A view of the river; at the The Aggregate, investigative journalism has not died.

The Aggregate is going where local mainstream media evidently fears to tread, and good on them for taking journalism seriously. But first, a number.

It's hard to write a song with bitter fingers
So much to prove, so few to tell you why
Those old die-hards in Denmark Street start laughing
At the keyboard player's hollow haunted eyes
It seems to me a change is really needed
I'm sick of tra-la-las and la-de-das
No more long days hacking hunks of garbage
Bitter fingers never swung on swinging stars, swinging stars

Bernie Taupin never wrote better lyrics, but I digress, because there isn't a trace of bitterness in my soul, just contentment that others are stepping forward to carry the baton -- or something like that.

Broken Promises: City Contradictions on the Riverview Demolition, by Daniel Johnson and Leah Wilkinson

After a series of contradicting statements from local officials concerning a public housing complex in New Albany, some feared the city was preparing to push them out. Their theories were confirmed at a building meeting in early September.

Soup Is Good Food.

Coverage by Nick Vaughn at The Aggregate on the topic of Riverview Tower's impending demolition. Shouldn't we invite Ben Carson to cut the ribbon on the implosion?

News Flash: Riverview Tower Slated for Demolition

And this opinion piece.

VAUGHN: Is Anyone Really Surprised?

Funnily enough, the Director of Public Housing, Dave Duggins, stated at the end of the Tribune's story about the demolition of Riverview Tower that there are currently no plans for the property after the tower is torn down. If there isn't plans for a luxury apartment complex there within six months of demolition, I'll eat my hat.

Stars and Stripes of Corruption.

Writing at The Aggregate, Nick Vaughn puts the boot in.

VAUGHN: Is Anyone Really Surprised?

The hypocrisy is truly astounding as the Mayor and Democrats on the City Council saw the wisdom in rehabilitating the old Resiz Furniture building to turn into a new city hall, yet they publicly call the rehabilitation of public housing units irresponsible and impractical? Give me a break. This isn't about responsibility or practicality, it's a lack of empathy, understanding, and care ...

Babbling Brook, Creek Sounds, Water Stream.

Residents of Riverview Towers were informed on Wednesday that there'd be two Thursday meetings via Zoom (September 3 at 11 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.), with the topic being HUD and the future of their building. Later the meeting was changed to take place on site, utilizing pandemic protocols. A resident relayed this information. The headers of these past informational blog links have been edited to ensure the full appearance of anodyne.

April 22, 2019
Riverview Tower and the need for new parking on State Street?

April 21, 2019
The timetable to transform Riverview Tower.

April 8, 2019
WHY are we talking about Riverview?

March 27, 2019
NAHA commercial property purchases.

February 18, 2019
Will Riverview Tower be sold for redevelopment?

December 27, 2018
Riverview Tower's future is discussed.

Team Gahan speaks with forked tongues: If residents are being moved OUT of Riverview Tower, why does NAHA need MORE parking on State Street?

Back in March we stole a glance at a downtown parcel.

GREEN MOUSE SAYS: Why is the New Albany Housing Authority buying commercial property at the dumping grounds downtown on State Street?

When Mayor Jeff Gahan visited the Mark Elrod Tower to campaign for lifetime employment as mayor, he was asked about the purchase. Imperial NAHA Procurator David Duggins brushed aside Dear Leader to explain NAHA's desperate need for State Street frontage.

Resident: “I want to know why you’re buying more property for parking when you’re going to tear down Riverview. The newspaper states that you’re putting in more parking for Riverview residents, but yet you’re moving Riverview residents out and you’re going to tear down the building.”

(Duggins quickly intervenes in a question intended for Gahan)

Duggins: “Well, none of that’s been released, it said in the paper we had the opportunity to buy an eyesore, and one of the proper uses for that is parking for that area. We do have a parking issue in that entire area, when we have anything that goes on at Riverview Tower we have to move folks out, we have to close those two spots out front, so any work, when we have electricians and all that, and when that eyesore became available to be purchased, which the city had targeted that for a long time, we purchased it, and that is why we’re doing it."

Last week there was a fire at Riverview Tower, and Duggins quickly steered the ever obliging Chris Morris from humans to buildings.

For Gauleiter Duggins and Dear Leader, it's all about the timetable to transform Riverview Tower into luxury with a view.

In this article, Duggins refers to Riverview as "a 16-story building with 160 units."

Duggins said he is in weekly discussion with officials with the Department of Housing and Urban Development about Riverview's future. He said it would likely be a year before any decision is made on the building. He said he tries to meet with residents weekly to dispel any rumors about the facility's future.

He said he is no longer leasing units at Riverview because of the building's uncertainty. There are currently 60 vacant units in the building.

"Regardless of the plan, we wouldn't have to move folks for at least a year ... "

If Riverview is only 62% filled, and given the ongoing profusion of hints to the effect that the building will be taken out of commission in some way, shape or form, then what's the need for extra parking on State Street, which is situated three times the distance from Riverview as the city's huge parking capacity opposite the ball fields?

Isn't it the case that Gahan is borrowing from NAHA's unused "refurbishment" funds to finance City Hall property speculation?

You know, it's not hard to call them out for telling bald-faced whoppers when they're openly contradicting themselves.

If you haven't read the transcript of Gahan's and Duggins' comments to residents at the Mark Elrod Tower, consider doing so.

Previously:

Demolition Man: Either Gahan lied about the NAHA "memorandum of understanding" from 2017, or he lied to Mark Elrod Tower residents in 2019. Which is it?

Elrod 3 In which Deaf Gahan asks: “Okay, what’s the ISSUE with Riverview? Do you KNOW people who live over there? I mean, WHY are we talking about Riverview?”

Elrod 2 In which Deaf Gahan encourages public housing residents to be "thrilled" about the indoor grass at the sportsplex he built with their money.

Elrod 1 In which Deaf Gahan regales public housing residents with ribald tales of the "superstar" Warren Nash.

When it's time for personal status protection, local Democrats rally around the Kool-Aid.

---

Democratic mayoral candidate David White understands that change begins with a whole lotta scrubbing, and NA Confidential advocates just such a deep civic cleansing. 

After eight years on the job, Mayor Jeff Gahan's list of stunning "achievements" is long, indeed: tax increases, budgetary hide 'n' seek, self-deification, daily hypocrisy, public housing takeover, non-transparency, pay-to-play for no-bid contracts, bullying city residents and bullying city employees. Eight years is enough. It's time to drain Gahan's swamp, flush his ruling clique and take this city back from Gahan's Indy-based special interest donors. 

NA Confidential supports David White for Mayor in the Democratic Party primary, with voting now through May 7. 

For Gauleiter Duggins and Dear Leader, it's all about the timetable to transform Riverview Tower into luxury with a view.

We hope Mr. Straw and his dog are doing okay.

The news story is weirdly disjointed, with the perspective shifting too quickly from a cursory look at the fire at Riverview Tower and ensuing hospitalizations, to the ludicrously overpaid public housing commissar David Duggins' eagerness to indulge in yet another round of Team Gahan's nauseous public housing virtue signaling.

Gahanites always cover their own bedraggled asses first, don't they? Problem is the News and Tribune always lets them get away with it. Why is that?

Riverview Tower fire contained to kitchen, by Chris Morris

One person remains in hospital

NEW ALBANY — The fire at Riverview Tower in New Albany on Thursday, when three people were taken to the hospital, was contained to the kitchen area of the apartment.

Firefighters arrived around 8 p.m. to the fire in apartment 1203 at Riverview Tower and were able to contain the blaze. The unit's kitchen was heavily damaged by fire and smoke. Firefighters rescued Jeff Straw, who lived in the apartment, along with his dog. He remains in the hospital after suffering smoke inhalation. His dog was taken to a local veterinarian for treatment.

Verily, the stage is being set.

GREEN MOUSE SAYS: Are city officials really talking about selling Riverview Tower for luxury redevelopment? Trump might want a piece of THIS action.

Duggins said the outdated 44-year-old facility continues to deteriorate. The building is still being operated by temporary electrical service after last summer's fire, which displaced residents for more than a week. "We won't build units this size again," he said. "These units are just too small and residents have no storage."

It's hard to imagine the 44-year-old Riverview Tower being in worse condition than maligned Communist housing blocks in Eastern Europe, where rehabs are not an exception but the rule. Turns out the bones aren't as bad as thought.

Gdansk and the Falowiecs: "Can Poland’s Faded Brutalist Architecture Be Redeemed?"

Long derided as relics of an oppressive regime, the country’s Communist-era buildings are being given a second look, and a new life.

Doesn't it defy even this blog's high levels of skepticism to imagine that the architects and builders erecting Riverview in the mid-1970s didn't consider 16-story safety as part of the design process?

Duggins said the hope is to build four-story buildings where each unit would have a balcony, allowing residents to have more than one way to evacuate in case of a fire. "This is a 16-story building with a 160 units; any emergency is a real issue," he said. "There is only one way out of those apartments. Any small fire could be catastrophic in nature."

Will these four-story buildings replace Riverview at the current footprint, or will they be scattered around town at the many commercial properties NAHA currently is acquiring?

It's a follow-up question Morris might have asked, but of course, no.

Duggins said he is in weekly discussion with officials with the Department of Housing and Urban Development about Riverview's future. He said it would likely be a year before any decision is made on the building. He said he tries to meet with residents weekly to dispel any rumors about the facility's future.

He said he is no longer leasing units at Riverview because of the building's uncertainty. There are currently 60 vacant units in the building.

"Regardless of the plan, we wouldn't have to move folks for at least a year," Duggins said. "We just need to do a better job of communicating with residents .... we have their best interest in mind."

Whether Team Gahan's secretive final preferred outcome for Riverview Tower is outright demolition or its spiffy renovation for market rate housing (read: no more poor people enjoying great views), is there any doubt that chicanery is afoot?

You just don't move the back alley redevelopment fixer to public housing if helping people is the ultimate goal.

He said HUD is moving toward public/private partnerships, which include tax credits, in the future.

Morris' article ends abruptly with this reference to HUD, and so here's an article that explains Ben Carson's view of public/private partnerships.

It's too bad about the closing of the Arby's on Charlestown Road, because one gets the impression that Jeff Gahan, Duggins and Carson could enjoy a nice meal together there ... and come to a gentleman's agreement about the future of luxury in New Albany.

HUD secretary counters criticism that only rich benefit from public-private partnerships, by Dorothy Mills-Gregg (Market Watch)

WASHINGTON — Public-private partnerships are not just benefiting the wealthy but helping low-income areas, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson told a crowded ballroom on Tuesday at the annual National League of Cities conference.

“Some people have complained that, you know, it’s a mechanism for the rich to increase their wealth,” Carson said. “Well, what they don’t understand is rich people are going to take their money, and they’re going to invest it somewhere, so why not incentivize them to invest it into areas that have been economically neglected and deprived.”

He said HUD is “providing full autonomy” to local jurisdictions and encouraging public-private partnerships like the public housing maintenance program, Rental Assistance Demonstration, and tax incentives.

In which Deaf Gahan asks: “Okay, what’s the ISSUE with Riverview? Do you KNOW people who live over there? I mean, WHY are we talking about Riverview?”

On April 2 a "handful" of Mark Elrod Tower residents (the mayor's words, not ours) witnessed a full-throttle City Hall team in glorious campaign mode. Mayor Gahan, Gauleiter Duggins and BOWhisperer Nash each spoke.

For this final excerpt, comprising roughly the first ten minutes of the "presentation," it's a shame the audio isn't available. I've taken the liberty of underlining those passages in which Gahan's and Duggins' tone of voice changes markedly, from talking to (not "with") an audience of seniors as though they were schoolchildren, to brief snippets of a defensive, almost menacing edge. 

Here is the extended excerpt. I went over it a second time for accuracy and made a few light edits to the passage previously published here. Thanks to the Green Mouse for uncovering this gem.

---

(David Duggins is speaking as the recording begins)

Duggins: “I just learned we’ve got maybe a squirrel issue, which we’ll be working on some squirrel issues here. We’ll get that taken care of, too.”

(nervous laughter)

Duggins: “If there’s anything you need always get with Steve or Sue, and I’m happy to help anytime I can. I’d like introduce my good friend, Mayor Jeff Gahan. Thank you.”

Gahan: (giggling) “That’s a good sign, right? Hey, listen, uh, thanks for taking time out, and thanks, uh, for giving me a minute tonight. I certainly appreciate it, uh, I do want to acknowledge the work that everybody does here at New Albany Housing Authority because it’s really a serious group of people. I know you see Dave, you see some of these folks, they got a smile on their face, and they’re kinda cutting up some times, right? But, but you know, they’re real serious about their job, they’re real serious about making all the properties in the New Albany Housing Authority, you know, top flight. And, uh, top, they want to make sure they’re all well maintained, and, uh, the accommodations are the best that we can offer. And it’s really a challenge nowadays, uh, and I’ll tell you why, because okay in the city of New Albany we have 1,187 units, and for many years you had to go through this period where at the federal government they were kind of turning the screws and they weren’t putting the maintenance money that they needed to maintain the properties down here, so, we knew we needed some maintenance done but it didn’t really get down here like we wanted it to, and that trend is continuing, uh, the latest budget they’re pushing for has a 16% reduction in funds for housing and urban development. So we’re still committed to making this, everything, every unit, the top flight, and we’re going to continue to do that, and I can tell you that’s going to happen, uh, we’re taking every step that we can possibly make to make sure that every unit is as good as it can possibly be. And uh you’ve seen a little bit of changes around here, Dave’s done a great job, and changed some things, but soon you’ll see even more, you’ll see additional, we’re taking steps right now to acquire additional properties throughout the city, to build new ones, we’re taking steps right now to make sure that, uh, each one of the units have been inspected, you’ve probably seen people coming and going, making sure that we have a good idea of what the condition of every one of the properties is. And we’re going to take steps to improve them. David Duggins, again, he worked for the city in re-, in economic redevelopment before he came here, so he knows what it takes to take dollars and put them into service, take dollars and turn them into improvements for everybody. And that’s what we’re going to do, that’s the course we’re on for the next five or six years, you’ll see really, really cool improvements in the housing in New Albany and Jeff. You have a really great place, this happens to be the best facility we have, uh, we have some of them that are in terrible condition, they’re terrible, and, uh, but we’re taking steps and making plans to improve those as well. So I’m excited about it, it’s a really great opportunity for us to show how we can make something that’s very much needed, housing is very, very needed, uh, across the board where, uh, there’s a shortage of housing at all levels, uh, at all income levels we’re short houses, we’re short housing, and, uh, we’re committed to improve the housing stock all over the city and make better opportunities for people to live here, and afford to live here, so, uh, in addition to that you’ll see the mission of the housing authority is expanding, which I think is really cool. Uh, we’ve, we’ve taken steps to improve the health, and we’ll be announcing some facilities that will improve, have opportunities for you folks to go to, to have check-ups and their, your teeth looked at, uh, which I think is very exciting – we haven’t had that, but you’ll see that soon. You’ll also see, if you haven’t already seen, additional police presence on campus, more police, more security, more cameras, all right, so a whole lot of really cool things are going on, and uh, again – again we’ll just be expanding services in general, so I’m excited about it, and uh, I wanted to come in and say hi, so if you’ve got any questions, I’m sure you have questions and I’d like to answer them.”

Resident: “I want to know why you’re buying more property for parking when you’re going to tear down Riverview. The newspaper states that you’re putting in more parking for Riverview residents, but yet you’re moving Riverview residents out and you’re going to tear down the building.”

(Duggins quickly intervenes in a question intended for Gahan)

Duggins: “Well, none of that’s been released, it said in the paper we had the opportunity to buy an eyesore, and one of the proper uses for that is parking for that area. We do have a parking issue in that entire area, when we have anything that goes on at Riverview Tower we have to move folks out, we have to close those two spots out front, so any work, when we have electricians and all that, and when that eyesore became available to be purchased, which the city had targeted that for a long time, we purchased it, and that is why we’re doing it. We have not made formal – we have just finished with the negotiations for the insurance on Riverview Tower and this is Mark Elrod Tower, there’s a difference in the type of age of people that live on this side and the quality of the units of this apartment complex compared to Riverview Tower, so when we purchased that, that is available, be available, there are environmental issues and a big creek that runs through there, we’ll be tearing the building down there and looking for that, but yes, property, property purchased for the expansion of parking.”

Resident: "Okay, but you are going to tear down Riverview?"

(Both Gahan and Duggins can be heard murmuring amid the muddle; Duggins can be heard condescendingly saying “not tearing down buildings.” The questioner, perhaps fearing a Taser "joke," says “Okay, alright, I just want to get clear in my mind.”)

Gahan: “Okay, what’s the issue with Riverview? Do you know people who live over there? I mean, why are we talking about Riverview?”

Resident: "Because they’re all moving into here – no, it’s not I’m concerned that they’re moving in here, but you’re moving those people … the people from Riverview are being moved out."

Duggins: “No, that’s not true. We haven’t moved anyone out. There are eleven, eleven vacancies here now, and the people at Riverview have first opportunity to come here because we are holding vacancies there because we have an electrical issue, so when we have vacancies here and if they qualify by their age, uh, which there is a different age requirement for living here, then they are welcome to move here just like you were welcome to move here, and that’s what we’re doing – there are 11 vacancies as of last – I looked it up – last Wednesday and we’re trying to fill them, and the folks at Riverview have the opportunity to move over here, and they’ll continue to have the opportunity.”

Resident: "Before other residents within in the city?"

Duggins: “Yes because they’re in public housing, public housing.”

Gahan: “Yeah, I don’t think, I don’t think you have to be worried about anything, uh, that’s going to crowd you, if that’s what your concern is, I mean I don’t think you have to worry about that. We have 1,187 units, which is more than anyone in Clark County, any five counties combined, we have more than anyone, and we’re going to keep – that’s the way it’s going to stay, with more opportunities to live here in New Albany than any other place, but what we won’t put up with is sub-standard housing. It’s not, we’re going to make it better, make improvements, and you know I, I feel great about it, and you all should be too – I think you all should be really thrilled about it, because yeah, at the end of the day, you know, with folks out in Seattle, that, there, they can make you know 150,000 dollars a year, 200,000 dollars and they don’t have a place to live, because houses have gotten too expensive for people to live in! And that’s the way it is. And that’s what we’re going to do …

(Resident interjects, "That’s Seattle, that’s not New Albany.")

… here, we’re going to do everything, everything to make this a better place, but you have to be right now, you’re feeling super, because this is the best that the city has right here."

(garbled question: will you build another high rise?)

Gahan: “I don’t know if it’s going to be a high rise, I mean that’s something for the New Albany Housing director, the board to discuss, but I don’t know if it would be a high rise, because it’s kind of difficult, for, you know, seniors to get up and down a tower – but additional housing, additional housing, additional, uh, housing, absolutely, it may not be a tower, but you know, it’s – you know, right, don’t need to tell you, it’s hard to get up and down.

(Resident whispers, "I know")

Gahan: “So anyway, so I know those things, uh, you know we’ve made some changes and when you make changes you make people a little nervous, and I don’t blame ya! I’m the same way, uh, I can just tell you we have some really solid plans that we’re working on now to improve the residents, the residence halls for everyone, and uh, these things don’t happen overnight, everything we do has to be approved at the state level and at the federal level, it’s not like I can just come in here and Dave come in here or the board come in here and make all these changes, these wholesale changes, it doesn’t work that way. It has to be approved all the way up the line and then back, and it includes lots of layers of bureaucracy that we have to deal with, so you know there’ll be no changes overnight, but I have people say, when’s it going to happen? Well, each box has to be checked. But first thing we had to do when Dave came over here was to make sure he understood the condition of each unit. Hell, it’d been years since people had even walked in and knew exactly what was going on in those units. First thing he did was inspect them all. Every one. Every single one. Dave did that. So now we have an idea of what the condition of each unit is, that’s the starting point, and I have to tell ya, it wasn’t really great news. Some were in pretty rough shape – these aren’t, these are super …

(resident heard scoffing)

… but if you ever had the chance to go see some of the others … right? So I want you to feel good about it, I feel good about it, I feel really great about the future of the New Albany Housing Authority, it has some great leadership there, got a great board, got a great leader in Dave, got committed staff, committed maintenance, and it’s a big part of New Albany, and it’s going to stay that way. Okay? So what other questions do you have, what do you have, what else?"

GREEN MOUSE SAYS: Why can't Duggins tell the truth about his NAHA commercial property purchases? Maybe Team Gahan's bedrock corruption has something to do with it.

On Sunday the Green Mouse asked: Why is the New Albany Housing Authority buying commercial property at the dumping grounds downtown on State Street?

This is the aerial view.

Just look at all those parking spaces already owned by the city, roughly 150 of them, situated closer to the steadily dwindling population of Riverview Tower than any conceivable future configuration of the adjoining block fronting on State Street -- even if NAHA owned all of it.

Exactly why does Riverview Tower, populated by the elderly and disabled, and itself an increasingly obvious Gahan target for demolition or luxurious adaptive reuse, need hundreds of parking spaces?

It's a question the ever acquiescent, no-follow-up-questions-ever News and Tribune stenographer Chris Morris might have asked Redevelopment New Albany Housing Authority honcho David Duggins, who instead was allowed to give the sort of spin you'd expect from an LSD user, not a public official.

The property that housed a wrecker service at 615 State St., across from Sav-A-Lot Foods, has been sold to the New Albany Housing Authority.

NAHA recently took control of the property and is having it cleaned up. The land will be used for additional parking for residents and visitors of Riverview Tower after it is cleaned, NAHA Director David Duggins said.

The wrecker service moved to the old Ray's Exhaust location at 701 Vincennes St.

Ah, the odor of male cattle feces. Let's delve into the truth of the matter.

In 2017 Mayor Jeff Gahan abruptly seized the New Albany Housing Authority, effectively bringing NAHA into direct city control. Experienced upper management was purged and NAHA's board was stuffed with brown-nosed lickspittles.

The ultimate goal of Gahan's hostile takeover was and remains to reduce the number of public housing units to as low a number as possible, and having done so, to free up funding that was to have been used to upgrade existing housing units for speculative gambling in campaign-finance-enhancing redevelopment adventures, whether these are aimed at manipulating newly vacant NAHA properties, or for the amassing of properties elsewhere.

Elsewhere as in the two commercial properties now owned by NAHA where Main meets Vincennes: GREEN MOUSE SAYS: Bet you didn't know NAHA owns these properties on two corners of Main and Vincennes. Why?

Duggins can handily explain using NAHA money to purchase properties like these by referring to his mandate to scatter public housing, and Ben Carson surely doesn't care a jot, but a child of six knows it would be absurd to build low-income housing on land far more valuable for other uses.

Please spare us the gobbledygook. These properties are being speculatively "banked" for future purposes using "free" NAHA Monopoly money that the city's over-extended (read: skint) Redevelopment Commission doesn't have.

Duggins wasn't ever sent to NAHA and given a blockbuster pay increase (without commensurate experience) from the mayor's tender concern about real human beings and their needs.

Rather, Duggins was sent to NAHA to do what he already was doing at Redvelopment, and to repurpose public housing's resources for private sector gain, which as we know has the result of diverting a healthy flow of money back into Gahan's campaign finance larder.

ON THE AVENUES: Gahan's hoarding of power and money is a threat to New Albany's future.

To paraphrase the great Hunter S. Thompson, people like Gahan and Duggins are so crooked they need assistance each morning to be screwed into their pants.

Once again I thank the News and Tribune for reading NA Confidential, but it would be even more helpful if the newspaper told the true story behind the Gahan administration's Great Wall of Diversion. Unfortunately, Hanson and Duncan need the mayor's steady, curative advertising revenue. So much for their newspaper's declining credibility.

As for the other part: #FireGahan2019

GREEN MOUSE SAYS: Are city officials really talking about selling Riverview Tower for luxury redevelopment? Trump might want a piece of THIS action.

In Nawbany, the satire writes itself, as with this startling revelation from 2017.

Interim executive housing director Duggins eagerly welcomes student nurses to Riverview Tower.

After all, most everything of what little Duggins knows about anything he learned from Bill Clinton -- probably at Keeneland.

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

Let's review: In 2017 Jeff Gahan staged a hostile takeover of the New Albany Housing Authority, thus escalating the heart rate of every old white guy in town of Gahan's own vintage who'd spent the past 50 years insisting that if we could just remove the poor (read: mostly black) people, this town finally could be something. 

Seeing as Duggins already had assembled all the fixes our creaking TIF areas could allow while merrily monetizing at redevelopment, Gahan transferred our favorite Clark County transplant to NAHA, where he could abuse real human beings rather than funding and branding mechanisms.

File under "TASER Humor from Overpaid Functionaries."

Week in review: Jeff Gahan created the Duggins debacle at NAHA, so stop normalizing his efforts to remain aloof.

In 2018, things got really interesting.

Duggins spreads blame, manure as the air conditioning at Riverview Towers fails on HIS watch.

"I'm electric," says a kite-bearing Duggins to Riverview residents as Gahan disappears into yonder bunker.

Duggins, Gahan log into Priceline Dot Com as Riverview Towers residents are evacuated.

This brings us to the present day.

Queue the cattle cars, because Riverview Tower will be the next pawn in City Hall's luxury enhancement crusade.

From the moment we heard about the public housing putsch two years ago, Gahan's uncharacteristically transparent rationale was obvious.

1. Ship out the unsightly poor people living there -- and who cares where they go?

2. Use that land for luxury "redevelopment" in the vital cause of pay-to-play campaign finance enhancement.

For the cynics, stalker, trolls and creeps (gypsies, tramps and thieves?) populating the fevered corridors of NA Confidential, this meant one prime goal above all others.

The nevermindset of selected bloviators like Gahan and Duggins -- not to mention their hordes of slobbering sycophants and eager campaign donors -- might be encapsulated as "poor people simply don't deserve such a nice view, and we might far better deploy prime real estate for the elites." In short, Riverview Tower always was going to be the centerpiece of the NAHA takeover.

The NAHA putsch was many things, among them sheer expedience. Donald Trump had been elected, and he'd presumably appoint wastrels of his own to look the other way as HUD was summarily pillaged. Who better than Trump to empathize with Gahan's lamentation about the uselessness of a nice view if only wretched poor people have it?

What's more, if Gahan didn't act quickly in early 2017, Bob Lane might have been on the verge of succeeding in his long-sought goal of rejuvenating public/affordable local housing on a 1:1 basis, this being anathema to ranking local Democrats who've never been democratic at all when it comes to the challenges facing plain folks -- and especially for Gahan, who would not receive proper ego-brushing for Lane's hard work.

That's because Adamization means gentrification, and Gahanism embraces loads of cash far beyond the disposable income of minimum wage employees, hence our prediction about the probable outcome of Riverview Towers, which we made from the very start of the putsch.

Under normal circumstances, there'd be no way to co-opt Riverview Tower, but by seizing NAHA in Our Time of Trump, banishing Lane and packing the governing mechanism with gutless lickspittles, Gahan engineered the possibility with extreme opportunism.

• emphasize Riverview Tower's irreparable physical problems, blaming them on predecessors while ignoring more recent screw-ups committed by his own handpicked regime
• scatter the Tower's residents for their own good (as Gauleiter Duggins openly signaled to the forever inattentive Chris Morris of the local chain newspaper)
• sell off the property for for the sort of "luxury" high-rise development that's eternally more conducive to the engorged mayoral sense of self-importance than any conceivable dose of Viagra

All this has been written previously, and the Green Mouse is the first to admit that when we first began discussing the mayor's Riverview Tower adaptive luxury reuse plan, it was intended to be tongue-in-cheek. However, as the months passed, Luxury Riverview became ever more plausible.

Now an insider has informed the Mouse that far from being imaginary, these musings are real, and ranking NAHA officials recently have been overheard discussing precisely just such an outcome for the building.  

After all, the mayor has promised a slew of exciting new revelations during this, his majesty's electoral re-enthronement drive of 2019.

To be clear, currently this is classified as RUMOR. We've no proof, at least yet. But it's clearly something that could be done, and fits the DemoDisneyDixiecrat mantra.

In Nawbany, the satire writes itself -- but does life imitate satire?

#FireGahan2019

Queue the cattle cars, because Riverview Tower will be the next pawn in City Hall's luxury enhancement crusade.

Satire alert: Trump tells Gahan,
"I can fix your Riverview Tower problem."

It's another underachieving puff piece by Chris Morris, who someday might consider ASKING some of those questions referenced in the banner, although if he did, journalism might break out — and then what?

Can we be honest? The Jeffersonville newspaper as currently constituted displays no interest in what lies beneath the Team Gahan's public machinations.

Morris invariably accepts what he's told by people with whom he's schmoozed for decades. In terms of information, it's a closed loop. The newspaper should be comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable; instead, it hoists a series of feel-good stories amid just enough Pavlovian click bait (crime and drugs and roundabouts, oh my!) to juice its advertisers -- which include THE CITY OF NEW ALBANY.

Meanwhile, Jeff Gahan is far more concerned with affixing blame to decapitated predecessors for Riverview's deteriorating condition than manning up to own the crisis sparked by his own ill-considered hostile takeover of public housing.

Gahan's is the least transparent mayor in the city's history, but when it comes to greed, his intent cannot be disguised.

If Riverview Tower is doomed owing to irreparable physical problems, then residents can be scattered for their own good (as Gauleiter Duggins ineptly signaled to the inattentive reporter, below). The building would come down, and then the property sold for for the sort of "luxury" high-rise development that's eternally more conducive to the engorged mayoral ego than any conceivable dose of Viagra.

It's "why he's here," forever fascinated by those bright shiny baubles capable of generating campaign funds, as opposed to actual human beings and their needs, which he simply cannot fathom in a month of Sundays.

By the way, hasn't Duggins long since shed the "interim" prefix?

It's a permanent, stupefyingly overpaid position at this point ... well, at least until January of 2020, when a new mayor graciously will allow Duggins to seek his panacea of a comfy sinecure in the private sector, and the next in a series of dismally failed career moves.

Questions still surround Riverview Tower in New Albany, by Chris Morris

 .. David Duggins, interim director of the New Albany Housing Authority, said Riverview is currently being serviced by a temporary electrical system. He said it would cost $4 million-plus to make a permanent fix and redesign the electrical system. So far NAHA, its insurance company and the Housing and Urban Development Department have spent $600,000 for repairs and other costs associated with the building.

He said decisions will have to be made down the road on the building's future.

"Everything is working and it's safe. We have an electrical contractor walk through the building twice a week," he said. "But it's not a permanent fix. The system dates back to the 1970s. We need to look and made decisions moving forward on what is best for our residents."

Duggins said he plans on meeting with each Riverview resident one-on-one beginning early next year to discuss their situation and see what fits them best. There are 160 units at Riverview but right now around 35 are vacant.

"We want to be more involved and help families make decisions ... let them know the services NAHA provides and other housing options," he said ...

 ... Duggins said there are some residents at Riverview who likely would be better off living in an assisted living facility which they would be eligible for with a Medicaid waiver. He said he has tried to show them what housing choices are available in the community.

"We have kept them informed with everything going on here," he said. "Our main focus has always been the residents, most of whom are elderly, to make sure they are taken care of and to educate them on all the services they have available to them."

Satire alert: Trump tells Gahan, "I can fix your Riverview Tower problem."

With apologies to the President.

A purely sadistic week in New Gahania, and even more tales from Corruption Junction.

Welcome to the increasingly rocky reign of Crooked Jeffrey.

Even Donald Trump had a better week than our increasingly out of touch, cash-obsessed and graft-ridden Ceausescu fetishist. I hear Joseph Kabila is a free agent; maybe with a bit of added TIF funding, Gahan can outbid LeBron's resurgent Lakers and put the idle Congolese strongman in charge of Fairview Cemetery.

Take it away, Mr. Gillenwater.

More tales from Corruption Junction. As Roger previously noted about NA’s blatant nepotism as normalcy, “If you believe that Warren Nash on the Human Rights Commission somehow differs from Scott Pruitt in charge of the EPA, please drop me a line. You'll be entered into a drawing, and the lucky winner gets to serve with Gahan's brother-in-law on the City-County Building Authority, or with the mayor's son-in-law on Flood Control, or with his daughters at their summer jobs at the Aquatic Center -- or maybe I'm thinking about former redevelopment director Duggins' sister married to consultant Wheatley who gets all the posh the redevelopment gigs, or the HWC Engineering connection with Dugout ...” Occasionally, you might be tempted to think they’ve bottomed out, that it can’t get any worse. You’d be wrong, not least because you’re likely forgetting the pride expressed by the Gahan administration in finding novel ways of circumventing public bidding laws so that donors are rewarded with lucrative city contracts much more directly. If you support or profit from this ongoing Democratic boondoggle here at home, you’re cordially invited to STFU about Trump and corruption elsewhere.

Yes, Dear Leader is your cross to bear, local Democrats. Even by Jeff Gahan's subterranean standards of casual fraudulence and wagon-circling paranoia, it was a memorable week, one filled to the brim with reasons to #FireGahan2019.

On Monday, a skateboarder was killed by a driver on Spring Street. Predictably the driver won't be charged, and City Hall's first and only reaction has been to loudly deny responsibility for its own high-speed, pass-through street grid, followed immediately by the pitter-patter of tiny bureaucratic feet scampering into the safety of the down-low bunker.

After dragging his feet for years, and lately feeling the heat from local activists who look to Jeffersonville's Republican mayor Mike Moore as an area leader in fairness, a petulant Gahan finally got around to making his appointments to New Albany's moribund Human Rights Commission, which Gahan's crack team of bootlickers previously had engineered to be impotent-by-design.

Surveying a diverse rainbow-accented landscape, Gahan predictably opted for two old, straight, white males with the requisite ironclad DemoDisneyDixiecratic Party credentials: Warren Nash and Cliff Staten. They'll be expected to maintain control, because a truly autonomous Human Rights Commission would be working overtime just investigating Team Gahan.

Gahan's hostile takeover of the New Albany Housing Authority came back to bite the colonial overlord, as the mayor's handpicked team of clueless but servile lackeys heaved, flailed and looked like a motley crew of rejects at the Keystone Kops audition in reaction to the failure of the electrical system at Riverview Towers. The community's eyebrows arched as Gahan's dimmer-than-ever bulbs, previously billed as managerial geniuses, frantically blamed others for their own failure to be pro-active.

Speaking of the housing authority, sitting councilman Matt Nash, son of Warren the Party Fixer, whose sworn duty as an elected official is to scrutinize matters precisely like the mayor's NAHA annexation, has accepted a paying job there, and now answers to grape-stuffed satrap David Duggins, whom the councilman should be pursuing for gross incompetence. Failed Tom Hagen wannabe Shane Gibson has merely waved his arms and dismissed the obvious conflict of interest.

And, the grandiosely titled Mt. Tabor Road Restoration and Pedestrian Safety Project -- known colloquially as Gahan's Folly -- hit the rocks yet again as residents began firing back in court over the issue of eminent domain. Pliable lickspittles were trotted out to speak indecipherable platitudes, and Gahan remained shielded from view, suckling a Bud Light Lime and calculating campaign finance proceeds.

After all, that's why he's here, right?

Taco, Tiki and the Top Ten posts at NA Confidential for July 2018.

Longboard's Taco & Tiki grabbed July's top spot.

If you're on Twitter and aren't following Hon. Deaf Gahan, go there immediately and enjoy the shadow mayoral account.

Thanks for reading NA Confidential, where we enjoy reconnoitering the neglected periphery for uniquely local perspectives on life in New Albany.

City Hall's allegations to the contrary, it can be grasped quite clearly that hundreds of you are reading, and we believe this fact attests to a keen ongoing interest in grassroots New Albany stories, perhaps because they're being chronically under-served elsewhere. After all, fawning stenography and inexorably multiplying religion columnists can get a newspaper only so far.

The July list begins with five "honorable mention" posts, before concluding with the Top Ten, escalating to No. 1. These statistics are derived from Google's internal accounting.

JULY HONORABLE MENTION (5)

404

Illicit Summit Springs Phase Two work, redux: Can't Team Gahan's lickspittles get their damn stories straight?

Wait, is Scott Wood somehow getting his groove back?

He'd best be careful, because to contradict Mike Hall -- the city's chief propagandist and royal court food taster -- might well to bring the wrath of Dear Leader down upon him.

---

419

That ugly word again: Plan Commission to consider "luxury" car sales at HyperCars on 13th and Spring.

Now the owner of HyperCars, a newly minted auto detailing shop in the former ServPro building on the southwest corner of Spring and 13th, wants to sell "luxury" used cars.

This recurring word, "luxury." But like Mayor Fouts up in Warren said, "it's still a used car lot."

I looked all over New Albany's zoning code and found no reference to "luxury" anything. The C-1b zoning classification refers to a "local" business, and it references the stipulations of C-1a, which seems to be describing small neighborhood retail shops, not car sales, hence the special exception being sought.

---

421

In 2017, days after Denton Floyd closed on the Reisz building using taxpayer money, these four high rollers involved with the project all donated to Jeff Gahan's re-election campaign.

$8,500 in one day's not a bad cut, eh? In 2017,the mayor sucked in just shy of $60,000 that we know about -- and it wasn't an election year. If you want to know what the Reisz building is about, follow the money -- and keep track of the transactions.

---

439

Reisz Elephant people power tonight? If we're to spend $10,000,000 on anything, it should be for as many people as possible, not one single government building.

June of 2018 will be remembered as the month when Emperor Gahan's personality cult paraded past and the voice of a child rang out:

"But he isn't wearing anything at all!"

In future years, we'll look back and see an uninterrupted arc of hypocrisy, beginning with Gahan's hostile takeover of the New Albany Housing Authority in early 2017 alongside promises of rampant demolitions to come, and now culminating with tonight's fix-is-in $10,000,000 to construct his own luxury office suite.

440

GREEN MOUSE SAYS: Whither Mr. White? I'd like to be an ant at THAT picnic.

There has been no formal announcement of David White's political plans, but a second primary challenge to Gahan seems likely. There'll be plenty of time to consider the implications, so we can leave it there for now. Suffice to say that things may be getting interesting. All together now:

#FireGahan2019

JULY TOP TEN

442

ON THE AVENUES: For Deaf Gahan and the Reisz Five, their luxury city hall will prove to be a Pyrrhic victory.

The broad outlines of an anti-anchor electoral coalition in 2019 increasingly are becoming visible. With each of Gahan’s grandiose and self-referential expenditures, the disgruntlement spreads.

The city’s lofty elites are over-confident, and the governing clique suffers from profound “institutional inbreeding.” The louder Gahan’s boasting becomes, and the greater his posturing, the more threadbare his personality cult’s clothing.

It’s true that Pinocchio Jeff will have pots of money in 2019, but the successful mobilization of Reisz refuseniks convinces me that we’re putting together a solid network for communication and cooperation.

---

447

This letter is so poorly written that maybe Duggins actually dictated it.

Seems he would have known about "old and antiquated systems" all the way back in 2017.

If he did know, why wait for these systems to collapse before doing something?

If he didn't know, then isn't $125k per year a bit much to pay in salary to someone to be reactive rather than proactive for the sake of political propaganda when the well-being of residents (not residences) is at stake?

---

485

Duggins, Gahan log into Priceline Dot Com as Riverview Towers residents are evacuated.

It's nice to see City Hall's efforts to address the ever-widening Compassion Gap by sending the Rev. Toran to deal with the media instead of Gauleiter Duggins, who has been too busy blaming Bob Lane for Duggins' own multiplicity of shortcomings to notice that living, breathing humans are in need of attention.

It's a kinder, gentler public housing putsch, wouldn't you say?

---

490

BEER WITH A SOCIALIST: The forthcoming beer list at Pints&union (bottle and can edition).

Old-timers will notice the presence of "comfort beers," "neglected classics" and "greatest beer hits" alongside beers like Stroh's, Old Style and Little Kings. The juxtaposition is purely intentional.

Indeed, it's a more egalitarian list than I would have written at the peak of polemical fervor, with fewer local craft brews; as noted previously, in my view the revolution has succeeded in large measure, and there are numerous American craft beers being vended in downtown New Albany.

---

501

Duggins spreads blame, manure as the air conditioning at Riverview Towers fails on HIS watch.

Can anyone remember a single instance of a Team Gahan operative admitting to error? Cults of personality are like that, you know.

---

530

ON THE AVENUES: Thanks to Joe Phillips, there'll be pints, union and good times downtown.

I’d like you to meet Joe Phillips.

Joe and I have spent considerably more than a year discussing the concept henceforth to be known as Pints&union. While I contributed to the theoretical vision and will be representing the pub’s beer on a daily basis, it needs to be understood that Joe’s the main man behind Pints&union.

I’m the rhythm guitarist, a supporting actor, or maybe just a guy who fervently wishes his friend and former employee to succeed in this entrepreneurial venture, and will do whatever is necessary to contribute to this end. I'm heavy into Pints&union -- I'm just not the big guy. That's more than fine with me.

---

597

Plan Commission to consider phase two of the Summit Springs Kelley Enrichment cluster muck development atrocity.

Do you really think anyone would bear the brunt of the cost to develop in the wrong place if not eased by public subsidies? Equally obvious is the connection between those public subsidies, the mayor, and a firm like Jacobi, Toombs & Lanz.

---

600

Did the developer of Phase 2 at the Summit Springs Luxury Mudslide Strip Mine Fun Park violate a cease and desist order yesterday?

At a time when public housing residents face daily insults from their colonial overlords as a prelude to demolition, Team Gahan brags about million-dollar condos in the middle of a strip mine.

Amid the blather and propaganda, we can be sure of one truthful eventuality: the volume of stormwater runoff coming from Summit Springs will be matched only by the amount of kickbacks flowing into the mayor's campaign piggy bank.

---

646

Let's talk about the 8% and their affordable slots in the 14-story luxury middle finger high atop Summit Springs.

Have there been public incentives and subsidies involved?

Look at it this way: the city

is paying for the road, and short of a privately financed gondola, there can be no hilltop strip mine development without a road past the white elephants (I mean, bison) to the, er, summit.

Want to bet the city's own 8 percent rule won't apply to living spaces within the Gahan Memorial Tumescence Tower?

---

1,247

LIVE TO EAT: Longboard's Taco & Tiki will open this Friday, July 27.

Let the record show two verified food and drink establishments debuting in downtown New Albany on Friday, July 27: Longboard's Taco & Tiki and the Double Barrel bar. There may even be a third; more on that some other time.

"I'm electric," says a kite-bearing Duggins to Riverview residents as Gahan disappears into yonder bunker.

If you're not following Hon. Deaf Gahan on Twitter, you should be. It's both hilarious and deadly accurate.

Meanwhile, Dugout's making the rounds to "listen" to displaced residents of Riverview Towers.

Or, "we shall gather at the sycophants." May of 2019 draws ever closer: #FireGahan2019

Temporary electric fix being tested at Riverview Towers, by Aprile Rickert (Where Tom May Stores His Stuff)

Some residents could move back home Sunday if successful

New Albany Housing Authority interim director David Duggins updated the NAHA board of commissioners on the situation at a special meeting Friday afternoon.

Duggins said a temporary fix was being tested Friday on the first floor and six residential floors. If it holds, some of those residents can begin moving back in by Sunday. Duggins said they will make certain the fix is secure before notifying individuals who may begin moving.

Once that is in place, engineers will begin performing the same fix on the remaining floors and work to move residents back in stages.

"What we will not do is rush our residents back there," Duggins said.

Duggins said he and staff have been visiting the residents each day at hotels and said they are doing well; he thanked them for their patience.