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| It was the month's top post, so did Wendy Dant Chesser see this infographic from Money Choice? |
Thanks for reading NA Confidential, where we enjoy scanning the neglected periphery for uniquely local perspectives.
I'm delighted at NAC's August numbers, especially your attention to the "Grid Control" series. Overall, August readership testifies to a keen ongoing interest in New Albany stories, perhaps because they're being chronically under-served elsewhere.
The list begins with ten "honorable mention" posts, before concluding with the Top Ten, escalating to No. 1. Stats are derived from Google's internal numbers listings.
AUGUST TEN HONORABLE MENTION
356
Dan Coffey plans his own unity rally, because why should those smarty pants Democrats have all the fun?
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359
Develop New Albany's Broccoli Walk is August 12. What? Oops, sorry -- it's a Taco Walk.
I still think broccoli is getting the short end of the "signature" event, though tacos are nice, too. Here is the list of participating establishments.
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364 (tie)
On the errant notion of downtown two-way gridlock: The "I'll huff and puff and boycott a place I rarely go anyway, except to pass through" approach.
There is a word that can't be repeated often enough to those who threaten to boycott downtown because two-way streets will require them to drive a tad more slowly and (heaven forbid) pay attention to the community outside their car windows:
Promise?
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364 (tie)
GREEN MOUSE SAYS: This new electronic sign at St. Mary's did not receive a COA from the New Albany Historic Preservation Commission (hint: it's illegal).
It's a tad disappointing that as a beneficiary of Super Tuesday's historic preservation largess distribution (and a questionable one, in my estimation), the church didn't follow COA procedures with the new electronic sign. It will be doubly disappointing if City Hall, after these puffy days of publicly celebrating its preservation credentials, doesn't enforce the rules. After all, unequal enforcement is in many respects worse than no enforcement at all.
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374
Terrified populace braces for 2-way apocalypse, coming later today, only a decade too late.
However, we're told that today at some as yet undefined juncture, Spring Street will revert to two-way traffic after a half-century in captivity.
Pearl and Bank are to follow tomorrow, then Market, and finally Elm. September 30 is the deadline for erasing the city's damaging one-way mentality, albeit it with anchors symbolic of stasis marking every corner.
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379 (tie)
Newspaper letter writer savages a failing, flailing and floundering Duggins at the NAHA, and follows the bread crumbs back to Deaf Gahan.
The Deputy Executive Director mentioned in Susan Ryan's letter (below) is Tony Toran, a former city official and longtime Democratic Party higher-up. This and other carefully pre-scripted "surprises" occurred at last Monday's New Albany Housing Authority meeting, but numerous reports of David Duggins' escalating managerial incompetence have been coursing through the Green Mouse's grapevine for weeks.
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379 (tie)
GREEN MOUSE SAYS: Is Denton Floyd acquiring the Reisz building for use by a relocated NA City Hall? We think a deal is imminent.
The Green Mouse since has been told that Team Gahan will soon reveal a deal for the Schmitt family to sell the long moribund Reisz Furniture Warehouse Store to Denton Floyd Real Estate Group, the Louisville developer currently rehabilitating the old M. Fine & Sons factory at the 140 block of East Main.
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392
Thanks, Gahan: Deaf called it "a blight and eyesore for the area," so he acted swiftly ... to create another one in its place.
Back in March, a scandal-plagued Jeff Gahan explained why he had to demolish buildings at the corner of Market and Vincennes. He didn't say anything about creating a post-industrial wasteland in the aftermath, but maybe the memo got lost when Duggins took all the city's bulldozers over to the New Albany Housing Authority ... with Democratic Party approval.
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393
Hoard this: Contest concludes as Clint finds the "Entrance to Jeff Gahan's Down Low Bunker."
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394
Told you so: "New Albany in talks to relocate City Hall to Reisz Furniture building."
Thanks to the News and Tribune's Elizabeth Beilman for confirming what NA Confidential published yesterday.
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423
James "U of L" Ramsey, sombreros, stereotypes and DNA's institutional legacy of tone deafness.
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424
ON THE AVENUES SATURDAY SPECIAL: One-ways on the way out, because with downtown at a crossroads, they simply had to be exterminated.
I’ve noticed that as we debate two-way streets in New Albany, or more accurately, as proponents offer ream after ream of statistical evidence even as opponents respond by screaming and threatening to maul someone, those of the one-way persuasion tend to say "I" and "me" a lot, while those interested in more than one path through life use words like "we," "us" and “ours.”
AUGUST TOP TEN
480
Croissants d'BBQ Bologna: Dan Coffey says that restaurants are taking up the sidewalk and his compatriots damn well better do something about it.
Coffey's germ of truth is irrefutable, because disabled users really do face myriad daily challenges attempting to navigate the city of New Albany's sidewalks and streets.
But making this point by attacking the city's food and dining community, which has done more than any other economic sector to make downtown habitable again, misses the larger truth by a Birdseye mile.
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518
Dear ordinance enforcement: Each of these signs at Breakwater is illegally posted. You'll want to address it, of course.
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543
"Lost our parking, store closing," says Reeder's Cleaner of Spring Street location in New Albany.
At least I assume Reeder's has closed its Spring Street location; so said the signs, but I haven't walked up that way lately to double check. Speaking personally, while I haven't used dry cleaning services for many years, I was always struck by the sign above the door.
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561
30 years ago today on THE BEER BEAT: Visiting the Carlsberg brewery just prior to the Altercation in Copenhagen.
Carlsberg would be a return visit for me, and this passage from the 1985 travel narrative sets the scene as well as reiterating what led us to beers of the world in the first place. I've inserted the 1987 photos into 1985 commentary.
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888
Grid Control, Vol. 23: City's fuddy-duddies losing their minds as the debut for a two-way Spring Street is pegged at August 29.
Thirteen years later, it's the end of the beginning. Speaking personally, I think the Spring Street conversion announcement should have been made at roughly 2:30 p.m. on Monday, when the combination of a solar eclipse and impending two-way-street rationality (finally) would have sent the Luddites streaming panic-stricken toward Birdseye.
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1,130
Let's all eat at Israel's Delicias de Mexico Gourmet on Saturday, August 12.
If you're not planning on Taco Walking and still need to eat at some point on Saturday, allow me to suggest that while it isn't located in the epicenter of downtown New Albany, Israel's Delicias de Mexico Gourmet (1515 E. Market Street) would be a great place to have a meal.
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1,156
Grid Control, Vol. 22: City engineer Larry Summers answers our questions about intersection striping errors and the "No Trucks" sign removal.
In Vol. 21, we asked questions about the soon-to-be-repaved intersection at Spring and 10th Street, and the disappearing "No Trucks" sign at the intersection of Spring and Vincennes. Afterward, city engineer Larry Summers swooped into a discussion at the New Albany Indiana page at Facebook and gave these answers.
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1,324
Grid Control, Vol. 20: As Team Gahan dawdles, another bicyclist is crushed into mincemeat at 10th & Spring's dangerous dogleg.
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1,334
Grid Control, Vol. 19: In a positive move, HWC begins righting the wrong cross hatching on Spring Street.
It's been roughly six weeks since NAC broke the errant cross hatching story. At the most recent BoW meeting, city engineer Larry Summers said he expected repairs to occur before the debut of two-way traffic, and that doing so would not require the westbound lane of Spring Street to be closed.
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1,579
Here's one for Wendy: "How Corporate Welfare Is Killing Small Businesses."
Despite being the backbone of the economy, funding from the Small Business Administration is a fraction of that of corporate welfare.
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