Revitalization and theology: The Floyd County Council hears Scribner Place pros and cons.

As we’ve long suspected, the roots of the community discord with respect to downtown revitalization are quasi-theological in nature.

More about that in a moment.

Although deprived of at least some measure of immediacy by decisions reached since the Floyd County Council’s forum on Scribner Place was first announced, the hearing Tuesday night was a crisp and informative exercise, one efficiently moderated by the council’s no-nonsense president, Ted Heavrin.

A dozen speakers, including Commissioner Steve Bush, supported the Scribner Place project and urged the county body’s participation in funding, while four attendees opposed Scribner Place and the county’s involvement in it.

We were struck by the differences in content and tone between the presentations of those supporting the project and those opposing it.

A sampling of quotes from the pro-Scribner Place speakers:

“Let’s work together.”

“There’s a market for this kind of venue.”

“We need to have a concern for quality of life issues.”

“Public/private investment makes it happen.”

“The legacy we will create for our children and grandchildren.”

“Not the golden goose, but a catalyst.”

“You can be certain it will leverage development.”

Their remarks were interspersed with statistics and insightful commentary that revealed close attention to detail, a grasp of relevant demographic trends, and a recognition that the transformation of downtown New Albany in the wake of Scribner Place will be very attractive both to city dwellers and to many of the residents of the county, who in fact are likely to spend a greater proportion of their discretionary incomes here in Floyd County and not in Louisville’s Highlands or far east side.

All this is tantamount to liberation theology, at least in the view of this heretic, who desires nothing so much as the freeing of the city from its self-imposed limits and the maximizing of its potential.

And, sadly, there's the rub; success itself is a sort of purgatory for those who have for so long defined themselves by failure.

As always, opponents of the project seem to confuse their own befuddled unwillingness to adapt comfortably to the conditions of the present century with an assumed inability on the part of all others to cope and succeed in the here and now.

It is a joyless, somber and almost always morbid worldview that seems to deny the slightest possibility of human attainment, one perpetually framed in terms of dollars and cents as the sole arbiter of life, and stated with a decidedly Calvinist inflection.

Fingers furiously wagging, they suggest that we are preordained to a life of grim toil without pleasure, and might as well get used to it – and to those of you exploring beyond the pale, refusing to accept your intrinsic unworthiness, be aware that we’re always watching, and will deal with your vices when the time is right.

With the exception of the inimitable George Mouser, who stated his opposition on principle to state involvement with religious organizations like the YMCA, the four speaking against Scribner Place on Tuesday evening approached the issue from the grim perspective of what we can’t do, of what we’ll never be able to do, and of what they steadfastly refuse to do with respect to assisting those in the community who actually can do, and who have demonstrated such an aptitude for achievement.

Ademittedly, this minor-key improvisation on a theme of “we are fatally flawed and have no hope of improvement” has been consistent throughout the Scribner Place debate. The situation is dire, we don’t have anything, history has shown that we can’t be trusted, we’ll never be able to do anything right, we’re simply too stupid, too graft-ridden, and altogether too unresponsive to the needs of the few who cannot see that an enhanced quality of life is possible right here, right now, for the many.

Make no mistake, I’m not religious by nature, and I share Mr. Mouser’s qualms about state involvement with religion, but it is clear that the long-running debate about Scribner Place is far less about church and state, and even less about money, than it is about a cultural rift in the community that opponents of progress are quite willing to exploit.

Whether originating in the city or in the county, vocal opposition to Scribner Place seems based at least in part on a common opposition to the very notion of a lifestyle that incorporates “quality of life” as a defining principle.

Certainly one has the right to object to such a worldview, but to do so without acknowledging the obvious evidence that economic growth in the United States increasingly is inseparable from "quality of life" issues is simply to ignore facts, and as we've noted previously, you're entitled to your own opinion, not to your own facts.

Listening to the Scribner Place opponents recite their familiar litanies of gloom and doom, we recalled the words of H.L. Mencken:

Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

That fear is alive, well, and resilient in New Albany.
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Floyd holds forum on Scribner Place funding; Most favor aiding New Albany project, by Christie Smythe, Courier-Journal (short shelf life on I links).

Split County Council hears support for Scribner Place, by Kyle Lowry, Tribune staff reporter.