Learn more about alley beautification during Nominally New Albany week at the 'Bama newspaper.
Dugout has departed to personally steward Dear Leader's transformative public housing demolition plans, but our alleys ... they will be great again.
"Could someone tell Mr. Duggins that until his slumlord property is sold, he's responsible for mowing the grass? Or will the Street Department do it for him? #inquiringmindswannaknow"
meretricious
[mer-i-trish-uh s]
adjective
1. alluring by a show of flashy or vulgar attractions; tawdry.
2. based on pretense, deception, or insincerity.
3. pertaining to or characteristic of a prostitute.
Origin of meretricious
Latin, 1620-30; < Latin meretrīcius of, pertaining to prostitutes, derivative of meretrīx prostitute, equivalent to mere-, stem of merēre to earn + -trīx -trix; see -ous
Related forms
meretriciously, adverb
meretriciousness, noun
unmeretricious, adjective
unmeretriciously, adverb
unmeretriciousness, noun
Synonyms
1. showy, gaudy.
2. spurious, sham, false.
persiflage (noun; pərsəˌfläZH): Light and slightly contemptuous mockery or banter.
Boy is it ever going to be nice to get rid of all this hokey standardized sanitized unimaginative upper middle class conservative suburban white guy crap ...
... and as already pointed out, another better administration is going to be facing either a huge corrective cost or just living with the schlock indefinitely.
Dear Deaf Gahan and minions: FOR THE LOVE OF PETE, STOP TRYING TO BE COOL AND DESIGNER-ISH. YOU'RE NOT, AND IT'S EMBARRASSING ALL OF US. When THIS vision is projected, people with vision start looking elsewhere.
I like the quirkier crosswalks in Jeff. Did they look at those and say, 'Something like this - but bland'?
I don't understand these complaints. The crossing design is taken from U.S. currency border graphics, which pay worshipful reverence to the only thing that really matters in New Albany or any other burg in our great nation.
New Albany officials ask developers for ideas on Market Boy, Tommy Lancaster properties, by Elizabeth Beilman (Gahan Fluff Monster)
Redevelopment commission hoping for mixed use developments
NEW ALBANY — The famous Tommy Lancaster Restaurant and Market Boy Grocery are only memories to locals now, but soon the empty properties could hold brand new developments.
The New Albany Redevelopment Commission is advertising a request for proposals for the Market Street properties, as well as a grassy lot along Bank Street near the Underground Station.
"They're properties that have been underdeveloped ... in the case of Tommy Lancaster and Market Boy, they were blights to the neighborhood," New Albany Redevelopment Director David Duggins said.
The commission is asking for mixed-use developments for both, a concept that involves first-floor retail and upper-floor residential space often seen in urban settings.
The proposals don't request anything more detailed than "mixed use," in terms of the type of development. The commission is asking developers provide specifics on construction timeline, funding and other matters.
"Basically, [the proposals] ask for a developer to come to us to say what they would do there," Duggins said.
By l850, New Albany became the largest and most important city in Indiana, thanks primarily to its steamboat building.
Of the over 400 steamboats built, the Robert E. Lee was, according to the New Albany Ledger in l866, the grandest ever built. With its Rosewood furniture and crystal chandeliers, it proudly plied the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers until it was destroyed by fire in l882 with the loss of 21 lives. This steamboat had gained national fame by winning its famous race with the Natchez, from New Orleans to St. Louis in l870.
By the late l890s, the city of New Albany commemorated its steamboat building era by making the R.E. Lee its official symbol. That symbol has been prominently displayed with a huge Bruce Fox creation on the front of the City-County Building as well as printed documents and brochures. It was used prominently to celebrate our Centennial Celebration in 1913 and our Bicentennial in 2013.
Several months ago, the city started using a completely different symbol — twin arches with a giant anchor hanging between. That symbol is now used on all city printed material and most recently scores of city street signs have this prominently displayed. No one has been able to explain what this giant anchor represents.
According to the dictionary, it means to prevent movement and to hold fast. Why would anyone want this as a symbol of our city?
The board of directors of the Floyd Count Historical Society recently voted unanimously to keep the historic Robert E. Lee as our city’s official symbol and that was presented to the New Albany City Council on April 6. The council stated it had no input on this change, yet they took no action to make sure this symbol is not lost to history.
We are very alarmed and concerned that this new anchor symbol was apparently created by the mayor’s office without a vote being taken from democratically elected representatives or by involving the public in providing input if it was decided democratically to choose a new symbol. No one could explain to us who, why, where, when or how this symbol was created.
Every citizen of New Albany should be alarmed at the undemocratic method of forcing through this drastic change in our New Albany symbol that has proudly served us for well over 100 years.
The Floyd County Historical Society’s mission is to protect and preserve our rich history. We, therefore, call on all city officials from the mayor to the city council to take immediate steps to restore the Robert E. Lee as our official symbol.
Please do not steal this symbol of our rich history but rather embrace it for future generations.
— Victor Megenity, vice-president, Floyd County Historical Society, New Albany
It's sadly fitting they've chosen an anchor as a graphic representation of the city. An anchor fixes a potentially moving object to a place. It gets stuck in the mud and silt and keeps things from moving. That's why it's called an anchor.
This is not a "marketing piece", a "branding image" - it's not a progressive symbol, it doesn't imply a growing and vital city. An anchor? Who designed this?
Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu were poorly educated peasants. As power was consolidated, they set about accumulating wealth and luxury far beyond the standard of living in their country, but moreover, they deified themselves, most conspicuously in pretending to be scholars they weren't.
Minions were paid to praise the Ceausescus, and the Ceausescus believed every word of the press clippings.
Work begins on transforming New Albany alley, by Danielle Grady (All Things Clark County)
NEW ALBANY — Work began this week on turning a typical New Albany alleyway into a more welcoming place.
In December, the New Albany Board of Works approved a construction bid of $52,733 from LATCO Selby House in Sellersburg to repave, light and paint murals onto the walls of an alley that runs parallel to Bank Street from Spring to Main streets.
Recently, workers have started stringing the decorative drop lighting that will illuminate the now-dark alley.
Branding mud-struck: Why did the city of New Albany steal Anchor Brewing's seal?
We receive comments, like this one here.
It's sadly fitting they've chosen an anchor as a graphic representation of the city. An anchor fixes a potentially moving object to a place. It gets stuck in the mud and silt and keeps things from moving. That's why it's called an anchor.
This is not a "marketing piece", a "branding image" - it's not a progressive symbol, it doesn't imply a growing and vital city. An anchor? Who designed this?
This is "marketing" just like offering seven MILLION dollars to Pillsbury AFTER they said they they were leaving - that wasn't a "plan to attract businesses to the city" either. Too little and much, much too late.
And another by e-mail.
In going through files recently, I noticed that the city's new "branding logo" has replaced the old city seal on mundane printed things such as the city sewer bill.
I'v also noticed the inclusion of the city's new "branding logo" on the new street signs.
Questions abound:
1) How can the city seal be changed without public discussion and vote by council?
2) Why wasn't someone with real graphic design experience used to create versions of the logo that could be easily seen at various distances or in various uses?
The artwork is much too "thin" and confusing when seen in reverse, at a distance on street signs.
Who designed it, why and at whose request? Was a fee paid?
As McLaughlin dozes, Coffey expresses his dislike of fuddy-duddy steamboat seal-bearing visitors.
The city's economic dishevelment facilitator, David Duggins, at long last became interested in the melee, and vaulted forward to volunteer this: The new symbol is a "marketing piece" and "branding mechanism," and not a new official seal. Branding and marketing. By executive order. Small wonder we remain anchored.
The Anatomy of a Disastrous State Branding Campaign, by Aarian Marshall (CityLab)
After Rhode Island’s epic screw-up, a five-step guide to doing better.
... Are place branding campaigns ever worth it? It’s hard to figure out, because campaigns are difficult to divorce from the actual city. Is that spike in jobs due to that sweet ad your commerce board put out two years ago, or because Large Company X liked the cut of your (empty office park’s) jib? Are tourists abandoning your boardwalk because your logo deeply offended their aesthetic sensibilities, or because the best funnel cake place closed last year? Still, as the state of Rhode Island points out, there’s definitely a bad way to do it. CityLab talked to marketing experts to figure out what went wrong—and what cities, states, and regions can do better next time.
QRS Recycling in New Albany agrees to close next April for Greenway park, by Elizabeth Beilman (Hanson Does Utica)
Property owner looking for relocation site
NEW ALBANY — QRS Recycling will be closing its operations at West Floyd Street near the Ohio River next April.
The New Albany business agreed to turn over its 25-to-30-acre property to the city for a Ohio River Greenway park, announced Tuesday along with other city projects.
In return, the city will pay property owner Tim Jansen $2.5 million over 20 years with no interest, according to New Albany Redevelopment Director David Duggins.
"It's an extremely exciting opportunity to bring approximately 40 acres from really a blighted area on probably one of the most beautiful bends on the Ohio River back to something families, individuals and the entire city can enjoy in the next couple years," Duggins said.
Docket S-01-16: White Castle Management Co. requests a Site Plan Review to permit the construction of a restaurant to replace an existing restaurant in the C-1b, Local Business district, at 1701 E. Spring Street.
