Sunday, March 02, 2014

Your downtown economic development agenda items, please.

Let's consider a hypothetical meeting at which representatives of various downtown New Albany groups (DNA, NA 1st, England for Mayor Again) are brought together by previously somnolent "economic development" appointees for the purpose of discussing pressing issues. Attendees are asked to contribute agenda items.

I'll throw out three jump balls to begin the discussion. What are yours?

  1. Downtown indie-centric economic development plan, as distinct from the industrial park's, but with the city (finally) putting skin into the game.
  2. Walkability enhancement through two-way streets and complete streets, sans the perennial Rosenbargian obfuscation.
  3. Concrete, real-world strategies for coping with the forthcoming bridges-borne dislocations, and future consequences of tolling on movement on our side of the river splitting metro Louisville.
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1 comment:

  1. RememberCharlemagne1:01 PM

    With the administration and council expanding the general fund to 22 million the excuse that New Albany doesn't have enough money is no longer a valid excuse, especially when 15 million was adequate. The only obstacle that remains at stopping New Albany's further decline is a break from the continuation of Democratic Administrations and their frivolous status quo spending; but sadly, there isn't a real alternative when it comes to the two party system, and the very fact that that's true is an indication that New Albany's Democratic control has been successful for party, but a failure to the city overall. Democrats have systematically allowed the city to decline thereby guaranteeing a democratic electorate; they have refused to annex the natural growth of the city for fear of upsetting that balance; instead they have relied on raising taxes over the past few years- on already strained tax payers- to mask their failures. Sadly, I don't see this changing anytime soon, but I still hold the belief that an independent group with a well laid out plan could get elected. That "plan" is an expansion of your first suggestion. If you're successful at number one, number two would naturally follow, and number three is a waiting game. New Albany of course is a tale of two cities, the one being downtown and its surrounding neighborhoods; the second being everything else. If New Albany's downtown is to continue to see and sustain improvements, a more concerted effort has to be directed toward improving the quality of life in surrounding neighborhoods. The downtown commercial groups and “everything else” needs to understand that there is a substantial cost by allowing its inner-core to fail, and that instead the cost of short term revitalization is a substantial long term gain.

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