HISTORY: Yuri Slezkine's The House of Government and the making of the Soviet ruling class.

It's been a year and a half since I read The House of Government: A Saga of the Russian Revolution, by Yuri Slezkine, described by its publisher as "the epic story of an enormous apartment building where Communist true believers lived before their destruction.” I found it interesting, indeed, and it inspired an educational digression about various palaces (see below).

Yesterday out of nowhere came a lengthy essay at Jacobin about Slezkine's book ("The Making of the Soviet Ruling Class"), written by Kevin Murphy: "(He) teaches Russian history at the University of Massachusetts Boston. His Revolution and Counterrevolution: Class Struggle in a Moscow Metal Factory won the 2005 Deutscher Memorial Prize."

This essay isn't for everyone, but if you're interested in early Soviet history, it's informative.

A Flawed Masterwork

The House of Government is the most contradictory, eclectic study of the Russian Revolution ever published. Brilliant, captivating, and often heart-wrenching, in many ways it is social history at its very best. Some of Yuri Slezkine’s harshest academic critics, who have only published obscure dust-collecting volumes, should realize that nothing comparable has been published in half a century. Slezkine should be commended for dedicating so many years of his life to producing an indispensable read for every serious student of the Russian Revolution.

But we also need to be honest about its flaws. The House of Government is a conceptual dumpster fire, framing what could easily have been an epic masterpiece into a predictable story that we’ve heard so many times before by putting forward a “continuity” thesis that relies upon a plethora of factual errors and omissions. Readers who can tune out the often exasperating analysis and treat it as unfortunate background noise will enjoy the ride.

Murphy uses a word we don't see every day.

As a prosopographical study of how an important part of the party apparatus converted itself into a new ruling class, The House of Government fills a huge gap in the history of Stalinism, even if the author himself doesn’t view it in such terms.

Prosopography defined: "A description of a person's social and family connections, career, etc., or a collection of such descriptions."

Slezkine's book and Murphy's essay both make for heavy reading, but I'm glad I did. There'll never be a time like that again ... will there?

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I suppose we'll have to settle for ... bottom left.

May 8, 2018

Time does not fly when you're reading cornerstone-sized tomes, but in the middle of Week Seven, there's light at the end of a humongous arched entryway in the building ostensibly being profiled: The House of Government: A Saga of the Russian Revolution, by Yuri Slezkine.

Sorry, CM Barksdale: the book's about the people living in the colossal structure, not the bricks and mortar itself. In 1931, at roughly the same time this building was completed, the church down the way was demolished to make way for progress, Stalinist-style.

Cathedral of Christ the Saviour

 ... The original church, built during the 19th century, took more than 40 years to build, and was the scene of the 1882 world premiere of the 1812 Overture composed by Tchaikovsky. It was destroyed in 1931 on the order of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. The demolition was supposed to make way for a colossal Palace of the Soviets to house the country's legislature, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Construction started in 1937 but was halted in 1941 when Germany invaded the Soviet Union during World War II. Its steel frame was disassembled the following year, and the Palace was never built.

It never happened, and it was left to the Genius of the Carpathians, ill-fated Romanian despot Nicolae Ceaușescu, to erect the biggest damn Commie building of all -- not cloud-piercing skyscraper, but the Palace of the Parliament (formerly House of the Republic).

Stalin may not have gotten his Soviet palace, but Ceaușescu got his, good and hard after a show trial (template: Koba).

Why Joseph Stalin Never Got His Soviet Palace, by William O'Connor (The Daily Beast)

... The final designs for the palace were terrifying. The structure was a pyramidal skyscraper made up of seven ascending concentric cylinders. Each of those hulking cylinders was to “be decorated with allegorical sculptures of heroes of the Soviet epoch.”

Crowning this monstrosity was no less than a 328-foot statue of the deceased Vladimir Lenin.

Work on the Palace began in 1938, with the government spending roughly $18.9 million to get it started. The Soviets declared that it would open on Nov. 7, 1942, the 25th anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution, leading even The New York Times to snicker and write, “The building cannot possibly be completed by that date.”

The base of the building was to be 460 feet in diameter. It would be filled with offices, museums, restaurants, and a main hall with a capacity of 20,000.

It was also to have 148 elevators and 62 escalators. According to Time there would also be a library with 500,000 books.

The base was to be made of marble and granite, the rest of the building clad in a purple-red tufa (a type of limestone) from the Caucasus, and the statue would be made of aluminum or chrome steel.

Due to its height up in the clouds, engineers “estimated that on only ninety days out of the year will the head of the Lenin statue be clearly visible from the ground.”

The foundations were completed and the steel frame for the lower levels put in place, but alas, WWII got in the way. In 1942 the steel frame was dismantled to provide steel for the Red Army and more urgent infrastructure projects.

As a point of comparison, note that a 328-foot tall statue of Jeff Gahan would be taller than Riverview Tower, which is merely ≈ 190 feet.

ROGER'S DIARY OF THE END TIMES: Nawbany is losing the Toilet Race to the Japanese.

As the hippie rock band once observed, we have all been here before.

Revisiting "Pissoirs for the People" -- or, will there be public restrooms in the new luxury Reisz complex, and if so, how much will Team Gahan charge us to use them?

New Albany's new $15 million city hall, which is taking far longer to complete than expected, is a genuine sign of the end times before we even begin to consider Jeff Gahan's gold-plated fixtures.

One thing's for sure: Deaf might be okay with losing the toilet race to some confusing Asian country of which he's blissfully unaware, BUT THAT HORRID POSEUR MIKE MOORE IS ANOTHER STORY ENTIRELY.

We can only hope the shipment of superior Japanese toilet technology eludes the coronavirus cordon.

Why America Is Losing The Toilet Race

I just got back from my first trip to Japan, and I'm now in love with the country. The ramen, yakitori and sushi. The gorgeous volcanoes. The fascinating people and culture. But of all the things I fell in love with, there's one that I can't stop thinking about: the toilets.

Japanese toilets are marvels of technological innovation. They have integrated bidets, which squirt water to clean your private parts. They have dryers and heated seats. They use water efficiently, clean themselves and deodorize the air, so bathrooms actually smell good. They have white noise machines, so you can fill your stall with the sound of rain for relaxation and privacy. Some even have built-in night lights and music players. It's all customizable and controlled by electronic buttons on a panel next to your seat.

Question: Did David Barksdale's support of the Reisz Mahal cost him re-election?

Now that the election is over, maybe I can finally start writing about what I REALLY think.

Or maybe not.

Either way, to kick things off with post-election analysis, a question for readers: Incumbent at-large councilman David Barksdale (Republican) lost his seat to newcomer Jason Applegate, a recent convert to the Democratic Party.

Last year Barksdale famously broke with his party and joined council's four Democrats to cast the deciding vote on the Reisz Mahal luxury city hall project.

Did this hurt him among fiscally conservative Republicans?

"I was very honored to be on the council for four years," Barksdale told the Tom May Evangel-Bune. "I voted for what I thought was best for the citizens. There is always another day."

Speaking personally, I thought he'd be forgiven, but after garnering 3,365 votes in 2015, Barksdale received 3,371 this year, a gain of only six. Meanwhile his Republican council colleagues Al Knable and David Aebersold added 704 and 386 votes, respectively. In short, the higher turnout in 2019 didn't help Barksdale at all, and his Reisz Mahal legacy might be one reason.

An interesting sidebar to Barksdale's loss: who will replace him as council's appointment to the Redevelopment Commission?

I'm guessing it will be Applegate, who stressed "smart growth" in his unsuccessful bid for county commissioner in 2018.

Halloween's over, but Jeff Gahan is still wearing his construction engineer costume. The desperation's getting a tad tacky, eh?

I'd suggest Jeff Gahan has jumped the shark, but after all that's so 2013; the debilitating paranoia's taken a few years to come to fruition, and we foresee a post-election cruise to Fantasy Island coming before his last Christmas in office.

Meanwhile, the tragedy of this mailer -- what is it now, the 56th in the last two weeks? -- isn't so much that Gahan seeks credit for driving the nails, installing the toilets and polishing the knobs in the process of unnecessarily spending millions of tax dollars for a vanity renovation of the Reisz Mahal to benefit inhumanely-treated government workers.

It's Dear Leader's cynical use of Mickey Thompson, himself a government worker, as a prop.

For those who are unaware, Mickey's the guy standing to Gahan's right, He's the New Albany Street Department commissioner and a member of the Board of Works, not a contractor or Denton Floyd employee.

Speaking for myself, I've no issues whatever with Mickey, who is invariably helpful and knows the city like the back of his hand. It's not about him. It's about the way Deaf 'n' Desperate Gahan will do and say anything to keep the ruling elite's Gravy Train rolling.

Of course, taking considerable liberties with the truth is one of the recurring features of Gahan's career in politics.

As such, why not lie, yet again, in yet another mailer?

It isn't like Gahan's had to pay for any of them himself. We can only hope Ed Jolliffe and Jorge Lanz are getting their profit's worth out of it.

GIVE GAHAN THE BOOT: (Monday) The Reisz Mahal luxury city hall, perhaps the signature Gahan boondoggle.

Last week was Harvest Homecoming, and my city's favorite festival kept me pinned to the tarmac, but now we're back to what passes for normal here in New Gahania, where "We're All Here Because We're Not All THERE."

There was no time to conjure a column during Harvest Homecoming, so this week as a run-up to Decision 2019, I'm headed back into the ON THE AVENUES archive for five straight days of devastatingly persuasive arguments against four more years of the Gahan Family Values Personality Cult.

I've already made the argument for Mark Seabrook as mayor here. Now let's return to the voluminous case against Gahanism in five informative and entertaining installments.

GIVE GAHAN THE BOOT: (Monday) The Reisz Mahal luxury city hall, perhaps the signature Gahan boondoggle.

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June 21, 2018

ON THE AVENUES: Government Lives Matter, so it's $10,000,000 for Gahan's luxury city hall clique enhancement. Happy dumpster diving, peasants!

A weekly column by Roger A. Baylor.

If someone ignored the "no soliciting" sign on your porch and clambered up to the door, breathlessly offering to sell you a gizmo with the promise that the mere fact of owning it will save you all kinds of money, there are many good questions you might ask.

Of course, you might also command the huckster to vacate your porch, or else. I generally do. But in order to determine whether the peddler's product is a sound investment, one specific question tops the list:

How much does it cost?

Mayor Jeff Gahan is a former veneer salesman with a well-honed, thoroughly greasy sales pitch, and he thinks you're too stupid to ask how much a new city hall is going to cost you -- in tax dollars.

The (Reisz) project will save millions of dollars over time, as the city has paid costs in its current location for over 57 years. It will also help the surrounding businesses see their private investment backed up by pubic investment.

Take a magnifying glass to the undisguised gloating amid yesterday's city hall press release, stating that the multi-million dollar Reisz renovation is a done deal and a fixed formality, and further opposition from the likes of YOU is plainly useless, and you'll find absolutely no mention of the price tag.

Please allow me to fill in this blank.

The Reisz cost commitment already has topped $10,000,000 in a city where perhaps a quarter of the residents live below the poverty line; where Gahan and his new unofficial deputy mayor and slavish devotee David Barksdale are eager to demolish half of the city's public housing units; and where city hall has yet to mention aloud minor details like the opioid epidemic, the accompanying rise in thievery and petty crime, homelessness, and the worsening plight of our city's working poor.

The sloganeering is so oppressive that a Trump rally seems like the knitter's circle coffee klatsch by comparison.

Government lives matter!

(so, let's literally quadruple the size of municipal government)

Buildings not people!

(because elite cliques need historic fetishes, too)

If you have to ask what it costs, you can't afford it!

(it might be the only truthful statement yet uttered by these purported Democrats)

Team Gahan and affiliates can do the math, all right, so long as most of it is concealed.

What eludes them is simple human empathy.

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Last week the News and Tribune's most inconsistent editor got to work defending the imperatives of government buildings over those of residents.

He begins by inferring an economic ripple effect from a single government-occupied building, without bothering to try to interpret economic conditions and trends downtown.

MORRIS: Reisz rehab would give downtown a boost, by Chris Morris (Where Multiple Tom Mays Roam)

 ... But the area needs another boost. Some businesses have closed recently while others are struggling. Just think what could happen with a vibrant city hall in a refurbished Reisz building, in the heart of our downtown. With life put back into a building that has sat empty for years, others may decide to invest and open a business, or at the very least visit the downtown. The downtown needs this project.

Morris saves his weakest argument for last.

I am a fan of uni-gov — otherwise known as one government for New Albany and Floyd County, and being in favor of adding another government building to the tax rolls goes against that theory. Uni-gov would eliminate duplicated services, there wouldn’t be these power struggles or personality conflicts, and it would save taxpayers money. Too much government only gets in the way of people trying to live their lives ...

 ... So why would I support spending money to rehabilitate this building, guaranteeing two separate government buildings just blocks apart? Even with a uni-gov the City-County Building will be needed for office space and to allow the courts to expand. That building is also in need of some renovation, but that is for another day ...

... It’s a big move but one I think the city needs to take. There are no other options on the table for the building and this makes the most sense. The downtown needs a boost, and putting city hall inside the Reisz Furniture building may be exactly what is needed. It’s worth the gamble.

Worth the $10,000,000 (or more) gamble, like it's Monopoly money?

If there is a consistent theme to the prevailing Reisz apologetic, it echoes the immortal words of Basil Fawlty: "Don't mention the cost!"

Or: Don't mention the opportunity cost, because we'll be spending an extra $400,000 a year for one government building when the money might be combined with private sector investments to assist dozens of other deserving historic structures downtown and those small businesses and residences occupying them, as well as incentivizing infill construction to fill vacant lots.

Alas, we've long understood that Morris's veneration of "respectable" authority is such that he'll automatically take the side of anyone and anything he's loosely capable of identifying as a selfless community pillar.

Morris comes perilously close to openly acknowledging that this fact-free approach is contradictory as it pertains to uni-gov, and yet he churns out the logic sausage as predictably as Team Gahan and HWC Engineering render Jeff Speck's walkability into more of the same car-centrism.

I asked the newspaper for a similar word count in rebuttal. To my mild surprise, the offer was accepted, and I wrote the following. It was published yesterday; this is the "Director's Cut," leaving intact two passages I was asked by the editor to remove. You'll probably be able to guess which ones.

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Last week the News and Tribune’s Chris Morris supported governmental intervention ostensibly aimed at “saving” the Reisz Furniture Warehouse by renovating it into a lavish new city hall.

I’d love to see Reisz put to use, just not like this. To understand why, let’s follow the money.

Dating to 1852, the Reisz building has been a flour mill, funeral home and shirt factory. Purchased by Schmitt Furniture in 1988, it served mostly as cheap storage.

At any point during three decades, Schmitt might have opted to “save” Reisz but didn’t, and so a central point of Mayor Jeff Gahan’s case for adaptive reuse is a suddenly urgent need to rectify the "dilapidated” building’s “neglect” (his words).

Apparently there are no penalties in New Albany for structure abuse.

Last August the Redevelopment Commission authorized funds for Gahan’s relocation project, at the time neither subject to an RFP (request for proposal), nor approved by city council. Detailed explanations were offered by Denton Floyd Real Estate Group, with whom Gahan is partnering, as though the deal already had been sealed.

Perhaps this occurred when former redevelopment tsar David Duggins accompanied Denton Floyd last fall for a limousine junket to Keeneland.

By May of 2018, the RFP formality was hurdled. $750,000 passed from Redevelopment to Denton Floyd, including the purchase price of $390,000, with the remainder to empty the building of junk.

Denton Floyd would complete the 23,000-square-foot buildout for city hall’s relocation (currently City Hall uses 6,500 sq. ft. at the City County Building), with a 15-year “rent to own” lease.

Yearly payments will be $570,000, or $8,500,000 over 15 years. By comparison, $200,000 during the same period in the City County Building totals $3,000,000. Another $500,000 is approved for office furnishings, surely a low estimate.

Ten months ago the city’s combined yearly cost at Reisz was estimated at $215,000. It’s more than tripled since then, with just shy of $10,000,000 committed to the project. The total cost of ownership inevitably will rise; in addition to inevitable price hikes, county officials insist the city remains bound to its current landlord. Lawsuits are likely.

20% of the city’s population lives below the poverty line, yet Gahan, who concurrently seeks to demolish half our public housing units, wants to spend an additional $370,000 - $400,000 yearly on city offices, citing the ripple effects of economic development that relocation will generate.

We should be asking whether these ripple effects are real or imagined.

The most persistent advocate of the Reisz project is David Barksdale, historic preservationist and city councilman, who thinks Reisz must be renovated at any cost, and presumably, since limitless costs are government’s responsibility, seeks largess from a bottomless well of cash.

Barksdale touts the project as “skin in the game,” a way of showing downtown stakeholders that City Hall stands with them.

After all, entrepreneurs and small independent business owners have invested $60 million or more into downtown during the past decade, while enjoying few of the subsidies available to suburban industrial park occupants.

Barksdale’s argument is flawed. Private investors spend their own money, but the money required for the municipality’s funding of a single speculative historic preservation project isn’t cash from Gahan’s or Barksdale’s pockets.

Rather, this “skin” belongs to the city’s taxpayers – and they haven’t been asked.

Naturally downtown stakeholders need functional “skin” in the game, this being shared, collective infrastructure, including streets, sewers, police and firefighters. These are grassroots needs, citywide.

City Hall spending almost $10 million on itself? That’s a top-down want.

Some compare a new city hall with the YMCA. It’s absurd. The YMCA brings people downtown who might not otherwise come. Moving city offices three whole blocks changes nothing. The same workers come to work, and they eat the same lunch. There is no net gain.

Furthermore, a relocated city hall threatens to bump Harvest Homecoming’s kiddie rides from its current location, posing a financial hardship for the city’s premier annual festival.

As for the exaggerated rhetoric of historic preservation, $7 million for one additional restored historic building won’t be diverting tour buses.

Numerous structures of historic significance lie within a five minute stroll of Reisz. No study has been conducted to determine whether one of them might be suitable as city hall. No other options even have been considered. If floated as a referendum, this relocation boondoggle probably would lose 70%-30%, or worse.

Ironically Morris, a proponent of unified city-county government (uni-gov), can’t see that Gahan’s interest in city hall relocation is politically motivated, having nothing to do with historic preservation or the Reisz building itself apart from the utility of prying away Barksdale’s council vote to restore Gahan’s control of an otherwise lapsed majority.

City hall’s relocation addresses Gahan’s pathological hatred of uni-gov. He’d secede from the county if allowed, and he’d relocate HQ to a suitably luxurious pole barn if one existed. Plainly, the aim is political preservation for Gahan and Democrats, and Reisz is just one move in a chess game to stave off power-sharing with the county.

Shouldn’t we wait until municipal elections in 2019 to discuss moving city hall?

Let your councilman know this mandate (if any) should come from the people, not the city’s ruling elites.

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See also:

June 12, 2018: ON THE AVENUES: Histrionic preservation? $8.5 million to gift Jeff Gahan with a luxury city hall "want" is simply obscene in a time of societal need.

Homelessness, 8th Street Pizza's move, Clean Socks Hope's mission and an addendum by Exit 0.

It's the building at 141 East Main Street, the former Liz at Home and more recently GrayStone Performance, located right across the street from the Reisz Mahal (new city hall). Let's dive right in. These links are to Facebook; the website is here.

Clean Socks Hope & 8th Street Pizza, in New Albany, IN, is the area's only pay-it-forward pizzeria serving serving Floyd, Harrison and Clark counties since 2007.

We are a nonprofit organization offering hand tossed pizzas, desserts, drinks, dine-in and carry out service, games and much more. Delivery available via DoorDash app. For your next pizza craving, visit Clean Socks Hope & 8th Street Pizza in New Albany.

Clean Socks Hope's mission is described here.

We believe that God created all people, including the poor with the ability to help themselves and others. That means that we do not fall into the routine perpetual feeding and clothing programs of those around us, but equip those we serve with the skills that will create self-worth and self-sufficiency that can change the lives of men, women and children for generations to come.

Yesterday our friend Andrew began spreading the word that 8th Street Pizza will be moving to 141 East Main Street.

8th Street Pizza is moving locations from midtown to downtown New Albany. Some businesses like Pints&union, Wick's New Albany, The Earl, and 1816 Modern Kitchen & Drinks have supported their mission of feeding the homeless in New Albany.

Now 8th Street Pizza has seen an influx of NEW homeless people in Downtown New Albany and really wants to help the downtown area. They are moving to 141 East Main Street. The focus will still be an outreach location but will also serve late-night New York Style Pizza by the slice.

Jeffrey S. Minton is the man behind Clean Socks Hope and 8th Street Pizza and wanted me to help spread the word to the new neighbors in downtown and I figured this would be one of the best methods.

The "Share a Slice" campaign has been a kick and they look to expand it by offering a "Share A Slice" Wall that anyone can donate to and take from. No questions asked...

If you haven't heard of the amazing nonprofit pizza place, then please take the time to get a piece of 8th Street Pizza soon. I'll even share a slice with you!

So far, so good. NA Confidential doesn't do Christianity, but we broadly support this pizza-driven outreach, and the building in question might conceivably be more than just a pizzeria; the building's most recent owner installed dorm rooms upstairs. When I saw them, I thought: youth hostel.

Interestingly, this is one of those infrequent times when food and social issues actively collide, because to put it bluntly, City Hall's stance on homelessness is as clear as alluvial mud -- not at all clean like white socks. Ronald Reagan famously avoided saying the word "AIDS" aloud; Jeff Gahan's bugaboo is the word "homelessness," as he doesn't communicate well and as a suburbanite generally avoids topics he finds personally distasteful.

It hasn't been very long (July) since Gahan's homeless encampment demolition debacle.

Exit 0's Paul Stensrud pulls zero punches v.v. Gahan's violence against the homeless: "In order for things to change there needs to be a change of hands within local government."

It appears that Jeff Gahan is as adept at co-opting the Homeless Coalition of Southern Indiana as he has been in snookering Purported Progressives into hand-feeding him grapes. Gahan has picked a side he can control; if Dear Leader could bulldoze Exit Zero as a concept, then he'd do that, too.

Gahan is pathology, not policy.

Consequently, and eerily paralleling 8th Street Pizza's moving announcement, Exit 0 posted this commentary yesterday on Facebook.

We went scouting in New Albany today and found new signage to keep the homeless out of the town and several needles discarded off of a public trail. But the city continues to claim they do not have a drug addiction or homelsssness problem. Why make up signage and ban tents if we have no issue? Welcome to making homelessness illegal in New Albany. The needles were cleaned up so someone in the community does not get hurt. Continue to pray for our community.

NA Confidential supports Clean Socks Hope, 8th Street Pizza and Exit 0, and quite frankly, major league stones are required for anyone to set up a program of homeless outreach at a site directly across from the mayor's new showpiece City Hall.

This fascinating juxtaposition stands to be very interesting indeed, especially as we approach the election. Wouldn't it be good if Gahan chose to issue a public statement of support for what Clean Socks Hope and 8th Street Pizza is trying to do downtown?

Here in "walkable" Nawbany, our grandiose Reisz Mahal won't even have a Main Street entry portal, so make sure and bring your car.

That's right, we're spending millions to remodel a building that won't have a Main Street entrance. Be sure and enter with your car, to the rear.

But please don't mention "public art," because it could get far worse.

ON THE AVENUES: Socialists for Seabrook, because we desperately need a new beginning in New Albany.

Follow the change order money, 'cuz Deaf Gahan needs the Reisz Mahal finished before the anticipated re-enthronement.

No follow-ups from the News and Tribune. No digging. Just boilerplate, ma'am -- and if we record the lies exactly as they were told to us, our job is finished.

"It was in such poor shape; they told us it was going to fall down if we didn't do something," New Albany city attorney Shane Gibson said of the Reisz building. "This is really going to be nice."

Nice. Very nice.

Like the grand total of between $12 and $15 million in nice taxpayer funds to alleviate David Barksdale's supposed "inhumane" working conditions in the current City-County Building ... but mostly because an imperial mayor requires a suitably imperial palace from which to govern, correct?

Need I contrast the extravagance required by local governing elites with the homeless camp recently demolished on orders of the very same mayor?

That's okay, progressives, I know; cognitive dissonance is growing. Trace it to its source and you'll find one of your own.

#FireGahan2019

Crews ready to 'hit the ground running' on Reisz building renovation, by Chris Morris (The Tom May Daily Sermonette)

NEW ALBANY — It still doesn't look like much. An old building, with no windows and a front wall that has to be supported by large beams. Hard to imagine anything happening to this structure other than being bulldozed.

But plenty has been going on at the old Reisz Furniture building since last October.

Revisiting "Pissoirs for the People" -- or, will there be public restrooms in the new luxury Reisz complex, and if so, how much will Team Gahan charge us to use them?

The main text originally was posted on July 8, 2018; the bit at the end first appeared here on December 26, 2018. 

Current county councilman, city resident, regular reader and all-around good guy Dale Bagshaw posed an excellent question yesterday on social media.

Does anyone wonder why New Albany does not have any public restrooms in the downtown? The city is being reborn and we want people to walk, shop and dine downtown. The city council talked about restrooms in the farmers market expansion but took them out of the plan because of cost and purchased a restroom trailer. However, I drove by on Pearl Street today about 2:00 p.m. and it was gone. My wife and I go to other towns like Corydon, Madison and Nashville IN. They have public restrooms. Why not us? Just a thought -- think the city could put public restrooms in the new city hall, maybe?

Yes, the city might install public restrooms in the new luxury city hall, and there's one thing we know for sure: they'd be PAY toilets, with the credit card swipes plumbed directly to Jeff Gahan's re-enthronement account.

Nickels and dimes, people. Nickels and dimes.

Here's a reprise of NAC's public restroom coverage from 2016, because while Da 'Bune has two religion columnists, you don't see the newspaper tackling public pissoirs for the people, do you?

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Not the late and lamented pissoir, but Germany has an idea to provide more public restrooms.

It's been a couple of years since public toilet mania in New Albany.

As April comes to an end, a reminder that public toilets are not dead.

A ringside seat for New Albany's new slogan: "Truck Through City" ... Part Twelve.

Meanwhile, Germany's doing something about it ...

Germany Found a Cheap Way to Fix Its Lack of Public Restrooms, by Feargus O'Sullivan (City Lab)

Welcome to the “Nice Toilet.”

... In Germany, it looks like there may be one that really works. The country’s Nette Toilette (“Nice Toilet”) system has created a compromise between public and private restrooms that makes such obvious sense it’s hard to believe that other countries aren’t doing it already too. It works like this. German cities pay businesses a monthly fee of anything from €30 to €100 ($33 to $110) a month to open up their restrooms for the general public. These businesses then put a sticker in their window to let the public know they’re welcome to use the facilities even if they’re not buying. First launched in 2000 and now including 210 member cities (including some in Switzerland), the network is a private one that charges participating cities a modest fee to use their branding. Sixteen years in, it’s still on a roll. At the end of October, the network announced that it is expanding to Munich, which will be its largest urban area yet.

 ... as is our nation's capital.

Public restrooms are another beneficial project neither Jeff Gahan nor Develop New Albany is likely to pursue.

... Finding a hygienic and accessible restroom on the street is a necessity for many, including homeless residents, seniors, and pregnant women—and a challenge in many U.S. cities, not just D.C. But a nationwide movement is building to create “more spaces for people to do private things,” as Alexandra Goldman, a community organizer in San Francisco, told CityLab. And now—years after D.C.’s bathroom committee conducted their first informal survey of publicly accessible private space—the city has taken the most sweeping action in the nation so far, passing the first Public Restroom bill of its kind.

"Top Shelf Tactical, LLC is currently closed due to unstable building conditions from construction on the new city hall."

It's a tough break for any locally-owned independent business.

Top Shelf Tactical, LLC is currently closed due to unstable building conditions from construction on the new city hall. Let’s hope construction is speedy and this family owned shop is able to open soon.

Funny, but I remember ...

But didn't taxpayers already forward $750,000 to Denton Floyd to "stabilize" the Reisz Luxury City Hall?

Maybe it was just the front side. But ...

Hello darkness, my old friend: Is David Barksdale yet again the council's swing vote on Gahan's Colonial Manor power play?

"Shades of the Reisz Mahal," said the spider to the fly.

The Green Mouse has been told that occasional Republican councilman David Barksdale, who has voted with City Hall almost as often as council's Rubber Stamp Quartet of Democrats, yet again looks like the swing vote; the Mouse's abacus shows the Democratic foursome in favor, with two Republicans and two Independents opposed.

Of course we're referring to Thursday evening's resolution to approve the Redevelopment Commission's use of the city's TIF One Platinum card to purchase the moribund Colonial Manor shopping center from absentee owners.

ON THE AVENUES: Amid Deaf Gahan's "victory" over grassroots activists at Colonial Manor, the toxic paranoia is no less rancid.

At last week's Redevelopment fix-fest, council president Blair asked for documentation of the city's current TIF zone status. It runs for quite a few pages, and can be viewed here: CCPackets-041819

Here's the resolution. The bracketed passage explains why this measure even appears before council, and isn't just another backroom deal.

And this statement by redevelopment director Staten is meant to allay fears that the crazily rushed Colonial Manor deal isn't, well, just another backroom deal.

Is a construction date of 1965 historic enough for Barksdale's fetish? Will he fall into Dear Leader's bed/web/thrall as before? Or is it time to Make Spines Great Again (MSGA)?

But didn't taxpayers already forward $750,000 to Denton Floyd to "stabilize" the Reisz Luxury City Hall?

Of course, they might be maypoles. They're certainly not giants.

The Jeff Gahan Money Machine, Part 17: Denton-Floyd feels M(ighty) Fine -- and the resulting Reisz Krispies Treats never tasted better to Mayor Gahan.

Jeff Gahan handed Denton Floyd $750,000 to kick-start the Reisz project. Where are the documents detailing this transaction?

Idiot Wind: Gahan voters rejoice as heroic street-closure rescues Reisz-Stag from litter, though not from rampant public disdain and derision.

No soiled diapers were left behind.

As Grandpa Jones always reminded us, truth is stranger than fact.

But don't worry, folks. City Hall insists that Jeff Gahan's multi-million-dollar romper room for government employees will be completed on schedule (September 2019).

Have I mentioned that David White intends to examine "wants" with an eye toward eliminating the ones that don't pass muster as "needs"?

Previously:

ON THE AVENUES: Government Lives Matter, so it's $10,000,000 for Gahan's luxury city hall clique enhancement. Happy dumpster diving, peasants!

The Reisz cost commitment already has topped $10,000,000 in a city where perhaps a quarter of the residents live below the poverty line; where Gahan and his new unofficial deputy mayor and slavish devotee David Barksdale are eager to demolish half of the city's public housing units; and where city hall has yet to mention aloud minor details like the opioid epidemic, the accompanying rise in thievery and petty crime, homelessness, and the worsening plight of our city's working poor.

The sloganeering is so oppressive that a Trump rally seems like the knitter's circle coffee klatsch by comparison.

This Barksdale campaign yard sign is misplaced and needs to be moved ASAP to a better location. BTW, we have a suggestion.

This yard sign placement is egregious, don't you think?

Ah, but the Reisz Mahal Luxury City Hall, which Barksdale's critical fifth council vote enabled, is a much better location for political self-advertising when it comes to surveying the at-large councilman's legislative legacy of extravagant expenditures for wants, as opposed to needs.

All those bright, shiny, nicely perfumed objects,  and yet somehow we still have so many neighborhood properties like this one on Oak Street in Greg Phipps' 3rd council district.

Barksdale doesn't do much to help in these messy situations, and neither does Phipps, who also voted to rescue city employees from inhumane air-conditioned workspace.

The neighbors living around this house are struggling to contain the blight, without much help from the city.

Maybe if they were government workers ...

Amid Gahan's penchant for opulent municipal luxury, do we even have a word for this vista at 1730 E. Oak Street?

The Jeff Gahan Money Machine, Part 17: Denton-Floyd feels M(ighty) Fine -- and the resulting Reisz Krispies Treats never tasted better to Mayor Gahan.

Previously: The Jeff Gahan Money Machine, Part 16: Last week's minutes from the Board of Public Works and Safety reveal big donors daintily lapping their gravy.

Some people climb mountains, but during the coming weeks we'll be plucking highlights from eight years of the Committee to Elect Gahan's CFA-4 campaign finance reports. Strap in, folks -- and don't forget those air(head) sickness bags.

Last year the local activist Aaron Fairbanks, who is running for city council in 2019 in Jeffersonville, was doing research on campaign finance in the run-up to the 2018 elections. Denton-Floyd Development came into the rear-view mirror.

September 7, 2017: The News and Tribune reported that Denton-Floyd Development received a $2.5 million state tax credit, matched by the City of New Albany to begin construction on an estimated $15 million "new senior living facility going into the former M. Fine & Sons shirt factory in New Albany."

September 14, 2017: Mayor Jeff Gahan received $3,000 from Denton-Floyd Development more than two years before the next mayoral election.

This is what it looks like when your tax dollars at work are spent buying an election without your consent.

Why, yes -- it does look like that. Here's the line item from 2017, when Gahan pulled in a whopping $56,225 from "friends" just like Denton-Floyd.

About a month later, still in 2017, Denton Floyd graciously treated former redevelopment chieftain David Duggins to a relaxing day with hired "models" and Miller Lite at Keeneland and a Louisville City soccer match.

ON THE AVENUES: Could that be David Duggins paddling across Jeff Gahan's putrid cesspool? On second thought, I'll take the blindfold.

By then, Denton Floyd was engaged in top secret, cloak and dagger negotiations to transform a "neglected" building into a luxury city hall.

Throwing Reisz: The Jeff M. Gahan Luxury Government Center keeps the emphasis on buildings, as opposed to people.

Yesterday, the Green Mouse was told that during an earlier conversation about the Reisz conversion, David Barksdale was asked if there was a point beyond which saving the building would no longer be financially feasible.

How much is too much?

"Whatever it takes," was Barksdale's reply.

The back alleys swarmed with preying mantises in suits.

The redevelopment commission surreptitiously gifted the Reisz’s purchase price of $390,000 to the city’s preferred contractor Denton Floyd -- by sheer coincidence a firm frequently contributing to Gahan’s campaign war chest -- which duly passed the money to the Reisz building’s owner, who as Gahan himself concedes, rendered it dilapidated in the first place.

Now it's 2019, and the Reisz Mahal is set to become a central campaign prop for Gahan as he seeks re-enthronement. Expect the construction work to escalate; just imagine those delightful phone calls to Denton-Floyd if progress again slows as it did in December 2018 and January 2019.

GREEN MOUSE SAYS: Just $400k in mechanics' liens involving Denton Floyd and the Mansion on Main. Whither the Reisz Mahal?

Here's the breakdown. Among other observers, David Barksdale no doubt approves of this bounty; after all, it's "whatever it takes" to rescue heroic municipal workers chained to their desks, suffering from inhumane working conditions. Those damned Republicans in county government!

(wait ... isn't Barksdale a Republican, too?)

Denton-Floyd
Adam B. Denton DF Development 3,000
DF Development/M Fine Construction 3,000
DF Property Holdings 4,000
Total: $10,000

If we all work together, we can #FireGahan2019

Rebuttals are welcome and will be published unaltered -- so don't forget spellcheck. If you have supplementary information to offer about any of this, please let us know and we'll update the page. The preceding was gleaned entirely from public records, with the addresses of "individuals" removed.

Next: The Jeff Gahan Money Machine, Part 18: Clark Dietz, CD PAC top Gahan's "Quality of Distant Corporate Donors" chart.

The Chase Bank Building at 120 W. Spring St. might have made a groovy city hall, but the Reisz Mahal fix already had been non-transparently finalized.

When we think back to last summer's Reisz Mahal luxury city hall boondoggle -- the Barksdale Ritz -- it's interesting to contemplate "what might have been."

It's the building where my old Scoreboard Liquors stomping grounds (and Cadillac Lanes) used to be. Plenty of space on the upper floors for city offices; conveniently located across the street from the Federal Building and the current City-County Building -- and a mere million-five, as opposed to the $10 million+ tag for the Reisz-Stag.

The biggest drawback would have been the insistence on the part of car-centric city planners that Spring Street remain a three-lane, high-speed on ramp for the interstate, rather than a calmed section of urban territory suitable for all users; the Gahan-Flavored Kool-Aid is strong, and city engineers notoriously weak.

At any rate, it might have been creative, ideal and relatively inexpensive, and while the Green Mouse is told that a few tepid discussions actually took place, Jeff "Dear Leader" Gahan is not noted for his ability to improvise on the fly, especially when the Denton Floyd+Schmitt+Reisz Mahal lavishness fix already was firmly plotted.

As an aside, is it true that on Tuesday when the mayor departed the Culbertson, where free booze was flowing like the loss-leading waters of River Run, he was tailed on the way home by an Indiana State Police car?

Democrats just can't hold their Bud Light Ultra Cactus Pomegranate Lime very well, can they?

Meme wars erupt as the Reisz Mahal tops the Tom May Content Multiplier's list of top five reasons not to vote for Jeff Gahan in 2019.

As a New Year's resolution for 2019, let's work together to ensure that every last elected official responsible for the Reisz Mahal luxury government center expenditure is defeated at the polls.

Now, roll those memes.

Fire them all, each and every one, but first, kindly allow me to fix Morris' opening sentence.

There were many important stories during 2018 in New Albany and Floyd County, but only the most milquetoast made the News and Tribune cut as the biggest and most news worthy.

Accordingly, the choice is yours. You can hit the link and use one of your newspaper visit credits to read the cursory content, or you can save it for when Tom May gets another column in the Jeffersonville First publication.

Me? I'm having a refreshing adult libation instead, because life's too short for serial inanity.

Reisz building plans top list of 2018's top Floyd County stories, by Chris Morris (Tom May Content Proliferator)

NEW ALBANY — There were many important stories during 2018 in New Albany and Floyd County, but only five made the News and Tribune cut as the biggest and most news worthy.

Ranking these five proved to be more difficult than choosing them.

However, maybe the one that drew the most interest, both for and against, was the city's decision to leave the City-County Building at the end of next year. City offices will be moving from the third floor of the City-County Building into the old Reisz Furniture building at 148 E. Main St., which is currently being renovated.

Other stories making the cut include Sazerac Company buying the vacant General Mills plant off Grant Line Road, the opening of the Kevin Hammersmith Memorial Park and the New Albany Little League moving to the facility, a new Green Valley Elementary School opening and the old one being torn down, and the passage of a jail tax by the Floyd County Council to help pay for upkeep to a renovated jail.

Some stories that were also worthy of mention were the brush fires in the spring, Brad Snyder being named superintendent of the New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corp., ongoing building problems at Riverview Tower, the new digital library branch and Mansion on Main assisted living facility opening late this year.