Mike Kopp and downtown New Albany dining in the C-J.

A link I missed earlier in the week:

Restaurants revitalize New Albany; Downtown booster Mike Kopp credited along with streamlined liquor licenses, by Jenna Esarey (Special to the Courier-Journal)

... Fueling the restaurant boom to an extent was the creation of the Riverfront District. The state allows New Albany to sell the normally difficult-to-acquire liquor licenses within the district for $1,000.

“We are not creating an area full of bars,” said Kopp.

“Toast has a liquor license so they can sell mimosas with breakfast. La Rosita is relocating downtown so they can sell margaritas.”

There's a deep discussion waiting, although I'm not entirely sure there's time for it today.

John McCormick and Keltricity at the craft beer friendly Rudyard Kipling, tonight.

It's amazing that Mr. and Mrs Confidential have reached the point that it's noteworthy when we report that we'll be going to Louisville tonight for entertainment, although there are definite New Albany connections therein.

Here's the word from Keltricity's web site:

Keltricity at the Rudyard Kipling w/John McCormick
November 21, 2009 starting at 7:00 p.m.
422 W.Oak Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40203
$10 adults/$5 children
Keltricity joins with fingerstyle guitarist John McCormick for an evening of Celtic music. John regularly tours this country and England a master of the guitar and well known to fans in this area. Native to Indy, now living in San Francisco (and New Albany).

Note that at the Rudyard Kipling, Ken and Sheila currently have a draft lineup of six local craft brews (BBC, Cumberland and NABC) and Guinness. They've "gotten" it for a long time, and this progressive draft lineup is just the latest example that the magic's alive and well.

Help New Directions continue helping New Albany.

Receiving word of our $6.7 million Neighborhood Stabilization Program award was indeed exciting. There are a lot of thank yous owed a lot of people. New Directions Housing Corporation is certainly among them.

New Directions not only provided assistance in preparing the NSP application but they've also consistently worked to create an environment in which such an award can flourish. For years, they've helped the less fortunate among us with their Repair Affair program and aided the City with emergency housing repair for the elderly and disabled.

In addition, the work of New Directions staff has made much needed revitalization training available to New Albany residents in recent years and helped build the professional relationships that ultimately led to a housing market study of our older neighborhoods. That study, along with other products of revitalization training, in turn helped make our NSP application successful.

In the spirit of thanks, I hope you'll take a moment to read the letter from New Directions Executive Director Joe Gliessner below and consider using the Facebook application linked to cast a vote for our friends in a selection process sponsored by Chase Community Giving. Top vote recipients will receive a grant and be made eligible to compete for further funding, up to $1 million.


In this season of thanksgiving, we are especially thankful for our past and current donors, volunteers and supporters. We would like to wish you all a happy and meaningful Thanksgiving holiday.

We would also like to ask you to vote for New Directions in the Chase Community Giving program. JPMorgan Chase Foundation is donating $5 million to local charities and they are asking Facebook users to select which organizations they will support. In Round 1 of the selection process, running now through December 14th, votes will be cast to support the 500,000 charities listed on the Chase Community Giving site. On December 15th, the top 100 organizations will each receive a $25,000 grant and move to the next round for a chance at one of five $100,000 grants or the top grant award of $1,000,000.

Voting is easy, and you can vote for up to 20 different organizations so you can support all of your favorites. To place your vote, go to the following web page:
http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/

If you already have a Facebook account you can login here, or you can create an account here if you do not have one. After you are logged-in to the Chase Community Giving page, search for New Directions Housing Corp. (this is the exact wording of the listing) or search by zip code to see a map of all local charities in a particular area. When you click on the info link for an organization, you will be directed to a page with details about the agency and a button to vote for this agency. After placing your vote, you will be given a chance to search for additional organizations. You can also choose to notify your Facebook friends about your choice and ask them to vote as well.

Please take a few minutes to vote for New Directions Housing Corporation to keep us in the running for this amazing opportunity from our friends at JPMorgan Chase, and please spread the word to all of your friends and family members so that they can also support New Directions and other local charities of their choosing.



Joe Gliessner
Executive Director
New Directions Housing Corporation

A more direct link to New Directions Housing Corporation within the voting application is also available here.

Open Thread: City council meeting of Thursday, November 19.

See what you miss when I'm busy and can't attend?

But if you were there, regroup from the inevitable IQ loss and let us know what happened.

Breaking: New Albany awarded 6.7 million in neighborhood stabilization funds.

Word from Indy is that New Albany's application for funds via the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2 (NSP2) has been approved for $6.7 million.

From the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority's web site:

NSP2 will provide grants to states, certain local communities and nonprofits to purchase and redevelop foreclosed or abandoned homes or other vacant properties, for resale or rental to low, moderate, and middle income households, in order to stabilize neighborhoods and stem the declining values of neighboring homes. The funding is provided under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) for additional activities under Division B, Title III of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA).

More as details become available...

Update: Per Daniel Suddeath of the Tribune, the award actually comes from a shuffling of NSP1 funds rather than NSP2.

Today's Tribune column: "On a wig and a prayer."

In case you're wondering, the passage on Rollen's sign refers to the decorum expected of meeting participants.

The column itself isn't about that.

Take it away, Senor Cappuccino.

BAYLOR: On a wig and a prayer

Now, if you’ll excuse me, no more about nothing. I have a block watch meeting to catch.

Price to council: Do as I don't, not as them people say.

New Albany, Indiana (NAC) -- Steve Price says enough is enough, and tonight he’ll introduce a resolution before the city council calling for their health insurance benefits to be withdrawn.

"Like all them uninsured Americans everywhere, it's our job as councilmen not to get sick," Price told reporters. "People are hurtin', and everyone else should hurt just as much, 'cuz that's the American Dream."

Price, who has claimed in the past to be such an ineffective manager of his rental property business that he “doesn’t make any money out of it,” stopped short of calling for the complete abolition of council wages.

“After all,” said Price, “I gotta buy some dog food for when the scraps run out, and some longnecks for me now and then, except for when I sing, and then the guys at the VFW buy me beers so I’ll stop. God love 'em.”

But the 3rd District councilman vows to bring another list of austerity measures before his colleagues.

“I reckon there’s a whole bunch of things we can do without, and then we’ll be examples to the taxpayer of how poor we council people can be and still do a teensy tiny bit of the job they elected us to do.”

Price specified five areas for immediate council member household cuts.

"Heck, I'm doing without these already, so why can't they honor the taxpayer by cutting unnecessary expenses?"

Flush toilets … “We ain’t got no sewers, anyhows, and there’s nuthin’ like running to the outhouse in the dead of winter to make you think of the rate payer.”

Pasteurized milk … “It just a French word that adds pennies to the gallon, and for what?”

Water heaters … “Them people waste too much water takin’ baths, anyway.”

Automatic transmissions … “Son of an Erika, they’re plumb dangerous on icy streets, and lemme tell ya, there’s gonna be more ice than ever after I get rid of the salt subsidy.”

Electricity … “I done me a study – didn’t have to pay some pointy head for it – and it shows that if you take away the juice, none of them expensive gadgets’ll run, anyways. Heck, according to Dave Ramsey, we don't even need none of 'em."

Benefits in doubt? Price proposing elimination of council health insurance, by Daniel Suddeath (News and Tribune).

Resolution challenges city health insurance for New Albany council members, by Grace Schneider (Courier-Journal)

Take it from Rollen.

It's that old time championship rasslin' type of day when the Tribune's publishersteve tweets:

Hmm? To run Denhart letter next to Roger Baylor column tomorrow or not? Of course! That's why I manage a local newspaper and not Fox News.

Two can play this game.

What does the photo above have to do with any of this?

What did the man wearing the Afro wig ever do to land in prison?

And what about the rapture?

Read my column tomorrow and find out.

Reefer Madness, Part Three: Bowls and bowls of code enforcement.

Last night, I fortified myself with Elector and began answering the questions someone double-bag posted at another location. By answering here rather than there, troglodyte nation has to implicitly admit to reading New Albany's most viewed blog in order to continue their anonymous character assassinations.

I haven't had this much fun since 1966, when code enforcement in New Albany was suspended indefinitely.

3. Why do you tolerate the excuses about the lack of code enforcement?

A better question would be this: Why do any of us tolerate it?

And: Why have so any of us tolerated it for so very, very long?

The absence of code enforcement is a New Albanian civic malady that stretches so far back into the mists of time that it predates virtually all of us. Can any administration in living memory claim to have been pro-active in enforcement? Can any council during the same time span claim to have provided City Hall with the means, both monetary and politically, to pursue meaningful code enforcement?

Larry Kochert accomplished next to nothing during his sad career of grandstanding and ward-heeling, but he leaves us with an axiom that succinctly explains everything we need to know: An ordinance enforced may well become a vote lost. The implications are obvious. All local politicians over a period of decades have been complicit in sabotaging code enforcement, because they must retain the ability to make politically-based exceptions based on their own needs of the moment, rather than entrust a politically-neutral enforcement regime to pursue what is lawful.

They’ve rationalized this by saying to themselves, hmm, codes aren’t really laws in the sense of prioritization, and the slum lord down the streets provides votes, and more than a few New Albanians have tolerated it, so, what the hell. That's politics, right?

Unfortunately, yes.

Do I think the current England administration is doing the best job it could to promote code enforcement? No.

Is the current city council providing any assistance at all in making code enforcement a front burner issue? No.

It’s institutional, perhaps even genetic, and while none of this absolves City Hall, the worst culprit in all of local political “culture” (as loose a term as one might use) is your beloved Steve Price, whose obscene petulance at the rental property registration meeting last year was just as noteworthy as my own better remembered example at the recent council meeting.

Code enforcement? It’s a two-way street, and now, let’s remember the words of Neil Young: “Why don’t we roll another number for the road?”

Reefer Madness, Part Two: Financials and the need for aphrodisiacs in the gray bar hotel.

As noted previously, I have been asked by Lt. McGrowroom of the Potty Police to answer questions pertaining to toleration, numerology and certain other local bowel movements, and ever the gracious host, I’ll be posting these thoughts here on my blog, not at the location where they were first asked. That's because it's just the way I am.

2. Why do you not insist the Council be given their monthly printouts of the financials (as required by law) so they can do their job?

For those just tuning in, the “financials” are holy canonical scrolls provided to Adam and Eve before the tragic fall. What the occupants of the Garden of Eden didn’t grasp amid the bedlam (and crazed sex) produced by drinking the fermented apple juice proffered by the serpent (a copperhead snake, no doubt) is that those in possession of the financials are in a position to control the lifeblood of civil society, and since civil society is the domain of knowledge, art, culture, learning and a guaranteed monthly allotment of lottery tickets, to reduce the life of every citizen to that of a number tattooed on their arms.

The exact amount they paid in, and the exact amount they get back, and if there’s a way to send the financials to Wal-Mart instead, well, that’s even better, because then the scrolls can be transported in an ox cart down unpaved streets to the nearest helipad for transport to Beijing, and even cheaper plastic trinkets for Christmas.

If the council is not getting their financials, perhaps the members should appeal to the ordinance enforcement officials they refuse to empower and ask with all due Confucian polite detachment that the numbers be handed over. If they haven’t done so yet, then I’m uncertain as to whether a mere Publican can make the difference, but I’m willing to insist: Please, give them the numerical Viagra to make a difference in our lives, amen, thank you, and LOL.

Reefer Madness, Part One: He's out to get you.

I have been asked by a hooded, passive/aggressive denizen of the netherworld to answer questions pertaining to tolerating certain local conditions, and I fully intend to comply. In the coming days, I’ll post my thoughts here on my blog, not at the location where they were first asked, because doing so is the best way to explicate the fundamental senselessness of the process, and this futility is crucial for comprehending the mindset therein.

I’ll do this clause by clause, at least until I grow bored, or a plea agreement is copped – whichever comes first.

1. We know it is neither healthy, wealthy nor wise to criticize Mayor England. We understand that.

You understand what you choose to understand, just like me, and just like anyone else. Perception is situational. We see the world from self-chosen vantage points, and depending on the foliage and the fog, sometimes we see very little of the actual landscape.

Furthermore, there are times when the haze comes not from without, but from within, and no manner of rote repetitions corresponding to the matrix of an abacus that never really existed can change the plain fact that paranoia truly is the great destroyer.

You’re free to feel that way, and I don’t doubt how reality might sometimes seem to be configured out there amid the dark shadows of guilt, failure and substance abuse, but kindly (thank you, god bless) refrain from assuming that your own paranoid fantasies apply to me, to my cohort, or to the world as it is, as opposed to as it seems to be. In the absence of evidence – in the absence of facts – that’s pure narcissism.

Why is it that the space aliens always come for the insignificant, meaningless people whose squandered lives attest to nothing of value to these supposedly superior life forms? Shouldn’t the little green galaxians aim higher, for the human life forms that actually might be of benefit to them? Is it because they possess a cosmic sense of humor, deigning to wreak havoc in the addled brains of the damaged? Or, did the intergalactic Zagat guide somehow send them astray?

In other words, what I say or do not say has no bearing on a fear that this mayor or any other is going to step into a phone booth and emerge as Don Vito Corleone.

Next? Maybe tomorrow.

NA Event Watch: Upcoming events in downtown New Albany.

Local GOP's version of Arthur Carlson goes nutzoid ... alas, not for the first time.

And there's no Dr. Johnny Fever around for temporary comic relief.

Too bad that it seems to have become personal with Dave Matthews, but at least now I know that reading comprehension skills are not required of Republican county chairmen. Other than that, Dave is entitled to his own diatribes, but readers who correctly noted the elegiac (damn, those big words again) of my original piece universally enjoyed it, and I've seldom received more positive comments than I have since it was published.

One reader liked it so much that he dropped off a copy of his father's self-published WWI memoirs for me to read. Apparently he didn't read the part about my grandfather the mass murderer -- and rightly so, because nowhere was this written.

But in the absence of a coherent party platform, poor old Dave has bankrupt ideology to peddle, axes to grind and straw men to bludgeon. Like I said, too bad. For all his previous bluster and hokum, I actually thought he was capable of reason.

One thing's for sure: He sure isn't going to like this week's column.

Thanks for reading, big guy.

LETTERS: Reader unhappy with Tribune columnist

Now, I realize that very few people can read more than one paragraph of this author’s writings without scratching their heads and saying, “huh?”

Gonder: "It's really always about the future."

County officials can't see the long-term for their own absence of creativity ...

North Annex: Either a strip mine or pawn shop mentality on the part of Floyd County's officialdom.

... While at-large city council member John Gonder eloquently reminds me of why I voted for him:

Just Wondering

The long view need not cause a burden for us in the here and now. A short term gain from a sale of property will not have a sizable impact on the City's finances for more than a couple quarters, while ongoing ownership will produce continual, though lower in the short run, dependable funds which will support City services year in and year out. More importantly, we can make decisions today which will benefit not just ourselves but those who follow us, so those who attend the Quadra (?) centennial celebration will have something valuable to pass on to their heirs.

Fox in the Morning on site at Bank Street Brewhouse.

It's early in the morning for a professional drinker to be taking photos ...

North Annex: Either a strip mine or pawn shop mentality on the part of Floyd County's officialdom.

Interconnectivity in today's Tribune:

Sekula pushing for local historic preservation group (Daniel Suddeath)

Appraisals for North Annex lowered (Chris Morris)

While Greg Sekula rallies the preservationists, elected officials like Larry McAllister and Ted Heavrin (both county councilmen, and evidently registered as "Democrat" in that peculiar local "well, not really" sort of way) rarely make it through a news cycle without providing more evidence for the need to rally the preservationists.

So, how much is the North Annex (as a historic structure) and the open land around it really worth?

Heavrin and his ilk say that greenbacks are the only determining factor, but of course they lack the simple courage to fairly consider, much less implement, a LOIT tax, one that might relieve the immediate need to sell off what few assets remain available to them before it can be determined whether the building and property might be worth even more as an adaptive reuse that incorporates the surrounding green space in some fashion that approximates 2009, not their preferred milieu of 1947.

Sekula's troops obviously disagree, and I tend to side with them. Some people see a tree as something to be felled and sold, while others view the woods as a place worth something in and of itself. Same goes for a building. The biggest considerations in the future of the North Annex site are how proposed development pertains to environmental matters (i.e., run-off from the asphalt twinkling in Heavrin's eyes) and the relationship of the site to Community Park.

Sell off the North Annex property and the money's gone. We'll be back to where we started, and still without a revenue stream for future needs. Use it to enhance the quality of life, and it may provide what amounts to an annuity. Accordingly, Morris quotes Heavrin: “But like everything it comes down to money.”

Wrong.

There are times when it comes down to creativity and thinking outside the box, and Heavrin stands as a prime example of how our county council fails that test.

Bank Street Brewhouse wants you to join us on television: Monday, November 16, 5 - 9 ... in the morning.

As previously noted, yesterday was a heavy day in Indianapolis. John and I went north to hawk NABC drafts, pausing momentarily in the early afternoon to accept Indiana Main Street's award to Bank Street Brewhouse as "Business of the Year" in a statehouse rotunda photo op. I ended up wearing a tasteful British brewery fleece instead of the suit, with my "These Machines Kill Fascists" t-shirt underneath. There was some flashing along the way.

NABC brewers Dave Pierce and Jesse Williams spent the day in the brewhouse planning the festivities for a television gig that materialized without warning on Thursday afternoon.

Seems that this coming Monday, November 16, Bank Street Brewhouse will be the scene for "Fox in the Morning's" remote spots of Manufacturing Mondays, a new segment by Keith Kaiser. He'll be helping brew a batch of Community Dark, and we'll be on the tube at intervals between 5:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. -- that's right, IN THE MORNING.

Some readers no doubt will remember a similar feat for Gravity Head 2008 at the Public House, when Terry Meiners joined us: Gravity Head tailgate breakfast party on the WHAS-11 morning show.

Coincidentally, having contributed a piece about breakfast and beer to LEO, the brew team concluded that there would be an exclusive beer-paired breakfast in honor of the Monday morning telecast. Chef Josh was unable to commit, but it has been determined that Jesse Williams will don the whites and invade Chef's Bank Street kitchen to cook. I'll turn it over to Dave:

Here is Chef For The Day Jesse's menu:

Roasted Red Pepper, asparagus and Capriole Farmstead Chevre' Quiche, paired with NABC Farmhouse Saison

Biscuits, Gravy & Sweet Potato home fries:
Whole wheat Porter biscuits made with NABC Bob's Old 15-B, country sausage gravy made with lean pork raised on NABC's spent grain, paired with NABC Bob's Old 15B Robust Brown Porter

Pear Galette paired with NABC Tafelbier.

Coffee? Any of you coffee people out there want to trade beer for beans?

In short, NABC will provide coffee, food, and pairing beer once the clock strikes 7 a.m. There'll be a tip jar for the early risers. We need a head count, so please RSVP. It already has been blurbed on Facebook, so don't respond again here.

Okay -- it's a work day. So what?

Stay tuned! This should be a fun (albeit unexpected) beginning to Bank Street Brewhouse's Grand Opening week.

Bank Street Brewhouse Grand Opening Week begins Tuesday, November 17.

Can intellectual honesty and integrity win a New Albany election...

or are there just too many idiotic straight ticket voters?

We know that both the local Democratic and Republican parties have perennially lacked the gumption to take positions on local issues. We know that as a result, running under their respective banners has no real meaning outside of pandering to the least among us. At the local level, there's simply no way for anyone to self-identify as a Democrat or Republican. There are no stated platforms or even fairly consistent rhetoric or performance records to compare.

Some will suggest that their allegiances are born of support for the national or state parties, but to do so is turn our republic on its decidedly non-pointy head with excrement spiraling down rather than cream being upwardly mobile.

So, the question: Are there enough reasonably intelligent people sufficiently engaged to overcome the pandering and insert some honesty into the process or should potential candidates just resign themselves to tucking their integrity down between the seams of their underpants in order to "win", thus proving that they may not be worth voting for in the first place?

Sipes makes it official.

Connie Sipes will not seek re-election to her District 46 State Senate seat. At tonight's Jefferson-Jackson dinner, she introduced the party's annointed choice to run in her place next year: Charles Freiberger, current County Commissioner.

Howard Dean was excellent, and when he told the assembled local Democrats that they should stand for something, not nothing, the silence was audible. But we'd expect that, wouldn't we? Council members in attendance were John Gonder and Bob Caesar. The Confidentials had a good time, and the NABC flashed on the screen, though not as Dean spoke.

Care to comment? I'm outta town all day Friday, so unless Bluegill swoops in ...

Not that any of the Republocrats will even be there, mind you.

The reaction of tonight's Jefferson-Jackson crowd to Howard Dean stands to be Priceless.

In more ways than one.

Carnegie Center to sneak a peek at the documentary Carbon Nation: Wed., November 18.

(Submitted. Know that there'll be a grand opening party across the street all the while on the 18th)

Carnegie Center Presents Free Sneak Peek of Documentary Carbon Nation

Discussion to Follow with Director/Producer Peter Byck

Wednesday November 18, 2009, 7-8:30 pm

The Carnegie Center for Art and History in New Albany, Indiana will present a free special sneak peek of scenes from Carbon Nation, an upcoming documentary about climate change, on Wednesday November 18 from 7 to 8:30 pm. Carbon Nation is an optimistic (and witty) discovery of what people are already doing, what we as a nation could be doing and what the world needs to
do to prevent (or at least slow down) the impending climate crisis. Here's the great news director and producer Peter Byck shares with audiences: we already have the technology to combat most of the worst-case scenarios of climate change, and it's also very good business as well. Filmmaker Byck wants inspire the great portion of Americans that know there's a problem, but don't know what they can do - and don't realize they need to act now. Visit www.carbonnation.tv for more information. Carbon Nation is presented in conjunction with the Carnegie Center’s current exhibit Earthworks: Art Quilts by Pat DaRif, Joanne Weis, & Valerie White, on display through December 30.

Carbon Nation features interviews with over 200 people, including Richard Branson (CEO, Virgin Group), Thomas L. Friedman (New York Times), Former CIA Director James Woolsey, Van Jones (Founder, Green For All), Col. Dan Nolan, U.S. Army (Ret), Amory Lovins (Chairman, RMI), Janine Beynus (Founder, Biomimicry Institute), Art Rosenfeld (Commissioner, California Energy Commission), Denis Hayes (Founder of Earth Day), Ralph Cavanagh (NRDC), Lester Brown (Earth Policy Institute), John Rowe (CEO, Exelon), Jim Rogers (CEO, Duke Energy), and many more climate change pioneers.

Louisville filmmaker Peter Byck, Director and Producer of the documentary, will talk about the project and show about 20 minutes of clips from the film, followed by a dialogue with the audience about the film and the topic of climate change. Peter Byck has over 20 years experience as a director and editor. His first documentary Garbage won the South by Southwest Film Festival. (It screened in scores of festivals in the U.S. and Europe and played at the Museum of Modern Art and Lincoln Center.) The Christian Science Monitor wrote about Garbage: “One part ‘Roger and Me,’ one part ‘60 Minutes,’ and one part ‘This Is Spinal Tap,’ stitched together with a sense of witty serendipity.”

The Carnegie Center for Art and History, a department of the New Albany-Floyd County Public Library, offers a full schedule of changing exhibitions and other educational programs. Visit www.carnegiecenter.org or call 812-944-7336 for more information on current exhibits, events, and classes.

Today's Tribune column: "Downtown for a reason."

Often I'll be speaking with someone about my bicycling commute to work (either NABC location), and the response will be some variant of this: "You're lucky to be able to do that."

Nope. Luck's nice, but it isn't the same as planning. Both now and previously, my choice of home was made with factors like this in mind. That's why ...

BAYLOR: (We're) downtown for a reason

It was no accident that in 2003, we bought a house on East Spring Street. Granted, there were fortuitous convergences, like being acquainted with the people who were selling the property, but the decision-making process did not occur on a whim, a prayer or a dare.

Somewhere Ayn Rand is fondling a bracelet made of Reardon Metal.

Teabagger poison?

Indiana's property tax caps get counties moving toward income taxes, by Lesley Stedman Weidenbener (Courier-Journal).

When the Clark County Council passed an income tax increase last month, it joined two dozen other Indiana counties working to shift their budgets away from property taxes, a move the General Assembly has encouraged for two years.

Expect immediate comment from my fellow local columnist, Debbie Harbeson, who yesterday took a scathing Libertarian cudgel to State Representative Ed Clere's Nov. 3 piece in the Tribune, Grant will boost entire community, in which Clere wrote:

Federal stimulus money is flowing into Georgetown. As a result, the town’s sewage will stop flowing down the hill to New Albany. It’s a big win for both communities - and a benefit to the rest of Floyd County and Southern Indiana.

Yesterday, Harbeson issued a challenge: Let’s clear the rhetoric.

Wow, it must really feel good to be federally stimulated. At least Indiana Rep. Ed Clere makes me think so. I’m sure he’s right because the deal he recently brokered as paid political middleman would certainly make some people feel good. I do have friends and family who will benefit from this forced transfer of funds from one group to another so it’s nice to know someone locally is being stimulated.

I feel like I should be reading these at a sports bar ...

Local food (and groceries) in the news.

The summer growing season has passed, but interest in local food seems to be heating up.

Much of this interest can be traced to the experience of New Albanians attending the recent Milwaukee leadership training, like Ted, who posts a video you need to watch: Growing Power Inc. Community Leadership Institute, the Power of Urban Farming.

Another attendee sent this link: Urban farms plant seeds of hope; Indy woman fights blight with garden on lot she bought for $500, by Dan McFeely (Indy Star). New Albany has plenty of patches like this one. If John M. is reading, how did the St. Marks garden work out the past summer?

Many of us were there for the grocery coop meeting: New Albany working toward grocery co-op (News and Tribune), and there's a Facebook page for the possibly emerging New Albany Grocery Coop movement.

Do we have any updates from the New Albany Farmers Market? I seem to recall hearing of a proposal to have a winter program of some variety.

America’s Most Wanted – with a slice o' Coffey Cake on the side.

Do we deserve any of this?

You know, as punishment for some variety of karma wastage?

New Albany councilwoman says ‘I’m innocent’; Diane McCartin-Benedetti arrested for DUI, by Matt Thacker (News and Tribune).

New Albany City Councilwoman Diane McCartin-Benedetti didn’t have much to say Monday following her weekend arrest for operating while intoxicated by refusal. However, she said her story will be told at a later date.

“I’m innocent and the facts will be forthcoming,” McCartin-Benedetti told The Tribune.

Score at least one point for the council woman. Lest we've forgotten, Americans are presumed innocent until proven guilty, or at least that's the assumption. She’s not a black male, and that bodes well for her in purely statistical terms (kindly note that I abhor profiling in any form).

Not unexpectedly, the main local news sources are choosing to entertain us even further by enlisting Dan Coffey in the cause of subjective analysis, enabling him to fulfill the only political mandate that he really knows: Interjecting his own agenda into places where it seldom belongs.

So it is that the same etiquette-challenged council president who earlier this year mistook Studio’s for a costume party and impersonated a copperhead snake, later threatening bodily harm to an educated citizen, now helpfully notes that there is a reason why his fellow council time servers didn’t admonish him at the time.

… Coffey said he does not condone McCartin-Benedetti’s action, but he does not expect the council will take any action against her because it has no policing authority.

Indeed it doesn’t, although ethical authority might be a different and reachable goal, but as with his own transgression and the manner by which it was swept under a rug of indifference, Coffey sees to it that there’ll be no concepts like that on his watch.

Remarkably, it gets even worse. Apparently it’s Halloween every day on West 7th, as Coffey makes the reporter wait on the porch while he ducks into a nearby water closet, dons the plush vestments, approaches the stand with a plastic cup of Welch’s and a plate of stale Ritz crackers, and straddles a standard of piety that congenitally escapes his own political realm.

“I hate to see anybody in a difficult situation, but the bottom line is we all make mistakes,” Coffey said. “Sometimes it actually ends up making us a better person.”

Verily, that’s a straight line for the ages. Where’s Milton Berle when you need him most? However, there’s even more mirth to come:

Coffey said McCartin-Benedetti’s arrest underscores a growing problem in New Albany.

“If you look at all the development downtown, it’s all been alcohol establishments,” Coffey said. “Downtown is just saturated with them.”

That’s one breathtaking grandstand.

We know from the start that Coffey's as perpetual a political non-entity as we’re likely to witness in our lifetimes, but just for the fun of it, we'll take him at his caterwauling word and concede that yes, it’s true: There are a few places downtown that sell alcoholic beverages.

Of course, this plain fact has nothing whatsoever to do with Benedetti’s consumption (if any) and arrest. There are places to drink in the suburbs, too, and also package stores. One might run a basement distilling operation and pour the yield into a flask.

Then again, we already knew that rarely does a nonsensical Coffey utterance correspond with reality outside of his pre-determined spin-cycle needs, and in his present zeal to co-opt Benedetti’s misfortune for his own personal and political self-aggrandizement, Coffey is able to play a double game, holding out an olive branch of sorts to lure the council woman into his obstructionist hovel, and blaming downtown revitalization (“them people”) for the first of what we can expect will become a long list of evils and travails.

Amid the exaggerated nothingness of Coffey’s stunted game playing, it’s worth recalling that the downtown food and beverage establishments slated for ritualistic attack by the Coffey cabal were made possible by the state's special riverfront development area rules for three-way licenses, and in turn, these rules could not be implemented without an affirmative vote by the city council.

That's right: New Albany’s city council duly approved the riverfront development area and the regulatory regime leading to the “saturation” against which Coffey froths – not yesterday, but in 2006 – and by a unanimous vote. Even Steve Price was for it, at least after being assured that the video poker machines at the VFW remained safe and sound.

Yes, and this means that three years ago, Coffey voted in favor of what he now finds expedient to decry, surely dismissing the inherent hypocrisy as a standard that doesn’t apply to him. Exactly how does Coffey explain his previous vote?

We’re left to guess that as is customary with him, he didn't have the right information at the time – and has been busy fabricating freshly spurious “facts” ever since by means of the sausage grinder he keeps for just such cases.

As always, it’s a purely depressing spectacle.

Has Skittles the Cat registered for a primary run against the Wizard next time?

Some afternoon porno irreverence.

No doubt with Reclaim Our Culture Kentuckiana's recent propaganda barrage ringing in his ears, one of my friends posted this comment on Facebook:

According to google, Louisville is number one, two years running, when it comes to internet users searching for porn! As a former Louisvillian, I have never been more proud!!!

I replied:

Finally, some recognition. The flip side of it is that many of us hereabouts are so backward, we didn't actually FIND any of it.

I say: Keep it local. Makes you wonder why people bother with the Internet when Cleopatra's is right down the street ... and on the way to the boat.

Previously: C-J: "New Albany again rebuffed in battle against adult bookstore."

But it was a peachy photo-op, wasn't it?

In the Guardian, Timothy Garton Ash recalls the fall of the Berlin Wall in the context of the year 1989, "the biggest year in world history since 1945."

With Mikhail Gorbachev's breathtaking renunciation of the use of force (a luminous example of the importance of the individual in history), a nuclear-armed empire that had seemed to many Europeans as enduring and impregnable as the Alps, not least because it possessed those weapons of total annihilation, just softly and suddenly vanished.

Nowhere in this article does Ash so much as mention Ronald Reagan's name ... nor should he.

Time flies, and walls come tumbling down.

Twenty years ago, the Berlin Wall began falling. Mr. Gorbachev had a hand in it, although he did not obey Ronald Reagan's exhortation to the letter, grab a jackhammer, and assist in the actual demolition.

Why the Berlin Wall came tumbling down, by Charles S. Maier (Telegraph.co.uk)

... By the summer of 1989, socialist fraternity was fraying badly, and Hungary was no longer willing to act as a gatekeeper. Once Budapest party leaders allowed East Germans to exit to Austria in September 1989, the final act of the GDR began.

Last year I posted this four-part essay that tells the story of why I was in East Berlin in 1989 just prior to the GDR's collapse. I've been remixing these to send to my friend Suzanne, who'd I'd have never known if not for sharing a communal tent with her and six other volunteers that summer. Recently we began corresponding again after a gap of a few years, and it's been good to hear from her and know that life's okay in what used to be East Germany.

Pilsner, Putin and Me (Part One).

Pilsner, Putin and Me (Part Two).

Pilsner, Putin and Me (Part Three).

Pilsner, Putin and Me (Part Four).

"Liberty Green Knows How To Pave A Street," and a potpourri of other links.

All week long, I kept pasting to this list of links. Why stop now?

Someone interjected this progressive paving link into another blog's fevered discussion of judging the length and breadth of human progress on planet Earth by the results of a New Albany city audit. You're forgiven for missing it -- the story and the discussion: Liberty Green Knows How To Pave A Street (Broken Sidewalk blog).

Baseball's finished and the damned Yankees won. Now it's the off-season, and time for board gaming, as in Strat-O-Matic Puts Negro Leagues in Play - NYTimes.com.

I wrote about World War I in the Tribune on Thursday, and an expatriated New Albanian correspondent sent me this link to YouTube: Green Fields of France, by the Corries. Many thanks, D. It's a touching song. Meanwhile, the Guardian's assessment of a noted literary figure of the era is also appreciated: Siegfried Sassoon: The reluctant hero Books The Guardian.

As the conclusion of volume two of Richard Evans's majestic three-volume history of the Third Reich nears for me, an obituary almost passed unnoticed. Richard Sonnenfeldt, chief interpreter at Nuremberg, died on October 9th, aged 86, (from The Economist).

Closer to home, councilman John Gonder comments on last night's health care vote: 220 and 51 is OK By Me.

On the topic of intrusive government, or not, there's Booze Politics News and Thoughts, from Lew Bryson's blog. Noteworthy is the notion of "too broke to fix" in the context of (any) state's alcohol regulations.

Speaking of which, the Courier-Journal tells us that a New Albany city councilwoman (was) charged with driving while intoxicated. My gut instinct is that there is little relevance in this, although if I don't make a passing nod at something being reported in the C-J and already the subject of Twitter banter, there'll be accusations of playing favorites. Folks, if you're going to play the drinking game, you need to organize your commute accordingly. 'Nuff said.

I'm hitting the road for Sunday bicycling.

A spirited affirmation.

A little further research reveals Gardner was 69 and La Mira 29. Their daughter Viola was born a few years later. The spirit(s) was strong even then.

Is there someone or something we can sue for false advertising?

I know that it's lazy of me to cross-post, but just the same ... let's have a brief educational moment.


Certainly this is the best recent example of corporate cluelessness in plain sight that I've seen. Note that just because a beer differs from the flavorless norm in the sense of light-this or that, it doesn't necessarily imply that it is "craft" or "specialty."

Thanks to Clay (via John) for this vision of conceptual futility, courtesy of the Buffalo Wild Wings branch by the Mall St. Matthews in Louisville, Kentucky. Remind me not to go there any time soo, will ya?

OCRA Main Street award to Bank Street Brewhouse.

The Indiana Office of Community & Rural Affairs (OCRA), which administers the statewide Indiana Main Street program, released its list of Indiana Main Street award winners yesterday.


Develop New Albany board members previously contributed nominations, and so of course I was aware that Bank Street Brewhouse was under consideration, but color me completely astonished: We've been selected as the Indiana Main Street Business of the Year.

Jeffersonville Main Street also was recognized for its wine and retail walk, and deservedly so, and two of its board members have been recognized for their service.


Wow. The awards ceremony is in Indianapolis at the Statehouse next Friday, and Rich, to answer your question -- I do own a suit, you know, and actually wore it once last year.


Thanks to everyone who had anything to do with this. It's an honor, and quite flattering.

Today's Tribune column: "Forgotten fields in Flanders."

There's another, oddly connected anniversary coming on November 9, which will mark 20 years since the Berlin Wall fell. The armistice in 1918 didn't end the Great War. The fall of the wall might have.

BAYLOR: Forgotten fields in Flanders

By all such standards, the Great War was especially horrible. The specific horror of this conflict, which eventually came to be known as World War I out of a contextual necessity to keep our historical accountings of human suffering clearly ordered, surely represents societal innocence shattered on an unfathomably massive scale.

Bank Street Brewhouse Grand Opening Week begins Tuesday, November 17.

Having "electored" to begin winter hours at the Bank Street Brewhouse, and feeling that after eight months of work, we're feeling great about what we've accomplished so far, it seemed a good time for a Grand Opening gala. Here's what I have so far. There'll probably be a few alterations, and I'll inform you of these.

Tuesday, November 17

It's Villiger 1888 Cigar Night on the patio. In conjunction with our friends at Kaiser’s Tobacco Store, where so much of Roger’s paycheck is deposited each week, we’ll host our first-ever cigar night with cigars, promos and giveaways. A representative of Villiger 1888 will be on hand. 1888 is a new hand-rolled premium cigar from the Dominican Republic by way of Switzerland’s 121-year-old Villiger tobacco firm. There will be a small fee (as yet undecided) for participation that will include ample cigar(s), beers and a chances to win door prizes. “Session Beer” pint specials at BSB all day long, and food specials to be announced.

Wednesday, November 18

Bank Street Brewhouse's Official Ribbon Cutting ceremony, and suitably propagandistic speeches, featuring representatives of city government, Develop New Albany, One Southern Indiana and the Pants Down Progressive local political insurgency. The show begins at 6:00 p.m. We’ve saved kegs from the batch of Elector that New Albany Mayor Doug England (with David Pierce, above) helped brew earlier this year, and the “mayor’s batch” will be pouring all day. Expect “Grant Line Garage Brewery” beer specials all day long, perhaps Jared's single hop series on the handpull, and food specials are to be announced.

Thursday, November 19

NABC encourages its friends and customers to attend the Conway Fire Equipment Museum Pledge Night, 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. at the Grand Convention Center, where NABC’s Community Dark will be on tap at the cash bar. Before, during and after the event, there’ll be food and beer (Beak’s Best, Bob’s Old 15-B) specials at Bank Street Brewhouse.

Friday, November 20

There is a possibility of musical entertainment in the evening. More on that later. Food and beer specials will last all day long (specifics to be announced).

Saturday, November 21

Singer, songwriter, poet and author Misha Feigin offers dinnertime musical entertainment inside the Bank Street Brewhouse from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., with food and beer specials to be announced.

Sunday, November 22

Build-Your-Own Bloody Mary Bar from Noon to 3:00 p.m.

I'm sometimes asked: Why the Bloody Mary?

Because it is a traditional match with beer and beer-based cuisine, and as such, the natural extension of Chef Josh’s kitchen … especially the way NABC does it. In the few short months since its inception, our Build-Your-Own Bloody Mary Bar has been acclaimed as a downtown New Albany institution. Select the spices and ingredients that you'd like, watch as it is served over ice in a 20-ounce NABC pint glass rimmed with your choice of Celery Salt or Smoked Sea Salt, and then finish it off with a skewer of unique garnishes.

Thanks for your support, and we're looking forward to a fine, progressive winter season in New Albany.

Best headline of the day, so far.

Britglish practiced by native speakers ...

France: 'Autistic Tories castrated Britain in Europe'

Minister says Cameron pledge to reclaim EU powers is 'pathetic' and will leave UK isolated

Help?

Does anyone have access to electronic information about the forthcoming pledge gala (November 19) at the Grand, to be staged by the Friends of the New Albany Fire Museum?

I've searched the Web in every possible combination of terms and can find nothing except the Tribune news story from September 15. There's a Facebook page that denies entry unless I'm approved as a member (say what?), and there's a poster in the Bank Street Brewhouse. I'd really like to publicize this as part of the Brewhouse's grand opening week and drive traffic that way, but in the absence of easily accessible information, this is not altogether easy.

What's more, there doesn't seem to be a Grand web site any longer -- just a blog of some sort with no blanks filled in. Whassup there?

I appreciate any help you can provide for this quest, which shouldn't be this damned hard.

Female Art Collective event at the Public House on Thursday, November 12.

C-J: "New Albany again rebuffed in battle against adult bookstore."

Thanks to P for the link to the C-J, which I don't always see. He wrote:

"Did you see this? What a sad waste of our resources to have fought such a losing battle. Hope ROCK chipped in for our losing attorney fees."

Right on, brother, but I suspect Reclaim Our Culture Kentuckiana is too busy wielding Tony Dungy as a fundraiser for the ongoing anti-Theatair X theocrat's designer jihad to bother much with Cleopatra's, or whatever it's called now.

Note that the most interesting part of the article excerpted below is the comments section.

New Albany again rebuffed in battle against adult bookstore, by Harold J. Adams (Courier-Journal).

The City of New Albany must decide whether to keep fighting following another loss in its long-running battle to shut down an adult bookstore.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week denied the city’s request that the full court reconsider a September ruling by a three-judge panel blocking the city from closing New Albany DVD.

Open thread: Is there support for a food co-op in New Albany?

Tuesday's presentation illustrating the history and founding principles of the Lost River Community Co-op in Paoli was well attended, with roughly 50 people listening as Andy Mahler, board president (above, right), and Brad Alstrom (left), general manager of Lost River Market and Deli, spoke about their experiences.

Food co-ops are member-owned, self-managed associations dedicated to serving the needs of local farmers and consumers by providing healthy food choices at a fair value. Food co-ops aim to promote community well-being, economic prosperity, and self-reliance. They provide a local option for affordable, nutritious, locally-grown food and goods year round and help guaranty that local food dollars stay within the community.

I didn't take notes, but I will note with approval that among Andy's opening comments was a description of the food co-op as a corrective to "predatory capitalism." Surprisingly, no one left the room. That's refreshing.

Do we have what it takes to pursue a Lost River-style co-op in New Albany? Is this the right market for it? What's the next step?

Thanks go to Andy Terrell, the sponsors, host and concessionaire:

Carnegie Center for Art and History
Develop New Albany
New Albany Urban Enterprise Association
Dueling Grounds Cafe at Destinations Booksellers

Charlestown to NA: Here's how it's done, amateurs.

How many times have I heard a member of New Albany's city council confide privately that yes, it was a mistake to select Dan Coffey as president -- but geez, what can we do about it now?

Birdseye could not be reached for comment, but Charlestown provides this answer, as reported in the Evening News.

Goodlett removed as Charlestown City Council president; Roberts, Aaron say Goodlett abused power; ousted president says it’s because he doesn’t always agree with mayor, by Braden Lammers (News and Tribune).

“Things that you have been doing since you’ve become president have been unbecoming of the president,” (Councilman Dan) Roberts said ...

... Councilman Jeff Aaron also accused (Mark) Goodlett of abusing his power.

“That president is nothing but a title ... and my personal opinion, you’re abusing that,” he said.

It's that simple, folks, unless you're a New Albanian. As Coffey remained ensconced in the president's chair last night, while hectoring and debating speakers and interjecting his opinions throughout, we were reminded yet again the extent to which he is temperamentally unsuited for the position of president, and how he actively damages the city of New Albany through willful and persistent misuse of it.

And, as always, his council comrades sit there, silently, enabling and abetting the dysfunction that makes New Albany a laughingstock.

Is it January yet, and it that enough time to find a spine somewhere -- anywhere -- in this illustrious group?

Winter Hours begin at Bank Street Brewhouse today.

During the winter months, BSB will be opening at 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Weekend hours and schedules remain the same as before. We're also working on winterizing the Taxpayer Memorial Patio, and next week there'll be a full list of festivities for the delayed Grand Opening, with a ribbon cutting on Wednesday. More on that tomorrow.

Here is the BSB winter plan of operation for 2009/10, effective today, and note that we're still closed on Mondays.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday
BSB hours: 2:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.

From 2:00 p.m., “Brotzeit” (cheese plate, charcuterie, snacks, frites, mussels, etc.) It’s a Bavarian term that denotes appetizers for the times when the kitchen isn’t preparing full meals.

Kitchen hours: 5:30 – 9:00 p.m., featuring some of Josh Lehman’s and Andrew Gunn’s traditional menu favorites as well as new “Chefs’ Choice” fixed price menus -- three courses for $16 (not including sales tax and service), only on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings.

Friday and Saturday
BSB hours: 11:00 a.m. – 11:00 p.m.

From 11:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m., our customary lunch menu. From 2:00 p.m., afternoon “Brotzeit” snacks.

Kitchen hours: 5:30 – 10:00 p.m. for traditional menu favorites and nightly “Chefs’ Choice” specials.

Sunday
BSB Hours: 12:00 Noon – 8:00 p.m.

12:00 noon – 3:00 p.m., NABC’s Build-Your-Own Bloody Mary Bar, featuring craft-distilled Hangar One Vodka and your choice of herbs, spices, garnishes and hot sauces in what might be termed “brunch in a glass.”

Kitchen hours: Noon – 7:00 p.m., with “Brotzeit” and “Chefs’ Choice” menu selections.

Either the 1st or 3rd, and maybe both.

I know it sounds obscene, but click on the image for enlargement.

Part Five: Masterplan theatrics mercifully over, now appropriations and stuff.

R-09-26 Additional Appropriation Resolution ... Gahan

Passes. Unanimous.

R-09-27 A Resolution to Assist the Street Department with The Refurbishing of the Salt Plows and Trucks in Preparation of the Winter Months ... Benedetti

Passes. unanimous.

A-09-16 Additional Appropriation Ordinance for the Police Pension Fund ... Zurschmiede 1 & 2

Gahan ensures that he understands the location of cuts. There is a discussion of general funds vs other sources of money. Garry says that fire and pension funds will be supported by the state, starting this year, already started doing so. Price doesn't understand why fuds with budgets can't fund themselves. Garry says that appropriations are being put back in to be used for fire, police and parks.

Roll call.
1st and 2nd: Only Price against, all the rest in favor.

A-09-17 Additional Appropriation Ordinance for the Fire Pension Fund ... Zurschmiede 1 & 2

Same discussion as before. Same results.

Roll call.
1st and 2nd: Only Price against, all the rest in favor.

A-09-18 Additional Appropriation Ordinance for the Parks And Recreation Department ... Benedetti 1&2

Same discussion as previous two. Same results.

Roll call. 1st and 2nd: Only Price against, all the rest in favor.

A-09-19 Additional Appropriation Ordinance for the E.D.I.T Fund ... Messer 1 & 2

Gahan: "This is the big one." Wants to know category numbers. Garry explains that it takes care of cuts in the general fund ... Gahan wants her to break it down by category.

1st: Against, Price, KZ
2nd: Against, Price, KZ
Passes 7-2

Z-09-11 Ordinance Amending the Code of Ordinances of New Albany, Indiana, Title XV, Chapter 156 ... Price 1 & 2

John Kraft: Request to rezone property, plan commission unanimously in favor. Adjacent to Target. R-2 to C-2 general business. Not a specific use at this time. Wants to market it as commercial. A house that sits off the road by Target. Neighbors tend to be in favor. Other property moves will have to occur before it can have a formal proposal.

Unanimous, twice.

MISCELLANOUS ITEMS:

Bob Caesar would like this to be brought back next meeting from the suspended ranks:

A-09-11 Ordinance Appropriating Funds for One Time Cost Of Living Recognition Payment and Setting Amount Of Payments ... Caesar 3

Adjournment.

Part Four: Ordinances, resolutions, and all that Coffeyite grandstanding.

INTRODUCTION OF ORDINANCES AND RESOLUTIONS: READING

Price to introduce R-09-24, and actually does it. Seconded. Wow.

R-09-24 Resolution of the Common Council of the City of New Albany Amending the “New Albany-Fringe Area Comprehensive Plan 2020”

Scott Wood and Larry Timperman come forward to explain the plan.

Wood: Some areas deserve greater scrutiny, including downtown. Scott rationally and patiently explains the history of plans and zoning.

Timperman: Overall concept was explained at a public meeting advertised extensively and loudly (JB, Atlanta daydreaming). He explains the focus on the downtown. How use of areas can tie into the river heritage. Example, Greenway. Connecting Main Street back over the levee to the river. Another need is concentrationthat will require parking. Design elements have been coming in during information gathering ("a number of public meetings" giggle). Explains color coding of the chart, emphasizing reinforcing the downtown fabric already there.

Coffey pounces and asks how much money is being asked for. PARKING GARAGE!! PARKING GARAGE!!

Wood: No blank checks, just a blueprint. Cuts off the Wizard.

Benedetti: A vision.

Price: Please address Mr. Bledsoe's concerns.

Wood: The fact of the matter is that several private property owners have asked for assurances so they can develop. The plan helps with this.

Price: What about that historic thing?

Wood: Historic Preservation is not about zoning.

Timperman: The other point is that infill needs to be appropriate, and that cheap knockoffs of history are not desirable. Nowadays, the national standard is not to duplicate old things.

Wood: There is a falseness about that ... we're good builders today, too. We can design and build good buildings and come up with things that work.

Timperman and Wood explain design principles that neither Bledsoe nor Price WANT to understand. Whether they do or not is another matter. This misunderstanding is intentional, and it is political in nature.

Wood: Passionately defends green buildings and explains why it's a good idea, and not necessariyl one that applies only to deep pockets. Louisville kept hammering at their plan until it is now a model that can work here.

Zurschmiede: Just a recommendation, eh? Nothing to hold anyone to it?

Nope.

Timperman: Green could be using basic energy efficient concepts like bulbs and windows.

John Gonder: What about light rail?

Timperman: 10 to 15 years!

A light rail discussion ensues, and then Mose Putney comes forward. I believe it is bad strategy for Mose to speak about specifics, including the dreaded parking garage bogey man, when all we have here is a resolution of unspecific intent. At the same time, the Bobo project makes no sense without it.

Putney: Mentions a two-way Pearl Street

Noooooo ... not that, Mose. The natives will revolt.

Putney: Uses the phrase, "slow travel urban drop-off plaza." He calls it a "conceptual idea."

Eyes mist over. Them's big words, don't ya know. Someone needs a tall boy, and now -- but it isn't me. It is impressive of Mose to speak this language to these people. Some of them understand it. Price visibly yawns.

Coffey: Will this group ask for any money for any of this?

Putney: Meanders into the trap Coffey set, although he tries not to, and mentions public/private partnership to, yes, build a parking garage.

Robert's Rules of Order out the window.

Coffey: "Does any kind of development occur that doesn't ask for handouts?"

Coffey says that Louisville spent a "billion dollars" on 4th Street and it still doesn't pay. Putney counters with the history of urban redevelopment failure, and how no one thought about Europe. The urban movement the last 10-15 years puts us into a place to fix it. This is a new kind of developer. Sustainable, green, renewable.

All of this plays into Coffey's grandstand.

Coffey wants developers to come ask to pay to come into New Albany. Coffey goes ballistic. Putney and Coffey argue.

Price: Is there any other developer, was there other ideas?

Wood: This one came to us?

Price: Anyone else have any ideas?

Wood? Sure. Others took themselves out of it (one of whom Coffey chased out of a meeting three years ago). These guys have the financial wherewithal. The language about the VFW has been removed. There has been a grant applied for, to put toward such projects (water resources).

Jack Messer: $$$?

Putney: $40 million.

Gonder: "New Albany is scaled right for something like this?"

Putney: Umm, yes. In Louisville, something could be built far away from the core. Here, there's a center. There could be some monumental buildings here. These becomes icons, things that enhance what didn;t get trashed during misplaced urban renewal.

Coffey's thinking: One of them people. One of them people.

Benedetti: Call for a vote.

Only one vote. Resolution. Roll call.

Against: Coffey (citing underhandedness)

Abstain: Price ("don't like to tell me kids they're going to Disneyland before I know I can afford it")

7-2, yes.

Part Three: Live blogging, as communications by city officials confuses Li'l Stevie, but what's new?

COMMUNICATIONS – CITY OFFICIALS:

Steve Price questions overpayments to contractors (Kay Garry answers), and also something about sewer bids (not through Garry's office) ... Price says, it's not really directed at you (so why ask it) ... here goes ... avalanche time. What about the Tabernacle (Zurschmiede: "Not her, either.")

Price: "Carl, you're the assistant mayor, whatever ... once again we're written up ... it looks like there's no management."

Price: "Who's calling the shots ... I've been here six years" (pronounces Garner as Gardner -- he's been here six years, but can't pronounce people's names right).

Malysz: The England administration intends to address some of these. And, the statute doesn't speak to buying a building at sheriff's sale.

Coffey: "Circumvent" the process.

Malysz: "There is no process."

Anyone seen Robert's Rules of Order lately?

Malysz: We made money off the hurricane.

Coffey: "So you knew the storm was going to hit?"

Price begins questioning individual department head claims and says that he has no computer but still keeps records. Thinks that it is important in context of threats to shut the firehouses and lay off people.

Coffey: "I've never seen anyhting like this."

Coffey finally thinks to return the discussion to something relevant.

Diane Benedetti: Some flooding tort claims are being turned down. She'd like to ask Shane Gibson, but he has left the room.

Kevin Zurschmiede: Regarding another audit of records, the state says what they have before them tonight is complete, and what's more, it would be illegal to commission another one because that would be copying information that's already been done. State says: Tough shit; no politics; our audit is as good as anyone else's; faggitaboutit.

Coffey: "This (document) will tell you it's not a complete audit."

Coffey alleges that business paople just went to Indy today and were told that by golly, the city is mishandling tax monies!!

Is any audit a complete audit? The wildest of wild goose chases will remain a leitmotif of council obstructionism for years to come. I wonder if Erika scripted Coffey's off-the-Robert's comments here?

Coffey: "Citizens are very upset -- the question posed to me today, will the council do something?"

Of course, like the pumpkin patch and hambers, he doesn't say their names.

BUDGET DISCUSSION:

Next week hearings ... Coffey makes threats about balanced budgets no matter what! Jeff Gahan asks some questions. Coffey talks about approving and changing budgets, blames a variety of factors. Pat McLaughlin asks a question of Garry. Gahan wants to make decisions about 2009, then move to 2010. Very little of this makes sense to me.

Coffey: "We can't cut on 2009 ... have to appropriate, and cut on 2010."

COMMUNICATIONS – MAYOR

Glad Halloween is over ... "maybe the witch hunt will stop."

Talked to Charlie Pride, who said the audit's done. Police and fire are not properly funded -- underfunded. Mayor defends his people, and says he's glad that business people talk to Coffey. Downtown good, three businesses in the industrial park.

Mayor is angry at accusations. Leaves are being collected. City Hall talking to garbage people about replacing lids.

Budget ... police and fire are underfunded. Funded through general fund property taxes), and with the caps in places, the option of LOIT is offered (as recently passed in Clark County). In 2010, we'll be a million and a half short. I'm asking to fund the impending shortfall, and work with the county council to see that LOIT passes as in Clark. Not asking to cut or lose, but to lobby for LOIT -- "there's no other way out."

We've always had a shortfall -- lack of taxes, which is different than overspending.

Semantics?

For eight years, alays a shortfall. General fund is supposed to pay for operations, EDIT for economic development. Employees only pay LOIT.

"Sit there behind a table and throw anger at people ... bring it on."

Advocates for LOIT. Directs at Steve: "If you don't have a job, you don't pay LOIT tax."

Mayor rejects Price's mention of struggling people -- what's Price gonna do? What's his position?

Price: "My position is I'm not votin' for it," and waves the audit that he feels is incomplete.

Mayor: It didn't get this way in a year and a half.

"I want you to work with us, and we're here to work with you."

EDIT for 2010. After that, barring EDIT forever, then LOIT is a must. Mayor believes that the county officials will come to their senses and pass it.

"The city's gotta be run."

"Personalities we can take care of outside the room."

Price: "Some people want streamlined government ... warned y'all about bonuses ... I warned everyone about raises ... this council voted, I voted no."

Price: "It's not personal ... it's a philosophy."

Mayor: "Will you let me finish?" Pride says, better equipment needed. He takes that as a compliment. Urges Coffey to speak with Charlie Pride.

Price: Stormwater fees raised ... liens not recorded ... raised rates ... delinquent ... whatever it is, it's still money ... just my opinion."

Price is acting like a baby, but whatever; it isn;t personal, just a philosophy of infancy.

Coffey: Everyone pays EDIT tax ... I don't mind using it to shore up ...

More to come.

Part Two: Live council blogging until the plug gets pulled -- prayers and public speakers.

AGENDA

CALL TO ORDER:

PRAYER AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE:

Dan Coffey preps us for the Lord's Prayer. Whatever happened to the Brambleberry "fer all" voice of doom?

ROLL CALL:

They're all here. Is Steve Price ever really here? Be that as it may, so is a sizeable contingent of preservationists nd Master Plan backers.

Motion to move up the CF1 Forms.

APPROVAL OF CF-1 FORMS: McDonald Marble & Stone, Compliance with Statement Of Benefits Referencing R-01-10 (RE) & R-03-40 (RE)

Approved.

APPROVAL OR CORRECTION OF THE FOLLOWING MINUTES:
New Albany Common Council Regular Meeting Minutes October 5, 2009
New Albany Common Council Public Hearing October 5, 2009
New Albany Common Council Budget Hearing October 5, 2008
New Albany Common Council Regular Meeting Minutes October 15, 2009

Requisite motions to accept and voting in favor.

COMMUNICATIONS – PUBLIC:

1. Maury Goldberg - R-09-24, which is the Master Plan and Phase Two of Scribner Place. He extols the growth in downtown. Many places to go: "You name it." Need things other than restaurants. Pass the resolution tonight. As a private citizen, urges the council not to table it -- hand it off to someone who will introduce it (aimed at Li'l Stevie).

2. Greg Sekula (Historic Landmarks) - Echoes the preceding. Master Plan is a critical tool. A link. The document is flexible, a blueprint/map. Things may not happen as shown, but direction is provided.

Coffey goes out of his way to indicate boredom.

3. Larry Timperman - will wait until the resolution is introduced.

4. Mose Putney - On behalf of Jack Bobo, he is working on the fairly well documented project for the waterfront. He will return.

5. Jameson Bledsoe - Master Plan. Since coming down and listening to certain things, he needs to go through them one by one. Why is this other level of planning needed? It's in the Historical Preservation District ... the reason why I ask is that I invest in the city, and ... here it comes ... for certain developers, this plan could pick one person over another, limiting involvement by other groups. Plan says that people met privately behind the scenes, no chance for citizens to voice their concerns ... remember that time we saw him confabbing with Coffey on the streetcorner? Hmm ... If he wanted to build a building according to historical design, well, this is discouraged! It says that such is discouraged! And, there's the modern green movement, and smalld eveloper couldn't build green, compared to a large developer with large capital reserves, these are concerns I have -- my only option is to come here and speak.

More to come.

Part One: Live council blogging returns, for now.

This could be entertaining. Nuts and bolts begin with a public hearing, which started late because the executive session ran over.

THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CIVIL CITY OF NEW ALBANY, INDIANA, WILL HOLD A REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING IN THE THIRD FLOOR ASSEMBLY ROOM OF THE CITY/COUNTY BUILDING ON MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2009 AT 7:30 P.M.

A PUBLIC HEARING WILL BE HELD AT 7:15 TO DISCUSS THE FOLLOWING:
A-09-16 Additional Appropriation Ordinance for the Police Pension Fund

A-09-17 Additional Appropriation Ordinance for the Fire Pension Fund

A-09-18 Additional Appropriation Ordinance for the Parks
And Recreation Department

A-09-19 Additional Appropriation Ordinance for the E.D.I.T
Fund

The only speaker was Maury Goldberg, who cautioned against EDIT commitments to balance the budget.

I'll be back with the main event.

Waistline alert: Fresh bread at Dueling Grounds.

This just in from Dueling Grounds Cafe.

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Bread Loaves Fresh Today - Buy a loaf for dinner. Just $3.49

Our ovens are in full service, so we can now offer you fresh bread by the loaf. Right now, we have cheesy potato bread loaves and onion walnut bread in both regular and min-loaves. The regular loaf is $3.49 and the mini-loaf is just $2.49.

While supplies last. Up till now, we've sold every loaf, so we've ramped up capacity. Come in today.

You can always find our daily featured menu for soups and panini at our Web site, under the "About Us" tab, or use this handy link to take you right to the page: Dueling Grounds.

Dueling Grounds Cafe at Destinations Booksellers is now in full operation. Our espresso-based drinks are drawing raves and you simply won't believe how good the panini and soups taste. We're open from 6 to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Fridays and Saturdays we stay open until midnight, though we open later on Saturday (7 a.m.). Sunday hours are from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Damn Yankees.

Baseball's a given for me, and long ago, I became an American League fan for purely contrarian reasons. My friends all cheered for senior cirucit teams, mostly the Cincinnati Reds, and a few for the St. Louis Cardinals (the Chicago Cubs and Atlanta Braves didn't come along to claim allegiance until cable television).

That wasn't good enough for me, so I chose a team in the other league,as far away as possible, and primarily because the Oakland A's wore green and gold, they won out over the Angels.

That was around 1969 or 1970, and I've supported the A's ever since.

Since Oakland seldom appears in the World Series, I usually root for the American League representative and call it good. That is, until this year. It looks as though the New York Yankees will defeat the Philadelphia Phillies and take the title back to my favorite league, but I feel absolutely no joy in it, and hope the Phils can muster a Red Sox-style comeback against the machine, however unlikely.

Considering the voluminous money and sheer corporate immensity of it all, backing the Yankees is like favoring Bud Light (in former times, US Steel was the preferred analogy), and I can no longer perform the mental gymnastics necessary to rationalize it.

Here's to Cliff Lee. Perhaps we'll see a Game Six. Damn Yankees.

Monday evening draws near: It's showtime!

The Tribune's Daniel Suddeath previews tomorrow night's episode of America's Favorite Grandstands and surveys the topic most likely to be the subject of our most famous ward heeler's frequent, non-Robert's Rules caterwauls.

CM Coffey provides a memorable quote in Suddeath's Sunday article: State audit raises questions about New Albany’s bookkeeping.

But Coffey said he would against spending more money on employees or computers until there’s more accountability.

“I’m tired of spending taxpayers’ money on things that don’t work,” he said.

Finally we agree on something. I, too, resent spending my tax dollars on things that don't work. How much council pay does Coffey draw from the taxpayers ... and for what?

Never mind. We'll soon begin the process of redressing that particular bit of overpayment via the Pants Down Progressive Political Action Committee (PDPPAC).

Meanwhile, here's the agenda.

Yippee.

NASH: Will justice ever be served in Camm case?

Readers already know that I enjoy my fellow Tribune columnist Matt Nash's work, so if you will, permit me to commend him for Friday's contribution: NASH: Will justice ever be served in Camm case?

Everything about the Camm case is a tragic, festering wound in this community's collective psyche, and it takes guts for Matt to offer a thoughtful reconsideration even if it's probably futile at this late date, with battle lines drawn and minds made up.

Good work, Matt. I believe that's why we're writing, isn't it?

Was I in downtown New Albany last night, and did I do all that?

Times may be changing in New Albany, but days like yesterday still strike me as somewhat surreal when viewed from the sobriety of a morning after.

Perhaps some day this will change -- not the sobering up, but the surrealism.

The Confidentials began with late afternoon, craft-roasted coffee at Dueling Grounds, browsing the Destinations Booksellers racks as we sipped, and then adjourning to the Bank Street Brewhouse for frites and a beer each.

Next stop was Wick’s on State for dinner with the Bluegills. Upon entering, I heard a familiar voice: Hugh E. Bir, covering Conway Twitty’s “Tight Fitting Jeans” from a stool in the crowded barroom. Mike Wyckliffe didn’t wait for me to ask, and within minutes, I was behind the bar, changing the tap handles as Elector replaced Amber Bock on tap.

This led to progressive pints to accompany our pizza and salad, and sated, the four of us proceeded to Horseshoe for the local leg of The Who singer Roger Daltrey’s “Use It or Lose It” tour in the Showroom. To my considerable surprise, the Horseshoe’s main barroom had BBC Bourbon Barrel Stout on tap, and it proved a worthy libation for sipping as I caught up with Mo, arguably the area’s biggest fan of The Who, after a chance meeting with him along the concourse.

This isn’t intended as a concert review. At the same time, Daltrey was spry and in as good a voice as one might imagine at the age of 65. The set list was predictably filled with Who songs, but to Daltrey’s credit, some of these are seldom played live by anyone, including the group itself. A version of “Going Mobile” was sung by Daltrey’s band mate, Simon Townshend (yes, the younger brother of Peter), and will stand as my top concert moment of the year so far.

When it was over, we returned home to reset clocks and contemplate the evening’s central theme: Most of it took place within New Albany, and all of it within 10 miles of home, without crossing the river to Louisville.

Let’s all pat ourselves on the back … and return to work, because the trick now is to keep the momentum going.