Essential reading for HWC's Jim Rice: "Four Ways Traffic Engineers Thwart Public Will."

Marohn dissects a situation in Springfield, Massachusetts; it's about traffic in front of a library, and a clueless board of works, and ... you'll just have to read the whole essay.

Please read it.

Four Ways Traffic Engineers Thwart Public Will, by Charles Marohn (Strong Towns)

 ... There are four common methods traffic engineers use assert their power and thwart the will of elected officials and the public those officials represent. They are all unbecoming of a profession that is supposed to be about public service. The August 6 letter from the Springfield Director of Public Works contains all four. I’m going to review those today in the hopes that, if we can’t affect change in Springfield, at least other cities can learn from their (repeated and ongoing) mistakes.

#1: A Focus on Process, Not Outcomes
Time and again I’ve watched engineers talk down to public officials, minimizing their concerns, by pretending there is some long and dignified legacy of deliberation that goes into every action taken by an engineer ... I touch on this first because the arrogance deeply bothers me. This issue keeps coming up because people keep getting hit, getting killed, and those responsible for the dangerous situation—those who could do something about it—seem unwilling to do anything. People have been elected because they said they would find answers. To fall back on process—silly councilors, we’ve already considered this many times—when it’s clearly not working is tone deaf, at best.

#2: A Reliance on Standards, Not Observation
An engineer working for their own priorities, instead of the priorities of the elected officials or the public at large, will quote industry standards as if they are inviolable laws instead of what they really are: guidelines for the typical scenario. This letter includes plenty of that. Here’s one example ... the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices is a favorite for engineers to cite, but in a unique situation like that being examined along State Street in Springfield, the rote standards don’t easily apply. That’s why we have professional engineers, not merely technicians. Engineers are supposed to think, to use their professional judgement in places where it is warranted.


#3: Elevating Engineering Values Over Human Values
I’ve written about how engineers assert their own values into design decisions, holding them up as truth when in fact they are a subjective ordering that should be made by elected officials. The decision to prioritize traffic flow over safety, for example. Another is the decision to establish a design speed incompatible with the neighborhood. These decisions are made without presenting them as options to elected officials, even though they are an assertion of values, not truth. This letter is full of the engineer’s values being asserted as truth ... the letter talks about “traffic queues” and “Level of Service” as if they were commandments handed down from a divine authority, not merely a set of values being asserted by the Public Works Department.

#4: Pretending to be Powerless Due to a Higher Authority
The fourth way engineers thwart the will of elected officials and the public is to assert that they are powerless, that ultimate authority resides elsewhere. Layered on this assertion of powerlessness is the implied threat that the real governing authority is not very nice, that they are likely to react poorly if provoked by such silly requests.

This is the kind of thing I did when I was a kid and used to babysit. You know, I would let you stay up late, but your mom said I needed to get you to bed on time and we don’t want her mad at us, do we. It’s juvenile, but as part of the broader conversation, it provides the final knockout blow. There is a false sense of empathy projected while simultaneously deflecting any responsibility from the engineer ... of all people, politicians should understand this to be false. None of these decisions are absolutely technical; they are all somewhat political. This is especially true in a unique situation like State Street, where multiple deaths have occurred. It’s a stretch to suggest that reasonable action here might require state board to provide some type of waiver, but it’s absurd to suggest the city could not make a compelling case.

Cities are not powerless. Great local engineers that want to assert the values of the community (instead of opposing them) can become strong advocates for the community with state appeals boards. 

Gahan's street grid sausage-making: CNA 27 tour attendees, please help us -- New Albany is being held hostage by New Urban Imposters.

Today's the 14th, and perfect weather for New Albany's leadership cadres to mislead people -- and make no mistake, that's exactly what they'll be doing.

Gahan, Rosenbarger set to go full frontal Pinocchio about their urbanism credentials when the Congress for the New Urbanism 27 meets in Louisville June 11-15.

If any CNA 27 attendees are reading this note, and you plan to tag along on the New Albany tour this afternoon, please do me this one small favor: ask questions of these serial liars.

• Why the beg buttons? 
• Why the Main Street beautification median?
• Why the reformatted Market Street median? 
• Where are the bike lanes?
• Why so many fading sharrow markings?
• What's the reason for the plethora of routinely ignored pedestrian crossing beg-button-flashing-light "permission" stations? 
• Why is the traffic still moving so damned fast? 
• Isn't there more to walkability than bright shiny beautification projects?

They won't so much as attempt to answer, and you'll probably be hustled off to detention with the police chief.

But please try. Gahan's street grid bait 'n' switch is abhorrent, and the emperor is unclothed.

Gahan, Rosenbarger set to go full frontal Pinocchio about their urbanism credentials when the Congress for the New Urbanism 27 meets in Louisville June 11-15.

Jeff Speck's coming to the Congress for the New Urbanism's CNU 27 in Louisville. On Wednesday afternoon (June 12) in Louisville he'll be speaking about his new book Walkable City Rules.

On Friday (June 14) Speck returns to New Albany.

Whoa, boy.

We've long noted that Deaf Gahan, Pinocchio Rosenbarger and various other pay-to-play functionaries brutally gutted Speck's amazing Downtown Street Network Proposal, a renewal plan for the downtown street grid. They retained the two-way street reversion and quickly punted, discarding every other useful suggestion Speck made about bicycling, wasteful medians, the interstate intersections and so much else.

If any CNA 27 attendees are reading this note ("help us, we're being held hostage by idiots"), and you plan to tag along on the New Albany tour on June 14, please do me this one small favor: ask questions. Why the beg buttons? Why the reformatted Market Street median? Where are the bike lanes? What's the reason for the plethora of ignored pedestrian crossing beg-button-flashing-light "permission" stations? Why's the traffic still moving so fast? Isn't there more to walkability than bright shiny beautification projects?

We could have had transformation. Gahan, Rosenbarger and their coterie settled for dull shrapnel reflecting their fundamental cowardice. They should be ashamed of themselves, but as we've seen oft times before, there's nowhere near the level of self-awareness necessary for shame.

About The Congress

The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) is the nation’s oldest international nonprofit working to build great places and walkable, vibrant neighborhoods. CNU will host its 27th annual Congress, CNU 27.Louisville, in Louisville, KY June 12-15, 2019.

The Congress is the premier national placemaking event, convening 1500+ diverse, interdisciplinary urbanists and placemakers from all 50 states and around the globe to exchange ideas, explore urban places, work alongside residents, and learn in the field.

Congress programming is varied and accessible to urbanists and members of the public at any level of knowledge and understanding of New Urbanism.

"The Long Con": Elmer Gantry was a fumbling neophyte compared to the late Dan Johnson.

Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting, please come to New Albany, where the charlatans are as high as a clergyman's eye. 

This one goes out to those of my friends living outside the United States, who may be observing the state of affairs in my homeland and wondering exactly what happened to the better angels of our nature.

To me, these angels seldom ever existed. The longest con of all involved convincing ourselves they actually did. These days, we're simply reverting to the mean.

For the record, two days after the results of this investigation started being released, Rep. Dan Johnson killed himself. Rough justice, perhaps, but arguably better than no justice at all.

THE POPE'S LONG CON, by R.G. Dunlop and Jacob Ryan (Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting)

A Kentucky preacher-turned-politician's web of lies

... The Pope, as everyone knows him, commands this side of the room, his voice tinged with the Louisiana drawl of his youth. His biceps are decorated in ink, his sideburns white, his golden pompadour thinning.

Long ago, Johnson fashioned an identity as a modern-day American patriot. Pro-gun, pro-God, pro-life. He talked in 2013 about making America great again. He lamented the lack of God in everyone’s lives. He wept over the country’s future.

But behind this persona — cultivated, built up and fine-tuned over decades — is a web of lies and deception. A mysterious fire. Attempted arson and false testimony. Alleged molestation in his church.

In Johnson's wake lies a trail of police records and court files, shattered lives and a flagrant disregard for truth.

This seven-month investigation is based on more than 100 interviews and several thousand pages of public documents. It also included numerous attempts to interview Johnson, who refused all requests.

Over and over, there were warning signs for government officials, law enforcement, political leaders and others. Yet, virtually nothing was done. For years, Johnson broke laws. Now, he helps make them.

In his latest feat, Johnson catapulted himself into the Kentucky Capitol in 2016 as representative for the 49th House District.

Keith Henderson wants to be the hanging judge, though "former prosecutor" sounds better to us.

Lest we forget ...

Matt Oakley's assessment of the prosecutor's ethical breakdown doesn't stop with Keith Henderson.

Granted, it isn't as though we weren't aware of Henderson's many and varied abuses as prosecutor, and (Mark) Seabrook's role in ignoring them -- as these posts from 2013 attest.

Ready for the punchline?

In an age of excuses for reckless behaviors, I will continue to hold adult offenders accountable.

Prosecutor, hang thyself.

Why are you running for this position? (Courier-Journal)

I will bring much-needed energy and efficiency to the position of Circuit Court Judge. My philosophy has always been very clear. In an age of excuses for reckless behaviors, I will continue to hold adult offenders accountable, protect the innocent and support the family. After prosecuting nearly 30,000 criminal cases and handling thousands of child support cases, I have unique experience and strengths which will enable me to bring accountability and fairness to this position. I will use my extensive experience as an Indiana State Police officer, General Council for City of New Albany and nearly 19 years as a prosecuting attorney in the office of Circuit Court Judge.

Howey, Bennett, Lysenko and Daniels.

I'll make this point a final time: Tony Bennett is one hell of a crooner, but he didn't invent the strategy of cooking the numbers to suit ideological imperatives. It isn't for nothing that I've been comparing amok Bennettism with the crazed genetics theories of Soviet half-scientist Trofim Lysenko.

Me? Hey, I never doubted that Lysenko sincerely believed it to be sheer coincidence that his genetic theories jibed with those of Joe Stalin. And the Astros are on track for a Series win next year.

Bennett's down; good riddance, except that Mitch Daniels, his enabler survives to slur Howard Zinn. That's a higher injustice, don't you think?

HOWEY: The hollow facade of Tony Bennett, by Brian Howey (N and T)

... These past eight months, after one of the most rapid rises in Indiana politics and education, we’ve watched the precipitous fall of Supt. Tony Bennett, culminating with his stunning upset loss to little-known Democrat Glenda Ritz last November, and as of Thursday, his resignation as Florida’s education superintendent.

Bennett’s ultimate Sunshine State downfall had its roots in Indiana, where emails obtained by the Associated Press’s Tom LoBianco revealed Bennett’s willingness to take liberties with the A through F numbers of Christel House, a charter school founded by Indiana philanthropist Christel DeHaan. It looked even worse when it was reported that DeHaan had contributed $130,000 to Bennett’s reelection campaign.

The Publican on megaswill and doublespeak, at LouisvilleBeer.com

When they talk smack, they need to be smacked down. It helps them learn.

Tom Long is Full of Something,
and it Ain’t Craft Beer

Years before most of us were born, there was an Englishman named Eric Blair, who is better known by his pen name, George Orwell.

During a lifetime cut regrettably short, Orwell spent much of his writing career pondering abuses and misuses of the English language. Orwell decried the mutability of language and words, particularly when these bastardized word meanings were deployed unnaturally, to become instruments of bad intent, or sometimes even de factoweapons against freedom itself.

Now, it is clear that the decline of a language must ultimately have political and economic causes: it is not due simply to the bad influence of this or that individual writer. But an effect can become a cause, reinforcing the original cause and producing the same effect in an intensified form, and so on indefinitely. (Orwell)

In our day and age, we remember Orwell primarily for his anti-totalitarian novels, including “Animal Farm” and “1984,” the latter of which introduced the seminal concepts of “doublethink” and “newspeak.” Subsequently, another word was coined to meld these ideas into one enduringly disturbing tool for the use of dictators and advertising directors: Doublespeak.