The C-J on Smith's Furniture, more "Hope Dreams" from the 'Bune, and Mayor Garner's philosophy of loss

Yesterday the New Albany Tribune belatedly recognized that “Downtown streets need a boost,” and today the Louisville Courier-Journal’s Dick Kaukas picks up on the Smith’s Furniture’s imminent departure:

Smith's Furniture leaving downtown New Albany, by Dick Kaukas

Tribune editorials are not archived on-line, forcing NA Confidential to transcribe them, a task even harder on the untrained fingers when the prose is so consistently forgettable.

Kaukas entertains with this bit of self-evident profundity from James “The Cleaner” Garner, New Albany’s full-time mayor:

"Any business that you lose in your downtown is a loss, especially when you're starting a revitalization program like the Scribner Place project … so, it's a loss."

In order to stress City Hall’s ongoing institutional detachment from the issue, Garner predictably laterals responsibility to the non-profit organization Develop New Albany, which he says has undertaken to locate another furniture retailer for the Smith’s space, thus confirming that thinking outside the “furniture corner” box will not be tolerated at this or any other time.

Business (or in this case, non-business) as usual is perfectly acceptable to Louis Schmitt, president of Schmitt Furniture, who “understands” the decision of Smith’s to leave, but nonetheless is “sorry to see any business leave downtown.”

Schmitt was not asked why his family continues to squat idly while the old Reisz Furniture building on Main Street, which Schmitt owns and uses as a warehouse of sorts, deteriorates.

As for the Tribune editorial, the newspaper’s congenital inferiority complex once again precludes it from seeing any role for itself in downtown revitalization, so instead of cogent analysis, the ‘Bune’s editorialist stresses the forever elusive “hope” over hands-on involvement. It is a strange and contradictory exercise even by the newspaper’s normal standards.

(For more on the Tribune’s hopefulness, read “Hope Dreams,” a previous posting in NA Confidential).

The latest Tribune editorial begins by noting that with Smith’s and M. T. Dearing gone, there are two large vacancies in New Albany’s downtown, “and since the two businesses left because of space constraints and parking issues, city officials will have a hard time finding tenants for the large vacancies.”

With City Hall perpetually AWOL and the ball in DNA’s hands, there’s always Scribner Place: “The YMCA, along with other new development, may bring businesses to the downtown area. At least, that is the hope.”

So … there are new vacancies, but also “new” development? Which is … the Greenway Project? Third Century’s Box Tree bed and breakfast? Ermin’s and its scrumptiously microwavable executive lunch?

Alas, this unrevealed development remains firmly in the Tribune’s preferred comfort zone of “hope,” although as always, concrete plans remain optional, primarily because there are none.

Confusingly, the editorial goes on to concede that “the two buildings will likely remain vacant for some time.”

Having painted this depressingly bleak picture, the mood swings almost pharmaceutically back to optimism: “The downtown area has seen growth and rebirth over the past three years … hopefully, losing Smith’s Furniture will just be a temporary bump in the road.”

Garner, the Tribune, DNA, Louis Schmitt … all of them bring to mind Alice’s conversation with the Cheshire Cat.

"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"

"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.

"I don't much care where - " said Alice.

"Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the Cat.

" - so long as I get somewhere," Alice added as an explanation.

"Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."