The great 800-lb pumpkin is silent. The madness yields to peaceful serenity.

Our 2020 non-Harvest Homecoming is under way, and it's a peaceful, easy feeling compared with the usual frenetic amok time, albeit still a tad strange given that with weather like this, we'd be pinned to the tarmac.

Today has been so very normal -- although "normal" will always be a subjective concept in Nawbany, where "We're All Here Because We're Not All THERE."

As first recommended in 2019, here's a new, innovative way to kick off Harvest Homecoming, whether or not it actually takes place: Sardinian throat singing. 

Friday and Saturday should be interesting. Minus the vendors from elsewhere, with some local organizations setting up anyway, and a few businesses staging kinda-sorta HH events, you get an idea as to how a scaled-back festival molded to downtown's actual contours might look. Maybe a springtime bookend fest one of these years? 

However, this year's not-the-fest-as-usual has a new 800-lb gorilla. It's the fact of these little farm-near-me/">mini-celebrations -- how many unofficial beer walks ARE taking place tomorrow, anyway? -- occurring in a pandemic context. Yes, I understand that the governor gave the okay to congregate outdoors, albeit it only recently, but supposedly the mask "mandate" that never really was still applies.

From my vantage point, I've spent the past few months watching local VIPs from both political flush mobs violating the mask mandate frequently and with apparent impunity. It's no longer my self-assigned "job" to call them out, so I haven't. 

However, the unmistakable message I've gotten is that our local political duopoly hasn't been very interested from the outset in leading by example.   

Note that I'm taking great care to be bipartisan, that elusive quality of fairness we all insist should be more prevalent. Let me be clear about what I've witnessed. It's been a firmly bipartisan indifference to science. 

Does any of it matter? 

Beats me. It will always annoy me that from top to bottom in America, grassroots business persons have been expected to enforce "mandates" that neither political entity cares to oversee and be held responsible for implementing. 

In closing, a random HH link from 2018:

Try to imagine Harvest Homecoming if 95% of visitors DIDN'T drive to it -- or, "Why Public Transportation Works Better Outside the U.S."

Our 2020 non-Harvest Homecoming.

It even seems a bit strange to me. In spite of my decades-long indifference to Nawbany's peculiar institution of Harvest Homecoming, the absence of a parade yesterday, and the silence to come this week, combine to produce a sense of loss.

Well, not much, but still ... that's something, I guess.

ON THE AVENUES: There, there. People are dying, so you may have to wait until 2021 for your pork chop sandwich.

I wrote the preceding in June, and rather than repeat myself, just click through and read if you care to. 

Several of the traditional festival vendors are setting up shop around town during the coming days, and The Earl is having its own parking lot party this weekend. Pints&union will be conducting business for the most part as usual, as we have no parking lot. 

If you indulge in any of these make-up events, allow me to encourage you to wear a face mask. Lots of people are getting sick, and many are dying, because too many other people are selfish narcissists. To some, they're assholes.

Ask Donald Trump.

They're why Harvest Homecoming was canceled in the first place. We can do better. If you're interested in getting through this, maybe it's time to try a bit harder. 

ON THE AVENUES: There, there. People are dying, so you may have to wait until 2021 for your pork chop sandwich.

Who ever thought that forty years of narrow selfish leadership of academic, corporate, and political institutions would lead to a population full of raw anger?
-- Matt Stoller

Last week militarized police and the National Guard units were deployed to disperse peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters using counter-insurgency techniques previously devised for use against "enemies" abroad.

This wasn’t sufficiently violent to suit President D. “Nero” Trump, who proposed using armed service regulars to attack American citizens and occupy their cities -- not unlike the Chinese did in Tiananmen Square in 1989, or the United States in Iraq 17 years ago.

Meanwhile in excess of 100,000 Americans have died from a mysterious novel virus, with the number of infections reaching upwards of 2,000,000. Between 30 and 40 million are unemployed, and taking these statistics into consideration over a meal of Olive Garden takeaway and hard seltzer, perhaps another 150 million of us have concluded (a) the virus doesn’t exist, or (b) if it does, it’s perfectly safe because FREEDOM, and (c) in any event the virus that is, or perhaps isn’t, was devised by pussy libtards in cahoots with the Chinese for use against OUR president, and this is why (d) blacks protesting perennial injustice should be crushed with surplus army gear, but whites objecting to science, protesting any semblance of justice for non-whites or failing the physical when attempting to join the local SWAT team must carry their own powerful armaments and weaponry anywhere they please as “penis proxies.”

(Credit LEO Weekly for “penis proxies.”)

Our Big Mac president recently embraced the aforementioned counter-insurgency techniques to have the way cleared for a photo-op at a church, holding a hastily borrowed Bible aloft, upside down, in his best choreographed attempt to appear engaged.

The same half of the population that has rejected science because STOCK MARKET GODDAMMIT applauded vigorously, pausing only to blame blacks for their own targeting by the militarized police.

Amid the bleating and babbling of those shaven-headed old white guys with sour expressions whose monster trucks now routinely travel 50 mph down Spring Street, safe in the knowledge that our own municipal enforcement mechanisms remain in hibernation deep within Jeff Gahan’s agoraphobic “pretend leader” bunker, I’ve spent the past few days wondering about the precise level of violent injustice required to bring forever snoozing New Albanians out into the streets to protest.

Now I know the answer: cancel Harvest Homecoming and watch as the yokels finally are stirred to action.

---

The Harvest Homecoming cancellation announcement came Wednesday evening from the organization’s governing committee. Apparently the officers embraced rationality in consideration of a plain fact grasped by virtually anyone who has ever attended the festival, this being that almost every aspect of the event’s success relies on a high volume of humans, not a few of them drunk, all of them eating, squeezed into relatively small areas of streetscape.

Most of the time this business plan works out as intended. However, 2020 emphatically is not “most of the time.” The committee rightly fed the facts into the public health calculator of spacing and hygiene necessary to contain the pandemic, crunched the numbers, and found -- alas -- that 2 + 2 still equals 4.

Harvest Homecoming will return in 2021, by which time the global health situation probably (although not necessarily “will”) be clearer. Caution? It’s the most balanced attitude toward unknown factors, and something not to be confused with fear.

Of course, as FDR reminded us, we have nothing to fear except being deprived of amenities and diversions guaranteed to us by the United States Constitution … or the Board of Public Works and Safety, at the very least.

---

Within seconds of the meeting’s final gavel, howls of Internet fury arose from the troll-in-the-mirror narcissists, who figuratively descended on Harvest Homecoming with eggs, toilet paper and so very much mangled syntax.

Seeing as I’m a connoisseur of humanity’s limitless capacity for illogical behavior, I risked the rhetorical rubber bullets cascading into a group of innocent bystanders (namely, Harvest Homecoming’s volunteer workers, who don’t deserve the abuse heaped on them by hordes of sheer dullards), strapped myself into several layers of PPE and dove into the social media scrum, only to be deafened by what sounded like hundreds, perhaps thousands of indignant, starving crows.

Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me

You might say it was “enchanting.” Here are several examples.

ML (works at Humana): This is so overblown at this point.

BNB (hospital worker): So you can have thousands of people go protest but we can't have harvest???

WJ: maybe , you should have asked the people of New Albany about the cancellation of the harvest homecoming. before doing it. let us decide if , we want to take the chance or not.

BH (maintenance technician): 250,000 have died from covid...1.2 million died from the flu in 2017...🤔

MD (says he’s a University of Louisville graduate): This is dumb why not wait and see if this thing goes away! Cases she almost gone to zero!

TC: Man. Watch the downtown New Albany business district go belly up now. This was a BIG MONEY deal to a lot of businesses.

What in the name of rolled oysters, elephant ears and frozen chocolate covered bananas is the matter with you people?

I never thought I'd be defending the decision-making of the Harvest Homecoming committee, with which I’ve often differed, but it isn’t hard to put yourself in their shoes. Most of Harvest Homecoming’s governing committee members and volunteers are multi-generational lifers. Love the festival or hate it, they work throughout the year in preparation, and take their tasks very seriously.

This decision to cancel Harvest Homecoming in 2020 almost surely was the hardest thing these folks have ever had to do outside the heavy issues we all face in own personal lives. It’s mind-boggling to accuse them of taking their responsibilities lightly. This whole process must have been traumatic for them.

Did any of you think of THAT?

Here YOU are, masquerading as a “fan” of Harvest Homecoming until the going gets choppy and your field of vision narrows to the chief malady of our nation, in big-ass block letters: ME ME ME ME ME ME ME.

Guess what, doofus: this may come as a surprise, but there are times when it isn’t about YOU; rather, there are times when it needs to be about all of US.

The Harvest Homecoming committee is being responsible and looking to the festival’s long-term prospects. That's savvy. Not everyone hereabouts rejects science, and it’s really hard to imagine big crowds turning out his year. If the committee goes fast, some of the throng will be back this year. If it goes slow, probably most of them will return in 2021.

To be fair, we’ve also heard from non-profit organizations as well as for-profit vendors, for whom Harvest Homecoming is a primary annual revenue source. There’ll be pain, just as there has been for the food and drink business. Losing St. Patrick’s Day wasn’t exactly enjoyable, nor being closed entirely or operating for more than two months on far less than 50% of customary sales volume.

It's what had to be done for the greater good. As with the pandemic writ large, perhaps the pain will lead to fresher thinking. Is there anything that can be done a little bit each day of the year to offset the risk of depending on just one week?

Must we go to the office five days a week, or can we work from home for three?

Is it really necessary for you to spit in my face while extolling the selfless virtues of The Donald?

As for the experts, well, if you’ve never been charged with thinking past the distance to where your car is parked, or planning activities for a few hundred thousand of your closest friends as opposed to heading down to the stop ‘n’ rob for a Big Gulp or three, then you may wish to get a life.

I’m told you can buy one at Amazon, although be forewarned.

The life you buy for yourself might be manufactured in China -- and then what?

---

Recent columns:

May 28: ON THE AVENUES: The late, great Lee Kelly -- by Matt Nash.

May 21: ON THE AVENUES: Godlessness in defense of heathens, infidels, idolaters, atheists, non-theists, irreligious people, agnostics, skeptics, heretics and apostates.

May 14: ON THE AVENUES: Food is my friend, but please, I'm no foodie.

May 7: ON THE AVENUES: COVID tolls for thee -- whatever, so hurry and get your ass back into this seat.

Black Lives Matter? Here PAVING is what matters -- and NAWBANY WEEK IN REVIEW, presented by the GREEN MOUSE.

That's right. Corbin, Kentucky.

Good job, Corbin, Kentucky. By the way, do any of the pretend-progressives in Nawbany have a pulse?

Why The Small Protests In Small Towns Across America Matter, by Anne Helen Petersen (Buzz Feed)

People who’ve watched and participated in the Black Lives Matter movement say that this time feels different. And the prevalence of these small protests is one of many reasons why.

... All over the country, people are showing up — often for the first time in their lives — to protest police brutality and injustice. In tiny ag towns like Havre (Montana) and Hermiston, Oregon, but also in midsize cities Topeka, Kansas, and Waco, Texas; on island hamlets (Friday Harbor, San Juan Island; Nantucket, Massachusetts; Bar Harbor, Maine); and in well-to-do suburbs (Lake Forest Park, Washington; Darien, Connecticut; Chagrin Falls, Ohio). They are showing up at the courthouse. They are kneeling and observing eight minutes of silence — a reference to how long Floyd was pinned to the ground in a knee chokehold by the Minneapolis police officer who was later charged with his murder. They are marching down interstates and waving signs on street corners. Sometimes, like in the town of Alton, New Hampshire (population 5,335), where one woman organized a protest just two months after being hospitalized with COVID-19, only seven people come. Sometimes, like in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, there are thousands ...

... There have been protests in Belfast, Maine. In Farmington, New Mexico. In Tuscaloosa, Alabama. In Bentonville, Arkansas. In Lubbock, Texas. In Idaho Falls, Idaho. The biggest anyone can remember in Paducah, Kentucky, in Bozeman, Montana, in Pendleton, Oregon, in Frisco, Texas, and in Ogden, Utah. In Tacoma, Washington, pastors knelt in the rain, pleading with God. In Bowling Green, Kentucky, three rolling days of protests. In Owatonna, Minnesota, a student-led protest lasted for 10 hours. In Tulsa, Oklahoma, thousands gathered on the 99th anniversary of the Tulsa Massacre. In Myers Park, one of the wealthiest neighborhoods of Charlotte, North Carolina, where black people were prohibited from owning property for decades. And in Petal, Mississippi, where protesters have spent days calling for the resignation of Mayor Hal Marx, who tweeted last week that “If you can talk, you can breathe” ...

Here in the campaign finance paradise of New Gahania, we don't care shit for no damn revolution, because it's street sweeping season!

To which I answer:

Street “sweeping” should not be expanded. It should be ended. The physical process of “sweeping” is largely futile, and there is no United Nations storm water “law” stipulating dust cloud creation as a workable corrective to anything. Genuine drainage impediments like leaves and garbage barely are addressed by “sweeping.”

Until you've seen the townies on their front porches chasing Hostess doughnuts with iced tea and waving at the street sweeper drivers, you've no idea why people like Bob Caesar are elected to office.

Read more here:

ASK THE BORED (IN EXILE): It appears that street sweeping is suspended through April 7, although it should be eliminated altogether.

But there's more: The 4th of July on the 3rd of July is postponed!

New Albany postpones July 3 event following extension of public health emergency (at Hanson's Folly)

Well, at least there's still Harvest Homecoming ... what's that?

Nope. There'll be no waves of orange coursing through the streets this October, because New Albany's civic celebration also has fallen victim to pandemic public health logic. A very tough call for the committee, but absolutely the correct one.

Organizers cancel 2020 Harvest Homecoming Festival amid coronavirus pandemic (at WDRB)

And, there was a primary election and less than 25% of us bothered. This being a presidential year, the voter turnout percentage will increase tremendously in November, and Donald Trump probably will win Floyd County again.

In the interim, the big news out of the primary was the NA-FC school corporation's safety referendum defeat, by a margin of around 5%. Consequently, let's get something straight: Black Lives DO Matter, the COVID pandemic is absolutely real, street sweeping is a horrendous boondoggle, and Van Hagar was better than Van Halen.

Taking all this into consideration, do you really believe the Green Mouse has anything to say at all in the nature of a post-mortem about the referendum?

That'd be plain dangerous. Following are a few headlines.

What budgetary crisis? Nawbany nickel-and-dimes 50K for the homeless, then awards $2.2 million in tax abatements for Sazarac NOD.

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

Councilman Phipps' future council meeting emergency reduction resolution is another Team Gahan mess. Can it be tossed out with the rubbish?

Floyd County DemoDisneyDixiecrats issue courageously mundane statement about racism, then return to fundraising.

How's the city budget faring? It's the GREEN MOUSE with NAWBANY WEEK IN REVIEW for 10 April.

Is the city of New Albany maintaining full feather-bedded municipal employment during the pandemic shutdown?

As noted often in the past, the city's budget has ballooned during the Gahan tenure, with the result being a sort of ongoing Ponzi scheme to keep budgetary snapshots in alignment for the purpose of keeping the state's regulatory eyes safely averted.

But now ...

Effects of pandemic will slam state, local tax receipts, by Lindsey Erdody and Samm Quinn (Indianapolis Business Journal)

Indiana state and local governments are set to lose tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue—maybe hundreds of millions—as the COVID-19 pandemic closes restaurants, stores and casinos and companies begin laying off workers.

The drop in sales, income and gambling tax revenue could wreak havoc on government budgets, first at the state level and later for cities and counties, just as the demand for government assistance like Medicaid is expected to ramp up.

And it’s too soon to know just how bad the fiscal hit will be.

“Obviously, we’re in uncharted territory here,” said Chris Watts, president of the Indiana Fiscal Policy Institute, which tracks state tax and budget issues ...

Very little about Mayor Jeff Gahan's style of governance is genuinely transparent, making this the perfect time for him to hunker with the inner circle to run the city without interference from elected officials.

Noting that a full-time communications director still is receiving paychecks (why?), Gahan has chosen to issue his latest "state of the city" message via the city clerk's council cancellation notice, in an e-mail with limited range but an obvious power hoarder's intent.

Due to the continuing public health emergency, Governor Holcomb's Executive Orders 20-04 and 20-09, as well as guidance from Indiana's Public Access Counselor, the New Albany Common Council meeting regularly scheduled for April 16th, 2020 is cancelled.

Council President Bob Caesar reports that he has been in contact with city officials regarding any needs they may have. The New Albany Police and Fire Departments state that they are in good shape and have no immediate needs requiring council attention at this time. The Controller likewise conveyed that the city's finances are in good condition.

The Council is able to meet if the need arises, but will continue to limit meetings during this public health emergency as public access is diminished.

"Rosie, you're all right."

Yes, the usual suspects vouch for themselves, without the slightest measure of verification from citizens, journalists or those crickets chirping from the bowels of the Reisz Mahal.

Caesar remains as unspeakably dull as a bowel of chilled steel-cut oats, but he -- and his fellow sycophantic DemoDisneyDixiecrats -- might take a few minutes from quarantine time to ponder the way Gahan quickly will shift the blame for the budgetary pain from himself to them once the time for reckoning arrives.

Thus far during these pandemic weeks, principled dissent has been hard to find in Nawbanian political circles with a notable and laudable exception, this being newly elected 5th district councilman Joshua Turner.

Once again, Gahan's well-lubricated elites are being lapped by Jeffersonville. The same local left-leaners who pine to become Kentuckians and hop aboard the Andy Beshear Express might not be able to appreciate the irony of being better off if their mayor was Mike Moore, a Republican.

The following appeared on CM Turner's Facebook "council account."

City Council President Bob Caesar has decided to cancel our City Council meeting for Thursday 16 April 2020. It is disingenuous to twist the Governor's Order to stop meetings. In reality, it is the opposite, his Order has enabled to carry on meetings electronically.

This is the third city council meeting that has been cancelled. Jeffersonville, Clarksville, Floyd County, Greenville, and even New Albany Redevelopment Commission have all had virtual meetings set up. I even had a Zoom meeting with constituents and members of Floyd County EMA last Saturday.

Today, I feel the need to talk about Transparency.

Today, transparency is easier and more accessible than ever before, for most of us we can even enjoy it from the comfort of our own homes. I believe transparency in times of crisis is one of our most vital missions. Keeping the people informed and safe should be at the top of all our agendas.

Transparency equals trust.

We need to be able to trust that our city officials will be accessible to the public now more than ever. We can continue with our regularly scheduled meetings not only as a way to keep the flow of information going but as a show of strength and solidarity that we can work together.

Non-transparent behavior can instill a sense of confusion in our community.

• By leaving us in darkness.
• By ignoring our voices.
• By choosing who wins and who loses behind closed doors without public input.

Now is time to understand exactly how important transparency is and how it can affect us on the local level if we are left unprepared.

As you all know there were several items that I requested and items that are coming before the council that need to be discussed all of which are below. All which President Caesar feels are unworthy of having a meeting to discuss.

1. I would like to have both the police and fire chiefs present to:

• a. Give a report to the council about their department’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including any impact on their budget.
• b. Detail plans for ensuring the ongoing readiness of both departments and for protecting the health and safety of officers and firefighters. Indianapolis PD is being hit hard but the pandemic.
• c. Answer questions from the council.

2. I would like to have the controller present to provide a report on the budget implications of the pandemic, including additional costs and anticipated revenue issues. In addition, I would like for the controller to answer questions from the council.

3. Third reading for appropriation of riverboat funds to Catalyst Rescue Mission

4. The annual TIF report which was approved by Redevelopment over their Zoom meeting Tuesday.

These four items are essential. The legislative and fiscal body of New Albany meeting regularly is essential. (Not meeting) is unacceptable.

Democratic primary coverage is why WE cancelled OUR New York Times subscriptions.

Given the results on Super Tuesday, the following critique -- published almost a month ago -- obviously doesn't take the most recent Democratic primary evolution into consideration (read: it preceded the DNC's recent "Dim-pire Strikes Back" pro-Biden shenanigans).

However, as an explanation of why I recently severed our household's ties with the New York Times after more than a decade of subscribing, this essay does a fine job, indeed.

We're just one of many, and I really enjoy reading a tactile Sunday newspaper, but I could no longer in good conscience give money to a newspaper prone to running "hit pieces" (the author's term) against Bernie Sanders. One can only speculate about the newspaper's activities behind the scenes.

The author appears to have had a digital subscription. Our was Sunday delivery with digital access included. That's $12 a week, or a honking $624 a year. I can think of far better things to do with that kind of money than pay Thomas Friedman to write his dirtbag bilge.

For now, here's David Blass: Why I just cancelled my New York Times subscription: Democratic primary coverage as “fit” to print as Trump is to serve.

... Unfortunately, though some of the examples I’ve cited are particularly transparent, this type of reporting is the rule rather than the exception for Sanders in both the press and in cable news coverage. I used to think the New York Times was above the journalistic chicanery I saw elsewhere in the media, but the facts speak for themselves.

Coming to terms with this made me a more cynical person. Perhaps that’s a good thing; seeing grays between black and white can make us more tolerant and empathetic. But for now, my biggest unanswered question is for the Times’ board of directors: Is this your best attempt at self-preservation? ...

... I’ve subscribed to the New York Times since 2016. That might not sound like a long time, but it’s most of my adult life. As of today, I’ve lost my trust in the Times and have neither a use for its coverage nor a desire to support a thinly veiled purveyor of the propaganda Noam Chomsky described in Manufacturing Consent. In fact, in a 2010 interview, six years before the New York Times would all but write off Trump’s chances at the presidency, Chomsky offered the following:

If somebody comes along who is charismatic and honest this country is in real trouble because of the frustration, disillusionment, the justified anger and the absence of any coherent response. What are people supposed to think if someone says ‘I have got an answer, we have an enemy’? […] [That enemy] will be the illegal immigrants and the blacks. We will be told that white males are a persecuted minority. […] I don’t think all this is very far away. If the polls are accurate it is not the Republicans but the right-wing Republicans, the crazed Republicans, who will sweep the next election.

Before abandoning all hope, our clairvoyant also had some thoughts about Senator Sanders:

Well, Bernie Sanders is an extremely interesting phenomenon. He’s a decent, honest person. That’s pretty unusual in the political system. Maybe there are two of them in the world, you know. But he’s considered radical and extremist, which is a pretty interesting characterization, because he’s basically a mainstream New Deal Democrat. His positions would not have surprised President Eisenhower.

And in the wake of the 2016 election, he offered an antidote:

[If] the Sanders movement offered an authentic, constructive program for real hope and change, it would win […] Trump supporters back.

City Hall is as silent as a Bud Light & Clamato Chelada, but we're inferring that Boomtown Ball will NOT be held in 2017.

At this time last year, momentum was building toward the third edition of the Boomtown Ball & Festival in downtown New Albany. See below for links explaining the history of the event.

Team Gahan released its first Bicentennial Park Summer Concert Series tout yesterday, and it made no mention whatever of Boomtown.

However, there was this:

We start a week early this year on May 26th with local blue’s favorites Kentuckiana Blues Road Show. The Road Show line-up features New Albany native Jimmy G & The Sidewinders, Laurie Jane & The 45’s and Jason Lockwood & The Stella Vees.

Each of the first three Boomtowns was held on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, followed by the concert series kickoff on the first Friday in June. We're inferring that since May 26 is the Friday before Boomtown's traditional slot, it's a backhanded way of saying "no Boomtown for you."

In addition, a friend asked DNA:

"I messaged Develop New Albany. They got back with me that Boomtown was not on the calendar for May. So the lady was assuming no."

Also, there is no mention of Boomtown on any of Production Simple's propaganda arms, suggesting that in 2017, the Louisville company's annexation of downtown New Albany will be limited to concert series Fridays.

Naturally, all of this makes sense given that in 2017, Abbey Road on the River moves to downtown Jeffersonville. The festival lasts five days over Memorial Day weekend, May 25 - 29.

Mike Moore 1, Jeff Gahan nil. 

If you're still wondering why the city of New Albany is engaged in the business of concert promotion, chalk it up to a bad case of Disney Envy.

---

Boomtown Ball accounts from previous years:

2016
Roger answers all your questions on the eve of Boomtown, 2016.
Boomtown Ball & Festival returns.

2015
The PC: Who'll put the beer in Boomtown?

2014
The PC: Post-Boomtown reflections.

Cancelled: The Southern Indiana Equality quarterly meeting next Monday (Feb. 20) has been called off.

Passing this along ...

A message from Brad Bell:

It is with a heavy heart that I pass along that we have made the decision to cancel this Monday's meeting for Southern Indiana Equality. With several personal commitments on our board members' side, we have not been able to devote the time and attention to this meeting that it deserves. We strive to provide the best possible information and action plan for all of our meetings, and we simply do not have those pieces in place at this time. I apologize for the late notice, but we want to thank you for your attention and devotion to SIE.

​Brad Bell, President
Southern Indiana Equality

Southern Indiana Equality Quarterly Meeting: Government 101 ... on Monday, February 20 at Culbertson West.

Today's New Albany Housing Authority meeting has been cancelled, so Jeff Gahan's undemocratic Anschluss will have to wait until just before the Ides of March.

The Green Mouse has received word that this afternoon's New Albany Housing Authority (NAHA) Board of Commissioners meeting has been cancelled. The next scheduled meeting will come on March 13, same time and place.

Of course, this is of significance because the newly sycophant-packed board is slated to function as NAHA death panel.

So-called "Democrat" Jeff Gahan's "Memorandum of Understanding" details his hostile takeover of the New Albany Housing Authority, and the land grab to follow.

Four things you should know about Jeff "Dead Inside" Gahan's public housing hostile takeover and land grab.

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?

I'll be there on the 13th of March. That's pretty close to the Ides of March, isn't it?

Too many no-shows: Building & Development Association of Southern Indiana cancels its mayoral candidate forum.

Another one bites the dust.

Good Morning,

After having conversations with our executive committee, it has decided that we will cancel the Mayor's Forum portion of the agenda for the BDASI Dinner Meeting to be held September 10.

This has been decided because we were not able to secure all candidates. It is committee's opinion that unless we have 100% participation, it does not fully and fairly inform our membership.

Thank you for your willingness to participate. You are still welcome to attend this event at no charge as our guest if you would like.

Sorry for any inconvenience. Please contact me directly to discuss if you have questions.

Respectfully,

BDA of Southern Indiana

Jeff G made a very good comment on Fb earlier today, and he's right: The League of Women Voters should consider moving its event to a different date.

I just hope that voters who don't necessarily pay a lot of attention are beginning to see how typical this sort of behavior is from the Gahan camp and how the Democratic clique won't acknowledge or address it. If Gahan employee Moeller had any community oriented chutzpah, for instance, she'd reschedule (and likely reformat and relocate) the League of Women Voters event. Is she that corrupted herself or is she just afraid Gahan will fire her? Is there no one involved with the League who maintains any sense of fairness and ethics? Is there really not a single ranking Democrat in the whole county who will speak to this? So far, the answer to those questions is "yes" across the board. That very practiced collusion and callousness is precisely what Democratic voters in New Albany have been supporting. We all know any number of party devotees who have consciences, who know better than this on a personal level. Their silence here and in numerous other cases is the sort of lapse in common decency that defines New Albany politics more than anything else. It's what they think political power is about. It would be nice to be able to consider them friends, not of any individual candidates but of basic integrity; to be able to trust them as people at least trying to create a level playing field. But, so far, that's not possible, either.

Previously:

Gahan's signature pettiness ensures we'll not see a mayoral debate with all three candidates present at once.

In letter, Gahan confirms intent to snub Leadership Southern Indiana and bypass LSI's mayoral debate (includes my return letter).

Keep Drinking Progressively -- just not tonight.

First the weather, and now other pop-up issues ... sighhh.

I'm going to be forced to cancel Drinking Progressively again tonight. I promise that it isn't the end of the local chat experiment. Rather, the problem continues to be unexpected problems.

Thanks for your patience.

No Drinking Progressively tonight at BSB.

Let's take a sick day. There'll be no Drinking Progressively this evening.

I plan on returning next Tuesday (February 24) at 6:00 p.m.

STOP THE PRESSES: Tonight's Bicentennial Park Show is CANCELLED.

I pressed "send," then received word that tonight's Bicentennial Park concert with Humming House and Nick Dittmeier is cancelled owing to inclement weather.

If and when further information becomes known, I'll pass it along.

Harvest Homecoming ends with a careful whisper.

By 3:30 p.m. today, it hadn't yet rained, and the sun was shining brightly on what trash remained in downtown New Albany that had not been borne by a gentle afternoon breeze eastward, to the banks of Silver Creek.

Not to mention the garbage.

But the Harvest Homecoming committee already had cancelled the game, presumably aware that since the Indiana State Fair stage collapse two years ago, every organization in America is a fluke occurrence away from learning that its insurance isn't adequate.

As in the comically frequent case of school closings when snow doesn't fall, we now routinely cancel anything and everything because weather conditions MIGHT get bad. Our forbearers who conquered the wilderness should be cringing in their graves.

Then again, there were very few lawsuits on the High Plains back then. I'm disgusted at the overall trend of timidity, but I cannot fault the festival for fearing the worst.

We shouldn't let today's cancellation detract from the numerous issues that the various Harvest Homecoming governing boards must begin discussing far more honestly and openly than they ever have been willing to do in the past. New Albany has a functioning downtown business district again, one with its own business model. Many more voices need to be heard.

Is Harvest Homecoming prepared to listen?

Movie night at the Amphitheater is off, but the Eikosi fest is on.

The Labor Day weekend movie night tomorrow is off ... but the Eikosi Wine & Beer Festival in Salem is still on, rain or shine. From the 'Bune:

NEW ALBANY — Due to the expected heavy rainfall this weekend, tonight’s [Saturday] double movie feature at the New Albany Riverfront Amphitheater has been canceled.

The movies “Jurassic Park” and “Despicable Me” were slated to be shown in concordance with Labor Day weekend, and the city is exploring opportunities to reschedule the event. For more information, visit the website newsandtribune.com