Squalor-lining? After all, AT&T also doesn't landscape.

A reader asks: "Hmmm - why am I thinking about the central residential core of New Albany?"

AT&T hit with second complaint of discrimination against low-income neighborhoods, by Harper Neidig (The Hill)

A prominent civil rights attorney is accusing AT&T of discriminating against low-income minority communities within Detroit in a complaint filed with the Federal Communications Commission on Monday ...

... The Monday complaint alleges that AT&T is responsible for a “pattern of long-term, systematic failure to invest in the infrastructure required to provide equitable, mainstream Internet access to residents of the central city (compared to the suburbs) and to lower-income city neighborhoods.”

Asked for comment, an AT&T spokesman referred to a statement the company put out in response to the August complaint.

“We do not redline,” Joan Marsh, AT&T’s chief regulatory and external affairs officer, said in the statement. “Our commitment to diversity and inclusion is unparalleled. Our investment decisions are based on the cost of deployment and demand for our services and are of course fully compliant with the requirements of the Communications Act. We will vigorously defend the complaint filed today.”

We'll continue wondering why AT&T is such a slovenly big-biz presence downtown.

Why does City Hall tolerate AT&T's poorly landscaped corporate indifference opposite Breakwind at 510 E. Spring Street?

 ... I took a few snaps of the rubble in front of AT&T -- the scrawny bushes, tree stumps, exposed black plastic, rusty faded signs, random fence poles ... and in back, there are buckets of cigarette butts contributed by the women at St. Elizabeth fleeing their smoke-free campus, and in summer, lots of shimmering hot asphalt on all sides.

It's something to be proud of, AT&T. It makes the city look so much better. When I become dictator, remind me to nationalize the utility monopolies -- and can someone find me a nice wall for roll call?

Maybe ordinance enforcement doesn't apply to corporate monoliths?

(thanks B)

Why does City Hall tolerate AT&T's poorly landscaped corporate indifference opposite Breakwind at 510 E. Spring Street?

That's right. The property still is listed under the Indiana Bell moniker, although the name hasn't been used since 1993, which appears to be the last time anyone working there thought about how utterly slumlord their property appears.

It's a nice view for the prospective tenants of The Breakwind Lofts at Duggins Flats, across the one-way interstate-speed arterial that supposedly is slated for two-way traffic, though in this benighted burg, the best advice is to believe nothing until you see it with your own two eyes.

I took a few snaps of the rubble in front of AT&T -- the scrawny bushes, tree stumps, exposed black plastic, rusty faded signs, random fence poles ... and in back, there are buckets of cigarette butts contributed by the women at St. Elizabeth fleeing their smoke-free campus, and in summer, lots of shimmering hot asphalt on all sides.

It's something to be proud of, AT&T. It makes the city look so much better. When I become dictator, remind me to nationalize the utility monopolies -- and can someone find me a nice wall for roll call?

Apart from all that, here's something weird. The Google street view from September, 2015 has me in it.

I probably was Tweeting about the ugliness of AT&T's property, but boy, what a nice Panama hat and campaign tee. It improves the whole scene, don't you think?

Vectren's idea of a public art project is colorful, with hints of impending deconstructionist jack-hammering.

Shouldn't we all start using the streets as a coloring book?

I mean, why should utility monopolies have all the fun?

Hey, Vectren ... just a few months late on my Valentine.

But it's okay. Whatever they do, after they're finished, they'll be at the Bored of Works to receive retroactive approval.

I almost forgot: Nationalize utility monopolies now!

I just want to walk to the cigar shop, not compete in the Hunger Games.

Check out today's gas company carnage. They might as well have closed all of Pearl Street and staged a Jackhammer Fest.

Ever notice that Vectren's demolition contractors have a fairly low opinion of sidewalks and walkers? It seems to go beyond what they must do to complete their work, into the realm of open contempt, as here:

Autocentrism vs. ADA 101: Vectren's first thought is to block the sidewalk.

It reminds me of something I was told recently by a downtown shopkeeper. Seems the utility monopoly dug up both street and sidewalk in front of his building, explaining that part of the reason for doing so was to ensure no future inconvenience for cars, because if they ever had to do it again, only the sidewalks would be blocked, and not the traffic or parking lanes.

Autocentrism vs. ADA 101: Vectren's first thought is to block the sidewalk.

How hard would it have been to place the sign in the grass? It only took me a couple of seconds to make a citizen's nudge; by the time I walked around the block, it already had been moved back into blocking position onto the sidewalk.

If we're ever going to HAVE walkability, shouldn't we start THINKING walkability?

Utility locator dumbassery, bicycle lane edition.

Vectren renders downtown into the Hoosier equivalent of Damascus, while the utility locator blithely meanders downtown Spring Street in the bicycle lane.

I loathe utility monopolies.

Fish swim, birds fly, and utility monopolies run amok. It's what they DO.

Witness Vectren's ongoing carnage downtown. Jingle Walk is set to become Jingle Weave. Ever notice the uncanny ability of utility monopolies to schedule invasive city infrastructure destruction mere months (sometimes weeks) after a new sidewalk is laid or fresh pavement applied? Nationalize them all, I say.

Floyds Knobs residents see red over clear-cut hillside; LG&E razing trees, creating path for power lines in Indiana knobs, by Grace Schneider (C-J)

... (New Albany's building commissioner David) Brewer said he and city attorney Stan Robison drove to the site recently after receiving a complaint from a resident. He said they were surprised by the amount of work that had been completed.

He added that he hopes that notifying Hoosier regulators brings more oversight for the project.

“At least now they’ll know someone is watching them,” Brewer said.

Photo of the week: Rat bastards at Indiana-American Water proffer blood money as disgusted populace looks on.

Bar none, my favorite photo of the year to date.

In it, the local representative of the utility monopoly known as Indiana-American Water Company presents two checks, one to the police department (for protection from the monopoly's numerous irate victims??) and the other to the bicentennial junta for an "old-timers baseball game" ... seriously, to the Coup d'Geriatrique, could there be any other kind? You weren't expecting a "future stars" game, I take it.

The money pictured above constitutes roughly 1/3 of the sales deprived from my company by the thieving, incompetent bastards at IN-AWC on that glorious spring day back in 2010, when the water monopoly's long-term and congenital neglect of its own infrastructure led to an enforced day-long shutdown of the Pizzeria and Public House on a Gravity Head Friday.

Recall also that last year, our city council was compelled to write legislation clearly requiring IN-AWC to repair the extensive damage it does to streets on a regular basis, destruction generally commenced only moments after the street in question has been repaved by the city for the very first time since the Carter Administration.

I repeat: NAC is in complete agreement with any elected official, unelected official, ordinary citizen or random footloose Chia pet who wishes to eliminate any and all loopholes permitting those unsupervised rat bastards at Indiana-American Water to run roughshod over taste, decency and recently paved streets. 

That's because you really can trust IN-AWC -- trust the water monopoly to screw you every single time.

May 11, 2012: Rat bastards at Indiana American Water are running amok.

May 10, 2012: Annals of destruction: Hurricanes, tornadoes and now Indiana American Water Company.

January 18, 2012: Indiana-American Water, utility monopolies, street despoiling and why Robespierre was right.

January 27, 2011: At home or at work, Indiana-American Water Company just doesn't give a damn. Hint: Few monopolies do.

March 5, 2010: No State Police poaching at the Pizzeria & Public House tonight, because IN-AWC learned "routine" in Pyongyang.

(Photo credit: City's Facebook page)

What's the frequency, Kenneth? (2012 remix)

I took the photo on Thursday. Indeed, it has been a fine summer for roving bands of  utility monopoly contractors to destroy recently paved streets, but this is the weirdest array of sidewalk hazard markers yet.