Do the work crews do this on purpose?

Wednesday, corner of 13th and Spring. That's not very much notice, and there's no crosswalk across Spring, where the traffic is uncontrolled, and therefore the city can do nothing except continuing ... to do nothing.

At first I thought we were beginning the 13th Street "Go Away Tiger Trucks" Road Diet.

Tiger Truck Lines and 13th Street: Isn't it time for the spoiled brat to get a good spanking?

Alas, disappointed again; just another impediment for walkers, although there are several churches in the vicinity that might benefit from shiny new spires.

REWIND: "Entrepreneurs: Forget those forgivable loans. In New Albany, cicada cycles determine infrastructure upgrades."

THIS sidewalk has been repaired. "Cicadian" rhythms, folks. 

This paean to municipal economic dishevelment is from June 30, 2014, and while the view of the sidewalk (above) has changed, nothing else has. During the next two weeks, culminating on November 3, you can do something about it.

---

Here's what the Jeffersonville officials say: Another forgivable loan, another new indie food & drink business in downtown Jeffersonville.

Here is what the Louisville officials say: Metro loans $700k to local businesses: Feast BBQ, Peerless Distilling, Germantown Mill, and a new crepe shop

Here is what New Albany officials say (not necessarily in chronological order).

1. Don't you know anyone at Develop New Albany? It's our economic development arm.

2. No, wait. Don't you know Mike Kopp? HE'S our economic development arm.

3. Hold it ... you know the Horseshoe Foundation, right? That's it ... they're our economic development arm. They have all the money. See if you can get some of it. We're not having any luck.

4. On second thought, we DO have an economic development plan to help independent small businesses, but first, if you're a potential industrial park occupant, please step over to the VIP Rewards-Class Enfluffment Line.

5. Okay, here it is: New Albany's economic development plan for independent small business.

First, you invest your own money in the business. Then, to show you we care, we'll consider repairing a sidewalk we haven't touched since the Eisenhower years, but only if John Rosenbarger hasn't already used the money for a politically motivated neighborhood deforestation project, or bike lanes to nowhere, or bump outs at the wheelchair crossing.

What's more, while we're aware that complete streets would constitute city-wide, non-partisan assistance of a sort (you bet we're going to read Speck's book by the time his study comes back), we're going to take our sweet time thinking about it, because in political terms, we're frozen in the headlights of cars driven by Democratic grandees, and so we'll do nothing about the street grid until we absolutely, positively must -- and then it probably will be too late, but you'll be used to the cut-through, bridge-evasion traffic by then.

Meanwhile, we'll spend millions on the industrial park (them's REAL jobs, son ... are you sure you're in the right line?) and an aquatic center, all of it linked together by streets dangerous to drivers, pedestrians and cyclists alike. Just wait until you hear the new city hall idea.

You're going to love it. After all, NA is where you should be. Says so right there on the ad.

As for YOUR Finnish reindeer taco bar idea, wouldn't you much rather come here to New Albany, than accept those bogus monetary handouts from Jeffersonville and Louisville? The way we see it, using all of your own resources while we look on approvingly and provide moral support makes you a better entrepreneur.

Thanks for coming to New Albany. We're very happy to help.

(Psst, did you squeeze anything out of Jerry Finn yet?)

Dear Jeff: There is far more to a safe urban walk than random sidewalk repairs.

The lost masterwork.

Dear Jeff,

Remember that street study by the renowned Jeff Speck you commissioned -- you know, back when you'd occasionally pretend (privately, of course, and not for attribution) that you read his book and "got" it?

Hint: It's called the Downtown Street Network Proposal, and it has much to say about the usefulness of two-way streets. Back in 2011, you said you favored two-way streets.

Remember?

(sound of fingers drumming on Formica)

Hey, that's okay. Take a moment. I'm sure it will come back to you.

(crickets try to play the street piano, but are too light to depress the keys)

I know, I know; it's complicated, so let me help refresh your memory.

Once upon a time you were sorta/kinda for it, and the council wouldn't fund the study, then you were angry and probably made a few of your fabled hectoring late night phone calls.

Dan Coffey saw an opening and rode to the rescue, finding the money under a mattress at redevelopment. You quickly lost interest once it became obvious that it wasn't your idea in the first place, and couldn't ever be. Now Coffey's against it, too, since he can't find a way to wet his beak in a bike lane.

But a demolition ... now there's some good eatin'.

Anyway, permit me to call your attention to page 17.

II: WHAT MAKES A SAFE WALK?

The principal way to make a street feel safe is to keep automobiles at reasonable speeds
and to protect pedestrians from them. This is achieved by meeting the following ten
criteria:

• The proper number of driving lanes;
• Lanes of proper width;
• Avoiding one-way streets;
• Limited use and length of turn lanes;
• Including bike lanes;
• Continuous on-street parking;
• Continuous shade trees;
• Replacing unwarranted signals with principally all-way stop signs
• Pedestrian-friendly signals where signals are warranted; and
• Pedestrian-Friendly details.

These criteria are addressed individually below in terms of how they apply to downtown
New Albany, and are used as an organizational framework for a series of specific
recommendations.

Now Jeff, the reason I bring this up is your ill-chosen words in this numbingly predictable, self-serving press release reported by Daniel Suddeath of the Jeffersonville newspaper.

"We will continue to repair and replace our sidewalk infrastructure in order to allow pedestrians to feel both safe and confident while walking within the city of New Albany," Mayor Jeff Gahan stated in a news release issued after the meeting.

Please go back and review the points made by the consultant you hired, on page 17 of the study you financed.

Remember now?

I didn't think so.

Is it time for recess yet?

Trees 1: "Thomas Street now looks like a war zone, devoid of life, beauty, and charm."

Still more Rosenbarger deforestation.

Part 2
Part 3

That's right: It's deja vu all over again.

Over the weekend, a conversation started at the Facebook group called New Albany Indiana, which is an excellent portal for local news and events.

A few neighbors who live on or near Thomas Street are upset because trees were cut down as part of the sidewalk replacement project there, and (stop me if you've heard THIS one before) they received neither forewarning nor an opportunity to offer an opinion on the topic.

And some of them are steamed. If for any reason you cannot view the page, here is a sampling of the comments. In fact, one of them composed and shared a "jeer" for the newspaper.

a JEER to the city of New Albany (or whoever is responsible) -

Thomas Street now looks like a war zone, devoid of life, beauty, and charm. Thank you (NOT!) for cutting down all of our trees. Some trees have been taken care of meticulously by their owners - beautiful, Bradford pear trees. Trees where the owners always had them trimmed. Trees that just had $600 spent on them a few months ago for trimming. Trees that are now pulverized.

Trees that are good for us, good for the environment, added shade, added beauty, added value to our homes and our neighborhood.

This was totally NOT necessary. This neighborhood is upset.

Cue the annoyed, as follows.

• Why did they cut down the trees
• Good question.....
• They were NOT all diseased ... our neighbors had planted beautiful pear trees along the side of their house (corner of Culbertson and Thomas) - they FAITHFULLY had them trimmed and kept them beautiful!!! In fact, just a couple of months ago they paid out $600 for them to be trimmed (which they did every year). They were NOT diseased. Our neighborhood looks TERRIBLE now!!!! Thomas Street used to look like a beautiful lane with the trees. Now it looks like a war zone.!!!!
• New Sidewalks were put in on our other streets and few to no trees were cut down. Getting new sidewalks is a lousy excuse. I have lived here for 30 years and it looks TERRIBLE!!!!!!!!!! I am so glad someone put this on here, because I have been prepared to write a letter to the Tribune and put a call into the Mayor's office. This is one, VERY unhappy New Albany resident. We NEEDED those trees. They are good for the environment. They are good for our home values. They added beauty to this ugly, cruel world of ours. I. AM. NOT. HAPPY.!!!!!
• Oh, and just one MORE thing - when the sidewalks were being put in earlier, the jack hammers were so loud and so hard, it literally shook our houses - and caused new cracks in our neighbor's house!!! This may not be one of the ritzy, hotsy-totsy neighborhoods, but we have VERY nice older homes with an abundance of character (how many of YOU have seven stained glass windows, cedar lined window seats, beveled glass in your windows and mirrors, a built-in Belknap ice box in your kitchen)....but we take pride in our neighborhood and we have the BEST neighbors!!!
• Same thing happened on Main Street - 72 trees (my count) were cut down in order to make New Albany a more 'walkable' city. Maybe it's just me but I like my walk in the shade of those beautiful trees. I'll vote for the neighbor's cat before I vote for Gahan.
• (I gently rebutted the preceding: "Let's be emphatic: the Main Street project was about beautification (according to a solitary top-down $$$ definition) and not about walkability. Street trees are an essential component of walkability. Love it or hate it, the notion of walkability is about infrastructure design, not beautification."
• New Albany took a third of my front yard to widen the road and put sidewalks in. Crime is up, traffic of school buses all day long (choking us to death when on front porch) and the sidewalks look like maybe they got ripped off by a low ball bidder, and last but not least, they tore up my driveway and never repaired it. My driveway is now washing away and will cost me thousands to get it redone. New Albany also fined us $250 for having our trash sitting too close to our privacy fence. They said it was a fire hazard. Yes, New Albany loves their tax payers. I can tell.
• This also happened to the beautiful shade trees in front of the National Cemetery on Ekin. I was also told they were diseased trees....ridiculous!!!!
• Many of them were beautiful and well maintained. Now, this street - which needs all the help it can get- looks plain U.G.L.Y. and very non-inviting.
• Dead trees are one thing. Diseased trees fall within the same category. Beautiful trees that are serving many purposes, all positive, ....quite another. Seems as if someone decided that this was blighted property.

If Jeff Gahan allergic to transparency?

Entrepreneurs: Forget those forgivable loans. In New Albany, cicada cycles determine infrastructure upgrades.

Here's what the Jeffersonville officials say: Another forgivable loan, another new indie food & drink business in downtown Jeffersonville.

Here is what the Louisville officials say: Metro loans $700k to local businesses: Feast BBQ, Peerless Distilling, Germantown Mill, and a new crepe shop

Here is what New Albany officials say (not necessarily in chronological order).

1. Don't you know anyone at Develop New Albany? It's our economic development arm.

2. No, wait. Don't you know Mike Kopp? HE'S our economic development arm.

3. Hold it ... you know the Horseshoe Foundation, right? That's it ... they're our economic development arm. They have all the money. See if you can get some of it. We're not having any luck.

4. On second thought, we DO have an economic development plan to help independent small businesses, but first, if you're a potential industrial park occupant, please step over to the VIP Rewards-Class Enfluffment Line.

5. Okay, here it is: New Albany's economic development plan for independent small business.

First, you invest your own money in the business. Then, to show you we care, we'll consider repairing a sidewalk we haven't touched since the Eisenhower years, but only if John Rosenbarger hasn't already used the money for a politically motivated neighborhood deforestation project, or bike lanes to nowhere, or bump outs at the wheelchair crossing.

What's more, while we're aware that complete streets would constitute city-wide, non-partisan assistance of a sort (you bet we're going to read Speck's book by the time his study comes back), we're going to take our sweet time thinking about it, because in political terms, we're frozen in the headlights of cars driven by Democratic grandees, and so we'll do nothing about the street grid until we absolutely, positively must -- and then it probably will be too late, but you'll be used to the cut-through, bridge-evasion traffic by then.

Meanwhile, we'll spend millions on the industrial park (them's REAL jobs, son ... are you sure you're in the right line?) and an aquatic center, all of it linked together by streets dangerous to drivers, pedestrians and cyclists alike. Just wait until you hear the new city hall idea.

You're going to love it. After all, NA is where you should be. Says so right there on the ad.

As for YOUR Finnish reindeer taco bar idea, wouldn't you much rather come here to New Albany, than accept those bogus monetary handouts from Jeffersonville and Louisville? The way we see it, using all of your own resources while we look on approvingly and provide moral support makes you a better entrepreneur.

Thanks for coming to New Albany. We're very happy to help.

(Psst, did you squeeze anything out of Jerry Finn yet?)

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.

Open windows, sidewalks, and downtown reinforcements.

Mike Kopp's updates on Twitter are much appreciated. I have advice after reading his two most recent tweets.

As for Dragon King's Daughter, I'd recommend they inform the health department from the start that there'll be windows there intended for opening (as windows historically have been). After all, I wouldn't want DKD to be as confused as we at Bank Street Brewhouse were, when three and a half years later, it finally occurred to the healthocrats that garage doors tend to be installed for the express purpose of lifting them.

And then there's the sidewalk in front of Ryan's and Ian's new establishments on Main Street. I'm guessing it's been decades since any work was done there, as was the case at BSB, where the sidewalk hadn't been touched for more than fifty years, and yet the hooded troglodytes continue to criticize the city for "giving" businesses new sidewalks -- when in reality, the sidewalks are for everyone in the city, including the troglodytes, who evidently never leave their cars to walk.

Welcome to downtown, guys. Little by little, we win, and your presence will help quite a lot.

Tweets 

8hMike Kopp ‏@kopptherealtor

@DKDLouisville similar look and feel to the open atmosphere at Dragon Kings Daughter for Downtown New Albany location.http://pic.twitter.com/n1ZK4st2

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8hMike Kopp ‏@kopptherealtor

@FeastBBQ @TheNAExchange get new sidewalks in front of their establishments for future patrons and a safer walkway.http://pic.twitter.com/lF80aTmt

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But there's fast "food" on every corner.

It applies to New Albany, too.

Watch your step, Louisville!, by Kirk Kandle (www.LouisvilleKY.com)

Last month I learned that my hometown, Louisville, Ky, is at the bottom of the American Fitness Index – number 49 among 50 cities studied. And a few days later I found that Louisville is among the most dangerous midwestern cities for pedestrians, according to the Transportation for America study “Dangerous By Design.”

I’m disappointed, but not surprised. I’m angry as hell. I’m embarrassed. I hope you are, too.

Open thread: The board of public works, sidewalk repairs and the inevitable, orgasmic innuendo from behind the mask.

I didn't know it myself until IAH pointed it out, and sure enough, it was right there in yesterday's Tribune:

The board (of public works) awarded a bid to Knight Concrete to build sidewalks and curbs in small sections along Bank Street — near the Bank Street Brewhouse — and State Street — near the old Speakeasy and home of Wick’s Pizza. The cost for both jobs is $16,177.

Freedom to Screech already has weighed in, with predictably anonymous and forgettable results, among them the suggestion that the length in years of one's taxpaying be the determining factor as to whether improvements are made.

It's the usual, palpable nonsense. Consider the former occupants of our building, who sold bakery products for 30 years without a trace of work on the sidewalk outside the front door, a sad patch probably last addressed during the 1950's. By FOS's embittered reckoning, Rainbow's request for work would have been legitimate -- perhaps because they sold all-American white bread products made from leftover school paste and not craft beer consumed by "them" people.

So, let it be known: I (and the property owner) asked whether the city would like to partner with us in improving our section of the street, and the city agreed. Consequently, we'll be spending a few thousand dollars of our own to outfit a streetside seating area. People will come into New Albany and spend both time and money, in our establishment and others. Some of them may like it here and decide to stay.

More importantly, we'd have done the same whether Doug England or Randy Hubbard was mayor, because that's the way life and business works. Professor Erika disagrees, and you may, too, in which case I'd be glad to devote this space to a mask-free discussion among responsible adults -- unless New Albany has an ordinance against it.