Chronicles of New Gahania, political cowardice edition: Beharrell to Vincennes, or the choke valve from the choke artist.

I'll repeat.

It's an act of political cowardice to predicate these Spring Street grid changes (see article below) entirely on automotive safety, with scant mention of pedestrians and cyclists, because doing so reinforces the plain fact that Jeff Gahan has nothing resembling a go-to civic master plan for walking and bicycling.

Rather, it's auto-centrism, 24-7-365 ... not at all unexpected from a suburban mayor who has shown almost no urban aptitude from the very start.

Just imagine the usefulness of placing these street changes in a context of overall mobility improvement, as opposed to piecemeal band-aids catering to distracted drivers.

There are some in the municipal apparatus who agree with me on this point. Just imagine if they were allowed to deploy their expertise toward progress without fearing the midnight phone call.

Will the road diet between Vincennes and Beharrell help matters?

Yes.

Will it ward off forthcoming pass-through toll evasion all on its own, as Gahan seems to believe?

Unlikely.

Gahan's miserable failure to implement two-way streets in the timely fashion he has promised privately suggests that we're about to be used as guinea pigs when tolling begins, testing the mayor's cherished theory that little dribs and drabs are sufficient in the absence of comprehensive improvements.

Look for a Gahan for State Senate Christmas Bonus come December, 2016, in the form of fireworks, gladiatorial epics, feats of strength and the announcement that Pearl and Bank will be reconverted to two-way traffic, even as another year is lost as Duggins's wife's engineering firm seeks to properly monetize the two-way changes to Spring, Elm and Market for campaign finance, if not real-world success.

It'll be Jeffey's bone to us all. We'll be expected to express delight. Please, sir -- may we have another?

• New signal with exclusive opposing left turn lanes at the Spring and Silver intersection
• A modified 3-lane section with two west bound travel lanes on the east leg of Spring Street (from Beharrell Avenue to Silver Street)
• A two-lane section with buffered bike lanes, parking lanes, and exclusive left turn lanes at key intersections on the west leg of Spring Street (from Silver Street to Vincennes Street)

Spring Street work begins Monday in New Albany, by Chris Morris (News and CNHI Doubloon)

Chronicles of New Gahania, demolitions (s)edition: Tear it down! Or, appearances versus fundamental reality.

What's interesting to me about Brexit was the horizontal split in the UK's major vertical political silos.

Among both Tories and Labour, there were "leave" and "remain" factions. There may be a parallel phenomenon in America, in the anti-establishment (nodding to Bob Caesar here) candidacies of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump.

It's too deep and broad a topic for today, and I mention these developments only as a segue into an observation about life in New Gahania, wherein we find a common view shared by seemingly disparate elements.

This view is the absolute imperative that things must LOOK better, rather than be made to WORK better, or to BE better in any fundamental way.

One of the foremost proponents of this philosophy of the Potemkin facade is Irv Stumler, who created New Albany Clean and Green as a sort of political action-meets-landscaping committee, such that every street corner in town must resemble a well-manicured, idealized manifestation of suburbia, even as one-way traffic roars past it, negating every conceivable benefit from the planting of flowers.

Apart from deeding the city to Padgett, Inc., one of Stumler's many other recent jihads is urging the demolition of derelict houses, which aligns him with folks like Greg Phipps who inhabit spaces across the aisle.

Again, the objective isn't safety; if it was, Stumler would advocate for ways for helping humans find affordable housing and living wages (does Phipps do even that?)

Rather, the aim is to make this place LOOK better, so that people speeding past while texting will know that New Gahania boasts the right kind of propriety.

And the odd part is that Phipps is in agreement with tearing things down and creating vacant lots, absent the sort of principled advocacy (sustainability and the greenest house we have is the one already standing) he'd undertake elsewhere.

It's very strange, this social justice as flower urn. Then again, so is the theory and practice of New Gahania.

Irv at BOW -- and by the way, work on Spring Street between Vincennes and Beharrell begins on Monday, July 11.

Ways that Mike Pence has not made Indiana great again.

Vice President Pence.

If something happened to President Trump, Vice President Pence would become President Pence.

Hilarious, isn't it?

Ten times Pence didn’t make Indiana great again, by the editors of NUVO Editors

Indiana Governor Mike Pence is very possibly going to be Donald Trump’s pick for vice-president — and that’s a sentence we can’t believe we’re actually writing.

And that’s because, in the eyes of many Hoosiers, Pence has not exactly made Indiana great, as Trump famously claims he’ll do for America. In fact, Pence was removed from presidential consideration by the GOP after a series of … let’s say unfortunate events.

Readers beyond the great Hoosier state, here’s a primer on Mike Pence and all the ways he has not made Indiana great again.

SHANE'S EXCELLENT NEW WORDS: Tortuosity.

Welcome to another installment of SHANE'S EXCELLENT NEW WORDS, a regular Wednesday feature at NA Confidential.

But why all these new words?

Why not the old, familiar, comforting words, like the ones you're sure to hear when subjected to (tortuous) explanations about the patriotic imperative of fireworks on August 6?

It's because a healthy vocabulary isn't about intimidation through erudition. Rather, it's about selecting the right word and using it correctly, whatever one's pay grade or station in life.

Even perennially beak-wetting, bond-engorged municipal corporate attorneys can benefit from this enlightening expansion of personal horizons, and really, as we contemplate what they knew and when they knew it, all we have left is plenty of time -- and the opportunity to learn something, if we're so inclined.

Today's word is tortuosity.

tortuosity

[tawr-choo-os-i-tee]

noun, plural tortuosities

1. the state of being tortuous; twisted form or course; crookedness.

2. a twist, bend, or crook.

3. a twisting or crooked part, passage, or thing.

Origin of tortuosity: 1595-1605; < Late Latin tortuōsitās. See tortuous, -ity

As used in a sentence:

I hesitated to ask the former mayor why he suspended enforcement of parking ordinances downtown, as the sheer tortuosity of his anticipated response and ensuing self-justification was enough to make me fear for my sanity.  

Is the investigation of Chloe Allen's crosswalk death still ongoing?

As we approach two months, I can find no further word as to the outcome of the ongoing investigation.

Readers, if any of you have a direct line to the Down Low Bunker, could you check for us?

In New Albany, as in St. Paul: "Finding the Political Will to Fix 'Four-Lane Death Roads.'"

ON THE AVENUES: On the crass exploitation and politicization of tragedy.

City Hall crassly exploits the death of a walker in order to brag about its achievements.

New Albany woman struck by vehicle dies of injuries (Otisco Ombudsman)

NEW ALBANY — An 83-year-old woman who was struck by a vehicle at Spring and Vincennes streets in New Albany on Friday afternoon has died of her injuries, New Albany police Chief Todd Bailey confirmed Sunday.

According to the Floyd County Combined Accident Reconstruction Team, Chloe Allen, 83, New Albany, was crossing Spring Street in the crosswalk shortly before 2 p.m. when she was struck by a 2013 Dodge Ram being driven by Terra Lawrence, 42, New Albany, who was turning left onto Spring Street from Vincennes Street.

Allen was transported to University of Louisville Hospital, where she later died.

Speed and alcohol are not believed to have contributed to the crash. The investigation is ongoing.

Best essay about walking this year: "People in cars killing and injuring people on foot," or the end of walking.

The essay is long but absolutely essential reading. All the bases are covered, so much so that I won't bother trying to encapsulate it. Just one pull.

Read it.

The end of walking, by Antonia Malchik (Aeon)

In Orwellian fashion, Americans have been stripped of the right to walk, challenging their humanity, freedom and health

For decades, Americans have been losing their ability, even their right, to walk. There are places in the United States – New York City, for example – where people walk as a matter of habit and lifestyle, commuting in ways familiar to residents of London or Paris. But there are vast blankets and folds of the country where the ability to walk – to open a door and step outside and go somewhere or nowhere without getting behind the wheel of a car – is a struggle, a fight. A risk.

In 2013 more than 4,700 pedestrians were killed, and an estimated 66,000 injured, in what the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration calls ‘traffic crashes’. That’s a bite-sized phrase for what is, essentially, people in cars killing and injuring people on foot.

But I already knew W was awful.

Another web site noted that Smith's biography is unlikely to be shelved at the GWB presidential library. I probably won't buy it, either. Having long been in agreement with the book's first and last sentences, what can it tell me that I didn't already know?

Review: ‘Bush,’ a Biography as Scathing Indictment, by Peter Baker (NYT)

Bush, by Jean Edward Smith
Illustrated. 808 pages. Simon & Schuster.

 ... Mr. Smith leaves no mystery where he stands on Mr. Bush’s place in history. The first sentence of his book: “Rarely in the history of the United States has the nation been so ill-served as during the presidency of George W. Bush.”

The last: “Whether George W. Bush was the worst president in American history will be long debated, but his decision to invade Iraq is easily the worst foreign policy decision ever made by an American president.”

ASK THE BORED: As for stopping gun ignorance, "This board is not into civil disobedience."

At some point, I'll know better than to schedule personal meetings for Tuesday morning. On June 21, a lawyer; on the 28th, my mother's medical appointment; and this morning, something I hope might lead to part-time work. To avoid the feeling of letting the side down yet again, here is an amusing excerpt from last week's BOW meeting.

Chairman Nash's questioning of Citizen Natale is absolutely priceless. Nash's deadpan expressions drip from the .pdf, don't they? Coming fresh on the heels of the College Girls Gone Wild saga on Lynn Drive, the chairman must be scanning the room for candid cameras.

Did Natale's "civil disobedience" seminar come to pass amid yesterday's rain? Or did he keep his powder dry?

50,000 words later, my 1985 European travelogue is finished. I think.

How many words are in a book? Estimates vary, though at the low end of the range, I'm close.

Perspective is a condition impossible to gauge without the passage of time. Given what we can see now about the way the world has changed since the Berlin Wall fell, those bits of Europe I saw in 1985 were considerably closer to 1945 than we are today, by comparison to 1989.

At least it seems that way to me.

Not a day passes without my being thankful for being able to commence my foreign travels in 1985, when a place like Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) wasn't merely located in a different country, but a different galaxy.

Sometimes I try to imagine an alternative reality, in which the European bug didn't bite. It's an American Dream sequence, filled with signposts from the sort of conventional family and professional life portrayed on the television shows we all grew up watching.

There was a time when I aspired to such a life, but it would have been a mistake. In fact, I can't even imagine this alternative reality, and in saying so, I'm not copping an attitude or being snobbish. I'm not implying that the way I turned out is better or worse than anyone else's path.

I always knew something about me was different, that's all. This was clear to me long before Europe entered the scene, and while much of it remains a mystery even after all this time, I know that whatever the nature of the itch, Europe enabled me to scratch it.

Enables.

---

AFTER THE FIRE: Euro ’85, Part 34 … The final chapter, in which lessons are learned and bridges burned.

THE POTABLE CURMUDGEON: Euro ’85, Part 33 … All good things must come to a beginning.

THE POTABLE CURMUDGEON: Euro ’85, Part 32 … Leaving Leningrad.

THE POTABLE CURMUDGEON: Euro ’85, Part 31 … Leningrad in three vignettes.

The PC: Euro ’85, Part 30 … Or, as it was called at the time, Leningrad.

The PC: Euro ’85, Part 29 … Helsinki beneath my feet, but Leningrad on my mind.

The PC: Euro ’85, Part 28 … A Finnish detour to Tampere for beer and sausages.

The PC: Euro ’85, Part 27 … Stockholm's blonde ambition, with or without mead-balls.

The PC: Euro ’85, Part 26 … The Hansa brewery tour, and a farewell to Norway.

The PC: Euro ’85, Part 25 … Frantic pickled Norway.

The PC: Euro ’85, Part 24 … An aspiring “beer hunter” amid Carlsberg’s considerable charms.

The PC: Euro ’85, Part 23 … A fleeting first glimpse of Copenhagen.

The PC: Euro ’85, Part 22 … It's how the tulips were relegated.

The PC: Euro ’85, Part 21 … A long day in Normandy, though not "The Longest Day."

The PC: Euro ’85, Part 20 … War stories, from neutral Ireland to Omaha Beach.

The PC: Euro ’85, Part 19 … Sligo, Knocknarea, Guinness and Freddie.

The PC: Euro ’85, Part 18 … Irish history with a musical chaser.

The PC: Euro '85, Part 17 ... A first glimpse of Ireland.

The PC: Euro ’85, Part 16 … Lizard King in the City of Light.

The PC: Euro ’85, Part 15 … The traveler at 55, and a strange interlude.

The PC: We pause Euro '85 to remember the Mathäser Bierstadt in Munich.

The PC: Euro ’85, Part 14 … Beers and breakfast in Munich.

The PC: Euro ’85, Part 13 … Tears of overdue joy at Salzburg's Augustiner.

The PC: Euro ’85, Part 12 … Stefan Zweig and his world of yesterday.

The PC: Euro ’85, Part 11: My Franz Ferdinand obsession takes root.

The PC: Euro ’85, Part 10: Habsburgs, history and sausages in Vienna.

The PC: Euro ’85, Part 9 … Milan, Venice and a farewell to Northern Italy.

The PC: Euro ’85, Part 8 … Pecetto idyll, with a Parisian chaser.

The PC: Euro ’85, Part 7 … An eventful detour to Pecetto.

The PC: Euro ’85, Part 6 … When in Rome, critical mass.

The PC: Euro ’85, Part 5 … From Istanbul to Rome, with Greece in between.

The PC: Euro ’85, Part 4 … With Hassan in Pithion.

The PC: Euro ’85, Part 3 … Growing up in Greece.

The PC: Euro '85, Part 2 ... Hitting the ground crawling in Luxembourg.

The PC: Euro ’85, Part 1 … Where it all began.

_

Mercy Otis Warren, and calling the Declaration of Independence's bluff.

We went for a walk, and saw children on a porch lighting minor league noisemakers.

D said, "Do you think if we asked those kids what July 4 meant, whether any of them would know?"

Nah. Neither the kids nor the nearby adults. But Charlie Pierce will take a stab at it.

It's Time We Called the Declaration of Independence's Bluff, by Charles P. Pierce (Esquire)

It's the most American thing we can do.

Mercy Otis Warren suspected, as Herman Melville later would say outright, that the Declaration of Independence made the difference, that it not only was a statement of revolutionary principles, but that the statement was so profound that it could not be bound by the monochromatic and unisexual demographic of the people who signed it. She sensed that, at its heart, the Declaration was a self-perpetuating land mine in the history of the country that was just then coming to be ...

... So, here's to Mercy Otis Warren, and to Frederick Douglass, and to Susan B. and MLK and poor old LBJ, too, kickass women and kickass men who understood that we are children of Revolution, but that this Revolution was based on an enormous bluff that demands to be called by every American generation in its own way.

Summit Springs and the torrential stormwater view from the Burger King parking lot.

A waterlogged Green Mouse says (circa noon on 4 July):

A few pics from the Burger King parking lot and downstream on State Street. How much thought was put into that illegally issued Storm Water Permit? If you look closely you can see the silt fence is broken. I would have gotten a better picture, but I did not have my waders on me.

"Howard Zinn’s July 4 Wisdom Stands the Test of Time."

This was topical in 2015. 

“The American system is the most ingenious system of control in world history. With a country so rich in natural resources, talent, and labor power the system can afford to distribute just enough wealth to just enough people to limit discontent to a troublesome minority. It is a country so powerful, so big, so pleasing to so many of its citizens that it can afford to give freedom of dissent to the small number who are not pleased. There is no system of control with more openings, apertures, leeways, flexibilities, rewards for the chosen, winning tickets in lotteries. There is none that disperses its controls more complexly through the voting system, the work situation, the church, the family, the school, the mass media--none more successful in mollifying opposition with reforms, isolating people from one another, creating patriotic loyalty.”
-- Howard Zinn 1922-2010

Empathy is an appreciation of another's point of view, often defined as "standing in someone else's shoes."

The late Howard Zinn used empathy with considerable eloquence, as a starting point for harnessing the experiences of the oppressed to deconstruct mythology. In times of diversionary vitriol, it's important to remember that shoes come in different shapes and sizes.

People's History of the United States

... A People’s History is the only volume to tell America’s story from the point of view of—and in the words of—America’s women, factory workers, African-Americans, Native Americans, the working poor, and immigrant laborers. As historian Howard Zinn shows, many of our country’s greatest battles—the fights for a fair wage, an eight-hour workday, child-labor laws, health and safety standards, universal suffrage, women’s rights, racial equality—were carried out at the grassroots level, against bloody resistance.

July 4 offers an excellent annual opportunity to reconsider assumptions.

Howard Zinn’s July 4 Wisdom: Put Away Your Flags

On this July 4, we would do well to renounce nationalism and all its symbols: its flags, its pledges of allegiance, its anthems, its insistence in song that God must single out America to be blessed.

But why restrict these reconsiderations to just one day a year?

Patriotism and the Fourth of July

... Mark Twain, having been called a "traitor" for criticizing the U.S. invasion of the Philippines, derided what he called "monarchical patriotism." He said: "The gospel of the monarchical patriotism is: 'The King can do no wrong.' We have adopted it with all its servility, with an unimportant change in the wording: 'Our country, right or wrong!' We have thrown away the most valuable asset we had - the individual's right to oppose both flag and country when he believed them to be in the wrong. We have thrown it away; and with it, all that was really respectable about that grotesque and laughable word, Patriotism."

Frederick Douglass: "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" (2016)

Dave Zirin, one of a select group of sportswriters who really matter, introduces a speech by Frederick Douglass, originally delivered in 1852.

Here’s hoping people take the time to read the entirety of Douglass’s brilliant speech. Even though his were words that spoke directly to his moment in history, they still ring with an unsettling power.

As Douglass says, “Had I the ability, and could I reach the nation’s ear, I would today pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.”

The speech itself is lengthy, eloquent and worthy. In my estimation, it is best read prior to hamburgers and fireworks.

‘What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?’, by Frederick Douglass By Dave Zirin (The Nation)

... But, such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes, lowering up to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrecoverable ruin! I can to-day take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people!

Springsteen's "Born in the USA": Because words and meanings matter.

It's a reminder worth reissuing periodically, particularly during an election year.

Behind The Song: Bruce Springsteen, “Born In The U.S.A,” by Jim Beviglia (American Songwriter)

... Those who say that Springsteen was trying to be subversive are probably missing the point as well, since he wasn’t trying to sneak these harsh rebukes by; he belts them out as loud as he does the chorus. The song spurns patriotism that is no more than blind loyalty and acceptance of all the government does.

Fireworks, postponements, and that time last year when he got it right.

Photo credit: Portland (Maine) Press Herald

Owing to heavy rain, New Albany's corporate fireworks were postponed from July 3 to August 6. For excuses to view fireworks on August 6, consult this list. Perhaps the mayor and I can agree that Cara Lott's birthday is the most solid reason of all to blow things up on this later date.

At least two local news outlets reported that today's fireworks were cancelled and postponed. Plainly, this is bad usage. What is it about the meaning of the word "postpone" that throws them?

To cause or arrange for (something) to take place at a time later than that first scheduled.

As I write, the neighborhood amateurs are busy making noise, and there is some consolation in the fact that being waterlogged reduces the likelihood of something catching fire.

In turn, it reminds me that last year about this time, Chris Morris finally encountered a topic he could wrestle successfully to the ground -- and he did.

Amateur fireworks shook his house, scared his dog, and roused his elder bile. Turns out that Tip O'Neill was right, and all politics is local, after all. Morris got it right.

But the irony still resonates.

Let me make precisely the same arguments with regard to the heavy trucks on Spring Street shaking my house, and one-way arterial traffic depressing revitalization in my neighborhood, and the interests of small business being maligned by City Hall's streets timidity, and Morris immediately and instinctively sides with the oppressors.

"What's Padgett supposed to do, Rog -- move?"

That's certainly one option, as is undertaking to fight the fireworks lobby and impose a few basic rules out of considerations of public safety, these being the very same considerations of public safety arguing quite persuasively for a two-way, calmed street grid.

As I said, he got this one right. Now he merely needs to work on his consistency, and we may yet gain a street reform advocate.

MORRIS: It’s time to ban the big boom, by Chris Morris (Clark County Thymes)

... I think some fireworks should remain on the market. I think the big stuff that explodes in the air, over my house, or rattles windows and threatens mankind should be left to the professionals.

The fireworks law in this state needs clarification. Basically, some items need to be banned. I am as patriotic as the next guy, but I don’t have to light explosives near my neighbor’s front door in order to prove that. I know fireworks are big business and generate needed tax revenue for the state, but there has to be a law that is fair to everyone.

"It is more than about time, 36 years later, to bid a proper farewell to Vernon Kroening."

I almost missed "A Proper Farewell." There is a compelling poignancy to this story of forgotten history, of the music director at a church entirely unworthy of him, and the little-known Dutch dorman, extending to the deranged shooter Crumpley, who spent the rest of his life in secure psychiatric hospitals.

The same writer provides further background here:

New York’s Own Anti-Gay Massacre, Now Barely Remembered.

A Proper Farewell, Finally, for a Victim of an Anti-Gay Rampage in New York, by David W. Dunlap (NYT)

Thirty-six years after Vernon Kroening, music director of St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church, was killed outside the Ramrod bar in the West Village, friends remembered him as “all-embracing.”

It is more than about time, 36 years later, to bid a proper farewell to Vernon Kroening.

Mr. Kroening, a Minnesota native and former Benedictine monk, was the music director, choirmaster and organist of St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in Greenwich Village.

He was 32 years old. He loved the liturgy. He loved the church. And he loved other men.

On the night of Nov. 19, 1980, heading home from a musical rehearsal, Mr. Kroening stopped at the Ramrod bar in the West Village. That placed him in the line of fire when Ronald K. Crumpley, a homophobic former transit police officer and minister’s son, went on a murderous rampage through the neighborhood, shooting a submachine gun indiscriminately into a crowd of men standing in front of the Ramrod and Sneakers, another gay bar, on West Street.

Mr. Kroening was killed instantly. Jorg Wenz, a 24-year-old doorman at the Ramrod, died hours later at St. Vincent’s Hospital. Six other men were wounded that night.

Prejudice and institutional reticence held The New York Times back from giving faces to these victims and telling their stories at the time, as it did with those who were killed at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., in June.

FINAL REMINDER: In case you missed the Louisville Magazine feature profile of "a small-town dissident."

It feels odd to tout an article about me, so instead, here is the writer Dylon Jones to introduce his feature article in Louisville Magazine.

I spent the last year getting to know Roger Baylor. After months of political humor, debates, cigars, Communist cats, and a good many beers, I give you this: The Independent, my profile of a small-town dissident with the whole world spread out before him.

It's flattering to be featured, but more importantly, my aim is to draw your attention to Dylon Jones as a writer. He spent countless hours taking notes and making recordings, distilled this unruly mass of information to its essentials, then formed an accurate, entertaining narrative. As a journalist, he gets it right, and as a writer, he tells the story well. Writing is damned hard work, and Dylon does it well. Keep your eyes on him.

The Independent, by Dylon Jones (Louisville Magazine)

New Albany craft-beer pioneer Roger Baylor drained his glass and left his brewery to run for mayor last fall. The path ahead is littered with obstacles -- contentious former business partners, the two-party system, "garbage trees." Good thing he brought shears.

Also, kudos to Chris Witzke for his photography and informed chat. The link takes you to the interactive issue of Louisville Magazine (June 2016), which is easy to use.

Top Ten posts at NA Confidential for June, 2016.

Resch strikes again.

Thanks for reading NA Confidential, where we annoyingly burrow beneath the headlines to offer unique local perspectives. June was yet another gratifying month in terms of blog traffic, and the posts highlighted here attest to a keen interest for local stories, perhaps because they're not being served elsewhere.

For as long as we've been compiling "top ten" lists, these statistics have remained somewhat constant. Formerly the rankings forming these lists were based on what I believed, mistakenly or otherwise, to be unique hits.

Perhaps this is an archaic concept, and speaking personally, I'm about as non-technical as a blogger can be, but the long and short of it is that at some point, something changed. It may have to do with a new definition of comprehensive "stats" as defined by Google.

I really don't know, and it doesn't matter very much, because it's easy to see that the busier a post at the Facebook portal, the higher the numbers here. The proportions are the same, and that's good enough for me.

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

---

TEN HONORABLE MENTION

538

A Band-Aid will do, so a relieved Bob Caesar takes down his GoFundMe page for Spring Street Hill.

547

Learn more and get on board the Fresh Stop Market -- a “pop up” farm-fresh food market, coming next week.

561

Where is the best place to put a bike rack? (A clue: not where it blocks a sidewalk).

562

Painting and patio-building at Big Four Burgers NA.

568

Or, as he was known to my friends, Rog Sr.

588

BREAKING: City of New Albany reveals big new branding logo for Summit Springs.

632

ON THE AVENUES: High atop Summit Springs with friends (and relatives) in low places.

637

I have an idea. Let's cut down the shade tree by the bus stop in high summer!

644

Why hasn't Gary Humphrey thought of this for the River City Winery?

667

Last of the red hot Duggins: Come for the council meeting, stay for the floor show.

TOP TEN

694

McMahan to tackle renovating the 22,000-sq-ft building at 640 State Street, henceforth dubbed Falling Run Commons.

762

Injuries apparently were minor, but another driver struck another walker yesterday at Spring and Vincennes. Repeat after me: "Water park!"

785

Otherwise known as the Ernst Röhm wing of the Clark County Republican Party.

893

Nothing to see here. Just a city work crew filling potholes in a private parking lot.

1,211

Sam's at the Montrose goes, and Rails Craft Brew & Eatery arrives.

1,435

Top Ten posts at NA Confidential for May, 2016.

1,473

Now it's official: Aladdin's Cafe is moving to Underground Station in July.

1,816

Here's what I did to beat the "blocking street sweeper" citation scam. Why should anyone pay?

2,547

You know, the building where J.O. Endris used to be, and now the scene of another Bergman refit.

3,131

You know, that building where Ace Loan & Sporting Goods used to be (110 E Market St).

As the Tour begins: "Lance Armstrong cheated death, and then he kept on cheating."

The 2016 Tour de France began today. The documentary film is from 2014.

Storyville: The Lance Armstrong Story - Stop at Nothing (BBC 4)

Documentary telling the intimate but explosive story about the man behind the greatest fraud in recent sporting history, a portrait of a man who stopped at nothing in pursuit of money, fame and success.

It reveals how Lance Armstrong duped the world with his story of a miraculous recovery from cancer to become a sporting icon and a beacon of hope for cancer sufferers around the world. The film maps how Armstrong's cheating and bullying became more extreme and how a few brave souls fought back, until eventually their voices were heard.

Director Alex Holmes tracks down some of his former friends and team members who reveal how his cheating was the centre of a grand conspiracy in which Armstrong and his backers sought to steal the Tour de France. Friends and fellow riders were brought into a dirty pact that no-one could betray, lest the horrifying extent of complicity be revealed. But the former friends whose lives he destroyed would prove to be his nemesis, and help uncover one of the dirtiest scandals in sports history.

The article also is from 2014.

Lance Armstrong in Purgatory: The After-Life, by John H. Richardson (Esquire)

... This we can stipulate: Lance Armstrong cheated death, and then he kept on cheating. And he was no run-of-the-mill cheat. Sublimely American in his ambition, he became the best cheater, greatest cheater of all time, turning a European bicycle race into a gaudy, ruthless, and unprecedented demonstration of American corporate prowess and athletic hegemony. He doped and bullied other bikers to dope and sued or harassed people for telling the truth about him, which is hard to forgive. But he wasn't the evil genius who invented evil. At twenty-three days and twenty-two hundred miles, the Tour is so hard that cyclists have always sought some kind of performance enhancement. In the 1920s, they took cocaine and alcohol, and in the 1940s, amphetamines. In 1962, fourteen of them dropped out because of morphine sickness. Between 1987 and 1992, use of the blood-oxygen booster called EPO may have killed as many as twenty-three riders. But even that didn't stop them. In his testimony to the antidoping agency, testimony that helped ruin Armstrong, a former teammate named Frankie Andreu told investigators that when they first met on the European circuit in 1992, both of them quickly realized that "it was going to be difficult to have professional success as a cyclist without using EPO." This was, in fact, the "general consensus" of the entire team, Andreu added.

And that's how things stayed.

New Albany in 1857: "Here, every man who behaves himself properly, is looked upon as the peer of his neighbor."

Thanks to M for pointing me to this.

In essence, it's a chamber of commerce tract from just before the American Civil War -- an antebellum "come to city" sales pitch.

Neither beer nor brewing is mentioned, perhaps to a WASP-ish overall focus, but the Germans already had started coming. As this book was published, Paul Reising was at work.

We had enough churches. What we needed was a nice, cool beer.

"The trouble with being an oasis is that everybody wants your water -- and they all know where you are."

Looking at the list of Waldemar Januszczak's documentary films, it occurs to me that I have a whole lotta catching up to do.

In the interim, Paradise Found is compelling. We know very little about Islam and the Islamic world. Shouldn't we want to know more?

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Information

We imagine many things when we think of this word. However, we do not think about Islamic Architecture, which influenced the art of Europe so profoundly. This documentary tours through the Muslim world, in search of that "atmosphere of Paradise," hidden away in mosques and palaces. In this film renowned art commentator Waldemar Januszczak makes an epic journey of discovery across the Muslim world, revealing awe-inspiring architecture and art objects that evoke the history of Islam. Along the way he meets local historians and experts - as well as an array of weavers, calligraphers, potters, and jewelers - who contribute their knowledge of this fascinating art-historical field. Much of the discoveries includes objects and buildings that have previously received little if any attention on film, like the 10th century Egyptian jug carved out of a single piece of rock crystal – one of only three known in the entire world ; the stunning architecture of the Uzbekistan's Samarquand ; the incredible and surreal mud mosques of West African Mali ; the inspired urban planning of the ancient city of Isfahan in Iran and the world's first great and possibly greatest mosque in the Syrian capital Damascus. The result is a stimulating introduction to a set of globally significant aesthetic traditions.

Producer : Mike Lerner Director : James Bluemel

Channel Four Television Corporation (2005)

ENCORE: As Irv artlessly flatulates about street safety, let's look at actual real-world evidence.

BREAKING: Proposed yard signs for the new "There's Only One Way to NA" anti-Speck group.

Perhaps a nice sedative cocktail would help, or better yet, a high colonic.

ON THE AVENUES: Irv Stumler screams, "We don't deserve two-way streets!"

In the article linked below, the first paragraph tells the whole story, even if we've previously referenced what follows -- again and again.

That's the most depressing thing about reaching back (not "out") into the NAC archives. It's the knowledge that (in this instance) another year has been wasted.

All those males in city hall, and so few cojones ... but water park!

Yes, we'll continue referencing and re-referencing these facts, because one-way arterial streets needlessly tether New Albany to a street grid that actively works against our best collective interests in terms of revitalization.

Period.

Is this just our opinion?

No, it isn't.

Research by John Gilderbloom and William Riggs, coupled with verifiable experience all across the American map, combines to indicate otherwise.

Meanwhile, for those remaining unclear about the nature of opinions, this link is a good one: No, it's not your opinion. You're just wrong. 

Irv, if you're reading ... it's from July 26, 2015, and a long, long way from 1958.

The Many Benefits of Making One-Way Streets Two-Way ... Safer traffic, for one thing, by Eric Jaffe (City Lab)

From a traffic engineering perspective, one-way streets are all about speed. Without the danger of oncoming traffic, one-way streets can feel like an invitation to hit the gas. But swift traffic flow isn’t the only factor by which progressive cities judge their streets, and as safety and livability become more important, a number of metros have found the case for converting one-way streets into two-way streets a compelling one.

Count Louisville among the believers. In 2011, the city converted two one-way streets (Brook and 1st) in the Old Louisville part of town. Though originally designed as two-way streets, Brook and 1st became one-way after World War II, in keeping with the car-first engineering of the time. In championing the change, local official David James cited the need for calmer streets and economic development.

A pair of planning scholars has evaluated just how well the safety and economic claims held up following the street conversions. In a word: very. William Riggs of California Polytechnic State University and John Gilderbloom of the University of Louisville report that compared with nearby, parallel streets that remained one-way (2nd and 3rd), Brook and 1st experienced fewer collisions, less crime, and higher property valuations.

"The nation must be taught to bear losses."

This is a French village in August, 1916.

The idea that a war can be won by standing on the defensive and waiting for the enemy to attack is a dangerous fallacy, which owes its inception to the desire to evade the price of victory.’
-- Field Marshall Douglas Haig

The nation must be taught to bear losses. No amount of skill on the part of the higher commanders, no training, however good, on the part of the officers and men, no superiority of arms and ammunition, however great, will enable victories to be won without the sacrifice of men’s lives. The nation must be prepared to see heavy casualty lists.
-- Written by Haig in June 1916 before the Battle of the Somme began.

Very successful attack this morning… All went like clockwork… The battle is going very well for us and already the Germans are surrendering freely. The enemy is so short of men that he is collecting them from all parts of the line. Our troops are in wonderful spirits and full of confidence.
-- A report by Haig on the first day of attack (at the Somme), 1st July 1916.

Appropriately, Brexit hasn't put a dent into the UK's remembrances of the Battle of the Somme, which began 100 years ago today.

I tend toward the traditional view of the war's military leadership caste as donkeys and butchers, although nowadays there are periodic attempts to claim a more balanced legacy for the likes of Haig.

Good luck with that, and better luck than 60,000 British casualties on the battle's first day.

The Battle of the Somme: 141 days of horror (BBC)

A battle of attrition

The Battle of the Somme, fought in northern France, was one of the bloodiest of World War One. For five months the British and French armies fought the Germans in a brutal battle of attrition on a 15-mile front. The aims of the battle were to relieve the French Army fighting at Verdun and to weaken the German Army. However, the Allies were unable to break through German lines. In total, there were over one million dead and wounded on all sides.

The quickening pace of exterior transformation at 302 Pearl Street.

A little over a month ago, we glanced in the direction of Matt Chalfant's renovation project at 302 Pearl Street -- the former Walgreen's corner.

Renovation escalates at the former Walgreen's and Kresge at 302 Pearl.

It has been fascinating to watch as the work proceeds, so yesterday I snapped a few "update" photos.

Marohn: "Our words and actions are making it impossible for us to listen to each other. Not only does this hurt our communities, it is making us ripe for exploitation."

At times, the best course of action is cutting to the chase. However, you'll want to click through and read Marohn's views on the Brexit vote.

Listening is the ultimate two-way street, isn't it?

THE IGNORANT AND THE ELITES, by Charles Marohn (Strong Towns)

 ... I'm going to today end with this: I'm not going to argue with you in the comments section about whether the Brexit is a good thing or a bad thing. I'm not going to debate whether or not the people who voted Leave are ignorant or enlightened. I don't want to discuss the global ramifications of Brexit. None of these topics are important to building a Strong Town.

What is important, and it's the only reason I'm writing this piece, is that we're not listening to each other. Even worse, our words and actions are making it impossible for us to listen to each other. Not only does this hurt our communities, it is making us ripe for exploitation.

If you follow us here at Strong Towns, you know that things are going to get more difficult for America -- much more difficult -- before they get better. You can be left-of-center and be a Strong Towns advocate and you can be right-of-center and be a Strong Towns advocate. Your politics doesn't matter. What really matters is whether or not you listen.

We need a movement of people who can work with others. People who, in desperate times, facing a vast array of complex problems, can lead people to respond rationally. If you want to be one of those people -- and I hope you will -- join me in working on your listening skills.

Greenery adorning a one-way street is like putting lipstick on a pig -- even in 1958.

1958, as viewed through rose-tinted glasses.

Yesterday I devoted four hours of my life to dissecting Irv Stumler's mono-rants about the street grid.

ON THE AVENUES: Irv Stumler screams, "We don't deserve two-way streets!"

In retrospect, my first mistake was listening to what Stumler has to say, which is nothing, although it's certainly an endlessly repetitive form of nothingness. In an odd sort of way, I'm probably enabling civic dysfunction in this manner, and maybe I'm a better candidate for the padded cell than Irv, but damn it, the way I was raised was to try your best to win by making a better argument.

This is exactly what we've done, and will continue to do. I shift from "I" to "we" precisely because of the following comments from reader B, and others like it, which are indicative of the factual heft behind our case.

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Mr. Stumler's one-way street study from 1958 was compiled by a professor engineer using anecdotal reports from police officers, safety patrol officers and the like.

Mr. Stumler better watch out - in the report, the author, Prof. Calvin Gilbert Reen (born 1898) praises the virtues of fully controlled, well marked pedestrian intersections with crossing lights on all four sides of one-way street intersections.

Over and over, Prof. Reen claims well-marked, well-lighted pedestrian crossings reduce pedestrian fatalities. The quoted price in the report Mr. Stumler praises for such intersections is $3,500 (in 1958 dollars) per square.

In today's dollars, the plans outlined in Mr. Stumler's report would cost the City $29,054 dollars per each intersection. An affordable safety precaution made necessary due to the increased speed, traffic flow and volume brought about by one-way streets.

You may read the report Mr. Stumler recommends: Practical Traffic Engineering for Small Communities.

As for quoting studies that are very nearly 60 years old ... 

It's silly to see someone quote an engineering study from 1958 as a currently credible reference.

For example, in 1958, America and Russia were still conducting atomic bomb tests above ground, the process having been deemed "safe" by engineers.

Fallout from above ground nucelar testing was the most serious health consequence. Radioiodine concentrates in milk when consumed by cows when grazing, and then concentrates in human thyroid glands when contaminated milk is ingested. This concentration effect is especially strong in children.

The effect of these exposures boosted the chance of contracting thyroid cancer some time during a lifetime. It is now possible to estimate the overall effect of the total radiation exposure had on the American population.

From the 380 million person-rads of total exposure, roughly 120,000 extra cases of thyroid cancer were expected to develop, resulting in some 6,000 unnecessary deaths.

"We can "safely" test atomic bombs above ground" - so said engineers in 1958.