Experts say golf is dying, and if so, expect the redevelopment vultures to circle New Albany Springs.

For as long as I can remember, during unguarded moments, certain of our city officials have been musing about the potential value and redevelopment potential of the area occupied by the New Albany Housing Authority's property on Bono Road.

They no longer speak with me, but I'm assuming this moistening of lips to have escalated since Jeff Gahan seized control of NAHA early in 2017.

Looking at the map, it's easy to see the military reasoning of these C-minus students, graded on the curve. NAHA is the high ground (topographically, though not morally in terms of Gahan's putsch), from which command of the battlefield is assured.

Just to the south, there's the expanse of Padgett. Some day, and I'm guessing sooner rather than later, someone at Padgett finally will do the math, begin negotiating with state agencies, score incentives and treasure chests, and move those cranes out of the city, into industrial space near an interstate, or River Ridge, probably both.

That's because Padgett is landlocked and can't grow where it is now, and the redevelopment potential (read: money) of its downtown property will become too great to ignore.

At this point, all we'll need to complete the scene is for the current New Albany Springs golf course property to become worth more as housing (alas, probably not as affordable as we'd like to see) than recreation, and the dominoes will fall.

Baptismal Hospital to "cleansed" NAHA land, down the hill to Binford Park and the golf course, continuing through the Padgett redevelopment bonanza, and all of it anchored by a cemetery that might as well be another park. It's the closest thing we're likely to have to the Clarksville South and future JeffBoat makeovers, and it's why the sycophants salivate.

And right there, in the middle of it, completely unchanged, with precisely the same long-necks and Democratic Party Walt Disney Film Nights, there'll be the Roadhouse, like a working museum.

Remember, the Green Mouse told you so.

Dead Golf Courses Are the New NIMBY Battlefield, by Nolan Gray (CityLab)

As the sport’s popularity wanes, vast amounts of underutilized land will open up. Can it be developed?

Golf is dying, many experts say. According to one study by the golf industry group Pellucid Corp., the number of regular golfers fell from 30 to 20.9 million between 2002 and 2016. Ratings are down, equipment sales are lagging, and the number of rounds played annually has fallen.

Part of the bust can be blamed on the fallen fortunes of a single person: Tiger Woods. Golf boomed in the 1990s and early 2000s as the charismatic superstar raked in titles. Then, beginning in 2009, it faced a one-two punch of recession and bad press when its star golfer’s chronic infidelity came to light.

But the bigger story involves the sport’s aging demographics and the athletic tastes of Millennials, who just aren’t that into an expensive, poky sport that provides few health benefits. Unless the golf industry can change its ways, the decline will mean a lot of empty greens across the country. How that land is used—or isn’t—could reshape America’s suburbs for decades to come.

Golf courses and country clubs currently consume massive amounts of relatively underutilized land in cities and suburbs. Across the country, as courses and clubs begin shutting down, hundreds of thousands of acres of land could soon start opening up for infill redevelopment. While not so great for golfers, this could be a boon for cities, especially those facing a housing crunch ...

"The Future of Retirement Communities: Walkable and Urban."

When all is said and done, it's a great deal more likely that NA's Breakwind Lofts at Duggins Flats apartments will attract empty-nesters rather than millennials.

As this and hundreds of other news items attest, what these age groups have in common is an interest in walkability. In the massive irony for which New Albany is renowned, the foremost opponent of walkable, bikeable two-way streets is Padgett Inc, which sits atop a slam-dunk redevelopment acreage bonanza, one made potentially even more valuable by the very mobility reforms Padgett opposes.

Literally, Padgett might have its cake and eat it, too -- but no. It's in the water, folks, and what comes of the water?

We use it to make Kool-Aid, of course.

The Future of Retirement Communities: Walkable and Urban, by John F. Wasik (New York Times)

FEW people in America walk to work. Most of us drive to the supermarket. But more older people these days are looking for a community where they can enjoy a full life without a car ...

... Enter a new paradigm: the walkable, urban space. It may range from existing neighborhoods in places like Brooklyn or San Francisco to newly built housing within city and suburban cores from coast to coast. Though not primarily for retirees, places like Reston, Va., and Seaside, Fla., were early examples of the new urbanism built from the ground up. Among senior housing projects, examples include Waterstone at Wellesley along the Charles River in the Boston area and The Lofts at McKinley in downtown Phoenix. The theme is simple: Get out and walk to basic services.

Walkability, though, is much more than a hip marketing pitch. It’s linked to better health, social engagement and higher property values.

Walkability in the Time of Padgett? But that's not walkable at all, is it?

In this kind of pass-through community, our self-smug pillars work assiduously to prevent walkability from happening, seeking to keep our streets "safe" and "free" for fast-moving, heavy traffic, while navigating their gas-guzzlers around the block for lunch.

It's time to call their bluff, isn't it?

Walking Makes Strides in All Kinds of Communities, by Jay Walljasper (Strong Towns)

Imagine living in one of America’s great walkable communities.

Your day begins with a stroll—saying hi to neighbors, noticing blooming gardens and enticing shop windows, maybe stopping for a treat on your way to work.

Weekends are even better. You step out your door and join the hum of activity on the sidewalk en route to a coffeeshop, park, shopping district, friend’s home, recreation center or house of worship.

More time on your feet provides an opportunity to reflect on your life (you feel more energetic and creative now that you’re not driving all the time) and your community (it feels more alive now that everyone walks more). Even driving is more fun than it used to be with fewer cars clogging the streets.

And the really good news is that you don’t need to move to another town or a more expensive neighborhood to enjoy these pleasures. Any community can become more walkable if people are willing to get off the couch to make a difference.

ON THE AVENUES: Irv Stumler screams, "We don't deserve two-way streets!"

ON THE AVENUES: Irv Stumler screams, "We don't deserve two-way streets!"

A weekly column by Roger A. Baylor.

I'll apologize in advance, because it's going to take a while to come to the point. This is necessary, because I don't believe New Albany deserves to be hectored, degraded and held hostage by superannuated fools.

Let's jump straight into the deep end.

Irv Stumler exists to quote entities like Thoreau Institute, and the Thoreau Institute exists to provide the likes of Stumler, Bob Caesar and Padgett Inc. with shiny pseudo-scientific nuggets for convenient extraction for deployment in a street fight they’ve already lost.

Just as a personage known as Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs plays the role of Great and Terrible Oz in Frank L. Baum’s most famous book, Randal O'Toole comprises the entirety of the Thoreau Institute, as well as several other shells of similar ilk.

Sadly, we’ve been down this vapid one-way, open air arterial sewer before, as on February 26, 2015.

ON THE AVENUES: As Admiral Gahan steers his Speck study into the Bermuda Triangle, crewmen Padgett, Stumler and Caesar grimly toss all the rum overboard.

 ... The American Dream Coalition is a predictably vapid yawner from a Potemkin think tank, deploying the same cooked data once solemnly cited by a caterwauling Caesar at a forgettable city council meeting, as lifted at the time from something outlandishly called the Thoreau Institute. The tired screeds are anonymous because there is a common shill to these oligarchy front groups, a fellow named Randal O'Toole.

O’Toole, a libertarian and Cato Institute acolyte, is one of a shrinking handful of professional go-to, camera-ready sprawl advocates, as opposed to the corporate lobbyists who work behind the scenes dispensing largess.

If there were more like O'Toole, they’d also be invited to attend Senate hearings, too.

Two things were clear at this morning's hearing of the Senate Banking Committee concerning green investments in public transportation. First, transportation experts and leading legislators are very much in agreement on how transportation spending should change. And second, Randal O'Toole's days as anything other than an anachronism are numbered …

… O'Toole was without friends in a room of leaders that finally seemed to grasp how planning had gone wrong in the last half century. At this moment -- with vehicle miles traveled falling, with central city population growth rates increasing as suburban growth rates fall, and with central city housing prices showing resilience as exurban neighborhoods continue to experience rapid decline -- Cato's myth of sprawl as the American dream seems more hollow than ever.

Even infrequent readers of NA Confidential know that this blog has been among the foremost advocates of street grid reform in New Albany, by which we mean the reasoned, forward-looking implementation of traffic calming, completed streets and two-way traffic, among other changes by design, so as to facilitate walkability, bicycling, and to a achieve cherished goal for our city:

"New Albany is a place to go to, not a place to drive through."

During this decade-long course of advocacy, we’ve bolstered our viewpoint by means of reference to numerous sources – dozens of activists, engineers, academics, planners, teachers, thinkers, doers and just plain folks.

Some primary sources of information appear here more often than others: Streetsblog, Smart Growth America, City Lab, Strong Towns, National Complete Streets Coalition, and National Main Street, to name just a few.

Accordingly, certain names appear again and again: John Gilderbloom, William Riggs, Charles Marohn, Janette Sadik-Khan and of course, Jeff Speck, who authored the New Albany Downtown Street Network Proposal for our municipal officials.

As will be discussed ahead, two-way traffic is superior to one-way traffic for both safety and city vitality, and a conversion of many streets back to two-way traffic will be recommended.

Of course, opposition to street grid reform certainly exists, and Stumler aside, some of it can be coherent. What might be termed the Argument from Engineering goes something like this:

Joseph Dumas, a professor at the University of Tennessee (said) that "the primary purpose of roads is to move traffic efficiently and safely, not to encourage or discourage business or rebuild parts of town . . . . Streets are tools for traffic engineering."

Interestingly, both Speck and Marohn argue vigorously against the notion of a priestly street engineering caste, but one-way supporters persist in citing sacred transportation rule books seldom rewritten since the Eisenhower era, as wielded by bureaucratic departments of transportation at local, state and federal levels.

They’re occasionally joined by everyday citizens ready to defend the cruel irony of one-way, high-speed interstates running through populated neighborhoods, though not their own suburban cul-de-sacs. Usually the basis for these objections to urban street grid reform is their intensely personalized view of commuting convenience, and little else.

Demand begets supply, hence, the critical need for someone like O’Toole, who functions as the handy academician-on-call, equipped with requisite suburban dog whistle, his pockets stuffed with pay stubs from subsidiaries of the Koch brothers.

As for O’Toole’s overall credibility, Marohn once debated him on the topic of city planning.

 ... When I called O'Toole on it, I saw him show a little bit of panic and then he resorted to his flaming rhetoric. The opportunity passed. That is the moment when I realized that we weren’t going to do anything in this conversation to help the people of Lafayette reach a better understanding of their situation … he essentially advocated for nullification of state and federal law. It was absurd and I felt like we were wasting air at that point.

A more detailed refutation of O’Toole’s propaganda, in this instance pertaining to public transit, can be found here (underlining is mine).

The Small-Minded Anti-Streetcar Conspiracy

By Glen D. Bottoms, Rick Gustafson, Eric Hovee and William S. Lind

The libertarians’ anti-transit study mill continues to grind out new products, which regrettably contain more chaff than grain. We say “new” cum grano salis, because they offer the same arguments over and over. To ideologues, facts don’t count. The first thing written is the conclusion.

A recent example of the genre is The Great Streetcar Conspiracy by Randal O’Toole, published June 14, 2012 by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think-tank. As usual, it is a child’s garden of errors, false “facts,” distortions and unwarranted conclusions. This study may set a record, even for the anti-transit troubadours: in a mere 16 pages it manages to make at least 52 false or misleading statements.

We don’t know how they will top that, perhaps by claiming in their next study that streetcars are bad because of all those moving cables that run beneath the streets. Fifty-two is a lot of errors to correct; let’s get started.

It requires 29 factual pages, and yes, all 52 errors are addressed. Then there’s a similar rejoinder, this one from Canada.

Evaluating Criticism of Smart Growth
Victoria Transport Policy Institute

(Page 79) Randal O’Toole has written various reports which claim that Smart Growth is wasteful and harmful. His criticism is based on the assumption that nearly everybody wants to live in automobile-dependent suburbs, so Smart Growth strategies fail, and if successful they harm residents. He extrapolates past trends that increased per capita vehicle use, and ignores changing demographic, economic and market factors that are likely to increase demand for Smart Growth communities (Litman, 2005b). He highlights any negative trends in Smart Growth communities while ignoring all positive effects.

This brings me to the point of today’s ON THE AVENUES.

Yesterday the Green Mouse forwarded to me an informant’s e-mail, in which we learn that Irv Stumler has lapsed into another fit of choleric dyspepsia (in other words, he’s as hot as one of those July 4 firecrackers), this time about about Hannegan Roseberry’s recent guest column in the paper.

An example of her eloquence:

 ... Since no one asked, I would like to now take a moment and speak for the residents who live on these main thoroughfares through our city. It is with zero hesitation that I ask that two-way streets be implemented downtown. These streets are neighborhoods filled with families and pedestrians of all sorts who deserve safe, walkable streets to live on. We would like to have our voices heard and I am disappointed that the opinions of the citizens who live on these streets weren’t considered for this article.

Not only that, but Irv -- like Caesar, a resident of two-way Silver Hills -- is reaching yet again for his O'pen Carry O’Toole. Hence, today's lengthy rebuttal.

Stumler's leaked e-mail was addressed to the mayor, city council members, the board of public works, Padgett Inc., Padgett’s attorney, and Chris "News and Tribune" Morris, the latter an unapologetic two-way street opponent. My guess is the letter will appear in the paper.

I’ll beat them to it, because Stumler’s complete, untouched text concludes this column. Therein, he bizarrely references Speck, O’Toole and a 1958 (!) traffic engineering study. Truly, it speaks for itself.

Also attached was a .pdf of The New York City Pedestrian Safety Study & Action Plan, New York City Department of Transportation (August 2010), which apparently had been quoted by Jimmy Padgett in a previous e-mail to the effect that one tiny sentence in a vast technical document indicates the inherent safety to pedestrians of one-way streets.

At times I wonder why I bother. These past four hours might have been spent ... nah, never mind.

Take it away, Irv.

---

Subject: We don't deserve two-way streets!

All,

The article published in the News and Tribune dated 6/21/16 reminded me of information I had previously read about the subject of safety as it relates to two-way streets.

Miss Hannegan Beardsley Roseberry, guest columnist, stressed the idea that one-way streets are less safe than two-way. I think this whole idea should hinge on safety.

So, let's take a look at the safety factor in what Mr. Jeff Speck has proposed.

Mr. Speck, in his report dated 12/15/14 made the following statement on page five, "This Proposal is a planning document and not an engineering document". He then says, "Finally, this report does not try to address traffic safety comprehensively". Page two of the document contains his disclaimer: "The report that follows is a planning document, not an engineering document. While many street layouts are suggested herein, all are schematic, and none are adequate for design or construction. Before being implemented, any design must be considered and redrawn by a licensed engineer who will bear all responsibility for its efficacy and safety". Mr. Speck is very clear that he is not an engineer.

The Independence Institute published an article by Michlel Cunneen and Randal O'Toole entitled "No Two Ways About It: One-Way Streets Are Better Than Two-Way". On page 6 of this report the subject of Engineering vs. Planning is discussed.

"Converting one-way streets to two-way is one of the latest fads of urban panning. Such conversions will increase congestion, pollution, and traffic accidents, but planners ignore these problems and talk about how they will lead to more "vibrant" streets, whatever that means. The debate over on-way streets in Austin, Columbus, Denver and many other cities calls attention to recent urban transportation trends as planners have gained power at the expense of traffic engineers".

"A few decades ago, engineers made most urban transportation plans and decisions, Their first priority was safety and their second priority was efficient movement of traffic. The engineers carefully studied the effects of any changes or improvements they made to see if they were good or bad, and they published their results for other engineers to see".

"Practical Traffic Engineering for Small Communities, published in 1958 by Pennsylvania State University, offers numerous examples of the engineers' method. The guide presents hundreds of case studies asking such questions as:

a. Will traffic signals reduce pedestrian accidents?
b. Is parallel parking less prone to accident than angle parking?
c. Will putting grooves in pavement reduce accidents?

"Notice the heavy emphasis on reducing accidents, in keeping with engineers' first priority of safety. Improving traffic flows and reducing congestion are important, of course, but only if they can be done without reducing(and preferably by increasing) safety".

" Pedestrians particularly benefit from one-way streets. Two-way streets produced 163 percent more pedestrian accidents in Sacramento, and 100 percent more pedestrian accidents in Portland, Hollywood FL and Raleigh NC. One study called one-way streets "the most effective urban counter-measure" to pedestrian accidents".

I urge each of you to resist the false hope that two-way streets could make New Albany a more "livable" city. We may not all "live" through it.

Irv Stumler
47150

---

June 23: ON THE AVENUES: There's no business like no business -- and it's none of your business.

June 16: ON THE AVENUES: When the engineer uttered that scandalous word aloud, it was like Christmas in June.

June 9: ON THE AVENUES: High atop Summit Springs with friends (and relatives) in low places.

June 2: ON THE AVENUES: A few beers at Vladimir’s local in Ostrava in June, 1989.

May 26: ON THE AVENUES: On the crass exploitation and politicization of tragedy.

The Green Mouse's two-way streets poll at the drive-thru window.

The Green Mouse posted himself at the MacDonald's drive-thru window and took a man-in-a-car poll.

How should city streets work?

Irv Stumler, Silver Hills

Bob Caesar, Silver Hills

Crane Padgett, Industrial Boulevard 

Jeff Gahan, Suburban City Hall

Back at the office, the Green Mouse asked me. Here's what I said.

Roger Baylor. Spring Street

At least the "Heavy Hitter" has a sense of trucking humor.

You may recall that in early in 2015, the ubiquitous Darryl Isaacs was struck while bicycling in Louisville. Naturally, no charges were filed against the youthful Hoosier driver of the vehicle.

In this recent update, we learn that "ambulance chasing" is a wasted exercise. Rather, pursuing insurance companies is the trick.

'The Hammer' Darryl Isaacs seeks $4.5M in bike accident (Indy Star)

It makes me wonder whether there might be a class action lawsuit against cities for failing to provide safe streets for all users. Probably not, but a boy can dream.

Two very different ways of inducing a Padgett erection.

Remember: If your erection should last more than 4 years ...

The Padgett PAC comes to grips with electoral rejection.

Mailer Wars '15: Barksdale dares to mention the "d" word.

You have to admire David Barksdale for leading off with a vow to "take downtown revitalization to the next level," not because it provides sufficient substance to inform us which level downtown occupies at present (seemingly fundamental if one seeks to go "next"), but because of the widely reported phenomenon of Don't Talk Downtown.

A. Contrary to old voters' tales, downtown does NOT receive disproportionate financial attention from City Hall. In fact, as I've often noted, revitalization has occurred in SPITE of City Hall, not because of it.

B. When City Hall HAS invested public money downtown, it has tended to be wrong (Doug's Bicentennial Park, Jeff's Main Street beautification), BUT even these boneheaded moves have not represented expenditures equal to the long-term costs of suburbanization.

C. AND New Albany's inner ring suburbs generally are four or less miles from the core, meaning that much of the discussion is moot, anyway.

Barksdale follows with the necessarily italicized "healthy" neighborhoods in all part of the city, and further notes the importance of business friendliness.

One wonders how Barksdale contextualizes business-friendly attitudes with Padgett, Inc., the GOP's chief downtown benefactor, and an entity than both gives and takes away: It's been "friendly" toward some of Barksdale's favored historic preservation causes, while profoundly unfriendly as it  pertains to other helpful measures -- read: street grid reform.

All in all, this mailer is above average for the genre. It's an apt introduction, and the candidate's willingness to lead with downtown revitalization stands out from the pack.

If you're a progressive, who gets the nod: David Barksdale, Shirley Baird ... or none of the above?

ON THE AVENUES: To the New Albanians, each and every one.

ON THE AVENUES: To the New Albanians, each and every one.

A weekly web column by Roger A. Baylor.

There is a monolithic message adorning the west-facing side of the former Anchor Range & Stove building, which for many years has been owned by Padgett, Inc.

The banner is two stories tall, almost as wide, and probably can be seen from Skyline Drive in the Knobs.

It reads:

Zurschmiede for Mayor

“Conservative Principles Driving Progress”

Paid for by New Albanians for Common Sense Government PAC

The last time I saw an inscription this large was in Moscow, back during Communist times – something about the critical importance of the five-year plan, the threat of American imperialism, or some such – but I mention this phenomenon not as the pretext for a series of “size really doesn’t matter when it comes to happy endings” jokes.

Rather, it’s all about the nomenclature.

You see, ideas do matter, and as human beings, we concretely express our ideas with words, and words are building blocks. It’s how we move beyond mental abstraction to communication, and from primitivism to progress.

So, while Adam insists I’m “not a serious candidate” for mayor, and Jeff dismisses me as having done nothing “in a positive manner for New Albany” – concurrent with the entire Padgett industrial enterprise differing with my viewpoint on the primacy of humans versus trucks on our street grid, most often by reverting to the non-verbal, as with their middle fingers held aloft, just look at the way all of them have started using these two words.

New Albanian.

Guess who coined that descriptor?

Until the New Albanian Brewing Company came along in 1994, did anyone in these parts ever routinely choose the words “New Albanian” to describe someone from New Albany?

It is possible they did so in a random or periodic sense, though let’s face facts: NABC’s adaptation of the term has spilled over into popular usage and acceptance, hence the identity of the slush fund sponsoring Padgett’s overwrought signage.

You’re welcome.

It’s nice to have a legacy, isn’t it? If only there were royalties at play.

---

Meanwhile, local Democrats and Republicans alike have been using the hashtag #CountTheWays in social media.

Gahan is busy counting the number of bright, shiny gifts he’s given us, always remembering to scrape the price tag off with his dainty finger nail before affixing the ribbon and grinning like the fatherly potentate he imagines himself to be.

Zurschmiede’s hard-working subalterns have been busy counting their own ways in rebuttal, often deploying phrases originating … from elsewhere. Since I’m feeling charitable, I’ll use the word “subconsciously” to describe their passage from source to meme.

I can live with it, even without the screenplay credits. After all, I’m a content creator. For me, the hashtag is #CountTheIronies, which embraces both the major political parties as they’ve reacted to my presence in the race.

You might think that as a European-style social democrat, my independent mayoral candidacy would have the effect of pulling our right-leaning local DemoDixieDisneycrats leftward.

Instead, the party establishment has responded by doubling down on its bizarre love affair with trickle-down Reaganomics, conveniently substituting ruinously expensive quality-of-life “wants” (water parks, beautification projects) for steroidal 1980s-era military spending in the partisan broken budget analogy.

Concurrently, the city's Republicans have gleefully adopted my platform points, pushing the GOP as an entity steadily left, toward the center. It’s surreal for the GOP to issue ritual denunciations of crony capitalism, corporate welfare and trickle-down Reaganomics, and recent promises to create a "user-friendly" city are enough to make dispassionate space aliens believe they’ve finally embraced two-way streets, too.

However, Padgett’s Soviet-scale banners and PAC money make such a conversion extremely unlikely.

All of this leaves this unrepentant Bernie Sanders fan as the only mayoral candidate eager to speak openly about specific, critical economic development needs, as opposed to quality of life wants.

Ironies aside, I'll just stay where I am, over here, comfortably left of center. If the Republicans are more eager to join me than the Democrats, then it just makes the irony even more delicious – although it should make a fair number of Democrats who ought to know better profoundly uncomfortable.

They’re probably too filled with mute nostril agony to even notice.

---

As it pertains to the mayoral race, the New Albanian (that’s me) is an outsider, insurgent and underdog. Apparently he’s also a wild card. Both party camps seem to be basing their electoral predictions on varying estimates of the votes I’ll extract, and from where.

But in a political system built and maintained for the benefit of two major parties, an independent surely must take votes from somewhere, almost by definition. That’s why we refer to the existence of voters who’ve been known to display autonomous tendencies, like thoughtfully considering individual candidates and their ideas outside the confines of the archaic phrase, “pulling the straight party lever.”

I believe these discerning voters can see quite clearly what I’ve brought to the table during this campaign. It’s a principled alternative, and a third way to approach local governance, one necessary because the two-party system here is tired and broken.

For most of us, governance isn’t about party affiliation, anyway. It’s about managing competently, planning rationally and producing results every single day – right here in New Albany -- where we live and work and play.

I’m not a politician, but 25 years as a local independent business owner have equipped me with a useful tool box. Local independent business owners strive to maintain a level playing field for consumers. We listen, accommodate, troubleshoot, manage employees and solve problems as they arise. We create tangible value from scratch, as with the American craft beer industry.

I’ve also traveled throughout America and Europe, paying attention to life and learning how things work. I’ve probably attended more council meetings than some elected council persons, and maintained this public affairs blog day in and day out, for the past 11 years.

The New Albanian (me again) is uniquely placed to break the two-party stalemate in New Albany and Floyd County, and to be a bridge to the next generation of leaders. I have no political party to serve, only the people of New Albany. As mayor, neither my name nor the names of elected officials will appear on plaques.

“The City of New Albany” means all the people, not just a privileged few. It’s going to be about us, not me.

As for the ramifications of my effort, it may or may not be true that Kevin Zurschmiede will be the ultimate beneficiary, but the ballot is set, and there's nothing I can do about the likelihood of Gahan's ego-driven vanity candidacy siphoning votes from the only genuine Democrat left in the mayoral race.

That Democrat is me, and conscience is key.

I’ve written about rumblings of threats and retaliation emanating from the mayor, his minions and Democratic Party elders. It is unfortunate when "group-think" is allowed to digress into intimidation, but apparently it has.

Know that if the local Democratic Party machine wishes to be spiteful and vindictive, it's the machine's problem, not ours. It remains a mystery how the party's chairman contorts reality so as to square his pious bromides about "respectful" candidates with Dan “Copperhead” Coffey's continued presence on the ballot as a Democrat -- but that's his problem, and a huge one.

Ultimately, it remains my position that ballots and basic choice are matters of personal conscience, and I've neither the desire, nor any solid reason, to tamper with such. If you support my independent candidacy, I'd rather you be able to express your preference openly, but at the same time, given the current atmosphere, I understand perfectly well if you cannot.

Some voters who ordinarily find themselves occupying a "side" based on factors beyond the actual issues (family, habit, compulsion at work) may choose to preserve the outward appearance of conformity, while resolving internally to opt out of politics as usual and vote differently -- independently -- in 2015.

If so, merely let conscience be your guide. That's why the ballots are secret, and no one should be looking over your shoulder, anyway.

If we’re voting as New Albanians, as opposed to Democrats and Republicans, then the choice is perfectly logical. It's doing what’s right for the whole city, and not only one or the other of our two clubs.

---

Recent columns:

October 8: ON THE AVENUES: There’s an indie twist to this curmudgeon’s annual Harvest Homecoming column.

October 1: ON THE AVENUES: No more fear, Jeff.

September 24: ON THE AVENUES: Almost two years later, Mr. Gahan has yet to plug in this clock, and so it's time for him to clock out.

September 17: ON THE AVENUES: Dear Neighbor: If you’re tired of the same old story, turn some pages.

September 10: ON THE AVENUES: Lanesville Heritage Weekend comes around again.

September 3: ON THE AVENUES: When even Mitt Romney can run to the left of New Albany’s Democrats, it's a very big problem.

August 27: ON THE AVENUES: Whips, chains and economic development (2010).

Welcome to unlicensed pass-through dump truck city, J. Gahan, serial non-participant.

Iamhoosier forwarded this photo and text a while back, and I've been forgetting to post. Last night came a reminder. We walking westbound on Market Street at around 9:15 p.m., and were greeted with a convoy of 1, 2, 3, 4 ... 5 ... Padgett behemoths headed east. At night. Through a residential neighborhood.

It reminded me of that time back in '87 in Communist-era Budapest after the Genesis show at the soccer stadium. I was walking home close to midnight via a major avenue on the Pest side of the Danube, when suddenly the other walkers melted away. There was a rumbling. Soon the source of the noise appeared: A Soviet tank unit headed to or from its base outside the city. Maybe the Russians periodically ran tank columns through town as a reminder of who really was in charge.

Which is the impression I got from the Padgett display last night.

---

This dump truck pulled out of the construction site for the new CVS onto Green Valley road and then left onto State headed south. I noticed that the truck basically has no mud flaps, just a half on the left and none on the right. Something else seemed to be missing. 

Finally it hit me--there is no license plate. I kept hoping that we would come to red light with a turn lane so that I could pull up
alongside and see the company name. Unfortunately that didn't happen until we got the intersection of State and Spring. The light is turning red and the truck stays to the left to continue south on State. I pull into the right hand turn lane--and the truck runs the red light.

I didn't notice until I got to work and loaded the picture that there was the over-sized load semi on the left of the picture. Looks like plenty of room for two big trucks to pass safely on this 2 way street, doesn't it?

"Really do it right": Transue rebuts Morris's street grid confusion.

You knew it was coming, and when it did, I could almost hear Chris Morris say: "Padgett has been at its location for more than 50 years. What is Padgett suppose to do, close?"

Only Chris Morris could transform 80,000 lbs of speeding metal into a victim.

Chris Morris's "opinions" rarely surprise. We know he'll defend the status quo right down to the last at bat, but to make matters worse, he now has chosen to conflate criticism of his own persistent editorial ineptitude with an entire body of complete streets evidence that proves him mistaken, yet again.

Naturally, the same argument was being made by numerous southerners in the year 1861: We've had slaves for 200 years. What are we supposed to do, pay a fair wage to free men?"

It bears repeating, again and again, so often that even Irv Stumler might be compelled to listen: At no point anywhere within Jeff Speck's downtown street network proposals is there the slightest suggestion to eliminate city streets as an option for heavy industry and trucking firms.

Rather, there are hundreds of fruitful suggestions for making city streets better for everyone, not just industrial users.

As before, I suggest that Morris do the unthinkable and actually read the proposals. However, as a safety measure, I'll refrain from holding my breath.

Until then, News and Tribune reader William Transue is spot-on with this jeer, providing further testimony to what Morris and others continue to willfully and maliciously miss -- and what the bureaucratic likes of Warren Nash keeps buried at the command of City Hall.

READER JEERS

... to Chris Morris, assistant editor at the News and Tribune for his opinion as it relates to the problems that would result if the one-way streets are converted to two-way.

After his ride with “Uncle Mike” from — I bow my head when I mention this name — the Padgett Group, he said how difficult it would be to turn onto East Spring Street from Fourth Street. He would have to turn into the far lane and tie up traffic in two lanes. Isn’t that what would happen now when his turning holds up traffic going west on Spring Street? Does Mike not have any problems on any other one-way streets that he travels after he leaves New Albany?

What Morris fails to include in his editorial is how frequently does a Padgett crane leave the yard and go on the aforementioned route? In order to be unbiased, Chris should have parked his vehicle on East 11 Street and East Elm — which by the way is a little more than 100 feet from a stop street — on any day or two between the hours of 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. and see how much speeding actually occurs during that time. This, by the way, can be slowed down with two-way traffic. East Elm Street is actually a main entrance into New Albany the last time I checked.

As far as Warren Nash wanting to “really do it right,” he should have started the feasibility study months ago after receiving the Speck report. Again, as Mr. Nash stated, “we really need to do it right” and convert East Spring and East Elm to two-way streets and bring lower speeds, elevation of home values and safety to the residents of these streets.

— William Transue, New Albany

Only Chris Morris could transform 80,000 lbs of speeding metal into a victim.

A fully loaded tractor-trailer weighing 80,000 pounds traveling under ideal conditions at a speed of 65 miles per hour will take 525 feet to stop (almost the length of two football fields).
-- Utah Department of Transportation

I just don’t see how Spring Street can be changed to two-way after riding with Mike. It’s not a typical neighborhood street, it is a major thoroughfare through town. It just seems like it will be way too costly, and difficult, to change.
-- Chris Morris, Holiday Inn Express lifer

Chris Morris's "opinions" rarely surprise. We know he'll defend the status quo right down to the last at bat, but to make matters worse, he now has chosen to conflate criticism of his own persistent editorial ineptitude with an entire body of complete streets evidence that proves him mistaken, yet again.

Like most of you, Mike Pate goes to work every day. He doesn’t get caught up in political tug of wars or make personal attacks on social media sites against those who disagree with his views.

As always, the best way to deal with contrary evidence is to ignore it completely, and on this count, Morris succeeds. He hasn't tried to understand the transformative social impact of complete streets, or their proven record of advancing economic development and independent local business, or the way they boost quality of life in urban neighborhoods that were not built with interstates in mind.

Morris is found of saying he sees both sides. He just never presents the one that differs with his preconceived notions. Given the New Albany chain newspaper branch's consistent hostility to street grid modernity, perhaps we can petition the Jeffersonville office to send over a staffer, one who might be able to consider Jeff Speck's downtown street network proposals with an unjaundiced mind.

Wrong again

David White wants all NA merchants assured of being harmed by Padgett's lawsuit to attend a David White party at Padgett.

Surreal, isn't it?

Padgett, et al, currently are pursuing a lawsuit that in effect, personally attacks my interests both as a Spring Street homeowner and as a downtown business stakeholder. That's because Padgett and confederates oppose all "complete streets" measures to improve the independent business climate downtown and to increase property values and quality of life in the neighborhoods.

Padgett's chosen surrogate has been an obviously anger-crazed and demented Irv Stumler, who somehow has managed to tell more lies to locals about Jeff Speck's downtown street network proposal than John Rosenbarger has about the Main Street project. Gads. Laid end to end, their combined whippers would reach the planet Mars.

White himself has chosen to dismiss street grid reform as something that must wait, and in truth, he never seems to have grasped the meaning of it. Now, with his choice of political bedfellows, it's fairly obvious why.

At this point in time, perhaps the only choice remaining in the primary election is an emergency bulk shipment of body condoms. In good conscience, all I can do is refrain from voting for Jeff Gahan -- and yet here, as a reflection of my annoying fair-mindedness, is David White's plea for you to come and break bread with the people who oppose you interests.

Roger

Just an FYI for you and the downtown merchants. There will be a Meet and Greet for David White for Mayor - hosted this Saturday, April 25 from 2:00-4:00 at Padgett, Inc. in downtown New Albany. Daisy's will have desserts and beverages available. I will be there to answer any questions.

Thanks - David

On satire in this place, and punching in all directions.

NAC's first-ever helpful link to the definition of satire occurred on December 19, 2004. We've been periodically baffling New Albanians with satire, often impenetrable, ever since. Doonesbury's cartoonist recently mulled the position of satire within the larger topic of free speech.

The Abuse of Satire, by Garry Trudeau (The Atlantic)

... Traditionally, satire has comforted the afflicted while afflicting the comfortable. Satire punches up, against authority of all kinds, the little guy against the powerful. Great French satirists like Molière and Daumier always punched up, holding up the self-satisfied and hypocritical to ridicule. Ridiculing the non-privileged is almost never funny—it’s just mean.

But to borrow Trudeau's usage, have we at NAC always "punched up"?

No.

Even if underachieving local officialdom has tended to offer the best targets, phenomena like the defunct Kitchen Table Issues blog and others before it, as alleged to spring from the hearts and minds of "the little people of New Albany," always provided material too rich to ignore, as on April 10, 2007.

Sunday evenin’ comin’ down … way, way down.

... Damned if it didn’t look like a genuine backwoods, old-style camp meeting. The cigar boxes were lined up like dominoes, and luminous pocket pen lights covered the walls. Kids were roasting Lucky Charms over a Sterno blaze in back, and the way the light came peeping through the cracks from weathered linoleum covering the barroom floor upstairs looked like stars twinkling.

History will record that during the last three years of Jeff Gahan's term, prior to his primary loss to David White in 2015, New Albany's "little people" seemed to disappear from the map. Perhaps that's because there were only three of them to begin with, given the persistent anonymity involved -- itself a topic sure to fertilize a bumper crop of satire.

Lately a bountiful new vein has opened. New Albany has a Trucker Class, and by gawd, it wants to preserve the Eisenhower-era street grid for its own enrichment, because Trucks Come First.

Padgett Inc. appeals for National Guard deployment to maintain civil trucking rights.

“As a Republican, I’m completely opposed to federal intervention in local matters, but I’ve given a lot of money to Todd, so now’s the perfect time for me to demand federal intervention in local matters.”

Satire ... and alcohol. It's how we survive in this decrepit theater of the absurd.

BREAKING: Padgett, Tiger, EM Cummings Veneer, et al, are suing City Hall over the Main Street dishevelment project.

Well, now at least we know why the city of New Albany is prepared to spend another few hundred thousand dollars and wait 18 months merely to sabotage Jeff Speck's downtown street network proposals.

It's the Main Street Improvement Project, or rather, a lawsuit demanding compensation for lost earnings and the removal of the beautification "improvements" on the Main Street corridor, as filed by our selfless "friends" in the trucking and heavy vehicle trade.

There'll be more on the details when they emerge. For now, it's revenge by the 18 wheelers, as well as Jeff Gahan's puzzling inability to tell the truth about anything at all, like why the Board of Works did what it did on Tuesday. As noted, now we know why; it was a defensive mechanism against the lawsuit they knew was coming.

Meanwhile, I just received our property tax bill. 

The value of our property declined yet again this year, by somewhere around 5%. This surely is due in part to our house facing a stretch of one-way, pass-through urban interstate -- precisely what Jeff Gahan refuses to fight to modify and improve, but do you know what?

Just forget him.

He's little more than a doomed politician. Rather, know this, and remember: Through this lawsuit, "pillars" of the community like Padgett are proclaiming to the world that their value is more important than yours ... that their investments trump yours.

I loathe the Main Street project. It's wrong in almost every way imaginable, and we've been telling you that for three years. Verily, heads should roll. But two wrongs do not make a right, and in fact, Padgett, Tiger, Cummings and others are directly attacking our neighborhood.

Gahan has revealed himself far too weak and ineffectual for us to even care, and I'm not sure what can be done about any of it at present ... just don't forget.

Just don't forget.

Don't forget that it's Gahan who has spoiled this broth perhaps irreparably with the Main Street Project, and has refused to fight for neighborhood interest.

Don't forget that it is Padgett and its toady "business as usual" trucking minions who don't give a damn about neighborhood interests apart from despoiling them for profits. They'd run a toxic waste dump by S Ellen Jones School if they thought it would turn a profit.

I believe it's time to fight back, don't you?

Let's do that.

Now the "anchor" makes sense, but ...

Maybe Irv "borrowed" it. Clean and green, you know.

ON THE AVENUES SPECIAL EDITION: Full Frontal Goebbels erupts as Padgett looks at New Albany as a hole.

ON THE AVENUES SPECIAL EDITION: Full Frontal Goebbels erupts as Padgett looks at New Albany as a hole.

A weekly web column by Roger A. Baylor.

To be sure, attempted expository writing commencing with heartfelt thanks for the “fair and balanced” pandering of the News and Tribune’s forever oblivious Chris Morris generally is destined for the ground floor of the parakeet’s cage faster than Dan Coffey can switch sides, but because City Hall’s in hiding, and I couldn’t pawn the job off on the assistant editor, permit me to show you this nifty postcard.

It was the last remaining item on closeout at Endris Jewelers.

Thanks AG

Then there’s this.

PADGETT: Look at New Albany as a whole, by R. James Padgett

 ... Safety must be paramount. Everything else is secondary

Trying to follow Padgett's reasoning is like watching a neophyte learning to drive a stick, but let's give the crane mogul his due, and acknowledge that while Padgett has only one, solitary, universally valid point, it is an entirely fair point.

Too bad it's on John Rosenbarger's head.

Yes, Rosenbarger's pate should have been adorned with a bonnet of pink slips long ago, and at least on that much we can agree, because Padgett gets this part of it right: The East Main Street Improvement Project is an abomination, a perfect storm of a travesty of everything wrong with street refits, a gift that keeps on shafting on, an unfathomable civic own goal, and such a thorough poisoning of the design well when it comes to inclusive, progressive street sense that you’d be mistaken for thinking it was the act of a crazed, sworn enemy ... not the city's favorite inept son of a Rasputin.

Unfortunately for Padgett's current self-centered jihad against the city’s future, his one fair point has everything to do with the Main Street alone, and nothing whatever to do with Jeff Speck’s Downtown Street Network Proposals. For example, to my knowledge, not a single median is proposed within Speck's report, although he mentions the weirdness of the medians dividing Market Street downtown. Not a word in Speck's study is devoted to measures to prevent trucks from using New Albany's streets. His suggestions incorporate them within a broader context.

So, the first task for the reader of Padgett's rant to the News and Tribune is to realize that in terms of effective argumentation, fatally flawed premises cannot possibly lead to a correct conclusion. You’d sooner expect the muffler to rotate the drive shaft -- or something like that.

Padgett’s primary flawed argument, currently being borne by a conceptually unclothed Irv Stumler, is that because Main Street sucks, so do Speck's proposals. In his own words:

The problem was created because the Main Street changes were designed in a vacuum without analyzing their effect on other streets and businesses. And now, the City of New Albany is again proposing to do more of the same.

Padgett’s eagerness to conflate the two is his biggest lie, although he doesn't stop there. His secondary flawed argument, and his slightly smaller of lies, is that he alone possesses the key to “safety” on the streets, as based upon yet another shaky premise:

The streets exist for trucks. After that, we'll distribute sloppy seconds. 

This argument is egotistical, to say the least:

I decree that the Main Street project has created unsafe streets according to what trucks need, and will consider no evidence beyond that which I've provided., and so therefore what Speck proposes is unsafe according to what the trucking community needs, because those needs come first, and street safety pertains only to the relationship between trucks and the detestable remainder of the non-trucking human population, because I said so, and I’m Jim Padgett, gazing at my reflection in a serene pool of industrial badassedness. 

Let’s let Bluegill address this one.

The funny thing is that Padgett tries to pitch street reform and anybody but him as being responsible for danger. Somehow I don't think my bicycle imposes as much risk on the folks in my neighborhood as several thousand pounds of steel and drivers that apparently can't drive in a slow, straight line. There's a concept of proportionality at play here. He or she who creates the most risk also incurs the most responsibility.

As for Padgett’s labored renderings of truck safety issues on Main Street, our friend Iamhoosier has a few rejoinders.

If a semi driver cannot drive down a 13' wide street safely, he/she needs to have their license rescinded. Oversized loads are called that for a reason -- they are oversized. They still move. It takes a little more time and effort but they still get where they are going. And how many legit oversized loads are moved through NA in an average week? (my company makes deliveries every day with semis, so I know a little about this topic, too) Padgett is complaining about 13'. An interstate highway lane can be as narrow as 12'. His argument is hogwash. I'm sure there are times that an accommodation will have to made to move some of Padgett's products. I don't think anyone objects to that.

Interestingly, Padgett freely acknowledges that Main Street remains the “only legal travel route” for large vehicles and oversize loads. Apparently he does not contest this, so we’ll accept it, too, seeing as we've been saying it for many months.

As noted, Padgett is able to supply several disingenuous scenarios explaining why Main Street’s changes “have created dangerous travel,” but according to Padgett, short of removing the medians and starting over, the only solution is for the city to designate “another wide, clear and unobstructed travel street” for the use of his trucks, and the trucks of others. From this, we can infer that such a re-designation has not yet been established.

So … if by Padgett’s own admission, recent changes to Main Street may (or may not – do we have corroborating testimony?) be dangerous, but among these have NOT been any explicit changes to the street’s status as sole legal travel route, then how could I have seen this Padgett truck on Spring Street earlier in the week?

The sign even says “oversize load,” right?

Recalling that city officials and Wes Christmas, its Main Street project engineer, have insisted all along that changes there would not divert truck traffic elsewhere, and with Padgett himself in agreement that Main Street remains the only legal travel street, why are his trucks (and others) traveling on Spring Street at all?

Why haven’t these truckers been ticketed?

Is Padgett serving notice of overt civil disobedience?

Is he ordering them to avoid the only legal travel route?

Shouldn’t someone’s wrist be getting slapped?

As we’ve asked countless times, if Main Street remains the designated truck route even after the installation of garish medians, then why is the city not ticketing trucks for the very act of being on Spring Street? At the very least, why aren’t they being issued warnings?

Looking at Padgett's argumentation as a whole, it's filled with holes, and his me-first narcissism is way off the charts. However, and undeniably, we’re only at this idiotic, bile-ridden juncture because of the astounding wretchedness of Jeff Gahan’s and John Rosenbarger's massive Main Street boondoggle. Both should be cashiered, and as soon as humanly possible.

Meanwhile, one more time so Jim Padgett can hear it over the din of his fleet ...

Speck ain't Main Street, not by a long shot. To suggest otherwise is a lie, period.

---

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ON THE AVENUES SPECIAL EDITION: Adam's rib tips.

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Irv Stumler launches new Jolly Rancher bombardment in his jihad against modernity.

From the moment Irv Stumler reached the podium last Saturday and began reading potted monotonal bromides from a prepared, crayon-smeared sheet, it was obvious where "New Albany 4 All" had originated.

ON THE AVENUES: As Admiral Gahan steers his Speck study into the Bermuda Triangle, crewmen Padgett, Stumler and Caesar grimly toss all the rum overboard.

Yes, it remains true that Mayor Jeff Gahan's bizarrely inept and frankly cowardly mishandling of Speck's streets study has brought us to the juncture where opponents have declared cultural jihad against hope for the city's future.

This is New Albany, and increased value for all, as opposed to a few, is something to be feared and loathed, and so City Hall seems committed to a cynical strategy of taking any notion of hope fostered by the Speck study and tossing is like a scrap of rancid meat into the howling scrum, so that after we’ve all mauled each other, Jeff Gahan as Noble Squire can stride onto center stage and take credit for the healing “compromise solution” to a festering mess he has created.

Proponents have played factually and nice. They have been answered with Irv Stumler's territorial sprayings.

I can speak only for myself, but if the Stumlers of the area want culture war, I'm happy to fight them on that particular battlefield. The future is two-way. The past is one-way.

Pick a side.

ON THE AVENUES: As Admiral Gahan steers his Speck study into the Bermuda Triangle, crewmen Padgett, Stumler and Caesar grimly toss all the rum overboard.

ON THE AVENUES: As Admiral Gahan steers his Speck study into the Bermuda Triangle, crewmen Padgett, Stumler and Caesar grimly toss all the rum overboard.

A weekly web column by Roger A. Baylor.

“(Two-way streets) are being driven by about a handful of people that want to be able to turn right onto Bank Street from Elm Street."
-- Bob Caesar (exact quote, 2013)

It happened last Saturday, during the second of three scheduled public exercises bizarrely dedicated to flaunting City Hall’s all-encompassing political cowardice, and which have been hailed somewhat euphemistically as “forums,” designed to extract input about Jeff Speck’s downtown street network reform proposals, while answering neither a single earnest question, nor clearing even the lowest imaginable bar in terms of overall public education.

City Hall evidently views these meetings as tactical exercises. You can tell by the abundance of white flags.

As the forum neared its end, and the ostensibly presiding Bored of Works began openly contemplating lunch, perennially bloviating civic value extractor Jim Padgett yet again took the podium to argue that because at some undetermined juncture on a far-off future day, a single Padgett truck might experience inconvenience by being forced to wait a few minutes to make a turn, the remainder of the city must be held in a condition of abject bondage, and forced to wait forever.

Why? Obviously, it’s because Padgett’s business interests, and the similar interests of a handful of fellow Ayn Randian trucking fetishists, far outstrip anyone else’s interest in New Albany, anyone else’s investment in New Albany, and anyone else’s plain presence in New Albany. It’s all about Padgett, not you or me.

Hence the extreme irony in Padgett’s narcissism, because if Speck’s street grid reform proposals miraculously are not sloppily aborted by the shameless pusillanimity of a City Hall frightened of its own cowering shadow, the measures are designed precisely to stimulate and speed along a municipal revival that already has been initiated with extensive private investment, and if thus abetted and for once genuinely supported, the revival eventually stands to inflate the value of Padgett’s own sadly misplaced downtown industrial properties, to an extent that his company might simultaneously relocate to a better transit location by an interstate somewhere (anywhere is fine – I hear Myanmar is wicked cheap in springtime), while converting his current acreage filled with machines and trucks into a massive redevelopment payday to benefit actual living people.

But this is New Albany, and increased value for all, as opposed to a few, is something to be feared and loathed, and so City Hall seems committed to a cynical strategy of taking any notion of hope fostered by the Speck study and tossing is like a scrap of rancid meat into the howling scrum, so that after we’ve all mauled each other, Jeff Gahan as Noble Squire can stride onto center stage and take credit for the healing “compromise solution” to a festering mess he has created.

It’s a cute Disney script, all right, but did Gahan ever receive the pressing memo about a revolution of rising expectations in the city’s historic core -- or did ranking minion David Duggins spot it first, lying there atop the toilet tank in the executive washroom, and suddenly realize that he might someday be held to a higher contemporary creative economic development standard than that which suffices to throw wads of endlessly reprintable taxpayer money at the smoldering tire tracks of an already departing Pillsbury?

Is so, then the memo probably got hauled away with the rubble of 922 Culbertson, never to be seen again.

---

Imagine the hilarity if I were to produce a blacksmith to lecture Padgett on the quality of his trucking fleet’s tires, prior to it being revealed that the blacksmith actually is a purveyor of twenty-mule teams.

On Saturday morning, Padgett amusingly played a desperation card from Bob “My Way Is the Interstate Highway Every Day” Caesar’s well-worn deck of antebellum Luddite tricks, referring somewhat vaguely to “research" dating to ancient times (2005), as compiled by the American Dream Coalition, which is a component of the Independence Institute’s Center for the American Dream.

Check out the donor list. It’s like a who’s who of crusted centerfolds in the magazines stashed beneath Kerry Stemler’s yellowed mattress.

The Independence Institute's Center for the American Dream opposes zoning in cities, and argues against Colorado's rail public transit initiative called Fastracks, saying that 'rail transit reduces the livability of every urban area in which it is found.'

The American Dream Coalition is a predictably vapid yawner from a Potemkin think tank, deploying the same cooked data once solemnly cited by a caterwauling Caesar at a forgettable city council meeting, as lifted at the time from something outlandishly called the Thoreau Institute. The tired screeds are aynonymous because there is a common shill to these oligarchy front groups, a fellow named Randal O'Toole.

Randal O'Toole's self-styled 'Thoreau Institute' lies at the core of his ferocious jihad against urban planning, Smart Growth, New Urbanism, public transport, and rail transit (a jihad that he also promotes through spin-offs and front groups such as his American Dream Coalition).

That’s right. This is what passes for scholarship in Nawbony, where men are men and sheep managed higher SAT scores.

Isn’t it fascinating that as City Hall incessantly soft-pedals the culturally transformational aspect of Speck’s study in favor of wonkishly insisting that Larry Summers patiently explain induced demand as part of Gahan's tragic ORBP pass-through rationale, the city’s Neanderthal right-wingers are cutting straight to the chase and instigating culture war as their pre-emptive reply?

The simplest way to debunk O’Toole’s cockamamie one percenter’s fodder is to consider what motivates him and his various, proliferating “research” institutes: Gobs of money from the very same oil, automotive and construction interests who profit the most from the roadway status quo, and who happily fund entities like the American Dream Coalition.

Apparently they’re everywhere.

“Right-wing billionaires, corporations and the Bradley Foundation pay for junk studies that prop up their agenda”

A handy analogy can be seen in the realm of climate science. There are legitimate climate scientists who follow the evidence where it takes them, because they’re being paid to be climate scientists. Then, there are those scientists who are paid to return a verdict against the evidence produced by the legitimate climate scientists.

You know, the ones paid to be political pawns.

In terms of analogy, professional planners like Jeff Speck must be numbered among the former. They are remunerated for their expertise, and run the numbers to see where reality leads them. It’s what Speck did in his study of New Albany.

For-hire polemicists like O’Toole can be classified among the latter. Their wheels are greased to provide “facts” that favor one-way streets and auto-centrism, and obligingly, they manufacture them, so that otherwise intelligent individuals like Padgett, Caesar and Irv Stumler can muster the flimsiest possible backing to declare culture war against modernity.

Impenetrable ironies never cease in New Albany. Stumler slavishly agrees with Padgett, as does Caesar, which is the best indication that ideologically, all three are pure, unadulterated Republicans, and yet as we recall, Stumler ran for mayor as a Democrat four years ago, and in 2015 opposes Caesar as a Republican in the 2nd district council race.

That’s right, you abused, long-suffering residents of the 2nd district: Both of your declared council candidates unalterably oppose street grid reform, which means both of them reject enhanced economic development in the core and renewed quality of life in our neighborhoods. It doesn’t matter which one of them wins; either way, you’ll be faced with governance by old and stodgy white males who look to places like Eritrea Haiti and Mississippi for free-market inspiration.

It looks like throwback time for the 2nd district; all the way back to open sewage ditches, leeches and lynchings in the middle of one-way streets for YOU, unless a principled independent candidate can be found, and quick.

Please try to find one.

---

I almost forgot, but only because he’s so recurringly and incompetently forgettable.

In September of 2013, the News and Tribune’s Chris Morris supposedly helped author an editorial strongly supporting two way streets and street grid reform.

Yesterday he published a column expressing alarm that the hoity-toity book readers might be allowed to steal a march on his preferred milieu of father-figure-icon-worshipping datedness.

NAC promptly polled folks in Iceland, and we couldn’t find anyone there who is surprised at Morris's flip-flop, either, although a woman in Hveragerði questioned whether Morris had actually bothered to read Speck’s Downtown Street Network report.

Silly Icelandics. Of course he didn’t read it. It isn’t about sports, is it?

Put Speck on a baseball card, and maybe then … nah.

---

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