Water parks or affordable housing?

After Tuesday's candidate session at the New Albany Housing Authority, I asked NAHA director Bob Lane a question:

In the context of New Albany future decision-making, would it be fair to compare the immensity of the EPA's past "fix your sewers or else" decree to what is coming down the road with respect to the federal government's evolving position on affordable housing in general, and public housing in particular?

He said yes, quite fair. The NAHA does a fine job, and it is aware that times likely will be changing. These three articles at City Lab amplify a few points largely being missed or ignored locally, beginning with an overview of the American public housing experiment.

Here's a fine topic sentence:

“The story of American public housing is one of quiet successes drowned out by loud failures,” writes the historian Ed Goetz.

The point is expanded in The Real Power of Public Housing, by Alana Semuels.

...In some small cities ... public housing has worked and continues to work. That includes Austin, the site of one of the first public-housing complexes in the nation, which still stands today. The Housing Authority of the City of Austin has been recognized as a “High Performer” by HUD for 15 years in a row, and, rather than depending on the federal government for help, it has embarked on a few entrepreneurial programs to raise money.

Jersey City is seeking "to steer mixed-income development to all its neighborhoods with clever tax incentives." Note that this refers to affordable housing, not bocce ball settings.

Jersey City's Innovative New Affordable Housing Plan Might Actually Work, by Tanvi Misra

... In the coming years, Jersey City’s overall population rise is expected to accelerate, and the housing stock is expected to increase by 20 percent by 2020. To ensure this growth is equitable, the city has unveiled a clever new housing policy that employs a seemingly simple strategy: tax incentives. Local officials believe the plan can preserve community while promoting development—a harmony that’s proved so elusive elsewhere.

Since moving to downtown New Albany, what I've heard most often is the importance of home ownership, but we may be missing something, in that it isn't so much whether we have a choice in being a rental market, but rather what sort of rental market do we want to be?

If it's true that "America’s housing crisis will likely worsen during the next decade, with millions more struggling to make monthly payments," then heavy subsidies to Flaherty and Collins to build "luxury" apartments seems designed to exacerbate a situation we already lack resolve in addressing.

For Renters, a Bleak Future, by Gillian B. White

 ... The researchers estimate that the current rental crunch—the one where vacancies are around 7 percent, about half of renters spend more than 30 percent of their salaries on housing, and one quarter spend 50 percent or more—is only going to get worse over the next decade. Even if housing prices and income rise as quickly as inflation (about 2 percent annually) the number of severely rent-burdened Americans (those paying 50 percent or more) would increase by 11 percent over the decade, to over 13 million people in 2025.

This isn't to imply there are easy answers, only that it might be helpful to start asking the correct questions.

"A recent transplant’s view of Cincinnati" is relevant to us, too.

If the Gahan administration really comprehended what millennials want, would the flunkies be allowed to use the words "millennial" and "luxury" in the same sentence?

Of course not. It's what you get from the suburbs, looking in, uncomprehending.

How do we foster a culture designed to retain our best and brightest, to support localism in business, and take care of our own by exceeding the lowest conceivable political denominator?

Looking in the mirror.
Asking questions.
Listening.
Making lists.
Involving people.

Then again, I'm hardly a serious commentator, am I?

A recent transplant’s view of Cincinnati, by Fatima Hussein (Cincinnati Enquirer)

 ... I found out last week that a large portion of young people living here, both home bred and transplants, are itching to move to bigger cities throughout the country.

In Cincinnati, the youth exodus phenomenon is a huge issue for business leaders. Leaders such as Mary Stagaman worry that if nothing is done to attract and retain young talent, we can’t expect to have a vibrant economy, and the corporations that have long called Cincinnati home will have less incentive to stay ...

 ... And it doesn’t help that for every study that says Cincinnati is up-and-coming or an affordable place for families, there are others that say Ohio and Kentucky are some of the unhappiest places in the country – or that Cincinnati is one of the most unwelcoming cities on earth.

Frank Rich on Donald Trump's valuable public service.

But are we ready for satire of the sort requiring depth perception?

The Washington Post quotes former Bush administration official Pete Wehner, noting that "The concern is that a candidate like Trump is running a campaign based on the 1980 electorate, not the 2016 one."

The message being sent to voters is this: The Republican Party is led by people who are profoundly uncomfortable with the changing (and inevitable) demographic nature of our nation. The GOP is longing to return to the past and is fearful of the future. It is a party that is characterized by resentments and grievances, by distress and dismay, by the belief that America is irredeemably corrupt and past the point of no return. “The American dream is dead,” in the emphatic words of Mr. Trump.

We know exactly what that's like here in New Albany, where the Democrats are running an Eisenhower campaign in a fiber optic world.

THE IMPORTANCE OF DONALD TRUMP ... Far from destroying our democracy, he’s exposing all its phoniness and corruption in ways as serious as he is not. And changing it in the process, by Frank Rich (New York)

... There is indeed a lighter way to look at Trump’s rise and his impact on the country. Far from being an apocalyptic harbinger of the end-times, it’s possible that his buffoonery poses no lasting danger. Quite the contrary: His unexpected monopoly of center stage may well be the best thing to happen to our politics since the arrival of Barack Obama.

In the short time since Trump declared his candidacy, he has performed a public service by exposing, however crudely and at times inadvertently, the posturings of both the Republicans and the Democrats and the foolishness and obsolescence of much of the political culture they share. He is, as many say, making a mockery of the entire political process with his bull-in-a-china-shop antics. But the mockery in this case may be overdue, highly warranted, and ultimately a spur to reform rather than the crime against civic order that has scandalized those who see him, in the words of the former George W. Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson, as “dangerous to democracy.”

A Baylor for Mayor calendar of events, September 24 - October 12.

Following is Baylor for Mayor event calendar for the next two-plus weeks. It's as much for me as you, but please feel free to attend if something interests you (except the WNAS taping and candidate questions, I suppose).

Thursday and Friday, September 24 and 25
KHC Strong Towns Conference 
Bomhard Theater, Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts
501 W.Main Street, Louisville KY
I hope to catch as much of this as possible on Thursday morning, and perhaps all of Friday.

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

Sunday, September 27
Indie Fest 2015
12 noon - 11:00 p.m.
Main and Bank Streets at Underground Station

Sunday, September 27
Trash Force Annual Meeting
5:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. (guest speaker and business session starts at 7:00 p.m.)
St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 1015 E. Main Street, New Albany IN

Tuesday, September 29
"Meet the Candidate" Taping at WNAS-TV
9:00 a.m.
At New Albany High School; no audience, just me and my shtick.

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

Thursday, October 1
Southern Indiana Equality Annual Meeting
7:00 p.m. - ?
St. Marks United Church of Christ, 222 Spring St., New Albany.

Saturday, October 3
Harvest Homecoming Parade
12 noon
The parade begins at New Albany High School on Vincennes Street, travels down Spring to Bank, and ends at the corner of Bank and Elm. The Baylor for Mayor team will be walking the parade, and afterward, don't forget Biers on Parade, presented by the New Albany Restaurant and Bar Association.

Tuesday, October 6
Facing Homelessness: A Community Conversation
7:00 p.m.
Ogle Center at IU Southeast, 4201 Grant Line Road, New Albany

Wednesday, October 7
Brewers of Indiana Guild Board Meeting
1:00 p.m.
In Indianapolis, and obviously not a campaign function; just a reminder to head north.

Friday, October 9
Kiwanis Club
8:00 a.m.
PC Home Center, 123 Cherry Street, New Albany

Thursday to Sunday, October 8 through 11
Harvest Homecoming Booth Days in downtown New Albany.
There'll be no Baylor for Mayor booth as such, but I'll be out and about, often retreating to Bank Street Brewhouse for Fringe Fest.

Monday, October 12 (5:00 p.m.)
News and Tribune General Election Voter Guide Candidate Question Deadline
Why will the newspaper wait until October 27 to publish the Voter Guide, when so many people now vote early? You'll have to ask them.

Birdseye, here we come: Is Vincennes Street to be the next victim of non-Speck "beautification"?

The Green Mouse called the phone number, which is posted on what used to be Tommy Lancaster's Restaurant on Market Street, near Vincennes, and was told the city of New Albany has a contract for the building.

Previously, people in the neighborhood told the Green Mouse that realtor Mike Kopp was working on a plan to buy property behind the Lancaster's location, perhaps including the adjacent Market Boy. The word used was "retail," which the Green Mouse suggests we might pronounce as "suburban strip mall chain dreck."

But there's even more.

The Green Mouse passes along yet another rumor heard out on the mean streets: The city wants to "beautify" Vincennes in precisely the same utterly misguided fashion as Main Street, entirely ignoring the street design proposals made by reigning universal expert Jeff Speck in his study, and doing so all the way from Main to New Albany High School.

It's hard for me to say this, but we must be realistic in the face of these vandals: If the fate of Jeff Speck's downtown street network proposals is for them to be systematically stripped of design significance and Gahanized into unrecognizable mush -- gutted, Dugginsed, shrouded in non-transparent secrecy and timidly implemented piecemeal over a period of years -- then it might be preferable to do nothing at all, and hope we can start all over in 2019.

However, there is one mayoral candidate committed to doing it correctly ...

Roger still challenges municipal candidates to support Indie Fest. Even you, Adam?

Last week, the Baylor for Mayor campaign donated $500 toward sponsoring Indie Fest 2015, which exists to espouse the cause of independent local business in New Albany. The fest takes place this Sunday, September 27.

I challenged my mayoral opponents Kevin Zurschmiede and Jeff Gahan to match this donation, and Kevin immediately answered even though he's out of town. Strangely, we've yet to hear from the incumbent, who conjured $7 million dollars in theoretical funding to wave at departing Pillsbury moving vans.

I'm sure this is just a clerical oversight, right?

Other candidates from both parties were included in this challenge, and to date, John Gonder and Al Knable have responded with $100 donations.

Thanks to Kevin, John and Al for recognizing the importance of grassroots economic development.

NA Indie Fest at Go Fund Me

"Indie Fest is a wonderful display of the rich heritage of the arts in New Albany, and will showcase booths for merchants, artists, restaurants, and craftspeople. As in years past, our event will feature music from local musicians spanning all genres, playing throughout the day. Indie Fest is by no means just for adults, there has always, and will continue to be, an extensive kids area that includes a magician, a local musician with instruments for the kids to play, arts and crafts, and other kid friendly activities. This is truly a family event. Over the past 4 years we have strived to make this a free community event, and we need your help to make that possible. Our expenses keep growing, but donors ability to give is getting tighter. Please help us keep this wonderful day of music, art and fun going for years to come."

Yard signs beach blanket bingo.

Last night at the NAHA forum, I asked incumbent at-large councilperson Shirley Baird (D) whether it was legal to plant political yard signs in the road verge, which is the (usually) grassy area between sidewalk and street.

"No, it isn't. But try telling that to my husband."

Think about this as the scene shifts to the corner of Bank and Main.

You'll recall that after a crazed ragpicker posing as a city employee made terroristic threats to a downtown shopkeeper about a Baylor for Mayor sign in the treet well by her store, she laughed out loud and declined to remove it.

The county clerk then called to inform me that a complaint had been made, and eventually the sign was forcibly uprooted, presumably by the street department.

Fine.

But doesn't the same standard apply to Al Knable's sign on the verge a couple blocks east on Main?

Or, is the offense illegal only when someone like Dan Coffey complains  about it?

What of this sign on Plaza Drive?

CM Blair owns the property, but who governs the verge? Me thinks it's the city, and as Blair's colleague readily acknowledges, it's illegal to plant a sign there.

True, I don't care all that much about yard signs ... but incompetent and inefficient ordinance enforcement is the bane of the city.

Consistency, anyone?

NAHA candidate forum: Adam gets all irate with opponents who won't play by his rules.

You might say I departed from my notes. That's the mayor, shimmying.

(Sorry, Dale, but don't worry. I kept some in reserve)

In tonight's New Albany Housing Authority candidate forum, I used my time to remind folks that there are places in America where the Democratic Party somehow recalls its commitment to help working families through engagement with issues like income inequality, affordable housing and the living wage.

I promised to listen.

Jeff Gahan then spoke about the importance of spending millions on Main Street beautification because residents there needed "something special," seeing as traffic "was moving 60 miles an hour."

What an indelible disconnect it was.

I also had time to repeat an anecdote that was included in a recent column.

When we first moved into our neighborhood in 2003, the prime topics of discussion were the lack of ordinance enforcement, the absence of rental property registration and inspection, and dangerous one-way streets. 12 years later, at a neighborhood association meeting held just two months ago, the exact same unresolved problems were still being decried ... and the breakdown of office holders during this 12-year period, by party, has been 87% Democratic (three GOP council terms and one Independent).

Oops. I may have struck a nerve.

New Albany mayoral candidates seek to separate themselves, by Daniel Suddeath (N and T)

 ... "I don't see the local Democratic party being the sort of entity that's prepared to lead us" into the future, Baylor said.

After the forum, Floyd County Democratic Party Chairman Adam Dickey said local Democratic candidates choose to focus on positive changes such as education, good-paying jobs and building stronger communities.

"Some candidates have an established record of name calling and ridiculing those that disagree with them," Dickey said. "That's not being a serious candidate."

Note that as we explore the parameters of seriousness, the Democratic Party chair has an non-elected seat on the Redevelopment Commission, where he has been a reliable vote for the mayor's ruinously expensive TIF-financed capital projects.

To Dickey, political shenanigans like this are perfectly acceptable; not only "serious," but perhaps even boilerplate, but because I've continued to shine a light on conflicts of interest like this, he now finds that I'm "not being a serious candidate."

I take this as a high compliment.

Did I mention that party chair persons won't be given such appointed sinecures during the Baylor administration?

It was a classy event, and I thank Bob Lane and the NAHA staff for the evening.

Here are the city council candidate questions for the League of Women Voters "debate" on Thursday, September 24.

Previously, as Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas performed graceful somersaults in their respective vaults, we took a look at the League's questions for mayoral candidates this Thursday.

Here are the mayoral candidate questions for the League of Women Voters "debate" on Thursday, September 24.

City council candidates also are invited to the Taj Mahal of Silver Street, and they have their own purpose-written questions.

Will Dan "Copperhead" Coffey attend to debate himself? We can only hope.

If anything, the council questions are more insipid than the mayoral ones.

What are the top priorities for your district, and how do you rank them in order of importance?

Many changes have taken place in the last four years. What changes did you support or what would you have done differently if you were on the council?

In the 2016 municipal budget, what city improvements should be funded?

Working with eight (8) other council persons will be a challenge, especially if they are determined to see their priorities for their districts through. Are you willing to seek compromise with them and that of the administration to show results and move the city forward?

The power of "small-scale fixes" and "lightweight, self-determined urban renewal projects."

David Thrasher's garage door art, Bergman Building, alley side.

There are 1,001 examples around the world of "lightweight, self-determined urban renewal projects," that when taken together, combine to create larger success stories.

Capital-intensive construction projects, subsidized and charged to the TIF-One Card, and as undertaken in the hope of trickle-down, come to us from the top of the power structure, and at the top, smaller rivulets in need of even modest support are missed in the glare of vanity.

Top-down's great for re-election campaigns and political financing, but shouldn't the aim be to accomplish something?

A Case Study in Reviving a Dying Downtown: Marcus Westbury’s new book, Creating Cities, describes the small-scale fixes that helped Newcastle, Australia, by Sarah Goodyear (City Lab)

... Westbury acknowledges Renew Newcastle’s critics, who charge that the approach encourages gentrification, that it hasn’t produced change fast enough, that the successes are too small and the failures too many. But he argues that the initiative has transformed the way that Newcastle sees itself as well as the way outsiders see it, making it a model for similar cities around Australia and beyond. It is part of an international movement toward lightweight, self-determined urban renewal projects that doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon.

I know, I know -- they're really hard questions. Just keep your eye on Linda.

But I wanna water slide.

Tonight, the first of two candidate functions this week.

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

Next:

Here are the candidate questions for the League of Women Voters "debate" on Thursday, September 24.

Meanwhile, the DemoDixieDisneycrats exclaim, "we've got your back":

Remember, our Democratic candidates have had your back. Now is the time to take action and let them know you've got their back. Please join us at this week's forums!

Oddly, they failed to mention the knife.

Here are the mayoral candidate questions for the League of Women Voters "debate" on Thursday, September 24.

As the League insisted on using the 8-year-old photo of me even after I sent them a more recent one, I fixed the graphic myself. 

Transparency matters, and so here is what I received today via e-mail from Barb Anderson, president of the South Central Indiana League of Women Voters. The debate is at Silver Street Park on Thursday, September 24.

Part One: Explanation.

Attached are the questions for Thursday night. The debate for the Mayor's race begins at 6:00, we are going to be there at 5:30 and ask that candidates arrive at least 15 minutes early. Thanks for your patience in waiting for the questions please understand there were many who didn't want us to send them early, including media. So, no impromptu questions will be entertained. The debate was healthy in Clark County and we are hoping for the same. Thank you for attending and we look forward to seeing you on Thursday!

Part Two: The candidate questions.

1. What are your thoughts on our cities long-term potential? And if elected what are your priorities as your term begins in 2016?
2. TIF – What do you believe the roles of TIF Districts are to our community?
3. Cities such as New Albany have to address large-scale sewer repairs and projects. What will you do as Mayor to ensure New Albany fulfills and complies with EPA requirements and what will you do to improve and maintain the utility?
4. What is the current financial status of the city and how would you maintain a balanced budget and still meet the capitol improvement needs of the citizens?
5. As Mayor, what would you do to promote health and safety?
6. Why should the people of New Albany vote for you?

Part Three: Previously at NAC.

Gahan is far more energetic in ducking debates than keeping campaign promises from 2011.

Stop the presses: Zurschmiede works it out, will attend the Sept. 24 LWV debate at the Homerdome.

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

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

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

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

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

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

It's this week: Strong Towns Conference and keynote speaker Charles Marohn, on cities, streets, and sprawl.

The Strong Towns Conference takes place in Louisville this week. I REALLY WANT TO GO, but I'm just not sure it can be done.

Crossing my fingers ...

First, a little about Charles Marohn, and information on the Strong Towns Conference. Then, one small but telling excerpt from the interview.

Ahead of Strong Towns Conference, Charles Marohn talks cities, streets, and the future of sprawl, by Branden Klayko (Broken Sidewalk)

The pattern of building more and more sprawl continues into the 21st century with potentially devastating economic implications to the well being of cities. Charles Marohn is a professional engineer in Minnesota who has been highlighting the problems with the way we design and build our cities today. To advocate for building prosperous cities, Marohn founded the nonprofit Strong Towns, with a mission “to support a model of development that allows America’s cities, towns, and neighborhoods to become financially strong and resilient.”

Marohn is the keynote at the Kentucky Heritage Council’s upcoming Strong Towns Conference, and we highly recommend attending. The two-day event takes place Thursday, September 24 and Friday, September 25 at the Kentucky Center for the Arts. Advance tickets cost $25 and tickets at the door are $35. The Heritage Council is partnering with Preservation Kentucky, Preservation Louisville, the Kentucky Main Street Program, and Friends of Kentucky Main Street. Additional support is provided by KHC member Nana Lampton and Hardscuffle Inc.

The excerpt:

What do we do with the existing network of sprawl that’s already been built?

Well, I’m going to paraphrase the Iowa department of transportation director, Paul Trombino, who said in June when I was there doing a lecture with him a lot of this stuff is just going to go away. We don’t have the money to maintain it. We don’t have the money to fix it. And it’s just not going to be maintained. It’s not going to be there. I think once you understand that in reality, that we’ve literally built more than we can possibly pay to fix, it opens up a whole other realm of thinking.

I think we need to start talking about how do we transition into a world where these things, from a market standpoint, start to go away. What we see now in a macro sense is an increase in suburban poverty and an increase in social isolation that goes along with that.

What they're saying: A video by Matt Nash (D), 5th district.

As the 2015 general election nears, I'll occasionally provide candidate statements of substance, as lifted from social media and news reports. My aim is to determine whether our municipal candidates have anything to say at all, and I'll quote all candidates, from any and all parties. 

---

Matt Nash has a video.

What they're saying: Al Knable (R), at-large council, on walking and listening.

As the 2015 general election nears, I'll occasionally provide candidate statements of substance, as lifted from social media and news reports. My aim is to determine whether our municipal candidates have anything to say at all, and I'll quote all candidates, from any and all parties.

---

Al Knable has been walking. A lot.

"Everywhere is within walking distance if you have the time."
- Steven Wright

Checking in from the campaign trail:

Today's walk put me over 1,000 homes visited so far this month, just over 2,000 since I began canvassing in August.

My energy level is great! I'm really enjoying listening to folks, voters and non-voters alike. I've also had to start eating about 1/2 a pint of ice cream per day to keep my weight up - a great problem to have.

Patterns of concern are emerging which have essentially confirmed my reasons for running for office.

In no particular order, here is some of what is on the people's wish list: a cleaner city, slower traffic, more police patrols, a better City web portal, a more responsive local government, more direct access to public officials, a more responsible city budget, more trees.

I'm not making this up. We have an intelligent electorate and it would behoove our officials to listen up.

Yesterday a very thoughtful man told me he was retiring next year and moving to North Carolina. A lifelong NA businessman with grandkids in town moving because he's tired of his street flooding and he fears he won't be able to afford the "tax tsunami" (his words, not mine) that he predicts hitting soon as a result of the city's recent "binge-TIF-fing" (my words, not his).

He's one of many moving away (or not moving in) for many reasons.

We need to reverse these trends before a tipping point is hit from which we cannot recover.

Please vote this election. Absentee ballots started going out last week. Early voting begins October 6.

I would really appreciate your support.

See you on the streets!

Huzzahs all around as Mayor Gahan finally delivers jobs ... to Charlestown.

Was there a finder's fee?

I mean, the car salesmen pay it. Maybe lunch at Hooter's?

Earlier, I mentioned the "local economy solution."

I'm reading Michael Shuman's "The Local Economy Solution," primarily because David Duggins isn't.

"In his tenth book, Shuman, who was instrumental in designing the crowdfunding JOBS act as well as in the founding of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, introduces his concept of “pollinator” enterprises. These are “self-financing entities that stimulate and strengthen other local businesses,” and Shuman presents a range of these successful economic-development programs from around the world, laying out a strong alternative to the usual top-down economies dependent on taxpayer subsidies."

With this thought as backdrop, consider one of the more bizarre stories to come down the pike in a while, wherein the mayor of New Albany is thanked profusely by the mayor of Charlestown for providing providential assistance in the latter's successful use of top-down corporate welfare subsidies to attract a company even after the former's offer of the same incentives failed to entice it.

UPDATE: Auto supplier coming to Charlestown portion of River Ridge, by Elizabeth Beilman (N and T)

CHARLESTOWN — An automotive company that originally had eyes on New Albany announced Thursday it will locate in Charlestown at River Ridge Commerce Center.

Magnolia Automotive Services LLC, a minority-owned joint venture between Toyota Tsusho America Inc. and James Group International, plans to invest $4.4 million to establish a new facility and create 26 new jobs in the Southern Indiana community by 2017.

As David Duggins would say, it's all just "boilerplate" crony capitalism up to this point, but Charlestown's Mayor Hall provides ironic further context. Turns out he had an ace in the hole.

The Japanese company had tentative plans in December to locate in New Albany. The plan commission there approved preliminary plans for Toyota to locate two 62,000-square-foot distribution centers on a 20-acre site at Grant Line Industrial Park West before it pulled out.

Charlestown Mayor Bob Hall attributed some of the success in nabbing Magnolia to New Albany Mayor Jeff Gahan.

“I also give a lot of credit to Mayor Gahan and the city of New Albany for keeping Southern Indiana in the hunt for this project when company leaders were on the verge of going in another direction," Hall said in a news release. "Had Mayor Gahan not kept the dialogue going with company leaders, this project would have landed in an entirely other region or state."

There is an opportunity cost to the city of New Albany's top-down approach to economic development, and it is amply illustrated in this instance. Toward which other outcomes might City Hall have used this time and money?

As it stands, we're left with no new industrial park tenants, but the adulation of One Southern Indiana and Mayor Bob Hall.

And this isn't even sufficient return to buy a pumpkin spice latte at Starbucks -- all of it for only 26 jobs, anyway.

I agree with Michael Shuman, whose simplified overarching point is this: Use the same time and less money to target needs within the existing local economy and help it to grow, with the probablle results being the same number of jobs created, which in any event would emanate from existing local businesses tied more closely to the local economy, whose presence contributes more to ongoing local job creation than Magnolia Automotive Services ever could.

As Jeff Gahan expended time and money placing a tenant at River Ridge, Indatus got away. It's worth repeating this reader comment from yesterday.

I'll say it again - if Indatus had had access to real high-speed internet service and been encouraged to expand in New Albany, then the investment by out of town businesses, the spin-off businesses, and the growth heralded by the White House would have happened here, not in Louisville.

New Albany lost a great deal when they let that business go…

How many businesses have been sought out and encouraged to move here in the past twelve years?

Surviving on $2 per day.

I'm reminded of Larry Flynt's argument that war, not sex, is the ultimate obscenity. It may be time to broaden his definition a tad.

‘$2.00 a Day,’ by Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke Shaefer ... book review by William Julius Wilson (New York Times)

... There are various strategies that the $2-a-day poor use to survive — from taking advantage of public libraries, food pantries and homeless shelters to collecting aluminum cans and donating plasma for cash. Still, in small Delta towns “the nearest food pantry is often miles away, despite the sky-high poverty.” SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) constitutes the only real safety net program available to the truly destitute — but it cannot be used to pay the rent. “While SNAP may stave off some hardship,” the authors write, “it doesn’t help families exit the trap of extreme destitution like cash might.”

All of the $2-a-day families highlighted by Edin and Shaefer have had to double up with kin and friends at various times because their earnings were insufficient to maintain their own home. Some had to endure verbal, physical and sexual abuse in these dwellings, and the ensuing trauma sometimes precipitated a family’s fall into severe poverty.

This essential book is a call to action, and one hopes it will accomplish what ­Michael Harrington’s “The Other America” achieved in the 1960s — arousing both the nation’s consciousness and conscience about the plight of a growing number of invisible citizens. The rise of such absolute poverty since the passage of welfare reform belies all the categorical talk about opportunity and the American dream.

I'm reading Michael Shuman's "The Local Economy Solution," primarily because David Duggins isn't.

The book I'm currently reading is called The Local Economy Solution: How Innovative, Self-Financing "Pollinator" Enterprises Can Grow Jobs and Prosperity, written by Michael Shuman.

In a review by John McClaughry, we learn that Shuman's book is unlikely to be perused by the likes of David Duggins.

The first thing to understand, Shuman says, is that the traditional “economic development” model of chasing after large companies with huge taxpayer subsidy deals is absolutely the wrong way to revitalize a crippled or stagnant local economy. Indeed, he says, “economic development today is creating almost no new jobs whatsoever." In support of that conclusion he methodically dissects and refutes the “eight myths of [conventional] economic development.”

There is another far more promising path. "A growing number of small, private businesses are … facilitating local planning and placemaking, nurturing local entrepreneurs, helping local consumers buy local and local investors finance local business. And most remarkably, by charging clients reasonable fees for their services, they are able to cover their costs ...

... For anyone still in thrall to showering subsidies on outside corporations in the name of “economic development,” “The Local Economy Solution” will be a game changer. Anyone eager to generate new economic life in their community or region will find this book to be a treasure chest of innovative ideas, invaluable experiences, and high motivation.

River Ridge is precisely this "economic development as usual," meaning that New Albany's single most hopeful economic development strategies in the years to come is localism. Jeff Gahan has had little to say abut economic development. Perhaps that's because he hasn't done any.

Tourists in New Albany sure do appreciate the, er, view.

There's something behind that monster truck on high-speed, pass-through, too-wide, human-unfriendly Spring Street -- but what is it?

It's just the Carnegie Center for Art and History, that's all.

If New Albany only had a brain ...

Blair still troubled by word use, confuses council record with "independence."

"Serving the people, not the party."

So long as the people (a) live in or near the suburbs, (b) favor the usual subsidize/incentivize economic development models, (c) believe that only bankers are qualified to use terms like "cost-benefit analysis, and (d) view unlimited TIF bonding as the politician's version of Viagra ... then perhaps Scott Blair really does "serve" them.

Problem is, these planks are precisely the same ones espoused by Mayor Gahan and the DemoDisneyDixiecratic Party hierarchy. I cannot recall a time in four years when CM Blair has introduced an "independent" thought in council. He might well have been One Southern Indiana's propaganda coordinator.

So, as a humanities major, let me offer help with those pesky words: "Serving selected people and the party."

Now at least you're being honest, Scott.

Just not independent.

Looks like I have THAT side of the market cornered: Baylor for Mayor: 3 Goals + 7 Platform Points.