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| Cult of personality at last night's DemoDisneyDixiecrat gala. |
Yesterday afternoon, when the kaka was hitting the fan, and City Hall at long last decided to release concrete information on local beverage vending at Boomtown and the summer concert series, you may have noticed the letterhead.
Looks like an official city seal, doesn't it? And yet, insofar as City Hall On the Down Low has conjured any semblance of a statement on seal swapping, it has denied that a logo now appearing on virtually every city-owned object not capable of fleeing to Birdseye is "official."
As here:
As McLaughlin dozes, Coffey expresses his dislike of fuddy-duddy steamboat seal-bearing visitors.
... The city's economic dishevelment facilitator, David Duggins, at long last became interested in the melee, and vaulted forward to volunteer this: The new symbol is a "marketing piece" and "branding mechanism," and not a new official seal.
Branding and marketing. By executive order. Small wonder we remain anchored.
My guess is that the new marketing mechanism was Duggins' idea all along. As a reader pointed out yesterday:
You know, for just being a "marketing tool", that anchor/bridge splat thingy sure acts like it's a city seal ...
If Bob "CeeSaw" Caesar is reading, please be advised that we await the Bicentennial Commission's financial statements as promised during the most recent council meeting.
Until then, here's Vic Megenity to ask a question about seals that almost surely will be stonewalled into oblivion. It's small wonder that Team Gahan has become allergic to two-way streets, as these are disturbing metaphors for two-way communications.
And they show no willingness to do that.
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Concern over steamboat symbol (also available at N & T)
By l850, New Albany became the largest and most important city in Indiana, thanks primarily to its steamboat building.
Of the over 400 steamboats built, the Robert E. Lee was, according to the New Albany Ledger in l866, the grandest ever built. With its Rosewood furniture and crystal chandeliers, it proudly plied the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers until it was destroyed by fire in l882 with the loss of 21 lives. This steamboat had gained national fame by winning its famous race with the Natchez, from New Orleans to St. Louis in l870.
By the late l890s, the city of New Albany commemorated its steamboat building era by making the R.E. Lee its official symbol. That symbol has been prominently displayed with a huge Bruce Fox creation on the front of the City-County Building as well as printed documents and brochures. It was used prominently to celebrate our Centennial Celebration in 1913 and our Bicentennial in 2013.
Several months ago, the city started using a completely different symbol — twin arches with a giant anchor hanging between. That symbol is now used on all city printed material and most recently scores of city street signs have this prominently displayed. No one has been able to explain what this giant anchor represents.
According to the dictionary, it means to prevent movement and to hold fast. Why would anyone want this as a symbol of our city?
The board of directors of the Floyd Count Historical Society recently voted unanimously to keep the historic Robert E. Lee as our city’s official symbol and that was presented to the New Albany City Council on April 6. The council stated it had no input on this change, yet they took no action to make sure this symbol is not lost to history.
We are very alarmed and concerned that this new anchor symbol was apparently created by the mayor’s office without a vote being taken from democratically elected representatives or by involving the public in providing input if it was decided democratically to choose a new symbol. No one could explain to us who, why, where, when or how this symbol was created.
Every citizen of New Albany should be alarmed at the undemocratic method of forcing through this drastic change in our New Albany symbol that has proudly served us for well over 100 years.
The Floyd County Historical Society’s mission is to protect and preserve our rich history. We, therefore, call on all city officials from the mayor to the city council to take immediate steps to restore the Robert E. Lee as our official symbol.
Please do not steal this symbol of our rich history but rather embrace it for future generations.
— Victor Megenity, vice-president, Floyd County Historical Society, New Albany
Gahan is an arrogant dictator who does what he wants. No backbone on the city council to stop him, what about it Phipps et al?
ReplyDeleteIt's sadly fitting they've chosen an anchor as a graphic representation of the city. An anchor fixes a potentially moving object to a place. It gets stuck in the mud and silt and keeps things from moving. That's why it's called an anchor.
ReplyDeleteThis is not a "marketing piece", a "branding image" - it's not a progressive symbol, it doesn't imply a growing and vital city. An anchor? Who designed this?
This is "marketing" just like offering seven MILLION dollars to Pillsbury AFTER they said they they were leaving - that wasn't a "plan to attract businesses to the city" either. Too little and much, much too late.
One can't expect Gahan to grasp marketing, he failed at the veneer business. The only thing he is skilled at is being an unethical political whore.
ReplyDelete