There are at least two types of water parks in New Albany: TIF-tastic Showplaces and Inadvertent Crosswalk Meltdowns.

At Monday evening's city council meeting, at-large councilman David Aebersold (R) reported that he'd been told about photographs somewhere on-line -- he couldn't recall where -- depicting the numerous Inadvertent Crosswalk Meltdown water parks, splash pads and wading pools downtown, like this:

And this:

Funny -- I thought the gag order against mentioning NA Confidential aloud in public extended only to Democrats.

By the way, did you know that if a Democrat is caught actually reading an NAC post, the penalty is a mandatory term paper on the Wit and Wisdom of Chairman Dickey?

That's cruel and unusual punishment, folks. By the way, we reported the standing water problem several months ago -- twice. The newspaper's tally?

That'd be zero. 

June 26
City Hall unveils new street corner splash pads, with an ingenious example of the "sharing economy."

July 29
All hail New Gahanian crosswalk puddle-a-bility: Brand new asphalt, concrete and ramps, and the same old non-drainage problem.

The Board of Public Works and Safety's Mickey Thompson was on hand Monday night to explain that it's all the fault of ADA requirements for handicapped-accessible ramps, and he isn't sure what can be done to correct it.

And yet as it pertains to troubled drivers, no stone is left unturned to facilitate passage of automobiles.

Hats off to CM Aebersold for broaching the subject. Every other council person should join Aebersold in demanding a better answer than Thompson's -- or, conversely, a jackhammer.

Forget the excuses.

How does Jeff Gahan FIX the problem?

Croissants d'BBQ Bologna: Dan Coffey says that restaurants are taking up the sidewalk and his compatriots damn well better do something about it.

There will be a city council meeting tonight. If I can remain sober today, I might attend it.

But first, at the July 20 city council meeting, the king of barbecued bologna -- the Wizard of Westendia, and the Shunner of Tulip Tiptoeing -- indulged his penchant for diversionary innuendo.

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.

As we've pointed out numerous times before, city government itself has no mission statement or internal policy pertaining to prioritization of mobility, and City Hall needs to begin by policing itself in this regard.

The vast majority of abuses occur at the hands of the city's chosen contractors, indifferent utility monopoly slackers, and unfortunately the city's own Street Department. Neither Jeff Gahan nor the Board of Public Works and Safety has made an effort to embrace modernity.

To repeat: it's merely procedural.

The city must develop good habits, and to develop them, the city must acknowledge it has a problem. A good start would be reading the bimonthly council agenda. At the bottom, there is a promise of assistance from the city clerk to disabled council meeting attendees who are in need of it.

Shouldn't the city's own workers, contractors and utility monopolies adhere to the same promise?

It starts with BoW's rote interrogations. Instead of this:

"How will (a proposal) affect parking/traffic/cars?"

The board first should ask this:

"How will (a proposal) affect handicapped users without cars?"

Infrastructure decisions routinely are rendered in the absence of forethought as to their effect on persons with disabilities. These tiny bits of effort will have little if any ultimate effect on the Holy Writ of Autocentrism, as worshipped by City Hall. However, these instances will immeasurably assist the disabled in getting back and forth.

Consequently, it is laughable for Coffey to continue pointing his dull reaper's finger at downtown business violators when there are far larger fish to fry. Furthermore, it's a safe bet that these scattered and inconsequential instances of eatery transgression are occurring not in Coffey's 1st district, but Greg Phipps' 3rd, which embraces the epicenter of downtown east of State Street.

And so we've learned to ask the question: What's Coffey after this time? I guess we'll find out after Adam Dickey hands the envelope du jour to Coffey on a gilded Democratic Party platter.

Tonight's agenda follows. After writing the preceding spiel, that half-full bottle of gin over in the corner is starting to look very much like lunch.

All hail New Gahanian crosswalk puddle-a-bility: Brand new asphalt, concrete and ramps, and the same old non-drainage problem.

And the road goes on forever ...

ASK THE BORED: Mayor Jeff M. Gahan presents BOW presenting exciting new vistas in sidewalk blockage.

City Hall unveils new street corner splash pads, with an ingenious example of the "sharing economy."

Last Friday it was revealed that just in time for the return of scorching weather, Jeff Gahan's bracingly futuristic Downtown Grid Modernization Project includes dozens of new splash pad installations.

Gahan's innovative Splash Pad Egress Reuse Program installations are located directly adjacent to ADA accessibility ramps (see photos below).

As a City Hall Source told the Green Mouse, "Why not use the ADA ramps for standing water? It isn't like we have disabled people in New Albany, and even if we do, they can just be shipped out to the tent camps in Greenville along with the public housing residents."

Nevertheless, NA Confidential has learned that Gahan has proposed a characteristically bold solution to safety concerns arising from drowning. Other cities have bike shares, but New Albany will be the first American city with ...

#OurNA ... where hashtags and satire go to be completely overwhelmed by the prevailing politics of insipid.

Uncanny, aren't they?

ASK THE BORED: Mayor Jeff M. Gahan presents BOW presenting exciting new vistas in sidewalk blockage.

The ever-popular "Autocentrism Always Trumps Handicap Ramp Access."

Here's a creative new twist: Splash pads by the ADA ramps.

Of course, when semis are allowed to park on the sidewalk, what can a guy say?

Would it be a redundancy to ask whether anyone at the Bored is awake?

ASK THE BORED: If the ramps were wrong, why aren't you making a slapdash contractor pay to redo them?

I'm not sorry at all that I missed the following disjointed ADA ramp replacement chat at last week's Bored of Works meeting.

BOW chairman Warren Nash listened as Wes "Usual Engineer" Christmas updated the board about ongoing ramp replacements downtown, apparently tied to last year's paving-to-campaign-finance funding effort, but now necessitated by stringent federal standards prior to the implementation of the bastardization of the Speck two-way street plan.

Nash was unable to ask clearly if these new ramps had only recently been redone. Rather, he said that there had been "some talk" of them being only recently redone.

Christmas parried with a predictable "not sure," but feinted in the crowd-pleasing direction of blaming the utility monopolies.

City engineer Larry Summers quickly deflected potential pointed fingers by testifying to the unvarying veracity of the ramp slant inventory.

Then Nash got a bit more specific: Now he understands that some of the ramps were replaced only 2-3 years ago, so why would they need to be replaced again?

Summers and Christmas agreed that no matter when the ramps were last replaced, they must be replaced again, because that's the way things work when you're sucking campaign finance garnish from the feds.

The conversation ended there. Now, dear reader, can you formulate the questions you'd ask if you'd been in the room last week, and were allowed to query?

Something like this to start ...

"YOU ARE THE CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD, AND HAVE BEEN FOR FIVE YEARS, AND NOTHING LIKE THESE RAMPS IS ALLOWED TO HAPPEN WITHOUT THE BOARD'S APPROVAL, SO RATHER THAN ASK BEFUDDLED QUESTIONS ABOUT WHEN AND HOW IT HAPPENED, DO YOU THINK JUST MAYBE YOU MIGHT LOOK BACK INTO YOUR OWN BOARD'S RECORDS AND FIND THE ANSWER?

And then the follow-up ...

"BECAUSE, IF UTILITY CONTRACTORS DID THE RAMPS WRONG, OR IF PAVING CONTRACTORS DID THEM WRONG, THEN SHOULDN'T THESE CONTRACTORS BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT THEY BOTCHED?" 

The latter is the question most ordinary people would ask, and we have no answer for it. There'll be another weekly BOW meeting today. Rinse, and repeat.

ASK THE BORED: Had NA Confidential not asked, it's unlikely City Hall would have answered, so "Initial Work on Grid Modernization Begins."

Hell, it took NAC two weeks to ask, but at least we got around to it on the 24th.

ASK THE BORED: BOW directs handicapped sidewalk users into traffic lanes as downtown corner ramp replacements make a mockery of safety, but bolster campaign finance slush. Also, downtown RR crossing expenses.

None of this has to do with functionality, service to citizens, or even basic competence. It's purely a financial transfer scheme and Team Gahan is making the previous two mayors look like rank amateurs.

It shouldn't come as a surprise that someone had to prod before City Hall felt the need to answer. In New Albany, "proactive" means that 5% of the 80% tithed by the federal government has been safely installed in its comfortable new Cayman Islands home. After this cardinal rule is obeyed, coin flips are sufficient for future information dissemination.

And so they answered with a sleek press release on the 27th. It's called "cause and effect." Of course, it might have been better for City Hall to explain what was happening when the blasting caps first began igniting, but ... see the definition of "proactive" above.

Initial Work on Grid Modernization Begins

Initial work on the Grid Modernization Project, which will transform New Albany’s downtown grid from a 1-way traffic system to 2-way streets, has begun.

Two initial steps have been taken to start the process:

1. All non-American with Disabilities Act compliant ramps in the downtown grid system are currently being updated to provide connectivity and access for all that use our downtown sidewalks.

Working from an inventory that was recently completed by local engineering firm Jacobi, Toombs, & Lanz, Inc., crews have been working since early January on bringing these important infrastructure items up to code. While the largest number of updated ramps are mostly limited to Spring, Market, and Elm streets, side streets with non-compliant ramps are being updated as well. This initial work is expected to be completed by the end of February.

2. Bumpouts on the north side of Market Street are being reconfigured beginning Monday, January 30th.

The bumpouts along the north side of Market Street are being reconfigured in preparation of 2-way traffic along Market Street. By having these bumpouts re-aligned, the city will be able to retain the same number of parking spaces along this corridor when the conversion to 2-way streets is made. During the construction, an estimated 6 parking spaces will be unavailable until the full conversion is made. However, once the 2-way street conversion is complete, all current parking spaces are expected to return.

Future schedule for the Grid Modernization Project

Milling and paving of the downtown grid will begin shortly after asphalt plants reopen in Spring 2017. The project will then begin the installation of a new signalization system, along with accessible pedestrian facilities at each signalized crossings. The contractual completion date for the entire 2-way conversion is September 30, 2017.

If 2017 really is to be the year when the Downtown Grid Modernization Project transitions from the mere rumor of a long overdue, messy compromise of a typically botched Gahanesque half-ass measure, to these adulterated facets actually appearing in real life, then City Hall's favored minions at HWC Engineering, now safely ensconced in the same building as the sewer utility, making those dreamy stuffed satchel transfers easier than ever before -- though it isn't clear which way the largess is traveling -- should have long since moved past the stage of ensuring campaign finance rivulets flowing downhill like raging storm water from Summit Springs, straight into the mayor's splendid State Senate coffers, and started the task of rendering our splendid Speck into adulterated sausage.

So they have. By September 30, we'll see just how badly they've botched it.

ASK THE BORED: BOW directs handicapped sidewalk users into traffic lanes as downtown corner ramp replacements make a mockery of safety, but bolster campaign finance slush. Also, downtown RR crossing expenses.

If 2017 really is to be the year when the Downtown Grid Modernization Project transitions from the mere rumor of a long overdue, messy compromise of a typically botched Gahanesque half-ass measure, to these adulterated facets actually appearing in real life, then City Hall's favored minions at HWC Engineering, now safely ensconced in the same building as the sewer utility, making those dreamy stuffed satchel transfers easier than ever before -- though it isn't clear which way the largess is traveling -- should have long since moved past the stage of ensuring campaign finance rivulets flowing downhill like raging storm water from Summit Springs, straight into the mayor's aspirational State Senate coffers, and started the task of rendering our splendid Speck into adulterated sausage.

And then there's the ongoing "crosswalk corner concrete" demolition project, surely blocking your walk somewhere downtown.

As an aside, has there ever been a greater number of illegal street spam signs than Holy Family's current crop? Do Catholics have to follow the rules, too, or does the Sultan of TIF sell indulgences? 

On Facebook there was a substantive discussion about these lovely new corners, the likes of which seldom is permitted to break out at a Board of Works meeting, because lest we forget, the purpose of this and other appointed boards is containment, not illumination.

Bluegill leads things off with pesky facts.

1. The City of New Albany is tearing out and replacing handicap sidewalk ramps they poured new just a few years ago. There's no telling how many tens/hundreds of thousands of dollars we're needlessly spending. This is the second time in a few years that perfectly good sidewalk in front of our house has been torn out and replaced while the sidewalk on the side requires mowing and careful attention while parking to avoid tire damage. 

2. The excavation crew is way far ahead of the forming and pouring crew, but is doing both sides of the street so the sidewalk on both sides has been and will be completely closed to everyone, let alone anyone in a wheelchair, for days on end. Ridiculously bad (lack of) forethought and planning. 

3. The contracted company broke the small retaining wall in front of our house again. 

4. The entirety of city staff responsible for this sort of ongoing crap should've been fired a long time ago.

I added:

Also note that while baseball Hall of Famer Jim Rice, the HWC Engineering flak, told me that future traffic studies could be made to determine the eligibility of certain intersections for crosswalks, but only AFTER the two-way conversion was finished, now the ramps have been poured again prior to the retrofitting, matching those that were there before. So, it we're actually able to move leaden city planner and engineering asses forward, toward adding badly needed crosswalks, the ADA ramps won't match, and guess what -- they'll have to be redone yet again.

Bluegill replied:

Hell, the crosswalks and ramps we have now often don't match up or match each other, sometimes unnecessarily differing from corner to corner or from one side of a street to the other. And they're repouring them that way as we speak.

RC wrote:

I sure wish they would replace the really crappy sidewalk along our house, which has also needed mowing in the 11 years we've lived here.

Bluegill:

As I mentioned, none of this has to do with functionality, service to citizens, or even basic competence. It's purely a financial transfer scheme and Team Gahan is making the previous two mayors look like rank amateurs.

Speaking of which, in case you were wondering just how much the railroad crossing component of the two-street changeover was going to cost ... and bearing in mind the number of times in the past that luminaries like John Rosenbarger were overheard tsk-tsking the extreme expense of two-way streets owing to the railroad ... here it is: Two Progressive Pints shy of $203,000, or half of what Team Gahan subsidized Flaherty & Collins in sewer tap-in waivers to drag the Louisville skyline three miles closer to the saltwater pool on Spring.

Here are CSX-cerpts, and don't forget to nationalize the railroads.

Do the work crews do this on purpose?

Wednesday, corner of 13th and Spring. That's not very much notice, and there's no crosswalk across Spring, where the traffic is uncontrolled, and therefore the city can do nothing except continuing ... to do nothing.

At first I thought we were beginning the 13th Street "Go Away Tiger Trucks" Road Diet.

Tiger Truck Lines and 13th Street: Isn't it time for the spoiled brat to get a good spanking?

Alas, disappointed again; just another impediment for walkers, although there are several churches in the vicinity that might benefit from shiny new spires.

Here's an idea: "Disabled New Yorkers Sue for Safer Streets."

It's about a federal class-action lawsuit filed in 2014 against the city of New York, "suing the city for violating the federal Americans with Disabilities Act."

The most recent link comes first (December 8, 2015):

Center for Independence of the Disabled New York (CIDNY), et al. v. City of New York, et al.

In June 2015, a federal district judge denied New York City’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit. This important development will allow persons with mobility and vision disabilities to be heard in court on the matter of safe access to curb cuts and pedestrian routes.

The broader explanation comes next (July 30, 2014):

Disabled New Yorkers Sue for Safer Streets, by Brigid Bergin (WNYC News)

When Myrna Driffin walks down the street, she negotiates her way through crowds of people more focused on their smartphones than they are on her.

“I wonder who’s the blind one then, let’s put it that way,” Driffin jokes.

The 57-year-old was diagnosed with acute congenital glaucoma when she was two and lost her vision completely by the time she went to college. She lives on 23rd Street in Manhattan and walks home from an internship at the Center for Independence of the Disabled near Union Square. Her guide dog Polly, a gentle golden retriever-Labrador mix, walks on her left side.

But maneuvering city sidewalks and across intersections poses an ongoing risk. Even with Polly, Driffin said there are times when she’s walked straight into traffic.

“People either holler, ‘Miss, miss, you’re in the road’ or else I hear them beeping at me,” said Driffin. “That’s real scary.”

Driffin is one of two named plaintiffs in a federal class-action lawsuit filed in United States District Court on Wednesday, suing the city for violating the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, which celebrated its 24th anniversary last week. Advocates argue too many city sidewalks lack proper curb cuts and are not accessible to people with disabilities.

Mayor Bill de Blasio has made pedestrian safety a top priority of his Vision Zero transportation plan, but the suit argues the city has not done enough to make sure the streets are safe for all New Yorkers, of all abilities.

We've heard of stripper poles, but this sidewalk pole is a marvel of genuine INDOT innovation.

NA Confidential tends to restrict its gaze to New Albany, but when the Green Mouse received this photograph from a Georgetown resident, it seemed too weirdly instructive to ignore. The submission is appreciated.

It is at the corner of Walts Road. INDOT is paving the highway through Georgetown. Under Title 5 they have to put in ramps. Georgetown has nothing to do with (the pole). It is all on INDOT. My guess is if they can get away with this they will, hoping that when all said and done Georgetown will have to go to the expense to get it moved.

Goodness gracious, even John Rosenbarger hasn't commissioned anything this bizarre. INDOT can be inspiration, all right, as in this recent New Albany episode.

City engineer Larry Summers and INDOT explain why there is no crosswalk at Main and W. 1st Streets (1 of 2).

It reminds me of the old saying in the USSR during Stalin's rule:

"Engineers -- can't live with 'em, but there's always Siberia."

There. I fixed THIS blocked sidewalk. Now it's the city's job to get the cars off that OTHER blocked sidewalk.

It was easy.

Why'd they block it in the first place?

We measure in inches: ADA sidewalk requirements are crucial, unless we don't bother enforcing them.

Board of Public Works and Safety, 03-29-16.

As a preface to what follows, see the photo above. Parking on the sidewalk on this one block is an everyday occurrence, and has been for years. Not weeks or months, years.

Now, read about the critical importance of ADA access requirements.

To Feast's credit, restaurant staff comes to the Bored of Works and Frivolity seeking permission to have outdoor seating. City engineer Summers offers a stern lecture about width of passage. The request is approved. Meanwhile, four blocks away ...

Another downtown merchant takes the initiative to come before the Bored, this time with reference to a sign. Once again, Summers specifies requirements to the inch.

Approval is granted. Meanwhile, four blocks away ...

Hell, over on Cherry Street, where Jeff Gahan's phantom street "calming" measures are about as well known as the Bulgarian Women's Choir  songbook, we're actually issuing tickets for cars parking on the sidewalk in self-defense.

Meanwhile, over on 3rd Street ...

Dude: Does Charles Jones have the nude photos hidden somewhere, or what?

ON THE AVENUES: They're surely not ROLL models.

ON THE AVENUES: They're surely not ROLL models. 

A weekly column by Roger A. Baylor.

Often I write about walking, so it may come as a surprise to some that while my aim remains to find ways of alternative transportation when it comes to shifting this bulk from place to place, ultimately I’m bound by auto-centrism just as much as the next surly curmudgeon.

It is a fact, and I thoroughly detest it. Cars don’t define my humanity; they constrain and warp it. I firmly believe that future generations will look back and ask: “What were they thinking?”

The answer is easy. We weren’t.

Earlier this week I was driving my mother back to her apartment at Silvercrest from an appointment. Nearing the eastbound I-64 ramp from I-265 W, the rear view mirror displayed a very fast-moving red pickup truck, closing rapidly at the very moment I was deaccelerating for the on-ramp.

Interstate on-ramps generally compel a driver to merge to the left, into the lane with ostensibly slower traffic. This isn’t the case at the I-64 E ramp from I-265 W. One must merge to the right, joining faster traffic as it thunders from the highlands down the “cut” toward the bridge.

For those planning to exit at New Albany, as was my intent, it requires first merging into the fastest lane, then cutting across traffic through the center lane, all the way to the right.

The red pickup already was tailgating me as we came down the sloping grade. There was daylight to the west in both left and center lanes, and as soon as I could, I merged and began easing toward the center lane, one eye on the rear view mirror, where the way would have been clear – except the red pickup jerked hard to the right, trying to make it past me in the center lane.

But I was already there, and the far right lane had a semi rig in it. The pickup’s driver slammed the breaks, veered left, and rushed around me in a flash. I had barely enough time to see two noteworthy objects: A blue municipal license plate, and a Floyd County Highway Department insignia on the passenger door.

Within seconds, the pickup easily topped 80 mph, racing toward the New Albany exit. I gave my horse the whip, but a Ford Fusion has only so much energy to give; besides, my mother was in the car with me. No rage at all, ma'am, and there simply wasn’t any chance to get close enough to record the license plate number.

County government’s red pickup truck kept going gangbusters down the ramp, rolled quickly through the stop sign on Spring Street, and instead of turning left on Market – surely the driver's speed and recklessness indicated an urgent need to get to the emergency room – it proceeded straight, toward Main.

Perhaps it was a Chick fil-A delivery to the Pine View Government Center?

---

At last Thursday’s city council meeting, according to these minutes, at-large councilman Al Knable briefly quizzed street department chief Mickey Thompson.

Dr. Knable stated that he met with a constituent at his request and walked the Coyle site and they had some concerns about ADA and some of the sidewalks not being wheelchair accessible. He said that with the construction going on the south side of Spring Street, he didn’t know if the corner project at 5th Street could be accelerated so that some ramps could be put in. He added that right now there is no continuous way for someone on a rascal or wheelchair to go east to west or vice versa. He thought maybe our attorney and the builder’s attorney could look at it to make sure we are in compliance.

Mr. Thompson stated that he could look into it.

Note that Mr. Thompson sits on New Albany's somnolent Board of Works, which has met roughly eight times since the access issue first was reported on November 29 at NA Confidential. We've been waiting on the newspaper to notice the Coyle site sidewalk failure. Unfortunately, it's been down a reporter for the NA beat,

Since September. But I digress.

(Mr. Thompson) also stated he told them that they could put up their fence but they had to keep one side open so if they closed the sidewalk on one side, the other side had to be accessible. He added that we also have the sidewalk project going on at 5th Street so that may have caused the problem.

Dr. Knable stated that there are a couple of areas where the ramps are accessible but there’s clearly one gap about midway through the site that you can’t get through.

Mr. Thompson stated that he is in contact with the manager of the project so he can get with him and look at it.

Dr. Knable recommended that it be treated like if it were downtown Indianapolis and everything done with wayfaring signs and access.

Kudos to the councilman for mentioning Indianapolis, where efforts are made in the vast majority of cases to clearly delineate interruptions to sidewalk access, under the presumption that even if city officials don't see a problem during their trips back and forth by car, sidewalk users nonetheless exist -- and some of them are handicapped.

Let's be clear. It is the city of New Albany’s responsibility to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), but in this instance, those city officials who might reasonably be expected to ensure compliance meekly stepped aside, fingers crossed, and turned matters over to a contractor – and we're to believe that not a soul noticed when the handicapped ramps were blocked by temporary fencing.

If none of them noticed, and I suspect they did, it wouldn't be surprising. If institutional walkability consciousness can be measured in negative numbers, that's where you'll find Team Gahan's marks: Less than zero.

Two blocks away from the Break Wind construction site, on the east side of 3rd Street between Main and Market, the sidewalk has been blocked for years by cars allowed to park atop it.

Nothing is said, nothing is done.

The same has been true for months on the southeastern corner of 15th and Spring, where automobiles parked at the business there routinely block the public's right of way, forcing rascals and wheelchairs to detour on the street itself.

Nothing is said, nothing is done.

When it snows, municipal and private contractors alike push mounds of snow away from precious parking places, squarely into the path of pedestrians.

Nothing is said ... that's right: And nothing is done.

---

Did I mention the city’s obligation to comply with the ADA?

Perhaps the able-bodied are the only ones who matter in our brave new Gahanian pretend-world, where voters drive cars, and wheelchair users have only themselves to blame when their ramps disappear. It's as much of a human rights issue as any other, but I'll be surprised if there is any mention of it at the quarterly meeting of Southern Indiana Equality later tonight.

There are points to be made here, both great and small, though I’ll confine myself to just one.

Is it really asking too much to expect local government employees, and by extension local government itself, to serve as examples of the importance of enforcing law, rather than ease in evading it?

---

Recent columns:

January 21: ON THE AVENUES: When I grow up, I'd like to be alive.

January 14: ON THE AVENUES: Should the Queen fail to rescue us, there's always H. L. Mencken.

January 7: ON THE AVENUES: You know, that time when Roger interviewed himself.

December 31: ON THE AVENUES: My 2015 in books and reading.

December 24: ON THE AVENUES: Fairytale of New Albania (2015 mashup).

Two weekend posts about Team Gahan's arrogant auto-centrism.

In case you missed these to posts over the weekend ...

"I've devoted my life as a social worker to people with developmental disabilities, and can't even walk with them in NA if they are in a wheelchair or have gait issues."

In New Albany's case, I'd recommend that every elected official and appointed department chief be placed in a wheelchair, and required to spend a day attempting to navigate city streets. It might finally impel comprehension, though it's doubtful.

The inequality of sidewalks? It goes much further than this in New Albany.

Of course, at the Break Wind Lofts at Duggins Flats building site itself, wheelchair access has been disrupted on all sides for an entire city block, without any wayfinding signage, and without a protected pedestrian lane along Spring and Elm, although both streets are one-way, and generally unsafe for walkers to cross in the almost complete absence of crosswalks.

ADA compliance in New Albany? You can hear the guffaws at the Roadhouse.

"I've devoted my life as a social worker to people with developmental disabilities, and can't even walk with them in NA if they are in a wheelchair or have gait issues."

Yesterday ...

The inequality of sidewalks? It goes much further than this in New Albany.

Today ...

The article linked below concludes with this sentence: "A lot of the problems can be solved by doing something no computer can: just walking around."

In New Albany's case, I'd recommend that every elected official and appointed department chief be placed in a wheelchair, and required to spend a day attempting to navigate city streets. It might finally impel comprehension, though it's doubtful.

By the way, the quote on the meme above comes from a real social worker, who has been there and done that.

Here's the article, followed by views of New Albany's eternal and maddening inconsistencies.

You Can't Achieve Vision Zero If Pedestrians Don't Come First, by Eric Jaffe (City Lab)

From the article.

 ... The sign asks pedestrians to use the sidewalk across the street. That seems innocuous enough at a glance, but in practice what it’s doing is either pushing people into the middle of the street, where they’ll be in closer contact with moving traffic, or generally disrupting their route and making it less pleasant to walk. It chooses this approach rather than establishing a temporary walkway on the same side of the street—even if that means inconveniencing cars by reducing lane width or (gasp!) removing curb parking on the opposite side.

A policy that truly prioritized vulnerable street users would do something along the lines of what Seattle recently did—making sidewalk closures an absolute “last resort.”

Our sidewalk work: Why a warning sign here, on 5th Street ...

 ... but not here ...

 ... or here?

Finally, as we've pointed out more than once, handicapped sidewalk travelers have been bumped entirely from the Break Wind block. Their alternative? Cross the street without a crosswalk, and with nothing to slow the one-way traffic, or go out into the parking lanes.

Jeff Gahan's crack team of suburbanites just plain doesn't get it, eh?