203 years later, New Albany has a rental property registration ordinance. Expect inspection and enforcement to follow, circa 2219.

Last evening's city council took place against a backdrop of St. Paddy's (NOT PATTY'S) Day carousing and NCAA athlete exploitation bracketeering.

From the standpoint of local journalism, events of equally critical importance were occurring elsewhere, including a self-aggrandizing One Southern Indiana awards ceremony and a reality television show about a jail.

Somewhere, there may have been a cooking class.

Council meeting attendance was down drastically compared with the highly entertaining rental property owner apocalypse last Monday, proving yet again that absent proper marketing, our legislative body simply cannot put butts in seats.

Maybe our council needs a Bobblehead night.

When the final gavel sounded, the meeting room emptied faster than a flagon of Bud Light Lime at a Democratic Party fluff-a-thon, but at least a few items of business were accomplished.

Thornton's can build a shiny new memorial to auto-centrism on State Street, the plans for which were chillingly referred to by Bob Caesar as "nice."

Oh yes, and for the first time in the city's history, rental properties will be registered.

Expect the real struggle to begin now, as the usual suspects seek to retard or eliminate any meaningful enforcement mechanism.