Admittedly, the change is fascinating to me.
In a world fairly reeking of tea party crashers and Norquistian finger-waggers, New Albany somehow has succeeded in ridding itself of self-identified citizens' anti-tax protesters. They simply have disappeared, and the new atmosphere is strange, to say the least.
Gads. Am I feeling nostalgia for Citizens Faux Accountability?
At Thursday's council meeting, every person in the room with the possible exceptions of council persons Zurschmiede and Benedetti accepted that bonding somewhere in the vicinity of $19 million for two new parks and slight modifications to a third were (as CM Blair has oft said) "no-brainers."
Just one example: Standing at the same lectern where numerous obstructionists over the years have vowed to set themselves alight over proposals to purchase a few pencils and (maybe) a box of paper clips, a man held that these three mega-bond parks projects are going to be built sub-standard, and so we might as well spend a bit more to elevate them to spec: "While the check book's open," he said, they should be finished correctly.
Everyone blithely nodded, including the three members of the new city parks board present at the meeting, all of whom agreed that the city's most important mission is to restore pride in parks, because pride in parks represents hope, and one can't place a price tag on hope, even if so many other aspects of the city remain unfinished and in need of similar investments if there's ever to be hope outside of a lazy river or soccer pitch.
It is disorienting, to say the least. I cannot recall a time in the past ten years, perhaps apart from sewer upgrades, when the expenditure of so much money was being proposed for such narrowly targeted returns.
Are public parks a quality of life issue? Of course. Are they the only quality of life issue? Of course not. When was it decided via any semblance of public input that pools are the ONLY quality of life issue worth spending $19 million to build?
Never.
To repeat: Never.
That's why this $19 million bond is so very obscene. Money's suddenly no object, the council's behaving like lotto winners, and while the mayor argues that any reinvigoration of the city necessarily must begin with park designs, the streets still run one way ... the Reisz and Coyle properties remain empty ... the Riverfront Amphitheater rots on a bread and water ration ... vast stretches of housing as yet are slumlord infested and blighted ... the Greenway's unfinished ... two bicycle paths running the same direction on Spring Street make no more sense now than when Carl handbuilt them ... well, how much further would you like for me to go on? If city hall has an integrated plan to address these, can we please just get a glimpse?
The dust will settle, and we'll have this nice Mayberry-style water park. The old folks will beam, and the young folks ... well, they'll leave.
Just like they always have.
Tribune coverage of Thursday's meeting
C-J coverage of the same
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2 comments:
I'm more disappointed in this council than I have been with previous iterations. They've shown a near total disregard for very basic core competencies, citing expertise while functionally displaying the opposite.
Somewhat like you, I find myself wistful for a period a few years ago when so much better was still possible but not so actively being screwed up.
I know Roger didn't intend to mislead but "only" half of the $19 million is for the pool/aquatic center/boondoggle. The other half is mainly going for a recreation complex in the "middle" of the city.
What is being spent on the "pool" is too much, especially for 3-4 months of usage but I wanted to make clear, for those that haven't paid as much attention, it's not just for a pool.
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