Alert the economic dishevelment selector: "Stubborn Myths and Dated Terms We'd Like to Retire in 2016."

Earlier, we considered traffic myths in need of cashiering, but which are sure to be continuously recycled as our C- student governmental apparatus botches the Speck plan.

More unread Gahan reading at CityLab: "10 Tired Traffic Myths That Didn't Get a Rest in 2015."

Today, a wider range of myth-busters. Click through to read them all in detail, though I have placed the blog spotlight on the lazy characterization most likely to be taken as holy writ during the construction of the Break Wind Lofts at Duggins Flats: "Millennials."

Stubborn Myths and Dated Terms We'd Like to Retire in 2016: A New Year’s wish list from CityLab

Whether they’re overused, misunderstood, or wrongfully deployed, sometimes good words and concepts go bad. As CityLab wraps up 2015 and looks forward to a new year full of promise, we’ve compiled the following list of myths we’re tired of debunking and phrases we’re tired of seeing—not to mention writing. Maybe, just maybe, if we all hold hands and jump together, we can reduce the number of times we’re collectively forced to contend with these terms in 2016.

Happy New Year, CityLab readers!

“Uber for X”
“A Tale of Two Cities”
“Artisanal”
“Eyesore”
“Wider Roads = Less Traffic”
“Creative Placemaking”
“Climate-Change Doubter”
”Hipsters”
”Illegals”

“Millennials”—I appreciate the need to categorize age groups for sociological study. Planners must be able gauge how much housing and how many jobs are awaiting young adults entering the workforce, for instance. But the term "millennials" has proven uniquely capable of absorbing all kinds of meanings beyond a strict temporal boundary. The result has been a perception of an entire generation made up of white, upper-middle-class urbanites from prestigious universities, more concerned about which tech startup to accept a job with than where their next meal is coming from. Because who else was born in the 1980s and ’90s?

This summer, a web browser extension that converts each mention of “millennial” in news stories to ”snake person” revealed the absurdity of some of the claims about the people supposedly in this cohort. Here's hoping the 2016 conversation on generational change and cultural mores can move beyond the buzzwords and towards a little more specificity and substance.—Julian Spector

“Resilience”
“Wage Gap”
“Sharing Economy”

But what if "outdated mentalities" are the best-selling locally-produced item in New Albany?

Hammer, meet nail.

"Policies are changing and new ideas are emerging, yet there is still a significant obstacle ahead of us: challenging outdated mentalities."

It occurs to me that as a lifelong resident of "hereabouts," this daily task of "challenging outdated mentalities" largely has been my life's work. We're still filled to the brim with them, which means there is much more work ahead, and when it comes right down to it, the process of prodding, pushing, taunting and ridiculing outdated mentalities is what gets me out of bed in the morning.

The following commentary comes courtesy of Bluegill, who posted it on Facebook. It applies every bit as much to New Albany as Baltimore.

Two ways about it [Commentary]: Converting city streets St. Paul and Calvert would calm traffic and improve property values, by Charlie Duff (Baltimore Sun)

If we are serious about adding 10,000 new families to the city, then it is time to recognize that there is a lot between the suburbs and downtown. A lot of residents, a lot of houses, a lot of businesses — a whole lot of potential. High-speed through traffic damages this potential. It devalues the neighborhood as a destination, a place we go to and from, a place where bicyclists do not fear for their lives and engines do not roar so loud you can't have a conversation on your stoop.

When Henry A. Barnes decided in 1954 that these streets should be one-way, his only concern was to make sure that members of the middle class moving out of the inner-city could still access it easily. But why should the neighborhoods of Charles Village, Barclay, Old Goucher, Charles North, Greenmount West and Mount Vernon still pay the price for decisions made at a time when TVs were black and white and cars were considered the ultimate marker of social progress? Sixty years later, it's about time we change our approach to transportation planning.