Here you go, Slick Jeffie -- I fixed it for you.

Yep, it's another Seabrook-sliming mailer from the DemoDisneyDixiecrats, and I just took a few minutes to make it accurate, because while ploys like this play well on the Kool Aid Corridor, the rest of us know the truth. 

Don't forget it was Jeff Gahan who raised your sewer rates.

Speaking of remembering:

Election 2019: The buying and selling of a city, or our updated master list of 73 Gahan wheel-greasers, a veritable pornographic potpourri of pay-to-play.

These 30 free-spending special interest donors top Jeff Gahan's 2019 pay-to-play campaign finance windfall of $150,000 (so far).

CFA-4 Follies: OMG, just look at Gahan's huge pile of special interest donor cash flowing to out-of-towners.

Don't forget it was Jeff Gahan who raised your sewer rates.

In 2017 Jeff Gahan's sewer board ... and make no mistake, it's a sewer board in Gahan's vise grip ...

Jeff Gahan pays himself around $11,000 each year to head up the sewer board. Shouldn't Gahan attend the city council rate increase hearing on February 6 and listen to public comments?

... asked city council to raise sewer rates.

TONIGHT: Public hearing to discuss the sewer rate increase (and yes, it is an increase).

Yes, Virginia, it is a sewer rate INCREASE, in spite of what you may have read elsewhere.

Bump? Hike? If sewer rates are higher, then that's an increase, by definition.

City council complied, but it would be sophistry to suggest these annual sewer rates increases were not applied at Gahan's behest, or that they're anything other than a tax increase on Gahan's watch.

A week or so ago Slick Jeffie began attacking Mark Seabrook for raising sewer rates, which raised more than a few jaded eyebrows. Exactly how does a county commissioner have control over a sewer utility process controlled lock, stock and barrel by the mayor?

Jeff Gillenwater explains.

The reference is to Seabrook’s time as a City Council Representative. He did vote for sewer rate increases at the time as the City faced an EPA mandate to perform sewer system upgrades that had been needed but neglected for decades.

What they’re not saying: The sewer rate increases were championed by then Democratic Mayor Doug England and passed by a Democratic majority Council.

As a minority member, Seabrook voted WITH the Democrats. Then Councilman Gahan voted against, railing against the sewer department as corrupt but while offering no repair or upgrade alternatives other than personal grandstanding as the City faced potential fines and legal action from the EPA.

Fast forward a few years: Mayor Gahan appoints himself as president of the sewer board (a paid position in addition to his mayoral salary) and tries to take public credit for paying down sewer upgrade debt even though he consistently voted against the plan to do the work and pay down the debt.

In review, Floyd County Democrats now say that Seabrook is awful for having voted with a Democratic majority on the Council and a Democratic Mayor. Likewise, Gahan said the sewer plan that the Democratic majority and Seabrook voted for was horrible right up until it started to work as designed and he took public credit for it.

An addendum from Bluegill:

And lest any local Democrats again try to falsely accuse honest folks of lying, here’s the official, straight from the mayor’s office public appeal from Gahan (acting as both mayor and paid sewer board leader) requesting the passage of an ordinance that seeks to raise sewer rates on an annual basis. Gahan can argue that it’s a good idea to raise those rates but a) laying sewer rate increases at Seabrook’s feet while his own party is most responsible and b) trying to act as though he doesn’t support regular sewer rate increases himself are just more lies from an all too common source.

And these explanations are why I no longer trust local DemoDisneyDixiecrats to tell the truth, or the local chain newspaper to bother performing its historical function of setting the record straight.

Accordingly, this is why NA Confidential exists, and when it comes to determining why local DemoDisneyDixiecrats detest NA Confidential, Occam's Razor is the best source for the answer because the simplest answer is best: They hate me because I tell the truth about them.

In closing, lots of Gahan's supporters profit from his stewardship of the sewer board, don't they?

It wasn't about drainage at all. Rather, an irrational fear of density doomed the West Street Mews.

The single most hilarious aspect of Coffey's resistance is the juxtaposition of these two statements, both coming from the Wizard's mouth.

"I don't think it’s the government’s responsibility to make sure people profit."

"You have to have green space for people. You have to, it’s a healthy [necessity] for people."

Or, while it isn't Coffey's job to make money for a developer -- not receiving some from one in particular might be the root of the problem in this instance -- it's very much his job to decide how much green space is healthy.

Many persons residing in major cities, or even some renting at Break Water, likely have a different view of green space versus density. Maybe it's why they decided to live in a 190-unit apartment complex as opposed to a ranch house in Georgetown.

When I asked my councilman Greg Phipps for his reason voting no, the reply was terse: "Too dense." He mentioned nothing about drainage or green space.

Oddly, Phipps' own mayor just recently unveiled a 20-year comprehensive plan. It's already been used by Jeff Gahan -- the guy who in effect wrote it -- as justification to reduce public housing units.

And yet at roughly 35 separate places in this document, the word "density" is used in a positive fashion to describe the sort of development needed in the epicenter of the city, and near the core.

I was told that the developer of West Street Mews referenced the comprehensive plan at least four times during the city council presentation last Thursday. That's four times more often than Coffey and Pat McLaughlin did in their comments to the News and Tribune's Erin Walden.

Drainage didn't doom the development so much as incomprehension in terms of what has become the weakest and most inconsistent city council in recent memory. In the case of the West Street Mews, Al Knable is right.

“We ask people to look at us, take a risk and invest in New Albany all the time and I think we shut the door on somebody who had the guts to try to make some money with us and help us out."

Drainage concerns doomed proposed New Albany development

Turns down development 5-4

NEW ALBANY — New Albany City Council members are split when it comes to a proposed development at two vacant lots on West Street.

A request to build 26 townhouses on a vacant lot at 1105-1109 West Street was turned down 5-4 during a city council meeting last Thursday. With the request denied, the developer can build a fraction, 12 units, of what was planned under its current R-2 zoning.

Previously:

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2017

Befuddlement at the news as strange council bedfellows unite to defeat West Street Mews.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 06, 2017

City Council Monday: All the mews fit to reject?

Befuddlement at the news as strange council bedfellows unite to defeat West Street Mews.

The News and Tribune's Chris Morris recorded the quote as 6th district council representative Scott Blair tried to explain his opposition to a townhouse development off West Street in New Albany.

(Councilman Scott) Blair had other concerns. "There are just too many units for two acres. Seems too congestive for me," Blair said.

Actually, normal usage of the adjective congestive lies in specialized medical applications, like congestive heart failure: "Involving or producing too much blood or other liquid in an organ."

We use congested to describe “clogged,” “overcrowded,” or “overfull,” as when a lifetime of eating fatty fried food leaves one with congested arteries. In like fashion, overpopulated cities and crowded roads are said to be congested.

Bankers. Can't live with 'em ... can't teach 'em the meaning of words like density and infill.

Meanwhile, "mews" might be trite and annoying developer-speak for townhouses in Coffeyville, but it jibes point by point with those same passages about infill and density included in the city's new comprehensive plan -- the one authored by Team Gahan to encourage housing precisely like this, and yet opposed last night by three of four councilman in Gahan's own sad party, plus Blair (huh?) and Dan Coffey himself.

Maybe the project's backers forgot to grease Dear Leader's re-election wheels.

We are reminded of a bedrock truth pertaining to city council politics in New Albany, which won't ever change for so long as Coffey remains a councilman, because the reason why the West End forever languishes is that Coffey himself opposes change in his own environs with clock-like regularity.

The Wizard simply cannot survive in a socio-economic habitat any different from the one he has cultivated (read: kept waaaay down) during more than two decades of underachievement. He can always get the votes he needs from absentee ballots collected at Riverview Tower; not so ironically, a building comprising public housing units slated for refurbishing rather than the guillotine.

Coffey is nothing if not consistent. Blair is nothing if not confused.

By the way, the Horseshoe Foundation non-binding resolution passed unanimously. Morris must have left the meeting before then. Ominously, with Elizabeth Beilman departed, New Albany's about to get it good and hard from Hanson's tone-deaf newspaper in terms of non-coverage -- again.

Council votes down plan for townhouses

PUDD defeated by 5-4 vote

NEW ALBANY — It's back to the drawing board for the proposed West Street Mews Development.

Thursday night, the New Albany City Council voted 5-4 to reject a PUDD request in an R-2 district at 1105-1109 West Street on third reading, which defeats the proposed ordinance. The proposal was to build 26 townhouses on the 1.9 acres of vacant property. Without a PUDD, only 12 units can be built there now under R-2 zoning laws.

"It's back to the drawing board. This puts an end to this process," said attorney Greg Fifer, who represented West Street Mews Development, after the meeting.

The development had already received approval from the New Albany Plan Commission. And one city councilman, Dr. Al Knable, said he thought it would be a great addition to the neighborhood.

"It would be nice to have this sort of dwelling in there," Knable said prior to the vote. "The key to this is owner occupied. We need more of that in town. I think it would be one of the better developments in that part of town since I was a kid."

However, after a long discussion, the change to a PUDD did not have enough support. Knable, Matt Nash, David Aebersold and David Barksdale voted for the PUDD while Scott Blair, Dan Coffey, Greg Phipps, Bob Caesar and Pat McLaughlin voted against.

Well, look at this: "Resolution Requesting Amendment of Horseshoe Foundation of Floyd County Bylaws Regarding City Council Appointments."

Tonight is the last city council meeting of 2017, paving the way for the first city council meeting of 2018, which means it will be appointments season all over again.

Seems like only yesterday, doesn't it?

As it pertains to the Horseshoe Foundation board, its appointments come with a significant caveat in the context of recent ideological shifts.

New city council game of chance: Horseshoe Party Affiliation Roulette. (January 16, 2015)

In the past, the foundation has insisted that only real Democrats and genuine Republicans can attend its meetings, seeing as these are the only two parties legally allowed in God's own America, with the council expected to send one sub-species of each, meaning that the sole GOP choice for eight years running has been Kevin Zurschmiede, the council's sole Republican.

This is vitally important, given that much of New Albany's economic development planning centers on impolitely demanding money from the Foundation, especially when the TIF Credit Card is running on vapors.

Hence this interesting diversion on tonight's agenda, in the form of a polite resolution.

As currently constituted, the council's partisan breakdown reads like this:

4 DemoDisneyDixiecrats: Caesar, Phipps, Nash and McLaughlin
2 Republican: Aebersold and Knable
1 HPQR (Historic Preservation Quasi Republican): Barksdale
1 Independent: Blair
1 CFP (Coffey First Party): the Wizard of Westside

Don't ask me to handicap this one, although Scott Blair's example is an interesting way to extend this post a further two minutes until dinner.

At least twice in the past, Blair was appointed to the Horseshoe Foundation board, and was promptly batted back. Blair should be a natural to vote yes on tonight's resolution, except that he also possesses a principled objection to resolutions as non-binding wastes of the council's time --although there have been past exceptions.

Expect Coffey to be toting his abacus, all the better to determine whether this or any other proposal is calculated to Make Coffey Great Again, and if not, the proportion of axle grease needed to persuade him.

Phipps will defer to the mayor, and it may require two pre-meeting martinis to get me all the way through it.

Wish me luck.

Gibson points to Duggins' letter as proof that Coffey had the OK for his harvest cash-coming car park. In other news, City Hall ethics are in critical condition.

Previously we were trying to determine whether anyone in a position of authority had given Dan Coffey explicit permission to use city property to park cars during Harvest Homecoming.

In a dramatic semi-literate letter to city council, former redevelopment bag man (David) Duggins accepts responsibility for Coffey's harvest cash-coming car park cronyism caper.

Prior to Duggins' conveniently timed revisionist history lesson, we'd asked interim redevelopment commission director and city attorney Shane Gibson, as well as the body's secretary Adam Dickey, whether any commission records exist testifying to official recognition of Coffey's antics.

Today the response came back.

---

Mr. Baylor:

In response to your email request dated November 29, 2017, please find attached the only document in the possession of the Commission/City regarding that matter.

Shane L. Gibson
Corporate Counsel
City of New Albany
311 Hauss Square, Rm. 316
New Albany, IN 47150
812-948-5333

---

Naturally, this document is Duggins' very same letter, as almost certainly commissioned by Gibson himself and brandished like a mutton javelin by Coffey at Monday's council meeting.

Pending coherent thoughts from Mayor Jeff Gahan, it seems that our inquiry is halted. Duggins said it was okay; he does as he pleases, conflict of interests be damned, and that's that.

Coffey's piling up the pork barrel winnings for the Knights of Columbus, who at a future time probably will regret the decision to allow a copperhead snake to be the face of the organization -- though not just yet.

City council has not ever censured Coffey, who in the past physically threatened a citizen and openly spouted anti-gay slurs. Of course, Duggins is Jeff Gahan's golden boy, one who could openly urinate on the city's Christmas tree and be promoted with a pay rise for his bladder relief.

In New Albany, in spite of the PR ballyhoo at their inception, neither human rights nor ethics commissions exist in any tangible, real-world way, and yet what we're witnessing here is the precise rationale for some semblance of the citizenry's recourse to ethical lapses. 

As it stands, Coffey wins yet again ... and the city loses.

Yet again ... and 2019 just can't come soon enough.

In a dramatic semi-literate letter to city council, former redevelopment bag man Duggins accepts responsibility for Coffey's harvest cash-coming car park cronyism caper.

At Monday evening's city council meeting during council pontification speaking time, councilman Dan Coffey produced a letter from David Duggins, now interim director of the New Albany Public Housing Demolition Authority, but formerly the redevelopment department's resident sluice operator.

The letter was intended to answer the question of how Coffey could use city-owned property for any reason -- his own enrichment or as a fundraiser of the Knights of Columbus -- without going through the usual channels for such requests.

In short, who gave Coffey permission?

Duggins explained, and before we go any further, just this: Thanks for reading NA Confidential.

---

It was brought to my attention that there was some concern raised, by a single local citizen, as to the use of the lot at the Southern end of Bank Street by the Knights of Columbus during the Harvest Homecoming in 2017. The KofC has used that lot for the past three seasons as a fundraiser for their many charitable events and projects in the New Albany area. When Redevelopment issued and RFP for the property Councilman Dan Coffey called me to ask if the lot would be available for their use again this year, in which I responded yes because no construction would have begun by the HHC, and to plan on using it. I also spoke to Matt Chalfant in passing knowing that he would be a proposal participant, to let him know I had given permission to use the lot to the KofC. He had no issue, and in fact we didn't believe at the time we would have even closed on property. I left Redevelopment as of July 1, 2017, and thought nothing more about this issue. Just like other non-for-profit entities, the City encourages them to use the city lots for additional parking for the highly successful Harvest Homecoming Festival. The KofC has been a driving force for charitable events and items since its beginnings here in New Albany. I am a proud member also, although I do not have the additional time to volunteer as many members do. I hope this clears up any questions or concerns that you may have had.

David C. Duggins Jr.

---

Let's take a few steps back.

On November 21, the News and Tribune's Chris Morris attended the Board of Public Works and Safety meeting.

Roger Baylor asked the board if it had given permission to the Knights of Columbus to sell parking spaces during Harvest Homecoming this year at the grassy lot near Underground Station on Bank Street. Board of Works President Warren Nash said the board did not give permission.

Dan Coffey, with the K of C and a city councilman, said the city’s permission was not needed since the lot was owned by local developer Matt Chalfant. But Chalfant said late Tuesday he did not take ownership of the lot until after the festival.

Coffey said the money raised purchased 55 Thanksgiving baskets this year for those in need.

Naturally, there has been no follow-up from the newspaper, and yet Morris's account is a good place to start. To wit, BOW knew nothing about it, and properly directed the question to the redevelopment commission.

Why?

Since redevelopment controls the State Street parking garage, and because (for example) Develop New Albany must ask redevelopment each year for permission to use the garage to park cars as a fundraiser during Harvest Homecoming, it's logical to assume that any other entity seeking to perform precisely the same function using any other redevelopment-controlled properties would need to follow the exact same procedure.

But consider the rationale of Coffey, a former redevelopment commission member who is fully aware of these expectations, when quizzed by Morris (paraphrased): I didn't need to ask anyone, because the property belongs to Matt Chalfant, not the city.

So, I asked Chalfant about Coffey's use of the lot, and the developer replied by e-mail:

No sorry I'm not familiar with this as I didn't own it during HHC.

Meanwhile, city council member David Barksdale now sits on the redevelopment commission, and he e-mailed this perspective to me:

Truthfully, I can not remember if a K of C request came up at the Redevelopment Commission meeting. It possibly could have. I do know the DNA request for the parking garage did. Shane Gibson would be the best person to ask, since he had already begun as interim director of the department.

Contrast this with a central point made by Duggins:

"Just like other non-for-profit entities, the City encourages them to use the city lots for additional parking for the highly successful Harvest Homecoming Festival."

That's correct -- but as Barksdale duly confirmed, even Develop New Albany and the "highly successful festival" itself aren't exempt from reporting to BOW and Redevelopment each year to obtain official permission for the use of city property, whether the use is for private or charitable gain.

Seriously, shouldn't the reasons for such protocols be obvious?

On-the-record transparency and a paper trail matter for more than one reason, although the biggest reason always suffices: responsibility for liability. When Coffey dismissed concerns of the property's use by referring to Chalfant, the councilman was saying, in effect, that the developer had his back with the necessary insurance.

But don't you think a savvy businessman like Chalfant would recall being involved in this decision, seeing as liability for injury and damages would be on him?

And, don't we still have a question outstanding as to the rumor that in 2017, the K of C paid cash to the owner of a car damaged while parked by Coffey on city property during Harvest Homecoming?

If the K of C were forthcoming with a detailed accounting of the parking operation, we might know -- but on Monday evening, Coffey spurned any such suggestion of transparency on the K of C's part.

Look closely at how Duggins spins Chalfant's place in this narrative.

I also spoke to Matt Chalfant in passing knowing that he would be a proposal participant, to let him know I had given permission to use the lot to the KofC. He had no issue, and in fact we didn't believe at the time we would have even closed on property.

According to Duggins, Chalfant was briefed and had no issues with Coffey's use of the property -- er, why would he care if he didn't yet own it? -- except for these two key words: "in passing."

With Coffey's parking project nowhere to be found in official records, and with Chalfant already stating publicly that he wasn't familiar with any of it, Duggins as yet insisted the developer was told "in passing."

At first glance this sounds as though Duggins might be accusing Chalfant of lying, except there's a way around this (purposeful?) insinuation (paraphrased): I sure did tell Matt, but maybe he didn't hear my passionate stage whispers amid the heavy trucks thundering past us on Main Street.

As of last Friday, December 1, I'd asked both Shane Gibson and Redevelopment Commission secretary Adam Dickey about this matter, and they promptly acknowledged receipt of the question, indicating there would be a reply within ten days. It probably isn't a coincidence that Duggins' letter suddenly materialized just in time for the Monday city council meeting.

As for Coffey, first he said permission wasn't required. Then, his assertions publicly contradicted by Chalfant, a nifty 180-degree turn became necessary (paraphrased): Who's Chalfant? Don't know him, but of course I asked for permission, and Duggins told me it was fine.

Cover from officialdom was needed, and we already know that in spite of the damage to the city's reputation done by Coffey -- he's the junkyard dog perpetually chewing up that nice parlor furniture -- Jeff Gahan's City Hall is forever eager to reimburse Coffey for his myriad shady services.

(You can imagine lawyer Gibson saying to Coffey, "This envelope makes us even, right?" Coffey nods affirmatively, and it's done ... until Coffey produces yet another misplaced invoice stamped Payment Due, queuing the theme music to "Mr. Haney Meets the Gang that Couldn't Keep the Stories Straight.") 

Consequently, the spectacularly over-compensated Duggins coincidentally stepped forward with an account of another in a seemingly endless series of good ol' boy transactions that cannot be proven or verified, just as the city has informed us that if it's an actual paper trail you're looking for, the Bicentennial Commission never even existed, either, because if there are no records, how can anything at all be verified?

We're now gifted with a new official version, which reads like Duggins composed it while in the limo bus with the Bud Light Lime and hired eye candy in route to Keeneland.

Duggins personally empowered Coffey's fundraising; it happened a long time ago; and for chrissakes, who could question the use of public property for such a worthy charity?

This single local citizen, for one. 

Why weren't other worthy charities in the city aware of the opportunity to support their projects and programs?

Is there something unique about the K of C's projects and programs that make it more worthy of consideration than others?

If the city's own favored charity, Develop New Albany, must ask permission each year to use public property during Harvest Homecoming, and to report its financial results back to the city, why shouldn't the K of C, too?

Shouldn't it have been the K of C formally requesting use of the Bank Street parking lot, and not a city councilman?

Facade grants, parking privileges ... how much is the K of C eligible to receive from City Hall that other similar charitable organizations aren't, or should other organizations hire Coffey on a rotating basis to facilitate pieces of the pie?

If Duggins is a proud member of the K of C, isn't it a blatant conflict of interest for him to personally push the organization's fundraising in the absence of customary protocol and procedure?

Or, is rule of law whatever Duggins, Coffey, Gibson and Gahan say it is at any given time?

In closing, don't forget who remains at the pinnacle of this ongoing municipal monetization pyramid scheme.

It's none other than Gahan, who certainly would do something about it if he cared to. Instead, ever more power and money are passing to those friends and associates of Gahan's who have appeared in this article, and who apparently are running amok on city time, which seems largely devoted to crass cronyism.

Just remember all this in 2019, please. We can do so much better than squalid.

There are at least two types of water parks in New Albany: TIF-tastic Showplaces and Inadvertent Crosswalk Meltdowns.

At Monday evening's city council meeting, at-large councilman David Aebersold (R) reported that he'd been told about photographs somewhere on-line -- he couldn't recall where -- depicting the numerous Inadvertent Crosswalk Meltdown water parks, splash pads and wading pools downtown, like this:

And this:

Funny -- I thought the gag order against mentioning NA Confidential aloud in public extended only to Democrats.

By the way, did you know that if a Democrat is caught actually reading an NAC post, the penalty is a mandatory term paper on the Wit and Wisdom of Chairman Dickey?

That's cruel and unusual punishment, folks. By the way, we reported the standing water problem several months ago -- twice. The newspaper's tally?

That'd be zero. 

June 26
City Hall unveils new street corner splash pads, with an ingenious example of the "sharing economy."

July 29
All hail New Gahanian crosswalk puddle-a-bility: Brand new asphalt, concrete and ramps, and the same old non-drainage problem.

The Board of Public Works and Safety's Mickey Thompson was on hand Monday night to explain that it's all the fault of ADA requirements for handicapped-accessible ramps, and he isn't sure what can be done to correct it.

And yet as it pertains to troubled drivers, no stone is left unturned to facilitate passage of automobiles.

Hats off to CM Aebersold for broaching the subject. Every other council person should join Aebersold in demanding a better answer than Thompson's -- or, conversely, a jackhammer.

Forget the excuses.

How does Jeff Gahan FIX the problem?

City Council Monday: All the mews fit to reject?

Tonight there was a city council meeting, and 3rd district councilman Greg Phipps introduced this PUDD request:

Z-17-03 Ordinance Amending the Code of Ordinances of New Albany, Indiana Title XV Chapter 156 (West Street Mews, Inc. requests a PUDD to permit freehold townhouses in the R-2, Urban Residential district at 1105-1109 West Street)

Amid rumblings of tsunami-intensity storm water chaos from Mt. Coffey, Phipps conceded that he had several issues with the plan to construct townhouses on permeable green space -- though he voted in favor of the proposal when it came came before the Plan Commission because, in his own words, he "didn't want to be the only vote against."

Phipps later reiterated the existence of undisclosed issues but said he'd hate to make the developers incur any further expense.

Meanwhile, Coffey reminded listeners of the incredible miracles of affordable housing and economic recovery achieved in Westendia during his long tenure, and said that townhouse-level density would just plain kill these many advancements.

There finally was a vote, during which Phipps dismissed any of the doubts he hadn't yet explained and voted in favor, but only (or so he stated) because he was the one to bring it to council from the Plan Commission, implying he felt obliged.

He was joined by the three Republicans, leaving council president McLaughlin to cast the deciding vote against the proposal.

THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE DEBATE, NOT A SINGLE ELECTED REPRESENTATIVE ASKED THE MOST PERTINENT QUESTION OF ALL.

Like this:

Why are newly constructed townhouses in Westendia being called "mews," when to call them "mews" is complete and utter nonsense?

mews
myo͞oz
noun (British)

1. a row or street of houses or apartments that have been converted from stables or built to look like former stables.

2. a group of stables, typically with rooms above, built around a yard or along an alley.

Mews? Not these apartments in Massachusetts.

This is more like it.

The proper course of action this evening was to look the developers square in the eye and say:

"Stop insulting our community with cutesy-pie bullshit. Go away, and come back with a name that makes sense."

Well, a boy can dream. Now, see what the real thing looks like in London.

LONDON’S PRETTIEST MEWS STREETS, by Laura (Sometime Traveller)

Wander around the streets of Kensington, Chelsea or Notting Hill and it won’t be long before you stumble across a mews street. You might not notice them at first – they’re often hidden away behind brick archways or ivy-covered entrance ways – but make the effort and you’ll discover some of the prettiest streets in London.

You’ll mostly find mews streets lying behind a row of grand townhouses. The little cottages along these streets used to be the stables for the townhouses back in the day, but nowadays they’ve been converted into multi-million pound properties that you’ll need a lottery win to afford (unless you’re Keira Knightley in Love Actually*).

Below are six of my favourite mews streets in London. Most of them are nice and close to each other in Kensington (Gloucester Road or Earl’s Court are the nearest tubes), so they make a really nice walk, particularly on a sunny day.

*If you want to see the mews where Keira’s character lived, it’s St Luke’s Mews in Notting Hill.

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

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

The amended passage:

§72.01 OWNER'S RESPONSIBILITY FOR ILLEGAL PARKING

Amended Version to Include

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

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

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

If so ... cool.

It's an item-free agenda as council meets tonight, so best prepare for maximum westside wizardry.

There's nothing on the evening's council agenda, which by all rights implies nothingness in terms of the meeting results, but veteran council watchers know from long, pitiless experience that an empty agenda often serves as an invisible tripwire for ward-heeling, caterwauling and stationary gyrations, primarily from Dan "Danny Copperhead" Coffey.

The smart money says tonight Coffey will verbally assault transgender snowflake pedestrian pacifist abortion supporters, for a period of time up to fifteen minutes, as the council president surveys his gavel as though it were an irreplaceable Fabergé egg.

I'll be there, dreaming of shelter from pigs on the wing.

Yes, Virginia, there was a time in 2011 when Dan Coffey insisted on the immediate implementation of two-way streets.

"Coffey is arguing that it's the pedestrians that are causing trouble

for the 'poor' motorist. Poor is a quote. Subject new crosswalks."

I missed a city council meeting last Thursday, and so was denied the orgasmic opportunity to witness the latest configuration of the Contortionist Copperhead, our Councilman Cappuccino.

Of course, in many world languages the hard variable "C" of English is represented with the letter "K", which would render the preceding usage a delightful quartet: KKKK.

But enough of strikeouts.

If you're just coming to NAC's coverage of New Gahania, you may not know why we often refer to Dan Coffey as a Copperhead (Kopperhead).

Actually, we didn't pioneer this appellation. It's how Coffey once referred to himself.

Dan Coffey's copperhead shake described: "Hot toadstools and cold cappuccino" (2015/2011/2009).

... surrounded by witnesses numbering at least one fellow council member and various other public officials as well as ordinary pub patrons, Coffey initiated a heated discussion with (Jeff) Gillenwater that ended with Coffey aggressively grabbing Gillenwater by the shoulders and vowing to be “like a copperhead” and to “strike when you least expect it.”

In case you’re wondering, here is the definition of assault ...

Naturally, nothing whatever was done about Coffey's bullying then, nor will it be now. New Albany's "pillars" of leadership -- chief among them Dear Leader, Jeff Gahan -- always tolerate Coffey's antics because they think he can be used, when in fact, he's almost always the one pushing their buttons.

Beyond this idiotic cowardice on the part of presumed community standard bearers, it also may be surprising to learn there was a time when Coffey not only supported two-way traffic on New Albany's interstate-grade streets, but also wanted to be seen as the valiant leader of the effort.

From March 11, 2015, this remembrance of the forgotten time in 2011 when Coffey thought he could fool a new generation of downtown business operators into respecting him.

For once, he miscalculated. They laughed -- and that's why Coffey has returned to bashing them, and defending our beleaguered universal autocentrism.

(thanks Mark)

---

Our long civic nightmare finally ends as CM Cappuccino returns to the country comforts of obstructionism.

Boy, that was strange.

Around the time the Sherman Minton Bridge became ill back in 2011, Dan Coffey started making sense on occasion. I remember him convening a meeting at Lancaster's, and speaking stridently of the importance of using the opportunity of the bridge shutdown to restore two-way traffic to New Albany's streets, RIGHT NOW.

Why? Because it would be beneficial to small, independent businesses downtown.

In subsequent years, the unknown space alien continued to occupy Coffey's body. Heads were scratched raw as he actually became the voice of reason at council meetings. Perhaps the makeover was a run-up to the county commissioner's race in 2014, when Coffey -- with no city council seat to wager or lose -- was unable to muster any semblance of a fighting spirit, and suffered a humiliating 22-point defeat to Mark Seabrook.

Maybe he just decided that urban demolitions were more lucrative kicking back than exurban bulldozing.

Whatever the rationale, the universe has been out of sync, and the gods obviously weren't happy, and so now, at long last, we have our Cappuccino back, merrily contradicting himself on the topic of streets, and -- unopposed in his re-election to the post of Wizard of Westendia -- freely caterwauling and chewing scenery on topics of which he knows next to nothing. It's just like old times. Now all we need is Professor Erika blowing rancid cigarette smoke in his face.

The odds that Coffey actually read Speck's report?

Same probability that I've chugged a Miller Lite in the last five years, which is to say: Zero.

Welcome back. We've missed you so very much.

(Click through to read reporter Suddeath's redevelopment report in its entirety)

River Ridge may gain Toyota instead of New Albany, by Daniel Suddeath (N and T)

TIF ALSO TIED TO TWO-WAY STREETS

New Albany would likely use TIF funds to provide its 20 percent match to a $2.5 million federal grant for calming traffic in the city’s downtown.

The money could, for example, be used to flip one-way streets to two-way traffic.

On March 18, the city will hold its final public hearing on planner Jeff Speck’s street study, which is strongly in favor of two-way conversion, smaller traffic lanes and more on-street parking.

It’s one step the city has taken as it prepares its strategy for utilizing the federal grant, which was awarded through the Kentuckiana Regional Planning & Development Agency, or KIPDA.

But New Albany City Councilman Dan Coffey believes the city might need another report.

“I still don’t think it would hurt to have another, unbiased study,” said Coffey, who is also a member of the redevelopment commission.

Speck’s study is a plan “that’s been slanted toward one view,” he added.

“I’m really disappointed in the way that turned out,” Coffey said.

Mayor Jeff Gahan’s administration has largely remained noncommittal on Speck’s recommendations. With the Ohio River Bridges Project expected to bring more motorists to New Albany, Gahan has acknowledged the city will likely need to make adjustments to the traffic grid.

The final public meeting on the Speck report will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on March 18 at the Pepin Mansion, which is located at 1003 E. Main St.

Our City Council Thursday: Budgets, littering, furnishing and futility -- thank Jeeebus for bourbon.

“Useless laws weaken necessary laws.”
-- Montesquieu

At last evening's surreal and occasionally disjointed city council meeting, we learned that Mayor Jeff Gahan has in fact signed the beefed-up anti-littering ordinance passed by the body earlier this summer.

On Thursday night, CM Bob Caesar was to have introduced a corollary revision of ordinances pertaining to littering, this time focusing on the alley dumping and tree-cutting waste that some believe to be a province of Eco-Tech's garbage collection contract, and others the street department's daily job.

Caesar didn't attend, but the ordinance was introduced and approved on 1st and 2nd readings, now to go back into committee at the stated request of the city's single highest paid employee, corporate attorney Shane Gibson, who dominated the proceedings in the continued absence of the mayor.

My uninformed guess is that Gahan's annoyance with the previous littering ordinance as being a presumed "victory" for the GOP's councilman Al Knable was mollified by further (and in this instance proper) back channel discussion, with the result being the "balancing" ordinance of Caesar's, allowing everyone to -- dare we suggest it -- cooperate in crafting a useful and far more importantly enforceable clean-up measure.

We've been conditioned to eschew hope, although perhaps this time will be different. Of course, absolutely none of it addresses underlying socio-economic conditions that always preface the perceptions and practice of "littering," but action on this front would be far too much to hope for.

The city's 2018 budget and salary proposals were approved on 1st and 2nd readings with little discussion apart from independent (read: thoroughly isolated) councilman Scott Blair's insistence that a $500K line item for furnishings in a new city hall, as yet still on the adaptive reuse drawing board, was reason enough to amend the budget by stipulating that Gahan's plans for the governmental transfer to the Reisz building must come before council for review.

CM Dan Coffey, apparently satisfied that his recent assaults on Knable's littering ordinance had been sufficient to repay the mayor for a "historic preservation" facade grant awarded to his favored Knights of Columbus, unexpectedly joined Blair in supporting the amendment.

With Caesar absent and the council's GOP bloc once again failing to coalesce as a unit, the amendment was defeated by a 4-4 vote (ties don't count, folks).

Interestingly, Republican council member David Barksdale sided with City Hall in this vote, indicating that historic preservation is a more pressing concern to him than public vetting of expenditures.

Straight up: The Reisz-Turned-City Hall transaction is a decent enough idea, but still murky enough to merit scrutiny. It includes two other "historic preservation" building improvements, embracing both Coffey's KoC payback and the luring of the Indiana Landmarks office to New Albany.

In addition, there is an obvious element of crony corporate welfare, in that the Schmitt family finally will be paid reasonable money for a building they've plainly neglected for too long.

Vacating the current City County Building also is a middle finger to the GOP-dominated county; Gahan will be praised for his progressive commitment to adaptive reuse, while the other arm of government remains stuck in a homely, outdated structure that in a parallel universe might have been Stasi headquarters in an East German provincial city.

Consequently, Blair was absolutely correct in pressing the amendment point, because last evening's budget vote might well have been the last chance for council to wield a seeming technicality of future furnishings in order to reclaim a semblance of control over mayoral planning and spending prerogatives currently being almost entirely exercised without the legislative branch's participation.

Barksdale apparently was more interested in historic preservation sans qualifiers, and that's hardly a surprise, but shouldn't council have some say in this, too?

As we approach the end of Gahan Year Six, the council's power balance remains Democratic, though just barely. The mayor has shown no compunction in bedding down with Coffey, the politically promiscuous former Democrat turned conservative culture warrior, and a steady stream of well-placed, cash-stuffed envelopes to the Wizard of Westside have provided the fifth vote when necessary, as well as periodic theatrical obstructions and consistent comic relief.

Monetization or principle? We already know which of these Gahan will choose, every single time.

Meanwhile, an ever more dismal Caesar carries the mayor's jockstrap for the presumed Democrats, hoping that someday he might be king, and the other three Democrats usually line up behind him without question.

Blair has tried his best to be a watchdog; however, as an independent he has no natural allies and just isn't very good at making them. Knable and Barksdale are omnipresent and responsive, while David Aebersold flails ineffectually.

Well, at least there wasn't a non-binding Dreamer resolution. CM Greg Phipps mentioned DACA while refraining from the gesture; he also upheld the veracity of the two-way street reversion.

It's going to be a very long two years in what for all intents and purposes is a one-party mediocracy. After these many long years of beer, it may at last be time to delve into hard liquor, and put the hammer down -- or smash something with it.

Council Thursday: Heads up, tree contractors, because Bob Caesar wants to enforce your asses.

Tonight's power poll winner already is obvious. It's the city attorney, charged with enforcement of a whole new and upwardly revised set of fines for not properly disposing of tree limbs, litter, trash and unsold Bicentennial books.

First, at 6:45 p.m. there'll be a public hearing where you can comment on budget items of which you're entirely unaware -- as is Dan Coffey, who skipped two budget hearings as well as the most recent council meeting.

Tonight's agenda is next.

We're not even sure Deaf Gahan signed the last littering ordinance update, seeing as though it smelled a bit too Republican for the anosmatic-in-chief, but this one should pass muster far more readily given Caesar's dual position as lickspittle polisher and unofficial mayor-in-waiting.

All right, tree contractors -- who forgot to make the campaign donations?

GREEN MOUSE SAYS: Is it true Deaf Gahan won't sign the littering ordinance?

The Green Mouse has been told that Mayor Jeff Gahan has refused to sign the littering ordinance recently approved by city council, which voted 9-0 in favor on the ordinance's first two readings, and 7-1 (Coffey against, Blair not present) on the third and final reading.

Coffey lands a role in Game of Drones as council passes littering ordinance, though not before an appearance by the ghost of James Stockdale.

If memory serves, the ordinance originated with council Republicans Al Knable and David Barksdale, with Democrat Matt Nash also appearing as "co-sponsor." In theory, this suggests bipartisan support (as well as a veto-proof majority).

City council déjà vu ... could this anti-littering ordinance be the dream that might come true?

Previously an insider suggested that after initially favoring the measure, Gahan had concluded that it would be associated with potential mayoral rival Knable, and therefore decided to go full frontal petty for fear of the positive association.

Deaf Gahan mulls bringing King Larry out of retirement to toss a spanner in council's littering ordinances.

Will Gahan divulge his reasons publicly, or trot out a minion's press release?

Stay tuned.

Council approves solidarity resolution as Coffey's therapist advises him to skip yet another meeting.

Need help with voting? Just ask.

Dan Coffey didn't make it to tonight's city council meeting, although a few minutes before seven, he was busy like a beaver on social media.

Coffey pitching craft beer? New Albany never ceases to amaze.

In the Wizard's convenient and surely coincidental absence -- he also skipped a March non-binding resolution condemning white supremacy -- his colleagues inadvertently raised an interesting procedural point by unanimously approving Greg Phipp's request to insert the previously unannounced solidarity resolution into the agenda.

In short, the events in Charlottesville occurred over the weekend, past the deadline for agenda items. Because public speaking time at council meetings requires signing one of two sheets (either agenda or non-agenda items), and since there was no way of knowing the resolution would be inserted, there also was no way of knowing to sign up to speak about it.

It didn't matter this evening, but machinations like this need to be watched carefully in the future.

Of course, the motion to insert Phipps' resolution might also have garnered a "no" vote and failed the test of unanimity. Coffey would have cherished pulling this particular plug, and Scott Blair, who after a brief dalliance with pragmatism has newly rediscovered his uneasiness with non-binding resolutions, might have but didn't.

Consequently, and oddly, the newspaper's Elizabeth Beilman devotes the bulk of her coverage to two items that did NOT appear on the announced agenda: Phipps' resolution, and Tony Nava's non-agenda public speaking clinic on neighborhood issues.

Three quick questions for CM Phipps:

Exactly which Human Rights Commission?

The one you only recently (and publicly) conceded was moribund?

It's too bad Jeff Gahan built the HRC to fail, isn't it?

That sort of thing could come in handy during times like these, but there it rests, up on blocks, in the bunker's down-low garage.

New Albany City Council approves resolution condemning white supremacy displayed in Charlottesville

Councilman Blair abstains, says resolutions not council's role

NEW ALBANY — Though it bears no legal weight, a proclamation approved by the New Albany City Council on Thursday is meant to take a stand against acts of white supremacy in Charlottesville, Va. last weekend.

Entertainingly, Beilman was paying extra close attention to Blair.

While (Blair) said he agrees with its content, a non-binding resolution that makes a statement of this nature isn't the council's role, he said. Blair read from Indiana code during the meeting, which states the council passes legislation concerning "the government of the city, the control of the city's property and finances, and the appropriation of money."

Blair argued the council's role is to work on local issues and that government functions better when its sticks to its pertinent role.

"I think it's just a waste of time," he said. "For instance, I probably had more budget items I wanted to talk about but it became more of a distraction."

In fact, Blair stepped into a buzz saw.

This isn't the first time Blair said he hasn't voted in favor of non-binding resolutions of a similar nature. In the past, he said they often overwhelm council discussion.

But he did vote in favor of a resolution condemning the promotion of intolerance this March, after white supremacists and anti-Semitic fliers were posted around New Albany and on the door of a local restaurant owned by Muslim immigrants.

I'll return to Nava's thoughts tomorrow. Right now, I'm turning in.

ON THE AVENUES: Love in the time of choleric Coffey, though it's nice of Deaf Gahan to support the K of C's political agenda.

ON THE AVENUES: Love in the time of choleric Coffey, though it's nice of Deaf Gahan to support the K of C's political agenda.

A weekly column by Roger A. Baylor.

Tonight there'll be a city council meeting, and I wouldn't miss it for the world.

Never mind the bobble-heads, it's Non-Binding Resolutional Culture Wars Night, and the potential for legislative grandstanding approaches solar eclipse levels of suggested pre-meeting martini consumption, toward which I pledge my last full measure of devotion.

New Albany city council, this Thursday: "Resolution Expressing Solidarity with the People of Charlottesville, Virginia, and a Public Condemnation of Racism, White Supremacy, and Neo-Nazi Ideology in Our Community, the Nation and the World."

As we've seen, autonomous councilman-for-hire Dan "Total Eclipse of the Heart" Coffey -- who on occasions as widely scattered as Monday's coming solar event actually stoops to represent the 1st District -- is organizing his own celebration of ragpicker's diversity.

Dan Coffey plans his own unity rally, because why should those smarty pants Democrats have all the fun?

Bring your own hoods, folks. There'll be barbecued bologna and toadstool crepes ... but alas, I digress. Let's begin with this excerpt from last week's column:

ON THE AVENUES: Super Tuesday shrapnel – or, tiptoeing through the tulips with Dan Coffey, now THE face of historic preservation in New Albany.

Glorious Stated Aim #2: Give the Knights of Columbus (Main Street) a new façade.

Translation: … since Coffey is a tremendous backer of the K of C, he’s neutralized and back on the mayor's payroll, at least for the moment.

Meanwhile: Deaf Gahan is Catholic … and the Democratic Party has been holding gatherings in Catholic-affiliated venues since the long ago days when bona fide Democrats like FDR walked the earth ... and that pesky priest at St. Mary’s keeps breathing down Team Gahan’s tight collars about the original sin of the two-way streets conversion … so POOF; all dissonance disappears, just like that, and to such a pervasive extent that we now see Coffey taking pride of place in the mayor’s MTV video touting Super Cash Stuffed Envelope Tuesday.

That’s right, folks. By means of just a teensy tiny bit of façade cash awarded to an organization that maintains an anti-abortion monument out front, welcome to a gay-baiting, venom-spewing, ward-heeling councilman forever in service to the highest bidder becoming the poster child of historic preservation in New Albany … but Gahan isn’t finished yet.

Absolutely no one doubts that as an entity, the Knights of Columbus does charitable works. Last week on Super Tuesday, when Coffey shuffled humbly to the anchor-bedecked podium to accept his cash-stuffed envelope (psst -- the one intended to pay for the K of C's facade work comes much later), he made it a point to emphasize this fact.

With the Knights of Columbus, it'll give a better appearance in the neighborhood, but the Knights of Columbus also does an enormous amount of charity work.

More accurately stated, it'll give a better appearance to Dan Coffey, because if there is any one cardinal rule to fathoming the Byzantine intrigues, gleeful backstabbings and gold bullion transfers inherent in the bottomless cesspool of New Albany politics as usual, it is this:

Never, ever accept a Coffeyism at face value. It will contort your face, and annoy the Wizard.

With still more money hoisted from the Redevelopment Commission, and alongside valued institutional cover from Indiana Landmarks, Jeff Gahan has struck another of his trademark political stink-bomb deals, enabling Coffey's ongoing jihad against modernity by blithely ignoring the separation of church and state -- a concept Coffey openly derides, of course, but the sort of appeasement legerdemain that democratic Democrats (where?) condone at their own peril.

However, Gahan's never met a ward-heeler he wouldn't fluff, and that old bromide about non-profits refraining from involvement in the political process? Think again.

online.org/news/politics/knights-columbus-leader-says-catholics-cannot-vote-abortion-advocates">Knights of Columbus head says Catholics cannot vote for abortion advocates (National Catholic Reporter, August 2, 2016)

Carl Anderson, leader of the Knights of Columbus fraternal order and one of the most influential lay Catholics in the church, has said that abortion outweighs all other issues in the presidential campaign and Catholics cannot vote for a candidate who supports abortion rights.

Much more detail is to be found here.

How One Religious Organization Bankrolls America’s Social Conservative Movement, by Josh Israel (Think Progress)

... But while much of the Knights’ charitable efforts in recent years have supported purely altruistic causes such as the Special Olympics and Habitat for Humanity, millions of their charitable dollars have funded a very socially conservative ideological agenda: opposing abortion, LGBT rights, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, and pornography, while supporting public funding for religious organizations.

(While legally independent from the Catholic Church, the Knights of Columbus entities call themselves the church’s “strong right arm.”)

The Knights also operate a legally-separate but affiliated charitable arm called the Knights of Columbus Charities Inc. That tax-exempt non-profit organization made about 57 percent of its annual grants in 2013 to efforts to “promote matters affective life family, marriage and similar priorities in building a culture of life.” More than $1 million of that went to support “Crisis Pregnancy Centers,” a network of facilities that dissuade women from choosing to terminate their pregnancies, often by sharing misinformation.

Tonight's council meeting should be a fascinating test of New Gahanian dysfunction.

Under normal circumstances, forced to endure another effete expression of council support for people and ideas he loathes, Coffey would be spewing, fulminating and dropping an occasional sotto voce hint of imminent violent revenge against the gays, libtards and drunkists.

But Coffey's also enjoying the sweet tea-laced post-coital glow of yet again maneuvering Gahan into merrily compromising everything the Democratic Party should stand for by indulging the councilman's Generalissimo Francisco Franco fetish.

Gahan should have had the good sense to accompany his ill-considered largess with a temporary gag order, but of course, it was chronologically impossible to anticipate Charlottesville, which led to the solidarity resolution, and which gives Coffey a convenient "get out of handshake free" card to play this evening.

Perhaps Coffey will choose to avoid the meeting entirely, as he did on March 6, the last time such a threatening resolution occurred, after white supremacist handbills were duct-taped to local alley walls.

Seize the gesture and read the city council's non-binding "Resolution Condemning the Promotion of Intolerance."

Will the serial bigot Coffey support a resolution in support of human rights? Contractually, he'll have to vote yes if Gahan demands it. But does the mayor even care? Will Scott Blair abstain, citing his oft-stated principle of eschewing non-binding resolutions?

To paraphrase Chico Marx: "Coffey -- he-a no show up."

THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CIVIL CITY OF NEW ALBANY, INDIANA, HELD A REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING IN THE THIRD FLOOR ASSEMBLY ROOM OF THE CITY/COUNTY BUILDING ON MONDAY, MARCH 6, 2017 AT 7:00 P.M.

MEMBERS PRESENT: Council Members Mr. Caesar, Mr. Phipps, Mr. Nash, Mr. Blair, Mr. Aebersold, Mr. Barksdale, Dr. Knable and President McLaughlin. Mr. Coffey was not present.

In spite of it all, there remains a valid reason to commend Coffey for a certain consistency of action. The second cardinal rule of New Albanian political geography is that Coffey's always in it for himself; consequently, he might be the only politician in town who is consistent with his gestures.

He may be repugnant, and quite possibly horrendous, but he's not hypocritical.

There's something to be learned from this, but is it too early to start drinking?

Events got all topical on us, but next week I hope to return to "Mr. Duggins Goes to Bob Lane's Old Office and Mistakes the Bidet for the Toilet." 

Yesterday:

SHANE'S EXCELLENT NEW WORDS: I'll match your customary gesture politics and raise you a spate of virtue signaling.

FLASHBACK: You say you want a resolution? Ya gotta take yer growth industries where ya find 'em.

---

Recent columns:

August 10: ON THE AVENUES: Super Tuesday shrapnel – or, tiptoeing through the tulips with Dan Coffey, now THE face of historic preservation in New Albany.

August 3: ON THE AVENUES: On the importance of being ancient.

July 27: ON THE AVENUES: Irish history with a musical chaser.

July 20: ON THE AVENUES DOUBLEHEADER (2): A book about Bunny Berigan, his life and times.