City Council Monday: All the mews fit to reject?

Tonight there was a city council meeting, and 3rd district councilman Greg Phipps introduced this PUDD request:

Z-17-03 Ordinance Amending the Code of Ordinances of New Albany, Indiana Title XV Chapter 156 (West Street Mews, Inc. requests a PUDD to permit freehold townhouses in the R-2, Urban Residential district at 1105-1109 West Street)

Amid rumblings of tsunami-intensity storm water chaos from Mt. Coffey, Phipps conceded that he had several issues with the plan to construct townhouses on permeable green space -- though he voted in favor of the proposal when it came came before the Plan Commission because, in his own words, he "didn't want to be the only vote against."

Phipps later reiterated the existence of undisclosed issues but said he'd hate to make the developers incur any further expense.

Meanwhile, Coffey reminded listeners of the incredible miracles of affordable housing and economic recovery achieved in Westendia during his long tenure, and said that townhouse-level density would just plain kill these many advancements.

There finally was a vote, during which Phipps dismissed any of the doubts he hadn't yet explained and voted in favor, but only (or so he stated) because he was the one to bring it to council from the Plan Commission, implying he felt obliged.

He was joined by the three Republicans, leaving council president McLaughlin to cast the deciding vote against the proposal.

THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE DEBATE, NOT A SINGLE ELECTED REPRESENTATIVE ASKED THE MOST PERTINENT QUESTION OF ALL.

Like this:

Why are newly constructed townhouses in Westendia being called "mews," when to call them "mews" is complete and utter nonsense?

mews
myo͞oz
noun (British)

1. a row or street of houses or apartments that have been converted from stables or built to look like former stables.

2. a group of stables, typically with rooms above, built around a yard or along an alley.

Mews? Not these apartments in Massachusetts.

This is more like it.

The proper course of action this evening was to look the developers square in the eye and say:

"Stop insulting our community with cutesy-pie bullshit. Go away, and come back with a name that makes sense."

Well, a boy can dream. Now, see what the real thing looks like in London.

LONDON’S PRETTIEST MEWS STREETS, by Laura (Sometime Traveller)

Wander around the streets of Kensington, Chelsea or Notting Hill and it won’t be long before you stumble across a mews street. You might not notice them at first – they’re often hidden away behind brick archways or ivy-covered entrance ways – but make the effort and you’ll discover some of the prettiest streets in London.

You’ll mostly find mews streets lying behind a row of grand townhouses. The little cottages along these streets used to be the stables for the townhouses back in the day, but nowadays they’ve been converted into multi-million pound properties that you’ll need a lottery win to afford (unless you’re Keira Knightley in Love Actually*).

Below are six of my favourite mews streets in London. Most of them are nice and close to each other in Kensington (Gloucester Road or Earl’s Court are the nearest tubes), so they make a really nice walk, particularly on a sunny day.

*If you want to see the mews where Keira’s character lived, it’s St Luke’s Mews in Notting Hill.