Please, Lord, help us to occupy these vacant houses.

The News and Tribune's Jerod Clapp had the misfortune to draw the short straw for last night's council gathering, and somewhere amid the Rev. Burks' broken-record insistence that compelling me to listen to him pray at every single yearly meeting somehow does NOT violate my own 1st Amendment rights, a discussion about vacant houses broke out.

No, I didn't attend the function. My guild meeting in Indy ran late, and after thirty years of listening to these arguments in favor of Christian theocracy, sometimes the piety is a bit too much to bear. As for the vacant houses, many of which merely are in need of tender loving rehab and not outright demolition, it remains pleasant to consider how we might leverage the investment required to enable River View into a few hundred River Views throughout the city.

Vacant properties remain problematic for New Albany; Building commissioner says more resources needed for code enforcement

NEW ALBANY — With the only ordinance on the agenda tabled again, the New Albany City Council discussed the future of a vacant housing committee at their regular session Thursday, as well as the replacement of invocations with a moment of reflection at the start of meetings.