Stolen flags, vandalism, white supremacists, but "it’s a mistake to imply that we have the same type of issues other communities may be experiencing."

I hate to see it, make no mistake. The mistake comes in thinking this underachieving burg is in any way superior to its surroundings. We're all on the same plane here in the good 'ol USA, aren't we?

There's a 4-way stop at Elm and 13th. The only question is whether it came with a ribbon.

Does this mean the forever variably apolitical Develop New Albany is endorsing candidate Phipps? Let's follow the Facebook sharing protocol of the presumed non-profits. First, from DNA back to ESNA.

Then ESNA to the source.

It's an election year, and candidate Phipps says he has been "working with the city for several months," as back-room and non-transparently as always, to get a 4-way stop at Elm and 13th.

Fair enough; it's been needed not for months, but for YEARS. After almost eight years of rubber-stamping City Hall expenditures, it's always good to achieve something.

So, ignoring the pertinent question of why Phipps took so long to work behind the scenes, and why his cherished overlord the mayor took so long to give his "superstar" BOW mentor Warren the okay to release this intersection just in time to become a nice pre-primary poll-boost, there’s an absolutely positive aspect to all this electioneering.

That's because the same Democrats who dragged their feet for months before making this needed change so a Democrat could take re-election campaign credit for it can no longer be the same Democrats resisting similar proposals (hint: 4-ways for Spring and 10th; for Main and Bank; rinse, repeat) because the statute of limitations has expired for the same Democrats who oft times before used the completely spurious excuse of a need for traffic studies and INDOT indulgences to avoid mustering the simple one-two cojones to do what's right.

All of which Phipps never questioned until his passive acquiescence to Gahan's hack job on Speck's plan produced tepid two-way street grid results.

But hear me out; this 4-way at Elm and 13th is genuinely important.

Finally a 4-way precedent has been set, so let’s hope future action to #slowthecars might someday occur when it ISN’T an election year.

Dude; that'd almost be PROGRESSIVE, wouldn't it?

'We Buy Cars": The face of luxury car sales in New Albany, in the form of an illegal yard sign in the verge.

A sign fairly oozing luxury.

Luxury car sales, my posterior -- even if the corner looks better.

Still, you gotta give the guy full credit for knowing the importance of meaningless buzz words. We're a city with 25% of its population below the poverty line, but City Hall is absolutely certain that if we keep repeating the word "luxury" over and over again, marketing alone will solve the problem. 

I remain fascinated: Why did the neighborhood association roll over so quickly for this guy?

Looks like ESNA and HyperCars are closerthanthis, which is why reality is so much more humorous than fiction.

It all started here:

That ugly word again: Plan Commission to consider "luxury" car sales at HyperCars on 13th and Spring.

Looks like ESNA and HyperCars are closerthanthis, which is why reality is so much more humorous than fiction.

What's a concerned citizen have to do to get back on the neighborhood association mailing list?

Thanks to the Green Mouse for forwarding what my eyes obviously aren't supposed to be viewing.

On Wednesday August 1 at 6:00 PM Hyper Cars Auto Detailing, located at 13th & Spring St, will hosting a special Open House for members of the ESNA. Please come and see the improvements made to the building and property. On August 7th the owner, Christian Betz, will be requesting a special exception at the BZA to sell a limited number of high-end cars at the location and he would like to have support from members of the neighborhood.

Hope to see you there.

Greg Roberts
ESNA President

It appears that ESNA's president-for-life has decided to hop into bed with HyperCars over "luxury" auto sales; given the bed already is occupied by Jeff Gahan, it may be time to upsize.

Have you noticed the default? Just about anyone who become aligned with city hall in any way suddenly feels the need to discourage dialogue and communication, keeping as much activity as possible below the surface.

That ugly word again: Plan Commission to consider "luxury" car sales at HyperCars on 13th and Spring.

When I finally was allowed to attend an ESNA meeting recently and the question of used car sales at HyperCars was raised, the association's Greg Roberts said there'd be none.

Yesterday I asked Greg for a clarification, and he offered this revision: it seems the neighborhood elders have been monitoring the situation, and they knew all along that HyperCars someday would seek to park no more than seven cars at a time on the lot for sale, but no one thought the business actually would pursue an exception this quickly, and learned of it only when the Plan Commission mailing arrived.

That's poor communication on several levels.

Whereas I'd previously declined to get involved with this situation, I can feel the dander's upward creep.

Ironically, after the last ESNA meeting Roberts told me it would be okay for my address to once again be added to the mailing list, from which it had been removed after I foolishly assumed a few YEARS back that I could "reply to all" in an effort to facilitate communicating with neighbors -- but NO; this apparently is a violation of East Gregland protocol.

Add another column to the Chronicles of New Gahania: I'm being excluded from a neighborhood association that barely exists because dialogue is a threat to "proper" communication.

Shrug. If you're a 3rd district voter, hasn't eight years of this been enough?

That ugly word again: Plan Commission to consider "luxury" car sales at HyperCars on 13th and Spring.

Better or worse than a neighborhood crematorium?

Oh, dear.

I was surprised to see this one on the Plan Commission agenda.

Public Meeting Item(s):

Docket B-36-18: HyperCars LLC requests a Special Exception to permit luxury auto sales in the C-1b, Local Business district at 1212 E. Spring Street.

It's funny what sort of precedents comes bubbling up from Google searches. This one's from Las Vegas, 18 years ago.

An informal group of citizens on the western reaches of Sahara Avenue is mobilizing to fight another battle against used-car lots in the neighborhood.

Twice the group has defeated proposals and zoning amendments for 10-acre used-car lots along Sahara that would have held hundreds of cars. Now they are fighting a smaller proposal for a seven-car used-car dealership at the corner of Sahara and Belcastro Street.

The would-be dealership, Total Eclipse, is currently a small window-tinting and auto-detailing shop.

More recently over in Jeffersonville, the city council declared a moratorium on gas stations, which are about as car-centric as it gets.

JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. (WDRB) -- Jeffersonville leaders have put a city-wide hold on new gas stations.

“We don't want to be a city of gas stations,” Councilman Ed Zastawny said.

Council recently enacted a six-month moratorium on new gas station development permits.

“With all the development in Jeffersonville, we found that a bunch of gas stations wanted to come to the same corners," Zastawny said. "And we thought that's a problem."

This next one is from Warren, Michigan in 2015. The counties of Oakland and Macomb are part of Detroit metro, north of the city center -- and Detroit's the veritable Mecca of car-centrism.

Warren Mayor Fouts to veto approval of used car lots, by Norb Franz (Daily Tribune)

Reiterating his concern that Warren will be dubbed “used car lot city,” Mayor James Fouts said Monday he will veto the City Council’s unanimous approval of another used car sales lot and the expansion of a second one ...

... on Eight Mile at Albany Avenue, Majed Marogi purchased vacant parcels and buildings next to his existing Julian Auto Sales and proposed to expand the size of his sales lot by tearing down empty buildings and installing wrought iron fencing.

“It’s going to be such an improvement,” Mallet said.

“It’s exciting to see business come to that area of the city,” Councilwoman Kelly Colegio said.

The wrong type of business, according to Fouts.

“Even if this was going to be a stellar used car lot that everyone is proud of … it’s still a used car lot and sends the wrong message,” he said.

Along East Spring Street amid the acreage comprising the East Spring Street Neighborhood Association (ESNA), a used car lot has been located on the northeast corner of 15th for quite a while.

Just a few months ago, an auto repair business appeared on the southwest corner of 15th and Spring, next to the body shop that's been operating there for decades.

Now the owner of HyperCars, a newly minted auto detailing shop in the former ServPro building on the southwest corner of Spring and 13th, wants to sell "luxury" used cars.

This recurring word, "luxury." But like Mayor Fouts up in Warren said, "it's still a used car lot."

I looked all over New Albany's zoning code and found no reference to "luxury" anything. The C-1b zoning classification refers to a "local" business, and it references the stipulations of C-1a, which seems to be describing small neighborhood retail shops, not car sales, hence the special exception being sought.

I'm the first to admit that the owner of HyperCars has improved the appearance of the building, and you've got to hand it to him for keeping up with current events in New Albany, and grasping City Hall's fetish for "luxury" over all other modifiers, whether applicable to products and services or the human condition itself.

I find it annoying for other, more sadly comprehensive reasons.

When I finally was allowed to attend an ESNA meeting recently and the question of used car sales at HyperCars was raised, the association's Greg Roberts said there'd be none.

Yesterday I asked Greg for a clarification, and he offered this revision: it seems the neighborhood elders have been monitoring the situation, and they knew all along that HyperCars someday would seek to park no more than seven cars at a time on the lot for sale, but no one thought the business actually would pursue an exception this quickly, and learned of it only when the Plan Commission mailing arrived.

That's poor communication on several levels.

The larger irony of yet another used car lot on Spring Street in a residential neighborhood is that when internationally renowned expert Jeff Speck wrote a street grid plan for New Albany, it was significant precisely because it showed how we could begin transforming downtown into a walking, bicycling kind of place.

Then Mayor Jeff Gahan, whose fundamental car-centrism no longer is a topic for debate, blithely stripped Speck's plan of nearly all its usefulness for walking and biking, declared war on street trees, loudly announced victory, and voila -- traffic's barely slowed, the pedestrian crossing signals are a joke worthy of late-night television monologues, almost all of Speck's proposed bicycle infrastructure was deposited on the cutting room floor, and now there's to be an automobile-related business coming to every vacant commercial space on Spring Street.

Combine the purely intentional street grid regression with the Plan Commission's concurrent consideration this week of the peak car-centric Summit Springs Raised Middle Finger, Phase Two ...

Plan Commission to consider phase two of the Summit Springs Kelley Enrichment cluster muck development atrocity.

... and one has no choice except to confirm the wisdom of my high school baseball coach, who turned to us after a botched play and said, "He could fuck up a wet dream."

Yes, indeed. Jeff Gahan's very adept at that.

#FireGahan2019

There goes the hood. Now I'm getting all nostalgic for redlining.

1117 E. Spring in red. 

How could the neighborhood association allow this to happen? Wait -- I forgot. City Hall owns the neighborhood association.

Look, just give me that cool million Doug promised, and we'll leave. It might be just enough to buy a house in Northampton MA -- or 25 slumlord properties in NA.

Sociology in(action): A brief history of the ESNA and Midtown (SEJ) non-merger, 2009 - 2012.

INTRODUCTION

New Albany's fresh new Comprehensive Plan includes a full page of bromide-laden boilerplate about neighborhood associations.

New Albany needs and values additional neighborhood organizations. (page 91 here)

It started me thinking about a brief period when the idea almost seemed to make sense, before self-interest and inertia set in. Is the notion of neighborhood associations again viable? I'd like to think it is, but history doesn't support optimism.

Back in 2009, there were two such geographical groupings roughly adjacent to each other in Midtown: The East Spring Street Neighborhood Association and the S. Ellen Jones Neighborhood Association.

As it had tended to be from its inception, ESNA was more of a "suburban sensibility meets historic district gentrification" sort of entity, while SEJ had the makings of genuine progressivism, and benefited from the input of Ted Fulmore, who actually was a student of urbanist principles.

The idea arose to merge these two groups, so as to achieve a better economy of scale given the relatively small urban area at stake. In retrospect, it turned into a culture clash, one I should have seen coming but didn't at the time.

However, this story "woke" me, and has informed my thinking about neighborhood matters to the present day. Here's how it played out, in chronological order.

---

June 23, 2009

The ups and downs of "Midtown," tonight.

If you're already interested in this topic, you probably know about it. Just in case, here's notification of tonight's joint neighborhood association meeting:

Meeting Notice:
Joint Meeting of S. Ellen Jones and East Spring Street Neighborhood associations

Purpose:
Discussion (pros and cons) of rebranding the neighborhoods as "Midtown," and the potential merger of the two neighborhood associations

When:
7:00 pm, Tuesday, June 23

Where:
St. John Presbyterian, 13th and Elm Street (use the 13th Street entrance)

---

June 26, 2009

Strength in unity ... perhaps.

For the searchable record, newspaper coverage of what should be a no-brainer.

Neighborhood groups consider merger, by Daniel Suddeath (News and Tribune).

The East Spring and S. Ellen Jones neighborhood associations discussed joining forces to form one unified group during a meeting Tuesday.

If a decision is made to merge, the association could be called Midtown, though a name to better historically represent the areas could be chosen.

Note that I qualified this by inserting the word "should" in the opening sentence. My household supports the idea, primarily because it stands to terrify the city's Luddites.

The respective groups will vote at their meetings in July.

---

July 8, 2009

ESNA meeting tonight: Merger with SEJ to be discussed and a vote taken.

Here's the agenda for tonight's East Spring Street Neighborhood Association (ESNA) meeting. It includes a discussion and vote for a proposed merger with the S. Ellen Jones Neighborhood Association (SEJ), which was the topic at a recent joint meeting. SEJ's next meeting is July 21 at the Cardinal Ritter House (we'll issue a reminder for that one, too).

I regret being unable to attend tonight owing to the resumption of my IUS beer class at precisely the same time. I'll say this: Neighborhood involvement is good irrespective of the season, but the merger question is of potential impact, so if you're a member (or want to be), come out, pay your dues, discuss, and vote.

ESNA July Meeting

7:00 pm at Central Christian Church

Call to Order: President Greg Roberts

Secretary Report: Courtney Paris

Treasurer Report: Charlie Harshfield

Historical Preservation Representative Report: Jim Sprigler

Agenda Items:

Update from Courtney Paris on Stop Sign at Elm and 13th Street

Emery’s Ice Cream Building

Open Discussion on merger proposal

Vote on merger by ballot

Open

Adjourn

---

July 9, 2009

An e-mail from Greg Roberts (ESNA)

The discussion was had and might I say, it was a very good discussion with a lot thoughts and feelings aired. The vote was taken with 8 voting for merger and 2 against. Now we look to the future for new and exciting adventures. I think the following quote sums up the meeting last night, “Change is the essence of life. Be willing to surrender what you are for what you could become.” Unknown.

Greg

---

July 21, 2009

S. Ellen Jones votes tonight on neighborhood association merger proposal.

Recently when I referred to the proposed merger of the East Spring Street and S. Ellen Jones neighborhood associations, my use of the word "Luddite" was misinterpreted in some places.

My household supports the idea, primarily because it stands to terrify the city's Luddites.

Had I written, "terrify the city's Erikas," perhaps the meaning would have been clearer. There is nothing more disconcerting to the lone wolf obstructionist than strength in principled unity. I'm genuinely sorry if this shading wasn't clear at the time.

At any rate, ESNA approved the merger, and tonight S. Ellen Jones will vote. Here's the meeting preview.

S. Ellen Jones Neighborhood Association Meeting Notice

Tuesday - July 21 - 6:30pm - Cardinal Ritter Birthplace, 1218 East Oak Street (please note location change to the Cardinal Ritter Birthplace).

Agenda topics to include (but not limited to):

1. Repair Affair Team: Review of Project (Scheduled to be complete on 7/18). View photographs at this link.

2. Merger Vote* - Vote to determine if we should move forward with merger proposal with East Spring Street Neighborhood Association. ESNA voted to proceed on 7/8. If vote is "Yes" by SEJ, Transition Team will be formed.

3. Festival Planning - Update on planning and confirmed participants. Festival is Saturday August 15 - 11am to 3pm.

4. Status of current projects: Select this link to view known 2009 Projects

If you have additional agenda topics to include, please forward to me.

GUEST SPEAKER(s): None

*Merger Vote: SEJ by-laws (Article Two) describes membership as follows -

Article Two

II. Membership

2:1 Individual membership shall be open to all interested persons. Individual members shall have full voting rights, participation in all Association activities and business and the receipt of all mailings.

---

August 13, 2009

Second thoughts?

Previously, NAC noted that both the East Spring Street Neighborhood Association (ESNA) and then the S. Ellen Jones Neighborhood Association (SEJ) voted to merge.

S. Ellen Jones votes tonight on neighborhood association merger proposal.

ESNA meeting tonight: Merger with SEJ to be discussed and a vote taken.

From last evening's ESNA meeting comes word via e-mail that, "Some members expressed reservations about proceeding with the merger."

For some reason, I'm reminded of those locals who oppose reopening the K & I bridge, reasoning that those evil Portlanders would soon come streaming across to New Albany.

Of course, the Portlanders harbor a polar opposite concern.

When times get tough, we forget the reasons why we won the Second World War. That's too bad, because speaking personally, and in both word and deed, I support maximum unity in the city's neighborhoods, because combining resources and concentrating efforts are the only ways to even begin checking the rot and reversing the negligence wrought by two terms of Brother Price’s Traveling Deprivation Show.

Just my opinion. I'm sure there are others.

---

July 10, 2009

E-mail from an ESNA to the mailing list from a disgruntled member

"It was in fact a memorable meeting. However, I do not have the same attitude toward the merger. I applaud those who are rejoicing in this merger. Sorry, I'm not. I am a firm believer that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I did not see the ESNA as being broke, but there were those who apparently did and they have won the battle. I guess I was just one of those narrow minded people who were the ESNA. I was proud of the ESNA. It had clout and got things accomplished. As holder of the archive information for the ESNA, it is a shame. I look through all the newspaper articles, pictures, and certificates and realize it is all gone. All down the drain. Just a thing of the past. Everything the ESNA stood for is now gone. I know for a fact, I did my share for the ESNA and everything it worked for. Everything we worked so hard to establish is now being handed. over to others who wanted no part in the ESNA. I will not be taking part after the ESNA ceases to exist. I hope you all prove me wrong."

---

October 29, 2009

State Representative Ed Clere mentioned the neighborhood association merger in his newspaper column (no link available).

 ... I attended the monthly meeting of the S. Ellen Jones Neighborhood Association, which is in the process of merging with the East Spring Street Neighborhood Association. Together, they will be known as the Midtown Neighborhood Association.

The combined organization will preserve and enhance the individual identities of the many smaller neighborhoods within its boundaries, and its increased clout should be useful in influencing policy. I have long been a supporter of New Albany’s neighborhoods, and I’ll be looking for opportunities to continue that support from the Statehouse.

---

(A year passed before the topic was mentioned at NAC. This was a time of much stress in my working world, which may account for the detachment. It is my recollection that the ESNA brain trust -- having agreed to a merger with Midtown, but with certain "key" members unhappy -- chose to overlook the results of the merger vote and remain autonomous. This conclusion is borne out by the wording in the image.)

October 15, 2010

Midtown Neighborhood Association's clean-up day is Sat., Oct. 16.

---

(At this point, the trail gets cold. In the aftermath of ESNA's prevaricating merger reversal, the Confidentials became disillusioned, as the association seemed more intent on preserving its social insularity than taking it to the streets. Obviously, the merger was unceremoniously ditched. My next blog mention of ESNA in any capacity came on April 18, 2013, although there are several blog references to Midtown Neighborhood Association activities in 2011, and we attended more than one meeting at the Ritter House. In 2012, it became moot.)

April 3, 2012

Ted Fulmore: "There's nothing wrong with change."

I'm sending this note to those that live in the neighborhood and others who are active in the area. I've been engaged in community activities basically since the day I moved here almost 10 years ago. My primary role has been to provide leadership as neighborhood president. I'm going to be stepping down from this role over the next month. The Midtown meeting on Tuesday, April 17 will be the last one I preside over.

---

CONCLUSION

The Midtown Neighborhood Association did not survive Ted's departure. I've always appreciated what he tried to do in the teeth of apathy and open opposition. It was herculean.

Beginning in 2015 or thereabouts, I tried to reconnect with the East Spring Street Neighborhood Association, but have learned (sadly though not unexpectedly) that the organization remains cliquish and suspicious of interaction and dialogue. No back-and-forth communication is allowed at the Facebook page, and e-mail notifications seem to emanate on whim. Heaven forbid a discussion break out.

Obviously, ESNA's digression was hastened when Greg Phipps was elected to the 3rd district council seat in 2011, and in effect, the association has become something of a neighborhood campaign committee tied to Phipps -- and hence, directly to Jeff Gahan, Phipps' flawless political patron.

The Comprehensive Plan contains sterling language about the importance of neighborhood associations, but for so long as a top-down bunker mentality reigns, it's unlikely to come to anything.

The concept makes sense only as a grassroots efforts, and grassroots efforts are not exercises in closed clannishness. Neighborhood associations cannot serve as de facto bunco clubs. There's more to them than that, and yet in New Albany, patronage politics inevitably usurp grassroots content, as ESNA's recent experience has amply illustrated.

The irony of all this, taken in light of our current vantage point amid the Chronicles of New Gahania, is that if we're completely fair and unbiased in the assessment, the most highly functional neighborhood association in the entire city is the New Albany Housing Authority.

And who want to demolish NAHA?

Phipps and Gahan, that's who.

Thanks to Padgett, a halfway house will front a two-way street. When it comes to social justice, ya gotta start SOMEWHERE.

If it weren't for a citywide irony so pervasive that it flies at 30,000 feet, over the heads of everyone involved, then those stopped clocks registering the right time twice each day wouldn't be so enduringly entertaining.

Padgett family offers to help start New Albany halfway house; 1514 E. Spring St. home will be purchased if the city approves, by Danielle Grady (Hanson Obliviousness Modulator)

NEW ALBANY — Thanks to a charitable business family, plans to build a halfway house for women in New Albany are back on.

Pending city approval, the family that owns Padgett, Inc., will purchase 1514 E. Spring St. to transform into Nicole’s Place, a home for women recovering from addiction.

But let's not be churlish. This stands to be a good use for the space, and kudos to Padgett for its social consciousness. Perhaps in addition to "God working behind the scenes" (as a predictably trite quote in the article suggests), either He or Padgett finally will get behind the house, a part of the building never entirely completed during its previous remodeling roughly 10 years ago (photos from the summer of 2016).

As an aside, am I the only one who believes that the renowned law firm of Greg & Greg will bring the East Spring Street Neighborhood Association to bear against such a use for this house? 

Lisa Livingston is the local woman behind Nicole’s Place. A graduate of a similar program in Jeffersonville, Livingston originally planned to open Nicole’s Place at 2106 E. Elm St. in New Albany, but the city plan commission voted to deny her the special exception she needed to start it.

The plan commission worried that Elm Street was too residential for Nicole’s Place.

Livingston needs another special exception to open Nicole’s Place on Spring Street, but the neighborhood contains a mix of residences and businesses.

She plans to bring her proposal for Nicole’s Place to the plan commission’s March meeting. It will need to be approved by both the plan commission and, later, the board of zoning appeals.

Livingston was disappointed by the plan commission’s original decision to deny her a special exception, but was determined to find another place.

Still, she wasn’t expecting it when Jimmy Padgett, the vice president of Padgett, Inc., contacted her and asked for a meeting.

The Padgett’s are concerned about the drug epidemic in the United States, according to a release from Padgett, Inc.

“The Padgett family feels strongly that people who are trying to fix their problems should be assisted in every way possible,” said Jimmy in a statement. “Addiction is a disease. The people with this disease need compassion, the same as people with any debilitating disease. They cannot be held responsible for their disease but they must be held responsible for their sobriety. It is incumbent upon everyone to help people who are providing solutions that can transition those seeking sobriety back to being productive citizens, and that is the mission of Nicole’s [Place].”

The Padgett family will purchase the property on Spring Street for Livingston after the planning and zoning department approves her plans. They’ll lease it to Nicole’s Place with the goal of the halfway house purchasing the home from the Padgett’s within 18 months with grant dollars and other donations. The Padgett’s will also provide a donation to Nicole’s Place.

Jimmy met with Livingston and the director of Nicole’s Place before deciding to help. He wanted to make sure Livingston had a good plan, she said.

Nicole’s Place will be based off of the Bliss House in Jeffersonville, where Livingston used to live.

Residents at the Bliss House must call and ask for a spot for 30 consecutive days before being accepted into the program. They must also be clean and sober 30 days prior to their placement there, and after placement, must pay $100 a week in rent for their recovery courses, meals and access to the Internet and other services.

The Bliss House also has a zero tolerance drug use police and a no male-contact rule.

Nicole’s Place already has a board of directors, which includes people who have worked with the Bliss House in the past, one of whom was a former director.

There will be parking lot behind Nicole’s Place and residents will always be supervised by staff while on the property.

The Padgett Inc. release said that the Padgett family is aware that many people are opposed to places like Nicole’s Place because they don’t want people with drug problems living near them.

“However, the reality is we are surrounded by people with drug problems everywhere: at the grocery store, work, social events and walking or driving down the street,” the release said.

Livingston said she’s overwhelmed by Jimmy’s contribution to Nicole’s Place.

“I had heard about people like him, but I’ve never met any,” she said.

Livingston said that Greg Henderzahs, the executive director for the Center of Lay Ministries, which runs Bliss House, expressed surprise at the Padgett’s help with Nicole’s Place.

“[Henderzahs] said things like this just don’t happen,” Livingston said. “This is definitely God working behind the scenes.”

Jimmy wasn’t the only person that reached out to Livingston after the News and Tribune published two articles about Nicole’s Place in November.

Livingston thinks that’s because the motives of those behind Nicole’s Place are pure.

“We aren’t going for financial gain,” she said. “It’s all about helping. And Floyd County is in dire need.”

Livingston said she hopes to start moving women into Nicole’s Place by April if the halfway house is approved by New Albany in March. About six women would live in Nicole’s Place at first, but the Spring Street house could potentially hold 25.

This outrage against innovative public art must be avenged -- or, what happened to the Williams Junk Water Heater Park?

What a difference five months makes.

July 20
Oops, ESNA's done it again ... with this intriguing instance of neighborhood placemaking.

Sight lines from two-way streets should make the persistent neglect of this critical neighborhood corner even more noticeable to the general public, although in fairness, the 2012-vintage vinyl siding was a vastly overdue improvement.

March 12, 2012

Great moments in NA non-enforcement: The Williams Plumbing Corner.

March 13, 2012

Better yet: More to Deplore.

April 27, 2012

Marginally less to deplore.

Two-way streets in NA: Why is the stated protective aim out of sync with the calendar of tolling reality?

Mark Sanders is right, of course.

Yesterday the engineering contractor HWC recommended two-way streets in New Albany, with bids to be let in March, 2017 and work estimated at completion in the fall of 2017.

One stated aim of the project is to discourage pass-through toll evaders.

If bridge tolls begin at the end of 2016, and the "modernization" won't be finished until much later in 2017, exactly how is this aim to be facilitated in the interim? If you're a city official reading (c'mon, we know you do), please feel free to comment. The cat's out of the bag, so can we talk now?

Why is the stated aim out of sync with the calendar of tolling reality?

Downtown New Albany residents hopeful for two-way street change, by Elizabeth Beilman (News and Tribune)

... Supporters of two-way conversions say the change could help discourage Spring and Elm streets as a Ohio River Bridges Project toll-dodging method. The Sherman Minton Bridge connecting West Louisville and New Albany is one of two bridges that will be toll free at the end of the year.

"They've drug their feet so much that the tolls are going to happen before they do anything," Mark Sanders, vice president of the neighborhood association, said.

Surreal New Albany: On Wednesday, ESNA will discuss a proposal that hasn't been released.

This week's schedule for pro bono rabble-rousing is unexpectedly heavy, and of all the scheduled meetings, the one I'm most looking forward to attending is the East Spring Street Neighborhood Association (ESNA) gathering on Wednesday evening (below), which I somehow managed to acquire in spite of seemingly constant machinations with the ESNA mailing list.

If you thought Team Gahan was non-transparent ...

On Wednesday, ESNA is to be discussing the "Two-Way Traffic proposal," which has yet to be revealed to the public as of this writing, but is scheduled to be presented at the Bored of Works on Tuesday morning.

Amid constant public denials of intent, this proposal for two-way reversion, in whatever its form, has been taken vaguely referenced for months by Democratic Party insiders and Team Gahan intimates.

ON THE AVENUES: Complete ventriloquism, or the stagecraft of "throwing" your two-way streets.

... Meanwhile, with City Hall constantly shielding its two-way intentions (if any) from public review or discussion, and with ambitious and sycophantic Democratic Party lackeys delighted to let us know how very close they were to the mayor's thought processes, even if not one of them could be bothered to inform their constituents what any of it actually meant, some of them occasionally (accidentally?) divulged details otherwise not available to poor schmucks like us, out here on the one-way mean streets of Nawbany.

The facades and pretending get very confusing after a while. Indeed, "this (proposal) is VERY important for our neighborhood," and yes, it will be edifying at long last to know what these captive insiders believe THEY already know, or have known, or at least what they've been spoon-fed by the mayor's crack team of illusionists.

For two years, maybe longer, Jeff Gahan has invariably acted to ensure that what is or is not known about the future of two-way street reversions in New Albany has remained tightly contained in the inner circle. In turn, the inner circle has enjoyed being among the vanguard.

Does anybody really know what time it is in New Albany?

Perhaps by the time ESNA meets on Wednesday night, there'll be a clue or two. But I wouldn't bet on it. The smart money still has Gahan completely botching this "project".

---

ESNA Neighborhood Association Meeting
Wednesday, September 14 @ 6:30pm ... Muir Manor (corner of East Spring Street and 13th Street)

Agenda:

1.) Harvest Homecoming Parade.

2.) Discussion of Two-Way Traffic proposal.

Please come to discuss issue #2! This is VERY important for our
neighborhood......

Greg Roberts

Oops, ESNA's done it again ... with this intriguing instance of neighborhood placemaking.

Think of it as a companion piece, conceptual-art-wise.

ON THE AVENUES: Weeds, porch appliances and our civic Gospel of Appearances.

ON THE AVENUES: Weeds, porch appliances and our civic Gospel of Appearances. 

A weekly column by Roger A. Baylor.

The Confidentials bought an older house on Spring Street in 2003, and almost immediately we started meeting our new neighbors. Some of them, though by no means all, were active in community affairs.

This holds true today. Others have moved, or retreated from the fray. There is nothing unusual about any of this. At the time, my wife and I wanted to be involved, and so we began talking about neighborhood issues with the seemingly like-minded folks living nearby.

Early on, we noticed an emerging pattern when it came to judgments about the quality of urban life, in the sense that we’d entered a twilight zone governed by the Gospel of Appearances, as deemed no less important within the city’s historic core than at a suburban gated community.

If I've heard it uttered once, I heard it said a thousand times.

“They may be poor, but at least they can keep things tidy and looking nice.”

In other words, poverty is all about appearances, and the crux of “improvement” is the willingness of the impoverished to hone their skills at propriety, and to better understand their obligation not to offend better-heeled neighbors.

In short, we must focus on facades, and prim and proper exteriors, so that our city might finally amount to something. Of course, there is a place for such, just not as a substitute for how things actually work.

Admittedly, it took far too long for me to grasp the weird-headedness of the Gospel of Appearances, perhaps because my own rural/suburban, middle-class upbringing instilled similar attitudes that needed aggressive purging.

When my cognitive dissonance finally came bubbling to the surface, it commenced an unforgiving learning process. It continues to do so. I already knew that when facts change, one’s viewpoint must change with them. However, at times one must undergo a change in order to be able to see these facts.

They’re not always visible up front, on the surface.

In the years since our arrival, I’ve witnessed this obsession with outward appearance periodically boomerang back into our local discourse.

Still, even the proud sociologists among seem unwilling – perhaps unable – to embrace ideas to address anti-social conditions such as inequality at the grassroots level, or to analyze the prevailing economic system with a mind toward rendering it accountable, representative or sustainable.

Rather, it always comes back to those Disneyesque exteriors. If only it/they/those looked better. If only miscreants existing at the fringe of shared standards might become better actors, more willing to play their roles, and eager to conform to ephemeral propriety.

Can’t they at least try to look a little less unequal?

After all, we have our property values to think about … and yes, we read where two-way streets might help with property values … but, well, except … that’s fundamental, and probably beyond our collective comprehension, and no one wants to expend an extra five minutes driving through town when all they do in the first place is reference their own road rage on social media.

Walkability, schmalkability.

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The single most damning aspect of the Gospel of Appearances is the socio-economic status of the majority of those advocating it. Most often, they’re by no means the wealthiest members of the community, although they tend to be white, which means they’re certainly among the most privileged.

The rich ones rarely play this game. As defined by the possession of wealth, power and privilege, the upper crust is comfortable with a cynicism borne of detachment. In other words, there is nothing about an old fridge reposing on the porch of a rental property that threatens the position of a one-percenter, or stands in the way of his or her amassing even greater money and power.

Rather, those most fervently advocating programs to improve outward appearances are themselves located in what passes for a middle tier, light years removed socially and economically from the rarefied heights of the one-percenters, and always just a misfortune or three from slipping down the ladder into the untidily huddled masses below them.

Hence their annoyance with the visible disorderliness of the lower orders, and the eagerness with which they hector them, because they’ve managed to crawl a few yards ahead of the rabble, and intend to keep it this way.

What’s more, they’re forever willing to make soul-crushing alliances with traditional bastions of wealth, power and privilege, not so much because there is any genuine hope of upward advancement (itself largely a cultural myth), but to arrest the distasteful possibility of their own decline into non-manicured hopelessness.

The Gospel of Appearances grows increasingly shrill, and these visible yardsticks denoting boundaries take on byzantine complexity.

Socioeconomic realities? Dude, that’s just too many syllables, and no one really wants to dirty his hands. Tell you what, just get that fridge off your porch before we enact another symbolic, non-enforced ordinance.

After all, how many advocates of rental property reform care what happens inside the house?

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In a roundabout way, this brings me to the saga of Irv Stumler, his fiefdom (otherwise known as New Albany Clean and Green), and their unified appearance before the Board of Public Works and Safety on July 12.

To make a long story short, Stumler’s remarks on Tuesday were focused on two targets. He wanted the board to know that Bill Allen’s properties on the 200 block of East Main Street are dilapidated, disgraceful and potentially unsafe, and he offered to bring a group of volunteers down from the lofty heights of Silver Hills to mow vegetation growing from the medians further east on Main.

Whatever else we might say about the three members of the board, their hostility to Stumler was undisguised. Granted, board chairman Warren Nash did a better job of maintaining a partial poker face than Mickey Thompson and Cheryl Cotner-Bailey, both of whom openly snapped back at Mr. Clean Greens.

And no, Stumler cannot import his crew to weed-eat the median, because the city hires its own contractors to do it, and as an aside, isn’t this the real story?

Has the city mowed your verge lately?

Not that we’re judging.

In Stumler’s own words, he became aware of Bill Allen’s unsightly property while working to restore the original steeple on the Second Baptist (Town Clock) Church, which is Stumler’s second church steeple refit since 2008, when he spearheaded restoration work on St. Mary’s at the corner of 8th and Spring.

According to the Gospel of Appearances, blessed are those who help tax-exempt organizations maintain their properties. According to this logic, the city of New Albany received a boost in the quality of life when the two church spires were repaired, and yet, wouldn’t both these churches still be able to function spiritually without steeples?

Wasn’t the combined expense somewhere in the neighborhood of $750,000 of someone else’s money?

Might the money have been invested in other ways, so as to lift humans, and not spires?

Speaking personally, I’ve no problem in both these instances accepting the argument from the utility of historic preservation. Furthermore, I support the notion that the greenest building is the one already standing, and urge building rehabilitation whenever possible.

And yet metaphors matter.

Stumler once fought the Great Flowerpot War with city officials, competing to place the greatest number of beautiful ashtray-shaped urns at sidewalk corners, so as to block pedestrian access adjacent to high-speed, truck-choked one-way streets that Stumler fights like a banshee to keep exactly as they are.

Why always flowers, and never fundamentals?

Isn’t it true that when the infrastructure remains flawed, and ours certainly does, these steeples, flowerpots and “welcome to our city” signs are nothing more than blotches of lipstick on an aggregation of soiled and muddy pigs?

When Irv Stumler, the foremost exponent of the Gospel of Appearances, can see clearly enough that Bill Allen’s coat of paint back in 2012 was an evasion of responsibility for maintenance fundamentals expected of him, but cannot grasp that his own standards of imposed beautification parallel the futility of Allen’s bizarre whitewashing, especially when decreed to occur in the middle of a city where Padgett’s trucks shouldn’t be traversing in the first place, then it’s no longer a case of praiseworthy public service, as Dale Moss would have you believe.

It’s just sad.

Incredibly, indelibly sad.

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July 7: ON THE AVENUES: You say you want a resolution?

June 30: ON THE AVENUES: Irv Stumler screams, "We don't deserve two-way streets!"

June 23: ON THE AVENUES: There's no business like no business -- and it's none of your business.

June 16: ON THE AVENUES: When the engineer uttered that scandalous word aloud, it was like Christmas in June.

June 9: ON THE AVENUES: High atop Summit Springs with friends (and relatives) in low places.

Rental property ordinance: "Very Important City Council Meeting (March 7th)."

Paging leading citizen Bill Allen.

My position in favor of rental registration and inspection is well documented. I needn't make the case all over again. Concurrently, transparency in local governance is very important, too, along with what might be referred to as precision: exactly what is being said, and who is saying it?

The pursuit of transparency and precision involves learning the answers to questions. For instance, during the last council meeting of 2015, when a lengthy rental property ordinance appeared out of nowhere, I asked:

• Why now, when a reformatted council was about to be seated?
• From whom: City Hall or the ordinance's council sponsor, Greg Phipps?
• Was it a trial balloon? If so, for what purpose?

The room was filed with rental property owners, and the look of fear on the faces of council members was palpable. The ordinance was sent to committee, and Phipps publicly washed his hands of it, vowing to be finished with the idea.

At the following meeting, Phipps announced that he was delighted to guide the rental property ordinance through committee and bring it back to council for consideration at a later date.

• What happened to change his mind?
• From whom: Phipps or City Hall?
• If Phipps, who are his council allies?
• If City Hall, why not step forward and take possession of the issue?

Yesterday the following e-mail arrived from Greg Roberts, who is the East Spring Street Neighborhood Association. However, the e-mail does not mention the ESNA.

• Is the note written on behalf of the ESNA?
• What exactly is expected of those rallying in favor of the ordinance?
• Is it about slumlords, tenants or both?

A little more information, please. Can Roberts (or Phipps) answer any of the above questions?

As for the likelihood that Pat Harrison will begin shrieking about the Gestapo, leave that one for me. I'll sign up last on the speaker's sheet, and shred her.

Very Important City Council Meeting (Rental Inspection Program)

This one of the most important issues facing our neighborhood!

I need to have everyone show up at this meeting!

March 7th @ 7:00 pm (3rd floor of the City County Building)

The slumlords/landlords will be there in force to speak against this program. so we need to be there in force as home owners to be speak for this program and to protect our investments!

LET SHOW THAT WE ARE NOT GOING TO TAKE THESE SLUM PROPERTIES ANYMORE!!!

Greg

Ideas for how people can create "Streets as Places" in their own community.

Public art without official permission? No monetization there, chump.

Come to think of it, as opposed to directing action toward propping up unresponsive regimes, street reclamation ideas like those presented here are precisely the type of project ideal for neighborhood organizations. Why not direct one's time and money at the problem, rather than the figurehead?

Perhaps the single most radical sentiment herein is this: "While people’s backyards are places for private gathering and recreation, the front area of a person’s house and the street beyond it can be an 'urban commons.'"

I know, I know. One-way, high-speed interstates work against such additions of human value. Maybe we should do something about that?

ACTIONS FOR STREETS AS PLACES: HOW ONE MAKES IT HAPPEN (Project for Public Spaces)

... While people’s backyards are places for private gathering and recreation, the front area of a person’s house and the street beyond it can be an “urban commons” – a place where neighbors bump into each other, children play together, and friendships are forged through impromptu conversations, block parties, and all kinds of other events. To make that happen, a neighborhood needs small places where people can gather (a stoop, a front yard, a corner, the sidewalk,) as well as opportunities to bring people together (Little Free Libraries, a community bulletin board, gardening, a public art event, or even a stoop sale). Across the country, people are starting to reclaim their streets and front yards as important social places.

ON THE AVENUES: Dear Neighbor: If you’re tired of the same old story, turn some pages.

ON THE AVENUES: Dear Neighbor: If you’re tired of the same old story, turn some pages*

A weekly web column by Roger A. Baylor.

Dear neighbor,

Some of you know me, and others don’t, so please allow me to introduce myself.

I’m Roger, and I’m running for mayor of New Albany as an independent candidate, although throughout my life, I’ve voted with the Democratic Party the vast majority of the time.

Seeing that it’s perfectly natural for you to ask me what has changed, I intend to explain it as honestly as I can, but first there is the other side of the aisle to consider.

While political party affiliation is not a perfect indicator of local voting patterns (I support non-partisan local elections, anyway), it provides a reasonable anchor for guesswork, and as such, most New Albanians who identify with the Republican Party – or self-identify as “conservative” – probably will be voting for Kevin Zurschmiede this fall.

Consequently, if you live near me in the 3rd council district and have declared your support for Kevin, I understand completely. Carry on; smoke ‘em if you’ve got ‘em.

At the same time, what I have to say might be of interest to you, too.

In 2003, my wife Diana and I bought our house at 1117 E. Spring Street. Like homeowners all across the city, we began investing time and money in our home, property and neighborhood.

In 2009, as the part-owner of a restaurant and brewery business, I took the concept of “skin in the game” a step further, and NABC chose downtown New Albany as the place to invest in its second location.

It should suffice to say we’re invested, and heavily so. You may have heard that I’m selling my share of NABC to my business partners, but I’m not going anywhere, and the company will be part of the community for many years to come. I’ll continue to think globally and drink locally.

Almost from the start, Diana and I began attending meetings of the East Spring Street Neighborhood Association. The topics of conversation back then mostly had to do with how a relative handful of local activists could overcome systemic inertia and reverse the long-term neglect, and subsequent devaluation, of what once had been a vibrant residential neighborhood.

At monthly meetings from 2003 forward, the culprits were discussed, among them high-speed, one-way arterial streets slicing through populated areas; the city’s maddening inconsistency in enforcing its own ordinances; the complete absence of rental property registration and inspection; and the social disengagement caused by these necessary fundamentals being neither addressed nor understood by the dysfunctional leadership caste.

In fact, the very first mention of rental properties at my NAC blog, coming just a few months after it began, was in this article: Startling fact: 50% of drug labs are found on rental property.

Fast forwarding to the most recent ESNA meeting I attended in August of 2015, a full 12 years after the first, and what were the primary topics of conversation?

That’s right. The very same ones.

One-way streets remain fast, unsafe and a drag on property values. Code enforcement still is a coin flip, and slumlords as yet remain free to behave as they please, without any semblance of regulation.

Is George W. Bush still President, too? Has Grenada surrendered? Do we have a polio vaccine yet?

A space alien might be forgiven for speculating whether this chronic inactivity – an unabated 12-year period of utterly miserable nothingness – might be the result of two-party gridlock, or maybe a paucity of civic funding.

Sadly, we know better. Here is the breakdown of executive and legislative office holders in the city for the periods in question, by political party.

2004-2007
Democratic mayor, eight Democratic council members (including Jeff Gahan), one Republican.

2008-2011
Democratic mayor, eight Democratic council members (including Jeff Gahan), one Republican.

2012-2015
Democratic mayor (Jeff Gahan), seven Democratic council members, one Republican and one independent.

As for municipal finances, budgets were in the annual range of $13 million when we bought our house in 2003. In 2016, the budget has doubled, coming in at around $26 million. That’s a lot of money.

But streets still are one-way.
And ordinances still are ignored.
The slumlords? They laugh.

There can be only one reasonable conclusion: Democrats want it this way. Consequently, it is time to realize that pulling the same voting lever over and over again in the hope of a different outcome is insane.

Time and again, the neighborhood has supported Democrats.

Time and again, Democrats have not supported the neighborhood.

This must stop, and I’m asking for your support to help make it stop.

I’ll add this one addendum. For what it’s worth, and speaking only for myself, my votes in the forthcoming election will go to those city council candidates who have publicly advocated for two way streets.

First-time Republican at-large candidate Al Knable is one, along with Democratic incumbents John Gonder (at large) and Greg Phipps (my own 3rd district).

Yes, at times I’ve been disappointed with both Gonder and Phipps. However, I believe they’ve been sullied and bullied by Jeff Gahan’s egotistical toxicity and the formless intellectual vacancy of the reigning Democratic Party leadership, and are deserving of another chance and another dance with a mayor who, at long last, actually “gets it,” which I do.

For those New Albany residents reading today who don’t live in our neighborhood, just take a page from Ronald Reagan’s notebook and ask the question.

Is YOUR neighborhood better off today than it was in 2002?

In addition to the factors mentioned here, is the storm water draining? Does your snow get plowed? How’s traffic?

Let’s face it: New Albany isn’t a big place. Much of it fits between the Knobs, I-265, the Ohio River and Silver Creek, and these landmarks are only a few miles apart. All of our neighborhoods are fairly close together, and all of them would benefit from getting the fundamentals right.

But to be done right, fundamentals must be every day, not every now and then. Jeff Gahan’s term as mayor has been about purchasing bright, shiny objects with property taxes yet to be paid by your grandchildren, and hoping you don’t notice the ongoing problems.

Actually, the city isn’t cleaner. The city is living on what amounts to credit cards. And there’s nothing fundamentally “better” about any of this.

It isn’t the East Spring Street neighborhood alone. It’s all of us.

I’m running for mayor as an independent because the Democratic Party has failed the city’s neighborhoods.

We need to stop rewarding failure, and I’d appreciate your support.

Thanks,

Roger

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* RIP, Gary Richrath

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Recent columns:

September 10: ON THE AVENUES: Lanesville Heritage Weekend comes around again.

September 3: ON THE AVENUES: When even Mitt Romney can run to the left of New Albany’s Democrats, it's a very big problem.

August 27: ON THE AVENUES: Whips, chains and economic development (2010).

August 20: ON THE AVENUES: In the groove.

August 13: ON THE AVENUES: It’s time to purge two-party politics and tie the community together.

August 10: ON THE AVENUES SPECIAL EDITION: When it comes to the RCI, can the RDA opt out of the RFRA?

August 6: ON THE AVENUES: Money is the ultimate bully.

Hey, ESNA.

The missus and I live within the boundaries of the East Spring Street Neighborhood Association (ESNA). We moved into our house on Spring Street in October, 2003. This blog began in October, 2004, and my first-ever blog reference to ESNA came in November, 2004.

There is a reason for mentioning this.

I'm running for mayor as an independent. While my candidacy is not restricted to any one area or neighborhood in the city of New Albany, it is no exaggeration to suggest that my platform almost perfectly jibes with the long-term aims of ESNA.

In fact, it seems to be a all-embracing composite of what we've discussed these many years.

The beauty of it is that these precepts apply equally to all the city's areas and neighborhoods, even if they're particularly applicable to ESNA's.

Baylor for Mayor: 3 Goals + 7 Platform Points.

As for the political ramifications, it may or may not be true that Kevin Zurschmiede will be the ultimate beneficiary, but the ballot is set, and there's nothing I can do about the likelihood of Jeff Gahan's strange vanity candidacy siphoning votes from the only genuine Democrat left in the mayoral race.

That Democrat is me, and conscience is key.

Campaign Diary, Chapter 3: Insurgencies, signage and conscience.

All I ask is that you look at my candidacy rationally. Neither Gahan nor Zurschmiede really gets where you're coming from. They cannot, and they never will. Their political clubs come first, not you.

This isn't propaganda.

It's simple fact. I appreciate your support ... even if you can't announce it.

The East Spring Street Neighborhood Association Inc. is formed to foster the ongoing revitalization of the area, and to improve the quality of life for those who live and work within the association boundaries. Additionally the association is designated as follows:

To be a forum for the discussion & review of community issues & projects

To be an advisory body & advocate to our elected representatives on behalf of our members

To monitor & facilitate public services & infrastructure investments within our association boundaries

To educate & establish communications in the community & to externally promote New Albany

To develop solutions to community issues & to shape the future vision of New Albany

To seek grants and other funds for community projects

To implement, promote, or coordinate with other agencies and programs for the protection, safety and enhancement of the neighborhood community

We have also just recently gained our non-profit status as a 501C3.

ORBP antidotes: “The mayor has already made the case as to why these improvements are important."

It's a feature-length piece (1,400 words) by local newspaper standards, and presses most of the relevant buttons. Go read it, while considering a question I've asked before: What is the nature of the opposition to complete streets in New Albany?

By "opposition," I'm not referring to scattershot sniping from the briefly inconvenienced. Rather, I mean organized, coherent opposition. I can't seem to find any, although certain possibilities are obvious (Padgett, for instance, although there seems to be no record of the company's position either way). Proponents, including the East Spring Street Neighborhood Association, have been making a coherent and public case for a decade, and yet successive mayoral administrations seem constantly paralyzed.

I'm not entirely sure Jeff Speck knows what he's in for.

New Albany alone might well comprise sufficient material for a whole new book, and while I'd like to think it would be because we elect to institute a bold, vibrant laboratory to promoting modernity and the merits of infrastructure adjustment to achieve desired ends ... well, I've lived here for too long. I know we can do it. The problem is whether we know we can do it.

BRIDGING THE FUTURE: Examining the Ohio River Bridges Project impact on New Albany, Daniel Suddeath (N and T)

... With the Ohio River Bridges Project underway, the (East Spring Street) neighborhood group is pushing for the city to address what they feel is a dangerous traffic grid before more motorists head to New Albany to avoid tolls which will be placed on downtown interstate bridges and the new east-end bridge.

Roads such as Spring, Elm and Market Streets are already sped through by motorists who show no concern for the neighborhood they’re endangering, Roberts and other members of the group said.

“They don’t live here and they don’t care about the people that live here every day,” Harshfield said.

Overwhelmingly, the residents and business owners interviewed by the News and Tribune for this story said they support two-way streets in downtown New Albany for safety and commerce reasons, and added that the bridges project should make that decision even more clear for city leaders ...

This Midtown home: On the right side of New Albany street grid history.

For quite some time, members of the East Spring Street Neighborhood Association have advocated for two-way streets, reminding us that in most significant ways, one-way arterials produce conditions decidedly non-conducive to neighborhoods.

Take it to the bank(er): Quality of life considerations are not defined solely by residents of newer areas outside the historic core. They apply to everyone ... but they cannot be equally distributed until we have a discussion about what the term means, and the discussion includes the street grid and related infrastructure.

My two-way street project and how you can help.

Scatological canine placemaking comes to the hood.

It's a worthy idea, leaving an unasked question dangling near the turds: Who cleans up after the filthy humans?