Gonder on IU Southeast, dorms and downtown.

Councilman-elect John Gonder recently surveyed the list of “top stories” in 2007, as proffered by the Tribune, considered the implications of just one, and contributed a thoughtful and integrated commentary complete with future vision.

Careful, John; there’s probably another “Schmidt Plan” in the works tomorrow night to outlaw such feats of cognitive reasoning on the part of public officials.

At any rate, here are a few chosen excerpts. Visit John’s blog for the full text.

Good News From 2007

… From this list, the story I think has the most far-reaching impact on New Albany, and thereby the most important for New Albany is the construction of dorms at IUS. This is such an important development because it signals that Indiana University Southeast is taking a major step beyond the "little brother" relationship to I.U. in Bloomington. It signals that the campus is growing. A growing college will add more degree programs and feed further growth …

… The growing campus will naturally bring more teachers, who are affluent and could be invited into a deeper involvement in community affairs. This development offers great potential for our city … New Albany can capitalize on this opportunity by developing an attractive, functional downtown district which meets many of the commercial needs of the campus residents.

Meanwhile, over at Troglodyte Central, our municipality’s most ludicrous non-academic – oblivious as always to matters pertaining to education primarily because she only pretends to have one – takes a final spin on the “bash the Garner administration” wheel. Soon, in a dramatic achievement of legerdemain fully worthy of George “1984” Orwell, Erika will have substituted “Doug England” for “James Garner” in all past and future postings, and the traditional imperative of the insane, i.e., the repetition of the same action over and over in the hopes that the outcome will change, can be renewed for 2008 and calendar years to come.