Exactly where is the opposition to law enforcement and street reform?

Grace Transue won't let up -- and why should she?

Her complaints to the Board of Works appear to have fallen on inattentive ears, but when the bookseller followed up with a devastating survey of non-enforcement patterns, the squirming became palpable, and qualifications began being issued far more often than actual speeding tickets.

In effect, as the bookseller pithily has observed, those with the misfortune of having their property values and quality of life compromised by lawless arterial streets -- ones that exist primarily to ease the passage of non-New Albanian pass-through commuters with little if any benefit to the city as a whole -- are being asked not to believe what their own eyes glimpse hourly throughout the day, but to trust the city's nervous assertion that there are no problems ... nothing to see here ... move along.

Meanwhile, we're all being asked to accept that the "quality of life" rationale for a megabuck public aquatics center is obvious, self-evident and need not be seriously debated ... but the very same considerations cannot be applied to the regeneration of core neighborhoods, where the mere existence of outmoded arterial streets actively negates the impact of monies spent to stabilize the very same area.

Last week a source in City Hall told the Green Mouse that in spite of oft-expressed public viewpoints like Grace's (and the East Spring Street Neighborhood Association for a full decade running, and 30+ independent businesses signing on to our emblem campaign), the current administration doesn't believe the general public has a firm opinion about two-way streets, and as such, City Hall absolutely must have a study affording political cover prior to simply lifting a finger to the breeze and noting the wind's current direction.

The only possible explanation for such persistent timidity on the part of a team that won election with more than 50% of the vote against three challengers COMBINED is that current opposition to street reform is coming from the ranks of the local Democratic Party's own elders and grandees. It's the only conceivable source of influence that makes sense. After all, the municipal GOP barely exists apart from Ed Clere's personalized brand. Jeff Gahan's electoral mandate is like no other in recent memory, and it's early in the term, long before the next city election. The air is heavy with propitiousness, and yet the deer remains frozen in the headlights of a reckless vehicle barreling down Elm Street.

Why the fear?

Apart from the seemingly bottomless vapidity of Bob Caesar, exactly where is the opposition to law enforcement and street reform?

Anyone?

Bueller?

CHEERS AND JEERS — For Nov. 16-17

READER JEERS

... to a lack of attention.

It has been over a month since I went to the New Albany Board of Public Works and Safety about the speeding on East Elm Street, and still there hasn’t been anything done about it by the administration of the New Albany Police Department.

I am wondering if there hasn’t been any attempt to curtail the speeding because someone doesn’t want to have any kind of history of the speeding when the decision has to be made about changing this street to two-way traffic. Whatever, how much longer will the NAPD allow speeding on East Elm Street?

— Grace Transue, New Albany