Health Department's revenue enhancement + Develop New Albany's event calendar = ?

Tonight is Develop New Albany's annual fundraising event, Exclusively New Albany.

NABC will play no role in this event, but in spite of what you might think, this isn't so much of an issue with me, even if I enjoy tweaking and tweeting about it.

DNA's apparent policy (albeit one that varies by the hour and source) is that there can be no cash vending without organizational membership, and that's fine by me. Briefly, it looked as though we might slip through with a technicality, by teaming with a DNA member business, but then our friend was told that he, too, couldn't vend.

Presumably there'll still be (non-local) alcoholic beverages on hand tonight. If it hasn't already been relayed, someone might wish to warn the vendor (?) of the Health Department's new temporary food permit expectation. This current reality is unjustified, and we'll eventually prevail in overturning it, but in the interim, it adds $20 for charitable purposes (i.e., a poor starving bureaucracy's coffers) each time a vendor pours publicly, even if the requisite ATC permit already is in hand.

In turn, perhaps Develop New Albany hasn't yet done the math, so I'll offer this: When it operates the annual Jingle Walk wine tasting this fall on Thanksgiving weekend, all the participating wineries now will be subject to the new permit procedure: $20 each, on top of what they're already donating, for what amounts to a bureaucratic usurpation.

As such, perhaps DNA is interested in joining the chorus against revenue enhancement protection rackets. The bar and restaurant sector could use DNA's support on this one. Ask yourselves: If this one gets past us, what's next?

However, in the short term: Help your vendor(s) avoid costs for requirements that absolutely no one at the Health Department told them about, and let your vendors know.

No parking lot for bicycles.

I rode my bike to the Floyd County Health Department to appeal our patently bogus  revenue enhancement citation. It's the healthy thing to do, after all. Josh (above) points to the obvious, although it wasn't exactly a pleasure trip getting there from downtown via Bono Road. Maybe some day there'll be health.

Kerry Stemler: "Are we finished with the photo-op?Just throw those kids back under the boondoggle bus."

Don't forget to monitor the Say NO to Bridge Tolls page at Facebook.

Most recent news articles are gathered there, with Daniel Borsch's customarily trenchant commentary. Those children? They'll be paying through their noses for the rest of their lives to give ephemeral boosts to "the economy" and Kerry Stemler's flagging tumescence.

Preview: NABC's appeal to the Floyd County Health Department.

We are required to transmit such an appeal via certified mail or hand delivery. Oddly, carrier pigeon is excluded as an option. I'll be submitting it after lunch today. Following is the beginning of the appeal. The last six points of contention are omitted; I want to be as transparent as possible with this case, but obviously, I'm no lawyer. Know merely that a game strategy is evolving, and it might take a while to implement. In the meantime, I'm a veritable Abe Lincoln: Malice toward none, charity for all, and quite happy to go about my ATC-regulated drinks business absent the entirely correctable missteps of last week.

Like I've always said, "Olive branches -- not Olive Gardens."

June 19, 2013

The New Albanian Bank Street Brewhouse wishes to notify the Floyd County Health Department of our request for an appeal, as outlined in Chapter 115, subsection 115.41 of the New Albany IN Code of Ordinances, as pertains to a citation issued on June 14, 2013, by Matt Myers, at the location of Bicentennial Park in downtown New Albany, for the offense of having failed to procure a temporary food service permit to pour draft beer.

As operators, we are “aggrieved” by this order, believing it to be misplaced for the following reasons:

1. We can find no coherent precedent, either in the Health Department’s own 22-year history, or in the entirety of the State of Indiana, for abruptly grafting the theory of a temporary food service permit to the benign reality of pouring beer from a keg into a disposable plastic cup by a business already fully licensed by the Alcohol & Tobacco Commission of the State of Indiana (ATC) to do precisely that.

Progressive Pint alert: Democrats After Dark.

Even if you're not a Democrat, you can come watch as Democrats drink Progressive Pints, which is never, ever a bad thing.

Democrats After Dark
June 19th, 2013 @ 7:00 p.m.
New Albanian (Sportstime), 3312 Plaza Drive, New Albany

Don't Forget!
Today is Democrats After Dark! Join other members of the Floyd County Democratic Party on at 7:00 p.m. as we meet for our monthly social mixer. It's a perfect time to connect with like-minded friends and let off a little steam during a hectic work week.

June's event will be at a new location - The New Albanian (Sportstime) located at 3312 Plaza Drive in New Albany.
Don't miss an opportunity to enjoy good food, fellowship and fun at Democrats After Dark! All that's missing is you!
Paid for by the Floyd County Democratic Central Committee
Adam Dickey Chairman ~ Shane Gibson, Treasurer

Art Walk "During and After" Party is at Bank Street Brewhouse this Saturday, June 22.

(NABC's event on the 22nd is not affiliated with the Carnegie Center or the sponsors of the Bicentennial Public Art Project)

It is unsure when we'll truly complete Lloyd's Landing, Bank Street Brewhouse's outdoor beer garden named in memory of the late Lloyd "Highwayman" Wimp, but we're using it to have as much fun as possible as we chip away at the build-out.

On Saturday, June 22, the New Albany Bicentennial Public Art Project stages its annual Public Art Walk through downtown. Beginning in mid-afternoon, we'll be partying along with the walkers. There'll be NABC beer, including a keg of the much acclaimed Tricentennial Ale; music by Ben Traughber, Taylor Lee and Tunder Wrane; and outdoor grilling by Chef Matt Weirich's kitchen ... complete with requisite temporary food permit by Floyd County's ever diligent Health Department.

For this occasion, we'll be pouring wines from the Old 502 Winery in Louisville, which is owned by the same family as JR's Pub in New Albany. Quills will be on hand to prepare cold coffee drinks and pour overs.

If it rains, the Art Walk will be rescheduled for June 29. We'll still have beer and music, so ...

New Albany Public Art Walk - Saturday, June 22, 6 - 9 p.m.

Join us for the official celebration for the 2013 New Albany Public Art Project: Bicentennial Series, with a Public Art Walk featuring the project artists, on Saturday June 22, 2013 from 6:00-9:00 pm (rain date June 29). The entire event is free and open to all ages!

Sentenced to county septic inspections?

Another day, another Floyd County Health Department power grab.

Brew at the Zoo looks to Leuven for support.

Brew at the Zoo, 2007 ... damn, I still wear that very shirt.

You can lead various zoo creatures to water, but ...

A note on Brew at the Zoo, 2013.

With appropriately misplaced fanfare, the organizers of Brew at the Zoo (Louisville edition) have revealed on Facebook that "We're excited to welcome Goose Island Beer Co. as a sponsor of Brew 2013!"

Sigh.

That's too bad, because I'm not excited at all.

No Tricentennial for DNA in wartime, unfortunately.

Okay. So much for that idea.

Develop New Albany’s off the hook. I thought things were arranged so that there could be beer vending at the Exclusively New Albany event on Thursday, but sometimes the best laid plans go the way of 108K consulting gigs at the NSP. Our "in" didn't materialize, and so it goes.

Besides that, as of Friday, there are bigger bureaucratic fish to fry, and so I welcome DNA to join New Albany’s beer community in condemning the county health department for its out-of-the-blue decision to require temporary food permits of ATC-licensed entities to pour beer from a keg into a plastic cup.

Speaking of which, did you know that a combined city-county health department dates only from 1991?

The department’s shaky justification for this new fee imposition probably dates from ambiguous language in original enabling legislation from Year Three of George HW Bush’s presidency.

Meaning that it has taken the local health department 22 long years to find the right words to implement revenue enhancement harassment.

Those food-borne pathogens that don’t even exist in draft beer?

They really must be shaking in their boots.

Food handling, panhandling and regulatory free-basing.

If beer is exempt in terms of food handling guidelines, then how can beer suddenly become non-exempt when poured from a keg into a plastic cup?

Answer: When it's time for revenue enhancement and protection racket expansion, as described here: Another day, another Floyd County Health Department power grab.

As written yesterday, I call "bullshit."

Time to let the lawyers have their fun, and begin taping together $30 worth of pennies, just in case.

Indiana Food Handler Certification 410 IAC 7 -22

Exempt Food Items (include) "Any non-potentially hazardous beverages (i.e., “slushies”, wine, beer, soft drinks)"

Kerry Stemler's various catastrophic legacies do not include his own bank account.

I hope my colleague Jeff doesn't mind my reprinting these words, which he posted elsewhere.

The Ohio River Bridges Project is the single largest, most intrusive injustice foisted on my home in my lifetime. Whether it's only to prove at some later date that not all of us were so stupid and passive or there's still some immediate impact to be had, that's not conducive to shutting up and quitting. The project's negative impacts - where not minimized in every way possible - will last for decades, making it even more difficult to address other obvious needs. There is no bigger issue in Tuckyanna and plantation life just doesn't suit me.

Over at LEO, Jonathan Meador was on it last week.

A bridge too far? Jury is out on whether bridges project will increase city’s ‘heat island’ effect, by Jonathan Meador (LEO Weekly)

... Despite mounting scientific evidence that Louisville is the fastest-heating city in the nation, regional leaders including Gov. Beshear, Mayor Greg Fischer and U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, D-3rd, have doubled down on the project’s designs for more jobs by way of more asphalt, more vehicle emissions and more urban sprawl.

WAVE-3: "'New' New Albany attracting visitors and dollars."

wave3.com-Louisville News, Weather

And the Floyd County Health Department working diligently to turn them away.

Another day, another Floyd County Health Department power grab.

Stop me if you've heard this one already.

(Actually, we hear it all the time. The general "abuse of power" pattern of harassment is consistent; it's just this latest specific instance that differs)

On Friday evening, the Floyd County Health Department plucked exceedingly shaky precedent out of thin statutory air and dispatched an embarrassed newbie shop floor worker to cite NABC, River City Winery and Irish Exit for pouring draft beer and wine at the Bicentennial Park concert.

Of course, the state of Indiana's required Alcohol and Tobacco Commission permit, which NABC procured, was posted ... as it should be, and as it always is, because the ATC has statutory control over beer and wine pours.

Our offense?

Pouring beer from kegs into plastic cups without a temporary FOOD serving permit, like those required for food preparation outside a licensed kitchen.

I wouldn't have been any more surprised if an alien space ship had landed next to our draft truck. For the very first time in 30 years in the beer business, our county's health authorities suddenly contend that beer is food ... and whether or not this is true, there is no precedent at all for local food regulators meddling in it.

As former Brewers of Indiana Guild president Ted Miller wrote on Twitter:

"You see, Floyd County Health Dept, you are here to protect us from pathogens. The same pathogens that can't thrive in BEER."

As we await statutory justification (there is something explicit written somewhere, right?), it is amusing to contemplate that given the grave level of danger to public health posed by draft beer and bottled wine, nothing whatever was said about our suspending operations.

Rather, the message was crystal clear: We were being cited and fined for the critical violation of failure to tithe to a county bureaucracy's protection racket -- as opposed to threatening public health, because we were weren't, and the moral of this story is that given Floyd County government's inability (read: spineless  unwillingness) to tax the all the people so as to protect the public from itself, the Health Department has contrived a whole new revenue enhancement scheme.

Next stop, bucket-begging at county road intersections (not city streets; we banned buckets).

Does anyone really think it's a coincidence that this first instance of draft-beer-as-food scanning came at a big-ticket city event, while other events this weekend were not controlled?

Our health department is laying claim to a bit of regulatory turf never before seized. Other areas of government regulate beer and wine, not health departments, and not food and drug administrators. I don't contest the health department's proper statutory domain when it comes to meat temperature or salmonella prevention, although local politicians may wish to reconsider expanding the health department's ever-widening reach lest we arrive at a point of not being able to eat a tomato from our own garden patch without an annual permit.

But beer from a keg?

Really?

I call "bullshit."

Come to think of it, NABC was inspected yesterday at Fishers on Tap (Indianapolis area). The Alcohol and Tobacco Commission officers checked Blake's serving permit. And the Hamilton County Health Department? It was there, too -- looking at smokers, grills, warmers and food trucks, just as it should be doing.

Time to turn this one over to the lawyers, I guess. What an effing zoo, this county.

A VIP and an IBU walk into a beer fest ... and our day at Fishers on Tap.

Yesterday's Fishers on Tap in Indianapolis ran the requisite VIP hour at the beginning, followed by three hours of general admission. But rather than waxing egregious, the VIP portion at Fishers offered the opportunity for attendees to pair Indiana beers with food from local restaurants. The food presenters stopped serving when general admission began, but food trucks (Indy has such a culture; I imagine Floyd County's Health Department prevents it here) began.

The Fishers event was very good in all respects, and a veritable model for how a small outdoor beer fest should find its opening legs. There was a refreshing absence of geek samplers tethered to Untappd, and no roving bands of 22-year-old males asking for the highest alcohol content. There was a surfeit of locals, considerable community spirit, and a mellow vibe all around -- and the band Soul Street was the best music I've ever heard at such a beer fest.

Kudos to the organizers. Here's my column at LouisvilleBeer.com for June 15.

A VIP and an IBU walk into a beer fest

I went to my first rock concert at the age of 15 in 1975. The venue was Louisville Gardens, and the band was Chicago, which had made it only to IX at the time and wasn’t yet overtly pop. Tickets were $7 in advance, and $8 “on the day of show.”

My most recent name brand concert was the Who at Yum Center in February. Tickets cost somewhere around $75 after Ticketmaster’s various digital anal probes, but for a mere $750 (maybe more; who can remember a spare zero or three?) I might have tithed myself into position backstage as a VIP, fed organic Black Sea caviar with a coke spoon formerly wielded by the late, great Keith Moon, and exchanged pre-curtain pleasantries with Pete Townshend just prior to him ceremonially smashing his guitar atop my tonsure – although it occurs to me that fretboard abuse cost an extra C-note, of which I keep plenty around to light cigars.

Re-energized UEA dusts off its checkbook, scatters largess.

While the UEA's unexpectedly bountiful checkbook is open, kindly permit me to reveal that economic development officials in Birdseye have pieced together a multi-dollar deal to lure NABC from New Albany to rural paradise by Cappuccino's sight.

Mass exodus to Birdseye; little people evacuate New Albany in search of cleanliness, lower educational standards.

Them relocated little people are going to need Regressive Pints, hence the town's heated courtship of yours truly. I'm not sure how much longer we can hold the line here. In fact, about $70K in grants and loans should do nicely to make us feel more welcome, and if the UEA's once again tapped out, can't we just bond some TIF or something like that? Isn't it time to reconsider NABC's Riverview Brewing Towers idea?

C'mon, people, is there anything more "quality of life" than craft beer? Room temperature sarsaparilla may have been enough for your great-grandfather, but he went out with the Charleston, Maalox and ordinance enforcement.

I shall submit NABC's terms via carrier pigeon, or Shirtless Marvin. You have been warned.

Quills among New Albany UEZ grant recipients; Collections were up 175 percent in UEZ last year, by Daniel Suddeath (N and T)

Over the past year, the New Albany Urban Enterprise Zone Association has handed out facade grants for 34 properties totaling more than $70,000.

A sizable chunk of that total was recently granted to Quills Coffee in order for the business to expand and remodel its Market Street location in downtown New Albany.

Quills garnered a $16,000 grant and also received an $8,000 loan from the UEZ.

Let's talk about what the official Bicentennial celebration is ignoring.

The newspaper's Amanda Beam covered perhaps the most prominent example of New Albany's historical whitewashing back in May.

Race riots of July 1862

Powder kegs have a way of erupting with just the right spark. During the summer of 1862, embers of racial tensions flared in New Albany, igniting the city in a 30-hour uprising of violence and murder. For too long, the city had forgotten this race riot. The media back then may not have always been the most unbiased in their telling of the tale, leaving few accounts of the factual story. The aftermath of the destruction, and what precipitated it, may never really be known.

Like a phoenix, scattered bits of truth have a habit of rising out of the charred ashes of history. Local historian Pam Peters likes to sift through the ashes. Researching her book, “The Underground Railroad in Floyd County,” the New Albany resident unearthed glimpses of what happened during that day and a half of chaos. And, what she found casts a different kind of dark shadow on the history of this Ohio River town.

“I thought, why doesn’t our community know about this? Nobody ever talked about this or brought it up,” Peters said. “I just think it was too painful. People were embarrassed by it was my guess.”

So, in which civic closets would the late Howard Zinn go snooping to find all the other powder kegs that the likes of somnolent CeeSaw would prefer go unmentioned during this buffed and polished time in our celebratory lives?

How did those stodgy bearded white guys make all their money, anyway?

Ever wondered about working conditions in the steamboat yards or plate glass factories?

Recalling Judge Cody's remarks last week, who profited from dynamiting historic buildings like the Post Office and Court House?

It isn't too late for the People's History of New Albany to be at least partially documented and written.

The "R" word: Dave Zirin's open letter to Dan Snyder.

Reading Zirin's opening line, I couldn't help remembering Mikhail Gorbachev's words to Erich Honecker in 1989: "Life punishes those who come too late."

It was pried from Honecker's cold, deposed hand.

Probably Snyder's, too.

Enough: An open letter to Dan Snyder, by Dave Zirin (Grantland)

Dear Dan Snyder,

History tends to be unkind to those who make bold proclamations against change.1 You have made it crystal clear that you believe there is nothing wrong with the name of our region's beloved franchise and probably perceive Webster's dictionary to have some politically correct, liberal agenda when it defines redskin as "usually offensive." You've never commented on its past use in this country as a term of derision, humiliation, and violence. Why bother getting hung up on history? After all, as a wise man once said, that's why pencils have erasers.

Tonight at BicenPkCon: Lucius.

The second installment of the summer concert series on Friday evenings downtown at Bicentennial Park takes place tonight from 6:00 p.m. through 9:00 p.m.

Here's the press release on Lucius:

June 14th – Lucius (ilovelucius.com) This five-piece group from Brooklyn, NY just recently played a wildly successful set at 2013’s SXSW music festival in Austin, TX, and is bringing their own brand of Indie Pop into the heart of downtown New Albany. Their music has been described as “catchy, distinctive indiepop tunes” by Rolling Stone magazine, and the New York Times’ Paul Krugman describes them as “something special, and their songs keep rattling around in my head.” This will be Lucius’s last tour date before they play in this year’s Bonnaroo Festival in Manchester, TN.

We've petitioned the ATC for some changes in the layout, which (we think) will make for a better experience, insofar as the beer and wine vending is concerned. If the pieces fall into place and we get set up before 6, we may begin serving a bit early.

Note also the questions from last week's attendees about food. The city is understandably hesitant to bring in a food vendor, seeing as one of the reasons for the concert series is bringing people downtown to eat at existing restaurants. Locals already know options, but not all concertgoers are familiar with downtown establishments, so some of us are working on a revised information sheet where eateries are located. It may or may not be finished tonight.

CART in the news (2): Gilderbloom on Quasi-Possibility City.

Substitute "New Albany" for "Louisville," and it's the exact strategy best pursued by the current mayoral administration for the remainder of its turn -- assuming, of course, that conservatives in the local Democratic Party don't commit us to Romneyism in the interim.

CART annual meeting: Dr. John Gilderbloom on ‘Louisville at the Crossroads,’ left behind as other cities embrace New Urbanism (Insider Louisville)

The Coalition for the Advancement of Regional Transportation is hosting Dr. John Gilderbloom from the University of Louisville’s Department of Urban & Public Affairs on Wed., June 19.

... From the CART website:

(Gilderbloom) will discuss his work in “New Urbanism” highlighting real and measurable progress being made by other US cities toward strengthening urban quality of life. Cities that want to function effectively in the future are addressing economic, social, and environmental challenges through policy choices that encourage walkable, bikeable, and public transit oriented communities with a vibrant urban core. Louisville is currently trailing most cities of similar size by most livability, health, and sustainability metrics and in an era of global change laggards have much to lose. Dr. Gilderbloom will provide data that encourages a vision of real and appropriate change that will help close the gap between Louisville and cities with whom we compete.

CART’s annual meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. at the Clifton Center, 2117 Payne St., in Clifton.

CART in the news (1): Environmental issues and civil rights abuses.

Actually, the asphalt expansion plan set forth by the oligarch apologists serving on the late, unlamented Bridges Junta discriminates not only against "poor minorities," but additionally burdens any resident of the metropolitan area seeking alternatives to the hegemony of the automobile.

Quixotic, or potential roadblock? Bridges project has begun, but still faces CART lawsuit, by Steve Kaufman (Insider Louisville)

 ... The complaint sites Section 601 of the civil rights law, which says, “No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”

CART alleges that:

[by eliminating public transit from the alternatives under consideration], the defendants acted with deliberate indifference to the discriminatory impact of the [Louisville – Southern Indiana Ohio River Bridges Project] and formulated a mega project that drained available federal funding . . . killing the affordable light rail transit project that had particular benefits for the protected class.

And “. . . defendants intentionally discriminated on the basis of race by adopting an unreasonable tolling plan that would disproportionately burden poor minorities for 46 years or more.”