Municipal comprehensive planning: "More often than not, it is a mechanism to wrap a veneer of legitimacy around the large policy objectives of influential people."

Of course, it might help to make the proper observations, ask the right questions and gather the pertinent data prior to making the decision, then presenting the decision to be rubber-stamped by those who'd been neither observed nor consulted.

MOST PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT IS WORTHLESS, by Charles Marohn (Strong Towns)

... I’ve come to the point in my life where I think municipal comprehensive planning is worthless. More often than not, it is a mechanism to wrap a veneer of legitimacy around the large policy objectives of influential people. Most cities would be better off putting together a good vision statement and a set of guiding principles for making decisions, then getting on with it.

That is, get on with the hard work of iteratively building a successful city. That work is a simple, four-step process:

1. Humbly observe where people in the community struggle.
2. Ask the question: What is the next smallest thing we can do right now to address that struggle?
3. Do that thing. Do it right now.
4. Repeat.

It’s challenging to be humble, especially when you are in a position, or are part of a profession, whose internal narrative suggests you know what to do. It’s painful to observe, especially when that means confronting messy realities that do not fit with your view of the world. It’s unsatisfying, at times, to try many small things when the “obvious” fix is right there. If only those around you just shared your “courage” to undertake it (of course, with no downside to you if you’re wrong). If only people had the patience to see it through (while they, not you, continue to struggle in the interim).

Yet what if we humbly observe where people in our community struggle—we use the experiences of others as our data—and we continually take the actions we are capable of taking, right now, to alleviate those struggles? And what if we do this in neighborhood after neighborhood across the entire city, month after month and year after year? If we do that, not only will we make the lowest risk, highest returning public investments it is possible to make, we won’t help but improve people’s lives in the process.

That is the essence of a Strong Towns approach.

From Strong Towns: "A list of 10 questions you can pose to someone running for office in your town to see whether he or she is worthy of your vote."

Question them. Especially the chairman.

I've chosen to highlight just two of these questions, followed by a bullet list of all 10. Notice that none of them pertain to gesture politics or jeremiads beyond the realm of grassroots and local.

If you're reading from the hermetic tinpot confines of the 1st council district, you have our sympathy. Dan "Wizard of Westside" Coffey is beyond questioning; he'd commence to top-down filibustering before you were finished with query number one.

10 QUESTIONS TO ASK SOMEONE RUNNING FOR LOCAL OFFICE, by Rachel Quednau (Strong Towns)

How can you tell if someone running for local office will do a good job? How can you ensure that he or she will improve your town's economy — not get your community further into debt? How can you figure out whether this candidate for mayor or city council is going to uphold Strong Towns principles and take a thoughtful, incremental approach to your community's problems?

Below, we've put together a list of 10 questions you can pose to someone running for office in your town to see whether he or she is worthy of your vote. You could raise these questions in a public forum, at a personal meeting, or even informally, if you happen to run into the candidate at the grocery store.

Familiarity with the needs of walkers and cyclists? Don't hold your breath on this one.

3. How do you feel about the transportation options currently available in our city? Do we have enough options? If not, what will you do to increase those?

What To Listen For: Keep an ear out for a candidate who doesn't just give lip service to transportation options besides cars, but actually demonstrates a familiarity with the issues facing bus riders, cyclists and pedestrians. Also note whether the candidate advocates for an incremental approach to improving transportation options (thumbs up) or advocates for top-down megaprojects (thumbs down).

Similarly, expect another platitude: Either run for office yourself, or accept your insignificance.

6. How do you plan to involve residents in the decision making process in our town?

What To Listen For: Your candidate should be able to genuinely answer this question with specific plans for engaging residents and listening to their concerns, not just platitudes about how "decisions are made by those who show up."

Here is the summary.

1. Do you think our main street/downtown is healthy and successful? If not, what would you do to change that?
2. What’s more important for our city right now: building new homes and commercial space or rehabbing/expanding/better utilizing our existing homes and storefronts?
3. How do you feel about the transportation options currently available in our city? Do we have enough options? If not, what will you do to increase those?
4. Some people in our community say that we have traffic problems. What do you think? How would you mitigate those concerns or change the situation?
5. If you could change one thing in our zoning code, what would it be and why?
6. How do you plan to involve residents in the decision making process in our town?
7. If someone came to you with a proposal to build a new piece of public infrastructure in our city (road, bridge, etc.) how would you evaluate whether that project was worth implementing?
8. If elected, what three steps would you take to put our city on a firmer financial footing?
9. If you received a $1 million grant to use for the city any way you wanted, what would you do with it and why?
10. What neighborhood do you live in? Why? Where are your favorite places to spend time in our town?

ASK THE BORED: About the timing of bicycle rack placement and the impending HWC study.

Last week's introduction is reprinted below. The question I'll be asking of the bored this morning was first raised in this recent NAC post.

Where is the best place to put a bike rack? (A clue: not where it blocks a sidewalk).

On another level, the question refers to this story from 2015.

HWC Engineering, municipal cowardice, Jeff Speck and reading the tea leaves through dry heaves.

"Will the Bored of Works be placing bicycle racks on sidewalks, and if so, will it finalize the bike racks before or after the results come back from HWC Engineering's two-way street design and engineering study?"

Because: Why would we bolt down racks before we know how (or if) the street grid is to be redesigned?

---

New Albany's Board of Public Works and Safety exists because the State of Indiana says so.

IC 36-4-9-5

Board of public works and safety; establishment Sec. 5.

(a) A board of public works and safety is established in each city.
(b) Notwithstanding subsection (a), the legislative body of a second class city may by ordinance establish as separate boards: (1) a board of public works; and (2) a board of public safety; to perform the functions of the board of public works and safety.

As added by Acts 1980, P.L.212, SEC.3.

As for what the board is supposed to do each Tuesday at 10:00 a.m., you can visit the American Legal Publishing site, search "Board of Public Works and Safety," and sift through various powers accorded the board over the decades by dint of ordinance.

Exactly how much power does our Board of Public Works and Safety possess?

If Jeff Gahan were to stray from the protection of his Down Low Bunker and comment, no doubt he would assert that the board has just the power it needs. He handpicked it, and he's perfectly content to see his program implemented by non-elected boards, as opposed to elected officials.

According to Dan Coffey, the answer surely is "too much." At the city council meeting of June 6, Coffey proposed that our council, as a body made up of elected members, should take back authority ceded to non-elected boards.

Agreed.

The Board of Public Works and Safety may be established by state, not city, and it may be appointed by mayor, not council, but the board's powers appear to derive from the legislative body.

I mention all this as prelude to a new feature at NA Confidential: Ask the Bored.

It has long been NA Confidential's position that given the board's accumulated powers -- justified or  otherwise -- and its current function as arbiter of myriad conditions that impact the lives of citizens, for it to hold all its meetings at 10:00 a.m. on a Tuesday meeting is an affront (note that during the Garner Administration, a fledgling but doomed effort to democratize meeting times was made).

However, NAC can attend many, if not all, meetings. Public speaking time is allowed, and on occasion in the past, we've used it for the precise purpose of making comments, raising issues or asking questions, so that these are included in meeting minutes and become part of the public record. This way, it cannot be claimed later that "no one said anything."

Readers, I know you have questions. Many of you cannot attend these meetings, and so when possible, NAC will ask them for you. Generalized questions probably are best, but give us the brief, and we'll do what we can. Submit them at mayorbaylor@gmail.com ... and ask the bored.

ASK THE BORED: Send us your questions, and we'll ask the Board of Public Works and Safety.

New Albany's Board of Public Works and Safety exists because the State of Indiana says so.

IC 36-4-9-5

Board of public works and safety; establishment

Sec. 5. (a) A board of public works and safety is established in

each city.

(b) Notwithstanding subsection (a), the legislative body of a

second class city may by ordinance establish as separate boards:

(1) a board of public works; and

(2) a board of public safety;

to perform the functions of the board of public works and safety.

As added by Acts 1980, P.L.212, SEC.3.

As for what the board is supposed to do each Tuesday at 10:00 a.m., you can visit the American Legal Publishing site, search "Board of Public Works and Safety," and sift through various powers accorded the board over the decades by dint of ordinance.

By the way, American Legal Publishing still has the wrong address for the city of New Albany.

Ombudsman, we have a call at the American Legal Publishing Corporation.

Exactly how much power does our Board of Public Works and Safety possess?

If Jeff Gahan were to stray from the protection of his Down Low Bunker and comment, no doubt he would assert that the board has just the power it needs. He handpicked it, and he's perfectly content to see his program implemented by non-elected boards, as opposed to elected officials.

According to Dan Coffey, the answer is "too much." At the city council meeting of June 6, Coffey proposed that our council, as a body made up of elected members, should take back authority ceded to non-elected boards.

Agreed.

The Board of Public Works and Safety may be established by state, not city, and it may be appointed by mayor, not council, but the board's powers appear to derive from the legislative body.

I mention all this as prelude to a new feature at NA Confidential: Ask the Bored.

It has long been NA Confidential's position that given the board's accumulated powers -- justified or  otherwise -- and its current function as arbiter of myriad conditions that impact the lives of citizens, for it to hold all its meetings at 10:00 a.m. on a Tuesday meeting is an affront (note that during the Garner Administration, a fledgling but doomed effort to democratize meeting times was made).

However, NAC can attend many, if not all, meetings. Public speaking time is allowed, and on occasion in the past, we've used it for the precise purpose of making comments, raising issues or asking questions, so that these are included in meeting minutes and become part of the public record. This way, it cannot be claimed later that "no one said anything."

Readers, I know you have questions. Many of you cannot attend these meetings, and so when possible, NAC will ask them for you. Generalized questions probably are best, but give us the brief, and we'll do what we can. Submit them at mayorbaylor@gmail.com ... and ask the bored.

NAC cannot attend today's meeting. As a possibility for next week's question, there is this:

Where is the best place to put a bike rack? (A clue: not where it blocks a sidewalk).