Speck's Downtown Street Network Proposal is here: "Literally and figuratively, New Albany is at a crossroads."

It's almost as though this passage was written with Bob Caesar in mind. 

(Update: Here is the link to a .pdf of the draft report)

I've read a draft of the Downtown Street Network Proposal for New Albany, as prepared by Jeff Speck's team.

That's because it was revealed on Monday that city engineer Larry Summers is to discuss the proposal at the Tuesday morning Board of Works meeting at 10:00 a.m. in the 3rd floor conference room of the City County Building. City Clerk Vicki Glotzbach was kind enough to e-mail a .pdf copy, and I'm grateful. As soon as there is a way of sharing it with readers, we'll do that.

For now, note simply that the proposal, in its pristine, pre-political-sausage-making form, is mostly inspirational. It recommends two-way streets, road diets, lane width reductions, protected bike lanes and the removal of many traffic signals in favor of four-way stops. It's much more than that, but bear in mind that it's late in the evening.

In fact, the report is so profoundly out of keeping with this city's 200-year record of anti-intellectual underachievement that it might well have been delivered to City Hall by androids from a flying saucer.

Among other things, the proposal constitutes 100+ pages of constant, concise, and often scathing refutation fully applying to most all of the city's street planning cadres and their work prior to the present day -- and, bizarrely, some of the very same functionaries previously responsible for the cancerous condition of the street grid will be handed a scalpel and asked to perform surgery on it.

This prospect scares the daylights out of me.

It's like this: Does Jeff Gahan's secretive, Byzantine city hall team have the political cojones to get this thing right? Beginning tomorrow, we'll find out. As the Bookseller has pointed out, this is the most important opportunity New Albany has had since before many of us were born.

Speck study overview to be unveiled tomorrow at a time of day precluding your attendance.

(Tuesday afternoon update: Here is the link to a .pdf of the draft report)

The Green Mouse has been told that tomorrow -- Tuesday morning at 10:00 a.m. -- New Albany's customarily somnolent Board of (down low) Public Works and (on widely scattered occasions) Safety will be regaled with a preview of the Jeff Speck street study, courtesy of the city engineer.

Speck himself told NAC just yesterday that the finished, corrected report would arrive this week.

Street study? When? Yet again, we turn to Speck himself to receive a straight answer.

Fitting, then, that the street study's first partial airing will come at a time of day when working people typically cannot attend meetings. However, since it is widely reputed that I no longer work, it is my intention to be there. In fact, I might hitch a ride on one of these monstrous trucks still thundering down Spring Street in the absence of civic truthfulness about John Rosenbarger's Main Street Truck Diversion Project.

Come join me at the meeting if you can. The tragic-comedy's about to start -- and you won't want to miss it.

Street study? When? Yet again, we turn to Speck himself to receive a straight answer.

In a post yesterday's, Jeff Speck -- he of the the New Albany street and traffic study -- confirmed that his long-anticipated work had previously arrived in town, and was being purged of "typos" and various "errors."

Says Jeff Speck: The New Albany street study has been delivered to City Hall.

Rumored to be among the "typos" removed: "LOL -- what the hell was Rosenbarger smoking when he came up with that Main Street fiasco?"

But seriously, how long ago did it arrive?

The Green Mouse received a second tip yesterday afternoon, this one alleging that the report may have been gathering dust since the first week of November.

Seeing that throughout 2014, and now into 2015, the only reliable source for information about the Speck Report has been Speck himself, I asked him via e-mail: "Yesterday I was told by a municipal employee that the street study was delivered during the first week of November. Can you confirm this?"

Speck's answer, which I appreciate for actually being an answer:

It was, but that was a first draft. The final version should be delivered this week.

There you have it.

Time to turn up the heat, folks.

Says Jeff Speck: The New Albany street study has been delivered to City Hall.

As it turns out, city officials might have partially glimpsed the street study's postmark before reversing course, contradicting themselves, defying the stated wishes of the council, and proceeding with the monumentally counter-productive farmers market buildout.

10 reasons why Jeff Gahan's quarter-million dollar farmers market fluff job is wrong for New Albany.

Could guidance, action and leadership finally be forthcoming?

Main Street IS the truck route. It's City Hall that's the problem.

Despairing of City Hall's congenital game-playing and secrecy, I asked Speck at Twitter:

@newalbanian: @JeffSpeckAICP Rumor has it the New Albany study has been delivered to City Hall; news blackout conditions here. What say you? Thanks.

He promptly replied:

@JeffSpeckAICP: @newalbanian Rumors are true, but there are some typos and other errors to correct before it is released.

See, the truth isn't so hard after all. Speck must not be from here.

If there is anyone in municipal government who'd like to assist the cause of progressive urban thinking in New Albany, NA Confidential would be happy to receive a leaked copy, typos or otherwise. There may even be a beer in it for you.