Remembering Matt Brewer, bidding Williams Plumbing an affectionate farewell and beseeching City Hall to give a damn about public safety.

One year ago yesterday, Matt Brewer was struck and killed NOT by a minivan, as stated in this article, but by a DRIVER.

Apparently the minivan's DRIVER was exonerated on the scene by the NAPD, and later by the Floyd County Prosecutor, although we can't know any of this for sure because there exists no clear pathway for the general public to know the results of such investigations even though the facts are essential.

There is zero transparency in such matters, because the American legal system seems to be constituted to protect drivers of automobiles first and foremost, not non-drivers who suffer the brunt of auto supremacy's daily mayhem.

However there remains a very good chance that Matt was struck and killed owing to the obstruction of an illegally parked Williams Plumbing truck on the northeastern corner of Spring and 9th, as I documented last year in this series of nighttime photos. Watch as the red car approaches, disappears for an instant behind the truck, then reappears to continue speeding down Spring.

It literally constitutes a "dead man's curve," with the dogleg in the street constituting the first hazard, then the commercial vehicles stacked at the corner -- and, of course, dangerous speeds have NOT been reduced by City Hall's ineffectual "calming."

In fact these commercial vehicles have blocked sight lines at this corner since 1987, when Williams Plumbing bought the building and converted it to what amounts to an industrial use, which in practice has meant neglecting it consistently into a neighborhood eyesore.

Imagine: as the Williams Plumbing fleet of commercial vehicles has grown they've been parked for free on the public right of way -- advertised free on the public right of way, and been safety hazards on the public right of way. It's been a privileged existence, "free" of responsibility.

Why?

In fact, I've been pointing to all of this -- the parking violations, the dilapidation of the building and the cheek of it all -- almost from the inception of the blog.

2008.

All of it to a rousing chorus of snores from city officials, who for 32 years have been shirking THEIR responsibilities.

Non-learning curve: This ON THE AVENUES column repeat reveals that since 2011, we've been discussing the safety hazards on Spring Street between 10th and 9th. Too bad City Hall is deaf.

Earlier this year I asked street commissioner Mickey Thompson if something had  been said at long last to Williams Plumbing about the illegally parked trucks, as I'd noticed they'd been moved around the corner to occupy public parking spaces on THAT street, not Spring (still illegal, by the way, but less of a public safety hazard).

Thompson said yes -- because he'd said something, not ordinance enforcement, the existence of which is rumored though not always witnessed save for street sweeping day.

Two weeks later the trucks began appearing parked on the southwestern side of Spring, blocking vision there, then predictably soon returned to their previous location of 32 years by the sidewalk in front of the decaying building.

I'll leave it to others to memorialize Matt, for whom I still mourn -- not as a spouse or the closest of friends, just as an acquaintance, neighbor and fellow lover of life whose day always was brightened when our paths crossed. As Rickert's story below well illustrates, Matt inspired many and will continue to do so. We mustn't forget him. 

Speaking for myself as a heretic, rabble-rouser and all-purpose irritant, I'm as angry today as I was last year, but "adulting" means sublimating anger into something positive. Ideally this would be Jeff Gahan and his merry crew of oblivious car-centric campaign finance leeches deciding finally to take action to make the city safe for non-automotive users, but I know this isn't going to happen.

Consequently I take great joy in this announcement.

As far as I'm concerned, good riddance. A bit of advice to neighborhoods around the city: be on the lookout for a relocated Williams Plumbing. One of your buildings is about to be trashed.

Hopefully the structure, once a delight when Cora Shrader owned it, isn't too far gone that it can't be saved, and put to better use than Williams Plumbing has these past 32 years.

Matt, you're missed. You remain an inspiration, but you deserved better from the mouth-breathing cretins who run this city.

Southern Indiana skater remembered for his inspiration, passion; friends and family gathered for a memorial skate Tuesday for Matt Brewer, by Aprile Rickert (Hanson's Bible Verses)

NEW ALBANY — Bright. Loving. Happy-go-lucky. Super chill. Simple.

This is how friends and family described Matt Brewer at a memorial skate Tuesday at Silver Street Park in New Albany, an event that allowed them to come together and celebrate the man they lost one year ago.

Matt died Aug. 6 of last year at the hospital from injuries suffered when he was hit by a minivan at Spring and Ninth streets. He was doing what he loved most at the time of the accident — skateboarding — and those who knew him said he leaves behind a legacy of inspiration and positivity in the local skate community.

"He loved it," his mother, Judy Brewer, said as she and other family members sat under a shade tree Tuesday afternoon, watching his friends skate the park in his memory. "If he wasn't working, he was skating. All the time. He'd just go down to the park and skate all hours of the night."

The day after Matt died last year, dozens of friends showed up to the skatepark at the New Albany riverfront — a spot where Matt had spent a lot of his time — to show their love. His mother said it made her happy to see them out again Tuesday at the one-year anniversary.

"I think it's great," she said. "It's nice that people still remember him and the guy he was and what he liked to do."

But those there at the park don't have any intention of forgetting the man who taught them so much — as a friend, a teacher, a supporter.

"I think a lot of local skaters just looked up to him — he was skating all the time," said Scott Thompson, who grew up with Matt and went to high school with him. "He was a really good guy, too. He was really kind."

T.J. Gusler said he started skating when he was around 13 or 14, about 10 years younger than Matt. Gusler said Matt had a way about him that made one want to do well.

"He was super supportive," Gusler said. "If you were trying something and it was like a big deal, he'd get his camera out and you're like 'Oh, Matt's excited; I'm going to keep trying to do this.'"

The memorial wasn't held this year at the riverfront park, which is undergoing remodeling to make way for a new park there as part of a skatepark/art installation project of the Carnegie Center for Art & History. He'll always be part of that riverfront space, his friends say.

"You knew every day you'd go down there and he'd be there, ready to go," said Shane Hockersmith, who was one of the scores of skaters Matt inspired throughout Southern Indiana and Louisville. "[He] would do anything for any of us, especially kids growing up who skated. He would take you to spots with him, show you how to do things, sit and talk to you.

"He was definitely the biggest supporter of skating."

Matt's spirit is one that will live on in the community, with seeds that have taken root in the younger kids. Andrew Nicholson, skater and downtown resident who helped organize Tuesday's event with the others in the skate scene, said he'd met Matt four or five years ago when Nicholson had started teaching his son to skate.

Matt had helped, teaching the 10-year-old cool tricks, supporting him and his father along the way.

"Matt would encourage my son not only to be a better skater but to keep trying," Nicholson said. "And he'd encourage me to be a better skater and reassure me that I was doing a good job as a father."

This was just the way Matt was, Nicholson said. His character helped others to be better.

"Seeing him constantly going at it inspired other skaters to keep going," Nicholson said. "I've never seen Matt mad; he always had a smile. Even if you weren't a skater you always got greeted with a smile."

Nicholson called the local skate community "very tight, very close, very supportive," which was evident in the faces of those who turned out to honor their friend.

"The skate community here in Southern Indiana and Louisville is an encouraging group of guys, girls, people, who like to push one another to not only be better skaters, but be better humans," he said.

In America, automobile supremacy means we walk less, but we die more. Evidently we want it that way.

Having been to Europe numerous times, and at the risk of generalizing, the basic difference is that most European countries put the brake on automobile supremacy. Driving remains more of a privilege, less of a right, and while there surely are tracts of the continent where cars are necessary, subsidized public transit in urban areas lessens the need to drive.

It's that simple -- and my guess would be that in Europe, every now and again a driver actually is prosecuted for killing a non-driver. Recall that when Matt Brewer was killed, the driver who hit him was exonerated by police within minutes, and later the prosecutor yawningly followed suit.

June 19, 2019 photo.

And those Williams Plumbing sight line impediments are right back where they were, on the street, blocking fields of vision for all users even as ordinance enforcement personnel pluck the low-hanging fruit by ticketing street sweeping violations.

Why is the city obligated to provide commercial parking for four, five and maybe six vehicles?

Didn't rogue elements in the Street Department only recently ask Williams not to continue parking these vehicles on Spring Street?

Did someone over-turn the surprising edict?

(When parked in a line on 9th Street, they also block handicap accessibility on the sidewalk, but first things first).

Why are drivers killing so many pedestrians?

Because, like Williams Plumbing's fleet of vision blockers, drivers are coddled, everywhere and always. BOW should be embarrassed; unfortunately too few of the city's Democratic "leaders" are capable of feeling shame.

Why Are U.S. Drivers Killing So Many Pedestrians? by Joe Cortright (Strong Towns)

If anything else—a disease, terrorists, gun-wielding crazies—killed as many Americans as cars do, we’d regard it as a national emergency. Especially if the death rate had grown by 50 percent in less than a decade. But as new data from the Governor’s Highway Safety Association (via Streetsblog) show, that’s exactly what’s happened with the pedestrian death toll in the U.S. In the nine years from 2009 to 2018, pedestrian deaths increased 51 percent from 4,109 to 6,227.

There are lots of reasons given for the increase: distracted driving due to smart phone use, a decline in gas prices that has prompted even more driving, poor road design, a culture that privileges car travel and denigrates walking, and the increasing prevalence of more lethal sport utility vehicles. Undoubtedly, all of these factors contribute.

While some may regard a pedestrian death toll as somehow unavoidable, the recent experience of European countries as a group suggests that there’s nothing about modern life (Europeans have high rates of car ownership and as many smart phones as Americans) that means the pedestrian death toll must be high and rising. In fact, at the same time pedestrian deaths have been soaring in the U.S., they’ve been dropping steadily in Europe. In the latest nine year period for which European data are available, pedestrian deaths decreased from 8,342 to 5,320, a decline of 36 percent ...

GREEN MOUSE SAYS: They're still illegally parked, but finally those Williams Plumbing safety hazards have been removed from Spring Street.

I've been outspoken about this situation for quite some time, and summarized the case in this post from February 9, 2019.

And like a blight neighbor, Williams Plumbing is there ... for years, and years, and years.

You'll never be able to convince me otherwise: Blocked sight lines caused by an illegally parked Williams Plumbing commercial vehicle were a contributing factor in Matt Brewer's death-by-driver last August.

Recently I noticed the trucks no longer were being parked on the street in front of the business. They're now usually lined up on 9th, north of Spring. This remains illegal according to the city's ordinances, which plainly are written to require commercial vehicles to have off-street parking.

However, at least these vehicles no longer block sight lines at the intersection. The Green Mouse inquired and was told that it wasn't police, ordinance enforcement or somnolent councilman Greg Phipps to credit for taking the lead in removing the safety hazard posed by these illegally parked trucks, but rather Mickey Thompson, New Albany's street department commissioner.

Fairness dictates a round of applause and a "thank you" to Mickey for addressing this.

And like a blight neighbor, Williams Plumbing is there ... for years, and years, and years.

Same shit, different year.

The point is simple. Shouldn't a business like this one located in a primarily residential area be compelled to adhere to minimum standards of appearance and (more importantly) street safety?

Moreover, shouldn't it be WILLING to embrace such minimums before being forced to do so?

Just two blocks east, HyperCars was given a punch list for compliance before being given variances -- and did exactly as requested. I'll never be a supporter of automotive businesses in such a setting, BUT it cannot be denied that HyperCars went the extra mile to be a good neighbor.

Why not Williams Plumbing?

Let's begin the back story on May 19, 2011.

"Municipal dysfunction sweeping prohibited."

I’m continually amazed by prominent examples of neglect that go completely unaddressed.

Almost every day, I walk or bike past Williams Plumbing on the northeast corner of E. Spring and 9th. If I’m not mistaken, long ago it was Cora Shrader’s Shoppe, a nicely maintained corner property.

Now it is a scantily maintained, increasingly dilapidated eyesore used exclusively for what amounts to industrial storage. Extreme weather over a period of years has torn hunks of siding away from both sides of the house, exposing the wood. Worse, the company’s big trucks tend to be parked right on Spring Street, consistently impeding the view of motorists approaching southbound on 9th.

Do these trucks get ticketed when they block the street sweeper, or does the invisible, undefined, non-enforcement Green Line come into play?

Is it downtown or midtown?

Lowdown, or down low?

If there is ticketing, does Williams Plumbing pay the tickets?

Eventually the exterior deterioration was minimally addressed, but illegally parked commercial trucks continued to be an impediment to sight lines. On September 7, 2018 we offered a clear illustration of the issue.

How the Williams Plumbing trucks block vision at 9th & Spring -- a pictorial.

You'll never be able to convince me otherwise: Blocked sight lines caused by an illegally parked Williams Plumbing commercial vehicle were a contributing factor in Matt Brewer's death-by-driver last August.

Still, neither the city nor Keith Henderson did anything to address the situation. From August 20, 2018:

If you want to know how Deaf Gahan purposefully botched the Speck plan for walkable streets, read this article. Hint: HWC dunnit.

NA Confidential: Brief question: has the accident report about Matt Brewer been released? I’m particularly interested in the role of those Williams Plumbing trucks forever parked illegally on the street, blocking the view. Thank you.

Chief Todd Bailey: All crash investigations handled by the Combined Accident Reconstruction Team are maintained by the Floyd County Prosecutor’s Office. I can tell you the case is still under investigation but if you’re looking for specific information you’ll need to inquire with the Prosecutor.

It didn't start yesterday.

Dec 20, 2016
This outrage against innovative public art must be avenged -- or, what happened to the Williams Junk Water Heater Park?

What is it about ordinance non-enforcement in this burg, anyway?

How the Williams Plumbing trucks block vision at 9th & Spring -- a pictorial.

These three photos were taken sequentially at around 9:25 p.m. on Thursday, September 6. In the first photo, from a vantage point on the north side of Spring, a driver approaches the intersection of 9th and Spring, traveling eastbound.

But where'd he go?

There he is again, whizzing past at a speed I'd estimate as a minimum of 35 mph, maybe a bit more ... in a 25 mph zone, coming off a hazardous curve at 10th.

Here's the relevant speed table.

Here's the ordinance which plainly forbids the Williams Plumbing truck ("any other commercial vehicle") from being parked where it is.

And here is the memorial to Matt on the utility pole.

I'm not sure if I can illustrate these problems any more clearly than this, although as in the past, I honestly believe it would be helpful for those city officials in charge of such matters to come outside for once and view the scene from the ground, as so many of us do every day.

Perhaps only then will this combination of danger and neglect make the necessary impression.

This outrage against innovative public art must be avenged -- or, what happened to the Williams Junk Water Heater Park?

What a difference five months makes.

July 20
Oops, ESNA's done it again ... with this intriguing instance of neighborhood placemaking.

Sight lines from two-way streets should make the persistent neglect of this critical neighborhood corner even more noticeable to the general public, although in fairness, the 2012-vintage vinyl siding was a vastly overdue improvement.

March 12, 2012

Great moments in NA non-enforcement: The Williams Plumbing Corner.

March 13, 2012

Better yet: More to Deplore.

April 27, 2012

Marginally less to deplore.

Oops, ESNA's done it again ... with this intriguing instance of neighborhood placemaking.

Think of it as a companion piece, conceptual-art-wise.

Selective public safety interpretations, volume the infinity.

I see a detour sign on the left side, but not the right.

Hmm. Still nothing.

Wait -- there it is. You just couldn't see it for the plumbing truck.

Is the city of New Albany genuinely concerned with public safety?

When the plumbers park their trucks on the street, intersection sight lines are blocked. This is not in the interest public safety.

The city does nothing.

Except create vacant lots?

Some weekend housekeeping.

The NA 1st link finally has appeared at the city's web site, providing an answer to the question we asked here: Does it really take months to add a link?

And then there's the Emery ice cream building, finally coming off the blocks -- neither to become the new home of City Hall, as advocated by ex-council person Steve Price, nor to be hoisted into place as penthouse suite, but to be relocated at the emerging Urban Fusion Community Garden.

After years of negligence, the people at Williams Plumbing have started re-wrapping their dilapidated building in fresh new vinyl. Now we'll see if they continue to park their commercial vehicles to obstruct sight lines on Spring Street.

It took a few weeks, but the stump hole has been filled with a sapling, as discussed in this posting: Halfway there. Next?

Appropriate thanks to all involved with making these things happen.

Marginally less to deplore.

We've been watching the Williams Plumbing building for a while, and a few days ago, the old wretched siding started coming off ... some wrapping and plywood started to be tacked into place ... and yesterday, new siding started appearing.

See: Better yet: More to Deplore. Here's what it looked like for the past three and a half years.

Better yet: More to Deplore.

Yesterday at Facebook, Board of Public Works member Suellen Wilkinson wrote:

This has been before BOW before. The guy just won't clean up his place. I think the Building Commissioner (David Brewer) is also on him, but I'll bring it up again at the meeting tomorrow morning to see what further steps we can take.

Indeed, we're reminded that "New Albany is Open for Business" -- so very open, in fact, that soon you'll be able to see inside some of them without using a window.

Great moments in NA non-enforcement: The Williams Plumbing Corner.

Great moments in NA non-enforcement: The Williams Plumbing Corner.

The photos above were taken within the past few days, but the inexorably decaying building and the chronically unaddressed intersection sight line blockage date back to the Garner administration, and perhaps before.

Now it's the Gahan administration. I wrote about the gorgeous, enticing Williams Plumbing Corner most recently almost one year ago ... and it wasn't the first time, then:

Today's OSIN column: "Municipal dysfunction sweeping prohibited."

Like basic exterior repairs. I’m continually amazed by prominent examples of neglect that go completely unaddressed.

Almost every day, I walk or bike past Williams Plumbing on the northeast corner of E. Spring and 9th. If I’m not mistaken, long ago it was Cora Shrader’s Shoppe, a nicely maintained corner property.

Now it is a scantily maintained, increasingly dilapidated eyesore used exclusively for what amounts to industrial storage. Extreme weather over a period of years has torn hunks of siding away from both sides of the house, exposing the wood. Worse, the company’s big trucks tend to be parked right on Spring Street, consistently impeding the view of motorists approaching southbound on 9th.

Do these trucks get ticketed when they block the street sweeper, or does the invisible, undefined, non-enforcement Green Line come into play?

Is it downtown or midtown?

Lowdown, or down low?

If there is ticketing, does Williams Plumbing pay the tickets?

The plumber with the incriminating photos?

Imagine the money it's taken to get this Spring Street home looking so great. It's a showplace. You'll notice a curtain on the porch, presumably placed so the view to the west is screened:

Parishioners at the newly refurbished St. Mary's, just a block down the street, have this view to the east:

Yes, I know we've been here before, but seriously: Why does this guy get a permanent pass? Is he the mayor's personal plumber, or something? Not a finger has been lifted since the hurricane damaged the structure in 2008, and it wasn't being maintained even before that.

Anyone?

Today's OSIN column: "Municipal dysfunction sweeping prohibited."

BEER MONEY: Municipal dysfunction sweeping prohibited.

By ROGER BAYLOR
Local Columnist

Yesterday was Wednesday, and Wednesday is street sweeping day on our side of the block.

A policeman customarily follows the street sweeper, because cars are not supposed to be parked on the street, where they obstruct the sweeper’s solemn duty to transfer rubbish from the curb into the center of the bicycle lane.

Recently, with the stated intent of promoting businesses (like my own) and sparing shoppers, diners and shop employees the hassle of parking tickets, City Hall publicly announced a moratorium on the enforcement of parking regulations “downtown.”

To my knowledge, downtown as a geographical construct was never specifically defined in this enforcement suspension context. My household belongs to the Midtown Neighborhood Association, and the former Shooter’s tavern on Vincennes Street, only a few blocks away, now calls itself the Uptown.

However, Develop New Albany recently indicated that in the organization’s eyes, a stated organizational mandate to deal exclusively with downtown issues did not preclude it from expanding operations outward, into areas previously not regarded as such, implying that suddenly, we’re all downtowners.

(Applause)

Meanwhile, our residence in Midtown shares a driveway with a dental office. There used to be a day care business next door, and a doctor’s office further down. Big Value is on one corner of the block, opposite an ad agency office. On another corner, there is a funeral home, facing a fire and water damage repair shop. That’s a fair number of businesses for a residential block -- and I’m not even counting meth labs.

---

Yesterday, although I knew the street sweeper was coming, I left my car parked on the street. I wanted to see what would happen.

Leaving the usual pathway of dirt in its wake, the sweeper swerved to avoid my car, and the policeman promptly ticketed me. Moments later, I climbed into the car and drove to my meeting, westbound on Spring Street, where I caught up to the sweeper and the tailing police officer.

Other parked cars were obstructing the sweeper’s progress, but they were not ticketed, presumably because an invisible line of demarcation had been passed, and now the weekly shifting of muck and butts from curb to street was occurring within the “downtown” area, where the moratorium of non-enforcement was in effect to promote businesses.

Or, businesses just like the ones on my block, where the rules against sweeper obstruction are being enforced, or at the very least, where tickets are being written, whether not there is any intent to collect the fines.

I got the ticket, and I’ll pay the fine.

The question: Why should I?

When there is a stated policy of non-enforcement within areas that are only vaguely defined, what is the rationale for enforcement elsewhere?

If the rationale for non-enforcement downtown (whatever that means) is the proximity of businesses, shouldn’t that rationale apply throughout the city?

If downtowners who have serially refused to pay their parking fines for decades announce their evasive intentions on local television, and are not prosecuted immediately, why should I feel any obligation whatsoever to drop my twenty-spot in the slot?

Yet, I do. It’s something in my upbringing. Granted, that’s twenty fewer clams to be deposited with local businesses downtown, but heck, I just consider it a token of my esteem for a New Albanian process so random, convoluted and inexplicable that it nostalgically reminds me of the feudal nonsense prevalent in Old Albania.

---

Neighborhoods lying in, outside or near downtown, depending on today’s variable definition of downtown, historically have served as laboratories for non-enforcement of a different variety.

Slumlord empowerment blocs and the occasional derelict private dwelling have freely ignored basic codes pertaining to building appearance, sanitation and safety, and pretend-leaders like the soon-to-be-mercifully-retired Steve Price have abetted the shtick.

Nowadays, the city seem to be doing a slightly better job of it, although there always seems to be greater interest in the last resort of demolishing properties allowed to deteriorate through previous non-enforcement regimes. Little time is devoted to filling the holes left behind, but then again, this is New Albany: One thing at a time, please, and you’d best give us five or six years to accomplish it.

Like basic exterior repairs. I’m continually amazed by prominent examples of neglect that go completely unaddressed.

Almost every day, I walk or bike past Williams Plumbing on the northeast corner of E. Spring and 9th. If I’m not mistaken, long ago it was Cora Shrader’s Shoppe, a nicely maintained corner property.

Now it is a scantily maintained, increasingly dilapidated eyesore used exclusively for what amounts to industrial storage. Extreme weather over a period of years has torn hunks of siding away from both sides of the house, exposing the wood. Worse, the company’s big trucks tend to be parked right on Spring Street, consistently impeding the view of motorists approaching southbound on 9th.

Do these trucks get ticketed when they block the street sweeper, or does the invisible, undefined, non-enforcement Green Line come into play?

Is it downtown or midtown?

Lowdown, or down low?

If there is ticketing, does Williams Plumbing pay the tickets?

Can a building crying out for code enforcement scrutiny be any more prominently located than this one, or do the code enforcers just shut their eyes two dozen times a day while driving past it?

If readers can answer any of these questions, they’ll enter a drawing for a $175,000, studio-sized condo overlooking the river … in downtown Tirana, Old Albania. Play your cards right, and the neighborhood Mullah might save you a parking space.

Roger is resisting the temptation to make Potty Police jokes, but he’s weakening. Read more at the NA Confidential blog: www.cityofnewalbany.blogspot.com

Northeast corner of Spring and Ninth.

The siding's been off for more than a year, and the when the big fleet vehicles are parked on either side of the corner, it's a sight hazard for driver, cyclist and pedestrian alike.

Should we care? Or is it free enterprise to let this house rot?