Today’s previous posting: Wonderfully and delightfully us … and that’s why major surgery is required.
Tribune coverage of last night’s redistricting comic opera is on line.
New Albany redistricting proposal leads to hard feelings, by Daniel Suddeath (News and Tribune).
(Steve) Price — who voted against the measure along with (Jeff) Gahan, (Diane) Benedetti and Dan Coffey on first reading — said he was entitled to his opinion. “I won’t put it on a blog, I’ll tell it to your face,” Price said. “(Redistricting) should be a council decision.”
I’ll echo Brandon: “I thought I would go ahead and put it on a blog for him.”
State bylaws require a city council to approve redistricting measures, according to Price. He said each member should sit down to hash out a plan to eliminate any element of bias, an opinion that drew laughs from some members of the committee.
We laughed because the council already approved a plan that was rejected by a Federal judge, who ruled that the council had made a mockery of the prerogative that Price blithely references, which was something never mentioned last night by any of the four council persons opposing the committee plan, and that’s probably why NAC received this e-mail comment earlier today.
In fact, if there is a new lawsuit, I want in as a plaintiff, as I am now pissed and disgusted the way certain councilpersons treat others for attempting to help move this city forward. The committee saved the city tens of thousands of dollars and what they received in return was being accused of politics and, regardless of the fact that they pay property taxes on homes in the city of New Albany, they’re outsiders.
Yep.
It’s certainly funny that the volunteer “outsiders” on the redistricting committee are characterized as evildoers by the same councilpersons who propose paying outside consultants to help them with the numbers, but of course Price has now gone on record as stating that the council could do in a just a few post-meeting New York minutes what it took the committee 30+ hours to do -- and without professional help.
One thing is for sure: Professional help is needed ... and soon.
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Wonderfully and delightfully us … and that’s why major surgery is required.
Here in America we have a document called the Constitution.
You may have heard of it, although if you have, chances are you are not a New Albany city council person, and may wish to stop reading now lest I offend you.
That is, if you can read at all.
In broad terms, the reason we have a Constitution is to provide a shared legal and conceptual framework that unites Americans from many varied geographical locales and gives them a sense of common purpose.
Admittedly, it has taken quite some time to iron out the rough spots and to apply the precepts of the Constitution equally to all Americans. Indeed, the work continues, and it always will. Rule of law isn’t appealing to criminals, anarchists and four current council persons … but more on that in a moment.
Last evening the city council convened to consider a redistricting ordinance. The ordinance as submitted to the council was derived from the work of a committee. The committee was established for one reason and one reason alone. A previous incarnation of the council had for many years refused to cooperate with mandates set down by the very same Constitution referenced previously, and it had failed in its duty to fairly realign voting districts.
Because the previous council failed so spectacularly to do its job, citizens (of whom I was one) asked a Federal Court to interpret the council’s inactivity. Presiding over that body was a judge, whose job it is to apply Constitutional principles to problems like these, and whose job it is not is to be familiar with irrelevancies ranging from the location of one councilman’s house, whether dogs bark louder before a rainstorm, or the way that one neighbor never really thought highly of the color used by another to paint his house, and always complains about it at the Elks club meetings.
The judge sagaciously considered the previous council’s attitude with regard to its mandate to redistrict, and found it sorely wanting. He examined the previous council’s last-second attempt to implement a redistricting plan contrived in a Geritol-induced haze by the wife of one of its now mercifully retired members, and found that plan sorely wanting, too, because it did not adhere to the principles of the Constitution.
The Constitution. What a concept ... just not here.
In effect, the judge in question laughed the previous council out of court, made the very strong suggestion that it keep the Constitution in mind, and directed it to try again. The committee was approved and was formed, with three at-large councilmen and three community members (only one of whom was involved in the original lawsuit), and the council agreed to consider the results.
Last night, the council wonderfully and delightfully pissed itself.
Diane McCartin-Benedetti argued forcefully that the committee was created for the express purpose of saving her the trouble of doing such work herself … and then she voted against the committee’s work, naturally without explanation.
John Gonder was forced to concede that an unguarded comment about a deck of cards made to colleague Steve Price was justification enough for Price, who hardly needs provocation to make asinine allegations of impropriety, to publicly insult the integrity of committee members who, as you recall, were only doing McCartin-Benedetti’s job for her. But Gonder, a committe member, voted in favor.
Dan Coffey raved and ranted about not playing games, and joined Price in suggesting that this is what happens when you let those evil outsiders come into town. The gallery Coffey had packed with Westendians in an effort to preserve his waning influence by thwarting progress in the district he has chronically neglected had already left, or there may have been a progressive lynched on the spot.
Rather like the White Southern “states rights” folks, who used to passionately argue against the precepts of the Constitution because, well, you just don’t understand the way it has to be with us and the Negroes, and understand that we have our own customs and traditions, and if slavery and prejudice happen to be among these, so be it. It makes our neck of the woods special.
Rather like earlier last evening when a local mail carrier accidentally provided a theme for the meeting by suggesting that the federal judge might have better ignored the Constitution in reaching his decision taking the previous council to task over its refusal to observe the dictates of voter rights and equality. According to the postman, there is something sacred and holy about current configuration of voting districts – something indefinable, yet true in a mystical sort of way. Never mind that the council has been directed to reshape these districts in accordance with reality. Subjectivism -- that's where it's at.
In the end, amid the fear, loathing and sheer Pricist buffoonery, the vote was a tie, 4-4, with Pat McLaughlin absent. There will be two more readings.
Eight people, three local television news channels and the Courier-Journal were at last night’s council meeting, and all but a handful of the public departed after the public hearing on smoking. There’s a Constitutional principle involved in the smoking ban debate, too. All of it goes back to that document.
That is, unless you’re one of the four city council members, including the body’s president, Jeff Gahan, voting against Constitutional principles last evening, and in favor of local self-determination even if it means soiling a parchment all were sworn to uphold.
Sad, but wonderfully and delightfully New Albanian, don’t you think?
You may have heard of it, although if you have, chances are you are not a New Albany city council person, and may wish to stop reading now lest I offend you.
That is, if you can read at all.
In broad terms, the reason we have a Constitution is to provide a shared legal and conceptual framework that unites Americans from many varied geographical locales and gives them a sense of common purpose.
Admittedly, it has taken quite some time to iron out the rough spots and to apply the precepts of the Constitution equally to all Americans. Indeed, the work continues, and it always will. Rule of law isn’t appealing to criminals, anarchists and four current council persons … but more on that in a moment.
Last evening the city council convened to consider a redistricting ordinance. The ordinance as submitted to the council was derived from the work of a committee. The committee was established for one reason and one reason alone. A previous incarnation of the council had for many years refused to cooperate with mandates set down by the very same Constitution referenced previously, and it had failed in its duty to fairly realign voting districts.
Because the previous council failed so spectacularly to do its job, citizens (of whom I was one) asked a Federal Court to interpret the council’s inactivity. Presiding over that body was a judge, whose job it is to apply Constitutional principles to problems like these, and whose job it is not is to be familiar with irrelevancies ranging from the location of one councilman’s house, whether dogs bark louder before a rainstorm, or the way that one neighbor never really thought highly of the color used by another to paint his house, and always complains about it at the Elks club meetings.
The judge sagaciously considered the previous council’s attitude with regard to its mandate to redistrict, and found it sorely wanting. He examined the previous council’s last-second attempt to implement a redistricting plan contrived in a Geritol-induced haze by the wife of one of its now mercifully retired members, and found that plan sorely wanting, too, because it did not adhere to the principles of the Constitution.
The Constitution. What a concept ... just not here.
In effect, the judge in question laughed the previous council out of court, made the very strong suggestion that it keep the Constitution in mind, and directed it to try again. The committee was approved and was formed, with three at-large councilmen and three community members (only one of whom was involved in the original lawsuit), and the council agreed to consider the results.
Last night, the council wonderfully and delightfully pissed itself.
Diane McCartin-Benedetti argued forcefully that the committee was created for the express purpose of saving her the trouble of doing such work herself … and then she voted against the committee’s work, naturally without explanation.
John Gonder was forced to concede that an unguarded comment about a deck of cards made to colleague Steve Price was justification enough for Price, who hardly needs provocation to make asinine allegations of impropriety, to publicly insult the integrity of committee members who, as you recall, were only doing McCartin-Benedetti’s job for her. But Gonder, a committe member, voted in favor.
Dan Coffey raved and ranted about not playing games, and joined Price in suggesting that this is what happens when you let those evil outsiders come into town. The gallery Coffey had packed with Westendians in an effort to preserve his waning influence by thwarting progress in the district he has chronically neglected had already left, or there may have been a progressive lynched on the spot.
Rather like the White Southern “states rights” folks, who used to passionately argue against the precepts of the Constitution because, well, you just don’t understand the way it has to be with us and the Negroes, and understand that we have our own customs and traditions, and if slavery and prejudice happen to be among these, so be it. It makes our neck of the woods special.
Rather like earlier last evening when a local mail carrier accidentally provided a theme for the meeting by suggesting that the federal judge might have better ignored the Constitution in reaching his decision taking the previous council to task over its refusal to observe the dictates of voter rights and equality. According to the postman, there is something sacred and holy about current configuration of voting districts – something indefinable, yet true in a mystical sort of way. Never mind that the council has been directed to reshape these districts in accordance with reality. Subjectivism -- that's where it's at.
In the end, amid the fear, loathing and sheer Pricist buffoonery, the vote was a tie, 4-4, with Pat McLaughlin absent. There will be two more readings.
Eight people, three local television news channels and the Courier-Journal were at last night’s council meeting, and all but a handful of the public departed after the public hearing on smoking. There’s a Constitutional principle involved in the smoking ban debate, too. All of it goes back to that document.
That is, unless you’re one of the four city council members, including the body’s president, Jeff Gahan, voting against Constitutional principles last evening, and in favor of local self-determination even if it means soiling a parchment all were sworn to uphold.
Sad, but wonderfully and delightfully New Albanian, don’t you think?
Monday, July 07, 2008
Dull wits sharpen their Bazooka Joe souvenir knives as redistricting returns to the council agenda.
Afternoon Monday addition: Revamped council district map.
As if any further reminder were necessary, there’s a city council meeting tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the usual stuffy and overcrowded room.
We’ve already discussed the latest Coffey Barbecued Bologna Plan for societal regression (here), as well as the pre-meeting public hearing on a workplace smoking ban (here). The other piece of the evening’s legislative puzzle is the first appearance of a redistricting ordinance since late last year, when in a stunning redistricting vindication, the council “failed to comply” with an agreement to settle with the plaintiffs and the Schmidt solution was laughed out of court.
Subsequently a committee composed of the three at-large councilmen and three representatives of the citizenry was formed, much earnest work has been done, and now, at this typically late date, Little Stevie is offended by the results, 'cuz he didn't get the information.
Council to discuss redistricting; Some in New Albany concerned about idea, by Dick Kaukas (Courier-Journal).
Councilman Steve Price, who represents District 3, said last week that he and District 4 Councilman Patrick McLaughlin would end up in the same district under the proposal and would have to run against each other if both sought re-election.
"I think it's politically slanted," Price said of the plan. "I think it was done on purpose because they want to take me out."
Price, who in two (unfortunate) three-way Democratic primaries has never even approached the lofty perch of 40% voter approval, was out at the cement pond and unavailable for further comment, but previously the Tribune provided an overview of the way that the latest solution to the council’s persistent disinterest in constitutionality came about.
New Albany redistricting plan ready for a vote, by Daniel Suddeath (News and Tribune).
Committee Co-chairman Randy Smith said the six districts were shaped to include as close to 6,325 people each as possible, based on population numbers confirmed through Floyd County Clerk Linda Moeller …
… Smith said he’s hopeful the council will sanction the new map since none of its members have provided input, except the three at-large councilmen assigned to the committee.
“I expect no criticism whatsoever, since we’ve had five public meetings,” Smith said.
All those public meetings, and still my councilman couldn’t appear even once to observe the process and reach an independent conclusion. Then again, as the council’s appointee to the Urban Enterprise Association board, Price has struggled valiantly to attend two of six UEA meetings so far in 2008. It would appear that professional decay management is a full-time position, and precludes participation in any enterprise that might dare to seek decay reversal.
Why, then, pretend to be a councilman? There's a question for that wise dude atop the mountain.
Naturally it wouldn’t be New Albany without a semblance of last-minute subterfuge (today’s vocabulary word, loyal readers … there’ll be a quiz), and so a reading of the ordinance proposed for tonight shows a significant change from the one offered by the committee. This alteration has to do with official precinct boundary changes and the potential involvement of the moribund county commissioners, all of which to these eyes is patently unnecessary, but then again, I didn’t serve on the committee. Worst yet, the suggestion that the redistricting process must hinge on the involvement of countywide elected officials seems the perfect excuse for grandstanding on the platform of anti-city/pro-county evil, and thus an equally perfect pretext for rejection.
Here’s what I know. NAC considered the redistricting plan’s impending vote in a previous posting, and the posting concluded with this sentence, which remains true today:
To paraphrase Mick Jagger: "ACLU, children, it's just a call away."
Just a call away, and yet the one fundamental requirement that has been missing throughout this two-year struggle is a clear, unambiguous statement of non-ironic commitment on the part of the city of New Albany’s elected legislative body to the principle of fair elections according to constitutional precedent.
One would imagine that such a commitment would lie somewhat near the heart of an elected official. Why not ours?
As if any further reminder were necessary, there’s a city council meeting tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the usual stuffy and overcrowded room.
We’ve already discussed the latest Coffey Barbecued Bologna Plan for societal regression (here), as well as the pre-meeting public hearing on a workplace smoking ban (here). The other piece of the evening’s legislative puzzle is the first appearance of a redistricting ordinance since late last year, when in a stunning redistricting vindication, the council “failed to comply” with an agreement to settle with the plaintiffs and the Schmidt solution was laughed out of court.
Subsequently a committee composed of the three at-large councilmen and three representatives of the citizenry was formed, much earnest work has been done, and now, at this typically late date, Little Stevie is offended by the results, 'cuz he didn't get the information.
Council to discuss redistricting; Some in New Albany concerned about idea, by Dick Kaukas (Courier-Journal).
Councilman Steve Price, who represents District 3, said last week that he and District 4 Councilman Patrick McLaughlin would end up in the same district under the proposal and would have to run against each other if both sought re-election.
"I think it's politically slanted," Price said of the plan. "I think it was done on purpose because they want to take me out."
Price, who in two (unfortunate) three-way Democratic primaries has never even approached the lofty perch of 40% voter approval, was out at the cement pond and unavailable for further comment, but previously the Tribune provided an overview of the way that the latest solution to the council’s persistent disinterest in constitutionality came about.
New Albany redistricting plan ready for a vote, by Daniel Suddeath (News and Tribune).
Committee Co-chairman Randy Smith said the six districts were shaped to include as close to 6,325 people each as possible, based on population numbers confirmed through Floyd County Clerk Linda Moeller …
… Smith said he’s hopeful the council will sanction the new map since none of its members have provided input, except the three at-large councilmen assigned to the committee.
“I expect no criticism whatsoever, since we’ve had five public meetings,” Smith said.
All those public meetings, and still my councilman couldn’t appear even once to observe the process and reach an independent conclusion. Then again, as the council’s appointee to the Urban Enterprise Association board, Price has struggled valiantly to attend two of six UEA meetings so far in 2008. It would appear that professional decay management is a full-time position, and precludes participation in any enterprise that might dare to seek decay reversal.
Why, then, pretend to be a councilman? There's a question for that wise dude atop the mountain.
Naturally it wouldn’t be New Albany without a semblance of last-minute subterfuge (today’s vocabulary word, loyal readers … there’ll be a quiz), and so a reading of the ordinance proposed for tonight shows a significant change from the one offered by the committee. This alteration has to do with official precinct boundary changes and the potential involvement of the moribund county commissioners, all of which to these eyes is patently unnecessary, but then again, I didn’t serve on the committee. Worst yet, the suggestion that the redistricting process must hinge on the involvement of countywide elected officials seems the perfect excuse for grandstanding on the platform of anti-city/pro-county evil, and thus an equally perfect pretext for rejection.
Here’s what I know. NAC considered the redistricting plan’s impending vote in a previous posting, and the posting concluded with this sentence, which remains true today:
To paraphrase Mick Jagger: "ACLU, children, it's just a call away."
Just a call away, and yet the one fundamental requirement that has been missing throughout this two-year struggle is a clear, unambiguous statement of non-ironic commitment on the part of the city of New Albany’s elected legislative body to the principle of fair elections according to constitutional precedent.
One would imagine that such a commitment would lie somewhat near the heart of an elected official. Why not ours?
There's a smoking ban hearing tonight, and the words "workplace safety" will be uttered more than once.
The mercifully retired King Larry K. couldn’t conjure the legislative energy necessary to extinguish the flames, so now it’s up to a newly configured council to bizarrely ignore more pressing items of business – of which there are literally dozens – and consider anew an indoor smoking ban, a topic that runs second only to abortion in transforming otherwise placid individuals into rhetorical Tasmanian devils.
New Albany City Council to discuss possible smoking ban, by Daniel Suddeath (News and Tribune).
A topic that usually drives high emotions on each side of the issue, the New Albany City Council will tackle the idea of implementing a smoking ban during a public hearing Monday.
Readers, do any of you have a feeling about what the county might do if such a city ordinance came into being? Would a matching ordinance be enacted? If not, would there be mass nicotine flight to smoking lounges established in suburbs and exurbs just outside the city’s boundaries, or by New Age squatters amid the opulent villas of the foreclosure-plagued Woods of Lafayette?
I can see the hand-lettered signs now (and most of them illegally erected):
Smoke free or die
Bubba’s ciggies and fireworks
Smoke ‘n’ swill @ “My Cold Dead Hand” air conditioned lounge
But, seriously … readers, please note that if you are planning on attending this hearing, and if you are opposed to the idea of an indoor smoking ban, you should carefully peruse this passage of the Tribune article for strategic guidance:
“This survey shows that the people of Floyd County overwhelmingly support a smoke-free workplace law for the city of New Albany that covers all workplaces,” stated Meribeth Adams-Wolf, Floyd County Tobacco Prevention and Cessation member, in a news release.
Ms. Adams-Wolf is referring to a “poll conducted recently by the Survey Research Center at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (in which) 68 percent of adults in Floyd County said they would support a universal smoking ban in New Albany.”
I’m not sure what the margin of error was in the survey. It doesn’t matter; instead, pay close attention to the language used in the news release. It is not a coincidence that the word “workplace” is deployed twice, because the gist of the anti-smoking lobby’s numerous successes of late is its ability to define the issue not as a personal liberties debate, but as a question of workplace safety.
Why? That's easy. Because when it comes to workplace safety, American society has long accepted a tradeoff, in the sense that personal liberties are fair game for modification when one is on the job.
Chronic smokers suffer from shortness of breath, so don’t waste what little remains by arguing about your rights and freedoms. Rather, your rebuttals must come in the form of documented refutation of the dangers of second-hand smoke in the atmosphere of the workplace -- and the workplace alone. Diatribes about liberty are appreciated in their time and place. They are also irrelevant to the discussion that is about to occur, so don't make it easy on the proponents. Make them work for it.
As such, perhaps at-large councilman John Gonder is waxing prophetic in Sunday's Tribune article.
Gonder feels most residents will want an all or nothing ruling. Though Louisville has banned smoking across the board, Jeffersonville still allows it in bars.
“If people are going to insist on an all or nothing approach, it’s pretty much going to set the stage for a nothing approach,” said Gonder, who doesn’t think the council would ban smoking for every type of establishment.
Gonder may be right, but for the wrong reason. In terms of logic, it’s all very simple.
As I wrote some months back, if the premises of the anti-smoking bloc are correct, and "there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke", then there should be absolutely no exceptions. If the premises are incorrect, there should be no ordinance. Gradualism and exceptions are meaningless; it should be all, or nothing at all, or else it’s an exercise in hypocrisy.
Naturally, you can expect plenty of patented council dithering, starting with inevitable exemptions for the VFW and American Legion as “private clubs” (ones bound by all other prevailing regulatory laws and workplace safety rules), maybe including bars (can’t wait for the council's new extralegal definition for them), and finally, some way for Kaiser’s Tobacco to be granted an exception.
Come to think of it, Kaiser's deserves a grandfather clause. Any business that has cheated death for 175 years probably should be given a pass.
Right?
Or wrong?
New Albany City Council to discuss possible smoking ban, by Daniel Suddeath (News and Tribune).
A topic that usually drives high emotions on each side of the issue, the New Albany City Council will tackle the idea of implementing a smoking ban during a public hearing Monday.
Readers, do any of you have a feeling about what the county might do if such a city ordinance came into being? Would a matching ordinance be enacted? If not, would there be mass nicotine flight to smoking lounges established in suburbs and exurbs just outside the city’s boundaries, or by New Age squatters amid the opulent villas of the foreclosure-plagued Woods of Lafayette?
I can see the hand-lettered signs now (and most of them illegally erected):
Smoke free or die
Bubba’s ciggies and fireworks
Smoke ‘n’ swill @ “My Cold Dead Hand” air conditioned lounge
But, seriously … readers, please note that if you are planning on attending this hearing, and if you are opposed to the idea of an indoor smoking ban, you should carefully peruse this passage of the Tribune article for strategic guidance:
“This survey shows that the people of Floyd County overwhelmingly support a smoke-free workplace law for the city of New Albany that covers all workplaces,” stated Meribeth Adams-Wolf, Floyd County Tobacco Prevention and Cessation member, in a news release.
Ms. Adams-Wolf is referring to a “poll conducted recently by the Survey Research Center at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (in which) 68 percent of adults in Floyd County said they would support a universal smoking ban in New Albany.”
I’m not sure what the margin of error was in the survey. It doesn’t matter; instead, pay close attention to the language used in the news release. It is not a coincidence that the word “workplace” is deployed twice, because the gist of the anti-smoking lobby’s numerous successes of late is its ability to define the issue not as a personal liberties debate, but as a question of workplace safety.
Why? That's easy. Because when it comes to workplace safety, American society has long accepted a tradeoff, in the sense that personal liberties are fair game for modification when one is on the job.
Chronic smokers suffer from shortness of breath, so don’t waste what little remains by arguing about your rights and freedoms. Rather, your rebuttals must come in the form of documented refutation of the dangers of second-hand smoke in the atmosphere of the workplace -- and the workplace alone. Diatribes about liberty are appreciated in their time and place. They are also irrelevant to the discussion that is about to occur, so don't make it easy on the proponents. Make them work for it.
As such, perhaps at-large councilman John Gonder is waxing prophetic in Sunday's Tribune article.
Gonder feels most residents will want an all or nothing ruling. Though Louisville has banned smoking across the board, Jeffersonville still allows it in bars.
“If people are going to insist on an all or nothing approach, it’s pretty much going to set the stage for a nothing approach,” said Gonder, who doesn’t think the council would ban smoking for every type of establishment.
Gonder may be right, but for the wrong reason. In terms of logic, it’s all very simple.
As I wrote some months back, if the premises of the anti-smoking bloc are correct, and "there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke", then there should be absolutely no exceptions. If the premises are incorrect, there should be no ordinance. Gradualism and exceptions are meaningless; it should be all, or nothing at all, or else it’s an exercise in hypocrisy.
Naturally, you can expect plenty of patented council dithering, starting with inevitable exemptions for the VFW and American Legion as “private clubs” (ones bound by all other prevailing regulatory laws and workplace safety rules), maybe including bars (can’t wait for the council's new extralegal definition for them), and finally, some way for Kaiser’s Tobacco to be granted an exception.
Come to think of it, Kaiser's deserves a grandfather clause. Any business that has cheated death for 175 years probably should be given a pass.
Right?
Or wrong?
Sunday, July 06, 2008
The insipidity never ceases, so here comes the Wizard's anti-progress resolution ... again.
I was glancing at the city council agenda for Monday, July 7, and noticed R-08-35 batting leadoff, which upon closer examination closely resembles R-08-34, itself a piece of legislative irrelevance that was defeated 6-3 at the council’s June 19 conclave.
Resolutions are one and out, so now, like the New Albanian Night of the Living Dead, here it comes again!
Both the rejected -34 and the reconstituted -35 might otherwise be known as 1st district CM Dan “Wizard of Westside” Coffey’s last ditch Magna Farta, both ingloriously transparent attempts to (a) stymie the irresistible free market-driven tide of progress headed his way, because (b) altering the decaying character of the neighborhood that Coffey has done absolutely nothing to improve during a career of under-achievement deters the inveterate poli-fabricationist’s ability to frighten his constituents into fearing ideas, people and aspects of life on Earth that the councilman loathes ... although, always and eternally, he's unable to imagine alternatives.
We described the council scene last time here: Coffey council comedic relief for Thursday, June 19.
In the exhumed resolution, there are only three changes.
Now it is noted that the council “originally established a zoning code”, with “originally” omitted before.
Now, when it is written that the council seeks a zoning change for the neighborhood, the passage reads, “along with a majority of homeowners (the council) desires to change the zoning status.”
Last month’s resolution called for a zoning change from R4 to RN1. This one mandates R4 to R2 or RN1.
The Great Civic Necromancer’s reference to a “majority of homeowners” surely refers to the mysterious petition that Coffey has referred to at various junctures during his valiant struggle to prevent the Lopp real estate firm from doing what might, at this late date, be the only feasible thing in a chronically neglected neighborhood suffering grievously from 65% rental property presence (that is, short of restoring the native hardwood forest as a long-term investment in timber futures).
That'd be paying people cash for their land and buildings, clearing away the slumlord’s handiwork, and starting all over again outside the restrictions imposed by Coffey's preferred political lifestyle of self-aggrandizing decay management.
Lopp proposes a massive investment in the future of the city, and Coffey hurriedly rallies the wailing and waning ghosts of the past to thwart it, and once again the council must waste precious time to consider what amounts to a pathetic filibuster against modern living conducted by as discredited an agent of past flatulent errors as could be conceived by a writer of fiction.
Except it’s all too real, and so it goes in Coffey’s and 3rd District Un-CM Steve Price’s preferred habitat, the Open Air Museum of Ignorance, Superstition and Backwardness.
Here are the definitions of the zoning terminology, followed by the ordinances in question.
R-4 - Multi-Family (High Density). This district has similar characteristics and permitted uses as R-3 (medium, not high density). It is designed for areas of higher density development. Development on septic tank fields is prohibited.
R-2 - Urban Residential. This district is designed for areas where development will occur on group sanitary waste disposal systems and sewers. The permitted use in this district is single-family residential.
RN-1 - Neighborhood Residential. This district is designated for higher density single-family development and two-family dwellings where approved through Conditional Use. Development on septic tanks is prohibited.
Resolutions are one and out, so now, like the New Albanian Night of the Living Dead, here it comes again!
Both the rejected -34 and the reconstituted -35 might otherwise be known as 1st district CM Dan “Wizard of Westside” Coffey’s last ditch Magna Farta, both ingloriously transparent attempts to (a) stymie the irresistible free market-driven tide of progress headed his way, because (b) altering the decaying character of the neighborhood that Coffey has done absolutely nothing to improve during a career of under-achievement deters the inveterate poli-fabricationist’s ability to frighten his constituents into fearing ideas, people and aspects of life on Earth that the councilman loathes ... although, always and eternally, he's unable to imagine alternatives.
We described the council scene last time here: Coffey council comedic relief for Thursday, June 19.
In the exhumed resolution, there are only three changes.
Now it is noted that the council “originally established a zoning code”, with “originally” omitted before.
Now, when it is written that the council seeks a zoning change for the neighborhood, the passage reads, “along with a majority of homeowners (the council) desires to change the zoning status.”
Last month’s resolution called for a zoning change from R4 to RN1. This one mandates R4 to R2 or RN1.
The Great Civic Necromancer’s reference to a “majority of homeowners” surely refers to the mysterious petition that Coffey has referred to at various junctures during his valiant struggle to prevent the Lopp real estate firm from doing what might, at this late date, be the only feasible thing in a chronically neglected neighborhood suffering grievously from 65% rental property presence (that is, short of restoring the native hardwood forest as a long-term investment in timber futures).
That'd be paying people cash for their land and buildings, clearing away the slumlord’s handiwork, and starting all over again outside the restrictions imposed by Coffey's preferred political lifestyle of self-aggrandizing decay management.
Lopp proposes a massive investment in the future of the city, and Coffey hurriedly rallies the wailing and waning ghosts of the past to thwart it, and once again the council must waste precious time to consider what amounts to a pathetic filibuster against modern living conducted by as discredited an agent of past flatulent errors as could be conceived by a writer of fiction.
Except it’s all too real, and so it goes in Coffey’s and 3rd District Un-CM Steve Price’s preferred habitat, the Open Air Museum of Ignorance, Superstition and Backwardness.
Here are the definitions of the zoning terminology, followed by the ordinances in question.
R-4 - Multi-Family (High Density). This district has similar characteristics and permitted uses as R-3 (medium, not high density). It is designed for areas of higher density development. Development on septic tank fields is prohibited.
R-2 - Urban Residential. This district is designed for areas where development will occur on group sanitary waste disposal systems and sewers. The permitted use in this district is single-family residential.
RN-1 - Neighborhood Residential. This district is designated for higher density single-family development and two-family dwellings where approved through Conditional Use. Development on septic tanks is prohibited.
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Birthday greetings to Speakeasy.
It's been about 55 weeks ago that the Glenn Miller Orchestra came into town and opened Speakeasy Jazz on State Street.
In the Mood: Saturday at the Speakeasy with the Glenn Miller Orchestra ... and more than a few ghosts.
The official grand opening was just shy of a year ago, and NAC received this message a couple of days back:
We (SPEAKEASY) just turned one year old and would like to thank New Albany for a great year. We look forward to many more!
Happy birthday to Brad, Lori and the gang.
In the Mood: Saturday at the Speakeasy with the Glenn Miller Orchestra ... and more than a few ghosts.
The official grand opening was just shy of a year ago, and NAC received this message a couple of days back:
We (SPEAKEASY) just turned one year old and would like to thank New Albany for a great year. We look forward to many more!
Happy birthday to Brad, Lori and the gang.
A bit of Zinn to exacerbate the hangover.
With the birthday parties mostly concluded and the nationalism temporarily abated, permit me to note that I never really understood how one or the other God could be on “our side.” Maybe my irreligious upbringing caused me to miss something, although I doubt it.
It always seemed to me that if the concept of God were to have any meaning, it would be with the alleged “supreme being” as a neutral overseer, and not an active handicapper in grisly conflicts that fell outside the ordained rulebook to begin with.
With that as preface, permit me also to observe that I deeply appreciate Howard Zinn’s role as American gadfly even if I’m not in lockstep agreement with him at all times. His seminal work, “A People’s History of the United States”, occupies a prominent place on my bookshelf. As topical evidence of Zinn’s intent: Put away the flags, by Howard Zinn (2006).
Any explication of hypocrisy is worthwhile, but at the same time surely it’s redundant of Zinn to spotlight atrocities committed by American soldiers. All troops in all wars commit atrocities, because war itself is an atrocity, and should be undertaken not as whim, but as a last resort. It isn’t that the Bush neo-con cabal never understood this point. It’s that they did, and proceeded to purposely ignore it, and that’ why history’s judgment is going to be unrelentingly harsh.
I don’t regard Zinn’s perspective as gospel any more than I do the obscure musings of ancient desert dwellers, but he asks uncomfortable questions … and someone should be making such queries in any society that truly values freedom of speech.
And he signs his name, too. Does that make him ineligible for residence in New Albany?
It always seemed to me that if the concept of God were to have any meaning, it would be with the alleged “supreme being” as a neutral overseer, and not an active handicapper in grisly conflicts that fell outside the ordained rulebook to begin with.
With that as preface, permit me also to observe that I deeply appreciate Howard Zinn’s role as American gadfly even if I’m not in lockstep agreement with him at all times. His seminal work, “A People’s History of the United States”, occupies a prominent place on my bookshelf. As topical evidence of Zinn’s intent: Put away the flags, by Howard Zinn (2006).
Any explication of hypocrisy is worthwhile, but at the same time surely it’s redundant of Zinn to spotlight atrocities committed by American soldiers. All troops in all wars commit atrocities, because war itself is an atrocity, and should be undertaken not as whim, but as a last resort. It isn’t that the Bush neo-con cabal never understood this point. It’s that they did, and proceeded to purposely ignore it, and that’ why history’s judgment is going to be unrelentingly harsh.
I don’t regard Zinn’s perspective as gospel any more than I do the obscure musings of ancient desert dwellers, but he asks uncomfortable questions … and someone should be making such queries in any society that truly values freedom of speech.
And he signs his name, too. Does that make him ineligible for residence in New Albany?
Friday, July 04, 2008
Biofueled world food crisis? Whaddya mean, the Shrub fibbed … again?
Let's all join together in a rousing chorus of "DUH!"
Not to take anything away from holiday distractions, but while we're indulging in the 4th of July holiday, here's some Lite reading:
Secret report: biofuel caused food crisis; Internal World Bank study delivers blow to plant energy drive, by Aditya Chakrabortty (The Guardian).
Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian ...
... The figure emphatically contradicts the US government's claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. It will add to pressure on governments in Washington and across Europe, which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil.
It's also worth reading this piece from the New York Times by Thomas Friedman.
Mr. Bush, Lead or Leave
It’s as if our addict-in-chief is saying to us: “C’mon guys, you know you want a little more of the good stuff. One more hit, baby. Just one more toke on the ole oil pipe. I promise, next year, we’ll all go straight. I’ll even put a wind turbine on my presidential library. But for now, give me one more pop from that drill, please, baby. Just one more transfusion of that sweet offshore crude.”
With respect to the worst president ever, I'm liking the "leave" option, but the probable fact of the matter is that we're in the midst of mass pychosis, or more likely, a spate of congnitive dissonance like nothing we've experienced previously as a nation. It would explain the short tempers and panic that are becoming commonplace hereabouts.
Not to take anything away from holiday distractions, but while we're indulging in the 4th of July holiday, here's some Lite reading:
Secret report: biofuel caused food crisis; Internal World Bank study delivers blow to plant energy drive, by Aditya Chakrabortty (The Guardian).
Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian ...
... The figure emphatically contradicts the US government's claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. It will add to pressure on governments in Washington and across Europe, which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil.
It's also worth reading this piece from the New York Times by Thomas Friedman.
Mr. Bush, Lead or Leave
It’s as if our addict-in-chief is saying to us: “C’mon guys, you know you want a little more of the good stuff. One more hit, baby. Just one more toke on the ole oil pipe. I promise, next year, we’ll all go straight. I’ll even put a wind turbine on my presidential library. But for now, give me one more pop from that drill, please, baby. Just one more transfusion of that sweet offshore crude.”
With respect to the worst president ever, I'm liking the "leave" option, but the probable fact of the matter is that we're in the midst of mass pychosis, or more likely, a spate of congnitive dissonance like nothing we've experienced previously as a nation. It would explain the short tempers and panic that are becoming commonplace hereabouts.
REWIND: Oooh ... AHHH ... it's trognonymous hate mail!
Hard to believe it's been a year (originally published on July 6, 2007).
The acrid aftertaste of anonymous snailhatemail is always easier to swallow when chased with a Progressive Pint from NABC (pictured above, Croupier IPA).
When the cowards start sending mash notes, you must be doing something right, but if the city's "little people" graduate to outright stalking, can someone please let me know?
I'd hate to trip over them on my way to the pub.
Thursday, July 03, 2008
New Albany's show tonight, and beautification underway.
It has been an exhausting past few weeks, and it seems a break is merited. NABC will be open today (Thursday, July 3) but closed Friday, Saturday and Sunday for a long holiday weekend.
Tonight, the action's downtown.
Concert, fireworks coming to New Albany riverfront Thursday; Beautification effort starts this week, too, by Daniel Suddeath (News and Tribune).
An unprecedented celebration and the desire to beautify the riverfront corridor has inspired the New Albany Urban Enterprise Association to team with a local landscaper. Beginning this week, Mike Pattison, owner of Equinox Gardens at 313 Mount Tabor Road, is hanging baskets and planting flowers through areas of the Urban Enterprise Zone — an area mainly covering downtown that is marked for economic enhancements.
Tonight, the action's downtown.
Concert, fireworks coming to New Albany riverfront Thursday; Beautification effort starts this week, too, by Daniel Suddeath (News and Tribune).
An unprecedented celebration and the desire to beautify the riverfront corridor has inspired the New Albany Urban Enterprise Association to team with a local landscaper. Beginning this week, Mike Pattison, owner of Equinox Gardens at 313 Mount Tabor Road, is hanging baskets and planting flowers through areas of the Urban Enterprise Zone — an area mainly covering downtown that is marked for economic enhancements.
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
A successful First Tuesday puts the lie to conjoined posturing.
Yesterday marked the third time that Develop New Albany has sponsored a “First Tuesday” networking event. It was held at Liz at Home on Main Street, and was attended by roughly 150 people. Seeing as I have a pocketful of business cards, I’d say that the premise is more than valid.
Considering that the number in attendance yesterday doubled that of the inaugural event in May, others apparently agree with this assessment.
There was a wonderful spread of nibbles assembled by Liz at Home and the Main Street Café & Treats (never ignore smoked salmon and a dusting of capers), plenty of wine, and NABC beer. More importantly, there was a good vibe afoot, and that’s important, because while there’ll always be naysayers, positive thinking and simple optimism on the part of those willing to work hard – and who put their money and names on the line every single day – cannot be overestimated in terms of ultimate achievement.
You can’t win the game without believing you can win. It’s trite, but it’s true. Events like yesterday’s after-work networking gathering help to instill and perpetuate positive thinking in both a business sense and in terms of civic sentiment. They help make things happen.
Of course, for some, making things happen rates a scarlet letter … and it’s unfortunate.
In the political sphere, the coming weeks are going to feature a great deal of histrionic, theatrical grandstanding on the part of those lesser lights in the locally elected firmament, whose preconceived notions of limited personal aptitude compels them to constantly work against success on the part of others.
Having done all they could to rig failure and induce chaos, they’re happy to mount their respective soapboxes and point to previous dire warnings of doom as evidence of Nostradamus-like skills of prognostication.
It’s all bunk, and nothing could be further from the truth. With each passing month, Boner & Jethro’s jihads against modernity grow more shrill and repetitive. As forthcoming items are considered here at NAC, always remember that a steady stream of “no” votes emanating from the likes of Dan Coffey and Steve Price have never been accompanied by alternatives, further options or a platform of their own.
Like the Wizard’s tiresome and self-aggrandizing council chamber monologues, all of it amounts to little more than an ongoing filibuster against the future.
Too bad, then, that alongside sure things like death and taxes is the sad knowledge that neither of the conjoined councilmen will ever be caught dead at a First Tuesday function. Not only would they be forced to chat with far too many of “them people,” whom they loathe, but they’d be confronted with the damning cognitive dissonance of consorting with the capable, with the doers, and with those who can. Like the Wicked Witch, there’d be summary melting of obstructionists, and it would be ugly.
Not unwelcome, though.
Considering that the number in attendance yesterday doubled that of the inaugural event in May, others apparently agree with this assessment.
There was a wonderful spread of nibbles assembled by Liz at Home and the Main Street Café & Treats (never ignore smoked salmon and a dusting of capers), plenty of wine, and NABC beer. More importantly, there was a good vibe afoot, and that’s important, because while there’ll always be naysayers, positive thinking and simple optimism on the part of those willing to work hard – and who put their money and names on the line every single day – cannot be overestimated in terms of ultimate achievement.
You can’t win the game without believing you can win. It’s trite, but it’s true. Events like yesterday’s after-work networking gathering help to instill and perpetuate positive thinking in both a business sense and in terms of civic sentiment. They help make things happen.
Of course, for some, making things happen rates a scarlet letter … and it’s unfortunate.
In the political sphere, the coming weeks are going to feature a great deal of histrionic, theatrical grandstanding on the part of those lesser lights in the locally elected firmament, whose preconceived notions of limited personal aptitude compels them to constantly work against success on the part of others.
Having done all they could to rig failure and induce chaos, they’re happy to mount their respective soapboxes and point to previous dire warnings of doom as evidence of Nostradamus-like skills of prognostication.
It’s all bunk, and nothing could be further from the truth. With each passing month, Boner & Jethro’s jihads against modernity grow more shrill and repetitive. As forthcoming items are considered here at NAC, always remember that a steady stream of “no” votes emanating from the likes of Dan Coffey and Steve Price have never been accompanied by alternatives, further options or a platform of their own.
Like the Wizard’s tiresome and self-aggrandizing council chamber monologues, all of it amounts to little more than an ongoing filibuster against the future.
Too bad, then, that alongside sure things like death and taxes is the sad knowledge that neither of the conjoined councilmen will ever be caught dead at a First Tuesday function. Not only would they be forced to chat with far too many of “them people,” whom they loathe, but they’d be confronted with the damning cognitive dissonance of consorting with the capable, with the doers, and with those who can. Like the Wicked Witch, there’d be summary melting of obstructionists, and it would be ugly.
Not unwelcome, though.
Film: “Four Months, Three Weeks and Two Days.”
Can it happen here?
In Communist Romania during the first two decades following World War II, contraceptives generally could not be obtained. However, abortion was legal, readily available and absurdly cheap, and some estimates suggest that there were four abortions for every live birth in 1966.
In 1967, Romanian Communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu decreed abortion illegal overnight as part of a megalomaniacal drive to increase the country’s population. The short term effect was an abrupt doubling of the birth rate, followed by a fast and steady decline, to the point that twenty years afterward, Romania’s population had ceased to grow at all.
One population statistic did increase in Romania during this time. The maternal mortality rate tripled. The likely explanation is that women dying from botched illegal abortions were included statistically with those dying during childbirth.
From 1967 through Ceausescu’s overdue toppling and execution in 1989, the Romanian governmental bureaucracy actively intervened in the sex lives of the country’s citizens as part of the dictator’s psychotic desire that greater numbers of New Communist men and women be created to man the ramparts of a decaying, doomed society.
Two nights ago we watched “Four Months, Three Weeks and Two Days,” a harrowing and compelling Romanian film that tells the story of a university student’s illegal abortion in the year 1987. It is by far the best of the four Romanian cinematic productions that Diana and I have seen this year. All of them have been good and thought provoking, especially for someone with a workmanlike grounding in the history of the area, but “Four Months …” indisputably exists on a higher plane of achievement.
I shan’t reveal the plot, which is eloquent in its simplicity, but it should suffice to note that the film’s action takes place against a stifling backdrop of big governmental intrusion in the lives of ordinary people. All parties involved in transacting the illegal abortion faced lengthy jail terms if caught. In addition to the threat of maiming and even death, a Romanian woman of the time who was seeking to terminate a pregnancy (in the absence of contraceptives) could be imprisoned and her career – her life – ruined.
There may be little to justify the public life of a Nicolae Ceausescu outside of cynical Cold War politics and a certain level of regional backwardness, and yet there are others among us right here in America, some in gated communities, others with no worldly possessions, but all possessed of a fervent belief that control must be exercised over reproductive freedom, and who if asked, would volunteer the imposition of the semi-literate tin pot Communist strongman’s solution of a ban on abortion and the expansion of a police state to enforce it.
That’s very, very frightening.
In Communist Romania during the first two decades following World War II, contraceptives generally could not be obtained. However, abortion was legal, readily available and absurdly cheap, and some estimates suggest that there were four abortions for every live birth in 1966.
In 1967, Romanian Communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu decreed abortion illegal overnight as part of a megalomaniacal drive to increase the country’s population. The short term effect was an abrupt doubling of the birth rate, followed by a fast and steady decline, to the point that twenty years afterward, Romania’s population had ceased to grow at all.
One population statistic did increase in Romania during this time. The maternal mortality rate tripled. The likely explanation is that women dying from botched illegal abortions were included statistically with those dying during childbirth.
From 1967 through Ceausescu’s overdue toppling and execution in 1989, the Romanian governmental bureaucracy actively intervened in the sex lives of the country’s citizens as part of the dictator’s psychotic desire that greater numbers of New Communist men and women be created to man the ramparts of a decaying, doomed society.
Two nights ago we watched “Four Months, Three Weeks and Two Days,” a harrowing and compelling Romanian film that tells the story of a university student’s illegal abortion in the year 1987. It is by far the best of the four Romanian cinematic productions that Diana and I have seen this year. All of them have been good and thought provoking, especially for someone with a workmanlike grounding in the history of the area, but “Four Months …” indisputably exists on a higher plane of achievement.
I shan’t reveal the plot, which is eloquent in its simplicity, but it should suffice to note that the film’s action takes place against a stifling backdrop of big governmental intrusion in the lives of ordinary people. All parties involved in transacting the illegal abortion faced lengthy jail terms if caught. In addition to the threat of maiming and even death, a Romanian woman of the time who was seeking to terminate a pregnancy (in the absence of contraceptives) could be imprisoned and her career – her life – ruined.
There may be little to justify the public life of a Nicolae Ceausescu outside of cynical Cold War politics and a certain level of regional backwardness, and yet there are others among us right here in America, some in gated communities, others with no worldly possessions, but all possessed of a fervent belief that control must be exercised over reproductive freedom, and who if asked, would volunteer the imposition of the semi-literate tin pot Communist strongman’s solution of a ban on abortion and the expansion of a police state to enforce it.
That’s very, very frightening.
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Civilization under attack: Dutch coffee shops and the new smoking ban.
Perhaps instead of banning tobacco ... aw, never mind.
Amsterdam coffee shops say tobacco ban is blow to business
As in the rest of Europe the purpose of the ban is to protect the health of staff, who at present are obliged to inhale passively other people's smoke. But Sandy Lambrecht, the manager of the Bulldog coffee shop on the Leidseplein in the heart of Amsterdam, said: "The new rules are absurd. You come to a coffee shop to smoke, after all – it's ridiculous that we have to comply. The new rules are meant to protect employees like me, but the point is that we chose to work here."
It's just that I support niche markets.
Amsterdam coffee shops say tobacco ban is blow to business
As in the rest of Europe the purpose of the ban is to protect the health of staff, who at present are obliged to inhale passively other people's smoke. But Sandy Lambrecht, the manager of the Bulldog coffee shop on the Leidseplein in the heart of Amsterdam, said: "The new rules are absurd. You come to a coffee shop to smoke, after all – it's ridiculous that we have to comply. The new rules are meant to protect employees like me, but the point is that we chose to work here."
It's just that I support niche markets.
Brutal unsolved kidnapping rocks Spring Street.
A “Them People” yard sign, aged 30 days, was kidnapped by apparent Luddite terrorists earlier this week.
Witnesses report that a gang of very little people emerged from a Conestoga wagon (license plate “Birdseye or Bust”) double-parked outside Destinations Booksellers, descended on the yard sign, and used their Bazooka Joe Action Penknives to saw off the sign’s legs. The sign was bound, gagged and harnessed to a waiting pet rental property rat, which loaded the sign onto the getaway wagon.
One little person was overheard saying. “Yee haw … that’ll teach them people a thing or two.”
Destinations has received a ransom note that reads:
We have yor sahgn an u wohnt git it bahck less u tacke yer books an pergessives back to roosia or frankurt avnooh.
Police fear that if the yard sign is not rescued soon, it will be tortured and irreparably harmed by being forced to listen to the Collected Speeches and Barbecued Bologna Recipes of Chairman Dan Coffey, as recorded on the first Monday and third Thursday of each month since the year 2000 on his state of the art Realistic cassette player from that yard sale back in one or the other Bob Real administrations.
But in an interview, Coffey denied responsibility for the heinous intrusion. However, he added: “I don’t have a problem with people on fixed incomes taking the law into their own hands."
"After all, them people had it coming to them.”
Listen to the online talk radio archive: New Albany Now on neighborhood schools.
Here's the link to last night's inaugural online radio talk show, New Albany Now:
The Importance of Neighborhood Schools
If you listened either live last night or archived today, tell us what you think.
The Importance of Neighborhood Schools
If you listened either live last night or archived today, tell us what you think.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Online talk radio : New Albany Now launches tonight with a schools discussion.
We’re here today to tout something truly revolutionary: Tonight's live call-in to New Albany Now, a new online radio talk show being launched at 6:00 p.m.
Visit:
www.blogtalkradio.com/Randy-Smith
(New Albany Now)
Here is what you will find there, courtesy of New Albany Now.
----
"The New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School System is soliciting public comment on how it might reconstitute its mix of schools. Stakeholders at Pine View and Silver Street elementary schools are gathering support to make the case that closing those schools would be shortsighted. We're talking with people in the community with a point of view on this issue."
We have callers scheduled (it's a call-in show, so we are dependent on community participation), and we'll go for one hour. The NAFCCSC Board of Trustees meets Monday at 7:00 p.m. and during the agenda period labeled "President's Prerogative," it is expected that a number of parents and other stakeholders will be expressing their opinions.
Callers have two options for participation. Online callers with any kind of microphone should be able to participate by merely pressing the "Click to Talk" icon on the show page. Callers away from their computers may call (347) 539-5928 (539-JWCT [Join With Callers Tonight]).
NAC readers are invited to join us with comments on the state of our schools, the "Resources and Results Committee," and the importance to the community of our neighborhood schools.
As the school board itself is in executive session at 6 p.m., we won't have the opportunity to speak live with any of them, but there should be plenty of opportunity in coming weeks to hear what they have to say. Tonight we'll hear from residents, including some who plan to address the school board during their public session.
This evening's show is sponsored by Destinations Booksellers, New Albany's full-service general independent bookstore on E. Spring Street in New Albany.
Visit:
www.blogtalkradio.com/Randy-Smith
(New Albany Now)
Here is what you will find there, courtesy of New Albany Now.
----
"The New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School System is soliciting public comment on how it might reconstitute its mix of schools. Stakeholders at Pine View and Silver Street elementary schools are gathering support to make the case that closing those schools would be shortsighted. We're talking with people in the community with a point of view on this issue."
We have callers scheduled (it's a call-in show, so we are dependent on community participation), and we'll go for one hour. The NAFCCSC Board of Trustees meets Monday at 7:00 p.m. and during the agenda period labeled "President's Prerogative," it is expected that a number of parents and other stakeholders will be expressing their opinions.
Callers have two options for participation. Online callers with any kind of microphone should be able to participate by merely pressing the "Click to Talk" icon on the show page. Callers away from their computers may call (347) 539-5928 (539-JWCT [Join With Callers Tonight]).
NAC readers are invited to join us with comments on the state of our schools, the "Resources and Results Committee," and the importance to the community of our neighborhood schools.
As the school board itself is in executive session at 6 p.m., we won't have the opportunity to speak live with any of them, but there should be plenty of opportunity in coming weeks to hear what they have to say. Tonight we'll hear from residents, including some who plan to address the school board during their public session.
This evening's show is sponsored by Destinations Booksellers, New Albany's full-service general independent bookstore on E. Spring Street in New Albany.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Looking ahead to a bicentennial in 2013, and whether it's already behind an eight ball.
The Sunday editions of our local newspapers feature reports from the bicentennial celebration underway in Charlestown, Indiana (founded 1808), and for New Albanians, this event in a neighboring town presupposes a question.
Will our city be doing anything special to mark its 200th birthday in 2013?
Five years isn’t much time when one considers the reality of the situation. New Albany does self-defeating ennui the way New Orleans cooks piquant gumbo, and the same small group of energetic and capable organizers inevitably will at some point be charged with planning and executing a celebration, while another small band of embittered flat-earthers hurl brickbats and mock the entire process from their typically anonymous perches.
All the while, roughly 80% of the city’s residents will remain oblivious to the occasion, although at least some of them will turn out for the festivities if there’s the promise of a swill walk, free elephant’s ears, a fundamentalist prayer breakfast or the ritual burning of a progressive or three.
Seriously ... since I'm one of those destined for the stake, my fear is that for the sake of expedience, we’ll pass up the chance in 2013 to showcase the good things about New Albany in a unique and fresh way, and opt instead to make the bicentennial a part of Harvest Homecoming. Nothing against the latter (really); it’s just that a branded bicentennial event would be the ideal platform from which to declare the victory of progressive thinking in a revitalized urban area.
Or, conversely, to perform last rites. Wanna buy your door prize tickets now?
Will our city be doing anything special to mark its 200th birthday in 2013?
Five years isn’t much time when one considers the reality of the situation. New Albany does self-defeating ennui the way New Orleans cooks piquant gumbo, and the same small group of energetic and capable organizers inevitably will at some point be charged with planning and executing a celebration, while another small band of embittered flat-earthers hurl brickbats and mock the entire process from their typically anonymous perches.
All the while, roughly 80% of the city’s residents will remain oblivious to the occasion, although at least some of them will turn out for the festivities if there’s the promise of a swill walk, free elephant’s ears, a fundamentalist prayer breakfast or the ritual burning of a progressive or three.
Seriously ... since I'm one of those destined for the stake, my fear is that for the sake of expedience, we’ll pass up the chance in 2013 to showcase the good things about New Albany in a unique and fresh way, and opt instead to make the bicentennial a part of Harvest Homecoming. Nothing against the latter (really); it’s just that a branded bicentennial event would be the ideal platform from which to declare the victory of progressive thinking in a revitalized urban area.
Or, conversely, to perform last rites. Wanna buy your door prize tickets now?
REWIND: Playing by the rules means just saying "no" to plagiarism, doesn't it?
All this anonymous talk of late comparing me with Reverend Jeremiah Wright is worrisome.
What if folks begin to think that I'm religious? I'd never be able to live that one down.
Meanwhile, on the recurring topic of attribution and intellectual dishonesty, it should be noted that permission to publish someone else's words is meaningless if attribution is not provided.
Let's go back to September, 2007, and consider anew what it means to pretend ... and to be a very bad actor.
---
Playing by the rules means just saying "no" to plagiarism, doesn't it? (9/11/07)
I’m always amused when people who “play by the rules” aren’t able to follow them.
Yes, it’s time to revisit Vicki Ann Denschak’s bilious Freedom to Screech blog and read “Professor Erik’s” original thoughts about … wait … it now seems that they’re not exactly original.
As the noted noted linguist Gomer Pyle once observed, "Surprise, Surprise, Surprise."
09. 11. 01
The imaginary lecturer’s first two paragraphs are cribbed in their entirety (sans attribution, which is the faux academic’s longstanding, loathsome habit) from an essay by John Peters.
Poignantly, Ms. Denschak inserts her own leadoff sentence into the second paragraph. Not only is it grammatically incorrect, but she misspells singer Shania Twain’s name.
Further along, there’s another whole paragraph stolen from an article by Stacey Colino published in 2002.
And, the sentence following the paragraph originally written by Colino can be found here.
What was that about rules? Consider this random definition from the Northwestern University website:
Northwestern's "Principles Regarding Academic Integrity" defines plagiarism as "submitting material that in part or whole is not entirely one's own work without attributing those same portions to their correct source."
Gee, you’d think a college professor would know that.
(thanks RS)
What if folks begin to think that I'm religious? I'd never be able to live that one down.
Meanwhile, on the recurring topic of attribution and intellectual dishonesty, it should be noted that permission to publish someone else's words is meaningless if attribution is not provided.
Let's go back to September, 2007, and consider anew what it means to pretend ... and to be a very bad actor.
---
Playing by the rules means just saying "no" to plagiarism, doesn't it? (9/11/07)
I’m always amused when people who “play by the rules” aren’t able to follow them.
Yes, it’s time to revisit Vicki Ann Denschak’s bilious Freedom to Screech blog and read “Professor Erik’s” original thoughts about … wait … it now seems that they’re not exactly original.
As the noted noted linguist Gomer Pyle once observed, "Surprise, Surprise, Surprise."
09. 11. 01
The imaginary lecturer’s first two paragraphs are cribbed in their entirety (sans attribution, which is the faux academic’s longstanding, loathsome habit) from an essay by John Peters.
Poignantly, Ms. Denschak inserts her own leadoff sentence into the second paragraph. Not only is it grammatically incorrect, but she misspells singer Shania Twain’s name.
Further along, there’s another whole paragraph stolen from an article by Stacey Colino published in 2002.
And, the sentence following the paragraph originally written by Colino can be found here.
What was that about rules? Consider this random definition from the Northwestern University website:
Northwestern's "Principles Regarding Academic Integrity" defines plagiarism as "submitting material that in part or whole is not entirely one's own work without attributing those same portions to their correct source."
Gee, you’d think a college professor would know that.
(thanks RS)
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