Jeffersonville newspaper says Harvest Homecoming is a local treasure of ad revenue. I'd rather study those economic impacts a bit more closely.

Back on August 27, 2014 there was an excellent blog discussion about Harvest Homecoming and economic impacts.

Fear the gorilla: After all, Harvest Homecoming's business plan has never been designed for inclusivity.

When citizens, businesses, or other groups go to the City to ask about using public space and are told they have to get permission from a private, non-elected, non-accountable, third-party, there are obviously issues. Eventually, someone is going to have to push the conversation along via civil disobedience. It would be helpful if the business/property owners most directly impacted would do it en masse. If HH doesn't have to go before the Board of Works to secure the space in front of your building for that time period, then neither do you, right?

The year before that (October 13, 2013), there was this.

Amid the garbage, we contemplate Groundhog Day in New Albany.

The festival takes place because the city allows it to take place, always under Harvest Homecoming's terms of engagement, and with what amounts to infrastructure subsidies for the festival that are not consistently applied throughout the remainder of the year (street department work , police and fire overtime, etc.)

And yet nowhere, neither in an ordinance nor on a granite tablet, is there a law that states Harvest Homecoming must occur in the fashion it does.

Retreating whole decade into the mists of time, to October 14, 2007,  a Tribune guest columnist (no, not me) considered Harvest Homecoming's downtown context.

While thousands from the area descend on downtown New Albany, the location of the event could hardly be any less relevant to most attendees. Sure, Harvest Homecoming is in downtown New Albany, but it’s not of downtown New Albany. People stay in the streets, booths cover the businesses — little attention is paid to the locale. Since Harvest Homecoming fails to effectively tie-in to New Albany’s struggling downtown, why even hold it there at all? Tradition, sure. But the parking is better elsewhere ...

I'm struck by one word in Daniel Robison's 2007 piece, and that's "struggling." Most of us would say this is no longer the case. To be sure, much has been accomplished, but much more remains to be done, and complacency is something to be avoided just as fanatically as Pome-Granate-Rita.

However, one of Robison's observations remains true. Harvest Homecoming is not about downtown, and it cannot be about downtown for so long as the festival's "booth days" business model remains unaltered.

In fact, for all the generally exaggerated numbers quoted to the effect of Harvest Homecoming's economic impact, my guess is that we'll soon reach the tipping point on the graph, although we might be there already.

In short, this is the juncture where Harvest Homecoming's traditional booth model suppresses more overall economic activity downtown than it generates.

At present, the festival and existing businesses must co-exist according to a grid, within a finite amount of space, as designed for one or the other to maximize, but not both. Progress has indeed been made in forging an uneasy compromise, but the overall dynamic remains one of tension.

Up to a point, in perfect weather, the compromises hold (ignoring the plain fact that the board it still tilted toward the primacy of Harvest Homecoming's booth model, not the needs of year-round downtown stakeholders).

But spread this grid over a larger geographical area, so that fest and locals are not in direct competition, and wouldn't the returns be greater for both?

This is exactly why the News and Tribune's mention of 1,000,000 visitors is so mind-numbingly ludicrous. I expect very little from the newspaper's editorial board, which strives always to achieve a certain acme of milquetoast, but in this instance there's an obvious imperative to reward business-as-usual Harvest Homecoming-related advertisers at the slight expense of keeping creative long-term thinking safely sedated and boxed, never to escape the newspaper's beige reality.

There are so many ways the Harvest Homecoming experience could be improved. None are likely to be considered, because it's how we've always done it. As long as the newspaper profits from the status quo, so it will constrain.

OPINION: It's been a great 50 years, Harvest Homecoming

 ... Last year more than 700,000 visitors converged on the downtown during the four booth days, which this year began yesterday.

And with good weather in the forecast for this weekend, that number could grow. Maybe this is the year it tops 1 million visitors.

Harvest Homecoming is truly a local treasure. It’s all about community ...

Memories amid the garbage: New Albany's Groundhog Day.

It's over. Downtown welcomes the resumption of its daily working world.

New Albany's version of Groundhog Day occurs in early October. When Harvest Homecoming is here, blinders are donned with a speed hitherto unwitnessed. City Hall (any one of them, actually, dating back to the Ford Administration) emerges with trepidation into Hauss Square, is predictably terrified of seeing its own shadow -- and then we get six more years of the status quo.

Ultimately, it needs to be understood that Harvest Homecoming's yearly occupation of downtown is a steadily worsening issue that city government alone is capable of mediating. It should do so in a transparent, public manner. The festival takes place where and how it does only because the city allows it, but always under Harvest Homecoming's own terms of engagement, and with what amounts to infrastructure subsidies (street department work, police and fire overtime, etc.) for the festival that are not consistently applied throughout the remainder of the year to the rest of the city.

City Hall might begin by placing a dollar amount on this subsidy. Numerous claims are advanced each year to justify Harvest Homecoming as currently constituted. Have these claims ever been studied and substantiated?

Lest we forget, nowhere -- neither in an ordinance nor on a granite tablet -- are there laws stating that Harvest Homecoming must occur as it does. With downtown having come back to life, each passing year brings with it escalating conflicts between Harvest Homecoming's imposition of its own business model on downtown, and the optimum way for downtown to function for the remainder of the year. Downtown no longer is a vacuum, and arbitration is desperately needed. City government can broker solutions any time it wishes; approval for Harvest Homecoming is at city government's discretion. But no communication is facilitated, and the rancor grows. This year it has been particularly nasty.

Independent local business operators downtown have long since started looking past the silence as it pertains specifically to Harvest Homecoming, and grasping with escalating dismay that the city's inaction is more institutional than we ever imagined. What we must begin asking is why the city in effect invests so much yearly in a temporary, imposed, alien business model dedicated primarily to extracting value for its own self-perpetuation (that's Harvest Homecoming as 800-lb gorilla), but has no systematic plan for downtown investment for the other 360 days of the year.

For those interested in no-brainer "big pictures," here is one: Given the downtown advances of the past decade, as driven by entrepreneurs, private investment and volunteers, the city of New Albany has done next to nothing to deserve its downtown revitalization. In point of fact, talk is cheap. The city has been fortunate, and perhaps now it feels as though nothing needs to be done for the bounty to continue.

I disagree. It’s time for the city to ante up and put skin in the downtown game equivalent to its “economic development” plans on the periphery, and equal to what is devoted to Harvest Homecoming's ever more fallacious argument: "We bring people downtown and showcase the city -- and that's economic development."

Exactly what the new generation of downtown business is doing, all year long.

Twelve months versus four days ... let me do the math. Allowing Harvest Homecoming to continue the way it currently operates absent substantive reform is an abdication of duty on the part of the city, plain and simple.

It's Day Three of showing off our downtown to people who didn't come to see it.

Tradition becomes our security, and when the mind is secure it is in decay.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti

Speaking of tradition, guesstimating Harvest Homecoming's attendance figures is a time-honored ritual. It usually comes a la mode with extra fudge, and is prone to much the same exaggeration as the 47 Bud Light Limes consumed by one Swill Walker.

Take it away, Bluegill:

The numbers game is a pretty lousy way to judge the success or failure of a festival's mission anyway but: The Louisville Metro Statistical Area is made up of 14 counties In KY and IN, population approximately 1.3 million. No one, including Harvest Homecoming officials, really believes that almost 40% of that entire population shows up for the festival. Yet, when HH folks cite an attendance number of 500,000 to justify nearly everything, it goes unquestioned. Think just about parking for a moment, a big deal during the festival since most attendees drive: If each car averages three occupants, that's over 166,000 cars, more than twice the population of Floyd County.

HH Friday: We're joining together with united communities because a low common denominator is better than no newspaper at all.

When you awaken at 3:00 a.m. with stomach rumbling and thoughts of tacos and smoked lager, it isn't a hopeful prescription for sleeping any longer. Thunderstorms always keep me awake, anyway.

Meanwhile, after just one day of Harvest Homecoming 2014, a newer generation downtown business owner shared a few thoughts with me.

After hearing about all the theft from my buddies with stands I had to bring all my decor in.... then I get to clean up all the straw (in the store) in the morning. Hope this pays off for the business owners down here and not just the trucks from out of town. I see what Roger A. Baylor was talking about. Next year I'm just gonna go on a vacation.

Indeed, experience is the best teacher. Conversely, we might all grimace, go for the Astroglide, take one for the orange-clad team, and ingest some more of Papa Morris's medicine, as reiterated by Edwina Anger on Fb.

Leave it the way it has been for years. Anyone that knows anyone downtown can already guess who is complaining the most about it. Thinks he owns downtown. Don't think so.

I've no idea who she's referring to, but speaking only for myself, the ol' Klout score wouldn't have risen from 56 to 61 in a single week if y'all weren't discussing the issues being raised, yay or nay. Consequently, lost in the hue and cry are a few valuable points.

The one that amuses me the most: Why did the customarily directionless News and Tribune status quo appeasers precede Booth Days with Chris Morris's pre-emptive shot across the bow, aimed squarely at "a few folks" who, of course, are not named?

It's because the 800-lb gorilla finds itself in an unusual position: On the defensive, being questioned. Given that Morris might as well be a paid copywriter for the festival, and the newspaper itself never met a low common denominator it didn't fellate, he performed his "anything except change" nostalgia pitch right on cue, with added drivel. But it's all fine by me. I believe this year's a watershed, and that there's no longer space under the rug for sweeping.

Enjoy this Fb chat from Thursday, with photos. The storefronts pictured below are part of the National City Bank rehab currently underway on Pearl and Bank.

---

Pete Lyons
I was told to leave my own property yesterday, and informed it's none of my f^^king business what they do to my building. "They don't give a f^^k". And this was ll before the first booth was up.

PL
This building was just finished being painted yesterday. I can't imagine the cost. And these people could care less...

K'
Why are they allowed to store stuff like that within the entrance and against the building like that?? Isn't that a fire hazard beyond the fact that it's private property at that point?

PL
According to HHC rules "sidewalks must remain clear at all times" and "all items must be contained within your booth space".

PL
A couple years ago, a booth had literally blocked the entrance to a business that was open. They had to get an official to unblock the door. I asked him why they were not made to comply with with regulations, and he said "because I just made an exception". He was the HHC president at the time.

K
Sure looks like alot of people and things on the sidewalk proper rather than within the booth space on the street...


Roger A. Baylor
(Because) the city signs off on this. HH? It's culpable, too, but without the city's sign-off, the 800 lb orange gorilla has no teeth.

K
The building/shop owners need to complain early and often any time there's anything stored in their doorways like that. And pictures, like above. Hard to argue with pictures ... maybe the complaints need to be CC'd to the fire department?

PL
I told an HHC official that I would contact the fire department and he said "I'll call him right now! For the next 3 days I own this town."

K
Wow...that doesn't sound like trying to help store owners see the benefit of HH ...

---

This really is city government's problem, isn't it? I mean, even David White is listening to downtown business owners ... and he's just a candidate for mayor.

The downtown Harvest Homecoming shutdown begins tonight. Are we having fun yet?

The dialogue continued yesterday, with a few informative twists. Longtime downtowner PL wrote:

You're right on the money. Most of the people who don't understand what the fuss is all about only are here for booth days and have no idea the economic toll it takes on downtown businesses, and how the Orange Shirt Nazis treat business investors like crap. I'm waiting on an answer for what city ordinance allows for a 501c to take control of public streets. The city pays thousands for security and additional clean up while HH takes in over a $250,000 a year and claims they don't have any money. According to the form 990 they file, all but $25,000 is disbursed as "expenses". Downtown has changed, and it's time HH makes some changes as well. All the business owners just get lip service every year and nothing happens.

Remember Jeff Cummins? He's the "head honcho" of Harvest Homecoming, who recently took to the non-local newspaper to offer his own top-down reform plan: "I want to try and get downtown merchants to understand what the festival is all about."

As yesterday's discussion began unfolding at Facebook, Cummins abruptly appeared.

Do not speak about what you do not know as being fact. Speculation makes one a fool.

The back and forth on social media, 3rd party conversations and assumptions accomplish nothing. Go direct to whom you have the issue and discuss it face to face.

Don't play games, it's wasted unproductive time spent. Ask the question.

And so I asked it.

I have a serious question, which I meant to ask at the Board of Works earlier today (in the end, I couldn't make it to the meeting). In the past, I've observed HH officials telling people that they could not distribute handbills amid the booth area. Now, it seems to me that this is perfectly legal -- freedom of expression, if you will. Does anyone (Jeff Cummins or otherwise) know if HH can do this?

In effect, Cummins answered my question by refusing to answer such questions from upstarts like me.

Not going to debate on here. You have a large tendency to misconstrue what is said to suit your needs.

Hmm.

While HH may not be the Illuminati, attitudes like these expressed by the "head honcho" himself hardly bode well when it comes to dissidents being invited to come share new ideas with the management.

It's as Jeff Gillenwater subsequently explained:

HH is well aware of what the concerns are. They've been taken to HH and City leadership many times over. Why would Cummins have specifically mentioned the need to straighten out downtown business perceptions in the article were he not aware of their oft communicated concerns? Rather than address those concerns in any sort of meaningful way, though, HH officials simply insist that they must be restated anew or presented in some different way or place or some other such demand. It's an exercise of power in a poor attempt to prove they don't have any. They have no fear of ever being pressed to answer questions and concerns because City officials have continually reinforced the notion that they don't have to. Thus, we get the passive-aggressive, presidential display here.

Another regular reader chose to strike at the probable heart of the HH matter in an e-mail.

Why not begin agitating for a class-action-style lawsuit amongst the downtown merchants against HH, based on their charging local businesses access to their store fronts during the party? That cannot possibly be legal and if enough merchants put in a hundred or a couple hundred, you could get a good attorney (obviously someone from out of town) to take them to court and at least get the community talking.

Obviously there are other concerns: public safety, local restaurants cannot distribute their menus to the general public, access issues, etc.

Just a thought. At least, in court, you'd get answers.

That's what I'm thinking, too.

And I bet we wouldn't even have to go out of town for a good attorney.

Gorillaz in their orange seersuckers.

I wonder how the conversation went?

The city's discussions with Harvest Homecoming should be transparent and inclusive of downtown business owners. Maybe next year?

Divert them: Does a truck this size have any place in a walkable downtown street grid?

Spanning Elm Street, headed for a right hand turn onto Spring.

Life on Padgett Avenue.

How do future street grid changes factor Padgett's need to move block-long cranes and ancillary vehicles, generally oversized, along the company's currently preferred route -- using 4th Street as the axis, anchored to Elm and Spring?

It's both a serious and legitimate question, isn't it?

ON THE AVENUES: I’ll take “Farmers Market” for $108K, Alex ... or maybe I won't.

ON THE AVENUES: I’ll take “Farmers Market” for $108K, Alex ... or maybe I won't.

A weekly web column by Roger A. Baylor.

Resolved: 

The New Albany Farmers Market is a significant, vital part of our downtown experience, and of course we support it, although we do so with appropriate qualification, namely, that the market’s permanent location should be the subject of due diligence, further study and public participation into the process.

We feel it would be mistaken to permanently anchor the market to its current location at the corner of Market and Bank, or to spend additional monies to improve it, at least until further research is conducted as to the full range of options, and more importantly, as to the future (and value) of the present street corner for infill construction.

Tails should not wag dogs. Thank you.

---

Earlier this week, the News and Tribune’s Daniel Suddeath reported that the downtown farmers market’s direct overlord, Develop New Albany, is demanding its $300,000 cut for a build-out and permanent improvements, and by God, DNA wants it all, and wants it right now.

The property is owned by the city, but the farmers market is operated by Develop New Albany, and the lead organizer is Susan Kaempfer. “It’s our preference that we move forward with the improvements to the existing farmers market and get that done as quickly as possible so we can utilize it,” she said Tuesday.

Toward this end, Kaempfer raised the ante by threatening – gasp – to instigate political participation.

Kaempfer said the farmers market has dramatically helped downtown businesses, and added that some vendors and local business owners likely will attend next week’s council meeting to voice their support for it.

DNA and politics? That’s a can of worms seldom spotted for sale at the downtown farmers market, but of course the farmers market is all about politics, especially money, and as such, what are the limits to DNA’s role in lobbying for additional lucre to fund it?

Bear in mind that what’s at stake is DNA’s own organizational fixation with supposed limits on political participation, as defined thusly: “We can’t get involved with politics, unless we do … and then we get to decide what this means, and when, and how.”

You’ll sooner see city ordinances written in Sanskrit than glimpse any pattern to DNA’s purportedly apolitical mandate.

Anyone got a Ouija board?

Once upon a time, we begged DNA – after all, it’s our Main Street organization – to take a position on the Ohio River Bridges Project, but it begged off amid a blizzard of bureaucratese, pointing to its non-profit status as absolutely precluding political involvement of any sort.

Now we’re rightly examining options for coping with what DNA said it couldn’t be bothered to consider.

How very civic of it.

No politics for DNA … okay, except when it came to the $15 million parking garage sought by Mainland Properties as collateral to borrow money it didn’t have to build condos it couldn’t build, the entirety of a “plan” comprising an epic real estate pyramid scheme that fortunately collapsed long before the city lost its financing shirt, and all the while, DNA was openly and enthusiastically involved in the political process, in favor.

What about street grid changes as they pertain to two-way streets?

DNA quickly retreated to its non-profit institutional exclusion, and apart from polls and personal cheerleading, mostly has managed to keep its distance. However, DNA lobbied incessantly on behalf of the controversial East Main Street Improvement Project with no such qualms, perhaps owing to a far too literal interpretation of “Main Street” organization, and the fact that it was someone else’s money, anyway.

Hmm. Maybe there is a pattern, after all. If you can spot any semblance of consistency to these positions, climb atop one of the many Main Street tree stumps and scream in the general direction of Pinocchio.

On and on it goes, and where it stops … actually, where it stops should be right now, and who should stop it is Mayor Jeff Gahan and his City Hall team. It turns out that Thursday, March 20, is important for two reasons.

---

There is a city council meeting, and as we’ve seen, Kaempfer and DNA propose to erect an Elsby-sized straw man to frighten shoppers, mobilize market vendors and supporters, and emotionally insinuate that the market’s very existence is threatened by contentious intellectuals with the temerity to suggest that the market should fit in the context of an overall downtown development plan, and not the other way around.

But earlier next Thursday morning, there is a scheduled meeting of downtown stakeholders, to include DNA, NA 1st, the embryonic food and drink association, and Clean and Green (among others). The meeting has been called by the city, and it is intended as another step toward organization and unification.

That’s wonderful. I’m for it. I fully believe city office holders when they talk of their interest in rowing uniformly in a particular direction. It’s what I want, too.

But if DNA continues to insist that it occupies a special position, inside and outside simultaneously, spinning its wheel on whim, playing the role of 800-lb gorilla, picking and choosing when it deigns to be political and when it doesn’t, and as yet displaying not a jot of past organizational performance suggesting the acumen to play a leading role – enough is enough.

DNA needs clarification. Immediately. Why is it, what is it, and do we have a choice in the matter? It’s far past time for city government to function as city government should, to refrain from the good-cop, bad-cop, passive refereeing between factions, and decide once and for all what role DNA is to play, if any.

I fail to understand why Susan Kaempfer and DNA should be the ones to decide when it comes to the city mortgaging its future prospects at the corner of Bank and Market, without first exploring all the redevelopment options. The farmers market is important, but temporary by its very nature, functioning only at certain times. Meanwhile, downtown is filled with daily bricks and mortar, year-round.

To me, the latter trumps the former ... every day.

I fail to see any transparency behind the council’s appropriation of monies for the farmers market build-out, and I fail to grasp why the money must be spent immediately. Stick it in savings, and draw some interest. If the market is jam-packed in summer in its current configuration, it is successful. If a vendor leaves, won’t another come to replace it? What’s the imperative, and why the hurry? As I stated yesterday, the farmers market is city property, and it consequently "belongs" to us all. Let’s take our time, and get it right.

And, remember: Paybacks can be Hell. They need to stop. Mr. Gahan, please lance this boil.

Immediately.

Amid the garbage, we contemplate Groundhog Day in New Albany.

It's over ... almost. Yesterday downtown business owners commiserated on Twitter, welcoming a resumption of the daily working world.

It's a reminder that New Albany's version of Groundhog Day occurs in early October. When Harvest Homecoming is here, the blinders are donned with a speed hitherto unwitnessed. City Hall (any one of them, actually, dating back to the Ford Administration) emerges with trepidation into Hauss Square, is abruptly terrified that it might see its own shadow -- and then we get six more years of status quo.

Ultimately, it needs to be understood that Harvest Homecoming's yearly occupation of downtown is an issue for city government to take a public role in mediating. The festival takes place because the city allows it to take place, always under Harvest Homecoming's terms of engagement, and with what amounts to infrastructure subsidies for the festival that are not consistently applied throughout the remainder of the year (street department work , police and fire overtime, etc.)

And yet nowhere, neither in an ordinance nor on a granite tablet, is there a law that states Harvest Homecoming must occur in the fashion it does. With downtown revitalizing, each passing year brings escalating conflicts between what Harvest Homecoming requires to impose its business model on downtown, and the optimum way for downtown to function for the remainder of the year. Downtown is no longer a vacuum, and arbitration is desperately needed. City government can broker solutions any time it wishes; approval for Harvest Homecoming is at city government's discretion. But no communication is facilitated, and the rancor grows. This year it has been particularly nasty.

Independent local business operators downtown are beginning to look past the silence as it pertains specifically to Harvest Homecoming, and grasping with escalating dismay that the city's inaction is more institutional than we ever imagined. What we must begin asking is why the city in effect invests so much yearly in a temporary, imposed, alien business model dedicated primarily to extracting value for its own self-perpetuation (that's Harvest Homecoming as 800-lb gorilla), but has no systematic plan for downtown investment for the other 360 days of the year.

For those interested in no-brainer "big pictures," here is one: Given the downtown advances of the past decade, as driven by entrepreneurs, private investment and volunteers, the city of New Albany has done next to nothing to deserve its downtown revitalization. In point of fact, talk is cheap. The city has been fortunate, and perhaps now it feels as though nothing needs to be done for the bounty to continue.

I disagree. It’s time for the city to ante up and put skin in the downtown game equivalent to its “economic development” plans on the periphery, and equal to what is devoted to Harvest Homecoming's ever more fallacious argument: "We bring people downtown and showcase the city -- and that's economic development."

Exactly what the new generation of downtown business is doing, all year long. Twelve months versus four days ... let me do the math. Allowing Harvest Homecoming to continue the way it currently operates absent substantive reform is an abdication of duty on the part of the city, plain and simple.

New Albany could use a "positive spirit" enlargement pill when it comes to attitudes toward bicycling, but don't hold your breath.

Yesterday I took issue with the Luddite tendencies of the Tribune’s soccer-bashing sports editor, so it’s only fair (and balanced) that kudos are duly dispensed for outstanding achievements in local journalism. Consider this Sunday commentary by guest columnist Daniel Robison:

ROBISON: Switch gears for new future in cycling.

Lately a lot has been made of Louisville's supposed bike-friendliness. Profiles on the local news and stories in local publications have covered the topic from all angles recently, creating (to those who care) an awareness of all things Louisville bike riding. But what about southern Indiana; how does our area measure up?

As Daniel can’t help noticing, our local area “measures up” to Louisville in progressive dispensations made for bicycling just as well as it does in other measures of progressive thinking, which is to say, there is little sign of a pulse … and a toe tag is being prepared.

Interestingly, the youthful columnist goes on to make a telling point that has escaped too many other local observers, including yours truly at NAC:

One of New Albany's recent road improvement projects, Mt. Tabor Road, has been closed for months and still appears far from completion. With so much time and money invested in this mile-or-so stretch of pavement and with such repairs so few a far between, one would expect a definitive product, right?

But if there are to be bike lanes on this new road, then I must be blind. Sure, there are sidewalks and tidy gutters, but the absence of bike lanes constitutes a lost opportunity that will most likely not be corrected until the road is repaired again in decades …

… Many other cities across the nation have gotten the memo; the inclusion of bike lanes has been a part of new road construction for years in many parts of the country and across the world. Why shouldn't New Albany at least try to embrace this same positive spirit present in other communities?

That’s an excellent question, Daniel, and unfortunately it would appear that one of the very few ordinances that New Albany aggressively enforces is the one expressly outlawing “positive spirit.”

In fact, council persons running the gamut of legislative expertise from “C” (Coffey) to “P” (Price) presumably have the anti-positive spirit ordinance tattooed on their arms for quick and easy reference during those long council hours when lame-duck President Kochert permits rules of order to lapse as he doodles on the draft of his moribund smoking decree. You see, there’s public speaking time, city official speaking time, and personal agenda speaking time, with the latter being shared by the Bicknellian shadow cabinet minsters customarily found chortling on the back row.

Ah, but I digress.

Again.

It should be noted that the city’s planning arms have in fact incorporated bicycling lanes into at least some of their projections; bicycling paths are being included in the Vicky Ann Denschak Memorial Greenway; and one mayoral candidate, Doug England, has made NAC aware that he has a personal understanding of the issues involved and has considered prospects for future implementation.

Meanwhile, as GOP mayoral hopeful Randy Hubbard promises to study the meaning of the word “bicycle,” and entertains suggestions from citizens, most of whom don't ride one, it remains that the real answer is quite simple. Contrary to what many casual observers believe, the context of commuting to and from work and play by bicycle is as important as recreational cycling in these discussions, and that's because the most hopeful future revitalization plans for New Albany inside the beltway are inexorably linked with the sort of person who'd like to have the option of commuting by bike when possible. So ...

Until such a time as we see any single person is New Albany’s ruling structure – elected, appointed, political, non-partisan, religious, secular, secretarial or janitorial – riding to work on a bicycle, we’ll not see much in the way of “positive spirit” pertaining to a topic like bicycling.

And that’s because New Albany’s collective 800-lb gorilla, and the ultimate source of the psychosis that so degrades all our future prospects, is an utter failure on the part of government and citizenry alike to muster any degree of comprehension as to what is occurring in the larger world that lies outside their own exceedingly narrow comfort zones.

Consequently, it isn’t just that so many drivers don’t ride bicycles and lack any semblance of understanding of the issues explicated so clearly by Daniel Robison, it’s that they can’t even imagine doing so and moreover cannot imagine life outside the confines of an automobile – and if they can’t imagine it, then how could anyone else? It follows that those who are able to imagine it must be mistaken, defective, or both, and any person sighted on a bicycle must be either too poor to afford a car or restricted to riding a bike because of a mental illness, DUI conviction, bad personal credit or contrarian tendencies. It will be disapointing to many trognonymous opinion generators to learn that of these reasons, only the contrarian one applies to the senior editor.

One of the most telling recent examples of this startling local absence of empathy came when 3rd district councilman (and 36% solution) Price attempted to somehow make the case for a tighter grip on take-home police vehicles by explaining that he knows how it’s possible to waste gasoline, seeing as he does it himself driving around his neighborhood.

Of course, he might choose to walk the neighborhood’s sidewalks or ride a bike, and yet how often has Price or any other person working in the City County Building been spotted riding a bike or walking to work, or to meetings, or -- for once -- just for the sheer hell of it? Until a few of them do, expect more "Stasis-R-Us" – the official mindset and motto of New Albany.

But good job nonetheless, Daniel. Opening cans of worms in front of squeamish folks who’d rather not see them wiggle is an innate skill, and one that should serve you well in the future. Good luck in graduate school. Perhaps we should have a Progressive Pint or two before your departure?

Photos of bikes, biking and bike lanes in Haarlem, Netherlands were taken by the senior editor in February, 2007.

Devil's advocate: There's a big reason why a springtime festival for New Albany won't float.

In yesterday’s posting about the past weekend’s folk festival in Madison, I appended “civic cooperation” to the list of search terms. This was done so intentionally.

Madison's successful Ohio River Valley Folk Festival is a model, but ya gotta want to emulate it.

In the perky discussion that followed, several perfectly reasonable ideas were lofted, and these might be summarized as a collective interest in a springtime festival celebrating New Albany’s river connections and history, with added dimensions of unity and diversity. There was a listing of steps to take toward inaugurating such an event, and one comment (by John Alton) stood out, at least to me:

Third, you plan by example. The Harvest Homecoming is one of the most successful festivals in Indiana, and it is a perfect blueprint to follow. It gained its status through great planning, hard work and dedication. A Spring Festival that celebrates our history as a city ... and why we are even a city ... deserves no less.

True ... and not so easy.

Of course, all of us know that if there is to be another public celebration in New Albany, it isn’t going to be in late summer or fall, because that’s Harvest Homecoming’s time of the year. Have you ever wondered if Harvest Homecoming's scale actually precludes other efforts in the same vein?

Yes, there’s already a one-day 4th of July fireworks display along the waterfront. Other than that, whether for reasons of non-funding or lack of imagination on the part of the management, the riverside facilities we have are chronically, and seemingly perpetually, underutilized.

Perhaps not all readers know that for a few years prior to 2007, when it has disappeared into limbo, there was a Develop New Albany-sponsored springtime festival downtown called Da Vinci. There are many reasons why Da Vinci was an idea whose time never came, with non-funding and lack of imagination (is there a deep scratch on this LP?) being just two, although maybe it was a just one of those notions before its time.

As downtown revives, there may be another chance to attempt something that begins small, with annual growth potential.

To my mind, here’s the central question:

Is Harvest Homecoming too big for there to be another festival that might be viewed as competing for scant community resources?

Ideas we surely have, and in abundance, but money and volunteer labor are two commodities in much, much shorter supply. Currently these are directed toward Harvest Homecoming, which possesses its own internal and self-perpetuating set of rationales and objectives. For what it is, it’s a wonderful thing.

But as my councilman might say, it is what it is.

Put simply, and in terms of New Albany’s willingness and ability to fund and manage an outreach to the remainder of the world, there is neither an institutional nor a strategic counterweight to the annual pre-eminence of Harvest Homecoming

Contrast this to Madison, where it would appear that in matters of events pertaining to the imperative of providing entertainment for the citizenry while also pulling in money from visitors, there is a shared sense of purpose, pooled resources, and cohesion … and a half-dozen annual events from which to choose.

As my councilman also might say, that’s not putting all the eggs in one basket. It seems to work for Madison.

Meanwhile, New Albany has Harvest Homecoming. We appear to be content with that, so it isn’t realistic to expect short term changes.

In other words, if we're to work our side of the street as directed, we're going to have to be thinking way outside the box.

And that isn't something for which this city is celebrated.