The NewAlbanist: Tonight, we seek to speak truth to power, insisting that no public housing should be demolished unless and until viable alternatives are made available to public housing residents.

In advance of tonight's vigil (6:00 outside the City-County Building at 311 Hauss Square), the news cycle's pace is increasing.

Rep. Ed Clere on Gahan's public housing deceptions: "Paper promises are not enough. The residents deserve meaningful assurances and action to ensure they're future access to housing."

Gahan's reeking public housing putsch, his chosen procurators, their escalating foul tempers -- and snow, wonderful snow.

Randy's statement is brief, succinct and appreciated.

Public Housing and Speaking Truth to Power, by the Bookseller, at the NewAlbanist

 ... Tonight, we seek to speak truth to power, insisting that no public housing should be demolished unless and until viable alternatives are made available to public housing residents.

We, part of the organization We Are New Albany, are standing up peacefully for this proposition tonight in front of the City-County Building and presenting collected petitions representing this position.

The problem with speaking truth to power comes when power has no respect for truth, public sentiment, or open government. There is a non-zero chance that we will be confronted by the power tonight regardless of our Constitutional rights to peacably assemble and to petition for the redress of grievances. We demonstrate tonight on public property, without trespass, in exercise of those rights and will not impede the rights of any other. Nonetheless, we live in an America and a New Albany where the exercise of rights is not sacrosanct. We live in a city where vindictive retaliation is the norm and where there is little hesitation to deploy police powers to intimidate and do injury.

I'm struck by the fact that while writing separately, each of us sees the inevitability of being "confronted by power" tonight.

Examples of intimidation directed against public housing residents already are a matter of record, and as David "Brownie, You're Doing a Heckuva Job" Duggins sinks ever further into sofa-hugging paranoia and imagined enemy sightings, it can only get worse.

Meanwhile, it's going to be a wonderful litmus test tonight for our “Let’s Pretend We’re Democrats”®️ organization. The more light shining on Jeff Gahan’s hostile takeover of public housing in New Albany, the greater the stench — and it’s clinging to all the local Democrats who value a luxurious fealty to Dear Leader over any stray spasm approximating a principle.

It’s going to be very interesting, Adam Dickey ... but we can chat tonight, right?

"For we are the killers. We blithely tolerate a street grid with 48-foot-wide streets that pedestrians are expected to navigate without the sanction of government protection."

On Friday, a woman tried to cross the street. She was struck by a driver, and on Saturday she died. Our purported newspaper was too busy touting cooking school to provide an update. City officials were silent.

Killed trying to cross the street, just a few blocks from her house. From my house. From YOUR house, whether you live in Silver Hills or on Slate Run Road.

The usual excuses immediately appeared on social media, with the usual caveats: But Roger, we must wait for the police report to know who was right and who was wrong! 

Randy Smith answers this: We are the Killers.

For we are the killers. We blithely tolerate a street grid with 48-foot-wide streets that pedestrians are expected to navigate without the sanction of government protection. Already some speculate that Chloe should not have taken the risk of crossing the street. The temptation is great to cast blame.

If you've spent any appreciable amount of time walking in downtown New Albany (I have) and don't feel constant nagging trepidation when legally crossing streets designed and maintained for the ease of passage by drivers, not walkers and bikers, you're simply not being realistic.

Or you're not human.

I don't have to wait for a police report, because I trust my own two eyes, my own instincts and my own experience, which is lengthy, both walking and cycling these streets over a period of 15 years.

The intersection at Spring and Vincennes is built to be a merry shooting gallery for walkers. It's simply true, it's not the only one downtown, and it's been only a matter of time for too long of a time that something like this would happen.

I've seen the near hits. I've been a near hit, both here and elsewhere in town. I take no joy whatever in knowing that we've been right in exposing this again and again and again, trying to convince the tone deaf time-servers at city hall that we have a problem, even as they leer and jape and roll their eyes.

The casting of blame: Yes, we are the killers. But because this problem is correctable, and since Jeff Gahan has refused to correct it, prioritizing anything and everything ahead of basic, fundamental public safety, then I have absolutely no compunction in asking the mayor if I could fetch him a towel.

You know, for the blood on his hands. 

FOP: Gahan has apparently made it his goal to make every police officer feel disrespected.

Meanwhile, #sadlackey

Jeff Gahan took office on January 1, 2012. Since that date, can you guess how many times he has met en masse with New Albany's police department?

Zero ... as in not once. Incredible, isn't it?

Readers, click through to The New Albanist to read the complete letter from the Fraternal Order of Police. Take it away, Mr. Smith.

Mr. Gahan’s “Blue” Problem

 ... In order to give broader coverage to their plaint, I’m republishing the text of a newspaper advertisement placed this week by the Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge 99. And yes, I’m doing so because I believe the safety and well-being of this city depend on Jeff Gahan being retired from public office. Indeed, I am continually amused that so many feign outrage that a blog, a Facebook post, or a Tweet might contain an actual wish that the writer’s preferred candidate be elected and that the incumbent be retired. City employees and appointees and the mayor’s family members seem to think that electoral politics requires silence about the issues and deference to their chosen one.

Speck program: "Rather than embracing this opportunity, (Jeff Gahan) is pre-emptively knee-capping it."

To so very much of merit, I can add only this explanation for my belief in an activist stance: My reaction to this or any mayor pre-emptively knee-capping my city's future is to pre-emptively knee-cap his (or her) political future, in whatever way works best, or by multiple paths.

By not implementing Speck's proposals now, Jeff Gahan is knee-capping independent small businesses as well as neighborhood quality of life. He is knee-capping economic development.

That said, I respect Randy's point of view and strongly urge you to read this column. To those attending tonight's two-way planning meeting, see you at seven at Sew Fitting.

The Speck Report and New Albany’s Future: A Contrarian View

by NewAlbanyBooks

I understand that some readers can still say of New Albany Mayor Jeff Gahan that "He's my guy." I only ask, "Why?"

Almost from the moment I arrived in this city, I've pushed, prodded, and pleaded for city officials to pay some attention to our broken streets, most often in the downtown area, but elsewhere, as well. At first, my quest was relatively simplistic. I asked why we couldn't change our one-way streets back to the two-way traffic patterns they were designed for. As the years passed and I educated myself and others, "my" quest became "our" quest and our petitions to our elected officials metamorphosed from simplistic to sophisticated, though no less simple to accomplish.

This is my 11th year working on this. Coincidentally, this is Mayor Gahan's 12th year as an elected official. These were years where he could have educated himself and perhaps even become a champion for our cause. After 8 years as a city council member, Gahan put himself forward to serve as the city's executive. Many of you voted for him. All of you believed Mr. Gahan when he said he supported two-way streets.

Today, we have available to us a comprehensive street design program that is, as they say, shovel-ready. Prepared by Jeff Speck, the most prominent city planning professional in this country, and his team, the program is elegant, simple, and inexpensive to implement. Whether you read the 60-page justification or the 40-page section-by-section program for street change, you are likely to feel your heart leap while imagining the probable outcomes if New Albany embraces the program.

Read the report here

Yet, as recently as this past weekend, the mayor said to the News and Tribune that he "want[s] to emphasize this is just a study." (emphasis mine)

Rather than embracing this opportunity, this mayor is pre-emptively knee-capping it. He is unwilling to claim it as his own. He is unwilling to step out in public and say "This is what I want to do. I believe it's in the best interests of this community. And here's why" ...

Oh, New Albany ... please stop breaking my liver.

If I were to link directly to Valerie Alexander's article, you'd miss the Bookseller's introduction, which helps to establish proper context.

When New Albany is namedropped elsewhere in non-flyover America, even amid otherwise positive stories, the reference invariably tends to focus on the way we really are and remain, rather than the way we'd like to see ourselves -- allowing for "we" as perhaps a couple hundred persons among 37.000.

It's a stunning disconnect, made all the more annoying because it's true. This culture needs changing. We smile and build half-million dollar dog parks connected by nothing, to nothing.

Rinse, repeat.

“Oh, Indiana, Please Stop Breaking My Heart!”

Every once in a while, we discover something written from afar but aimed directly at New Albany. Remember the Chicago Tribune story from 2008 where a downtown businessman declared (implicitly representing us) that he could never vote for a black man for president?

In New Albany, "One way streets are an infectious disease being treated as if it were a chronic condition."

Kudos to the Bookseller for this excellent essay. With 2014 just around the corner, here's the takeaway:

Mayor Jeff Gahan and the New Albany City Council believe one-way streets are not that serious a disease and the we can “live with” a broken and discredited model of street grid.

It's fine reading as we await the official press release of the Opening Plenary Session of the 2014 Central Committee of the Democratic Party of Floyd County, which of course will be absent a substantive position but replete with flowery ssertions of future abundance.

Whatever. Now, go read Randy's piece.

One-Way Streets Are a Disease by NewAlbanyBooks

Think of New Albany as you would a human body. As much as we might like for it to be restored to its prime of life, there are physical aspects of the city we cannot control or change. A city does age.

But like a man or a woman in maturity, New Albany might just want to forestall the aging.

Humans die. Cities, properly managed, do not.

One way streets are an infectious disease being treated as if it were a chronic condition.

One-Way Streets Are Not a Chronic Condition

The NewAlbanist: "And Then There Were … None?"

Admittedly, it struck me as a bit premature that Brad Bell announced his candidacy for the 2015 council race some 20 months before the primary.

In addition, there's a "once bitten, twice shy" hangover from my erstwhile newspaper column's shoddy treatment (post-primary, 2011) at the hands of the Blind Goys from Alabama.

It's also true that no one's running for anything until there's the correct election to contest. Verily, at this precise moment, I'm not running for office, although if you're interested in examining the platform from my council race in 2011, the Facebook campaign page remains up.

Clear as mud? Now, here's what the bookseller (NewAlbanist) has to say, and as always, it's quite thought-provoking. Now if you'll excuse me, there are tea leaves to be read.

And Then There Were … None? by newalbanist

At their next family reunion, if not sooner, Jeff Gahan, New Albany’s mayor, and Dan Coffey, the city’s longest-tenured city council member, will surely share a satisfied chuckle over their cooling baked beans and warming potato salad. For yet another talented and innovative New Albanian has thrown in the towel and conceded the electoral field to the reigning cabal.

My friend, Roger Baylor, seems to have literally done that. In the midst of a renewed effort on his part to simply help improve our city, Roger has been compelled to issue a caveat in conjunction with that effort – “I’m not running for office.” More on this, below.

NewAlbanist: "Dr. Cannon Offers a Considered Opinion on Bond Issue."

At the NewAlbanist, Randy links to a letter in That 'Bama Paper, meaning we don't have to.

The letter offers respectful points for pondering, including this one: "Streets, sidewalks, drainage and sewage, the homeless, the poor, police and fire protection, education, etc., are ongoing problems in our city, the solutions to which are far more essential than another recreational enterprise."

I'm sure the Gahan administration has plans in hand to address these "other" quality of life issues. For a lot of us, a spoonful of reassurance that these issues are not being back-burnered would go a very long way in helping the bond medicine go down.

Dr. Cannon Offers a Considered Opinion on Bond Issue

I’ve been blessed over my time in New Albany to have had numerous lengthy conversations with Dr. Dan Cannon. I’m happy to see him speaking out about the bond issue just approved by New Albany’s city council. While I don’t necessarily subscribe to everything said below, I do consider it as a useful contribution to the discussion. This letter to the News and Tribune adds appreciably to that part of the discussion going on in the community (as opposed to that going on exclusively on the Third Floor of the City-County Building). Before we allow the independent redevelopment body to proceed, there need to be many more such discussions.

New Albany’s “cave-dwellers with broadband.”

Is the New Albanist coming back onto the local scene?

Here's a taste, but you'll have to follow the link to view the image.

…and Hilarity Ensues

The Rev. Spooner and Mrs. Malaprop have nothing on New Albany’s “cave-dwellers with broadband.” I recently stumbled across a comment posting that attempted to scold the trolls, but have been laughing at the mental image it conjures ever since.

From The New Albanist blog: "Annexation 101: The 2010 Initiative."

The New Albanist returns with a detailed analysis of Annexation 101: The 2010 Initiative. Here are the opening paragraphs. Follow the link to read the remainder.

In my most recent posting (NAC note: see "The New Albanist on annexation, and the tail that wags the dog"), I provided a cursory review of the annexation proposed by the City of New Albany, making the assumption that readers who wanted to drill down into the details would do so and that others who have read my policy posts in the past would know that I had done the homework and could provide a reliable summary.

I also indicated that had I been a member of the council I would have voted to proceed with the annexation process despite any objections to the timing of the mayor’s initiative.

Apparently, there is more interest in the details than I had assumed – my assumption being predicated on the fact that practically no member of the general public attended the presentation of the resolution and ordinance.
I will presume that parliamentary difficulties will be resolved and that Tuesday’s special called meeting will end with a fiscal plan approved (resolution) and the annexation declared by ordinance on first reading.

Here are some key facts ...

The New Albanist on annexation, and the tail that wags the dog.

We've known for years that City Hall eventually would move to annex the commercial corridor outside the beltway on Charlestown Road. There are no surprises in it, and what's more, there's nothing unusual about Dan "Wizard of Westside" Coffey voting against a measure he claims to support and using his own lack of patience with reading as an excuse for saying "no".

But: Why is it that something so plainly telegraphed comes forward for consideration during a special council meeting? Why not before, packaged and positioned to inform and succeed? Why, for something this important, do only five of nine council members bother attending the special meeting?

Fortunately, the New Albanist has been analyzing these latest instances of New Albany's chronic, malingering political dysfunction, and provides welcomed clarity in this essay at his blog: Tail Wags Dog, June 2010 Edition.

Here's a teaser ... but you really must read the whole piece.

... I believe Dan Coffey’s vote was a bad vote. He favors annexation, but used this moment to strike a blow for his and the council’s prerogatives. So nobody wins. Not Coffey. Not England. Not the residents of New Albany.

In the ongoing game of Red Rover, the players again got roughed up. The barometer of ill will goes up a bit more.

There’s no excuse for bringing this annexation measure forward with so little time for the fiscal plan to be examined. And there’s no excuse for Coffey’s “no” vote or for the boycott by the other members.

For more on the annexation vote:

ANNEXATION: YES OR NO?, at the Voice of the People blog.
Dan Coffey slays the annexation dragon ... for now. (NAC)