Two-way streets: New Albany is worth it, in the neighborhoods AND downtown.

In the excerpt below, we see yet again that while it's easy to blithely toss around phrases like "quality of life," applying such values across a wider spectrum not exclusively defined by typically well-heeled, upper-strata, white-bread preconceptions can lead to befuddlement on the part of those unfamiliar with diverse considerations.

I've chosen lately to focus my limited time to advocating for two way streets from a standpoint of economic development for downtown New Albany's small, independent businesses -- the ones (like my own) that have invested heavily and borne the primary weight of revitalization, with little more than token support by successive administrations.

Although when it comes to infrastructure like streets and sidewalks ... never mind.

The neighborhood revitalization argument against one-way arterial speedways and in favor of two-way streets and accompanying traffic calming measures might be even stronger. By choice, I leave this point to others, but it is a very important plank in the platform. As with downtown businesses, it is critical that the neighborhoods offer tangible evidence of residents in support of a reclaimed street grid, alongside the single most important necessity of all: Two-way street advocates in New Albany vote.

In New Albany, electoral timidity is driving governmental sloth, plain and simple. I'm doing what I can to provide an opposing viewpoint. Join me.

Erika D. Smith: The road to better neighborhoods goes two ways, at the Indy Star

Every morning for 15 years, Elease Womack and David Metzger watched commuters in imposing SUVs and sleek sedans speed past The Unleavened Bread Cafe with barely an upward glance.

That’s what happens when you have a business on a one-way street in a not-so-great neighborhood.

“People couldn’t wait for the stoplight to change and shoot on through to Downtown,” said Metzger, the cafe’s unofficial co-founder.

But that was then. This is now.

Earlier this year, Indianapolis converted one-way Central Avenue into a two-way street between Fall Creek Parkway and East 38th Street. The effect was immediate. Cars that used to fly by the cafe at the corner of Central and East 30th Street now merely cruise past. Nowadays, people look, stop and linger. The entire neighborhood has changed.

“The way in which people look over here — even at the stoplight — is different now than when it was one way,” Metzger said. “It’s more neighborly than it has ever been.”

It’s not just Central, though. Indianapolis has been slowly rethinking the one-way thoroughfare model ...