Say what? Look, it's a pandemic parking garage painting innovation.

I still like my idea better (December 4, 2016).

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My State Street Parking Garage public art dream.

Even better: Hang a Trabi right in the center.

Zoo TV Tour

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But what happened to "wrapping" the parking garage with apartments and other luxury amenities -- or did Cornerstone merely tithe the mayor's re-election slush fund and move on to a different town?

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March 19, 2017

Lucky ol' Cornerstone Engineering: Redevelopment awards $17,500 contract to explore the possibility of "wrapping the parking garage and adding apartments and businesses to the structure."

Here's one out the blue.

Redevelopment Commission secretary Adam "Where the Fix Is Always In" Dickey records Irving Joshua's strange musings on the possibility of the State Street parking garage's adaptive reuse (from the meeting of February 14).

Wouldn't you love it if Cornerstone came back with a recommendation to convert the parking garage into a farmers market?

Develop New Albany's on-line farmers market "poll" is a reeking, juvenile cesspool of intellectual dishonesty. (March 8, 2014)

Why is DNA opposed to having an intelligent community discussion about the farmers market and its place in a revitalizing downtown without resorting to the misconceptions and scaremongering?

Moreover, if we're paying engineering consultants to explore different uses for the parking garage, does it mean we don't have a parking problem, after all?

We need to hurry with the public art solution before Dogs Playing Poker wins -- again.

ASK THE BORED: A footnote about wetted beaks.

An an addendum to the historical record, we see David Duggins discussing a subdivision marker (huh?) improvement contract with the Board of Public Works on Tuesday, April 11.

At roughly the same time, Ginkins was being appointed to the New Albany Housing Authority board in preparation for Jeff Gahan's annexation.

I'll just leave this here for posterity's perusal.

Lucky ol' Cornerstone Engineering: Redevelopment awards $17,500 contract to explore the possibility of "wrapping the parking garage and adding apartments and businesses to the structure."

Here's one out the blue.

Redevelopment Commission secretary Adam "Where the Fix Is Always In" Dickey records Irving Joshua's strange musings on the possibility of the State Street parking garage's adaptive reuse (from the meeting of February 14).

Wouldn't you love it if Cornerstone came back with a recommendation to convert the parking garage into a farmers market?

Develop New Albany's on-line farmers market "poll" is a reeking, juvenile cesspool of intellectual dishonesty. (March 8, 2014)

Why is DNA opposed to having an intelligent community discussion about the farmers market and its place in a revitalizing downtown without resorting to the misconceptions and scaremongering?

Moreover, if we're paying engineering consultants to explore different uses for the parking garage, does it mean we don't have a parking problem, after all?

We need to hurry with the public art solution before Dogs Playing Poker wins -- again.

Fire station bidding questions, Part Three: A $1.5 million sale to enable a $2.75 million spending orgy.

Part One
Part Two

In 2014, against a backdrop of negotiations with Kroger largely hidden from public view, and in concert with the $9 million TIF-funded water park located nearby, City Hall elected to sell a youthful fire station for demolition and build a new one. Public discussion was non-existent.

Kroger paid $1.5 million for the 22-year-old station, and the new station cost $2.2 million. As the Courier-Journal explained, these moves were part of a larger deal.

New Albany officials said previously they intend to use a $5 million bank note to pay for the firehouse construction and improvements to two other firehouses. They’ll use proceeds from the Kroger transaction, as well as EDIT, or economic development income taxes, and TIF, tax-increment financing, revenues to repay the loan ...

Looking at Redevelopment Commission minutes 2012 and 2013, we find that minutes from the latter half of 2013 are entirely missing from the city's web site. What isn't mentioned in those minutes which are available for viewing is the bidding process for the fire station rebuild and accompanying upgrades. Rather, there is a reference to a contract with Axis Architecture and Interiors for $4,275,000.

In short, we sold an asset for $1.5 million, and immediately embarked upon a $2.75 million spending free.

My question: Why did the city sell itself short on the Kroger negotiations?

Not only was very little of this process transparent and the fire station swap an uneven transaction for the city, but we might have played this hand far better, leveraging Kroger's expansion needs with the Plaza's owner and addressing sore points -- the derelict Hardee's building that causes insomnia for Banker Blair, and notoriously bad traffic conditions at the State Street entrance that lacks a stop light.

Why did Jeff Gahan's economic "development" minions consistently undervalue the city's stake in these backroom deals?

Probably because for David Duggins, any negotiating position not specifically constructed to dispense corporate welfare largess at th city's expense threatens to be a deal-breaker.

Ready for a change?

Fire station bidding questions, Part Two: I see the $4.25 million contract, but where are the bids?

Part One
Part Three

There are no minutes on the city's web site for Redevelopment Commission meetings during the last five months of 2013 (after 2 August 2013, and until the first meeting in January of 2014). Two other meetings appear to be missing, too.

However, there are a few relevant passages. First, from April 9, with notification that a special meeting of the RC would be required to discuss details of the new fire station.

Then, April 29, which has less to do with the issue at hand than an admission of future water park access problems owing to the city's inability to bridge a creek that's been flowing there for centuries prior to the advent of TIF bonding.

Finally, June 11. Apparently the special meeting has come and gone, because the $4.25 million contract with Axis is up for unanimous approval.

Rumors have circulated ever since of Jeff Gahan's minions bragging about their "loophole" to avoid the bidding process. If you know anything that might help us understand this, please write to me. Confidentiality is assured.

Fire station bidding questions, Part One: Missing Redevelopment Commission minutes, Kroger corporate welfare and fire stations.

Part Two
Part Three

I've been looking at Redevelopment Commission minutes for 2012 and 2013. Interestingly (ominously?), minutes from the last half of 2013 are entirely missing from the city's web site.

I'm seeing discussions about the Kroger "corporate welfare" land deals (to which Banker Blair remains closely attached; see * below), the Green Valley Road firehouse's demolition, and the rapid fire station rebuild on Daisy Lane.

What I'm not seeing is any reference to a bidding process for the fire station rebuild and accompanying upgrades -- just a contract with Axis Architecture and Interiors for $4,275,000.

Are details of the bidding process missing from the minutes?

As a first step to seeing how Jeff Gahan's minions consistently undervalued the city's stake in these backroom deals, here is Courier-Journal coverage from May, 2014.

Daisy Lane construction: Firehouse, then pool, by Grace Schneider

Gradually the pieces of a redevelopment deal are coming together for New Albany to open a new firehouse on West Daisy Lane and for Kroger Co. to get its New Albany Plaza expansion rolling.

City redevelopment director David Duggins told the redevelopment commission Tuesday that the city’s new firehouse on Daisy will open to the public June 9. Because the new $2.2 million station is substantially completed, firefighters already have begun moving in equipment and gear.

The move follows an agreement struck more than a year ago for Kroger to pay $1.5 million to the city for its 22-year-old firehouse and adjoining property on Green Valley Road, adjacent to its store to make way for a large renovation and expansion.

The parties are scheduled to close on the property May 29, later than expected because construction crews working on the new fire station were slowed by 25 days of bad weather, Duggins said.

New Albany officials said previously they intend to use a $5 million bank note to pay for the firehouse construction and improvements to two other firehouses. They’ll use proceeds from the Kroger transaction, as well as EDIT, or economic development income taxes, and TIF, tax-increment financing, revenues to repay the loan ...

 ... As for Kroger’s plans, the company hasn’t submitted design documents yet for the expansion, but officials have told New Albany they expect to build a new “lifestyle center,” similar to large marketplace stores opened in Ohio and South Carolina, with food products and other merchandise.

* As explained in these articles.

 CM Blair's bank, the State Street exurb, commercial dereliction, corporate welfare and non-transparency.

Let's go Krogering?: Does CM Blair's fixation with a boarded-up Hardee's have to do with gas pumps and corporate welfare?

Council meeting recap 1: State's a trashy chain-ridden asphalt nightmare, and this sole derelict Hardee's must go!