REWIND: Up for adoption

(By Jeff "Bluegill" Gillenwater. Originally published on December 13, 2007)

“Traditionally, art is to create and not to revive.” - Josef Albers

A recent discussion with a friend of bridges, bicycles, eco-friendly housing, and cultural change in New Albany left me with this gem: Whatever we do, it'd better capture the imagination of the pioneers.

A more technical explanation from QuickMBA.com, considering the city of New Albany as product, is below.

Consumers can be grouped according to how quickly they adopt a new product. On the one extreme, some consumers adopt the product as soon as it becomes available. On the other extreme, some consumers are among the last to purchase a new product. As a whole, the new product adoption process can be modeled in the form of a bell-shaped diffusion curve similar to the following:




* Innovators - well-informed risk-takers who are willing to try an unproven product. Innovators represent the first 2.5% to adopt the product.

* Early adopters - based on the positive response of innovators, early adopters then begin to purchase the product. Early adopters tend to be educated opinion leaders and represent about 13.5% of consumers.

* Early majority - careful consumers who tend to avoid risk, the early majority adopts the product once it has been proven by the early adopters. They rely on recommendations from others who have experience with the product. The early majority represents 34% of consumers.

* Late majority - somewhat skeptical consumers who acquire a product only after it has become commonplace. The late majority represents about 34% of consumers.

* Laggards - those who avoid change and may not adopt a new product until traditional alternatives no longer are available. Laggards represent about 16% of consumers.

While locals have made much-- and rightfully so-- of code enforcement, sewers, traffic calming, and downtown decorations, these are all elements that appeal to what in most places would be called the mainstream. It's entirely possible that we could accomplish all those things and end up with a city that's perhaps a bit safer but no more alluring than the most recent exurban development. Careful, homogeneity is catching.

What then, have we done to "capture the imagination", to create the same enticement that compelled thousands of easterners to walk, ride, and float to our shoreline, carve a path, and call the resulting coordinates home? Or, for that matter, to drive across a bridge? With a few noted exceptions, not much I'd say. And until we take up intellectual arms against the idea that white, male, upper middle class bankers and administrators are somehow going to lead a cultural uprising, that answer won't change.

It's well within our collective reach to proclaim this place as different and so far, either through ignorance, fear, or apathy, we've simply decided not to.

I've no idea if anyone's coming with me, but I'm headed for the left hand side of the curve and declaring that New Albany is the mother of invention.