its necessary reinvention?

Is New Albany’s birthright perpetual squalor, and the diminished expectations of the conjoined councilmen, or can we hope for something more?

Yes, I’m being harsh, and it’s purely intentional, but I know for a fact that there are members of the current council who have the brains to address these questions and perhaps even to prove me wrong by explaining the answers. And yet, so far, these same council members are busy pandering to those among them who have nothing to offer except venom.

Why is this? Any of you?

11 comments:

B.W. Smith said...

Can anyone, anyone at all, justify why subsidizing our sewer utility with EDIT money is a good idea?

All4Word said...

I don't know about you, but I'm bringing my own handcuffs to Hauss Square tonight.

Jeff Gillenwater said...

Can anyone, anyone at all, justify why subsidizing our sewer utility with EDIT money is a good idea?

The only people who can justify even trying are those who don't pay EDIT to the city but use the sewer system: "Yes, I think taxpayers should foot my bill so I don't have to."

The EDIT subsidy was ridiculous when it was instituted and still is. I've suggested to the administration that any of their appointments that advocate for it should be replaced.

Ceece said...

ESNA will be there to oppose this crazy EDIT/sewer plan.

Daniel Short said...

Do you expect any of the questions posed here to receive any real answers. Don't hold your breath New Albanians. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results... Reminds me of Mayor England's first term. Why did he get voted out? He should have stayed in office and tore the city down to the bare bones, instead of putting it off for eight years. Real leadership in NA, now that is a good one.

B.W. Smith said...

The EDIT subsidy was ridiculous when it was instituted and still is.

Agreed. Crippling an entire city for a $6 per month savings and perpetual sewer problems is just plain dumb. I am with Roger on this one - where are our leaders...at least the ones who know better? Sometimes it's enough to make you want to pack up and head for a coastal city, you know?

Jeff Gillenwater said...

True. If I remember correctly, the "savings" at the time was about $3.50 a month.

I'll try to spell it out again if I can get firm numbers, but last time an average city household with two wage earners paid about $8 a month in EDIT taxes to save $3-$4 on their sewer bill. That's not counting, of course, the opportunity cost of not receiving the things EDIT money should actually pay for.

Just plain stupidity with no excuse.

Highwayman said...

"The answer my friend, is blowin in the wind--Bob Dylan"

Throughout the last election cycle many of us discussed the necessity of the puiblic's involvement in the process both pre & post election up to and including doing much of the leg work & research for those we elected.

It appears that we have failed in that endeavor either because of bad methodology, personality conflicts, or just a sheer lack in the number of live bodies involved in the task.

Perhaps we must accept the old saw the "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink it!"

Or can we???

I just purchased a book from Destinations Booksellers entitled "Active Liberty" authored by Supreme Court Justice, Stephen Breyer.

In it he explains in laymen's terms how the High Court attempts to interperate the Constitution in such a way as to ultimately protect the "peoples" right to govern themselves.

The "peoples" are us. Not just a handfull of us, but large numbers of us who are willing to put down our purses and do what it takes to cause the changes necessary to create the community we want to live, work, and play in.

Willing to trudge thru the foggy bog, look beyond the politics & personalities, focus on the issues at hand, and dare to see the furture we desire.

Wishing it were so wil not get it done. Blogging and editorializing alone will not get it done.

Participation by the many by attending meetings, staying informed, confirming the information, and talking one on one to those we have elected and those who work under them is not only our best shot but our responsiblity to the whole as well.

Our strength, yea our only strength is in our sheer numbers.

Otherwise we may as well stay home & watch the US Senate & Congress perform the exact same dog & pony show on CNN. The sound system is better and we're closer to the fridge to get a beer!

G Coyle said...

I don't know Roger, I'm thinking of this place as a frontier, that has to be continually re-settled. Everytime I hear a harley roar, it's the sound of savage drums to me. It's the sound of forces aligned against progress. So maybe, instead of frustration, we should be happy any sort of government exists at all here. Growing up I had a Swiss pen-pal who always addressed her posts with "To the barbaric wilds of America" I'm only now starting to really understand that attitude.

B.W. Smith said...

Sure, Lloyd, we can all do a better job of participating in the process, but I think I feel Roger's frustration here - by all accounts, we elected at least enough "leaders" to fix this problem - at minimum, Messer, Gahan, Gonder, McLaughlin, Zurschmeide, and Caesar should understand why the EDIT subsidy is dumb, and the Mayor supports ending the EDIT subsidy. That should be enough to get the job done, but apparently it isn't.

Iamhoosier said...

What Brandon said. +1

I once asked someone why they voted like they did when I knew they knew better. Basically the answer was, "I may not get re-elected and they may elect a worse guy than me."

I, not so gently, pointed out that if he was going to vote like the "worse guy", what difference did it make?

I had my doubts about the rebirth of Mayor England. I was little afraid of where he might lead us(to his own gain)but I certainly never thought the carriage would be driver-less.