William Blake never lived in Nawbany, but he grasps our degraded civic condition better than most residents.
“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing which stands in the way … As a man is, so he sees.”
Welcome to a new weekly feature at NA Confidential. Roger remains on sabbatical from heavy polemical lifting, but it takes no time at all to collect a few headlines, eh?
So it was that the Green Mouse was chatting with a neighbor as together they ducked and covered to avoid the sawdust borne of the latest wave of lumbering downtown.
"The neighborhood from spring to Ekin, 15th to Vincennes is under attack by hooded, face-masked asshats," remarked the neighbor as a very large man on a very small children's bicycle oozed past.
"Cops say they can't do anything if the asshats are probing and pulling doors, at least without seeing or catching them in the act, but hell, I have video of drug deals next door -- then Todd says no, can't smell it on the video. WTF? Something's got to change in Nawagony!"
"Nawagony" -- now THAT'S a keeper.
Did you know that in days of old, there was no crime in the Soviet Union? Well, maybe there was a little bit, but when the official propaganda channels kept saying everyone had been successfully converted into New Communist Men and Women, how could they be capable of petty capitalist transgressions?
Same goes here in New Gahania. We just concluded an election campaign during which neighborhood crime scarcely was mentioned by the Gahans, Phippses and Nashes of the town, and acknowledging such issues now would suggest they were being ... um, evasive.
Who are you going to believe, them or your own video?
Amid sighs and lamentations, the Green Mouse yearns for that elusive day when folks spend time and money on grassroots fixes for what genuinely ails us, rather than meaningless appearances. Too much Disney, too little reality. The reason NAC can't support this bridge lighting chimera is that it not only absorbs tight money which might go toward mitigating car-centrism, but also diverts short attention spans away from much needed "small bet" reforms, to be yet again ignored by reason of magical fantasy thinking. The fundamental issue remains moving people in some way other than one-person-per-car.
Can we talk about THAT?
New Albany leaders making (expletive deleted) in bridge lighting (NewsBune)
Meanwhile, NAC's idea of usefulness is getting existing street lights consistently lit BEFORE trying to string them across the Ohio River. There are three burned-out lights on Market between State and Pearl, opposite the side of the street where the city just spent a million bucks on luxury appendages. They've been out for months.
Can we afford a mere three bulbs for the orphaned south side of the street? it would help pedestrians see the trip hazards before they fall -- as the Green Mouse evidently was doing as he snapped the first photo.
Frankly, we're amazed. How did a reputable business slip into Colonial Manor without a single City Hall functionary claiming credit for it -- and WITHOUT the city owning the building, which previously had been stated as an absolute prerequisite?
Is free enterprise even legal?
Will the fire inspector shut them down until the fruit baskets are delivered with requisite bulging envelopes?
We're SO confused.
RC race track to open in New Albany shopping center, by Taylor Durden (WAVE 3)
Hoosier RC Hobbyplex opens Saturday at 10 a.m.
Rumor has it the River Heritage Conservancy came away from its recent meeting with Team Gahan utterly convinced it had wandered by mistake into a second grade classroom, as opposed to a municipal brain trust. We're just afraid of insulting second graders.
The Minds Behind Louisville’s Riverfront Revival, by (WFPL)
The conservancy has already purchased about half the land needed for the park. To date, funding support has come from the Paul Ogle Foundation, the Blue Sky Foundation, the Town of Clarksville and other local and national organizations.
Join us again next time as we review the week that was.
No comments:
Post a Comment