Today the Louisville Courier-Journal’s Sheldon S. Shafer reports:
“The Kentucky Supreme Court has refused to hear a lawsuit challenging Louisville metro government's right take over the abandoned railroad bridge so it can be converted into a walkway across the Ohio River.”
The positive implications for walking, biking and recreation in general are clear, and when the conversion of the bridge comes to pass and the Greenway is completed, the enhancement of the quality of downtown residential life on both sides of the Ohio stands to provide another tool for neighborhood revitalization.
Ultimately, it is this more than anything else that the urban visionaries like Richard Florida seek to espouse: That people make cities, and where there are better opportunities for the enhancement and improvement of individual human lives, there are better neighborhoods, better economic choices, and better cities.
There are numerous building blocks to achieve progress, and we must look at each to determine its applicability to New Albany’s unique collection of credits and debits.
However, before any of this can be done, there must be a will to achieve, and a belief that we are as capable of good things as any other community.
If you are reading NA Confidential for the first time, be aware that our goal is a community unified in the belief that it can be the best in anything it chooses. Politics that advance this notion will be praised, while politics that remain confined by the discredited tenets of the status quo will be rejected.
NA Confidential is not about personal ambition, it is about collective success in the place we call home.
Read Sheldon Shafer’s full article
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4 comments:
What constitues "better" either in Florida's book or in your estimation? Is the cultural pastiche of South 3rd Street "worse" because of its crime, its relative poverty?
Even the most hidebound can be persuaded to the desirability of creating a city of opportunities. And people will, when challenged and held to account, rise to meet the expectations of their neighbors.
The renaissance comes when expectations are raised. If nothing is expected of a community, it will not rise. If expectations are lowered, a town will die.
That is what opportunities in arts, libraries, entertainment, recreation, and discourse do. They raise the expectations.
That, Jon, is my definition of "better."
If business leaders set an expectation, for example, that services will be provided grudgingly and at the business owner's convenience, people may learn to live with it, but it does nothing to build community.
We've seen both sides of the expectations equation with our store. On one hand, a community starved for opportunities has risen to support our efforts. But there remains an undercurrent of disbelief, a sense that somehow New Albany doesn't "deserve" it, that somehow we were crazy but lovable fools for starting a bookstore in the downtown area.
When Jon questions the arrogance of calls for accountability and improvement, it betrays a reasonable suspicion of elitism in that "better" and "best" are subjective.
It then becomes imperative that a leader step up with a plan. Amorphous ideas of "improvement" won't cut it.
A community is a dynamic, living thing. It will change. If challenged, its people will respond to a set of specific objectives. Setting those objectives is a grass-roots chore, but achieving them requires leaders.
There is a tremendous opportunity here for a leader, now-elected or otherwise, to step forward and give voice to those grass-roots objectives as they begin to gel.
It's fair enough to sit back and poke fun at what may seem to be self-importance. But I'm here to testify that many, many people all across the social spectrum, varied age groups, and yes, even divergent partisan interests, share a guarded sense of hope for a vibrant community.
One correspondent calls for a receptiveness to creativity. Another calls for a respect and appreciation of the value of public arts. This one pleads for respect for history. That one calls for a recognition that open spaces and natural resources should be valued and incorporated into the urban lifestyle. Many call for funding our elementary school libraries.
I won't apologize for contributing to raising expectations. I won't acknowledge that these objectives aren't objectively "better." I might concede that not everyone would agree with the means to achieve these objectives, but seeking a consensus on them seems to me to be a worthy goal.
I certainly hope the bike/pedestrian bridge between Louisville and Southern Indiana gets completed but I think there might be more problems than the paper or Jerry is letting on. First, the Louisville section of the bridge is in a flood plain. I believe there are local, state, and federal rules about building in a flood plain. Those must be addressed. And even if they are the bridge is not likely to be accessible at times like this - how do we get onto or off the bridge from the Louisville side when the water is high like it is now? There is also a problem on the Jeffersonville side. In the past, Jeffersonville has wanted an elevator to take people up and down from the bank to the bridge. How many bikes will fit in the elevator at a time. Elevators are also moving parts. What happens when it breaks down and people are stuck on it?
Just to let you know, Brandon, but SocioSam's a bit of a sandbagger. Don't worry, Socio's one of us, although his academic profession and natural inclinations combine to produce a healthy skepticism toward pretty much everything. Besides, when it comes to the bridge, Socio should know. He has a significant "in" to the ear of the regional biking coordinator, who observes the decision-making apparatus.
The flood plain problem should require little more than the tugging of strings. Socio's right about the Indiana side access: The plan needs a ramp as well as the elevator. We've all feared that Kentucky would (gasp) be so far out in front of the project, leaving it completely finished and a dead end on the Indiana side (at least a 50-foot drop, I'd say).
The former Jeff Mayor, Tom Galligan, almost certainly didn't know there was a bridge project until his sixth sense told him that someone else was about to profit from it, at which point he began issuing proposals for the civic good to make sure the prime real estate stayed out of the hands of his rival.
Anyway, I have to be nice to Socio. We bought his house (finally got those air conditioners down and out from the third floor - only took two Kutters and a dolly to get it done).
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