The curious question of 3rd district candidate Alex Bilbrey's yard signs.

No joke: Alex Bilbrey will need to be Superman to beat Greg Phipps.

It's hard to imagine Bilbrey (R) breaking 40% of the vote in the 3rd council district against two-term incumbent Phipps (D); after all, the 3rd district is to pretend-progressive Kool Aid as Porto is to vintage port wine, and Bilbrey -- who registered to run at the last possible minute without the knowledge of his party's chairman -- has been all but invisible for the entirety of 2019.

Except for yard signs.

I've seen several, including one of the big honking signs behind my house at the auto repair shop, and this makes Bilbrey's CFA-4 campaign finance disclosures very curious.

Bilbrey reports that he has neither raised nor spent a dime.

How then did he pay for the signs?

No matter; never mind -- you know, like Gahan's platform.

Yes, conscience precludes a vote for either Bilbrey or Phipps, and this is why I'm supporting Thunder Over the 3rd.

Vote for Thunder the Wonder Ferret as a write-in for New Albany City Council District 3.

 ... Phipps does a fair to middling job of performing the duties of a purely average council representative. However, in political terms Phipps is profoundly weak, and he has done so very little on his own initiative that it comes down to a single consideration.

Phipps has supported Mayor Jeff Gahan roughly 95% of the time, and I've opposed Gahan by an equal percentage. The taint is real.

Consequently, I cannot vote for Phipps, who has been utterly non-intellectual in his persistent sycophancy. That's a shame. He could have been so much more.

But no.

He wasn't ... and isn't likely to be.

---

Roger's Endorsement Compendium:

• Vote Stefanie Griffith for New Albany City Council District 1.
• Vote Scott Stewart for New Albany City Council District 2.
• Vote for Thunder the Wonder Ferret as a write-in for New Albany City Council District 3.
• Vote Cisa Kubley for New Albany City Council District 4.
• Vote Josh "JT" Turner for New Albany City Council District 5.
• Vote Scott Blair for New Albany City Council District 6.
• Vote Al Knable and Christina Estill for New Albany City Council At-Large.
• Vote your conscience for New Albany City Clerk, as both candidates are excellent.
• ON THE AVENUES: Socialists for Seabrook, because we desperately need a new beginning in New Albany.

The 1117 E. Spring Street Neighborhood Association supports David White. You should, too.

Hugo and Nadia no doubt would approve.

I'm sure the block captains soon will erect a garish Rhode Island-sized billboard in their yard, but it's still nice to steal an occasional march on the ruling elite.

For the coming week in our bid for Jeffxit, be sure to read ON THE AVENUES this Tuesday for a profile in mayoral retribution. Also, don't forget Saturday's forum at the library.

“David White for Mayor” Town Hall Meeting is at the library on Saturday, April 6 at 10:30 a.m.

By this time most readers know I'm supporting David White in the primary, and I urge all voters within city limits to cast their votes for David. Let's end this intemperate reign in the spring, and at long last have a genuine conversation about policy for the fall.

I'm working on a detailed endorsement, so stay tuned for that, too.

This Barksdale campaign yard sign is misplaced and needs to be moved ASAP to a better location. BTW, we have a suggestion.

This yard sign placement is egregious, don't you think?

Ah, but the Reisz Mahal Luxury City Hall, which Barksdale's critical fifth council vote enabled, is a much better location for political self-advertising when it comes to surveying the at-large councilman's legislative legacy of extravagant expenditures for wants, as opposed to needs.

All those bright, shiny, nicely perfumed objects,  and yet somehow we still have so many neighborhood properties like this one on Oak Street in Greg Phipps' 3rd council district.

Barksdale doesn't do much to help in these messy situations, and neither does Phipps, who also voted to rescue city employees from inhumane air-conditioned workspace.

The neighbors living around this house are struggling to contain the blight, without much help from the city.

Maybe if they were government workers ...

Amid Gahan's penchant for opulent municipal luxury, do we even have a word for this vista at 1730 E. Oak Street?

With Duggins' NAHA command bunker silent throughout, city council attorney Stein answers the question about public housing residents and political signs.

City council Democrats remain comatose, but we have an answer to a question that arose a month ago.

For background, first this on February 22.

Do New Albany Housing Authority residents enjoy freedom of speech as it pertains to political campaign yard signs?

The Green Mouse has learned that earlier this week a resident at the New Albany Housing Authority planted a David White for Mayor yard sign in his yard.

It wasn't as big as this one, but still.

Then this on February 23.

Political yard signs at NAHA? As DemoDisneyDixieDickeycrats doze, Al Knable seeks an answer.

Once again, Knable takes the first step on an issue pertaining to human rights and freedoms.

It isn't known whether noted human rights campaigner Greg Phipps had anything to say on Thursday about free speech on the New Albany Housing Authority campus, or if he was joined in his concerns by fellow Democrats Bob Caesar, Pat McLaughlin and Matt Nash.

Then again, not one of them has had the first coherent thing to say about NAHA since the inception of Jeff Gahan's hostile takeover of public housing in 2017.

At tonight's council meeting, Knable returned to the topic and queried council attorney Amy Stein, who revealed the results of her research: NAHA has the legal ability to decree that signs in common areas are either allowed, or not allowed. NAHA cannot allow some and prohibit others. However, as it pertains specifically to political signs, the private space of NAHA residents trumps the commons, and NAHA cannot prevent residents from placing political signs in their windows.

The same question was submitted to the Human Rights Commission, and it isn't clear whether it will or won't discuss the issue at the HRC's next meeting.

Thanks to Knable and Stein for their diligence.

Political yard signs at NAHA? As DemoDisneyDixieDickeycrats doze, Al Knable seeks an answer.

Yesterday at NA Confidential:

Do New Albany Housing Authority residents enjoy freedom of speech as it pertains to political campaign yard signs?

Consequently I've been scolded by the Green Mouse for missing Thursday evening's city council meeting. According to at-large councilman Al Knable:

At last night’s council meeting I asked our (council) attorney to confer with city attorney and NAHA to at least obtain a stated policy and compare to existing statutes/precedents. Stay tuned.

Once again, Knable takes the first step on an issue pertaining to human rights and freedoms.

It isn't known whether noted human rights campaigner Greg Phipps had anything to say on Thursday about free speech on the New Albany Housing Authority campus, or if he was joined in his concerns by fellow Democrats Bob Caesar, Pat McLaughlin and Matt Nash.

Then again, not one of them has had the first coherent thing to say about NAHA since the inception of Jeff Gahan's hostile takeover of public housing in 2017.

Principle?

That's a transitory and malleable thing when you're a DemoDisneyDixieDickeycrat in New Albany.

Do New Albany Housing Authority residents enjoy freedom of speech as it pertains to political campaign yard signs?

The Green Mouse has learned that earlier this week a resident at the New Albany Housing Authority planted a David White for Mayor yard sign in his yard.

It wasn't as big as this one, but still.

The resident promptly was told by maintenance (wait -- doesn't councilman Matt Nash now work in maintenance at NAHA?) to remove the sign. He asked if he could put the sign on his door or in the window, and learned that they'd have to go ask the esteemed Gauleiter Duggins first.

Scanning the Interwebz, it appears this controversy isn't uncommon.

Another issue which has not been discussed in great detail by the courts is the regulation of political signs in front yards in a community governed by a homeowners association. In general, the First Amendment protections do not extend to private residences governed by a homeowners association. If the regulations governing the display of political signs involve a contract between two private parties and the government is not involved, then the regulations will be valid. If, on the other hand, the government is an actor, then a complete ban on political signs will probably be invalid. The Washington Supreme Court recently held that a local housing authority could not prohibit the posting of political signs on the doors to residences in a public housing complex.

There was a case with yard signs at a public housing site in Massachusetts.

Political signs can only be displayed in a tenant's interior window or spaces where a tenant has exclusive control," (management) said. "So we asked Mr. Rose to remove the signs, he didn't, and our maintenance department did and returned them."

But Harvey Silverglate, a civil liberties litigator, said Rose would prevail if he took the matter to court.

"That rule prohibiting political signs would be declared unconstitutional," he said. "It may be permissible for the housing authority to limit the size of the signs or the exact placement, but a blanket prohibition is too broad and too restrictive of speech."

And one from Michigan.

Public housing residents remove campaign signs after eviction threats

Public housing residents in Traverse City have removed campaign signs after officials threatened to evict them. The Traverse City Housing Commission took action after some residents displayed signs in favor of a public vote on buildings taller than 60 feet. It's a question on Tuesday's ballot.

The housing director says the signs violate the lease. But some disagree.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan sent a letter to the commission saying the ban on displaying window signs without approval is violation of the first amendment.

One local attorney said this.

I don't know the precise answer to that question, but I can't imagine an outright ban that would pass constitutional muster.

Another added:

Haven’t researched the nuts and bolts for Indiana, but a landlord cannot prohibit political speech. They can impose some reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions. Displaying a political sign from the inside of your unit should be fine.

As of this precise moment, it isn't know whether the NAHA resident in question has received an answer. Oddly, if there's a policy prohibiting yard signs at the housing authority, it would prevent a sitting mayor like Jeff Gahan from commissioning Duggins to compel NAHA population to "voluntarily" displaying Gahan's signs as a form of coerced adoration.

Maybe Duggins could threaten them with a TASER.

#GoldenOldies

Even Pinocchio figured it out, so get those political signs out of the verge and into your yard.

Political yard signs aren't supposed to be placed in the verge, or the grassy area between sidewalk and curb. In the photo above, the house in the foreground gets it right. The two houses in the distance don't. It's an easy fix, so do it, okay?

In fairness, after a momentary lapse of protocol, even Pinocchio recalled some of the lessons of 40 years spent self-aggrandizing. At first he had it wrong ...

 ... and now he has it right.

People, this isn't nuclear physics. Keep your touts off the verge, and no signs get hurt.

Definitely not one of those straight ticket voters ...

 ... although, being planted in the verge, perhaps not entirely legal?

ENCORE: Proposed yard signs for the new "There's Only One Way to NA" anti-2-way streets group.

I'm told the first organizational meeting will take place in Clarksville, the second one in Floyds Knobs, the third ...

(originally published in January, 2015)

Theirs may be bigger, but I know how to use mine.

Yard signs beach blanket bingo.

Last night at the NAHA forum, I asked incumbent at-large councilperson Shirley Baird (D) whether it was legal to plant political yard signs in the road verge, which is the (usually) grassy area between sidewalk and street.

"No, it isn't. But try telling that to my husband."

Think about this as the scene shifts to the corner of Bank and Main.

You'll recall that after a crazed ragpicker posing as a city employee made terroristic threats to a downtown shopkeeper about a Baylor for Mayor sign in the treet well by her store, she laughed out loud and declined to remove it.

The county clerk then called to inform me that a complaint had been made, and eventually the sign was forcibly uprooted, presumably by the street department.

Fine.

But doesn't the same standard apply to Al Knable's sign on the verge a couple blocks east on Main?

Or, is the offense illegal only when someone like Dan Coffey complains  about it?

What of this sign on Plaza Drive?

CM Blair owns the property, but who governs the verge? Me thinks it's the city, and as Blair's colleague readily acknowledges, it's illegal to plant a sign there.

True, I don't care all that much about yard signs ... but incompetent and inefficient ordinance enforcement is the bane of the city.

Consistency, anyone?

Rosenbarger's plaque, Gahan's yard sign, ethical quagmires, and the urgent need for deep cleansing in City Hall.

We're still not exactly sure how much the .8-mile-long Main Street "Improvement" Project cost, but whether $3 million, $4 million or probably more, it was intended (among other aims, most of them far more dubious) to improve the value of property on Main Street, at the request of a handful of residents, and to the exclusion of properties on the remainder of the streets in the city.

John Rosenbarger administered the project.

He lives on Main Street.

He will benefit from it.

He now has a Gahan sign in his yard.

We snicker at corruption in other countries, and throw around terms like "banana republic" and "kleptocracy" ...

Kleptocracy, alternatively cleptocracy or kleptarchy, (from Greek: κλέπτης - kleptēs, "thief" and κράτος - kratos, "power, rule", hence "rule by thieves") is a term applied to a government seen as having a particularly severe and systemic problem with officials or a ruling class (collectively, kleptocrats) taking advantage of corruption to extend their personal wealth and political power. Typically this system involves the embezzlement of state funds at the expense of the wider population, sometimes without even the pretense of honest service.

... but maybe we should refrain -- particularly those in the camp of the mayor who has rendered such notions so very close to home.

After all, given the immediate need for deep cleansing in City Hall, we wouldn't want to insult the world's kleptocrats, would we?

Campaign Diary, Chapter 6: Matching ensembles in the 3rd, psychologically speaking.

First, thanks to the New Albanians who've supported the Baylor for Mayor campaign thus far, whether with grassroots testimony, the wearing of t-shirts, planting signs or kicking a few dollars into the jar. Every little bit helps, and I appreciate it. I've heard from voters in every district who agree that by emphasizing transparency, infrastructure and empowerment, we can TIE the city together.

In this periodic installment of the campaign diary, permit me to narrow the focus to my own neighborhood, and observe that there is a psychology to the political yard sign.

Given that I've publicly disagreed on occasion with my 3rd district councilman Greg Phipps' partisan votes with the current administration, I still believe that on balance, our views with regard to what's fundamentally best for New Albany's neighborhoods are in accordance: Ordinance enforcement, rental property registration, safe and functional two-way streets, human rights, and support for level playing fields and the rule of law.

I've advocated and fought for these (and other) ideas, and so has he. I believe in our own district, neighbors asking for one of my signs, and placing it next to one of Greg's signs, shows that they see the similarities more than the differences -- and grasp the reality of the incumbent mayor's abject failure to govern in the best interest of the neighborhood. Jeff Gahan's instincts are suburban, not urban, and virtually all the areas inside the beltway can benefit from greater urbanism, not less.

I'm restricting the analogy to my own backyard merely to suggest that the odd man out in this instance is the current mayor. Look at the positions, platforms and policies. It's a secret ballot, and we all have the opportunity to vote our consciences.

Thanks.

There are no words, so: "In Flowerpots We Trust."

On one side a sitting DemoDisneyDixiecratic councilman who has said that he'll stake his political career on the implementation of two-way streets, and on the other, a Re-Republican who stands with Bic and lighter fluid in hand, determined to prevent any change that might impede Mr. Padgett's coal trains from trammeling unimpeded through residential neighborhoods.

Does anyone read?

Can anyone explain why Irv Stumler has so many yard signs outside the 2nd District?

Does he even know this corner isn't in his district?

Is it any wonder we drink?

Take it away, guys.

Crazed ragpicker poses as city employee, makes terroristic threats to laughing-out-loud store owner.

Longtime readers of this blog know that for many years, I've expressed an aversion to political yard signs.

But having thought better of it during the course of campaigning for mayor, and secure in the knowledge that we're offering platforms over platitudes, the whole process of sign placement has proven to be fun and entertaining, just so long as the tail isn't wagging the dog.

This morning, the sheer entertainment potential of political yard signs was revealed to its greatest conceivable extent.

We'd delivered two signs on Saturday to Cisa Barry at Sew Fitting, and she decided to put one in the tree well in front of her business.

I'm told it's the same tree well the city refused to clear of weeds or bother improving, so Cisa and a friend pulled the weeds, and the building owners added barrier cloth and rock.

My campaign treasurer is Marcey Wisman-Bennett, who works at Sew Fitting, and Marcey quizzed Cisa in precisely the same way I've done when asked for a sign by a business owner: Are you sure? It may repel some customers, and also attract the attention of a particularly vindictive species of City Hall denizen. Cisa was firm (as have a handful of other fellow independent business owners, whom I thank).

As to whether it is legal to put a sign in that tree well, I'd concede that strictly speaking, it's probably no more legal than the two tacky signs tacked to the utility pole in front of the VapeWorks, adjacent to Sew Fitting -- which the city has done nothing about.

Further, I submit that if a business owner finds herself in the position of doing the city's tree well maintenance work for it -- especially after the Board of Public Works has been overtly unhelpful in previous requests made of it with regard to the safety of the intersection, something almost surely owing to political motivations (see "vindictive" above) -- she may care less about strict interpretations, especially when a scene like this is permitted two blocks from her business.

This morning, before Marcey arrived at work, Cisa had a visitor. He said he was a city employee, but did not otherwise identify himself, and she didn't know his name. The city "employee" was red-faced and yelling.

"Marcey should know better than to put a political sign on city property ... if Roger is going to complain about the job I'm doing he shouldn't have signs on city property."

In the hope that he might go away, Cisa removed the sign, but let the city "employee" know that she was the business owner, and she was the one who made the decision to put the sign out -- not Marcey, and not Roger.

After that he was a tad deflated, but managed to huff and puff an additional flatulent utterance: "Marcey still should know better," before stomping away.

Now here's the funny part.

When Marcey came into work and heard the story, she thought about it, and arranged a "lineup" of social media faces in the hope of coaxing a positive ID from Cisa.

And this is how we know who it was.

Dan Coffey.

Thus informed, Cisa did the only logical thing.

She put the sign back out.

Hmm, this gives me an idea: "Pence Must Go."

Photo credit: NUVO

But someone else would have to lead THAT particular effort, seeing as I have my own plan for placing someone else in a relevant seat, and closer than Indy, too.

PENCE MUST GO: One man's mission to see a different governor in Indiana, by Amber Stearns (NUVO)

Kevin Warren says despite having signs stolen and burned, his truck egged and his house under surveillance, his feelings and message for Mike Pence will never change.

The blue and gold signs are sprinkled all over Marion County. There isn't a neighborhood in the city that doesn't have at least one sign in a residential yard and it's more likely that you will find two or three, maybe even more.

Kevin Warren, the man behind those signs, couldn't be happier.

His goal is simple — to see Mike Pence out of the governor's office and someone else in that seat.

There oughta be a law against yard signs this big.

File under: Capitulation.

When it comes to doubling down for the one true faith, size definitely matters.

Before.

As the depth of one's fealty is assured, so are the physical manifestations enhanced.

After. 

This much is clear.

Where before, 3rd district councilman Greg Phipps repeatedly and passionately pledged  -- both aloud and for written attribution -- that he was willing to stake his political career and council seat on the strength of transparent advocacy for Jeff Speck's downtown street network proposals, now he's changed the paradigm and is hitching his wagon to Jeff Gahan and the Democratic Party machine, trusting them non-analytically, without evidence.

After all, it is Gahan who absolutely and incessantly refuses to be open and above board about fading hope for Speck's proposals as a curative for our rotten streets. We've asked for tangible evidence to the contrary, and been greeted with chirping crickets. Gag order in place, Phipps is now aligned with cynical political non-transparency, and that's very, very depressing.

To slightly paraphrase Bluegill: We remember not so long ago when Phipps would have decried this type of insider gamesmanship. That shift, though -- that practiced, furtive glance in the other direction -- is the basis of political power in New Albany, particularly among the Democratic majority.

Too bad. I'm by no means angry, but sad at seeing once again what the local party machine can do to kneecap integrity.

Can you spot the missing yard sign?

Wednesday

Thursday

And that's exactly the way it should work, because ...

The predicted gutting of Speck begins as Mayor Jeff Gahan gives the finger to complete streets advocates.

If you are an advocate of Jeff Speck's downtown street network proposals, and yet a Gahan for Mayor sign remains embedded in your yard, it's time to gaze into the mirror and realize that you've been misled, all along, by the sitting mayor and his inner circle. Don't feel bad. You're not the only one.

It's been more than a year since Speck came to New Albany, and Jeff Gahan has yet to speak coherently and openly about complete streets. At this point, it's naive to imagine he will. In fact, Gahan does not believe that an 18-month delay in (only maybe sort of possibly) implement what now surely will be a watered-down version can cost him votes.

If he thought it would, he'd calibrate differently, wouldn't he?

Consequently, these votes must be withheld. There's just no other way to view it, is there? To paraphrase the Bookseller, calculated indifference toward the concerns of street grid reform advocates constitutes a compelling electoral metric.

On the springtime sprouting of political signs.

David White has one this size two blocks down on the left.

The yawnable sign race on Spring Street prompts a question: Are political yard signs getting larger because it's the (one way) drivers traveling at interstate highway speeds can see and assimilate them, while otherwise texting?

Conversely, enlargement might be an inevitable by-product of the Viagra Age, revealing yet again the intrinsically phallic nature of the political game.

Ultimately, I suppose the planting of yard signs primarily is a team building exercise, something tangible designed to inculcate organizational skills among volunteers, while remaining meaningless in terms of content. And yet, harmlessness never has been a recommendation in my world.

Following is an NAC post from March 3, 2011. It was the run-up to my first-ever political campaign, when I finished fifth (out of six candidates) in the Democratic primary election for at-large council.

In 2011, I polled 1,341 votes at an expenditure of zero dollars and no cents. While realizing perfectly well that this performance doesn't necessarily correspond with electoral reality in 2015, when I'll be an independent candidate for mayor, it does provide ample food for thought.

---

A Candidate's Progress (2): “Blocking out the scenery, breaking my mind.”

The first great internal debate of my campaign for New Albany city council at-large has unexpectedly come in the realm of propaganda, or to be more precise, a Shakespearean question: “To yard sign, or not to yard sign.”

One might spend hours, preferably over Progressive Pints, debating the relative merits and demerits of politics, the American political system, and the political impulse in a context of perplexing, deviant human behavior, but the single most enduringly annoying aspect of local politics to me is the unquestioned assumption that there exists one way, and one way alone, to go about campaigning for public office.

Granted, politics and prostitution remain among the world’s oldest professions, but at least brothels generally are located indoors, safely out of sight. Conversely, candidates seemingly must hawk their wares outdoors, and it’s a messy process.

First, when the filing’s done, vast stocks of yard signs must be assembled and distributed sans proper instruction, meaning that inevitably, they begin sprouting in places not capable of being defined as “yards.” Such placements, as when clusters of yard signs appear at intersections and block the view of motorists, are plainly illegal although perpetually unenforced – itself a platform plank for future discussion.

Second, immediate squabbling commences over who is vandalizing the other’s yard signage, which conveniently detracts from the opportunity of discussing issues, as opposed to perpetuating agitated theological considerations of whether heaven awaits those who uproot signs that were erected illegally in the first place.

Third, the city is blanketed with fliers, pamphlets and screeds, jammed into door handles or dropped in the vicinity of porches. Roughly three-quarters of these fall of their own weight onto the ground or are summarily cast aside by disgruntled occupants, destined to take blow away and take their place alongside the rest of the Watchtowers, Big Gulp cups and other garbage blithely tossed away by resident derelicts in route to the neighborhood meth lab.

(If you persist in believing that the city’s street sweeping program snags more than a small percentage of this waste while shifting debris from the curb into the bike lane, I have a Ohio River Bridges Project tolling futures share to sell you.)

Of course, candidates for higher office (really?) have the advantage of corporate funds from far, far away, which can be used to directly snail-mail the offensive detritus into unsuspecting mailboxes to be quickly deposited into the nearest available receptacle. This method has the clear advantage of keeping the streets marginally cleaner. But what of our burgeoning landfills? Alas, that’s another story.

Personally, I am repelled by the prospect of contributing to littering and visual pollution problems that already exist, and further unwilling to be hypocritical in this fashion when there is little or no available evidence suggesting that to do so offers a measurable advantage in terms of the subsequent campaign.

I’ll be running for office, and against the accepted way of running for office. My theory is that if a voter likes what I have to say, he or she need only pass the information along to friends, because word of mouth advertising is the most efficient and least environmentally intrusive way. Moreover, responsible supporters will be able to visit my web site, which will be up soon, choose from a variety of .pdf files, and print their own position sheets and signs. Many more of these will be recycled than would otherwise be the case, and none will cause roadway accidents.

I’m considering other ways of presenting my name to the world, funds permitting: Buttons, t-shirts and the like. Items like these are far less likely to be abused, although the people wearing them might consider carrying pepper spray to ward off hooded troglodytes.

A Facebook friend offered this observation: “Always speak to truth, Rog (I know that you will); remember truth won’t get you elected, but it will set you free.”

While contesting the proposition that truth always precludes electoral success, my own truth is this: I detest the supposedly necessary yet trashy trappings of a local campaign, and I didn’t sign up to indulge in behavior I detest. We’ll do it differently and go our own way, and see what happens. That’s the way I’ve tried to approach life, and there’s no reason to change now.