I’m a free agent at present, but I owned and helped to run a business for 25 years.
I understand as well as any other local business owner that when you’re at work, you’re busy working.
We all know what it’s like to be in the middle of something at work and be interrupted by a solicitation. Many of these are legitimate. You’re always being asked to post a sign, or sponsor an event. If I had a quarter for each of these instances during my time at NABC, I’d have long since moved to the Cote d’ Azure.
Finally, I know how unsettling it can feel to be immersed in your daily routine only to be approached by someone like Irv Stumler, all frenzied and evangelical, who is asking you to take a side on an issue — HIS side, and to commit on the spot, right now — all the while making it sound as though there’ll be some form of punishment if you don’t agree with him.
Punishment like using his influence to alter your commerce?
Would he? Perhaps, or perhaps not, but he’s not above implying it. He’s also perfectly willing to be identified as an important agent of Keep New Albany Clean and Green, a non-profit organization with no connection to the city’s management of the street grid.
Does this organization’s board approve of the ongoing deception? Inquiring minds would like to know.
The fact that Irv’s out walking the one-way streets in support of his jihad against modernity should tell you something, but you can see this, and what I’m here to let you know is that the sanctity of the private ballot is still preserved in this instance.
Just thank Irv and tell him that you have made your feelings known to city officials, or will do so at your earliest convenience — and please remember to follow through with a comment, whether for two-way streets, against them, or any shading in between. The e-mail addresses of city officials can be found at the the city’s web site, and the official address for public comment is below.
Irv may be on a mission, but it’s strictly personal, and emphatically, he is not a priest. Irv has no right in ANY OFFICIAL CAPACITY to perform confessionals in or near your premises.
You can and should make your thoughts on the street grid known to the city, and that’s that.
The official e-mail recipient for public comments: Joe Dabkowski at RQAW Corporation … jdabkowski@rqaw.com
Thanks for your time.