Learning nothing from the the Ohio River Bridges Project, INDOT bureaucrats refuse to conduct a formal economic impact study in the run up to Sherman Minton project work.

Japan or Germany could do it in six months.

Well then, screw the state's project team.

Join me in wondering how many of them have any experience owning indie businesses.

As with Gahan's crack team of paper-shufflers, assuredly none do.

Businesses concerned about Sherman Minton Bridge project, by Brooke McAfee (Tom May All of the Time)

NEW ALBANY — As developers consider options for the rehabilitation of the Sherman Minton Bridge, many community members are concerned about how closures and disruption in traffic flow will affect local business.

Southern Indiana business owners and stakeholders met with Sherman Minton Bridge project representatives Wednesday at Wick's Pizza in New Albany to learn about the upcoming bridge renovations and to voice their opinions on proposed plans for closure. The project team has been gathering community feedback as it considers its construction approach ...

snip

 ... the project team is looking at overall community impact as it considers the options, but it is not conducting a formal business study. State Rep. Ed Clere, R-New Albany, said he would like to see a formal assessment of how the bridge closures could disproportionately affect certain business owners, such as a survey of downtown business owners who rely heavily on Louisville customers. He said the impact will vary greatly depending on the type of business.

"[The 2011 closure] was a very sudden thing we couldn't anticipate," he said. "Here, we can anticipate and we obviously are ... but if we are looking at 2011 as an experience, we had businesses who did better as a result of the bridge closure, because to be quite blunt, there were folks who discovered downtown New Albany. They couldn't go to Frankfort Avenue, they couldn't go to Bardstown Road easily, and suddenly they were finding that there were some incredible restaurants and shops in downtown New Albany. There were other businesses that went out of business because of the bridge closures."

As with INDOT: "Good intentions get subordinated, on project after project, to destructive business-as-usual practices."

Reading this essay you begin to grasp the nature of the problem.

The same old engineering and design vendors who play the game by stuffing Jeff Gahan's pockets with cash are the ones operating by INDOT template, institutionally reinforcing mistakes over and over, and yet they're hired over and over again even as the Zombie Mayor chants "walkability," which surely cannot occur in any substantive form when the same old engineering and design suspects are car-centric, declaring drivers the victors, not people seeking alternative mobility options.

Thus Gahan's pronouncements about walkability can be viewed only as propaganda touts from a shill primarily concerned with campaign finance, not genuine solutions.

Why State DOTs Keep Making the Same Mistakes... and How to Break That Cycle, by Daniel Herriges (Strong Towns)

You know the saying, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results?”

No; we’re not saying the people who work at most of our state Departments of Transportation (DOTs) in the U.S. are insane. But advocates for safe, welcoming, vibrant urban streets just might be if we think we can achieve our goals without comprehensive institutional reform within these agencies. That’s the message of a fascinating new blog post series by our friends at Smart Growth America, called How to Build a Better State DOT.

You can read the whole series here, and it is well worth reading. Smart Growth America’s insights here are not superficial, but come from people with a wealth of accumulated experience within these agencies, and a deep understanding of how good intentions get subordinated, on project after project, to destructive business-as-usual practices.

Some key insights ...

We have a question, Gauleiter Duggins: How do you explain a meeting notice TODAY about meetings held TODAY -- and not every NAHA resident even got a notice?

We have a question, NAHA Gauleiter Duggins: How do you explain a meeting notice TODAY about meetings held TODAY -- and not every NAHA resident even got a notice?

Maybe it's because doubling your salary didn't make you half as efficient.

Notices on the same day as the meetings? I mean, you can't even get participation points for that.

Here's the text from the notice pictured above.

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NOTICE of PUBLIC MEETING – January 11, 2018

New Albany Housing Authority Public Meeting

Fiscal Year Beginning April 1, 2018

Year 4 of the Five Year Plan

New Albany Housing Authority will be holding public meetings to discuss activities to be carried out in Year 4 of the Five Year Plan for the agency.

(PLEASE NOTE: This is the overall financial plan for the agency and NOT the comprehensive plan for the overall campus that has been discussed in the media.)

Residents and the public are invited to attend ANY or ALL of the public meetings.

Meeting date and times:

Beechwood Terrace Community Room 12:00 pm
210 Kelley Drive

Wm. O Vance Recreational Center 3:00 pm
1129 Dennison Avenue

Administrative Building Community Room 5:00 pm
300 Erni Ave

If you have any questions regarding these meetings please contact: The New Albany Housing Authority (812) 948-2319

At least this time Pinocchio felled his OWN tree.

He must have needed a quick fix in the absence of federal funding, and of course the Treeless Board will provide retroactive approval.

Them bats in Pinocchio Rosenbarger's belfry: BOW talks Greenway, and a night on Bald Mountain.