Earlier this week, the Courier-Journal provided coverage of the bike summit in Louisville:
Letting cyclists on bridge backed; Idea discussed at bike summit, by James Bruggers of the Courier-Journal
“The mayors of Louisville and New Albany want pedestrians and bicyclists to be able to use the K&I railroad bridge across the Ohio River.
“If the Norfolk Southern railroad, which owns it, could be persuaded to go along, the bridge that links Louisville's Portland neighborhood with Main and Vincennes streets in New Albany could be part of a 14-mile bicycling loop along both sides of the Ohio River.”
Last fall, during a chat with NA Confidential, former Councilman Richard Bliss took note of the K & I bicycling proposal.
The railroad isn’t hard to work with, we recall Bliss saying at the time. He added that so long as you’re willing to take all the responsibility, do all the work, pay for all of it and accept all the insurance liability, the railroad’s right with you on a project.
In other words … cyclists may wish to refrain from holding their breaths.
At the same time, we note with approval Mayor James Garner’s statement, as quoted in the article:
"We need to provide quality-of-life amenities in our communities. We need to connect our communities."
Thursday, February 10, 2005
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
Strange but true: Local radio institution Lee Kelly honored while still living
Voice of NAHS Radio receives IHSAA award, by Jim Nichols, Managing Editor of the Jeffersonville Evening News
NA Confidential is delighted to provide this link to Jim Nichols’s (Jeffersonville Evening News) tribute to Lee Kelly, who for 31 years has served as the station manager at WNAS, “the nation's oldest high school radio station at Indiana's oldest high school.”
Way back in 1977, coffee thermos in hand and newspaper in tow, Lee made the morning trek to Floyd Central High School for its first period radio class.
Having unwittingly been duped into allowing me to take the class, Lee was forced to endure the relentlessly immature antics of a gangly and confused kid who had no idea who he was, where he was going, or how he planned to get there.
It had to be painful for Lee at times, but fortunately (for me!) he didn’t take it personally, and we became friends.
Now that I’ve grown into an adult who still doesn’t know where he’s going or how to get there, at least I have a much better idea of who I am, and people like Lee Kelly deserve the credit.
Or, as many would suggest, the blame …
NA Confidential is delighted to provide this link to Jim Nichols’s (Jeffersonville Evening News) tribute to Lee Kelly, who for 31 years has served as the station manager at WNAS, “the nation's oldest high school radio station at Indiana's oldest high school.”
Way back in 1977, coffee thermos in hand and newspaper in tow, Lee made the morning trek to Floyd Central High School for its first period radio class.
Having unwittingly been duped into allowing me to take the class, Lee was forced to endure the relentlessly immature antics of a gangly and confused kid who had no idea who he was, where he was going, or how he planned to get there.
It had to be painful for Lee at times, but fortunately (for me!) he didn’t take it personally, and we became friends.
Now that I’ve grown into an adult who still doesn’t know where he’s going or how to get there, at least I have a much better idea of who I am, and people like Lee Kelly deserve the credit.
Or, as many would suggest, the blame …
Floyd County Council unsupportive of Northside plan; attention shifts elsewhere
For the fourth time, the Floyd County Council has rejected buying the Northside Christian property on Grant Line Road as a replacement for the disintegrating Annex building down the street.
The Courier’s Ben Zion Hershberg and the Tribune’s Kyle Lowry describe the vote last night.
Floyd still not sold on church; Idea to relocate offices dies again, by Ben Zion Hershberg, Louisville Courier-Journal
County proposal to buy Northside church dies, by Kyle Lowry, Tribune County Reporter
The Courier’s Ben Zion Hershberg and the Tribune’s Kyle Lowry describe the vote last night.
Floyd still not sold on church; Idea to relocate offices dies again, by Ben Zion Hershberg, Louisville Courier-Journal
County proposal to buy Northside church dies, by Kyle Lowry, Tribune County Reporter
Further analysis of the Coffey debacle at Volunteer Hoosier
Our fellow blogger and advocate, Volunteer Hoosier, has provided invaluable coverage of the fallout from Councilman Dan Coffey's poisonous attacks on participatory democracy at Monday evening's City Council meeting.
NA Confidential readers who haven't yet read the following three must-read posts at Volunteer Hoosier are advised to do so.
Subject to subjectivism
No need for dissection
Contrapunction
Don't forget New Albany Renewal, which "is intended to serve as a repository for ideas relevant to preserving and restoring historic buildings, cleaning up neighboorhoods, revitalizing downtown, and improving the quality of life in New Albany, Indiana."
NA Confidential readers who haven't yet read the following three must-read posts at Volunteer Hoosier are advised to do so.
Subject to subjectivism
No need for dissection
Contrapunction
Don't forget New Albany Renewal, which "is intended to serve as a repository for ideas relevant to preserving and restoring historic buildings, cleaning up neighboorhoods, revitalizing downtown, and improving the quality of life in New Albany, Indiana."
The ‘Bune, sans apologies, leaps aboard the symposium bandwagon
We must credit the New Albany Tribune with moving quickly to extricate itself from the embarrassment caused by City Editor Amany Ali’s colossal gaffe in Sunday’s edition of the newspaper.
For those tuning in late, Ali used the present tense when referring to Louisville’s Hawley Cooke Booksellers, which was absorbed by Borders two years ago. She went on to write that New Albany’s downtown could use a bookstore like the one no longer in operation in Louisville, handily ignoring the existence of Destinations Booksellers.
Yesterday the ‘Bune scrambled endearingly to make amends. First, Ali mentioned the forthcoming “New Visions for Downtown New Albany” symposium at Destinations in her front-page account of Monday’s City Council meeting, then shockingly, the symposium was touted in the newspaper’s editorial slot on page 4A.
The editorial closes with this thought: “People will be talking. That is a good thing.”
Indeed.
For those tuning in late, Ali used the present tense when referring to Louisville’s Hawley Cooke Booksellers, which was absorbed by Borders two years ago. She went on to write that New Albany’s downtown could use a bookstore like the one no longer in operation in Louisville, handily ignoring the existence of Destinations Booksellers.
Yesterday the ‘Bune scrambled endearingly to make amends. First, Ali mentioned the forthcoming “New Visions for Downtown New Albany” symposium at Destinations in her front-page account of Monday’s City Council meeting, then shockingly, the symposium was touted in the newspaper’s editorial slot on page 4A.
The editorial closes with this thought: “People will be talking. That is a good thing.”
Indeed.
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
NA Confidential vs. NA Incontinent at Monday's City Council meeting
You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them. Author Ray Bradbury
“What are you reading?”
As opening lines go, this is a fairly innocuous one. Most of us regard it in the same manner as other common greetings, like “how are you?” and “what’s up?”
How is it, then, that a seemingly harmless supposition with respect to one’s view of the act of reading is transformed into an offense, a provocation, a seeming challenge to one’s masculinity?
Mention the words “NA Confidential” to New Albany Councilman Dan Coffey, and you’ll find out what those of us who grew up on a farm have known since childhood.
Wild skunks spray as a defense mechanism when they perceive a threat.
At least one beleaguered local politician has now been observed to display similar characteristics.
At last evening’s City Council meeting, I took advantage of the time allowed for public comment to speak briefly on three matters:
(1) To restate NA Confidential’s opposition to the further expenditure of public monies to fight a losing battle against the 1st Amendment in the New Albany DVD case,
“What are you reading?”
As opening lines go, this is a fairly innocuous one. Most of us regard it in the same manner as other common greetings, like “how are you?” and “what’s up?”
How is it, then, that a seemingly harmless supposition with respect to one’s view of the act of reading is transformed into an offense, a provocation, a seeming challenge to one’s masculinity?
Mention the words “NA Confidential” to New Albany Councilman Dan Coffey, and you’ll find out what those of us who grew up on a farm have known since childhood.
Wild skunks spray as a defense mechanism when they perceive a threat.
At least one beleaguered local politician has now been observed to display similar characteristics.
At last evening’s City Council meeting, I took advantage of the time allowed for public comment to speak briefly on three matters:
(1) To restate NA Confidential’s opposition to the further expenditure of public monies to fight a losing battle against the 1st Amendment in the New Albany DVD case,
(2) To encourage the mayor (who was absent) and the council to consider setting up public forums for discussion of matters not reserved to the weekly Board of Public Works and Safety meetings, and
(3) To support the March 2 Public Affairs Symposium, "New Visions for Downtown New Albany."
NA Confidential regards these statements as general in nature, fully in keeping with the “respect” factor and time limitations enforced by President Jeff Gahan, and certainly not directed toward any single individual on the City Council.
But Dan Coffey’s immediate, visceral and jarringly defensive reaction was as indicative of an ill-tempered, anti-progressive mindset as one is apt to find without running to the library for transcripts of Senator McCarthy’s 1950’s-era witch hunt hearings in the US Senate.
These hearings might be available on video for the benefit of those who feel threatened by the act of reading.
Coincidentally, Dan Coffey does not read Blogs because “anyone can hide behind the keyboard,” but by means of osmosis or the Vulcan mind meld, he purports to know exactly what is written in NA Confidential.
Dan Coffey, who sits as part of an elected body known as the “city” council, which is charged with matters pertaining to the city as a whole, sees no need to speak with anyone outside his own district, where he holds public meetings six times a year ... and ... hey, you ... outsider … you don’t live here, do you? … well, congratulations, you’ve just been invited not to attend!
Dan Coffey emphatically and abrasively possesses not the slightest intention to attend any town hall, public forum or revival meeting that is not organized by himself in the safety of his own fiefdom, especially if he’s invited only to listen to the taxpayers throughout the city who pay his salary (and whose money he spends) rather than speak himself.
That’s because Dan Coffey, red-faced and sermonizing, is in fact gravely insulted at not being consulted.
By his own admission, he doesn’t read, but also by his own admission, he is one of the select group able to understand the money, who controls the purse strings of the city, who knows how things get done, who certainly doesn’t need the advice of mere "complainers" who should know their place in the back of the cosmos bus or else get up off their laggard butts and run for office – as if there were no other way to participate in the political process in this city.
The meeting room was quiet as the Wizard of Westside self-destructed.
Then, having encapsulated the most virulent form of New Albany’s native disease in far more eloquent fashion than has been attempted in NA Confidential or any other repository of the written word, Dan Coffey ceased his diatribe.
Ten minutes later, Dan Coffey nodded in assent as fellow Councilman Bill Schmidt produced the results of personal research indicating that neither he nor Coffey, or for that matter, anyone else on the City Council really knows how much money the city has borrowed or if it has been paid back.
NA Confidential earnestly hopes that Dan Coffey’s outburst last evening was the result of the stress and strain that doubtless accompany the task of sifting through New Albany’s current budgetary woes. The Courier-Journal’s and Tribune’s coverage of the meeting make clear the extent of the crisis.
But extenuating circumstances aside, Dan Coffey’s performance cannot be allowed to pass without comment.
His narrow parochialism with respect to the responsibilities of elected public representatives is sadly indicative of the discredited “ward-heeler” school of political “thought,” once the norm but now utterly incapable of providing the unifying vision critical in a world increasingly reliant on the very qualities of communication and inter-dependence that Coffey regards with open contempt.
And, for the record, I’m reading “The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History,” by John Barry.
Volunteer Hoosier's essay "Contrapunction" analyzes the February 7 City Council meeting
New Albany budget questions put vehicle requests on hold, by Ben Zion Hershberg of the Louisville Courier-Journal
Outstanding loans force delay in possible purchase of city vehicles, by Amany Ali, Tribune City Editor
Monday, February 07, 2005
Will you still love me tomorrow? Or, the City Council's February 7 meeting
Tonight, NA Confidential retreats to a position of relative safety behind its protective keyboard and thoughtfully sips a cup of unsweetened West Side coffey (served bitterly hot) while asking those of you who attended tonight's City Council meeting to post your impressions.
Mullah Goebel and the battle against New Albany DVD
A letter to the editor entitled “Fight against pornography is not over” appears in Sunday’s New Albany Tribune.
The author is Tony Goebel, pastor at the New Beginnings Community Church.
Pastor Goebel begins by presenting his credentials as a “pastor and a lawyer,” and provides his game plan for the “battle against pornography creeping into our community through New Albany DVD.”
In Pastor Goebel’s view, “Round One ended with Federal Judge Sarah Evans Barker refusing to dismiss a federal lawsuit filed by NA DVD alleging the city of New Albany had violated its (NA DVD’s) Constitutionally protected ‘free speech’ rights … (because) Judge Barker held that the actions taken by the city to stop this adult business from opening ‘are susceptible to an inference of bad faith prosecution’ … but her denial is not the end of the story.”
For what he perceives as Round Two, Pastor Goebel offers “free legal advice” with respect to the city’s appeals options.
As for Round Three, he belatedly comes to the obviously grudging admission that, “the sale and distribution of ‘pornography’ as defined by the courts is protected ‘speech,’ while the sale and distribution of ‘obscenity’ is not.” Pastor Goebel recommends enforcing current obscenity laws and passing new ones.
Round Four constitutes the inevitable advertisement for Pastor Goebel’s primary business, saving souls: “The only way to defeat the predominance of sin is by sharing the saving message of the gospel of Jesus Christ with the lost … the more people who are converted to Christ, the less demand and profit there will be for any adult business.”
And, just as inevitably, who better to unite the “churches and Christians of New Albany” than Pastor Goebel himself? Accordingly, on February 17, New Beginnings will be hosting a meeting to organize the “knockout punch to pornography.”
Above all else, Pastor Goebel’s letter serves to remind us that in the struggle to create a revolution from nothing and to move society forward, those among us who embrace superstition and advocate regression stand ever ready to assist us in making the journey backwards in time to the primordial ooze.
Granted, it is quite likely that there’s not a single person currently living in New Albany who, if asked, would publicly profess a predilection for pornography.
However, and far more importantly, there are many hereabouts who understand that Pastor Goebel’s intentionally slippery rhetorical slope poses grave problems for the maintenance of free speech, free expression, and free choice when it comes to matters of conscience like religious observance.
Pastor Goebel begins with the word “pornography,” shifts to “obscenity” in mid-argument, then concludes with “sin.” Even Tribune readers can see that these three words do not mean the same thing, and as a lawyer trained in the importance of semantics, Pastor Goebel knows it, too.
Cleverly, Pastor Goebel does not address the legal concept of community standards with respect to obscenity, preferring instead to sidestep this most crucial (and complicated) consideration by introducing the concept of sin, in effect pole-vaulting over any legal and secular obstacles to the Inquisition to nestle safely in the realm of theology.
And guess who is ready, willing and able to provide the suggested view according to his particular version of Christian theology?
Theology is not the realm addressed by the 1st Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, but this simple fact will never suffice to convince the theocrats among us.
Those who do not wish to reside in a place where Mullah Goebel defines concepts like obscenity for you, rather than in a place where you have the freedom to consider these concepts on your own, must remain vigilant, because it would be tragically mistaken to presume that Adult DVD is the sole target of any such Crusade.
As for the involvement if tax-exempt religious groups in political matters, we’ll just have to leave that one for another time.
The author is Tony Goebel, pastor at the New Beginnings Community Church.
Pastor Goebel begins by presenting his credentials as a “pastor and a lawyer,” and provides his game plan for the “battle against pornography creeping into our community through New Albany DVD.”
In Pastor Goebel’s view, “Round One ended with Federal Judge Sarah Evans Barker refusing to dismiss a federal lawsuit filed by NA DVD alleging the city of New Albany had violated its (NA DVD’s) Constitutionally protected ‘free speech’ rights … (because) Judge Barker held that the actions taken by the city to stop this adult business from opening ‘are susceptible to an inference of bad faith prosecution’ … but her denial is not the end of the story.”
For what he perceives as Round Two, Pastor Goebel offers “free legal advice” with respect to the city’s appeals options.
As for Round Three, he belatedly comes to the obviously grudging admission that, “the sale and distribution of ‘pornography’ as defined by the courts is protected ‘speech,’ while the sale and distribution of ‘obscenity’ is not.” Pastor Goebel recommends enforcing current obscenity laws and passing new ones.
Round Four constitutes the inevitable advertisement for Pastor Goebel’s primary business, saving souls: “The only way to defeat the predominance of sin is by sharing the saving message of the gospel of Jesus Christ with the lost … the more people who are converted to Christ, the less demand and profit there will be for any adult business.”
And, just as inevitably, who better to unite the “churches and Christians of New Albany” than Pastor Goebel himself? Accordingly, on February 17, New Beginnings will be hosting a meeting to organize the “knockout punch to pornography.”
Above all else, Pastor Goebel’s letter serves to remind us that in the struggle to create a revolution from nothing and to move society forward, those among us who embrace superstition and advocate regression stand ever ready to assist us in making the journey backwards in time to the primordial ooze.
Granted, it is quite likely that there’s not a single person currently living in New Albany who, if asked, would publicly profess a predilection for pornography.
However, and far more importantly, there are many hereabouts who understand that Pastor Goebel’s intentionally slippery rhetorical slope poses grave problems for the maintenance of free speech, free expression, and free choice when it comes to matters of conscience like religious observance.
Pastor Goebel begins with the word “pornography,” shifts to “obscenity” in mid-argument, then concludes with “sin.” Even Tribune readers can see that these three words do not mean the same thing, and as a lawyer trained in the importance of semantics, Pastor Goebel knows it, too.
Cleverly, Pastor Goebel does not address the legal concept of community standards with respect to obscenity, preferring instead to sidestep this most crucial (and complicated) consideration by introducing the concept of sin, in effect pole-vaulting over any legal and secular obstacles to the Inquisition to nestle safely in the realm of theology.
And guess who is ready, willing and able to provide the suggested view according to his particular version of Christian theology?
Theology is not the realm addressed by the 1st Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, but this simple fact will never suffice to convince the theocrats among us.
Those who do not wish to reside in a place where Mullah Goebel defines concepts like obscenity for you, rather than in a place where you have the freedom to consider these concepts on your own, must remain vigilant, because it would be tragically mistaken to presume that Adult DVD is the sole target of any such Crusade.
As for the involvement if tax-exempt religious groups in political matters, we’ll just have to leave that one for another time.
Paul Wheatley appears on C-J radar
Monday morning’s Courier-Journal takes note of Paul Wheatley, New Albany’s new economic development director:
“New Albany Mayor James Garner no longer needs to start his days by worrying about finding new jobs for his community. He's now got Paul Wheatley, the city's new economic development director, to do the fretting -- and the planning he hopes soon will eliminate the need for worry.”
If only it were that simple ...
New Albany pushes development; City creates post to boost economy, by Steve Chaplin (Special to The Courier-Journal)
“New Albany Mayor James Garner no longer needs to start his days by worrying about finding new jobs for his community. He's now got Paul Wheatley, the city's new economic development director, to do the fretting -- and the planning he hopes soon will eliminate the need for worry.”
If only it were that simple ...
New Albany pushes development; City creates post to boost economy, by Steve Chaplin (Special to The Courier-Journal)
Sunday, February 06, 2005
The Evening News reports a councilman's proposal to help downtown Jeff, while the Tribune visits a chain shoe store
On the same day that the Tribune’s City Editor fails miserably to comprehend the issues that pertain to downtown redevelopment, her counterpart at the Evening News offers a crisp, well-written news story about Jeffersonville Councilman John Perkins’s vision of progress in our neighboring river city.
Councilman wants $200,000 for downtown,
by Larry Thomas, City Editor
NA Confidential readers are again encouraged to visit the combined web site of the Evening News and Tribune to compare and contrast staff writers.
Quite simply, the day-to-day work of Thomas, Greg Gapsis and John Gilkey for the Evening News is of a far higher standard than that foisted on apparently benumbed and undiscerning New Albanians by the Tribune.
Councilman wants $200,000 for downtown,
by Larry Thomas, City Editor
NA Confidential readers are again encouraged to visit the combined web site of the Evening News and Tribune to compare and contrast staff writers.
Quite simply, the day-to-day work of Thomas, Greg Gapsis and John Gilkey for the Evening News is of a far higher standard than that foisted on apparently benumbed and undiscerning New Albanians by the Tribune.
Birds in cages don’t read … so tell the 'Bune how you feel
If the City Editor of your hometown “newspaper” doesn’t know your business exists (for those readers just tuning in, please see the preceding article), then do you continue to buy advertising in it?
This and other questions are being asked by our friends at Destinations Booksellers, who were snubbed today by the Tribune’s Amany Ali during the course of a drearily misguided column about downtown redevelopment.
NA Confidential asks that our loyal readers let the Tribune know that there definitely is a bookstore in New Albany, and that we expect more from a newspaper that purports to be the voice of New Albany.
Do not use the automated submission form on the Tribune’s web site. In our experience, it rarely works. Instead, use both these e-mail addresses:
crmorris@news-tribune.net
tribnews@news-tribune.net
Thanks for your help.
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius -- Not.
According to the ‘Bune’s Amany Ali, “Downtown has many needs.”
In her column today, Ali picks up where she left off some months back, when her idle speculation as to why old buildings downtown don’t get used for something was not followed by any journalistic effort in the general vein of “investigative reporting,” thus confirming yet again a pattern of intellectual laziness that is the hallmark of her newspaper and a long-term contributing factor in the perpetual dumbing-down of the enduring Banana Republic that is New Albany.
Today, Ali begins with the obvious: “Everybody seems to have an opinion about what would be that thing that would bring downtown New Albany back to life.”
Indeed they do.
Two chemical reactions masquerading as ideas that Ali has heard mentioned are bringing a Wal-Mart and/or a Cracker Barrel downtown. Both are reluctantly dismissed by the author, as she personally has nothing “bad” to say about Wal-Mart and in fact would be positioned first in line to eat at a downtown Cracker Barrel.
During all her years as City Editor, has Amany Ali ever allowed herself to be exposed to an idea without instinctively swatting it away as if it were an annoying gnat?
In the short three-month existence of NA Confidential, its readers have joined to debate the veracity of the “Creative Class” as described by Richard Powers, learned about the movement in Austin, Texas that has led to the “keeping things weird” philosophy of local business vs. chains, and considered locally branded “destination” businesses as anchors of downtown revitalization.
But in Ali’s world, none of these ideas are permitted to intrude upon the imperatives of unthinking, reflexive habit. Instead, she posits that Wal-Mart wouldn’t come downtown because there’s not enough physical space, and furthermore, everyone knows that Cracker Barrels only locate on highways – we might add, mostly in the “exurb,” although we can be sure that she doesn’t know to what supposed socio-cultural phenomenon columnist David Brooks’s coinage refers.
As a patriotic, undiscerning consumer, Ali knows that it would be nice to have a chain Payless shoe store downtown, as well as a health food store so she wouldn’t have to drive out to the fringe to the admittedly excellent chain Kroger to buy fat-free cottage cheese.
A chain health store, we presume, noting that she couldn't hink of one to use as an example. Whole Foods, perhaps?
The preceding is incredibly vapid … and yes, it gets worse.
“I can spend hours in a bookstore. And I loathe the traffic headaches involved in driving to Louisville-area bookstores. However, there was a time when I would put my life into the hands of crazy motorists just to drive to the Hawley-Cooke Booksellers on Shelbyville Road. That place is the greatest. I know I’m not the only person who would enjoy such a place. And it would only be accentuated by adding a coffee bar to the establishment.”
With this paragraph, Ali pole vaults across the line that separates her unwillingness to treat a serious topic with seriousness from the outright maliciousness of omission.
Let’s break it down, one sentence at a time.
“I can spend hours in a bookstore.”
Be careful – they keep ideas there, but no fly swatters.
“And I loathe the traffic headaches involved in driving to Louisville-area bookstores."
So do we all. That’s why we read, observe, work and learn in hopes of improving New Albany by bringing good things like bookstores right here to where we live.
“However, there was a time when I would put my life into the hands of crazy motorists just to drive to the Hawley-Cooke Booksellers on Shelbyville Road.”
Good. So, you really can see the positive aspects of an independent bookstore, as opposed to the anti-competitive chains that dominate the bookselling industry – to the detriment of us all (there are articles and books that explain this notion, should you care to read them).
“That place is the greatest.”
Is? IS? Try “was.” Borders (a chain bookstore) bought Hawley-Cooke out two years ago. Either it’s been a while between books, or you’re an Amazon shopper now.
Or both.
“I know I’m not the only person who would enjoy such a place.”
Perhaps, although you may be the only person who hasn’t noticed that New Albany has its own independent bookseller, Destinations, located just a few blocks up the street from where you utilize precious column inches to boast about your chain-store shopping habits, confess to your abject ignorance about the virtues of local flavor vs. chain store cookie-cutter, and ignore a plethora of urban redevelopment themes being applied throughout the United States that might help you understand what all this potentially means, and then – yes, there’s more – be able to do your job more competently by relaying the information to your readers.
“And it would only be accentuated by adding a coffee bar to the establishment.”
Of course it would, and we at NA Confidential agree that coffee and books are a great combination, but we also understand that an economic development plan based on trying to lure a Borders and a Starbucks downtown would if successful stand only to exacerbate the crippling disease from which New Albany already suffers, which is a lack of a unique identity, the sometimes belligerent absence of self-esteem that stems from it, and the lowest common denominator way of “thinking” that dooms us to mediocrity.
In other words, the disease that features so prominently in today's Tribune column by Amany Ali.
Yesterday, NA Confidential asked how the concept of intelligence manages to survive in a society that seems oddly determined to embrace unintelligence as its mantra.
Today, we’re more specific.
Why must we be forced to endure such a relentlessly stupid newspaper?
In her column today, Ali picks up where she left off some months back, when her idle speculation as to why old buildings downtown don’t get used for something was not followed by any journalistic effort in the general vein of “investigative reporting,” thus confirming yet again a pattern of intellectual laziness that is the hallmark of her newspaper and a long-term contributing factor in the perpetual dumbing-down of the enduring Banana Republic that is New Albany.
Today, Ali begins with the obvious: “Everybody seems to have an opinion about what would be that thing that would bring downtown New Albany back to life.”
Indeed they do.
Two chemical reactions masquerading as ideas that Ali has heard mentioned are bringing a Wal-Mart and/or a Cracker Barrel downtown. Both are reluctantly dismissed by the author, as she personally has nothing “bad” to say about Wal-Mart and in fact would be positioned first in line to eat at a downtown Cracker Barrel.
During all her years as City Editor, has Amany Ali ever allowed herself to be exposed to an idea without instinctively swatting it away as if it were an annoying gnat?
In the short three-month existence of NA Confidential, its readers have joined to debate the veracity of the “Creative Class” as described by Richard Powers, learned about the movement in Austin, Texas that has led to the “keeping things weird” philosophy of local business vs. chains, and considered locally branded “destination” businesses as anchors of downtown revitalization.
But in Ali’s world, none of these ideas are permitted to intrude upon the imperatives of unthinking, reflexive habit. Instead, she posits that Wal-Mart wouldn’t come downtown because there’s not enough physical space, and furthermore, everyone knows that Cracker Barrels only locate on highways – we might add, mostly in the “exurb,” although we can be sure that she doesn’t know to what supposed socio-cultural phenomenon columnist David Brooks’s coinage refers.
As a patriotic, undiscerning consumer, Ali knows that it would be nice to have a chain Payless shoe store downtown, as well as a health food store so she wouldn’t have to drive out to the fringe to the admittedly excellent chain Kroger to buy fat-free cottage cheese.
A chain health store, we presume, noting that she couldn't hink of one to use as an example. Whole Foods, perhaps?
The preceding is incredibly vapid … and yes, it gets worse.
“I can spend hours in a bookstore. And I loathe the traffic headaches involved in driving to Louisville-area bookstores. However, there was a time when I would put my life into the hands of crazy motorists just to drive to the Hawley-Cooke Booksellers on Shelbyville Road. That place is the greatest. I know I’m not the only person who would enjoy such a place. And it would only be accentuated by adding a coffee bar to the establishment.”
With this paragraph, Ali pole vaults across the line that separates her unwillingness to treat a serious topic with seriousness from the outright maliciousness of omission.
Let’s break it down, one sentence at a time.
“I can spend hours in a bookstore.”
Be careful – they keep ideas there, but no fly swatters.
“And I loathe the traffic headaches involved in driving to Louisville-area bookstores."
So do we all. That’s why we read, observe, work and learn in hopes of improving New Albany by bringing good things like bookstores right here to where we live.
“However, there was a time when I would put my life into the hands of crazy motorists just to drive to the Hawley-Cooke Booksellers on Shelbyville Road.”
Good. So, you really can see the positive aspects of an independent bookstore, as opposed to the anti-competitive chains that dominate the bookselling industry – to the detriment of us all (there are articles and books that explain this notion, should you care to read them).
“That place is the greatest.”
Is? IS? Try “was.” Borders (a chain bookstore) bought Hawley-Cooke out two years ago. Either it’s been a while between books, or you’re an Amazon shopper now.
Or both.
“I know I’m not the only person who would enjoy such a place.”
Perhaps, although you may be the only person who hasn’t noticed that New Albany has its own independent bookseller, Destinations, located just a few blocks up the street from where you utilize precious column inches to boast about your chain-store shopping habits, confess to your abject ignorance about the virtues of local flavor vs. chain store cookie-cutter, and ignore a plethora of urban redevelopment themes being applied throughout the United States that might help you understand what all this potentially means, and then – yes, there’s more – be able to do your job more competently by relaying the information to your readers.
“And it would only be accentuated by adding a coffee bar to the establishment.”
Of course it would, and we at NA Confidential agree that coffee and books are a great combination, but we also understand that an economic development plan based on trying to lure a Borders and a Starbucks downtown would if successful stand only to exacerbate the crippling disease from which New Albany already suffers, which is a lack of a unique identity, the sometimes belligerent absence of self-esteem that stems from it, and the lowest common denominator way of “thinking” that dooms us to mediocrity.
In other words, the disease that features so prominently in today's Tribune column by Amany Ali.
Yesterday, NA Confidential asked how the concept of intelligence manages to survive in a society that seems oddly determined to embrace unintelligence as its mantra.
Today, we’re more specific.
Why must we be forced to endure such a relentlessly stupid newspaper?
In the 'Bune today
The New Albany Tribune’s Sunday front-page banner reads “Demolition bids to open for Scribner Place,” wherein Amany Ali contributes a workmanlike survey of the imminent demise of the old Double Seven Tire building and three other structures on what is slated to become Scribner Place.
The YMCA’s current fundraising efforts and Mayor James Garner’s as yet undocumented claim of ripple-effect growth resulting from the project are uncritically discussed.
(As usual, ‘Bune web site updates are as unpredictable as the weather, so a precise link will be provided when it is made available to the long-suffering general public).
Elsewhere in the newspaper, almost lost amid the ephemera of various press releases (sorry, make that “staff reports”), there is a fine column by Joyce Vallance entitled “New businesses have opened in Floyds Knobs,” as well as Dave Davis’s consideration of 1st Amendment issues raised by the recent survey of American young people that showed few if any possessing a clear understanding of free speech (also referenced yesterday here at NA Confidential).
Vallance’s elegantly simple powers of perception, i.e., an ability to look around her, see events happening and describe them in a factual manner, might seem mundane in another publication, but they’re truly noteworthy in context given the utter catastrophe that is today’s most recent column by Ali, a nadir that will be discussed elsewhere in NA Confidential later today.
In like fashion, Davis’s intelligent focus on the implications of the 1st Amendment is crucial and appreciated, coming on the same day that one of our self-appointed local inquisitors, Tony Goebel, proposes the embracing of Christian theocracy as a means of warding off Adult DVD -- and with it any misunderstood notion of freedom of speech and freedom of religion hereabouts.
The ‘Bune spasmodically on-line
The YMCA’s current fundraising efforts and Mayor James Garner’s as yet undocumented claim of ripple-effect growth resulting from the project are uncritically discussed.
(As usual, ‘Bune web site updates are as unpredictable as the weather, so a precise link will be provided when it is made available to the long-suffering general public).
Elsewhere in the newspaper, almost lost amid the ephemera of various press releases (sorry, make that “staff reports”), there is a fine column by Joyce Vallance entitled “New businesses have opened in Floyds Knobs,” as well as Dave Davis’s consideration of 1st Amendment issues raised by the recent survey of American young people that showed few if any possessing a clear understanding of free speech (also referenced yesterday here at NA Confidential).
Vallance’s elegantly simple powers of perception, i.e., an ability to look around her, see events happening and describe them in a factual manner, might seem mundane in another publication, but they’re truly noteworthy in context given the utter catastrophe that is today’s most recent column by Ali, a nadir that will be discussed elsewhere in NA Confidential later today.
In like fashion, Davis’s intelligent focus on the implications of the 1st Amendment is crucial and appreciated, coming on the same day that one of our self-appointed local inquisitors, Tony Goebel, proposes the embracing of Christian theocracy as a means of warding off Adult DVD -- and with it any misunderstood notion of freedom of speech and freedom of religion hereabouts.
The ‘Bune spasmodically on-line
Saturday, February 05, 2005
Praise the Lord and pass the Wal-Mart circular
It didn’t occur to me until we were driving home from Louisville’s recently remodeled “international” airport that at no time during the past week’s Maine sojourn did I find myself doing what I usually do while riding in a car, which is viciously mock the insipid messages on those immense billboards looming above our highways.
That’s because in Maine, there aren’t any billboards.
But back home in Lou-a-vull, mine eyes hath freshly seen the glory of the Gutter Helmet, and somebody’s news team, and the University of Louisville’s move to the Big East …
We interrupt this rant for a strange interlude.
“Have we got a college? Have we got a football team? ... Well, we can't afford both. Tomorrow we start tearing down the college.”
Groucho Marx (as Prof. Quincy Adams Wagstaff) in the movie “Horse Feathers.”
… and my favorite of all, the anti-abortion billboards on I-64 westbound just before the Sherman Minton Bridge, which embarrassingly marks us as fundamentalist savages to anyone driving through town who isn’t from the Deep South.
As a society, exactly how is it that we manage to preserve any semblance of intelligence at all, when we’ve consented to surround ourselves 24/7 with all manner of visual and verbal attacks on what’s left of that same intelligence?
In this vein, here’s something to mull over whilst enjoying the morning java:
First Amendment No Big Deal, Students Say
That’s because in Maine, there aren’t any billboards.
But back home in Lou-a-vull, mine eyes hath freshly seen the glory of the Gutter Helmet, and somebody’s news team, and the University of Louisville’s move to the Big East …
We interrupt this rant for a strange interlude.
“Have we got a college? Have we got a football team? ... Well, we can't afford both. Tomorrow we start tearing down the college.”
Groucho Marx (as Prof. Quincy Adams Wagstaff) in the movie “Horse Feathers.”
… and my favorite of all, the anti-abortion billboards on I-64 westbound just before the Sherman Minton Bridge, which embarrassingly marks us as fundamentalist savages to anyone driving through town who isn’t from the Deep South.
As a society, exactly how is it that we manage to preserve any semblance of intelligence at all, when we’ve consented to surround ourselves 24/7 with all manner of visual and verbal attacks on what’s left of that same intelligence?
In this vein, here’s something to mull over whilst enjoying the morning java:
First Amendment No Big Deal, Students Say
Almost, but not quite, as appropriate as V.I. Lenin's "Peace. Bread. Land."
A good book (and espresso here and there) helps to pass the time during a long flying day …
The first chapters of John Barry’s book, “The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History,” are given over to the author’s recounting of the history and development of medical science.
In essence, Barry writes, medicine changed little for 2,000 years owing to a reluctance to apply scientific methods to the theory and practice of it. Medicine remained an obstinate realm of quackery, of humors, miasmas, and the interference of theology with science.
Eventually technology provided instruments such as the microscope, and daring pioneers proposed to link biology and chemistry to a potential doctor’s educational qualifications, but for the most part these innovations were ignored and the bleeding and mustard plasters continued with the full approval of society’s movers and shakers.
In fact, 19th-century American medical schools were an unvarnished joke, accepting anyone able to afford tuition irrespective of educational background. Poorly educated and barely trained doctors became increasingly discredited in America, while in Europe, researchers like Pasteur and Koch raced ahead with crucial scientific discoveries with vast implications for the future.
The balance only began to shift when a small and determined group of visionaries took advantage of a huge bequest and founded Johns Hopkins as the first research university in the United States, patterning it on European lines.
Author Barry points out that the visionary founders of Johns Hopkins proceeded with their organizational work as though in a vacuum, because American medicine’s degradation at the time was so complete that they could draw on no foundation or local experience for such an endeavor. Instead, they modeled Johns Hopkins on Europe’s research universities … and succeeded in the end.
By persevering, Barry notes, these visionaries created “a revolution from nothing.”
A revolution from nothing. Nice phrase, that.
Have a pleasant New Albanian weekend.
The first chapters of John Barry’s book, “The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History,” are given over to the author’s recounting of the history and development of medical science.
In essence, Barry writes, medicine changed little for 2,000 years owing to a reluctance to apply scientific methods to the theory and practice of it. Medicine remained an obstinate realm of quackery, of humors, miasmas, and the interference of theology with science.
Eventually technology provided instruments such as the microscope, and daring pioneers proposed to link biology and chemistry to a potential doctor’s educational qualifications, but for the most part these innovations were ignored and the bleeding and mustard plasters continued with the full approval of society’s movers and shakers.
In fact, 19th-century American medical schools were an unvarnished joke, accepting anyone able to afford tuition irrespective of educational background. Poorly educated and barely trained doctors became increasingly discredited in America, while in Europe, researchers like Pasteur and Koch raced ahead with crucial scientific discoveries with vast implications for the future.
The balance only began to shift when a small and determined group of visionaries took advantage of a huge bequest and founded Johns Hopkins as the first research university in the United States, patterning it on European lines.
Author Barry points out that the visionary founders of Johns Hopkins proceeded with their organizational work as though in a vacuum, because American medicine’s degradation at the time was so complete that they could draw on no foundation or local experience for such an endeavor. Instead, they modeled Johns Hopkins on Europe’s research universities … and succeeded in the end.
By persevering, Barry notes, these visionaries created “a revolution from nothing.”
A revolution from nothing. Nice phrase, that.
Have a pleasant New Albanian weekend.
Friday, February 04, 2005
New Albany's debilitating dysfunction & Pogo's famous axiom
It all seems so quintessentially New Albanian.
Verily, to live in New Albany is to intuitively grasp the existential condition best illustrated by the late philosopher (and sometimes cartoonist) Charles M. Schultz.
You recall the scene.
Charlie Brown eyes the crossbars and runs to kick the football, only to be denied his chance when Lucy pulls it away, leaving him lying on the ground, humiliated but with sufficient self-knowledge to understand that he is doomed to repeat the process over and over and over.
This recurring, quasi-Sisyphusian saga is New Albany’s dominant civic motif.
Thus, it should come as no surprise that $2 million is borrowed during a previous mayoral administration, the transaction promptly forgotten as though it were a scribbled phone number on a cocktail napkin, then allowed to lie unexamined like a booby-trapped land mine until uncovered by an outside auditor, necessitating immediate and painful budgetary revisions, offering an opportunity for small-pond politicians at all levels to play politics, and leaving those few New Albanians who give a damn about any of it lying on their backs in the dust, staring at the sun, asking of no one in particular …
What is the nature of the “disease” that grips New Albany?
Is there a cure for it?*
NA Confidential proposes that we undertake to measure the suitability of our elected public officials, both those serving now and the ones certain to bob to the surface during future election campaigns, by their willingness to acknowledge these two questions and their ability to offer answers.
Furthermore, we suggest that this examination not be restricted to elected officials. Rather, it must extend to those unofficial power elites that sometimes can be seen aiding and abetting our collective New Albanian dysfunction.
Most importantly, as citizens and voters, we must recognize that this process will be incomplete if not accompanied by a concurrent willingness to point the mirror toward ourselves as well as in the direction of our “leaders.”
Assigning blame isn’t the point so much as diagnosing the problem and working toward a solution.
Make no mistake: In the wake of this latest epic fiscal fiasco, the urgent need for accountability has taken on renewed significance.
Don’t forget the public forum scheduled for March 2 at Destinations Booksellers. It should be a good place to initiate a process that may eventually help New Albany to get well.
That's because we’ve been unhealthy for far too long.
Mayor: New Albany faces tough decisions; Budget cut may delay some plans, by Ben Zion Hershberg
* Join Volunteer Hoosier for thoughtful discussions of current events in New Albany
Verily, to live in New Albany is to intuitively grasp the existential condition best illustrated by the late philosopher (and sometimes cartoonist) Charles M. Schultz.
You recall the scene.
Charlie Brown eyes the crossbars and runs to kick the football, only to be denied his chance when Lucy pulls it away, leaving him lying on the ground, humiliated but with sufficient self-knowledge to understand that he is doomed to repeat the process over and over and over.
This recurring, quasi-Sisyphusian saga is New Albany’s dominant civic motif.
Thus, it should come as no surprise that $2 million is borrowed during a previous mayoral administration, the transaction promptly forgotten as though it were a scribbled phone number on a cocktail napkin, then allowed to lie unexamined like a booby-trapped land mine until uncovered by an outside auditor, necessitating immediate and painful budgetary revisions, offering an opportunity for small-pond politicians at all levels to play politics, and leaving those few New Albanians who give a damn about any of it lying on their backs in the dust, staring at the sun, asking of no one in particular …
What is the nature of the “disease” that grips New Albany?
Is there a cure for it?*
NA Confidential proposes that we undertake to measure the suitability of our elected public officials, both those serving now and the ones certain to bob to the surface during future election campaigns, by their willingness to acknowledge these two questions and their ability to offer answers.
Furthermore, we suggest that this examination not be restricted to elected officials. Rather, it must extend to those unofficial power elites that sometimes can be seen aiding and abetting our collective New Albanian dysfunction.
Most importantly, as citizens and voters, we must recognize that this process will be incomplete if not accompanied by a concurrent willingness to point the mirror toward ourselves as well as in the direction of our “leaders.”
Assigning blame isn’t the point so much as diagnosing the problem and working toward a solution.
Make no mistake: In the wake of this latest epic fiscal fiasco, the urgent need for accountability has taken on renewed significance.
Don’t forget the public forum scheduled for March 2 at Destinations Booksellers. It should be a good place to initiate a process that may eventually help New Albany to get well.
That's because we’ve been unhealthy for far too long.
Mayor: New Albany faces tough decisions; Budget cut may delay some plans, by Ben Zion Hershberg
* Join Volunteer Hoosier for thoughtful discussions of current events in New Albany
Last night in Portland: Support your right to arm bears
On Thursday evening we had the pleasure of meeting good friend and transplanted Hoosier Mark F. at a renowned Portland institution, the Great Lost Bear.
The pub boasts 54 taps, pouring beer from as many as two dozen Maine craft breweries and others in Vermont, New Hampshire and abroad. Three hand pumps are in use at any given time. The restaurant menu is huge, ranging from pub grub standbys like wings and nachos to eclectic fare like Meatloaf Wellington. The ambience is casual, and it has provided at least one good idea on how to hide a drop ceiling without really trying.
Overnight a light snow of 2 - 3 inches fell, freshly covering the sooty snow piles and dusting the trees. It makes the coffee taste better.
Great Lost Bear
The pub boasts 54 taps, pouring beer from as many as two dozen Maine craft breweries and others in Vermont, New Hampshire and abroad. Three hand pumps are in use at any given time. The restaurant menu is huge, ranging from pub grub standbys like wings and nachos to eclectic fare like Meatloaf Wellington. The ambience is casual, and it has provided at least one good idea on how to hide a drop ceiling without really trying.
Overnight a light snow of 2 - 3 inches fell, freshly covering the sooty snow piles and dusting the trees. It makes the coffee taste better.
Great Lost Bear
Thursday, February 03, 2005
Volunteer Hoosier reports on reactions to 'Bune editor Morris's workplace smoking column
Our fellow crusaders at Volunteer Hoosier pick up threads from a recent NA Confidential consideration of the Tribune's aversion to rationality:
Cross blogging
More "food for thought" to a restaurant/pub owner vacationing in Maine: At least here in the Portland area, smoking is not allowed at eateries, bars and other public places.
Cross blogging
More "food for thought" to a restaurant/pub owner vacationing in Maine: At least here in the Portland area, smoking is not allowed at eateries, bars and other public places.
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
Greetings from a blue state
Maine, to be exact.
A sunny winter’s day was spent wandering the Old Port district in Portland, culminating in an informative visit to Shipyard Brewing Company, Maine’s largest craft brewer.
We enjoyed pastries and espresso in a coffee house the size of a closet, perched atop one of Portland’s hills in an ordinary neighborhood, and relished conversation that would be considered inflammatory to the point of “Communist” in the less sophisticated lexicons of Sodrel Land.
Lunch at Gritty McDuff’s, Portland’s original brewpub, included fresh clam chowder and excellent English-style bitter.
Browsing at the independent bookseller Books, Etc. took longer than expected because Radiohead's masterful “OK Computer” was playing on the sound system. An investment in travel futures was made with the purchase of a book on bicycling in Maine.
More coffee shook away afternoon cobwebs, followed by a harbor walk that revealed wharves alternating between spanking new condominiums and venerable warehouses.
Plenty of snow remains from last week’s latest winter storm, but the streets and sidewalks are clean and filled with people. Barrels of sand are situated near slopes, providing pedestrians with self-help traction.
Our Shipyard brewer/tour guide was hip and Carry-out, barely comprehensible Thai from the Vientiane Grocery sufficed well for dinner.
From lighthouses to lobster boats to snowmobiles, and from the Shed Happens builder’s headquarters to Condom Sense, there are all the things new and unique that makes travel such an enriching experience.
Fresh Portland salt air in – stressed New Albanian air out.
Repeat … with ubiquitous craft beer.
City of Portland, Maine
A sunny winter’s day was spent wandering the Old Port district in Portland, culminating in an informative visit to Shipyard Brewing Company, Maine’s largest craft brewer.
We enjoyed pastries and espresso in a coffee house the size of a closet, perched atop one of Portland’s hills in an ordinary neighborhood, and relished conversation that would be considered inflammatory to the point of “Communist” in the less sophisticated lexicons of Sodrel Land.
Lunch at Gritty McDuff’s, Portland’s original brewpub, included fresh clam chowder and excellent English-style bitter.
Browsing at the independent bookseller Books, Etc. took longer than expected because Radiohead's masterful “OK Computer” was playing on the sound system. An investment in travel futures was made with the purchase of a book on bicycling in Maine.
More coffee shook away afternoon cobwebs, followed by a harbor walk that revealed wharves alternating between spanking new condominiums and venerable warehouses.
Plenty of snow remains from last week’s latest winter storm, but the streets and sidewalks are clean and filled with people. Barrels of sand are situated near slopes, providing pedestrians with self-help traction.
Our Shipyard brewer/tour guide was hip and Carry-out, barely comprehensible Thai from the Vientiane Grocery sufficed well for dinner.
From lighthouses to lobster boats to snowmobiles, and from the Shed Happens builder’s headquarters to Condom Sense, there are all the things new and unique that makes travel such an enriching experience.
Fresh Portland salt air in – stressed New Albanian air out.
Repeat … with ubiquitous craft beer.
City of Portland, Maine
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
City counts spare change as Adult DVD readies for opening
According to the Courier-Journal's Ben Zion Hershberg, it's nothing but bad news for New Albany today as the city's brain trust contemplates its next headlong retreat in a laughably ill-considered struggle against 1st Amendment rights.
(1) No matter what else happens in the short term, Adult DVD is free to open its doors at the current location in the west end.
(2) If the city of New Albany, having suffered a $69,000 defeat in its first skirmish with Adult DVD, wishes to whip the store in court, it will have to wait as much as two years and allow the store's operation to continue at the current site until then.
(3) Accordingly, the city proposes to settle with Adult DVD, which might cost as much as $350,000.
You read that right ... $350,000.
(4) Because the fiscal dike has sprung another leak -- the city just learned that it owes $2 million on an unpaid loan dating to 2003 -- there probably isn't any money for such a settlement unless Adult DVD agrees to a cup of coffee and a handshake at Little Chef.
Shall we all begin selling adult materials and queue up for the buy-out?
Unpaid loan may restrict/hinder settlement - New Albany still at odds with store, by Ben Zion Hershberg
(1) No matter what else happens in the short term, Adult DVD is free to open its doors at the current location in the west end.
(2) If the city of New Albany, having suffered a $69,000 defeat in its first skirmish with Adult DVD, wishes to whip the store in court, it will have to wait as much as two years and allow the store's operation to continue at the current site until then.
(3) Accordingly, the city proposes to settle with Adult DVD, which might cost as much as $350,000.
You read that right ... $350,000.
(4) Because the fiscal dike has sprung another leak -- the city just learned that it owes $2 million on an unpaid loan dating to 2003 -- there probably isn't any money for such a settlement unless Adult DVD agrees to a cup of coffee and a handshake at Little Chef.
Shall we all begin selling adult materials and queue up for the buy-out?
Unpaid loan may restrict/hinder settlement - New Albany still at odds with store, by Ben Zion Hershberg
Monday, January 31, 2005
Meet Paul Wheatley, NA's new economic development director
In today's ‘Bune, Amany Ali profiles New Albany’s freshly hired economic development director, 24-year-old Paul Wheatley.
As noted already by Volunteer Hoosier, Wheatley provides an interesting sound bite with this:
"Certainly, the city of New Albany needs a bit of revitalization. We need your anchor-type stores, which would attract other stores."
A “bit”?
Ali adds:
“Wheatley said Scribner Place will eventually be an anchor project, as would such businesses as book stores.”
Geez, looks like Randy’s already plucked him.
New development director looks to future, by Amany Ali, Tribune City Editor
As noted already by Volunteer Hoosier, Wheatley provides an interesting sound bite with this:
"Certainly, the city of New Albany needs a bit of revitalization. We need your anchor-type stores, which would attract other stores."
A “bit”?
Ali adds:
“Wheatley said Scribner Place will eventually be an anchor project, as would such businesses as book stores.”
Geez, looks like Randy’s already plucked him.
New development director looks to future, by Amany Ali, Tribune City Editor
Our Sunday walk down Pearl Street
NA Confidential joined Volunteer Hoosier’s downtown mapping foray on Sunday, as described in:
Taking a walk.
Taking a walk.
Sunday, January 30, 2005
Johnny Carson ’s dead … long live Floyd R. Turbo, American
knee-jerk
Function: adjective: readily predictable
: AUTOMATIC <knee-jerk reactions>; also : reacting in a readily predictable way <knee-jerk conservatives>
Today in the New Albany Tribune, Managing Editor Chris Morris hands over the editorial slot to the renowned former 9th District congressman Lee Hamilton and moves to Amany Ali’s usual place in the center of the page for a column of his own, entitled “Reading this could lead to termination.”
Boy, should it, but almost certainly not in the way the ‘Bune’s resident sportsman intends as he selects what he perceives as a likely cream puff of a slo-pitch softball from last week’s wire service reports, gives it his best Ruthian uppercut … and pops out weakly to the catcher.
Take it away, Chris.
“How would you like to work for a company that has the right to tell you how to live? They could dictate what you eat, whether or not you could smoke, and if you can have an occasional beer?
“Well, that company already exists.
“Last week, a Michigan health care company fired four of its employees for refusing to take a test to determine whether they smoke cigarettes. The company enacted a new policy this month allowing workers to be fired if they smoke, even if that smoking takes place after hours or at home.”
That’s just the beginning.
It gets far, far worse.
Anyone who ever watched Jerry Springer, listened to Rush Limbaugh, voted for the tickets of George Wallace and Ross Perot, drank Bud Light at Hugh E. Bir’s in the company of an ash tray piled so high with butts that the whiskey bottles on the back bar have completely disappeared, looked furtively at the headlines of the check-out line tabloids, enjoyed 3-for-1 Big Bufords for lunch and dinner after a breakfast of Big Red and Tostitos, drove to the foot of the 50-yard-long driveway to get the mail, shook his or her fist in impotent fury at the way those book-smart pointy-headed elites dump all over the common folk … or, became by an accident of geography a member of that most unfortunate of species, the Tribune subscriber, knows what sort of “reasoning” that Chris will use to attack Weyco Inc., the straw man in this lamentable exercise in non-journalism.
Back to Chris for a medley of gems.
“Since when did smoking a cigarette at home, on your own time, become so terrible that it can get you fired? … (it’s) an attack on one’s freedoms … I thought Saddam Hussein was in prison … free people (should be) allowed to do legal activities … the reason for the Gestapo tactics is to help the company save money on insurance claims … all we can do is wait, and hope a court will tell this business owner that we are not living in Nazi Germany.”
Chris, what about Al-Qaida, or did mentioning Saddam imply the presence of Osama bin Laden in the Bushian sense?
Or worse yet, could it be Archie Bunker’s pinko faggots?
Have we already forgotten about the Communist Threat?
Flouride in the drinking water?
There are times when living in this town makes one want to scream, and this is one of them.
But before tackling these and other meaningless questions, NA Confidential proposes a revolutionary act of breathtaking simplicity.
Unlike the New Albany Tribune, we’ll provide you with another side to the story. It’s as easy as traveling to the web site of the company in question, consulting it, and weighing the options for yourself.
After doing so, you may well conclude that Chris’s viewpoint is the one for you, that he is correct, and that there is no excuse for such tyranny on the part of dastardly bosses.
Conversely, you may also decide that the issues involved are complex and deserving of reflection, not hyperbole, and that there’s more to all of it than inflammatory references to freedom, bogey men and the sort of “thinking by spit ball” that is practiced by junior high school students and other sufferers from excessive hormones.
The point is this: By doing so, you will have exercised your brain.
And, you will not have assumed that all New Albanians who read the Tribune are imbeciles and should be told only what they want to hear and are capable of understanding.
So, go to Weyco, and make sure to read the text of the company’s “Drug, Alcohol, and Tobacco-Free Workplace Policy”.
Back with us?
Frankly, NA Confidential is troubled that Chris Morris, who at heart is a good person, a frequent advocate of educational issues and a consistent supporter of learning when it comes to our city’s schools, shows so little recognition for these concepts in his column.
We have a right to expect a higher standard from someone who occupies a position of authority.
Sure, it’s a feel-good sort of venting to carelessly throw terms like “Nazi” and “Gestapo” and “Communist” and “Terrorist” around in the same way that the proverbial drunken sailor tosses barroom furniture onto the street.
But it’s also pandering to the lowest common denominator in human discourse, which is the intellectually lazy desire to eschew rationality and blame an enemy.
Any enemy’s fine, just so long as righteous indignation is allowed to outweigh the distinctive human ability to think the problem through to a solution.
It remains that progress in human affairs occurs through the exercise of the brain, not the emptying of the spleen.
Furthermore, Chris’s choice of comparative bogeymen is both disproportionate given the target of his rant, and insulting to the memory of the victims of real-life Nazism and the Gestapo.
Simply stated, as yet there are no deep, dark, Nazi-level fundamental human rights violations to be found in the decision of a private health care company to formulate rules for employment that differ very little from rules that employees have been observing for centuries … that is, observing if they wish to keep their jobs.
Chris might explore the many questions that arise from Weyco’s policy rather than attack all of them based on just one having to do with smoking.
For example, to what extent is employment in America a “right”? Is that in the Bill of Rights? Is it written anywhere at all?
In America, there are laws prohibiting employment discrimination on ethnic and religious grounds. Do these pertain to regulating the playing field with respect to seeking employment, or do they imply that we have an inalienable right to permanent employment under our own terms?
Actually, our society has not mandated the individual’s right to specific employment at a specific company to perform a specific job. Instead, we recognize a regulated variant of unfettered capitalism whereby these matters are resolved contractually between employer and employee.
As a side note, NA Confidential can’t help but speculate as to the nature of Chris’s views on labor unionism. There are those who would suggest that the presence of strong unions might reduce the incidence of employer tyranny.
Obviously, to unthinkingly use words like “Nazi” and “Gestapo” as character references in the context of Chris’s screed manages only to cheapen and trivialize their significance within the framework of history.
For proof of this, Chris might consider perusing an article in yesterday's Courier-Journal on the topic of Auschwitz.
Chris, the systematic and violent deprivation of human rights by state-sanctioned, jack-booted thugs is what the Gestapo symbolizes, not the imposition of a non-smoking rule in an air-conditioned workplace.
Chris, the calculated slaughter of millions of Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals and “undesirables” of all ages and sexes is what Nazism symbolizes, not a private company’s desire to help its employees be healthier while saving money on insurance premiums in the process.
Chris, living in New Albany should not imply the meek acceptance of lowest common denominators, ignorance and mediocrity. Genuine community leadership should challenge and seek to uplift, not pander and permit to dumb down.
How do Chris Morris and his superiors at the Tribune vote on this issue? The proof’s in the newspaper, and it’s as sad a commentary as Chris’s column is today.
Doesn't anyone hear believe in getting better?
Function: adjective: readily predictable
: AUTOMATIC <knee-jerk reactions>; also : reacting in a readily predictable way <knee-jerk conservatives>
Today in the New Albany Tribune, Managing Editor Chris Morris hands over the editorial slot to the renowned former 9th District congressman Lee Hamilton and moves to Amany Ali’s usual place in the center of the page for a column of his own, entitled “Reading this could lead to termination.”
Boy, should it, but almost certainly not in the way the ‘Bune’s resident sportsman intends as he selects what he perceives as a likely cream puff of a slo-pitch softball from last week’s wire service reports, gives it his best Ruthian uppercut … and pops out weakly to the catcher.
Take it away, Chris.
“How would you like to work for a company that has the right to tell you how to live? They could dictate what you eat, whether or not you could smoke, and if you can have an occasional beer?
“Well, that company already exists.
“Last week, a Michigan health care company fired four of its employees for refusing to take a test to determine whether they smoke cigarettes. The company enacted a new policy this month allowing workers to be fired if they smoke, even if that smoking takes place after hours or at home.”
That’s just the beginning.
It gets far, far worse.
Anyone who ever watched Jerry Springer, listened to Rush Limbaugh, voted for the tickets of George Wallace and Ross Perot, drank Bud Light at Hugh E. Bir’s in the company of an ash tray piled so high with butts that the whiskey bottles on the back bar have completely disappeared, looked furtively at the headlines of the check-out line tabloids, enjoyed 3-for-1 Big Bufords for lunch and dinner after a breakfast of Big Red and Tostitos, drove to the foot of the 50-yard-long driveway to get the mail, shook his or her fist in impotent fury at the way those book-smart pointy-headed elites dump all over the common folk … or, became by an accident of geography a member of that most unfortunate of species, the Tribune subscriber, knows what sort of “reasoning” that Chris will use to attack Weyco Inc., the straw man in this lamentable exercise in non-journalism.
Back to Chris for a medley of gems.
“Since when did smoking a cigarette at home, on your own time, become so terrible that it can get you fired? … (it’s) an attack on one’s freedoms … I thought Saddam Hussein was in prison … free people (should be) allowed to do legal activities … the reason for the Gestapo tactics is to help the company save money on insurance claims … all we can do is wait, and hope a court will tell this business owner that we are not living in Nazi Germany.”
Chris, what about Al-Qaida, or did mentioning Saddam imply the presence of Osama bin Laden in the Bushian sense?
Or worse yet, could it be Archie Bunker’s pinko faggots?
Have we already forgotten about the Communist Threat?
Flouride in the drinking water?
There are times when living in this town makes one want to scream, and this is one of them.
But before tackling these and other meaningless questions, NA Confidential proposes a revolutionary act of breathtaking simplicity.
Unlike the New Albany Tribune, we’ll provide you with another side to the story. It’s as easy as traveling to the web site of the company in question, consulting it, and weighing the options for yourself.
After doing so, you may well conclude that Chris’s viewpoint is the one for you, that he is correct, and that there is no excuse for such tyranny on the part of dastardly bosses.
Conversely, you may also decide that the issues involved are complex and deserving of reflection, not hyperbole, and that there’s more to all of it than inflammatory references to freedom, bogey men and the sort of “thinking by spit ball” that is practiced by junior high school students and other sufferers from excessive hormones.
The point is this: By doing so, you will have exercised your brain.
And, you will not have assumed that all New Albanians who read the Tribune are imbeciles and should be told only what they want to hear and are capable of understanding.
So, go to Weyco, and make sure to read the text of the company’s “Drug, Alcohol, and Tobacco-Free Workplace Policy”.
Back with us?
Frankly, NA Confidential is troubled that Chris Morris, who at heart is a good person, a frequent advocate of educational issues and a consistent supporter of learning when it comes to our city’s schools, shows so little recognition for these concepts in his column.
We have a right to expect a higher standard from someone who occupies a position of authority.
Sure, it’s a feel-good sort of venting to carelessly throw terms like “Nazi” and “Gestapo” and “Communist” and “Terrorist” around in the same way that the proverbial drunken sailor tosses barroom furniture onto the street.
But it’s also pandering to the lowest common denominator in human discourse, which is the intellectually lazy desire to eschew rationality and blame an enemy.
Any enemy’s fine, just so long as righteous indignation is allowed to outweigh the distinctive human ability to think the problem through to a solution.
It remains that progress in human affairs occurs through the exercise of the brain, not the emptying of the spleen.
Furthermore, Chris’s choice of comparative bogeymen is both disproportionate given the target of his rant, and insulting to the memory of the victims of real-life Nazism and the Gestapo.
Simply stated, as yet there are no deep, dark, Nazi-level fundamental human rights violations to be found in the decision of a private health care company to formulate rules for employment that differ very little from rules that employees have been observing for centuries … that is, observing if they wish to keep their jobs.
Chris might explore the many questions that arise from Weyco’s policy rather than attack all of them based on just one having to do with smoking.
For example, to what extent is employment in America a “right”? Is that in the Bill of Rights? Is it written anywhere at all?
In America, there are laws prohibiting employment discrimination on ethnic and religious grounds. Do these pertain to regulating the playing field with respect to seeking employment, or do they imply that we have an inalienable right to permanent employment under our own terms?
Actually, our society has not mandated the individual’s right to specific employment at a specific company to perform a specific job. Instead, we recognize a regulated variant of unfettered capitalism whereby these matters are resolved contractually between employer and employee.
As a side note, NA Confidential can’t help but speculate as to the nature of Chris’s views on labor unionism. There are those who would suggest that the presence of strong unions might reduce the incidence of employer tyranny.
Obviously, to unthinkingly use words like “Nazi” and “Gestapo” as character references in the context of Chris’s screed manages only to cheapen and trivialize their significance within the framework of history.
For proof of this, Chris might consider perusing an article in yesterday's Courier-Journal on the topic of Auschwitz.
Chris, the systematic and violent deprivation of human rights by state-sanctioned, jack-booted thugs is what the Gestapo symbolizes, not the imposition of a non-smoking rule in an air-conditioned workplace.
Chris, the calculated slaughter of millions of Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals and “undesirables” of all ages and sexes is what Nazism symbolizes, not a private company’s desire to help its employees be healthier while saving money on insurance premiums in the process.
Chris, living in New Albany should not imply the meek acceptance of lowest common denominators, ignorance and mediocrity. Genuine community leadership should challenge and seek to uplift, not pander and permit to dumb down.
How do Chris Morris and his superiors at the Tribune vote on this issue? The proof’s in the newspaper, and it’s as sad a commentary as Chris’s column is today.
Doesn't anyone hear believe in getting better?
The C-J's Dale Moss visits wireless Scottsburg
"We felt it important to have broadband as a utility -- almost like water and power and everything else."
The Scottsburg, Indiana business owner quoted by the Courier-Journal’s tireless columnist Dale Moss is one of 600 subscribers to the town’s high-speed wireless Internet service, installed at a cost of $385,000.
Why has tiny Scottsburg, with a population of 6,000, chosen to act? According to Mayor Bill Graham, “The one thing I do know is change is coming so quickly."
Town spins a wireless Web so businesses won't escape, by Dale Moss
The Scottsburg, Indiana business owner quoted by the Courier-Journal’s tireless columnist Dale Moss is one of 600 subscribers to the town’s high-speed wireless Internet service, installed at a cost of $385,000.
Why has tiny Scottsburg, with a population of 6,000, chosen to act? According to Mayor Bill Graham, “The one thing I do know is change is coming so quickly."
Town spins a wireless Web so businesses won't escape, by Dale Moss
Saturday, January 29, 2005
Historic Shrader Stable Buildings Stabilization and Rehabilitation Project?
From Friday, here’s one we missed. Reader input is welcomed.
According to John Gilkey of the Evening News, both Utica (in Clark County) and New Albany “will benefit from an action this week by the Kentuckiana Regional Planning and Development Agency's Transportation Policy Committee … The panel agreed to make improvements to Utica's Fourth Street and New Albany's Shrader Stable eligible for transportation enhancement funds.”
Gilkey writes that New Albany’s “grant states, ‘The Historic Shrader Stable Buildings Stabilization and Rehabilitation Project will preserve an extremely rare historic transportation structure that is one of just two known stable structures remaining in an urban environment. The project will be an important element in the major downtown New Albany redevelopment project known as Scribner Place, which includes the development of a YMCA and a municipal natatorium, as well as private redevelopment initiatives.’"
And: “The stable buildings are located in downtown New Albany, west of the intersection of State Street and West Main.”
I can't place these buildings in the mind's eye ... are they the dark green ones next to the funky storefront tabernacle opposite the doomed tire center?
The article goes on to say that these “restoration funds will be used to stabilize the building and are not enough to fund the building's renovation,” and that once restored, Mayor Garner indicates an intention to sell the buildings for use as offices.
Do any of you know about this?
I googled “Shrader Stables” and came up with an old photo in the funeral home’s web site.
Utica, New Albany projects get green light from KIPDA, by John L. Gilkey, Senior Editor
According to John Gilkey of the Evening News, both Utica (in Clark County) and New Albany “will benefit from an action this week by the Kentuckiana Regional Planning and Development Agency's Transportation Policy Committee … The panel agreed to make improvements to Utica's Fourth Street and New Albany's Shrader Stable eligible for transportation enhancement funds.”
Gilkey writes that New Albany’s “grant states, ‘The Historic Shrader Stable Buildings Stabilization and Rehabilitation Project will preserve an extremely rare historic transportation structure that is one of just two known stable structures remaining in an urban environment. The project will be an important element in the major downtown New Albany redevelopment project known as Scribner Place, which includes the development of a YMCA and a municipal natatorium, as well as private redevelopment initiatives.’"
And: “The stable buildings are located in downtown New Albany, west of the intersection of State Street and West Main.”
I can't place these buildings in the mind's eye ... are they the dark green ones next to the funky storefront tabernacle opposite the doomed tire center?
The article goes on to say that these “restoration funds will be used to stabilize the building and are not enough to fund the building's renovation,” and that once restored, Mayor Garner indicates an intention to sell the buildings for use as offices.
Do any of you know about this?
I googled “Shrader Stables” and came up with an old photo in the funeral home’s web site.
Utica, New Albany projects get green light from KIPDA, by John L. Gilkey, Senior Editor
End-of-week-reading from fellow New Albanian bloggers Volunteer Hoosier and NA Renewal
If you haven’t seen the latest postings at Volunteer Hoosier, consider taking a look.
Here are the three most recent, each broaching a matter of importance not otherwise referenced in NA Confidential.
What have you heard?
"Have you written your legislators about House Bill No. 1148?"
Skittishness in "Mayberry"
"The Charlestown City Council tabled its motion to join in and issue bonds for a universal wireless broadband public-private partnership."
A correction?
"A conversation with city operations director Anthony B. Toran last evening indicates that Mr. Cory Earl is still on duty."
Over at New Albany Renewal, there are three new postings.
"New Albany Renewal is intended to serve as a repository for ideas relevant to preserving and restoring historic buildings, cleaning up neighboorhoods, revitalizing downtown, and improving the quality of life in New Albany, Indiana."
Develop New Albany Debuts Website
"Develop New Albany is a non-profit organization that supports historic preservation and economic development of the downtown district."
Museums Bring Tourists
"The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, which opened in August, honors a part of history that is both important to the Cincinnati area where it is located and has a wider audience."
Build It and They Will Come?
A business partnership built the Newport Aquarium in Newport, KY.
Here are the three most recent, each broaching a matter of importance not otherwise referenced in NA Confidential.
What have you heard?
"Have you written your legislators about House Bill No. 1148?"
Skittishness in "Mayberry"
"The Charlestown City Council tabled its motion to join in and issue bonds for a universal wireless broadband public-private partnership."
A correction?
"A conversation with city operations director Anthony B. Toran last evening indicates that Mr. Cory Earl is still on duty."
Over at New Albany Renewal, there are three new postings.
"New Albany Renewal is intended to serve as a repository for ideas relevant to preserving and restoring historic buildings, cleaning up neighboorhoods, revitalizing downtown, and improving the quality of life in New Albany, Indiana."
Develop New Albany Debuts Website
"Develop New Albany is a non-profit organization that supports historic preservation and economic development of the downtown district."
Museums Bring Tourists
"The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, which opened in August, honors a part of history that is both important to the Cincinnati area where it is located and has a wider audience."
Build It and They Will Come?
A business partnership built the Newport Aquarium in Newport, KY.
Friday, January 28, 2005
Blevins, Laduke and Toran appear before the East Spring Street Neighborhood Association
Last evening, members of the East Spring Street Neighborhood Association became something approximating a “test audience.”
The result was a very informative meeting.
Republican Steve Laduke, a member both of the Building Commission and the Board of Public Works & Safety, and Democrat Tony Toran, City Operations Director and President of the BPWS, have resolved to go “on the road” to meet with neighborhood and civic organizations.
It is their intention to remain non-partisan while not shying away from politics (at least on Steve's part), to answer questions lost in the confusion of City Council meetings, and most importantly, to provide information to the public about the best way to solve problems and get things done.
As an added bonus, Councilman at Large Donnie Blevins opened the meeting by commenting in an earnest and forthright manner on methods of, and difficulties with, garbage collection in New Albany.
He explained the nature of problems with the garbage trucks leased during the Overton administration, adding that in his role as councilman, he will ask for money to purchase two back-loading trucks.
Then, returning to the topic of public speaking time at City Council meetings, Steve and Tony endeavored to establish the roles and responsibilities of various components of city government and its departments, stressing that much of the congestion at City Council meetings would be relieved by citizens taking their concerns about services to the weekly Tuesday morning Board of Public Works meetings, where mechanisms exist for resolution.
Furthermore, it was pointedly noted that concerns relayed by citizens to their elected council representatives also should be presented before the BPWS. To illustrate this point, Steve produced complete minutes from 2004 BPWS meetings that showed which council members had taken constituent problems to the board.
According to the minutes, only Bill Schmidt (numerous times), Larry Kochert and Donnie Blevins did so in 2004.
The message was clear, to the point, and buttressed by the presence of Donnie, who agreed that City Council members may or may not know correct procedures, and may or may not play by the rules when they do, for what might be political reasons – or, as Steve answered when asked by an audience member, for the sake of "power."
Before Steve is attacked for his candor, let it be known that he is not the first observer of political science to note that the fundamental objective of politics is determining the nature of power and who shall wield it.
In fact, by some definitions, New Albany may arrive as a player only when the power sought by politicians rises above that of the penny-ante into the realm of genuine megalomania.
The logic goes something like this: If a City Council member knows that complaints about snow removal are best taken to the BPWS, whether by a constituent or by the council member on behalf of the constituent, and then knows that to voice such concerns at a City Council meeting is in effect to address the wrong forum with the least effectiveness, then why continue to listen to such complaints without making an effort to inform the constituent that his or her precious time is better spent at the BPWS meetings, or, better yet, volunteering to be the conduit for transmission of the complaint?
Why continue to pose as an arbiter during the wrong session?
Answer: Certain council members wish to have more control over the city’s affairs than currently is mandated, therefore to cynically encourage the notion that council meetings are the proper forum for complaints is to artfully deflect blame for subsequent inaction toward the Mayor’s office – without accepting responsibility for actually seeking solutions, or acknowledging their own obligation to relay the complaint to the appropriate authority.
It's one theory.
None of this is meant to suggest that citizens not appear before the City Council and take their opportunity to address the members on broader issues of importance.
None of this is to suggest that Mayor Garner not consider periodic public forums to take his office to the people in the manner that Steve and Tony took theirs to Muir Manor last evening.
None of this is to deny that Steve and Tony occasionally were caught making an almost too unified case designed to volley public scrutiny back toward the City Council.
However, it is to suggest that finally, an effort has been made to relay the “right” information to the public. The best way to find out whether Steve's and Tony's information is "right" is to test it by utilizing the BPWS and seeing what actually happens.
NA Confidential detected one interesting side note to the proceedings.
Entirely inadvertently, and with absolutely no visible axe to grind, Tony Toran may have made too good a case as to his own utility in the current chain of command.
He spoke thoughtfully and persuasively of the role played by the Board of Public Works, and observed with sincerity that his board presidency and his job as City Operations chief combine to provide wonderful opportunities for him to play his favored role of non-partisan problem solver, which he was able to extend to the City Council on a recent occasion when Mayor Garner was absent, with tangible and optimistic results.
So, uh, hmm ... will the real Mayor of New Albany please stand up? Indeed, 2007 draws ever closer.
For the record: The Board of Public Works and Safety meets each Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. in the third-floor assembly room of the City-County Building. City department heads are required to be in attendance. Everyone involved with the board understands that it is difficult for working citizens to attend, so you are encouraged to transmit concerns to Tony Toran as well as to your council member.
The result was a very informative meeting.
Republican Steve Laduke, a member both of the Building Commission and the Board of Public Works & Safety, and Democrat Tony Toran, City Operations Director and President of the BPWS, have resolved to go “on the road” to meet with neighborhood and civic organizations.
It is their intention to remain non-partisan while not shying away from politics (at least on Steve's part), to answer questions lost in the confusion of City Council meetings, and most importantly, to provide information to the public about the best way to solve problems and get things done.
As an added bonus, Councilman at Large Donnie Blevins opened the meeting by commenting in an earnest and forthright manner on methods of, and difficulties with, garbage collection in New Albany.
He explained the nature of problems with the garbage trucks leased during the Overton administration, adding that in his role as councilman, he will ask for money to purchase two back-loading trucks.
Then, returning to the topic of public speaking time at City Council meetings, Steve and Tony endeavored to establish the roles and responsibilities of various components of city government and its departments, stressing that much of the congestion at City Council meetings would be relieved by citizens taking their concerns about services to the weekly Tuesday morning Board of Public Works meetings, where mechanisms exist for resolution.
Furthermore, it was pointedly noted that concerns relayed by citizens to their elected council representatives also should be presented before the BPWS. To illustrate this point, Steve produced complete minutes from 2004 BPWS meetings that showed which council members had taken constituent problems to the board.
According to the minutes, only Bill Schmidt (numerous times), Larry Kochert and Donnie Blevins did so in 2004.
The message was clear, to the point, and buttressed by the presence of Donnie, who agreed that City Council members may or may not know correct procedures, and may or may not play by the rules when they do, for what might be political reasons – or, as Steve answered when asked by an audience member, for the sake of "power."
Before Steve is attacked for his candor, let it be known that he is not the first observer of political science to note that the fundamental objective of politics is determining the nature of power and who shall wield it.
In fact, by some definitions, New Albany may arrive as a player only when the power sought by politicians rises above that of the penny-ante into the realm of genuine megalomania.
The logic goes something like this: If a City Council member knows that complaints about snow removal are best taken to the BPWS, whether by a constituent or by the council member on behalf of the constituent, and then knows that to voice such concerns at a City Council meeting is in effect to address the wrong forum with the least effectiveness, then why continue to listen to such complaints without making an effort to inform the constituent that his or her precious time is better spent at the BPWS meetings, or, better yet, volunteering to be the conduit for transmission of the complaint?
Why continue to pose as an arbiter during the wrong session?
Answer: Certain council members wish to have more control over the city’s affairs than currently is mandated, therefore to cynically encourage the notion that council meetings are the proper forum for complaints is to artfully deflect blame for subsequent inaction toward the Mayor’s office – without accepting responsibility for actually seeking solutions, or acknowledging their own obligation to relay the complaint to the appropriate authority.
It's one theory.
None of this is meant to suggest that citizens not appear before the City Council and take their opportunity to address the members on broader issues of importance.
None of this is to suggest that Mayor Garner not consider periodic public forums to take his office to the people in the manner that Steve and Tony took theirs to Muir Manor last evening.
None of this is to deny that Steve and Tony occasionally were caught making an almost too unified case designed to volley public scrutiny back toward the City Council.
However, it is to suggest that finally, an effort has been made to relay the “right” information to the public. The best way to find out whether Steve's and Tony's information is "right" is to test it by utilizing the BPWS and seeing what actually happens.
NA Confidential detected one interesting side note to the proceedings.
Entirely inadvertently, and with absolutely no visible axe to grind, Tony Toran may have made too good a case as to his own utility in the current chain of command.
He spoke thoughtfully and persuasively of the role played by the Board of Public Works, and observed with sincerity that his board presidency and his job as City Operations chief combine to provide wonderful opportunities for him to play his favored role of non-partisan problem solver, which he was able to extend to the City Council on a recent occasion when Mayor Garner was absent, with tangible and optimistic results.
So, uh, hmm ... will the real Mayor of New Albany please stand up? Indeed, 2007 draws ever closer.
For the record: The Board of Public Works and Safety meets each Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. in the third-floor assembly room of the City-County Building. City department heads are required to be in attendance. Everyone involved with the board understands that it is difficult for working citizens to attend, so you are encouraged to transmit concerns to Tony Toran as well as to your council member.
Making It happen: A symbolic Groucho Marx quote for Friday
From the movie "A Day at the Races" comes this gem:
Man: Are you a man or a mouse?
Groucho: Put a piece of cheese on the floor and you'll find out.
Man: Are you a man or a mouse?
Groucho: Put a piece of cheese on the floor and you'll find out.
Thursday, January 27, 2005
We begin the task of collecting contact information for the city officials
As has been remarked numerous times of late, the city of New Albany’s web site leaves much to be desired compared with those maintained by cities of comparable size.
Fortunately, one of the most important sections, that of City Clerk Marcey Wisman, is complete and certainly will assist citizens in the navigation of her office’s myriad duties.
The remainder of the web site is inconsequential, at best.
Late last year, the topic of the city’s site was raised at a meeting of the East Spring Street Neighborhood Association. The evening’s guest speaker, the estimable City Operations chief Anthony “Tony” Toran, noted that the site admittedly would require much further development, but that it was far less expensive than the far more comprehensive one favored by the previous discredited Republican administration.
(As a sidebar, useful features on the abandoned site of the Overton administration included a direct link to city ordinances and yearly salaries of city officials and employees*.)
As sales pitches go, “New Albany: Cheap But Inadequate,” is not something most organizations would wholeheartedly embrace. Sadly, it seems perfectly suited to the banana republic mentality prevailing hereabouts.
“Comfortable in Our Squalor” and “My Kid Beat Up Your Honor Role Student” also leap to mind.
NA Confidential noticed that around Christmas, 2004, Tony Toran’s e-mail contact information disappeared from the city’s web site**. We retained a cached version:
City Operations - Anthony B. Toran: ttoran@cityofnewalbany.com
A brief Google session reveals the following contact information for City Council members (except Larry Kochert), courtesy of a Louisville Courier-Journal election preview from Sunday, November 2, 2003.
1st District: Dan Coffey 949-1262; 797-8347
2nd District: Bill Schmidt 945-7386
3rd District: Steve Price 941-9032
5th District: Beverly Crump 948-2603
6th District: Jeff M. Gahan 542-0889, GAN2020@aol.com
At Large: Donnie Blevins 944-4856; 727-0516; 944-9654
At Large: Jack Messer 949-9638, jackgeorgemesser@aol.com
At Large: Mark Seabrook 944-9644, 944-6455
According to the Southern Indiana Economic Development Council, Mayor James Garner can be reached at this e-mail address:
newalbanyed@aol.com
A helpful correspondent has further suggested that the Mayor’s official e-mail address is:
mayor@cityofnewalbany.com
And, finally, the phone number of the city switchboard is:
948-5333
We’ll continue to build this data base of information in the hope that it will assist the cause of communication … and continue to regret the necessity of doing so.
References:
* Ordinances remain available on-line, but are not linked to the city's web site as they were previously
** The city says “contact us,” but the information’s not here.
Fortunately, one of the most important sections, that of City Clerk Marcey Wisman, is complete and certainly will assist citizens in the navigation of her office’s myriad duties.
The remainder of the web site is inconsequential, at best.
Late last year, the topic of the city’s site was raised at a meeting of the East Spring Street Neighborhood Association. The evening’s guest speaker, the estimable City Operations chief Anthony “Tony” Toran, noted that the site admittedly would require much further development, but that it was far less expensive than the far more comprehensive one favored by the previous discredited Republican administration.
(As a sidebar, useful features on the abandoned site of the Overton administration included a direct link to city ordinances and yearly salaries of city officials and employees*.)
As sales pitches go, “New Albany: Cheap But Inadequate,” is not something most organizations would wholeheartedly embrace. Sadly, it seems perfectly suited to the banana republic mentality prevailing hereabouts.
“Comfortable in Our Squalor” and “My Kid Beat Up Your Honor Role Student” also leap to mind.
NA Confidential noticed that around Christmas, 2004, Tony Toran’s e-mail contact information disappeared from the city’s web site**. We retained a cached version:
City Operations - Anthony B. Toran: ttoran@cityofnewalbany.com
A brief Google session reveals the following contact information for City Council members (except Larry Kochert), courtesy of a Louisville Courier-Journal election preview from Sunday, November 2, 2003.
1st District: Dan Coffey 949-1262; 797-8347
2nd District: Bill Schmidt 945-7386
3rd District: Steve Price 941-9032
5th District: Beverly Crump 948-2603
6th District: Jeff M. Gahan 542-0889, GAN2020@aol.com
At Large: Donnie Blevins 944-4856; 727-0516; 944-9654
At Large: Jack Messer 949-9638, jackgeorgemesser@aol.com
At Large: Mark Seabrook 944-9644, 944-6455
According to the Southern Indiana Economic Development Council, Mayor James Garner can be reached at this e-mail address:
newalbanyed@aol.com
A helpful correspondent has further suggested that the Mayor’s official e-mail address is:
mayor@cityofnewalbany.com
And, finally, the phone number of the city switchboard is:
948-5333
We’ll continue to build this data base of information in the hope that it will assist the cause of communication … and continue to regret the necessity of doing so.
References:
* Ordinances remain available on-line, but are not linked to the city's web site as they were previously
** The city says “contact us,” but the information’s not here.
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Biking, walking and other blatant attacks on the New Albanian way of life
For the second consecutive temperate January day, NA Confidential will be bicycling to work. Of course, it is essential to use the side streets, as New Albany's major thoroughfares are too dangerous and lack not only bike lanes, but ridiculously often, the bare minimum of sidewalks for pedestrian use.
Fittingly (in more ways than one), today's Louisville Eccentric Observer (LEO) and staffer Rochelle Renford return to last month's report by the Surface Transportation Policy Project, "which names Metro Louisville the 23rd most dangerous place for pedestrians among 50 similar-sized regions."
Referring to sociologist Richard Florida's assertion that the presence of bicycle lanes is one amenity (of many) needed to attract the creative class, Renford bluntly adds that "in Metro Louisville, bike lanes and the ability to avoid the automobile are still just dreams, although there are downtown lofts and a very hip skate park.."
Renford surveys recent efforts in Louisville to improve this abysmal ranking. Coming up in February is the Metro Louisville Bicycle Summit, where longtime public advocates like the CART organization will join with other attendees for a public forum hosted by Mayor Jerry Abramson.
A public forum? Chaired by the Mayor? Son, that's Louisville, not New Albany. Besides, it's funny enough trying to imagine any current City Council members riding a bike, much less expressing support for the same.
Here are the relevant links:
Walk This Way: A pedestrian-friendly community is a livable community, by Rochelle Renford in LEO
Louisville Metro Mayor Jerry Abramson hosts the Metro Louisville Bicycle Summit, February 7-8, 2005
CART: Coalition for the Advancement of Regional Transportation
Fittingly (in more ways than one), today's Louisville Eccentric Observer (LEO) and staffer Rochelle Renford return to last month's report by the Surface Transportation Policy Project, "which names Metro Louisville the 23rd most dangerous place for pedestrians among 50 similar-sized regions."
Referring to sociologist Richard Florida's assertion that the presence of bicycle lanes is one amenity (of many) needed to attract the creative class, Renford bluntly adds that "in Metro Louisville, bike lanes and the ability to avoid the automobile are still just dreams, although there are downtown lofts and a very hip skate park.."
Renford surveys recent efforts in Louisville to improve this abysmal ranking. Coming up in February is the Metro Louisville Bicycle Summit, where longtime public advocates like the CART organization will join with other attendees for a public forum hosted by Mayor Jerry Abramson.
A public forum? Chaired by the Mayor? Son, that's Louisville, not New Albany. Besides, it's funny enough trying to imagine any current City Council members riding a bike, much less expressing support for the same.
Here are the relevant links:
Walk This Way: A pedestrian-friendly community is a livable community, by Rochelle Renford in LEO
Louisville Metro Mayor Jerry Abramson hosts the Metro Louisville Bicycle Summit, February 7-8, 2005
CART: Coalition for the Advancement of Regional Transportation
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Wanted: Volunteers to inventory downtown New Albany, and other topical stories
Were he with us today, might Oscar Wilde amend his famous utterance to read, “Work is the curse of the Blogging class?”
Today and tomorrow, NA Confidential finds it necessary to tend to the dram shop, and respectfully, the reader is directed to examine the entries that follow, as published in the Blog of a fellow New Albanian and frequent contributor to this page.
Go to Volunteer Hoosier and look for:
http://volunteerhoosier.blogspot.com/
C'town ascendant
Charlestown’s approval of a public-private venture designed to bring high speed Internet access to the town reminds us that some entities aren’t so keen on the idea. See other recent VH postings discussing Indiana House Bill 1148.
Call for volunteers
To catalog the properties making up downtown New Albany will require the work of volunteers. What are you doing on January 30?
Who's zooming who?
More on the conclusion to last week’s City Council meeting, and the most recent communications breakdown between the Mayor and the City Council over appointments to the Building Commission.
All entries are linked to media sources and are a must-read. Enjoy!
Today and tomorrow, NA Confidential finds it necessary to tend to the dram shop, and respectfully, the reader is directed to examine the entries that follow, as published in the Blog of a fellow New Albanian and frequent contributor to this page.
Go to Volunteer Hoosier and look for:
http://volunteerhoosier.blogspot.com/
C'town ascendant
Charlestown’s approval of a public-private venture designed to bring high speed Internet access to the town reminds us that some entities aren’t so keen on the idea. See other recent VH postings discussing Indiana House Bill 1148.
Call for volunteers
To catalog the properties making up downtown New Albany will require the work of volunteers. What are you doing on January 30?
Who's zooming who?
More on the conclusion to last week’s City Council meeting, and the most recent communications breakdown between the Mayor and the City Council over appointments to the Building Commission.
All entries are linked to media sources and are a must-read. Enjoy!
Books we don't want to see ... but after all, this is New Albany
"No Slum Lord Left Behind: How New Albany Aims to Earn Respect by Remaining the Sub-Standard Rental Property Capital of Indiana," by “G.”
Review:
The author argues that New Albany’s branded destination “niche” within the dynamic, diversifying, knowledge-driven metropolitan Louisville area should be determined solely by unscientific methods that don’t cost too much to design or implement and don’t cause the brains of local politicians to hurt like hell because it’s all so hard to understand, recommending as the easiest possible path continued reliance on the socially irresponsible but time-tested methods of absentee property ownership, vacant commercial properties, a passive governmental role, rampant payola, general indifference to the value of education, and the lowest common denominator as Golden Rule.
Availability:
This book is available from selected community pillars. Regular purchase price is $10.00, except during election campaigns, when “market” pricing is in effect.
Review:
The author argues that New Albany’s branded destination “niche” within the dynamic, diversifying, knowledge-driven metropolitan Louisville area should be determined solely by unscientific methods that don’t cost too much to design or implement and don’t cause the brains of local politicians to hurt like hell because it’s all so hard to understand, recommending as the easiest possible path continued reliance on the socially irresponsible but time-tested methods of absentee property ownership, vacant commercial properties, a passive governmental role, rampant payola, general indifference to the value of education, and the lowest common denominator as Golden Rule.
Availability:
This book is available from selected community pillars. Regular purchase price is $10.00, except during election campaigns, when “market” pricing is in effect.
Monday, January 24, 2005
Like Louisville, New Albany "must get smarter if it wants to get richer"
Tonight’s late night reading is provided by the Louisville Courier-Journal of Sunday, January 23.
Since its inception, NA Confidential has considered New Albany as it is, but more importantly, as it might be.
It is for the sake of the city’s future that we scrutinize the present, firm in our belief that amid the reigning chaos and visionless chicanery engendered by business-as-usual clique of white-bread politicos, staid community stalwarts, socially corrosive slum lords and assorted anti-progressive killjoys, there exists the diverse and creative preconditions of a renaissance.
To be sure, New Albany cannot be compared to Louisville, but the following articles espouse themes of critical importance to our city, including the importance of education, the vitality of downtown districts, and the benefits of economic equity within strong neighborhoods.
Annoyingly, far too many of these intensely relevant themes provide answers for questions that the moribund political leadership of New Albany not only won’t ask, but too often seems unaware even exist.
NA Confidential has no interest in political gamesmanship, both within and between the local Democratic and Republican parties. Rather, we ask their intellectually suspect representatives to read the following and indicate some measure of comprehension with respect to the themes presented therein.
'Distinctive, equitable, competitive': Setting an agenda beyond merger, by Bruce Katz and Mark Muro
Editorial: “A competitive city”
Since its inception, NA Confidential has considered New Albany as it is, but more importantly, as it might be.
It is for the sake of the city’s future that we scrutinize the present, firm in our belief that amid the reigning chaos and visionless chicanery engendered by business-as-usual clique of white-bread politicos, staid community stalwarts, socially corrosive slum lords and assorted anti-progressive killjoys, there exists the diverse and creative preconditions of a renaissance.
To be sure, New Albany cannot be compared to Louisville, but the following articles espouse themes of critical importance to our city, including the importance of education, the vitality of downtown districts, and the benefits of economic equity within strong neighborhoods.
Annoyingly, far too many of these intensely relevant themes provide answers for questions that the moribund political leadership of New Albany not only won’t ask, but too often seems unaware even exist.
NA Confidential has no interest in political gamesmanship, both within and between the local Democratic and Republican parties. Rather, we ask their intellectually suspect representatives to read the following and indicate some measure of comprehension with respect to the themes presented therein.
'Distinctive, equitable, competitive': Setting an agenda beyond merger, by Bruce Katz and Mark Muro
Editorial: “A competitive city”
Which local mayor sees broadband as key to his city's growth?
Here's a fun quiz for Monday.
Which local mayor recently said the following:
"Broadband Internet access is essential to support quality of life issues like education and training and health care and safety for our citizens. It has also become necessary for economic development and growth."
Find the answer in Greg Gapsis's article today in the Evening News.
Mayor sees broadband vote as key to city's growth
Which local mayor recently said the following:
"Broadband Internet access is essential to support quality of life issues like education and training and health care and safety for our citizens. It has also become necessary for economic development and growth."
Find the answer in Greg Gapsis's article today in the Evening News.
Mayor sees broadband vote as key to city's growth
NA Confidential challenges both the Mayor and the City Council to improve communications with the people of this city
At last week’s City Council meeting, a citizen speaker asked how many of the eight council members present for duty (Bill Schmidt was ill) had visited the city’s web site lately.
One member raised his hand. There was a half-hearted nod from another. Some looked down at the floor, while others eyed the ceiling. Dan Coffey stated publicly that he hadn’t looked at the web site for a couple of years. All members present looked uncomfortable at having been put on the spot.
The citizen continued. Shouldn’t there be some way to visit the city’s web site and find complete contact information for all city officials – not just phone numbers, but e-mail addresses? Of the dozens of New Albany municipal officials, only City Clerk Marcey Wisman provides a comprehensive description on the site of her office’s functions, and complete contact information.
Again, there was a nod or two, several obvious expressions of boredom, and the imminent threat of President Gahan’s ubiquitous staccato gavel.
What was that we were saying yesterday about respect? Did we mention that it’s a two-way street?
Lest it be said that NA Confidential has eyes only for the bizarrely stunted public relations skills of Mayor James Garner, it should be remarked that he is not the only elected official who has failed to grasp the obligation of communicating with the citizens of the city of New Albany.
Of course, Mayor Garner would like for you to know that you can come see him any time in the privacy of his office. Councilman Coffey, and presumably most of his cohorts on the Council, will give you a telephone number and invite you to call for a chat.
In other words, these elected officials will be more than happy to speak with you one-on-one so long as they remain on their turf – behind a closed door, at the other end of a phone line, or with a gavel in hand.
Perhaps NA Confidential is overly demanding, but we believe that a public official’s obligation to communicate with the citizenry goes further than five-minute increments grudgingly offered once a fortnight by the City Council, or by a mayor who has so little regard for the views of citizens that he remains ensconced in the corridor as they speak.
The calendar indicates 2005, and all elected officials should make e-mail addresses available to the public. If the city is unable to provide suitable e-mail service (if so, it’s yet another shameful indictment of City Hall’s organizational skills), then there are numerous personal avenues via Yahoo! or Hotmail. These should be posted on the city’s web site, along with telephone numbers. It is entirely reasonable to expect that a city the size of New Albany can offer a bare minimum of telephone extensions and voice mail to officeholders … or pay for a cellular network.
To repeat: It is 2005.
Perhaps the City-County building uses a different calendar.
Na Confidential suggests that both our Mayor and the City Council be prepared not just to respond promptly and in sufficiently literate fashion to electronic and telephone queries, but also to step out from their respective comfort zones and present themselves to the community.
Currently our mayor and council representatives, abetted by commentators like the Tribune’s Amany Ali, see only “theatrics” when citizen speakers use their precious time allotment to address the city’s leaders … and unfortunately, the city’s leaders feel threatened by it.
Instead, the city’s leaders should be seeing “opportunities,” and be challenged by those citizens who are showing a willingness to participate.
If in fact current formats are unwieldy, it is only because New Albany’s concerned citizens have so few chances to address the city’s leaders as a group. Ten minutes a month isn’t enough.
The obvious solution is for leaders to lead by seizing the public relations initiative and take themselves to the people in the form of regularly scheduled forums throughout the city.
Now is the time for New Albany’s elected officials to listen and to lead.
For a variety of reasons, perhaps sensing that New Albany stands at a crossroad with respect to its future, city residents are expressing interest in possibilities, in their quality of life, and in what ways they can be part of the future.
Why are more and more people reading NA Confidential?
There are as many reasons as there are readers, but prime among them is that the mere presence of this admittedly imperfect Internet forum (and others like it) provides validation for many concerned New Albanians whose needs have not been met by communications-challenged public officials and underachieving local newspapers.
Accountability is the goal, and although there are numerous paths toward its realization, the best and least expensive place to start is by bettering the lines of communication between citizen and elected leader.
NA Confidential already has challenged Mayor Garner to face the public. It now challenges the City Council to initiate a process for doing the same.
If City Clerk Marcey Wisman can do it …
Two other vital New Albany web logs:
Volunteer Hoosier
New Albany Renewal
One member raised his hand. There was a half-hearted nod from another. Some looked down at the floor, while others eyed the ceiling. Dan Coffey stated publicly that he hadn’t looked at the web site for a couple of years. All members present looked uncomfortable at having been put on the spot.
The citizen continued. Shouldn’t there be some way to visit the city’s web site and find complete contact information for all city officials – not just phone numbers, but e-mail addresses? Of the dozens of New Albany municipal officials, only City Clerk Marcey Wisman provides a comprehensive description on the site of her office’s functions, and complete contact information.
Again, there was a nod or two, several obvious expressions of boredom, and the imminent threat of President Gahan’s ubiquitous staccato gavel.
What was that we were saying yesterday about respect? Did we mention that it’s a two-way street?
Lest it be said that NA Confidential has eyes only for the bizarrely stunted public relations skills of Mayor James Garner, it should be remarked that he is not the only elected official who has failed to grasp the obligation of communicating with the citizens of the city of New Albany.
Of course, Mayor Garner would like for you to know that you can come see him any time in the privacy of his office. Councilman Coffey, and presumably most of his cohorts on the Council, will give you a telephone number and invite you to call for a chat.
In other words, these elected officials will be more than happy to speak with you one-on-one so long as they remain on their turf – behind a closed door, at the other end of a phone line, or with a gavel in hand.
Perhaps NA Confidential is overly demanding, but we believe that a public official’s obligation to communicate with the citizenry goes further than five-minute increments grudgingly offered once a fortnight by the City Council, or by a mayor who has so little regard for the views of citizens that he remains ensconced in the corridor as they speak.
The calendar indicates 2005, and all elected officials should make e-mail addresses available to the public. If the city is unable to provide suitable e-mail service (if so, it’s yet another shameful indictment of City Hall’s organizational skills), then there are numerous personal avenues via Yahoo! or Hotmail. These should be posted on the city’s web site, along with telephone numbers. It is entirely reasonable to expect that a city the size of New Albany can offer a bare minimum of telephone extensions and voice mail to officeholders … or pay for a cellular network.
To repeat: It is 2005.
Perhaps the City-County building uses a different calendar.
Na Confidential suggests that both our Mayor and the City Council be prepared not just to respond promptly and in sufficiently literate fashion to electronic and telephone queries, but also to step out from their respective comfort zones and present themselves to the community.
Currently our mayor and council representatives, abetted by commentators like the Tribune’s Amany Ali, see only “theatrics” when citizen speakers use their precious time allotment to address the city’s leaders … and unfortunately, the city’s leaders feel threatened by it.
Instead, the city’s leaders should be seeing “opportunities,” and be challenged by those citizens who are showing a willingness to participate.
If in fact current formats are unwieldy, it is only because New Albany’s concerned citizens have so few chances to address the city’s leaders as a group. Ten minutes a month isn’t enough.
The obvious solution is for leaders to lead by seizing the public relations initiative and take themselves to the people in the form of regularly scheduled forums throughout the city.
Now is the time for New Albany’s elected officials to listen and to lead.
For a variety of reasons, perhaps sensing that New Albany stands at a crossroad with respect to its future, city residents are expressing interest in possibilities, in their quality of life, and in what ways they can be part of the future.
Why are more and more people reading NA Confidential?
There are as many reasons as there are readers, but prime among them is that the mere presence of this admittedly imperfect Internet forum (and others like it) provides validation for many concerned New Albanians whose needs have not been met by communications-challenged public officials and underachieving local newspapers.
Accountability is the goal, and although there are numerous paths toward its realization, the best and least expensive place to start is by bettering the lines of communication between citizen and elected leader.
NA Confidential already has challenged Mayor Garner to face the public. It now challenges the City Council to initiate a process for doing the same.
If City Clerk Marcey Wisman can do it …
Two other vital New Albany web logs:
Volunteer Hoosier
New Albany Renewal
Sunday, January 23, 2005
Respect: Neither a synonym for silence, nor an excuse to muzzle dissent
If "respect" is New Albany's Zeitgeist, should we all raise our hands before speaking?
In September, 2004, Mayor James Garner of New Albany took offense to an editorial in the Louisville Courier-Journal that broached the topic of escalating chaos in New Albany’s building department.
Mayor Garner was so incensed that he took pen in hand and responded to the Courier’s editorialist, and less than a year into Mayor Garner’s term, we were provided with an invaluable glimpse into his psyche.
The Mayor's eye-opening letter would have brought to mind an old Groucho Marx line, as dispensed to the author of a comic novel: "From the moment I picked up your book until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Some day I intend reading it."
Except that I did read it, and wanted not to laugh but to cry ... with frustration.
Not once, not twice, but six times in two opening paragraphs, Mayor Garner decried the newspaper’s lack of "respect" for his person. He proceeded to disregard the accepted meaning in the English language of words like demotion, reduction and termination, and then finally, New Albany’s democratically elected mayor made an absolutely breathtaking assertion:
“The chief executive of a government entity is not the same as in private business, but you do not write editorials about private businesses when they reduce an individual to part-time status, and you should not for the government sector either.”
Logic having been skewered beyond recognition, Garner closed his letter by stretching credulity to the breaking point:
“I request that you give me a personal apology and a public apology for your rude and disrespectful comments. Your organization should be a friend to the community and not burn bridges with government officials with your personal comments.”
Needless to say, an apology was not forthcoming from the Courier-Journal, primarily because the newspaper’s alleged “disrespect” existed solely in the mind of Mayor James Garner.
Quite simply, public officials at all levels must accept enhanced scrutiny by journalists and ordinary citizens as a necessary part of their job descriptions, furthermore understanding that deference and esteem – the essential components of respect – are qualities earned as part of the process, not aspects of entitlement owed the office holder out of fawning gratitude that he or she has agreed to serve.
Which brings us to a column authored by the Tribune’s City Editor, Amany Ali. It appears in today’s Tribune under the banner, “Elected officials deserve respect.”*
In many respects, this is one of Amany best analytical efforts. She has chosen an important and timely local topic, not lobbed potshots at tabloid headlines.
Her arguments are cogent, and she makes them with passion. Gone are the titters and self-aggrandizing giggles that accompany her usual forays into the frivolous, with beneficial results for the quality of her prose. She must have worked hard on this piece, and although I can’t completely agree with her, her effort deserves ... well, it deserves respect.
Why? Because Amany has earned it, and not because it is “deserved” owing to the title of City Editor, her family lineage, or any other extraneous factor beyond pure merit.
In her column, Amany echoes Mayor Garner’s comments during last week’s City Council meeting.
Too many people are “using the forum of City Council meetings to throw as many daggers at Garner as possible … I’m all for freedom of speech. But there is a difference between expressing your concern, and lambasting the leader of our city and giving an entirely new meaning to being disrespectful.”
She eventually concludes, “I believe it is the job of the public to keep up with city, state and national officials to make sure their leaders are doing their job. However, I think there is a civilized and dignified way of accomplishing that mission. And publicly berating a public official … is not the way to get the job done.”
And: “The point is that public officials deserve a certain level of respect.”
If by this she means respect in the sense of “willingness to show consideration,” then the point is well taken, as it addresses the civility of the dialogue or forum.
It is true that any public discussion, whether undertaken in the chambers of the City Council or on the street corner by Little Chef, is prone to frayed tempers or outbursts, depending on the emotion, frustration or even desperation of the participants.
Hence Council President Jeff Gahan’s well-intentioned efforts, within the context of the occasion last Thursday, to limit the time of speakers.
However, I attended the same City Council as Amany Ali and listened to the same citizens’ comments she did, and what I heard were mostly solid points, one after another, and on a wide range of important topics, some having to do with Mayor Garner and others not.
Opinions were expressed on ordinance enforcement, garbage delivery, rates of taxation, the tolerance of gaming machines by some local clubs (prompting the only real theatrics of the evening), the dismissal of a city employee, the city’s web site, contractor licensing and others too numerous to mention.
Which opinions were invalid?
Given that Mayor Garner has indicated publicly that newspapers should be little better than cheerleading lapdogs that do not question his personnel decisions, and with no other opportunity beyond City Council meetings for the public to meet the Council and the Mayor for something approximating a discussion of those issues that concern to individual citizens, exactly when are there other chances to exercise participatory democracy between election campaigns?
Would we be discussing any of this if those members of the public choosing to speak at City Council meetings each agreed with the Mayor?
In the end, isn’t it true that most politicians, a group that includes our current mayor, define “disrespect” as those times when people disagree with them, and isn’t this why journalist and citizen alike must continue asking questions?
The advent of NA Confidential can be traced to that day last September when I read Mayor Garner’s letter to the Courier-Journal and cringed in embarrassment. How could someone so obsessed with the concept of respect fail so miserably to show respect for democratic ideals such as a free press and governmental disclosure?
In fact, speaking of respect, isn’t running roughshod over such democratic principles the ultimate exercise in disrespect for me as a citizen?
Or is it merely cultural illiteracy, the persistent curse of New Albany's leadership class?
Either way, it doesn’t change the fact that we are fully justified in questioning our leaders, challenging our leaders, reminding our leaders that their job is to lead and to do so in such a fashion that does not cause us to feel ashamed, and expecting competence and accountability from our leaders.
We are fully justified in being involved.
It is this principle, and not the peculiarities or weaknesses of a particular person, that serves as the raison d’etre for the existence of NA Confidential, which persists in believing that it is never too late for anyone – be it mayor, journalist, citizen speaker or blogger – to learn, to improve and to grow.
* Amany Ali’s column in the New Albany Tribune (January 23, 2005) will not be archived on-line.
Original sources are as follows:
The Louisville Courier-Journal editorial on Mayor Garner (Sept. 16, 2004)
Mayor Garner replies to the C-J: Gimme some R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Garner's C-J letter an embarrassment to all New Albanians
In September, 2004, Mayor James Garner of New Albany took offense to an editorial in the Louisville Courier-Journal that broached the topic of escalating chaos in New Albany’s building department.
Mayor Garner was so incensed that he took pen in hand and responded to the Courier’s editorialist, and less than a year into Mayor Garner’s term, we were provided with an invaluable glimpse into his psyche.
The Mayor's eye-opening letter would have brought to mind an old Groucho Marx line, as dispensed to the author of a comic novel: "From the moment I picked up your book until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Some day I intend reading it."
Except that I did read it, and wanted not to laugh but to cry ... with frustration.
Not once, not twice, but six times in two opening paragraphs, Mayor Garner decried the newspaper’s lack of "respect" for his person. He proceeded to disregard the accepted meaning in the English language of words like demotion, reduction and termination, and then finally, New Albany’s democratically elected mayor made an absolutely breathtaking assertion:
“The chief executive of a government entity is not the same as in private business, but you do not write editorials about private businesses when they reduce an individual to part-time status, and you should not for the government sector either.”
Logic having been skewered beyond recognition, Garner closed his letter by stretching credulity to the breaking point:
“I request that you give me a personal apology and a public apology for your rude and disrespectful comments. Your organization should be a friend to the community and not burn bridges with government officials with your personal comments.”
Needless to say, an apology was not forthcoming from the Courier-Journal, primarily because the newspaper’s alleged “disrespect” existed solely in the mind of Mayor James Garner.
Quite simply, public officials at all levels must accept enhanced scrutiny by journalists and ordinary citizens as a necessary part of their job descriptions, furthermore understanding that deference and esteem – the essential components of respect – are qualities earned as part of the process, not aspects of entitlement owed the office holder out of fawning gratitude that he or she has agreed to serve.
Which brings us to a column authored by the Tribune’s City Editor, Amany Ali. It appears in today’s Tribune under the banner, “Elected officials deserve respect.”*
In many respects, this is one of Amany best analytical efforts. She has chosen an important and timely local topic, not lobbed potshots at tabloid headlines.
Her arguments are cogent, and she makes them with passion. Gone are the titters and self-aggrandizing giggles that accompany her usual forays into the frivolous, with beneficial results for the quality of her prose. She must have worked hard on this piece, and although I can’t completely agree with her, her effort deserves ... well, it deserves respect.
Why? Because Amany has earned it, and not because it is “deserved” owing to the title of City Editor, her family lineage, or any other extraneous factor beyond pure merit.
In her column, Amany echoes Mayor Garner’s comments during last week’s City Council meeting.
Too many people are “using the forum of City Council meetings to throw as many daggers at Garner as possible … I’m all for freedom of speech. But there is a difference between expressing your concern, and lambasting the leader of our city and giving an entirely new meaning to being disrespectful.”
She eventually concludes, “I believe it is the job of the public to keep up with city, state and national officials to make sure their leaders are doing their job. However, I think there is a civilized and dignified way of accomplishing that mission. And publicly berating a public official … is not the way to get the job done.”
And: “The point is that public officials deserve a certain level of respect.”
If by this she means respect in the sense of “willingness to show consideration,” then the point is well taken, as it addresses the civility of the dialogue or forum.
It is true that any public discussion, whether undertaken in the chambers of the City Council or on the street corner by Little Chef, is prone to frayed tempers or outbursts, depending on the emotion, frustration or even desperation of the participants.
Hence Council President Jeff Gahan’s well-intentioned efforts, within the context of the occasion last Thursday, to limit the time of speakers.
However, I attended the same City Council as Amany Ali and listened to the same citizens’ comments she did, and what I heard were mostly solid points, one after another, and on a wide range of important topics, some having to do with Mayor Garner and others not.
Opinions were expressed on ordinance enforcement, garbage delivery, rates of taxation, the tolerance of gaming machines by some local clubs (prompting the only real theatrics of the evening), the dismissal of a city employee, the city’s web site, contractor licensing and others too numerous to mention.
Which opinions were invalid?
Given that Mayor Garner has indicated publicly that newspapers should be little better than cheerleading lapdogs that do not question his personnel decisions, and with no other opportunity beyond City Council meetings for the public to meet the Council and the Mayor for something approximating a discussion of those issues that concern to individual citizens, exactly when are there other chances to exercise participatory democracy between election campaigns?
Would we be discussing any of this if those members of the public choosing to speak at City Council meetings each agreed with the Mayor?
In the end, isn’t it true that most politicians, a group that includes our current mayor, define “disrespect” as those times when people disagree with them, and isn’t this why journalist and citizen alike must continue asking questions?
The advent of NA Confidential can be traced to that day last September when I read Mayor Garner’s letter to the Courier-Journal and cringed in embarrassment. How could someone so obsessed with the concept of respect fail so miserably to show respect for democratic ideals such as a free press and governmental disclosure?
In fact, speaking of respect, isn’t running roughshod over such democratic principles the ultimate exercise in disrespect for me as a citizen?
Or is it merely cultural illiteracy, the persistent curse of New Albany's leadership class?
Either way, it doesn’t change the fact that we are fully justified in questioning our leaders, challenging our leaders, reminding our leaders that their job is to lead and to do so in such a fashion that does not cause us to feel ashamed, and expecting competence and accountability from our leaders.
We are fully justified in being involved.
It is this principle, and not the peculiarities or weaknesses of a particular person, that serves as the raison d’etre for the existence of NA Confidential, which persists in believing that it is never too late for anyone – be it mayor, journalist, citizen speaker or blogger – to learn, to improve and to grow.
* Amany Ali’s column in the New Albany Tribune (January 23, 2005) will not be archived on-line.
Original sources are as follows:
The Louisville Courier-Journal editorial on Mayor Garner (Sept. 16, 2004)
Mayor Garner replies to the C-J: Gimme some R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Garner's C-J letter an embarrassment to all New Albanians
Sunday Tribune asks: New City-County Building in the cards for Scribner Place?
Today, Kyle Lowry, the New Albany Tribune’s County Reporter, contributes a front-page overview of Floyd County Commissioner Randy Stumler’s proposal to fold a new City-County Building into the Scribner Place project.
Stumler suggests that a new facility on the riverfront might combine city and county offices currently divided between the existing City-County Building and the decaying office annex on Grant Line Road.
The Commissioner also foresees some county offices occupying currently vacant older commercial buildings downtown, and intends to meet, whoopee cushion in hand, with Develop New Albany to discuss possibilities.
It is important to note that implicit in Stumler's proposal is a greater role for the county in the city's Scribner Place project. Consequently, according to Lowry, reaction to the embryonic relocation plan on the part of local officialdom has been favorable.
NA Confidential acknowledges all due concern for the looming presence of financial devils in the detail with respect to Stumler’s ideas, but wishes to credit Stumler for embracing the tenets of elementary political leadership by daring to think progressively with an eye toward future administrative needs.
Unlike so many others who are considered pillars of New Albany’s mover-shaker elite, Stumler seems comfortable with the notion of articulating his ideas and communicating them to the city’s and county’s citizens. City Hall might learn something from this novel approach, one that is rather refreshing, but has been attempted on very few occasions by the administration of Mayor James Garner.
In fairness, Lowry's article quotes Mayor Garner favorably, and he provides brief but solid guesstimates on cost.
Naturally, the traditions of jaundiced New Albanian inertia dictate that Randy watch his back.
Appropriately, Lowry’s article is accompanied by an oversized Kevin McGloshen photo of the current City-County Building, itself a bland and bureaucratic architectural abomination of the sort that once prevailed in the gray capitals of the East Bloc, and indicative of the errors in judgment made by a previous generation of mover-shaker “leadership.”
It has been suggested by some that the contrast between the beautiful old columns facing Spring Street and the prematurely aged socialist-realist cracker box behind them serves as an apt metaphor for New Albany’s peculiar illness.
It is to be hoped that if Stumler’s ideas take root, past mistakes aren’t repeated.
(Note: The Tribune’s web site is updated sporadically, and the link to Lowry’s story will be provided later)
Stumler suggests that a new facility on the riverfront might combine city and county offices currently divided between the existing City-County Building and the decaying office annex on Grant Line Road.
The Commissioner also foresees some county offices occupying currently vacant older commercial buildings downtown, and intends to meet, whoopee cushion in hand, with Develop New Albany to discuss possibilities.
It is important to note that implicit in Stumler's proposal is a greater role for the county in the city's Scribner Place project. Consequently, according to Lowry, reaction to the embryonic relocation plan on the part of local officialdom has been favorable.
NA Confidential acknowledges all due concern for the looming presence of financial devils in the detail with respect to Stumler’s ideas, but wishes to credit Stumler for embracing the tenets of elementary political leadership by daring to think progressively with an eye toward future administrative needs.
Unlike so many others who are considered pillars of New Albany’s mover-shaker elite, Stumler seems comfortable with the notion of articulating his ideas and communicating them to the city’s and county’s citizens. City Hall might learn something from this novel approach, one that is rather refreshing, but has been attempted on very few occasions by the administration of Mayor James Garner.
In fairness, Lowry's article quotes Mayor Garner favorably, and he provides brief but solid guesstimates on cost.
Naturally, the traditions of jaundiced New Albanian inertia dictate that Randy watch his back.
Appropriately, Lowry’s article is accompanied by an oversized Kevin McGloshen photo of the current City-County Building, itself a bland and bureaucratic architectural abomination of the sort that once prevailed in the gray capitals of the East Bloc, and indicative of the errors in judgment made by a previous generation of mover-shaker “leadership.”
It has been suggested by some that the contrast between the beautiful old columns facing Spring Street and the prematurely aged socialist-realist cracker box behind them serves as an apt metaphor for New Albany’s peculiar illness.
It is to be hoped that if Stumler’s ideas take root, past mistakes aren’t repeated.
(Note: The Tribune’s web site is updated sporadically, and the link to Lowry’s story will be provided later)
Friday, January 21, 2005
City Council meeting unexpectedly interrupted by harmony, co-operation,role-reversal and an overly theatrical citizenry
Finally it can be stated without irony that a City Council meeting ended on a positive note.
For the record, mechanisms for ordinance enforcement and the position of enforcement officer were approved and signed; a full-time economic development director was hired; and the mayor’s choice for building commissioner was announced.
Our local newspaper reporters both provide excellent coverage of Thursday night’s meeting:
New Albany leaders agree on ordinance enforcer, by the Courier-Journal’s Ben Zion Hershberg
Positions approved during raucous council meeting, by the tribune’s Amany Ali
Here’s an excerpt from the Tribune article that explains Mayor Garner’s view of his constituents, as revealed from his usual secluded corridor vantage point:
“Garner said he believes some people address the council with legitimate concerns and hope to have their questions answered. He said others go before the council for other reasons.
“‘Some of them are here just for the theatrics,’ he said.”
In an accompanying article, NA Confidential discusses the Mayor’s own role-playing at the Circus Maximus.
What did you think of Thursday's meeting? Post here (with registration) or e-mail NA Confidential privately (address in the profile section).
For the record, mechanisms for ordinance enforcement and the position of enforcement officer were approved and signed; a full-time economic development director was hired; and the mayor’s choice for building commissioner was announced.
Our local newspaper reporters both provide excellent coverage of Thursday night’s meeting:
New Albany leaders agree on ordinance enforcer, by the Courier-Journal’s Ben Zion Hershberg
Positions approved during raucous council meeting, by the tribune’s Amany Ali
Here’s an excerpt from the Tribune article that explains Mayor Garner’s view of his constituents, as revealed from his usual secluded corridor vantage point:
“Garner said he believes some people address the council with legitimate concerns and hope to have their questions answered. He said others go before the council for other reasons.
“‘Some of them are here just for the theatrics,’ he said.”
In an accompanying article, NA Confidential discusses the Mayor’s own role-playing at the Circus Maximus.
What did you think of Thursday's meeting? Post here (with registration) or e-mail NA Confidential privately (address in the profile section).
Into the phone booth: The Cleaner’s brand new clothes
At 9:05 p.m. last night, sitting City Council President Jeff Gahan rested his weary gavel arm and announced that is was time for communications from Mayor James Garner.
Normally this is cause for great tittering among the faithful, as the possibility of the mayor actually communicating seems as remote as an Iranian mullah endorsing Anheuser-Busch’s latest alcoholic soda pop.
Lest you doubt it, such skepticism is indeed merited. Only on widely scattered occasions does Mayor Garner enter the meeting room during City Council functions. Naturally, by remaining at his chosen post in the hallway, he manages to conveniently miss hearing most of the concerns voiced by the citizens he purports to represent, insisting instead that people should come see him privately.
Quite simply, City Hall is uncomfortable with the notion of give and take that is exemplified by the “town hall” style forum, something we need desperately in New Albany if one is to judge by the sheer numbers of citizens who see City Council meetings as their sole opportunity to interact with elected officials.
From City Hall’s obvious distaste for meaningful dialogue, two important themes can be inferred.
First, there is an implicit recognition on the part of Mayor Garner’s advisors that style in politics does in fact matter, but owing to the mayor’s limited abilities in any extemporaneous setting, such settings must be carefully controlled to avoid missteps. Scripted and staged … that’s the rage.
Photo ops? Well, you can go back and reshoot the scene, can’t you?
Second, and potentially more serious, is an equally obvious determination on the part of City Hall to control the flow of information about what it is doing and what it plans to do.
While such control remains one tool in the arsenal of any organization, great or small, it must yield to escalating accountability with each step away from the private interest into that of the public.
In other words, in most cases an individual’s plans for the future may remain concealed with little potential impact on others, but an elected public official must accept an obligation of more complete disclosure with respect to work that impacts the body politic.
His bosses.
Against this backdrop, Mayor Garner greeted the City Council at 9:05 p.m., arranged his prepared text atop the lectern, and announced that heretofore, he would be making a quantum leap from dry cleaning to hardware: No longer James the Cleaner, but James … The Hammer.
Not in so many words, of course, but the strategy was crystal clear. Having already engaged in the necessary closed-door bartering with the Council to achieve satisfactory compromises on ordinance enforcement and the legislative body’s acceptance of his chosen candidate to become Economic Development Director, the Mayor chose his moment of one-sided communication to answer the critics without fear of further humiliation.
And, by the Mayor’s standards, it was quite an answer. Gone was the flighty breeziness, and purged was the whiny demeanor of previous appearances. Instead, there was a furrowed brow, angrily shuffled papers and a hard edge to Mayor Garner’s voice.
Not John Facenda, but presumably mad as hell, he proposed not to take it any more.
The Mayor began by returning to his most cherished of mantras with the allegation that there somehow remain people in the community who treat him disrespectfully, and broadly insinuating that the City Council’s lax management of its meetings, i.e., allowing critics to speak in such terms, actually encourages such disrespect.
President Gahan was spotted caressing his gavel.
Furthermore, in the finest tradition of conspiratorial theory, Mayor Garner noted that such critics seek only to destroy City Hall’s progress from within even as he attempts to serve all the citizens of New Albany irrespective of party affiliation.
Since Councilman Steve Price earlier had raised the specter of encroaching Nazism in response to citizen Huckleberry’s perfectly valid point about the tolerance of illegal gambling in local Legion halls (Price mistakenly thought Huckleberry said “tanning salons”), prompting a heated exchange, Gahan’s ubiquitous gavel and a quick appearance by the chief of police, one might guess that Communism were to blame for the vicious assaults on City Hall as perceived by the Mayor.
Fortunately, he didn’t go there. But make no mistake: Mayor Garner’s tone was suitably indignant, the chosen persona was loaded for bear, the message was non-partisan, and for once there was evidence of a pulse.
Subsequently, in a communal glow testifying to the genuine effectiveness of thoughtful stage management, Mayor Garner removed his iron-studded glove for long enough to sign ordinance enforcement into law, and youthful but experienced Paul Wheatley was approved as the new economic development czar.
Last evening’s competently choreographed public expression of annoyance, and the accompanying behind-the-scenes compromises with the City Council, were designed to show that City Hall is aware of the public relations beating it has absorbed and is seeking to stop bleeding.
That’s a start, but it goes without saying that these gestures are only a beginning, for they must be sustained and followed by bona fide changes in the way this administration both conceives and imparts what is likes to call “the right information.”
Conceptually, “the right information” must be expressed concretely in terms of ideas that take the form of accountable strategic goals in all aspects of the city’s operation, and what will be done to achieve them.
As an example of what is vague and unacceptable, the Tribune’s Amany Ali quotes Mayor Garner: “There are a lot of things that we want to do in economic growth.” (Tribune, Thursday, January 20, 2005).
In the sense of communications, City Hall must find a way to impart its version of “the right information” in timely and coherent way.
As one citizen noted last evening, the city’s web site is a shambles compared with other cities of comparable size, revealing a mayor and council alike that has yet to come to grips with computer literacy as a necessary precondition of the world we live in today.
More importantly, recent attendance at the twice-monthly City Council meetings has made it irrefutably clear that there must be other forums for public contact with our elected officials, the Mayor chief among them.
NA Confidential hereby challenges the Mayor to inaugurate a series of town hall meetings for the purpose of meeting and hearing the citizens of New Albany, and thus fostering a beneficial hands-on dialogue.
The frustrating and ultimately most damning indictment of the current administration is that such a fruitful idea, one involving frequent contact, dialogue and an exchange of ideas with the people of New Albany, openly and in public, and not behind closed doors, must come from outside City Hall rather than from within it.
Shouldn’t The Hammer want that?
Normally this is cause for great tittering among the faithful, as the possibility of the mayor actually communicating seems as remote as an Iranian mullah endorsing Anheuser-Busch’s latest alcoholic soda pop.
Lest you doubt it, such skepticism is indeed merited. Only on widely scattered occasions does Mayor Garner enter the meeting room during City Council functions. Naturally, by remaining at his chosen post in the hallway, he manages to conveniently miss hearing most of the concerns voiced by the citizens he purports to represent, insisting instead that people should come see him privately.
Quite simply, City Hall is uncomfortable with the notion of give and take that is exemplified by the “town hall” style forum, something we need desperately in New Albany if one is to judge by the sheer numbers of citizens who see City Council meetings as their sole opportunity to interact with elected officials.
From City Hall’s obvious distaste for meaningful dialogue, two important themes can be inferred.
First, there is an implicit recognition on the part of Mayor Garner’s advisors that style in politics does in fact matter, but owing to the mayor’s limited abilities in any extemporaneous setting, such settings must be carefully controlled to avoid missteps. Scripted and staged … that’s the rage.
Photo ops? Well, you can go back and reshoot the scene, can’t you?
Second, and potentially more serious, is an equally obvious determination on the part of City Hall to control the flow of information about what it is doing and what it plans to do.
While such control remains one tool in the arsenal of any organization, great or small, it must yield to escalating accountability with each step away from the private interest into that of the public.
In other words, in most cases an individual’s plans for the future may remain concealed with little potential impact on others, but an elected public official must accept an obligation of more complete disclosure with respect to work that impacts the body politic.
His bosses.
Against this backdrop, Mayor Garner greeted the City Council at 9:05 p.m., arranged his prepared text atop the lectern, and announced that heretofore, he would be making a quantum leap from dry cleaning to hardware: No longer James the Cleaner, but James … The Hammer.
Not in so many words, of course, but the strategy was crystal clear. Having already engaged in the necessary closed-door bartering with the Council to achieve satisfactory compromises on ordinance enforcement and the legislative body’s acceptance of his chosen candidate to become Economic Development Director, the Mayor chose his moment of one-sided communication to answer the critics without fear of further humiliation.
And, by the Mayor’s standards, it was quite an answer. Gone was the flighty breeziness, and purged was the whiny demeanor of previous appearances. Instead, there was a furrowed brow, angrily shuffled papers and a hard edge to Mayor Garner’s voice.
Not John Facenda, but presumably mad as hell, he proposed not to take it any more.
The Mayor began by returning to his most cherished of mantras with the allegation that there somehow remain people in the community who treat him disrespectfully, and broadly insinuating that the City Council’s lax management of its meetings, i.e., allowing critics to speak in such terms, actually encourages such disrespect.
President Gahan was spotted caressing his gavel.
Furthermore, in the finest tradition of conspiratorial theory, Mayor Garner noted that such critics seek only to destroy City Hall’s progress from within even as he attempts to serve all the citizens of New Albany irrespective of party affiliation.
Since Councilman Steve Price earlier had raised the specter of encroaching Nazism in response to citizen Huckleberry’s perfectly valid point about the tolerance of illegal gambling in local Legion halls (Price mistakenly thought Huckleberry said “tanning salons”), prompting a heated exchange, Gahan’s ubiquitous gavel and a quick appearance by the chief of police, one might guess that Communism were to blame for the vicious assaults on City Hall as perceived by the Mayor.
Fortunately, he didn’t go there. But make no mistake: Mayor Garner’s tone was suitably indignant, the chosen persona was loaded for bear, the message was non-partisan, and for once there was evidence of a pulse.
Subsequently, in a communal glow testifying to the genuine effectiveness of thoughtful stage management, Mayor Garner removed his iron-studded glove for long enough to sign ordinance enforcement into law, and youthful but experienced Paul Wheatley was approved as the new economic development czar.
Last evening’s competently choreographed public expression of annoyance, and the accompanying behind-the-scenes compromises with the City Council, were designed to show that City Hall is aware of the public relations beating it has absorbed and is seeking to stop bleeding.
That’s a start, but it goes without saying that these gestures are only a beginning, for they must be sustained and followed by bona fide changes in the way this administration both conceives and imparts what is likes to call “the right information.”
Conceptually, “the right information” must be expressed concretely in terms of ideas that take the form of accountable strategic goals in all aspects of the city’s operation, and what will be done to achieve them.
As an example of what is vague and unacceptable, the Tribune’s Amany Ali quotes Mayor Garner: “There are a lot of things that we want to do in economic growth.” (Tribune, Thursday, January 20, 2005).
In the sense of communications, City Hall must find a way to impart its version of “the right information” in timely and coherent way.
As one citizen noted last evening, the city’s web site is a shambles compared with other cities of comparable size, revealing a mayor and council alike that has yet to come to grips with computer literacy as a necessary precondition of the world we live in today.
More importantly, recent attendance at the twice-monthly City Council meetings has made it irrefutably clear that there must be other forums for public contact with our elected officials, the Mayor chief among them.
NA Confidential hereby challenges the Mayor to inaugurate a series of town hall meetings for the purpose of meeting and hearing the citizens of New Albany, and thus fostering a beneficial hands-on dialogue.
The frustrating and ultimately most damning indictment of the current administration is that such a fruitful idea, one involving frequent contact, dialogue and an exchange of ideas with the people of New Albany, openly and in public, and not behind closed doors, must come from outside City Hall rather than from within it.
Shouldn’t The Hammer want that?
Thursday, January 20, 2005
City Hall's "right information," and its refusal to share it with the rest of us
Our incumbent mayor has several problems, ones generally of his own making, but increasingly it is evident that prime among them is a completely unfathomable disregard for public relations – not in the sense of spin (although he could use some of that, too), but in the politically primal way of making his positions understood by the public, and projecting to the city’s residents that he cares to do so.
This ongoing detachment is beginning to look strange, indeed.
At the last City Council meeting, it was obvious that only grudgingly, and in the very limited public forum of the council meeting room, was Mayor Garner willing to reveal his procedural and territorial objections to a code enforcement ordinance, one that he continues to insist he supports in spite of his refusal to sign the City Council’s proposal.
One would imagine that appearance is everything to a successful dry cleaner, but thus far in the drive to put teeth into ordinance enforcement, Mayor Garner has been satisfied to appear as an enemy of order and cleanliness, making not the slightest effort to engage with the electorate, and seeking to ward off any criticism by deploying his favored mantra, which goes something like this:
You just don’t have the right information.
Perhaps someone – anyone – in City Hall would like to take on the task of providing the “right” information? To articulate a coherent platform of goals for the city, as Louisville’s and Jeffersonville’s mayors both have done in recent days? To counter the aura of arrogance and disengagement that is becoming firmly ingrained in the current administration’s attitude toward legitimate criticism?
To put the city in gear and use it for some constructive purpose?
We’re waiting. Anyone in the bunker listening?
This ongoing detachment is beginning to look strange, indeed.
At the last City Council meeting, it was obvious that only grudgingly, and in the very limited public forum of the council meeting room, was Mayor Garner willing to reveal his procedural and territorial objections to a code enforcement ordinance, one that he continues to insist he supports in spite of his refusal to sign the City Council’s proposal.
One would imagine that appearance is everything to a successful dry cleaner, but thus far in the drive to put teeth into ordinance enforcement, Mayor Garner has been satisfied to appear as an enemy of order and cleanliness, making not the slightest effort to engage with the electorate, and seeking to ward off any criticism by deploying his favored mantra, which goes something like this:
You just don’t have the right information.
Perhaps someone – anyone – in City Hall would like to take on the task of providing the “right” information? To articulate a coherent platform of goals for the city, as Louisville’s and Jeffersonville’s mayors both have done in recent days? To counter the aura of arrogance and disengagement that is becoming firmly ingrained in the current administration’s attitude toward legitimate criticism?
To put the city in gear and use it for some constructive purpose?
We’re waiting. Anyone in the bunker listening?
"The Cleaner" vetoes code enforcement - next round at the City Council meeting tonight
The following comes from the East Spring Neighborhood Association, but it applies to any and all New Albanians:
"Mayor Garner did not sign the Code Enforcement Ordinance, so therefore it was automatically vetoed. Tonight (1/20/05) @ 7:30 p.m. on third floor of the City/County Building, the council is considering a new version (1st reading) of a new Code Enforcement Ordinance! We need to be there and come willing to speak! WE NEED TO SHOW UP IN A LARGE NUMBER and tell the council we want something enacted to clean up our city! "
"Mayor Garner did not sign the Code Enforcement Ordinance, so therefore it was automatically vetoed. Tonight (1/20/05) @ 7:30 p.m. on third floor of the City/County Building, the council is considering a new version (1st reading) of a new Code Enforcement Ordinance! We need to be there and come willing to speak! WE NEED TO SHOW UP IN A LARGE NUMBER and tell the council we want something enacted to clean up our city! "
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
NA Renewal: A new Blog weighs in
Is Louisville's Operation Brightside a model for New Albany?
Can New Albany become a "new city?"
For explanations and possible answers to these questions, and more pieces to the puzzle that is New Albany's renewal, go here:
NA Renewal
Can New Albany become a "new city?"
For explanations and possible answers to these questions, and more pieces to the puzzle that is New Albany's renewal, go here:
NA Renewal
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