The Jeff Gahan Money Machine, Part 10: Oh Cripe! Or, the path from Al "Indy" Oak's company PAC leads to Silver Street Park and Breakwater, and probably others.

Previously: The Jeff Gahan Money Machine, Part 9: These west end properties and their ultimate redevelopment surely comprise a rich, albeit tangled, source of campaign finance extractions for our Genius of the Flood Plain.

Some people grow turnips, but during the coming weeks we'll be plucking highlights from eight years of the Committee to Elect Gahan's CFA-4 campaign finance reports. Strap in, folks -- and don't forget those air(head) sickness bags.

Back in June of 2017, we examined the "wet your beak" mob idiom and the shady arena of bond fees: SHANE'S EXCELLENT NEW WORDS: Lawyers, guns, bond issue beak wetting and how Dean Martin anticipated the Mighty Trumpolini.

This blog holds that when it comes to a wetting of beaks, the thirsts being slaked are far more commonly attached to perfectly upstanding citizens (in appearance), who operate according to perfectly legal mechanisms instituted precisely to facilitate a wetting of beaks. It doesn't rule out extortion, but it accepts a level of built-in remuneration not always obvious to Joe Sixpack.

The purpose of the current series is to illustrate that Mayor Jeff Gahan, via his campaign finance vacuum, has been merrily wetting his beak from many of the big dollar projects Team Gahan has initiated since 2012.

While construction itself tends to be subject to competitive bidding, a whole class of design, planning, engineering, architectural, legal and consultation work can be assigned without competitive bidding -- most often by appointed boards, most conspicuously the Board of Works and the Redevelopment Commission.

The same names pop up again and again ... and the deeper you dig, the greater the number of connections between them. As an example, since Gahan's first mayoral campaign in 2011 he has pocketed a crisp, even $10,000 from something called Citizens for Excellence in Government.

2011 ... 500
2013 ... 1,000
2014 ... 3,500
2015 ... 2,000
2016 ... 1,000
2017 ... 2,000
Total ... $10,000

At first it was listed on Gahan's CFA-4 "tip of the iceberg" form as an "other organization," but since 2011 it's been properly filed under Political Action Committee. The state of Indiana concurs.

One might be forgiven for asking, "what sort ideological or single issue advocacy might this PAC be pursuing with its cash?'"

The apparent answer would be: Why, the ultimate ideology, corporate profit, seeing that the head honcho of the Citzens for Excellence in Government and the Cripe Architects firm is the very same guy, one Alex D. Oak.

Alex D. Oak, PE | Chairman & Chief Executive, Partner ... Al Oak joined the firm in the summer of 1972 as a land surveyor. Since then, he has served in just about every area of the firm. In 1992 he became Chief Executive Officer and, with that appointment, made some key strategic changes in the firm’s business and cultural model.

Can we assume that his free spending PAC has helped innovate, fertilizing these "business and cultural model changes?" My, my -- the beaks surely have gotten wet.

And the connection between Cripe, the Citizens for Excellence in Government PAC, Gahan's campaign cash reservoir and taxpayer funding of bright shiny objects?

That's right: Silver Street Park, the involvement of Cripe in which was partially covered in Part 4 of this series.

But that's not all!

Yes, Cripe also was in bed with Flaherty-Collins on the Breakwater project. We've yet to consider Flaherty-Collins' contributions to Dear Leader's cash-engorged ego, so maybe that's coming next.

After a nice, restorative drink of beverage alcohol.

#FireGahan2019

Rebuttals are welcome and will be published unaltered -- so don't forget spellcheck. If you have supplementary information to offer about any of this, please let us know and we'll update the page. The preceding was gleaned entirely from public records, with the addresses of "individuals" removed.

Next: The Jeff Gahan Money Machine, Part 11: Lawyers from afar, expressing gratitude to Jeff Gahan for their billable hours -- and the curious case of Stan Robison.

In #OurNA, we'll get serious about affordable housing -- after Breakwater is finished, of course.

Today on the DemoDisneyDixie channel, we're screening Pinocchio. In fact, Adam has front row seats, and TIF's buying the popcorn.

In entirely unrelated news, Team Gahan says that from this point forward, the city's going to get super-duper serious about affordable housing!

Any new private housing development that received local government support will be required to reserve a percentage of the units for low-income residents.

You'll notice that Wile E. Gahan's spine didn't stiffen until after Flaherty & Collins was buffed, polished and subsidized to build "luxury" apartments along Spring Street. The Break Wind Lofts at Duggins Flats has been about climate-controlled bidets, not workforce-rates.

Over in Louisville, Gahan's political idol is dealing with a "moving goalposts" situation. How Greg Fischer deals with it, or doesn't, might offer prime lessons for our own Dear Leader -- who seldom if ever listens.

Paying off the politicians to change the rules, by Aaron Yarmuth (LEO)

... It’s a great project for the city.

Now, however, the Georgia-based developer, Flournoy Development, says it can’t afford the project… because its deal with the city requires reduced rental rates on 18 apartments. Just 18 of 270…

The reduced-rate apartment requirement isn’t something new. The city didn’t suddenly surprise the developer with this news. Rather, the company seems to have waited until it had enough leverage to renegotiate (and squeeze every last dollar out of the deal) — or something else is afoot.

To keep the project going, the developer is offering the city $500,000, and in exchange it won’t have to offer 18 apartment units at a lower, “workforce” rate ...

The Cosmopolitan: Turns out The Breakwater isn't the first fire at a Flaherty & Collins development under construction.

The article is eight years old. It was anonymously written, and it is the only post at the blog. Links are broken. By 2010, the arrested man had been released for lack of evidence, and the Cosmopolitan development was completed and opened.

Therefore, this link is purely for entertainment value.

Until it isn't. Thanks, A.

Tin Foil Hats? (The Cosmopolitan Fire: Flaherty and Collins Uncovered)

By now everyone in Indy has heard about the fire that destroyed the downtown development known as "The Cosmopolitan". This project, backed by Flaherty and Collins, was a $37m retail/apartment development slated to open in May of this year.

Recently an arrest has been made, and Brandon Burns, a 23 year old homeless man, has been charged with arson in the incident.

Does anyone else smell the bullshit surrounding this entire affair?!?

I am not the type to wear the tin foil hat, or scream conspiracy from the rooftops, but come on! Let's take a look at some facts, shall we?

Never forget that Jeff Gahan used your tax dollars to subsidize luxury at Breakwater.

An "alternative fact" of a skyline? Learn more here.

Let's hope new residents at the Break Wind Lofts at Duggins Flats aren't too disappointed when the city of Louisville turns out to be situated a bit further to the southwest than Pastime's gazebo.

Austin Carmony, the firm's vice president of development, said the complex's 66-unit residential building, where tenants have already started moving in, was completed in December. The second 125-unit building will be done in April. Rent for the units ranges from $650 to $1,650.

Let's also hope the most luxurious of the high end digs aren't gifted with a view of the lovely landscaping at AT&T, across an as yet uncalmed one-way Spring Street -- where presently, the traffic is moving faster than ever.

A relatively small space on the east side of the former Coyle showroom remains rough and unfinished, and so this evidently is what Carmony refers to in this passage.

The renovated former Coyle showroom will house retail and amenities including a heated pool, gym, grilling stations, fire pit and a dog park. Carmony said no one has signed on to fill the space yet, but he thinks a restaurant would be ideal in the location.

Another dog park? Who knew that the Coyle lot was built atop a Native American site? As an aside, I still think it was a mistake to omit bocce ball; if only Redevelopment would have kicked in another couple hundred thousand to a for-profit private developer to make it happen.

Wouldn't bocce have fit comfortably on one of those rooftops, thus better facilitating a distanced squint at Louisville?

Two months ago, a local restaurateur told the Green Mouse that the unfinished potential eatery space in the former showroom actually is priced fairly -- for being unfinished.

Flaherty and Collins apparently is offering to lease this space at the low bargain rate and provide something like $50,000 in cash for the build-out (the Green Mouse was told by the restaurateur that it wasn't enough of an enticement to interest him), but the dollars-per-square-foot price fairly skyrockets if the building's owner must finish the space.

Always be aware that as City Hall touts the many restaurants and bars downtown, as though it had anything whatever to do with their founding and operation -- and you can ask virtually any eatery owner to explain where the bulk of the start-up capital originates, this being with them, and not a magical bunkerside ATM -- the fact that the city subsidized the entirety of the Break Wind development means that the city also is subsidizing the eatery or bar that eventually comes to rest in the rough unfinished space. The city might as well be the one writing the check for $50K, right?

I'm not making this point owing to my antipathy for the current occupant, which is real, but rather because it's absolutely true. With Break Wind, the city's been picking winners with your money -- and is picking winners with your money the sort of thing you want Jeff Gahan doing?

Coyle showroom now luxury clubhouse in New Albany, by Madeleine Winer (Courier-Journal)

The clubhouse is open and the first tenants have started to move into The Breakwater, a luxury apartment complex still under construction in New Albany.

MUST SEE VIDEO: Flaherty & Collins and a false advertisement for the Breakwater "luxury" housing complex.

Watch the video at YouTube. 

Joshua Pavey noticed what was wrong with the picture, and he produced an excellent short video that solves the mystery of the misplaced Louisville skyline.

"Apparently Breakwater apartments are okay with false advertisement."

It's too bad that millions in corporate subsidies couldn't have produced a more accurate sales pitch.

Breakwater, Break Wind: "We got to move these refrigerators, we gotta move these color TV's," or else we'll miss the thrill of public housing demolitions.

The expected breathlessness comes to us straight from the Hanson Advertising Aggregator, so a few actual facts are worth remembering:

1. Break Wind is the first instance in municipal history of sewer tap-in fees being waived for a private, for-profit developer, adding another few hundred thousand to the bonds mentioned below.

2. At a time when affordable housing is a nationwide dilemma, this public relations exaltation of drywall 'n' pressboard "luxury" is occurring simultaneously with Mayor Jeff Gahan's packing of the New Albany Housing Authority Board with slobbering sycophants (sorry, Shane) in anticipation of permanently reducing affordable housing (and shrinking the safety net) for the city's working poor.

3. Finally, seeing as the city is subsidizing this private for-profit development with sewer tap-in waivers, bonds and infrastructure, the city also will be subsidizing the private for-profit eatery mentioned as potential tenant of Break Wind's retail space.This is an affront to every entrepreneur who has invested in downtown with little or no similar assistance from Team Gahan.

In the Dear Leader's shining city on the flood plain, the beat (and the hypocrisy, and the reconstituted prostitution) goes on ... and on ... and on ...

The Breakwater starts moving in tenants; 13 leasers set to move into the first, 66-unit residential building by the end of the month, by Danielle Grady

Flaherty & Collins is still looking for a tenant to fill the retail space, however. A restaurant that benefits the city would be ideal, Carmony said.

As the property continues to take shape, Carmony said he expects more Breakwater residents to sign leases.

The Breakwater, a $26.5 million project, is being built with the help of $4.9 million in bonds from the city and a $3.3 million tax credit from the Indiana Economic Development Corp.

The development will pay $250,000 in property taxes, and its residents will pump millions into the local economy, said David Flaherty, the CEO of Flaherty & Collins, in a previous News and Tribune article.

Lease now at Break Wind, get a free pass to break the city's traffic laws.

Photo credit: The Bookseller.

We already knew that Flaherty and Collins Properties received unprecedented sewer tap-in waivers, but we didn't know the Indy-based balsa rabbit hutch moguls also received permission to violate the city of New Albany's prevailing traffic laws.

Let's look more closely at the corner of East Spring and 6th.

It might help to diagram the play.

Do not enter ... unless you're ready to lease!

Tap-in waivers, traffic law waivers ... you know, if I were a betting man, I'd suggest that Flaherty and Collins won't be paying those $5 rental property registration fees, either.

And if they do, David "Bag Man" Duggins will convey them straight into the Gahan for State Senate account.

What do you think?

The Indy rental experience and our Breakwater: "Why the discrepancy between high demand for housing in the city but low growth in occupancy rates?"

In which you put yourself into Flaherty and Collins' shoes, up there in exploding Indianapolis, on that day when the fax first arrived from David Duggins, the one expressing keen interest in top-dollar pads for millennials and oh, by the way, there's a few million of TIF lube and a line or three of sewer tap-in waivers waiting -- then a colleague says "hey, what's that?"

"Dunno, some rube in Hicksville by Kentucky somewhere. Where are you headed?"

"The bathroom; those tacos are lighting me up. I've been breaking wind all morning."

(Breaking wind ... hmm)

"Hey, wait -- ever heard of Nawbany?"

Read the whole piece.

From our perspective Down Here, only an excerpt is necessary to make the point, followed by Nuvo's first example of high-priced vacancy -- featuring a familiar name.

The rent is too damn high! How Indy's rental boom leaves a lot of people at the curb, by Annika Larson (NUVO)

 ... Why the discrepancy between high demand for housing in the city but low growth in occupancy rates?

Maybe it's the lack of understanding what most millennials and the working middle class need. Or perhaps it's the price-gouging that luxury apartment complexes impose on their tenants (extra fees for parking, pool access, gym access, pay-by-load laundry rooms, glamorous lobbies, full balconies, a bigger bathroom, etc.). After all, these apartments are supposedly aimed at the top 1 percent of millennials that are making around $90,000 a year. The reality of Indianapolis demographics is that the average household income is $63,865 at the median age of 34 years old. Under the age of 25, the median income rests at $28,553. That's not to say there aren't people who earn the top dollars here in Indy, but they just don't exist in high enough numbers to fill up all of the amenity-rich apartments that are currently built — and have yet to be built — in 2016.

Instead, most people — specifically the younger demographic — currently living in Indianapolis (or looking at Indianapolis as a prospective future home) look toward the neighborhoods directly outside of the city, such as the Old Northside, Fountain Square, and Woodruff Place. The luxury apartment boom actually makes certain parts of the city unattainable for most people, specifically the Wholesale District and Monument Circle. Development of these living spaces is supposed to cater to residents who wish to make direct downtown living a reality, but high rent turns people away. So, direct downtown neighborhoods like the Wholesale District and Mass Ave aren't seeing the vast influx of new residents and high rates of growth that was projected — instead, neighborhoods directly outside of the city are seeing growth because it's the only affordable way to attain the vibe of downtown living ...

Photo credit: Annika Larson, NUVO

Axis Apartments, Flaherty and Collins

• 336 units total
• 303 units occupied
• 33 units vacant
• Studios start at $1,245/month

Weyland versus Duggins on two-way property development.

Photo credit: Broken Sidewalk.

Broken Sidewalk tells the story of developer Bill Weyland's latest Louisville rehab project.

City Properties Group is planning to converting the 125-year-old Louisville Chemical Building on the northeast corner of Jefferson Street and Hancock Street into a mixed-use complex of apartments and retail ...

... Weyland is the right fit for this rehab project—he’s probably renovated more old buildings in and around Downtown than anyone else. His most notable projects include the Henry Clay, the Guthrie-Coke Building on Fourth, the Whiskey Row Lofts, and the Glassworks Building. Like these other historic renovations, Weyland plans to help fund his latest project using historic tax credits.

In at least one significant way, Weyland's checklist of necessary preconditions for success differs from those blithely discarded by Jeff Gahan during the run-up to corporate welfare for Flaherty-Collins and its subsidized construction of "luxury" apartments at the former Coyle site in New Albany.

“Jefferson Street needs to be two-way,” Weyland said. The five- to six-lane one-way road behaves more like a superhighway that results in dangerous conditions for all road users. Just last month, two motorists collided at Campbell Street, sending their cars into an uncontrolled spiral that hit a 160-year-old townhouse and causing its eventual demolition.

Insider Louisville heard Weyland make the very same point.

“Everything works in concert with each other,” Weyland told IL. “As we get more residents, there will be additional opportunities for restaurants and retail.” One hindrance, however, could be Jefferson Street, he said. The street needs to be turned into a two-way road, providing people easier access to Liberty Green and the medical district and making it safer by slowing vehicles.

“It is critical from my standpoint,” Weyland said.

In the beginning Flaherty and Collins made similar noises, to the effect that the firm would "prefer" to see Spring and Elm functioning as two-way streets, because a proper street grid would support their investment in luxury housing, not hinder it -- as truck-choked, one-way interstate traffic tends to do.

But just as quickly, New Albany's economic dishevelment czar made it clear that Flaherty and Collins was perfectly content to accept massive public monetary lubricants with or without a rational street grid. It's easy to imagine the back alley conversation:

Flaherty and Collins: Listen, hayseeds, these things work better with the correct infrastructure.

Duggins: Do you want this pile of money, or not? By the way, the slot for Gahan campaign donations can be found in my right rear pocket.

Our reigning suburban-thinkers? They're not finished yet.

Subsidizing luxury, ignoring affordability ... or, "housing strategies from our local Democrats."

The city of New Albany is subsidizing "luxury" apartments to the tune of millions of dollars, even as all available evidence indicates these are not what the market demands.

At the same time, any mention of affordable housing before mayor or council is met with the modern-day equivalent of waving the bloody shirt: "No More Housing Projects."

Undoubtedly this stems from the firmly suburbanite-centric conceptual orientation of New Albany politics, wherein affordable rentals are associated with unclean lifestyles and the "wrong" kind of people (see: registrations and inspections, rental properties, NO GO).

And yet escalating experience all across the nation indicates that any genuine concern for the housing needs of strongly desired "millennials" would be met by affordable housing, not "luxury" housing.

Once Flaherty Collins has bankrolled its Gahan-induced profit guarantee and made the requisite political deposits, will the apartments remain "luxurious" if the market rules otherwise? If they did not, wouldn't this finally represent a rational response?

There Are Plenty of New Apartments Being Built—Just Not Affordable Ones, by Gillian B. White (City Lab)

... The Fed researchers took a look at housing supply and found that there’s a lot more construction happening at the top of the market, where developers and builders are quickly getting luxury apartments to market. The wide selection of swanky apartments actually helps to keep inflation at bay for pricier properties. Since there are so many options at the top of the market, landlords compete for new tenants, which helps keep the cost down for consumers.

But for those in lower income brackets, things aren’t working out as nicely. Construction has been slow for cheaper apartments, since many developers are more focused on renovating existing properties or building new ones in hopes of appealing to more affluent renters ...

Yes, Jeff, we know you're The Luxury Mayor: "Working so hard, to keep you from the poverty."

Jeff Gahan and the local Democratic Party are really excited about subsidizing the construction of luxury apartments just a few blocks away from the city's most concentrated areas of poverty.

As New Albany Census Facts (2009-2013) readily attest:

NA median household income: $39,607 ($48,248 overall in Indiana)

Persons below poverty level in NA: 22.2% (15.4% overall in Indiana)

We all know the parts of town most affected by these numbers, so think about this.

Our Democrats are monetarily supporting Bocce ball, "Gigabit Internet access" and other upscale amenities for the few, as Gahan's campaign vows from 2011 (jobs and education) go entirely unmentioned. Even those whom we'd have expected to denounce such coded social engineering have fallen into line.

“When I came on the council, philosophically, I was opposed to ideas like this,” Phipps said. “I called it corporate welfare as well. For some of the naysayers out there that say this isn’t a thing for Democrats to do, I thought renewing urban environments, cleaning up blighted areas and bringing residents to the community so they can support locally owned business, is very much a Democrat thing to do.”
-- Greg Phipps (3rd district council) in supporting the Coyle site subsidies

But Greg: What about the message these subsidies send, not to just to the desperate and impoverished in our community, but also to working families just managing to get by, who are struggling with income inequality and low-wage jobs, and destined to be excluded by the ethos of privilege?

Can someone in the ruling elite explain to them how the "ripple effect" (Duggins' words) is going to lift them up?

What has Jeff Gahan, a supposed Democrat, done in four years for those most in need of hope, apart from hand them nicely suburbanized (and frightfully expensive) parks?

Now listen, I'm a proud man, not a beggar walking on the street

I'm working so hard, to keep you from the poverty

I'm working so hard to keep you in the luxury, oh yeah

I'm working so hard, I'm working so hard

Harder, harder, working, working, working

Insulating Democratic voters from the poverty isn't exactly what Mick and Keith had in mind, but that's how our governing clique rolls.

And that's why #gahanmustgo

Duggins: Indy developer has "vested interest" in our community, and millennials prefer biking alongside Padgett cranes.

There's something surreal about the conversations taking place as to the preferences of the $60,000 per year millennials who'll be playing bocce ball at the Flaherty and Collins development, which I believe is slated to be called Gahan "Business of Residency" Manor.

That's because the words "business of residency" must be chanted as economic development mantras just as often as "trickle down" and "ripple effect," so that the turbine powered by George Orwell spinning in his grave continues to power our street non-sweepers.

But you see, these millennials won't need as many parking spaces because millennials like to bicycle and walk, and they're not auto-centric like their parents, and the former Coyle site is located in a "pedestrian friendly" area.

With almost no crosswalks, without any efforts made to promote a culture of walkability, because at a previous meeting David Duggins rushed to reassure the crowd that these walkers and bikers would be perfectly content with unaltered, adjacent, two fast lanes comprising one-way arterial streets, as built to interstate specifications, and thus discouraging walking and biking.

You see, THESE millennials will be different, and enjoy 18-wheelers thundering past as they ride to ... to ... where again are they riding in a city almost entirely without bike lanes, and no coherent plans to add ones that might actually connect to each other?

The comparatively fewer cars parked there won't be a problem unless they are, at which point the developer will have to deal with it ... perhaps by buying adjacent homes with further TIF One Card bonds to create more stormwater-friendly impermeable surface?

Even better ...

AT&T, which has a location across from the development, donated a 24-space lot to the city to be utilizes specifically for the development.

Yes!

More prime infill building space goes toward surface parking, contributing to stormwater issues, which millennials can reach by walking across a one-way arterial street with bike lanes that go nowhere and connect to nothing, where crosswalks are almost unheard of, and which -- thus far in the mayor's down-low stealth campaign to convince selected private questioners that he understands this so well that nothing can be done to change it for two or more years -- nothing has been done to change it now, and never will, in two or twenty years.

Do any of these people really believe a single word he's saying?

I understand Duggins, Gahan, Flaherty, Collins, Rosenbarger and Gibson spouting outlandish propaganda. I suppose now, at long last, I must finally concede that Scott Wood is mortally afflicted with the gibberish contagion, too.

This makes me very sad.

Doctor, my broom, please.

New Albany apartments receive zoning approval, by Daniel Suddeath (N and T)

NEW ALBANY — The public funding has been OK'd, a substantial tax credit pledged, and on Tuesday, the developer seeking to construct a $26 million apartment and retail complex in downtown New Albany garnered zoning approval from the city.

Flaherty and Collins received unanimous approval from the New Albany Board of Zoning Appeals to construct a 191-unit apartment development on the former Coyle auto property from 501 to 515 E. Spring St.

A variance was required for the project in part because the number of parking spaces planned doesn't meet the city's standard for apartments of similar size.

Taibbi feels the Bern: "An elected government should occasionally step in and offer an objection or two toward our progress to undisguised oligarchy."

This one from Matt Taibbi was posted on April 29, 2015, and I've underlined a passage which echoes something we've been saying locally:

Why do we accept the entire governmental structure becoming oriented toward monetizing and dispensing financial favors to the business and construction elites, at the expense of a level playing field for ordinary people?

This is why I'll trudge down to Tuesday's BZA meeting and denounce cynical trickle-down corporate welfare yet again, even as the Dugginses and Gibsons of the ruling elite chortle from the back row at the temerity of anyone daring to question their wheel-greasing boilerplate.

Flaherty Collins rubber stamp for the Coyle site to be hastened by the Board of Zoning Appeals this Tuesday night.

I'd never even consider placing myself in the same league with Bernie Sanders, but this much we have in common: There'll be no oligarchy appeasement here.

Give 'Em Hell, Bernie: Bernie Sanders is more serious than you think, by Matt Taibbi (Rolling Stone)

 ... That saltiness, I'm almost sure of it, is what drove him into this race. He just can't sit by and watch the things that go on, go on. That's not who he is.

When I first met Bernie Sanders, I'd just spent over a decade living in formerly communist Russia. The word "socialist" therefore had highly negative connotations for me, to the point where I didn't even like to say it out loud.

But Bernie Sanders is not Bukharin or Trotsky. His concept of "Democratic Socialism" as I've come to understand it over the years is that an elected government should occasionally step in and offer an objection or two toward our progress to undisguised oligarchy. Or, as in the case of not giving tax breaks to companies who move factories overseas, our government should at least not finance the disappearance of the middle class.

Maybe that does qualify as radical and unserious politics in our day and age. If that's the case, we should at least admit how much trouble we're in.

Coyle site luxury giveaway: "The people that they want to attract can't afford to live there."

Even a Democratic loyalist grasps the obvious.

The argument against (the Coyle site residential development) is right in front of everyone's face. The people that they want to attract can't afford to live there.

Since Thursday evening's city council meeting, I've received almost a dozen e-mails and messages from New Albanians publicly identifying as Democratic, but expressing personal confusion (and in some instance, revulsion) at the Reaganite corporate welfare nature of Jeff Gahan's trickle-down Flaherty and Collins deal for luxury apartments.

Of course, you know I agree with you; the local Democratic Party has run aground, and yet it will be difficult for you to take a public stand in recognition of this reality.

That's okay. I get it. Knowing there's a problem is the first step toward resolving it. Just remember that we're here to do the right thing for the right reasons, as the late Hank Jacoby once put it, and it comes down to conscience.

A brief note about conscience.

... Lots of voters who ordinarily choose a side based on factors beyond the actual issues (family, habit, compulsion at work, etc) will choose to preserve the outward appearance of "this or that" conformity, while resolving internally to opt out of politics as usual and vote differently in 2015. If so, and conscience is their guide ... well, that's why the ballots are secret. No one should be looking over your shoulder.

As for the impending Coyle site giveaway, taxpayer subsidized big-city pricing to live within an errant bocce toss of fundamentally neglected one-way arterial streets, slicing through neighborhoods dominated by slumlord mentalities, just might be working at cross-purposes with millennial aggrandizement. It's complicated, as the following essay suggests.

Then again, New Albany's governing Democratic clique seldom bothers to read.

Millennials Will Live In Cities Unlike Anything We've Ever Seen Before, by Alissa Walker (Gizmodo)

... Then came some interesting data, pegged to the release of 2014 Census information this spring: Millennials have indeed started moving out of big city downtowns—but not necessarily in favor of a quiet rural or suburban life.

Coyle sitecapades: In New Albany, Democrats WILL be Republicans ... and Jeff Gahan WILL stay on the down low.

TH, a first-time council attendee, was in the crowd last night. As the crisply tailored suits from Flaherty and Collins made their case for "high level" coddling, with frequent assistance from David "Our Corporate Welfare Clerk" Duggins, TH messaged me on Facebook.

If anyone is allowed to ask questions, the question or statement to be made should be that their job creation numbers have to be horribly off. He said target renter would be 50k per year. After taxes, utilities, and a rent of $1,100 dollars the person will not have disposable income to spend downtown.

I observed that the decision had been made long before last evening's propaganda exercise.

Back door politics. I couldn't comment good or bad if the complex is a good thing, but I think it would be deceitful if it was sold to the public as a job creator with a tenant target that only makes 50k, thus having no leftover money to spend. Or heck, maybe there are a lot of 50k earners better at budgeting than I was.

Numerous other broad assertions went unchallenged by council "Democrats" eager to prove the veracity of Ronald Reagan's trickle-down economics, as when Flaherty and Collins simultaneously asserted that walkability was a key to the project, but the firm is just fine with New Albany's one-way arterial street grid.

Uh huh.

Let's hope luxury tenants enjoy the sound of 18-wheelers streaming past, mere feet from the patio constructed with only the finest building materials ... and color-coordinated, too.

With the arterial streets representing a 24-hours-a-day incessant lowering of the property values that the apartment development supposedly will increase, and the ongoing degradation of adjoining neighborhoods, where the same tumescent council endorsing corporate welfare last night displays a persistent unwillingness to tackle basic infrastructure problems ... let's just say the idea that such renters will "choose" New Albany solely on the basis of the luxuriousness of the apartments and their proximity to exclusive bocce ball courts strains credulity.

So does the view advanced by Flaherty and Collins last night that these apartments alone will attract high paying jobs to New Albany, where the absence of relevant modern infrastructure works daily against efforts to lure them, dooming us to extractive economic development models.

Hence, the likes of Tiger Trucking, whose vehicles will actively discourage those intrepid apartment occupants daring to walk or ride their bicycles.

How long after the project's completion will the fences and gates go up?

It's important to remember that Democrats are doing this. Not Republicans or oil-rich Saudis. Rather, Democrats.

If you're a local Democrat fond of asking why the working class continues to mimic chickens voting for (Republican) Colonel Sanders, it may be time for a visit to the ideological mirror, but be careful: Some of you with a conscience may find it impossible to avoid disavowing the reflection.

Finally, to repeat: Mayor Jeff Gahan was in the building last night. He remained in his office as Duggins repeated the same tired trickle-down bromides and Democrats on the council rolled over like puppies seeking a good belly-scratching. There's a question in urgent need of an answer.

What good is a mayor who maintains that the Flaherty and Collins residential development at the Coyle site is of central importance to the future of the city, but cannot walk 100 feet down a hallway to make the point himself?

A stellar subsidized evening of Reaganite corporate welfare, New Albany Trickle-Down Democrat-style.

Tonight's city council verdict: In a "free" market economy, risk is a necessary condition for small local businesses, developers and entrepreneurs, while for-profit businesses of larger size, pursuing ventures of a certain vaguely defined "magnitude," must forever be sheltered from the vicissitudes of risk by means of civic subsidy.

Democrats did this -- except for John Gonder, who joined Kevin Zurschmiede in voting against the $4.9 million bond.

It bears repeating: Tonight's exercise in risk-free corporate welfare and purely trickle-down economics, wherein "luxury" apartments matter more than neglected areas of blight and impoverishment situated yards away?

Yep: Democrats did that.

Not Republicans.

Democrats.

With his spirited defense of subsidized luxury apartments as curative for what he referred to as "blight," 3rd district councilman Greg Phipps apparently has coined a new re-election campaign slogan.

"The Needs of the Luxurious Few Outweigh the Needs of the Marginalized Many." 

Mr. Spock would be appalled. Then again, he never was a Democrat in New Albany.

Jeff Gahan did not attend the meeting. At the conclusion, as I stepped into the hallway to chat, Gahan could be seen emerging from his office. He saw me, and ducked back inside.

He must have been there all along.

Wouldn't you have liked your elected mayor, and not an appointee like David Duggins, explain the merits of this purportedly transformational luxury bocce empowerment project?

I sure would. More tomorrow.

City council rubber stamp boilerplate orgy begins at 7:00 p.m. tonight.

We've all been here before.

It's just boilerplate for the city to pay someone to make a profitable investment, right?

"Because subsidizing wealthy, out of town developers is the only thing our economic development director knows how to do with our tax money."

Me?

I'm so old, I can remember when Dan Coffey routinely objected to "boilerplate" giveaways like this one. He'd preen, posture, brandish quarts of lighter fluid and threaten to flick his Bic right there in the council chamber unless we put a stop to it.

Drinking the lighter fluid would have made more sense.

Now, engorged by the capital projects largesse that oozes from the Gahan administration's pores like last night's garlic-laced clam sauce, Dan Coffey is the most enthusiastic advocate in town for subsidizing the wealthy, even as local developers work on their own dimes.

Tonight's council meeting has been choreographed in advance, as most of Jeff Gahan's expenditures have been. I'll attend in the proper spirit, aware that nothing of genuine substance will occur. Rather, as with judges at a gymnastics competition, council members will be graded on how well they read their pre-assigned scripts.

Shams and travesties, all. As usual, NAC's co-editor drives the nails with authority.

Jeff Gillenwater: If the New Albany City Council approves the mayor's request for $4.9 million to subsidize the apartment complex on Spring Street, the public will be paying for more than 50% of that project. When profits occur, the public will be entitled to 0% of them. If anyone thinks that's a good investment deal, please contact me. I have several more projects to pitch to you in which you put up more than half the money and I keep all the profits.

JG: Almost as funny is Councilman Blair's suggestion that the luxury apartments are like the YMCA. Except that the public investment in the non-profit YMCA was much smaller, the Redevelopment Commission and some council members demanded that the Y guarantee full public access - that no one in the city would ever be turned away for inability to pay - before they would agree to invest at all, and, because it's a lease deal, if the Y ever fails, the City still owns the property and could re-lease or sell it to recoup costs.

Roger A. Baylor: Whaddya say, Scott Blair? Apples and oranges? Seriously, I'd just once like to hear Scott or Shirley Baird or any council member submit to a substantive chat about topics like this.

JG: The usual silence. We're a day out from a decision about a major public expenditure and, despite their obvious connectivity v.v. communications technologies, I've not seen any public discussion or shared reasoning concerning the merits or lack thereof of this project.

In New Albany, public discussions take place in backrooms and side corridors, with the occasional elected official on hand to break the sheer monotony of political appointees bored with decision-making on the down-low.

The Flaherty Collins apartment development at the Coyle site isn't the first such instance, and it may not be the worst. It's just the latest in a long line of chicanery-ridden money transfers dismissed as "boilerplate" by the leader of the band.

Sorry, but economic development by ATM withdrawal offends me.

I may or may not be elected mayor, but I can promise this: If I am, we'll do everything possible to put a stop to the backroom fixes and rampant palm-greasing.

Don't forget: Council meetings start at 7:00 p.m. these days. 

It's just boilerplate to pay someone to make a profitable investment, right?

Yesterday we were breathlessly told to prepare for yet another apocalyptic weather event that never arrived. Out in search of flashlight batteries and cans of beans, I happened upon representatives of Flaherty Collins, loading the trunks of their cars with cases of champagne.

Sly Stone once observed a riot going on. In New Albany, we specialize in anointments.

Coyle site TIF abuse: "Because subsidizing wealthy, out of town developers is the only thing our economic development director knows how to do with our tax money."

There was a gently facetious comment posted about the preceding, and while normally I wouldn't repeat it, the sentiment is deserving of open refutation proportionate to the backroom greasings that have produced the Coyle site deal.

How dare them foreigners (from Indiana) invest in our town! Xenophobia is alive and well in some quarters.

If the investment "in our town" is credible (read: profitable), as developers like Matt Chalfant, Steve Resch, the Carters and others seem to think it is, then why must we in effect pay someone to invest in NA?

This is what we're doing with Flaherty Collins.

But couldn't these monies be used to augment the non-subsidized local investments already taking place, by developers working on their own, from no more than a profit incentive borne of risk and opportunity?

Didn't I read somewhere that this is the essence of the free market?

Perhaps there is more than the immediately obvious to "boilerplate" economic development strategies.

Coyle site TIF abuse: "Because subsidizing wealthy, out of town developers is the only thing our economic development director knows how to do with our tax money."

Hint: Those little white nodules are the unregulated rental properties.

I'm going to borrow Randy's introduction to what became a well-populated Facebook discussion.

On Thursday, the New Albany city council is set to approve $4.9 million in redevelopment borrowing for site prep and infrastructure upgrades to the Coyle site on Spring Street. 190 units of what are being called luxury apartments plus 2,000 s.f. of commercial space are to be built there by Flaherty Collins of Indianapolis. What do you think?

There were many replies, which I'll purposefully restrict to a sampling only because I've bigger fish to fry.

• My opinion on this is to look who comes out after voting on this with full pockets.
• Is Spring Street going to be made into a 2-way street? If not, think about the difficulty accessing the apartments? 
• How far to the nearest grocery store?
• Rentals or condos, doesn't really matter to me. To draw the clientele they want to attract, there needs to be more in downtown. 
• A good grant researcher/writer would go a L-O-N-G way.
• I don't know if luxury is the right term. The last I heard the units were being targeted towards young professionals, who I absolutely believe would want to live in this neighborhood. I don't necessarily agree with the path being taken to build something like this but that doesn't mean I think it's not needed or won't work.

Randy addressed the political aspect.

Since this is our money, I think that makes it political. I can't just write a check every six months and then not care how it's spent. And yes, it's TIF money. That's our money, too. The certifier must work with an enormous multiplier to believe that the new taxes we get far in the future make this a good investment. 

Jeff Gillenwater promptly began driving nails.

Because our Democratically controlled city council will likely rubber stamp it without so much as a passing reference to the now decades long failure of trickle down economics?

Because the public will be on the hook for millions in entirely private luxury to which they'll have no access?

I at least hope the district's councilman will vote against it.

We could easily reconfigure the downtown/midtown street grid for less and see a higher rate of return in both private investment and public well being. That would be a worthy TIF goal. This is TIF abuse.

I subsequently noted the obvious, or at least what should be obvious to those without Kool Aid stains on their suit jackets.

Currently a half-dozen developers are rehabbing downtown properties into residential space. They're doing it almost entirely on their own dimes, gradually and sustainably, sans breathless incentives. I simply find it appalling that we're forever willing to provide breaks to entities of a certain size that don't need them, while allowing small and independent business to spin the wheel.

To which Jeff replied (emphasis mine):

And you can bet that if all those local players hadn't already invested millions of their own, this developer wouldn't be looking at New Albany at all. Using TIF properly to improve shared infrastructure rewards those local investors, induces further investment, and helps level the playing field. Using it this way does the exact opposite across the board.

I added a final thought of my own.

Lest we forget, hoping that our councilman Greg Phipps is reading: Everything we're discussing here has been summarized by David Duggins with one special word: "Boilerplate."

Just another day with the same usual suspects, and their same customary cash flow. Indie businesses often refer to recirculation of money through local economies. What we see here is the recirculation of political wheel-greasing slush.

To conclude, Jeff summarized two major themes in magisterial fashion. First, how to do it right. Next, how the current City Hall occupant continues doing it wrong.

The only thing we have to do in the oldest parts of our city to attract young folks, old folks, and in-between folks is to allow them to function as they were designed. We already have an enviable collection of assets and plenty of smarts not represented in local decision making. Return the infrastructure to a safer, multi-modal pattern with a few modern updates, make sure stuff is accessible and works, and then largely get the hell out of the way. Some will want to live in it, some will want to live near it, and others will visit regularly. It's cheap, it's easy, it's the primary function of local government, it's the only part private parties can't do on their own, and the pattern is right in front of us. All the $750,000 pocket parks, $3 million single streets, $9 million aquatic centers, multi-million developer subsidies, and other largely irrelevant schemes in the world don't change that.

We keep electing people who want to be the absentee dad who shows up on random weekends to take the kids to the amusement park and buy them ice cream.

What we need is a mom during the week.

I can't recall it being said any better, and Jeff already knows that I'll be borrowing that last line.

Duggins on Coyle flats: "Flaherty Collins prefers Spring Street to be shifted to two-way travel."

But of course, as slavishly representing a mayor beset with moral cowardice, who seemingly remains determined to orphan his own purported streets project, Duggins was compelled to qualify his words to the city council.

The city just wrapped up a three-part public input series over a street study performed by planner Jeff Speck. As with most roads he discusses in the study, Speck suggested converting all of Spring Street to two-way traffic. Duggins said Flaherty Collins prefers Spring Street to be shifted to two-way travel, as the span of the road adjacent to the apartment site is one-way, but added it’s “not a deal breaker.”

The Clark County resident also praised the condition of New Albany's multiplicity of TIF accounts, spoke glowingly about his DemoDisneyDixiecratic cabal's "perfect" marriage with a state regime dominated by the GOP, noted that it always takes six months or more to produce an informational banner for the parking garage, thanked the US military for speedily wrapping the invasion of 922 Culbertson, and ordered a Bud Light longneck to be delivered from the Roadhouse.

"No, Pat, sit down. The server will bring it."

Luxury rental housing project in New Albany gets another blessing, by Daniel Suddeath (N and T)

The city is moving a 154-unit downtown apartment project along at a swift pace after the development garnered a $3.3 million commitment from the state.