Gahan's toxic Colonial Manor farce is reason enough to vote against him.

It's endlessly fascinating to watch peak, self-interested Gahanism in action.

Gahanism is about power, money and control; all ideas must emanate from the same centralized source deep inside the Genius of the Floodplain's cranium, although it bears repeating (again and again) that if absolute power really does corrupt absolutely, you'd have to go to Belarus or Pyongyang to find a better example of it than right here in Anchored Down City.

Collated instances of our municipal #CultureOfCorruption would fill a War and Peace-sized volume, but there's no better example than this year's Colonial Manor episode.

ON THE AVENUES: Amid Deaf Gahan's "victory" over grassroots activists at Colonial Manor, the toxic paranoia is no less rancid.

Suffice to say that in 2019, when Team #MyNA Gahan belatedly learned there was a grassroots neighborhood initiative underway, the ruling clique reacted to this thoughtful, well-conceived and firmly non-partisan effort by sending Warren Nash in riot gear running through inhumanely heated and cooled City Hall corridors screaming "EBOLA! We're all gonna DIE!"

And so the Redevelopment Commission's upper echelon of fixers went into late-night hyperspace. Boilerplate plans from a campaign donor firm quickly were cobbled together, a public comment session with no public comment allowed was held, the battered TIF piggy bank was shaken down to its hooves, and voila -- here's the official plan, straight from the unprecedented mind of Dear Leader, ready to be rubber-stamped just in time for the primary election.

City council wasn't buying the offal.

Council rejects Gahan's, Redevelopment's Colonial Manor tax increment financing lollapalooza by a 5-4 vote. Alterations to come?

Given that the Redevelopment Commission is regarded by Jeff Gahan as his personal plaything, and the Colonial Manor purchase with the TIF One Platinum card plainly was intended as a rushed feather in Dear Leader's re-election bonnet, things now get interesting.

It was yet another example of a phenomenon described with typical clarity by NAC's junior editor, Jeff Gillenwater.

Gahan isn’t remotely interested in input. His personal insecurity, control issues, and need to generate campaign kickbacks from the contractors involved keep any sort of real input from ever happening. Citizens get expensive, poorly conceived and executed projects and Gahan gets a flood of tax dollars into his campaign coffers. It’s a worst case scenario, repeated frequently enough to be the hallmark of his tenure as mayor. New Albanians two generations from now will still be paying for his ego trip.

If you haven't yet exercised your right to vote, then I suggest you vote against Jeff Gahan by voting for Mark Seabrook. New Albany needs a break from the cartoonish buffoonery of Big Daddy G's megalomania. Let's just let Gahan haul away his $100k in leftover special interest campaign finance donations (but not without first paying taxes on it, mind you), exit the down-low bunker and accept his next powder-puff position as a political consultant -- or would HWC even consider hiring an ex-provider?

Three reminders:

Election 2019: The buying and selling of a city, or our updated master list of 73 Gahan wheel-greasers, a veritable pornographic potpourri of pay-to-play.

These 30 free-spending special interest donors top Jeff Gahan's 2019 pay-to-play campaign finance windfall of $150,000 (so far).

CFA-4 Follies: OMG, just look at Gahan's huge pile of special interest donor cash flowing to out-of-towners.

Momma recommends Chicago City Pizza, coming soon to 2601 Charlestown Road.

A reader writes:

"I noticed a new pizza place scheduled to open on Charlestown Road next to the BP across the street from where the old Kroger used to be. Didn't know if you had any info or were planning a post about it?"

I know very little, but the following social media posts may help make things clearer. It's to be called Chicago City Pizza at 2601 Charlestown Road across from Colonial Manor.

I drove past today and as our reader observed, there was a sign in the window reading "coming September" or some such. Here's the back story (of sorts):

Momma's Pizza in Jeffersonville closed in late June, evidently owing to health problems suffered by the restaurant's namesake. It isn't entirely clearly whether Chicago City Pizza is entirely new ownership at a new location in New Albany, or a member of the same family that owned Momma's Pizza, and in the end this isn't particularly relevant, which is why I'll never be hired by Business First.

Just know that if you were a fan of Momma's, Chicago City Pizza might be worth checking into once they're up and running -- and, the eatery's advent is a good thing for the area around Colonial Manor.

"If it wasn't an election year it would have passed 9-0 ... this opportunity is gone." Anyone got a Kleenex?

"It's all private property."

Yes, Deaffrey ... it is private property, and YOU can do anything you want with it.

Texas anti-masturbation bill moves closer to becoming law, by Adam Lusher (Independent)

Under the Man’s Right to Know Act, Texan men would be fined $100 for every 'unregulated masturbatory emission' - although they may be reassured to learn this is a satirical bill highlighting how women have been targeted by anti-abortion laws.

A bill that would see Texas men fined $100 (£82) for masturbating has taken a step closer to becoming law after it received its first reading in the state’s House of Representatives.

Under section 173.010 of House Bill 4260, the Man’s Right to Know Act, Texas men would only be allowed to masturbate under supervision, inside approved health care and medical facilities ...

Looks like it's time for Adam to have that father-to-son chat with Deafferson.

Wait -- what was that?

The article's from 2017 and it isn't even about Colonial Manor?

My bad. Thanks to J for directing me to the real piece of belated local journalism.

Back to 'square one' for Colonial Manor redevelopment in New Albany

City officials still consider area a priority

"If it wasn't an election year it would have passed 9-0," New Albany Mayor Jeff Gahan said. "The council's vote killed this opportunity. This opportunity is gone ... the council's no vote killed the deal ... a corridor study about what? It's all private property ... it was decided to move forward and buy the property ... we missed our chance to revitalize Colonial Manor. Nothing is scheduled to happen at this time. It's a disappointment."

Gahan's Colonial Manor solution?

Fact is, redevelopment's fix was a hurried election-year political ploy from the start, but as we've noted previously, politics is a bauble for Gahan alone. No one else can be allowed to play with his ... er, toys.

 Our mayor's quite the crybaby when he doesn't clutch get his own way, isn't he?

In truth, Team Gahan's politically-motivated ineptitude produced its Colonial Manor fiasco -- but neighborhood activists continue "moving forward."

We've established that Team Gahan is prone to being scandalously "butthurt" (as the kids like to say) whenever it is challenged with facts, as when city council finally asserted itself to the exclusion of secretive backroom redevelopment fixes like the one proposed at Colonial Manor.

Council rejects Gahan's, Redevelopment's Colonial Manor tax increment financing lollapalooza by a 5-4 vote. Alterations to come?

One major reversal in eight years, and they're emptying the lockers of rubber truncheons and doing that Goebbels jig.

As usual, the truth lies elsewhere.

Let's focus on Jeff Gahan's breathtakingly brazen string of fake facts and outright lies about Colonial Manor.

If one takes the time to unravel Team Gahan's ongoing Colonial Manor narrative, it is filled with imprecise cutting, sloppy pasting and inept choreography. In short, City Hall whiffed on three pitches. Yesterday councilman and mayoral aspirant (Independent) Dan Coffey brought us up to date.

I learned Wednesday that the offer from the Redevelopment Commission to purchase the Colonial Shopping Center is no longer an option. I was told there was a short time for the city to comply with the offer and could not do so with the conditions set forth by the council. Too many questions about this project went unanswered and the public's need to know didn't seem to be considered. Congratulations to the people who stood firm and wouldn't allow this project to happen without your input. Democracy still works if given the chance!

Josh Turner, the GOP's candidate for New Albany's 5th district council and a grassroots organizer seeking a future for Colonial Manor, agreed and replied to Coffey with an excellent point.

Just think, if this wasn’t over appraisal it would already be purchased and five people at Redevelopment would have complete control over the property.

Because the forever smug Team Gahan's "process" at Colonial Manor was strictly reactive, with election year political imperatives hastily brought to fruition in order to check the mortal threat of citizen participation, Redevelopment's proposed purchase price for the Colonial Manor property was higher then the appraisals, legally necessitating the council vote.

As Turner points out, had City Hall taken the time to finesse the price, Redevelopment already would be planning the mixed use development with its chosen no-bid, professionally contracted architects, engineers and consultants, all of whom are eager to tithe to the closed circle of pay-to-play patronage.

Gahan's first quarter CFA-4 has been filed, and it's another massive, quivering edifice of pay-to-play cash.

The most interesting thing about this Gahanesque fiasco has been the least documented. Redevelopment director Staten conceded that the city had sought the assistance of private sector developer Chad Sprigler, whose family owns apartments nearby on Slate Run Road, in order to "negotiate" with Colonial Manor's owners -- to speak their language.

This is weird even by David Duggins' tortuous standards of illogic. I asked an insider to comment.

Why use an apartment builder to negotiate a commercial lot for the city? They are under-qualified to do this because it is not their core strength. Sprigler must have been paid a fee for doing so. Moreover, how does this connect the dots to the Spriglers' deal at Cross Creek apartments on Green Valley? The Spriglers couldn't handle the expense of necessary repairs, and so the city bailed them out (at a loss to the Spriglers) via the New Albany Housing Authority. Now NAHA will spend $4 million to make them into voucher housing. Of course Sprigler took a tax deduction for the loss, and now they're doing the city's job at Colonial Manor. I've yet to see Gahan botch one as badly as Colonial Manor, but that's political desperation for you.

With Team Gahan pouting and churlish, we look to community organizer Kathy Copas for a nugget of genuine interest amid Redevelopment's smoldering wreckage. Take careful note of the significance. Without any "help" from the city, ground level networking has independent small businesses talking to Kathy and each other, providing a glimpse of what can happen at the grassroots prior to top-down, politically-motivated TIF solutions.

When politicians like Gahan seek mistakenly to take credit for things like the concentration of food and drink establishments downtown, the best route to dismiss the chugging of Kool-Aid is to think about the way entrepreneurs and investors actually make decisions: on the ground, talking to others like them, applying shoe leather to walking and networking -- precisely the way Kathy recounts her discussions with business owners.

This is the way sustainable critical mass comes about. Team Gahan can't grasp it because not one of the mayor's closest associates ever owned a small indie business. In truth, they haven't got a clue about the way small indie businesses really work.

Take it away, Kathy.

Hundreds more have now watched the video of last week's Colonial Manor Listening Session and many have joined with the rest of us in continuing to think, dream, and strategize around how we can all do more to give Colonial Manor a real future and a hope.

As we contemplate further actions by our city officials, one especially interesting and exciting thing has been consistently bubbling up, this time from a number of our community's existing small business owners. Several of them have emerged and said something along the lines of---"Well, my little business already offers that in another part of town. If people want that for Colonial Manor, and we had some help and support, we would love to expand to Colonial Manor, too!"

Wow. Does anyone else find that as full of incredible possibilities as we do? What else have you seen, heard, or been thinking about since we gathered? Let's keep the listening and conversation going! #colonialmanorrising

Marohn: "The core cognitive dissonance in our affordable housing conversation."

A short and insightful piece follows, in which Charles Marohn doesn't pretend to have all the answers.

As with many housing issues, I don’t have a clear three-step plan to make everything work for everyone. Similar to the latest college admissions scandal, it seems that at least part of the conversation needs to acknowledge that even if we truly believe in some vision for an ideal society—whether that includes ample affordable housing or fair college admissions standards or something else entirely—when it comes down to it, our vision for our personal happiness is often at odds with our theoretical utopia. Put another way, individually, we have a vested interest in one approach (rising prices and growth), but collectively, we express an interest in the opposite (broader affordability and housing stability).

In conclusion ...

If we first make that acknowledgement, we can start to discuss a transition between a housing market dominated by our current distorted craziness and one that is more responsive to human needs.

Making this or any other acknowledgement as a preface to a genuine discussion?

Whether it's about affordable housing, streets and roads or virtually any other civic topic in New Albany, City Hall typically doesn't do public acknowedgements, and accordingly, real public discussions seldom occur. We're not having these discussions because they are at odds with the secretive goals of the city's administration.

Perhaps this explains the 800-lb gorilla perched on the dresser during recent chats about the future redevelopment of Colonial Manor.

Noting that I'm very much in favor of the grassroots effort to define a future for the property, and also that the organizers of this effort have done incredible work in standing against the usual Jeff Gahan "fix is in" approach to public "input," there has been some dissonance involved quite beyond City Hall's childish petulance at not having its way.

Specifically, neighborhood activists have openly dismissed any notion of the Colonial Manor acreage being used for housing. I believe this owes to a number of assumptions, some valid (the New Albany Housing Authority's recent spending spree) and others not so much (density fears).

However, Gahan himself surely triggered the backlash when he lofted a short-lived trial balloon about housing in a comment to the Jeffersonville newspaper on March 12.

"We will encourage residential and mixed use. We know the city of New Albany needs all types of housing," Gahan said.

The grassroots reaction to this statement was to read the word "affordable" as an adjective preceding "residential"; to assume "affordable" was code for "public housing," and to object not only to affordable/public housing, but also any housing at all on the site -- how many speakers at last week's listening event referred to there being "too much" density already?

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day -- and, for once, Gahan wasn't full of flatulence when he mentioned the desirability of mixed use, including residential. Of course, the devil in those details center on the level of municipal subsidy to campaign donors, but still, it was not an outrageous statement to make.

Obviously Gahan said nothing about this potential residential use being "affordable," which would contradict his longstanding preference for "luxury" in all forms, but the spectre of NAHA scattered site housing was enough to produce pushback, and correspondingly, redevelopment director Josh Staten made sure everyone knew that NAHA wouldn't be a part of the Colonial Manor picture.

For the moment it's moot, with Gahan publicly pouting and his Democratic Party stooges whining on social media about their inability to cope in a world where city council takes its fiduciary responsibilities seriously and doesn't settle for the Phipps Rubber Stamp.

But I believe Marohn's piece adds depth to the Colonial Manor discussion -- and happily at least we're having a discussion, contrary to Gahan's pathological need to micro-manage any such process behind closed doors.

Who Benefits From Lower Housing Prices?, by Charles Marohn (Strong Towns)

 ... I’m being brutally honest (and a little vulnerable) here in order to make a difficult point about another public issue that can quickly become personal: affordable housing. Because here’s another brutal truth: in our cities today, nobody in a position to seriously impact the affordability of housing ever benefits from housing prices becoming affordable. In fact, the opposite holds true: most every individual or organization in a position to lower housing prices would be harmed by such a result.

And:

A policy approach that lowers home prices is going to run into a lot of structural resistance. And that’s the core cognitive dissonance in our affordable housing conversation: we want housing to somehow become more affordable without prices actually going down. Stated another way, we want people to somehow be able to afford housing while housing itself remains largely unaffordable.

Let's focus on Jeff Gahan's breathtakingly brazen string of fake facts and outright lies about Colonial Manor.

On Wednesday afternoon just a few hours before the listening event sponsored by Colonial Manor Redevelopment Visioning, City Hall released a propaganda video aimed at (a) exaggerating Jeff Gahan's role in the Colonial Manor redevelopment process, and (b) insulting the grassroots community group that came into existence precisely because Gahan and his crack team of minions hadn't been doing anything about Colonial Manor.

As Bluegill succinctly observed:

In which Mayor Jeff Gahan uses city tax dollars to produce a highly biased, politically charged propaganda piece that distorts the story to make himself look better for re-election.

Amid the din of Kool-Aid slurping, let's take a closer look at the video with the aim of exposing Gahan's shameless whoppers.

1

1. It's true that on April 18, Mayor Jeff Gahan's administration brought plans to city council for the purchase of Colonial Manor. Gahan himself yet again refused to attend to take ownership of his brilliant redevelopment instincts, second only to Robert Moses in scope and coolness. However, no plans for redevelopment were brought to council -- while six "test" designs had been hoisted up the flagpole at the non-input public meeting (see below), redevelopment director Joshua Staten insisted the administration would do some listening of its own after the purchase of the property.

Truth meter #1: Half credit.

2

2. Colonial Manor has been moribund for so very long that Team Gahan displayed not one jot of interest in its redevelopment for seven whole years until the "deserving neighbors" began organizing themselves, thus holding out the prospect of interfering with Team Gahan's usual top-down, pay-to-play monetization arrangements.

Truth meter #2: Half credit.

3

3. An essentially meaningless claim. The city's new comprehensive plan explains theoretical development goals for the entire city, not any one area.

Truth meter #3: Irrelevant.

4

4. Number four is a doozy. A public meeting was held, but only Team Gahan's operatives were allowed to speak, and requests for public "preferences" were limited to six hastily concocted "options" from one of Gahan's campaign donor engineers. Duh: Of course neighbors "want something done to the property." You could glean as much from Facebook. After all, they'd already assembled a grassroots lobby group to drive the conversation, hence the need for Gahan's non-input meeting: to squelch this conversation and take back control for his Indianapolis corporate campaign donors.

Truth meter #4: Bald-faced, faked-fact lie. 

5

5. In which Gahan refers to $2.6 million in tax increment financing (TIF) bonds as "cash reserves" when in essence they're credit cards, then further asserts that TIF is not a form of borrowing. Among other problems, these "cash reserves" deprive schools of property tax revenue, leading to school corporation referendums like the one responsible for the Slate Run school construction taking place behind Colonial Manor. Do you think Gahan lies like this about his own household finances?

Truth meter #5: Egregious, bald-faced, faked-fact lie. 

6

6. The city did vote 5-4 against something, but whether it was an "effort to bring new life" cannot be known because the vote pertained only to acquiring the property, not to future plans (if any) to redevelop it.

Truth meter #6: Half credit. 

7

7. We saw the first such "exploration" of options at approximately 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, when the video being dissected here was released. By his choice of timing, Gahan chose quite consciously (and with obvious malice) to undercut the grassroots efforts of the very same "neighbors" he'd already refused to allow to speak at the non-input public meeting he held for his own benefit.

With friends like Jeff Gahan, who needs enemas?

Truth meter #7: Perhaps the only truthful statement of the bunch. 

8

8. Gahan closes with his trademark messy verbiage. He "encourages everyone" (they're no longer "neighbors," are they?) to "encourage" -- that's right, the same verb twice in one sentence, attesting to the sloppiness of writing herein -- city council to "support revitalization efforts for Colonial Manor."

Note the first use of "revitalization" as opposed to "redevelopment," and also consider that Gahan doesn't specify which revitalization efforts "everyone" should support. Is it Gahan's politically motivated boilerplate or the efforts area residents already had started on their own with absolutely no help from the mayor or his flunkies, including their council person Matt Nash, who attended Wednesday's neighborhood meeting but couldn't muster the gumption to address the crowd, identify himself and let them know that he's listening.

Truth meter #8: See how Gahan acts when he can't have his toys?

Summary: Today's City Hall video shambles depicts Gahan at his self-interested, narcissistic and bullying nadir, with a truthfulness tally of roughly 25%, and still no apparent interest in the needs of people as opposed to the fix-is-in, play-to-play patronage boondoggle that local "pretend progressives" tolerate and seem to feel is justified as long as local Democrats mouth platitudes about other issues.

How many lies does Gahan need to tell before Democrats see the handwriting on the wall?

There's a solution. Vote David White for Mayor in the Democratic primary, and let's give the governing clique a purifying flush.

Council rejects Gahan's, Redevelopment's Colonial Manor tax increment financing lollapalooza by a 5-4 vote. Alterations to come?

It might surprise you to hear me say that overall, tonight's council meeting was one of the most informative in a good while. The pros and cons of Team Gahan's Redevelopment Commission resolution to spend $2.6 million to acquire the Colonial Manor property were presented, and it was rejected 5-4, with the three council Republicans and two Independents against, and the body's four Democrats in favor.

Council president Blair's pre-vote summary of the stakes involved was very good. Interestingly, the Redevelopment Commission's visiting Indy lawyer Zoeller from the firm of Frost Brown and Todd ...

 ... which is a frequent Gahan campaign donor, stated that any amendments attached by council to the resolution would require Redevelopment's approval. However council's lawyer confirmed that no amendments could be attached; it was yes or no only.

Blair aired his frustrations with the Redevelopment Commission's overall autonomy and secretive nature. He suggested Redevelopment take out an option for purchase to allow time to incorporate council's points. Al Knable and others noted that it might be the only chance we get to "do" Colonial Manor right, and so it would be advisable to take our time and resist haste.

In turning down tonight's resolution, council in effect sends it back to Redevelopment with helpful post-it notes for changes sufficient to garner future council approval. For example, a comprehensive Charlestown Road corridor study is urged to be a part of what comes back for consideration. Other caveats include a citizen advisory committee and public input meetings that genuinely seek participation and not the rubber-stamping of pre-determined outcomes.

Given that the Redevelopment Commission is regarded by Jeff Gahan as his personal plaything, and the Colonial Manor purchase with the TIF One Platinum card plainly was intended as a rushed feather in Dear Leader's re-election bonnet, things now get interesting.

Don't forget next week's listening session. There might be more tomorrow, but right now, I'm tired.

Previously:

Researcher says: "In most cases around the country TIF did not fulfill its main goal of boosting economic development."

ON THE AVENUES: Amid Deaf Gahan's "victory" over grassroots activists at Colonial Manor, the toxic paranoia is no less rancid.

City Hall's staged Colonial Manor farce: It was INFORMATIONAL, you see, not COMMENTATIONAL. Deaf Gahan can't help it if voters don't know the lingo.

GREEN MOUSE SAYS: It's the Colonial Manor video Jeff Gahan didn't want you to see last night.

Researcher says: "In most cases around the country TIF did not fulfill its main goal of boosting economic development."

The reason why we're always talking about TIF?

• TIF benefits are routinely exaggerated
• TIF abets pay-to-play political patronage
• TIF abuse shifts funding from schools and services to more speculative "public-private partnerships"
• TIF expenditures typically are made by appointed boards, and consequently are not transparent

Because of the legal stipulation that TIF expenditures for property purchases above the appraised amount must come with approval by elected officials (as opposed to the usual appointed functionaries), city council will vote this evening on a resolution favoring the use of TIF funds by the Redevelopment Commission to purchase the moribund Colonial Manor shopping center from absentee owners.

Indiana law now makes clear that TIF is intended to fund infrastructure to promote development that would not occur but for the added infrastructure financed by the TIF revenues. Evidence that the development would not happen but for the establishment of the TIF district must be presented before the TIF district is approved. TIF is not meant as a source of revenue for responding to ongoing development, nor as a substitute for other sources of infrastructure funding. TIF districts are required to expire once the infrastructure bond is repaid. TIF is not meant as a permanent source of revenue for the enacting government.

It should be an interesting evening. The Green Mouse has tonight's tally at 4 council persons for, and 4 against, with Nanny Barksdale as the swing vote.

But is he really swinging?

Almost certainly not. Barksdale already has voted "aye" at Redevelopment for the Colonial Manor power play, and while nominally Republican, he's rubber-stamped Jeff Gahan's mega-spending almost as often as Greg Phipps (a Democrat).

This one's a done deal, so read why TIF shouldn't be.

The Trouble With TIF, by Tanvi Misra (CityLab)

Cities love to use Tax Increment Financing to boost development. Should they?

 ... After reviewing available research on the implementation and impacts of TIF, (Professor David) Merriman concludes that the mechanism, while helpful in some ways, leaves a lot to be desired.

“In the end, it can be a valuable mechanism,” he said. “It’s not something I’d like to get rid of—but it deserves a lot of scrutiny because public sector dollars are being re-routed into a different task, away from general purpose funds.”

snip

To understand what he means, let’s first explain how TIF works: When a city designates an area as a TIF district, the property value of all the real estate within its boundaries at that time is designated as the “base value.” This is the amount that, for a set amount of years after the fact, generates revenue through the city’s property tax process. Everything over and above that, through an increase in value of existing real estate and new development in that time frame, goes into a separate fund earmarked for economic development.

The city can then use this second pot of money to lure private investors with loans and subsidies for commercial projects, or to make public projects more attractive.

snip

Critics often charge that (TIF) funnels money out of the taxpayers’ pockets into a special fund that, by and large, works in a pretty opaque manner. While some of that money funds essential public works, much has also gone towards erecting new Whole Foods, renovating glitzy hotels, and building stadiums—the type of projects, one might argue, should not require such incentives. And the evidence Merriman analyzes suggest they may have a point. He shows that, in most cases around the country, the tool did not fulfill its main goal of boosting economic development.

“On average, [TIF] may be moving development from one part of the city to another, and changing the timing of the development, but there’s not more development than would have otherwise been made,” Merriman said.

In addition, this is a tool with several drawbacks. According to Merriman, TIFs might “capture” some tax revenue above the capped “base value” that may have been generated anyway through natural appreciation in property values if the TIF hadn’t been created. This is money that taxpayers might have otherwise paid directly towards an overlapping school district, or for public services. And while TIF is not a direct tax increase, it may lead to higher rates or service cuts elsewhere, if the city plans on bringing in the same general property tax revenue as before TIF.

“If property taxes are higher—if the rates are higher—then the TIF money has come of the taxpayer’s pocket,” Merriman said. “It’s a diversion in that way.”

In other words, TIF doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Like other tax incentive programs, it may have the adverse affect of creating competition between neighboring jurisdictions in a way that is not always beneficial—all for outcomes that are mixed, at best.

Perhaps the biggest concern with TIF, though, is that of transparency, because of the way this mechanism effectively bypasses the public municipal budget process.

“Once a TIF is created, the operation of a TIF receives less scrutiny than other spending,” Merriman said.

---

Democratic mayoral candidate David White understands that change begins with a whole lotta scrubbing, and NA Confidential advocates just such a deep civic cleansing. 

After eight years on the job, Mayor Jeff Gahan's list of stunning "achievements" is long, indeed: tax increases, budgetary hide 'n' seek, self-deification, daily hypocrisy, public housing takeover, non-transparency, pay-to-play for no-bid contracts, bullying city residents and bullying city employees. Eight years is enough. It's time to drain Gahan's swamp, flush his ruling clique and take this city back from Gahan's Indy-based special interest donors. 

NA Confidential supports David White for Mayor in the Democratic Party primary, with voting now through May 7. 

Hello darkness, my old friend: Is David Barksdale yet again the council's swing vote on Gahan's Colonial Manor power play?

"Shades of the Reisz Mahal," said the spider to the fly.

The Green Mouse has been told that occasional Republican councilman David Barksdale, who has voted with City Hall almost as often as council's Rubber Stamp Quartet of Democrats, yet again looks like the swing vote; the Mouse's abacus shows the Democratic foursome in favor, with two Republicans and two Independents opposed.

Of course we're referring to Thursday evening's resolution to approve the Redevelopment Commission's use of the city's TIF One Platinum card to purchase the moribund Colonial Manor shopping center from absentee owners.

ON THE AVENUES: Amid Deaf Gahan's "victory" over grassroots activists at Colonial Manor, the toxic paranoia is no less rancid.

At last week's Redevelopment fix-fest, council president Blair asked for documentation of the city's current TIF zone status. It runs for quite a few pages, and can be viewed here: CCPackets-041819

Here's the resolution. The bracketed passage explains why this measure even appears before council, and isn't just another backroom deal.

And this statement by redevelopment director Staten is meant to allay fears that the crazily rushed Colonial Manor deal isn't, well, just another backroom deal.

Is a construction date of 1965 historic enough for Barksdale's fetish? Will he fall into Dear Leader's bed/web/thrall as before? Or is it time to Make Spines Great Again (MSGA)?

City Hall's staged Colonial Manor farce: It was INFORMATIONAL, you see, not COMMENTATIONAL. Deaf Gahan can't help it if voters don't know the lingo.

Last week's sadly shambolic City Hall charade on the topic of Colonial Manor's future proved a confusing, painful and infuriating experience for those community residents who hadn't previously witnessed the ridiculous extent to which power and money have gone straight to an erstwhile veneer salesman's head.

GREEN MOUSE SAYS: It's the Colonial Manor video Jeff Gahan didn't want you to see last night.

The Jeff Gahan Money Machine, Part 20: Buying and selling a city? Our master list of 59 Gahan wheel-greasers is a pornographic potpourri of pay-to-play.

Numerous flabbergasted and angry social media conversations have taken place in the aftermath of the meeting. However this one may be the most unintentionally revealing of all. In it, a Gahan appointee and apologist is shocked ... SHOCKED that Dear Leader would ever squelch public opinion.

Oh, we see it clearly now. Clique semantics explain everything, don't they?

When Mayor-for-Life Jeff M. Gahan presents a public meeting, don't forget to consult the bureaucratic glossary to determine whether it's a public comment meeting or an informational meeting. 

Never mind that the glossary's city web site link probably is broken -- or maybe the link leads to the web sites of Clark Dietz, Jacobi Toombs and Lanz, HWC Engineering -- better yet, all three.

Okay, so it's informational versus public commentational, eh? Well, Jeff Gahan's elite insiders know the difference fairly well, don't they?

Conversely, regular folks living in the neighborhood near Colonial Manor evidently are so naive and pathetically unversed in Standard Gahanesque Gobbledygook that they thought Dear Leader might actually be interested in listening to them -- but it was an informational meeting, meaning the information originates at the top with unelected "fix-stays-in" committees, and then trickles down to the rest of us.

Not only that, but the trickle's about to become even more homogenized and cookie-cutter in nature. Note the timeline and methodology of the city's Colonial Manor development choices:

• Caught by surprise by neighborhood activism, City Hall scrambles to regain control over Colonial Manor propaganda
• An architect from TEG is hurriedly engaged and e-mailed boilerplate sections from the comprehensive plan and updated zoning code
• Hastily produced proposals use these boilerplate sections to restrict the city's gaze to "what our codes stipulate," as though they were Biblical injunctions 
• The future? The city's development "ideas" become increasingly center of the target for the sake of ease: minimum design expense and maximum monetization via the usual pay-to-play "contractual" suspects

Informational sessions versus public comment sessions?

Please, functionaries. Stop insulting the public's intelligence. Yes, we know you believe the grassroots hive mind cannot compete with City Hall's pathological need for top-down power, but New Albany has a genuinely meaningful public comment opportunity coming on May 7, and the informational cue is this:

#FireGahan2019

Innovative ways of redeveloping Colonial Manor -- or, things John Gonder was talking about ten years ago.

In 2015 after two city council terms John Gonder ran afoul of the mayor's DemoDisneyDixiecratic patronage machine and lost his re-election bid, moving on to other things in life. John had a blog but didn't use it all that often; when he chose to write, the results invariably were thoughtful and indicative of interests outside our city's self-imposed political boxes.

On Sunday evening John made this comment to yesterday's Colonial Manor post: Colonial Manor redevelopment visioning to be the subject of a public meeting on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.

This run at revitalizing Colonial Manor caused me to look back at something from ten years ago. It might still be worth considering. The points relevant to the current situation appear in the final three paragraphs. Here's the link.

That's right. Colonial Manor was being discussed ten years ago during Barack Obama's first term -- and Doug England's last. Since John no longer actively blogs, I'm reprinting the entire post from March 22, 2009, but consider clicking through to view the comments.

There seems to be one big question about future prospects for refurbishment at Colonial Manor: Can anything positive happen there without the use of tax increment financing (TIF) money?

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Back to the Drawingboard. Please.

At the most recent City Council meeting, March 19, a development which could have resulted in the relocation of the Charlestown Road Wendy's to a site farther out Charlestown Road was nixed by the Council.

For those who don't know, the Wendy's project cuts out a portion of a large lot for the restaurant while leaving the current zoning in place for an "L" shaped piece of property surrounding the restaurant on two sides.

In an attempt to extract something meaningful from the proceedings, I would like to offer an idea that could have possibly yielded a different outcome. At least it could have changed my vote. Unfortunately I'm not holding my breath waiting for the missing ingredient, because that missing ingredient is found in such short supply among developers hereabouts. The ingredient? It goes by several names: innovative thought, creative approaches, getting ahead of the curve, anticipatory development in recognition of the changes suggested by new environmental realities.

That is, after three or four years on the New Albany Plan Commission and now starting the second year on the City Council, I have yet to see more than about two developments that might fall outside the unflattering catchall categorization of cookie cutter sameness.

Look at any of the patio home developments. These are offered as a response to a demographic change in our culture. Aging people are downsizing their households yet still want independence and convenience. So far, so good. A curbside assessment of the typical patio home,however, looks like, in Jeopardy fashion, an answer to the question "Where can my car and I go so both of us feel at home?" The street presentation is of struggle for dominance between the garage and the living quarters. From all appearances, the cars are winning out with the most prominent digs.

Are the developers stupid? The buyers? No, I don't think so. On the contrary, the patio homes I've seen from the inside appear well built and comfortable and suited to the needs of the people living there. But it would be difficult to find a current mode of housing design that more glaringly exemplifies the cookie cutter school of thought.

But the Wendy's development, ( if indeed it is a Wendy's, and there's truly no way to know that at this juncture, according to counsel ) is a commercial development, so what's that got to do with cookie cutters and patio homes? Again, it's the lack of a creative or innovative approach to the puzzle of what to do with that parcel of land. Clearly no one who holds an economic interest in the land sees doing nothing, or next to nothing, as a viable option, otherwise they might consider leasing it to an agricultural entrepreneur who could open an "in-town" small scale u-pick farm. Would there be enough customers for such a thing? Surely not in that end of town.

I just erased several paragraphs in which I suggest what the developers could do with the land. The reality is, that just like with the patio homes, the developers failed to offer anything innovative. As if to underscore the fact that they were offering nothing innovative, they weren't even offering a plan to bring in a new hamburger joint, they were simply going to move an existing hamburger joint to a new location; on the same road yet. And for this accommodation of the developers' plans, the existing neighborhood residents were being asked to suck it up in the cause of progress and free markets.

So maybe it shouldn't all be left up to the developer.

One of the best ways this type of situation could be headed off in the future is for the City of New Albany to begin a reorientation away from greenfield development and toward REdevelopment. (As was stated in the Council meeting, fast food restaurants typically use up a building in a pre-ordained period of years and then move to a new location.) Charlestown Road from Eighth Street out to Klerner Lane is showing signs of commercial and residential neglect and deterioration.

A prime example is the Colonial Manor shopping center, across the street from the current Wendy's site, abandoned several years ago by Kroger in favor of a new site across from the proposed Wendy's site. If the city were to acquire the property it could solicit proposals from developers to take that property back to the level of vibrancy needed to make a strong neighborhood. The use of Economic Development Income Tax (EDIT) funds could be used to buy the property thus freeing the developer from the carrying cost of the project during development. Direction by the Plan Commission, through the RFP, could shape the REdevelopment in ways most beneficial for the entire community. The developer would make a profit but only by producing a worthwhile, cohesive project. And when the developer is out of the deal the EDIT funds would be returned.

This would be a better way to steer the development of the community in ways that truly benefit the entire community, not simply the narrow interests of the developers. If Colonial Manor were, in fact, redeveloped it is quite possible that the entire Charlestown Road corridor would be seen as more desirable and unfortunate situations such as the one involving the Wendy's project might be avoided.

Colonial Manor redevelopment visioning to be the subject of a public meeting on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.

One must remember at all times that whatever it is, Jeff Gahan was for it before anyone else -- unless it's bad, then he was against it from the very start. Dear Leader does not make mistakes, and genuinely believes he's been error-free since 2012.

Which doesn't explain the Bud Light Mang-O-Rita in his hand.

As the emperor's acolytes fit him for some brand new clothes, we turn to the Colonial Manor center on Charlestown Road. Redevelopment is having a public meeting, and we can only hope that the advent of Josh Staten as director implies an actual willingness to listen at such events. I'm optimistic. Staten studied at the University of Louisville with John Gilderbloom, and that's strong medicine.

Folks in the neighborhood have a Facebook page called Colonial Manor Redevelopment Visioning.

The purpose of this citizen-organized, grassroots, non-partisan Facebook Group is to envision possibilities and positive ideas for the potential redevelopment of the Colonial Manor center area on Charlestown Road in New Albany. It is designed to collect ideas, primarily from those living in or doing business within a one-mile radius of Colonial Manor, in advance of a city redevelopment public hearing set for Wednesday, March 20, 5:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. This public hearing is at Fairmont Elementary School and you are cordially invited and encouraged to attend and express your thoughts and ideas then, too.

It's interesting how all this came about. Grassroots activists attended more than one public meeting to petition for action, and were told by the administration that it already was so shocked and appalled by the recent demise of Arby's that the imminent awarding of no-bid contracts to outside consulting firms for top-down revitalization plans was a lead-pipe certainty. Piggy banks have ears, and at Gahan's vault they're twitching in anticipation. 

Well, I always told you the higher-ups were eating lunch at Arby's -- and of course, the problems in the Colonial Manor area long predate the dismantlement of a single unfortunate artery-clogging fast-food grease trap, but I suppose we must begin somewhere.

As such, see you Wednesday. I'll be there early, hoping this time will be different, and preparing to drink heavily if it isn't ... and either way, #FireGahan2019

What they're saying: At-large council candidates Roseberry and Bell.

As the weeks go past in route to May's primary election, I'll try to provide periodic unedited candidate statements of approximate substance, as lifted from social media and news reports, and as opposed to familiar gems (although they certainly have their place) like "I enjoyed talking with the bunco club last night" or "donate to my campaign first, and maybe I'll have something of merit to say later."

That's because it is my aim to determine whether our declared candidates have anything to say at all, and I'll quote all candidates, whether or not they're in a contested race. Just promising change and new ideas without divulging them won't cut the mustard, aspirants.

Today in the at-large council contest, we find Democrats Hannegan Beardsley Roseberry and Brad Bell. It is Roseberry's first run for office, and Bell's second (he ran for an at-large council seat in 2011).

At her Facebook campaign page, Roseberry contributes this valuable observation about Saturday's Speck street study meeting.

At this morning's meeting about the Speck street study, there were questions about the funding and cost of implementing two-way streets. The city officials did not give any response to that question, but this article from last month states that, "...the city has $1.6 million in Kentuckiana Regional Planning & Development Agency (KIPDA) funding to get started." This was a quote from Mayor Gahan. The meeting should have shared this information. We need greater transparency from our city leaders, and city officials who aren't afraid to speak their minds and stand up for its citizens.

It would help to know that, wouldn't it?

Also at Facebook, Bell offers economic development strategy, echoing a topic previously discussed at NAC: Impure thoughts about suburbia" and New Albanian corridors.

What to do with Colonial Manor??

When Kroger moved from Colonial Manor Shopping Center, many many years ago, that section of Charlestown Road has struggled to find it's place in the community. Even though many different stores have tried to fill holes over the years, Colonial Manor now sits nearly vacant again. Two (2) unsuccessful grocery stores have tried to hold down the anchor spot, but have both lasted less than 2 years. Dollar General moved down the road to a much bigger location, and other stores have simply disappeared.

While some area's of New Albany have seen major growth and expansion, some areas have continued the downward spiral. This section of Charlestown Road needs major help. With that being the sole agenda, I propose turning Colonial Manor Shopping Center into a family friendly fun zone. We should seek out an anchor such as GattiLand, Chuck-E-Cheese or a Puzzles Fun Dome type of location so families can have an indoor fun center for all season's right here in New Albany. The outlying stores in Colonial Manor can also be family driven, in order to be a family destination site.

Not only that, but Bell thinks he can do it without tax abatements. Be sure to follow the link and read the entire piece.

See this post for more information on the at-large council race:

NA council: The at-large scrum of nine contestants for three jobs.