Hammer, meet nail.
"Policies are changing and new ideas are emerging, yet there is still a significant obstacle ahead of us: challenging outdated mentalities."
It occurs to me that as a lifelong resident of "hereabouts," this daily task of "challenging outdated mentalities" largely has been my life's work. We're still filled to the brim with them, which means there is much more work ahead, and when it comes right down to it, the process of prodding, pushing, taunting and ridiculing outdated mentalities is what gets me out of bed in the morning.
The following commentary comes courtesy of Bluegill, who posted it on Facebook. It applies every bit as much to New Albany as Baltimore.
Two ways about it [Commentary]: Converting city streets St. Paul and Calvert would calm traffic and improve property values, by Charlie Duff (Baltimore Sun)
If we are serious about adding 10,000 new families to the city, then it is time to recognize that there is a lot between the suburbs and downtown. A lot of residents, a lot of houses, a lot of businesses — a whole lot of potential. High-speed through traffic damages this potential. It devalues the neighborhood as a destination, a place we go to and from, a place where bicyclists do not fear for their lives and engines do not roar so loud you can't have a conversation on your stoop.
When Henry A. Barnes decided in 1954 that these streets should be one-way, his only concern was to make sure that members of the middle class moving out of the inner-city could still access it easily. But why should the neighborhoods of Charles Village, Barclay, Old Goucher, Charles North, Greenmount West and Mount Vernon still pay the price for decisions made at a time when TVs were black and white and cars were considered the ultimate marker of social progress? Sixty years later, it's about time we change our approach to transportation planning.
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