Since 2013 (and before), the Mt. Tabor Road beak-wetting boondoggle is a large millstone hung around Jeff Gahan's neck. Mayor overboard?

It's important to remember that Jeff Gahan did not become mayor until January 1, 2012. Before this, he served two terms as councilman for the 6th district, which includes the Mt. Tabor Road neighborhood referenced here.

In short, given the time generally required to mint and plan such big ticket roadwork boondoggles as the absurdly tagged "Mt. Tabor Road Restoration and Pedestrian Safety Project" (and I'm the one who uses too many words?), it obviously dates back into Gahan's council tenure.

By extension, given the ill-tempered stubbornness for which the mayor is renowned as far away as Bob Hall, it's equally evident that having spent a half-dozen or more years conjuring this asphalt-laden, traffic-speed-enhancing "gift" to the peasants, he's absolutely determined to ram the daintily wrapped arterial down their ungrateful throats, come what may.

In this context, Gahan's perennial joy in campaign finance enrichment -- no unwetted beaks left behind in New Gahania -- actually runs a poor second to the unfettered expanse of his ego. At NA Confidential, the story began in 2013. The following links are chronological, from oldest to newest.

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October 19, 2013

The city is thinking about doing road shit. Really. It says so, over there behind that wall.

Duggins said that anything you've heard about the Slate Run Road, Mount Tabor Road and Captain Frank Road projects is true, unless it isn't. All are being contemplated, unless they aren't. The mayor will consider modifications, unless he won't. The usual suspects from Pool "A" will design these projects and build them, unless other usual suspects from Pool "B" are chosen instead. To reveal more would mean having to kill us all, and the street department can't manage such a clean-up.

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November 5, 2013

Council meeting: Mt. Tabor residents advocate for two-way streets ... sort of.

The city's proposed changes would make the road in front of them more likely to be driven by a greater number of cars, and at a rate faster than before, a situation of induced demand likely to be taken advantage of by outsiders with no better reason than passing through because they can, thus rendering the corridor less safe for neighborhood residents ... and yes, that's right, creating a scene designed to negatively impact their quality of life.

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December 26, 2013

ON THE AVENUES: Roundabouts make the politicians really ring.

Roundabouts are not intrinsically evil, but the Mt. Tabor Road residents looked past the surface dollar sheen and got to the heart of the matter: Roadway engineers would be altering conditions to suit the maxim of moving traffic through their neighborhood as “efficiently” as possible, and by doing so, would be reducing their quality of life in an almost mathematical, commensurate ratio.

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December 27, 2013

The Great Roundabout Turnabout of 2013 and pedestrian friendliness.

In the newspaperman Suddeath's piece, city hall floats the notion that the Mt. Tabor roundabout was pulled because it abruptly became evident that it would not be "pedestrian friendly." Speaking personally, I believe this to be a red herring the approximate stature of the Elsby Building ... BUT if the Gahan administration wishes to stick to the walkability argument, I'm fully in favor of accepting it.

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January 9, 2014

On the Rosenbarger planning conundrum, and FAN Fair, here I come.

Much like the sacrifice of Mount Tabor residential areas for poorly developed commercial strips on its fringes, the sacrifice of Spring and other nearby streets for Main has long been a part of the plan.

Rosenbarger's dismal performance at FAN Fair deserves another look, here.

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July 23, 2016

Council frivolity, slice of the second part: "Gahan Cares More About Concrete Than People."

John Rosenbarger sat at his desk. Outside his door, the clamor of the peasantry could be heard amid the clatter of pitchforks. He spat, then threw back his last shot of fiery sarsaparilla.

“The grandeur of my physique, the complexity of my worldview, the decency and taste implicit in my carriage, the grace with which I function in the mire of today’s world – all of these at once confuse and astound the buffoons at Mt. Tabor and Klerner Lane."

Rosenbarger gazed at his reflection in the framed portrait of Robert Moses.

"But Jeffie's got my back, bro."

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August 2, 2016

The city's spin doctors have outdone themselves on this one: Meet the "Mt. Tabor Road Restoration and Pedestrian Safety Project."

It's simply amazing what vocal citizen opposition to a New and Improved Round O' Rosenbarger Cream Tort will do to bring David Duggins bounding full Sellersburg up the stairs from the Down Low Bunker to inform city council that with construction work about to start, now's the time for operatives to fan out through the neighborhood to alter misconceptions -- but not only that, there'll be a post-decision public meeting on August 22 to further encourage conformity.

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August 4, 2016

Chronicles of New Gahania: Mt. Tabor Road residents form civil defense squad to guard against John Rosenbarger.

Decades of poor planning and development decisions on New Albany's outskirts have created automobile traffic and drainage problems where there were none. Now, the City says that by redesigning the road for more cars going even faster, they're improving pedestrian safety and by substantially increasing the amount of impermeable surface area they're improving drainage. If any of our city planners or engineers had an ounce of intellectual and professional integrity, they'd speak up in opposition. That's pretty much a guarantee they won't. A decent mayor, should we ever get one, will fire all of them.

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August 4, 2016

ON THE AVENUES: Federal funding mechanisms total eighty percent. The other half is unalloyed political malice.

Clark County resident David Duggins duly was dispatched to spray gasoline on the brush fire, which he accomplished with his usual aplomb by threatening to send the Rasputin of Redevelopment and other city officials into the afflicted neighborhoods to knock on doors and remedy "misperceptions", which immediately sent panicked refugees streaming toward Silver Creek, into the newspaper’s Clark County coverage area.

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August 6, 2016

Look at Gahan hide, hide. Not to worry, because John "Human Shield" Rosenbarger is standing by, eager to obfuscate.

In other news, it took a long while, but the intentionally understaffed Jeffersonville-based "community" newspaper has clanked ineffectually into gear, producing drab content, but inadvertently shining a tepid light on the Gahan regime's boilerplate, namely that the mayor himself won't personally be touching this one.

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August 20, 2016

Stop me if you've heard this one before, Mt. Taborites: "They’re looking at it as more of an arterial road to move traffic though than a quality of living project."

I can't agree with all the objections voiced by the Mt. Tabor Road residents, but from the very beginning, they've grasped an essential point, because the "project" has been one designed to make the road usable by an increased number of cars, and an increased number of cars means a decreased quality of life.

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August 22, 2016

Tonight at OLPH: Mt. Tabor Campaign Finance Restoration and Propaganda Safety Project spoonfeeding.

This evening, what's already been decided will be explained to you. You're feeling better already, right? Someone asked whether Mayor Gahan will be in attendance.

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August 29, 2016

An Orwellian wetting of beaks -- or, some thoughts about the Mt. Tabor arterial enfluffment and timbering project.

But you see, there's no way a euphemism like the Mt. Tabor Road Restoration and Pedestrian Safety Project cannot happen, once the federal funds have been committed. If someone else pays, the money must be used, whether to grease an arterial or construct a subway to Xanadu. Beaks must be kept wet. This is the cycle of political life, and it need not be connected to master plans or larger truths. It simply is.

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December 21, 2016

Phipps, McLaughlin pleasure mayor, oppose Blair's 6th district stormwater impact efforts, but the investigative measure passes council anyway.

Representatives of the usual engineering suspects and a handful of civic appointees were on hand at the council meeting to reiterate the municipal party line: As it pertains to stormwater, those Mt. Tabor area residents who insist on trusting their own two eyes instead of the mayor's should be ignored, and The Plan allowed to proceed.

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March 22, 2017

Shane Gibson is unaccountable yet again as "City of New Albany Withholding Public Records in Mount Tabor Road Land Grab."

Following is a press release, courtesy of local businessman Colin Receveur. Municipal corporate counsel Shane Gibson's cavalier disregard for public information requests is legendary. I'm delighted to his snared in arrogance of his own making.

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March 24, 2017

'Bune snoozes and IL gets the scoop: "City of New Albany, residents head to court over road improvement project."

“From all the discussion on this subject over the past 4 years, it has become apparent that the only person supporting dual sidewalks at this location is the Mayor of New Albany,”

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March 26, 2017

Mt. Tabor Road euphemism project: If City Hall looks bad, that's only because it's doing the damage to itself.

It isn't just that those federal 80/20 construction grants are like crack. It's that to Team Gahan, openness is like Ebola.

Urgent note to Deaf Gahan: More evidence that street design = street safety = social justice, even more so than a doggie fun park.

At this late date, it can't be denied that street safety in New Albany relies on one factor, and one factor alone, to the exclusion of all others.

In short, someone in a position of municipal authority just might consider street safety for all users beyond the same old auto-centric boilerplate, naturally doing so piecemeal for one singular stretch of roadway, though never as an organic citywide whole, so long as the 80-20 federal matching funds come through.

Until then, we cross our fingers and wade into the interstate-rated traffic lanes, as pedestrians have been doing along Grant Line Road for the past 30 years.

Grant Line Pedway Project in New Albany moving forward (Beilman; N and T)

It has taken five years and a second Gahan administration for the ruling City Hall junta to even begin making faint, barely detectable gurgling sounds about public safety in this context.

Consequently, we must not ever forget that in New Albany, public safety has consistently come second or worse, forever submerged behind Gahan's bright, shiny baubles.

New parks and recreation facilities were prioritized, and came first. Doggie exercise was prioritized, and came first. The Farmers Market was prioritized, and came first. Subsidized luxury housing and initiatives to demolish public (read: affordable) housing units were prioritized, and came or is coming first.

In fact, the word "oblivious" has met its match in Gahan. Oblivious surrenders, and says go ahead, shoot me now. Never has a New Albany mayor remained so stubbornly aloof from the reality of everyday life in this city. Agoraphobia is a crippling affliction; too bad the rest of us must pay for it.

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.”

Gahan’s grandiosely termed Downtown Street Grid Improvement Project might yield a bare minimum return on investment by restoring two-way streets, but otherwise it’s just another of his mock Potemkin façades, dedicated to garnering as much campaign finance lubrication as possible from the usual suspects in engineering and construction without making truly transformative changes to the grid.

It’s why the forever uncomprehending Gahan stripped Jeff Speck’s plan of its most potentially useful recommendations, and it’s why we’ll have to add them back as we’re able, with or without City Hall’s permission.

Street safety?

Clearly it's a social justice issue, not a campaign finance issue. Unfortunately for New Albanians, if "bad street design is disproportionately impacting historically marginalized groups in America," then Gahan's instinctive response is to ship the marginalized elsewhere, not fix the problem.

But there's a funny part to all this.

Gahan thinks he's a Democrat. Cue the laugh track, at least until you try to cross the street outside.

The Hidden Inequality Of America's Street Design, by Diana Budds (Co.Design)

New data shows that pedestrians in the U.S. are more likely to die if they're poor, a person of color, uninsured, or old.

Urban design has a long history of perpetuating racial and economic inequality, and the burden of bad streets is still being disproportionately borne by underserved populations. According to a new report, pedestrians in the United States have a higher risk of being killed by cars if they're people of color, aged 65 or older, uninsured, or from a low-income household.

The report, called "Dangerous by Design 2016," is authored by the National Complete Streets Coalition, a working group within the nonprofit Smart Growth America, which supports socially equitable, environmentally responsible, and economically healthy urban design strategies. The report focuses on designing streets for multi-modal transportation, and ranks every state and more than 100 major metropolitan areas by what it calls the Pedestrian Danger Index, or PDI, which assesses the likelihood of a car hitting a pedestrian by comparing the rate of pedestrian deaths in an area to the rate of people who walk to work. (SGA calls this the best available measure of how many people are likely to be out walking every day.)

"The leading goal is equity in implementation for all avenues of transportation," says Emiko Atherton, director of the National Complete Streets Coalition. "It really is about not only treating everyone equitably, but also encouraging departments of transportation to focus on the most underserved."

Put simply: Bad street design is disproportionately impacting historically marginalized groups in America.

Complacency is killing us: "The morbid and mortal toll of sprawl."

I've no glib preamble. I spent the first 25 years of my life in a state of unquestioning acceptance as it pertains to auto-centrism and the pre-eminence of the car. Since 1985, when I had the good fortune to travel through Europe for three months without once being compelled to drive, it's made no sense to me that the pendulum has swung so far in America. I never liked driving, anyway.

But enough about me.

The morbid and mortal toll of sprawl, by Robert Steuteville (Congress for New Urbanism)

The ‘elephant in the living room' of rising and preventable US traffic deaths and injuries is government-funded roads in drive-only places.

 ... Ironically, we build thoroughfares that lead to death and injury in the name of safety. Wide thoroughfares and enormous intersections, which greatly increase speeds and are deadly to pedestrians, for example, are “justified” by safety concerns. That’s our federal, state, and local tax dollars at work. In a recent Public Square article, Vince Graham offers a succinct history of how this wrong turn in transportation occurred.

ON THE AVENUES: Federal funding mechanisms total eighty percent. The other half is unalloyed political malice.

ON THE AVENUES: Federal funding mechanisms total eighty percent. The other half is unalloyed political malice.

A weekly column by Roger A. Baylor.

The News and Tribune, which bizarrely enjoys using the word “community” as a dainty mantra in its marketing campaigns, has established an irony-free zone in which the hallowed concept of The Fourth Estate has mutated into reality TV coverage, cooking school and a recurring cycle of pet adoptions.

Meanwhile, for a period of more than ten months, New Albany has been without a beat reporter. During this time, in addition to a critical and largely ignored municipal election, there have been literally dozens of missed or under-reported stories generated in a criminally overlooked city.

As a “Fifth Estate” blogger, I’ve done what I can to help Bullet Bill Hanson’s depleted staff cope with overwork and a chronic absence of direction, though I manage without Hanson's fattened CNHI bonus checks, because what better plan might there be for copping another Publisher of the Year beanie than by holding down salaries?

So it is that when the remaining journalists are busy dangling entertaining click bait, you can be sure the Gahan clique will be free to skate, and so it was on Monday at the opener of an August city council doubleheader.

The Jeffersonville-oriented paper couldn’t be bothered to send a steno, sleeping or awake, and so other area news agencies effortlessly lapped the N & T on coverage of unrest in the Mt. Tabor Road vicinity as the imminent prospect of the 3 R's -- Renewed Roadway Rosenbargerization -- produced complaints so loud that they somehow penetrated the mayor’s clatter-proof Down Low Bunker.

Clark County resident David Duggins duly was dispatched to spray gasoline on the brush fire, which he accomplished with his usual aplomb by threatening to send the Rasputin of Redevelopment and other city officials into the afflicted neighborhoods to knock on doors and remedy "misperceptions", which immediately sent panicked refugees streaming toward Silver Creek, into the newspaper’s Clark County coverage area.

As a motley band of council onlookers desperately began combing the council chamber for black coffee and amphetamines, Duggins uncharacteristically said something of genuine importance. He observed that the many roadway projects currently under construction have dove-tailed together because that’s when the federal money (customarily 80% funding for auto-centric road “improvements,” as opposed to alternative modes of transport) has finally made its way through the pipeline.

The ol' 80/20, straight to the gut.

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Setting aside the consistently predictable percentage of road construction money that invariably finds its way into the campaign coffers of ranking politicians, consider for a moment the implications of Duggins’ comment.

First, any road work the city does beyond its annual boondoggle paving is likely to be tied to a ratio approximating 80/20 federal funding.

Second, as such, road work will be planned according to whatever construction formula works best to garner the federal funding, as without it, we’ll probably do nothing – but doing nothing fails to sufficiently wet many thirsty beaks in a town where patronage remains supreme.

Third, having determined to do whatever road work is best calculated to securing federal funding, there is continued resistance to any notion of a master plan, which might dare to prioritize road work according to community needs, and not the contrived availability and careful parsing of federal funding, which might well be unconnected to any other project, past or future.

Okay, okay. This is boilerplate, right?

We’ve always known how the system oozes along, but these three points omit the sheer, breathtaking moral bankruptcy of the Federal Funding Prerequisite, because when the check from DC finally arrives in the mail and it’s time to rev up the usual engineering and construction suspects to divvy up the booty, City Hall’s propaganda bureau invariably attributes the impending road work to dire necessity on grounds of safety.

In short, this/that road is very unsafe ... so much so that we've been compelled to wait for years for federal funds to come to us, rather than to deploy other funding mechanisms like CDBG and TIF (in their defined zones) to make the roads safer without delay, perhaps because we plan to tap out these ripe sources to erect brighter, shinier, showier projects sure to dazzle the sheep -- er, voters.

Those pesky thirsty beaks again.

Therefore, we suspend our heartfelt concern for safety until the easy money arrives, and then we pursue auto-friendly corrective measures like widening roads and adding lanes, which in short order attract even more cars and their atrocious drivers, making the roads flagrantly unsafe all over again, thus compelling Rosenbarger and his merry crew to design yet another round of campaign finance construction enhancement federal largess attraction.

Forehead slap! Come to think of it, you could keep your job as a municipal timeserver for 40 or more years just repeating the same action over and over, hoping it won’t ever have a different outcome.

Finally there’ll be a temporary ribbon cutting, because after all, there’ll be another ribbon-cutting later, in a year or ten. There’ll be a shiny new road for the utility monopolies and heavy trucks to begin destroying, and the whole package costs us only 20 cents on the dollar.

Hanson will stoop to attend the party and be overheard blathering about his ad generator’s commitment to community, before accepting another award he designed for himself.

Only the observant (and chronic cynics) will notice the mayor’s State Senate 2018 bank account imperceptibly fattening.

Somewhere, a dog will bark, and no one will notice that two more pedestrians were hit by a driver earlier that very same day, although the police will issue their standard proclamation of city-wide safety.

Liquor cabinets will empty, especially those of the Fifth Estate.

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On Monday evening in the council chamber, Duggins scurried off before the beginning of non-agenda public speaking time, and that’s too bad, because I had a question. It was a question the newspaper might be asking, but that’s okay. Bungalow Bill can put it on my tab.

The question is this:

What is the true story behind the New Albany Boat Club returning to its moorings and building astride the prospective Greenway?

As recently as 2013, according to public records, the Greenway Commission was being told by New Albany's bureaucratic functionaries that as land acquisition continued, easements were being sought from the New Albany Boat Club.

But concurrently, and in fact for a great many years, the boat club appears to have been the subject of a lawsuit pursued by local businessman Daniel Meyer. His property lapped over the concrete flood wall at 10th Street, and the boat club was squatting on it.

Piecing together what can be found on-line with what I’ve learned on the street, it appears that in 2015, Meyer at long last triumphed, and the boat club vacated the premises.

Almost simultaneously, the city slammed Meyer with eminent domain proceedings for its Greenway build-out, and won the right to pay him a pittance for the needed property, including the boat club building.

As I write, the New Albany Boat Club is back in its building and boasts a brand new Facebook page celebrating its return to legitimacy. Looking at the screenshots, we see a familiar face acting as intermediary.

Of course, Chris Gardner is the mayor’s son-in-law and works as the city’s flood control director.

Meanwhile, Daniel Meyer spent many years in pursuit of justice and property rights, and just about now, in the immortal words of Mick Jagger, he’s scraping that shit right off his shoes.

Admittedly, there’s a lot about this situation I don’t know. I’ll try to learn more. The Fourth Estate doesn’t care a jot, and admittedly, it’s left to me to swing at the occasional pitch high and outside. I hit some and I miss some.

It's my personal take, and so lest we forget, Daniel was a valued board member on the Urban Enterprise Association during my tenure there. He worked closely with his friend Mike Ladd, the former UEA director, until Ladd's tenure came to an abrupt end.

It concluded because Jeff Gahan’s first major initiative as mayor was to facilitate the artless removal of Ladd in order to bring the UEA’s bank account in-house, where it could be controlled, with Duggins playing the role of designated hit man.

Later, Ladd was forced to sue the city of New Albany for his back pay. He's lucky Shane Gibson didn't stop payment on the check, to be swapped for discount water park coupons in lieu of cash.

And yes, I may be jaundiced, this being a charge to which I plead nolo contendere, but you’ll have to work awfully hard to convince me that Daniel's current position of being forced to watch helplessly as the city gushingly returns the boat club’s “rightful” property to squatters isn’t the result of an act of pure sadistic intent on the part of an administration that specializes in petulant vindictiveness.

Of course, if Gahan, his campaign sweater dogs, Duggins, Rosenbarger, Greg Phipps or any other member of the administration dream team wishes to contradict my assessment here, future ON THE AVENUES column space is all theirs, no strings attached.

If Hanson’s purported newspaper isn’t up to writing the history of the present times, I relish the opportunity. After all, someone's got to do it ... drink or sober.

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July 28: ON THE AVENUES: An imaginary exercise tentatively called The Curmudgeon Free House.

July 21: ON THE AVENUES: We have our own Big Four Bridge. They’re called Main, Market, Spring and Elm.

July 14: ON THE AVENUES: Weeds, porch appliances and our civic Gospel of Appearances.

July 7: ON THE AVENUES: You say you want a resolution?