We simply mustn't throw out Speck with the Main Street project's nasty bilge water.

This is the stuff of banana republics.

At this crucial juncture, New Albany has a mayor purportedly favoring street grid change, so long as he never is compelled to say so aloud, and by choosing to sandbag on the down low rather than lead with integrity, he's somehow managing to unite the Speck plan's opponents while dividing its proponents.

Ineptitude of that heightened magnitude is rare even by local standards of futility.

ROAD LESS TRAVELED? New Albany business owners say East Main Street traffic shifting to Spring Street, by Daniel Suddeath (N and T)

NEW ALBANY — As the city prepares for the final scheduled public input session on planner Jeff Speck’s downtown streets proposal, some business owners are questioning whether two-way traffic could work for certain portions of the city.

While employees and proprietors of trucking and hauling companies have frequently differed with Speck’s plan, Culbertson West owners Steve Goodman and Carl Holliday once favored shifting Spring Street to two-way traffic.

At first, upon reading this, I was chagrined that Carl and Steve would say such a thing, but to read the entirety of their letter (provided expeditiously by city clerk Vicki Glotzbach) is to realize that their thoughts on two-way streets constitute a mere two paragraphs of speculation amid four pages of wholly justified complaints about the Main Street Disprovement boondoggle-that-keeps-extracting.

Just as there were Unionists in Virginia and Tennessee during the American Civil War, it seems there are Main Streeters who thought it a bad idea to secede from the city's street grid. Here are the .pdf pages of Carl's and Steve's letter.

For those using Fb, go here for an animated and comprehensive discussion on Speck's proposals in the context of the Main Street project. As noted for something like the 745th time ...

As we see now, the ramifications threaten the implementation of rationality on other streets. Until we come to grips with this, the well plainly is poisoned -- and the city shot its own foot.

The Main Street project? It's poison, and it will remain poison. The design, execution and politics were wrong, and it would be just as wrong to fail to implement the Speck proposals. Last time I checked, two wrongs still don't make a right, even in this depraved burg.

Carl and Steve ... please think about that. Now's the time for unity, lest the Luddites are able to block what little remaining hope we have. At this point, our best bet is to implement Speck's proposals completely from top to bottom, sans bullshit compromises like those ultimately sabotaging any good intent the Main Street project may once have contained, then come back to Main Street later and see what tweaking can be done.

Or, Molotov cocktails. If we can't use them to take out a few medians, at least we can drink them and feel better about it.