Social connections at the grassroots, or “the antidote to neoliberalism.”

Starting at the grassroots and building upward -- and knowing how to proceed based on the revolutionary idea of listening to people at the grassroots.

It doesn't result in campaign finance kickbacks from the usual top-down suspects, but it might just work.

Paging Mark Seabrook and the local GOP: our local Democrats have surrendered the initiative in such matters. It's your turn.

What do you think?

There’s an idea that could transform Britain – but Brexit won’t let it be heard, by Jonathan Freedland (The Guardian)

 ... (An idea to) utterly transform the public services we rely on from cradle to grave: an idea so bold and innovative it is winning admirers all over the world, its author summoned to address governments from Scandinavia to Latin America, its approach hailed on the opinion page of the New York Times as the “fix” for a broken welfare state – and yet all but ignored by the national government of the author’s home country, whose bandwidth is consumed entirely by Brexit.

It comes from a social entrepreneur by the name of Hilary Cottam. Full disclosure: I’ve known Cottam for years, long before she was named Designer of the Year in 2005 for her work reshaping schools, prisons and health facilities. She was subsequently described as being “to social design what Conran is to sofa design”.

I first met her in Washington in the mid-1990s, where she was ruffling feathers working for the World Bank. The bank’s modus operandi back then was to jet into a distant foreign capital, stay in a five-star hotel, conduct meetings with officials, then sign an agreement for, say, a $140m investment in a dam, before flying back to DC.

Cottam operated in a different way. She would head out of the capital, pitch up in a remote village or township on the outskirts and live for a week or two with the people of that community, talking especially to the women. After one such spell on the margins of Lusaka, Zambia, she heard what people there needed most. It involved water, but it wasn’t a dam. And it cost closer to $140 than $140m. What was it? A standpipe in the centre of the village – so that the women could collect water safely, rather than having to venture to a tap far out of the way, somewhere scary and dark. Simple, cheap – but utterly transformative of their lives.

Cottam did the same when she was tasked with turning around a failing school in the south London borough of Southwark. She talked to teachers and pupils and found that one reason children were not settling down to learn, why they acted as if they were not fully present, was that they never took off their coats. Why not? Because their lockers were in a badly lit corner where kids were liable to get bullied or beaten up, so no one ever went there. Cottam altered the design, bringing the lockers into the daylight: bullying went down and, thanks to that and a series of other such moves, academic attainment went up.

In the last decade or more, she’s been applying a similar approach to public services. In Radical Help – a book that’s been published from Denmark to South Korea – she describes five “experiments” in different areas of public provision, touching on every stage of life: adolescence, work, healthcare, social care for the elderly and social work for so-called troubled families. These were pilot schemes, backed by local councils who had often grown so desperate at the status quo and so determined to improve the lives of their residents, they were ready to try anything.

Take Circle, a scheme aimed at the elderly ...

At Strong Towns: "The surprising difficulty our towns face when it comes to the basic task of informing residents about public meetings."

That's why he's here.

As we've seen countless times in the past, it begins with a measure of authenticity (often lacking in New Albanian ruling circles) with regard to genuinely desiring public input.

It extends through fiascoes like the famous potted Mt. Tabor project final gathering (above), when the city engineer finally mustered the candor to concede that decisions already had been made, but please, speak as much as you like so we can go home.

Time and again, Team Gahan has indicated its preference for pre-determined outcomes over give-and-take. There's a simple solution: #FireGahan2019

4 PROBLEMS WITH THE WAY GOVERNMENTS COMMUNICATE ABOUT PUBLIC MEETINGS, by Rachel Quednau (Strong Towns)

Last week, I shared my frustrations about how hard it is to find out about public meetings in my city. I was overwhelmed by how many people responded to the piece. Some shared similar concerns. Others offered their perspective on these challenges as government employees themselves. Today, I want to review this conversation about the surprising difficulty our towns face when it comes to the basic task of informing residents about public meetings, and talk about some concrete solutions based on everyone’s feedback.

• 1. Requirements to publish public meeting notices in the local paper are very outdated.
• 2. Communicating in a variety of media is helpful, but it can also confuse people.
• 3. Restrictions on government communication make this whole process harder.
• 4. Some people just don’t think residents want to be involved.

To basics:

This whole discussion is about an incredibly basic thing: Making sure residents know about public meetings that are being held so they can get information and provide their input. We haven’t even touched on the issue of how meetings are held: where and when, what sort of transportation is available, what sort of childcare is provided, etc. — all of which have a tremendous impact on the ability of residents to really participate in local decision-making. (Check out these two articles for more on that.) But I think if we can't even get the communication aspect right, we don't have any hope of getting the access, timing and location right.

One of the core tenets of a Strong Towns approach is that you can't build a strong city or town without strong citizens. Let's figure out how to keep those citizens informed about what's happening in their community so they can be part of making it better.

BOW -- wow. Board of Works' refusal to communicate reaches bold new lows.

At the Tuesday, January 19 meeting of the Board of Public Works and Safety, Jim Ziegler of the Blackberry Ridge Homeowners Association returned (again) to speak with the board about the dangerous entrance to his subdivision, and the lack of action in addressing it.

(The BOW minutes are reprinted below as images. The weekly minutes are disseminated in the .pdf format, although certain other city boards use the far handier Word)

Ziegler first brought this to the board's attention on August 18, 2015, at a time when board's de facto dominatrix, Warren Nash, was busy seeking ways to thwart the street piano. On January 19, Ziegler noted his difficulty in keeping up with the board's apparent non-progress on his issue. In short, he's reading those .pdf files just like the rest of us.

Can there be a better way?

Following a lengthy digression, during which Ziegler tried his best to hold a recalcitrant city's feet to the fire, making the point that while the city didn't botch these safety issues in the beginning, it's the city's responsibility to correct them now, he asked who his point of BOW contact should be.

Nash replies: Why, these meetings, of course, and only these meetings, the Internet being a figment of the imagination of some geek who probably never attended a basketball game in his life.

As my colleague MC eloquently summarizes:

Yes, the meetings that always occur at 10 a.m. on weekdays. Yes, the board that has no e-mail address, no contact information for members of the board, no phone number, etc. Yep, lets make it easy for the public to communicate with the administration. Sickening.

That's right. Sickening.

The Board of Works currently exists for the convenience of city employees, not the general public. City Hall insists there is nothing wrong with BOW's non-communicative tradition.

City Hall is mistaken. Again.

Municipal non-communications, Part 1,483: "NAHS principal unhappy on officer decision timing."

Yogi Berra was right.

Page said she had left messages at the mayor’s office expressing her concerns, and said Mayor Jeff Gahan returned her call Thursday afternoon. She said she has been asking for an explanation for two weeks.

Let's go to a locally based educator to explain why this matters.

Wow. There we go again underestimating the power of positive relationships. It doesn't matter how good you are at your job - relationships take time to develop. Educators know that this stretch until spring break is the most difficult.

Of course, as another diligent observer of the locally scene commented this morning, "Her biggest frustration was the 'lack of communication.' How many times have we heard this about the Gahan administration?"

That's easy. How many days has there been a Gahan administration? Again, again ... and again. Same issue, expressed by different people from multiple vantage points.

NAHS principal unhappy on officer decision timing, by Chris Morris (Utica Press)

NEW ALBANY — A popular New Albany High School resource officer is being replaced, which has generated an unpopular response from administrators, teachers and students at the school.

Veteran New Albany Police Department Sgt. Perry Parsons has been assigned at the school as its resource officer for the past 2 1/2 years. However, he is being replaced by Officer Travis Nelson on Feb. 1. Parsons will become the department’s second-shift sergeant.

New Albany Principal Janet Page said the timing of replacing Parsons midway through the school year is “confusing.”

“I can’t understand, why pull a great officer who has built relationships with 2,000 kids and 200 adults over two years, without an explanation. I just don’t understand,” she said.

New Albany Police Chief Todd Bailey said he had no choice ...

Non-communicative eggs dripping from its face yet again, City Hall suggests an appropriation for extra towels.

This morning we referenced last week's Bored of Works meeting, at which the bored on the Bored were told that overflow parking at the new $9 million River Run family water facility was available right across a busy street at Holy Family.

New Albany's new slogan: "Truck Through City" ... Part 94: Save the swimming pedestrians and full trucking speed ahead.

NAC didn't know until later that a conversation* already was underway at Facebook, as initiated by a citizen parishioner, and making this point: 

Considering that the city's social media feed already was touting overflow parking at Holy Family, and seeing as the city tends to neglect parking issues downtown, had anyone from the city actually asked Holy Family?

Turns out they had, and been given a list of conditions, none of which made it to the city's social media feed, as posted by its public relations contractor. Someone at Holy Family noted this during the Fb conversation, and it appears that no substantive discussion of terms and liability had been undertaken prior to the triumphant announcement being made. 

Now, this from Daniel Suddeath, reporting from this morning's Bored meeting. 

They simply cannot communicate, can they? 

---

* These postings have since been removed.

That Thursday morning meeting with the city I twice told you about? Shockingly, it has been postponed.

Hmm, well, I do believe the empire is striking back, so score one for City Hall.

I've just learned that the Thursday morning meeting at The Exchange, as mentioned twice at NA Confidential, has been postponed.

Attention, downtown small business owners: Thursday, 20 November, 8:30 a.m. at The Exchange.

Downtown business owners, don't forget the meeting this Thursday.

Not that I've been informed of this in any official sense, but the Green Mouse has his impeccable sources. I know all of this is confusing, and the confusion probably isn't a coincidence, but here it is. Please bear with me.

1. The bimonthly City Hall-sponsored meeting on Thursday, originally planned for the exclusive attendance of selected representatives from non-profit organizations, to which I unilaterally invited all and sundry to attend, anyway, has been postponed. My guess is that it has been postponed precisely because I invited all and sundry to attend. I suspect City Hall currently is preparing to launch a Facebook site for these meetings, so I can be abruptly Adamned from it, as I have been v.v. the local Democratic Party.

2. The monthly downtown Merchant Meeting scheduled for tomorrow (Tuesday) at The Loft on Spring Street (above Colokial and Dress & Dwell) is still scheduled for 8:30 a.m. If you can make it to The Loft on Tuesday morning, please do so.

Downtown business owners, don't forget the meeting this Thursday.

Often I've taken New Albany city officials to task for having no economic development plan for downtown. Insofar as a coherent answer has been forthcoming, it has been muddled, and I'm not misrepresenting the tone of the response by phrasing it like this:

"But there isn't anything we can do because we don't have the proper tools to do anything."

As such, logic ordains this conclusion:

If you have been unable to do anything, then you cannot take credit for what has been done.

By the way, there's a meeting this week.

Attention, downtown small business owners: Thursday, 20 November, 8:30 a.m. at The Exchange.

(While small business owners are) not officially invited, (it's) the precise reason you should attend and provide YOUR update to the city's officials. Two-way communications are only fair, right? After all, the last such meeting took place just BEFORE Harvest Homecoming. There's a lot to talk about.

Bring questions and comments, and let me know you're coming.

Attention, downtown small business owners: Next Thursday, 20 November, 8:30 a.m. at The Exchange.

I received this notice from the city of New Albany. It refers to regularly scheduled meetings every other month, at which representatives of Develop New Albany, NA First, the food & drink organization in development and others come together to receive city updates.

Having promised to share this with fellow downtown business owners, permit me to do so. Understand that you're not officially invited -- which is the precise reason you should attend and provide YOUR update to the city's officials. Two-way communications are only fair, right? After all, the last such meeting took place just BEFORE Harvest Homecoming. There's a lot to talk about.

I'll bring extra doughnuts and coffee.

Who's in? Let me know if you're planning on coming.

"The next scheduled meeting for the downtown not-for-profit group is Thursday, November 20th, 8:30 am at The Exchange. Donuts, juice and coffee will be provided. This is an opportunity for you to receive an update on City of New Albany projects."

Speck in West Palm Beach. How will New Albany greet his study findings?

At Monday evening's city council meeting, there was a brief chat involving councilpersons Diane Benedetti and Greg Phipps. It came during my public comment offering, as I denounced the new era of Truck Through City.

Someone mentioned that the traffic study being conducted by Jeff Speck would address these and other issues, and CM Phipps said that it depended on whether we chose to follow the recommendations coming to us from Speck.

CM Benedetti then mentioned that according to what she has heard, City Hall is promising complete compliance with Speck's findings. I thought to myself: Funny; it sounds exactly like a banana republic unable to reform its own economy, vowing to the International Monetary Fund that all austerity dictates will be followed.

All of which points to certain bizarre truths -- and bizarre usually is the best we can hope for insofar as "truth" is concerned here in New Albany. For one, the conduit of public information as it pertains to Speck's ongoing work is being shielded by City Hall with the same degree of guarded apprehension as most of its bigger ticket endeavors. This is not an administration that places a high value on public discourse or participation, unless the latter can be controlled, as in the case of volunteerism.

If it did, the mayor might revisit the council chamber more often than once or twice a year, and CM Benedetti might not be forced to rely on what's she's heard lately. She'd know, and so would the rest of us.

More ominously, how will City Hall react to the Luddite backlash (see below) when Speck's study finally gets a public vetting?

Having spent neither time nor political capital in building public support for street grid reforms designed to facilitate walkability, and to the extent that it is sincere in making changes, the administration likely will implement reform only as a top-down decree (see Center, Aquatic). Inevitably, it will delay the more "threatening" of the changes (read "Two Way Spring and Elm Streets") until after next year's election.

In the current time of Jeffersonville pedestrian bridge envy, the best hope for reinventing New Albany is not the K & I magically being wrested from the cold, dead hands of Norfolk Southern. It isn't all the parks being built in a vacuum, reachable only by car, connected to nothing. Rather, it is performing immediate, shock angioplasty on the city's street grid by clearing it for use for walkers, bikers and other humans. In such a fashion, the entire city can be a pedestrian-friendly park, not merely one solitary bridge.

The entire city can be a pedestrian zone, which serves as a metaphorical bridge by virtue of connectivity. Jeff's bridge, while important and welcomed, cannot itself assist the life quality of life in a neighborhood, apart from the immediate vicinity.

But eliminating an arterial street can. Reordering the street grid can. Regarding the city organically, as an entity benefiting from walkability, can.

We need to begin the process now, and not wait for Speck's presumed political cover. It might require political courage. Do we have any?

It quite possibly is the dumbest question I've ever asked here.

Jeff Speck walkability study recommendations (Walkable West Palm Beach)


The dust is still settling from Jeff Speck’s monumental study on walkability. Not only did Jeff address downtown, his original scope, but also the northwest neighborhood and South Dixie. Very exciting times. Included are specific ways to make our streets safer, more comfortable for all users, more attractive and desirable, and ultimately lead to a higher tax base and more retail sales. Most of these ideas are very low cost and just require paint to restripe lanes and make better use of our existing infrastructure.

You have to expect resistance whenever change is proposed. On the City’s Facebook posting, a number of people have objected, although the overall sentiment is very positive for the changes. As these things go, usually the opponents come out in droves in social media and meetings, but the supporters have much less to say. We need to flip that if we want to see these changes carried out.

"Starving piranhas, no bonjour, no pleasantries, it was direct and crude."

Crude starving piranhas? Is it French cybersex, or the comments section at Chipped Kitchen Table Formica?

At any rate, the Minitel is obsolete.

Long live the Minitel.

France says farewell to the Minitel – the little box that connected a country, by Angelique Chrisafis (Guardian)

• Precursor to internet now redundant after 30 years
• Chunky terminals popular for cybersex and accounts

It is known as the "Little French Box", a 1980s design classic now seen as the ultimate in beige plastic kitsch. But once it was an audacious precursor to the world wide web, introduced the first cybersex into people's living rooms and had a user-friendly design that may have inspired Steve Jobs's first Macintosh computer.

Yet, on Saturday, the plug will finally be pulled on the Minitel machine, France's one-time pride and joy, 30 years after its launch ...

... The longer users stayed online messaging, the more the service providers made.

The musician Gerome Nox recently told the newspaper Libération how he had worked on one of the services posing as a hostess called Julie to attract men and keep them online as long as possible. He compared the men replying to his messages to "starving piranhas, no bonjour, no pleasantries, it was direct and crude". He said he decided to stop as "my Julie had become more and more disagreeable and hateful".

He unmasked himself, typing: "I'm not called Julie. I'm a man, just here to rack up your phone bill. You've been screwed, which was just what you wanted all along." He was fired.