Oooh ... AHHH ... it's trognonymous hate mail!

The acrid aftertaste of anonymous snailhatemail is always easier to swallow when chased with a Progressive Pint from NABC (pictured above, Croupier IPA).

When the cowards start sending mash notes, you must be doing something right, but if the city's "little people" graduate to outright stalking, can someone please let me know?

I'd hate to trip over them on my way to the pub.

2nd annual Bastille Day Biere de Garde Dinner at Bistro New Albany on Sunday, July 15.

On Sunday, July 15, Bistro New Albany & NABC are co-sponsoring our 2nd annual Bastille Day Biere de Garde dinner, to be held at Bistro New Albany – we hope on the patio; we'll move inside if there's rain or undue heat. Starting time is 6:00 p.m.

Chef Dave Clancy's five-course French menu will include hors-d ‘oeuvres, soup, salad, and entree and dessert, and will be paired with beers selected by the Publican (that's me) from Brasserie Thiriez, Brasserie Duyck (Jenlain) and Brasserie Artisanale La Choulette. As a bonus, we'll have draft vintage French cider from Normandy: Cidre Bouche Brut E. Dupont 2002. Ales will be poured in 4-oz portions, and I’ll have a few comments with each.

The price is $65 per person (service non compris), and reservations can be made by calling Bistro New Albany at 812-949-5227.

You may view the event poster here. The menu, including beer pairings, follows.

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Bastille Day aperitif

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Hors- d ‘oeuvres

- Canapes de Gravlax que Saler en Duchene avec Crème Fraiche et Ciboulettes (Canapes of Duchene Cured Gravlax with Crème Fraiche and Chives)

- Escargot que pate a frire en Jenlain Ambree avec Citron-Chervil Aioli (Jenlain Ambree Battered and Deep Fried Escargot with Lemon-Chervil Aiolli)

- Bouchees avec Chevre et Lavande (Boucheés with Chevre and Lavender)

Jenlain Ambree (6% abv)
A classic amber Biere de Garde from the Duyck brewery.

Thiriez Blonde (6% abv)

Farmhouse blond brewed in French Flanders, near the Belgian border.

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Soup Course

- Vichyssoise avec Celeri et Noix de Grille (Chilled Potato, Leek, and Celery Puree with Toasted Walnuts)

Thiriez Extra (4.5% abv)

Farmhouse bitter with French barley and English hops.

St. Druon de Sebourg Abbey Ale (6% abv)

French barley, wheat and Alsatian hops combine in a tribute to a nearby church named for a “homeless, pious orphan.”

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Salad Course

- Salade de Chicoree avec des Poires de Pocher, Roquefort, et Miel-Thym Vinaigrette (Endive Salad with Poached Pears, Roquefort, and Honey-Thyme Vinaigrette)

La Choulette Sans Culottes (7% abv)

From the importer’s website: “This, the brewery’s masterpiece, proudly pays homage to Les Sans Culottes – the “trouserless” craftsmen who could not afford uniforms but unflinchingly did the handiwork of the French Revolution. A number of brewers were included in their ranks.”

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Entree Course

- Veau de Grillade avec Truffe Parfumer Pomme de Terres Lyonnaise, Asperges, et Sauce a Chasseur de Tomate d’Heritage (Char Broiled Veal Chop with Truffle Scented Lyonnaise Potatoes, Asparagus and Heirloom Tomato Chasseur Sauce)

Cidre Bouche Brut E. Dupont 2002 (5.5% abv)
Classic artisanal cider from Normandy. The Dupont family orchard contains 6,000 trees of typical regional apple varieties, including Saint-Martin, Binet, Noel de champs, Mettais, Frequin and Rouge Duret.

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Dessert Course

- Chocolat Noir-Grand Marnier Mousse avec Framboise et Crème (Dark Chocolate-Grand Marnier Mousse with Raspberries and Fresh Cream)

La Choulette Framboise (6% abv)

Fresh raspberry juice is added to the brewery’s Ambree.

Lucy pulls away the football: Another 3rd district 3-way for November.

Geez, NAC is starting to feel profoundly marginalized. Are they trying to tell us something?

According to the July 4 edition of the Tribune, and contrary to all previous indications, there’ll be yet another three-way race in the 3rd council district. With the entry into the race of a Libertarian, incumbent Steve “36% Solution” Price will be gifted with his third chance in four career races to win an election by polling less than half the votes cast.

Where is Walt Kelly’s Pogo in our time of need?

While the article by reporter Eric Scott Campbell isn’t archived on-line as of this writing, here is an excerpt:

Days after the Floyd County Rpublican Party appointed Brenda Scharlow to oppose District 3 City Council incumbent Steve Price, a Democrat, in the Nov. 6 election, a Libertarian has joined that race.

Thomas Keister lives on Center Street near Bicknell Park in the city’s east side. He hasn’t run for office before.

Not so fast. Keister (sorry, but purchasing an on-line diploma doesn't make one a "Dr." any more than the Wizard of Westside's Bazooka Joe U. parchment makes him an expert on sewers) actually ran for sheriff last year, with this electoral eulogy offered by the Tribune’s Jennifer Rigg on November 9, 2006:

In the end, (Democrat Darrell) Mills received 12,490 votes with 49.9 percent of the vote while (Republican Frank) Loop received 12,056 and 48.1 percent of the vote. Libertarian candidate Thomas Keister had 503 votes.

Keister’s My Space site makes reference to a second county office run in the past, but is not specific, although it details his involvement with the world of championship wrestling.

Meanwhile, a self-penned Keister press release at Associated Content touts a presumably unscientific 8th precinct telephone poll that shows him losing resoundingly to Price, but with a higher level of support than the Republican candidate.

Wonderful.

The filing deadline passed without a challenger to 1st district incumbent Dan Coffey, and also blessedly was absent last-minute maneuvering by veteran 4th district thespian Larry Kochert. With 2nd district incumbent Bill Schmidt defeated by Bob Caesar in the primary, and pending the results of the general election, at least the council’s Gang of Four has been halved.

Can a Libertarian make a difference in the 3rd? Only if the 3rd is different from the 1st. Let's go back to the July 4 Tribune article:

Libertarian George McAfee ran for the District 1 City Council seat in 2003, earning 19 votes to incumbent Democrat Dan Coffey’s 841 and Republican challenger Richard Berryman’s 216.

That’s 2%.

By the way, we're prepared to consider candidate platforms for the fall election ... and reasonable offers for our houses.

Pick a Striegel, any Striegel: Guest columnist seeks truth in all the wrong places.

I saw the headline on today’s Tribune “Opinions” page, glanced idly at the photo displayed alongside, and did a double take that hurt my neck and caused coffee to spill all over my nice clean pants.

Something’s screwy, indeed.

STRIEGEL: Celebrate our country, one nation under God, by Dr. Aaron Striegel, Local Guest Columnist.

The problem? Embarrassingly, the photo was of Judge Richard Striegel, and not the evangelistic writer of the subsequent 727-word essay in historical revisionism, who began his screed in this gentle fashion:

The other day I was driving down the road when I spotted a bumper sticker that said, “Liberal? Maybe just more educated!” A more accurate sticker would read, “Liberal? Maybe, just not properly educated.” Why? In 1962 prayer was removed from our public schools. Bible reading was banned in 1963 and in 1980 the posting of the 10 commandments were banned from public buildings.

The less said about it, the better … but I just can’t help myself.

For decades, we’ve been subjected to similar collections of quotes offered entirely out of context, blended artfully into an appeal for all-purpose godliness, and purporting to somehow “prove” that a wide variety of religious convictions on the part of numerous dead white men in the nation’s history adds up to better living through a doctrine-specific Christian theocracy.

It’s hogwash, but apparently it has the same appeal to Americans as sitting on the front porch for hours on end listening to single firecrackers pop, while remaining truly clueless as to the universal meaning of the holiday being celebrated today -- which has as much to do with freedom from religion as it does freedom to practice the faith of one's choice.

Judge Striegel should be highly annoyed.

Who wants his face associated with such drivel?

If the fire house becomes city hall, where does the fire house go?

During the course of a meandering Saturday posting here at NAC, we referred to an intriguing proposal made by mayoral candidate Doug England (D), who last week floated the idea of transforming the architecturally acclaimed fire house at 4th and East Spring into a new city hall:

See: Scooby Doo, where are Dork & Mindy?

Now at-large city council candidate John Gonder (D) weighs in with the thoughtful opinion that (a) England’s idea is a good one, and (b) if it comes to fruition, a new firehouse properly located in the west end of New Albany might be built on the site of the much vilified New Albany DVD smut vendor, which presumably would then be forced to rent a Gregory-owned slumlord property.

Read candidate Gonder’s thoughts here: England's City Hall Idea.

These city hall relocation considerations were not mentioned at Monday’s city council meeting.

Still, we’re reasonably sure that 1st district councilman Dan Coffey, who previously alleged that he could have designed a better building than the current 4th & Spring fire house while standing on his head writing legal documents in a stormwater drainage basin, would be amenable to better fire protection for the citizens of his fiefdom.

3rd district councilman Steve Price, whose council district would be gaining a city hall, was busy installing a new deadbolt on grandma’s cookie jar and could not be reached for comment. A source tells NAC that our own “36% Dilution” has forgotten the password to blogger.com (hint: think "pandora's box") and cannot use his own blog site to release thoughts on these and other proposals … which of course is just as well.

Readers, what do you think?

The roar of the greasepaint, the smell of the crowd?

“The city council is up to here with the sewers … (there’s) more than enough money to fix them things.”
-- a cappella anatomical and grammatical croonings from the Wizard of Westside.

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1st district councilman Dan Coffey customarily devotes substantial portions of his bountiful twice-monthly council speaking time to strident claims of overarching expertise in numerous fields of human endeavor, and last evening was no exception, with the Wizard or Westside pontificating on the history of housing in Silver Hills, the width of parking spaces, linguistics and semantics, sewage system engineering, and the history and application of legalese.

Frankly, NAC is puzzled. Why is the city squandering Coffey’s considerable talents in the narrow confines of the council chamber when a career as troubleshooting municipal polymath – dare we say a veritable New Albanian Homo universalis – beckons so enticingly from just offstage?

Perhaps Professor Erika can convince the regents of Bazooka Joe U. to add Coffey to its crackerjack (make that "bubblegum") staff.

Speaking of cretinous faux academics, now that the parading masquerader has found common ground for agreement with 6th district councilman Jeff Gahan on the topic of sewer accountability, will she reverse long-cherished course and cease spelling his name “Gayhan” in her bile blog?

Inquiring minds want to know.

CM Gahan’s doggedly firm pursuit of satisfaction with respect to information about the sewer utility’s budget and its recent awarding of a no-bid service contract to EMC proved again that it really is possible for a sitting councilman to be persistent while retaining decorum and eschewing the pyrotechnics preferred by the legislative body’s inveterate grandstanders.

Overall, the July 2 city council meeting was fairly uneventful by normal Marxist (brothers) standards, and with the exception of Coffey’s tiresome peacock boastings, the cast and crew were well behaved. For the record, CMs Schmidt and Blevins were absent, and the Courier’s Dick Kaukas provides this useful overview: Council OKs funds for street operations; vote cleans slate for New Albany department.

Light council agenda offers theatrical opportunities aplenty, so bring your own popcorn and a bucket.

Just the facts, ma’am:

Here is the agenda for tonight’s city council meeting, courtesy of the city clerk’s always informative web site.

The Tribune offers its preview: Patio homes on deck for New Albany City Council, by Eric Scott Campbell.

And, three days before today’s Courier-Journal took notice, there is another Tribune item with no direct bearing on tonight’s gathering, but one that almost certainly will be mentioned when the politicking breaks out: New Albany's sewer utility, EMC renewing pact.

Regular readers know that at the majority of city council meetings, there are moments of high tragic-comic drama that can truly be fathomed in only one way, which is by laughing out loud – not so much laughing “with” as “at.”

A disproportionate number of these laugh riots have come as a result of the ever creative machinations of the Gang of Four, the Luddite obstructionist quartet that has done so much to hold progress hostage during the past three and a half years. While the May primary election halved the Gang’s antebellum strength, pre-primary election positioning has altered the previous balance on the council, suggesting that many certainties are no longer bankable.

Thus, even the lightest of summertime council agendas contains the germ of board-trodding, scenery-chewing merriment, and I expect ample posturing to hilariously emerge in multiple acts from this evening’s main event.

Will the Gang of Four script in advance a dramatic reunion in time to squelch the Z-07-10 fringe area ordinance that all except CM Dan Coffey (who vociferously objected prior to meekly “passing”) supported on its first reading?

Seeing as any reference to fringe areas inevitably leads to free association time for the crapper-rappers of the so-called potty police, will New Albany’s self-appointed “citizen’s advocate” yet again stoop to co-op agenda-specific public speaking time to gloriously grandstand on the topic of (a) sewers, (b) the sewer board’s EMS contract, (c) EMS lunch receipts at Cheddar’s, (d) gingham swatches, household period furniture and he efficacy of crown molding, or (e) all of the above – and will council president Larry Kochert permit her to do so?

Speaking of slippery eels, will Kochert stage his own “July surprise” today and submit a last-minute filing to retain his 4th district seat as an independent? As of Saturday afternoon, the unsightly signs forever stacked in his backyard behind the former Haitian-inspired garage polling place still bore the inscription of “Democrat,” but a bit of paint goes a long way in any banana republic, doesn’t it?

Will the lame duck 2nd district councilman Bill “My Ellen Court” Schmidt return to previous form and lead a desperate insurrection against the JonPaul Green Valley Road professional office development plans?

How many times will Coffey profess to know more than the experts on subjects ranging from stormwater drainage to kinesiology ... and beyond?

Will there be enough lighter fluid for all the area crazies to flick their Bics and self-immolate en masse in protest of these and other manifestations of contemporary confusion far more suited to a grassy knoll than Hauss Square?

Will NA Confidential be thunderingly condemned for using them pointy head Frenchy surrender monkey words in the previous paragraph?

Only Scooby knows for sure. Stay tuned.

A few headlines for a midsummer weekend: Plotting pachyderms; sewage heist; conjoined CMs vs. police; and Taj Ma(city)hall.

Note to readers: The senior editor is taking a vacation day on Sunday, July 1. We’ll be back on Monday morning.

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Headline: No quorum at Floyd County GOP caucus, vote delayed, by Eric Scott Campbell (News-Tribune).

Low attendance pushed Thursday night’s Republican caucus to tonight, but with no competitors emerging, Brenda Scharlow is a virtual lock to be selected as the party’s District 3 City Council candidate.

Less than a majority of the district’s six precinct representatives came to the Admiral Bicknell Inn for the caucus, said party chairman David Matthews …

A more hospitable venue to encourage Republican unity can scarcely be imagined, although the toadstool scones and hemlock tea kick butt.

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Headline: New Albany's sewer utility, EMC renewing pact, by Eric Scott Campbell (News-Tribune).

Environmental Management Corp. has agreed to a new five-year contract to operate New Albany’s sewer utility.

I’ve searched high and low, in dusty history textbooks and seldom visited web sites, and there is nothing to be found therein to contradict New Albany’s utter uniqueness in being the only city in the United States, and perhaps even in the world, where a shadowy group of citizens plot and scheme not to seize the government, but to stage a “coup d’egout” for the purpose of controlling the city’s sewers.

Speaking only for myself, it would be more pleasurable to forcibly grab the library, or wrest away the underutilized Trinkle Dome. In the end, I’d rather nationalize the railroads. To the Luddite cabal, all I can say is: "Take the sewers."

Please.

Headline: NEW ALBANY: Take-home car policy loosened, by Jennifer Rigg (News-Tribune).

Following last week’s shooting of two Floyd County police officers, the New Albany Police Department is loosening restrictions on its take-home car policy to reassure residents with a strong police presence inside the city …

… “If they want to enact it they can,” said (Dan) Coffey, of District 1, out of frustration that the City Council was not consulted about the change. “They know the dire situation that the city is in in the way of funds. It’s just a shame that some would take that attitude.”

Predictably, the Wizard of Westside is more concerned with his own prickly vanity than any substantive discussion of police, public safety and law enforcement – matters of certain importance to CM Coffey’s isolated Hermit Kingdom, just so long as he filters them through his 1932 model Huey Long Ego Strainer before passing the information along to the less fortunate, who’ll be enduring four more years of grandstanding and ward heeling at the expense of their betterment.

Hence Coffey's campaign slogan: "Dan Coffey: Protecting you from improvement, 24-7."

NAC predicts that the take-home car topic will resurface during speaking time allotted to public officials at the July 2 city council meeting, that Coffey’s subsequent long-winded demagoguery will be judged superior to the effort expended by Sir Laurence Olivier in “Hamlet” at the Old Vic, and that if a council vote is ever taken on the matter, Coffey will dramatically lead off the roll call by holding to the code sacred to all Westendians matriculating at Bazooka Joe University, solemnly rise to his feet, and courageously intone …

“I’ll pass this time.”

What the heck; it worked on the fringe area vote last time. Meanwhile, two seats away:

District 3’s (Steve) Price said he would rather see the officers keep a mileage log and be required to reimburse the city for the personal miles they put on their cars. He also scoffed at the 10 and 20 gallon requirements per month.

“My God, I probably burn up $25 of gas a week just riding around here locally. In a time of high gasoline prices, they have got to contribute mileage. It’s just good business.”

As if we needed more disturbing evidence of CM Price’s obliviousness to the design features built by past generations into the fabric of his district, it now appears that he has taken no notice of the urban phenomenon commonly known as the “sidewalk.” Rather than use this pathway for pedestrians, the ever parsimonious Price gets places by “riding around,” preferring to “burn up” gas rather than use his legs.

How very sad.

From the councilman’s digs on Dewey Heights to the cluster of stellar rental properties he owns near the NA Confidential office suite is no more than a ten-minute walk, and probably less at a heart-healthy faster pace. By bicycle, it would be little more than five minutes for him to ride west on Main, and then north on 11th.

A whole fifteen minutes on foot would take our own “36% Solution” right into the heart of New Albany’s revitalizing downtown, but it may be unrealistic to expect him to walk or ride a bike into a part of his district where he has seldom been seen for four years, and in which the most good things are happening in spite of (because of?) his serial indifference to progress.

As Price merrily strums the coda of “Speeding along in my Automobile,” Cpl. Todd Bailey gets the final word on this topic, as quoted by the Tribune’s Rigg:

“We think it’s more important to have officers in the field than to bicker over insignificant gas dollars.”

Amen, brother Bailey. Please consider moving into the 3rd district. We need a counterweight to Price’s vision of institutionalized mediocrity as the “answer” to what ails us.

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England: Shuffle offices to save money, by Eric Scott Campbell (News-Tribune).

Democratic mayoral candidate Doug England is proposing moving city offices into the Spring Street firehouse and building a new fire headquarters in New Albany’s west side.

I’m uncertain as to whether the firehouse idea is the best one being floated for relieving the strain in the current City-County Building, but the comeback kid is to be commended for acknowledging that there is merit in the notion of adaptively reusing a downtown building for local government, and commencing public discussion of it. That’s a start.

Understanding that any such plan will require expenditures, it nonetheless would be heartening to see all or part of a historic block in downtown devoted to the same purpose, or, as County Councilman Randy Stumler once suggested, eventually constructing a new building as part of Scribner Place, phase two.

Perhaps Caesar’s will give New Albany $20 million more so that we can expend four more years fractiously arguing about not how, but if we should spend it.

See you Monday. I’m going for a walk.

Ask a Mexican?

Like many others, I learned of “Ask a Mexican,” a column in the Orange County Weekly, by way of an article in last Sunday’s New York Times:

The column: “Ask a Mexican,” by Gustavo Arellano.

The NYT article: “The Mexican Will See You Now,” by Mireya Navarro.

Apparently there is a difference of opinion as to whether Arellano’s witty and sometimes confrontational writing on the broad topic of Mexican vs. American culture truly serves a useful purpose, but to me, anytime pomposity is punctured, idiocy exposed and sacred cows deflated, it represents progress in human affairs. I’m aware of only one regularly published New Albany writer who is seeking to engage us in such a needed dialogue with respect to the Hispanic/Latino presence in the area: Lillian Rose, local columnist for the Tribune.

Given that we Americans are an enduringly hypocritical lot, and it would be amusing to consider the undisputedly racist underbelly of the current anti-immigration phobia if not for our collective fondness for large-scale amnesia when it comes to attractively priced veggie platters and chef’s salads, it still strikes me that the city of New Albany might find it beneficial to make an effort, however minimal, to recognize its Hispanic/Latino community, which of course leaves unanswered the question of when we’ll come to grips with the African-American community.

After all, it’s the forever somnolent New Albany, where only one progressive act is permitted each century -- more than that, and you must answer to the Committee for Uncomprehended Activities, chaired by the luminous Councilman Crappuccino.

For more insight about a serious topic, consider examining the website of the Hispanic Connection of Southern Indiana.

Birthday greetings to Idealogy.

You may recall Allen Howie's guest columns for the Tribune a little while back. The writing gig seems to have ended, and that's unfortunate because I learned something from each article, but Allen has kept his day job as president of Idealogy Design + Advertising, which is celebrating its tenth birthday this week. When it comes to pieces of useful advice that one might consider as examples of "common sense" for business people, and of course seldom are understood, Allen plain gets it. Consider the following, as culled from Idealogy's web site:

We always start with the same question. What’s the big idea?

What separates you from your competitors? Given a choice - and people always have a choice - why should they choose you over the next alternative?

Once we have the answer - whether you supply it or we help you find it - we can focus on getting you more business.

It may seem painfully simple, but look around; an incredible number of business people never grasp this fundamental point ... and Allen offers it to all of us, free of charge! How does he stay in business?

Okay, perhaps there's a bit more to it than that.

Happy birthday, Idealogy. I'll be down to see you later this afternoon, and just may come bearing a tasty gift or two.

My guess? "The Gary” probably doesn't subscribe to this one.

It gladdens my contrarian heart that numerous Tom Paines of the current era continue to question orthodoxy and spread discontent. The following excerpt is from James Howard Kunstler’s Clusterfuck Nation Chronicle, “a commentary on the flux of events,” which is published weekly on Monday.

June 25, 2007: Peak Suburbia.

I get lots of letters from people in various corners of the nation who are hysterically disturbed by the continuing spectacle of suburban development. But instead of joining in their hand-wringing, I reply by stating my serene conviction that we are at the end of the cycle -- and by that I mean the grand meta-cycle of the suburban project as a whole. It's over. Whatever you see out there now is pretty much what we're going to be stuck with. The remaining things under construction are the last twitchings of a dying organism ...

... The implication in all this is that the activities that have become "normal" for us during the post World War Two era will very shortly become untenable. An economy based on suburban expansion and incessant motoring is on the top of the list of supposedly "normal" activities that will not be able to continue. I would maintain that even if we had 20 years, no combination of bio-fuels and other alternatives would enable us to keep suburbia running. But this latest work indicates that we have much less time to adjust.

This new information is consistent with my view that we had better prepare to make other arrangements for living in this country, by which I mean specifically re-localizing, de-globalizing, with an emphasis on local agriculture wherever possible, the emergency restoration of passenger railroad service and related modes of public transit, the rebuilding of local commercial infrastructures, and a radical rethinking of how we inhabit the landscape under New Urbanist lines.

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For previous chronicles, visit Clusterfuck Nation Archives; the author's main web site is here: http://www.kunstler.com/.

Indiana Court of Appeals sides with New Albany Community Housing on Linden Meadows.

Here's a story that slipped beneath the community's radar screen last week, and understandably so given the Floyd County shooting tragedy. Even the masquerading professor Erika -- batting well below the Mendoza line on the steadily fading regressive team -- failed to pick up on the story, perhaps because it provides no opportunity to exalt her handler.

Here is an excerpt from New Albany's Linden Meadows wins court decision, by Eric Scott Campbell (News and Tribune).

The state Court of Appeals has sided with New Albany Community Housing in a group of residents’ challenge to the location of the Linden Meadows development.

Friday’s decision allows the nonprofit to accelerate renovation and marketing of 17 donated houses that were moved onto the former McLean Field more than two years ago.

Construction delays cost the project $100,000 to $200,000 that must be passed on to prospective buyers, said John Miller, executive director of the housing group. Rather than selling homes for $15,000 to $20,000 below appraised value, the discounts will be closer to $10,000, he estimated.

“Instead of being a very, very good deal, it’s just a good deal,” Miller said. “It’s just unfortunate that it took so long to grind through the legal system.”

For more information, visit the blogsite of New Albany Community Housing.

Deadly descriptive phrases in the English language, from the United Kingdom to Councilman Cappuccino’s patio.

I caught this on the Internet last week:

An upcoming video game from the maker of the "Grand Theft Auto" series came under fire Tuesday in the United States and Britain, where the government's ratings board banned sales for what it called an "unremitting bleakness."

Here in New Albany, “unremitting bleakness” refers not to a computer game, but to the future prospects for the 1st council district under the continued stewardship of Dan Coffey.

The household credit card statements don’t lie: Downtown New Albany is coming back.

In fact, the numbers are clicking frantically past my eyes like the inflated scores at an arena football league game, and increasingly, the entries are clustered pleasingly close to home.

Friends, that’s the whole point.

While it remains self-evident that a broad mix of specialty and niche businesses is needed to take New Albany’s downtown commercial district to the next step, and that crucial questions of core neighborhoods and downtown housing are yet to be fully resolved, only fools and Dan Coffey (pardon the redundancy) can argue that progress isn’t being made.

The most tangible signs of this are the three newest downtown eateries and watering holes, which naturally are a special interest of mine owing to the presence of locally brewed NABC craft beers on tap at each: Bistro New Albany, Connor’s Place and the recently opened Speakeasy. I laud one and all who are taking the risks to operate in downtown New Albany, whether hair care or computers, and whether long-standing or a start-up, and yet in my niche in life, it's the restaurants, pubs and performance venues that are closest to my heart.

It may seem to some that my perpetual advocacy of these establishments owes entirely to self-interest in the business sense, and there’s some truth to this, though not as much as one might believe. NABC is a mature company with a strong clientele at the home base on Grant Line Road. We derive far more profit from selling house beer by the “Progressive Pint” at Rich O’s and Sportstime than by vending it to resellers, and there’s always at least a chance that anyone I urge to dine and drink downtown might have deposited the same money into my own cash registers had I permitted them to remain seated at my own bar.

It’s deeper than that, and obviously, self-interest in the context bears considerably more complexity than a first glance may afford. In personal and professional terms, food, drink and music are primary, and my wife shares these and similar interests. We have chosen to invest in the city center by buying a house and living on East Spring Street, in the midst of an historic neighborhood, and just a short walk or bicycle hop from the city’s downtown business district.

For us, quality of life issues in New Albany certainly revolve around obvious concerns like law enforcement, municipal services and access to the basics, but also pertain to the proximity of those things in life that we like: Food, drink, music, museums, books, and places to walk and ride bikes, just to name just a few. The more of these available in New Albany, the better for us … and for people like us who enjoy them, too.

I can hear the objections now: What about existing businesses? What about Hugh E. Birs, Little Chef, Tommy Lancaster’s and the other downtown stalwarts who’ve been serving the public for decades? Are we elitists who are “too good” for places like these?

Not at all, ma’am.

Long may they prosper and grow as integral components in the retail fabric, but let there merely be other options for those among us with differing tastes, because believing in the merits of diversity implies a wider availability of choices. Let there be country music at Bir’s, eclectic courtyard stylings at the Bistro and Connor’s, and jazz at the Speakeasy, and let’s work together to make downtown a place where fans of all varieties of human experience can come and find something to their liking.

And support local business while visiting. Maybe they’ll decide to live and work here, too. Then, finally, we begin to enjoy the best from all worlds, to the benefit of resident and business owner alike.

Cardinal Ritter birthplace marker dedication, reception on Sunday, July 22.

Thanks to Ted Fulmore for keeping us posted.

More on CSX, the 15th Street corridor, sandbagging councilmen and steroidal egos.

Permit me to expand on the hurried posting from last evening. If you're just tuning in, please read it first:

Does the CSX railroad "own" the 15th Street right of way?

The only speaker during non-agenda item public speaking time was our famously self-appointed “citizen’s advocate,” Ms. Bolovschak, who addressed the council (minus CMs Donnie Blevins and Jack Messer, who were absent, and Bev Crump, who had to leave on short notice).

Bolovschak, who serves as Minister of Railways in the troglodyte shadow cabinet, discussed her tirelessly free-lance efforts to bring CSX to heel for repairing the 15th Street corridor, to the tune of $1.8 million in necessary improvements. She stressed that such huge expenditure would not be borne solely by the railroad, and that the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) might be induced in cooperative funding in concert with a tithe from the city of New Albany.

All well and good so far.

She went on to say that the key to it all would be the city’s willingness to curb alley crossings of the tracks, presumably so all major streets would have appropriate signals. At this point, matters rapidly escalated into entertainment, as CM Kevin Zurschmiede asked, “Do you represent CSX?”

Bolovschak responded, “They asked me to come to the council. Why would you ask a question like that?”

The sparring then began in earnest, with Zurschmiede asking, in essence, who she was, why she was there and why she cared to be the conduit of information for absentee railroad executives, Bolovschak arguing the merits of safety for area residents and dismissing concerns over the alley curbs, and Zurschmiede aggressively insisting that he wants actual representatives of CSX to be in the room addressing the council.

Seeing as we now understand the origin of the suddenly confrontational Zurschmiede’s surprise counter-attack, i.e., the subsequent revelation that Sewer Board attorney Greg Fifer believes that CSX does not own the right-of-way after all, the display makes much more sense. Sewer Board members Zurschmiede and CM Larry Kochert (council president and wielder of the selective gavel) were only too glad to kneecap the unelected “advocate” with information, as yet ongoing and unverified, of which she was apparently entirely unaware.

Boy, those old-line Republicans really stick together when it comes to disciplining interlopers … but wait – Larry Kochert’s an old-time Democrat, not an old-line Republican.

Same difference, apparently.

Amid the presentation by the unelected citizen’s advocate and the most recent addition to the council, with the former sprinkling her self-referencing narrative with future Erika tag lines and the latter shaking frequent quasi-socialist fists at the railroad and issuing ultimatums, one extreme example of a Freudian slip came forth in all the grandeur that inflated egos are capable of mustering.

Zurschmiede asked Bolovschak to explain the point of it all, and she responded thusly: “If I pull this off … I mean, if we pull this off ... "

‘Nuff said, indeed.

Does the CSX railroad "own" the 15th Street right of way?

Near the end of last evening's City Council meeting, during non-agenda public speaking time, CM Larry Kochert unexpectedly divulged that legal research conducted by Sewer Board attorney Greg Fifer indicates that the city of New Albany, not CSX, actually owns the right-of-way for the rail line.

Even the self-appointed citizen's advocate at the podium was taken aback at this revelation.

Moments before, CM Kevin Zurschmiede had uttered a seemingly hard-line challenge to the railroad to repair the 15th Street corridor or, in effect, get out of town. Given the traditional status of the nation's rail companies, this seemed foolhardy ... until CM Kochert spilled the legalistic beans.

Now, the obvious question is: True or false? Suddenly, NAC's proposal to nationalize the corridor seems almost capable of being achieved.

There'll be more on the Thursday meeting later this weekend. Cheers.

How to extend your fringe, to curb your butt, and to recite the Lord's Prayer -- and other city council items.

The agenda for tonight’s city council meeting can be found here.

Buried in the “tabled ordinances” area, where it has been moldering since late winter, is the floundering council kingpin Larry Kochert’s Omnibus Diversionary Behavioral Modification Ordinance, otherwise known as G-07-02: An Ordinance to Prohibiting Smoking in Specified Areas.

While there is no indication that the council intends to revisit this controversial proposal, legendary local jazzman and prolific anti-smoking crusader Jamey Aebersold recently offered a letter to the Tribune on the topic of the council's smoking ban inaction, in which he expresses indignation over the legislative body's unwillingness to address the issue.

Alas, it would seem that Aebersold is so understandably ecstatic in the unexpected turn of events that finds New Albany in possession of a new club (the Speakeasy) both jazz-oriented and smoke-free that he has failed to notice an “unwillingness to address the issue” as a council default setting rather than a one-off occurrence -- although in this case, the foot-dragging just might be an indication of sanity given the passions aroused by such measures.

Be that as it may, here’s what Aebersold had to say.

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LETTERS: June 17, 2007

Where’s New Albany’s smoking ban?

On Feb. 22, 2007, many citizens met at the New Albany City County Building to present to the City Council a comprehensive smoking ordinance for New Albany.

After presenting overwhelming evidence of the importance of such an ordinance, a committee of three was appointed: Kevin Zurschmiede, Beverly Crump and Jeff Gahan.

It is now three months later and the committee has yet to meet. Repeated e-mails and phone calls to committee members have been met with silence.

Citizens run for various public offices because they feel they can contribute to the betterment of the city and their presence will make a difference. The people on this smoking ordinance committee are shirking their duty and need to answer the question — “Why haven’t you met?”

I feel it is disrespectful to New Albany’s citizens to continue to remain silent. Why form a committee if there is no intention of meeting and discussing the issue? I also feel one shouldn’t have to write a letter to the editor of the local newspaper in order to communicate with public office holders.

— Jamey Aebersold, New Albany

Tomorrow: Blood drive honoring Officers White and Denzinger.

The following reminder came yesterday from an NAC correspondent, and is detailed in Whole community shares grief, by Harold J. Adams (The Courier-Journal):

At the Buffalo Trace office of the American Red Cross, plans were being made for a blood drive in honor of Denzinger and White. The blood drive is scheduled tomorrow from noon until 8 p.m. at Wesley Chapel United Methodist Church at 2212 State Street in New Albany.

Red Cross manager Karen Cook said cards will be available for donors to sign that will go to the officers' families.

We're honoring a respectful pause for reflection in the local blogosphere, and will be back on Thursday afternoon.

Surreal senselessness.

You're probably aware that there was a shooting yesterday near Georgetown. From this morning's Louisville Courier-Journal:

Teen suspect, one deputy dead; 2nd deputy wounded
Following the shooting and a subsequent standoff, police found the body of a 15-year-old boy in a house in a rural area of Georgetown.

Also, useful advice from the Tribune: Talking to your kids about the tragedy

Nothing glib or articulate springs to mind. Consult your consciences, and please keep the families in your thoughts.