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

Another one bites the dust.

Good Morning,

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

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

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

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

Respectfully,

BDA of Southern Indiana

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

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

Previously:

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

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

LBJ's famous "Daisy" ad.

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

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

Wicked. Just wicked.

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

Don't say we didn't warn you.

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

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

MDC Research

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

Let us know if you know anything about this company.

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

In a way a water park simply cannot do.

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

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

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

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

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

Look out your window and see for yourself.

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

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

It genuinely sickens me to report this information to you.

Earlier today, I told you this.

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

Now I know why.

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

The reason?

His son is getting married in a destination wedding.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A weekly web column by Roger A. Baylor.

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

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

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

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

This being me.

---

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

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

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

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

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

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

We turn to the Democratic National Committee for clues:

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

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

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

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

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

Let’s see.

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

That’s right.

Very little.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

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

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

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

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

As always, thanks for reading.

---

Recent columns:

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

August 20: ON THE AVENUES: In the groove.

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

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

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

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

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

That's right, NA:

We're fundamentally better.

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

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

And boy, does the auto dominate in New Albany.

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

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

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

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

There are a great many of them.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Even better ...

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

Yes!

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

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

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

This makes me very sad.

Doctor, my broom, please.

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

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

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

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

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

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

First, W.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I have an e-mail reply to prove it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Note also the full schedule, beginning with Indie Fest.

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

Top Ten posts at NA Confidential for August, 2015.

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

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

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

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

Thanks for reading.

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

HONORABLE MENTION

202

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

210

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

214

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

223

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

235

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

245

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

253 (tie)

ON THE AVENUES: Money is the ultimate bully.

253 (tie)

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

257

Let's give this illustration a brand new caption.

261

We've located the Gahan Sweater Dogs.

272

Hey, ESNA.

TOP TEN

276

Baylor for Mayor: 3 Goals + 7 Platform Points.

295

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

306

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

362

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

368

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

380

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

457

Mayor Gahan announces compromise street piano measure.

521

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

538

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

547

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Louisville's a pretty cool city to visit.

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

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

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

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

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

They do nothing.

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

But not just yet.

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

Dear Jeff: Can we buy an advertisment in the next Stormwater Gazette?

Fairly bland. I've re-imagined it with a bit more flair.

I mean, we DO get equal time on the campaign ads, right?

On the verge, and some trees.

It's always a challenge to determine exactly what property owners are to do and not do as it pertains to the area between sidewalk and street, which often is referred to as the road verge.

In this instance, the road verge is for parking, although in fairness, there is no verge, and the sidewalk itself isn't marked in any way,meaning a wheelchair user would be compelled to roll into a one-way arterial street to evade the blockade.

That's #GahanSafe.

In this one, it's for growing hay and stacking debris, which has been there for two weeks now.

A recent comment at NAC makes a good point .

The area between the sidewalk and the street is the property owners responsibility to maintain however when it comes to the trees it's a different philosophy. The City loves to plant trees but they do nothing as far as pruning or maintaining them once they're planted and they can't be removed without approval from the City. I prune the tree they planted in front of my house because I didn't want it in the first place and secondly it would grow into my Dogwood tree which is irreplaceable. It's a joke to talk to the "Tree Board".

Just imagine if trees were prioritized like water sports. We might achieve the restoration of our battered canopy.

Meanwhile, this is how pleasant the results can be when a property owner goes the extra mile, whether legally or otherwise. A few carrots and sticks might achieve even better.

Of course the best kept trees of all are on Main Street, where a level of care is extended that's seldom seen elsewhere.

Wait -- that's John Rosenbarger's house, isn't it?

Just a coincidence, I'm sure.

I just want to walk to the cigar shop, not compete in the Hunger Games.

Check out today's gas company carnage. They might as well have closed all of Pearl Street and staged a Jackhammer Fest.

Ever notice that Vectren's demolition contractors have a fairly low opinion of sidewalks and walkers? It seems to go beyond what they must do to complete their work, into the realm of open contempt, as here:

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

It reminds me of something I was told recently by a downtown shopkeeper. Seems the utility monopoly dug up both street and sidewalk in front of his building, explaining that part of the reason for doing so was to ensure no future inconvenience for cars, because if they ever had to do it again, only the sidewalks would be blocked, and not the traffic or parking lanes.

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

"But the bigger the office, the more need for a public exchange of ideas. The candidate who can’t agree with that much devalues our democracy."

Jeff Gahan missed the Southern Indiana Realtors Association candidate luncheon last Thursday. I asked one of the organizers about it, and he said, "He was really hard to reach, and when we finally did, he said he'd try to make it."

File under "THEMES, recurring."

Seeing as Kevin Zurschmiede is a realtor, perhaps Gahan thought he'd be at a disadvantage. I feel much the same way about the League of Women Voters' bizarre decision to award its debate venue to Gahan's own Silver Street Park building, but it won't stop me from attending the event.

Sept. 24 "fix" at the Taj Mahal: I'd prefer a genuine debate to a staged re-enthronement, but let's do it.

I've spoken with several persons who feel that Gahan won't come to any of the upcoming forums. I persist in thinking he will. Here are the occasions as revealed to me thus far.

Building & Development Association of Southern Indiana
Thursday, September 10, 5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
300 Spring St, Jeffersonville, IN 47130

New Albany Housing Authority Candidate and Voting Information Session
Tuesday, September 22, 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
300 Erni Avenue Gymnasium, New Albany, IN 47150

League of Women Voters Candidate Forum 
Thursday, September 24, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Silver Street Park, 2043 Silver Street, New Albany, IN 47150

Leadership Southern Indiana New Albany Mayoral Debate
Tue, September 29, 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
New Albany High School, 1020 Vincennes Street, New Albany, IN 47150

This editorial was written in New Jersey in 2014, not New Albany, but significant portions are quite relevant to us.

N.J. incumbents must stop dodging debates: Editorial (NJ.com)

... the big-ticket incumbents who won’t debate their opponents -- particularly those leading in the polls who are just trying to run out the clock until Nov. 4 -- are doing their constituents a disservice.

Politics is a debate of ideas, and elections are a referendum on who best expresses those ideas, but it’s hard to compare two candidates if one guy refuses to stand still for more than a few hours.

It’s disappointing that U.S. Sen. Cory Booker is one of them. His decision to engage in only one debate against Jeffrey Bell gives credence to the assumption that they serve but one purpose: to reinforce your prior decision to vote for the blue team or red team, which is precisely the problem with our pro-wrestling-level of political discourse nowadays.

Perhaps the best way to drag incumbents out of their comfort zone is a third-party candidate who could tell the others why they’re out of touch, which isn’t beyond reason in a country that lives in a perpetual state of war, can’t feed its hungry, can’t educate its kids, and can’t bring itself to punish the Wall Streeters who bankroll the major party candidates.

You know, a spectrum of opinion. Democracy.

But Booker needs to have more than one debate with his Republican challenger. Bell is often dismissed by Democrats as dotty and irrelevant, but he has the courage to be on a ballot and he deserves to be heard. Who said so? Bill Bradley said so. He and Bell had 21 debates when they ran for Senate in 1978, and though Bell lost the vote, he scored significant points: When Bradley authored the legislation that overhauled the federal tax code – the two-bracket system -- he incorporated some of Bell’s ideas.

Those days are gone. Frontrunners have been programmed to avoid the gotcha moment, as one slip in the morning gets you pilloried during the B-block that evening on Hannity or Maddow ...

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

What does it cost the city to stage Friday evening concerts at a venue that wasn't built to host them?

Surely somewhere these raw numbers exist: Production Simple does the booking and staging, city workers block the street, prepare the grounds and clean up, police officers act as security, and of course, there are sponsorships, and these defray at least some of the costs, right?

Shouldn't this information be part of the public record?

I asked.

The quick response came not from Shane Gibson, but Chris Gardner: "A great experience is priceless."

Think about that.

Chris Gardner is the city of New Albany's director of flood control. He has a degree in business management (IU Southeast; 2010), used to work at a veneer plant, and is married to the mayor's daughter. These facts are matters of public record, and if subject to review by the most disinterested of space aliens armed with theories of impartiality and a recent dictionary, there'd almost inevitably arise at least some reference to the concept of nepotism.

Perhaps Jeff Gahan's exaggerated fluke of a vote total in 2011 blinded him to the implications of the word "nepotism", or maybe he didn't know what it meant in the first place. I doubt he cares, but even if the director of flood control weren't an otherwise unqualified son-in-law, and even if he were just another unqualified city political patronage employee, can this or any other mayor countenance a taxpayer inquiry being greeted with this?

"A great experience is priceless."

Perhaps Gardner's sequestration down by the river, where few people actually live, has caused Gardner to overlook the plain fact that lots of folks living hereabouts are not enjoying a great experience, because the reality of income inequality is that they cannot afford a frat boy's nonchalance, either in terms of attitude or disposable income. 

What's more, not many of them are in a position to enjoy the bread, circuses and musical events being staged for their benefit. They're working multiple jobs, juggling parental duties and just scraping through. They're struggling with finding and keeping affordable housing. Whether we care to admit it or not, most of us are far closer to poverty than we'll ever be to the lofty ease of the 1%, and we'd be advised to remember how quickly any of us could fall through the patchwork safety net, which Republicans keep trying to dismantle. 

Shouldn't Democrats be more concerned with maintaining a functional, level playing field than pretending to be Walt Disney?

Seriously, how many of us shrug and spend money without looking at the price?

Let's say I come home with a brand new car, run inside the house, get Diana and say, "Look at the nice shiny thing I bought for you."

Is anyone outside of the 1% NOT going to ask me how much it cost, to demand an explanation, to point out that we already owe far more than we make, and can we really afford it?

New Albanians should do the same. Experiences may indeed be priceless, but creditors are notoriously inconvenient when it comes to seeing the transaction in a different light. When Jeff Gahan's minions brag to you about their nice shiny objects, don't forget to ask them how much they cost ... and how do we pay for them ... and how many years will we be paying?

You'd ask these same questions when making your household purchases, wouldn't you?

Some day those objects won't be quite as shiny -- and your grandchildren will still be paying for them. That's neither great nor priceless, is it?