Southern Indiana Realtor now president of Develop New Albany; Kopp hits the ground running, by Daniel Suddeath (News and Tribune)Damned spell check … it doesn’t tell you when you’ve correctly rendered the incorrect word, but the transposition has me thinking: A better downtown may not be my “sole” interest, but certainly better beer is a “soul” interest, and combining the two seems like a reasonable career move for me.
Mike Kopp’s eyes grow wider and his words come out a little faster when he talks about the potential for downtown.
Chosen as president of Develop New Albany in January, Kopp’s passion for seeing the city’s core bloom is hard to hide.
“My soul interest is building a better downtown,” Kopp said.
I’m also a member of develop New Albany’s board, and the organization has made substantive progress during the past two and a half years. As with the city itself, there’s plenty of room for improvement, and much yet to be done; however, permit my observation that DNA’s board is filled with hard-working, civic-minded people who believe in progress and are giving it their all. Without that, there’s little point to any of it.
What every reader needs to understand is that this community’s singular, signature failure remains an almost genetic unwillingness to organize for strength and to cooperate across boundaries, which sometimes are tribal or political, but more often are purely imaginary, and infuriatingly subject to injections of malice and mistrust at the proverbial drop of a hat.
It’s senseless … and somehow enduring.
Meanwhile, the anonymous troglodytes prattle on about the city being broke, as though this constitutes a unique excuse to vegetate, and yet our primary deficiencies as an urban aggregation must be reckoned in inexplicable absences of willpower and imagination, not strictly in dollars.
Organizations like DNA, the UEZ and the city’s own development offices aren’t perfect. But they’re trying. Efforts are underway to place all these mechanisms at one table for the purpose of cracking skulls and curing the dysfunctions of finger-pointing and sniping, so that we might get on with the business of accomplishing something while the window of opportunity remains ajar. I for one applaud these efforts, and hope perhaps they might serve as inspiration for the city’s neighborhoods to do the same.
I’m optimistic.
If not, we wouldn’t be making the investment in downtown. You see, we've been able to round up the money, and still the prime component is the willingness to plan and the desire to succeed. Without the fire in your belly, the money's destined to purchase failure -- and failure's just not an option.
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Each of these steps can and should be covered in much more depth but this is a starting outline from NeighborWorks:
1. Read neighborhoods (or commercial district) to figure out what's working and what's not working in terms of people's decisions to invest or not.
2. Diagnose the underlying issues that led to the neighborhood's decline.
3. Set outcomes and indicators of progress/success for a healthy neighborhood.
4. Choose strategies that will best achieve those outcomes.
5. Assess and strengthen capacity to deliver revitalization strategies; implement strategies.
6. Measure progress toward outcomes, not activities.
7. Develop new strategies, based on outcomes, when needed-- when the old ones aren't enough or the situation changes.
Each organization's efforts should be part of a larger, better defined whole with assigned roles, tasks, and accountability.
Leave the communications and understanding vacuum in place and people will keep filling it with rumor, innuendo, and mistrust.
I'd be interested to hear what DNA has done over the past 2.5 years. I read the paper religiously and haven't seen any progress from the organization since the first time I encountered them in 2004.
If anyone can outline the progress achieved by DNA, I'd love to read about it.
I cannot think of anyone who has done more for downtown in the last few years than Mike Kopp. He’s a real estate broker, but Mike hardly limits his activities to buildings and land. Mike helps the businesses that go into those buildings. Plus, Mike doesn’t just wait for businesses to come to town, he goes out and finds them. For example, not long ago I was walking down Frankfort Ave. and ran into Kopp. He was spending his Saturday afternoon going door-to-door asking Frankfort Ave. merchants if they were looking to expand and whether they’d thought about New Albany. His hand was stuffed full of business cards from every imaginable establishment from coffee shops to antiques dealers; he had made a lot of stops that day. No one else is out marketing our city like Mike does.
I read the paper religiously and haven't seen any progress from the organization since the first time I encountered them in 2004.
Without doubt, DNA is a stronger organization today than it was 2 or 3 years ago.
For those not familiar with DNA’s history, before I answer the question, I want to explain a little how DNA got to where it is today.
Until a couple years ago, DNA had a paid Executive Director. Then DNA ran out of money. DNA couldn’t afford staff or much else. There are multiple reasons for that that, for sake of brevity, I won’t outline. DNA was on the verge of dissolution. At the time the Executive Directly left, DNA had fewer than 60 members and maybe $20,000 in the bank.
Through the efforts of many, including (but certainly not limited to) people like Debbie Farmer, Mike Kopp, Susan Kaempfer, Rich Robinson, Dave Barksdale and Greg Sekula, DNA transformed itself into an all volunteer organization.
About ten years ago DNA decided to take over the White House Center in the 200 block of Pearl when the building was threatened with demolition. Many, including those in the organization, debated the wisdom of taking on the White Elephant. For ten years, it was a massive drain on both financial resources and, more importantly, volunteer hours. Pearl could have gained another parking lot but instead, DNA sold the Whitehouse Center last year for a decent profit.
Now, to answer the question, what progress has the organization made in the past couple years?
- DNA sold the Whitehouse Center. The sale doubled DNA’s available funds. More importantly, it’s allowed DNA volunteers to look for new outlets for their energies. As a bonus, Hornblower’s John Waggoner bought the building from DNA. Without DNA, Waggoner would have had one fewer buildings upon which he could work his restoration magic.
- DNA volunteers man the Farmer’s Market. DNA volunteers were not the first to trumpet the need for a Farmer’s Market down. However, if you bought a tomato or watermelon at the Farmer’s Market last year, you could not have done it without the help of DNA volunteers, particularly Susan Kaempfer who lines up vendors and coordinating schedules. The Farmer’s Market needs tweaking. Others have proposed good ideas for the Market. But the fact is that no one else is out there every week making a market happen except DNA volunteers.
- DNA, in partnership with the Historic Preservation Commission, organizes the Historic Home’s Tour. 2008 was the third consecutive year that DNA brought several hundred people (most of whom do not live downtown) into our neighborhood. Proceeds from the home tour go to local preservation efforts.
- Over the past three years, DNA’s membership has increased from approximately 60 to approximately 130 paying individuals and businesses.
- Last year, DNA began its monthly “First Tuesday” series that each month brings between 50-150 individuals to downtown establishments. Networking events are essential to bring people together, people who share a common interest in pursuing downtown projects who otherwise might not meet. It was at one such First Tuesday last year where Debbie Farmer, Carl Malysz and I first began to discuss the potential benefits of the next item.
- DNA is helping with city’s 2009 New Markets Tax Credit Application. DNA is hardly the sole force in this effort; the city, the UEA, the Horseshoe Foundation, local bankers and other community leaders all are playing major roles. Correct, we have not received an allocation yet, and the application process is very competitive. But for the very first time ever New Albany will at least have an application to take advantage of the largest federal redevelopment program available, a program that has awarded to Louisville $110 million to help fund projects like the Mohammad Ali Center, C21Museum/Hotel, The Henry Clay and the new downtown Marriott. Jeffersonville is making an application using taxpayer funds and city employee time. DNA and its application partners not only helped make the application happen but also made it happen with minimal taxpayer cost. DNA’s former Executive Director harped on NMTCs for years but nothing ever happened. Now it’s happening and it would not have happened this year without DNA. The Tribune touched on this application at http://www.newsandtribune.com/local/local_story_014094206.html
- DNA provided $5,000 of the $30,000 in architectural fees for the soon-to-be-released Main St./Scribner Phase II master plan. Tribune readers might not have known about this because the Tribune incorrectly reported that the money came solely from other sources. However, DNA helped fund the project and will help make it a reality. In the last week or two, many on this blog have justifiably noted the need for bold vision from the city. One small component of the vision is Scribner Phase II. I’ve seen the preliminary renderings for the study and can assure everyone that, if realized, the plan will put a very, very worthy neighbor next to the YMCA.
There are many small projects upon which I could write, from walking tour brochures to a coordinated downtown marketing campaign that’s in the works.
Develop New Albany is not all things to all people. Personally, I feel the need for coordinated efforts to prompt political items such as more intelligent land use policies and code enforcement. That is my personal opinion. It is also my personal opinion that another organization would be better suited to push these agenda items. DNA is not all things to all people but it does serve a very useful purpose. Its working, all volunteer board has worked very hard over the past 2 years to get the organization in better shape and those efforts are paying off.
Dan,
I don't doubt for a second that DNA volunteers are sincere, well-meaning folks and I don't want to disparage them. I like the ones I know and can and have worked with many of them. However, the recent history you recite is incomplete and, as such, provides a view that's not entirely accurate.
It's not worth going point by point but it remains that DNA is a group of loosely affiliated volunteers with no real shared sense of purpose or mission beyond a vaguely defined desire to revitalize downtown.
If that's what they wish to be, good for them. What's troublesome is when they become the public face of revitalization in New Albany without better organization around common principles and strategies.
Mixed messages abound, with individual (board) members often pursuing independent projects for entirely different reasons, all under one amorphous banner.
As you said, DNA isn't all things to all people. I don't think it should be. What would be helpful, in my view, is for DNA to decide more specifically what they are and to whom, so that others could more easily get in the game or fill needs without running afoul of some imaginary boundaries and/or being pulled under an umbrella that doesn't really reflect who they are.
A more recognizable focus would benefit everybody, especially since DNA lacks significant capacity (staff, money, etc.) to work in many areas at once.
DNA is a group of loosely affiliated volunteers with no real shared sense of purpose or mission ….. A more recognizable focus would benefit everybody….
Bluegill, the sole (soul?) purpose of my post was to point out how DNA is a stronger organization than it was 2 or 3 years ago. Claiming organizational perfection was not a goal of the post.
But, as for the appropriate breadth of DNA’s focus, I guess this is an area where we’ll have to agree to disagree.
I cannot speak for the whole 20 member DNA board. However, in my opinion, in the current environment, DNA must be a broad based, multifaceted organization. If DNA narrowed its focus, it would have to drop some current projects. Each DNA program has supports in the community. If DNA dropped current projects, which organizations will to pick up where DNA left off?
That’s not to say that DNA is not working towards coordinating its efforts. When I think of organizations focused on revitalization, DNA comes to mind first (only because I serve on its board) but the UEA quickly comes to mind too. For the first time in many years, DNA and the UEA are working together, further evidence that DNA is stronger than it was 2 or 3 years ago. They’re working together in the NMTC application. More importantly, the two groups also are working with a facilitator to help executive committee members from both organizations identify each organization’s unique strengths and weaknesses, and how they can be applied to achieve the two organizations’ shared goals.
Again, no one at DNA is paid to volunteer at a farmer’s market, a home tour or a networking event. No one is paid to write a grant application or help an incoming business owner. Many have opinions about revitalization; not as many roll up their sleeves.
A year after I moved to New Albany, I joined DNA’s board because it provided the only organized revitalization forum that was open to me. I didn’t want to just read and dream about revitalization; I wanted to do something. I gladly would have served on the UEA board but no one appointed me. I gladly would have served on the redevelopment commission, but no one appointed me. My interests initially were relatively narrow but have been broadened though following the organization’s efforts. DNA provides an avenue for everyone to get involved. Downtown has a lot of needs and everyone has something they can contribute. For this, I think the organization deserves our full support.
What are the office hours at Develop New Albany?
Why is Destinations Bookseller considered in downtown NA? If you wish to be in downtown NA, move downtown.
So Dr. Sisk, Nance's Floral and Coyle Dodge are part of DNA?
Why not AT&T?
I suppose you should tell us what your definition of downtown New Albany is. I haven't come across anything that gives a specific street border for what is to be considered "downtown".
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