Monday, October 06, 2008

Son of “back on your heads”: Council takes a field trip tonight.

Wanna bet they’ll drive the two blocks, not walk?

The Tribune’s Daniel Suddeath previews tonight’s city council meeting: New Albany City Council will vote on freeing funds for cash flow.

Interestingly, and perhaps uniquely, the scheduled meeting will be preceded by an instructive educational opportunity.

Council members will meet at 6 p.m. Monday for a work session to tour the set-to-open Scribner Place/YMCA. The YMCA is scheduled to open Nov. 15.

Ahh, I’m feeling the tug of nostalgia.

For many months, as conscious elements in the community valiantly struggled to spend $20 million of someone else’s money on the Scribner Place/YMCA project, the council’s Gang of Four unreconstructed obstructionists did everything it could to thwart it.

The Gang of Four is no more; Slippery Larry mercifully retired, and “Somnolent” Schmidt was summarily unseated, but Dan “Wizard of Westside” Coffey and Steve “Accidental Councilman” Price remain on board to advocate turning the calendar pages back to the golden age of prevalent hardwood forest, when taxes and expenses were sublimely low, and do-gooder progressives weren’t breathing down the necks of congenital low bar underachievers like them.

Will Coffey and Price make the trip to the Y? Or will they sulk outside and spit in the general direction of the soon-to-open structure?

As we await the hilarious answer, here are two excerpts with links from NAC pieces in 2006.

UPDATED: A great day for NA.

... With the union of the YMCA, Caesar’s Foundation, LifeSpan, Floyd Memorial Hospital, New Albany and Floyd County about to be solemnized, and at precisely the moment when Pastor LaRocca intoned, “Speak now or forever hold your peace," the Third District councilman Steve Price attempted to bungee from a passing helicopter and put a stop to the ceremony, which he had previously denounced as “forcing those Frankfort Avenue people right down our Pandora’s Box.”

Unfortunately, Price’s “Sam’s Club” cord was too short, and he was thrown with visible force against the façade of Schmitt Furniture, sliding unobtrusively down the building’s side, and into a featured sale-price Ottoman on the sidewalk below.With luck, he'll remain there until the item is delivered, but never mind; the East Spring Street Neighborhood Association represented CM Price's long-suffering district.

Scribner Place groundbreaking this morning -- BTW, has anyone seen CM Coffey lately?

... We’ll be watching to see if Councilman Cappuccino sets up shop on the opposite corner and convenes the council’s dulcet-toned obstructionist barbershop quartet, the The Gang's Gong of Four, to sing a stirring rendition of their golden classic hit, “We Hate the Sort of People Who’ll Be Coming Here (And We Wish They’d Leave Us to Our Squalor).”

5 comments:

Tommy2x4 said...

“forcing those Frankfort Avenue people right down our Pandora’s Box.”

it's amazing what people will say. so i guess boarded up windows is what this guy wants, rather than people *gasp* walking around downtown new albany? oh..you mean he'd rather keep sprawling towards Borden, instead of using those buildings in downtown new albany that could serve as housing, businesses...

NAC...maybe they just don't have the capacity to think outside the box.

Iamhoosier said...

I can attest to the solid construction of Scribner Place. My wife and I toured(and joined)the other night. We all know what the "C" stands for in YMCA. The building did not collapse when I entered.

EVERYONE, "Y-M-C-A..."

Tommy2x4 said...

now...if i could just get some investors to help me build this...

http://www.raysmtb.com/

G Coyle said...

Roger - also amused by the Tribune piece. Check out my view: http://letterfromnewalbany.blogspot.com/

Ceece said...

We're so very excited for this baby to open! I'll be heading down there today to take advantage of the $100 savings.

Hooray!