New Albany's new slogan: "Truck Through City" ... Part 68: It's not getting any better, Mr. Hologram.

In which the Tragic Ketchup Calamity is recounted.

Every time an incident like the Tragic Ketchup Calamity occurs, the 1% smiles, because it means that all the rest of us are screaming at each other, and not sharpening knives.

Maybe You Get Bad Customer Service Because You're a Bad Customer, by Matt Walsh (Huffington Post)

 ... Now, I replay this back to you because I realize you probably scream profanities at minimum wage customer service representatives every time you run an errand or grab a bite to eat, so you might not recall the specifics of this one incident. And that brings us to the possible answer to that query you posed in the midst of your ketchup rant. You asked: "Why can't I ever f*cking get good customer service?" Well, ma'am, that might have something to do with you being a vulgar, miserable, malicious person. Maybe you get bad customer service because you're a bad customer. Did you ever consider that possibility?

I get it. "You're the customer so you're always right." They work here so they have to bend over backwards for you "because that's their job." Well, you're partially correct about that. Yes, you are a customer and, yes, they do work here. But it's actually not their job to deal with psychopaths. They aren't hostage negotiators, they're fast food workers. And even if the powers that be at these corporate chains push this "customer is always right" crap because they've decided it's good business to placate horrible jerks, in the real world, outside the land of plastic chairs and soda fountains, adults who throw temper tantrums in public are never right about anything.

2014: My year of books and reading.

The advent of winter tends to come as a relief. My working world never really abates, because owning a business means always being on the clock. Writing as much as I do takes time, and that's a constant, but with winter comes more quality time for reading. It's required nourishment for better writing.

At this late date, it is unimaginable that music would not be playing in my head at all times, or that a book (or books) wouldn't be somewhere within arm's reach. I'm willing to read newspapers and magazines on an electronic device, though not a book. Books are meant to be tactile, and I'm closed to persuasion on this count, at least so far.

When I finally settle down to listing the books consumed in 2014, the first reaction is shock, in that it's half the number from 2013. Then it dawned on me that the average length of these books probably is in the range of 400-500 pages. Two of them are in excess of 800 pages. It seems as though I'm reading fewer books, longer books, and not enough novels.

Well, what can I say? 2014 was the centenary of World War I, and once things started rolling down the historical path, they stayed there.

The past year’s completed book list is offered here, somewhat chronologically in reverse, beginning with the most recent. Next up in the queue is Roberto Bolaño's novel 2666, although I'll set it aside for later in the year if my friend Jon and I can decide on a book to read in tandem, like we used to. Also, although the Bookseller isn't yet aware, I'll be ordering Havel: A Life, by Michael Zantovsky.

Works of fiction are marked with *

The Collapse: The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall, by Mary Elise Sarotte

Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945, by Tony Judt (previously read in 2008)

Thinking the Twentieth Century, by Tony Judt with Timothy Snyder

*The Vivisector, by Patrick White

Louisville Beer: Derby City History on Draft, by Kevin Gibson

Land of Promise: An Economic History of the United States, by Michael Lind

The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams, by Ben Bradlee Jr.

Catastrophe 1914: Europe Goes to War, by Max Hastings

The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914, by Christopher Clark

1913: The World Before the Great War, by Charles Emmerson

The World of Yesterday, by Stefan Zwieg

New Albany's new slogan: "Truck Through City" ... Part 67: These tarmac-chewing dump trucks think that a "Speck" is what gets on their windshields.

Here is a link to the draft version of Jeff's Speck's Downtown Street Network Proposal for New Albany.

Tuesday 2:50 p.m. update:The City Clerk is sharing this PDF as the final version of the Speck plan -- and this one's in color 

Previously:

JeffG has placed a draft copy of Jeff Speck's Downtown Street Network Proposal in a place where you can see it, read it and use it.

It is here, in black & white: Downtown Street Network Proposal.

We stress that in spite of the many conflicting bits of testimony being offered at various fronts, this apparently is a draft, one subject to correction and revision. For instance, you'll note several instances where "Oak" has been substituted for "Elm."

However, the overall gist is clear.

More reading:

STREET SMARTS? Speck study proposes big changes to New Albany's downtown grid, by Daniel Suddeath (News and Tribune)

At NAC:

ON THE AVENUES BOARD OF WORKS SPECIAL: City Hall’s shelf life for excuses expires today.

Speck's Downtown Street Network Proposal is here: "Literally and figuratively, New Albany is at a crossroads."

ON THE AVENUES BOARD OF WORKS SPECIAL: City Hall’s shelf life for excuses expires today.

ON THE AVENUES BOARD OF WORKS SPECIAL: City Hall’s shelf life for excuses expires today.

A weekly web column by Roger A. Baylor.

(Update: Here is the link to a .pdf of the draft report)

(Kindly note that Drinking Progressively is tonight at Bank Street Brewhouse from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in the Reading Room. We’ll recap the Speck study and today’s Board of Works meeting, and chat about other local issues. Feel free to drop in and take part)

Chairman Nash, and the Board of Public Works and (ahem) Safety:

I promised a friend who lives on Market Street that I’d relay his thoughts this morning. He’s in his late twenties or early thirties, and like so many other working people in New Albany, it’s hard for him to make these morning meetings. He and his wife bought one of the NSP properties. When I run into him at the brewery, we talk a lot about quality of life issues, and whether city government “gets it” from the perspective of millennials.

Here is his message:

Just thought I'd share my biking on main street experience with you. Someone is going to get seriously hurt or worse. I was in the supposedly "shared" lane traveling east around the Culbertson mansion, all while cars were zipping past me trying to squeeze through any place they could, forcing me into the parking lanes. Then I had to reenter traffic when I came upon those extensions that are supposed to slow traffic down. What about this renovation and painted biking signs on the pavement was supposed to make it safe for cyclists? I have no problems riding in traffic and sharing lanes, its motorists with NASCAR mentality and ambiguous "shared" lanes that are scary.

Today you’ll be belatedly introduced to Jeff Speck’s street grid reform proposals, and if these are speedily and properly implemented, in what would be a quantum leap forward in to the future compared to the city’s past history of underachievement, these would alleviate to some extent the Main Street idiocy recounted here by establishing mostly protected bicycle lanes on nearby streets, and sharrows on others where traffic actually would be calmed first, but the outside consultant’s sensible remedies should not disguise the simple truth about the Main Street Deforestation Project: It is an utter fiasco, and the parties responsible need be cashiered as quickly as possible.

Here’s why.

When you implemented the Main Street 18-Wheeler Diversion Project, what you did, in essence, was take $2 million belonging to all of us, as intended to maintain an entire stretch of roadway running all the way through the city, and to use the money to facilitate a small group of residents, in a smaller slice of a downtown neighborhood, to bring to fruition their desire to secede from the city’s street grid.

Throughout Speck’s streets proposal, which I read last night, he constantly skirts the issue of the Main Street Political Objectives Project, hinting broadly that well, I can’t do anything about THE mess you’ve already made, so let’s show how it might have been done correctly by applying the planning principles ignored on Main Street to those other streets currently being either passively neglected or actively degraded.

Naturally, as a paid contractor, he’s far too polite to point out what Elm, Spring and Market residents already know all too well after an entire year of experience: The Main Street Enfluffment Project has made their quality of life worse – whether by establishing the ugly principle that one neighborhood is more worthy of having its property values raised than another, or by lowering property values along the other arterial streets nearby by diverting hitherto unseen heavy truck traffic in a ripple effect that still, to this very day, is being denied by the same city officials responsible for creating it, as their stock answer continues to be (if they bother answering at all), “But Roger, this was not the intent.”

Neither was climate change, but that doesn’t make it any less real, does it?

As I write at 7:00 a.m. on a Tuesday morning, huge Tiger Trucking semis are channeling up and down tiny, narrow 13th Street to Spring, and back to Main. It will continue all day, and it’s been going on for a full year, and I’m not sure I ever SAW more than a handful of semis on my street until last February. The city itself created this problem. Admittedly, the city is not responsible for the hundred or more daily dump trucks passing through town from Clark County construction sites, down Spring, then back up Market.

But you’ve done absolutely nothing about them, either. Fact is, you broke it. Now you buy it and take ownership of it. Jeff Speck tells you how.

If you act quickly to implement Speck’s proposals, it’s the finest possible thing you could do for this city, maybe ever. This is the best shot we’ve had in my lifetime, and perhaps even the chairman’s. But it's going to require a different set of muscles than those required to manage decay. City government will need to believe in this if there is any hope of getting it right.

You've consistently refused to believe people like me when we've shown you the factual evidence and said that walkability and bikeability are what future generations want, or that two-way streets help small business, or that slower traffic by design helps everyone, or that we should not tolerate trucking companies using urban streets like an interstate highway.

That’s why we’re angry, after all.

Hopefully, you’ll believe the professional whose work WE’VE been reading and advocating while YOU’VE been attending Democratic Party prom galas and tossing back a few longnecks at the Roadhouse.

Will you accomplish anything at all in an election year, or do we get to suffer some more while you whistle nervously and stare at the ceiling?

With the advent of the Speck study, you’re now holding the cards. Would you like to play a few of them, for a change?

Thank you.

New Albany's new slogan: "Truck Through City" ... Part 66: Dear Warren & BOW ... until you've done SOMETHING about this, you've done NOTHING at all.

They're still bearing down on us, as diverted by your Main Street boondoggle. Have you read your Speck report yet? He associates photos like these with a diminished quality of life in urban neighborhoods and historic business districts.

You do understand these words, don't you? It isn't like we're speaking a foreign language, so maybe it's your comprehension level -- or absence thereof.

Speck's Downtown Street Network Proposal is here: "Literally and figuratively, New Albany is at a crossroads."

Krull: "What they know for sure that isn't so."

If Mark Twain really said the words reprinted on this meme, then "imbeciles who really mean it" works quite well, too.

Krull: What they know for sure that isn't so, by John Krull (TheStatehouseFile.com via the C-J)

INDIANAPOLIS – Long ago in an almost forgotten presidential primary debate, U.S. Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings, D-South Carolina, delivered a classic line about Ronald Reagan.

It wasn't the things that the Gipper didn't know that created trouble, Hollings said

Rather, Hollings continued, it was the stuff that Reagan "knew for sure that just wasn't so" that was the problem.

I've thought about Hollings' jest as we approach the 2015 session of the Indiana General Assembly.

This session promises us proposals that will protect the "rights" of Christians to celebrate Christmas in public schools and on courthouse lawns and to refuse service to gay people because doing so will violate their religious principles.

Doubtless, we also will see Indiana Senate President Pro Tempore David Long, R-Fort Wayne, continue his efforts with other state legislators from around the country to rewrite the U.S. Constitution.

Driving these initiatives is the unshakable conviction that something is wrong with the moral workings of the universe and the law if social conservatives aren't allowed to use the power of government — to borrow former Republican U.S. Senate candidate Richard Mourdock's revealing phrase — "to inflict" their "views on others."

Speck's Downtown Street Network Proposal is here: "Literally and figuratively, New Albany is at a crossroads."

It's almost as though this passage was written with Bob Caesar in mind. 

(Update: Here is the link to a .pdf of the draft report)

I've read a draft of the Downtown Street Network Proposal for New Albany, as prepared by Jeff Speck's team.

That's because it was revealed on Monday that city engineer Larry Summers is to discuss the proposal at the Tuesday morning Board of Works meeting at 10:00 a.m. in the 3rd floor conference room of the City County Building. City Clerk Vicki Glotzbach was kind enough to e-mail a .pdf copy, and I'm grateful. As soon as there is a way of sharing it with readers, we'll do that.

For now, note simply that the proposal, in its pristine, pre-political-sausage-making form, is mostly inspirational. It recommends two-way streets, road diets, lane width reductions, protected bike lanes and the removal of many traffic signals in favor of four-way stops. It's much more than that, but bear in mind that it's late in the evening.

In fact, the report is so profoundly out of keeping with this city's 200-year record of anti-intellectual underachievement that it might well have been delivered to City Hall by androids from a flying saucer.

Among other things, the proposal constitutes 100+ pages of constant, concise, and often scathing refutation fully applying to most all of the city's street planning cadres and their work prior to the present day -- and, bizarrely, some of the very same functionaries previously responsible for the cancerous condition of the street grid will be handed a scalpel and asked to perform surgery on it.

This prospect scares the daylights out of me.

It's like this: Does Jeff Gahan's secretive, Byzantine city hall team have the political cojones to get this thing right? Beginning tomorrow, we'll find out. As the Bookseller has pointed out, this is the most important opportunity New Albany has had since before many of us were born.

Speck study overview to be unveiled tomorrow at a time of day precluding your attendance.

(Tuesday afternoon update: Here is the link to a .pdf of the draft report)

The Green Mouse has been told that tomorrow -- Tuesday morning at 10:00 a.m. -- New Albany's customarily somnolent Board of (down low) Public Works and (on widely scattered occasions) Safety will be regaled with a preview of the Jeff Speck street study, courtesy of the city engineer.

Speck himself told NAC just yesterday that the finished, corrected report would arrive this week.

Street study? When? Yet again, we turn to Speck himself to receive a straight answer.

Fitting, then, that the street study's first partial airing will come at a time of day when working people typically cannot attend meetings. However, since it is widely reputed that I no longer work, it is my intention to be there. In fact, I might hitch a ride on one of these monstrous trucks still thundering down Spring Street in the absence of civic truthfulness about John Rosenbarger's Main Street Truck Diversion Project.

Come join me at the meeting if you can. The tragic-comedy's about to start -- and you won't want to miss it.

Council Night 3: The Regional Cities Initiative's bait 'n' switch comes to a Greenway near you.

Before tying things into the council meeting tonight, let's catch up.

The most recent downtown merchant "mixer" meeting was held on December 16 at Strandz & Threadz, and weirdly enough for a group that seldom attracts more than a dozen attendees, and is routinely ignored by the city's ostensible "economic development" officials, the chat was attended by both State Representative Ed Clere and Mayor Jeff Gahan.

They were there to inform struggling downtown merchants about the potential sheen of the Indiana Regional Cities Initiative, which at first glance appears to be one of those world-classic, chamber-endorsed, bait 'n' switch ideas designed to divert attention from the mundane daily grind of the here and now (which abjectly terrifies City Hall) and instead, to fix all our gazes toward a bountiful harvest ... a coin flip to be determined some day, down the road.

I was fascinated by the spectacle. In November, David "Industrial Park First" Duggins had dominated the merchant meeting as visiting enforcer, there to silence me and gloweringly assure shop owners that they didn't want to hear about the potential for two-way streets to improve their businesses quite soon, in the short term.

Then a month later, here was the mayor himself, spending half an hour describing the Regional Cities Initiative, a strictly "might be" iffy proposition, tantamount to time spent allocating future lottery winnings to the background noise of a Disney soundtrack instead of counting the change actually occupying the jar. If only someone other than a dissident like me would have said:

"But if it would help business downtown, couldn't we change the streets next week?"

The fact is, the missed opportunity cost of Jeff Gahan’s present-day neglect of small business is irrefutable, and the evidence to support my position is overwhelming, but I've already made these points.

Back to tonight, when a council currently configured to do quite little will listen as the Greenway explains its place in that future largesse from Big Daddy Pencebucks.

McLaughlin to seek third term as Mayor Gahan's pliant boy (News and Tribune)

 ... Though there’s only one voting item on Monday’s agenda — a final reading on a road salt purchase appropriation — the body is slated to hear a report on a potential expansion of some of the features of the Ohio River Greenway.

After holding public meetings on the idea in Clark and Floyd counties, representatives of the Paul Ogle Foundation will detail their plan to assist the Ohio River Greenway Commission to “possibly elevate the Greenway to the next level in both scope and scale.”

The Ogle Foundation hopes to pair its plan with the Regional Cities Initiative to be considered by the state legislature this year. The legislation could leverage up to $1 billion in public and private investment for infrastructure and quality-of-life projects around the state, as communities would compete to garner those funds.

Right now, we have a few hundred thousand dollars worth of bigger fish to fry, and so at least it's encouraging to hear Scott Blair publicly question the latest unelected back room board diktat, this one being last week's behind-the-council's-posterior decision by the Board of Works to fund an ill-considered farmers market buildout and a bizarrely situated dog park, three miles out of town on Budd Road.

Councilman Scott Blair said he would like to see the city’s dog park, which is slated to be constructed at Cannon Acres, moved near the Greenway to further bolster the usefulness of the walking and biking path.

“We need to add amenities along that facility,” Blair said.

What we really need to do is finish the Greenway's decades-long first phase, don't you think? After all, Silver Creek might as well be Puget Sound for all the good an unbridged Greenway in pieces does us.

Council Night 2: Gahan rules by edict via unelected boards, so Gonder posits a more pro-active council.

I probably borrowed this from the newspaper. 

Lots to digest here, so we'll travel point by point.

Gonder not pleased with lack of action by New Albany City Council in 2014, by Daniel Suddeath (News and Tribune)

NEW ALBANY — The New Albany City Council approved a third consecutive balanced budget in 2014.

But several meetings included no voting items or only a nonbinding resolution for consideration, and Councilman John Gonder said he felt like there was more that could have been done by the city’s legislative body last year.

“It’s sort of bothersome that we had a number of meetings where we were literally in and out in 15 minutes,” he said. “I think it seems like we’re trying to slip into reelection mode here and not do anything that would get anybody to object.”

Here's the specific reality that should be most bothersome to the conscientious council members.

Many big projects such as the aquatic center and recently the approval of a dog park and expansion of the downtown Farmers Market were approved by boards other than the council. The council did give its blessing to the aquatic center, but the New Albany Redevelopment Commission essentially holds the purse strings to the project.

Ah, but what, the mayor's left hand man worry?

Councilman Pat McLaughlin has served as the president of the body the past two years, and will seek a third-term in the seat Monday.

“I think we’ve had some good years, and some good, objective dialogue with the administration,” he said Friday.

The city has launched significant quality-of-life projects in the outdoor aquatic center and Silver Street Park, which are set to open in 2015, and McLaughlin said he would like to see New Albany pave more streets and alleys this year.

That's right, "objective dialogue" with a mayor who never attends council meetings, leaving us to guess that most of the chatting took place amid surf 'n' turf and longnecks at the Roadhouse. That, and even more paving in a time of stormwater runoff.

Meanwhile, CM Gonder notes "missed opportunities in 2014."

(Gonder) was a proponent of salvaging the former tavern at 922 Culbertson Ave. which was ordered to be razed by the administration. He said the demolition was a blow to historic preservation efforts in New Albany.

Gonder also wanted to see more progress on pedestrian projects such as adding sidewalks along Captain Frank Road and Slate Run Road.

The revamp of the city’s property maintenance codes should give the council a real opportunity to bring positive change to the city, Gonder said.

The ordinance — which is sponsored by Councilman Kevin Zurschmiede — has been tabled since last month. Administration officials said they wanted the changes to match state standards before moving forward with the legislation.

And then there is this.

Gonder said he would like to see the ordinance expanded to include rental property registration and other regulations that would curb problems with slumlords.

Wait -- you mean to say that the council is contemplating a property maintenance code update without including rental property registration and heightened slumlord scrutiny?

Isn't that like a doctor fixing your broken leg by prescribing a new pair of khakis?

Council Night 1: Gahan needs his pliant 'yes' man, so "McLaughlin to seek third term as New Albany City Council president."

But why waste your time and mine when it's already been written?

ON THE AVENUES: Party time in the trickle-down, one-party city.

 ... However, we must give the Democratic Party’s one-party municipal patronage machine full credit for functioning at peak efficiency of late. The city council’s (functional) 8-1 “Democratic” majority has been absolute, with lone Republican Kevin Zurschmiede obviously disinterested, maverick Diane Benedetti completely isolated and the body’s president, Pat McLaughlin, performing supinely as de facto City Hall shop steward.

That was in August of last year. Tonight we begin a whole new year, presumably donning our Sunday best to meet the new boss (same as the old boss), but with an opportunity to queue the Manics:

Hello, it's us again

You thought you were our friends

Success is an ugly word

Especially in your tiny world

The point ... let's see ... I had it right here.

Oh, right: Paddy Mac wants to be Jeff's boy next door for another year.

McLaughlin to seek third term as New Albany City Council president (News and Tribune)

NEW ALBANY — The New Albany City Council will elect leaders for 2015 when it convenes Monday.

The council president and vice president positions will be selected by the body. Two-term Councilman Pat McLaughlin has served as the council president the past two years, and said Friday he would again seek the seat.

“If the council is willing to have me, I’m willing to do it,” he said.

Council members can nominate someone else if they choose. Beyond a slight pay increase, the council president is in charge of leading the meetings and ensuring the body follows the agenda.
The president also holds authority over some board and commission appointments, though the council generally votes on those positions.

All nine seats on the council are up for election this year beginning with a primary in May.

Gahan AWOL as cyclist assays new Main Street sharrows: "Someone is going to get seriously hurt or worse."

What possibly could be unsafe with this "bike-friendly" layout?

We've said it before, and we'll say it again: Sharrows and lazy municipal governance are cut from the very same bolt of moth-eaten cloth.

"Sharrows are popular because they are politically easy," and so in NA, they'll multiply like rabbits.

In New Albany, Main Street used to be the very best place to ride a bicycle from Uptown to Downtown. Then the street was "improved" through beautification sans sensibility, and now our friend and regular reader MPC provides something that has eluded generations of underachieving city planners and designers: A voice of, and from, experience.

What he says here is reason enough to purge John Rosebarger, isn't it?

---

"Just thought I'd share my biking on main street experience with you. Someone is going to get seriously hurt or worse. I was in the supposedly "shared" lane traveling east around the Culbertson mansion, all while cars were zipping past me trying to squeeze through any place they could, forcing me into the parking lanes. Then I had to reenter traffic when I came upon those extensions that are supposed to slow traffic down. What about this renovation and painted biking signs on the pavement was supposed to make it safe for cyclists? I have no problems riding in traffic and sharing lanes, its motorists with NASCAR mentality and ambiguous "shared" lanes that are scary."

Lakoff: " Poor conservatives vote their identity as conservatives, not their lack of material wealth."

Long but recommended reading for Chairman Adam ... to be fair, for all of us on the "left" side of the aisle.

 ... George Lakoff, professor of cognitive science at the University of California, Berkeley, has been working on moral frames for 50 years. In Communicating Our American Values and Vision, he gives this precis: "Framing is not primarily about politics or political messaging or communication. It is far more fundamental than that: frames are the mental structures that allow human beings to understand reality – and sometimes to create what we take to be reality. But frames do have an enormous bearing on politics … they structure our ideas and concepts, they shape the way we reason … For the most part, our use of frames is unconscious and automatic."

Leading to this expression of what it means to be a Hoosier in Pence-istan, circa 2015:

 ... In fact, there is no centre: the more progressives capitulate, the more boldly the conservatives express their vision, and the further to the right the mainstream moves.

I was directed back to Lakoff after too long an interregnum when I stumbled on this article, and the "strict father family" framing explaining why the chickens vote for Colonel Sanders.

The following is a Truthout interview with Professor George Lakoff about his latest effort, THE ALL NEW Don’t Think of an Elephant!, to convince progressives to “frame” their political language and appeals based on deep-seated and active values. These are positions and actions that most of the public supports, but absent appropriate “framing” often vote their fears instead of progressive beliefs. It is necessary to ground a nurturing politics for the common good and core values in language and a moral foundation that appeals – rhetorically and emotionally – to the better selves of voters.

You write, “remember that voters vote their identity and their values, which need not coincide with their self-interest.” I remember writing a commentary on a poor congressional district, let’s say about 98 percent white, in Kentucky. Most of the residents were on food stamps, Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid – or all of them. However, they have voted in recent elections by landslide majorities to re-elect a congressman who opposes food stamps and supports cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Can you elaborate on how this can occur?

A single moral worldview dominates conservative policies in every domain of life – family, personal identity, sex, religion, sports, education, the market, foreign policy and politics – what I’ve called strict father morality. Your moral worldview is central to how you understand your life.

In a strict father family, the father is in charge and is assumed to know right from wrong, to have moral as well as physical authority. He is supposed to protect the family, support the family, set the rules, enforce the rules, maintain respect, govern sexuality and reproduction, and teach his kids right from wrong, that is, to grow up with the same moral system. His word defines what is right and is law; no backtalk. Disobedience is punished, painfully, so that children learn not to disobey. Via physical discipline, they learn internal discipline, which is how they become moral beings. With discipline they can become prosperous.

If you are not prosperous, you are not disciplined enough, not taking enough personal responsibility and deserve your poverty. At the center is the principle of personal responsibility and moral hierarchy: those who are more moral (in this sense of morality) should rule: God over man, man over nature, parents over children, the rich over the poor, Western culture over non-Western culture, America over other countries, men over women, straights over gays, Christians over non-Christians, etc.

On conservative religion, God is a strict father; in sports, coaches are strict with their athletes; in classrooms, teachers should be strict with students; in business, employers rule over employees; in the market, the market should decide – the market itself is the strict father, deciding that those who have financial discipline deserve their wealth, and others deserve their poverty; and in politics, this moral system itself should rule.

Conservatives can be poor, but they can still be kings in their own castles – strict fathers at home, in their personal identity: in their religion, in their sex lives, in the sports they love. Poor conservatives vote their identity as conservatives, not their lack of material wealth.

Back to Zoe Williams at The Guardian for a brief sketch of the nurturant-family model.

... The nurturant-family model is the progressive view: in it, the ideals are empathy, interdependence, co-operation, communication, authority that is legitimate and proves its legitimacy with its openness to interrogation. "The world that the nurturant parent seeks to create has exactly the opposite properties," Lakoff writes in Moral Politics. As progressives identify failures of logic in the conservative position, so it works the other way round (one of Lakoff's examples: "How can liberals support federal funding for Aids research and treatment, while promoting the spread of Aids by sanctioning sexual behaviour that leads to Aids?").

Street study? When? Yet again, we turn to Speck himself to receive a straight answer.

In a post yesterday's, Jeff Speck -- he of the the New Albany street and traffic study -- confirmed that his long-anticipated work had previously arrived in town, and was being purged of "typos" and various "errors."

Says Jeff Speck: The New Albany street study has been delivered to City Hall.

Rumored to be among the "typos" removed: "LOL -- what the hell was Rosenbarger smoking when he came up with that Main Street fiasco?"

But seriously, how long ago did it arrive?

The Green Mouse received a second tip yesterday afternoon, this one alleging that the report may have been gathering dust since the first week of November.

Seeing that throughout 2014, and now into 2015, the only reliable source for information about the Speck Report has been Speck himself, I asked him via e-mail: "Yesterday I was told by a municipal employee that the street study was delivered during the first week of November. Can you confirm this?"

Speck's answer, which I appreciate for actually being an answer:

It was, but that was a first draft. The final version should be delivered this week.

There you have it.

Time to turn up the heat, folks.

Says Jeff Speck: The New Albany street study has been delivered to City Hall.

As it turns out, city officials might have partially glimpsed the street study's postmark before reversing course, contradicting themselves, defying the stated wishes of the council, and proceeding with the monumentally counter-productive farmers market buildout.

10 reasons why Jeff Gahan's quarter-million dollar farmers market fluff job is wrong for New Albany.

Could guidance, action and leadership finally be forthcoming?

Main Street IS the truck route. It's City Hall that's the problem.

Despairing of City Hall's congenital game-playing and secrecy, I asked Speck at Twitter:

@newalbanian: @JeffSpeckAICP Rumor has it the New Albany study has been delivered to City Hall; news blackout conditions here. What say you? Thanks.

He promptly replied:

@JeffSpeckAICP: @newalbanian Rumors are true, but there are some typos and other errors to correct before it is released.

See, the truth isn't so hard after all. Speck must not be from here.

If there is anyone in municipal government who'd like to assist the cause of progressive urban thinking in New Albany, NA Confidential would be happy to receive a leaked copy, typos or otherwise. There may even be a beer in it for you.

"A Matter of Priorities": Municipal guidelines to address systematic shortcomings in prioritization.

Photo credit: informatica.com

Whatever, pal -- how would YOU do better as mayor?

It's a good question. One way is to improve the daily foundation of the city through small, incremental moves that build toward planned outcomes, rather than chase the plaque-ready boondoggles eagerly sought by so many generations of local politicians.

It's improving the decision-making process and connecting projects, not just slapping them down scattershot because "someone else" paid for it; as a prime local example, consider the Main Street Improvement Project, which stemmed from an ephemeral element of neighborhood input but was implemented solely owing to the availability of state cash otherwise intended for maintenance, and then built with no coherent thoughts of the ripple effect in OTHER neighborhoods.

It's a daily grind to harness the city's owned infrastructure to instill (for example) a walkable, vibrant downtown concert atmosphere, rather than the city itself serving as concert promoter.

At Strong Towns, there is a report called "Neighborhoods First: A low risk, high return strategy for a better Brainerd" (that's in Minnesota, where Charles Marohn lives and works)

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE REPORT

A portfolio of incremental projects, each building on observed needs and past successes, is the basis of a solid, long term investment strategy for communities of any size. It is an approach that fits into every budget. It will empower a local government to move beyond the lack of ownership and control that comes with traditional grant programs. And most importantly, you can get started right now.

It's a long read, but I'm particularly struck by this passage: A Matter of Priorities.

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At a glance, it seems incoherent for the city of Brainerd to spend significant amounts of money to maintain flowers in the median of a road while city parks are overgrown with weeds. Do we really value the experience of the person driving through more than we care about the resident who lives here? Is there really more to be gained by beautifying our ditches instead of our parks? Of course not.

So does this reality actually reflect the priorities of the city government? In all likelihood it doesn’t, and so we have to ponder an even more important question: Why are the priorities of public officials not reflected in city action?

There are three main reasons. The first is the way in which big projects are funded. College Drive was paid for largely with “other people’s money,” which is to say federal and state sources. While some will point out that this is still our money (we all pay federal and state taxes), the proportion paid by local taxpayers was nominal and indirect. Given that, why not add flowers to the project? We’d surely put flowers in the park too if someone else would pay for it?

The second is the way in which the staff is organized and directed. Most local governments still work in silos. It is hard to blame a traffic engineer for seeing the city as a traffic network or a zoning official for seeing it as a zoning map. While it will not be as brutally efficient as the silo approach, the way to avoid this type of dissonance is to begin, develop and finalize all projects with a team of professionals, working on equal authority, directed to prioritize the community’s values and objectives above their own department’s.

The third is the disconnect that exists between city government and residents. This disconnect goes way beyond being listened to, which local governments generally do quite well. To really participate in a project, a resident is forced to engage within the ground rules of the city. Participating in public hearings or committees means giving up precious evening hours, standing in front of crowds and being quoted in the paper. Most residents stay away, even if they want their opinion heard.

To address these systematic shortcomings, cities should adhere to three guidelines.

1 Projects should be developed based on needs expressed within the city’s neighborhoods, not in pursuit of available funding or in gambling on the potential for a big payoff. If available funding supports a local need, all the better, but a city should never undertake something they would not consider doing just because someone else will pay for it.

2 All projects should be the product of a team of professionals, not one individual department or silo. When hiring and retaining staff, cities should emphasize cross disciplinary knowledge. There can be no such thing as a one-dimensional project.

3 All projects should be the result of neighborhood initiatives. This report presents a model for how to deeply engage and understand a neighborhood. With this approach, a city will find there are a multitude of low cost, high return things to be done. The way residents use the city will identify those projects more clearly than any study, staff member or expert.

Three progressive thoughts on the death of Mario Cuomo.

The essayist Schlesinger describes Mario Cuomo's first campaign for governor of New York.

(Cuomo) stood out as the authentic liberal in the contest—a “pragmatic progressive” as he called himself.

Indeed. Following are three remembrances of Mario Cuomo, beginning with a former aide's thoughts.

Mario Cuomo: A Tribute to the Man, the Governor, the Writer, by Stephen Schlesinger (New York Observer)

... He will long be remembered for his eloquence, his San Francisco address, his electric presence, his humor and his warmth, his progressive ideals, his intellectual heft, his concerns for the disenfranchised, his toughness, his pride in his Italian heritage. His legacy includes his opposition to the death penalty and his willingness to take on the Catholic Church over the issue of abortion–and, as well, a future governor. He left his state in a better place than it had been. He was the man who should have been president, the man who might have been on the Supreme Court, but all he ever truly wanted to be was the governor of New York State.

Consider the present dearth of "public thinking," a deficiency not restricted to one side of the two-party aisle.

Mario Cuomo, A Thinker in Public, by James Fallows (Atlantic)

... Among politicians of the past generation-plus seen as national-level contenders, he was the most accomplished and engrossing public thinker. (This is also Obama's strength, and presumably he will overtake Cuomo through the scale of the issues he has been involved in.) Most public officials know, or fear, that they need to buff away the complicated or challenging parts of their views before presenting them in public. That's assuming they ever had, or kept, such thoughts. Mario Cuomo was notable in trying always to talk up to his audience, not down. You see that especially in his Notre Dame speech. It's an example worth reflecting upon.

Finally, Charlie Pierce brings it full circle.

Mario Cuomo, RIP, by Charles P. Pierce (Esquire)

... Now Mario Cuomo is dead, and his absence from our national discussion is being used in some quarters as a cautionary tale to the rising progressive movement within the Democratic party. The same forces that worked to marginalize him will be brought to bear at some point against Elizabeth Warren.

Main Street IS the truck route. It's City Hall that's the problem.

A question: "Are semi-trailers 'officially' not allowed to be using streets like 13th (and Spring) now, and if no, then is anyone in city government trying to get an ordinance passed or address the problem?

My answer:

As far as the city is concerned, at least in terms of its public pronouncements -- these being almost non-existent -- there is no problem that needs solving.

According to the city, Main Street was "improved," but not so as to divert truck traffic. According to the city, the intent of the project is now the reality of the project.

Obviously, those of us residing on or near these streets know from daily observation that the city's "no diversion" intent represented strained credulity from the outset, and that reality has been quite different from Adam's world-according-to-Disneyland for the past ten months, or more.

We know that (a) in one specific instance, this being Tiger Trucking, heavy truck traffic HAS been diverted, and (b) this diversion has been worsened by daily cavalcades of dump truck traffic passing through NA from Jeff bridge construction sites to the I-64 interstate ramps.

I've taken hundreds of photographs to document this phenomenon, to which City Hall has "replied" with a pose like this:

I'm not devoid of human feelings, and I understand that it must be difficult to be caught so openly in a lie. The majority of people in New Albany over the age of puberty know that historically, all of this truck traffic was supposed to be using Main Street, period. Now, since the supposedly non-diversionary beautification project, much of it is not, and if the city concedes this fact, then it must also concede that it has spent the past year lying about the Main Street project.

So, nothing has been proposed to deal with the heavy truck problem, precisely because the city won't admit to there being a problem, at least publicly.

To me, a solution is the essence of simplicity: Reaffirm the historic travel pattern, restore the old "truck route" signage that used to stand at Spring & Vincennes, and use the NAPD to enforce the truck route, rather than pretend it ever will write speeding tickets to truck drivers -- because it won't.

Yes, this puts pass-through trucks back on Main Street, and yes, this means the city lied to Main Street residents all along about its beautification intent.

But do you know what?

City Hall didn't take the remainder of downtown into consideration when the Main Street fluff-back boondoggle was initiated, and what's more, went ahead with a $2 million-plus construction project diametrically opposed to the interest of the street grid as a whole. Consequently, City Hall's lies to the good folks on Main Street are their problem, not ours. Hopefully, Main Streeters will recall the ill-considered treatment they've gotten when election time rolls around.

What? Perhaps New Albany can join the Euro zone, too.

Photo credit: CNBC article

I've been to Vilnius, and let me tell you ... it did NOT look like this in 1987.

What? This country just joined the euro zone, by Katy Barnato (CNBC)

Lithuania joined the euro zone on Thursday, despite long-lasting fears about the currency union's economic health, and reignited worries about Greece exiting the group.

The Baltic nation, which has a population of just 3 million, got the green light to adopt the euro in July 2014, and officially joined the euro zone on January 1.

To qualify, Lithuania had to meet five economic "convergence criteria," including price and exchange rate stability and low levels of government debt and deficit. Its people will exchange their Lithuanian litas at a rate of 3.4528 to the euro.

Lithuania is following in the footsteps of other former Eastern bloc countries which joined the European Union (EU) in 2004 and went on to enter the euro zone. These include Estonia and Slovakia, and most lately, neighboring Latvia.

Jeff Gahan cannot grasp that walking is the secret ingredient.

He's done nothing to help this woman cross the interstate we call Spring.

Tucked safely away in this 3rd Floor cloister, Mayor Jeff Gahan likes to think that he is advocating for walkability. To prove it, he has spent millions of dollars to create bricks 'n' mortar city parks situated in parts of town inconvenient for walking or biking.

In short, he has created expensive, "I did it" plaque-ready, big ticket showpiece units unconnected with each other, and accessible mostly by automobile.

Which defeats the purpose of promoting walking, which is to repeat that until Gahan has dome something, he's done absolutely nothing ... but you can bet the plaques have been ordered, probably from a factory in China.

Walking: The Secret Ingredient for Health, Wealth, and More Exciting Neighborhoods, by Jay Walljasper (Yes Magazine)

It's been called "America's untrendiest trend." The evidence that millions of people are finally walking again is as solid as the ground beneath our feet.

I've chosen to reprise Walljasper's "solutions" here, and don't think for a moment that they're somehow not applicable in a city like ours. This isn't a New York thing. It's an Everywhere thing.

Solutions for a More Walkable America
Here are some of the promising developments, strategies, messages, and tools that are now emerging to promote walking:

Vision Zero for Safe Streets : As many as 4,500 Americans are killed crossing the street every year—a tragedy that very few people acknowledge. But there’s hope that will change now that New York City, San Francisco, and other places are implementing Vision Zero campaigns to reduce traffic deaths through street improvements, law enforcement, and public education. Similar policies in Sweden cut pedestrian deaths in half over the past five years—and reduced overall traffic fatalities at the same rate. “Vision Zero is the next big thinking for walking,” says Alliance for Biking & Walking President Jeff Miller.

Federal Action Plan on Pedestrian Safety: New U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx recently announced an all-out effort to apply the department’s resources to boost bike and pedestrian safety the same as they do auto and airline safety. Secretary Foxx—former mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina—notes that pedestrian deaths rose 6 percent since 2009. “Bicycling and walking is as important as any other form of transportation,” he says.

Safe Routes to Schools : Half of kids under 14 walked or biked to school in 1969. Now it’s less than 15 percent. Safe Routes to School campaigns work with families, schools, and community officials to identify and eliminate barriers that block kids from getting to school under their own power. “We’re finding that the best interventions include both infrastructure improvements and programming. You put the sidewalks in but also get parents involved,” explains Margo Pedroso, deputy director of the Safe Routes to Schools National Partnership.

Walking as a Basic Human Right : Walking has been shown to optimize our health and strengthen our communities, which means everyone should have equal opportunity to do it. But low-income people often find it difficult or dangerous to take a walk in their neighborhoods, which often lack sidewalks and other basic infrastructure. Studies show that pedestrians in poor neighborhoods are up to four times more likely to be injured in traffic accidents. This theme is now being addressed by many transportation activists and professionals.

Communities for People of All Ages : The mark of a great community is whether you’d feel calm about letting your 80-year-old grandmother or 8-year-old son walk to a nearby park or business district, says Gil Penalosa, former park director of Bogota, explaining why he founded 8-80 Cities. Too many young and old people today live under virtual house arrest, unable to get anywhere on their own because driving is the only way to go.

Complete Streets: The simple idea that all streets should offer safe, convenient, and comfortable travel for everyone—those on foot, on bike, on transit, in wheelchairs, young, old or disabled. Twenty-seven states and 625 local communities across the U.S. have adopted Complete Streets policies in some form.

The Healing Properties of Nature and the Outdoors: Not all exercise offers the same health benefits, according to a growing body of research showing that outdoor physical activity, especially in nature, boosts our health, improves our concentration, and may speed up our natural healing process. A walk in the park is not only more interesting than a workout at the gym, but it may also be healthier too. The Wingspread Declaration—recently signed by 30 of America’s leading health officials, researchers, and non-profit leaders—calls for business, government, and the health care sector to step up efforts to reconnect people with nature.

Walking as a Medical Vital Sign : There’s an initiative afoot among public health advocates to encourage health care professionals to chart their patients’ physical activity the same as they do weight, blood pressure, smoking, and family health. Ascension Health (with 1900 facilities in 23 states) Kaiser Permanente (648 facilities in 9 states), Group Health (25 clinics in Washington state), and Greenville Health System (7 facilities in South Carolina) are among the health providers already doing it.

Walk With a Doc: Walking has the lowest drop-out rate of any physical activity, which is why Ohio cardiologist David Sabgir started Walk With a Doc: to sponsor events in parks and other public places where people can talk to health care professionals while taking a casual walk. Walk With a Doc now operates in 38 states.

Signs of the Times: Many people are so out of practice with walking that they don’t realize how convenient it is. That’s why architecture student Matt Tamasulo posted signs in Raleigh, North Carolina, explaining that key destinations were only a few minutes away by foot. The city soon embraced his guerrilla campaign, and official walkway-finding signs can now be found around town. Tamasulo has launched Walk [Your City] to help other communities show how easy it is to get around on your own power.

Walking is Fun: “Walking is still not seen to be as sexy as biking,” says Robert Ping, program manager for Walking and Livable Communities Institute. “We could focus more on walking as recreation—the stroll through the neighborhood after dinner, going around the block, walking down to the park, meeting your neighbors. Something that’s not only utilitarian and good for the environment, but that’s fun!”

The columnist Dunman looks back at Louisville in 2014.

A river and state line separate us, but it's one big metro area. The trick is to parse the similarities and differences when concocting revolutionary slogans.

I've never met Joe Dunman, but his columns at Insider Louisville have been consistent revelations by virtue of their unabating relevance. We need more writing like his, not less.

Joe Dunman: From bike lanes to the minimum wage fight — a look back at Louisville in 2014 (Insider Louisville)

Over the past eight months I have penned regular opinion pieces for Insider Louisville, mostly about issues of law and government, and since May I’ve covered a lot of ground. No cause (noble or otherwise) should be pursued without periodic reflection, however, so in that light I present a year-end retrospective of my pontification.

New Albany's "Person of the Year" for 2014 revealed amid pomp, circumstance and fickle fingers of fate.

The votes have been counted, and now it's time to reveal New Albany's Person of the Year for 2014. This being New Albany, it's a purloined idea:

Person of the Year (formerly Man of the Year) is an annual issue of the United States newsmagazine Time that features and profiles a person, couple, group, idea, place, or machine that "for better or for worse ... has done the most to influence the events of the year."

Finalists for 2014, based on your responses:

• Heroic Non-Incentivized Downtown Developers ... Chalfant, Resch, Carters, among others. They're rehabbing buildings, and the city's industrial park-centric economic development team has almost nothing to do with it.
• Jeff Gahan … during three years on the job, municipal government's daily operations bear the mayor's stamp: Inward, paranoid and hermetic. Agoraphobia never had it this good, but his hologram is the hardest working computer-generated image in show business.
• Our local Democratic Party … but logically speaking, can non-corporeal bodies capture corporeal awards? Quick, someone find a theologian, a ham-fisted censor, Connie Sipes or even Walt Disney. Meanwhile, let your mind's eye conjure an ongoing implosion.

There were creative write-ins, but after all ballots were scrubbed clean of hanging chads, the winners are ...

Heroic Non-Incentivized Downtown Developers ... Chalfant, Resch, Carters, among others. They're rehabbing buildings, and the city's industrial park-centric economic development team has almost nothing to do with it.

Several voters commented that these genuine "doers" comprised the only real choice, and I agree.

Previous winners:

2011: The Sherman Minton Bridge.
2012: Bill Allen and his Dilapidated Main Street Paint Job
2013 (tie): Houndmouth and Quality of Life

Top Fifteen posts at NA Confidential for December, 2014.

The December Top Ten/Fifteen is determined by numbers of unique hits, as reported by Blogger. The list begins with No. 15 (five honorable mention), and ends with No. 1.

Following a fine statistical November, December continued strong in terms of postings, unique hits and page views. Because of this, the Top Ten once again is expanded this month.

Thanks for reading. Obviously, you are reading, even if some observers are fond of pretending otherwise.

FIVE HONORABLE MENTION

160

Bank Street Brewhouse is the Holiday Store Window Contest winner.

168

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.

170

10 reasons why Jeff Gahan's quarter-million dollar farmers market fluff job is wrong for New Albany.

174

Pomp, circumstance and fickle fingers: Vote now for New Albany's "Person of the Year" for 2014.

177

ON THE AVENUES: Who (or what) is New Albany's "Person of the Year" for 2014?

TOP TEN

186 (tie)

News and Tribune to sell its building and relocate NA HQ to a handy laptop at Quills.

186 (tie)

ON THE AVENUES: The Adamite Chronicles: Have muzzle, will drivel.

187

Drinking Progressively returns tonight to Bank Street Brewhouse at 6:00 p.m.

205

What's next?: "Aunt Artie's in New Albany closing Wednesday."

247

Seeking to avoid termination, poor ol' Rosenbarger goes full Orwell and claims Main Street potholes as "successes."

260

ON THE AVENUES SUNDAY SPECIAL: How many businesses already have died because of City Hall’s street grid procrastination?

276

ON THE AVENUES: Fairytale of New Albania.

311

ON THE AVENUES: To the third floor -- but first, we throw the rascals out.

323

As NABC "soldiers on," Floyd County Brewing Company joins Donum Dei and Wrecker on the "coming soon" NA brewery list.

404 (tie)

Finally, the Carponizer Erotic Carp Calendar is here, and I want one.

404 (tie)

Mayoral hopeful David White offers exciting plan to keep the Reisz Furniture building dilapidated in 2026.

478

R.I.P. Rachel Blanton.