Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Random questions for the conjoined.

Have there ever been two council persons less interested in investment within their own council districts than Dan Coffey and Steve Price (1st and 3rd, respectively)?

How is it that politicians who publicly dismiss investment in their own districts manage to be re-elected?

Is this quintessentially American, or Un-American?

Give that they disavowed investment in their own council districts when financial times were good, how can they possibly contribute to solutions when financial times aren't as good?

Just wondering.

7 comments:

Daniel Short said...

Roger, I asked the same questions over at my place earlier today.

The New Albanian said...

Really?

What does this coincidence mean?

Daniel Short said...

Please do not read anything into it. I just think we both have a disdain for incompetence, even from oppossite sides of the aisle.

Jeff Gillenwater said...

A friend of mine worked at the Earth Day event at the Falls of the Ohio recently. She's interested in buying a house in or around downtown New Albany.

When a resident of the area happened to stop by the booth and mentioned that he lived downtown, she started a conversation about revitalization, including the opportunity to build equity.

His response? "I don't want that to happen. If my property value increases, I'll have to pay more taxes."

I wonder who got his vote.

Iamhoosier said...

SHIT

B.W. Smith said...

At least the guy attended an Earth Day event, although he might have been there to heckle.

I've heard others express this sentiment about revitalization activities, and frankly I find it idiotic on several levels.

It is especially idiotic if the revitalization would monetarily benefit the commentor far in excess of a few dollars in property taxes. Not to mention the benefits of having a nicer neighborhood to live in, reduced crime, better schools, etc.

Basically, the attitude boils down to judging all civic activity by whether or not it results in lower taxes. It's the classic "low taxes" zombie mantra we've heard for years. Lowering taxes, even where justified, is not a comprehensive economic strategy, but you wouldn't know it from listening to the right.

Jeff Gillenwater said...

BW,

Replace the word "economic" with "reform" and your last paragraph neatly sums up what I tried to communicate to Ed Clere at the SEJ gathering.

Though he conceded that much of his support was coming from booth guy-like attitudes rather than citizens actively working to improve the community's quality of life, I'm not particularly hopeful that that's being communicated upstream.