Indiana Regional Cities Initiative: One Southern Indiana's math didn't help its case, did it?

Let's reduce this to the most simple component.

One Southern Indiana convenes a meeting of politicians and acolytes, which I attended, and introduces its grand plan (Our Southern Indiana) for how a quasi-lottery windfall of $434-odd million is to be spent within the framework of a "regional" cities initiative.

1Si takes the Goebbelsian gambit a step further by shrouding it with MBA-level, lower-case tagging: "imagine - empower - illuminate," reminding me that buffed and polished PR-speak tends to send me running in search of a bucket.

Forget all the major topics of discussion before and after the triumphal roll-out meeting, including concerns about the powers of the Regional Development Authority, the potential for eminent domain controversies, and whether or not any of this money actually would be real according to commonly accepted definitions of reality -- and whether any of it would benefit ordinary working people.

Just keep your eyes on the dollar-sign propaganda.

1Si's lottery winning disbursement committee produces proposals for regional unity over a projected five county area, because, yet again, the founding shtick of the whole plan is regional cooperation. One would think this might imply a semblance of proportionality, given the goal of universal participation.

Except that it gets predictable, and quickly.

Greenway expansion funding (can't we finish the 1990s model first?) omits Harrison, Scott and Washington Counties entirely from direct investment. Waterfront development excludes the latter two counties, which don't front on the Ohio. Workforce development spreads a few million farthings around, some of which might leach into the outer reaches of the five-county target area. A paltry 200K is proposed to study regional water resources,which arguably is the most important consideration of all in a time of climate change.

This leaves roughly $252 million to  -- that's right, incentivize River Ridge, which already has been enabled by the state as a regional economic development "winner" for two decades, and showered with every imaginable form of abatement, subsidy and happy ending potions known to corporate welfare fetishists hereabouts.

Proportionately dividing Greenway and Waterfront proposals between counties, it leaves us with $300 million out of $434 million earmarked for Clark County alone.

How exactly does one sell this notion to Washington County -- to Floyd County?

To repeat: I understand that the situation is more nuanced than this. What I'm trying to convey to the usual suspects in imaginary One Southern Indiana Land is that given the numbers you provide, there is almost no compelling reason for a politician sitting outside Clark County to vote in favor of ceding authority when so little of the benefit accrues to his or her home turf.

And, again: Had 1Si led with even the slightest recognition that River Ridge's ongoing "empowerment" suggests regional transit options of the sort that big-time state funding could help realize, I might have given the business-as-usual elites the benefit of the doubt.

There are numerous other reasons to be suspicious of the Indiana Regional Cities Initiative, and Rep. Clere can paint it any way he likes, but until One Southern Indiana accepts a measure of responsibility for its ongoing institutionalized tone deafness, it's all moot.

New Albany state rep: Southern Indiana's regional funding bid derailed by 'misinformation', by Marty Finley (Louisville Business First)

When Indiana State Rep. Ed Clere co-authored legislation meant to inject major dollars into various regions of Indiana, he expected the largest hurdle to be getting that bill passed and funded.

What he didn't expect was for local Republican-led political bodies to shoot down a plan that was passed by a Republican-dominated legislature with support from a Republican governor.

But that's what happened ...

 ... And though competition for the funding was sure to be stiff, the Clark-Floyd county region was thought to be a strong contender, based on its size and proximity to the Louisville market.

But that's now moot for Southern Indiana, as the region has declined to submit an application, according to Wendy Dant Chesser, president and CEO of One Southern Indiana, the chamber of commerce for Clark and Floyd counties.

On hotels and being a "hotel citizen."

The industrial hotel has been an economic triumph. But over the years its uniformity has made it an emotional failure.
-- The Economist ("A short history of hotels: Be my guest")

Substitute the word "beer" for "hotel," any grasp my life the past quarter-century.

During which I've done my fair share of traveling, and to me, the entirety of hotels (or hostels, or Airbnb) comes down to an affordable place to sleep.

Consequently, I've tended to worry less about ambiance; when traveling in civilized places possessing public transport (read: Europe), location means less, too. You can always get there from somewhere.

Obviously, there is more to it.

The “Romance” of Travel, by André Naffis-Sahely (The Paris Review)

Joseph Roth’s hotel years.

“I am a hotel citizen,” Joseph Roth declared in one of the newspaper dispatches anthologized in The Hotel Years: Wanderings in Europe Between the Wars, “a hotel patriot.” It’s easy to see why: Red Joseph was nothing if not a cosmopolitan humanist, and the hotel was his natural habitat. “The guests come from all over the world,” he explains:

Continents and seas, islands, peninsulas and ships, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Muslims and even atheists are all represented in this hotel. The cashier adds, subtracts, counts and cheats in many languages, and changes every currency. Freed from the constriction of patriotism, from the blinkers of national feeling, slightly on holiday from the rigidity of love of land, people seem to come together here and at least appear to be what they should always be: children of the world.

Stop the presses: Zurschmiede works it out, will attend the Sept. 24 LWV debate at the Homerdome.

I hope the newspaper is paying attention, seeing as I've been ... never mind.

Don't ask me for details about the change. I only know that with Jeff Gahan announcing his debate schedule with a mind toward avoiding a three-way contest, Kevin Zurschmiede has somehow altered his family itinerary, and will be able to attend the League Of Women Voters event on September 24 at Gahan's home field, Silver Street Park.

South Central Indiana League of Women Voters

Great news, our league received news today concerning the debate from the Republican chair and Kevin zurschmead has rearranged his schedule and will be at the debate! So, in both counties all mayoral candidates will attend!

Of course, the LWV won't publicly concede this is Gahan's home field ... and very gently, it's Zurschmiede, and Facebook does allow editing, even hours later.

But make no mistake, this is good news. Voters deserve to see the three of us together on one stage, in spite of Gahan's evasive machinations, and now the great and powerful Oz needs to get real, reciprocate, and honor both city voters and the hard work of Leadership Southern Indiana by rearranging HIS schedule to attend LSI's debate on the 29th at New Albany High School.

Earlier today, long before the breaking news, the South Central Indiana League of Women Voters added event promos on Facebook.

My photo shows me wearing a US Postal Service cap from the Tour de France. Randy Smith gave it to me. In 2008, I was bicycling in Belgium, and lost the cap on the road somewhere. I can't remember the origin of the photograph, but then again, it's been more than seven years.

A healthy discussion then took place on the LWV's page at Fb. Here it is, lest something happen to the historical document. Note again that a few hours later, Zurschmiede's situation changed, and the update above was posted.

Roger A. Baylor
With all due respect, consider changing the date of the NA forum. Gahan's only coming because Zurschmiede cannot. The voters deserve better than this.

South Central Indiana League of Women
Gahan isn't coming to the LSI debate, we really cannot and hope you understand. There are debates and forums happening and canceling it would just conflict with another function.

Roger A. Baylor
I understand you have no interest in accountability, and that is genuinely regrettable. You are actively enabling Gahan's selective irresponsibility, but it's a learning experience -- and I surely wouldn't want anyone losing her city job over it.

South Central Indiana League of Women Voters
That is unfair, you question my integrity, Bill Hansen's, Teresa Perkins, and everyone involved in the League. We have been impartial and have bent over backwards to pull off an event that would give voice to everyone equally. If you choose not to come, we will understand.

Roger A. Baylor
I don't even know who you are. I wouldn't miss this or any other event, and I'm not the only one with eyebrows raised. It's a softball toss in the mayor's own building, and he's shirking LSI because he's getting a free ride here.

South Central Indiana League of Women Voters
Again, we have worked hard. The questions are coming from concerns expressed by citizens and will come to you at the same time they come to other candidates. We have had commitments from everyone before any other debate was even announced. It is Barb (Anderson), Roger. I respect you and your right to feel the way you do but we do not intend to soft pedal anything but we do intend to hold an event that is fair, impartial, and balanced. Kevin expressed his regret due to his son's marriage and we will read those regrets and respect him a great deal, he was quite the gentleman about not being able to attend. We are asking questions that are pertinent to the community, a two minute response to the other candidate and a one minute rebuttal. To our knowledge and to our seeing there has been no attempt to soft pedal anything, just an attempt to have a civil debate.

Roger A. Baylor
And Barb, my respect for you is immense. The builders cancelled their forum owing to no-shows, which points to the potential for manipulation, and that's my argument: if it is impartial, then one candidate cannot be handed ammo (the building) and also provided a pretext to evade face to face with both challengers. Lots of us already know what it feels like to be used by Jeff Gahan. Perhaps the League will learn this difficult lesson too. Cheers.

South Central Indiana League of Women Voters
I live in Jeffersonville, I loved the public park which is owned by the taxpayers. Kevin as a council person has as much to do with parks as any Mayor. We are not a wealthy organization and thought the venue was beautiful and proud for any forum to be held there. There are three city council candidates not attending. We are offering for educational purposes and opportunity for the citizens of the county to see and speak with their candidates. The questions are being offered by the League and no one else, the reception will be an opportunity for people to ask one on one questions. My respect for you is strong as well, I would never suggest you would participate in an event that wasn't fair and above board, neither would I think you would suggest I would.

Jeff Gillenwater
Kevin actually voted against the expenditure for the park and many others questioned it, including Roger. Gahan, in turn, has been continually using it as a prop for campaign purposes. The League declaring it something beautiful of which to be proud, a very pro-park and, in context, pro-Gahan stance, isn't exactly impartial so it's not difficult to see why many people are questioning venue choice. I think the brewery that Roger helped build is great and an asset to the community but I wouldn't suggest that holding a mayoral debate there would be impartial. The same could be said of Kevin's properties. The park is technically public but the association is plain. Given the low number of New Albany forums involving all the mayoral candidates, it doesn't seem unreasonable that a single alternative date and/or location could be explored without conflicting with another event. Besides the LSI debate, what other neutral events involving all the mayoral candidates are scheduled between now and the November election that would make it difficult to find another date or location? The library, the Carnegie Center, IUS, or any of the public schools would be neutral. Is there really not an alternative date available at any of them over the next couple of months? At best, this is an honest mistake but it's not too late to correct it.

Roger A. Baylor
Thanks, Jeff Gillenwater. That's it in a nutshell.

REWIND: Civil War songs ... "I’m a Good Old Rebel," but assuredly not like this.

Within a block of my home, two separate windows sport confederate battle flags, and just this morning a Facebook friend posted a photo taken in downtown Louisville.

Photo credit: TL.

The flag issue received little play at this blog, primarily because all one can do as a civilized person is shake his head and lament the enduring perversity of bad taste. Experience hath shown that it's simply impossible to legislate good taste.

Following is a rerun of a post I wrote on July 17, 2011. It again seems topical today.

---

Civil War songs: "I’m a Good Old Rebel," but assuredly not like this.

During the mid-1970’s, I spent way too much time pillaging the LP collection at the NA-FC Public Library, borrowing albums and committing them to cassette tape. These archival finds delightfully augmented my nascent musical tastes with a sheer breadth of material that would have been fiscally impossible for a high school student to manage on the open market.

Taxpayers of the time are duly thanked for the opportunity.

The Bicentennial year came in 1976, and at some point afterward, probably as late as 1978, I noticed the arrival of numerous attractively packaged LPs at the library: A 100-album set called The Recorded Anthology of American Music, produced by New World Records. The idea, as originally funded by a Rockefeller Foundation grant, was (and is) to trace the history of America through its music. As you can see by following the New World Records link, the effort continues more than three decades later.

As a side note, an almost completely intact, second set of the Anthology was placed at WNAS, New Albany High School’s radio station; I saw it there while substituting teaching during the early 1980’s. Seeing as the vast bulk of the original albums present classical works and formal composition, these had not been touched by discerning high school students. Only a handful of LPs were missing. Whether at the library or the high school, this set of albums was a mother lode for me.

Appropriately in this sesquicentennial Civil War year, I’ve been listening to Songs of the Civil War (New World Records 80202), with liner notes by Charles Hamm. It’s always been my favorite of them all. I've chosen just one of the songs to examine today: "I'm a Good Old Rebel," which to my mind illustrates the ultimate success of Richard Nixon's Southern Strategy -- which was still playing out on the ground when these liner notes were written, about to come to fruition under Ronald Reagan during the 1980's.

These days, it's the Republicans and Tea Partiers who are singing these songs. Isn't that plagiarism or something?

---

I’m a Good Old Rebel
Many Southerners refused to be “reconstructed.” Some went west after the war, a few went abroad, and many of those who stayed in the South nursed a deep hatred for the North for the remainder of their lives while outwardly conforming to the realities of postwar life. These intense feelings brought about a political climate that unified the South against the Republican Party for almost a century. Rarely has hatred been so directly and convincingly expressed as in these lyrics.

A number of mysteries surround the present song. American War Songs claims that it was entered for copyright by A. C. Blackmar in Louisiana in 1864, yet the words were clearly written after the war. The earliest edition gives “J.R.T.” as the author, yet most historians of song agree that the tune was known as “Joe Bowers” and was by R. Bishop Buckley of Buckley’s Minstrels, the text by either Adelbert Volck or Major Innes Randolph, a “cultivated Southerner of letters. ”This edition (used for the present recording) appears to have been published in New Orleans in 1866 and bears an ironic dedication to “the Honorable Thad. Stevens.” The first musical phrase differs from the version printed in such anthologies as Songs of the Civil War and Singing Soldiers, though the remainder of the music is almost identical.

It may well be that most of these allegations are true, that the many contradictions in this story can be resolved. The tune may have been known in oral tradition before the Civil War: many of its melodic turns, and its use of a “gapped” or incomplete scale (the fourth note is absent, and the seventh is barely touched on), are characteristic of much Scotch-Irish traditional music. Buckley may have appropriated the tune, perhaps polishing it to make it conform more nearly to the tastes of minstrel-show audiences; a certain number of minstrel songs, including “Old Dan Tucker” and “De Boatman’s Dance,” show similar evidence of having been adapted from oral tradition tunes. Volck, or Innes, or both may have fitted a new topical text to a tune they knew either from folk tradition or the minstrel repertory.

This text was probably too extreme to be widely circulated in a printed version, even in the postwar South, and its chief popularity was as a song passed on by ear through several generations. It seems not to have appeared in print between the one edition in 1866 and the several versions taken down from oral tradition in the middle of the present century, and the differences between the nineteenth- and twentieth-century versions are not unusual for a song that has bounced back and forth between written and oral versions. On this album it is sung in an unaccompanied version.

Whatever the case, the song in all its versions is yet another demonstration of the intensity of feeling aroused by the war.

O I’m a good old Rebel,
Now that’s just what I am,
For this “Fair Land of Freedom”
I do not care AT ALL;
I’m glad I fit against it,
I only wish we’d won,
And I don’t want no pardon
For anything I done.
I hates the Constitution,
This great Republic, too,
I hates the Freedman’s Buro,
In uniforms of blue;
I hates the nasty Eagle,
With all his braggs and fuss,
The lyin’, thievin’ Yankees,
I hates ‘em wuss and wuss.
I hates the Yankee nation
And everything they do,
I hates the Declaration
Of Independence, too;
I hates the glorious Union—
’Tis dripping with our blood—
I hates their striped banner,
I fit it all I could.

I followed old mas’ Robert
For four year near about,
Got wounded in three places
And starved at Pint Lookout.
I cotch the roomatism
A campin’ in the snow,
But I killed a chance o’Yankees,
I’d like to kill some mo’.

Three hundred thousand Yankees
Is still in Southern dust;
We got three hundred thousand
Before they conquered us;
They died of Southern fever
And Southern steel and shot,
I wish they was three million
Instead of what we got.

I can’t take up my musket
And fight ‘em now no more,
But I ain’t going to love ‘em,
Now that is sarten sure;
And I don’t want no pardon
For what I was and am,
I won’t be reconstructed
And I don’t care a dam.

Satire Warning: "Mayor Jeff Gahan Presents MyYard Urban Piazza, Dog Park and Beer Garden."

M noted this project out west, and it started me thinking about how badly it would fare in the hands of our own New Albany municipal government.

That why you can take your cult of personality and shove it.

Strolling through Quartyard San Diego, the new urban piazza

There’s a pig wearing a pink bow romping alongside a gray Great Dane at a dog park that just popped up in San Diego’s East Village neighborhood. Their owners look on, some sipping craft beers, others uploading photos to Instagram the curious encounter. This might be called a dog park, but pigs are clearly just as welcome.

This is the essence of Quartyard San Diego, a 25,000-square-foot outdoor pop-up, watering hole, and urban piazza where the creative, weird, and iconoclastic minds of the city have been gathering this summer. The area houses a sizable stage, dog run, picnic tables, and games like ladder ball and beanbag toss, as well as craft beer-pouring and sausage-slinging restaurants, food trucks, and a cafe—all housed in 14 retrofitted and repurposed shipping containers. The space is a cross-pollination of people, pigs, poodles, and ideas from all walks of life in San Diego.

Bored of Works no more: Today at 4:00 p.m., the New Albany Street Piano becomes a reality.

We've been waiting for a piano like this (among other things), and so let's celebrate the advent of the New Albany Street Piano with music.

Everyone knows that the entire process was far more excruciating and bureaucracy-laden than it should have been, and so I've been taking notes for The Resistance.

But there'll be no coaxing and imploring, at least not from this quarter. Some folks just have to dope it out on their own.

Read more here: Fundamentally delayed: The New Albany Street Piano "Grand Opening" is Saturday, September 5.

I'll be downtown for the installation. If you'd like a Baylor for Mayor yard sign, I'll even bring the car so we have access to the trunk.

These cities will power the U.S. economy, and we'll just be the landfill.

It comes as no surprise that as we prepare to endure nine months of mind-numbing daily discussions about University of Louisville and University of Kentucky football and basketball, neither Louisville nor Lexington rank very high on the list of cities with the most science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) jobs.

I know -- the world needs ditch diggers, too, and but when was the last time you heard anyone connected with New Albany municipal government talk about articles like this, even in casual conversation over wretched light beer?

For four years, we've been told that a water park, subsidized "luxury" apartments and the beautification of .8 of a mile on precisely one major street will combine with several million other "quality of life" dollars (and a few hundred thousand gallons of Kool-Aid) to pull our city out of the doldrums.

Except that none of these actions even acknowledge the real questions, much less answer them.

How do we keep our best and brightest here, and attract others of like skill?

How can a water park ever do this?

To cite just one example, not only has David Duggins had no identifiable economic development policies apart from delivering boilerplate CF1 tax abatement forms to a snoozing council twice monthly, but when Mark Cassidy began regularly questioning the rubber-stamping, quite a few of these forms proved to have been filled out incorrectly.

No one ever bothered to look. Millions of fast food employees have been terminated for less.

No, we're not likely to be Huntsville, Alabama, at least any time soon. At the same time, we need to be inventorying community assets and considering future economic development locales outside the "always done it this way" box, or it's going to be a tough commute, sans paddle, on River Ridge Creek.

The Unlikely Cities That Will Power the U.S. Economy, by Christopher Cannon, Patrick Clark, Jeremy Scott Diamond, and Laurie Meisler (Bloomberg Business)

A decade ago, Richard Myers was the director of the Department of Genetics at the Stanford University School of Medicine, where he enjoyed the fruits of a rich endowment and his pick of faculty members and graduate students. So he left behind some befuddled scientists when, in 2008, he left Palo Alto, Calif., for Huntsville, Ala., to launch an independent research lab, the HudsonAlpha Institute.

“‘My God, you’re leaving Stanford for Alabama?’” Myers recalls colleagues asking. “‘What’s wrong with you?’”

Huntsville may not seem like an obvious place to base a center for genomics, a branch of biology concerned with DNA sequences that requires expensive hardware and even greater investment in human capital. Alabama ranks in the bottom 10 U.S. states for educational attainment and median income.

Yet Huntsville, nestled in a hilly region in the northern part of the state, turns out to be a great place to recruit high-tech workers. As of May 2014, 16.7 percent of workers in the metropolitan area held a job in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics—STEM, for short—making it the third most technical workforce in the country after San Jose, Calif., and Framingham, Mass., a Bloomberg analysis of Labor Department statistics shows.

Huntsville is one of a growing number of smaller U.S. cities, far from Silicon Valley, that are seeking to replace dwindling factory jobs by reinventing themselves as tech centers. Across the Midwest, Northeast, and South, mayors and governors are competing to attract tech companies and workers.

Gonder: "The business most worthy of economic assistance is one that's already operating."

SIPS had not been open long when Jason agreed with my assessment of the street grid and allowed a two-way sign to be taped to his window.

November 17, 2013: Southern Indiana Paint Supply: On the right side of New Albany street grid history.


Unlike Councilman Gonder, I have not had any need for paint lately, but I share his sadness and dismay. I'm reminded of the numerous times I've heard the city's economic development director lament the absence of any way municipal government might assist independent local business, prior to him running off to submit gerrymandered CF1 Forms (tax abatements for larger businesses) to council.

John explains how and does a good job, as usual. If Gahan and the Democratic Party succeed in kneecapping Gonder in the forthcoming election, he's cordially invited to join The Resistance.

Fish Story--One That Got Away, by John Gonder (Gonder for New Albany At-Large)

A widely accepted proposition in pursuit of environmental responsibility is, "the greenest building is one that's already built." This says, use the earth's resources which have already been expended in a good, solid, or even well-worn structure, before chasing after the tweaks and technological advances of new construction in pursuit of greater efficiencies. After all, even a high-efficiency structure displacing a usable older building, carries with it the sunk environmental costs of the resources, time, money, and effort of the original building. Even if those costs are not reflected monetarily, they are still carried as debits on the earth's ledger.

An economic development corollary to that proposition might be, "the business most worthy of economic assistance is one that's already operating." Assuming the existing business is a positive commercial citizen of the community, one that adds value by delivering necessary and helpful products, services or labor, or one that by its very presence helps to stabilize a neighborhood or lay the groundwork for further improvement in a particular part of town, it may be wiser to focus scarce economic development funds on that business, rather than a different startup asking for assistance. It may be better to water a withering vine than to plant a new one.

I happened upon such a withering vine yesterday in New Albany's Uptown area. It is the Benjamin Moore paint store at the corner of Vincennes and Market streets. I buy a lot of paint, and yet in the two years the store has been in New Albany, yesterday was the first time I'd been in it. So, I, and others like me, are at least part of the reason the store is closing. The gentleman working at the store and I discussed the sad news reported by the big yellow notes on the front door, and the cash register, posted to inform customers that the store will close on September 11, 2015 ...

The German language makes a comeback.

Regrets? I've had a few, but then again -- too few to mention.

One of them is never learning to speak German. I know just a bit, and it isn't enough.

Some day.

Sprechen Sie power? Once the language of Schiller and Goethe, then of Hitler, German is hip again (The Economist)

SUCH was the status of German in the 19th century—for Europeans generally and for Jews in particular—that Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, once proposed making it the official language of a future state of Israel. In the event, devotees of Hebrew won out. After the Holocaust, German was particularly despised. But times change. Israeli 14- to 15-year-olds going back to school after the summer holidays now have the option of German as a foreign language for the first time at five public schools, to be followed by more.

German is also becoming popular among adult Israelis, and not only the more than 20,000 who have moved to Berlin in recent years. This reflects a broader shift in perceptions. Fifty years after Germany and Israel established diplomatic relations, 70% of Israelis have a positive view of the country, according to a poll by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, a German think-tank. Many find Germans honest and trustworthy. With the possible exception (at least lately) of Greece, people elsewhere agree, polls show.

This suggests a big gain for Germany in “soft power”. Joseph Nye of Harvard University, who coined the term in 1990, defines it as the ability of a country to hold international sway not by brandishing hard (military) power but by getting others to want what it wants. It is the value of being attractive culturally, commercially, gastronomically, ideologically, or indeed linguistically.

Germans, who are forever coping with their dark past, are thrilled by any suggestion that they are popular.

Too many no-shows: Building & Development Association of Southern Indiana cancels its mayoral candidate forum.

Another one bites the dust.

Good Morning,

After having conversations with our executive committee, it has decided that we will cancel the Mayor's Forum portion of the agenda for the BDASI Dinner Meeting to be held September 10.

This has been decided because we were not able to secure all candidates. It is committee's opinion that unless we have 100% participation, it does not fully and fairly inform our membership.

Thank you for your willingness to participate. You are still welcome to attend this event at no charge as our guest if you would like.

Sorry for any inconvenience. Please contact me directly to discuss if you have questions.

Respectfully,

BDA of Southern Indiana

Jeff G made a very good comment on Fb earlier today, and he's right: The League of Women Voters should consider moving its event to a different date.

I just hope that voters who don't necessarily pay a lot of attention are beginning to see how typical this sort of behavior is from the Gahan camp and how the Democratic clique won't acknowledge or address it. If Gahan employee Moeller had any community oriented chutzpah, for instance, she'd reschedule (and likely reformat and relocate) the League of Women Voters event. Is she that corrupted herself or is she just afraid Gahan will fire her? Is there no one involved with the League who maintains any sense of fairness and ethics? Is there really not a single ranking Democrat in the whole county who will speak to this? So far, the answer to those questions is "yes" across the board. That very practiced collusion and callousness is precisely what Democratic voters in New Albany have been supporting. We all know any number of party devotees who have consciences, who know better than this on a personal level. Their silence here and in numerous other cases is the sort of lapse in common decency that defines New Albany politics more than anything else. It's what they think political power is about. It would be nice to be able to consider them friends, not of any individual candidates but of basic integrity; to be able to trust them as people at least trying to create a level playing field. But, so far, that's not possible, either.

Previously:

Gahan's signature pettiness ensures we'll not see a mayoral debate with all three candidates present at once.

In letter, Gahan confirms intent to snub Leadership Southern Indiana and bypass LSI's mayoral debate (includes my return letter).

LBJ's famous "Daisy" ad.

I'm not sure why I awoke this morning to some oddball subliminal impulse to view this ad, but here it is.

The most famous of all campaign commercials, known as the “Daisy Girl” ad, ran only once as a paid advertisement, during an NBC broadcast of Monday Night at the Movies on September 7, 1964.

Wicked. Just wicked.

What's in your wallet? Gahan's writing checks to MDC Research.

Don't say we didn't warn you.

Telephone polling has started -- destroy those credit card receipts, boys.

Thanks to the intrepid research of R, we know the identity of the company in Portland, Oregon that's doing the calling.

MDC Research

There isn't much else; just another hired gun in a political marketplace stuffed with far too many bags of cash.

Let us know if you know anything about this company.

"When you design a city for cars, it fails everyone."

In a way a water park simply cannot do.

"The new transportation system in Medellín ... is not only a physical solution. It is not only transportation. It is also a social instrument that involves the community, that integrates the community in all the city."

But one must be willing to think outside self-limiting boxes. In New Albany, just the mere act of thinking itself would be a fine first step.

Where Did We Go Wrong? I never realized how dumb our cities are until I saw what a smart one looks like, by Maz Ali (Upworthy)

... A healthy diet and regular physical activity are some of the most important things we can do for our health as individuals, but flawed city design has restricted opportunities for people to make those choices, which has contributed greatly to what are essentially public health epidemics — ones that require public health solutions.

Most cities have been designed for cars, not for people.

Look out your window and see for yourself.

Gahan's signature pettiness ensures we'll not see a mayoral debate with all three candidates present at once.

(Update, 5:24 p.m., Sept. 4: Several of you have rightly pointed out that the NAHA is not owned or governed by the city. I was and remain aware of this, and should have done a better job with language intended to convey irony. Apologies for the muddle)

It genuinely sickens me to report this information to you.

Earlier today, I told you this.

In letter, Jeff Gahan confirms intent to snub Leadership Southern Indiana and bypass LSI's mayoral debate (includes my return letter).

Now I know why.

I've learned that Republican mayoral candidate Kevin Zurschmiede will be out of town during the week of the New Albany Housing Authority candidate forum (September 22) and League of Women Voters coronation softball toss (September 24).

The reason?

His son is getting married in a destination wedding.

In my world, that's a damned good reason, and knowing this puts a completely different spin on Jeff Gahan's letter, doesn't it?

Yes, Gahan is perfectly content to appear on a Tuesday at a forum staged by a "department" of his own city government, and then again two days later at what amounts to a fluffed-up photo op in a building he bonded to have built, as organized by an employee he appointed to her position.

But when it comes to appearing at the sole debate -- a real debate, at that -- at which all three candidates might appear together, Gahan is quick to decline.

If that's not textbook moral cowardice, I'm hard pressed to offer a better definition. Local Democrats should be hanging their heads in shame, but if the past is any guide, they're looking the other way.

ON THE AVENUES: When even Mitt Romney can run to the left of New Albany’s Democrats, it's a very big problem.

In letter, Gahan confirms intent to snub Leadership Southern Indiana and bypass LSI's mayoral debate (includes my return letter).

Previously, we considered the question of Mayor Jeff Gahan's attendance at campaign season forums and debates.

On mayoral forums and debates, no-show incumbents and "a spectrum of opinion."

Gahan will merely smile and gesture toward numerous nice, shiny objects.

Assuming this letter I received today (above) is not a hoax, it's official: Gahan is snubbing Leadership Southern Indiana's mayoral debate at New Albany High School on Tuesday, September 29. He'll also avoid the Building & Development Association of Southern Indiana forum on Thursday, September 10.

Surely it's no coincidence that the LSI debate format is far more rigorous than the League of Women Voters' ceremonial softball toss at Gahan's own Silver Street Park on September 24, which was organized by Gahan's appointee Linda Moeller, and will include questions provided to the candidates in advance.

Conversely, the LSI debate is being organized as a real debate, with questions unknown to candidates, and also with the opportunity for candidates to ask questions of each other. Yesterday (September 2), LSI held a pre-debate session, at which it was remarked that Gahan's participation was as yet uncertain: "The negotiations are ongoing," said one organizer.

However, the letter was postmarked on September 1. Gahan already knew what he intended to do the day before yesterday, apparently without informing LSI.

Here is the reply I'll be return snail mailing.

ON THE AVENUES: When even Mitt Romney can run to the left of New Albany’s Democrats, it's a very big problem.

ON THE AVENUES: When even Mitt Romney can run to the left of New Albany’s Democrats, it's a very big problem.

A weekly web column by Roger A. Baylor.

Since I announced my candidacy for mayor of New Albany as an independent, I’ve been asked this question more than once.

“But Roger, aren’t you afraid you’ll pull votes away from the Democrats, and the Republican candidate will win?”

Seeing as a two-party system is considered normal in a nation where Coca-Cola alone vends 500 brands of non-alcoholic beverages, it should be fairly obvious that I must pull votes from one or both parties, or I won’t get very many.

So yes, but it’s important to understand the dynamic involved in this electoral calculation, for while it’s far too early to know whether Kevin Zurschmiede will be the ultimate beneficiary of Jeff Gahan’s self-possessed vanity candidacy, the ballot indeed is set, and there's nothing at all we can do about Gahan selfishly siphoning votes away from the only genuine Democrat left in the mayoral race.

This being me.

---

It naturally depends on the meaning of the word Democrat, and whether the word Democrat actually has any discernible meaning in New Albany, right here at the grassroots level where the political process begins.

Republicans, bear with me now as I attempt to identify the local Democratic species. I fear it may have mutated.

Is one a Democrat by virtue of paid membership, as in a club, or is it explained by fealty to the fried mushrooms available annually at Harvest Homecoming?

Could it be the sum total of voting patterns? Does it have to do with family traditions and heredity?

Or, must a Democrat possess a coherent system of fundamental values and actions, such as those listed in a (gasp) party platform?

I suppose being a Democrat might entail any or all of these, although to me, the game’s not worth the flame without the platform, and those pesky values and actions therein.

We turn to the Democratic National Committee for clues:

For more than 200 years, Democrats have represented the interests of working families, fighting for equal opportunities and justice for all Americans.

Our party was founded on the conviction that wealth and privilege shouldn’t be an entitlement to rule and the belief that the values of hardworking families are the values that should guide us.

We didn’t become the most prosperous country in the world by rewarding greed and recklessness or by letting those with the most influence write their own rules. We got here by rewarding hard work and responsibility, by investing in people, and by growing our country from the bottom up.

Today Democrats are fighting to repair a decade of damage and grow an economy based on the values of Main Street, not greed and reckless speculation. Democrats are focused on rescuing our economy not just in the short run but also rebuilding our economy for the long run—an economy that lifts up not just some Americans, but all Americans.

Now, these local “Democrats” to whom my questioners are referring … who are they again?

Let’s see.

They’re the ones who have occupied the mayor’s chair for the past twelve years, with council majorities during this same period of 8-1, 8-1 and 7-1-1, and with these overwhelming majorities, the Democrats have accomplished … uh … er … well …

That’s right.

Very little.

Buy another round of ice-cold Bud Light Limes, because it ain’t very pretty. Let’s take a closer look at the ideological scorecard, and compare the national Democratic Party’s platform points with local “Democratic” practice.

National Platform:
Democrats have represented the interests of working families, fighting for equal opportunities and justice for all Americans.

Local Practice:
Pervasive silence, as when Dan “Mr. Local Democrat” Coffey uttered homophobic slurs at a city council meeting and was filmed in the act, and neither Gahan nor his party has had the first thing to say about it. Not only that, but the Human Rights and Ethics Commissions enabled by council Democrats were stillborn, and designed to fail.

National Platform:
Wealth and privilege shouldn’t be an entitlement to rule and the belief that the values of hardworking families are the values that should guide us.

Local Practice:
While spending hundreds of dollars per foot to increase property values on a street that already was situated atop local valuation charts, City Hall looked the other way as General Mills spent many years openly preparing to close Pillsbury, and when the day of reckoning finally came, Gahan could do no more than ineptly feign shock and concoct half-cocked performance art to “honor” the values of hardworking Pillsbury families by insulting their intelligence.

The mayor’s brilliant plan? Imagine $7 million in economic development funds and toss the bags of Monopoly money in the general direction of the moving vans as they queued to depart, safe in the knowledge that it was a done deal, anyway. Honor? Such was the embarrassment that it gradually begins to make sense that Gahan’s handlers never allow him to speak in public.

National Platform:
We didn’t become the most prosperous country in the world by rewarding greed and recklessness or by letting those with the most influence write their own rules.

Local Practice:
Never in history had the city of New Albany waived sewer tap-in fees for a property developer, at least until Gahan noticed the words “business of residence” mentioned in an otherwise unread Wall Street Journal editorial, and decided to award waivers to the big-dollar, influential Flaherty and Collins firm from Indianapolis, whose plan for redeveloping the Coyle site includes a bocce ball court, the best internet service in town and other “upscale” and “luxury” amenities – while rental properties a block away remain free of regulation and hazardous to the health of their occupants.

When this top-down proposal came before the Redevelopment Commission, both Coffey and local Democratic Party chairman Adam Dickey enthusiastically voted in favor.

That’s right: The chairman has been appointed to this position. His wife works in city government. The mayor’s son-in-law has a business degree, and is in charge of the floodwall. But see: No one’s writing his own rules here in New Albany.

National Platform:
We got here by rewarding hard work and responsibility, by investing in people, and by growing our country from the bottom up.

Local Practice:
A disproportionate share of living spaces in New Albany are rental properties, and so naturally, after 12 solid years of Democratic dominance, there remain no rental property registration or inspection programs. Basic ordinance enforcement, from downtown parking to municipal cleanliness, still is subject to arbitrary whim and daily coin tosses.

Meanwhile, City Hall’s over-arching rationale for projects like the water park and the Coyle site luxury apartment complex has been the vague possibility of a “ripple effect” from the top down, or in the phrase Will Rogers coined during the Great Depression, “trickle-down” – a practice last associated with Republicans during the Reagan administration, and one almost never confused with development from the “bottom up.”

National Platform:
Democrats are fighting to repair a decade of damage and grow an economy based on the values of Main Street, not greed and reckless speculation.

Local Practice:
During the Gahan term, the city’s budget has come close to doubling. Bonded indebtedness and debt service outlays are skyrocketing, with somewhere between $30 and $40 million bonded in the last four years alone, pledged against future property tax revenues to pay for showpiece “bread and circus” capital construction projects, like a water park being used by children who’ll still be paying for it when they have kids of their own – and when City Hall finally noticed the national party platform’s citing of the “values of Main Street,” it didn’t involve advancing the economy (for example) by growing the increasingly important independent small business segment, but rather by appeasing a vocal minority through the expenditure of millions of dollars to beautify a scant mile of Main Street, a project so resoundingly unpopular that at last, the “ripple effect” was proven genuine, and sorely-needed street calming and two-way traffic solutions elsewhere are maligned by outraged taxpayers as “just another Main Street boondoggle,” and consequently held hostage by the mayor’s own pervasive political cowardice.

National Platform:
Democrats are focused on rescuing our economy not just in the short run but also rebuilding our economy for the long run—an economy that lifts up not just some Americans, but all Americans.

Local Practice
Apart from the usual economic development abatements, giveaways and boilerplate (a term used non-ironically by City Hall itself), there is no tangible evidence of Gahan’s administration accomplishing even the first initiative designed to boost New Albany’s economy in the long term.

There is scarcely any mention of the economy at all; rather, all we hear on a daily basis is North Korean-style propaganda exhortations about nice, shiny objects gifted to us by the all-knowing leader. Paraphrasing the late, Carpathian-born and unlamented Nicolae Ceausescu, Jeff Gahan has become our “Genius of the Flood Plain.”

Outmoded trucking and industrial businesses actively impede the quality of life and future economic development potential downtown, while 40 acres of industrial park land languishes unoccupied on the north side of the city.

There have been no efforts to utilize IU Southeast or Purdue Polytechnic in programs benefiting working people, but we’re quick to reward chains and big boxes to “create” more poverty-level jobs, perpetuate income inequality, and lay asphalt so as to divert even more storm water to an unresponsive, overwhelmed system.

---

We’re constantly told that if enough is done to subsidize, monetize, incentivize, enrich and attract those with proper monetary and demographic endowments, probably some of it eventually will leach down to the masses, and if it were a Republican saying this, I’d yawn, because that’s how Republicans do it, right?

Except that in New Albany, it is the Democratic Party saying and doing these things.

Rather, they’re calling themselves Democrats, but as can be seen quite clearly, if you identify with Democratic principles as outlined in the national platform, it is almost impossible to find local evidence of them in practice, right here, at the grassroots level.

Are you a Democrat? It’s time to think carefully about what this means in real, daily, working terms. If disappointed, you have an alternative when it comes time to cast a ballot. To read more about how I think, go here: Baylor for Mayor: 3 Goals + 7 Platform Points.

As always, thanks for reading.

---

Recent columns:

ON THE AVENUES: Whips, chains and economic development (2010).

August 20: ON THE AVENUES: In the groove.

August 13: ON THE AVENUES: It’s time to purge two-party politics and tie the community together.

August 10: ON THE AVENUES SPECIAL EDITION: When it comes to the RCI, can the RDA opt out of the RFRA?

August 6: ON THE AVENUES: Money is the ultimate bully.

July 30: ON THE AVENUES: Homegrown New Albany, but not in a good way.

We cannot know if the push-button crosswalk buttons work when so many of them are broken.

That's right, NA:

We're fundamentally better.

Jeff Speck, who once authored a walkability study for New Albany -- a document now being depleted, one precious page at a time, as toilet paper in Jeff Gahan's mayoral washroom -- is quoted here on the topic of push-button crosswalk signals: How Push-to-Walk reduces the quality of walkable neighborhoods.

It is almost always the cities with push-button crossings that need the most help ... push-buttons almost always mean that the automobile dominates, as they are typically installed in conjunction with a new signal timing in which crossing times are shorter and less frequent. Far from empowering walkers, the push button turns them into second-class citizens; pedestrians should never have to ask for a light.

And boy, does the auto dominate in New Albany.

There is reason to believe that quite often, push-button at crosswalks do nothing, and in fact are virtual placebos.

MANY CROSSWALK SIGNAL BUTTONS DON’T DO ANYTHING ANYMORE (Today I Found Out)

Does pressing the pedestrian crossing button actually do anything?, by Tom de Castella (BBC News Magazine)

My sense is that in New Albany, these push-buttons are enabled and actually do something. I base this observation on lengthy waits at crosswalks downtown, where the buttons (as the one pictured above) chronically malfunction.

There are a great many of them.

Duggins: Indy developer has "vested interest" in our community, and millennials prefer biking alongside Padgett cranes.

There's something surreal about the conversations taking place as to the preferences of the $60,000 per year millennials who'll be playing bocce ball at the Flaherty and Collins development, which I believe is slated to be called Gahan "Business of Residency" Manor.

That's because the words "business of residency" must be chanted as economic development mantras just as often as "trickle down" and "ripple effect," so that the turbine powered by George Orwell spinning in his grave continues to power our street non-sweepers.

But you see, these millennials won't need as many parking spaces because millennials like to bicycle and walk, and they're not auto-centric like their parents, and the former Coyle site is located in a "pedestrian friendly" area.

With almost no crosswalks, without any efforts made to promote a culture of walkability, because at a previous meeting David Duggins rushed to reassure the crowd that these walkers and bikers would be perfectly content with unaltered, adjacent, two fast lanes comprising one-way arterial streets, as built to interstate specifications, and thus discouraging walking and biking.

You see, THESE millennials will be different, and enjoy 18-wheelers thundering past as they ride to ... to ... where again are they riding in a city almost entirely without bike lanes, and no coherent plans to add ones that might actually connect to each other?

The comparatively fewer cars parked there won't be a problem unless they are, at which point the developer will have to deal with it ... perhaps by buying adjacent homes with further TIF One Card bonds to create more stormwater-friendly impermeable surface?

Even better ...

AT&T, which has a location across from the development, donated a 24-space lot to the city to be utilizes specifically for the development.

Yes!

More prime infill building space goes toward surface parking, contributing to stormwater issues, which millennials can reach by walking across a one-way arterial street with bike lanes that go nowhere and connect to nothing, where crosswalks are almost unheard of, and which -- thus far in the mayor's down-low stealth campaign to convince selected private questioners that he understands this so well that nothing can be done to change it for two or more years -- nothing has been done to change it now, and never will, in two or twenty years.

Do any of these people really believe a single word he's saying?

I understand Duggins, Gahan, Flaherty, Collins, Rosenbarger and Gibson spouting outlandish propaganda. I suppose now, at long last, I must finally concede that Scott Wood is mortally afflicted with the gibberish contagion, too.

This makes me very sad.

Doctor, my broom, please.

New Albany apartments receive zoning approval, by Daniel Suddeath (N and T)

NEW ALBANY — The public funding has been OK'd, a substantial tax credit pledged, and on Tuesday, the developer seeking to construct a $26 million apartment and retail complex in downtown New Albany garnered zoning approval from the city.

Flaherty and Collins received unanimous approval from the New Albany Board of Zoning Appeals to construct a 191-unit apartment development on the former Coyle auto property from 501 to 515 E. Spring St.

A variance was required for the project in part because the number of parking spaces planned doesn't meet the city's standard for apartments of similar size.

Telephone polling has started -- destroy those credit card receipts, boys.

Have you been phoned with polling questions about the mayoral race in New Albany? Two friends received calls yesterday, both from West Coast area codes.

First, W.

I was just polled about the upcoming coming election. It was a California phone number. They made negative statements about Kevin Zurschmiede and Jeff Gahan, but nothing about you, though they included you in options of who did I plan to vote for.

A bit later, D was able to fill in a few blanks.

Received a call this evening with an Oregon area code asking my opinions on the city of New Albany and its "progress". Tons of questions, most I had difficulty understanding. They can call all they want but at this time it's Baylor for Mayor ... they asked if I thought Downtown New Albany needed 2-way streets.

I asked if it could be determined which political party was paying for the calls.

If I had to guess, I'd say the Democratic Party. Seemed more pro-Gahan. Brought up Kevin Zurchmiede and his lack of knowledge that tenants were running a prostitution business out if one if his properties. Seems to me they wouldn't have brought that up if they were soliciting votes for KZ.

Yep -- that gives it away, doesn't it?

If you receive one of these calls, let me know -- and bite back. Have some fun. Ask them to identify themselves and their paymasters.

When developers and contractors keep giving an incumbent money, I guess he's gotta spend it on something.

Gahan will merely smile and gesture toward numerous nice, shiny objects.

On September 12, the Floyd County Democratic Party will stage its fall campaign kick-off at Silver Street Park.

On September 24, the very same multi-million dollar venue will be the site of the mayoral and city council "candidate forum" held by the League of Women Voters. As I've pointed out previously, among the event's organizers is Linda Moeller, New Albany's city controller.

Moeller's  Fb profile picture urges that we re-elect the local politician responsible for her governmental position ... and of course, they're both Democrats.

When I asked the League about this, here was the reply.

We were excited because the venue was not going to cost anything and it was lovely. We are bipartisan and do not intend to favor any candidate with the questions. We look forward to the debate but consider a public space appropriate.

Contrast the choice of New Albany venue with that assigned to the Clark County session, and see the difference: Ivy Tech. It's a public institution, but not a building featured on an incumbent's campaign literature.

In short, there is no need to favor a candidate with softball questions when the venue itself is tantamount to the incumbent's home field. In fact, it's so much the incumbent's home field that the Democratic Party is kicking off its campaign there. There isn't anything especially non-partisan about any of this, and it's disappointing that the League persists in thinking so.

As we used to say at road games, this is some serious home cookin'.

Homer
A sports official that is blatantly calling games for the home team. Typically found in high school and amateur sporting events.

Let's just hope the News and Tribune's debate moderator doesn't bring his full arsenal of pop-ups and roll-overs with him. They could make for a very long evening.

Baylor for Mayor: Consider walking with me in the Harvest Homecoming Parade.

The Baylor for Mayor campaign officially has been entered into the Harvest Homecoming Parade, which takes place on Saturday, October 3.

I have an e-mail reply to prove it.

The parade organizers have agreed to allow us to walk the parade. We also can have bicycles with us, which would be a good thing, although the parade's customarily languid pace might preclude them be mounted and propelled.

What better way to celebrate this year's "hot rod" theme than openly reject auto-centrism by walking the parade? It's so very appropriate a response.

It took patience and cajoling. There are rules governing political candidates, including the stipulation that elected officials only can ride in convertibles, and all others must occupy space on the floats entered by their political parties.

I pointed out to them that I'm neither elected nor a party member, and that a key element of my platform encourages walkability. As such, riding atop a vehicle would be useless. To their credit, they came around.

You are welcome to walk with me. I'd love to have a few cyclists along to help make the point about street safety for all users, not just their cars. Kids are welcome. Note that the parade is all-weather, and let's have fun and show that there are alternatives to the same old same old.

After we're finished, there'll be this for refueling:

The New Albany Restaurant & Bar Association presents Biers on Parade, at the Farmers Market on Saturday, October 3.

Note also the full schedule, beginning with Indie Fest.

Sept. 27: New Albany Indie Fest
Sept. 28 – Oct. 3: New Albany Independent Restaurant Week
Oct. 3: Biers on Parade at the New Albany Farmers Market
Oct. 3: Harvest Homecoming Parade
Oct. 8 – Oct. 11: Harvest Homecoming Booth Days

Top Ten posts at NA Confidential for August, 2015.

He may have something to do with the month's top-ranking post.

The August Top Ten is determined by numbers of unique hits, as reported by Blogger.

The list begins with 10 honorable mention posts, before concluding with the Top Ten, escalating to No. 1.

I believe this is the first month since the "Top Ten" was calculated that every post listed recorded more than 200 hits.

Thanks for reading.

Obviously, you are reading, even if some observers in City Hall are fond of pretending otherwise. Isn't it funny how they invariably reply publicly to what they haven't read on the down-low?

HONORABLE MENTION

202

Fundamentally delayed: The New Albany Street Piano "Grand Opening" is Saturday, September 5.

210

Why "a great experience is priceless" is the worst answer for any city employee to give.

214

Floyd County Council rejects the RDA and RCI. Will the city of New Albany now rush to enlist?

223

Maybe this photo explains why Jeff Gahan appeases Dan Coffey's homophobia.

235

Autocentrism vs. ADA 101: Vectren's first thought is to block the sidewalk.

245

Clere: "(River Run) and other spending may leave New Albany taxpayers swimming in debt."

253 (tie)

ON THE AVENUES: Money is the ultimate bully.

253 (tie)

New Albany's new slogan: "Truck Through City" ... Part 98: Diesel-fueled postcard vistas of downtown on a Bored to Death of Works Tuesday!

257

Let's give this illustration a brand new caption.

261

We've located the Gahan Sweater Dogs.

272

Hey, ESNA.

TOP TEN

276

Baylor for Mayor: 3 Goals + 7 Platform Points.

295

Jeff Gahan explains pop-up TIFs and trickle-down parks.

306

Fieldhaus, Brownie's "The Shed", Over the 9, Falls City, Old 502 and what they all mean.

362

GAHANS STRIKE BACK: Street piano approved but the social media fur begins to fly.

368

ON THE AVENUES: It’s time to purge two-party politics and tie the community together.

380

Crazed ragpicker poses as city employee, makes terroristic threats to laughing-out-loud store owner.

457

Mayor Gahan announces compromise street piano measure.

521

A future mayor? An ex-brewery owner? 30 years later, there's another fork in the road, and I'm pumped.

538

Let's go Krogering?: Does CM Blair's fixation with a boarded-up Hardee's have to do with gas pumps and corporate welfare?

547

Stephen "Taco Steve" Powell, his taco cart, and downtown New Albany.

Good local travel piece: "A river beckons in Southern Indiana."

It's a solid article with local shout-outs.

I suggest that State Senator Ron Grooms focus on the preface, in which it is explained that his adored RFRA makes it necessary for the rest of us to wage constant damage control.

Thanks again, Ron. By the way, can you please see fit to do nothing, if doing something has ramifications like these?

A river beckons in Southern Indiana, by Joseph S. Pete (The Times of Northwest Indiana)

The Religious Freedom Restoration Act ignited a firestorm and incited many, including prominent Star Trek actor George Takei, to call for boycotts of Indiana. The furor has died down, but the bad press could have biased many against trips to Indiana in unconscious ways for years to come. The Hoosier state, however, offers plenty to see and do. The bimonthly Travel Indiana series highlights what's worth exploring around the state.

Louisville's a pretty cool city to visit.

The city boasts the "Keep Louisville Weird" campaign to keep unique merchants flourishing, chic dining options, a lively indie rock scene that's produced My Morning Jacket and Will Oldham, the Forecastle Music Festival, the Humana Festival of New American Plays, the Louisville Slugger Museum, all the bourbon you could ever handle, the bohemian Highlands neighborhood that's like a college village on steroids, and of course the "decadent and depraved" Kentucky Derby.

Like Chicago and Cincinnati, the Louisville metro spills over into Indiana. And the Indiana suburbs north of the Ohio River are also worth visiting in their own right.

The area is known as Southern Indiana, which is marketed as the Sunny Side of Louisville and symbolized by the iconic Colgate Clock. Because of the Ohio River, it was the first area in Indiana to be settled, and New Albany was actually Indiana's most populous city in 1850. It can feel like the South and is an area rife with natural beauty that’s not as flat and uniform as much of the rest of the state. Here's a look at some potential stops ...

New Albany's new slogan: "Truck Through City" ... Part 99: Trucks, institutional cowardice and another Bored to Tears of Works Tuesday!

The months roll past like the heavy haulers, equipment and machinery, and the bored?

They do nothing.

Some day, preferably when the current occupant has returned to selling veneer, perhaps this scenario will change, and we'll realize that the logic of the interstate is the illogic of densely populated urban areas.

But not just yet.

Institutional cowardice and anti-intellectualism make for a toxic mix. Diesel fetishists, enjoy the weekly collection of Things the Mighty Oz Doesn't Acknowledge from Behind That Curtain.