Mayor Fischer articulates Vision(less) Louisville while dribbling, driveling and drooling.

Bear in mind that even as a fan of professional basketball, I'm not entirely willing to concede that a pro sports team belongs in such a "vision" (delirious people have been known to have visions, too), although the economic realities of the downtown arena strongly suggest that college basketball occupancy alone will not be enough to carry its weight.

Slam dunk? Mayor Fischer’s Vision Louisville 25-year plan apparently includes an NBA team, by Terry Boyd (Insider Louisville)

Which got us thinking, “What is Mayor Fischer really trying to say, here?”

• Rolling Stones’ “Start Me Up.”
• Professional basketball star as the headline speaker.
• Big discussion about a downtown arena.
• Fischer’s first huge initiative devoted to asking Louisvillians for ideas about how to improve the city as the set-up.

We couldn’t help but think the whole event was about three little letters: N. B. A.

It's the "vision" statement itself that is filled with inadvertent hilarity.

Here’s the overall statement about Vision Louisville:

A 25-YEAR VISION FOR LOUISVILLE

We are ready to harness our collective energy and chart our path to the future, to decide how we want Louisville to look, feel, and flow in 2040 ... Why now? Change is upon us – from the economy to the environment, the pace of change in cities world-wide is both rapid and far reaching. Meeting change head on and being proactive about our community’s future is not just about being competitive. Although being competitive is important, we also need to be about city-building — shaping our environment, building a beautiful and attractive city, and establishing a positive future.

Yep, by the year 2040, we'll have embraced "change head on", and presumably will do so by driving our Hummers to the NBA game on a tragically expanded, Eisenhower-era, private-auto-clogged, tolled, regional expressway and bridges system (which Greg Fischer supports), sans mass transit or any other form of environmentally friendly transportation infrastructure.

Really? Is this a "vision thing" just a joke, Mayor Fischer?