Amazon, NYC, subsidies and YOUR town: "Tightening the parameters whereby cities can give out subsidies is a way to nudge us closer to that reality."

My social media feed was interesting last week. So many of you were angry: why would anyone NOT feed public money to a colossal monopolistic entity and fail to WELCOME its arrival to further squelch competition, fluff the oligarchs and concentrate amassed capital even further?

Me, for one. Sayeth a writer at The Nation:

The absurdities of the Amazon deal, which enraged New Yorkers and motivated them to fight back, are globalized absurdities present in every factory, every office, every farm, and every export-processing zone across the planet in which people are treated like cattle, offered by their governments to Amazon and other world-striding corporations as a cheap resource to be exploited. This outward-looking, supranational view is already implicit in New York’s anti-Amazon movement, which, much to the company’s displeasure, broadened its perspective to encompass Amazon’s general attitude toward unionization, corporate welfare, and immigration policy. In other words, the movement’s was a holistic critique: rejecting Amazon’s values for a wholly different idea of the kind of world we want.

Meanwhile Strong Towns shrinks the analysis to the micro, i.e. communities like ours and what we're willing to give away in the name of "economic development." There are other ways, though they're not always effective in building the personality cults of big fish in small ponds.

What Local Government Should Do in the Wake of Amazon's HQ2, by Charles Marohn (Strong Towns)

 ... How Baseball Resembles Economic Development
Last week Amazon announced that they were pulling out of the deal they had made with a handful of power-brokers in New York to build a new headquarters there. The traditional practice of negotiating these bad deals in private and then forcing them through the various approval processes based on sheer momentum is undermined by today’s populist mood. For those aspiring to political power, there is less to be gained by going along and being a good soldier. We live in interesting times.

I also don’t think it is lost on Amazon executives—or those of other major tech companies—that prior populist movements in the United States coincided with massive levels of wealth inequality and eventually led to the breakup of anti-competitive monopolies. Our grandchildren may study Amazon’s HQ2 shakedown as a turning point in the Gilded Tech Age.

I admit that I was confused about New York offering so much subsidy to Amazon. By my sense of how economic development works, if there was any city in North America that did not have to bribe a business to love them, it would be New York City, a highly-skilled workforce replete with tech workers with all the cosmopolitan amenities to attract the best workers in the world. New York has done all the up-front work; why not just sit back and let the deals come to them? It’s what they did with Google, which just announced a $1 billion expansion and 7,000 new jobs (without any subsidy).

Nowadays incremental local ecosystem improvements don't seem to be the strategy calculated to get you re-elected.

My hope is that cities would ultimately evolve to be like MLB teams: they would start to see that their resources would be better committed to growing their own talent within, to incrementally improving their own economic ecosystem instead of paying for free agents to pretend you’re their favorite team. It’s not happening, and I’m doubtful that it will, for reasons that MLB teams sometimes struggle with.

I love this idea of a citizen advisory group purposefully purged of usual suspects.

Establishing Ground Rules for Business Incentives
For state governments looking to strengthen their cities, I’m on record already as saying I would dramatically expand the municipal toolbox, but I’d limit the city’s annual debt service to 10% of locally-generated revenue. It’s a mechanism to prevent short-term thinking from blowing them up. I’d add to that some provisions on tax subsidies that allowed cities to be competitive, but limited how deep they could go. Something like:

• Set the maximum length of any deal to something less than seven years to keep current leadership from imperiling future leadership,
• Set the maximum annual dollar amount of any deal to something less than 2% of the city’s locally-generated revenue to keep any mistakes from damaging the system, and
• Set the maximum amount of a rebate to 50% of the amount of revenue generated from the deal, so that the new business has skin in the game.

If every city had to live by these rules—which would function, essentially, like a salary cap—it would limit the capacity of businesses to play local governments off against each other, at least within a state. I’m aware it would also limit how much smaller cities could give away to compete with larger cities—something many would call unfair. But I’ve worked and lived in small cities all my life; what they need most of all is enterprises scaled to them, not something vastly disproportionate that is only preying on their weakness.

Ultimately, what we all want is for the right business to be matched with the right city for the right reasons. Tightening the parameters whereby cities can give out subsidies is a way to nudge us closer to that reality.

And for populist advocates on the left and right who dislike these kind of deals, here’s how to be more effective. First, I recommend you educate yourselves on how these tax subsidies actually work. I’ve heard many advocates out there undermine their own credibility by suggesting things like, “We can use this money saved on schools and solar panels.” In fact, you didn’t save anything, you just didn’t collect any of the money you would have given away in subsidy. These kinds of corporate incentives come out of future taxes the company would otherwise owe, not from money that’s available up front.)

Then, I think you should advocate for two things in your community:

First, your city should have a set of values for when giving out tax subsidy is a good fit and what kinds of things would disqualify an applicant. Having such a document in advance, something that can be discussed community-wide, will counter the blindness that passion can create during decision-making.

Second, I’d recommend a broadly representative advisory group to study tax subsidy deals and make an independent recommendation before the deal gets to the city council. Some prominent business people that aren’t in the get-rich-quick game—more like an established banker than a real estate agent—along with someone from the school system, neighborhood groups, maybe a member of the clergy…. Just not the regulars. This group should be trained on how tax subsidy deals work. When a package is put together, they should be empowered to review it and report, not to the city council, but to the community at large, prior to any vote. The staff supporting them should not be the same staff that put together the deal.

Subsidies aren’t going away, but the failure of this Amazon deal—on multiple levels—should prompt us all to re-examine ways to improve our own local approach.

One Southern Indiana visits city council, sells $30,000 of pencils, and flies back to Abuja.

It was city council meeting night, as pushed back from the Labor Day holiday. I can't do Thursday meetings any longer, and during the days to follow, you'll be hearing about a few other changes in store; in short, I'm preparing to retire from polemics and devote full time to beer.

Seriously.

Seeing as I'm not the "cold turkey" type, we'll need to ease into polemical detachment.

Glancing at Chris Morris's coverage, I have a few questions, and I might as well ask them. Heaven knows the newspaper won't.

The full passage is reprinted below, but the shortcut: tonight was One Southern Indiana's annual pass-the-hat visit to Speed Through City.

Follow this handy * at the bottom to reminisce about a previous instance of this pageantry, which occurred eight years ago and was just as funny. According to Morris, 1Si has made good on its mission statement, which in essence is to take a commission for linking local government subsidies to corporate entities that rarely need them.

"The numbers back up their claim."

So says the reporter, but how does he know? Only because 1Si says so. Is there independent verification for these claims?

Who knows? Apparently, the reporter didn't ask.

"According to a 1si presentation, for every dollar the city of New Albany has invested into the organization’s economic development program, $4,321 has been created in new taxable capital by companies."

That's a far better return than offered by ex-Nigerian royalty. If true, then shouldn't the city of New Albany put all $3 million of its paving money into 1Si's economic development programs? I mean, we'd get lots more bang for the buck.

On second thought, strike that. Someone might mistake the satire for insider trading.

Sans snark: Is One Southern Indiana worth $30k annually? Yeah, probably. 1Si fluffed the oligarchs on the Sazerac transaction at Pillsbury, and that one's worth a finder's fee. If they can keep Wendy from purging the humanities majors, what 1Si is doing for vocational training alone probably merits the tithe.

But isn't it the job of journalists to ask questions and verify (or disprove) statistical assertions like 1Si's?

Isn't it true that the organization just about always gets a pass on matters like this because of what it says its doing?

New Albany gets two seats on 1si's Economic Development Council with donation, by Chris Morris (Tom May Lives Here)

NEW ALBANY — One Southern Indiana officials tout their work in encouraging companies to build, expand or remain in Clark and Floyd counties. And over the past 12 years, the numbers back up their claim.

Since 2006, 164 new projects have been announced which have resulted in 13,639 jobs, with 2,361 of those jobs based in New Albany. Also during that time, more than $500 million in payroll has been added either by existing or new companies.

According to a 1si presentation, for every dollar the city of New Albany has invested into the organization’s economic development program, $4,321 has been created in new taxable capital by companies.

In order to continue that work through its economic development programs, those same officials asked the New Albany City Council for $30,000 for 2019 at Thursday’s meeting. The donation also will give the city two seats on 1si’s Economic Development Council, and will give the city’s logo a proper location on advertising materials.

The request, on the first two readings, passed unanimously. The money will come out of the Economic Development Income Tax fund should it pass a third reading.

Last year the council appropriated the same amount to be used for a more specific program, 1si’s talent development initiative.

---

* In 2010, the question was whether the city would be giving $75,000 to 1Si, and some of us thought the money would be better spent by ourselves, for ourselves.I sarcastically (!) offered to serve as intermediary.

I’d like to submit a bid, billable to my consulting company, Potable Curmudgeon, Inc.

I’ve already asked Pete at Digital Resource Center in downtown New Albany to help with the estimate.

We’ll be publishing a couple hundred glossy ringed binders filled with testimonials, pie graphs, statistics, and artfully retouched 1Si press releases. Sleekly professional, though not ostentatious, their design will befit the buttoned-down aspirations of self-respecting Southern Indiana CEOs, each of whom can be counted upon to strategically place the unopened binder on one corner of their desks, where its multi-colored ubiquity will attest to the veracity of the contents.

The beauty of Potable Curmudgeon Inc.’s plan, which we’re calling “Res ipsa loquitur, Southern Indiana,” is that its existence is definitive proof of its value. The binders will serve as unimpeachable evidence of economic development success. Why? Because the binder says so.

Can we prove any of it? Of course … you DO have a binder in your hands, right? What more proof do you need?

If the city council acts today, Potable Curmudgeon Inc. will extend a remarkable 50% reduction to just $35,000 for regional economic development, renewable each and every year, and with binders available in a wide range of different colors to satisfy the interior décor of local corporate headquarters.

Except green.

For some reason, it’s just not a popular color around here.

Louisville's Logan Street Market reminds us of downtown New Albany's missed market opportunity.

The advent of the Logan Street Market in Louisville (below; also reported at Insider Louisville) annoyingly recalls New Albany's discarded chance to construct a farmers market at a more suitable downtown location, and in conjunction with other food-related developments as part of a coherent overall plan.

(laugh track inserted here) 

City Hall had no such overall plan, and still doesn't, only piecemeal paybacks, but apart from this it isn't necessary to go any further than developer Matt Chalfant's forthcoming condo construction on the southeastern corner of Main and Bank.

A building like this should have been prioritized for the footprint now taken up by the farmers market. It still should. Infill and residency are more important, and the very concept of a farmers market lends itself to mobility. The farmers market might yet be moved to a location in need of an upgrade, as attached to a year-round concept just like ... well, the Logan Street Market.

But no, not in #HisNA. Beaks were wetted, envelopes exchanged, and an opportunity squandered. In other words, Gahanism 101.

First, the link to the Logan Street Market story at the CJ. Then, an NAC posting from 2015 that ties it together.

A 21st-century grocery model: Public market to open by summer in Shelby Park, by Bailey Loosemore (Louisville Courier Journal)

By summer, Louisville will once again be home to a year-round public market — thanks to two entrepreneurs and a $1-million investment.

The Logan Street Market, proposed by Mike and Medora Safai, will feature more than two dozen vendors selling locally sourced foods, including fruits, vegetables, meats and cheeses.

It's expected both to fill a need in its surrounding neighborhoods and serve as a tourist attraction for Louisville as a whole.

Word of the market has been circulating since early 2017, with some questioning whether the project would ever come into existence. But many remaining doubts were quashed over the weekend when the Safais held a preview party at the market's proposed space in Shelby Park.

"Tonight, people are still asking me, 'Do you think it's really going to happen?'" Mike Safai said Saturday. "Would I spend all this money on this party if it wasn't going to happen?"

(Technically, public indoor markets have been around for centuries, with the most famous perhaps being the Pike Place Market in Seattle. In Louisville, the Haymarket existed on Jefferson Street in various renditions from 1891 to 2003.)

---

March 30, 2015

Jeff Gahan's quarter-million dollar farmers market fluff job commences this week.

And yet, Bank remains a one-way street, just like our politics.

Yes, every City Hall argument deployed in favoring the Coyle site development simultaneously argues AGAINST the farmers market build-out.

The build-out begins this week. By the way, it’s an election year.

From December, 2014, after the city did what is said it wouldn't ...

Farmers Market expenditure: Nash, Board of Works rubber stamp flat Duggins "wait" lie.

 ... here are ...

10 reasons why Jeff Gahan's quarter-million dollar farmers market fluff job is wrong for New Albany.

It squanders irreplaceable infill residential potential on what might be a signature downtown corner – at a time when City Hall insists that such infill is a priority.

As such, it offers yet another example of disjointed, congratulatory-plaque-ready “thinking” that does not adhere to a coherent, self-reinforcing master plan.

It blatantly contradicts City Hall’s publicly stated intent to wait for the Speck street study before making a decision.

It blatantly contradicts the city council’s publicly stated position in favor of waiting for the Speck street study.

It reinforces Jeff Gahan’s enduring (and increasing disturbing) contempt for pluralism and public discussion.

It provides yet another example of Jeff Gahan’s enduring (and increasingly disturbing) penchant for edicts as rubber-stamped through clandestine activity with appointed boards, as opposed to public votes taken by elected officials.

It plainly rewards the wrong merchants, given that any money given to farmers (and to most vendors) does not remain in the city.

It just as plainly reminds us that as yet, there is no coherent downtown economic development plan to reward the right merchants, namely the ones who have invested in downtown, rather than loaded a truck with tomatoes from Orange County.

It may not even reward Develop New Albany, which for its many terminal faults has managed to steward the farmers market successfully, but likely now will see the market come under the control of the city parks department.

As such, City Hall’s latest exculpatory explanation that $250,000 will buy a facility suitable for use not only as a farmers market, but also as a likely parks department-controlled venue for other events (a) once again points to the unsuitability of Bicentennial Park as a venue; (b) once again points to the ongoing neglect of the Riverfront Amphitheater; (c) once again is an inefficient use of city property better saved for infill; and (d) once again testifies to City Hall’s proclivity for scattershot political appeasement rather than coherent, interlinked progress.

Now, ten links.

Farmers Market expenditure: Nash, Board of Works rubber stamp flat Duggins "wait" lie.

Gahan now "open" to street changes in Speck study initiated by Gahan.

In which it is revealed that the farmers market expansion will be delayed a year pending further review.

Council and city hall in unison: "New Albany Farmers Market project not high on priority list."

Multitudinous farmers market. Zero permanent infrastructure.

Applying the Bloomington solution to New Albany's farmers market.

On the farmers market in Bloomington, and how smart things make us look dumb.

Mrs. Baird inadvertently reveals the crux of the $321K farmers market lotto: "There was not a lot of discussion about it."

The farmers market in Madison WI lacks facilities. No one goes there any longer because it's too crowded.

DNA can come out of the farmers market dust-up smelling like the proverbial rose. All it needs to do is follow this script.

Strong Towns Week: A hat trick by Marohn (autocentrism's cost, invasive semi-trailers and insidious Wal-Mart).

I'm a member of Strong Towns, and suggest you take advantage of this week's "greatest hits" output ...

This week, we are focusing on exposing new people to the Strong Towns message. That’s why we’re posting some of our best content of all time and asking YOU to share it. We’ve set a big goal — doubling our weekly audience — and we need your help to do it.

Sharing our content is one small but vital step you can take to help build a world of a million people who care about our mission. If this article inspires you, please take a moment to share it with someone else.

... to familiarize yourself with the organization's mission:

"For the United States to be a prosperous country, it must have strong cities, towns and neighborhoods. Enduring prosperity for our communities cannot be artificially created from the outside but must be built from within, incrementally over time."

Here are three conceptually linked articles by the organization's founder.

1. "A simple comparison of traditional & auto-oriented development styles. Guess which is more financially productive."

THE COST OF AUTO ORIENTATION, by Charles Marohn

In the United States we've spent the last sixty years reconfiguring our public spaces to accommodate the automobile. The built-in assumption of this approach, especially when it comes to commercial property, is that the more cars driving by the better. In our haste to modernize, what we've overlooked is the lower return on investment we get from this approach, even under ideal conditions. Today we need the humility to acknowledge that our ancestors, who built in the traditional style, may have known what they were doing after all.

2. "No, semis are not a valid reason to build dangerously wide streets."

TRACTOR TRAILER TRADEOFF, by Charles Marohn

... During Big Box Stores Week, I received the proverbial semi-trailer comment. Chuck, I agree that we need to look at street design, but we can only change things so much because we need to accommodate semis.

So logical yet so wrong.

.. Efficiency is one of the core values of our economic system. We don’t care if we’re doing the right thing or not – or, more precisely, our economists assume we are – so long as we do it more and more efficiently. Hauling one big load of merchandise is far more efficient than hauling multiple, smaller loads. Thus whoever can configure their operation to take advantage of this efficiency should win, right?

3. "If cities did the math on these kind of developments, not another one would ever be built."

THE WALMART TROPHY, by Charles Marohn

Walmart builds cheap buildings in order to sell Americans cheap stuff. Joe Minicozzi has documented brilliantly how, the cheaper the store and the more land it wastes, the lower the taxes. The Walmart land development model has taken the concept of "buying in bulk" and applied it to the land in your city. Their goal -- lower every cost -- is directly at odds with the financial health of your community ...

... Walmart buildings are designed to last 15 to 20 years. Simply the city's commitment to maintain the necessary infrastructure extends generations beyond that, let alone the cost of policing and other needed services. If cities did the math on these kind of developments, not another one would ever be built.

Metro Louisville's pitch to Amazon promises “a quality of life second to none for every Amazonian.”

Dude.

Amazonian

Am·a·zo·ni·an

1. of, like, or characteristic of an Amazon
2. [oftena-] of an amazon; tall, strong, aggressive, etc.: said of a woman
3. of the Amazon River or the country around it

Promising (at least to me, given my proclivities), but maybe GLI, Wendy and the gang should have found a few liberal arts majors to work on the prose -- or pros, as opposed to amateurs.

Exclusive: Greater Louisville’s Amazon proposal, a great pitch, or a foul ball? (LEO Weekly)

We knew it would not be long before the local application for Amazon’s second headquarters was leaked, and it so happens that LEO got a peek at it — first.

The bid detailed on a six-part website, a collaboration of government and business leaders in Louisville, Kentucky and Southern Indiana, touts the region’s obvious, best selling point — location, location, location. It also employs expected hyperbole — “unprecedented collaboration with university and public administration partnerships, as well as strong incentives and easy transit.” Ha! “Easy transit …” And then there is the boast of “a quality of life second to none for every Amazonian.”

In what seemed like defeatist, meta, self-reflection, the introduction says picking Louisville involves “swinging for the fences” because we “may not be the obvious choice for Amazon, but we are the bold choice.” The phrasing and, as it turns out, much of the intro video, parrots Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ annual shareholder letter. Using his words is smart, perhaps, but once he gets the joke, will Bezos be willing to risk a $5 billion mistake… er, investment by coming here? ...

... Certainly, in the coming days and weeks, arguments will be had about the proposal’s content. We thought it would be instructive to take a critical look at how the proposal was presented — Did Louisville use its millisecond elevator pitch effectively, or has the door shut on us before we had a chance? So we asked someone from a local advertising agency for their thoughts (he asked to remain anonymous) ...

Previously:

Amazon's bid: More required reading that Wendy Dant Chesser and One Southern Indiana will add to their bonfire of the vacuities.

Maybe Dugout needs to dishevel harder.

On second thought, maybe he uses an alias.

The Midwest: Next time around, "will Democrats serve the 80% of us that this modern economy has left behind?"

To introduce this link, I'll once again defer to the junior editor, Jeff Gillenwater.

Number of times Joe and Josephine have voted for Democrats because the two of them believe the U.S. should implement a universal healthcare system: 23

Number of times any of the Democrats for whom they've repeatedly voted have actually supported the implementation of a universal healthcare system: 0

Number of times Joe and Josephine have insisted that the real problem with the country is a bunch of rubes elsewhere who are too dumb to vote in their own interest: 257

Is the chairman woke yet?

ON THE AVENUES: Dear Mr. Dizznee: Can you hear me now?

The hypocrisy keeps getting deeper, the metaphorical sewage is rising, and pretty soon coffee break will be over, and it’ll be back to standing on your head, counting the recent catastrophes.

As the young folks like to say, that Thomas Frank -- he's just killing it.

I can't help noticing that while the local Democratic Party hierarchy has kept me blockaded for more than three years, numerous "rank and file" Democrats continue to engage in conversation (rather like all those Catholics in Italy ignoring the Vatican's edicts on birth control), and many of them can't seem to come up with rejoinders to Frank's points.

Until they do, doubling down on failed comprehension seems unlikely to bear electoral fruit, but what does this apostate know, anyway?

The Democrats' Davos ideology won't win back the midwest (The Guardian)

And what I am here to say is that the midwest is not an exotic place. It isn’t a benighted region of unknowable people and mysterious urges. It isn’t backward or hopelessly superstitious or hostile to learning. It is solid, familiar, ordinary America, and Democrats can have no excuse for not seeing the wave of heartland rage that swamped them last November.

Another thing that is inexcusable from Democrats: surprise at the economic disasters that have befallen the midwestern cities and states that they used to represent.

The wreckage that you see every day as you tour this part of the country is the utterly predictable fruit of the Democratic party’s neoliberal turn. Every time our liberal leaders signed off on some lousy trade deal, figuring that working-class people had “nowhere else to go,” they were making what happened last November a little more likely.

Louisville City FC set to announce Butchertown stadium location as the Bud Light Limes flow like unabated storm water over at the Roadhouse.

As you can see from the satellite image, these 40 acres do not lie somewhere off Grant Line Road.

Louisville City FC targeting these 40 acres for soccer stadium, by Marty Finley (Louisville Business First)

The ownership of Louisville City FC has 40 acres in the Butchertown neighborhood – off Cabel, Adams and Campbell streets – under contract for a new soccer stadium that would be flanked by other commercial development.

A source close to the team told Louisville Business First Tuesday evening that the team's owners have entered into contracts to purchase the former Challenger Lifts Inc. property on Cabel Street and two other contiguous properties that are now home to Extra Space Storage and Marshall's Auto Parts Inc. A shuttered property across Campbell Street known locally as the tank farm also is under contract.

We tried, but our TIF areas just couldn't do it.

Talk briefly turned to placing a stadium across the river in New Albany, but Louisville City FC officials quickly moved to tamp down that speculation, calling it a last resort and stressing that Louisville was still a priority.

Previously at NAC:

Shock and awe: It appears that New Albany's luxury soccer stadium offer has arrived at the Dead Letter Office.

But can Deaf Gahan somehow outbid Louisville for soccer stadium economic development nirvana?

ON THE AVENUES: Gahan's stadium arcadium kicks off a new year with hilarity, pathos and own goals.

I just love it when One Southern Indiana talks dummy text gibberish to me.

After all, it's largely indistinguishable from the English words the organization uses.

Inkem binkem notamus rex, protect us all from the usual suspects with the hex.

Perhaps Mayor Gahan can convince Develop New Albany to let One Southern Indiana use Pro Media's official municipal webmaster and propaganda feed. Unlike the newspaper, it isn't based in Jeffersonville ... is it?

Shock and awe: It appears that New Albany's luxury soccer stadium offer has arrived at the Dead Letter Office.

You'll recall the first yuuuuge local headline of 2017, courtesy of Boris Ladwig at Insider Louisville.

ON THE AVENUES: Gahan's stadium arcadium kicks off a new year with hilarity, pathos and own goals.

... Such was their enthusiasm for this idea, at a price tag of as much as $30 million, that New Albany’s Mayor Gahan, his adjutant David Duggins and their council fixer, Pat “His Master’s Voice” McLaughlin, apparently spoke openly with Ladwig. In the aftermath, they were left looking like naïve rubes propped atop an incoming hay wagon when Neace and Louisville City FC’s varied clarifications began flowing the morning following Ladwig’s story.

Three weeks have passed, and evidently the bloodhounds have tracked Louisville City FC's stadium chase back to a location in downtown Louisville, leaving New Albanians to ruefully shake their heads and ponder whether Team Gahan went for the glamorous bait with or without a proper sense of ironic detachment -- in short, did New Albany play its nodding, nudging, winking role so as to concentrate the thinking of Mayor Fischer's economic incentives hit squad, or did we really believe we were in The Game?

Only the mildewed Down Low Bunker walls know for sure, and as usual, the principal players aren't talking. Earlier this week, Louisville City FC disgorged a press release, which was incorporated into an article at WLKY, which was reprinted by IL with permission, prior to these stories being artfully cut and pasted together to form an unattributed story at the News and Tribune.

Let's reference the club's own words, shall we?

Louisville City FC has entered into partnership with global architecture firm HOK for design of a soccer-specific stadium and adjacent development projects, a key step in the club’s pursuit of a long-term home.

HOK will provide the vision for a 10,000-seat stadium that could later expand in capacity to 20,000. The overall site plan will also include space for office and retail development.

“We’re getting closer to securing a lot in urban Louisville, and now we’re thinking about what we can build on it,” said LouCity Chairman John Neace. “HOK’s work ensures that once a location is determined, community members will have a tangible picture of Louisville City FC’s future.”

Ladwig provides further background here: Soccer official: Division II status brings broadcasting, sponsorship opportunities for Louisville City FC.

... For LouCity, this year, its third in the league, is shaping up to be a pivotal year. Club leaders have identified the need for a soccer-specific stadium as their primary goal this year. The club hopes to build a $25 million venue in Louisville, but hasn’t ruled out moving to Southern Indiana, depending on how the finances work out. Chairman John Neace has said that the local owners plan to raise millions of private dollars toward construction, but likely will need some public support to make the stadium a reality.

But can Deaf Gahan somehow outbid Louisville for soccer stadium economic development nirvana?

Previously: ON THE AVENUES: Gahan's stadium arcadium kicks off a new year with hilarity, pathos and own goals.

Now that Jeffersonville has sensibly opted out of the spectacle, New Albany remains part of this story line primarily because the American pastime of sports stadium building requires two municipalities to be played against each other. It makes no sense any other way.

Some council members open to helping soccer club build stadium, by Boris Ladwig (Insider Louisville)

A few Louisville Metro Council members say they are open to providing some government incentives to help Louisville City FC build a soccer stadium in Louisville.

Club management reminds recalcitrant Louisville politicos that the bait's still dangling over on the Sunny Side, where some public officials have been known to "take" used chewing gum in route to their quadrennial spawning grounds.

LouCity Chairman John Neace has said that without a soccer-specific stadium, the club probably would leave Louisville because it cannot generate enough revenue from sponsorships and concessions. All of the concession sales at each LouCity home game go to the baseball team, as do up to $15,000 of LouCity’s annual suite sales. Neace said the soccer club lost more than $1 million last year.

Club officials have said that they would prefer building a stadium in Louisville — but they have not ruled out locations in Southern Indiana. City officials in New Albany, for example, have told IL that they’ve had preliminary discussions with Neace about developing a stadium there. Neace pegged the stadium cost at about $25 million. The club plans to release more detailed proposals in about a month.

But here's the observation that best captures the "business as usual" aspect of it.

Mayor Fischer’s office last week referred IL’s questions to Louisville Forward, the metro government’s economic development arm, which declined to answer questions about whether it would be open to considering specific types of incentives, such as direct financial support, a tax moratorium or the creation of a tax increment financing district. Louisville Forward directed IL to an FAQ that it released along with the feasibility study, in which the city says that it has not yet decided to participate in building the stadium.

It's economic development, y'all -- and isn't Eastridge Drive desperately in need of some?

ON THE AVENUES: Gahan's stadium arcadium kicks off a new year with hilarity, pathos and own goals.

ON THE AVENUES: Gahan's stadium arcadium kicks off a new year with hilarity, pathos and own goals.

A weekly column by Roger A. Baylor.

We don't go into journalism to be popular. It is our job to seek the truth and put constant pressure on our leaders until we get answers.
-- Helen Thomas

I haven't met Boris Ladwig, who writes for Insider Louisville, but I owe him a beer or two. You do, too.

Let's hope he drinks. If not, maybe some tacos.

On Tuesday, Ladwig managed the unfathomable, at least by area standards of journalistic timidity. He went out, gathered facts, recorded comments, linked them together in a news story -- and prompted immediate mass confusion and hurried spin-doctoring among those accustomed to operating in hushed back corridors.

Soccer club considering New Albany for stadium.

Bully for Ladwig, who revealed at least some of the machinations (including a tell-tale hook lodged in Jeff Gahan’s mouth) behind Louisville City FC’s bid for a new 10,000 seat soccer stadium, as expandable to 20,000 when or if the big time comes beckoning.

Ladwig should receive some sort of award for sending the usual suspects scurrying, which after all is the Fourth Estate’s job, even if Bill Hanson never received the memo.

We simply had no right to expect this much scintillating entertainment, this soon in the New Year.

Thank you, Mr. Ladwig.

---

To recap, Ladwig’s article at IL reiterated that Louisville City FC needs a stadium to survive, owing to the limitations of cohabiting Louisville Slugger Field (a facility not built with soccer in mind) with the forever avaricious Louisville Bats baseball team.

In the view of an artistically (if not financially) successful Louisville City FC franchise, itself undergoing management changes and internal restructuring, Greg Fischer’s Louisville metro government has not responded with sufficient zeal to the inevitable public financing portion of any future Louisville stadium deal, and consequently, the soccer club’s chairman John Neace did what any pro sports team executive would do in similar circumstances.

He went fishing elsewhere, and what better locale than his own backyard in Southern Indiana?

It bears repeating that unfortunately, there is nothing unusual about any of this. Fish swim, birds fly, and American sports teams seek new venues, ones preferably financed by someone or something else, with teams retaining as many of the profitable building blocks (naming rights, concessions, luxury suites) as possible, while offloading the more onerous and costly ones (transportation, game day policing, parking garages), almost always to local and regional governments.

Voluminous research has been conducted on the topic of whether the “economic development” pluses of such projects outweigh the minuses, and almost all of these studies agree that the predicted panaceas seldom come to pass.

Sports stadiums do not generate significant local economic growth, Stanford expert says.

But P.T. Barnum was right, and a mayor is born somewhere every minute. For whatever reason, sports teams usually get the lopsided deal they’re seeking, perhaps because politicians instinctively recognize the enduring truth of the axiom about bread and circuses, and understand that a populace distracted by the utter irrelevance of pro sports might not pay attention to what’s behind Door Number Three.

Obviously, a third tier professional soccer club is not operating at the rarified heights of billion-dollar edifices like Jerry Jones’ crib in Dallas, or the forthcoming Atlanta Braves complex in Cobb County, Georgia. At the same time, just as the rules of the game in question remain the same at any level or performance, so do the logistics, as adjusted for local economies of scale.

So, off went Neace to chat with area officials, and some months later, Ladwig wrote about it. Before a day had passed, Neace began reassuring Louisvillians that there was nothing to the story – and even more provocatively, a Louisville City FC official denied that there had ever been meetings … with Gahan, who already had told Ladwig there were. WFPL has this one:

A soccer club spokesman, Jonathan Lintner, said Neace has had no “formal meeting” with officials in New Albany.

“He lives in southern Indiana and does a lot of business there, however, and the subject may have come up,” Lintner said.

Nice try, Jonathan, except that when asked by the News and Tribune’s Elizabeth Beilman, Jeffersonville Mayor Mike Moore left no doubt that he too had been approached by the soccer club – and if Moore had, surely Gahan had, too.

Jeffersonville was also eyed as a potential home for a stadium. Mayor Mike Moore said he was approached by LouCity ownership in August.

But after some thought, he declined.

"I told them, you know I'm loyal to Louisville," Moore said. "I'm not going to do this to Louisville."

Snagging a pro-sports soccer stadium would be "an incredible feat" for Jeffersonville or New Albany, he added.

"I think they are using New Albany as a tool to get Louisville to do what they want," Moore said.

Ouch.

Moore conjures pure eloquence with these comments. He sets Louisville FC straight, soothes potentially ruffled Kentucky feathers and tweaks Gahan’s gullibility, all at once. Moore drinks nasty multinational beer, but that’s an admirable trifecta, nonetheless.

Such was their enthusiasm for this idea, at a price tag of as much as $30 million, that New Albany’s Mayor Gahan, his adjutant David Duggins and their council fixer, Pat “His Master’s Voice” McLaughlin, apparently spoke openly with Ladwig. In the aftermath, they were left looking like naïve rubes propped atop an incoming hay wagon when Neace and Louisville City FC’s varied clarifications began flowing the morning following Ladwig’s story.

At this point, Neace had his own problems, as the lightning fast backlash from fans residing in Kentucky was immediate and venomous, particularly in the sense of social media denunciations of Indiana in general, and New Albany specifically, as abominable post-nuclear wastelands inhabited by the dazed, stunted remnants of human civilization.

But enough about the Redevelopment Commission.

---

To summarize, Team Gahan has been left to dangle, appearing overly eager to participate in a far-fetched stadium project that might garner 10% of the public vote in a referendum -- I’m being optimistic -- at a time when so many genuine economic development issues still languish.

Furthermore, the revelation that Gahan’s latest bright shiny bauble had been planned in secrecy for months has baffled and angered some council representatives. Will there be ramifications for McLaughlin tonight, as the council chooses a president, and he surely seeks another year to enforce the Gahan Campaign Finance Doctrine?

Given Neace’s obvious power and influence, it’s easy to imagine Team Gahan convening at the Roadhouse over Bud Light Limes, deliriously plotting the many Byzantine “development” deals to accrue from a stadium, whether land swaps, beak wetting, luxury housing or just a few used freight cars to move those folks persistently residing below the city’s poverty line to fresher beginnings, safely out of the way of the next upscale miracle to define this presumably Democratic mayor’s leaden grip.

When it comes to sports, it’s always a fine idea to be good at something – rebound like Dennis Rodman, pitch left-handed like Jesse Orosco, or use your face to stop the puck, like Gump Worsley.

As the New Albany City FC stadium fiasco illustrates, our City Hall is good at own goals, but thanks again to Ladwig for sparing us the ordeal of arguing against the idiocy. We can share those beers, if you like.

(For links to NAC's coverage of the comedy, go here)

---

Recent columns:

December 29: ON THE AVENUES: The 45 46 Most Popular NA Confidential Stories of 2016.

December 22: ON THE AVENUES: For New Albany’s Person of the Year, the timeless words of Mother Jones: “Pray for the dead, and fight like hell for the living.”

December 15: ON THE AVENUES: Truth, lies, music, and a trick of the Christmas tale (2016).

December 8: ON THE AVENUES: It’s never too late to beer all over again.

An assault on impregnable Summit Sprigs? A Break Wind bocce break-in? The Great Cannon Acres Bear Pit heist?

When some suits and the Econ Dev director convene at Quills, can full frontal TIF-fing be very far behind? But give 'em credit; by their standards, it's kinda sorta a public meeting.

After a while, a new top secret diagram was brought in by special ops. From a distance, it looked like an aerial view of a hilltop. Perhaps we're preparing to invade Floyds Knobs and grab some of that cool hospital cash.

Beilman: "We didn't miss this story, you missed our coverage of it."

Hey, fair's fair.

I wrote:

Utica: "Caught in the path of an approaching juggernaut being driven by everyone else's development goals."

It's surprising that N and T's platoon of Clark County reporters missed this story. Perhaps they were at Eastside, rolling out the folding chairs for Cooking School.

One of the members of the Clark County newspaper's platoon, Elizabeth Beilman, left a new comment on the post, and I reprint it here verbatim.

Roger,

We didn't miss this story, you missed our coverage of it.

Enjoy:

http://www.newsandtribune.com/news/developer-s-plans-near-east-end-bridge-thwarted/article_7600a7c0-a37d-11e5-8ff5-cfe995e6cc19.html

http://www.newsandtribune.com/news/utica-protests-location-of-indot-maintenance-facility/article_004a2db6-ae78-11e5-8259-67d9e5f3d61c.html

http://www.newsandtribune.com/news/utica-seeks-help-from-state-on-road-damage-from-bridge/article_19dab3fa-d055-11e5-bd3a-af2f3f08c569.html

Kindly,

Elizabeth Beilman

Utica: "Caught in the path of an approaching juggernaut being driven by everyone else's development goals."

Perhaps "told ya so" isn't the most diplomatic utterance.

It's surprising that N and T's platoon of Clark County reporters missed this story. Perhaps they were at Eastside, rolling out the folding chairs for Cooking School.

Utica leader on bridge: 'Our town's destroyed', by Lexy Gross (Courier-Journal)

When the East End bridge project began in 2012, the top elected official of Utica, Ind., was "thrilled to death" for the span that would connect his town of 800 to Prospect, Ky.

Those dreams of economic development and growth now seem far-fetched, said Utica Council President Steve Long as he sat in the town's community center, his truck parked out back with fresh bread in the backseat awaiting delivery.

"Our town's destroyed," he said. "... I know construction takes time and makes a mess, but you reap the benefits. Utica is not reaping the benefits."

An AWOL Jeff Gahan sends the usual subaltern to provide sound bite for newspaper article about Pillsbury's job fair.

Here's the quote:

Mike Hall, director of operations with the city of New Albany, said as far as what might replace Pillsbury, the General Mills real estate division has been showing the property.

“We're optimistic that it will be filled,” he said.

And here's the full article.

Finding closure, then work: Pillsbury holds job fair in New Albany to help displaced employees; Plant will cease operations in August, by Aprile Rickert (River Ridge Sentinal)

Leadership -- what a concept!

October 21, 2015:

Precedent suggests Duggins should have offered Sonoco roughly $1.33 million to close AFTER the election.

"VOTING to change a city seal? In Nawbony it's done by administrative fiat."

Remember that time when the people of New Albany voted to change the city's seal?

You don't remember?

That's only because it didn't happen.

City Hall's resident Sellersburgian functionary wanted a visual "branding" marker more in keeping with Pillsbury's ignominious departure than the forward progress denoted by a moving steamboat, and so overnight, we embraced the imagery of anchor-in-mud-flats.

Evidently metaphor is not a concept taught during Charles Atlas' economic dishevelment correspondence course. Let's rewind the film to April, 2015 ...

Seals, branding mechanisms and a city anchored into place by sheer dullness of bureaucratic intent.

City Hall don't Google: Just look at all these anchor seals and logos and brands.

Branding mud-struck: Why did the city of New Albany steal Anchor Brewing's seal?

As McLaughlin dozes, Coffey expresses his dislike of fuddy-duddy steamboat seal-bearing visitors.

Thanks to the Bookseller for pointing to this article and providing the title of the post.

I'm Loving It! (TPB)

In a highly proud day for the State of New York, the village of Whitesboro, New York has voted to retain the village seal which appears to show a white man throttling or chocking an Indian. As I said, a proud moment, though village resident Scott Hastings, makes clear that he won't be pushed around. "Political correctness, who cares? This is our village, who cares what the world thinks? I want to see this settled today. Once and for all."

But part of me wonders whether this isn't a more appropriate or at least more historically accurate way of representing the country's and perhaps this village's origins ...

ON THE AVENUES: A year later, the backroom politics of pure spite at Haughey’s Tavern still reek.

ON THE AVENUES: A year later, the backroom politics of pure spite at Haughey’s Tavern still reek.

A weekly web column by Roger A. Baylor.

In September of 2014, the city of New Albany demolished the historic Haughey’s Tavern building at 922 Culbertson Avenue. There'll be more explanatory links at the conclusion, but for now, here's an overview from the archives.

Oct 2, 2014: ON THE AVENUES: Now on tap at the ghost of Haughey’s Place: The politics of pure spite.

The vacant space subsequently was folded into pre-existing and thoroughly secretive plans for erecting six New Directions houses, which have since been completed, and form one of Jeff Gahan’s re-election platform planks – this being a prime reason the potted events occurred in the first place.

Four of the new houses are in a row across Culbertson from the ghost of Haughey’s, and two occupy the tavern’s decimated footprint.

Let’s try not to forget the central point, one consistently obscured by Team Gahan’s relentless, PAC-financed and self-serving propaganda machine: Haughey’s Tavern might have been saved and rehabilitated into the sort of street corner anchor that these two new houses are utterly incapable of being, now or ever.

After all, Haughey’s did it for more than 125 years, with various occupants surviving floods, tornadoes, ice storms and changing times ... until Gahan's suburban-over-urban logic came along.

There are numerous vacant spaces nearby where houses might yet be built, and in fact, since this disgraceful act unfolded behind closed door last year, the city has yet to present a coherent plan for affordable infill housing – at 922 Culbertson, or anywhere else.

This shameful absence only continues to be accentuated by the shameless non-public process prefacing the unnecessary Haughey’s demolition.

Just as there is much to be learned by any human society’s treatment of its most challenged members, we can derive insight as to the behavioral patterns of the Gahan administration in recalling this story, which is not for the faint of heart.

The narrative that follows is based on several composite sources. Some people directly involved spoke to me about the experience, but given the mayor’s vengeful tendencies, they would not do so for attribution. If anyone mentioned herein objects to my characterization, I'll retract it, though I think it's accurate. Maybe some day we'll have investigative journalism hereabouts.

Conversely, when I filed a formal “freedom of information” request with municipal "corporate attorney" Shane Gibson for e-mails, these were promptly provided … and not a single one of them involved the mayor.

That’s right. Not even one.

Do you believe Jeff Gahan did not send a single e-mail pertaining to this issue during the time period requested?

My guess is that he did, but did not use his official city e-mail account, and instead wrote for attribution via a private e-mail address – one at a server lying conveniently outside the realm of public record requests like the one I made.

If you believe that Gahan did not utter a single electronic communication about the Haughey’s debacle, then I have an Ohio River Bridge for purchase.

On layaway.

---

During the run-up to the demolition, the city of New Albany never openly listed the Haughey’s building in any coherent manner that might have enticed developers to inquire. It was not marketed, and there was no effort to arrive at independent verification of the building’s structural condition.

Nevertheless, local developer Steve Resch examined the building and made an offer. He never believed the “dilapidated” party line espoused by City Hall’s minions (David Brewer and David Duggins prominent among them), and thought the building was salvageable.

Resch apparently thought he had a deal, to include the city and Indiana Landmarks combining resources with him in an amount previously discussed even before his offer was made, as intended to make possible a complete stabilization and exterior repair.

After that, Resch would wait for a tenant, and then finish the interior to spec on his own dime. His estimate of the total cost of rehabilitation was one-half to one-third less than that suggested by the minions – who never once explained their numbers publicly.

No sooner than Resch thought it was done deal, the rug was pulled out from beneath him. The only transparent, clear and publicly apparent instigator at the time was 1st district councilman Dan Coffey – in whose district the address is NOT located – who subbed for the AWOL 3rd district councilman Greg Phipps and constantly insisted to all and sundry that the building must come down.

Why?

Two sources told me that with county elections coming in November, 2014, and with Coffey mounting an ill-fated campaign for commissioner, he’d concocted a campaign financing deal with CCE/Eastridge, a deal that depended on the Haughey’s Tavern demolition to funnel the appropriate percentage toward Coffey’s campaign.

Coffey didn’t even get 40% of the vote – and a building that cannot be replaced subsequently disappeared.

It’s worth noting that during Doug England’s final term, CCE/Eastridge constantly was on the hot seat, prompting numerous neighborhood complaints about its toxic (literally) operations where Silver Street Park eventually was built with TIF bonds after the city bought the property for a princely sum.

Yes, from CCE/Eastridge.

Nowadays CCE/Eastridge is the beneficiary of prime governmental largess, including numerous demolition contracts, many of which emanate from The Redevelopment Commission, upon which both Coffey and Adam Dickey (the Democratic Party chairman and a vocal proponent of serial historic property demolition) are seated.

Coincidence or conflict of interest?

Always.

There was a lonely voice on Redevelopment advocating for sense and sensibility, but as usual, John Gonder was ignored.

One probable reason for CCE/Eastridge’s newfound preferential treatment has less to do with Coffey and more to its ownership of ground by the river needed by the city to complete the 8th-through-18th stretch of the Ohio River Greenway.

That’s right: A project that goes straight through the Redevelopment Commission.

---

At some point during the spring or early summer of 2014, local Landmarks head Greg Sekula spotted the down-low demolition order, and called Gahan seeking an intervention.

Evidently Gahan initially indicated he was receptive, then began badgering Sekula into asking instead for a Horseshoe Foundation grant. This Sekula did, but when the Horseshoe meeting took place, Gahan sat impassively, refusing to motion, afterward remarking to Sekula that it didn’t matter.

According to Gahan, the board he so regularly maligns wouldn’t consider it, anyway, so why bother? We can surmise that the deal already was done at this point, but Ceausescu -- oops, Gahan -- wasn’t finished yet.

Following the Horseshoe fiasco, Gahan complained about Sekula to the head office of Landmarks, and in essence, tried to get him disciplined or fired. This did not occur, primarily because Sekula had done nothing untoward apart from trying to do his job, as opposed to appeasing Gahan's ego.

These phone calls jibe with stories told by other informants, who point to Gahan’s fundamental and recurring vindictiveness, and his zeal in this instance to show preservationists like Sekula exactly who’s the boss in this town.

Previously I sent e-mails to New Directions asking when the infill plan we see now was originally minted. The chronology matters, but New Directions never answered these e-mails.

At the time, there were regular rumors to the effect that Habitat for Humanity had a deal in place prior to the Haughey’s demolition, which Habitat dismissed – but the rumors themselves suggest the existence of some sort of pre-arranged outcome, even as the other subplots dropped into place.

No sooner than Haughey's came down than Gahan announced the partnership with New Directions to construct his platform planks.

From top to bottom, the fate of Haughey’s smells of an arrogant absence of due process, even a year later. The suburban niceness of the houses standing there now jars with ironic dissonance as one learns how they came into being, because ends do not justify means, and transparent processes really do matter.

Unfortunately, an arrogant usurpation of due process is the way Gahan rolls. For more, read this five-part series from August of 2014.

Let’s not let an atrocity like this happen again.

"Tear It Down," Sayeth the Councilman, Part 1: The rudderless newspaper squanders another 922 Culbertson opportunity, but an informative chat occurs, anyway.

"Tear It Down," Sayeth the Councilman, Part 2: "Just how has this been a corrupt process?" Hint: Secretive nonsense.

"Tear It Down," Sayeth the Councilman, Part 3: A civilian's due diligence as to 922 Culbertson's possibilities.

"Tear It Down," Sayeth the Councilman, Part 4: "I say do the work for which you're being paid."

"Tear It Down," Sayeth the Councilman, Part 5: The ghost of Orwell enjoys a pint at Haughey's Place.

---

Recent columns:

October 28: ON THE AVENUES REWOUND: How many businesses already have died because of City Hall’s street grid procrastination?

October 26: ON THE AVENUES EXTRA: Gahan says speeding sucks, but street safety can wait until after he is re-elected.

October 22: ON THE AVENUES: My career as a double naught capitalist.

October 19: ON THE AVENUES REWOUND: Courtesy bicycle to the Hotel Silly (2010, 2013).

October 15: ON THE AVENUES: To the New Albanians, each and every one.

October 8: ON THE AVENUES: There’s an indie twist to this curmudgeon’s annual Harvest Homecoming column.

October 1: ON THE AVENUES: No more fear, Jeff.

September 24: ON THE AVENUES: Almost two years later, Mr. Gahan has yet to plug in this clock, and so it's time for him to clock out.

September 17: ON THE AVENUES: Dear Neighbor: If you’re tired of the same old story, turn some pages.

September 10: ON THE AVENUES: Lanesville Heritage Weekend comes around again.

September 3: ON THE AVENUES: When even Mitt Romney can run to the left of New Albany’s Democrats, it's a very big problem.