GREEN MOUSE SAYS: All these unresolved issues, and there goes the mayor -- pouring cash into the Valley View golf course "partnership."

The Green Mouse no longer is surprised by anything. As it turns out, Donald Trump isn't the only one wasting time (and your money) at the golf course.

Hearing that City Hall has taken over operations of Valley View Golf Course. Zach Johnson has been hired as head pro. From what I understand, he is a city employee and not an employee of the golf course. Also, Valley View Golf Club LLC still owns the land where the clubhouse, restaurant and bar is located, so I assume it is operating independently of the golf course.

Ah, but it's all about "quality of life," eh?

It's a bit strange that Mayor Gahan wouldn't annex the hospitality portion, too, given his team's constant claims to have revitalized New Albany's food and dining scene all by themselves.

On second thought, Develop New Albany did that.

Back on September 29, 2015, the Green Mouse brought to light the extent of the city's ongoing "partnership" with Valley View. For those just tuning in, quirks of local history have resulted in county government owning the Sam Peden Community Park enclave within the city, and the city owning Valley View in the county.

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Green Mouse asks: Who knew the city "abated" almost $1 million in lease payments for Valley View Golf Course? (2015)

The Green Mouse isn't much of a golfer, but recently he came across documents that suggest a disturbing absence of transparency on the part of city officials during last year's Valley View Golf Course reconstruction.

In a "Status of Reconstruction Project" memorandum dated May 25, 2014, written by club president John Kraft and addressed to the golf club membership, two conditions for the reconstruction project are identified (underlined passage is ours).

Your Board of Directors met on May 22, 2014. As stated during the opening day activities, this memo is written to provide an update on the reconstruction project and additional information you may find interesting.

The Board unanimously approved a loan proposal from Your Community Bank to finance the construction of 19 new greens and 18 new bunkers. This loan remains contingent on two items: 1) that the city of New Albany signing a revised Agreement, now an Operating Agreement, that essentially abates our payment obligations during the life of the loan (16 years), and 2) the commercial appraisal of our facility and assets that will be used as collateral for the loan. The city currently has a final draft of the Operating Agreement and we remain confident this will be executed soon.

The lease payments in question are $60,000 per year, totaling a $960,000 abatement over the 16-year term.

The minutes of the June 24, 2014 Board of Public Works and Safety meeting document the city's official explanation of the new operating Agreement.

Mr. Gibson presented an operating agreement between the city of New Albany and Valley View Golf Club, Inc. He explained that this deals with the quality of life projects that they have been doing over the last couple of years which include the aquatic center, the sports complex, and improvements to the parks. He stated that this goes along with those other improvements and explained that the paving of cart paths have been approved for Cherry Valley Golf Course and this is another intiative dealing with Valley View and the land out in that area. He explained that the golf course is owned by the City of New Albany and there has been a lease agreement with Valley View since that time and this will modify and replace the old long term lease with an operating agreement which basically says that the land will continue to be used as a golf course and Valley View will continue to maintain and operate it on behalf of the city.

A question from Warren Nash followed: Is the club making the improvements?

Mr. Gibson stated that they are and they are assuming all of the debt that goes along with the improvements.

The $960,000 abatement is not mentioned in the minutes. BOW unanimously approved the agreement, and on July 28, another memorandum to club membership from Kraft confirms it.

... making a true partnership in the spirit of the cooperation between the Club and the City when I-64 forced the Club to move from New Albany to Floyds Knobs.

That, and now $960,000 more.

On June 24, 2014, following the choreographed Board of Works rubber stamp, the News and Tribune reported details of the city of New Albany's new operating agreement with Valley View.

The New Albany Board of Public Works and Safety agreed to a 16-year operating agreement Tuesday that will see more than $700,000 in improvements made to the course.

The best part, from the city’s standpoint, is that Valley View will be paying for the upgrades, which will feature 19 new greens at the golf course.

City residents will also receive a 10 percent reduction in green fees when they play a round at Valley View ...

... Shane Gibson, an attorney with the city’s legal department, said the city will also receive 5 percent of gross sales

“This will be a good, positive step for land the city of New Albany owns,” Gibson said.

The mayor was ready with a press release.

“These long-overdue investments will benefit the people of New Albany now and for many years to come,” Mayor Jeff Gahan stated in a news release issued following the board of works meeting.

From start to finish, either in BOW minutes or the newspaper's coverage, is there any mention of the $960,000 abatement.

And by the way, city council knew nothing until the deal was done.

For those of you keeping score, it looks as though another cool million should be added to the bill ... and deducted from a neglected list of opportunities.

Schlock and awl: Duggins' captive NAHA to meet the candidates, prepare voter lists for future persuasion, and play-act some make-believe democracy.

But are they registered to vote?

Over at the New Albany Housing Authority, Commissar David "125K" Duggins is getting into the spirit of democratization, announcing that President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus has endorsed Duggins' bid to become Executive Director for Life.

Not only that ... a party!

But seriously, there really will be a pre-primary candidate panel and loyalty oaths voter registration rally on Thursday, March 29, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Erni Avenue gym.

Structural engineers have affirmed that the gym should be able to withstand the shock waves of hypocrisy emanating from Team Gahan members in attendance.

Below, the text of the letter announcing the event. As a friend observed, "As you can see, an uninformed reader might come to the conclusion that Duggins cares about the residents."

NA Confidential readers know better, of course, as do South Seas islanders and the woman in the moon.

#FireGahan2019

THE BEER BEAT: England, or one man's heightened cholesterol panic is another man's nostalgic repast (2013).

Having just now introduced an eager young student to the delightful concept of stargazy pie ...

 ... with pilchard heads gloriously intact, I found myself hungry for English comfort food and daydreaming about Real Ale, and with the pantry barren of Marmite, made do instead with kippers and my last bottle of Fuller's ESB.

The words of Inspector Morse, classic British television police crime solver, popped into my head.

“The secret of a happy life is to know when to stop – and then go that bit further.”

I was plunged into a reverie about our last trip to the United Kingdom in 2013.

---

The very least I could do during two weeks spent in England’s lovely West Country was to ingest my gout medicine each and every morning without fail – preferably washed down with a pint of cask-conditioned Bitter from one of those nearby pubs nearby dispensing it, but in a pinch, grudgingly conceding the utility of mere water.

Yes, I know: Fish do IT in THAT. The solution? Eat more fish, especially with chips ... or, a genuine pasty.

Somewhere a health fanatic reads and brays with dismay, but have no fear. It’s only despairing, defeatist clatter of the sort Winston Churchill wouldn’t have countenanced, even after his morning bottle of champagne, and these naysayers are inaudible to me — fully muffled by the cacophonous sizzle of a traditional English breakfast frying atop the stove, even the waxy tomato from Tesco’s, because it is destined for maximum exposure to hot oil just like all the rest.

Queue the Elgar, and consider this partial list of foodstuffs joyfully consumed during my holiday, including both local “English” fare and widely available culinary options borrowed from elsewhere.

Anchovies fillets (fresh)
Bacon
Baked beans
Bangers and mash
Black pudding (i.e., blood sausage)
Cornish pasties
Crab sandwiches
Egg rolls
Falafel
Fish pie (not Stargazy pie, alas)
Gajrati (regional vegetarian Indian)
Haddock and chips
Pie, mash, eel and liquor (the latter is gravy)
Pizza (loaded)
Smoked salmon
Spanish tapas
Steak & kidney pie
Thai red curry
Yorkshire pudding

Alas, I digress. Generally it is my custom to entertain and inform in purely fermentable measures of prose, and yet during this most recent English holiday, I found it quite unthinkable to separate the culinary from the ale-mentary.

Overall, ways of the new were not my objective, and I did not search for top chefs flashing their own branded apron and sauce wear. Rather, my task was to focus on the glories of the much maligned traditional English table, and to accompany them with the products of classic native ale-making.

---

Mission accomplished. First, let’s review the liquidity to be found in a reference volume.

Just after purchasing plane tickets, and before any other arrangements had been made, I purchased the essential book for ale hunting in the United Kingdom: “Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) Good Beer Guide,” edited by Roger Protz, and fully revised for publication each year.

CAMRA is the beer world’s oldest and most doggedly pervasive consumer protection society, founded in 1973 for the express purposes of espousing and protecting cask-conditioned “real” ale from the intrusions of modern times. What exactly is cask-conditioned “real” ale? CAMRA explains:

Real ale is a natural product brewed using traditional ingredients and left to mature in the cask (container) from which it is served in the pub through a process called secondary fermentation. It is this process which makes real ale unique amongst beers and develops the wonderful tastes and aromas which processed beers can never provide.

Just know that traditional cask-conditioned ale is a living entity. It is pre-industrial, “slow” beer at its finest, predating every advance in ease of packaging, and preceding all processing shortcuts undertaken for the sake of modernity.

Consequently, as a product requiring training, thought and effort to maintain and dispense properly, real ale and the pub where it is consumed are inextricably linked. In America, the “coldest beer in town” merely signposts the triumph of refrigeration. In England, the best pint of real ale within walking distance of a bus stop is stirring testament to the publican’s commitment to craft.

That’s why CAMRA’S beer guide is vital. The organization’s local chapter members serve as diligent boots on the ground, studiously analyzing ales and pubs on a daily basis. Their intelligence gathering is the heart of the book, making it the top source of information for the visitor who cares less about his bed and breakfast than finding pints of fresh ale.

Which pubs are tops at tending their firkins? What do they usually pour? Do they serve snacks or meals? Are they hosts for discourse in their community? The book provides these answers, and many more.

My first visit to Devon and Cornwall was in 2009, and four years later, there have been changes in the pub scene. Owing to regulatory, political and societal factors too numerous to recount, pubs in the UK are diminishing in number, and that’s a bad sign. At the same time, there are more breweries now at work than at any point in a half-century.

Dozens of newcomers are brewing classic ale styles — Mild, Bitter, IPA, Stout and Porter – alongside newer variations, and they’re supplying local pubs. There may be fewer venues, but the range of choice probably is greater. Session strengths (below 4.5% abv) remain the norm, and while I might drop names (St. Austell, Skinner’s, Summerskill and Bridgetown), it wouldn’t matter, because none of the beers brewed by these excellent breweries are available anywhere close to Louisville.

This is as it should be. They await your arrival, over there.

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On a sunny Sunday in July, my wife’s cousin drove us from the city of Plymouth to the Dartmoor National Park. In Merrivale, surrounded by rolling, sparse uplands and freely roaming sheep, we dined at a venerable establishment called the Dartmoor Inn.

I enjoyed roast beef with gravy, cabbage, vegetables and Yorkshire pudding. Two pints of well-tuned local Jail Ale from the Dartmoor Brewery in nearby Princetown completed this time-honored Sunday Roast.

Frankly, I gloried in the ambiance: Dark walls, wooden beams, a low-hanging ceiling and a fireplace, with humps, stoops and irregular measurements, and overall, minimal space for a heavyweight like me to navigate. The roasted meal was deliciously overcooked, and the ale’s ideally balanced malt and hops kept my palate sharp amid the meat and butter. It was the embodiment of a lifetime’s fascination with BBC News, “The Last of the Summer Wine” and maritime gin rations.

But what of the calories and cholesterol?

Whenever healthfulness began encroaching, I merely reached for another custard tart, found the closest CAMRA-listed pub, and waited for the feeling to pass.

Brew, Britannia.

My acrophobia and those skinny skyscrapers.

I've always been prone to a certain degree of acrophobia, seldom intense but always lurking just around the corner, all the same.

Conversely, it seems to me that during my adult life, I've made progress keeping my fear of heights under wraps. Periodically, I even beat the bastard. There was a time when journeys by air were sheer anxiety; now airplanes strike me as the last great refuge from the teeming planet, even when I'm crammed kipper-like into seats meant for people half my size. These days I love flying.

However, I'm not entirely cured of acrophobia, at least yet. While everyday life mostly involves hugging the ground, or at the very most, crossing a bridge over the Ohio River or gazing out from the third or fourth floor, travel sometimes throws me unwelcome curves.

In 2016 we were in Helsinki, and acceded to Big Kim's recommendation of a rooftop bar at the Hotel Torni, Finland's first "skyscraper" of 13 floors, which opened in 1931. The day was beautiful and the view spectacular -- and I found myself attached like Velcro to the innermost wall by the elevator shaft.

Porto posed a similar difficulty. I couldn't quite bring myself to walk across the Douro via the top level of the Pont Luis I bridge, which is 280 feet above the river, with guardrails that reach only to my waistline.

Those trendy glass-floored viewing platforms attached to stupidly tall buildings? Nah. I'll find a martini somewhere in the basement -- but please, knock yourself out.

Having offered readers this prelude, it will come as no surprise that I'm not eager to visit a skinny skyscraper. I'm an urbanite, though usually only at street level.

Watching Skinny Skyscrapers Rise Above New York, by James Brasuell (Planetizen)

The real estate market in Manhattan is pushing towers to new heights and new dimensions.

The B1M, which describes itself as the definitive channel for construction, documents and explains the trend toward tall, skinny towers in New York City. The skinny tower trend is the result of land use constraints and new building technology.

Your courtesy compendium of links to the "Portugal Trip 2018" and "Focus on Portugal 2018" series.

Indeed, knowing that we'd be visiting Porto and Madeira, the winter of 2017-2018 became a veritable adult education course on all things Portuguese.

And that's just the way I love it.

Pleasure travel absent context simply isn't pleasant for me, and so I learned what I could; then we went, and I learned even more.

After 38 repetitions of this cycle, you'd think I'd qualify for a "life experience" Master of Arts degree. Maybe some day.


The travelogue, day by day:

Portugal Trip 2018 (1): A Tuesday arrival and introduction to Porto.

Portugal Trip 2018 (2): São Bento Railway Station, Mercado do Bolhão, Jardim da Cordoaria and a big Liverpool win.

Portugal Trip 2018 (3): A rainy day's Port lodge crawl in Vila Nova de Gaia, and an inaugural Francesinha sandwich.

Portugal Trip 2018 (4): Madeira – island of eternal spring (and fortified wine, Coral beer and black scabbard fish).

Portugal Trip 2018 (5): FC Porto versus SC Lusitania in Portuguese professional basketball.

Portugal Trip 2018 (6): Sunday at the beach, then some fine eating (Taberna Stº. António) and a solid craft beer bar (As 7 Maravilhas).

Portugal Trip 2018 (7): An epic stroll along the Douro to lunch at São Pedro da Afurada.

Portugal Trip 2018 (8): Beach, park and cemetery, with a few Spanish beers and tapas.

Portugal Trip 2018 (9): History, sandwiches, sunsets and craft beer on the final day in Porto.


Three epilogues:

Public art: Is it Funchal (Madeira) or New Albany (Indiana)?

Thanks for asking, Delta Air Lines. I'm happy to tell you how likely I am to recommend you to others.

ON THE AVENUES: The books I've been reading during the winter months (including the two consumed while in Porto).


"Focus on Portugal," a series that I prepared in advance and published while we were away.

Focus on Portugal: A history lesson upon arrival for a second visit to the country.

Focus on Portugal: Vila Nova de Gaia, the Douro and other tasty aspects of Port wine.

Focus on Portugal: Porto's quintessential Francesinha sandwich.

Focus on Portugal: Madeira, both islands and wine.

Focus on Portugal: Learn about the music called Fado.

Focus on Portugal: Was António de Oliveira Salazar an autocrat or a dictator? Tyrant or protector? It's complicated.

Focus on Portugal: The Carnation Revolution in 1974, and Portugal in the current age.

Focus on Portugal, which remains a central player in the world's production of natural cork.

Focus on Portugal: The characterful and historic azulejo tiles of Portugal.

"News and Tribune" changes its name to "Tom May Compendium."

Now Karl May ... there was a writer.

First the newspaper doubled down on its weekly Sunday coverage of religious superstition with two columnists, one local (Tom May) and the other not (Nancy Kennedy).

Now May gets a second column slot (albeit it one not published weekly) at a time when the newspaper surely would be better served by a newfound commitment to diversity.

Let's see: May, Cummins, Dodd, Stawar, Moss (all male, all white, average age probably 60 if not greater) ... versus Anderson and Beam (white and female; Kennedy is, too, but she doesn't count because religion is bunk and she's syndicated).

WTF, management?

Is this May character a former employee of state government in Alabama, entitled to some sort of weird pensioner columnist's kickback?

This being the News and Tribune, it gets even worse.

May's first offering in his second column slot was about sports, and someone in Indy liked it, so now the newspaper must inevitably devote column inches to praising itself for its own columnist.

Hand me an air sickness bag, and allow me to repeat: Has diversity ever occurred to anyone in Hanson Ad Sales Land?

Spoiler alert: The first sentence of Morris' paean to May is not offered in an ironic sense.

Indians offer May season pass after reading column, by Chris Morris

NEW ALBANY — Tom May figures he was at the right place at the right time — twice.

At Strong Towns: "4 Reasons We Must Build Our Streets for People (Not Just Cars).

A reprise of the conversation (paraphrased) that I had with 3rd district councilman Greg Phipps last week.

Me: We need to talk about the street grid.

Greg: I know you have issues, but look, at times you have to compromise, and it's better than it was before. It's a start.

Me: Okay, for the sake of argument, let's say it is better than before (the two-way street project). It can still be improved, so we need to talk about the next phases for improvement.

Greg: Well, you know, probably nothing else is ever going to happen.

When the weather gets warmer, I'll be going back out with the radar gun, and then we'll see the degree to which traffic is being slowed by two-way friction alone.

4 REASONS WE MUST BUILD OUR STREETS FOR PEOPLE (NOT JUST CARS), by Kea Wilson (Strong Towns)

 ... Here are the four things I wish I could say not just to Jamie Wilson, but to anyone who thinks that stroads aren’t one of the most pressing issues facing our cities today.

1. Human life is not a traffic problem to be solved.

 ... Ask yourself this: Should the punishment for being a flawed human being who gets distracted (or plays too rough, or has an addiction, or any of the other messy human things we do) be a painful, sudden death under the wheels of a high-speed automobile?

2. Pedestrians safety is a two way street. But too often, that street is a stroad.

 ... To say that pedestrian safety is a two way street is to imply that pedestrians and cars are moving in equal lanes. And, both literally and metaphorically, nothing could be further from the truth.

78 people died in my city over the course of ten years when they were crossing roads designed almost exclusively for cars moving at high speeds, upon which they were also expected to walk. I have yet to hear of any comparable epidemic of automobile drivers being killed when they swerve to avoid pedestrians.

3. Fixing stroads isn’t expensive. And not doing it is what’s making us go broke.

 ... The idea that there’s only way to build a road network — that is, to vastly overbuild it, adding lane after widened lane until no one would blame a driver for forgetting he’s not on a highway — is not only incorrect, but deeply limited, and I think officials like Wilson are in for a pleasant surprise when they begin to think differently. For one, it’s forgetting hundreds of years of human history, in which roads were simply never built this way. For another thing, it neglects the vast range of creative solutions available to us when we dare to think even a little bit differently — many of which cost next to nothing at all.

4. Everyone is a pedestrian — or they were, or they will be.

 ... To say these people are “pedestrians” or “non-drivers” is to forget that they are all of us at some point in our lives. They’re people who are too young to drive a car, or too physically infirm in their old age, or too poor to afford one. They’re people who have visual or physical or other disabilities, and people who simply just want to go for a walk on a sunny day. When our city streets are designed properly, a pedestrian is, simply, anyone who feels like walking — and if you look at St. Louis’ many non-stroads on a summer night when the Botanical Gardens are hosting a concert series, you’ll see that more people than not will get out on foot if it’s even remotely an option.

Red-faced old white guys howl in fury as March for Our Lives successfully occupies Bicentennial Park.

Photo credits: social media.

According to reports from social media and first-hand testimony, the crowd at Bicentennial Park for Saturday's "March for Our Lives" may have reached as many as 200. That's very solid for a bone-chilling, waterlogged morning in March.

The Green Mouse was told that the police presence was muted, and Democratic Party heavy-handedness gratifyingly kept to a minimum. That's amazing. When the AdamBot gets out of the way and lets the kids speak, you know it might actually be meaningful for once.

Congressional candidates Dan Canon and Liz Watson both briefly spoke. City council member (and retired teacher) David Barksdale was present, but it isn't clear whether any other elected officials attended, although is is said that somewhere deep within the curled linoleum of a living room in Westendia, Councilman Cappuccino grimaced in mute nostril agony.

As confided to us by an attendee, a final curious feature of the rally was a preponderance of students from Jeffersonville and Clark County. Let's hope the Bulldogs and Highlanders aren't falling behind the curve when it comes to principled activism.

After all, their nominal "leaders" aren't very good at it.

Nationally and locally, March for Our Lives seems to have been a success. Can the movement endure, and can it beat the stacked decks of Big Money, Big Racial Divide, Big Patriarchy and Big Dumbass?

We'll see, and remain hopeful.

Southern Indiana protesters brave cold and rain in Saturday's 'March for Our Lives', by Mandy McLaren (Courier Journal)

NEW ALBANY, Ind. — Braving bitter cold temperatures and a steady rainfall, about 100 people gathered in downtown New Albany on Saturday morning to call for stricter gun laws.

"A bulletproof vest should not be a part of my school uniform," Nicole Gomez, 18, told the crowd gathered at Bicentennial Park.

Several students spoke at the rally, which was connected to the national "March for Our Lives," a movement organized by the survivor's of last month's school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people dead.

This is the scariest Romeo Langford story you'll ever read.

Don't worry, amateur (?) hoops obsessives -- the author delivers "good news" in the sense that he believes Romeo will be attending Indiana University. I'm the only crackpot insisting on knowing what his major will be.

Why Romeo Langford Appears to be Going to Indiana + Senior Year Mix Tape, by Mike Schumann (The Daily Hoosier)

But back to that April visit to Bloomington. It is really one of three things: (1) part of the decision process, (2) a confirmatory visit, or (3) they are making the trip to tell the staff that they are going elsewhere. Which of these, after all this time, seems the most likely to you?

Rather, this passage is the terrifying part.

Tim Langford also stated that the family would like to make the announcement “out in the community“, perhaps with the mayor of New Albany (an IU graduate) involved.

If you'll excuse me, it's time for a shower.

I'd hate to see Langford sully his stellar reputation by indulging the mayor in what would amount to being co-opted as a re-election campaign prop.

Don't do, Romeo.

As an aside, I'd pick Vandy. As Bluegill dreamed the other day, Romeo could go to Vanderbilt, get an education and then play his way through the top-tier Europe leagues.

JeffBoat will close, riverside condos will proliferate, and we'll gather at the luxury dog park for a few bowls.

From NA Confidential on October 21, 2016:

Launching a barge is routine if you work at Jeff Boat (American Commercial Barge Line). After all, there's one each day, no champagne required. It's interesting to observe as a first-time viewer, as my Leadership Southern Indiana class did on Wednesday.

There are fascinating facts aplenty about ACBL/Jeff Boat, but this one does it for me: There's been a shipyard operating here continuously since 1834, as founded by the Howard family.

It flabbergasts me that as recently as the autumn of 2016, the narrative we were hearing during our segment at ACBL was one of unimpeded invincibility: 365 new barges per year, tugboats on the way, send us your trained welders ...and so on.

Now we're told the over-supply (and under-demand) of barges is such that it's cheaper to buy used than new, which seems to suggest that flooding the market with new barges might not have been such a good idea in the first place.

I don't know. As a skeptic, I can't help wondering whether there's an untold story here, like this closing always having been the design since ACBL acquired JeffBoat.

At the same time, the Ohio River shoreline currently occupied by the shipyard automatically becomes one of the hottest properties in the region for redevelopment, and perhaps greater than Colgate in Clarksville.

It boggles the mind. At least here in NA, we have an aquatic park. Like Rodney said on Caddyshack ...

 ... except for the welders, that is.

Jeffboat to shut down following rounds of layoffs, by David A. Mann (Louisville Business First)

Barge manufacturer Jeffboat LLC is set to close.

Louisville-based Teamsters Local 89, which represents workers there, was told about the closure last night after employees were informed, union president Fred Zuckerman said in an interview Saturday morning. According to Zuckerman, there are about 150 employees left at Jeffboat, but the operation will fully shutdown by the end of May. The union will start bargaining with management immediately to make determinations about issues such as severance, he said.

Management explained to the employees that a surplus of barges has meant that it's cheaper for Jeffboat customers to buy used rather than new, WDRB-TV reported last night.

Feast BBQ in New Albany is closing, and the last day will be Wednesday, March 28.

Happy times.

Rumors have been swirling for months, but today Ryan Rogers finally made the formal announcement. It's sad, but I'm looking forward to what comes next in this prime space that share a wall with The Exchange.

Nostalgic? Here's the 2012 press release, and a column of mine from the same year.

More details as they emerge ... for now, just the facts.

---

Feast BBQ

It is with clear eyes, but a heavy heart that I announce our final day of operation in New Albany will be on Wednesday March 28th. Feast BBQ outgrew our space in New Albany the day we opened the doors to 300+ people there on July 4th, 2012. We have been faced with the challenge of operating a restaurant in too small of a space, with nowhere to expand, ever since.

I am appreciative of the overwhelming support we have received over the past 5 and a half years from the community as well as from our employees present and past. I look forward to putting the building in the hands of someone who will continue to steward the historic property for years to come.

I hope that you will continue to join us at our larger Feast BBQ - Market St. NULU location in the NuLu neighborhood in Louisville (909 East Market Street). We are also working diligently to finish building an additional Feast BBQ location in downtown Jeffersontown’s historic Gaslight Square District (10318 Taylorsville Road) that we hope to have open this summer.

Today, we operate three other restaurants (Royals Hot Chicken & bar Vetti) and employ over 120 people across HiCotton Hospitality. We will continue to support our mission of supporting our staff members by covering the costs of shift meals, we pay a starting wage above minimum wage, offer employee discounts to our other restaurants, and help to cover the costs of healthcare for our full-time employees. All of the employees in New Albany have been offered jobs at our other restaurants.

I would personally like to extend a special thank you to Steve Resch, Jerry Finn and Horseshoe Foundation of Floyd County, my Family, Phillip Beaman at Monroe Shine & Co., Inc., Keith Pulliam with Applegate Fifer Pulliam LLC, our first year employees, and the myriad of others that took a chance and supported a 26 year old who had no idea what he was doing.

As a special thank you, please enjoy $3 Beers Tonight (Saturday), $2 Beers on Tuesday, and $1 Beers on Wednesday. While they last. We certainly don’t want to waste any beer.

- Ryan

One positive aspect of our Trumped-up times is the "discrediting of evangelical Christianity."

Ed Simon at Newsweek:

 ... Jerry Falwell Jr., cognizant enough of the disjuncture between personal piety and support of Trump but apparently not cognizant enough to avoid uttering inanities like the following, has compared the president to King David. That is to say that he acknowledges Trump’s copious personal failings (and steadfast refusals at contrition for any of them) but sees the president as a tool of the Lord meant to enact Christian policy, and so it behooves evangelicals to support him.

One imagines that whatever makes it easier for the good Rev. Falwell to sleep better at night, but perhaps he is the sort of man whose sleep is untroubled, for hypocrisy has a handy ability to cleanse the conscience.

Whether Trump or the supposedly pious, it's all blowhardism to me.

Why Evangelicals—Still!—Support Trump, by Katha Pollitt (The Nation)

If you leave out the part about him being a corrupt, immoral con man and bully, there’s lots for them to like.

... In the latest issue of The Atlantic, Michael Gerson, a former Bush speechwriter and current Washington Post columnist, mourns the loss of evangelical credibility in an angry, eloquent essay, “The Last Temptation.” As Gerson writes: “The moral convictions of many evangelical leaders have become a function of their partisan identification. This is not mere gullibility; it is utter corruption.” An evangelical himself, Gerson excoriates those leaders who make outlandish excuses for Trump’s behavior (my personal favorite: James Dobson’s explanation that the president is a “baby Christian”). Evangelicals, he says, have been driven to a kind of paranoia by their loss of cultural hegemony: They fall into absurd and unnecessary battles over school prayer and creationism, and losing those battles has made them seem—or actually be—“negative, censorious, and oppositional.”

The politics of diversion: "Chief Bailey is playing a losing hand, but then, they're not really his cards."

Much ado about nothing, Jeffrey. Zilch, nada ... ничего.

New Albany police chief questions motivation for 911 dispatch merger, by Erin Walden (Let Them Eat Fake)

NEW ALBANY — The need for a joint city-county dispatch center in New Albany is disputed by the city's police chief.

Chief Todd Bailey called a news conference Friday, when he accused City Council President Al Knable of telling a falsehood to show a need for a unified dispatch. Bailey also said the push for joint dispatch is political.

In short, another round of made-for-somnolent-media bile and spittle.

Chief Bailey sadly pursued the same contrived attack line at last week's council meeting, hoisting Jeff Gahan's jockstrap like a maypole as the mayor beamed happily from the bunker's shadows, his increasingly nervous appointed minions trotting out to join forces with the remaining jellied Democratic spines on the city's legislative body to sing a rousing chorus of "Job Security Uber Alles."

In an interview following the news conference, Knable maintained there was a call made, but said he believed the error was on his end, not a result of the two dispatch centers. Knable said he did make a call, and turned over his phone records to the chief of police to prove it, but he used Siri to do so. As Knable explains it, he has the New Albany Police Department’s tip line saved in his phone under “911/NAPD,” so when he instructed Siri to call 911, the virtual phone assistant called the wrong line.

By the time he hung up from the tip line, he had assessed the situation and helped the young child, who had been scared and screaming “fire” and "help,” said Knable, adding at that point he realized it wasn’t an emergency. He said he did not make claims of an alarm sounding.

Knable contends Bailey's focus on the anecdote is a distraction from the bigger conversation, merging the two centers and “making sure the taxpayers have the safest, most-efficient system out there.”

“I’m looking to get the chief of police, sheriff, mayor and commissioners to the table,” Knable said.

The fact is that throughout this entire 9-1-1 call center non-discussion, Bailey's professional integrity hasn't ever been questioned, not even once.

Rather, certain Republicans, joined by some like-minded independents and even a Democrat or two, are petitioning for a discussion of costs and potential savings.

Is this also a political position? Yes, just as much as Gahan's benumbed, rote insistence that past county government fiscal turpitude -- a habit of suicide by starvation pioneered not by the GOP but by old-school Strom Thurmondesque pretend Democrats like Ted Heavrin and Larry McAllister -- somehow forms an eternal excuse for the mayor to erect straw men and gather municipal power into a veneer salesman's idea of an unbearably vapid cult of personality.

Another day and another display of petty, time-wasting theatrics by Team Gahan's resident DemoDisneyDixiecrats.

Is this really the best that local government has to offer?

Previously: The devil's in the framing, and it's public safety versus cold hard cash in the discussion about merging city and county dispatch centers.

Charbonneau vs. FitzGerald, House 72, Democratic primary. What do you know, and who do you have?

In their spare time between spiffy ritual brushings of the mayor's venerable Hush Puppies, AdamBot's muzzle-happy DemoDisneyDixiecrats have disgorged a mildly interesting contested primary race for the Indiana House, District 72, a seat currently held by Republican Ed Clere.

In terms of platforms, there is almost nothing of substance at the web sites of the two candidates. 

Chris FitzGerald's web site
Sam Charbonneau's web site 

Social media is more interesting, especially for Fitzgerald. While obviously scripted with the usual DNC-crafted templates, there is less cheerleading, more content and some spicy Clere-bashing. 

FitzGerald at Facebook
Charbonneau at Facebook

Partisan readers, here's your chance to tout your candidate. As an aside, the incumbent Clere recently was endorsed by the We Are New Albany organization, which is significant.

What do you think about the challengers? We know very little about either of them, so please -- fill us in.

Undisputed top MUST READ of the week: "The Iraq invasion is no longer just one of the great crimes of this or any age – it's become a crossroads event in the history of America's decline."

Welcome to rock bottom.

Taibbi: The Legacy of the Iraq War, by Matt Taibbi (Rolling Stone)

The invasion is no longer just one of the great crimes of this or any age – it's become a crossroads event in the history of America's decline

Fifteen years ago this week, George W. Bush invaded Iraq. It was an awesome drama, made more thrilling by the seemingly obvious craziness of it all.

People were looking at each other out of the corners of their eyes, shrugging, and asking: Can we really do this without a reason? That was the dramatic subtext of the invasion.

In the press, no one could really make sense of the supposed justification for the invasion. That it was compelling, no one could deny. Hell, just look at the fonts. We all used the biggest ones we had! The New York Times said it all with its dramatic banner:

"BUSH ORDERS START OF WAR ON IRAQ; MISSILES APPARENTLY MISS HUSSEIN"

GOON BOMBS CITY ON HORSESHIT PRETEXT would have been more accurate, but editors were giving everyone the benefit of the doubt back then, and getting on board, for patriotic reasons. The Gray Lady, who was playing such a key role in what was going on, was certainly getting in the spirit, giving in to the adrenaline rush of Bush's evil gambit.

It was the same with CNN's breathless coverage of that first night, with the creepy green-hued night-cams showing explosion after monster explosion.

Shock and awe, we called it: a new plan for "achieving rapid dominance." What a great Hollywood name, and goddamn if people didn't sit glued to their TVs to watch its rollout, getting off like a bunch of kids blowing up frogs.

Wars are great TV. The prolonged political lead-up, the decision to kill, it's all rich with suspense, and when wedded to the sight and the sound of the bombs, after waiting all those months for one nightfall, at the hour of crime and sex, to launch the first sorties from a secret location at sea – it all trips the senses. It's a turn on. It makes the Super Bowl look like paint drying. The sheer drama is how they sold this thing to the public, fifteen years ago this week.

But that's not how our rulers sold the war to themselves. They weren't overcome with emotion, or some post-9/11 yearning for vengeance. They knew what they were doing.

The Iraq invasion, one of the great crimes of this or any age and destined to be a crossroads event in the history of America's decline, was instead a cold, calculated, opportunistic power grab, aimed as much at future targets, and even our own population, as at the Iraqi "enemy."

As citizens, we haven't started to reckon with any of this. We write it off rather than deal with it. In fact, when we think of Iraq at all, we often describe the invasion as a mistake. Embarrassingly, even I did this a few weeks back, talking about how we "blundered" into Iraq.

It's understandable. There are superficial plot elements from the Iraq narrative we lean on to soothe ourselves that the invasion was caused by an unlikely confluence of accidents and errors, not the inherent venality of our system ...

Jason Thomas on last week's #NationalSchoolWalkout: "It was constructive rebellion on a grand scale."

Civilized discourse is dead, and I don't say this lightly, but some of the most ridiculous comments I've ever seen uttered on social media greeted last week's student walkout.

Kudos to Jason Thomas. Another excellent column. Maybe there's hope for this newspaper yet.

THOMAS: A revolt is at hand, with gun violence in the crosshairs, by Jason Thomas (Hanson's Just Gotta Hate This)

 ... Another rebellion is at hand.

Twenty-six years ago social media consisted of passing hand-written (some even in cursive!) paper notes during class. What would the reaction have been like on Facebook and Twitter to the Revolt of 1991?

I shudder to think about it.

Flash forward to last week, when students across Southern Indiana joined peers nationwide and walked out of classrooms to protest gun violence that has shaken schools, and our children, to their core. Some students defied orders from school administrators and walked out of school for 17 minutes to honor the 17 students and staff killed in a mass shooting at a school in Parkland, Fla., last month, while others participated in planned events to commemorate the shooting.

Either way, it was constructive rebellion on a grand scale.

In 1991, we protested the taking away of our after-school activities. In 2018, students protest the taking of their lives.

The reaction on Facebook to our story about the walkouts was, unfortunately, predictably overwhelmingly negative toward the students ...

ON THE AVENUES: Remembering Max Allen, bartender extraordinaire.

ON THE AVENUES: Remembering Max Allen, bartender  extraordinaire. 


A weekly column by Roger A. Baylor.


We're drinking my friend to the end of a brief episode
So make it one for my baby
And one more for the road
-- "One for My Baby” (Johnny Mercer/Harold Arlen)

Maxwell E. Allen Jr. was a certified legend.

His name used to come up often during beer-side conversations at the Public House, but now he's been gone for 18 years, spirited away by heart disease in March of 2000 at the ridiculously young age of 60.

These days only the older bar regulars might recall meeting him. The problem is that too many of these patrons are no longer with us, either. 

I found myself thinking about Max on Sunday after mentioning his name amid a consideration of folkways, foodways and beerways. If a high resolution image can be found, I'd love to honor his memory with a framed photo somewhere in Pints & Union.

Knowing that on widely scattered occasions, I can be a stubborn cuss when compelled to plant my heels in the primordial muck of our Falls of the Ohio flood plain and defend the proposition that we can't know where we're going without some idea of where we've been, it strikes me as vital that Max’s life and work be remembered.

Consequently, it is my ongoing pleasure to continue writing and talking about Max -- just so everyone else doesn’t forget, because trust me, I never will.

Max was a full-time, professional bartender, best known for his quarter-century stint at the legendary Hasenour’s Restaurant at Barret & Oak in Louisville, which was followed by a coda of sorts at the Seelbach Hotel downtown, where his father had tended bar many years before.

I seem to recall an interlude between gigs at Hasenour's, during which Max started a small engine repair business or something similar. He seemed to be good at it, but unfulfilled. Max was a “people person,” and as jovial and friendly a man as you’d ever hope to meet. He seldom was seen in public without a broad smile on his face, and maintained a vast repertoire ice-breaking jokes and tales.

Max introduced himself to me one evening in the early 1980s. He came into Scoreboard Liquors, proceeded to the bourbon section and stood intently for the longest time, studying the labels -- not that we had a large selection in the first place.

When Max finally asked me a question about one of them, I readily conceded my ignorance as the nominal beer guy who still was learning the ropes about liquor and wine. This delighted him, and henceforth he was the teacher and I was the pupil, which probably was his intention from the very start.

With the advent of Sportstime Pizza in 1987, Max would bring his son for afternoon food 'n' video game visits, and when the Fermenters of Special Southern Indiana Libations Society (FOSSILS -- our local homebrewing and beer appreciation club) started in 1990, he joined in spite of drinking very little beer.

He didn’t make it to very many FOSSILS meetings owing to his work schedule, but one that he did manage to attend is fondly remembered. It was in 1993 or 1994, when the late Virgil Hosier, bottling line foreman at Ackerman’s, New Albany’s last operational brewery prior to NABC (it closed in 1935), came to talk about his job. Virgil was 83 at the time, and passed away shortly thereafter.

Max had the foresight to bring a cassette tape recorder, and the recording of Virgil’s talk was transcribed for inclusion in Conrad Selle’s and Peter Guetig’s Louisville Breweries book, where it survives for posterity, thanks entirely to Max.

It's appropriate that this memorable contribution to FOSSILS lore pertained to history, for Max was a diligent member of Louisville’s Filson Club. He was a collector of books about beverage alcohol in general and Kentucky bourbon in particular, and served as a walking repository of local legend and lore. All you had to do was ask, and off he'd go.

He loved teaching and telling stories. I'd like to think I was paying attention, and taking notes.

After a long and gradual decline, Hasenour’s went out of business in 1996, and Max moved to the Seelbach for the final, all too brief chapter in his professional life.

Interestingly, in the twilight of Max's career, there seems to have been a dawning awareness on the part of observers, including many in the Louisville media, that he represented something fast disappearing: Skill and excellence in the venerable art of bartending, practiced by a true craftsman for whom tending bar was not a temporary stop on the way to something better, but a respectable lifetime pursuit of its own.

Of course, today’s professional mixologists are an amazing breed, and positively molecular in their approach. I mean no disrespect to them with my comparisons, and obviously, any references to “classicism” suggest an inescapable chronology, which is to say that Max certifiably was an old-school practitioner. 

In his later years, Max was delighted to be featured in more than one Louisville Courier-Journal article on drinks, and for the very good reason that he knew the liquors and time-tested recipes, and he did them up right.*

In the most positive of ways, Max was a human time warp. He did not indulge in the briefly embarrassing historical epoch of Tom Cruise-inspired “extreme” routines of bottle spinning and citrus juggling. Rather, the fundamental things applied, and significantly, not only with the theory and practice of cocktails.

A bar tended by Max was kept clean and stocked -- not just with alcohols and mixers, but with any item that he felt his customers might need: A needle and thread, toiletries, shoe polish, spare neckties and road maps. He viewed himself adamantly as a concierge, whether within the confines of his workplace or pertaining to the city at large.

After all, we're speaking of the final period in history before the coming of smart phones and personal electronic devices, and accordingly, Max did not rely upon cheap, abundant electricity; his index card file was literal and analog, upon which were written the names of customers, their references, spouses, children, birthdays and anniversaries.

If you came to Hasenour’s once a year for Derby, Max knew who you were and what you liked, and if for some reason the data eluded him, it was under the bar, at his fingertips.

In every sense of the phrase, Max was a pro’s pro, and he remained one as the bar business inevitably began to reflect the assembly-line prerequisites of our modern consumer economy, eschewing its slower-paced, traditional role as restful sanctuary for an increasingly frenetic place in the cookie-cutter service sector.

So it was that Max Allen was the serene, friendly, efficient, helpful face behind the bar, but not just any bar. His vocational milieu was the imperial “high street” American restaurant bar of the post-war zenith, an era originally framed in limitless possibility, now draped in increasingly funereal sepia.

In truth, the salad days were over before I ever encountered Max at the package store. He completed his tour with style and distinction. Perhaps the rest of us are just playing out the string.

Rest in peace, my friend.

Max would be having too much fun in this shiny new hyper-bourbonism age, without an iPhone in sight, and not a single trace of misplaced bullshit in those cocktails.

---

* In 2008, Max and other Louisville bartenders of his generation were the subject of an oral history project conducted by Southern Foodways, to which I contributed remembrances.

Photo credit: Courier-Journal

---

Recent columns:

March 15: ON THE AVENUES: The books I've been reading during the winter months.

March 8: ON THE AVENUES: Necessity was the mother of NARBA, a food and drink invention in need of re-animation.

March 1: ON THE AVENUES: Scoreboard daze of old.

February 22: ON THE AVENUES REWOUND: Money is the ultimate bully (2015).

THE BEER BEAT: This is why the classic British-style pub CAN and DOES make it in America.

I saw this article a couple of days ago, and it was strange, because the author was being attacked by the usual IPA-powered-cyber-know-nothings for not grasping the craft beer revolution, or some such nonsense.

Swift's modest proposal, and all that.

Beer is crucial to the notion of a British pub, but it isn't the real point here, although it's worth noting that if there is any single aspect of a British pub which genuinely is elusive in the States, it's the tradition of cask-conditioned ale. More on this another time, but it should suffice to say that excepting the proximity of like-minded small breweries, we lack the proper supply chain for it.

Galling -- and true.

Another caveat: As the Belgians made clear a long time ago, there are Belgian ales, and there are Belgian-style ales; the former come from Belgium, and the latter from elsewhere in emulation of them.

Logically speaking, there cannot be British (or Irish) pubs in America. They can be British-style and Irish-style, which is why so far during the short life of the Pints & Union project, I've taken great pains to clarify that inspiration is being derived from British pubs.

We're building a pub, not a Disney cookie cutter.

What Farrar addresses are American societal norms. He actually is hitting the center of the target, because of course mainstream American culture won't ever grasp the timeless virtues of pub culture in the British sense. We're too ephemeral and appearance-driven for this.

Fortunately, the American mainstream is mostly irrelevant in this context. My experience informs me that there is a niche for this sort of establishment, and in the end, a niche is nothing more or less than undervalued terrain for providing a specialized service and making a living from it -- I won't be gauche and use the term "market segment" or the like, which is verbal Viagra for business fetishists.

There'll surely never be a British-style pub on every American corner, but precisely because this is true, there is plenty of niche demand for one on a random corner, every now and then.

Pints & Union will be located at 114 E. Market, at the corner of the street and an alley. Now we need only complete the beginning, and the hypothesis can be tested.

THIS IS WHY THE CLASSIC BRITISH PUB WON’T MAKE IT IN AMERICA, by Jesse Farrar (Vinepair)

I’ve recently been re-watching “The Cornetto Trilogy.” It’s a terrific series of farcical British genre spoofs from Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. One thing I love about the series is the feeling that I’m getting a small taste of authentic British culture, a great deal of which comes from ubiquitous scenes set pieces anchored to a corner pub. In “Shaun of the Dead,” the neighborhood pub, The Winchester, functions almost like a character, and “The World’s End” — the 12th (!) pub on our heroes’ epic pub crawl — actually, literally, speaks. Clearly, Pegg and Frost are infatuated with pubs. In a 2013 Vulture interview, Frost says of recreational bar-hopping with Pegg, “We used to go every Sunday! We used to walk down into Camden at 10:30 a.m. on a Sunday and spend the day. We’d mooch around and get Thai food and sit in a pub all day.”

That’s something you’re not likely to hear an American admit, and although it rarely needs to be said, it’s a concise example of what makes our culture so un-Continental. Whether it’s our history of temperance that’s shamed us out of being proud barflies, or the mere existence of the horrendous term “barflies,” the implication that a post-adolescent adult could spend “all day” in a bar borders on an a priori insult in American English. After all, who wants to spend more than a handful of daytime hours in a “dive,” a “club,” or a “bar & grille”? Even our crude imitation of British whistle-whetting culture, the “gastropub,” sounds more like something with a copay and a waiting room than it does a pleasant outing with friends, and what’s more, it rarely tastes better ...

SHANE'S EXCELLENT NEW WORDS: The genuine meaning of ersatz, with a bonus Mencken digression.

Counterfeit, phony, bogus ... ersatz.

I used to be fond of saying that Miller Lite was ersatz beer, although strictly speaking, this isn't true.

Flavorless, boring and a insult to the palate? Yes, very much so (less so?), but not ersatz.

ersatz

[er-zahts, -sahts, er-zahts, -sahts]

adjective

1. serving as a substitute; synthetic; artificial: an ersatz coffee made from grain.

noun

2. an artificial substance or article used to replace something natural or genuine; a substitute.

Origin of ersatz

1870-75; < German Ersatz a substitute (derivative of ersetzen to replace)

Ersatz is a German word, one unlikely to have migrated into English if not for Germany's homefront experience during two world wars.

FAKING IT, by Christian Ford (Hogsalt)

Pity poor ersatz. In its native German, ersatz started out as a harmless word, connoting a simple substitute or replacement — a new part for something worn out. But two world wars and a whole lot of not-enough-food changed that forever, particularly on the lips of returning POWs who brought the word into English.

In a roundabout way, Ford's well-considered (not ersatz at all) thoughts lead to corn, American style. Click through to see how.

It takes a certain way of thinking to break open a spiffy packet labeled “ersatz pepper” and filled with a teaspoon of ash — and scatter it over your meal, however ersatz it may already be. Food, that most corporeal foundation of society, was becoming notional, the site of sustenance moving from the belly to the mind.

Not that this came without some cost. There was ersatzkrankheit, “substitute sickness,” which came from eating too many foods that weren’t really what they should have been or weren’t even food at all. But there was another, more telling, neologism that emerged. This was ersatzmenchen — “substitute people,” a uncomfortably sinister term that reflected the front line’s endless appetite for its own kind of substitutes.

Ersatzkrankheit seems tailor-made to describe the result of ingesting too much fake (ersatz) news.

Tying together "ersatz" and the Great War, and adding the opportunity to make mention of my hero H.L. Mencken, I conclude with a quote from Gather at the River: Notes from the Post-Millennial South, by Hal Crowther

... It made Mencken a contrarian, a libertarian, and a political lone wolf. Do you have any idea how much courage – how much arrogance – it took for a 35-year-old newspaperman to sit in Baltimore and cheer for Germany in World War I, a minority of one flying in the teeth of one of the most poisonous spasms of jingoism America ever produced? It’s a true miracle he wasn’t lynched.

Risk life, limb and livelihood for a principle, for a prejudice? It’s impossible to place Mencken in a context the twenty-first century can understand, in our cultural cul-de-sac where the eloquent knights-errant of the editorial pages have been replaced by TV “news” shows geared to the depth and dignity of professional wrestling—tag teams of predictable hacks and eunuchs squealing in ersatz fury and quacking partisan platitudes. Seating Mencken on Crossfire would be like releasing a wolverine among neutered cats.

Here's my letter to National Main Street about diversity, inclusion, Develop New Albany and non-transparency.

Earlier in the week, we issued an emergency hubris status report.

A contest to boycott: Read in amazement as Develop New Albany claims to have revitalized downtown all by itself.

I decided to write a letter to Develop New Albany's parent organization, the National Main Street Center, and this is where matters turn odd, because DNA is not listed as being a member.

Turning to the map, Jeffersonville Main Street is listed as a member, but not Develop New Albany.

And yet at DNA's home page, clear as the ties that bind the organization to the mayor's office:

Very strange. Probably just a clerical error.

Here is my letter.

---

Hello,

Last year, our local Main Street organization (Develop New Albany, or DNA) staged an event called the Taco Walk. It was a successful promotion, but did not come without a price, because DNA indulged in what was, for them, harmless fun; the “leadership” brought sombreros and maracas, and led taco walkers on choruses of the Frito Bandito’s theme song.

It didn’t play well in the community, and it bears noting that DNA subsequently stole the Taco Walk idea from the very community volunteer who brought it to the organization’s attention (she found the stereotyping disturbing).

I’ve been blogging about it ever since.

As long as DNA continues to evade its "Taco Walk" ramifications of stereotyping and cultural appropriation, we'll keep bringing it up.

In 2018, DNA's artlessly purloined Taco Tone Deaf Cultural Appropriation Walk moves forward to May 19, with the Frito Bandito returning as Grand Marshal.

C'mon, DNA: The time has come. A fact's a fact. Taco Walk belongs to her. Why not give it back?

DNA's and the newspaper's masks ... or, thoughts occasioned by an excellent essay called "Meet the man who hides behind a mask."

I’ve tried on numerous occasions to engage DNA in a discussion about this issue; my e-mails and calls have been met with complete stonewalling. I asked for by-laws, and again, no reply. None. I find this somewhat disconcerting given that the organization receives financial support from City Hall.

I bring this to your attention because of this passage from your website.

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION

Guiding Principle - We value, respect, and support the diverse views and contributions of our colleagues and partners. We are at our best when supporting diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences.

In action - We strive to use differences to fuel our creativity and positively impact our work, culture, practices, and relationships. We integrate the needs of every individual and ensure that the right conditions are in place for everyone to achieve their potential. We ask for, listen to, and consider diverse points of view in order to succeed as an organization.

If DNA refuses to so much as discuss its cultural appropriation and stereotyping publicly, how exactly is it adhering to this section of the parent group’s expectations?

By extension, what are our options as a community to somehow convince DNA to communicate about such issues? It’s not a real dialogue if only one party participates.

Perhaps National Main Street has no qualms about this issue; if so, that’d be disappointing. However, I hope you might be able to help me with answers.

Thanks,

Roger A. Baylor

(one-time board member of DNA, circa 2007-2010)