That trait in itself is evidence of a hooded dysfunction sufficiently profound to rest the case, but because I’m such an aficionado of dysfunction – why else would one choose to inhabit the Open Air Museum? – that I'll take a stab at expanding on a previously posted response.
Anonymous said...
Which part doesn't the New Albanian understand? No one and I mean no one pulls for this City to fail. This City has already failed. A failure to taxpayers and its citizenry. We didn't create this mess his buddys in City Hall did. He will never be able to see this issue and I for one don't understand why.
I guess he has either his blinkers on or he doesn't care or he's full of it. None of it matters to me but I will argue the point with him about this City's failures. And, they weren't created by taxpayers.
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I understand it quite well, thank you, and I disagree with your unsupported and overly broad assertion that the city has "already failed." While there certainly are models of such civic and state failure, New Albany has yet to match them, except within the fevered craniums of the “mad as hell” (and mostly anonymous) faction.
Not that I deny failure in selected areas. It has long been my view that the city as a whole, an entity that must be regarded as including oblivious residents as well as your targeted public officials, has failed to perform in a number of ways. It’s just that I don’t think these are incurable or irrevocable, and I don’t see them adding up to the conclusion “already failed.”
As an example, take code enforcement. It has been almost completely ignored for decades, and until recently can’t even be said to be remotely near the radar screen. Is this entirely the fault of politicians and their appointees?
C’mon, anonymous, how could a ball of this magnitude be dropped without the complicity of the “taxpayers” and “citizenry”? In fact, code non-enforcement has been a fully cooperative non-effort between elements of government and elements of the citizenry at large, because each of us demands to see the law enforced unless it’s our rental property, our unmowed grass or our porch sagging with junk.
Then, we turn for succor to the city’s King Larrys and demand that they prevent dispassionate code enforcement decisions, leaving these instead to neighborhood ward heelers to manipulate for political purposes. This idiocy couldn’t survive without the support of the electorate, could it?
However, it still doesn’t add up to a failed city. You want a genuinely failed vicinity? Try Somalia, where effective government is barely recognizable in any form, where anarchy reigns and warlords more powerful than our blundering council members hold sway, and which, quite strangely to me, is never cited as an example of glowing success by those eager to downsize government and drown it in a bathtub.
Somalia is what we mean by failure. By almost any broad, embracing, objective and rational standard, and by comparison to other places with similar problems and challenges, New Albany has not failed. Infrastructure sometimes creaks, but most often works. There are policemen and firemen on duty. The majority of residents obey the “big” laws, although like anywhere, the “small” laws are ignored. It isn't Denmark, but it isn't Mogadishu, either.
Is it a success, a shining example of wonderment? Nope. It would require all of us to row in that direction, and it has yet to be seen whether people in New Albany are willing to make the compromises necessary to go there. Increasing the size of the minority that currently does the heavy lifting might be the best we can do, in good times or bad. There is an element of human nature at play here, which extends beyond our own water supply and its deleterious effects on the drinker.
Rather than snipe back and forth between blogs, wouldn’t it be far better if all of us could convene in one place and discuss such matters? I understand that such a mature, adult strategy wouldn’t easily quell the rages, and would be found objectionable by the stodgy political factions, and would require personal effort. Consensus wouldn't sanction the ongoing blame game of character assassination, would it?
Maybe RemCha or someone totally new to the city can pull it off. If so, you have my support.
13 comments:
I think New Albany is vastly improved from when I first moved into the city limits in 1978 from Floyd County. There have been setbacks and there are still some areas that desperately need to be addressed, especially code enforcement.
What I have learned is this: most people prefer harmony and cooperation, and are willing to work together to achieve goals. However, a handful of people in any population are incapable of functioning in an atmosphere that does not include discord, innuendo and creation of conflict. If something bad isn't happening, they must engineer it, because they cannot exist in a spirit of cooperation and without being suspect of other people's motives.
It's best to ignore them and move on, and do what you can do to be part of the solution, because the dysfunctional ones will never do anything but waste time, create strife and conflict, and will never be part of a solution to anything.
It's best to ignore them and move on, and do what you can do to be part of the solution[.]
Again, I 100% Agree with Ann.
99%+ of New Albany citizens don't care about New Albany politics and never hear the discord and innuendo. They do notice things like the new YMCA, new downtown restaurants, the Greenway, etc.
They notice them and, judging by the foot traffic, they like them a lot. People are incorporating these new amenities into their daily lives.
For many non-downtowners, the idea of an urban revival is becoming less and less novel.
Speaking of Denmark, the Ravonettes are awesome, maybe they could play the grand in new Albany to bring things full circle
Sorry I'm signed into gmail. It tis me, Daniel S, cousin of iamhoosier
Increasing the size of the minority that currently does the heavy lifting might be the best we can do
Bingo!
Rather than snipe back and forth between blogs, wouldn’t it be far better if all of us could convene in one place and discuss such matters?
Your place or mine?
Maybe RemCha or someone totally new to the city can pull it off.
Thanks for the support. Let’s get started.
Keeping the ships I already have afloat is taking a lot of my time. I'm open for almost anything so long as someone else takes the lead in organizing it. Some years back, we tried meet and greets, but they never really went past the same core. I'd always envisioned fairly regular sessions where anyone could come. Shouldn't be ay my place, as too many folks are wrongly suspicious.
Same goes for the book store. Randy and I have been so unfairly maligned so often that a certain element will never attend a meeting in either place.
I'm open to suggestions and will try to take part as my schedule allows.
I understand what you mean about suspicion between people. I think greater transparency between people will help that.
You say that years back you tried meet and greets; who were these people?
Did your group have city government's support and cooperation?
It is my understanding that a former mayor held a monthly meeting explaining what was happening and getting input from citizens.
I think this would give any meeting the much needed legitimacy it would need to succeed.
RemCha--we had a couple get togethers, at Richos and at La Rosita, for local bloggers and other interested parties.
I think it would be great if there was a quarterly get-together, with Mayor England included, to exchange ideas and hear about challenges and issues being addressed by the administration. Not a gripe session, nor for issues that should be directed to other entities such as BPW, Redevelopment, etc.
The only problem with such an event is that you cannot exclude people, and there are some that should be, due to their self-made status as liars, instigators, fabricators and worse. They derail anything positive that other people attempt and ruin any meaningful dialogue between citizens and administration. Plus, they waste time that none of us really has to spare.
It's a conundrum.
The meet and greets (sans any "official" local government sanction) rather fizzled because only the same people came each time.
I wanted the anonymous commentators to come and be a part, but of course they won't, and if they did, they'd probably fill the slot described by Ann. So what can be done?
And: If any elected official was involved at the outset, his or her participation would be cited as evidence of bias.
How do you get people together in a place where cooperation has been bred out the genetic code?
Two hundred years later, we're still dependent on immigration.
I imagine most smallish towns like New Albany have the same problems with people who are troublemakers. They're everywhere.
Just think how much time they waste of our public officials, people we're all paying. Not only do they have to do the daily business of running the city, but they have to listen to everyone who makes a complaint, however unfounded it may be.
What interests me most in all this isn't the ubiquitous, cowardly naysayers but the lack of cohesion between those who (at least should) know better.
It's difficult to stuff a big picture into 20 different small frames of reference but as long as "others" are allowed to control the region's overall operating environment, the do-gooders are applying band aids to septic wounds rather than healing them.
We subsidize the wholesale creation of urban problems and then attempt to solve them with small contributions and volunteers, keeping those with skills and good intentions just busy and successful enough to distract them from fundamental, system level issues that would make a more substantial, power-shifting difference.
I'll volunteer to try and start a process but it will take more than one.
I understand everything that everyone has said but I will not let differences of ideology stop me from talking or working with people.
It is kind of what the President said during the commencement speech at University of Michigan recently.
I will ask tonight at the council meeting if I can get a commitment from the Mayor or Deputy Mayor to form a group with teeth. It may take someone that knows the Mayor better than me.
Ann or Jeff are you game?
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