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."

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

Looks flaccid to us. Time for an Rx?

Damn. I missed the self-congratulatory post-homeless camp demolition pep rally. Wish I could have been there for the popping of corks.

NAC reader DS posted the photograph above in response to social media speculation about the street department's casualties in yesterday's assault on the homeless encampment by Silver Creek.

"The boom didn’t malfunction, it crashed. It will need serious repairs. Another financial hit."

Frequent reader KC replied:

"Wow. That's going to be quite the tab for making vulnerable people's lives harder."

UPDATE: It turns out that Wednesday is a national holiday with deep significance as it pertains to the mayor's customary attitude toward the less fortunate. Perhaps this explains yesterday's hurried conclusion.

Previous link(s):

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."

We cannot know if the push-button crosswalk buttons work when so many of them are broken.

That's right, NA:

We're fundamentally better.

Jeff Speck, who once authored a walkability study for New Albany -- a document now being depleted, one precious page at a time, as toilet paper in Jeff Gahan's mayoral washroom -- is quoted here on the topic of push-button crosswalk signals: How Push-to-Walk reduces the quality of walkable neighborhoods.

It is almost always the cities with push-button crossings that need the most help ... push-buttons almost always mean that the automobile dominates, as they are typically installed in conjunction with a new signal timing in which crossing times are shorter and less frequent. Far from empowering walkers, the push button turns them into second-class citizens; pedestrians should never have to ask for a light.

And boy, does the auto dominate in New Albany.

There is reason to believe that quite often, push-button at crosswalks do nothing, and in fact are virtual placebos.

MANY CROSSWALK SIGNAL BUTTONS DON’T DO ANYTHING ANYMORE (Today I Found Out)

Does pressing the pedestrian crossing button actually do anything?, by Tom de Castella (BBC News Magazine)

My sense is that in New Albany, these push-buttons are enabled and actually do something. I base this observation on lengthy waits at crosswalks downtown, where the buttons (as the one pictured above) chronically malfunction.

There are a great many of them.

Another malfunctioning metaphor for downtown quasi-walkability.

In terms of walkability, the intersection of Spring and 15th is decidedly below standard.

Some of the crossing lights work, and others don't. Several of the crossing request buttons are rotten to the touch, and obviously unworkable.

What's more, it's been this way for a long time.

Ironically, the stop light at this same intersection marks the beginning of the only periodically (coin flip?) enforced drag strip on Spring Street, from 15th to 7th.

Maybe some day the Board of Works will take note. We neighborhood residents can dream.