In New Albany, the paint colors black and gray are the new beige. Ugh.

Have you noticed that various shades of gray and black have become ubiquitous when it comes to putting coats of paint on commercial buildings downtown?

Interestingly, throughout history the names of famous people have been used to described colors, as with Alice Blue, which was named for Teddy Roosevelt's daughter, and Titian Red, after the painter.

Jeffie Charcoal, anyone?

Paint it black, architecturally speaking? Better yet, just make it stop, by John King (San Francisco Chronicle)

If nothing else, sheltering in place these past two months has allowed us to get to know our neighborhoods very well — close encounters of the strolling kind, day after day after day.

Which means that I can now state emphatically, without reservation, that the black house craze has gone too far.

As happens with any fashion trend, from padded shoulders in the 1980s to man buns of more recent vintage, houses cloaked in dark gray or jet black have crossed the line from sexy and stylish to been there-done that. In and of themselves, some look great — they “pop,” to use a word favored by color consultants. En masse, you’d think tar was being poured from airplanes onto random homes for no particular reason.

It’s enough to make one long for sheepish beige ...

At 114 E. Market, there's Pints & Union. At 424 E. Market, there's Pints & Duplication.

Of Pints & Pastimes?

I had no idea Grant so craved recognition from the historic preservation folks that he'd go as far as to mimic the paint job on a building that actually won an award -- and didn't even have to go to court to score the plaque.

But there you have it.

Does Pastimes have Fuller's on tap?

See the sweet new public doughnut art at NA's classic Honey Creme Donuts.

Honey Creme Donuts (514 Vincennes Street in New Albany).

Got paint? We can re-spray this ghost crosswalk on Market in a jiffy.

What's that sign?

Looks like there used to be a crosswalk across this uncontrolled stretch of Market Street (1400 block).

There's the other half, just across the street.

Shall we paint a crosswalk? After all, the signs are already there, just as they are at similar crosswalks on State Street and in front of Scribner Middle School.

Or must we wait to award the huge bid and ensure maximum kickback?

How paint has become a weapon in Macedonia's "Colorful Revolution."

Bear with me. This story is deeper than it seems at first.

How Paint Became a Weapon in Macedonia's 'Colorful Revolution', by Feargus O'Sullivan (City Lab)

Paint-balling your way to fair elections.

Look at the aftermath of recent protests in the Macedonian capital Skopje, and you might assume a festival had just left town. Archways appear splattered with polka dot blotches of color, statues drip pink and blue streaks, and fountain water runs scarlet. This colorful makeover isn’t the result of some Balkan version of Holi, however. It’s the product of a protest movement whose dazzling tactics—dubbed Sharena Revolutsiya or “the colorful revolution” despite its overwhelmingly peaceful nature—has meant covering city walls and monuments in splashes of brightly colored paint ...

 ... Macedonia’s Colorful Revolution actually kicked off last winter following shocking revelations over the scope of alleged state surveillance in the country.

Macedonia became an independent country following the breakup of Yugoslavia. Since time immemorial, the geographical vicinity of present-day Macedonia (not to mention the Macedonians themselves, many of  whom live in Bulgaria and Greece) has been a regional bone of contention. Now, Macedonia finds itself astride a major refugee route, with geopolitical ramifications.

With the E.U. relying on Macedonia to stem the flow of refugees trying to cross the country from Greece, European governments have largely taken a softly-softly approach, concerning themselves more with brokering stability than pushing for regime change. All that has forced local protesters to get creative. Instead of throwing bricks or Molotov cocktails, they’ve been firing paint balls, scattering Macedonia’s parliament and public buildings with glaring color.

Here's the kicker. Macedonia's political crisis derives in part from ongoing efforts to plasticize and Disney-fy the capital city, Skopje.

That demonstrators are especially concerned with altering the capital’s appearance is not insignificant. In many countries this might come across as a wanton, self-defeating attack on public property that has served many governments, not just the current one. In Macedonia’s capital, however, those very buildings are often new, and represent the forces in the country that protesters loathe.

Skopje has in recent years been undergoing a massive reconstruction project to make it look grander and more imposing (and in Europe, it’s not alone in doing so). The ruling VMRO-DPMNE party has splurged on giving the city a neoclassical makeover that has smothered the city with Brobdingnagian monuments to Alexander the Great, bridges bristling with bronze reliefs, and endless hollow colonnades. At a mushrooming cost of €633 million ($722 million)—meaning that the country is paying out €10,400 ($11,860) every hour—the results are dramatic, oppressive, and hideous. It’s no wonder that these new monuments have been taken as symbols of the government’s grandiose delusions and petty oppression, stone and masonry canvasses on which people are now writing their frustration in day-glo paint. This isn’t just a case of protesters writing their anger on walls. In Skopje, the walls themselves are part of the problem.

Sound familiar?

Team Gahan's walkability gap (3 of 3): "A Playbook on the Politics of Better Streets." WE NEED IT.

Previously at NAC:

Get your copy now: "Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution."

Sadik-Khan makes two points that Team Gahan probably won't ever grasp: Transportation is multi-modal by definition, and restoring streets as a means of transit by all users need not be expensive.

But this is precisely why any future effort aimed at walkability in New Albany is dead to the mayor if it can be done inexpensively.

How can Jeff Gahan fund his election campaigns via efficiency of expenditure?

You need grease. Lots and lots of grease.

A Playbook on the Politics of Better Streets, by Richard Florida (City Lab)

In conversation with former New York City transportation commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan.

 ... In her new book Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution—written with her longtime colleague and chief media strategist Seth Solomonow—Sadik-Khan tells the story of how she made it happen, offering a roadmap for making cities and neighborhoods safer, more sustainable, and more connected. And she argues this can be done without spending huge sums of money. By emphasizing fast, easy-to-implement, “do-it-yourself” solutions, Sadik-Khan makes the case that being smart and creative—not having access to a hefty budget—matters most.

The crux of it:

Biking is transportation. Walking is transportation. Buses are transportation. Where bikes are perceived as a nuisance it’s often just a symptom of outdated street designs, which ultimately serve no one well. All these modes can play well together if they’re not forced to fight over the scraps of road left over after room is carved out for cars. Reclaiming road space for bikes, pedestrians, and buses isn’t a mere amenity, it’s an infrastructure and economic investment whose effects are felt far beyond the lane. So if you want better streets for everyone, you can start by building a bike lane.

Get your copy now: "Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution."

"If you can change the street, you can change the world."

Someone tell the mayor, but yell really loudly; he's a few stories underground in the down-low bunker. The book is Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution, by Janette Sadik-Khan and Seth Solomonow.

Janette Sadik-Khan's homepage includes views of before/after street transformations.

Simply painting a part of the street to make it into a plaza or bus lane not only made the street safer, but it also lessened congestion and increased foot traffic, which improved the bottom line of businesses.

I reiterate my previous call: If Gahan has no intention of doing it, I'm ready to start painting streets.

Streetfight Offers Vision to Reshape Cities (Destinations Booksellers)

Janette Sadik-Khan is one of the world’s foremost authorities on transportation and urban transformation. She served as New York’s transportation commissioner from 2007 to 2013 under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, overseeing historic changes to New York City’s streets – closing Broadway to cars in Times Square, building nearly four hundred miles of bike landes, and creating more than sixty plazas citywide. She, along with colleague Seth Solomonow, provide case studies of how cities and/or activists can make city streets safer and more accommodating to multiple uses.

If you’re a fan of protected bike lanes and road diets, here’s a manual of successful procedures taken from real life.

ADA, anyone? Parking is not permitted on sidewalks. This IS a sidewalk, right?

I have no beef with the business at the corner of 15th and Spring, and I suspect it hasn't dawned on anyone working there to consider a potential access issue on the sidewalk out front owing to employee parking habits.

Primarily, this is because the city of New Albany has neglected maintaining the sidewalk. We can afford a $9 million water park, but not a gallon of paint.

As with the (until recently) ignored crosswalks on nearby Elm Street, it's another instance of simple striping. At least once since we moved into our current residence in 2003, the city painted yellow stripes on the tarmac to show the sidewalk's configuration in the absence of a road verge.

Emulating local Democratic Party grandees, it has been allowed to fade into nothingness.

Here are three recent views looking west, with the photos taken on different days.

I fully understand that New Albany's Board of Public Works has a full slate of ongoing befuddlement as to who's going to tune the street piano, which just isn't an option, because art shouldn't stray past the boundaries of velvet Elvis and dogs playing poker.

But I believe the intent of the Americans with Disabilities Act is to make the boundaries of the sidewalk clear and accessible. Perhaps the chairman can add this one to his burgeoning agenda.

Paint. Why not paint?

Every shotgun house in New Albany should be painted a different pastel color, whether mandated by historical hued standards or otherwise.

Chile cool: art, music and graffiti in laid-back Valparaíso; The Chilean city of Valparaíso is alive with avant-garde culture and vibrant street art. Think mini Berlin by the seaside, by Trish Lorenz (Guardian)

It isn't the first time we've referred to this imperative.

Edi Rama and reform by paint: "Compromise in colors is gray."

In fact, going all the way back to 2006 ...

Paint and public art as progressive ideals -- why not in New Albany?

It would seem that the most common solution to the simple problem of gray murk has been a coat of paint.

Edi Rama and reform by paint: "Compromise in colors is gray."

The former mayor of Tirana (Old Albania) provides required viewing for somnolent New Albania, with tips on what we could do to improve our civic experience.

Ironically, NAC has been here before: Paint and public art as progressive ideals -- why not in New Albany?

TALKS |TEDX Edi Rama: Take back your city with paint

Make a city beautiful, curb corruption. Edi Rama took this deceptively simple path as mayor of Tirana, Albania, where he instilled pride in his citizens by transforming public spaces with colorful designs. With projects that put the people first, Rama decreased crime -- and showed his citizens they could have faith in their leaders. (Filmed at TEDxThessaloniki.)

From 2000 to 2011 Edi Rama was the mayor of Tirana, where he implemented a series of reforms to take back the city for the people.

Bill Allen an early 2013 Pillar Award front runner with stunning Main Street paint job.

Before!

After!

Potemkin sheen, or the sheer grandeur of Bill Allen's block.

Last month at NAC: "Do we commend the building's owner for doing something/anything after these many years, or do we ask inconvenient questions about facades vs. structural soundness? Or do we just keep drinking?"

Nice. At least he's painting the plywood window coverings.

Mike Kopp posted this on Twitter earlier today. Do we commend the building's owner for doing something/anything after these many years, or do we ask inconvenient questions about facades vs. structural soundness? Or do we just keep drinking?

Up with paint.

The Frenchman's new colors.

The snazzy paint job? It's because the Frenchman is coming ... to the Bergman Building retail space on Market. Here's what the storefront looked like before.