Must read: The sooner we start talking about death, the better.

Last Wednesday was "Education Day" for my Leadership Southern Indiana class. What we saw and learned on that day have since been the source of much introspection, and now to book-end the experience is this relatively short piece from yesterday's NYT.

When I was in school, there was very little sex education and no death education. Ultimately we learned by doing, which arguably has more gratifying prospects for sex than death (there are seemingly limitless "do-overs" for the former), and yet this is small consolation when a loved one is approaching the final curtain, and the only tools in our arsenal for reacting to their needs as well as our own are fashioned from memories of heroic hack medical dramas on television.

For those inclined to religious belief, I'll concede that it has a place in the conversation. I'd merely offer that knowing how things work is different from the way they're used.

I've written too much already, so please read this essay and think about these matters. We already know the outcome, which makes the process is even more important.

First, Sex Ed. Then Death Ed. by Jessica Nutik Zitter (New York Times)

FIVE years ago, I taught sex education to my daughter Tessa’s class. Last week, I taught death education to my daughter Sasha’s class. In both cases, I didn’t really want to delegate the task. I wanted my daughters and the other children in the class to know about all of the tricky situations that might await them. I didn’t want anyone mincing words or using euphemisms. Also, there was no one else to do it. And in the case of death ed, no curriculum to do it with ...

 ... I am a doctor who practices both critical and palliative care medicine at a hospital in Oakland, Calif. I love to use my high-tech tools to save lives in the intensive-care unit. But I am also witness to the profound suffering those very same tools can inflict on patients who are approaching the end of life. Too many of our patients die in overmedicalized conditions, where treatments and technologies are used by default, even when they are unlikely to help. Many patients have I.C.U. stays in the days before death that often involve breathing machines, feeding tubes and liquid calories running through those tubes into the stomach. The use of arm restraints to prevent accidental dislodgment of the various tubes and catheters is common.

Down with the Courier-Journal's blue-bag-recycling-hypocrisy. Fact is, it's litter.

Free speech my ass: The Courier-Journal can spin this any way it likes, but it's litter, plain and simple. Why do we allow representatives of the newspaper to trash the city? I'm not sure, but perhaps the city council's forthcoming litter ordinance will take this into consideration.

Death to auto-centrism: "If widening roads worsens congestion then is it also true that narrowing or removing roads reduces congestion? Yes."

Undoubtedly one of the clearest explanations I've read.

Why Road-Widening Doesn’t Work ... And What Does, by Adam Greenfield (The Plaza Perspective)

 ... No longer can road widening be justified as a congestion-easing tool. Road widening lengthens commutes, increases household costs, worsens pollution, harms the economy, and, let us not forget, kills and injures millions of people globally every year. Transportation departments and politicians had the evidence decades ago and many continue to ignore it to this day. We need to make them understand.

The solution to congestion is compact development and multimodal (and sometimes pedestrian-only) streets. Wherever cars come into contact with well-designed human-scaled cities there’ll always be congestion; cars are extremely inefficient uses of space, after all, and are incompatible with great places. The question is: Do we want a lot of traffic congestion or a little?

How you can help make the New Albany Public Art Skatepark a reality.

Back in November, we asked the most important question. To date, City Hall hasn't answered it ... and so it goes, on and on forever.

An "artsy" refit for the waterfront skate park? Sure, but why has City Hall allowed it to become an "eyesore," anyway?

The Carnegie Center is leading this push, and says "There is so much potential with this skatepark, it's like a blank canvas just waiting for some love."

That's certainly true. It will be interesting to see how much of this love bubbles up from the grassroots, as opposed to being decreed down by the usual suspects. I'm hopeful, as always.

Skateboarders -- what can we do to help?

Help make the New Albany Public Art Skatepark a reality

Based on studies that have shown how investments in experiences over material objects lead to healthier, happier lives, the Carnegie Center has started looking for ways to provide art experiences, to create opportunities for people to not just passively look at art, but to get into it, to participate in its creation, and to physically engage with it. Today we are seeking your help to rehabilitate and reinvent our city's riverfront skatepark into a shiny, new skate-able work of public art -- A Public Art Skatepark.

Skateboarding’s history and culture is deeply intertwined with art and creation, which can be easily seen in skateboard graphics, clothing designs, and custom ramp builds. Even the act of skateboarding itself is a living embodiment of art and sport, of creativity and physical activity. The world as seen through the eyes of a skateboarder becomes an exercise of seeing untapped potential in inanimate objects. Providing interactive, inspiring objects for play at this Art Skatepark allows minds to creatively explore real world geometry and expand brain activity, which in turn builds a deeper understanding of the real world around us. Finding ways to stimulate people in our community, and promote physical, mental, and emotional health is our goal, and art is the vehicle we want to use to achieve that goal.

"Young people aren’t buying the narrative that they are responsible for their own misery. Instead, they’re looking at how capitalism affects their lives."

Meanwhile, the Floyd County Democratic Party doubles down on Clintonist centrism, so as to apply deep, soothing massages to local crony capitalism.

Take a sledgehammer to Gahanism, millennials. You can build it back into something that actually serves all of our interests -- even old people like me.

Millennials Aren’t the Problem, by Abdullah Shihipar (Jacobin)

Millennials aren’t destroying society — they’re on the front lines against the forces that are.

 ... More and more young people question the status quo and have turned those thoughts into a political movement, backing candidates like Bernie Sanders and Keith Ellison and joining socialist groups in massive numbers. Yet somehow, the condescending reports on young people manage to elide those facts.

For young people to live in a society in which access to education is unrestricted and free, and where everybody can live comfortably without being burdened by debt or institutional violence, we’ll need a radical restructuring of society. Rather than stocking up on participation trophies, millennials are fighting to make that happen.

The Commercial Rent Subsidy Program in Harrison County.

I suppose we outsource this to Wendy Dant Chesser?

Harrison County Economic Development Corporation is a private, non-profit organization who works with many partners in business, government, education, and other to help local businesses improve and expand, look for opportunities to attract new businesses to the community creating new jobs, encourage entrepreneurship, aid in workforce development, and help make Harrison County a great place to live and work.

Sounds like a good idea to me -- can it generate enough campaign finance kickbacks to be viable in New Albany?

COMMERCIAL RENT SUBSIDY PROGRAM

The Commercial Rent Subsidy Program was created in efforts to enhance economic growth and to help fill vacancies in local commercial buildings in Harrison County, IN.

Through creating a business plan with the assistance of an ISBDC advisor and having the HCEDC’s commercial rent subsidy of up to 50% of rents over a two year period, businesses can thrive through the startup years.

Gahan and Coffey Together Forever, Part 9: Dan Coffey is less than zero without Jeff Gahan actively enabling him -- again, again and again.

LAST: Gahan and Coffey Together Forever, Part 8: Open thread: City council meeting of Monday, February 2 (3 February 2009).

After nearly five minutes of deep reflection, following an afternoon spent feeling as though I might vomit at any moment -- such is the revulsion that the preceding chapters of New Albany's eternally recurring political "business as usual" have engendered -- I can think of no comprehensive way of summarizing the sheer toxicity of the twenty-year partnership between the faux urbanist mayor and coiled copperhead councilman, save for this Harvey "Two Face" Dent view from the Batman comics.

I don't have the Photoshop skills to do it right (heck, I don't even have Photoshop), but your imagination should suffice. The only problem is determining which half is which.

Matt Lorch, if you're reading, thanks for your service. It's small consolation that so many other victims of the local Democratic Party's rapidly declining "machine" have fallen before you, though at least there are likely to be fewer in the future, because a "machine" that must rely on the likes of Dan Coffey for routine maintenance is destined for history's landfill.

The sooner is lands there, the better. Does it really matter whether anything rises from Adam Dickey's ashes?

All the links in the series are here:

Gahan and Coffey Together Forever, Part 1: Gavel passed and triumphant Wizard on best behavior as council meets (6 January 2009).

Gahan and Coffey Together Forever, Part 2: Ulrich out, Robison in as city council attorney (15 January 2009).

Gahan and Coffey Together Forever, Part 3: What The F@#* Opie? Ya Ain't Seen Nothun Yet! (16 January 2009).

Gahan and Coffey Together Forever, Part 4: The new conjoined councilmen are Coffey and Gahan (17 January 2009).

Gahan and Coffey Together Forever, Part 5: Did you know that humanity poses the greatest threat to the natural habitat of copperheads? (22 January 2009).

Gahan and Coffey Together Forever, Part 6: Let's hear it from the council: Can taxpayers speak openly during their time, or does the Wizard decide who is heard? (24 January 2009).

Gahan and Coffey Together Forever, Part 7: Hot toadstools and cold cappuccino (29 January 2009).

Gahan and Coffey Together Forever, Part 8: Open thread: City council meeting of Monday, February 2 (3 February 2009).

Gahan and Coffey Together Forever, Part 9: Dan Coffey is less than zero without Jeff Gahan actively enabling him -- again, again and again.

Gahan and Coffey Together Forever, Part 8: Open thread: City council meeting of Monday, February 2 (3 February 2009).

Joined at the hip. (2 February 2009)

LAST: Gahan and Coffey Together Forever, Part 7: Hot toadstools and cold cappuccino (29 January 2009).

These final three installments of the story (two blog and one newspaper) serve as reminders of who was willing to speak openly about Dan Coffey's misbehavior (that'd be John Gonder), and those who weren't ... or, everyone else involved, to be precise.

Neither for the first time nor the last, New Albany's elected council chose to protect its own rather than offer evidence of a pulse. The trend continues to this very day; witness the manner by which all parties involved with the Bicentennial Commission are cooperating with each other to ensure that NA Confidential doesn't see the records.

It's all the same people.

It's always all the same people.

And that's why the results -- that's right: they're always the same.

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Live from the council chamber.

2 February 2009

The mayor is about ten minutes into his speech ... but the highlight of the night has been CM John Gonder's passionate calling-out of council kingpin Dan Coffey.

Granted, the remainder of the council sat on its hands. Yes, Coffey himself meekly thanked Gonder, perhaps because he didn't understand the Latin phrase Gonder used. It appears that no censure will be forthcoming. But Gonder did much good by not permitting the topic to be swept under the rug, as undoubtedly the default mechanism would have guaranteed.

A formal rebuke is necessary. Yet, we owe Gonder.

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Open thread: City council meeting of Monday, February 2.

3 February 2009

Thanks to the library's newly powerful Wi-Fi signal, I was able to post live from the council chambers last night. It was slapdash, but I'm not much of a typist.

In contrast to so many previous spectacles, the meeting was professional and business-like to the point to befuddlement. It was like watching a European art house flick as opposed to an American car chase epic.

It should be noted that council president Dan Coffey appeared to have been sedated. He sat expressionless through colleague John Gonder's brilliant, dispassionate public explication of Coffey's January 15 meltdown. Coffey similarly endured my later questions about public speaking rights and Bluegill's subsequent request that the council publicly rebuke the president so as to establish a principle that remains so elusive in New Albany: There are consequences for bad behavior.

Both Gonder and NAC's co-editor correctly stated that Coffey had lied to the police about his behavior at Studio's, and Coffey did not deny it, which I plainly consider an admission of guilt, if implicit. There were witnesses, and yet the council president chose to provide the police with pure fiction.

If one lies in such a manner to the police, is this not an example of hindering a police investigation?

Isn't this fact alone grounds for the council to officially and publicly ensure its loose cannon of a president?

The point is this: Coffey obviously has been taken to school since the previous meeting, and last night, he did not contest any of the statements made in his presence. Yes, he took his medicine like an adult, and that's admirable in a limited sense.

But he did not apologize for his behavior.

He should. If he doesn't, the council should take action to police itself.

What do you think?

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Coffey criticized for Studio’s incident (Daniel Suddeath in the Tribune)

3 February 2009

 ... Councilman John Gonder said Council President Dan Coffey’s reaction to two residents during and after the Jan. 15 meeting “crossed the line.”

Coffey became engaged with Mark Cassidy, a resident and former member of a redistricting committee, during the January meeting when Cassidy asked about council progress on forming a new redistricting body.

The confrontation led to Cassidy being gaveled down from the podium before he could read a prepared statement.

Following the meeting, Coffey and resident Jeff Gillenwater were involved in a debate at Studio’s Grille and Pub revolving around redistricting that resulted in Gillenwater filing a police report claiming he felt threatened by Coffey.

Gonder said Monday that the council president must be held to a higher standard. Coffey did not react to Gonder’s comments and he was the only council member to say something about the two events.

But Mayor Doug England mentioned better relationships between council members and the public during his State of the City address. Additionally, Gillenwater and resident Roger Baylor made statements to the council about what transpired.

Gillenwater — standing just a few feet away from Coffey — called for the council to make corrective measures regarding its president. He questioned Coffey’s take on the situation by saying the council president “reported events falsely to the police and falsely reported the events to [The Evening News and Tribune].”

But Coffey did not respond to Gillenwater’s statement either, only saying “thank you Mr. Gillenwater” when he concluded.

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NEXT: Gahan and Coffey Together Forever, Part 9: Dan Coffey is less than zero without Jeff Gahan actively enabling him -- again, again and again.

Gahan and Coffey Together Forever, Part 7: Hot toadstools and cold cappuccino (29 January 2009).

LAST: Gahan and Coffey Together Forever, Part 6: Let's hear it from the council: Can taxpayers speak openly during their time, or does the Wizard decide who is heard? (24 January 2009).

In my fifth Tribune column, I introduced the general public to the spasmodic violence of Dan Coffey's violent Copperhead Shake. It did not create an uproar, primarily because most people already knew that Cappuccino is the reaaw deal.

Elsewhere upon publication, I noted in passing ...

As for the Coffey Agonistes piece today, all I ask is that anyone planning on attending Monday’s city council meeting ... please bring a video camera.

As stated previously, I plan on using the full five minutes of my non-agenda speaking time to offer a heartfelt homily on something or the other as yet undetermined. It will tug the heart, tease the brain, induce laughter in the gallery and offer the council president the irresistable opportunity to gavel me away from the podium and exact his revenge. It would be nice to have such a moment captured on film and displayed prominently on this page.

In fact, for so long as Coffey’s latest outrage goes publicly unaddressed by his trembling political peers, I suggest that as many of us as possible attend and be prepared to speak. After all, there’s no such thing as too much information, is there?

Eight years have passed.

Has anything changed, Pat?

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Hot toadstools and cold cappuccino.

29 January 2009

Truth is stranger than fact.
-- Grandpa Jones, “Hee Haw”

During the first city council conclave of 2009, Dan Coffey was elected as president against token opposition, which is to say none, these vital matters commonly being determined in back rooms that formerly were smoky, before the health fascist jihads of the present era, and with words like “democratic” and “contested” seldom required as modifiers.

Coffey represents the 1st council district, which he congenitally insists is ignored by the city’s power elite. Unsurprisingly, he has never explained why nine dynamic years in office have not brought about certifiable gains to his neighborhood. This strange absence of progress may have something to do with Coffey’s own council-side manner … but I digress.

As president, Coffey succeeds 6th district councilman Jeff Gahan, himself a three-time wielder of the magic gavel, and to whom Coffey was joined at the political hip for much of the latter half of 2008, presumably owing to an alliance of expedience on the part of otherwise disparate political entities, both transparently desirous of a larger stage upon which to perform, sharing a stubborn impatience with those who display the impudence to object, and harboring the potentially catastrophic belief that one can manipulate the other.

In essence, Coffey is council president because Gahan finds it useful, and while Gahan perhaps believes that Coffey genuinely has something to offer the city, he may also have acquiesced with Machiavellian intent to position Coffey for a damaging fall. Either way, the events of Thursday, January 15 are sufficient for us to question both Coffey’s suitability for office and Gahan’s political judgment.

Considering Coffey’s boorish and unstable behavior at the conclusion of the meeting, first inside the council chamber and then later at a local licensed establishment, the admonition recently scrawled above the decaying urinals at the Luddite Bar & Grill is sufficiently prescient to apply to Gahan:

“Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas.”

---

Full disclosure compels me to proudly acknowledge that both Mark Cassidy and Jeff Gillenwater are longtime friends, the latter joining me and others as plaintiffs in the redistricting case mentioned here. Furthermore, it should be noted that I did not personally witness the events described, although I’ve spoken to individuals (other than the preceding) who were there.

That said, it is hardly in keeping with established council protocol for Coffey to imperiously jeer and then abruptly terminate the well-intentioned efforts of a fellow citizen – a fellow taxpayer, no less – to address the council during the public speaking period allotted for comments on non-agenda items, a periodically entertaining feature added to the biweekly agenda for the express purpose of giving people the opportunity to, yes, address the council.

Hectored citizen Cassidy came before the council and waited patiently for the opportunity to read a prepared statement and ask a simple question: Does the current legislative aggregation have any intention of doing its Constitutional duty to draw fair electoral districts by lawfully redistricting for the first time since 1992?

Cassidy, a non-partisan volunteer on the redistricting committee formed by the council last year at the behest of a federal court judge annoyed by the council’s sloth, politely endeavored to ask this question, but Coffey – whose job description presumably includes an obligation to uphold procedure and decorum – argued with Cassidy and gaveled him down, reverting to the serial distemper that Coffey oddly believes his fellow New Albanians should view as statesmanlike.

----

But flagrant abuses of authority are seldom confused with statesmanship, and now we must contemplate the latest in a series of red flags warning New Albanians that the voices emanating from Coffey’s interior political world plainly render him unfit for office.

Coffey inhabits an eerie Hieronymus Bosch landscape filled with mysterious conspiracies, withheld information and unfathomable daily slights emanating from people and ideas he cannot begin to grasp, and he comprehends only two poles of reference: Himself, and the enemy – or “them people.”

Accordingly, the story resumes after meeting’s end with Coffey's verbal and physical harassment of another, entirely different citizen in Studio's, the fine downtown eatery and bar on Main Street.

There, surrounded by witnesses numbering at least one fellow council member and various other public officials as well as ordinary pub patrons, Coffey initiated a heated discussion with Gillenwater that ended with Coffey aggressively grabbing Gillenwater by the shoulders and vowing to be “like a copperhead” and to “strike when you least expect it.”

In case you’re wondering, here is the definition of assault:

A crime that occurs when one person tries to physically harm another in a way that makes the person under attack feel immediately threatened. Actual physical contact is not necessary; threatening gestures that would alarm any reasonable person can constitute an assault.

It is incredible, shameful and indefensible. New Albany’s council president refused to permit a citizen to speak during the time allotted for it, and then both verbally and physically accosted another citizen in a public place. Is there any better example of the New Albany Syndrome than Dan Coffey’s skewed perspective of “leadership,” as manifested by these lamentable outbursts?

Aren’t they primal screams, not the sagacious deliberations of a paid public servant?

Can any member of the council excuse Coffey’s bad acting?

Can any of them deny that he continues to make New Albany the laughing stock of the region, thwarting the efforts of so many people to invest in the city’s future and revitalize the municipality?

Can any council member refute that Coffey’s most recent meltdown tars each and every one of them with the same degrading brush?

How can Coffey’s fellow council persons sleep at night knowing that they have empowered him with an office that he is unable to exercise responsibly?

I’m thinking of one of them in particular.

--

NEXT: Gahan and Coffey Together Forever, Part 8: Open thread: City council meeting of Monday, February 2 (3 February 2009).

Gahan and Coffey Together Forever, Part 6: Let's hear it from the council: Can taxpayers speak openly during their time, or does the Wizard decide who is heard? (24 January 2009).

LAST: Gahan and Coffey Together Forever, Part 5: Did you know that humanity poses the greatest threat to the natural habitat of copperheads? (22 January 2009).

Let's rephrase the question for 2017: Can taxpayers speak openly during their "agenda" and non-agenda" council time, or does Pat McLaughlin decide who is heard?

It's a trick question, because McLaughlin doesn't make decisions without the approval of his wet nurses. More on that in a later installment.

For now, it's enough to know that among the many points of order shared by Jeff Gahan and Dan Coffey, prime among these is an all-encompassing aversion to dialogue. It's why Coffey screams at council speakers, and also why Gahan rarely emerges from his command bunker.

It's also worth recalling that throughout this period of time in early 2009, Gahan and Coffey constantly reinforced each other by upholding the principle that if citizens don't stand for public office, they aren't the sort of citizens who merit engagement in the courtesy dialogue.

How dare mere taxpayers take an interest in redistricting?

You think Trump invented totalitarian knee-jerks? Gahan and Coffey just might be receiving residuals from The Donald.

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Let's hear it from the council: Can taxpayers speak openly during their time, or does the Wizard decide who is heard?

24 January 2009

My memory is hazy as to when the city council agenda was altered to include “miscellaneous communications” at meeting’s end. An admittedly cursory glance at archived minutes suggests this “non-agenda item” speaking time first appeared at the beginning of 2007, although I persist in thinking that the topic came up earlier than that.

It is a recurring feature of council meetings – in fact, of most if not all political discourse, here or elsewhere – for elected officials to pay lip service to the principle of honoring and serving the taxpayer. Naturally, this brings up the side issue of why only taxpayers are eligible for service, but the point remains that of all the conceivable ways that a councilman might observe this dictum, sitting quietly and listening for five minutes while a taxpayer speaks to the assembled body strikes me as the barest of minimums.

As was made clear last Thursday, Dan Coffey cannot even achieve the bare minimum when it comes to the notion of free and open speech for the taxpayer, although the current council president has never hesitated to reference his obligation to the taxpayer during the act of filibustering, grandstanding or scratching the anti-intellectual itch that feeds his all too frequent, apparently uncontrollable frenzies.

As I’ve pointed out on numerous occasions, it isn’t as if Coffey’s totalitarian impulses have never before been witnessed. Back in 2005, when for the very first time I decided to make comments during the public communications portion of the meeting, Coffey interrupted me, disagreed with me, and hectored me from his seat near then-president Gahan … who sat passively upon his gavel.

Almost four years later, this time as the council’s president, Coffey treated Mark Cassidy in precisely the same way. Not only did Gahan – Geppetto to Coffey’s Pinocchio – again sit silently, but so did the remainder of the council, many of whom subsequently have suggested that Coffey’s behavior disturbed them.

My question to the council: If so, and when confronted by damaging loutishness, why sit passively and do nothing?

Those members of the city council who are not animated by vendettas, and who are capable of comporting themselves with the professionalism and dignity demanded of those who have been elected to public office, are sorely in need of a reality check. Each time that Dan Coffey embarrasses the council without correction or rebuke, he is, in effect, branding the council’s “product” – and the image he is giving the product, whether the council’s image or the city’s itself, is tantamount to the consumer’s reaction upon encountering a jar of peanut butter with the words “now with salmonella” printed boldly on the label.

Geppetto apparently likes his creation just fine, although why is a mystery for the ages, but for the remainder of the council, it’s time now to lead and to do something, not merely be content to wave blank sheets of Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement stationary at the ogre and say, “don’t let it happen again, or we’re going to do something!”

Do it now, and send a message to the people in this city who genuinely are working toward a better future that you actually get it.

Beginning on February 2nd, I intend to avail myself of miscellaneous communications time at every opportunity. As a taxpayer, and in consideration of the council’s own speaking policy, I will be approaching the podium with the expectation of five uninterrupted minutes in which to enlighten our elected representatives on a wide variety of topics. I may read from the phone book, or quote passages of HL Mencken’s on the subject of political cupidity. Perhaps a verbatim run-through of my latest column will strike me as appropriate, or a recital of a previous meeting’s minutes.

I may even have my five-minute appearances filmed, and post them on YouTube.

The question: Is this my right as a taxpayer, or isn’t it?

We know how Dan "Copperhead" Coffey would answer this question … but what about the other council members, whose stock plunges further with each passing day of inaction?

"Peace" in our time ... or finally doing the right thing?

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NEXT: Gahan and Coffey Together Forever, Part 7: Hot toadstools and cold cappuccino (29 January 2009).

Gahan and Coffey Together Forever, Part 5: Did you know that humanity poses the greatest threat to the natural habitat of copperheads? (22 January 2009).

LAST: Gahan and Coffey Together Forever, Part 4: The new conjoined councilmen are Coffey and Gahan (17 January 2009).

In January of 2009, my short-lived Tribune column began its run. It was suspended in 2011, when I ran for at-large city council. I was defeated in the primary, and while then-editor Steve Kozarovich had promised me the column would resume, by the time the election was finished, CNHI had merged the Tribune with the Evening News.

Goodbye, column. Cue the excuses, and pass the Astroglide.

At the time, I was determined to write a column about it, and to Kozarovich's credit, it went through after a rewrite. It's hard to imagine today's milquetoast management group having the cojones.

Most of us understood that Dan Coffey's abuses would be swept under an already tattered and stained carpet. Looking back, it's depressing to see that we also plainly grasped the Groundhog Day scenario to come. Jeff Gahan may not be the only New Albany politician to "use" Coffey's services for his own benefit -- although he's the most shamelessly and egregiously serial about it.

In 2017, we see it yet again.  

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Did you know that humanity poses the greatest threat to the natural habitat of copperheads?

22 January 2009

I’d like to link you through to today’s Tribune coverage of the events of last Thursday evening, when the president of the city council did what comes naturally, which is to say he reacted to the themes of a discussion by getting physical, likening himself to a venomous snake and vowing to strike when least expected, but of course Dan Coffey denied all wrongdoing when questioned by the police after a report was filed, which means that in the end, Coffey did the very same thing that he claimed gravely offended him when our friend Jeff Gillenwater noted aloud that Coffey was lying, although in deference to the councilman’s skewed vocabulary, I prefer to call it the daily practice of willful mendacity, but you’ll have to wait until the story appears on-line to draw your own conclusions.

It hasn’t appeared yet, but when it does, I’ll patch you through here.

Earlier I wrote that last week’s incidents (let’s not forget Coffey’s cowardly and inappropriate gaveling of Mark Cassidy during non-agenda item public speaking time) would form the basis of my Tribune column today. I wrote the piece and submitted it, but after conferring with the publisher, the column has been saved for another week pending suggested revisions. You’ll hear no disagreement from me. They’re the journalism pros, and if I don’t learn something from the experience of writing a weekly column, it isn’t worth my time to give it a try. I’ll rewrite. If I can run the piece there, I will. If not, I’ll run it here.

The one thing I will not under any circumstances do is to refrain from shining as bright a light as I’m humanly capable on councilman Coffey’s congenital political obstructionism, on his habitual bullying of those with whom he disagrees, on his misconceptions and misunderstandings, and on the simple fact that insofar as he is able to pose (incorrectly) as the face of New Albany, it is a repugnant and self-defeating image for all of us, in his district or out.

Dan Coffey makes us all look bad, and I’m not willing to accept it without dissent. We can only hope that the council, and perhaps even Coffey’s patron Jeff Gahan, gets the memo. There are good people serving on the council, and if they are truly serious about their roles, duties and legacies, they will remove Coffey as council president. His actions constitute bad faith. His actions have humiliated the council numerous times in the past, and they did again last week.

Does any sitting council member really believe that it won’t happen again in the future?

One, maybe two … and that's a sad commentary on prevailing standards of decency.

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NEXT: Gahan and Coffey Together Forever, Part 6: Let's hear it from the council: Can taxpayers speak openly during their time, or does the Wizard decide who is heard? (24 January 2009).

Gahan and Coffey Together Forever, Part 4: The new conjoined councilmen are Coffey and Gahan (17 January 2009).

LAST: Gahan and Coffey Together Forever, Part 3: What The F@#* Opie? Ya Ain't Seen Nothun Yet! (16 January 2009).

Following is a draft, never before published, and untouched since it was written on January 17, 2009. I haven't changed a word.

Two years later, I supported Jeff Gahan for mayor. He told me what I wanted to hear, subsequently reneged on every promise, and in retrospect, I can only plead insanity given the verdict below, which has been amply demonstrated throughout the years since.

Here's the unpublished analysis from so many years ago.

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DRAFT The new conjoined councilmen are Coffey and Gahan.

Thursday evening's city council meeting is summarized by the Tribune's Daniel Suddeath:

NEW ALBANY CITY COUNCIL: Promotions for two still in limbo after 4-4 vote

Too bad I missed the coda, during which Dan "Wizard of Westside" Coffey flagrantly abused his new position as council president by jeering citizen Cassidy during non-agenda speaking time, gaveling Cassidy down, and in short, reverting to the serial boorishness and unconcealed instability that preceded last's year's charm offensive prior to the backroom deal with former council president Jeff Gahan that gifted Coffey with the council leadership in return for the support that the Wizard has been providing for Gahan's emerging Machiavellian tendencies.

Yes, CM Gahan will eventually learn that when you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas, and seeing as both of them harbor ambitions for higher office, it will be fascinating to see this alliance play out, but this story goes further than that -- past the redistricting venom at the end of the meeting, to Coffey's verbal and physical harassment of another citizen afterwards in Studio's.

Pay close attention: Coffey is the president of the city council, and in effect, Gahan placed him there ... and the president of the council has taken it upon himself to threaten and bully a private citizen with whom he disagrees. It isn't even the first time that Coffey's true nature has emerged in such a context. Note that in the past, before he was president, Coffey once looked at me during a council meeting and mouthed the words "I'll kick your ass."

I'm quite sure he would try, because he can't respond to the written word in anything remotely approximating an equal footing with me, and owing to that knowledge of inadequacy, violence real or imagined usually is the result of the disparity. However, Coffey has been Coffey for so long that his most recent ill-tempered outbursts seem little more than par for the sad, degraded course. Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, and Coffey gotta dispense malice. In some ways, its a yawner ... unless, of course, you're the one actually being threatened by an elected official who apparently didn't get the memo and doesn't think that human decency -- not to mention rule of law -- applies to him.

We'll see about that, but in the meantime, remember: Jeff Gahan has a plan, and as part of the plan, Gahan would like us to believe that Coffey is best suited to lead the city council. Think about that. Don't forget it. Does judgment get any worse than this? Plain and simple, Gahan currently is an accessory to what happened Thursday night, both at the meeting and after it.

Contrary to what both Gahan and Coffey have spluttered in recent months, an ordinary citizen is not precluded from participation in the local political process unless he or she decides to run for office. That's transparent nonsense, and both of them know it, although it provides a few valuable insights into the depths of the proclaimer's character.

Mark Cassidy was not a part of the redistricting lawsuit, and became involved only after a judge ruled that the the council needed to (a) do its Constitutional duty, and (b) do it correctly. Cassidy then became a member of the committee formed to come up with an equitable plan, one that both Gahan and Coffey had no intention of honoring. Cassidy studied hard, and volunteered considerable time to do what the elected public officials refused to do even after a judge instructed them to do it.

So, you see, this really isn't about Dan Coffey. It's about Jeff Gahan.

I've used this space dozens of times to ask publicly that Jeff Gahan tell us exactly what his secretive game plan for New Albany is. We know he believes that scofflaws like Coffey are useful to further his own personal ambitions, hence the imminent need for flea powder. We've seen him scoff at the equal protections of the Constitution so often that it's appears to be a personal grudge against the system of government he's been sworn to uphold. We've seen the senseless, divisive and time-wasting anti-smoking jihad, which was staged primarily with the mayor and the mayor's office in mind. We've seen the ongoing refusal to put an end to indefensible sewer subsidies extracted from economic development monies that should be used as intended.

I won't pretend to be anything but confused and saddened by Gahan's free-fall into the outer reaches of the dark side. He always seemed like someone who was reasonable, but now, only question marks remain, and they're multiplying by the day. Now, I can't run against Gahan for council, both because I have neither the time nor the interest in the job, but also because I don't live in his district.

However, my business is located there, and given that I'm not feeling well represented at the moment, it is well within my sphere of interest to consider the legal establishment of a fundraising mechanism to raise money for candidates of either (or both) parties who will undertake to oppose Gahan in the next council election cycle.

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NEXT: Gahan and Coffey Together Forever, Part 5: Did you know that humanity poses the greatest threat to the natural habitat of copperheads? (22 January 2009).

Gahan and Coffey Together Forever, Part 3: What The F@#* Opie? Ya Ain't Seen Nothun Yet! (16 January 2009).

LAST: Gahan and Coffey Together Forever, Part 2: Ulrich out, Robison in as city council attorney (15 January 2009).

The second council meeting of 2009 was when the Democratic Party fix hit the fan, as Dan Coffey tactlessly shouted down a speaker during public input time ... but the Wizard was just warming up for the main event to come at the now defunct Studio's.

I missed it all. It was the time of intense build-out for Bank Street Brewhouse, which debuted in March, so Friday coverage of the Thursday evening meeting was provided by the late Lloyd "Highwayman" Wimp.

Lloyd had considerable potential as a writer; he wasn't trained in any respect, but harbored excellent instincts when it came to a juicy story. Unlike so many purported reporters, there wasn't a question Lloyd wouldn't ask.

We miss him.

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What The F@#* Opie? Ya Ain't Seen Nothun Yet!

16 January 2009

Here it is, the middle of the week, the predicted coldest night in recent memory, there’s nothing of consequence on TV, and y’all still elected to be couch potatoes when you could have attended one of the most entertaining New Albany Common Council meetings to date.

It started out harmless enough. Our resident mail carrier took to the podium to say he felt the Council had better things to do with its time than deal with a Resolution in support of HR676 (a US House bill concerning universal health care).

After all, the city of New Albany has no influence on the Beltway Boys so why waste the time.

At this point a non-agenda item was raised in the form of a council committee report from the housing/code enforcement threesome. (make that a twosome as CM Price abstained from officially signing the recommendation.)

Steve's reasoning was that he disagreed with a sentence that seems to hold rentals to a higher standard than us lowly homeowners as it pertained to enforcement.

As a side note, Pat Harrison & her entourage of landlords presented CM & Committee Chair John Gonder with a copy of said recommendation prior to the meeting. The mystery of that is according to Gonder himself, he had not presented said report to any Council Members prior to tonight’s meeting. Strange indeed!

Then in the Communications from City Officials slot an employee from the City Controllers office took a stand against A-09-01 which would give a raise in pay to two Non Bargaining Unit employees who work in the Utility Billing Department.

It seems they have inherited the billing duties from EMC as it pertains to Storm Water, Trash, & Sewer bills as those has now been brought back into the Cities venue.

She was followed by one of the two affected employees who pled their case for the increase after which the fun began in earnest.

Carl then stood in the absent Mayor’s stead and proceeded with a detailed explanation of England’s surgery, (good thing I didn’t eat before), recovery, therapy, and remorse for not being at tonight’s gathering.

He was going to elaborate even further but Council President Coffey took the floor and exclaimed that while the Council and the audience were concerned about the Mayor’s well being, it was not necessary to give a blow by blow report at each & every gathering.

He went on to request that if the Deputy Mayor had any further official city business to discuss to get on with it.

I went blank for a few seconds but as I recall Carl offered a report about the insurance monies received for the Tabernacle Building, the FEMA funds forthcoming from Ike, the city’s resolve to address code enforcement based in part on the committees recommendations, and his assurance that Mayor England would give his State of the City address at the next meeting.

With that we moved into “the meat of the meeting” per President Coffey.

Resolution (R-09-01) to support the aforementioned HR676 passed with a vote of 7 for & 1 abstention (CM Gahan).

Ordinance A-09-01 amending Salaries for Non Bargaining Unit employees garnered a 4 to 4 vote. At this point Pres. Dan conferred with Council Attorney Stan Robison (oh! Did I forget to mention we have a new attorney?) who ruled that a tie vote on first reading amounted to a failure to pass.

Next came Z-09-02 to amend the Zoning Classification in a portion of the West End of our fair city. Upon a recommendation from Zoning and Planning it passed with an 8-0 count on first reading.

There were two more ordinances on the agenda but one got tabled (again) and the other I blanked out on (again). Even more evidence that attending one of these events stone cold sober is hazardous to ones health!

Then came the first round of the Headliner of the evening ie; Non-Agenda Items! Our good friend and comrade-at arms Mark Cassidy took the podium to ask this council to consider the US Constitutionally mandated redistricting of New Albany’s voting districts.

If you’ll recall, the previous Council’s prime objection was that action had been initiated without having first requested that they (the Council) do their duty. Mr. Cassidy was merely attempting to abide by the Council’s wishes by bringing it forward again.

However President Coffey was going to have none of it. He cut Mark off in mid sentence explaining that in these dire times there were much more important issues facing New Albany.

He furthered that the previous Council had indeed passed a redistricting plan that met the State statute and that was the end of it.

Not one to be ignored, Mark respectfully asked if he could at least finish his remarks. Coffey nodded in the affirmative and Mr. Cassidy began again.

At this point the new Council Attorney began to dress down Mark about events concerning this subject that occurred back in 1999. Apparently Mr. Robison had been sitting in as a substitute for then Council Attorney Henderson on the evening that this subject was broached and afterwards had been berated in the media and elsewhere for his action/inactions during that event. So tonight opened up an old wound and he came out like a wounded pit bull.

To his credit he later in the evening apologized to Mark for his outburst and seemed genuinely remorseful for his actions.

President Coffey took over where Stan left off and began to look like the Dan we’ve all come to know over the years. Mark tried several times to finish his statement but in the end he was gaveled down and the meeting was adjourned.

We all took a deep breath of WHEW! Damned glad that’s over without bloodshed!

But is was not to be for Round Two was just over the horizon!

I hurriedly guided Mark out the door to the elevator and into the cold night air. We proceeded to Studio’s for our regularly scheduled Council Meeting Afterglow. We ordered a coupler of beers and were pleasantly surprised to see our very own Bluegill and his compatriot Roy stroll in.

We began to impart a report of the gathering to them and who walks in but Coffey, Gonder, Robison, & Carl Malysz!

Dan apparently hadn’t had enough and the discussion began anew with gusto!

It wasn’t long until Bluegill got involved and he & Coffey got nose to nose. The volume rose, the faces got red, threats got hurled and then slowly something close to a tone of reason began to return.

Almost all present exchanged their views on the subject and although no agreement was reached there was no broken glassware, no blood on the carpet, and no 911 calls.

Dan left, Stan again expressed his remorse to Mark, we ordered another round and collectively discussed the variety of still unresolved issues before us.

In the end it was a toss up somewhere between definite lines being drawn in the sand and a no harm/no foul street ball game.

Sure does make one wonder what the future holds though. So grab a season ticket and enjoy the festivities.

Hell they’re FREE!

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NEXT: Gahan and Coffey Together Forever, Part 4: The new conjoined councilmen: Coffey and Gahan (17 January 2009).

Gahan and Coffey Together Forever, Part 2: Ulrich out, Robison in as city council attorney (15 January 2009).

LAST: Gahan and Coffey Together Forever, Part 1: Gavel passed and triumphant Wizard on best behavior as council meets (6 January 2009).

The more things change, the more they stay the same: Having engineered the 2009 council presidency for Dan Coffey, Jeff Gahan joined Coffey in swapping city attorneys.

Relevant for 2017?

Coffey, undemocratic Democrats "win" as Lorch ousted from city council attorney position.

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Ulrich out, Robison in as city council attorney?

15 January 2009

WTF?

I didn't attend tonight's meeting, but Lloyd just phoned, and evidently Jerry Ulrich has been displaced as city council attorney by Stan Robison.

I'll let the Highwayman provide the rest of the story in due time, but he also says that during non-agenda item public speaking time, Robison and council president Dan "Wizard of Westside" Coffey took ex-kingpin Jeff Gahan's place in publicly urinating on the Constitution v.v. a request to consider redistricting.

Whooo-eee. Stay tuned for a fuller report.

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NEXT: Gahan and Coffey Together Forever, Part 3: What The F@#* Opie? Ya Ain't Seen Nothun Yet! (16 January 2009).

Gahan and Coffey Together Forever, Part 1: Gavel passed and triumphant Wizard on best behavior as council meets (6 January 2009).

The more city council changes, the more it stays depressingly the same.

It is February of 2017, and erstwhile "democrat" Dan Coffey's carefully calculated year in the indie wilderness is paying big dividends. To bring Coffey back inside Jeff Gahan's rapidly shrinking tent, Coffey's heartfelt wish to depose loyal council attorney Matt Lorch has been hastily honored amid the usual spin-doctoring, and now the Wizard of Westside is yet again positioning himself as Gahan's loyal council whip.

It's important to note that there's nothing new about any of this. From the time of Gahan's two council terms to the present day, these two have invariably been there for each other. Remember Coffey's 2011 scandal, when he was accused of bilking an elderly woman by forging a deed?

Nothing ever happened, did it?

What about Coffey's legendary homophobia outbreak in 2015? Neither was there censure from the Gahan-controlled council, nor were there harsh words from Hizzoner, who'd like for you to believe he is the human rights mayor -- as Coffey says aloud what Gahan really thinks.

They're symbiotic ... or maybe a better word is toxic.

Remember when Coffey began his 2009 term as council president by displaying nonchalant intemperance toward citizens wishing to address council, followed shortly thereafter by bullying threats against them in the tavern?

You don't?

Naturally Gahan said and did nothing; after all, these same citizens had riled the chihuahua by pursuing a redistricting lawsuit based on the most trivial source conceivable in Gahan's mind (the Constitution).

It was left to a genuine Democrat, John Gonder, to call out Coffey -- and for this, as well as numerous other instances of refusing to bow to Gahan's self-centered will, Gonder found his 2015 re-election campaign kneecapped by the mayor.

This is the first of nine installments, as we return to January and February of 2009 and recall just how offensive and objectionable both Gahan and Coffey truly can be when their collective political libido is allowed to run amok.

Gavel passed and triumphant Wizard on best behavior as council meets.

6 January 2009

The city council performed its duties last night in 50 minutes flat, including electing Dan Coffey as president and Diane Benedetti as vice president, returning Jeff Gahan to an ordinary seat so he can plan further assaults against the Constitution, discussing committee assignments and related appointments, and indulging Steve Price in one of those "the rest of the world is now as fiscally miserable as me" rants that should be on YouTube if we weren't too lazy to film them.

Hey -- NAC gets paid whether or not the council performs. In short, Monday was by the numbers, perhaps mercifully so, with the usual opening day pleasantries and promises to be on the same page.

A subdued Coffey ventured, "This is the best council I’ve sat on," and now, I suppose we'll all see. After the lessons of 2008, what passes for a progressive bloc within the current aggregation is having precious little to do with what undoubtedly is a progressive bloc in the city, which might serve as its natural ally. Consequently, it will be interesting to see how that circle is squared, although one thing is clear: Sit between them and the restroom when both groups are in Studio's, and watch how few of them visit the head.

But heck ... I'm just a cockeyed optimist.

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NEXT: Gahan and Coffey Together Forever, Part 2: Ulrich out, Robison in as city council attorney (15 January 2009).

"We are not each other’s enemies and we had better learn to be good allies or we will collapse."

Valuable weekend reading.

FUN WITH SHRAPNEL: What unifies white, black, brown, by Erica Rucker (LEO)

... Trump has filled his gold-lined cabinet with ultra rich friends, and their push to keep us divided while filling their coffers will continue. If we are paying attention, poor whites, middle-class whites and marginalized groups have much in common, which should tell us something very important: We are not each other’s enemies and we had better learn to be good allies or we will collapse. We’re being sucked dry by the same snakes.

"Let’s not demonize driving -- just stop subsidizing it."

For the thousand and first time ...

Let’s not demonize driving—just stop subsidizing it, by Joe Cortright (City Observatory)

At City Observatory, we try to stick to a wonky, data-driven approach to all things urban. But numbers don’t mean much without a framework to explain them, and so today we want to quickly talk about one of those rhetorical frameworks: specifically, how we talk about driving.

Our wonky perspective tells us that there are lots of problems that stem from the way we use cars: We price roads wrong, so people over use them. Cars are a major source of air pollution, including the carbon emissions that are causing climate change. Car crashes kill tens of thousands of Americans every year, injure many more, and cost us billions in medical costs and property damage. And building our cities to accommodate cars leads to sprawl that pushes us further apart from one another.

But the problem is not that cars (or the people who drive them) are evil, but that we use them too much, and in dangerous ways. And that’s because we’ve put in place incentives and infrastructure that encourage, or even require, us to do so. When we subsidize roads, socialize the costs of pollution, crashes and parking, and even legally require that our communities be built in ways that make it impossible to live without a car, we send people strong signals to buy and own cars and to drive—a lot. As a result, we drive too much, and frequently at unsafe speeds given the urban environment.

Coffey, undemocratic Democrats "win" as Lorch ousted from city council attorney position.

Matt Lorch is a stand-up guy, and he's taking the high road by insisting that the parting is mutual.

Posterity will note that it was a great deal more one-sided than that -- and at NA Confidential, we enjoy recording the historical record for posterity. When the News and Tribune is finished with its Hanson Mannequin contest, it's free to join us.

Gahan's Grab: Yes, principled Democratic positions on public housing actually DO exist, and here's one of them. But first, some Kool Aid!

Coffey v. Lorch: Masochism's as good as necrophilia to a blind yes-man, so off to council we go.

Democrats fold lightning fast as Coffey broadens demands to include groceries, free cable and the return of square dancing.

ON THE AVENUES: Jeff Gahan and Adam Dickey are Trumping the Donald when it comes to breathtaking moral turpitude. Have they no shame?

Welcome to the machine, or how Chairman Dickey schools his fresh young protege in the ways of free speech.

But NA Confidential won't ever stop communicating with them. We're just stubborn that way.

"A first-of-its-kind co-op in the United States that pools members’ money to invest in commercial real estate."

When word of this real estate cooperative concept leaked into the board room at One Southern Indiana, Wendy Dant Chesser leaped to attention and said, "Communist? Not at River Ridge, and not on my watch."

How Neighbors Turned Unused Buildings into a Thriving Community Hub, by Christa Hillstrom (Yes! Magazine)

As rents rise and independent businesses in Minneapolis lose their leases to large national chains, a first-of-its-kind co-op found a solution.


 ... The building wasn’t held by absentee landlords or faraway developers, but by around 200 local people who owned the property collectively. They’re part of the Northeast Investment Cooperative (NEIC), a first-of-its-kind co-op in the United States that pools members’ money to invest in commercial real estate. They share profits, decision-making, and the community rewards of having, among other things, locally owned shops they want in their neighborhood.

The background:

In Minneapolis, like in many cities around the country, rising real estate demand meant independent stores were gradually replaced by bank branches, phone retailers, and upscale restaurants. From 2014 to 2016, commercial rent rose by 8 percent—more than four times the rate of inflation.

Nationwide, speculation-fueled rent increases are far outpacing the ability of small businesses to profit in sales from the growth, according to a report from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), a Minneapolis-based think tank. The result is that many businesses lose their leases to large national chains, whose brands give them leverage in rent negotiations.

“Too often, what we are seeing is that local businesses and people are bringing neighborhoods back, and then the value that is created by them collectively is being siphoned off by a small number of investors who don’t live in the neighborhood,” said Stacy Mitchell, co-director of the ILSR, pointing to the “loss of control” many Americans feel over their neighborhoods’ waning affordability and increasing sense of sameness. “Owning commercial real estate is the ultimate way to guard against being at the mercy of those forces.”

Before NEIC formed, the group behind it—some of whom knew each other through the local food co-op—wanted to get a foothold in the real estate market before this happened to their neighborhood. Board member Leslie Watson, one of the cooperative’s architects, said they would bat ideas around when they ran into each other at neighborhood classes and meetings: What if they headed off rising costs by buying up houses together? Or maybe commercial real estate? And what if they did it as an official cooperative?

By late 2011, they settled on an investment model that didn't exist anywhere else in the country.