Council's misdirected paving Band-Aids, Shane's implicit concession and dollar signs like diseased trees, all around.

As considered previously, tonight the city would like for you to choose between celebrating localism at the Calumet Club, and sitting attentively like good, disciplined students while its pre-determined aquatics plans are buffed and polished at Fairmont.

Not good.

Concurrently, last night at the April Fool's edition of the city council, city attorney Shane Gibson replied to a question by Diane Benedetti. She asked whether the administration is aware of the street grid challenges to come when bridge construction and tolling are initiated, and if so, is there a plan?

Gibson said yes, there is. If crazy vague, it is perhaps the first public acknowledgement on the Gahan team's part that someone, somewhere is aware of the immediate future of streets in the city.

Good.

Except that at the same time, last evening's work session and meeting were again dominated by utterly detached ruminations on how fast the city can bond too much more money to apply temporary paving Band-Aids to outmoded and broken roads, while refusing to think about street grid alternatives. $6 million for paving quite clearly is a City Hall initiative. Another $10 - $13 million for a handful of parks. I'm not an alarmist, but if in fact there is a street grid plan, where's the money going to be found?

Not good.

Another episode last evening: City planner Scott Wood countered Dan Coffey's zoning rant by suggesting that it's time to rethink the city's archaic bundle of zoning contradictions, gently suggesting that two decades has a way of changing things. John Gonder then did something quite amazing: He said the words "form based code" aloud, at a city council meeting, in New Albany.

I glanced furtively at the police, concerned that Gonder might be forcibly removed from the room. He wasn't. There was an audible sigh.

If planning and zoning rules and regulations are due a comprehensive rethink, and they are, then why not the street grid, too? Wouldn't this be a better use of time and money BEFORE $6 million is spent paving useless stretches of tarmac?

Or is it too much to expect that a question like this can get a serious hearing in a city determined to fight yesterday's battles, and lose?

Vision? Anyone?

Bueller?

(Link to newspaper coverage)

Rationality from elsewhere: Bicycling, public transport and form-based codes.

After reading Louisville's toll-happy new mayor officiously gurgle (to a dietitian, no less) yet again about the grandeur of oligarchy enfluffment via the ORBP, it's instructive to survey the scene in nearby cities. Following are three such bits of inspiration.

Cincinnati submits $56.8M TIGER III application to fund modern streetcar extension, by Randy A. Simes (UrbanCincy)

Local governments across the United States are in the process of competing for $527 million worth of Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) III funds. The deadline for applications was October 31, and the City of Cincinnati once again has applied for funds.

Cincinnati’s TIGER III application requests $56.8 million for phase one of the Cincinnati Streetcar. City officials say that the money will go to immediately restore the project’s segments that were eliminated following Governor Kasish’s (R) controversial reallocation of $52 million in early 2011.

Apart from streetcars in Cincinnati, there are bicycles in Indianapolis -- and even in New Albany, as the increasingly irrelevant King Larry can attest. It is sadly ironic that even as other burgs speak of expanding bike lanes and biking in general, dullards from the outer reaches of Floyd County would prefer their disappearance, if reattaching another lane of traffic to Spring Street somehow might reduce their commute times during the bridge outage -- as though New Albany exists only for their pass-through pleasure. Pfui to all that.

Measured Progress: Bike Lanes on Broad Ripple Ave, by Curt Ailes (Urban Indy)

Last week, guide lines went down on Broad Ripple Ave between the village and Keystone Avenue. I knew that the thermostriped permanent ones would not be far behind. Well, the new lines are down and my initial expectations for what the corridor would look like have been exceeded.

We've previously referenced form-based codes here.

Meridian Kessler Moving Forward with Form-Based Codes, by Kevin Kastner (Urban Indy)

My neighborhood, Meridian Kessler, has been doing some behind-the-scenes maneuvering to promote the implementation of Form-Based zoning codes in the neighborhood. Form-based codes are the logical antidote to the current use-based zoning that is in place in much of the United States. Urban Indy will be highly supportive of the Meridian Kessler Neighborhood Association’s push for this important and much-needed change.

Gonder on forks and forms (Form Based Codes).

File John Gonder's most recent blog post under, "What they won't bother talking about at Kitchen Fable". That's too bad. John has utilized the current campaign as a bully pulpit to ponder issues just like Form Based Codes. Needless to say, he has my vote on May 3.

A Fork in the Road

The River View project has taken a seat for the moment. Signs point to a slower closer consideration of the project. Consensus seems to be that the project is good from at least one angle: people are thinking big about downtown New Albany and, likewise, thinking big about housing downtown ...

... Perhaps the best method of democratizing this project and, indeed, the entire process of building a modern, adaptable, environmentally responsible city for now and the future is found in the Smart Growth tenet of Form Based Codes. Here are a couple links to Form Based Code information: Link one and Link 2 ...

... The BFD is, do we involve the citizens of this community in an inter-generationally defining project, or do we kick it around the Plan Commission and the City Council and come up with something "that we can live with"? A Form Based Code gets the community involved in defining how our City will develop both literally and figuratively.

As the primary campaign winds down, I pledge now, if I am given a second term,to do all that I can to push this city toward a full exploration of a Form Based Code. It may not be the answer to all our planning issues. It may be unworkable here for one reason or another. Or, it may be what lies down one direction of that fork in the road, the direction that leads us sensibly and responsibly into the still-new century.