City of New Albany's social media feeds AWOL as winter storm hits.

The tone deafness never ceases. Wednesday afternoon, amid the third (or 50th) day of dire and continual news warnings as to the approaching snowstorm, the City of New Albany Government's social media effort clanked into gear -- and produced this:

The stats don't lie. The posting was a hit on Facebook (it appeared simultaneously at Twitter).

However, this is government's social media site, not an entertainment channel, and not the Re-Elect Mayor Gahan site (which is located elsewhere), and about the time this view of a future aquatics panacea was posted, the bad weather started.

Subsequently there was a major winter storm, travel advisories, hundreds of closings, and even a boil water alert later in the evening -- and through it all, the city of New Albany's social media remained completely silent. Postings belatedly resumed at around 7:50 a.m.

It's worth noting that Jeffersonville and Clarksville seemed to be getting it right.

There'll be fingers pointed at Promedia, but make no mistake: The buck in this instance stops with Jeff Gahan, because when propaganda is substituted for information, and the effort is outsourced to a contractor, the result is likely to be failure.

Will Gahan finally accept responsibility for a "fail"?

Cars come first in "Walkable" New Albany.

When the people in charge understand the concept of a walkable city about as well as I speak Urdu, then what are the chances that they'll implement any of it?

Now if you'll excuse me, my cat begs my attention as she performs an aria from La Boheme.

David Karem tells big greasy whoppers about the Big Four Bridge.

David Karem must think we aren't very bright.

Pedestrian bridge will close rather than salt or shovel snow and ice, by Gordon Boyd (WAVE-3)

"This is a bridge that is not part of the Kentucky highway transportation system," Karem said. "It's an amenity now. So when it comes to maintenance and repairs, we're on our own."

JeffG reminds us of the arrangement v.v. the Ohio River Bridges Project.

Bamboozled again. This bridge is primary transportation infrastructure, not an amenity. Can you imagine them saying they wouldn't clean the Kennedy Bridge? Remember when removing non-automobile options from the new bridge was justified by opening this one for that traffic?

You can feel the gears grinding in their heads: "How can it be 'primary' if it doesn't involve a car?"

Drinking Progressively: Let's make it Tuesday evenings, beginning on November 25.

Can you spot the quality-of-life bonus in this photo of a child playing in the snow?

Hint: It's right there, in back, at the top of the photo, speeding past on I-Spring Street.

Now that's what I call public safety.

Thanks to J & T for the photo.

Pedestrian safety? Maybe the VFW shouldn't push a mountain of snow onto the sidewalk (hint: It blocks pedestrians).

It's good to know that the Board of Works completely ignored our complaints about the VFW routinely shifting snow from its unused parking lot to the public right of way.

Thanks, guys. Bear in mind that these photos were taken two days after the snow fell. Here's another shot of the festivities on Wednesday morning, when the city held a groundbreaking ceremony postponed from Monday, but forgot to let the public know about it.

Who gets the demerit for that one?

Daniel somehow kept a straight face and covered the proceedings for the newspaper.

Improvements on the way on New Albany's Main Street; Officials say $2.4 million project to help with pedestrian, vehicle safety, by Daniel Suddeath ( N and T)

By DANIEL SUDDEATH
daniel.suddeath@newsandtribune.com

NEW ALBANY — Admittedly the initial part of the project will be startling, as trees will be removed and the right-of-way cleared along East Main Street, but New Albany officials believe the $2.4 million in improvements planned for the corridor will have a substantial impact on pedestrian and vehicular safety in the corridor.

The city formally kicked off the project with a groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday. Improvements will stretch from East Fifth Street to Vincennes Street, and the most noticeable change will be the installation of a grassy median.

Why are we permitting the VFW to dump its snow on public sidewalks?

It was as if they read my previous complaint and decided to up the ante. Am I to take it that veterans regard it as their due to pick and choose which laws they obey? Or is it that someone in charge is merely unfamiliar with common sense?

The VFW's downtown parking lot takes up about half a block and is seldom full, contributing mostly to stormwater run-off. How would it have impacted parking to push the snow on the tank's near side, rather than onto the sidewalk?

I'm happy someone gets a Free Dance Friday, but how about unimpeded access on the public's right-of way?

Welcome to the sneckdown, in which snow informs us about better public spaces.

Unless, of course, you're a city planner busily pushing back, against two-way street advocates. Then it's probably not something to photograph.

Thanks to K for the link. Photo credit: The piece itself.

PHOTOS: What Snow Tells Us About Creating Better Public Spaces on E. Passyunk Avenue, by Jon Geeting (this old city)

After record amounts of snow this year in Philadelphia, you could be excused for not wanting to see any more of it. But today's snow actually brought us some pretty cool ideas for public spaces and traffic safety improvements along E. Passyunk Avenue in South Philly.

If you haven't heard of a "sneckdown" yet, it's a clever combination of "snow" and "neckdown" - another name for a curb expansion - that uses snow formations on the street to reveal the space cars don't use. Advocates can then use these sneckdown photos to make the case to local transportation officials that traffic calming interventions like curb bumpouts and traffic islands can be installed without any loss to car drivers.

VFW pushes snow off its parking lot, onto public sidewalk.

And nothing happens. Welcome to enforcement-free New Albany.

An impolite message to winter.

Please, sir, might you consider ... shoveling ...

... your effing walk. 

Please, sir, might you consider ... shoveling ...

... your effing walk.

Therein lies a rant. Of course, shoveling snow isn't a consideration this morning, although I'm so impossibly old that I can remember being warned four days ago to expect eight inches of it, followed by the Killer Kold, presumably preceded by flash floods and the stray winter locust infestation.

Think of all the jobs on the planet, and consider how often weather forecasters are wrong as they fear-monger for fun and profit. Consider how long you'd last in your job with the same abysmal rate of failure. The weather forecasting profession has long since digressed into realm of late night television sketch comedy; you know, when the weatherman calls the supermarket and says "line up the milk and bread, boys -- I'm gonna spin the wheel and scare the bejesus out of the morons tonight. Just send my commission check to the same Swiss bank account."

Shakespeare's oft-quoted line, ''The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers" turns out to have been inaccurate. There were no weather forecasters in the playwright's time. He couldn't possibly have known to get it right.

Shovel Your Fucking Walk, by John Cook (Gawker)

Good morning. Is there snow on the sidewalk in front of your residence or place of business right now? Shovel it.

Oh, I'm sorry—you don't own your apartment? You just rent, from a landlord, whom you believe to be responsible for shoveling the walk? Good point. Has he shoveled it yet? No? OK, then shovel your fucking walk. You're right, he should totally have shoveled it. But he didn't. So now you have to.

Usual hours at both NABC locations. Who else?

As of now (11:00 a.m.) it's NABC business hours as usual today: 11:00 a.m. at the Pizzeria & Public House, and 2:00 p.m. at Bank Street Brewhouse. We're playing it by ear, and I'll keep you posted if anything changes.

Anyone else like to tag in? Who is open? Who is closed?

Snow? Fine, except this time, Fassla's not there, right across the alley.

Arriving in Bamberg on December 20, a blizzard was already in progress. Air France spared us the trouble of rolling two pieces of luggage from the train station to our rental apartment, but we still looked like snowmen upon arrival, and it's only a few blocks.

Three days later, all of it was gone. While it lasted, we enjoyed the white-dusted contrast with the reds, golds and greens on many venerable buildings. It made the schnitzel and the beer taste better, even if the outdoor seating areas were battened tight.

Fortunately, back home now and awaiting the next catastrophic snow event, I've taken the precaution of dumping all the milk, using the white bread for school paste, and making sure there's still Beak's Best in the garage keg box.

Neighbors take note, lest actual precipitation occurs. Someone remember to bring sauerkraut, okay?

What do you remember about the snow storms in 1977 and 1978?

It's finally white outside.

I certainly remember the consecutive yearly blizzards while nearing the end of my high school career, and our being out of class for around three weeks in both 1977 and 1978.

It’s hard to believe, but I was a Floyd Central varsity basketball player at the time (it’s even harder to believe that I could dunk, though these days such antics are restricted to doughnuts), and the school cancellations had almost no effect on the sports routine. Few if any practices were missed as a junior in 1977, and it seems that at least some of the games were played, although others were postponed.

My recollection of 1978 is that ultimately, the issue was less about snowfall than a coal shortage and high energy prices in the midst of Jimmy Carter’s famous “malaise.” Consequently, we continued to practice in daylight right after school at Georgetown Elementary, where there were still windows, so that the electricity could be spared at FCHS. The games we played on our home court were also right after school, so the gym wouldn’t have to be heated at night.

But … am I on the right track here? Something about these memories doesn’t jibe.

What puzzles me in retrospect is why we didn’t get back to school sooner. Apart from the not unexpected phenomenon of the basketball program’s tail wagging the dog (how times have changed at FCHS!), there are memories of getting out, driving around, socializing, grocery shopping.

More recently, there was the massive snow dump of 1994, when we were somehow able to keep the pub open after about ten inches and had a great business day, in the process unfortunately missing the single best Rich O’s photo opportunity ever when my pal Kevin and his brothers-in-law drove their snowmobiles over and parked right outside the door atop the mound created by the industrious “Mr. Plow.” But the '94 snow was gone within days.

Given the panic-stricken standards of today, the current snowfall constitutes the apocalypse. I believe there was a time not so long ago when the White Terror earned its sobriquet. On the other hand, quite a few beers have passed in the interim.

If I start telling stories about walking miles through snowdrifts, you can give “last call.”