Open Letter to Some Friends
Hey, Mike. Hey, Greg.
It’s time to get your hands dirty. You’ve done a great job in a) raising money for the capital campaign to build a YMCA facility at New Albany’s Scribner Place, and b) maintaining a unified front in calling for Scribner Place and a public investment in redevelopment of downtown, respectively.
But it’s past time for you to get your hands dirty. You can’t stay above the fray. You can’t pretend that your causes aren’t political. You can’t be neutral in this fight for the city’s future. You can’t worry about who might be offended.
Each of you has the influence and the organization to motivate hundreds of N.A. residents and business owners to declare their support for Scribner Place.
Do it. Get your phone tree going, get your letter-writing campaign going. Elected officials are reading your perennially smiling visages as weakness. The disaffected, bitter, and ignorant are first being conned by the demagogues, then being used as the excuse for knee-capping Scribner Place.
You can serve your community and your interests, too, by insisting that the city save the $1.7 million, save the $138,000 a year, save the 0.20% in extra interest payments that even some Scribner Place friends are, out of caution, considering as a compromise.
How does paying more for Scribner Place make anyone happy?
There’s a small but vocal group working to actively destroy everything you guys have worked for. They create straw men so they can knock them down and use the furor to justify a vote against SP. They intentionally create the impression that Scribner Place is going to be such a drain on the city, that the funding will be so fragile, that ultimately property taxes are bound to rise.
In essence, the best plan is one where the city pledges its full taxing power as a last-resort backing for the money that must be borrowed. Somehow, that’s being twisted into a story that property taxes are going to be raised to pay for Scribner Place.
That’s what you’re facing. Quit pretending your goals aren’t political. Bring out the big artillery and quit letting other people fight your fights for you. Battle the disinformation campaign designed to torpedo your dream project. If it gets a little bloody, well then, it’s worth it for the future of this city.
For more useful information and commentary during these next critical weeks, be sure to add NA Confidential to your favorites list and check it each day.
--------------------------------------
Randy Smith, destinations@sbcglobal.net
It’s time to get your hands dirty. You’ve done a great job in a) raising money for the capital campaign to build a YMCA facility at New Albany’s Scribner Place, and b) maintaining a unified front in calling for Scribner Place and a public investment in redevelopment of downtown, respectively.
But it’s past time for you to get your hands dirty. You can’t stay above the fray. You can’t pretend that your causes aren’t political. You can’t be neutral in this fight for the city’s future. You can’t worry about who might be offended.
Each of you has the influence and the organization to motivate hundreds of N.A. residents and business owners to declare their support for Scribner Place.
Do it. Get your phone tree going, get your letter-writing campaign going. Elected officials are reading your perennially smiling visages as weakness. The disaffected, bitter, and ignorant are first being conned by the demagogues, then being used as the excuse for knee-capping Scribner Place.
You can serve your community and your interests, too, by insisting that the city save the $1.7 million, save the $138,000 a year, save the 0.20% in extra interest payments that even some Scribner Place friends are, out of caution, considering as a compromise.
How does paying more for Scribner Place make anyone happy?
There’s a small but vocal group working to actively destroy everything you guys have worked for. They create straw men so they can knock them down and use the furor to justify a vote against SP. They intentionally create the impression that Scribner Place is going to be such a drain on the city, that the funding will be so fragile, that ultimately property taxes are bound to rise.
In essence, the best plan is one where the city pledges its full taxing power as a last-resort backing for the money that must be borrowed. Somehow, that’s being twisted into a story that property taxes are going to be raised to pay for Scribner Place.
That’s what you’re facing. Quit pretending your goals aren’t political. Bring out the big artillery and quit letting other people fight your fights for you. Battle the disinformation campaign designed to torpedo your dream project. If it gets a little bloody, well then, it’s worth it for the future of this city.
For more useful information and commentary during these next critical weeks, be sure to add NA Confidential to your favorites list and check it each day.
--------------------------------------
Randy Smith, destinations@sbcglobal.net
posted by All4Word at 2:56 PM
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