We Are Coming Father Abraham.

I appreciate any author who bases an argument in the historical record.

As it pertains to issues like poverty and homelessness, we find that a "higher purpose" in this context truly represents bipartisanship in Southern Indiana.

By this I mean that while certain members of both major political parties have involved themselves in the issues, it remains that in the main, not one of the higher ups will touch them. 

A People's Contest: Searching for Our Higher Purpose, by Nick Vaughn (The Aggregate News)

On July 4th, 1861, shortly after Fort Sumter had been shelled by Confederates, President Abraham Lincoln addressed Congress. In his speech to Congress, Lincoln declared that the conflict facing the fractured nation was "a People's contest," stating "On the side of the Union, it is a struggle for maintaining in the world, that form, and substance of government, whose leading object is, to elevate the condition of men...”

Elevating the condition of men, as Lincoln put it, was an issue that transcended the Civil War, but by declaring the war a People's contest, Lincoln was able to frame the war in a way that would pit the foundational principles of the Constitution and of mankind's contract with government against those who sought to destroy them.

Today, there is no armed conflict that threatens to disband our Union and pit family against family, instead there is a deep political divide that threatens to irreparably fracture our civic institutions, especially at the local level. Through the partisan battles and name-calling conflicts, our community has lost sight of our higher purpose ...

Warren Nash blames the county for his hemorrhoids ... and the GREEN MOUSE presents NAWBANY WEEK IN REVIEW.

Most of us spent the holiday weekend watching the COVID deniers merrily clustering together, which would be encouraging from a herd-thinning standpoint if it weren't hazardous for the rest of us.

By week's end yet another police atrocity against non-white Americans occurred, this time the murder of a black man in Minneapolis. This act of state-sanctioned violence prompted the usual defense of property rights and obliviousness to human life, both emanating from the very same three-percenters and their "penis proxies."

Here's a useful article that helps explain this cognitive dissonance, and you can be sure that it won't be linked at the city's web site any time soon.

When intolerant white people fear democracy may benefit marginalized people, they abandon their commitment to democracy.

Consequently, it's been a slow news week in New Albany apart from another instance of Jeff Gahan taking credit for someone else's investment: Here come the tax abatements for Northwest Ordinance Distilling.

We were forced to make do with other forms of entertainment, which the city's worst-ever former mayor provided at Facebook.

Warren, is it supposed to rain today? THE COUNTY GUVMINT DUNNIT!

Okay, but Warren, which pair is better, the original Duke boys or those one-season replacements? IT'S ALL THE COUNTY'S FAULT!

Um, okay. Do you have a nice recipe for barbecued bologna? MAKE COUNTY GUVMINT PAY FOR IT!

Admittedly it was a bit much for me to see Warren Nash state publicly that he doesn't block others on social media. Commendable, although he's conveniently forgetting the bigger issue of his beloved DemoDisneyDixiecrats, their flimsy respect for dialogue, and their equally squalid habit of squelching perceived dissent.

The full thread is here, and if you're interested in the gory details of the perennial party gutlessness, of which Warren is a functional and participating component ...

The Adamite Chronicles: Have muzzle, will drivel.

I haven’t stopped laughing since then. At precisely this pivotal moment of inexorably changing mathematics, when the Floyd County Democratic Party might have initiated an honest dialogue with its long-neglected left wing – as inhabited by genuine non-Dixiecratic Democrats and a formerly reliable but rapidly disillusioned cohort of left-leaning fellow travelers – for succor, it has chosen instead to espouse censorship and express its abiding hostility to ideas.

Can you even imagine Warren Nash, Adam Dickey or Jeff Gahan tending a stall at the marketplace of ideas?

Empty shelves ... or empty selves?

---

There were a few headlines of note this week.

Pints&union is taking a staycation this week, returning Tuesday 9 June.

In a nutshell, all the factors combining to make Pints&union an intimate, personable pub prior to COVID now militate against viable reopening strategies, not to mention our belief that the reopening is premature to begin with.

For at least so long as the state of Indiana maintains a relaxation of regulations for the greater good of pandemic recovery, there is an answer outside, beyond the doorways of ALL small independent businesses, not only food and drink.

It's time right now for City Hall to use our public spaces for COVID recovery.

Can City Hall conceive of such a thing without commissioning months of expensive studies from donor engineering and design firms?

In closing, Memorial Day 2020 likely will be remembered locally as the day we lost Lee Kelly, a true legend and sporting icon.

I turned my column space over to "not me" precisely because Matt's 2013 newspaper piece honoring Lee's retirement from teaching made for the finest of eulogies, in the sense that hundreds of thousands of daily interactions with thousands of students over a period of 40 years are the truest measure of Lee's substantial legacy. 

ON THE AVENUES: The late, great Lee Kelly -- by Matt Nash.

Have you been wondering about Harvest Homecoming in a time of social distancing? So has the Green Mouse. Maybe next week he'll put a cork in that bottle and start asking questions.

Homeless, be gone! It's the GREEN MOUSE with NAWBANY WEEK IN REVIEW.

The more things change, the more they stay precisely the same. It's not a coincidence, you know.

Delusion, meet narcissism: Jeff Gahan denies the reality of homelessness while proposing to demolish affordable housing options.

We'll get there in a moment. First, be aware that the Green Mouse is fond of the word kakistocracy.

kak·i·sto·cra·cy
/kakəˈstäkrəsē/
noun

Government by the least suitable or competent citizens of a state.

A state or society governed by its least suitable or competent citizens.

It's a recipe, or maybe a mathematical formula: Nawbany + kakistocracy = New Gahania.

It's a ruling clique of cronies, most prominently Jeff Gahan, Warren Nash, Adam Dickey, David Duggins and Shane Gibson. Josh Staten suffers a degree of cognitive dissonance because deep down he knows better, but being redevelopment chief implies a foot on the middle rung of the ladder. Todd Bailey, the chief of police? Yes, so long as he remains pliant and allows those streets to remain safe for automobiles.

Bob Caesar believes he's in the clique, although the good old boys just laugh at Bobby behind his back. Jason Applegate desperately wants to be part of the fun; for reasons that have little to do with his qualifications, the clique is willing to use him. That's why Applegate spearheaded Thursday's assault on the homeless (below).

The New Gahanian kakistocracy is all male, all white and all bound up with pay-to play monetization via the mayor's band of campaign donors -- but we already knew that.

A few weeks ago Allen Howie's Idealogy newsletter inadvertently addressed the fundamental problem with the kakistocratic clique's unpreparedness to deal with our new realities.

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World War Z, the Tenth Man and You

In the 2013 Brad Pitt film, World War Z, a deadly virus washes over the globe unchecked, turning millions into zombies. But one place remains a safe harbor: Jerusalem, which managed to erect high walls around its perimeter before the outbreak reached the city.

Pitt’s character asks one of the city’s top officials how they were able to respond in time. He replies that they overheard communication from a small country about “zombies.” Why would you even pay attention to something so ludicrous, Pitt wonders.

The official then tells him about the tenth man, an idea created in the tragic wake of the Holocaust, the Munich Olympics and the Yom Kippur war — all events his nation’s leaders believed were impossible until they happened.

“If nine of us with the same information arrive at the same conclusion, it’s the duty of the tenth man to disagree,” he said. “No matter how improbable it may seem, the tenth man has to start thinking with the assumption that the other nine are wrong.”

What does all this have to with your company?

When you consider threats or opportunities, it’s often as a group. And what emerges is consensus — you act on the challenges or possibilities everyone can agree on. Outliers get voted off the island.

But a group can be wrong. A lone voice can be right. And in business, the greatest successes go to the contrarians. The early adopters. Those who question the assumptions.

So whether you’re thinking about an updated business model for this new normal, rethinking your marketing and messaging, or revisiting your product and service options, consider designating a tenth man.

Of course, the tenth man may be a woman. They could be (and maybe should be) someone from outside daily operations. Maybe even someone from outside your industry. They need to be someone who can speak freely without repercussions. Someone you’ll listen to. And someone with experience in thinking differently.

You’re as unlikely to have to deal with zombies as you are to hang with Brad Pitt. But every business would be better prepared for a rapidly-changing future if it embraced the idea of the tenth man. Who’s yours?

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Who's Jeff Gahan's tenth man?

That's the whole point, because there isn't one, and there cannot be.

As we've observed for years, membership in the clique is based primarily on one abiding qualification, that Dear Leader's narcissistic genius is not questioned. It's intellectual inbreeding, and outside blood need not apply.

It's why the crisis of the pandemic is tantamount to Toto pulling back the Wizard's curtain; the coronavirus simply cannot be mollified with a $100,000 HWC Engineering study. COVID's ripple effect will expose municipal government's conceptual nudity, and it won't be a pretty sight.

Our kakistocrats don't know how to do their business if it's not business as usual. Grasping for straws, looking for something or someone to blame, they found an easy target.

Same as it ever was: the homeless.

New Albany turns down $50,000 request for homeless shelter, by Daniel Suddeath (Hanson's Christian Digest)

NEW ALBANY — Despite approving the appropriation unanimously on initial readings in February, the New Albany City Council rejected a $50,000 funding request for Catalyst Rescue Mission on Thursday night.

The vote was 6-3, with council members Al Knable, Scott Blair and Josh Turner supporting the request.

Those opposed to the measure cited their beliefs that not enough funding is going directly to programming for homeless residents after they enter the shelter, and that the New Albany Trustee's office is already providing many of the services that Catalyst offers.

Councilman Jason Applegate said that in reviewing the financial information provided by Catalyst Executive Director Jim Moon, only about $2,700 of the $50,000 would have gone to programming and food.

"I couldn't get over where it was such a small percent of this money that goes to the programs that help people," he said.

Can we be honest, just for a moment?

A garden-variety space alien beamed down to observe politics in Nawbany would require no more than ten minutes to grok this situation.

First, our DemoDisneyDixiecrats HAVE ALWAYS been hostile to funding requests pertaining to the homeless.

Second, Republicans were in favor of the Catalyst funding (well, except the perpetually befuddled David Aebersold), thus dooming it, given a pliant, boot-licking DemoDisneyDixiecratic majority.

I suppose we’ll see an editorial in Extol Magazine spinning the vote.

Can the city afford NOT to demonize the homeless? It's the GREEN MOUSE with NAWBANY WEEK IN REVIEW.

On Monday our city council met remotely by means of Zoom, and once the body's president Tiberius Severus Octavian Elagabalus Septimius Augustus Claudius Hadrian Gluteus Maximus Caesar -- Protector of Fitting and Proper Scribnerian Values, Deliverer of all Downtown Datedness, Master of the Ex-Mercantile, and Guardian of the Gates -- also known as Bobby Bicentennial -- was convinced to surrender the tin cans and string, things went fairly smoothly.

Hanson's newspaper seems to be in transition as it approaches a date with room temperature, and our coverage comes courtesy of Noah, Diane and others who commented on Facebook.

As is its ancient, hallowed custom of indifference to the most vulnerable in our community, the Democratic Party-controlled council is opting to interminably delay any consideration of the annual outsourcing of homeless assistance funding to agencies in Clark County.

Recall that the city of New Albany's contribution to homeless assistance generally takes the form of demonizing them and bulldozing their tents. Why? Because the homeless induce gastrointestinal distress in Mayor Gahan and fellow (purely partisan) social architects like Squire Adam and David Duggins.

How can we be an All-Gahanian City when poor people keep embarrassing the purported left-wing "leadership"?

On Monday there was a vote to consider a vote to provide money to Catalyst Rescue Mission Homeless Shelter (the topic first was broached in February).

On Gahan's perennial instructions (he was socially distant long before it was cool), pretend-Democrats Collier, Caesar, Phipps, McLaughlin and Applegate poo-pooed the idea. Republican David Aebersold gave his internal consistency wheel a spin and joined the Democrats, leaving Republicans Knable and Turner, and the Independent Blair, to vote in favor.

I asked Mr. Phipps to explain his vote, coming at a time when unemployment and homelessness are up, and societal health and well being down, and he returned this dry, bureaucratic verdict.

We need to have a public hearing and find out more about how the large grant money they received will be used.

But at some point, isn't pinching more than a few pennies going to be necessary? Homeless funding might be put to better use polishing the rotors at River Run, at least when the Gahan's most wasteful achievement is allowed to reopen.

That's because the most fascinating aspect of Gahan's deeper-than-ever bunker residency during our COVID lockdown has been the ostensible continuance of "business of financial profligacy as usual" at the same time as virtually every other municipal entity in America is preparing for extreme pain.

From Houston to New York, America’s Muni Finances Are in Tatters, by Amanda Albright, Danielle Moran and Fola Akinnibi (Bloomberg)

In Dayton, Ohio, Mayor Nan Whaley has furloughed a quarter of the city’s workforce and is warning that more cuts may follow. In Baltimore, which has one of the highest murder rates in the nation, Mayor Bernard Young is negotiating layoffs with the police union. And in Houston, Mayor Sylvester Turner is deferring all five police cadet classes.

New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, may have only been referring to his state when he declared on national television in March that “we are broke,” but he was, in a broader sense, speaking for the vast bulk of city and county and state governments in America.

Never before have U.S. municipalities been hit so hard or so quickly or in so many different ways as they are right now by the coronavirus pandemic.

Maybe HWC Engineering will bail us out for a change.

Vaughn on We the People's meals for the homeless: "The health department is forcing well intentioned community leaders to jump through unnecessary regulatory hoops."

At the risk of another round of abuse from the omnipresent neighborhood watch, we've already had a glimpse at a fresh new controversy, one quite oddly receiving no ink whatever until after Tuesday's election.

But wait -- I thought there aren't any homeless people in NA, much less a need to feed them.

 ... "A grassroots group that provides weekly meals to New Albany's homeless community could see some changes as it faces issues with the Floyd County Health Department, and organizers are worried about the future of the program" ...

Nick has a view on this matter, but before linking you, consider this paragraph from his post.

It baffles me as to just how the Floyd County Health Department has regulatory power over a private picnic. If I were to have a family reunion picnic at a local park, would my family have to prepare our food in a health department-approved kitchen as well? Or would we be allowed to prepare food in our own kitchens at home?

There's another side to this. As a friend pointed out:

A point can certainly be made that the needy and the homeless also deserve the protection of government. We've both eaten at restaurants that have no idea how to prepare and handle food. Imagine what Aunt Gladys's idea of proper food handling is?

To reiterate, thus far Dr. Tom is pursuing a non-confrontational course in the case of We the People's meals for the homeless.

Addressing Nick's question about family picnics, theoretically, the FCHD probably already has the authority to oversee family reunion fare. What it doesn't have is the cover of political will (thankfully) -- or more importantly, manpower or a budget. Those usually come after a precedent for widened authority has been established.

In 2013, the FCHD was making a calculated probe when it suddenly declared its authority to oversee temporary beer dispensing, and to require food handling permits of pourers. It was unrefrigerated tripe, so we at NABC objected, and the Great Beer Pour War of 2013 went all the way to the top of state government before the FCHD was overruled and a new, clear guideline formerly written.

Nope, he never even apologized for the trouble he put us through. 

Had we not fought the test probe, it is likely that health departments across the state would have used the FCHD's "win" as a precedent to extend their regulatory authority, and by extension, to increase their budgets and manpower.

This same sort of test probing may be what's happening right now with We the People, and it's why we should question any such effort to expand regulatory authority by administrative means, absent clarity in law.

Let them serve! by Nick Vaughn (The Aggregate)

Every Sunday, the grassroots group We Are the People of New Albany serves the homeless and those in need of a hot meal at Bicknell Park. Organized by Kim Hunt Payne and Marcy Garcia, the group seeks to feed those who are hungry, give fellowship to those in need, and fill a void left by our local government.

Recently though, the Floyd County Health Department has stated that the group can no longer serve food prepared in separate locations and must instead prepare food in a health department-approved kitchen. Additionally, instead of offering a warm cooked meal the group could also only offer prepackaged food not prepared by them ...

But wait -- I thought there aren't any homeless people in NA, much less a need to feed them.

Who are you going to believe, Jeff Gahan or your own two eyes?

Meanwhile, Dr. Tom is being far more sensible than usual.

Meal program for New Albany's homeless community faces uncertain future, by Brooke McAfee (Hanson's Folly)

NEW ALBANY — A grassroots group that provides weekly meals to New Albany's homeless community could see some changes as it faces issues with the Floyd County Health Department, and organizers are worried about the future of the program.

We the People of New Albany, a volunteer-run meal program, meets from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. every Sunday at Bicknell Park at 315 Silver St. to serve meals, which are donated by community members. The meals for the homeless are now made in volunteers' homes, but the Floyd County Health Department is concerned about the large number of home-cooked meals distributed by the group. The program could potentially be closed down unless it changes its operations.

The organization started its weekly picnics this summer, and over the months, they have grown significantly. They started out serving eight people at the first picnic, but the volunteers now serve about 50 to 70 people each week, organizer Kim Payne said.

According to Floyd County Health Officer Dr. Tom Harris, the group qualifies under the Indiana regulations for food preparation due to the amount of meals being cooked at individual homes and handed out. In order to continue serving meals to the homeless, the organization would have to cook the food in a kitchen approved by the health department or simply provide pre-packaged food with a longer shelf life ...

Homelessness, 8th Street Pizza's move, Clean Socks Hope's mission and an addendum by Exit 0.

It's the building at 141 East Main Street, the former Liz at Home and more recently GrayStone Performance, located right across the street from the Reisz Mahal (new city hall). Let's dive right in. These links are to Facebook; the website is here.

Clean Socks Hope & 8th Street Pizza, in New Albany, IN, is the area's only pay-it-forward pizzeria serving serving Floyd, Harrison and Clark counties since 2007.

We are a nonprofit organization offering hand tossed pizzas, desserts, drinks, dine-in and carry out service, games and much more. Delivery available via DoorDash app. For your next pizza craving, visit Clean Socks Hope & 8th Street Pizza in New Albany.

Clean Socks Hope's mission is described here.

We believe that God created all people, including the poor with the ability to help themselves and others. That means that we do not fall into the routine perpetual feeding and clothing programs of those around us, but equip those we serve with the skills that will create self-worth and self-sufficiency that can change the lives of men, women and children for generations to come.

Yesterday our friend Andrew began spreading the word that 8th Street Pizza will be moving to 141 East Main Street.

8th Street Pizza is moving locations from midtown to downtown New Albany. Some businesses like Pints&union, Wick's New Albany, The Earl, and 1816 Modern Kitchen & Drinks have supported their mission of feeding the homeless in New Albany.

Now 8th Street Pizza has seen an influx of NEW homeless people in Downtown New Albany and really wants to help the downtown area. They are moving to 141 East Main Street. The focus will still be an outreach location but will also serve late-night New York Style Pizza by the slice.

Jeffrey S. Minton is the man behind Clean Socks Hope and 8th Street Pizza and wanted me to help spread the word to the new neighbors in downtown and I figured this would be one of the best methods.

The "Share a Slice" campaign has been a kick and they look to expand it by offering a "Share A Slice" Wall that anyone can donate to and take from. No questions asked...

If you haven't heard of the amazing nonprofit pizza place, then please take the time to get a piece of 8th Street Pizza soon. I'll even share a slice with you!

So far, so good. NA Confidential doesn't do Christianity, but we broadly support this pizza-driven outreach, and the building in question might conceivably be more than just a pizzeria; the building's most recent owner installed dorm rooms upstairs. When I saw them, I thought: youth hostel.

Interestingly, this is one of those infrequent times when food and social issues actively collide, because to put it bluntly, City Hall's stance on homelessness is as clear as alluvial mud -- not at all clean like white socks. Ronald Reagan famously avoided saying the word "AIDS" aloud; Jeff Gahan's bugaboo is the word "homelessness," as he doesn't communicate well and as a suburbanite generally avoids topics he finds personally distasteful.

It hasn't been very long (July) since Gahan's homeless encampment demolition debacle.

Exit 0's Paul Stensrud pulls zero punches v.v. Gahan's violence against the homeless: "In order for things to change there needs to be a change of hands within local government."

It appears that Jeff Gahan is as adept at co-opting the Homeless Coalition of Southern Indiana as he has been in snookering Purported Progressives into hand-feeding him grapes. Gahan has picked a side he can control; if Dear Leader could bulldoze Exit Zero as a concept, then he'd do that, too.

Gahan is pathology, not policy.

Consequently, and eerily paralleling 8th Street Pizza's moving announcement, Exit 0 posted this commentary yesterday on Facebook.

We went scouting in New Albany today and found new signage to keep the homeless out of the town and several needles discarded off of a public trail. But the city continues to claim they do not have a drug addiction or homelsssness problem. Why make up signage and ban tents if we have no issue? Welcome to making homelessness illegal in New Albany. The needles were cleaned up so someone in the community does not get hurt. Continue to pray for our community.

NA Confidential supports Clean Socks Hope, 8th Street Pizza and Exit 0, and quite frankly, major league stones are required for anyone to set up a program of homeless outreach at a site directly across from the mayor's new showpiece City Hall.

This fascinating juxtaposition stands to be very interesting indeed, especially as we approach the election. Wouldn't it be good if Gahan chose to issue a public statement of support for what Clean Socks Hope and 8th Street Pizza is trying to do downtown?

Gahan's violence against the homeless dominates NA Confidential's Top Ten list of posts for July, 2019.

The Democratic Party's raging
self-delusion was a hot topic in July.

Thanks for reading NA Confidential, where we enjoy reconnoitering the neglected periphery for uniquely local perspectives on life in New Albany. Otherwise your only choice would be the Jeffersonville News and Evangelbune.

For July there are five honorable mention followed by the top ten posts, in ascending order.

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JULY HONORABLE MENTION (5)

789

It's the morning after the Sherman Minton Bridge meeting, and Alka-Seltzer isn't helping Dear Leader's mood.

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825

DemoDisneyDixiecratic Party chairman releases stunning statement about Gahan's violent homeless encampment takedown today -- and more on our Dear Leader's drumpf envy.

For the real poop, read the Courier-Journal: After 3-day delay, New Albany tears down secluded homeless camp.

For the self-serving bullshit, read Jeff Gahan's re-election page: But the beautiful people all love me dearly.

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847

There won't be any new restaurants in New Albany this week.

Thanks for indulging this test of NA Confidential's theory that any post explicitly mentioning restaurants or food in the title can be relied upon to quintuple the views of the ones that don't.

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872

Jimmy's Music Center has a new owner and will become Kentuckiana Music Center in a new location.

We were out of town when Anna Blanton announced the purchase of Jimmy's Music Center and a forthcoming move to the corner of Pearl and Elm opposite Harvest Homecoming's headquarters, which many of us remember as the space that never housed the cider bar.

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904

One fine anniversary evening at Brooklyn and The Butcher.

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JULY TOP 10

917

This just in: "Insider Louisville to cease publishing on August 7."

"It is a sad day for the Insider Louisville team as well as its dedicated board to report that the nonprofit’s last day of publication is Aug. 7, 2019."

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963

Gahan's boom that crashed: "Quite the tab (for taxpayers) for making vulnerable people's lives harder."

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1,023

Sherman Minton Bridge leadership litmus test as Mark Seabrook stays for the entire meeting, while Jeff Gahan lasts seven whole minutes.

As more than one onlooker confirmed, evidently one glance of 125 persons milling around the third floor ballroom caused Gahan's agoraphobia to kick in with a vengeance, and he turned tail and skedaddled, terrified of an unscripted setting in an enclosed space amid uncontrollable people. Probably there exists medication for this condition, maybe even marijuana-laced Rice Krispies Treats with a Kool-Aid chaser, although first the patient must concede to being ill.

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1,034

Sherman Minton Bridge refurbishment: "Construction is scheduled to start in early 2021 and take two to three years."

All we can do at this point is humbly beseech Horseshoe/Caesar/Whatever the multi-national gaming entity is calling itself this decade to help save us from a total shutdown.

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1,044

The Harvest Homecoming Parade has a new starting time of 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 5.

I'm told the reasoning for the later starting time is to encourage parade participation (iffy) and to provide a natural segue into evening dining hours for participants and spectators alike in the hope they'll roam downtown (entirely possible). It seems like a good idea to me. Should we still begin porchside drinking at 10:00 a.m. or wait until 1:00 p.m.?

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1,049

Three eyewitness viewpoints as Governor Holcomb stumps for Mark Seabrook.

Following are three perspectives of last night's Mark Seabrook for Mayor fundraiser at the Calumet Club, written by Josh Turner, Dale Bagshaw and Nick Vaughn.

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1,088

Fresh eatery in New Albany: El Rico Taco is now open in Destinations Booksellers.

El Rico Taco is open for business at 604 East Spring Street, taking over the cafe space in the rear where Taco Steve formerly operated. But pay heed: El Rico Taco is a different cut of cloth.

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1,140

Bartender sez: "I don’t always enjoy telling people they can’t have the drink they’ve asked me for, but when I do, it’s because someone ordered an Irish car bomb."

Or maybe it should be renamed: "Hey, sweetheart, can I have one of those I'm a Culturally Illiterate American Cocktails?" No, it isn't St. Patrick's Day, although it's never too late to learn something.

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1,524

Exit 0's Paul Stensrud pulls zero punches v.v. Gahan's violence against the homeless: "In order for things to change there needs to be a change of hands within local government."

Watch the video, and ponder the true nature of Gahan's "compassion." Has a single ranking Democrat spoken publicly about the housing camp demolition?

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4,283 (posted at Facebook only)
New Albany Democrats heartily applaud as Jeff Gahan sends in the bulldozers to demolish a homeless camp. 

Hmm, where are the voices of the progressive social justice advocates who idolize the mayor? Seems all we're hearing is cowardly static. Thanks to Marty Miller of The Aggregate for this photo.

Delusion, meet narcissism: Jeff Gahan denies the reality of homelessness while proposing to demolish affordable housing options.

There was a social media discussion last evening in which supporters of Jeff Gahan's "policy" (read: spasm) about homelessness -- i.e., commit acts of government-sanctioned violence against the community's most vulnerable first, and only THEN murmur softly about ways to "help" them -- suggested that it is the responsibility of this "policy's" critics to provide information and assistance to the victims of the mayor's violent acts.

Bluegill provides much needed perspective about the compassion of Gahan's demolition fetish.

Just to recap, here’s a newspaper article from 2016. Every single person quoted in it - agency and non-profit representatives, public employees, law enforcement - all said there was/is a homelessness problem in New Albany. Several said that the numbers of homeless people were quite noticeably increasing.

Jeff Gahan, as the lone exception, denied there was a homelessness problem in New Albany. This is the same mayor who also insists that we have far too many affordable public housing units and that he will demolish and not replace at least half of them.

How could anyone, in conjunction with the more recent housing camp demolition, read all that as compassionate? If they intend to be remotely rational about it, the “politicized” argument from Gahan supporters here isn’t about whether NAC should personally be providing or linking to resources. An actual argument would entail Gahan supporters explaining how years spent denying homelessness is a problem in New Albany *and* demolishing both homeless person constructed temporary housing and more permanent affordable public housing is good for people experiencing housing problems. It seems like we rarely if ever see those types of legitimate arguments.

Meanwhile, the primary Gahan strategy beyond pure denial seems to be directly focused on demolition.

The article to which he refers was referenced here on September 24, 2016: Jeff Gahan seldom speaks for the record, but when he does, he denies homelessness is a problem in New Gahania.

Six months later, Gahan staged a hostile takeover of the New Albany Housing Authority with the stated intent of demolishing half its units. This actually might be considered "compassionate" by prevailing Republican standards, except the mayor insists on referring to himself as a Democrat.

Is there a party standing in opposition to deranged and deluded narcissists like Gahan? If so, they have my vote. Here is the original News and Tribune article from 2016 by Aprile Rickert. At the time, a reader commented:

"Uh oh! A local reporter who dares fact check the Mayor's assertions? She interviewed six additional sources and checked two additional sets of data? And she found these additional sources contradicted the claims that New Albany's homelessness wasn't a problem for little citizens to worry about? A great example of how local newspapers really matter. My thanks to Ms. Rickert!"

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SATURDAY SPOTLIGHT: New Albany Homeless population struggles to cope; local officials notice growing number of homeless

NEW ALBANY — Dwight Schmitt, longtime New Albany resident, said he considers himself homeless right now for the first time ever.

Schmitt, a Vietnam veteran, said he was arrested in early July and spent 68 days in jail when someone was discovered in his home using drugs. Schmitt, who said he doesn’t use drugs and didn’t know the person had them in his home, was originally charged with possession of methamphetamine and paraphernalia and maintaining a common nuisance.

The first two charges were dismissed, he said, but the third remains because it was his home. While he was incarcerated, he lost that home, and his belongings are now being stored in a friend’s trailer.

He said he’s waiting for his $2,500 bail that he posted to be released, and his pension check to come in early October before he can think about trying to find a new place to live.

“But until then, I’m at-large,” he said of being without a place to live. “Different friends let me stay here and there for a night or two. I’ve been doing yard work. I do all I can to make a living. I’ll find some way to eat every day.”

Schmitt said he knows of 25-30 people at least who are traditionally “street” homeless in New Albany, and that’s just in one area of the city. Some people say the number of homeless are increasing in New Albany over the past few years.

DIFFERING VIEWS

Not everyone agrees on the scope of the problem.

New Albany Mayor Jeff Gahan’s office sent an email to the News and Tribune addressing queries about homelessnessin New Albany Gahan stated in the release that homelessness is not something to take lightly, but that is not a large issue in New Albany.

“Anytime someone is homeless without a safe place for the night, it’s a serious issue for those individuals,” the email states. “However, the data does not support an assertion that New Albany has a homeless problem.”

The Indiana Housing Community and Development Authority (IHCDA) reported that through point-in-time counts from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), when homeless individuals are literally counted on the streets, Floyd County had 74 homeless counted in early 2016, alongside an estimated total population of 76,668 for 2015. This translates to .09 percent homeless in Floyd County as compared to 5,863 or .08 percent homeless in the state, according to IHCDA, which reports a 2 percent drop in homelessness in Indiana from 2014 to 2015.

Dawn Klemm, executive director of the recently formed Homeless Coalition of Southern Indiana, said that since the point-in-time count is done nationally every late January, numbers may not reflect the actual situation.

“Basically what you’re saying is whoever you can count on the street is how we’re going to base what goes on in your community,” she said of the national statistics. “The majority of the [homeless] are not going to be on the street. They’re doubling up, they’re sleeping in cars. They’re not on the street in January because it’s cold.”

The City of New Albany has worked in recent years to provide safer and more affordable housing, the mayor’s email states, operating more than 1,100 homes through the New Albany Housing Authority — more than Charlestown, Clarksville and Jeffersonville combined.

The City has also initiated a rental registration program to ensure that the 40 percent rented homes in New Albany are regulated for safety, and endorsed Low Income Housing Tax Credit applications through the state for development and redevelopment of affordable housing.

HELPING THEM COPE

Still there are people without homes, and some Floyd County residents and organization directors say that number is rising.

Jesse Floyd, board president of the Tri-County Health Coalition of Southern Indiana, said that he’s never seen homeless numbers like he is now in New Albany, and he speaks from experience. He’s been with the organization 30 years.

Floyd said that he’s seen an uptick in the homeless population, especially over the past two years. Since January, he’s also noticed a growing segment of young men among the homeless population, something he said is new.

“The indigent population has grown as a whole,” he said. “When we started, there were very few people coming through. We would have one or two people coming through asking for help.”

The organization has a series of programs providing food and clothing, helping with taxes and other services for anyone who needs it, not just the homeless.

“Now the food pantry stays empty,” he said. “We used to not have too many homeless people that stand out like this, but they’re standing out. You can’t miss them. You’ll see them with their backpacks, just sitting everyplace they can. You’ll see them just roaming the street. Most of them, you can tell they’re just hot. Its awful warm outside.”

Although working with homeless people has always been part of Tri-County’s mission, the need appears greater now. Floyd said this summer, between five to six young homeless people, mainly men, have been coming into the office every day for free water, snacks and a place to cool off. They range in age from about 17 to 22 years old, he said.

“A lot of them that come in, they just want to talk,” he said. “They’ve been coming in and sitting and talking about why they’re on the streets, what they would like to change in their lives and how their home lives [were.]”

Melissa Merida, director of the New Albany-Floyd County Public Library, said the library regularly serves the homeless population.

“They utilize a lot of the services and it’s also a cool place in the summer and a warm place in the winter,” she said, adding that some people go in to read or use the computers and some just want to sit in a more comfortable place than outside. Over the past several weeks, she said they may have seen fewer people because the weather has been more mild.

She said the library helps where it can — it offers free computer use with an ID, free computer classes weekly to learn how to use basic Microsoft programs and a job and career center to help people get started on making and posting resumes and searching for jobs.

“Most of the homeless, they have some kind of income, but it’s not enough to afford housing in our area,” she said. “And since we don’t have a shelter or somewhere to help them kind of get back on their feet, that kinds of complicates things.”

GROWING CONCERN

Floyd County Sheriff Frank Loop said he’s seen an increase in homeless New Albany residents over the past five to 10 years.

“Where years ago we might see one or two, now it’s not uncommon that they’re all over the place,” Loop said.

Several factors are contributing to the growth, he said.

“I think the homeless population in Clark and Floyd counties has exploded because there is a homeless shelter in Louisville, there is a drug problem that’s bigger than it’s ever been and there’s is a walking bridge so they can easily walk from Louisville to Southern Indiana where before they could not.

“That’s why Clark County has a much bigger problem than Floyd does, because they’re walking across that bridge,” Loop said.

While New Albany doesn’t have a shelter, Jeffersonville does. Barb Anderson, director of Haven House, said around 26 percent of the shelter’s population is from Floyd County, with around 50 percent from Clark.

She said the county percentage fluctuates and has been as high as 35 to 40 percent from Floyd County before. Haven House has 80 beds on regular, non “white flag” nights. White flag status is called when the index is at or below 35 degrees or at or above 95 degrees and is considered an emergency situation. Then shelters and makeshift shelters allow for more people to come in.

“It depends on what night you’re here,” she said. “This is a pretty mobile region and [some] people are between Jeffersonville, Clarksville and New Albany and kind of burn their bridges in one city and go to another city.

“And finally when the bridges are burned in all the cities, they wind up here. So the picture is kind of jaded. They may be from New Albany but lived in Clarksville for the past two months or they’ve gone to Jeffersonville and lived with a cousin. So it takes a little while to even find out where they’re from.”

Anderson said she doesn’t think an added shelter in New Albany is the answer.

“No, I think they need affordable housing,” she said. “I’m not a fan of sheltering and I provide shelter, but I know what I am. I am a shelter for the homeless. And there shouldn’t be shelters. There are enough resources in our community and our country to have affordable housing for people. It’s a matter of desire and it’s a matter of building it. And that priority has not taken place.”

Gahan commits violence against our most vulnerable because our most beautiful can't get enough of "sanitary conditions."

It was another morning among many, walking back home from work, entertaining myself by watching as drivers of automobiles routinely violated the traffic rules, all the while ready to turn into road-raging beasts if a solitary bicyclist were to do the same by rolling through a stop sign, when from the shadows emerged a gargantuan 300-pound male pedaling frantically atop a terribly creaky ten-year-old’s bike.

This is the sort of contemporary phenomenon that eludes comprehension, these full-grown adults on kiddie bikes, and yes, I’ve certainly heard the litany of their vagrancy, drug abuse and petty thievery. Some of it may even be true, and deprivation in one of its numerous sanctioned forms surely plays a part, although I insist on thinking it goes deeper.

I believe they're the dispossessed protesting against the current reign of the fashionistas, or as I've termed them previously, the "beautiful" people.

SHANE'S EXCELLENT NEW WORDS: Is there a -cracy word for government by the beautiful people?

... To me the term "beautiful people" is decidedly pejorative.

It's inevitably the people who fancy themselves as beautiful, not necessarily in some accepted sense of outwardly physical beauty, but those possessing the right ideas, the right look, the right connections and the right way of viewing their privileged place in the world.

Obviously I reserve the right to heatedly differ with "right" in these contexts, extolling a alternative definition in the process.

As an awkward and ungainly ugly duckling of a book reader, I've learned the hard way that trying to fit in with the beautiful people is a fool's errand. Whenever I've tried it, the story has ended badly.

I'm not sure whether these experiences made me into a defiant jaded contrarian or the other way around, but there we are. I've become fairly contemptuous of the self-centered milieu of the beautiful people, who know far less about the world than they profess, and who tend to dismiss the "little people" -- and this may be one reason why Donald Trump is president, among other things.

There are beautiful people and homeless people, and almost axiomatically, never the twain shall meet. In fact the beautiful people tend to view the homeless people as blotches to be removed, lest property values plunge and visitors come to believe we weren't taught about deodorant.

To close this post, give it up for this blog's co-editor, who has a knack for finding the center of the target.

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We were out of town when Mayor Gahan lied to and then destroyed a community of homeless people here in New Albany. His personal actions and the usual lack of substantive response from other Democratic officials are deplorable but not at all surprising given their consistent track records of subsidizing the wealthy while seeking to limit or penalize nearly everyone else. 

What’s mostly gone unremarked, though, owing to them being wholly unremarkable in this country, are the other lessons again made clear: 

1. It’s not just possible but highly probable for working people to be unable to afford a decent place to live. 

2. Medical situations to which we are all susceptible make and help keep people homeless every day.

I’m sure, via occasional donations, thoughts and prayers, etc., some of you think you’re offering support for the homeless. The fact is, though, there isn’t a single good and justifiable reason why the factors above need to be true. When we continue to respect and re-elect a leadership class that doesn’t support a living wage and universal health care, we are choosing to make people’s lives look and function like the photos and videos we’ve all seen too much of lately. We are choosing, in the wealthiest empire to ever exist, to set the humanitarian baseline so low that “unsafe, unsanitary” housing camps are accepted as a “natural” consequence of our systemic beliefs and actions. 

Year after year, a bulk of the American voting public, regardless of party and desperately clung-to delusional self-images, actively chooses and reinforces numerous forms of poverty and violence. It’s what we electorally say we want and it’s precisely what we get.

Cognitive dissonance: An abundance of gratitude for violent city "leadership" -- and other ways we lie to ourselves.

Who among our community's most vulnerable will Jeff Gahan attack next -- and to what phantasmagorical lengths will local Democrats go to rationalize it?

So very, very sad.

Local pretend Democrats joyful as Jeff Gahan offers to demolish homeless camps in exchange for more pretty downtown landscaping.

If local Democrats have no intention of protesting their mayor's eight-year record of abuses committed against the community's less fortunate -- has a single ranking Democrat spoken publicly about Team Gahan's breathtaking lies in the lead-up to demolishing the Silver Creek homeless encampment? -- then perhaps the rest of us should protest against the Democrats. One effective way of doing this arrives in November.

The Floyd County Democratic Party has abandoned any semblance of principle save the ironclad imperative of preserving pay-to-play political patronage in New Albany. A friend said it best yesterday at Facebook:

The destruction of this homeless camp was ordered by New Albany mayor Jeff Gahan (D) who is up for re-election this November. I urge my New Albany friends who vote Democrat to make an exception this fall, and vote for his opponent, Republican Mark Seabrook. Jeff Gahan is a thoroughly corrupt politician.

For the record, my friend Roger ("NA Confidential") Baylor is an independent with a strong leaning towards European-style social democracy, but like me, has found common cause with local Republicans on many local issues.

The News and Tribune's Boyle does fine work with this story.

WATCH: New Albany homeless camp demolished, by John Boyle

NEW ALBANY — A homeless camp along Silver Creek in New Albany was demolished by city crews Monday ...

 ... Marcy Garcia, a volunteer with Hip Hop Cares, has been helping those living in the camp since last winter. The reason the site came to the attention of city officials, she believes, was a fire that took place in one of the structures roughly five weeks ago.

"I think the fire brought it to light," Garcia said. "I think that's really what gave attention to this camp. It was a pretty major fire that happened, and it brought attention, not only to them, but it makes people question the city of New Albany about the homeless population" ...

Previous link(s):

Gahan's boom that crashed: "Quite the tab (for taxpayers) for making vulnerable people's lives harder."

Exit 0's Paul Stensrud pulls zero punches v.v. Gahan's violence against the homeless: "In order for things to change there needs to be a change of hands within local government."