Saturday, May 15, 2010

A few links to prime stuff at Broken Sidewalk.

What happened to Saturday?

I awoke at 4:30 a.m., decided to read The Economist to kill some time, drank too much coffee and listend to the birds chirp outside. Then there was a morning of work, an afternoon of finishing "The War That Killed Achilles: The True Story of Homer's Iliad and the Trojan War" (by Caroline Alexander), early evening biking along the new Clarksville Levee path, then finally a pleasant growler of beer and cigars, porchside, with friends.

Time has been fleeting and will continue to be so. I'll be doing more signposting here than I like, because any time when there's time to tie together more than a few paragraphs, these go toward my various column obligations. In this vein, following are three links to a blog that is a must-read for New Albanians interested in the urban experience in metro Louisville. Have you ever wondered how many of our city councilmen read (blogs like Broken Sidewalk), and if they did, how much the experience might change their views on such matters?
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1 comment:

dan chandler said...

If someone in New Albany had requested a feasibility study for a $52 million project, the study would not have been funded. Someone would have objected stating that New Albany cannot afford a $52 million project.

Yet look at Jeffersonville's canal project. If we believe BrokenSidewalk, then:

A feasibility study for the project revealed that the canal would be twice as effective as the underground sewer alternative while saving $7 million. Further, it showed that the project could be paid for without raising taxes. Instead, Jeffersonville will use sewer fees, grants, and redevelopment money to fund the project.

A $7 million savings? Wow!

When the math is complete on the parking garage, we might see that we cannot afford NOT to build it. It may generate more revenue than expenses. I cannot prove this empirically at this time; that will require a complete feasibility study. But if we merely dismiss the prospect of a new plaza as too expensive and never seriously study the many options for financing, we'll never know.