New hope for the riverfront: Thousands gather downtown to toast Trinkle’s departure.

Okay, perhaps they were in streaming through the streets for Harvest Homecoming, but a boy can dream, right?

33 years ago, Richard M. Nixon recorded his greatest achievement in a lifetime of public service by leaving the White House in disgrace.

In October, 1994, the Peter Principle was turned upside down when Eddie Laduke received his pink slip and was dismissed from the editor’s chair of the New Albany Tribune.

Someday, sooner or later, councilman Dan Coffey will no longer hold an elected office in the city of New Albany, and his neighborhood can finally emerge from captivity and turn its calendar pages forward.

Meanwhile, all the imagery this weekend is joyful:

New Albany City Wrap: Riverfront Director Bob Trinkle resigning, by Eric Scott Campbell (News and Tribune).

Bob Trinkle, director of riverfront programming under Mayor James Garner, announced Thursday that he’ll step down Dec. 31, the end of Garner’s term.

Trinkle told mayoral candidates Doug England and Randy Hubbard about his plans to resign, “and both of them concur,” Trinkle said in a media statement. He told the candidates he is willing to help in a transitional capacity or to return to the part-time post.

On the campaign trail, England and Hubbard have expressed the desire to improve and expand the use of the Riverfront Amphitheatre.

For the remainder of the year, Trinkle will plan next year’s spring and summer events. He thanked Garner for his “unqualified support within the constraints of a city budget with many priorities.”

Trinkle who couldn’t find his way out of the conventional thinking box with a Saturn rocket bungeed to his back side, was undoubtedly James Garner’s single worst appointment as mayor.

Throughout his career, Trinkle has gazed in fear upon multi-generational diversity and artistic creativity and always -- always -- he has seen only encroachments and dire threats to the suffocating limitations of his own preferred monocultural milieu. Never has it occurred to him that these offer virtually limitless possibilities for circumventing the “constraints of a city budget with many priorities," which he now predictably cites as an excuse upon exiting the scene.

Trinkle's tenure on the waterfront was a pathetic failure. Perhaps, for once, the city will learn something from the experience. I, for one, am learning not to hold my breath.

Previously at NAC:

On the merits of Boblessness: Inject entrepreneurialism into New Albany’s Riverfront Amphitheater, and restore value to a mismanaged community asset.

On the waterfront: Same old song and dance .

Not spectacular enough? Maybe they should play some Zappa, instead.

If he's not going to use the Riverfront Amphitheater, would Bullet Bob mind if we borrowed it and made some money?