Nash hits target's very center: New Albany's lack of bicycle planning is "unconscionable."

Matt Nash is being all subversive again, and he's right. "Unconscionable" covers a lot of ground in this context, doesn't it?

It defines John Rosenbarger's entire wasted, self-serving career in quaint small-town job protection, masquerading as "planning.".

It references the proclivity of elected officials, both in City Hall and on the council, to fall back on "quality of life" as a mantra without once explaining what the words actually mean, or how they might be extended to cover the whole of the city, and not merely those areas targeted for extravagant expenditures.

It describes the currently surreal situation, wherein city officials will ferociously swear fidelity to bicycles, walkers, two-way streets and street grid revolution, so long as they do so privately -- never aloud, never from a position of leadership in front of this topic, as opposed to cowering behind it. This is the part that utterly eludes me. Why the consistent secrecy, the non-transparency, the cloak-and-dagger coded spy novel of a decision-making process?

Private reassurances are one thing. Leadership is another very different quality, and it's presently absent.

Mayor Gahan: If you really believe in these ideas ... if it's really you "leading" from the back rooms and darkened corridors ... then damn it, get out in front and lead. You ... not underlings and hired hands and attorneys and acolytes.

Not them. You!

NASH: Where are our bike lanes?

... The people that we have elected to run our city haven’t done enough to provide the citizens with the quality of life that we deserve. They spend millions on asphalt for cars to get from one place to another as fast as they can and forget about alternatives. Spending $20 million on recreational facilities and then not providing a way to get there besides an automobile is unconscionable.

We have wasted too many years and too much money while other cities have sped ahead of us when it comes to building bike lanes. We could have been building a healthier community all these years while we were updating our infrastructure, but our leaders have not had the foresight. We should have had a master plan years ago that included connecting high traffic roadways to recreational amnesties and local attractions. Maybe one day we will learn, but I’m not too optimistic.