Were trees or urban heat islands mentioned at any point during Emperor Gahan's re-enthronement campaign? I didn't think so.

If so, I don't remember it -- apart from a meme or two of bragging, sans substantiation, about tree plantings that we seldom see. The infernal hum of chain saws are another story.

Look, here's the thing ... as in the other questions we ask ... how about some proof?

You know, something that actually shows the number of trees gone, as opposed to the number planted. We have an arborist and a tree board, right?

Surely they have hard, real statistics.

Can we see the statistics?

Because of the stats aren't there, how can the self-congratulatory memes be anything other than fake news?

Re-greening: can Louisville plant its way out of a heat emergency? by Josh Wood (The Guardian)

The Kentucky city is the fastest-warming urban heat island in the US – and as its temperature has risen, its tree cover has plummeted

There are parts of Louisville, Kentucky, that are enveloped in green, where towering trees arc over broad avenues and walkers, joggers and bikers enjoy beautiful parks designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the man who drew up plans for Manhattan’s Central Park.

Even on the hottest days of summer, these neighbourhoods feel comparatively refreshing next to the more sun-baked quarters of the city, where shade is often an unavailable commodity on the street.

Cities are their own climates, often hotter than their surroundings due to the way surfaces like asphalt trap heat even as cars and buildings exude it. When a city is markedly warmer than surrounding rural areas, it is called an urban heat island – and Louisville ranks among the worst heat islands in the US, according to a 2014 study, with an average temperature difference of 2.7C (4.8F). Worse still, a 2012 study by Georgia Tech’s Urban Climate Lab found that Louisville was the fastest-warming urban heat island in the nation.

Part of the reason for Louisville’s temperature extremes is geography. But a lot of it comes down to trees ...

Back into the Ohio River Greenway construction zone for interstate-wide photos. Do ruminations matter at this point?

Previously:

Just a photo of Ohio River Greenway construction.

And we have a winner in the Greenway Landing caption contest.

Recommended (February 2017): Into the Ohio River Greenway construction zone for photos and ruminations.

In New Gahania, only the riverside squatters survive.

At least this time Pinocchio felled his OWN tree.

He must have needed a quick fix in the absence of federal funding, and of course the Treeless Board will provide retroactive approval.

Them bats in Pinocchio Rosenbarger's belfry: BOW talks Greenway, and a night on Bald Mountain.

"Eventually there'll be a plan to replant" the clear-cut tree cover, but of course no one can say what or when that might be.

At the October 20 council meeting, CM David Barksdale was quick to provide the answer (above) to a question that none of his colleagues had asked. was it because NAC did?

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2016
Clear Cut New Albany: Down go the first three of Judge Cody's street trees. Lord, how I detest this place at times.

Points to remember beyond the predictably indeterminate "plan" to replant include the amazing fact that the city has yet to chop down a healthy tree; as with unanimous vote totals during Communist electoral times, New Albany's street trees are 98.8% diseased, forever and always.

Also, the equation encompassed on the death certificate is nearly always presented in a false binary format: It's the tree OR the sidewalk. In an era of ubiquity in construction techniques, that's utter hogwash. It's easier to fell the tree, but this isn't the only "choice" available to thinkers stuck inside impermeable boxes.

Then there's the oldest excuse of all: "Our Tree Board is underfunded and neglected and does what it can." As though there's no way to fix that, but lest we forget, the Tree Board is an appendage of the Board of Works, and might be fixed any time the mayor desires. First he'd have to think, and therein lies the problem.

Finally, it's helpful to be wary of the city's historic preservation contingent, with whom I agree often, though not always. There are documented instances of preservationists grabbing their chain saws when a tree is blocking the pristine view of a lovely old home (generally, the view as enjoyed from a passing car speeding down a one-way street). That's not arbor; that's arson.

Perhaps the cloistered committee of captive usual suspects and yes-men toiling behind closed doors to formulate the purportedly "comprehensive" campaign finance plan (it should take us through a mayoral bid by the incumbent's yet-to-be-conceived grandson) could work something into it about trees?

You know, shade during times of climate change -- or don't they believe in climate change?

File under: The Chronicles of New Gahania.

Clear Cut New Albany: Down go the first three of Judge Cody's street trees. Lord, how I detest this place at times.

Ironically, amid the chain saw's harmonious and predictable whirring in downtown New Albany, the News and Tribune's Elizabeth Beilman was reporting on a place very close to us where city government is responsive to the benefits of trees.

BRANCHING OUT: Jeffersonville works to increase urban tree canopy with downtown tree walk; 20-block downtown to showcase 60+ tree species

The multitude of health, economic, environmental and community benefits of trees has prompted Jeffersonville to begin a concerted effort to maintain and increase its urban tree canopy.

The newspaper duly notes:

DID YOU KNOW?

Trees:

• Decrease the urban heat island effect

• Impede soil erosion

• Slow the runoff of stormwater

• Trap pollutants like carbon dioxide and air particles

• Increase property values

• Create appealing settings for commercial activity

• Encourage walking

Nash: Caution -- New City Employee at Work -- bbuzzzzzzzzzz ...

Matt Nash seems to have forgotten the city's only consistently enforced ordinance, this being the one prohibiting impenetrable satire, so parachute behind the paywall and read it for yourselves ... before the whip comes down, the water torture commences or John "Who Gives a Shit About YOUR Street" Rosenbarger endeavors to explain.

NASH: New Albany's new employees

In order to make New Albany a better place to live the city’s administration has made a couple of new hires over the last couple of weeks. Mayor Jeff Gahan, in an effort to fulfill his campaign promise to make New Albany “Financially Stronger and Physically Cleaner,” has hired Jeff Speck to advise and to “study” New Albany’s downtown streets ...

 ... Also hired last week was a civil engineer to fill the gap that has been in place since the last time the city had an engineer on staff ... 

... While those positions have been reported in the News and Tribune there was also one other addition to the staff of our city’s administration that hasn’t gotten the same press as the other two ...