Soup Is Good Food.

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

News Flash: Riverview Tower Slated for Demolition

And this opinion piece.

VAUGHN: Is Anyone Really Surprised?

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

Tell the Truth.

Hi, I'm Roger.

By the way, just for the record, while I may be retired from certain aspects of the curmudgeon's lifelong mission to inform the community, one thing I will never do is apologize for being right.

Nor should you, or anyone else.

It's tremendously important at this juncture in our history to be cognizant of the damage done by "alternative facts," this being Orwellian for what we all used to understand were plain, flat LIES.

Furthermore, it's crucial to understand that lies and lying are not confined to your own political party, peer group, cult, sect, family, team or club. The pathology extends past all arbitrary boundaries. The only necessary pre-existing condition is to be a liar and embrace lying. Literally anyone CAN do it.

Too many actually do.

If lies are your thing, okay; a fetish is a fetish for a reason, but the least you can do is cut the outrage when others do it. You're defecating in the collective nest just as surely as they are, and hypocrisy isn't a good look for you or anyone else.

Are we clear?

Thank you.

Trumpolini's bogus pandemic stats and the flowering of the GOP's death cult.

You're entitled to your own opinion, just not your own facts.

Donald Trump rushed to reopen America – now Covid is closing in on him, by Robert Reich (The Guardian)

The surge in cases isn’t because America is doing more tests for the virus, as Trump contends. Cases are rising even where testing is declining. In Wisconsin, cases soared 28% over the past two weeks, as the number of tests decreased by 14%. Hospitals in Texas, Florida and Arizona are filling up with Covid-19 patients. Deaths are expected to resume their gruesome ascent.

The surge is occurring because America reopened before Covid-19 was contained ...

It's the very Nadir of the Know Nothings.

No, President Trump, Testing Is Not Causing Case Counts to Rise. The Virus Is Just Spreading Faster, by Charles Ornstein and Ash Ngu (ProPublica)

The Trump administration has doubled down on its claims that coronavirus case counts are up because the U.S. has increased testing. However, a closer look at graphs of testing numbers and positive cases shows that this isn’t the case for many states.

The Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin bears scrutiny, given the bizarre inaccuracy of her analysis v.v. the recently contested Kentucky primary.

However, this home run travels about 535 feet.

This outcome is the triumph of Republicans’ tribal politics, in which identification with the cult and assault on the truth win out over common sense, science and even self-preservation. To be a Republican — at least in the eyes of millions of them — means to adopt illogical, anti-factual beliefs and oppositional conduct. You cannot take seriously the threats of climate change or the novel coronavirus because … well, because that is not what Republicans do, and to do otherwise would be to concede that the dreaded radical left and elites (presumably one can be both) are right. At the extremes, Republicans will engage in objectively destructive conduct to prove their point — hoarding hydroxychloroquine even if the Food and Drug Administration says the drug is ineffective or dangerous, and, of course, going without masks.

Yes, that's it.

Gahan can't even tell the truth about Warro the K-9 dog's tenure. Seems a desperate Slick Jeffie will say ANYTHING to get re-elected.

When you see the mailer, you're supposed to think that our tireless leader Deaf Gahan has just now hit the road, scoured the nation's kennels, and personally enticed Warro to New Albany to battle crime -- not that we have crime, mind you, but just in case a pre-election photo-op is needed.

But what we're really seeing is a bit of last-second desperation. To date in this year's mayoral race, Gahan has ducked and covered on neighborhood crime, but somehow, neighbors keep talking about it.

Consequently, it's time for Team Gahan to convert a few thousand more in Indy special interest campaign finance donations to doing the impossible and inventing a time machine to take us all the way back to April 7, 2016, and this feverish canine bromide at the City Hall propaganda commissariat's web site.

Gahan's handlers must think we're too stupid to do a Google search. Even Warro knows that dog won't hunt.

After all, inferior leadership isn't the K-9 officer's fault.

Breathtaking school building bunk goes to show lies are lies, whether they're Trump's or Gahan's.

Note the use of the word "we" in this shameless whopper from Slick Jeffie.

SUPPORTING EDUCATION: With the help of school administrators and concerned parents, we succeeded on an initiative that rebuilt 2 brand new city schools, remodeled current facilities, invested in new equipment and technology, and created better spaces for learning for our children and families. Let’s keep moving New Albany forward!

Note to Abigail.

A simple rule for using numbers in writing is that small numbers ranging from one to ten (or one to nine, depending on the style guide) should generally be spelled out. Larger numbers (i.e., above ten) are written as numerals.

You'd think they'd teach this rule in school.

Rebuttals?

MC: "Wow. Talk about taking credit when none is due. The voters of Floyd County, through a referendum, approved all of this. What’s next? Taking credit for the sun coming up tomorrow? I mean, how desperate do you have to be to come up with actual accomplishments? How about telling us the total debt load of New Albany now versus when you came to office. I’ll even let you off the hook by excluding the sewer department, which has it’s own budget."

RC: "Exactly HOW did either the mayor or New Albany government make this happen?"

SW: "Let me get this straight -- so he supported education by taking property tax money away through TIF, forcing the school system to run a deceptive referendum campaign for a huge tax increase?"

KC: "Help me understand what the city had to do with this."

BM: "Heard Gahan was taking credit for the incredible full moon tonight as well."

Calling yourself a "progressive"?

Here's an idea:

Hold Jeff Gahan to the same standard of truthfulness that you maintain with Donald Trump. Think you can do that?

Has Gahan done anything "progressive" in eight years?

Running up debts for your children and grandchildren to pay isn't really "progressive," is it?

How can you "move forward" with an anchor as your official symbol?

#FireGahan2019

ASK THE BORED: Can't City Hall just stop lying about 4-way-stop upgrades on Spring and Elm between Vincennes and downtown?

Last week at the Bored with Works meeting some rote cowardice broke out.

It's genuinely maddening.

Of course, City (Mike) Hall just finished an artful mini-propaganda blitz for dupe-worthy CNU27 attendees, insisting that Jeff Gahan's half-ass two-way street conversion has magically resolved all automotive-related safety issues.

They're lying, but after all, it's an election year.

Once again, when presented with safety concerns pertaining to traffic speeds from a neighborhood resident who witnesses the problem every single day, Gahan's compromised minions spout craven nonsense: the "manual" prohibits them from doing anything at all, except in those case when they decide to do something from motivations of politics, as opposed to safety.

The criteria for action? It's written on a fortune cookie hidden in Jeff Gahan's down-low bunker.

Accepting city engineer Larry Summers' slippery explanation (above) at face value, and recalling that he used the same well-greased explanation as a convenient excuse not to convert Elm & 13th into a 4-way stop -- right up until the morning it WAS converted, sans coherent explanation -- how can there be enough traffic to justify a 4-way at Elm and 13th, and at Elm and 10th, but not on Spring, one block over?

Are we to surmise that there is a flood of cross traffic between Spring and Oak, which never crosses Spring to get to Market and Main?

Why can't someone in Gahan's administration, ANYONE at this point -- conceding city officials are so thoroughly discredited that Gahan can pick a random janitor to deliver the message, or maybe hand it off to the who sells weenies out front of the City County Building in summer -- simply tell the truth about the street grid?

"We are car-centric to the core. None of us know what it means to walk or ride a bicycle, much less to navigate a wheelchair, but one thing we know for sure is that we're absolutely terrified to offend drivers. We'll continue to make meaningless gestures and co-opt "progressives" who are just as car-centric as us, and we'll talk a great game about our brilliance even as we ignore safety concerns and refuse to take substantive efforts to slow traffic."

That's Gahan's only "manual," isn't it?

At CNU 27 in Louisville, visiting New Urbanists got a tasty dose of Gahan's Big Lies.

What Bluegill wrote.

But hey; don't mind us. We just live here, and experience the sycophantic spin-doctoring every single day.

There are two references to NewAlbany below, clearly attesting (a) to certain intentional gaps in the glorious Gahan narrative and (b) to the power of political patronage-driven propaganda.

Did Gahan buy ads in the CNU27 program to ensure there’d be only one (his) side of the story? If so, let's hope he didn't use taxpayer dollars to spit-shine his own gleaming scalp.

A Week of Love and Struggle, by Lisa Schamess (CNU)

At CNU 27.Louisville, New Urbanists got a little verklempt

Let's focus on Jeff Gahan's breathtakingly brazen string of fake facts and outright lies about Colonial Manor.

On Wednesday afternoon just a few hours before the listening event sponsored by Colonial Manor Redevelopment Visioning, City Hall released a propaganda video aimed at (a) exaggerating Jeff Gahan's role in the Colonial Manor redevelopment process, and (b) insulting the grassroots community group that came into existence precisely because Gahan and his crack team of minions hadn't been doing anything about Colonial Manor.

As Bluegill succinctly observed:

In which Mayor Jeff Gahan uses city tax dollars to produce a highly biased, politically charged propaganda piece that distorts the story to make himself look better for re-election.

Amid the din of Kool-Aid slurping, let's take a closer look at the video with the aim of exposing Gahan's shameless whoppers.

1

1. It's true that on April 18, Mayor Jeff Gahan's administration brought plans to city council for the purchase of Colonial Manor. Gahan himself yet again refused to attend to take ownership of his brilliant redevelopment instincts, second only to Robert Moses in scope and coolness. However, no plans for redevelopment were brought to council -- while six "test" designs had been hoisted up the flagpole at the non-input public meeting (see below), redevelopment director Joshua Staten insisted the administration would do some listening of its own after the purchase of the property.

Truth meter #1: Half credit.

2

2. Colonial Manor has been moribund for so very long that Team Gahan displayed not one jot of interest in its redevelopment for seven whole years until the "deserving neighbors" began organizing themselves, thus holding out the prospect of interfering with Team Gahan's usual top-down, pay-to-play monetization arrangements.

Truth meter #2: Half credit.

3

3. An essentially meaningless claim. The city's new comprehensive plan explains theoretical development goals for the entire city, not any one area.

Truth meter #3: Irrelevant.

4

4. Number four is a doozy. A public meeting was held, but only Team Gahan's operatives were allowed to speak, and requests for public "preferences" were limited to six hastily concocted "options" from one of Gahan's campaign donor engineers. Duh: Of course neighbors "want something done to the property." You could glean as much from Facebook. After all, they'd already assembled a grassroots lobby group to drive the conversation, hence the need for Gahan's non-input meeting: to squelch this conversation and take back control for his Indianapolis corporate campaign donors.

Truth meter #4: Bald-faced, faked-fact lie. 

5

5. In which Gahan refers to $2.6 million in tax increment financing (TIF) bonds as "cash reserves" when in essence they're credit cards, then further asserts that TIF is not a form of borrowing. Among other problems, these "cash reserves" deprive schools of property tax revenue, leading to school corporation referendums like the one responsible for the Slate Run school construction taking place behind Colonial Manor. Do you think Gahan lies like this about his own household finances?

Truth meter #5: Egregious, bald-faced, faked-fact lie. 

6

6. The city did vote 5-4 against something, but whether it was an "effort to bring new life" cannot be known because the vote pertained only to acquiring the property, not to future plans (if any) to redevelop it.

Truth meter #6: Half credit. 

7

7. We saw the first such "exploration" of options at approximately 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, when the video being dissected here was released. By his choice of timing, Gahan chose quite consciously (and with obvious malice) to undercut the grassroots efforts of the very same "neighbors" he'd already refused to allow to speak at the non-input public meeting he held for his own benefit.

With friends like Jeff Gahan, who needs enemas?

Truth meter #7: Perhaps the only truthful statement of the bunch. 

8

8. Gahan closes with his trademark messy verbiage. He "encourages everyone" (they're no longer "neighbors," are they?) to "encourage" -- that's right, the same verb twice in one sentence, attesting to the sloppiness of writing herein -- city council to "support revitalization efforts for Colonial Manor."

Note the first use of "revitalization" as opposed to "redevelopment," and also consider that Gahan doesn't specify which revitalization efforts "everyone" should support. Is it Gahan's politically motivated boilerplate or the efforts area residents already had started on their own with absolutely no help from the mayor or his flunkies, including their council person Matt Nash, who attended Wednesday's neighborhood meeting but couldn't muster the gumption to address the crowd, identify himself and let them know that he's listening.

Truth meter #8: See how Gahan acts when he can't have his toys?

Summary: Today's City Hall video shambles depicts Gahan at his self-interested, narcissistic and bullying nadir, with a truthfulness tally of roughly 25%, and still no apparent interest in the needs of people as opposed to the fix-is-in, play-to-play patronage boondoggle that local "pretend progressives" tolerate and seem to feel is justified as long as local Democrats mouth platitudes about other issues.

How many lies does Gahan need to tell before Democrats see the handwriting on the wall?

There's a solution. Vote David White for Mayor in the Democratic primary, and let's give the governing clique a purifying flush.

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

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

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

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

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

(Duggins quickly intervenes in a question intended for Gahan)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Previously:

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

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

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

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

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

---

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

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

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

Greenville, Georgetown and Duncan capitulate as giddy Gahan boasts that New Albany is "the economic engine of Floyd County." No shit, Sherlock. But not so much regionally, eh?

Democrats are slobbering in ecstasy that we're slaughtering Galena; meanwhile, New Albany continues to steadily lose ground regionally in terms of economic development and job creation.

What we do have in abundance -- an indie business and entrepreneurial class -- labors under Jeff Gahan's insistence that (a) they receive few of the incentives and subsidies lavished elsewhere, and (b) he's responsible for their success, anyway.

Thus the sad pantomime. Here and there Wendy Dant Chesser tosses Gahan a few crumbs; in reply, Gahan and what's left of his captive council minions buy a few pencils from One Southern Indiana.

For eight years we've been waiting for Gahan to present and explain a coherent economic development strategy in this time of River Ridge hegemony and the concurrent loss of companies like Pillsbury (and remember Samtec's new plant ... in Scottsburg?)

For eight years, we've heard barely audible gurgling sounds in response -- and so with nothing concrete to offer, Gahan and the Democrats just conjure whoppers out of whole cloth.

Regular readers know how difficult it can be for reality-based people to fathom the DemoDisneyDixiecratic fantasyland wherein Tricky Dickey churns out fabrications, concoctions, fibs, cock and bull stories and fake facts almost as quickly as Putin's computerized bots.

What's worse, his press releases never vary from the Democratic National Committee's style-free user's manual -- which is to say, they're unreadable. Like so many other fiction writers, perhaps Dickey is paid by the word.

Let's be perfectly clear, Mudd.

HMS Maritime's expansion in New Albany had nothing to do with Jeff Gahan, although even one as skeptical as me can plainly see why this or any other sitting mayor seeks to take credit for each and every sunrise, taco and subsequent bowel movement.

But Greg Phipps?

Can anyone capable of reading and comprehending these words cite a single instance of Phipps being involved with economic development during the past eight years, apart from attending the stray ribbon-cutting, and issuing rote rubber-stamp approval of every expenditure ever handed him by Team Gahan?

Yet he is commended for "sponsoring" incentives written by City Hall's legal team. By this same skewed logic, 5th district councilman Matt Nash personally engineered the deal to spend a few million more in TIF-ATM funds for the Colonial Manor property.

As the kids say, "OMG."

Readers, we've all heard politicians lie. That's a real fact, not a fake one. But I can't recall a time when the "leading element" of the local Democratic Party has lied to such a breathtaking extent. Nor can I remember this much Kool-Aid and Loaded Rice Krispie Treats being consumed by the rank and file.

It's almost as if the quiver's empty, and self-delusion is all they have left.

---

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

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

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

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

On April 2, 2019 a discombobulated chihuahua on Zoloft -- also known as Mayor Jeff Gahan -- informed a group of public housing residents at the Mark Elrod Tower that he was the greatest public housing mayor in the city's history.

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

These are exact quotes, by the way.

We have 1,187 (public housing) units, which is more than anyone in Clark County, any five counties combined, we have more than anyone, and we’re going to keep – that’s the way it’s going to stay, with more opportunities to live here in New Albany than any other place, but what we won’t put up with is sub-standard housing. It’s not, we’re going to make it better, make improvements, and you know I, I feel great about it, and you all should be too – I think you all should be really thrilled about it.

And this:

In the city of New Albany we have 1,187 units, and for many years you had to go through this period where at the federal government they were kind of turning the screws and they weren’t putting the maintenance money that they needed to maintain the properties down here, so, we knew we needed some maintenance done but it didn’t really get down here like we wanted it to, and that trend is continuing, uh, the latest budget they’re pushing for has a 16% reduction in funds for housing and urban development. So we’re still committed to making this, everything, every unit, the top flight, and we’re going to continue to do that, and I can tell you that’s going to happen, uh, we’re taking every step that we can possibly make to make sure that every unit is as good as it can possibly be.

If you're a rational individual favoring logic, and knew nothing else about the recent history of public housing in New Albany, these comments could be read in no other way than as an enthusiastic commitment to improve and maintain 1,187 public housing units in New Albany.

What's more, nothing else Gahan said to these senior citizens during 25 minutes of often disassociated rambling contradicts this conclusion. At no point did he mention demolitions or reductions, only "exciting" and "cool" things he's doing to ensure the future of public housing.

And yet in 2017, when Gahan abruptly seized the New Albany Housing Authority, he stacked NAHA's board with groveling sycophants, blocked then-director Bob Lane's 1:1 rejuvenation plans and putsch-started a process ending with the installation of redevelopment commission bag man David Duggins as NAHA director (gifting Duggins with a substantial pay raise to perform a job for which he had absolutely no experience), and he did so with no mention whatever of caring for 1,187 units.

Rather, Gahan's monotonous droning was accompanied by a soundtrack of queued bulldozers purring. Public housing was to be downsized by MORE than half, and displaced residents equipped with vouchers for non-existent rental housing before cattle cars shipped them to Outer Greenville.

The News and Tribune's typically tortuous and poorly worded editorial of March 11, 2017 at least managed to clarify the central point of Gahan's hostile public housing takeover.

On Monday, the New Albany Housing Authority board will consider a plan, brought forth by Mayor Jeff Gahan’s administration, to tear down an estimated 635 of New Albany’s 1,100 units. Those units affected would include Parkview Tower, Parkview Terrace/Broadmeade, Vance Court and Riverside Terrace.

There was an agenda delay owing to an illness suffered by public housing Bob Lane, allowing Gahan to share his "perspective" about social engineering in a column that wasn't entirely robotic, suggesting he almost surely didn't write it.

GAHAN: Public housing plan will improve the community (April 22, 2017)

On Monday, the NAHA will consider a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the City and NAHA. This MOU establishes a multi-year plan through which the City and NAHA will work together to revitalize public housing in New Albany. The plan establishes a partnership between the City and NAHA to improve our community for all people.

This plan is not radical, mean-spirited or punitive. No public housing resident will be left homeless. The units that are slated for demolition are in such poor condition that it is not practical or responsible to repair them. Contrary to media accounts, we intend to rebuild a portion of the unfit units that will be demolished. While there will be fewer traditional public housing units once the plan is complete, NAHA will provide support to the same number of people as it does now, but the mix of subsidies and NAHA-owned units will change. This plan does not mean the City or NAHA is turning its back on our commitment to public housing.

Two days later the memorandum of force-fed disruption was approved by the stacked housing board, and a short time thereafter Lane was served with his walking papers.

Board opts for New Albany's public housing vision, passes plan, by Elizabeth Beilman

Plan calls for demolition, rehab of public housing units

NEW ALBANY — The New Albany Housing Authority Board of Commissioners initiated the first step Monday in embarking on a plan to demolish and rehabilitate hundreds of public housing units ... the board's move strays from recommendations of the housing authority director (Bob Lane) and instead takes up the vision of New Albany Mayor Jeff Gahan, whose administration proposed the partnership and changes.

The plan calls for demolition of Parkview Tower, Parkview Terrace/Broadmeade, Vance Courts and Riverside Terrace, totaling 635 of New Albany’s roughly 1,100 units. It also orders rehabilitation of Riverview Towers, Mark Elrod Towers and Crystal Court, as well as redeveloping Beechwood Terrace as a mixed-income complex.

snip

The board's vote was a disappointment for the dozens of public housing residents and local advocates who packed the board room Monday in opposition.

Some who spoke before the board worry that transitioning away from brick-and-mortar housing to vouchers, though it follows a national trend, isn't as easy as it sounds.
Lynda Wilcox, past president of the board of commissioners, said being awarded a Housing Choice Voucher doesn't guarantee someone housing.

"I would implore you," Wilcox said to the board. "I know that you've all been appointed by the mayor, I know that's of great interest, but please understand, there are no rental units in New Albany for this number of units that they're talking about taking down. There are good ways to do this, compassionate ways to do this."

And so we return to the present day, and Gahan's remarks to residents of Mark Elrod Tower. Did Gahan patronize the seniors by flatly lying to them about his halved-NAHA wet dream?

There's almost no other conclusion, unless something else has changed; perhaps Gahan and Duggins have undergone a conversion to compassion, and there'll still be 1,187 units (as you've surely noticed, MORE than Team Gahan calculated in 2017) in 2029.

It would be really cool if Dear Leader would clarify this. Until then, what about some Kool-Aid and Loaded Rice Krispies Treats for progressive Democrats who can't seem to grasp why this matters?

---

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

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

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

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

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

This is the aerial view.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As for the other part: #FireGahan2019

Speed Thought Control: Board of Works, city engineer still unable to grasp reality when it comes to speedway street grid dangers, so they spout meaningless drivel.

Team Gahan can be like a pile of wet rags. It can also be like a cat.

There are a number of reasons cats arch their backs, but here are the three main ones ... first is that of the fear aggressor. In this classic Halloween pose, a cat arches his back and shows piloerection (i.e., his hair stands straight up) as a way of making himself look bigger when confronted with danger. When a cat looks like this, he is basically saying, “I’m scared of you but I’m ready to defend myself if you come any closer.” The cat may also make it clear that he’s ready to defend himself by doing things like growling, hissing, spitting and showing his teeth. If you encounter a cat giving this display, the best response is to slowly back away and give the cat his space.

Just like at this week's Bored with Public Works and Safety meeting, from which we learn that one whole year after erecting completely useless, HWC Engineering-inspired crosswalk signals-to-drivers-to-maim-pedestrians, the city now proposes to make a helpful instructional video. Let's hope drivers watch it BEFORE hopping into their speeding cars.

Does HWC get the contract for the video, too?

It's awesome the way the city's expert functionaries are questioned, and ZOOM -- up go their backs. Meanwhile, the stenographer Chris Morris still refuses to question the bilge spewed at him from all directions.

Please, Bill, may we have a reporter who possesses a minuscule iota of intellectual curiosity about the planet?

Seriously, can it get any dumber than this?

I'm not sure whose eyeballs city engineers Larry Summers is using when he surveys supposedly obvious "reduction in speed" on Spring Street, but isn't it inadvertently hilarious that in the immediate aftermath of the story related here ...

GREEN MOUSE SAYS: The curious case of the speeding ticket, the honest cop, his fuming chief and the city's abject failure to calm downtown traffic.

... we now have "evidence" in the form of droll claims that fewer speeding tickets have been issued, when in fact the police department vastly curtailed its usual downtown speed traps after two-way streets were implemented -- and rightly so, this being one objective of proper design to reduce speed, which we largely failed to put into place out of political squeamishness, if not stupidity.

Yes: the cops can't write tickets when they're not monitoring speed, can they?

The police presence became noticeable only AFTER neighborhood residents complained to BOW, only to be told smugly that city officials who never walk the streets are a far better judge of such matters than people who live astride them.

Anyone seen my pitchfork?

It's been an utter fiasco, and City Hall remains in a Orwellian state of institutional denial and serial tone deafness. The only sensible thought uttered by any of the officials quoted in the article below is this, from Al Knable:

"I am for whatever works to slow traffic.

Exactly. Shouldn't each of them, mayor and minions, begin any instance of commenting about speed and safety with an affirmation of this simple, single objective?

Shouldn't they be fighting to implement safety measures, rather than making the sort of "we can't do nuthin' at all" excuses, just like this oldie but still goodie:

Summers said he does not think a stop sign or signal can be installed at Fourth and Spring because a traffic count would not warrant one. He said there is not enough traffic on any of the side streets, off of Spring, that would require a stop sign.

Jeeebus, Larry: then conduct the fucking traffic count as a prelude, and if the state's cars-first standards aren't serving the cause of walkable street grid safety, can't we fight against THEM, to do what's right for US, rather than dismissing safety because enhancing safety is too much trouble?

Ah, but wait. 

We'd have to consult with Republicans like Ed Clere to do that, wouldn't we?

And that's why we don't bother fighting for safe streets, isn't it?

Our New Gahanian milieu may be comprised of counter-productive anti-intellectual squalor, but it's our DEMOCRATIC PARTY's counter-productive anti-intellectual squalor. If New Albany can only be as bright as its leading elements, then literally, we're a place where the sun don't shine.

#OurBananaRepublic

Speed Control: New Albany collecting Spring Street speed, by Chris Morris (Tom May's Summa Theologica)

NEW ALBANY — One of the reasons the city of New Albany converted Spring Street to two-way traffic last year was to control speed. And for the most part, it has worked.

Instead of three lanes of traffic heading in one direction, Spring Street was cut down to two lanes going east and west. It's obvious traffic moves at a slower pace from Vincennes to State Street.

"I know from talking to the police chief that traffic tickets along there are down significantly. People are not going as fast as they used to," Larry Summers, New Albany city engineer, said. "If you just eyeball it you can see a marked reduction in speed."

But there are still issues with speed along that stretch of Spring, and following the death of skateboarder Matthew Brewer, who was struck by a minivan at Spring and Ninth streets in August, residents came before the New Albany Board of Public Works & Safety pleading that something be done to make the street safer.

The city decided to collect speed data to see if more needs to be done.

This week, crews will begin setting up six radar detector signs, three in each direction. Data will be collected for a month and motorists will be able to see how fast they are traveling once the signs are turned on. Summers hopes it's a wakeup call for some motorists who drive down Spring without paying attention to speed limit signs. Once the data is analyzed, the city will decide its next move.

"When we did the two-way conversion project we said we wanted to do further analysis on the grid," Summers said. "This is a continuation of that in some regards. Speed reduction is very important. We want to make this more of a walkable community."

The radar detector signs will be similar to the ones along McDonald Lane. Paul Lincks, with HWC Engineering, said signs will be placed eastbound near Fourth and Ninth streets, and between 11th and 13th streets. Westbound, signs also will go up between 11th and 13th streets, beyond Ninth Street and before Fifth Street.

Lincks said the radar detector signs should produce results city officials are hoping to achieve when it comes to analyzing speed.

"Let's get the data, look at it, and go from there," he said. "We will be able to compare the speeds cars are traveling to the speed limit to see what is going on."

New Albany City Councilman Al Knable said converting Spring Street to two-way traffic was done to make it less of a thoroughfare, and more of a neighborhood street.

"At times people are still treating it like a thoroughfare," Knable said. "I am for whatever works to slow traffic. I hope this will give us meaningful data to see what the next step might be."

Summers, who lives along Spring Street, believes motorists will pay attention to the speed signs.

"People drive distracted. I hope this is something that gets their attention," he said.

POSSIBLE FOUR-WAY STOPS

Ron Howard knows exactly how to make Spring Street safer, he said. For starters, he would place a four-way stop at Fourth and Spring, at the New Albany Fire Headquarters and Sweet Stuff Bakery. He said motorists on Fourth, looking to cross Spring Street, can not see traffic in either direction when cars are parked along the street. He said they have to cover the crosswalk and almost get out into Spring Street to see if it's safe to cross.

"Your direct line of sight is blocked when cars are parked along the street," he said. "You would have to do away with parking there. It would take a minimum of four spaces and I don't think the bakery would like that. I don't see any other way but to put a stop sign there unless you put up a traffic signal."

Howard said making Fourth and Spring a four-way stop would cost "next to nothing."

"The only way to get out there [on Spring] is to ignore the crosswalk," he said. "You are blind in both directions. It seems to me the safest thing to do."

Others have also suggested putting in a four-way stop and 13th and Elm streets to slow traffic.

Summers said he does not think a stop sign or signal can be installed at Fourth and Spring because a traffic count would not warrant one. He said there is not enough traffic on any of the side streets, off of Spring, that would require a stop sign.

EDUCATING DRIVERS

Summers said the city plans to release a video on its website to educate the public on the new crosswalk signals that were put in when Spring Street was converted to two-way.

Baghdad on Bono: Jeff Gahan spent so much time planning to topple Bob Lane and annex NAHA that he forgot to plan the Pyrrhic victory parade.

Not long ago, New Albany Housing Authority director Bob Lane and his team had their ducks in a row for 42 new units of supportive housing, to be constructed on NAHA-owned land near the hospital.

All that remained was to get Jeff Gahan's signature. Had the original time frame progressed, these units would be finished and filling now. Instead, Gahan waited until the last minute to refuse his cooperation, and subsequently, the dominoes started falling in the run-up to the mayor's hostile takeover of NAHA-- and Lane's cashiering.

Here's how Lane was running the NAHA.

Gahan and David "Double My Salary, Double My Fun" Duggins constantly refer to a future plan for public house, which they don't have -- or wouldn't they reveal it?

Conversely, Lane had a powerful and comprehensive plan, and had been working on it prior to 2012, Gahan's first year in office, when these Powerpoint slides were produced. 

 

The difference?

Lane planned to renew NAHA's properties on a 1:1 ratio, to be achieved in phases over time throughout the city's existing public housing properties. Not only that, but you'll note the proposed return to the original city street grid.

Fact: From the moment Gahan became mayor, his own "plan" (note the use of quotation marks, Davey) might have been scratched in pencil on a Roadhouse cocktail napkin: cut the number of public housing units in half, period.

That's the extent of it. All the verbiage Gahan and his shameless sycophants have emanated ever since is so contaminated with toxins that it would be refused processing at the sewer utility.

Monday is MLK Day, which inspired the News and Tribune.

MLK's 'Dream' yet to be fully realized, local leaders say, by Aprile Rickert

Progress made, room for more, leaders say

SOUTHERN INDIANA — As the nation looks back nearly 55 years since Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' speech, local leaders consider how his words are reflected today — and look at the progress and the failures experienced toward becoming a more unified world ...

The Bookseller replied to the newspaper's tweet.

Gahan's people-purge is not exclusively racial, but on principle, it is the same. MLK Jr. Day should be a moment when JUSTICE is a top priority. Denounce Gahan and his expulsion plan.

I couldn't have said it better. Can your hear us NOW, local Democrats? In closing, here's a bit more about HUD and fair housing. How does this affect us here in NA, Gauleiter Duggins?

I mean, the ponies aren't even running now, are they?

One Way to Fight HUD's Heel-Dragging on Fair Housing, by Kriston Capps (CityLab)

As civil rights groups line up in opposition to a new HUD rule, a legal strategy emerges.

On Monday, protesters in Chicago jeered Ben Carson, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. A member of a grassroots seniors organization also interrupted his speech. It was Carson’s first public appearance since he issued a delay in a key rule for advancing fair housing and confronting racial segregation, and the resistance may only be getting started ...

The Putsch Man Cometh: Jeff Gahan waxes delusional about being a public housing "advocate," then cheerfully explains why he should be summarily deposed in 2019.

The Courier-Journal's Justin Sayers surveys the corroded tinpot grandeur of Jeff Gahan's Public Housing Putsch 2017, and both the mayor and his servile, bootlicking minions predictably emerge on a subterranean par with Donald Trump and his motley band of societal looters.

Despite reassurances, plan to scatter public housing spreads fear across Louisville

 ... (resident Candace) Brewer started circulating a petition in early July that asks Gahan to not "tear down public housing without a plan to replace it." She got 400 signatures from New Albany residents in the first month.

Gahan, who said his parents were in public housing for a time, considers himself an advocate for it.

Gahan's utterly unqualified but extravagantly over-compensated operative Dugout also is an advocate ... of the Scarecrow's predicament in The Wizard of Oz.

(David) Duggins said the goal is to move residents into more mixed-income living spaces and neighborhoods. He acknowledged that it could be difficult for residents but said the conditions in the new units would be better than they are currently.

“If you would offer the opportunity for that family or that individual to move to a new location and a new unit, to me, that’s a no-brainer," he said.

There's something to be said for intimate personal experience.

Others have taken note of the New Tidal Wave of Gahan's bobble-headed sycophants on the NAHA board, and meanwhile, the mayor styles himself as a Great Communicator, which is so obvious a contrived whopper that I won't waste readers' time refuting it.

Brewer and (resident Shirley) Fitzgerald lamented changes on the authority's board and police presence at its meeting, calling it an intimidation tactic.

Gahan said he does not believe he and the housing authority have hidden their plans — he said the housing authority sent letters to every resident notifying them of the plan and that he published a letter in local newspaper the News and Tribune prior to a vote to move forward with the plan.

He called the presence of police typical for every city board meeting but said he was concerned by residents' feelings that they were being intimidated. He added that he would look into it and "not one time will we not be listening to people.” There were no police officers at the next meeting.

Allow me to fix that: "Not one time will we begin listening to people, here or elsewhere in the city."

Intent on adding self-insult to injury, Gahan proceeds to explain to Sayers exactly why he should not serve a third term as Anchor in Chief.

This public housing plan is spreading fear across Louisville. Here's what you need to know

 ... Gahan told the Courier-Journal that Lane was fired because he needed to ensure that the plan had the support of the housing authority's director. Lane declined to comment when reached by the Courier-Journal.

“We’re moving forward with a plan that needs the support of a lot of people and it certainly needs the support of the director," Gahan said. "I think sometimes changes are necessary especially when an organization has been pursuing certain plans for a long time."

Credit Gahan for being able to tell the truth at least once during the course of his chats with Sayers, and thanks to the reporter for capturing the intellectual carnage.

Finally, let's look at what 9th District congressional aspirant Dan Canon, a genuine real-life Progressive Democrat, had to say about Bob Hall's Gahanesque tactics v.v. Pleasant Ridge Lebensraum in Charlestown (Charlestown's Bob Hall channels his inner Gahan. Are the cattle cars on their way?)

Unbelievable. This guy has no shame about driving the working class out of the city by destroying entire neighborhoods. I am trying to avoid the internet this weekend but this is so appalling I can't stand it.

Mayor Hall: consider that if the torches and pitchforks come (and let me be clear that progressives are trying to stop that from happening), they are coming first for elected officials who wipe out the working poor to accommodate the wealthy. You can only take so much from your own people. Taking their homes is going too damn far.

Tell it to Gahan, and tell me, Adam Dickey: How is it that a regressive like Jeff Gahan and a progressive like Dan Canon can somehow co-exist in your hypocritical, tottering party tent?

How many masters can you personally serve before the whole rotten edifice comes crashing down around your slickly ambitious earlobes?

Now more than ever, local progressives worthy of the name have a clear dual mandate:

Do whatever is possible to seat Canon in 2018 -- and to unseat Gahan in 2019.