TONIGHT'S MEETING REMINDER: "Town hall to discuss possible Reisz purchase."

Don't forget tonight's meeting about the Reisz Elephant.

Stop the Reisz Elephant: There'll be a public meeting on Wednesday, June 27, downstairs at the library, at 6:00 p.m.

The newspaper recaps the story and previews the meeting.

Town hall to discuss possible Reisz purchase, by Chris Morris (Tom May Press)

NEW ALBANY — Dan Coffey said a lot of people are upset about the proposed purchase of the old Reisz furniture building for the new city hall, and he hopes many of them come to his town hall meeting tonight to share their feelings.

The meeting, at 6 p.m. at the New Albany-Floyd County Public Library, is intended to "get the facts out," about the cost of the building, according to Coffey. He said there are questions that have not been answered by the city's administration.

"The bottom line is they have not been forthcoming with the answers," Coffey, first district city councilman, said. "The process has been flawed and the real information has not been given to the public."

Readers, I've been doing my best to cover this issue, and the simplest way to look at it is that historic preservation is the very last consideration. It's actually a red herring. The Reisz Elephant is about Jeff Gahan's power and his political aims, as lubricated by lots and lots of money.

Look past the stated aims, and see the corrupt underbelly of the current occupant.

---

Previously:

Reisz Elephant: Lawyer Gibson hails redevelopment's back-room RFP fix as an excellent way to do business with just one company.

Jeff Gahan handed Denton Floyd $750,000 to kick-start the Reisz project. Where are the documents detailing this transaction?

2-for-1? Scott Blair describes a better way to save the Reisz building AND get a new city hall.

Donald Trump would greatly appreciate the disruptiveness of Jeff Gahan's signature Reisz Elephant.

Jeff Gahan's attacks on county government stand an excellent chance of hurting the business climate in New Albany.

ON THE AVENUES: Government Lives Matter, so it's $10,000,000 for Gahan's luxury city hall clique enhancement. Happy dumpster diving, peasants!

GREEN MOUSE SAYS: Latest Reisz City Hall cost estimate reaches $9,250,000 -- and the tote board keeps spinning.

Truth is stranger than fact: Back in 2012, the Reisz building was to become a senior living complex. Bob Caesar kneecapped it -- and Deaf Gahan DISAGREED with Cee-Saw.

ON THE AVENUES: Histrionic preservation? $8.5 million to gift Jeff Gahan with a new city hall "want" is inexcusable and simply obscene in a time of societal need.

Looking for bipartisan consensus? Unfortunately, endless wars fill the bill.

Follow the money.
Follow the money.
Follow the money.

Rinse and repeat.

How to Challenge the Elite Consensus for Endless War, by Andrew J. Bacevich (The Nation)

There’s only one way: ​We have to harness the energy of millions of fed-up voters.

 ... the contours of basic policy evade critical examination, and American wars continue as if on autopilot.

The circumstances permitting this mindless undertaking to persist are so well-known that they hardly bear repeating. They include a brain-dead policy elite; a military system that insulates the vast majority of Americans from sacrifice; a cynical decision to saddle future generations with the responsibility to pay for today’s wars while the present generation enjoys tax cuts; congressional abdication of its constitutionally assigned war powers, compounded by more than a few members of the House and Senate being deeply in hock to the military-industrial complex; the hiring of what Tom Engelhardt has dubbed “warrior corporations”—profit-minded contractors, proxies, and mercenaries—effectively hiding the magnitude of war from American view; the absorption of available political energy by eminently worthy causes—the anti-Trump resistance and #MeToo offer examples—that inadvertently consign war to the margins; and finally, divisions within the feeble anti-war camp, one wing leaning left, the other leaning right, with neither willing to make common cause on matters where their views coincide.

Of course, underlying these is the enduring conceit, regularly celebrated in Washington, that Providence summons the United States to exercise global leadership now and forever, with that leadership expressed primarily through threatened or real military action. All of these together create a layered and interlocking defense that insulates the militarized status quo from challenge.

Even so, the profound American disregard for actual policy outcomes remains something of a puzzle. After all, at some level we see ourselves as a pragmatic people, preferring what works to what doesn’t. Yet as far as our wars are concerned, the gap between declared intentions and the results achieved continues to grow from one year to the next, while political elites, for the most part, pretend not to notice. Let Afghanistan, a conflict now promising to extend into eternity, serve as the prosecution’s exhibit number one.

Here, I submit, part of the problem lies with Trump himself, widely viewed by members of the intelligentsia as a noxious charlatan. For this very reason, when the president, however inadvertently, utters a self-evident truth—that our post-9/11 wars cost a lot and aren’t working—his endorsement of that truth drains it of significance. It’s akin to an involuntary reflex: If Trump says our wars have achieved nothing, then surely they must have done some good, right?

Yet, however ironically, Trump’s own ascent to the presidency might itself offer a clue about how to extricate ourselves from these “forever wars.”

Reisz Elephant: Lawyer Gibson hails redevelopment's back-room RFP fix as an excellent way to do business with just one company.

On March 27, 2018 the Redevelopment Commission approved a resolution to issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the city's City Hall Project.

Ten (actually nine) whole days were given for interested developers to submit proposals for a project already negotiated with Denton Floyd, and announced publicly seven months prior to the RFP.

Jeff Gahan handed Denton Floyd $750,000 to kick-start the Reisz project. Where are the documents detailing this transaction?

"The developer shall have title to the proposed parcel or show demonstrated ability to obtain title to the proposed parcel."

In Denton Floyd's case, the very same Redevelopment Commission issuing this purportedly fair and open RFP already had given its developer of choice the money to buy the property.

At last Thursday's city council meeting, municipal corporeal attorney Shane Gibson lauded the fixed back-alley RFP process as an excellent way to to save money by excluding the free market of ideas.

Are you finding the current occupant's arrogance a bit too much?

Let your council representative know and don't forget the meeting on Wednesday evening at the library.

Stop the Reisz Elephant: There'll be a public meeting on Wednesday, June 27, downstairs at the library, at 6:00 p.m.

---

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

CITY OF NEW ALBANY

CITY HALL PROJECT

In accordance with IC 5-23-5, the New Albany Redevelopment Commission (“Commission”), on behalf of the City of New Albany, Indiana (“City”), is seeking proposals from qualified developers for the development and construction of a new City Hall (“Project”) on property located within the City. The developer shall have title to the proposed parcel or show demonstrated ability to obtain title to the proposed parcel. The Commission anticipates entering into a public-private agreement for the Developer to provide site work, labor and material, as well as financing (as required), to construct the Project with the general characteristics described below:

• Minimum 20,000 SF
• Downtown location
• Redevelopment is preferred vs. new construction
• Other characteristics and specifications as may be identified and included in future design documents and agreements

The City would assume ownership of the site and improvements after a certain period of time to be proposed by offeror.

The scope of the project is to be determined in a scoping period. Respondent should be willing and prepared to engage in a scoping period with the Commission without any contractual obligation. During this scoping period, the Commission will require information from the selected developer sufficient to finalize the financing terms, design, scope, and costs of the proposed improvements once determined.

Information to be Included in Proposals

Proposals should include a written description of the Developer’s experience designing, financing, constructing, operating, transferring, and developing projects, as follows:

• General Information

1. Developer’s general information including company name, principal office location, point of contact, and contact information
2. Company overview, organization information, and organization chart

• Development Experience

1. Experience working with local economic development organizations or local government units in Indiana
2. Demonstrated experience developing projects of similar scope and scale

• Financial Capacity

1. General financial and credit information
2. Information indicating financial ability of the developer to complete the project
3. Credit reference

• Project Approach

1. Outline of duties and responsibilities of all parties related to the development project from the scoping period until project completion (including the operating period and transfer of property to the City). This should include a project timeline.

The Commission does not require you to submit a certified check or other evidence of financial responsibility with your proposal other than requested above.

Anticipated Selection Process

The Commission will review all proposals and may enter into discussions with offerors to clarify and assure a full understanding of proposals. All offerors will be accorded fair and equal treatment with respect to any opportunity for discussion and revision of proposals. The Commission or its agent will make a recommendation for award of an agreement based upon compliance with the above-requested information, or shall terminate the request for proposal process.

Of all evaluation criteria listed in this Request for Proposals, the offeror’s focus on redevelopment, general project approach and financial capacity will be given the most weight by the Commission. The price offered in a proposal will be considered, but is not the primary determining factor. The Commission reserves the right to modify or cancel this project at any time before a developer enters into a formal agreement with the Commission, including at any point during the scoping period.

Deadline

Proposals are due by 12:00 p.m. on April 6, 2018, and six (6) copies of such proposal (plus one (1) unbound copy) should be hand delivered to (and questions should be directed to):

Josh Staten, Redevelopment Director
City of New Albany, Indiana
Phone: 812-948-5333
E Mail: jstaten@cityofnewalbany.com

0128278.0635348 4822-7229-8591v3

BEER WITH A SOCIALIST: Anchor Porter is delicious. Just don't expect a firm answer as to how it differs from Stout.

Last week I bought a six-pack of Anchor Porter in bottles -- for research purposes only, mind you.

It's been a while, and I regret this.

Anchor Porter is black and rich, firmly hopped (circa 40 IBUs) with plenty of malty underpinnings. I'm getting chocolate, espresso, toffee and a hint of licorice in my mouth, and I'm struck by a vestige of similarity with some Baltic-style Porters I've had in the past -- albeit at a gentler ABV.

Of course, your own experiences may vary. Try as we might to quantify flavors, we all taste life (and beer) slightly differently.

These days, Anchor Porter falls into a category of classification not unlike rock and roll bands of a certain generation. It's a heritage craft beer, or maybe a legacy craft beer. In the context of the American beer revival, any beer first brewed in 1972 -- when there were maybe 100 operational breweries in the United States -- might as well have originated in 1492. 

At Pints&union, it is my aim to showcase excellent beers like Anchor Porter, which now find themselves crowed off shelves and taps by the tsunami of 6,000+ breweries seeking an outlet.

I'm going to try keeping Anchor Porter on tap all of the time, because if you like Porter (or, for that matter, the closely related Stouts), then you're going to like this one. I suspect that supply might prove to be more of a challenge than depletion.

As for the differences between Porter and Stout, it's one of the hardest beer questions to answer. Bob Brewer writes:

I’m reminded of the time some years ago when I discussed this very same topic with the late Michael Jackson. The beer guy Michael Jackson, that is. We were well into a lengthy sampling of rare single malts when the conversation came around to the stout / porter issue. I asked for a simple clarification of the stylistic difference because I considered it to be one of the more confused and ill-defined. Michael’s reply was that it was actually the MOST confused and ill-defined. He furthermore stated that even the best-researched and well-intended writings on the subject were “as unambiguous as a horoscope.” I took the master at his word and we ordered another round.

Ron Pattison's definition is far more detailed. He debunks the myths and discusses the practice of parti-gyling ("getting every last bit of goodness from the malt").

“What’s the difference between a porter and a stout?”

Roasted barley. That’s the usual explanation of what separates porter and stout. Unfortunately that story is total bollocks. The true tale is more complicated, more confusing and much more fun.

Let’s go back to their childhood. Eighteenth-century London with its elegant squares, gin and the birth of industrial-scale brewing. Something that could only have happened in London. Pre-powered transport moving large quantities of beer overland was impractical and expensive. London was the only city in the world with the critical mass of beer drinkers to power an industrial brewing reactor.

The story of porter—the first style to span the world—is one of technology, innovation and taxation. And war ...

Does this make it any easier?

To me, Pints&union offers a chance to start over. We'll join together to drink Porters and Stouts, and then reach our own conclusions. The pub remains a couple of weeks away from opening, but until then, here's a pleasant, short video from Anchor about the brewery's Porter. 

It makes me thirsty. As Jackson always said, the search for the perfect pint should last a lifetime. 

Jeff Gahan handed Denton Floyd $750,000 to kick-start the Reisz project. Where are the documents detailing this transaction?

At last Thursday’s city council meeting, municipal corporate attorney Shane Gibson finally stated publicly what we’d assumed all along about the variety of options to "save" the Reisz Furniture Store.

According to Gibson, there are only two options. It’s Jeff Gahan’s way, or the landfill.

Gahan’s $10,000,000 project to renovate the horribly “neglected, dilapidated and blighted” building and create a luxury city hall commensurate with the mayor’s grandiose self-image is intended as an either/or proposition.

Gibson told councilmen that if the city’s back-alley deal with Denton Floyd falls through, there are no other choices aside from demolition. Either the city spends a minimum of $10,000,000, or there’ll be a hole in the ground.

Anyone listening to Gibson should have asked a simple question.

How so?

Last August, the Redevelopment Commission approved a payment of $750,000 to Denton Floyd, from which roughly $400,000 was intended from the very start to be used by the contractor to buy the building from Schmitt Furniture.

According the Elevate website, this purchase occurred in September, a month after the meeting, which strongly implies the real estate transaction was complete save for the cash.

Thus, Schmitt Furniture was indemnified for neglect, dilapidation and blight, and Denton Floyd owned the building, awaiting final council approval of the back room deal.

Returning to Gibson's ultimatum, how can the city demolish a building owned by someone else, in this case a firm with which Gahan and cohorts are closerthanthis? Certainly there are ways, but the larger point is the disposition of the money we’ve already spent.

The city might well condemn the building and demolish it – and if so, the city’s out $750,000.

Or, Denton Floyd might ask to demolish it, and city still is out $750,000, but Denton Floyd used the city's money, anyway, leaving it free to return to being behind schedule and over budget on the M Fine seniors housing conversion just up Main Street.

As an aside, Denton Floyd undertakes few large-scale projects without voluminous government assurances, whether here or in Jeffersonville. But that’s for another time.

Back to Gibson’s question time before council, which by all rights should have been Gibson’s and Gahan’s joint appearance. The corporate attorney blithely assured onlookers that if the mayor isn’t handed his palace forthwith, the building’s a goner.

Where does it say all this?

The Redevelopment Commission voted unanimously last August in favor of resolution (RC-06-17), enabling the $750,000 windfall payment to Denton Floyd, as well as smaller payments toward the Louis Hartman House on State Street (future home of Indiana Landmarks; no self-interest THERE) and the Knights of Columbus.

Commission stalwart and Democratic Party chairman Adam Dickey's minutes detail the discussion.

The meeting minutes make no mention of the dollar amounts involved, but then-reporter Elizabeth Beilman of the News and Tribune included them in her coverage of the meeting.

The overarching point is that while details aren't always discussed aloud, they're included in the text of the resolution, accompanying legal documents, or both.

You know, like a contract.

And: Throughout city council’s discussion of the Reisz project, from May 2018 to the present, including the 35 or 36 questions for Gibson to answer or artfully evade last Thursday, the actual text of the resolution and the content of accompanying legal documents have not been seen … by anyone, on council or off, although presumably the council’s two redevelopment representative at the time, David Barksdale and Bob Caesar (the latter since replaced) viewed the terms.

These details are kinda important, aren’t they? 

Would any self-respecting attorney merely hand a $750,000 check to a contractor without specific language about the terms of the transaction taking place? There'd be signatures, right?

And wouldn't there be detailed explanations of contingencies, the simplest being things like insurance coverage and time frames?

Or are we to believe that former (seriously?) redevelopment chieftain David Duggins brought a briefcase filled with C-notes to the limousine for Denton Floyd's public-officials-only Keeneland junket (with paid models) last September?

Isn't it impossible to believe that the Redevelopment Commission resolution and/or legal agreements between the city and Denton Floyd explaining the $750,000 payment AREN’T accompanied by more than a post-it note reading “if it doesn’t happen, just keep the money and tear down that motherfucka”?

Furthermore, if the resolution and/or legal documents discuss other possibilities and contingencies beyond demolition for the Reisz, then the entire truth wasn’t being told last Thursday night ... and if Barksdale and Caesar knew otherwise as they sat listening, doesn't their silence speaks volumes?

Until this information is made public, how can city council proceed with a vote next Monday?

Here's the text of my e-mail this morning to Barksdale and redevelopment director Josh Staten. Don't forget Wednesday's meeting at the library:

Stop the Reisz Elephant: There'll be a public meeting on Wednesday, June 27, downstairs at the library, at 6:00 p.m.

---

Good morning,

The topic is RC-06-17, the Redevelopment Commission's ordinance of 08/08/2017, described in the meeting's minutes as being titled "Resolution Promoting Historic Preservation, Economic Development, and Blight Removal.

The meeting minutes for 08/08/2017, which are available on-line, include a detailed discussion of this resolution, but the minutes neither make mention of funding amounts, nor include the text of the resolution itself.

However, in Elizabeth Beilman's coverage of the meeting for the News and Tribune, she quotes a figure of "$826,000 in total funding commitments for the Reisz Furniture building, the Louis Hartman House on State Street and the Knights of Columbus," of which $750,000 for the Reisz project is specified.

Consequently, in terms of public information, we know the nature of the discussion about the resolution. We also know the dollar amounts, courtesy of the newspaper reporter. But we have not seen the text of resolution RC-06-17, and for this reason I'm writing to you today to request a copy of the resolution.

I'm happy to visit the office to pick this up, or you can e-mail it to this address. I trust this will be promptly rendered.

Thank you

R

---

Previously:

2-for-1? Scott Blair describes a better way to save the Reisz building AND get a new city hall.

Donald Trump would greatly appreciate the disruptiveness of Jeff Gahan's signature Reisz Elephant.

Jeff Gahan's attacks on county government stand an excellent chance of hurting the business climate in New Albany.

ON THE AVENUES: Government Lives Matter, so it's $10,000,000 for Gahan's luxury city hall clique enhancement. Happy dumpster diving, peasants!

GREEN MOUSE SAYS: Latest Reisz City Hall cost estimate reaches $9,250,000 -- and the tote board keeps spinning.

Truth is stranger than fact: Back in 2012, the Reisz building was to become a senior living complex. Bob Caesar kneecapped it -- and Deaf Gahan DISAGREED with Cee-Saw.

ON THE AVENUES: Histrionic preservation? $8.5 million to gift Jeff Gahan with a new city hall "want" is inexcusable and simply obscene in a time of societal need.

"What and who is New Albany Social?"

New Albany Social has been mentioned here a few times, and it seems appropriate to drop the name again.

Kelly's and Beth's grassroots enthusiasm is contagious. It's pleasingly non-corporate, and comes spontaneously. What they're doing is great, and let's hope for many more posts.

Go to Facebook, like the page and pay attention. I've learned a lot just by reading New Albany Social's posts, and you can, too.

WHAT AND WHO IS NEW ALBANY SOCIAL?

So here we are... Kelly on the left, Beth on the right

New Albany Social started as a page to showcase all of the wonderful places we have in downtown New Albany.

Kelly started the page in August of 2017 with the hopes to bring people downtown and maybe have a couple events to help the cause.

Kelly is a mother of three humans and three dogs. She works at Schmitt Furniture on the furniture corner of State and Main in New Albany 😉. Kelly has always been in love with downtown New Albany, even before it was cool. She remembers the excitement of seeing the purple florescent Wicks sign going up on State Street.

Beth joined New Albany Social in April of 2018. Her first post about the lavender tea from Roadrunner Kitchen was so popular that Roadrunner ran out of cups.

Beth is a single mom of a man child and a cat. But we don’t judge her because of the cat. She works at Chase Bank here in downtown and also lives downtown! She walks a lot. So if you see a post about walking, it’s her. Definitely not Kelly.

So how can you help our cause?

Like! Love! Comment!

The more you do that, the more it spreads. The more it spreads, the more people see of our New Albany awesomeness.

If you are a downtown business and want to be featured, let us know! We don’t charge to feature you. We do this in our free time with mostly our own money. We do get a wonderful gift every now and then that we appreciate so much.

If you are a business and you want to sponsor events or posts, please let us know!

You can reach us by messaging us on Facebook or by email.

"Here are three steps that would make our cities work for people of all ages."

Jeff "Swish" Gahan takes three down the middle of the plate -- and the bat never left his shoulder.

Maybe it's time for some seasoning in the minors -- say, from about January 1, 2020.

Click through to read the entire explanations, and while you're there, explore the good sense on display at Strong Towns. Team Gahan probably has blocked the site.

Want a city that works for people of all ages? Take these 3 steps, by Rachel Quednau (Strong Towns)

Growing older shouldn't have to mean relocating from the community and neighborhood you love, but in so many American cities which are oriented around cars instead of people, seniors end up relegated to suburban apartment complexes or become increasingly isolated in homes they can't manage. Simple adjustments to the way we structure our cities and neighborhoods could change that scenario and in turn, make life a whole lot happier, healthier and easier for everyone.

Here are three steps that would make our cities work for people of all ages:

1. Make cities safe and easy to get around without a car.

2. Create housing options that work for people of all ages and abilities.

3. Build communities that give people purpose and meaning.

Worst corporate drivel ever as the newspaper's parent company plans a garage sale.

Leave it to a chain newspaper entity to unleash dolt-speak in announcing almost nothing at all apart from a desire for corporate bigwigs to make even more money.

People who write this badly should be in prison camps -- not children. Passages highlighted in bold scarlet represent particularly egregious spoutings of nonsensical gibberish.

---

CNHI explores sale of newspaper company, by a robot at the CNHI NEWS SERVICE, live from the sand trap of a Bobby Jones golf course somewhere in sweet home Alabama

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – CNHI, LLC, one of the country’s leading providers of local news and information, said Monday it is exploring the sale of its newspaper properties in 22 states.

The announcement was made after its parent company, Raycom Media Inc., reported it has signed an agreement to be acquired by Gray Television group, a public company headquartered in Atlanta.

The News and Tribune is owned by CNHI, a subsidiary of Raycom.

Donna Barrett, CNHI’s president and chief executive office, said the company has retained the newspaper brokerage firm of Dirks, Van Essen, Murray and April to handle the sale of its newspapers.

“We’re excited to open the next chapter in our commitment to top-flight community journalism,” said Barrett. “We are looking for a transaction or transactions that will carry on CNHI’s rich tradition of public service through award-winning journalism.”

CNHI is a 20-year-old newspaper company that has grown from a few community newspapers at the outset to more than 100 papers today. They are located in the Midwest, Southwest, Southeast and Northeast.

Raycom Media Inc., which owns or operates television stations in 65 markets, acquired CNHI nine months ago.

“As we undertake this exploration process, we cannot say that any particular transaction will or will not take place,” said Barrett. “What we can say is that we will consider various options as we work to find a partner or partners that share our dedication to community newspapers and the vital journalism they produce to serve local audiences.”

Stop the Reisz Elephant: There'll be a public meeting on Wednesday, June 27, downstairs at the library, at 6:00 p.m.

Last Thursday evening, the city's corporate attorney answered questions about the proposed move of city hall to the Reisz Furniture Store. His answers raised even more questions, and that's why there'll be a public meeting on Wednesday evening at the library (downstairs) at 6:00 p.m.

To view recent NA Confidential articles about this expanding controversy, click here.

I'm told the meeting's host will be councilmen Dan Coffey (1st district), with 6th district councilman Scott Blair also in attendance. It's unclear if other officials will be present. Put simply, this isn't a meeting for regurgitating the city's self-interested version of this process. Rather, it's about exploring all sides of the story.

There's also a petition going around. The text is below. I'l have more on this as time allows. I'm in possession of paper copies and will see if there's a way to put this on-line. The final council vote is coming on Monday, July 2.

We can put the brakes to this $10,000,000 boondoggle, but to do so, YOU MUST STAND UP AND BE COUNTED. Thanks, and I'll see you on Wednesday.

We, the undersigned concerned citizens, urge our City Council to act now to stop the process of entering into a 15-year contract to purchase the Reisz building to be converted to a new City Hall. We also feel that the process was flawed, and real information was not given to the public in such a way as to make a truly informed decision. We also feel that the $8.35 million dollars spent on this project would be better spent in out neighborhoods addressing the problems we have been facing for years: bad or no drainage, poor roads, sidewalks and other issues. We encourage the City Council to take another look, and realize that citizens' needs should come before bigger offices. There is no doubt there are other options available to satisfy your wants and public needs. 

Thank you,

Your Concerned Public 

The "distracted pedestrian" is a myth, but distracted engineers and planners are another topic.

Kudos to David Aebersold for broaching the topic of pedestrian safety during last Thirsday's city council meeting. Dan Coffey and Greg Phipps chimed in, and Phipps mentioned the scant slowing of traffic occurring since last year's paving project disguised as street grid reform.

Recalling my recent chat with HWC Engineering's Jim Rice, when Rice seemed proudest of HWC's achievement in keeping the heavy trucks rolling through residential neighborhoods, perhaps Phipps at long last is beginning to see that without Jeff Speck's principled approach to comprehensive street grid reform, two-way automotive friction alone cannot magically produce slowing or walkability -- and the majority of bicycle-friendly design components never made it past Jeff Gahan's ingrained (but highly monetized) cowardice.

I intend to attend tomorrow morning's Bored of Works meeting, which Aebersold and Bob Caesar vowed to attend.

Why the ‘distracted pedestrian’ is a myth, by Alissa Walker (Curbed)

Most walkers are not texting when crossing streets, says a new study

Pedestrian deaths have hit a three-decade high in the U.S., prompting some cities to mount campaigns warning walkers to put down their phones and pay more attention. But some compelling new research reveals that pedestrians probably aren’t texting themselves to death.

While the term “distracted walking” has become a way to pin the blame on pedestrians for supposedly looking at their devices instead of the sidewalk, there hasn’t been much evidence provided to prove smartphone-using walkers are at fault when collisions occur. In fact, most states don’t even include pedestrian behavior as a factor in crash reports.

But a new study published by a group of Northern Arizona University engineering professors in Transportation Research Record looked at how 3,038 people used crosswalks in New York City and Flagstaff, Arizona, and concluded that a large majority of pedestrians—86.5 percent—did not exhibit “distracted” behavior ...

2-for-1? Scott Blair describes a better way to save the Reisz building AND get a new city hall.

Previously: 

Donald Trump would greatly appreciate the disruptiveness of Jeff Gahan's signature Reisz Elephant.

During the course of answering 35 questions at last Thursday's city council meeting, corporate attorney Shane Gibson attempted to navigate contradictions on more than one occasion.

For instance, Gibson argued that a minimum expenditure of $10,000,000 to render the "blighted" (and "neglected," and "dilapidated") Reisz Furniture Warehouse Store into luxurious, expanded work space for Jeff Gahan was the very best solution yet offered to the problem of salvaging the structure, while simultaneously conceding that no other options have been considered.

How can we know it's the best plan when there's nothing to compare it to?

As 6th district councilman Scott Blair (I) illustrates with this Facebook comment, plenty of options exist. It's just that Gahan, Gibson and their ship of fools won't consider them.

I agree that a better use of the Reisz building is mixed retail and residential. The city could offer less than $1,000,000 subsidy to a private developer (purchase the building for around $400,000 and $375,000 and fix infrastructure). The city would recapture the subsidy over time through property taxes. A new city hall could go into an appropriate size building or be a new build. $4,000,000 seems to be a good estimate for new construction. A site could be the parking structure next to Big Four Burgers on Main St. Advantages are lower overall cost, bringing more people into downtown, and infill of a blighted lot.

In short, two buildings -- one rehabbed, the other new -- for half the proposed expenditure. And yet an idea like Blair's HAS NOT EVEN BEEN CONSIDERED.

Redevelopment's request for proposal (RFP) period?

A whole ten days. How could this be sufficient time for other interested parties to participate -- assuming they weren't scared away by previous public statements strongly implying the single plan was a done deal. 

When it came to the two-way street grid changes, at least three traffic studies were conducted over a period of years before these statistics were handed to HWC Engineering to be ignored. Most of the final expense was borne by the federal government, and the campaign kickback gravy was especially succulent.

But $10,000,000 for the Reisz Elephant isn't being offset by a gift from afar, and Team Gahan has conducted no studies, and considered no other alternatives. It's Gahan's way, or down comes the building.

Blair's idea has one major flaw, because the work required to save Reisz and build city hall probably would not be finished before next year's elections, and completed bright shiny objects are essential to Gahan's flashcard campaign strategy.

Donald Trump would greatly appreciate the disruptiveness of Jeff Gahan's signature Reisz Elephant.

A white elephant is a possession which its owner cannot dispose of and whose cost, particularly that of maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness. In modern usage, it is an object, building project, scheme, business venture, facility, etc., considered expensive but without use or value.
--- Wikipedia

Jeff Gahan's $10,000,000+ Reisz city hall proposal certainly addresses a messianic need to self-glorify in the lap of luxury, but far more importantly, it disrupts.

Since 2016, "disruption" is often used to describe Donald Trump's theory of governance. While feeding a steady diet of red meat to his core supporters, he seeks to overload the circuits toward a goal of disrupting "business (or politics) as usual," facilitating a renegotiation on his terms.

Politics in any size of pond is about power, and power is money, and so I submit that we're seeing a similar strategy of disruption in New Albany, as directed by Gahan. He intends to disrupt county government, but also New Albany's city council.

It doesn't require a PhD to see that since taking office, Gahan has seized every available opportunity to sever ties with county government. That's because Democrats are toast in the county, and at best, capable only of rearguard actions. To preserve the party's municipal system of patronage and keep the money flowing, the city power base must be fortified and walled off.

The best previous example of Gahan's instinct to secede came during his first term with an immediate (and wholly unannounced) move to split the joint parks department, inaugurating a spending spree and tripling the city's annual budgetary commitment to parks.

Of course, all those contractors and vendors donate to the mayor's campaign finance fund, don't they?

Now the time has arrived for Gahan to disrupt the arrangement by which city and county share an office building.

In due time (after I mow the damn lawn) the Green Mouse will be here to explain our theory that Gahan’s ultimate objective is to induce county government to indemnify the city to abandon its current home and move to the too-expensive-by-half Reisz Elephant.

Or, in more familiar terms: To preserve the Democratic governing clique's power, Gahan is building a wall -- and Mark Seabrook's going to pay for it.

Meanwhile, Gahan's disruption of city council became inevitable when 2018 dawned and Dan Coffey stood outside the tent, no longer under mayoral control. This meant that the potential of a Republican/Independent bloc had to be avoided immediately by detaching its weakest link, nominal Republican David Barksdale.

But Gahan's first steps toward council disruption came with the attempted kneecapping of council president Al Knable, a maneuver that seemingly failed. However, it's now clear that it was a feint, paving the way for the mayor to complete the process of isolating Barksdale from the potential opposing bloc.

As we speak, Barksdale's role in Reisz leaves him in danger of being drummed out of his chosen party. This helps Gahan municipal power consolidation, doesn't it?

We already know that Gahan's commitment to historic preservation exists only insofar as it increases his own city-versus-county power base, and by extension, as long as it bolsters his burgeoning campaign finance account. In short, Gahan doesn’t give a damn about old buildings -- and Barksdale is consumed by them. In effect, Gahan is tempting the alcoholic with a nice bottle of Kessler.

Situations like this always favor the ethics-free, self-interested cynic.

It's buildings over people, time and again, and people aren't the only entities capable of being held hostage. Last Thursday, corporate attorney Shane Gibson confirmed that we've arrived at a purely intentional ultimatum: either Reisz is rehabbed as the mayor prefers, or he'll be sure it is demolished without further discussion.

Not only has Barksdale facilitated his own captivity; now he's in Stockholm Syndrome territory.

Stockholm syndrome is a condition that causes hostages to develop a psychological alliance with their captors as a survival strategy during captivity.

Concurrently and unfortunately, by embracing a position of supine obedience to Dear Leader, Barksdale and other local historic preservationists are squandering their future credibility by allowing foundational principles to be merrily co-opted by the prerequisites of Gahan's squalid, grubby political sewer.

To conclude, our elders were astute.

When you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas.

George Will pegs Jeff Gahan dead to rights: "A Vesuvius of mendacities." Or maybe it was Trump.

Be careful.

Because:

But at least Megarian got an answer.

I've always respected George Will for his writing style and erudition. I appreciate the argument he's making here, and I'd like to believe it matters. Ultimately it does not. Part of it is that Donald Trump's core supporters don't concern themselves with Will, whether they know who he is or not.

Far larger in importance is the irrelevance of his argument. The majority of our current issues as a nation at present pertain to symptoms of diseased capitalism.

My guess?

Will's just fine with that.

Vote against the GOP this November, by George F. Will (Washington Post)

Amid the carnage of Republican misrule in Washington, there is this glimmer of good news: The family-shredding policy along the southern border, the most telegenic recent example of misrule, clarified something. Occurring less than 140 days before elections that can reshape Congress, the policy has given independents and temperate Republicans — these are probably expanding and contracting cohorts, respectively — fresh if redundant evidence for the principle by which they should vote.

The principle: The congressional Republican caucuses must be substantially reduced. So substantially that their remnants, reduced to minorities, will be stripped of the Constitution’s Article I powers that they have been too invertebrate to use against the current wielder of Article II powers. They will then have leisure time to wonder why they worked so hard to achieve membership in a legislature whose unexercised muscles have atrophied because of people like them.

Consider the melancholy example of House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wis.), who wagered his dignity on the patently false proposition that it is possible to have sustained transactions with today’s president, this Vesuvius of mendacities, without being degraded. In Robert Bolt’s play “A Man for All Seasons,” Thomas More, having angered Henry VIII, is on trial for his life. When Richard Rich, whom More had once mentored, commits perjury against More in exchange for the office of attorney general for Wales, More says: “Why, Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world . . . But for Wales!” Ryan traded his political soul for . . . a tax cut. He who formerly spoke truths about the accelerating crisis of the entitlement system lost everything in the service of a president pledged to preserve the unsustainable status quo.

Ryan and many other Republicans have become the president’s poodles, not because James Madison’s system has failed but because today’s abject careerists have failed to be worthy of it ...

BEER WITH A SOCIALIST: Whether sheep stealer or highwayman, he was hanged just the same at Cannards Grave.

How this for a pub sign?

Bud Light drinkers used to feel this way when they wandered by mistake into the Public House. The illustration comes from a 1972 book called British Inn Signs.

Where five roads meet on the A37 near Shepton Mallet (Somerset) is a gruesome sign of a man hanging from a gibbet.

The back story takes on a number of versions, which are considered in this modern update.

The Story of Cannards Grave

To the south of Shepton Mallet is the oddly named Cannards Grave, where, according to legend, the ghost of 17th century publican Giles Cannard still walks.

Tom Kennard, often called either Giles, or Tom the Taverner, was the landlord of a public house which stood on the crossroads between the Fosse Way and many other roads to the West Country. Opposite the inn stood a grim reminder of the relative lawlessness of those times, a gibbet, on which smugglers, highwaymen, bandits and other miscreants met their end ...

It looks as though there's still a pub on or near the site: The Highwayman, Cannards Grave, although the first review expresses annoyance.

Was not impressed with this pub. The beer (St Austell) was cloudy and didn't taste good. Changed it for the other one on, can't remember what it was, and it was the same. The Landlord or Manager said it had recently been changed and was the top of the barrel! Top of the barrel?? Real Ale isn't served from the top!!

A glorious St. Austell cask ale, mishandled?

That might well be a hanging offense.

Charlestown residents to John Neace (and Bob Hall): "We ask you now: please abandon your plans to raze and replace our homes in Pleasant Ridge."

Are Deaf Gahan's ears burning yet?

Your desire to bulldoze our entire neighborhood is neither just nor transparent. It is unjust to tell us–after decades of pouring care and love into our homes and being responsible homeowners, who have every right to keep what we’ve worked so hard to own–that we have to give everything up so you can make money.

And when you work out a backdoor deal with Mayor Hall, designed to drive our property values down so that eminent domain will be cheap and easy–that’s just immoral.

We love our homes. Your properties may be rotting around us, but we’re not going anywhere.

The web site address is here: DearJohnNeace.com

Timing of anti-Pleasant Ridge development banner removal questioned, by Danielle Grady (Tom May the Hard Way)

CHARLESTOWN — For around two weeks, the truck with an illegal banner sat on Harold Goodlett’s property.

“John Neace: Stop destroying our neighborhood,” it read, underneath an even larger address for a website telling the story of the Pleasant Ridge neighborhood.

But it wasn’t until the truck and banner were moved to a prominent location along Charlestown’s Founder’s Day parade route that a property owner received a call from the city, requesting that the sign be removed lest a citation be issued.

The city is calling the timing a coincidence, a sudden realization by the building commissioner that the sign violated the city’s zoning ordinance, brought upon by research on a separate, but similar violation. The Pleasant Ridge Neighborhood Association doesn’t think that’s the real impetus.

R.I.P. Dick Leitsch. His "sip in" was a pioneering act of civil disobedience, clearing "the way for gay bars to operate openly in New York State."

Photo credit: The Villager.

“If patriotism were defined, not as blind obedience to government, not as submissive worship to flags and anthems, but rather as love of one's country, one's fellow citizens (all over the world), as loyalty to the principles of justice and democracy, then patriotism would require us to disobey our government, when it violated those principles.”
― Howard Zinn, The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy

Time for a history lesson.

Dick Leitsch, Whose ‘Sip-In’ Was a Gay Rights Milestone, Dies at 83, by Robert D. McFadden (New York Times)

 ... Three years before the Stonewall Inn uprising accelerated the gay rights movement in America, Mr. Leitsch challenged the common practice of bars’ serving gay customers under a no-questions-asked arrangement necessitated by an unwritten State Liquor Authority policy that regarded homosexuals as inherently “disorderly.” Bars that knowingly served them could have their liquor licenses revoked.

The policy, supported by no law and apparently unconstitutional because it precluded the right to free assembly, led to charades by gay men and lesbians. They would sometimes minimize their sexual identities by avoiding affectionate touching or dancing with one another or any other conduct that might be interpreted as “queer.” Bartenders looked the other way and poured the gin.

It was just another of the countless indignities and rights violations that gay men and lesbians endured in an age when vice squads raided bars frequented by gay clientele and entrapped men in homosexual “encounters.” Many publications, including The New York Times, referred to gay men and lesbians as “sexual deviates.”

Hypocrisy infected the era. Gay men and lesbians were widely regarded as sick by the medical establishment, sinners by the clergy and criminals by the law. Judges accepted the testimony of undercover officers who had solicited sex from gay men and then arrested them. For those with a name, job or family to protect, lewdness charges could carry fines, jail time and ruinous publicity ...

Jeff Gahan's attacks on county government stand an excellent chance of hurting the business climate in New Albany.

In my Thursday column, I reproduced a letter published in the newspaper, and in doing so I restored a paragraph that had been excised at the direction of the editor.

City hall’s relocation addresses Jeff Gahan’s pathological hatred of uni-gov. He’d secede from the county if allowed, and he’d relocate HQ to a suitably luxurious pole barn if one existed. Plainly, the aim is political preservation for Gahan and Democrats, and Reisz is just one move in a chess game to stave off power-sharing with the county.

I think the Reisz city hall maneuver has little to do with historic preservation apart from Gahan allowing David Barksdale and fellow preservationists to co-opt themselves, a fair amount to do with the imperial overlord reflection staring back at the mayor when he shaves each morning, and a great deal -- the biggest chunk of the entire machination -- about city-county relations in general and the police department in particular.

Last night when Lawyer Gibson began repeating the figure $9,000,000, saying it was how much money the city "has" in the jail, I think this was meant to convey a clue about Gahan's desire for the city to be indemnified by the county's "hospital money," as I believe Gibson referred to it -- in short, we'll secede from the county for all intents and purposes, and be paid to let the door hit us in the ass.

Gahan wants to make the split as irrevocable as humanly possible, tantamount to the division of Berlin after the wall was built, and since he has yet to perform a mayoral function in six years and six months without someone close to him being paid for it, it makes perfect sense to me that historical preservation and bogus economic development "ripple effect" promises aren't reason enough to spend $10,000,000.

Somehow, in a way as yet unfolding, he's spending your money to make his money, and what I like least about it is the rancorous tone being embraced by Gahan and his smug gang of self-satisfied sycophants.

Not one of Gahan's cliquish functionaries has a clue about indie business trends downtown, and how would they? After all, how many of the Team Gahan higher-up ever have been entrepreneurs or started their own businesses?

However, one thing cannot be denied: keep insulting county government long enough and at some point residents living outside city limits are going to conclude that these cheap shots are aimed at them.

We needn't turn to the IUS School of Corporate Hucksterism to know how important county residents are to the city in general, and for downtown in particular. They might choose to cross the Sherman Minton and head to Germantown or St. Matthews. We need them to stay on this side of the river. 

Gahan's ill-tempered jihad -- Deaf's juvenile high school pep rally recitation of "us versus them" -- can only hurt the city's economy.

Of course, his crew of bootlickers is fond of commanding NA Confidential to shut up. Perhaps for the benefit of the business community, they might benefit from a stiff dose of their own advice.

#FireGahan2019

“Driving is the most likely way we’ll kill someone else, but we’re not treating cars like the dangerous things that they are.”

100 times worse than we thought: Insights from a Zendrive’s 2018 Distracted Driving Snapshot

I won't say "distracted walking" doesn't happen, because I've seen it and done it a few times myself. The point to remember is that someone like me who is walking "distracted" carries poundage in the hundreds rather than the thousands. Drivers are coddled daily in myriad ways, but the point stays the same: they're capable of wreaking far greater havoc, and their responsibility is greater, and the law enforcement apparatus should prosecute accordingly.

Do YOU see someone like Keith Henderson doing so? I sure don't, although perhaps the politicized prosecutor agrees with me on one point: put down your damn device and pay attention.

Driving? Your Phone Is A Distraction Even If You Aren’t Looking At It, by Christie Aschwanden (Five Thirty Eight)

... You can think of driving’s demands as a three-legged stool, requiring eyes on the road, hands on the wheel (not to mention feet on the pedals), and mind on the task. Anything less than all three, and you’re driving impaired.

Most attempts to mitigate the risk of cellphone use while driving have focused on the first two legs. Texting while driving is banned in 47 states, and 16 states prohibit drivers from handheld phone use. But legislative approaches like these don’t address the third leg of the distraction stool. “You can’t do a drug test for cognitive impairment,” said Kyle Mathewson, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Alberta.

Anything that takes the eyes off the road or hands off the wheel is clearly dangerous.

Neighborhood inequality? On the placid street where Caesar lives, traffic must be moving too fast. Someone fetch a traffic engineer!

High atop Silver Hills, just a couple doors down from Bob Caesar's garage (where all the Bicentennial pot holders and koozies as yet are being stored), there's a radar speed display trailer marked "Sheriff," parked on Camp Avenue at the three-way stop with Knob Avenue

Ironically, the topic of street safety re-emerged at last evening's city council meeting, with councilmen David Aebersold, Greg Phipps and Dan Coffey openly discussing the fearsome and pedestrian unfriendly intersection of Spring and Vincennes.

Al Knable mentioned the late Chloe Allen's name aloud, something that has eluded Jeff Gahan's snark clique during the two years following her death at the driver-privileged intersection in question. 

Remembering Chloe Allen -- and the unfinished task of making streets safe for all users, not just drivers.

Aebersold and Caesar (!) resolved to attend next week's Bored of Works meeting to broach the topic of further street grid safety needs beyond city hall's premature declaration of victory. It's a start, and I'll try to attend to monitor the decibel level of BOW's snores.

Two weeks ago, hall of famer Jim Rice of HWC Engineering insisted to me that as walkers or cyclists, our own two eyes are never to be trusted if what they behold contradicts a professional engineer's tireless efforts to maintain speed and traffic flow through heavily populated areas.

In fairness, HWC only returned the street grid verdict it knew Gahan, the witless paymaster, wanted to hear. But any impartial observer can plainly see that problems remain on the flood plain.

Meanwhile, on the commanding heights, where traffic volumes are far less and stop signs profuse, someone has decided that enough's enough, hence the radar speed display trailer.

It remains unclear why it's there, which is the reason for this post, but the digital display is a reminder that someone -- sheriff, police or councilman -- is listening to driver-related complaints where the cool kids live.

The remainder of us would enjoy experiencing this on occasion. If city engineer Larry Summers is reading, he might begin by returning phone calls.