"City for people," or not?

I posted this at Facebook.

The more dense the urban setting, the greater numbers of walkers and bikers. The greater number of walkers and bikers, the less sense it makes to maintain arterial streets for the benefit of those passing through, to the exclusion of the greater good of the neighborhood hosting the streets. Of course, there must be a balance. But I’m weary of the argument that an extra five minutes transit time for suburbanites is sufficient reason to maintain unsafe conditions for walkers and bikers in urban neighborhoods.

A discussion broke out, and you can read it here.

Decision 2011: Phipps clearly the pick of the Third.

New Albany's municipal elections take place on November 8, and we're examining what passes for choice, with a council race each day through Saturday, the at-large field on Sunday, and the mayoral contest on Monday, October 17. Listings are cribbed from the clerk's office, followed by brief comments by the senior editor.

NEW ALBANY COUNCIL DISTRICT 3
(Precincts New Albany 3, 5, 6, 7, 10)

R Jameson Bledsoe 2001 E. Elm Street 502-751-5180
D Greg Phipps 1105 E. Spring Street 812-949-8317

The 3rd district seat has been inexplicably vacant since 2003, nominally filled with a human, but dusty, rusty and almost completely unused. By contrast, Phipps towers over the other first-time candidates in terms of qualifications and temperament.

Phipps has served on the Board of Zoning Appeals, helped drive the establishment of a neighborhood association, spoken out for code enforcement and the rule of law, and in ways large and small, put his time and money into the fray. He is a powerful advocate for human progress, and can be trusted to display thoughtfulness, rationality and personal equilibrium, assuring that the memory of “No progress at or by any Price” will not long endure.

NAC's pick: Phipps.

RemCha: "The Mayoral Forum will be June 16 at 6:30-8:00 in the Library."

I "ran into" Jameson Bledsoe (RememberCharlemagne, i.e., RemCha) yesterday -- he was in his pickup truck and I was on my bicycle, and we were approaching each other on Elm at Vincennes, from opposite directions, though not playing chicken (just yet), and he confirmed the mayoral forum date, as elaborated below in a comment that I place on the marquee for maximum exposure:

The Mayoral Forum will be June 16 at 6:30-8:00 in the Library. It is the Wednesday before the council meeting.

I think this is a great opportunity for citizens of New Albany to better understand what the Mayor's plans are outside of the city council's chambers.

When I have time I will write more details of what was said at the meeting.I will quickly add one point and that was a comment about citizen participation. For the forums to continue, people need to show up. I don't think this will be a problem because when Mr. Coffey held his town hall meeting there was a good turnout. I hope even more people will come to the Mayoral Forum.

The Holy Roman Emperor strikes back.

It's only fair that Jameson, who after all has become a known entity in time and no longer toils anonymously, has the marquee for his response to yesterday's post: I'm willing to take the bait. Maybe we'll both learn something.

Longtime blog readers will note that Blogger comments are not searchable. That's why it's useful on occasion to life comments to the marquee.

Discussion?

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"So, what's the disconnect? Is the biggest difference between us our respective interpretations of a Greek philosopher who has been dead for more than 2,000 years? Is it shallower? Deeper than that? It isn't about me, and it isn't about you. Right? So, tell me: What's it all about?"

Roger, it is everything above and more. The sad thing is even if I try and explain it to you I know you will not read and listen to what I’m attempting to convey. Some of the fault lies with me, I wish I could express things to your satisfaction, but that is where NAC’s hypocrisy and double standards begin and gets worse from there. I standby what I said last night, and the crazy thing is that understanding Socrates will explain a lot of what it is all about.

A lot of people read this blog, but what most people are unaware of are the things said outside of their view. You play victim here but you are the assailant. You list all the things you invest, but are they more than what others have risked? Saying that your investments are any greater than mine or anyone else’s is egotistical. Maybe you’ve just had more time than others. When you list the things that you are apart of all I see is how your personality, just being there, would cause others not to participate, and that is why being a “Gadfly” is unjust. It is to your advantage to keep it this way, not for the advantage of the whole.

Why does it matter? It matters because people do what to see New Albany improve, but when there is someone being a “Gadfly” you cause injustice. You poison the well for those who want to see people work together. The “disappointment” lies with the fact that you do have the ability to be a greater contribution than you are now, but I don’t think that you have ever given it a chance. Either you’re scared to, for the reasons I said last night, or you don’t want to, for the reasons I said last night. Mark suggested to me that I should go and read previous NAC postings, I did, and even from the first year’s post I read where the paper black balled you for being nasty. You didn’t try 5yrs ago and you're not trying now.

It is easy to find support in this homogeneous blog but when people attempt to engage with a different point of view it is met with hypocritical double standards like the ones you find on the Shawn Hannity Radio Show. Like there, people don’t want to listen to other perspectives, and I know you are not listening here, because if you were you will find out that we agree on more than we disagree. Even from the first time we met you didn’t listen you assumed things. You missed the conversation that Greg Roberts and I had about two-way traffic, and what he found out is that we agreed with each other more than we differed but you never even tried to listen to what I was saying, and even today I don’t think you are. Maybe NAC already has all the answers but if it is this way with me it would be like this for others. A bias group's idea will not stand up to the group who’s idea is made up of different temperaments, talents, and convictions.

Today will be history and tomorrow will be the present. Maybe this post is your attempt to begin anew; actions will speak louder than words.

I'm willing to take the bait. Maybe we'll both learn something.

That passive-aggressive bit bores me.

Jameson, if I didn't want to see anything here in New Albany improve, I wouldn't have spent hundred of hours writing this blog and my columns. I wouldn't have taken my own time to sell improvement and progress to people who habitually view New Albany as nowhere land.

From city council to neighborhood association, from forums to Develop New Albany and the Urban Enterprise Association, I wouldn't have joined, volunteered, attended meetings, taken notes and participated. I wouldn't have taken every chip my company has on the table and bet them on downtown revitalization.

I wouldn't have stood here, fully known and unmoving, and absorbed the (mostly) anonymous abuse hurled at me for the past six years by the looters, the embittered and the clueless, these being the sorts who stand in the path of improvement. They love trying to make it all about me because it satisfies an itch that they're compelled to scratch, but I know that in a tactical sense, wisdom comes from my knowing that it isn't about me -- not at all, because while they're busy pounding me, others are free to go about accomplishing things.

Being a decoy is fun. You should try it some time.

How do I know that these tactics are succeeding? If I point my camera in the air during a council meeting and take a flash photo of the ceiling, Dan Coffey will whirl in his seat, glare, and form silent curse words with his lips. If I were to state that the sun rises in the west and sets in the east, Steve Price would disagree and claim that we simply can't afford to know the truth.

Am I guilty of rattling their self-confining cages? Yes, I am. Do I throw their venom back at them? Damned straight I do. Does it make me lose my temper on occasion? Of course it does. When the Erika Denharts of the community suggest that the city's economic future be irreparably gutted for the sole reason that they're unwilling to pay what it costs to flush, it's hard not to lose your temper. They're treating their own city the way that Rome treated Carthage. Tear it down, spread the salt around, and go on a Wal-Mart shopping round.

Jameson, I suspect that just like me, you want to live in a place that is bright, not dull. One that succeeds, not fails. One that lives and works smart, not stupid. One that obeys laws, not urinates on them. One that is functional, not comic opera tragic. One inhabited by people who occasionally think of the greatest good and not their own self-aggrandizement.

So, what's the disconnect? Is the biggest difference between us our respective interpretations of a Greek philosopher who has been dead for more than 2,000 years? Is it shallower? Deeper than that? It isn't about me, and it isn't about you. Right? So, tell me: What's it all about?

Readers, feel free to weigh in. Remember/RemeberCharlemagne's comment in response to yesterday's posting is reprinted below.

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Everyone has his or her own style of writing.

When have you ever seen me lose my temper? Ask yourself the same question.
When have I made fun of you or anyone of your friends other than the comment in this thread? Ask yourself that question.


I found this blog by reading your columns and what appeared as an invitation for readers to exchange ideas on local topics. What I discovered is people like you who are very hypocritical. There comes a point when even I tire of trying to work past others who live by double standards.

You have talked about me doing things were other people have tried and failed. I saw it early but wanted to give you and others the benefit and what I saw is the failure has a lot to do with this group here.

It is as simple as this I don't think you want to see anything improve because then you won't have anything to complain about and you will be left with reflecting about yourself. For me, as long as I live in New Albany I will truthfully want to see it improve. I'm well rounded and I don't fear change. You are the "unjust" you only do what is necessary to give the perception that you are just.

"Injustice is strife which arises among the three principles-a meddlesomeness, and interference, and rising up of a part of the soul against the whole, an assertion of unlawful authority, which is made by a rebellious subject against a true prince, of whom he is the natural vassal-what is all this confusion and delusion but injustice and intemperance and cowardice and ignorance, and every form of vice?"

If you like Socrates it is only because he gave you a model of an unjust person that you are. Gadfly? To call you that would be an honor. Disappointment is more like it.

Goodnight Thrasymachus

Coincidence? Let's just say that's highly unlikely.

The point I’m about to make should be obvious ... so obvious that it need not be stated aloud in so many words.

On May 7, after an NAC article about future of the Emery Ice Cream building, a comment appeared from a reader identified as “remembercharlemagne.” I warned this reader that the blog follows a reality-based policy and pointed to the text of the policy. The reader responded that he had read the text, disagreed with me and couldn’t guarantee any future compliance. He'd consider whether to play by the rules, though.

Cheeky, but so it goes in the blogosphere.

On May 9, there was an article in NAC about the forthcoming arrival of Wick’s Pizza in downtown New Albany. On the next day, May 10, NAC reported on the New Albany Country’s Club’s bankruptcy and prospective fire sale.

On the 10th, two comments arrived from remembercharlemagne, one about the Wick’s article and one about the Country Club article.

Here is an excerpt from the Wick’s comment, which was allowed to stand, as is my lenient custom:

Then when people from other area's of southern Indiana have to travel down a grid locketed Spring St. They will turn around and never come back. It will be easier for easterners to go east across the bridge and eat their Wick's pizza in Louisville or a really nice one-way west bound all the way from Silver St would make it easy and safer for most of old N.A. and the rest of Clark Co to efficiently come to the CBD.

Here is an excerpt from the Country Club comment, which was subsequently deleted after remembercharlemagne again refused to comply with the blog’s policy.

Better yet, take a look at the East Lake Foundation of Atlanta GA. This was a cooperative effort led by private investment, then local government, public parks department, school corp,ymca and neighborhood involvement. The redevelopment is one of the nations greatest successes and when the country club was up for sale I tried to get England’s city planners to take a look at the East Lake Redevelopment Plan. Not surprisingly nothing has ever happened.

Meanwhile, in the pages of the New Albany Tribune …

On May 26, a reader and increasingly frequent letter writer -- so frequent that the Tribune staff felt compelled to append an explanation of the newspaper’s policy on such matters -- named Jameson Bledsoe had a second submission on the same topic published as a guest column.

The topic? One-way streets versus two-way street conversions. Here is a sample excerpt:

Two-way traffic on Spring Street is not a calming measure for speed but a traffic-reducing measure, because once the commute becomes unbearable, motorists will avoid New Albany’s downtown.

On June 6, another Bledsoe column appeared: BLEDSOE: Can golf revitalize New Albany?, Here is the opening paragraph:

When I was overnighting in Atlanta as an airline pilot, I was fortunate to watch a special on a local station about the revitalization of East Lake Meadows, one of Atlanta’s worst public housing projects located just six miles from downtown.

Coincidence? Follow the links, and you be the judge. I find the whole subterfuge tiresomely childish.

And: Don’t forget to read remembercharlemagne’s comments about housing authorities and one-way streets on this thread at the Voice of the People blog.

You'll undoubtedly join me in speculating (with due pathos): Why can’t we just be who we are, and get on with it?