Safe in the knowledge that my blogging colleague Bluegill is heating his house with steam as he peruses Ed Glasscock’s and Kerry Stemler’s pro-downtown bridge palaver in the morning’s C-J, I turn instead to Professor Erika, who actually manages to publish something remotely in the public interest:AN INTERVIEW WITH COUNCILMAN STEVE PRICE - 3RD DISTRICT
Price even refers to himself as Jethro, which means that while he’s cognizant of the existence of criticism, he hasn’t yet comprehended the gist of it.
Otherwise, it’s more of the same: Municipal life is hopeless, we just can’t, we shouldn’t try, let’s hunker down, nothing can be done, woe to those who think it can … and Price continues to devote his council career to denying the city the tools necessary to improve, and then thinks we should praise him for predicting the inevitable failure.
Well, Nostradamus he ain't, and at least Jethro Bodine had vision. He persisted in thinking that he could. Price knows he can’t, and while that’s acceptable for an individual, and perhaps even charming in a Southern Gothic decay sort of way, it isn’t a very good prescription for a whole city.
30 comments:
Well...I guess my request that the FOS "staff" take a break from the lip locking of Mr. Price's behind fell on deaf ears...
After a second reading...
This wasn't exactly a "60 Minutes" interview, was it? More like Teen Beat interviewing Justin Timberlake.
"So Justin, what do you think about what all those mean people are texting about you? And a follow up...Who does your hair?"
Price gives the exact number of $1 to $2 million dollars to make Spring St. two ways. I know reprogramming street lights isn't all that cheap but even $1 million sounds a little out there for me. Does anyone know where these numbers might come from? Does the city have an independent estimate?
Like our other councilpeople, did this hard hitting interviewer question Mr. Price on his cost estimates?
Has anyone called Mr. Price and asked with which FOS staff person he spoke during this "interview"?
Also note that Mr. Price says he receives 20 to 25 calls a day. He never said he returns these calls.
Ok, lots to laugh at on the NA internet Heehaw portal(FOS), but... let's give the man credit for "communicating", albeit tiring to wade through the recycled political sound-bites of the "no-nothing" class, Pride does point out some things we should consider. The whole "mayor" thing is just so weird: run for office, win, get yourself a raise, hire a stand-in, take semi-permanent medical leave?? Price seems to know more about the inner working of the street dept. than most bloggers. Boy, would I like to know more about the inner workings of the street dept.
OK, I can't stop giggling inside thinking of the collisions of illogic in that interview... it is hard to take people seriously who are so flagrantly ignorant.
Turning Spring Street into a two way street would be a very minimum of one million dollars; however, I could see it going well in excess of any figure they are putting out.
There will need to be new signals put in since the current signals only face one direction, the signals will need to be reprogramed, there will need to be new attenuators put in so that they will be responsive to traffic demands, the entire corridor will need to be restriped--if you are going to restripe, it would be expedient to repave the roadway.
This project could become very expensive, very quickly. Who knows what type of problems lie underneath the current pavement?
Oh, I know a "problem" under Spring Street - the old street car line! While we're re-doing, let's use that too.
Does anyone have a map of the old street car system? I would be tempted to bring it back if the existing layout was still functional today.
What issues would come about if we just:
1. Reprogrammed stoplights at Vincennes and State,
2. Put stop signs everywhere else; and
3. Skip the asphalt for now.
Do city employees paint the little line down the street or must that be contracted out too?
Would the above plan cost more than $250,000?
Is there some clear regulatory/safety reason why we cannot replace some of these stoplights with signs? I don't know. Just asking.
You would have to have new signal heads at both the State St. and Vincennes St. intersections, new attenuators and they would have to be reprogrammed. That alone would be near $250,000--the average cost per signal head is $75,000 and you need one for each lane. Then you still have to restripe.
Spring Street has reached its pavements lifespan and it would be idiotic not to repave while in the midst of a large project. You might as well spend the money and do it right instead of Jimmy rigging something.
Jethro jokes aside, what strikes me about this interview is the way Price views his role on the Council. He is a watchdog providing checks and balances who got involved after seeing abuses from a prior Mayor's office. No doubt other council members share his view.
Serving as a check on the Mayor and watchdog of the budget is not enough. We need our council to show leadership and devise real plans to solve problems. This requires more than just showing up at meetings and winging it. I know this is old news, but it bears repeating.
I respect that Price is trying to be a watchdog, but one can do that as a private citizen. If a council member is unwilling or incapable of doing more, they should step aside.
If Spring St has to be repaved anyhow, then I would not include the repaving cost in the cost of making it two way.
Many potential homebuyers are dissuaded from purchasing on Spring St. because they’re not fond of drag strip sights and sounds. I’d think that two way traffic with a stop sign every block or two would instantly increase Spring St. property values by a not insignificant amount.
I live on Spring Street and detest the idea of two way traffic. More stop signs would be nice; however, enforcement would eliminate the drag strip along Spring Street without any additional work and therein lies the ultimate problem of lack of enforcement.
I’m not clear on how the rental unit inspections would open up the city for potential discrimination lawsuits. In such a lawsuit, who would sue whom? What would be the legal theory? Is this a theoretical possibility or a material liability?
Is there any reason why we cannot put in a few extra stop signs right now, signs that would go in anyhow? What would that cost, few thousand bucks? Main and Market could use some too.
Theoretically possible as an equal protection challenge under U.S. constitutional law, but such a suit would likely be extremely difficult to win because rental property owners aren't a protected class and rental registration deals with health and safety. I'm guessing there are federal decisions out there that have already upheld these types of laws, but that would require a little research.
So unless Price knows of a case out there where a municipality has had to pay out for a rental inspection program, his argument against the Gonder plan does not hold water.
Many other municipalities have rental inspection programs. I’m curious why it can work everywhere else but not in New Albany?
Similarly, I’m curious why Price claims New Albany is too broke to do anything while Jeffersonville somehow has big bucks for redevelopment. Are citizens fleeing socialist Jeffersonville because of crushing taxes? I missed that in the news.
Keep in mind that whatever conversion figures are bouncing around (if any true estimates) include Elm, Market, and possibly Main as well. The money won't be spent on one street but rather on the whole of several historic neighborhoods and the business district. To relegate the investment question to Spring only as Price and his acolytes regularly do is purposefully misleading.
Investing in two-ways with medians and bike paths would radically improve the 3rd district and help to change the whole city's image. It's difficult to think of another way to say "We get it" so clearly.
Speed, by the way, is more a function of design than enforcement. We designed a drag strip and it's used as such. The same concept has proven true around the country when bike and pedestrian friendly streets are implemented. They're used as designed.
TARC has updated its long range plan again, putting light rail and Indiana express service (via either bus or rail) back in the forefront after KIPDA removed them from the regional plan a couple years ago against the public's wishes. We really do need to start figuring out where mass transit will go in New Albany. It may take a while for for blind bats to age out of the system, but it will happen.
When the streets are rehabbed, we should consider using preexisting brick for the parking lanes. Aesthetics, drainage, and traffic calming efforts would all benefit.
And B.W. has hit the dead center of the nail head. As long as council members view their role as keeping things from happening, nothing will.
England has been in office for a year. I’m not saying that it’s inexcusable that we don’t have two way streets yet. However, I’m curious if the city has yet even put together some specs and/or had formal cost estimates drawn up.
Starting on getting it right is more important than slapping something together quick. I hope the city would put together a well thought out plan, incorporating the best of what has worked in other cities. I’d like to have a streetscape that 50 years in the future we view as a great plan. This is an area where obviously the city must be involved. Private citizens cannot pave the streets or even paint little lines down the road.
To date, what has the city done to get us closer to the two-way goal? Spring Street Hill moved fast. How was that project more important than two way streets downtown? Coffey supported Spring Street Hill after the West End was promised sidewalks. Why didn't he mind the cash strapped city spending money in his "one man, two votes" district? Granted, Spring Street Hill was funded through a $1M+ bond issue with just under half of the bond proceeds going to the Greenway. But still, that project moved so fast while little has happened with two way streets.
While I hate to see a very historic rail town continue to abandon that heritage and the remaining assets(buried rail lines is just one example) I'd wholeheartedly support the integrated plan Bluegill speaks of. As a resident of Main St I find it more than annoying that a state highway carrying all the semi-freight traffic thru NA uses our historic street. Yeah, drag racing and biker rallys suck, but so do semi's rattling my windows all day. We have the remnants of a beautiful historic inner-city neighborhood some of us are fighting desperately for. I don't believe the proper design has been found yet that would completely redraw the main throughfares. We need to move traffic away from the neighborhood areas, not just calm it.
I'm sorry to imform you of the Mayor's intent, but he wants to move the traffic from Spring/Elm/Market over to Main St. He wants the state road to take the pounding that the local roads are currently receiving.
He told me this during a conversation we had at a neighborhood association meeting.
Huh? I thought the intent was for the state to abandon the East portion of Main St. and for the city to assume responsibility for E. Main. Supposedly under that scenario, the city would receive some money from the state for agreeing to accept E. Main. The state wants to keep W. Main and beyond as a state highway so they can make sure taxpayers can make their way to the revenue generating casino boat.
Is that deal off?
What he told me was that he wanted to sign traffic off Spring St. onto Vincennes then down Main St. so that the state would have to repair the road with majority of the traffic.
I think every citizen on Main Street would be up in arms over that proposal.
Under the mayor’s proposal, I’m not clear on what’s I’d see while driving West on E. Spring St. towards Vincennes. Vincennes would be two way but you would have to turn left to head towards Main St.?
Then again, it’s not unlike Doug to tell an interest group what they want to hear, even if it directly contradicts something he said earlier to another group.
Then again, it’s not unlike Doug to tell an interest group what they want to hear, even if it directly contradicts something he said earlier to another group.
Trust me, I have noticed it before. I wish he would let us look his two way proposal over. I just don't trust much of what he says.
The proposal he told me is all rosy for Spring St. but hell on earth for Main St. It sounds as if he told you guys something that makes Main St. look rosy. Who knows?
I'm still puzzled by Larry's sentiments for Spring Street:
I live on Spring Street and detest the idea of two way traffic.
Detest? I live two blocks down, and it would be a providential thing to me.
What we lose sight of all the time, and by doing so unconsciously emulate the obscurantism of the "no progress at any Price" sect, is the notion that forward movement has a cost, and we can't ever afford to pay it.
That's not true, and it mkes you wonder how the city ever got built in the first place.
We have to articulate the reasons why this is a good idea, and do it over and over until the obstructionists have no argument other than money.
Just my 'pinion.
I have affinity for living on a one way street. It is not that I am an obstructionists. Trust me, there are many things that I would like to see this city do that I would push for if I was sold on them; however, I am not entirely sold on the two way Spring St. corridor.
If someone could show me solid numbers on the traffic reduction qualities of said project while showing me an adequate way to reroute traffic, I may go for it.
I guess it is the Missouri boy in me that screams, "Show me!"
To "Show You," someone at the city has to agree to crunch the numbers. Then again, most of our city council members cannot envision the city ever being anything better than what it is now, so they refuse to even try to crunch numbers to show anyone anything.
Larry, I didn't mean to confuse you with obstructionism; sorry if it seemed that way. I'm just noting the irony of the two of us having such different views.
I believe we've have had numerous discussions in the past here on the topic, but to be honest, I base my view primarily on experience. Two way streets engineered for neighborhoods and not as de facto interstates produce what to me is a better quality of street life.
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