As we observed yesterday, 3rd district councilman Steve Price would have us believe that he is "progressive."
I am progressive, in the perspective meaning of “not bound by traditional ways or beliefs”.
Here's the rest of it:
As the election year progresses do not let someone dictate your opinion based on the so called “right information”. Base your opinion on facts that can be proven. Ask yourself are the “progressives” really progressive or are they continuing down the path we have been on for the last 30 years?
Just as we once were beguiled with the term "compassionate conservative," so we're now offered Steve Price, the "reactionary progressive."
How can such terminology make sense?
Considering the incredibly expansive list of possibilities that genuine local progressives have discussed and are working to achieve, customarily against the active opposition of CM Price, is it possible for us to measure his disingenuousness in proclaiming "progressive" instincts?
Does he, himself, really know the difference?
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Open thread: Councilman Steve Price - "progressive" or regressive?
The discussion and open thread today refers to an article, Ghost writer in the sky?, published here yesterday. It describes the advent of a blog apparently written by 3rd district councilman Steve Price. I’ve decided to pull a comment by New Alb Annie to the marquee, with my added thoughts, in the hope of starting a conversation. This is not to be construed as a debate between New Alb Annie and myself, just a way of starting a dialogue. Enjoy.
----
In a comment, New Alb Annie wrote:
I know I am subjecting myself to a big blast here, but I have to say, in all fairness, that I have not had any problems with Steve Price. He has always been more than willing to discuss things with me, and he has been helpful and responsive.
If I had to cite a specific area that I think isn't the best it could be, I'd say that applying the same financial philosophy, reasoning and methods that a small business owner uses is not the most effective way to approach city/governmental budgeting and spending. They are two different animals.
But, small business is what his experience is in, and our city doesn't have a specific educational/background requirement to hold a Council position, nor does it provide any method to educate incoming council members, as far as I am aware.
You run for office, and if you get the majority vote, you're pretty much thrown in there with no preparation at all. I'd be floundering if I was ever on Council--it's a complicated job, and there isn't any sort of training provided.
From what I know of his personal life, he is similar to a lot of us--living here all his life, raising and educating a child, a homeowner in a modest neighborhood.
----
The New Albanian replies:
No blasts, Ann. I appreciate the comments. I recall during the decade of the 1980’s feeling that Ronald Reagan would have made a fine next door neighbor, for cookouts and a beer or two, and to listen to colorful Hollywood war stories. It’s just that he had no business being in charge of a superpower. Leaving aside differing opinions about Reagan’s legacy, I feel much the same way about CM Price. Our city needs more than what CM Price is able to offer.
It is one thing to be cautious and prudent, and to stress fiscal responsibility, although as you correctly point out, there's a big difference between these qualities as applied to one's personal world or small business, and to a city at large.
It's another thing to actively impede forward thinking of the sort that if nurtured, can march hand in hand with fiscal prudence to the enhancement of both. CM Price’s most fundamental failure, one shared with the more fanatical of his “not with my dime” devotees, is an utter inability to understand that the size of the pie is not finite and fixed. It is variable. The pie can become smaller, but it also can become larger. Perhaps owing to personal preferences or upbringing, CM Price inhabits a world that does not change, that always remains the same, where incomes are limited and roles predetermined. But that’s not the way our dynamic world works.
CM Price tells us that he "spearheaded" cleanliness by pushing for an ordinance addressing it. At the same time, he's been opposed to any semblance of funding the mandate he advanced, which makes it possible for him simultaneously to claim credit and to shift blame. In our informal group discussions, and in discussions with city officials, one thing is perfectly clear: You must spend money to make money, and if ordinance enforcement ultimate is about enhancing the prospects for a city to make money, either directly through fees and fines or indirectly through development, then any such mandate must be funded to succeed, not just subsist.
CM Price won’t take the next step. Why, I don’t know, but the accumulated evidence of obsession with nickels and dimes at the expense of the “big picture” he claims to observe is unmistakable.
How can someone with credentials like these insist that he’s progressive? Only Karl Rove knows for sure, but on the other hand, CM Price claims to be a New Age Democrat.
Readers?
----
In a comment, New Alb Annie wrote:
I know I am subjecting myself to a big blast here, but I have to say, in all fairness, that I have not had any problems with Steve Price. He has always been more than willing to discuss things with me, and he has been helpful and responsive.
If I had to cite a specific area that I think isn't the best it could be, I'd say that applying the same financial philosophy, reasoning and methods that a small business owner uses is not the most effective way to approach city/governmental budgeting and spending. They are two different animals.
But, small business is what his experience is in, and our city doesn't have a specific educational/background requirement to hold a Council position, nor does it provide any method to educate incoming council members, as far as I am aware.
You run for office, and if you get the majority vote, you're pretty much thrown in there with no preparation at all. I'd be floundering if I was ever on Council--it's a complicated job, and there isn't any sort of training provided.
From what I know of his personal life, he is similar to a lot of us--living here all his life, raising and educating a child, a homeowner in a modest neighborhood.
----
The New Albanian replies:
No blasts, Ann. I appreciate the comments. I recall during the decade of the 1980’s feeling that Ronald Reagan would have made a fine next door neighbor, for cookouts and a beer or two, and to listen to colorful Hollywood war stories. It’s just that he had no business being in charge of a superpower. Leaving aside differing opinions about Reagan’s legacy, I feel much the same way about CM Price. Our city needs more than what CM Price is able to offer.
It is one thing to be cautious and prudent, and to stress fiscal responsibility, although as you correctly point out, there's a big difference between these qualities as applied to one's personal world or small business, and to a city at large.
It's another thing to actively impede forward thinking of the sort that if nurtured, can march hand in hand with fiscal prudence to the enhancement of both. CM Price’s most fundamental failure, one shared with the more fanatical of his “not with my dime” devotees, is an utter inability to understand that the size of the pie is not finite and fixed. It is variable. The pie can become smaller, but it also can become larger. Perhaps owing to personal preferences or upbringing, CM Price inhabits a world that does not change, that always remains the same, where incomes are limited and roles predetermined. But that’s not the way our dynamic world works.
CM Price tells us that he "spearheaded" cleanliness by pushing for an ordinance addressing it. At the same time, he's been opposed to any semblance of funding the mandate he advanced, which makes it possible for him simultaneously to claim credit and to shift blame. In our informal group discussions, and in discussions with city officials, one thing is perfectly clear: You must spend money to make money, and if ordinance enforcement ultimate is about enhancing the prospects for a city to make money, either directly through fees and fines or indirectly through development, then any such mandate must be funded to succeed, not just subsist.
CM Price won’t take the next step. Why, I don’t know, but the accumulated evidence of obsession with nickels and dimes at the expense of the “big picture” he claims to observe is unmistakable.
How can someone with credentials like these insist that he’s progressive? Only Karl Rove knows for sure, but on the other hand, CM Price claims to be a New Age Democrat.
Readers?
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Ghost writer in the sky?
I suppose it was inevitable. After all, it's an election year ... and what's an election campaign without a politican shamelessly dissembling his record?
Steve Price – My Vision.
That's right. A blog.
Here’s a teaser:
I am progressive, in the perspective meaning of “not bound by traditional ways or beliefs”.
Simply breathtaking.
Stay tuned for Dan Coffey - My Bologna and Larry Kochert - My Reverie ... both coming soon to a blog near you.
Steve Price – My Vision.
That's right. A blog.
Here’s a teaser:
I am progressive, in the perspective meaning of “not bound by traditional ways or beliefs”.
Simply breathtaking.
Stay tuned for Dan Coffey - My Bologna and Larry Kochert - My Reverie ... both coming soon to a blog near you.
Monday, January 08, 2007
A reminder: NAC "Meet 'n' Greet" is tonight at 7: 00 pm, and you're invited.
At Rich O's Public House, 3312 Plaza Drive:
NAC "Meet 'n' Greet" is on Monday, January 8, and you're invited.
NAC "Meet 'n' Greet" is on Monday, January 8, and you're invited.
Sunday, January 07, 2007
Rocky 6 … Doug England 3?
It will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me or nobody is going to hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit, it is about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much can you take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!
-- Noted prizefighter Rocky Balboa.
“I’ve had polls done before and they’re very reliable ... if the poll comes out a certain way, I’m going to say, ‘Adios, amigos,’ and continue on my present business.”
-- Former New Albany mayor Doug England.
News item: Former New Albany mayor England weighs return bid (News and Tribune).
After weeks of speculation, official certification has come that the political entertainment quotient might yet undergo a considerable upgrade in star value as we usher in a city election year.
Unfortunately, bluff and bluster aside, it remains that in the context of the year 2007, Mr. England puts the "old" back in "OLD school politics" … in the "good OLD boy network" … in observing “OLD ways” … and probably even in writing "OLD Days," the group Chicago's seventies smash hit, with lyrics about looking backward through rose-colored, nostalgic glasses.
Real life’s always more challenging than even the finest of pop songs, and Mr. England currently is polling voters to see whether his shtick still ticks, but what really needs to happen is for him to tell US how this time around might be different from the last, and specifically, what he is proposing NOW, in the current time, to improve upon the present situation in New Albany.
Lest we forget, Mr. England’s last exit from the political scene was messy and embarrassing. His high wire act had grown so stale by 1999 that he was blown away at the polls by Regina Overton, who both as a woman and a Republican did not possess the gender and political party indicators for success generally favored by New Albany’s clannish and primeval voters.
The notion of a strong Republican female in City Hall didn’t resonate with New Albany’s electorate – that is, until voters compared her prospects with the evidence of two previous and tumultuous terms with Mr. England at the helm. It was as decisive a mandate as this city is capable of offering.
It's true that times change, and yet neither bringing out the best in one’s opposition, nor engineering a sea change for the other party, may be the most bankable platform for a Democratic mayoral candidate in 2007, although in New Albany, one is best advised not to hold that breath for too long.
At the same time, and seeing as the city is utterly bereft of solid choices, I'd give due consideration to any reality-based, pro-active policy platform – any specific, coherent plan for the future – that the former mayor might choose to draft.
In like fashion, I'd give due consideration to any reality-based, pro-active policy platform – any specific, coherent plan for the future – that any mayoral candidate might choose to draft, including the incumbent or the half-dozen others in both parties whose names continue to circulate as possibilities.
I’m sorry to say that anything else, whether from the former mayor, the current mayor or any other candidate, qualifies as the same OLD song and dance ... and in New Albany, that's the very last thing we need.
Speaking personally, I find Mr. England to be an interesting fellow, and quite charming. He's a classic schmoozer, relishes the daily combat of leadership, and is a wonderful salesman. But lacking any firm answer as to exactly what he intends to sell us, there’s little reason to be excited about yet another self-aggrandizing political comeback.
At least until NAC receives one of the phone calls.
----
A reminder: NAC "Meet 'n' Greet" is on Monday, January 8, and you're invited.
-- Noted prizefighter Rocky Balboa.
“I’ve had polls done before and they’re very reliable ... if the poll comes out a certain way, I’m going to say, ‘Adios, amigos,’ and continue on my present business.”
-- Former New Albany mayor Doug England.
News item: Former New Albany mayor England weighs return bid (News and Tribune).
After weeks of speculation, official certification has come that the political entertainment quotient might yet undergo a considerable upgrade in star value as we usher in a city election year.
Unfortunately, bluff and bluster aside, it remains that in the context of the year 2007, Mr. England puts the "old" back in "OLD school politics" … in the "good OLD boy network" … in observing “OLD ways” … and probably even in writing "OLD Days," the group Chicago's seventies smash hit, with lyrics about looking backward through rose-colored, nostalgic glasses.
Real life’s always more challenging than even the finest of pop songs, and Mr. England currently is polling voters to see whether his shtick still ticks, but what really needs to happen is for him to tell US how this time around might be different from the last, and specifically, what he is proposing NOW, in the current time, to improve upon the present situation in New Albany.
Lest we forget, Mr. England’s last exit from the political scene was messy and embarrassing. His high wire act had grown so stale by 1999 that he was blown away at the polls by Regina Overton, who both as a woman and a Republican did not possess the gender and political party indicators for success generally favored by New Albany’s clannish and primeval voters.
The notion of a strong Republican female in City Hall didn’t resonate with New Albany’s electorate – that is, until voters compared her prospects with the evidence of two previous and tumultuous terms with Mr. England at the helm. It was as decisive a mandate as this city is capable of offering.
It's true that times change, and yet neither bringing out the best in one’s opposition, nor engineering a sea change for the other party, may be the most bankable platform for a Democratic mayoral candidate in 2007, although in New Albany, one is best advised not to hold that breath for too long.
At the same time, and seeing as the city is utterly bereft of solid choices, I'd give due consideration to any reality-based, pro-active policy platform – any specific, coherent plan for the future – that the former mayor might choose to draft.
In like fashion, I'd give due consideration to any reality-based, pro-active policy platform – any specific, coherent plan for the future – that any mayoral candidate might choose to draft, including the incumbent or the half-dozen others in both parties whose names continue to circulate as possibilities.
I’m sorry to say that anything else, whether from the former mayor, the current mayor or any other candidate, qualifies as the same OLD song and dance ... and in New Albany, that's the very last thing we need.
Speaking personally, I find Mr. England to be an interesting fellow, and quite charming. He's a classic schmoozer, relishes the daily combat of leadership, and is a wonderful salesman. But lacking any firm answer as to exactly what he intends to sell us, there’s little reason to be excited about yet another self-aggrandizing political comeback.
At least until NAC receives one of the phone calls.
----
A reminder: NAC "Meet 'n' Greet" is on Monday, January 8, and you're invited.
Silly me - I thought it was a death metal band.
In a very few hours I arrived in a city that always makes me think of a whited sepulcher. Prejudice no doubt.
-- Joseph Conrad, from "Heart of Darkness."
The novel's protagonist is referring to Brussels, capital of Belgium. It isn't certain whether Conrad ever came near New Albany.
As (variously) a non-churchgoer, an atheist, a Communist, a progressive, and a drunkard, to use just a few of the colorfully descriptive things said about me both by friends and enemies, the former generally rolling their eyes and the latter usually securely anonymous from afar, every now and then someone pulls out a phrase that even I haven’t heard in a while.
It was yesterday, at the slowly reviving Luddite Bar & Grill, otherwise known as SOLNA, or Speak Out, Lout (NA), that the obscure Biblical reference was wielded:
Anonymous said...
To hear you talk Roger Baylor. You have it all, done it all, and so worldly. But.....your still the biggest whited sepulcher in New Albany.
5:42 PM, January 06, 2007
Heavy artillery, indeed, and "sez you" or "your mama" fall short as potential retorts. For the record, here's the definition of “whited sepulcher,” courtesy of http://www.answers.com/:
whit·ed sepulcher (hwī'tĭd, wī'-) n. An evil person who pretends to be holy or good; a hypocrite. [From the simile applied by Jesus to hypocrites as exemplified by some scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 23:27).]
Hmm. Now, in addition to being on the mayor's payroll, riding a bicycle because of a drunk driving conviction, and being jealous of Professor Erika, I'm also evil. Who'd make such an accusation? Let's see, what clues to we have?
We're in New Albany, and we know that the fan mail comes from devout coward wearing a mask.
Boy, that sure narrows it down.
-- Joseph Conrad, from "Heart of Darkness."
The novel's protagonist is referring to Brussels, capital of Belgium. It isn't certain whether Conrad ever came near New Albany.
As (variously) a non-churchgoer, an atheist, a Communist, a progressive, and a drunkard, to use just a few of the colorfully descriptive things said about me both by friends and enemies, the former generally rolling their eyes and the latter usually securely anonymous from afar, every now and then someone pulls out a phrase that even I haven’t heard in a while.
It was yesterday, at the slowly reviving Luddite Bar & Grill, otherwise known as SOLNA, or Speak Out, Lout (NA), that the obscure Biblical reference was wielded:
Anonymous said...
To hear you talk Roger Baylor. You have it all, done it all, and so worldly. But.....your still the biggest whited sepulcher in New Albany.
5:42 PM, January 06, 2007
Heavy artillery, indeed, and "sez you" or "your mama" fall short as potential retorts. For the record, here's the definition of “whited sepulcher,” courtesy of http://www.answers.com/:
whit·ed sepulcher (hwī'tĭd, wī'-) n. An evil person who pretends to be holy or good; a hypocrite. [From the simile applied by Jesus to hypocrites as exemplified by some scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 23:27).]
Hmm. Now, in addition to being on the mayor's payroll, riding a bicycle because of a drunk driving conviction, and being jealous of Professor Erika, I'm also evil. Who'd make such an accusation? Let's see, what clues to we have?
We're in New Albany, and we know that the fan mail comes from devout coward wearing a mask.
Boy, that sure narrows it down.
Saturday, January 06, 2007
Pastor Manzo profiled in the Saturday edition of the Tribune.
Kudos to John Manzo, pastor at St. Marks, who scores front-page focus in the Saturday edition of the New Albany Tribune.
New Albany pastor plugged in, by Eric Scott Campbell (News and Tribune).
Here’s an excerpt:
Q: Shifting gears, technology-wise, you’ve engaged in some very spirited discussions among New Albany bloggers. What’s your general opinion of the blog medium?
MANZO: “It’s interesting in that there’s a diversity of opinions. It’s given me a greater insight into the community, as well and actually given me ... a better understanding of some of the wider concerns of the downtown. I think one of the overriding concerns of the downtown has been the poverty line is dramatically increasing. Our soup kitchen has significantly grown in size, our clothes closet has been really hit hard with people needing stuff. I keep thinking, when your soup kitchen is one of the things growing, it’s indicative that there’s something wrong someplace else.”
John’s blog is here.
John, I'm looking forward to meeting you Monday night at the meet 'n' greet. Media notoriety is great, but don’t forget the little … er, perhaps that’s not the best analogy for NA Confidential to use in this context.
New Albany pastor plugged in, by Eric Scott Campbell (News and Tribune).
Here’s an excerpt:
Q: Shifting gears, technology-wise, you’ve engaged in some very spirited discussions among New Albany bloggers. What’s your general opinion of the blog medium?
MANZO: “It’s interesting in that there’s a diversity of opinions. It’s given me a greater insight into the community, as well and actually given me ... a better understanding of some of the wider concerns of the downtown. I think one of the overriding concerns of the downtown has been the poverty line is dramatically increasing. Our soup kitchen has significantly grown in size, our clothes closet has been really hit hard with people needing stuff. I keep thinking, when your soup kitchen is one of the things growing, it’s indicative that there’s something wrong someplace else.”
John’s blog is here.
John, I'm looking forward to meeting you Monday night at the meet 'n' greet. Media notoriety is great, but don’t forget the little … er, perhaps that’s not the best analogy for NA Confidential to use in this context.
City council body language for the evening of January 4.
Okay, so they didn't exactly say these things out loud ... but nonetheless, here are the subliminal messages as gleaned from body language, in order of the newly implemented seating arrangements, and ending with the president and vice president.
----
Bill Schmidt: Mr. Building Commissioner, tear down these houses … uh, well, not that I’m going to let you have anywhere close to enough money to do it. That way the grandstanding can continue. Heck, can’t take care of what we got. Why, when I was a boy, we’d take ‘em down with Bowie knives and bare hands.
Steve Price: Any notion of economic development that requires funding beyond the inexpensive level required for random divine intervention is unacceptable to me, and we can't afford it, and I’m against it now, forever, and always. Have you tried asking another God for the money?
Bev Crump: 361 days and counting.
Jeff Gahan: Free at last, free at last.
Donnie Blevins: Black socks or blue? Wheaties or corn flakes? Progs or trogs? I just can’t decide.
Jack Messer: You do your duty, and sometimes, they thank you for it. Other times …
Kevin Zurschmiede: Are these second thoughts, or am I coming down with a really nasty case of the flu?
Larry Kochert: Hah! It’s all about me.
Dan Coffey: No, Larry. It’s all about me.
----
Bill Schmidt: Mr. Building Commissioner, tear down these houses … uh, well, not that I’m going to let you have anywhere close to enough money to do it. That way the grandstanding can continue. Heck, can’t take care of what we got. Why, when I was a boy, we’d take ‘em down with Bowie knives and bare hands.
Steve Price: Any notion of economic development that requires funding beyond the inexpensive level required for random divine intervention is unacceptable to me, and we can't afford it, and I’m against it now, forever, and always. Have you tried asking another God for the money?
Bev Crump: 361 days and counting.
Jeff Gahan: Free at last, free at last.
Donnie Blevins: Black socks or blue? Wheaties or corn flakes? Progs or trogs? I just can’t decide.
Jack Messer: You do your duty, and sometimes, they thank you for it. Other times …
Kevin Zurschmiede: Are these second thoughts, or am I coming down with a really nasty case of the flu?
Larry Kochert: Hah! It’s all about me.
Dan Coffey: No, Larry. It’s all about me.
Friday, January 05, 2007
Wizard of Westside to Dalby: We don’t need any stinking outside world – poverty was good enough for our forefathers, and it’s good enough for us!
Thursday’s city council proceedings offered the citizens of New Albany a clear and unmistakable preview of the year to come.Assuming you have long observed, as we have long explicated, that during the three previous years, the council’s obstructionist Gang of Four* has been vigilant in preventing the council from discernable forward movement, then kindly be aware that with 4th district councilman “Slippery” Larry Kochert at the council helm, and with all the Gang’s council seats up for grabs in the forthcoming 2007 election, we’re in for twelve months of a do-nothing Ice Age with banana republic dimensions.
Sugar will be allocated to gas tanks, spanners tossed in nearby works, and heels dug in "well" below the water table … but not, of course, if you take the unctuous new kingpin at his word. After the Thursday session’s work was concluded, its newly elevated president read aloud his list of agenda items for the coming year.
And, to be fair, most are worthy, although it must be noted that President Kochert’s three years of stubborn gang-related intransigence are a major part of the reason why these issues have yet to be tackled conclusively, and politics being what it is, he now is in a position to take credit for any successes.
What’s the over/under on the number of phone calls Slippery Larry will make to at-large councilman Donnie Blevins in the year to come?
At any rate, Kochert’s stated council wish list includes maintaining service for a second ambulance, resolving hiring issues at the police and fire department, finishing sewer projects, funding the street department, and delving into inaction at the building commissioner’s office.
But make no mistake: Kochert’s agenda is purely reactive, and while New Albanians understand the importance of efficiency in the city’s basic services, they have not failed to grasp that money will remain exceedingly tight, a fact that in turn illuminates the council’s inability to develop a coherent strategy with respect to economic development, downtown revitalization, wealth creation and proactive planning for the future, which in turn, and to put it mildly, threatens even the best intentioned of reactive decay management plans.
Want proof?
Consider the muddled reception given 1 Southern Indiana’s Michael Dalby, who attended the Thursday council meeting to explain his organization’s mission, and to support a resolution before the council calling for the city to become a funding partner of 1SI to the tune of $92,000 per annum.
Having just finished an inelegant and embarrassing procedural kneecapping of local Montessori advocates, and with the council’s reactionaries deliriously in their cups over the public bloodletting, progressive minds on the council somehow momentarily prevailed, and the 1SI resolution actually was accorded a second. This permitted a relieved Dalby, who looked as though he was only beginning to comprehend the unfathomable density that lay ahead, an opportunity (denied Montessori) to at least present a case for his position.
As with Montessori’s artfully evaded request for money, there are numerous legitimate questions that the council might ask of people like Dalby, and of bodies like One Southern Indiana, and credit Dalby with being prepared. His outline of the rudiments of 1SI’s job matched that available to us on the Web:
One Southern Indiana is the combined Economic Development Council and Chamber of Commerce for Floyd and Clark counties on the Indiana side of the Louisville, Kentucky metropolitan area. One Southern Indiana proactively works to grow our regional economy through business attraction, retention and expansion; through encouraging and supporting entrepreneurs; and through providing government and workforce advocacy, business education, networking opportunities and other business services to our investors. We are one vision, one voice for business.
Dalby’s brief presentation introduced such topics as non-partisanship in expanding the tax base, the educational and training needs of the global economy, local cooperation toward regional economic development, and aggressive marketing of the area to industries interested in establishing operations in Floyd and Clark counties.
As Dalby spoke about a complex and inter-related planet, where ever-changing paradigms require nimble thinking, the Gang of Four’s eyes began to glaze. Visions of simple pleasures, childhood, white bread, light beer, kickball, bedtime stories and that first kiss behind the incinerator – all began crowding into the already filled meeting room.
Most prominently, CM Coffey fidgeted uncomfortably, obviously troubled that such an upstart – hell, he’s not even from here! – would stand before him on the Wizard’s own hallowed 1st district turf and pretend to know more ‘bout makin’ cold hard cash than he – a successful businessman and “antique” dealer, for chrissakes – has learned out there on the hard streets in the grammar school of hard knocks … well, anyone who’s watched the council before could guess that an objection was being molded and prepared for lobbing toward Dalby like a Molotov cocktail filled with liquid envy.
“They’ll benefit more than we will,” intoned the Wizard.
Excuse me?
“Charlestown will be the biggest beneficiary,” CM Coffey continued.
Out came the venom.
“We” have less land than “they” do. “We” have less industrial potential than “they” do. “We” already have an economic development person detested by CM Coffey, and hardly need for “they” to have one as well, since he’d have to split his spite between the two. “We” can’t, “they” might, and so “he” wanted no part of it.
Dalby went on to explain that 1SI is headquartered in New Albany and that much of its recent work has come at New Albany’s industrial park. He noted that the suggested funding partnership level was based on population alone; also, that other communities in Clark County were being asked to join, too (and some already had), and finally, that joining 1SI merited an advisory position to be filled by a council delegate.
CM Coffey was adamant, and understandably, Dalby was confused, having not been briefed that in the fevered, clannish brain of the Wizard, and by extension, his sycophants and the remaining three-quarters of the Gang of Four, there exists no metropolitan Louisville area, no unified Southern Indiana, no Floyd County outside the flood plain, and perhaps not even a city of New Albany.
However, there is such an entity as his fiefdom of an impoverished council district, his own street, and the perimeters of his own yard. The probability of a New Albany resident seeking employment at an industrial plant in Clark County apparently does not figure into the famed ward heeler’s equation. Perhaps such cognitive achievements have been displaced by ambition, or spite; certainly their absence is why CM Coffey has never had, and never will have, a plan for the future of the city of New Albany, at least one extending beyond the narrow limits of his own ambition.
Once again, those seeking future vision from the Gang of Four are left with smoke, mirrors, posturing, and the art of the grandstand.
Hard as it is to imagine, considering the depths already observed, it stands to get even worse before it gets better.
----
* If you’re just tuning in, the Gang of Four is made up of councilmen Coffey, Kochert, Price and Schmidt.
State of the Kochert address: “Ask not what your city can do for you ... no, wait ... here it is … the beatings will continue until morale improves."
A bizarre sensation pervades a relationship of pretense. No truth seems true. A simple morning's greeting and response appear loaded with innuendo and fraught with implications. . . . Each nicety becomes more sterile and each withdrawal more permanent.
--- Maya Angelou
At the first city council meeting of 2007, Jeff Gahan oversaw a peaceful transition of presidential power to Larry Kochert, who was elected on the second ballet following what may have been the single most surreal abstention since the current council came to bat in 2003, this one coming courtesy of Donnie Blevins, who opted out of the first presidential ballot. The result was a 4-4 stalemate between CM Kochert and Jack Messer.
With ominous Wagnerian music queued, and the Gang of Four marching in lock/goose/misstep behind the 4th district’s ever slippery chameleon, CM Blevins could only have been seeking sufficient breathing space to gather his senses and offer a preconceived, laborious mea culpa to the two contestants, which he accordingly did. Seconds later, CM Blevins folded like a cheap canvas camp chair in favor of Shelby Street’s favorite ward-heeling son, who in turn later was spotted beaming autocratically as the Wizard of Westside, Dan Coffey, was anointed vice president of the council for 2007.
Not since the sainted duo of Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew have we seen two high ranking public officials of such singular obfuscatory caliber, all of which somehow reminds me of the valuable, yet unrelated, insight contributed by the late Dr. Hunter S. Thompson’s in his eulogy of Nixon, entitled “He Was a Crook”: “Nixon was so crooked that he needed servants to help him screw his pants on every morning.”
Thompson's hilarious piece has nothing to do with the council, but you're encouraged to read it.
After a five minute break to organize his first official assault on decorum (see “Montessori” below), our new arbiter of unctuous occupied the council love seat and began dispensing profuse thanks to the academy even as his trigger finger unaccountably began twitching.
“But this is the one I shoot with … no, wait, here it is … this is what America’s all about,” began a predictable torrent of clichés, which included chestnuts like “serve the taxpayer” (make mine medium rare, Chef Dave) and “be courteous to one another.”
Then it was over, and the time came for the public to speak. Oddly, and with grating inconsistency, President Kochert referred aloud to the first speaker by his formal name of “Mr. Duggins” (sic), but for the second citizen, decided instead to use her more familiar …
(Sorry for the interruption. At NAC, we’ve decided that because the person in question actively seeks to be known by her first two names as an obvious form of political branding, we will refrain from taking the bait, and will instead refer to her formally as Ms. Bolovschak, and satirically as Auntie V. Thank you, and we now return you to the continuing beatings)
… “non-surname.” She then spoke for longer than five minutes, mentioning a potpourri of topics, most of which you’ve already read about here at NAC, and was cheered enthusiastically as a returning, reconquering heroine by a huge crowd of exactly one – the blushing, adoring Professor Erika.
There was a brief lull as Al Goodman was unanimously approved to join the Storm Water Board, and then it got strange.
R-07-01 Resolution to fund Community Montessori Charter Public School (Coffey)
CM Coffey, whose public stance toward most educational pursuits might be fairly characterized as hostile to the point of pathological, introduced the ordinance as required of him, perhaps randomly. Not one of the seven other councilmen (not counting CM Kochert himself) who were able to do so chose to second the resolution, and so it died an immediate and unceremonious death. However, it can be reintroduced at a future meeting.
Hmm.
The pros and cons of the Montessori method are open to honest debate among people, as is the suitability of its application within the public school structure. Moreover, there may be perfectly legitimate concerns with the timing of the resolution, with the council’s lack of information as to its merits, and so on.
And yet …
At least twenty parents and a half-dozen children had come to the council meeting ready to take up the newly enthroned president on his “this is America” boast, not to mention his request for “courtesy,” and to become a part of the governmental process. They appeared eager to share their story with the world – or, at least, that portion of the world with nothing better to do on a Thursday night in January.
Nope.
Thanks to an inexplicable measure of adult childishness run completely amok – precisely the frame of mind that this council will be remembered for in years to come – these almost certainly exemplary parents and children left the chamber with understandably bad tastes in their mouths, having been summarily kneecapped in a benignly procedural fashion, and without having the simple chance to present their case to the council, which could have then tabled the measure indefinitely using the always handy excuse that there isn’t enough information, or otherwise found someone to blame for being out of the Montessori loop.
But why cop the non-seconding attitude?
Don’t these citizens – don’t any of us -- deserve better from public officials who constantly pontificate about how badly they’re treated by city hall? A few scraps of dignity, perhaps, rather than a smirking, preening, good old boy’s nod ‘n’ wink orchestration of a non-second?
Talk about bad actors; some of these council guys couldn’t get a part on Baywatch if they bribed the producers with a mountain of cocaine the size of the Trinkle Dome. In three years, how many other such funding requests have been manhandled in such a mind-boggling, transparently staged fashion?
Does President Kochert, self-described steward of courtesy, really believe that it is honorable to deny these sincere people the courtesy of a hearing, and even worse, to do so while groaning aloud about unforeseen procedural matters and whining for the umpteenth time about harmful precedents that will ensue if the council gives money for education to one group without giving money for education to all groups (well, come to think of it, that is rather revolutionary … way too socialistic for a New Albanian of CM Kochert's antiquity).
Will more brilliant non-seconding fiascoes be contrived as a means of not having to face the council’s responsibility?
Shall this be Kochert’s legacy in the chair? Does he understand how embarrassing it was to watch?
Ironically, and with a rare display of humility, the only council member to get it right was CM Coffey, who said, “In the future, I’d rather not have this one,” meaning the task of introducing a resolution he decided long ago to abhor.
That’s good, because putting anything even remotely pertaining to education in CM Coffey’s “to dew” folder is risking cosmic hypocrisy on such an epic scale that fish might begin quoting Shakespeare, the Arizona Cardinals could win a Super Bowl, and a typhoon would blow into Floyd County straight from Japan without stopping for coffee in Albuquerque, sweeping New Albany into oblivion as punishment for our unprecedented impertinence.
Come to think of it, at least that would take care of those dilapidated houses, eh? Maybe there’s a method in this madness after all.
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Those late-night pickled garlic snacks sure do make a difference … by the way, it’s a city council Thursday.
In a startlingly vivid dream last night, my wife and I were in a large, sparsely decorated church somewhere in New Albany, and as we sat on a hard pew toward the rear, we listened as we both were publicly denounced and threatened with irrevocable excommunication.
Taking large roles in these somber proceedings were two wildly disparate local citizens, at least in their relationship with me. It wasn’t a surprise to see the first one, 3rd district councilman Steve Price, playing a lead part in the prosecution.
But the second person was my old friend and attorney Lee Cotner, who once was responsible for marrying me, although not to the same wife as now. Of course, Lee’s presence can be explained only by the need for proper legal counsel in the church’s decision to oust us, but it’s okay, Laszlo. I know it was only business, not personal, and we can still be pals.
What sums it up for me is that throughout the dream, we were laughing aloud. Gut laughing. Hard and continuous. Deep. From the very soul. Exceedingly funny.
Now that I’m awake, I’m still chuckling over it. While Gary Shteyngart's recent and much praised novel, “Absurdistan,” purports to be about an imaginary and chaotic post-Soviet nation in Central Asia, the title of the book sometimes far too closely describes life in New Albania, where the old models never worked even when they were youthful, and proposals for new modes of thinking are waved away and heckled by small minded people who insist that their own past failures somehow predetermine the fate of any future efforts.
It’s a theology of despair, all right, and so it makes perfect sense that in the real world, just as in a dream, there always will be the possibility of being voted off the island. Imagine that. Exile to a place where things actually work.
Say it ain't so, Steve.
----
Don’t forget that at 7:30 p.m. this evening, it’s opening night for the 2007 city council season. The agenda is available here. As if we needed another example of New Albania as real-life Absurdistan, take note that 1st district councilman Dan "Bazooka Joe U." Coffey has been given the task of introducing a “Resolution to fund Community Montessori Charter Public School.”
Absurd ... and so totally New Albany.
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Coffee break's over; time to get back on your heads.
Yes, the gong is sounding.
Kochert, Messer seek president's post on New Albany City Council, by Eric Scott Campbell (News and Tribune).
Democrats Larry Kochert and Jack Messer will vie Thursday night for the City Council’s presidency, which two-time incumbent Jeff Gahan said he is not seeking again …
… The council president moderates meetings and assigns sponsors to pieces of legislation, among other responsibilities. Gahan said he is pleased that meeting guidelines adopted over the past two years had made discussion among members and residents in attendance more issue-oriented.
Although it would be deliciously ironic to spend the next twelve months watching Slippery Larry grapple with the decorum and impartiality traditionally expected of the council’s president, it remains that I cannot in good conscience support the originator of the Kochert Doctrine, which calls for the potential good of any measure intended to enforce the city’s ordinances always to be compared unfavorably to the possible loss of votes from friends and neighbors, who would object to being held accountable.
However, I’d gladly trade a single year of CM Kochert seated at the head of the council table, if – and only if – he were to consider the position of president as a coda to his long and always reactive council career, and announce his retirement from politics, effective at the end of his current term.
Not unexpectedly, I support CM Jack Messer, but his selection would not be without certain deleterious implications for the sanity of onlookers.
Already, with Mark Seabrook gone, the most effective counterweight to the incessantly self-serving Coffeyite blather that mars so many meetings has been taken from the chamber, and with CM Messer serving as president, his like-minded reality checks against the incoherent ramblings of the 3rd district’s foremost embarrassment, CM Steve Price, also would be missing.
In the end, one thing’s for sure: CM Gahan has done a good job during his two terms.
The fourth and final year of the current council configuration kicks off Thursday night with only one personnel change: Kevin Zurschmiede replaces Mark Seabrook (now a county commissioner) as the body’s lone Republican. What’s more, it’s an election year, so hold on to your hats. It stands to get far thicker before the dawn.
You know, my personal rule is never to drink alcohol before attending a council meeting.
But it may well be that kind of year. Hip flasks, anyone?
Kochert, Messer seek president's post on New Albany City Council, by Eric Scott Campbell (News and Tribune).
Democrats Larry Kochert and Jack Messer will vie Thursday night for the City Council’s presidency, which two-time incumbent Jeff Gahan said he is not seeking again …
… The council president moderates meetings and assigns sponsors to pieces of legislation, among other responsibilities. Gahan said he is pleased that meeting guidelines adopted over the past two years had made discussion among members and residents in attendance more issue-oriented.
Although it would be deliciously ironic to spend the next twelve months watching Slippery Larry grapple with the decorum and impartiality traditionally expected of the council’s president, it remains that I cannot in good conscience support the originator of the Kochert Doctrine, which calls for the potential good of any measure intended to enforce the city’s ordinances always to be compared unfavorably to the possible loss of votes from friends and neighbors, who would object to being held accountable.
However, I’d gladly trade a single year of CM Kochert seated at the head of the council table, if – and only if – he were to consider the position of president as a coda to his long and always reactive council career, and announce his retirement from politics, effective at the end of his current term.
Not unexpectedly, I support CM Jack Messer, but his selection would not be without certain deleterious implications for the sanity of onlookers.
Already, with Mark Seabrook gone, the most effective counterweight to the incessantly self-serving Coffeyite blather that mars so many meetings has been taken from the chamber, and with CM Messer serving as president, his like-minded reality checks against the incoherent ramblings of the 3rd district’s foremost embarrassment, CM Steve Price, also would be missing.
In the end, one thing’s for sure: CM Gahan has done a good job during his two terms.
The fourth and final year of the current council configuration kicks off Thursday night with only one personnel change: Kevin Zurschmiede replaces Mark Seabrook (now a county commissioner) as the body’s lone Republican. What’s more, it’s an election year, so hold on to your hats. It stands to get far thicker before the dawn.
You know, my personal rule is never to drink alcohol before attending a council meeting.
But it may well be that kind of year. Hip flasks, anyone?
A reminder: NAC "Meet 'n' Greet" is on Monday, January 8, and you're invited.
On January 8 at 7: 00 p.m., it's "Confidentiaholics Identified" at Rich O’s Public House, 3312 Plaza Drive in New Albany (across University Woods Drive from Feeder’s Supply and the Grant Line Kroger).
This is being designed as a very informal meet 'n' greet for readers and friends of the NA Confidential blog, and by extension, the New Albany blogosphere. However, you're not required to have a computer to attend. There'll be no set agenda beyond getting to know one another, widening the circle of faces to names, and chatting about local issues.
All citizens are welcome. Tribune forum readers, owners and readers of other local blogs, sincere political hopefuls, innocent bystanders, whatever; we’ll be in the Prost banquet room, and there’s enough room for 50 or more.
It wasn’t my intention to have the gathering at my place of business, but this was the wish of those initially responding to the idea. If it looks like something we’ll try to do again, and I think we should, and often, then we can spread the wealth to other establishments in New Albany with no objections from me.
Bring a friend or a neighbor if you please. See you on the 8th.
This is being designed as a very informal meet 'n' greet for readers and friends of the NA Confidential blog, and by extension, the New Albany blogosphere. However, you're not required to have a computer to attend. There'll be no set agenda beyond getting to know one another, widening the circle of faces to names, and chatting about local issues.
All citizens are welcome. Tribune forum readers, owners and readers of other local blogs, sincere political hopefuls, innocent bystanders, whatever; we’ll be in the Prost banquet room, and there’s enough room for 50 or more.
It wasn’t my intention to have the gathering at my place of business, but this was the wish of those initially responding to the idea. If it looks like something we’ll try to do again, and I think we should, and often, then we can spread the wealth to other establishments in New Albany with no objections from me.
Bring a friend or a neighbor if you please. See you on the 8th.
An endorsement? How's this: Anyone but the incumbent for 3rd district councilman in 2007.
For much of the past two years, I’ve ceaselessly espoused the position that to gain a quick, intuitive grasp of the condition the city’s condition is in, observers need expend little more effort than the bare minimum required to monitor the statements and votes of Steve Price, the 3rd District city councilman.
Verily, if CM Price is for it, the measure at hand is at best suspect, at worst utterly senseless, and either way it bears exceedingly close examination.
If he’s against it, then "it" is almost certainly right, urgently necessary, and inevitably destined for an attempted kneecapping by CM Price and his merry Gang of Four council cohorts.
Granted, he’ll surprise you every now and then, but when he throws that occasional soft curve, you can take comfort in knowing that it wasn’t intentional. In scatological terms, sometimes it just happens.
In a recent NAC council meeting analysis (Conjoined Councilmen wear boogie shoes, seek help in VCR programming), I noted that as the conceptual vacuity of CM Price’s wasted term in office continues to trickle down to his increasingly impatient constituents –- at least those whose neighborhood interests and cultural proclivities range somewhat beyond those of the entitled beneficiaries of New Albany’s Slumlord Protection Act – the councilman’s blind counterpunches grow more erratic, and his public persona more bizarre.
CM Price, however, is increasingly willing to assume the role of the shambolic court jester. Whether intentionally mispronouncing (John) Rosenbarger’s name in the fashion of a junior high school slight, or publicly struggling to comprehend simple mathematical explanations desperately proffered him by friend and foe alike in an effort to spare him from steadily compounding embarrassment, CM Price has now pole vaulted past the point of self-parody, belly-flopping instead into a bubbling tub of bile and bathos.
Amazingly, last evening’s meeting found CM Price professing his inability to fathom the type of average salaries that are paid to college graduates in numerous fields in all sectors of the American economy – all of whom know far less about their professions than CM (Dan) Coffey – and concluding plaintively that this slowness and incomprehension is to be expected because CM Price comes “from the poor side of town.”
And, as we know, whether from rampant personal insecurity or just a plain unwillingness to fathom any other course, CM Price has acted in office as if he fully intends to keep his side of town just as poor as his excuse for quoting singer Johnny Rivers, using as justification the handy and pathetic mantra, “we can’t afford progress.”
Not only blog readers but all citizens, especially those with children, are invited to think very carefully about such impotent expressions of “we can’t” that bizarrely masquerade as public policy pronouncements.
So it has come to pass that aficionados of self-imposed and backward-looking despair have been provided a patron saint in the form of our 3rd district’s Bard of Dewey Heights, and while it makes for compelling, bottomless satire, it’s not the sort of platform upon which to build morale – or any semblance of a pro-active civic future that rests on any foundation other than decay management, but alas, the eternally corrosive politics of envy and venom blossom in such perpetually narrow worldviews.
When they do, CM Price’s self-fulfilling prophecy is unsurprisingly borne out, in the sense that we as a city remain burdened with a virulent form of impoverishment, but not one capable of being measured in neat stacks of accumulated nickels and dimes. Rather, we are pauperized by the blithe denial of hope, the cruel stunting of dreams, and the fatalistic acceptance of a status quo that can result only in an inexorable slide backward, and never a great leap toward something better.
Why this reprise? The calendar page has turned, and 2007 is a city election year. To begin the New Year, let there be no mistake as to who we think is not the best choice to represent the 3rd district. Of course, this isn't to suggest that we know who is qualified, at least yet. I imagine it will become clearer as the May primaries approach.
Almost a year ago, CM Price consented to an interview with NA Confidential, and unlike the vapid creampuffs later bestowed upon him in a carefully scripted Q & A session at Freedom to Screech (Yellow), our hard queries, and CM Price’s serial non-answers, really did combine to illustrate how much the city of New Albany continues to lose by ennobling short-term political mediocrity at the expense of those capable of thinking in the future tense.
Here is a brief excerpt, followed by links to the entire January, 2006, series. Now more than ever, CM Price's evasions are relevant and should be considered by 3rd district voters.
----
1. Mr. Price, you ran for council as a Democrat. How does your performance in council reflect your role as a Democratic Party officeholder? How can we separate your public statements from those of myriad Republicans over the past 40 years? Why are your stated preferences so different from the historic and progressive ideals of the Democratic Party? Does being a Democrat mean anything to you? What would that be, and how do you differentiate yourself from a Republican?
SP:
I am a 21st century Democrat who represents all the people. I believe in standing up for what is right and speaking out against injustice. New Albany is seeing first hand the repercussions of frivolous spending. History has been my teacher. I am not against “community-based” progress just force fed growth. It is not about trying to differentiate myself from anybody; it is about fulfilling the needs of the citizens of New Albany, and doing what will ensure a positive future for this city.
RAB:
CM Price’s answer to the opening question sets the tone for the remainder of the interview by indicating clearly that either the specifics of the question elude him, or just as likely, he had no intention of risking an explication of them in the first place.
Along with (300) million fellow Americans embracing a myriad of political persuasions, CM Price claims to stand up for what “is right” and to “speak out against injustice.”
He provides no concrete examples of what these might be, or how his definition of “right” and “injustice” as a member of the Democratic Party differs from the perspective of the card-carrying Republican on the other side of the aisle.
Exactly when has CM Price taken the lead in “speaking out against injustice? Exactly what was the injustice?
In the overall context of political self-identification, CM Price’s choice of words seems quite odd, for in fact there is an organization called 21st Century Democrats, which has antecedents in the political campaigns of the late Paul Wellstone and former presidential candidate Howard Dean, and connections to another contemporary “blue” Democratic lobby group called Think Blue.
It should suffice to say that neither of these philosophies seem to be in harmony with what little of his personal political beliefs that CM Price is willing to let us glimpse in his answer to our first question.Moreover, he moves with unseemly quickness to distance himself from the obvious burden of political self-examination by establishing the existence of his own personal bogeymen, “frivolous spending” and “force fed growth.” As you will see, these concepts are vital to CM Price’s narrow worldview, but they are not defined.
What is Steve Price in the political sense? He doesn’t tell us, but he strongly suggests that it is cautious, provincial and populist.
----
Here are the links:
Part 1: NA Confidential examines Councilman Steve Price’s interview responses.
Part 2: NA Confidential examines Councilman Steve Price’s interview responses.
Part 3: NA Confidential examines Councilman Steve Price’s interview responses.
Verily, if CM Price is for it, the measure at hand is at best suspect, at worst utterly senseless, and either way it bears exceedingly close examination.
If he’s against it, then "it" is almost certainly right, urgently necessary, and inevitably destined for an attempted kneecapping by CM Price and his merry Gang of Four council cohorts.
Granted, he’ll surprise you every now and then, but when he throws that occasional soft curve, you can take comfort in knowing that it wasn’t intentional. In scatological terms, sometimes it just happens.
In a recent NAC council meeting analysis (Conjoined Councilmen wear boogie shoes, seek help in VCR programming), I noted that as the conceptual vacuity of CM Price’s wasted term in office continues to trickle down to his increasingly impatient constituents –- at least those whose neighborhood interests and cultural proclivities range somewhat beyond those of the entitled beneficiaries of New Albany’s Slumlord Protection Act – the councilman’s blind counterpunches grow more erratic, and his public persona more bizarre.
CM Price, however, is increasingly willing to assume the role of the shambolic court jester. Whether intentionally mispronouncing (John) Rosenbarger’s name in the fashion of a junior high school slight, or publicly struggling to comprehend simple mathematical explanations desperately proffered him by friend and foe alike in an effort to spare him from steadily compounding embarrassment, CM Price has now pole vaulted past the point of self-parody, belly-flopping instead into a bubbling tub of bile and bathos.
Amazingly, last evening’s meeting found CM Price professing his inability to fathom the type of average salaries that are paid to college graduates in numerous fields in all sectors of the American economy – all of whom know far less about their professions than CM (Dan) Coffey – and concluding plaintively that this slowness and incomprehension is to be expected because CM Price comes “from the poor side of town.”
And, as we know, whether from rampant personal insecurity or just a plain unwillingness to fathom any other course, CM Price has acted in office as if he fully intends to keep his side of town just as poor as his excuse for quoting singer Johnny Rivers, using as justification the handy and pathetic mantra, “we can’t afford progress.”
Not only blog readers but all citizens, especially those with children, are invited to think very carefully about such impotent expressions of “we can’t” that bizarrely masquerade as public policy pronouncements.
So it has come to pass that aficionados of self-imposed and backward-looking despair have been provided a patron saint in the form of our 3rd district’s Bard of Dewey Heights, and while it makes for compelling, bottomless satire, it’s not the sort of platform upon which to build morale – or any semblance of a pro-active civic future that rests on any foundation other than decay management, but alas, the eternally corrosive politics of envy and venom blossom in such perpetually narrow worldviews.
When they do, CM Price’s self-fulfilling prophecy is unsurprisingly borne out, in the sense that we as a city remain burdened with a virulent form of impoverishment, but not one capable of being measured in neat stacks of accumulated nickels and dimes. Rather, we are pauperized by the blithe denial of hope, the cruel stunting of dreams, and the fatalistic acceptance of a status quo that can result only in an inexorable slide backward, and never a great leap toward something better.
Why this reprise? The calendar page has turned, and 2007 is a city election year. To begin the New Year, let there be no mistake as to who we think is not the best choice to represent the 3rd district. Of course, this isn't to suggest that we know who is qualified, at least yet. I imagine it will become clearer as the May primaries approach.
Almost a year ago, CM Price consented to an interview with NA Confidential, and unlike the vapid creampuffs later bestowed upon him in a carefully scripted Q & A session at Freedom to Screech (Yellow), our hard queries, and CM Price’s serial non-answers, really did combine to illustrate how much the city of New Albany continues to lose by ennobling short-term political mediocrity at the expense of those capable of thinking in the future tense.
Here is a brief excerpt, followed by links to the entire January, 2006, series. Now more than ever, CM Price's evasions are relevant and should be considered by 3rd district voters.
----
1. Mr. Price, you ran for council as a Democrat. How does your performance in council reflect your role as a Democratic Party officeholder? How can we separate your public statements from those of myriad Republicans over the past 40 years? Why are your stated preferences so different from the historic and progressive ideals of the Democratic Party? Does being a Democrat mean anything to you? What would that be, and how do you differentiate yourself from a Republican?
SP:
I am a 21st century Democrat who represents all the people. I believe in standing up for what is right and speaking out against injustice. New Albany is seeing first hand the repercussions of frivolous spending. History has been my teacher. I am not against “community-based” progress just force fed growth. It is not about trying to differentiate myself from anybody; it is about fulfilling the needs of the citizens of New Albany, and doing what will ensure a positive future for this city.
RAB:
CM Price’s answer to the opening question sets the tone for the remainder of the interview by indicating clearly that either the specifics of the question elude him, or just as likely, he had no intention of risking an explication of them in the first place.
Along with (300) million fellow Americans embracing a myriad of political persuasions, CM Price claims to stand up for what “is right” and to “speak out against injustice.”
He provides no concrete examples of what these might be, or how his definition of “right” and “injustice” as a member of the Democratic Party differs from the perspective of the card-carrying Republican on the other side of the aisle.
Exactly when has CM Price taken the lead in “speaking out against injustice? Exactly what was the injustice?
In the overall context of political self-identification, CM Price’s choice of words seems quite odd, for in fact there is an organization called 21st Century Democrats, which has antecedents in the political campaigns of the late Paul Wellstone and former presidential candidate Howard Dean, and connections to another contemporary “blue” Democratic lobby group called Think Blue.
It should suffice to say that neither of these philosophies seem to be in harmony with what little of his personal political beliefs that CM Price is willing to let us glimpse in his answer to our first question.Moreover, he moves with unseemly quickness to distance himself from the obvious burden of political self-examination by establishing the existence of his own personal bogeymen, “frivolous spending” and “force fed growth.” As you will see, these concepts are vital to CM Price’s narrow worldview, but they are not defined.
What is Steve Price in the political sense? He doesn’t tell us, but he strongly suggests that it is cautious, provincial and populist.
----
Here are the links:
Part 1: NA Confidential examines Councilman Steve Price’s interview responses.
Part 2: NA Confidential examines Councilman Steve Price’s interview responses.
Part 3: NA Confidential examines Councilman Steve Price’s interview responses.
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Outside, it's 2007 ... and the Publican invites Louisvillians to come wander the open air museum.
This morning, I posted the following at Robin Garr’s Louisville Restaurants Forum.
----
As many readers know, I unapologetically beat the drum for the future hope being currently engendered by the behind-the-scenes work done by many good people, who have the ultimate aim of revitalizing downtown New Albany within the context of the metro Louisville area.
We hope that 2007 will be a very good year for the cause of forward vision in New Albany, as there are at least three food- and drink-related projects on the drawing board for downtown, and it is hoped that these will join the already growing entertainment infrastructure. Planned ventures include a bakery café, music and bar venue, and informal sports bar/eatery. Prospects are good that all will come to fruition by spring.
Up until now, most of you have heard about Bistro New Albany, La Rosita’s and Federal Hill Café. All are excellent in differing ways. Also, Main Steet Café has opened in the space formerly occupied by the Main Street Grind. Ermin’s is a few doors down. Old standbys Tommy Lancaster, South Side and Little Chef are still around. There are certainly gaps. There also is more going on than at any time in recent memory as we attempt to educate and enable an appreciation for contemporary redevelopment strategies.
Downtown New Albany remains an undervalued entity within the whole of metro Louisville, and we have our share of problems like anywhere else, but this finally could be changing soon.
Construction has started on the Scribner Place YMCA project (State and Main), which represents the biggest investment in downtown since the founders arrived almost 200 years ago. Several entrepreneurs are beginning the rehabilitation of long unused upper floor spaces for apartments and condos. There is much interest in the arts as a catalyst for further progress. As the bland chain-influenced exurb grows, the value of refashioned older urban areas increases.
It may not always be the case to glean the good news from the reports provided in the Courier-Journal, and yet there is good news, nonetheless, and prospects are cautiously positive.
Speaking personally, I’d just like to invite the forum readership to consider coming over, having a meal at one of the establishments listed above, and strolling around downtown New Albany. It’ll be a “warts and all” experience, but it’s safe, and instead of recounting the obvious matters yet to be addressed, consider the possibilities. My wife Diana and I have invested in downtown by buying a house and living here, and if the proper opportunity presented itself, I’d gladly do the same with an extension of my current brewery/pub/pizzeria business.
Thanks for the time. Hope to see some of you around.
----
In other news, 3rd district councilman Steve Price plans to organize a rally to urge forum readers to stay the hell away from New Albany, lest our cement pond status quo be upset by an influx of people who don't share our cultural values.
"Don't need no more of them people here," he twanged to a reporter. "Can't park yer pickup as it is. Can't afford it, either. None of it. Nickels and dimes add up to a mixin' of the cultures. Uppity. Don't wanna be like that Frank-fert avenoo, do ya? But whadda I know. Wrong side of the tracks. Nazis at the VFW. Gotta go tend to my yard couch."
Taking the bait, our mock Professor Erika promises to erect a blockade at the approaches of the K & I bridge, having seen in an anonymous blog posting that "pergessives on bikes" would be coming across.
Actually, they couldn't make it. Because of the barricade on the Louisville side.
----
As many readers know, I unapologetically beat the drum for the future hope being currently engendered by the behind-the-scenes work done by many good people, who have the ultimate aim of revitalizing downtown New Albany within the context of the metro Louisville area.
We hope that 2007 will be a very good year for the cause of forward vision in New Albany, as there are at least three food- and drink-related projects on the drawing board for downtown, and it is hoped that these will join the already growing entertainment infrastructure. Planned ventures include a bakery café, music and bar venue, and informal sports bar/eatery. Prospects are good that all will come to fruition by spring.
Up until now, most of you have heard about Bistro New Albany, La Rosita’s and Federal Hill Café. All are excellent in differing ways. Also, Main Steet Café has opened in the space formerly occupied by the Main Street Grind. Ermin’s is a few doors down. Old standbys Tommy Lancaster, South Side and Little Chef are still around. There are certainly gaps. There also is more going on than at any time in recent memory as we attempt to educate and enable an appreciation for contemporary redevelopment strategies.
Downtown New Albany remains an undervalued entity within the whole of metro Louisville, and we have our share of problems like anywhere else, but this finally could be changing soon.
Construction has started on the Scribner Place YMCA project (State and Main), which represents the biggest investment in downtown since the founders arrived almost 200 years ago. Several entrepreneurs are beginning the rehabilitation of long unused upper floor spaces for apartments and condos. There is much interest in the arts as a catalyst for further progress. As the bland chain-influenced exurb grows, the value of refashioned older urban areas increases.
It may not always be the case to glean the good news from the reports provided in the Courier-Journal, and yet there is good news, nonetheless, and prospects are cautiously positive.
Speaking personally, I’d just like to invite the forum readership to consider coming over, having a meal at one of the establishments listed above, and strolling around downtown New Albany. It’ll be a “warts and all” experience, but it’s safe, and instead of recounting the obvious matters yet to be addressed, consider the possibilities. My wife Diana and I have invested in downtown by buying a house and living here, and if the proper opportunity presented itself, I’d gladly do the same with an extension of my current brewery/pub/pizzeria business.
Thanks for the time. Hope to see some of you around.
----
In other news, 3rd district councilman Steve Price plans to organize a rally to urge forum readers to stay the hell away from New Albany, lest our cement pond status quo be upset by an influx of people who don't share our cultural values.
"Don't need no more of them people here," he twanged to a reporter. "Can't park yer pickup as it is. Can't afford it, either. None of it. Nickels and dimes add up to a mixin' of the cultures. Uppity. Don't wanna be like that Frank-fert avenoo, do ya? But whadda I know. Wrong side of the tracks. Nazis at the VFW. Gotta go tend to my yard couch."
Taking the bait, our mock Professor Erika promises to erect a blockade at the approaches of the K & I bridge, having seen in an anonymous blog posting that "pergessives on bikes" would be coming across.
Actually, they couldn't make it. Because of the barricade on the Louisville side.
Monday, January 01, 2007
A New Year’s Eve in New Albany … it was a treat.
We wish to thank Chef Dave and the crew at Bistro New Albany for a wonderful meal; Israel, Lidia and her visiting relatives at the La Rosita’s late night bash for making us feel like family; and Mr. & Mrs. Bluegill for the nightcap.
Diet? What diet? It may have been back to carrots and granola today, but worth it knowing that a fine time can still be had in the old town.
Cheers for 2007. It is going to be a good year.
Diet? What diet? It may have been back to carrots and granola today, but worth it knowing that a fine time can still be had in the old town.
Cheers for 2007. It is going to be a good year.
Saturday, December 30, 2006
New Albany Man (and Woman) of the Year: Slumlordis ordinaris.
According to the 2000 census, the city of New Albany boasts in excess of 6,400 rental units. In some areas of the city, well more than half of the population lives in rental housing, the quality of which varies widely.Cities across the United States have recognized an explicit need to regulate rental units. A clear and persuasive example, just one among hundreds, was first cited here in January, 2006.
----
VALLEJO (CALIFORNIA) RENTAL PROPERTY PROGRAM
A Comprehensive Community Model
This is to be accomplished by developing, passing and implementing a new city ordinance that would, in part:
· Contain an inspection process for all rental property
· Impose fines for violations of the ordinance on property owners/property images
· Establish a database of all rental property, and
· Include an enforcement process
· Would, as much as possible, be financially self supporting
Myriad benefits that would contribute to cleaner, safer neighborhoods are expected to result from the implementation of a rental inspection ordinance, and include:
· Increased property values
· Increased rental demand
· Decreased general calls for police services
· Decreased calls about rental property problems to Code Enforcement
· Increased property management involvement in solving rental property issues
Why Does Vallejo Need a Rental Inspection Program?
Rental inspection programs are designed to accomplish three main goals:
· To clean up rental stock
· To improve the quality of life in neighborhoods
· To increase the economic value of single family homes and other rental residences
----
But in New Albany, where the long-seated ward heelers eschew ordinance enforcement as a phenomenon that costs the machine votes, the largely uncontrolled and unregulated proliferation of rental properties inexorably contributes to, and in many ways both enables and perpetuates, the culture of unaccountability and dysfunction that must be reversed if the city of New Albany is to move into the future.Sadly, another year has passed, and although time and again the precepts elucidated in the Vallejo Rental Property Program have been discussed by our neighborhood groups and progressive advocates as essential components not only of citywide economic revitalization, but of a belated recognition of basic human rights with respect to the living conditions of tenants, these concerns yet again have eluded New Albany’s elected and appointed public officials.
The conclusion is inescapable.
Not only has the city formerly known as New Albany passed the “tipping” point, it has in fact become a veritable Gregoryville, as safe a harbor for rental property abuse and tenant exploitation as Paraguay once was for inexplicably unemployed and homeless ex-residents of Germany.
Neighborhood concerns are consistently ignored, and slumlords forever enabled, and so let us face reality and greet our real leaders here in Gregoryville with open arms and a humble spirit.*
Ladies and Gentlemen, we at NA Confidential proudly give you our city’s Man (and Woman) of the Year for 2006: None other than Slumlordis ordinaris, beneficiary of the Slumlord Protection Program, and as far from an endangered species as ragweed in summer.
Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.
----
* maybe they’ll knock a few bucks off the rent if we grovel.
We're taking another day off. Read The Parting Glass at the Potable Curmudgeon blog for an apt New Year's thought ... and see you again late Monday evening.
Friday, December 29, 2006
It's a date: "Confidentiaholics Identified" at the Public House, January 8.
To be exact, 7:00 p.m., and no jokes from me about Progressive Pints.
Rather, on January 8 at 7:00 p.m., we'll have a very informal meet 'n' greet for NAC readers at Rich O's Public House, 3312 Plaza Drive (off Grant Line Road, across University Woods Drive from Kroger).
It's "Confidentiaholics Identified," as coined by Bluegill, and there'll be no agenda beyond getting to know one another and widening the circle of faces to names.
All are welcome. Seriously. If it looks like the crowd is big, we can move into the banquet room and have a bit of privacy. Otherwise, we'll take the corner of the front room.
I'm flattered that the consensus is to have the gathering at my place of business, but if it looks like something we do again, we can spread the wealth to other establishments in New Albany with no objections from me.
Bring a friend or a neighbor if you please. See you on the 8th.
Rather, on January 8 at 7:00 p.m., we'll have a very informal meet 'n' greet for NAC readers at Rich O's Public House, 3312 Plaza Drive (off Grant Line Road, across University Woods Drive from Kroger).
It's "Confidentiaholics Identified," as coined by Bluegill, and there'll be no agenda beyond getting to know one another and widening the circle of faces to names.
All are welcome. Seriously. If it looks like the crowd is big, we can move into the banquet room and have a bit of privacy. Otherwise, we'll take the corner of the front room.
I'm flattered that the consensus is to have the gathering at my place of business, but if it looks like something we do again, we can spread the wealth to other establishments in New Albany with no objections from me.
Bring a friend or a neighbor if you please. See you on the 8th.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
New Albany's great shame, proliferating rats and the "trash brigade" commentary.
We’re closing 2006 with a late flurry of passion with respect to the state of the city and how it might be improved, and I’d again like to thank readers for their continued participation this week as we’ve again explored “cleaning up” New Albany as a major community theme for 2007.
With so many things happening in the city, and believe it or not, with numerous positive developments literally occurring every day, I keep thinking to myself that from an editorial standpoint, there are numerous other topics we could be covering.
Or are there, really?
Whenever the "clean up" topic arises, NAC's readership numbers skyrocket, comments spike, and the whole enterprise shifts to another level. Quite obviously, there are many among us who believe in the merits of the seemingly self-evident position that without addressing a fundamental enforcement failure on the part of this community, any conceivable foundation for future success will be shaky, at best.
Accordingly, this recurring notion of cleaning up the city obviously has some semblance of legs, and yet, as has been noted, nothing much ever is observed to happen. The bulk of the local political and governmental bureaucracy seemingly remains unmoved. We’re neither consistently acknowledged, nor presented with any clue as to projected institutional changes beyond the application of temporary Band-Aids and the occasional implementation of partisan political photo-ops in support of the two-party system.
In 2007, we hope to determine why, and to make inroads toward changing the culture of calculated unaccountability for which New Albany is rightly, if sadly, known.
Tuesday's “trash brigade” essay, which was reprinted from the suddenly burgeoning Tribune forum, raised a number of questions, comments and private e-mails. The essay came from an unidentified apologist of the status quo, who reasoned that any effort to bring slumlords into general compliance with basic property standards in fact constitutes an attack on the poor and less privileged. Arguably the most eloquent response to this curiously reasoned position came from New Alb Annie, author of the Diggin’ in the Dirt blog, and I’m lifting it to the NAC marquee to give her words the exposure they properly deserve.
And, be sure you read Ann's Thursday blog entry: Rats and Resolutions.
----
Whoever authored the "trash brigade" commentary certainly has the right stuff to hold a position in our current political cabinet, with its culture of non-enforcement and ludicrous reasoning for doing so.
How many homes in New Albany that are in violation are owned by 'poor people'? In the majority of cases, these houses are owned by slumlords, who take advantage of poor people. The unfortunate, many times uneducated tenants don't know that they, although they may be poor, uneducated and without other things like a good credit history or financial resources, are entitled to value for their rent money. They don't, in many cases, realize that means the windows and doors are supposed to work properly, the furnace and water heater is supposed to be functional, the roof isn't supposed to leak, vermin isn't supposed to be infesting the premises.
No, they are poor, and they consider themselves lucky just to have a roof over their head. Maybe they are in a Section 8 program, and they don't want to make waves. They simply do not know what their rights are, and the slumlords want it to stay that way. And the City of New Albany is happy to aid and abet.
Slumlord X makes a hefty campaign donation every few years to whomever the favored candidate is, and in return, the slumlord continues business as usual, safe from those pesky building inspections that cities with a tenant rights association have.
Tolerance? What about justice? What about minimum community standards being enforced, equitably, so that everyone, rich, poor or in the middle can enjoy the same basic rights--a clean, heated place to live, in a building that is maintained to those minimums set forth by law, in a community that does not allow heaps of trash to pile up and scofflaws to add to the heaps when it pleases them?
The new class of poor who seem to be getting exploited now are Hispanics, and the City of New Albany is helping all the slumlords out with this. Many of these renters do not speak the language well, do not realize they, as tenants, have certain rights when it comes to housing standards. When the educated among us complain about the conditions of these myriad dilapidated rental properties, we're not complaining about the people who live in them, unless those residents are blatant lawbreakers. No, it's the non-enforcement of codes that irks.
But what response do our complaints get? Oh, that's right, we're prejudiced against the poor. So who would be the more prejudiced, those who want to see rental properties cleaned up and well-maintained, or those who turn a blind eye to the conditions the occupants live in? My, my, our administration wouldn't be assuming that because these people may be poor, they like to live in dirty, ill-kept slums, would they?
One way out of the vicious cycle of non-enforcement of codes is an active tenant rights group. Tenants, especially those who are uneducated or have impediments to understanding their basic rights in terms of rental housing, need to be informed that they can withhold rent payments for certain reasons like non-functioning heat, and that they cannot be evicted for complaints about issues like this. But here in New Albany, the practice has been, and continues to be, to empower the slumlord at the great detriment of the city.
----
Thanks, Ann. That's a marvelous statement of principle.
With so many things happening in the city, and believe it or not, with numerous positive developments literally occurring every day, I keep thinking to myself that from an editorial standpoint, there are numerous other topics we could be covering.
Or are there, really?
Whenever the "clean up" topic arises, NAC's readership numbers skyrocket, comments spike, and the whole enterprise shifts to another level. Quite obviously, there are many among us who believe in the merits of the seemingly self-evident position that without addressing a fundamental enforcement failure on the part of this community, any conceivable foundation for future success will be shaky, at best.
Accordingly, this recurring notion of cleaning up the city obviously has some semblance of legs, and yet, as has been noted, nothing much ever is observed to happen. The bulk of the local political and governmental bureaucracy seemingly remains unmoved. We’re neither consistently acknowledged, nor presented with any clue as to projected institutional changes beyond the application of temporary Band-Aids and the occasional implementation of partisan political photo-ops in support of the two-party system.
In 2007, we hope to determine why, and to make inroads toward changing the culture of calculated unaccountability for which New Albany is rightly, if sadly, known.
Tuesday's “trash brigade” essay, which was reprinted from the suddenly burgeoning Tribune forum, raised a number of questions, comments and private e-mails. The essay came from an unidentified apologist of the status quo, who reasoned that any effort to bring slumlords into general compliance with basic property standards in fact constitutes an attack on the poor and less privileged. Arguably the most eloquent response to this curiously reasoned position came from New Alb Annie, author of the Diggin’ in the Dirt blog, and I’m lifting it to the NAC marquee to give her words the exposure they properly deserve.
And, be sure you read Ann's Thursday blog entry: Rats and Resolutions.
----
Whoever authored the "trash brigade" commentary certainly has the right stuff to hold a position in our current political cabinet, with its culture of non-enforcement and ludicrous reasoning for doing so.
How many homes in New Albany that are in violation are owned by 'poor people'? In the majority of cases, these houses are owned by slumlords, who take advantage of poor people. The unfortunate, many times uneducated tenants don't know that they, although they may be poor, uneducated and without other things like a good credit history or financial resources, are entitled to value for their rent money. They don't, in many cases, realize that means the windows and doors are supposed to work properly, the furnace and water heater is supposed to be functional, the roof isn't supposed to leak, vermin isn't supposed to be infesting the premises.
No, they are poor, and they consider themselves lucky just to have a roof over their head. Maybe they are in a Section 8 program, and they don't want to make waves. They simply do not know what their rights are, and the slumlords want it to stay that way. And the City of New Albany is happy to aid and abet.
Slumlord X makes a hefty campaign donation every few years to whomever the favored candidate is, and in return, the slumlord continues business as usual, safe from those pesky building inspections that cities with a tenant rights association have.
Tolerance? What about justice? What about minimum community standards being enforced, equitably, so that everyone, rich, poor or in the middle can enjoy the same basic rights--a clean, heated place to live, in a building that is maintained to those minimums set forth by law, in a community that does not allow heaps of trash to pile up and scofflaws to add to the heaps when it pleases them?
The new class of poor who seem to be getting exploited now are Hispanics, and the City of New Albany is helping all the slumlords out with this. Many of these renters do not speak the language well, do not realize they, as tenants, have certain rights when it comes to housing standards. When the educated among us complain about the conditions of these myriad dilapidated rental properties, we're not complaining about the people who live in them, unless those residents are blatant lawbreakers. No, it's the non-enforcement of codes that irks.
But what response do our complaints get? Oh, that's right, we're prejudiced against the poor. So who would be the more prejudiced, those who want to see rental properties cleaned up and well-maintained, or those who turn a blind eye to the conditions the occupants live in? My, my, our administration wouldn't be assuming that because these people may be poor, they like to live in dirty, ill-kept slums, would they?
One way out of the vicious cycle of non-enforcement of codes is an active tenant rights group. Tenants, especially those who are uneducated or have impediments to understanding their basic rights in terms of rental housing, need to be informed that they can withhold rent payments for certain reasons like non-functioning heat, and that they cannot be evicted for complaints about issues like this. But here in New Albany, the practice has been, and continues to be, to empower the slumlord at the great detriment of the city.
----
Thanks, Ann. That's a marvelous statement of principle.
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
On the future of Silvercrest, courtesy of the New Albany Historic Preservation Commission.
The following photo, text, link and principled position is from the New Albany Historic Preservation Commission web site.
It's worth noting that local developer "The Gary" has repeatedly stated that although it would constitute the type of hardship that comes along only once in a schlockmeister's lifetime, he'd be willing to raze the classic Silvercrest architecture and build Lauren's Corner II according to the familiar exurban model if the county doesn't want to take the state up on its offer and deal with it.
Do we need any other reason to hold on tight?
---
The New Albany Historic Preservation Commission has been monitoring the discussions of the Silvercrest Hospital Historic Site during the last few months. Recent articles mentioned the possible razing of structures on the site.
The Commission has drafted the following letter to our Floyd County Board of Commissioners urging the exploration of all alternatives prior to razing structures on this historic site in New Albany:
Full Text of NAHPC Letter to County Commissioners (.pdf)
It's worth noting that local developer "The Gary" has repeatedly stated that although it would constitute the type of hardship that comes along only once in a schlockmeister's lifetime, he'd be willing to raze the classic Silvercrest architecture and build Lauren's Corner II according to the familiar exurban model if the county doesn't want to take the state up on its offer and deal with it.
Do we need any other reason to hold on tight?
---
The New Albany Historic Preservation Commission has been monitoring the discussions of the Silvercrest Hospital Historic Site during the last few months. Recent articles mentioned the possible razing of structures on the site.
The Commission has drafted the following letter to our Floyd County Board of Commissioners urging the exploration of all alternatives prior to razing structures on this historic site in New Albany:
Full Text of NAHPC Letter to County Commissioners (.pdf)
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