Respect Yourself.

I'm just the beer guy, and so I can't speak for everyone at Pints&union, but it's a great feeling to know you're working for/with people who take public health seriously, who are NOT science doubters, and who are doing their very best to observe pandemic protocols, and to implement best practices for the benefit of customers and workers alike.

If a food service establishment's or bar's priorities are in the right place, it doesn't matter that these various governmental pandemic mandates lack the necessary enforcement mechanisms to dissuade miscreants from mayhem. You follow the mandates because it's the right thing to do in a public health emergency.

We all know some establishments aren't, and to be perfectly frank, I struggle mightily with the "code of silence" as traditionally observed by the food and drink sector pertaining to withholding comment about what occurs elsewhere in the hospitality business.

I appreciate those of you who have sent me accounts, photos and videos of incredibly unhealthy scenes at local eateries and bars. I applaud your candor and grasp of the issues.

However, I won't lie to you; there's nothing I can do to help. You might try informing your elected and appointed local government officials, although in all honesty they'll probably do little apart from kicking the can a bit further down the road. Regrettable, but true.

I know that there are no sure things in life. Perfection isn't attainable, but the object is to bust your ass pursuing it, and this is what Pints&union is doing with respect to dining and drinking indoors during a pandemic. I can attest to it.

Those of you who have no intention of visiting a restaurant or bar any time soon, you have my complete support; my own household still is doing curbside carry-out (Dragon Kings Daughter and Legacy Pizza and Bakery most recently), and because I'm extremely grateful to Pints&union for allowing me to do my work in the morning, and remotely from home whenever possible, I will not be shaming anyone else for refraining from old haunts until the pandemic is under control.

On the other hand, if you're looking for a community-minded, responsible place to have a sandwich and a drink, and you have not given Pints&union a try, please do. We're doing everything in our power to make the experience safe and enjoyable. Give us feedback, and let us know what you think about your visit.

(I have no ownership stake in Pints&union. As noted, I'm just the beer guy, and I didn't tell anyone else I was planning on writing this. COVID is real, and it's going to be with us for a while. We should be taking the virus seriously; what's more, we should be positively recognizing the efforts being made by those who DO accept their responsibilities toward this end. Thank you for your support.)

Sunday Fact Fest, Episode 04: Robin's right. Some Louisville (and SoIN) restaurants are not taking the COVID-19 pandemic as seriously as they should."

The link:

Robin Garr’s Taj Palace review at LEO: Great food and pandemic precautions, by me at Food & Dining Magazine.

My Saturday morning post at Food & Dining Magazine came about because Robin Garr did something that writers should strive always to do. His words at LEO Weekly stood me up, slapped me down, and said to me what needed to be said.

Restaurant and bar owners who aren't tasking the pandemic seriously are helping to put others at risk.

The majority of media mavens covering the restaurant and bar industry aren't holding them accountable, including me. Maybe it's time for this to change; I'm not sure it even matters given the culture of abject denial hereabouts, but what I know is that denial can only make it worse. What I can do about it as just one person isn't yet clear to me. In the meantime, it makes me even more grateful to work for people who GET IT.

My words:

 ... Billy Joel was right; honesty is such a lonely word, inside or outside “the business.” Speaking as one who owned a restaurant and brewery for 25 years, your peers function as a professional family. We stay together, and we take care of our own. There are times when some of one’s brothers and sisters err, and the understandable instinct is to keep it in the family. I’ve done so in the past, and on some occasions, I’ve come to regret it. Telling the truth might have forestalled subsequent, larger problems for everyone.

Little white lies, fudging, averting the gaze, looking the other way? They’re incompatible with the duties of journalists, analysts and reviewers, for whom credibility is dependent on being truthful. It doesn’t mean click bait, cultivating confrontation or trolling, although there might be occasional heated discussions with the folks who sell advertising.

That’s where experience comes to the fore; been there, seen that, able to synthesize information, and capable of saying what needs to be said – factually, sans hyperbole. It’s neither calling out, nor cancel culture. It’s very much about rewarding the positive performers, not the negative deniers.

I’ll shut up now. Kudos to Taj Palace, a restaurant I’ve yet to patronize but intend to visit soon for carryout, now that Robin has explained to me exactly what I need to know: “Taj Palace takes tasty Indian fare and pandemic safety seriously.”

Robin's words:

There’s no way to put this but bluntly: I don’t think some Louisville restaurants are taking the COVID-19 pandemic as seriously as they should. Why the worry?

You probably saw the news item about 11 Louisville businesses that got inspection blasts from Metro Public Health & Wellness over the Fourth of July weekend for failing to follow COVID-19 safety guidelines.

This matters: When I’m deciding where to dine during this pandemic, I want to have confidence that the restaurant’s management doesn’t slack off on health and safety.

FOR THE DRAWER: My hot take for the day, to be filed away for later.

In the Soviet Union, during those long decades of heavy-handed state censorship, there was a saying among writers.

It was "this one’s for the drawer," or "I'm writing for the drawer," meaning there was no hope whatever that what was being written would be suitable for publication. The words were written in the knowledge that they'd be consigned to the desk drawer, where maybe later -- most often, after the writer was dead -- something might change and his or her words would be read and appreciated.

Samizdat was the practice of illegal publication; recopied by hand, mimeographed and later photo-copied. These illegal publications often were anonymous by necessity, with readership small but often more widespread than might be assumed. It's almost a quaint notion in our current, fractured age, this idea that truth mattered.

Maybe I'll try writing for the drawer, too. Blog readership is down, so maybe I can hide in plain site just for once. After all self-censorship wears on a man.

Here goes.

There's a pandemic going on. If you're in the local indie food and drink business and you're not taking masks and social distancing seriously, you're writing off a big portion of the potential customer base in order to appease a smaller percentage of loudmouthed know-nothings.

I wish there was sufficient unity of purpose among business owners to actually call out the scofflaws honestly, and openly. It won't happen, though. Speaking only for myself during this time, it's a tremendous crisis of conscience for me. I'm tempted to walk around town like Diogenes, asking service industry people, "Why are acting as though the aim is to bring everyone down with you?"

Do you read the news -- or is the cognitive dissonance too great, and those lies you're telling yourself too persuasive? Your optics are horrendous, and your acting supremely bad.

Not only are you embarrassing all of us, but ignoring reality and pretending like the pandemic isn't still with us is setting the stage for bad things to happen to the rest of the segment. If you're dismissing public health, are you also chucking food safety and other hygienic standards into the bin?

Yes, it's true; narcissistic bad actors have always been with us. But they're glaringly obvious at present, and to be honest, I resent it a little more each day as so many of you reject science in favor of voodoo.

Well, that felt good.

Now into the drawer it goes, where no will see it until much, much later.

LIVE TO EAT: Those new clothes you're wearing, well, they're a tad threadbare. That's regrettable.

I was working on this post when a notice from my former business popped up on social media feeds.

Good for them.

Pints&union will return next Tuesday, June 9. In exactly what format is, as yet, unknown.

I know it's frivolous to be writing much of anything without acknowledging the Black Lives Matter protests taking place in Louisville, just a few miles from my house. To me they're entirely justified protests, and government's response has been horrendous. Mayor Greg Fischer is underwater, and should resign.

This said, it has been utterly fascinating to see which local food service operators have spoken up about the protests -- during which admired BBQ chef David McAtee was killed by police -- and which have continued hawking their wares on the street corner as though nothing important was occurring, just as they were doing following the pandemic reopening period, as though science had been a ghastly imposition the previous months.

By the way, it may surprise you to learn that COVID-19 did not agree to take a holiday amid the unrest.

Yes, there is a considerable schism within the ranks of local restaurateurs. It was there before, albeit more hidden than not, and kept in check by commonalities and shared experiences. There always were narcissists on one-side and the public minded on another; the coronavirus then pulled back the curtain, and now protests for simple human injustice have sealed the deal.

And yet, in spite of it all, I retain a certain loyalty to the segment, if not some of the less defensible bad actors populating it. I'm not "outing" anyone; they've outed themselves, and I'm confident that lots of folks who "get it" can "see it" clearly without me pointing.

However, speaking for myself alone, it's just not going to be possible for me to be close with some of them any longer. It's going to be difficult for me to patronize them. I intend to keep it to myself, but some of the shrillness and superstition masquerading as public health (and justice for all) have been repugnant.

History sometimes offers us the chance to stand up and be counted. Some restaurateurs are seizing this moment, others not so much. I wish there weren't a scorecard now, but it's there. I can't NOT look at it.

My friend and boss Joe Phillips is on the right side of history.

And here:

Why some restaurants are keeping their doors closed in states that have reopened, despite backlash, by Ashlie Stevens (Salon)

“I have a huge problem with people choosing profit over people. And I would rather go bankrupt"

At Pints & Union, a pub in New Albany, Ind., a skeleton crew readies for a rush of Saturday evening to-go orders. Save the sounds of that kitchen prep, it doesn't feel much like a restaurant anymore. The smell of beer has been replaced by the smell of bleach, while the wooden booths have long been sanitized and subsequently covered in plastic. Occasionally, a pedestrian tries to open the bright red front door —rattling it against its navy frame — but it's been locked for weeks.

Takeout orders are now called into the restaurant and paid for via phone; once they are ready and the customer is outside, only then is the door briefly opened by a masked and gloved employee who places the carryout bag on a small table nearby to be retrieved.

According to owner Joe Phillips, this is the way Pints & Union is going to operate for the foreseeable future as a way to prevent the continued spread of the novel coronavirus. This is despite the fact that Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb cleared all restaurants in the state (save those in three "hotspot" counties: Marion, Lake, and Cass) to open at 50% capacity as of May 4.

"There's a lack of testing in southern Indiana," Phillips said. "There's only one place you can get tested locally — it's the health department — and it's only open on Saturdays from 11 to 1, and you have to have symptoms. So no one is getting tested."

However, in late March, the chief medical officer at Baptist Health in New Albany called Floyd County, in which the city is located, a "hotspot for the coronavirus" after over 20 people tested positive.

The amount of unknowns about the virus and its spread is, Phillips said, his largest deterrent against reopening.

"I have a huge problem with people choosing profit over people," Phillips said. "And I would rather go bankrupt."

On election eve, "Democrats (and Coffey) Skip New Albany City Council Meeting."

They don't even pretend well, do they?

Democrats, Independent Skip New Albany City Council Meeting, by Nick Vaughn (The Aggregate)

On the eve of municipal elections across Southern Indiana, the New Albany City Council meeting did not have a quorum and could not conduct business. The only council members in attendance were Council President Scott Blair (I) and Republican Councilmen Al Knable, Dave Aebersold, and Dave Barksdale. All Democratic members as well as Independent Councilman Dan Coffey were not in attendance.

While it is not immediately clear why so many council members missed, a source who was present at the meeting stated that Democratic Councilman Greg Phipps "had something come up" while Bob Caesar (D) stated he was going to be campaigning during the meeting's time. Councilman Matthew Nash (D) reportedly gave a personal reason for missing the meeting ...

"It turns out the rich really are different from you and me. They drive like entitled jerks."

Without further comment.

It's official: The fancier the car, the more likely the driver's a jerk, by Alfred Lubrano (Philly News)

It turns out the rich really are different from you and me. They drive like entitled jerks.

They’re middle-finger-pointing, ride-up-your-trunk-bullying, outta-my-way motorists.

That’s the authoritative word from researchers who keep track of this sort of thing.

Three studies over the last five years show that people driving expensive cars were more likely to cut off other motorists and less likely to stop for pedestrians in crosswalks ...

Curbside Solutions: NA may or may not have a "parking problem," but this looks like a "parking space" ordinance of some sort.

Up for consideration at next Thursday's city council meeting is G-17-09, An Ordinance Amending City Ordinance §72.01. 3rd district councilman Greg Phipps is introducing it.

The amended passage:

§72.01 OWNER'S RESPONSIBILITY FOR ILLEGAL PARKING

Amended Version to Include

No person shall knowingly allow, permit or suffer any vehicle registered in his or her name to stand or park or occupy more than one designated and marked parking space in any street in the city in violation of any ordinances of the city relating to the standing or parking of vehicles.

In the absence of information from my council member, and given that the amended version has added the words "designated and marked," I'm assuming this revision addresses the painting of curbside parking spaces along those streets included in the Downtown Grid Modernization Project.

And, as such, I'm guessing the measure is intended to provide grounds for enforcement against bad actors owners of vehicles like this one.

If so ... cool.

Gahan's Public Housing Putsch: Free speech breaks out at the Chinese sparkler show, and Dear Leader is none too happy.

It was Deaf Gahan's signature showpiece event, that one special red, white and blue day each year when it's worth his time to feign interest in the amphitheater, and what happened?

Unauthorized people possessing far more lower-case "d" consciousness than Deaf's upper-case local Democrats showed up, intent on leveraging the turnout on our Turd of July Fireworks to talk about the mayor's public housing putsch ... and circulate petitions.

You know, like in a free country or something.

In reality, these advocates were raining on Deaf's reign. He'll nurse this grudge until the end of time, won't he? Just wait until he sees the names.

With a newspaper reporter seemingly (at long last) intent to extract a quote from Gahan, the mayor unleashed a characteristic stream of poorly rehearsed bureaucratic prattle, surely spoon-fed to Deaf by his ever-doting party chairman.

"I have a lot of confidence in the newly appointed board, as well as the interim director, to produce a comprehensive plan to reveal to the public exactly how the transition will take place,” he said. “And I am confident that the new plan will vastly improve the living conditions for all residents.”

Don't worry; I'll translate:

“I have a lot of confidence in the new board of trusted and lubed sycophants I appointed to return precisely the decision they were programmed to deliver, as well as the interim director who has absolutely no experience with any of it, though he sure needs the money, and I am confident that no subsidized luxury apartment will be left behind."

One can see Gahan's body language: a full frontal grimace, even as he recites the platitudes. Only one thing is missing, and that's sincerity, a quality utterly missing in Dear Leader's bountifully evasive game.

New Albany Housing Authority residents seek answers on housing plans, by Aprile Rickert (God Bless Ourselves, Over and Over)

Residents, coalition petitioning City

NEW ALBANY — Residents of the New Albany Housing Authority have teamed up with an outside coalition in asking what the City's plans are for the future of public housing.

The coalition, which includes the Louisville/Southern Indiana chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, Louisville Socialists and Hoosier Action, connected with residents about a month ago.

“We're trying to make sure the residents are being heard,” Josh Goodnewt, member of the Democratic Socialists of America, said.

The partnership comes after concerns from both residents of public housing and other community members, over a plan to overhaul housing that was approved by the NAHA board in April. That plan calls for approximately half the city's roughly 1,100 public housing units to be demolished over a period of time — some to be rebuilt, some existing ones to be renovated and housing vouchers to make up the difference.

But some residents are worried that there won't be enough affordable housing in the city to support the vouchers.

ON THE AVENUES: Never preach free speech to a yes man; it wastes your time and annoys Team Gahan.

ON THE AVENUES: Never preach free speech to a yes man; it wastes your time and annoys Team Gahan.

A weekly column by Roger A. Baylor.

By now, most of us should be aware that social media simultaneously clarifies and distorts reality.

Our species hasn’t evolved to the point of true “virtual” enlightenment, and as I wait patiently in the queue, it has been my practice to block, censor and unfriend only with the utmost reluctance.

I’m a proud leftist, but far more so than any single political perspective, freedom of speech is bedrock for me. I’m desirous that my social media feeds be a place where differing perspectives are represented, as objectionable in manner of presentation as they sometimes are.

Communication is the goal, and there needs to be more of it, not less.

At the city council meeting of Thursday, February 16, my non-agenda public speaking time was devoted to reading a prepared statement written by the Bookseller, and reprinted here.

12 years after we began advocating for creating a pedestrian-friendly and commerce-enhancing reversion to 2-way traffic patterns in Midtown and Downtown, it looks like we may get it.

It is unfortunate that we had to wait through 3 consecutive mayoral terms before we saw any move toward rational flow patterns and traffic-calming. The 3 Democrats who have held the mayor's office during that time EACH expressed full support for our ideas, but still it took 12 years. One might even wonder if those three men were sincere in telling us they supported it.

As we await this multi-million dollar repaving project, however, there still seems to be a disconnect with regard to pedestrian safety. Yes, 2-way patterns will bring immediate benefits to pedestrian safety, but more can be done.

We would like to ask the council to come walking with us along Spring Street someday soon. We can start at the county line and work our way to the City-County building. During that walk, we will see the vast stretches of that street where no pedestrian can cross safely.

Let's call it a "feasibility study," if you will, with a goal to selecting the six or seven intersections where safety and traffic-calming can be effected with the installation of 4-way stop signs and crosswalks. In fact, there may be lighted traffic signals that could easily be removed and replaced with 4-way stop installations.

Who knows? After walking with us, you may disagree. But please consider making the walk. As elected public officials, you are in the best position to advocate for your constituents and we'd love to have you as allies.

Two councilman quickly indicated their willingness to walk, but by the following morning, it had emerged that this statement caused consternation for a friend on Facebook.

He took a passive/aggressive approach of maligning those unnamed and persistently squeaky local wheels who presumably can’t ever accept the necessity of underachieving incrementalism, choosing instead to agitate incessantly for more intelligent and comprehensive efforts.

Included in the post was a meme depicting Gilda Radner’s famous Saturday Night Live character with the words, “It’s Always Something.”

This seemed to offer a good opportunity to engage my friend in substantive conversation about pressing community issues like pedestrian safety, and so I gently reminded him that not so long ago, we’d undertaken a yard sign campaign together, one designed at answering naysayers of the time with the word “Yes” (signifying progress), as opposed to "No" (to new taxes).

Then I innocently observed that the term “yes man” can mean different things to different people.

Oops.

Shortly thereafter the social media conversation was expunged, and I was unfriended. Now the consternation was mine, as it dawned on me that ideas are mere bacteria when it comes to a germophobe's field of vision.

---

I’ve referred to non-agenda speaking time at city council meetings, and perhaps this is something with which not all readers are familiar.

Those citizens wishing to collectively address New Albany’s assembled city councilmen (there are no women) within the body’s native third-floor habitat have two opportunities to do so at each bimonthly gathering.

Near the beginning of a council meeting, citizens may speak about items adorning the evening's written agenda. Examples of fair game in this context include ordinances, resolutions, appointments and committee assignments.

At the very end of the meeting comes a second opportunity for public comment about non-agenda items. Some years back, this slot was moved from the meeting's start to its end owing to the disturbing propensity of taxpayer advocates and “potty police” using their allotted soapbox moments to fiscal-bait our elected officials.

This specific threat to the serenity of council representatives has long since abated, primarily because a generation of the civic-minded seems to have passed from the scene. Some died, some moved, and others probably lost the will to fight the inevitable fixes as they arise, one after the next, like the Asteroids video game of ancient times.

Those watchdogs were old-school, and whether I agreed with them or not, their dogged determination was admirable. They intended to be heard, come what may, and refused to go away until their opportunity was exercised.

Probably few of us are born with the chutzpah necessary to saunter into a public meeting and exercise our right to communicate with those representing us. It’s been a long and excruciating learning curve for me, one that remains ongoing.

What’s more, you’ll be shocked – SHOCKED – to learn that not all elected officials extend themselves with warmth and grace in these instances, especially if what the speaker has in mind to say isn’t what public servants wish to hear.

How many times have we witnessed an imperious Dan Coffey verbally bully a citizen during speaking time, as the council president of the moment sits on the gavel, staring off into space?

Of course, Coffey’s behavior reflects on them all, and in spite of his pseudo-populism, serial intemperance of this nature only reinforces the prevailing opinion that all but a few elected officials regard themselves as a breed apart, self-identifying as an elite of sorts, with secret handshakes and arcane rituals often taking precedence over helpfulness -- and this is in addition to political party fealty, with all its Kool-Aid consumption.

It’s almost a default setting. Within hours of being sworn in, elected officials begin thinking more about the officious prerogatives of their insular workplace than the nature of their work.

As the expanse of the pond grows smaller, the size of the fish in a councilman’s mirror balloons, and these are the times when an observer despairs at witnessing yet another shambolic performance of New Albany High School’s student council, as performed by a cast of 50-something pasty white guys.

However, I digress. They’re certainly not all bad, so let’s dispense with generalizations and address the larger issue of public speaking time at council meetings.

---

To be blunt, forcing an ordinary bloke to sit through two hours of Dan Coffey's harangues in order to say just a few words to his or her representatives constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, and by design, requiring such a trial by dimwittedness obviously is a conscious effort on the part of this council (and its predecessors) to discourage public participation.

But shouldn't discussion and transparency be overtly stated goals of our public servants?

The answer is "yes," but you'll be hard-pressed serving this subpoena to Jeff Gahan, who’d rather concerned citizens schedule phone calls or one-on-one meetings with councilmen (not with the agoraphobic Gahan himself, heaven forbid, as the oracle must remain untainted by dialogue) rather than speak aloud in a public setting ... where control might be lost.

In each instance of public comment at council meetings, there is a sign-in sheet at the lectern, and if a prospective speaker fails to use it, there usually isn't a second chance -- until next meeting.

Rules, you know.

What's more, council president "Silent Pat" McLaughlin recently tightened the rules even more by stipulating that constituents must refrain from the extemporaneous.

Lord, how Team Gahan fears the unscripted.

There can be no doubt on this or any other nearby planet that McLaughlin's agenda tweak is aimed squarely at your friendly local blogger and his council-viewing colleague, Mark Cassidy.

That's because it has long been our habit to sign the sheet and indicate our intent with a question mark, thus allowing rebuttals or follow-up comments to be directed at whatever unchecked inanity just occurred.

Really, Pat, is it reasonable to expect a citizen to know exactly what he or she is compelled to say after being fed a whole meeting's worth of live ammo?

Think of it as our chance for three minutes of orgasmic pleasure following the prolonged agony of watching Coffey's pudgy index finger wagging like the rear-end plumage on a peacock in spring, or Bob Caesar as that starched-shirt 1920s-era schoolmaster warning against masturbatory anti-establishment individualism.

Ironically, the best way to forestall topical references from folks like us would be to shift the non-agenda public speaking time back to the beginning of the meeting.

Doing so would deprive us of opportunities for improvisation, wouldn't it?

Think about it, Pat, and while you’re at it, perhaps City Hall itself deserves overdue attention if your honest aim is to maintain order and decorum.

That’s because city council meetings typically are attended by most of the mayor's upper-level appointees, though never the corporeal dignitary of record, who sends his merry director of communications to emit hurried 45-second Access Hollywood updates of the sort that would have infuriated a red-faced Gahan back when he was city council president.

Memories are mighty short at the top.

In recent months, these appointed officials have perfected an elegantly matched Junior High School stratagem for displaying their displeasure with the public’s right to speak (and by extension, their own responsibility to listen) by deserting the chamber as one when non-agenda item speaking commences.

They rise choreographed as a group and rush into the corridor, tittering, safe in the knowledge that the mayor has their back and the Bud Light Lime’s on ice.

Admittedly this Great March is entertaining, although a third-party contractor must have devised the idea, seeing as not one of them is creative enough to think of it on his own.

---

At the city council meeting of Monday, March 6, my non-agenda public speaking time was devoted to a verbatim reading of an article that I thought might prove enlightening to layman and professional alike – perhaps even to a sociologist who campaigned for office on the basis of a dispassionate and analytical approach to governance.

This Is What Happens Inside The Brain Of A 'Yes Man', by David DiSalvo (Forbes)

By the time I navigated four whole feet to the veneered lectern, Gahan’s minions had bolted into the corridor with their schoolgirl giggles. Verily, not a Mich Ultra was safe.

However, in the constructive spirit of educational intent, and knowing that this news item would require more than three minutes to read, I helpfully informed President McLaughlin of this fact and gave him permission to halt me at the stopwatch’s behest.

Most of us feel a twinge of discomfort when disagreement looms in a conversation. We start socializing with what social psychologists call the “truth bias”--a default, low-conflict position our brains fall back on to keep our interactions generally simpatico. As with most personality drivers, this one operates along a spectrum: Some people are naturally more agreeable; others are more comfortable with conflict (with plenty of non-mutually exclusive overlap between the two positions).

But then there are some—and it’s a significant percentage—who will do almost anything to avoid conflict. For them, disagreement is more than a bit uncomfortable—it’s painful, and on a day-to-day basis extremely difficult to overcome even when situations warrant an assertive stance. They choose to deal with uncomfortable situations with uncritical agreement (hence labels like “yes man”), particularly if they feel overshadowed by another’s status. Part of what fuels cults of personality is a leader’s ability to elicit uncritical agreement by leveraging exactly this dynamic.

A new study turned a spotlight on the brain mechanics behind conflict avoidance and may have found at least part of the reason why it’s difficult to stop being so recklessly agreeable. As it turns out, the same brain areas that activate when someone experiences cognitive dissonance also fire up when we’re facing disagreement—dramatically more so for those on the chronic “yes” side of the conflict avoidance spectrum ...

At this juncture, my 3rd district city council representative Greg Phipps rose and departed the chamber. I was shocked.

SHOCKED.

We're left to conclude that whether they’re on Facebook or at a city council meeting, “yes” birds of a feather unfriend and flee together, although it’s at least nominally possible that as a sociologist, Phipps already knew about the study from a trade journal.

Sad!

---

Recent columns:

March 2: ON THE AVENUES: Breaking up is hard to do. Just ask the Reichstag.

February 23: ON THE AVENUES: A stern-side view of Gravity Head, nineteen times over.

February 16: ON THE AVENUES: In 2014 as in 2015, then 2016, now 2017 ... yes, it's the "Adamite Chronicles: Have muzzle, will drivel."

February 9: ON THE AVENUES: I'd stop drinking, but I'm no quitter.

February 2: ON THE AVENUES: A luxury-obsessed Jeff Gahan has packed a board and now seeks to break the New Albany Housing Authority. Can we impeach him yet?

Nice crowd you've got there, CeeSaw.

Made any progress figuring out exactly how you're a "Democrat"?

Oh, the stories we'll tell.

The last time I heard 1st District Councilman Dan Coffey go down an anti-preservation path in person, he told a council meeting crowd the story of a woman who'd spent tens of thousands of dollars to put new plastic siding on her house only to have the Historic Preservation Commission swoop in after the fact, forcing her to remove it. According to Coffey, the woman eventually lost her home due to the expense. It was and is complete fiction. Coffey's bad acting aside, it never happened.

Of course, the last time I actually went to a Historic Preservation Commission meeting, it was because of an article in the Courier-Journal in which a local preservation leader with close ties to the Commission, seeking to move an auxiliary structure and place it as a primary one on an undeveloped lot on my street (which itself would have violated numerous preservation guidelines), suggested how the relocated structure could be for the neighborhood's use.

Like much of Coffey's grandstanding, such a claim is familiar strategy to drum up support and, again like Coffey, it wasn't really accurate. Asked about it previously, the neighborhood association representing the area had already voted on the matter, very clearly expressing that it didn't want the structure and the advocate in question was well aware of it. Other relocation proponents and some members of the HPC, however, perhaps owing to the C-J article or other similar communication, seemed surprised to learn of the neighborhood's wishes. Quite frankly, they shouldn't have been. Luckily, a majority of HPC members followed the guidelines and the move was denied.

So, here's to hoping for a little more truth in advertising, regardless of the outcome of this particular skirmish.

Coffey critical of New Albany Historic Preservation Commission, by Daniel Suddeath (Tribune).

Bully or protector of New Albany’s historic property?

The question surfaced recently during a City Council budget hearing over the role of the New Albany Historic Preservation Commission.

Councilman Dan Coffey shared his rift with fellow city officials, lobbying for an overhaul of the board that meets monthly to conduct business such as reviewing Certificates of Appropriateness for building improvements within its jurisdiction.

Coffey said the commission “pushes people too hard” when it comes to historic district guidelines. That has led to tax dollars being spent on court battles, he continued..”

Council aids and abets Coffey in master plan debacle, then has a drink or two and says, "whatever."

(Dan) Coffey said the council hasn’t received enough information on the plan, though it passed through the city’s Redevelopment and Plan commissions.

From New Albany City Council says no to Georgetown deal, by Daniel Suddeath.

During the year it took for the downtown master plan to travel from conception through the Redevelopment and Plan Commissions in route to the council chamber, the perpetually information-deprived Dan Coffey sat on both, having appointed himself to be the council's liaison with these bodies.

New Albany's own set of rules differ with Coffey appointing himself, but I digress. After all, we're accustomed to lawlessness.

One would imagine that any normally cognizant person attending meetings on a semi-regular basis would be aware of the master plan's progress.

But, says the Wizard of Westside, none of this should be taken to imply that he (or other council appointees in like positions) retained any of it, seeing as cognitive function is not a state of human afairs that exists in a void. Rather, in Coffeystan, it is inexorably tied to political caterwauling, as we saw last evening.
Of course, it was Coffey heroically playing the role of "the council member" who called the VFW to tip them off about the ATC coming to raid their video poker machines -- wait, sorry, that's Steve Price's line -- or, as in the Monday edition of "As the Credulity Turns" posited, letting them know at the very last moment that approving a resolution about the master plan would deprive them of a parking lot and a tank.

Apparently the VFW is populated with members who never, ever read the newspaper and also were scandalized that such a thing as a zoning master plan might ever exist in fair New Albany. Given that later in the meeting, Coffey cooed about providing funding to the same VFW for an Internet cafe to bring grandparents and grandchildren together, we can surmise that all of it was choreographed in advance without the necessity of a last-minute rotary dial cell phone call, but really, does this matter?

Thus, we were treated to the spectacle of the VFW's representative waving the bloody shirt in the faces of council persons who sat impassively through another of Coffey's elaborately staged Punch 'n' Judy shows, except that at the crucial juncture Price, who hasn't learned protocol after six years of trying, was given the handoff by QB Coffey and fumbled it, inelegantly allowing the resolution to be seconded and forcing Coffey to change Roberts Rules of Order once again and forcibly deferring the discussion until Price has convened a committee to try to brush it under the rug.

Jack Messer deserves plaudits for calling Coffey's bluff, and the remainder of the council might merit a rebuke for permitting Coffey's behavior to sully their already ebbing political reputations even further, except that in some way and at some level, all of them were in on the fix last night. You can't convince me that any of it was improvisational.

With the first-reading "no" votes on every piece of legislation having to do with funding, and with the slapdown of all the educated professionals who attended the meeting in the hope of dicussing New Albany's future, Coffey orchestrated a spitball in the face of City Hall -- and that's understandable, given that the room was filled with "them people," and Coffey hates "them people" in a visceral way that owes more to Richard Nixon's tortured pathology than anything pertaining to the relative facts of the cases being brought before the council last night.

Here's the rub: The rest of them (Price the clueless sycophant excluded) continue to sit there and pretend that all of this comes without cost. Some gathered afterwards at Studio's and talked about what might be done ... and, accordingly, they did (and continue to do) absolutely nothing, as though Coffey's antics are injurious only to himself, and not to the city, to its revitalization, and to their own council work records.

Because: Last night, by acquiescing in Coffey's "fuck you Doug, and while we're at it, fuck the city" junkyard mutt theater, each and every one of the council members present simply dogged it. Yes, we're paying them next to nothing, but last night, that was far too much. They took the paychecks and ran for the hills, barely breaking a sweat in the process -- half-heartedly waving at tepid fastballs, jogging downfield on their routes, playing matador defense against the opposing guard.

Afterward, they laughed and joked about it. To me, it's no laughing matter to underachieve.

Why is it for them?

And, what should they do?

Something. That'd be a start.

More than twenty years after middle school, it still doesn't add up.

Some random thoughts and observances on the last of the Resources for Results public hearings at Highland Hills:

* While some individual members of the committee may very well be interested in public input, anyone who believes the school system is genuinely concerned about it might have their own desk at the school. The presentation was lousy, with attendees unable to make heads or tails of information glossed over in literally five minutes. There wasn't even time to read it quickly while the system's man talked over top of it.

* If the maximum time spans allotted to public input during the entire three-year Resources process are added together, they amount to about seven and a half hours.

* I'll again point out that the school system made no effort to distribute data or any other information to the public prior to any of the meetings. Apparently, the average citizen is supposed to be able to absorb three years worth of study, analyze it, and develop cogent, three minute public arguments about it in the one minute interim between the aforementioned useless presentation and the public speaking portion of the hearing. Either that, or the school system is betting on the fact that such a restrictive scenario will keep them from it. I'm betting on the latter. It was insulting enough that the school system's printed warnings against the use of profanity became quickly relevant.

* According to Kathy Ayres, the enrollment numbers presented on slide 8 of the school system's show don't match the enrollment numbers provided by either the state's Department of Education or the school system's capital projects list. There are discrepancies as large as 275 students.

* A Silver Street teacher pointed out that, if one does the math, the magic 300 enrollment number used as a cut off by the school system for it's ciphering does not actually reflect optimum class size. It should be lower.

* If my sources are correct, only one "hill" parent spoke during any of the three hearings and no one spoke in favor of closing schools. If public input is given as much weight as the school system claims it is, neither the committee nor Dr. Brooks has sufficient impetus to close a school.

* Walking into Highland Hills Middle School for the first time, I immediately realized why parents who spend any time there would think our tax dollars are being wasted. If we can afford to build that, there's no justifiable reason to be talking about closing schools.

What I said in my three minutes, before the last paragraph was cut off by the school system's director of communication, whose title is an obvious misnomer:

I know the Resources for Results Committee has put in a tremendous amount of time examining the questions put before it, even if public and other outside input has been severely limited. As a result, I’m not here tonight as a city resident to rehash the many solid arguments already put forth by my peers concerning the benefits of walkable, neighborhood schools and their positive impact on urban communities. I know the committee has heard them and trust that they, as stewards of our common future, will take them seriously enough to grant them the further exploration and discussion they deserve as they consider their recommendations.

I am here tonight, though, to show solidarity with those county residents whose rural lifestyles are being taken from them. As many of us in the city have worked tirelessly to inject new life, investment, and increased residency into our neighborhoods - only to end up feeling threatened by lack of acknowledgment from the school system and closed-door discussions - I realize that same pattern has been repeated in outlying areas – only in reverse.

There is a growing movement in outlying areas of Floyd County to protect the rural lifestyle that attracted many residents to them in the first place. As residents have become more active in pursuing limits to unchecked growth and the fiscal and environmental damage it causes, county government has responded with a master plan designed to guide and control it. Such actions are essential to maintaining both the character and sustainability of the area and provide a good example of what can happen when citizens and governmental institutions cooperate.

Unfortunately, those good works in the city and county have yet to be reflected in school system policy. While city residents and government attempt to increase growth in the city by investing in infrastructure improvements, business development, and urban amenities, the school system has focused its investments in outlying areas, hampering those efforts. At the same time, while county residents and government seek to reign in massive developments and set land use standards, the school system has thrown open the gates by favoring the expansion of rural schools, even going so far as to overbuild past their own demographic projections, encouraging the further suburbanization of the Knobs.

In both cases, our tax dollars are being pitted against each other, being used to pursue conflicting outcomes. That can’t possibly be the most efficient use of resources.

The good news is that those city and county residents share common goals—more development in the urban city and less in the rural county. We’re on the same train. Moreover, national demographic trends suggest that we’re on the right track. The millennial generation who’s coming of age now is showing great propensity for reversing the outward migration trends of recent decades, preferring instead to return to more densely populated urban areas to live and raise families. It’s that generation- not their parents - whose children will determine our school system’s needs for the next few decades.

With Dr. Brooks’ departure imminent, I would encourage the committee to join in that spirit of cooperation, to get on that train, and explore some tracks that may not have been presented you as of yet in preparation for new leadership. We should be planning based on who and where we want to be twenty or thirty years from now rather than just what you’re stuck with this summer.

New Urbanism vs. Resources for Pre-Determined Results vs. elevated liver counts.

It was my intention to attend tonight’s last of three public hearings at Highland Hills Middle School on the topic of Resources for (Pre-Determined) Results.

Really, it was, but after a day spent dealing with business/work on one side and a roof being placed atop our house on the other, I couldn’t get my butt off the couch and into the car. I feel bad about it. Sorry. It isn’t because I don’t care. It’s just an inordinately stressful time on the job, and from the outset, the school corporation’s “resources” charade has left me cold, angry and feeling too much like I’ve seen this movie before and didn't enjoy it then, either.

In fact, ever since Resources for Results bubbled to the service, and the school corporation shifted into damage control mode as part of a vapid spin cycle as incompetently rendered as any we’ve seen of late, I’ve been thinking that there's something about this cover committee farce annoyingly redolent of past city vs. county game-playing, even if I can’t put my finger on it.

Populism usually isn’t my bag, but I’ll vent, anyway.

It’s very frustrating to me to contemplate the extent to which so many earnest, harried neighborhood activists – most of them hanging by their proverbial fingernails to various tiny bits of hope that they can somehow reverse 30 years of institutionalized idiocy, turn the situation around, and make the urban core viable again – must watch as their efforts are effectively sabotaged by the further impending loss of neighborhood schools at the behest of a school corporation that seems to believe it educates in a vacuum.

Granted, I don't have children, and some of these hard working activists don't, either, and yet I feel bad for them and worse for the families watching helplessly as the rug gets pulled out from under their struggles. This has been even sadder owing to the artlessness of the school system's proceedings.

While I’m at it, if anyone spots a scintilla of evidence that the current elected school board has contributed an ounce of leadership to the “resources” sham, please let me know. I'll eat my hat. If just one of them publicly confessed to the resources committee being a staged, rigged joke, perhaps that's something we might build from to begin a genuine dialogue. Like New Albany in general, the only ones we hear from are the ones least able to contribute to the solution. Is it in the water?

Yes, this is one of the weakest pieces I've written in a while. I feel bad about that, too, and it quite possibly will offend someone. I'm dog tired, my blood alcohol is way too low, and the hypocrisy level is cresting above my ability to be coherent. As I wrote previously, I have friends in the school corporation's upper echelons. By now I thought that at least one or two of them might have tried to respond with a counter argument. Regrettably, there has been nothing except the sounds of silence. That bothers me. Maybe I'm not living right. Maybe they're feeling guilty. Maybe both.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to be fitted for my British Redcoat uniform in preparation for attending tomorrow's tea party. After all, I'm no populist.

New Albany's YMCA as metaphor: 3 + 1 = wannabeen.

On Friday, I posted a treatise on the nature and practice of shameless hypocrisy, as personified by former city councilman Larry Kochert. Here's a portrait of the con artist as a not-quite-housebroken old man.

Predictably, not unlike a knee-panted, snot-clogged child on the playground, Larry Kochert simply couldn’t resist stepping across the chalk line after being told that by doing so, he would emerge as a buffoon, and so there he was, giggling at his perceived rambunctiousness, approaching me not once, not twice, but three times to toss adolescent jibes – and in the process, well, emerging as a buffoon, and in the process proving the veracity of everything written about him in this space since we had the temerity to begin chronicling Kochert’s abject political futility at the dawn of his mercifully final term in orifice.

Earlier today, reader ecology warrior stirred the pot, observing:

I spoke to the source and he said it was 4 times he taunted you, not three.

Hmm. Perhaps I paused to gauge the size of the crowd and missed one of Kochert's outbreaks of flaccid faltulence. Since I make no firm claims to advanced mathematical aptitude, bear with me while I dope it out.

If, by his own admission, King Larry taunted me four times rather than three, does this mean that he is 25% more childish than previously thought?

Inquiring minds want to know. At least we can be sure that he remains 100% gone from the council, and for that the city breathes a huge sigh of relief.

From jaw-dropping YMCA sightings to belated C-J findings, it's been that kind of week.

Last evening the Confidentials dropped in on One Southern Indiana’s “5 o Clock Network” monthly kibbitzorama, which took place at the gleaming new YMCA on Main Street. It was my first chance to glimpse the interior, and not only is the facility a bona fide knockout, it’s enough to make a person wonder how it could have taken so long for the city to spend $20 million of someone else’s money to assist in bringing the YMCA’s own fundraising effort to fruition.

(Like Radar O‘Reilly once said, “Wait for it.”)

In a week already filled to the brim with strange incongruities, not the least of which has been the trognonymous testimony of every Internet-emboldened coward in the city's existence in support of a nationally quoted local racist, you can imagine how strange it was to enter the sparkling YMCA lobby and find none other than former co-councilpersons Bill and Anna Schmidt in attendance.

Did I mention my intention to attend a church service this weekend?

I’ve picked an excerpt from one blog entry to briefly illustrate why this sighting is enough to raise eyebrows, crack unprotected mirrors and send area pots and kettles on the trail of tears to Birdseye. Dude, pass the garlic.

----

From July 4, 2006: Passing notes during class, and other Monday post-mortems.

As many readers already know, the latest challenge to the Scribner Place project on the part of New Albany’s rogue council faction went down in fully deserved flames on Monday evening.

Our own All4Word provided sterling NAC coverage of the meeting: He wears a “K” on his chest, but it doesn’t mean “strikeout.”

Randy reported here:

For the record: Voting to kill Scribner Place were CM’s Coffey (District 1), Schmidt (District 2), and Price (District 3). All other members in attendance voted against any notion of killing the project and creating a lasting stain on the name of New Albany.

Note yet again – perhaps for the final time – that three of the four council members representing the city’s historic core of business and residential areas joined together to support CM Bill Schmidt’s cowardly resolution to renege on the city’s commitment to Scribner Place, in effect openly opposing a downtown revitalization effort that would greatly benefit their own districts, and by extension, the entire city.

No matter how many times it happens, such self-defeating behavior persists in defying rational explanation, but in the end, these are the patently unrepresentative and simply tragic depths to which these three overmatched politicians have plummeted in response to inner demons characterized by consistent, spasmodic, and knee-jerk opposition to change, revitalization and reform.

Don’t we deserve better?

----

Well, we’ve gotten better in the limited sense of the YMCA project finally being completed, and as a bonus Schmidt, who worked tirelessly against it, was summarily displaced in last year’s election. My mentioning all this no doubt will inspire the foam-flecked anonymites to rail anew on whichever blog that still accepts submissions in cyber-crayon, but seeing as their time is passing so quickly, it no longer really matters.

Life’s too short to suffer hypocrites, don’t you think?

---

With reference to our recently well documented antebellum attitudinal deficiencies, the Louisville Courier-Journal finally located the David Ward story. The question is, where did they get it?

Sparks fly after Floyd man's racial comment on election; New Albany man opposes Obama, by Dick Kaukas.

A comment by a New Albany antiques dealer, who was quoted in a Chicago Tribune story as saying he would vote for Republican presidential candidate John McCain "mainly because he's not black," has set off a flurry of local criticism.

Kaukas duly noted commendable statements issued by Democratic Party Chairwoman Marcey Wisman and New Albany’s Mayor Doug England.

England, a Democrat, added, "Through our actions as well as our words, the entire local community should repudiate this type of ignorance and intolerance."

Later yesterday, England said in an interview that he was acting on his own, responding to a remark that he considered "racist," and was not simply reacting to requests from a blogger.

A blogger? Here in New Albany?

While I find it odd that the reporter Kaukas felt obliged to make references to blogs and bloggers without identifying them, I’ve only been an official journalist since Wednesday evening. Can't we just publicly give credit where credit’s due?

Freedom of Speech?

On reading political yard sign tea leaves.

While it is profoundly disturbing to contemplate local election year politics solely as the dully repetitious practice of efficiently distributing campaign yard signs, such a low common denominator is as much a fact of New Albanian life as television, light beer and non-ironic disingenuousness.

That said, there are three campaign yard signs on my property. It may surprise most of the city’s 37,000 residents to learn that two of them are for Republican candidates: John Click (coroner) and Larry Summers (county council at-large). As an added note, more Republican than Democratic prospective office holders came to Fringe Fest last weekend, and their presence did not go unnoticed.

Longtime readers will recall that while I can generally be depended upon to vote against Republicans at the state and national levels, primarily owing to their lockstep tendencies to abjectly fail my personal litmus test of unequivocal support for church-state separation (contrary to uniformed opinion, atheists have consciences, too), up-close local political races are another matter.

Verily, local Democrats cannot always depend on my support even if I generally vote for them most of the time. The reason? They simply aren’t always ideologically Democratic enough to suit me, which is to say that from my perspective, they aren’t sufficiently strident in liberal, progressive terms. As an example, Steve Price fancies himself Democratic, which makes about as much sense as George Clooney playing the role of Marilyn Monroe.

Anyway, if you’re wondering what the third yard sign says, it’s Obama/Biden. The first one placed out front of the house survived Hurricane Ike and a half dozen botched vandalisms until it finally was stolen outright during Harvest Homecoming. The second one probably won’t make it past the publication of this column, but the detestable proclivities of random blithering idiots in the populace aren’t the reason for my bringing it up.

Rather, it is my yard sign’s relative isolation in the context of a city that remains heavily Democratic in terms of voting preference. Of course, Floyd County beyond the city limits is another matter, having long since been thrust into a whole different demographic by the twin influences of wealth and superstition.

Is it just me, or have you noticed that in New Albany, clusters of yard signs touting the same familiar local Democratic faces are seldom accompanied by Obama/Biden signs?

Rather, as is the case in my yard, Obama/Biden campaign signs are most often seen standing alone, and absent other Democratic placards.

At two prime spots on Spring Street, virtually every perennial Democratic candidate has a sign grouped in a cluster like Conestoga wagons circled on the prairie, except the one that points to the ultimate party leadership position residing at the very top of the national ticket.

What does this mean?

This phenomenon may be coincidental, and my mention of it is not the result of a scientific sampling. But I cannot help concluding that at least some local Democrats are completely incapable of elucidating the platform planks that differentiate them from Republicans.

Label me unimpressed by selective memory of this stripe, and even if the passion’s missing, I wouldn’t mind seeing a few better actors hereabouts.

Of course, being on the wrong side of history isn’t a lamentable coordinate restricted to New Albany, but a clueless egregiousness is unbecoming when it’s your own neighborhood.

I’m proud to say that at-large councilman John Gonder isn’t among the prevaricators, and in spite of our differences over workplace smoking, his advocacy of Barack Obama is to be commended. Faith, Love and …

Indiana in play? Wow. Who’d have thunk it?

Unfortunately, many hidebound local Democrats can’t think.

Boner & Jethro: On the nature of council opposition to progress.

Yesterday we took a look at a few of the things happening downtown.

A quick look around downtown ... courtesy of the Urban Enterprise Association.

It was by no means an exhaustive survey, and there could have been many more citations.

Considering that we’re in an inflationary period of economic uncertainty, it’s significant that urban pioneers continue to invest in a neglected downtown. They’re not doing so in spite of eroding traditional development models.

Rather, they’re doing so precisely because these development models are eroding, and with their passing will come new opportunities to create and profit by means of other, emerging strategic outlooks.

The impressive part of it to me is that they’re continuing to invest in the face of opposition, a motley assortment of flat-earthers, mail carriers, anti-tax zealots and embittered troglodytes that seems determined to weaken or eliminate the comparatively few enticements typically made available by governmental entities to slightly reduce the risk of attempting to raise the dead.

At each and every city council meeting, and constantly within the venom-flecked pages of our city's anony-blogs, there is an attitude reflecting what must be honestly termed as defeatism. That such an attitude will seep up at any given juncture from a handful of the city's residents isn't at all surprising. The clueless squalor that one knows is often preferable to the uncertainty of change, and that’s just part of the universal human condition.

But, that such destructiveness emanates from elected council persons, typically (but not restricted to) Dan Coffey and Steve Price, is plainly reprehensible. Never have there been two better examples of persons willing to sow confusion and incite fear to prevent the betterment of the community they’ve been sworn to uphold.

Take a walk through New Albany’s emerging downtown. Does Steve Price grasp even a small part of the significance of what's happening there, or is the fact that few of his voters reside there enough to keep his attention riveted to the environs of Dewey Heights … and to the exclusion of the public good elsewhere in his long-suffering district? Perhaps the latter is to be expected from a person who has publicly stated his aversion to the prosperity of Louisville’s Frankfort Avenue corridor.

As I’ve noted previously, Price – council president Gahan’s appointee – has missed five of seven Urban Enterprise Association board meetings this year.

Given that many of the UEA’s expenditures benefit Price’s own council district, you’d think he would give a damn about it if for no other reason that political self-interest, but like Jethro Bodine on moonshine, he thumbs his nose at economic development, whether assisted by the UEA, supported by the city, or undertaken by investors who scratch their heads in confusion at Price’s pathological resistance to their readiness to spend money in Price’s backyard.

The inescapable conclusion is that irrespective of his periodic words to the contrary, Steve Price’s actions almost always have the real-world effect of reinforcing decay and urging continued poverty on his unfortunate constituents. I’d use the word “commonweal,” but I won’t. Neither Price nor his coterie would know the meaning.

Nor would they care.

We've already watched as Dan Coffey energetically seeks to limit economic development in his own district. 'Nuff said about that.

Speaking personally, the solitary drawback to building a new brewing business downtown is the knowledge that people like Coffey and Price will seek to benefit from the emerging community that we’ll be playing a role in reviving – this coming after they’ve done everything in their powers to deprive the community of this opportunity to reinvent itself for the good of all.

We’ll do it anyway, because in addition to helping play a role in downtown revival, our work will eventually bring New Albany to a better place, where fear and stupidity are looked upon as reasons not to vote for shiftless demagogues.

The city simply can’t wait for that sweet day to arrive.

The big clam-up: In which we inaugurate the Michael Dalby/One Southern Indiana stonewall watch.

Yes, it's become a full-fledged trend.

For those interested in statistics, it's Day 11 of the Michael Dalby/One Southern Indiana stonewall watch.

Dalby, 1SI's president, offered NAC a solitary, sadly disengenuous e-mail on November 19th, and has opted for silence ever since.

For the record, we do not agree that silence is golden. Yellow is another matter entirely, but we'll leave that to our readers to decide. What's keeping the leader of our region's foremost collection of political and economic clout from answering a few questions?

Here is the bibiography to date, from most recent to oldest:

Next: A dialogue about One Southern Indiana, ROCK and economic development as religious (why?) outreach.

Join the discussion: Is a stonewalling 1SI being disingenuous?

Familiar Tribune guest columnists (ahem) expose 1SI, Councilman Cappuccino.

Nobody listened to Eisenhower, either

Why is One Southern Indiana publicly endorsing a fundamentalist right wing agenda?

R.O.C.K. on, One Southern Indiana ... but first, please answer these inconvenient questions.

One Southern Indiana: Much to answer for, and most (perhaps all) of it at taxpayer expense.

Photos: No torture for a downtown bridge.

Not big enough, Mr. Dalby: If only it were Bono, and not merely a spectacularly failed president.

A new Rorschach inkblot for dollars and sense?

First, the good news. My wife’s English cousin is safely here, and she may be making the rounds of pubs by Friday afternoon.

Meanwhile, and not unexpectedly, the city council voted last night to endorse the Anna Plan for redistricting a mere five days prior to the November 6 election.

My powder blue zoot suit’s being tailored as you read.

As we await further developments, here is an example of how far apart perceptions can be. The generally reliable originator of NA Shadow Council bats leadoff, and says:

Break Me Off a Piece of That. bup,bup,bup

Please remember the names of Coffey, Price, Schmidt, Crump, Gahan, Blevins, and Kochert when the city has to come up with as much as $200,000 to take care of the mess they created. Only Coffey will be an elected official for sure, and only Price and Gahan might be in office, but all 7 are responsible for this irresponsible act and breach of their fiduciary duty.

The transgendered academic pretender at Freedom of Speech sees it differently (duh):

THANK YOU COUNCIL MEMBERS

R-07-39, proposed by Councilman Jack Messer was defeated by a 6-3 vote. This resolution for the pending lawsuit would have cost the taxpayers $5,000.00 plus court cost.Thank you to the following six council members who voted against this and saved the taxpayers money.

What was that I heard Steve Price saying … something about penny wise and pound foolish …