1st World Luxuries In The Time Of Covid

Around a campfire spit with his 3^rd world host, Anthony Bourdain nibbled on freshly roasted local beast. His host asked, “I hear in America some people don’t eat meat.” With greasy fingers, Bourdain chewed another piece off the bone and grunted, “Yeah, it’s a first world luxury.”

I’ve thought about Bourdain’s comment while folks refuse Covid vaccinations. What a luxury, to be so safe and comfortable we have the emotional energy to get suspicious about nourishing sustenance and life-saving medicines, even imagining some are, in fact, poisons.

Follow the cartoonist on Twitter @BillBramHall

 It’s a curious thing that the safer people are, the more petty dangers hover like a mirage in the road ahead.

 

And the tricks the media use to keep us tuned in amplify the curse.

 

A friend who once anchored local news jokingly told me, “If it bleeds, it leads.” And so they started each newscast with a menacing story, even if it had been a great day in the news; malfunctioning child car seats, suntan lotion destroying barrier reefs, unruly airline passengers, dangerous local intersections. There’s something to fear around every corner. Film at 11:00!

 

During President Obama’s 2^nd term, law enforcement research showed violent crime was at a near 30 year low in the U.S. At this precise time a FOX News-watching neighbor lamented to me that crime was out of control in America, that our cities and towns were cesspools of violence.

 

How could it be that that he felt most threatened in one of the safest times of his life? Because someone was feeding him fear everyday. All the fear mongering could actually be cherry-picked true stories that still added up to a misinformed mindset.

 

I’m one of those tiresome people who believe scientists who have actual credentials and run actual studies, who document their work and expose it to peer review. In that world, 90+% of scientist and doctors, people who’ve spent their entire lives researching pathogens and treating patients, it’s settled science that wearing masks dramatically protects against getting or transmitting Covid. It’s also settled science that Covid vaccines dramatically protect against getting Covid or having a dangerous reaction to it.

 

But at a recent school board meeting in Noblesville, when Dr. Jaime Stelzer, vice president of the American Academy of Pediatrics spoke to support that science, she was verbally attacked by anti-mask parents in the audience. Police had to escorted her to her car.

 

How fortunate we have the scientific and medical infrastructure enjoyed in America, one with a stellar record of success. The vast majority of other nations in the world can only dream of it. Yet, significant numbers of Americans have come to believe this infrastructure is lying and the real truth can be found elsewhere.

 

And so, as 3^rd World folks planet-wide beg for Covid vaccines, folks in the lap of luxury actually conjure a threat and tens of thousands of doses near their expiration date in red states with low vaccination rates.

 

Which raises the question: why is it that low vaccination states tend to be states that voted for Trump? Why is it those are the very states right now where ICU beds are near full. Next week, will people die in hallways and parking lots, waiting for a ventilator, or simpler yet, staff that can tend to them? 

 

And in a cruel twist of fate, this past week a 5th conservative talk show host, Bob Enyart of Denver, who spread misinformation about Covid and vaccines, died of Covid. This self-induced thinning of the heard will go down in history. 

 

That sounds way scarier than getting a vaccine shot. Nuttier still, many “Pro-life” folks, despite 630,000 Covid deaths and counting, refuse to get the vaccine, allowing it to mutate and become deadlier. Perhaps they’re more “Pro-birth” than “Pro-life.”

 

Some folks need a metaphorical gun to their heads before they can muster the intellectual energy to set aside emotion enough to know what to fear. 

 

Heard a doctor interviewed last week who said 9 out 10 patients in his ICU are unvaccinated and nearly every one is remorseful, begging for the vaccine. Facing a true threat has a funny way of  focusing attention on reality. But when you’re comfortable and disconnected from immediate threat you have the luxury of carefree, careless emotional, even political principles, as perhaps many of those 9 out of 10 had before they got sick.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The New and Improved Hamilton County Driver's Manual

STOP . . . or don't

New to Hamilton County or new to driving? Throw away that Indiana Driver’s Manual and learn to drive like a local. What follows is the Hamilton County Driver’s Manual. And it’s been revised. This new version will help you calculate your “Kill Threshold.”

Stop Signs: Here, stop signs don’t really mean, “STOP,” so much as they mean, ”Slow Down a Little” (but that’s too many words to put on a sign). This is well exemplified by the 4-way stop at 10^th and Hannibal Streets in Noblesville. When the car in front of you takes its turn to pass through the intersection, ease through with them as if you’re tethered together. True, if each car made a complete stop, children could safely cross the street and cars trying to cross at the next intersection might actually be able to do so, but the Hamilton County Golden Traffic Rule is, “Do unto others anything necessary to get where you’re going faster.” 

 Speed Limits: In Hamilton County, the posted speed limit is not the top threshold as is the case in other parts of the country, but the slowest you’re allowed to go. Ten to twenty miles an hour over the posted limit is just fine, especially in neighborhoods. The people taking a walk and the children riding their bikes or playing basketball in cul-de-sacs really won’t mind your speeding. However dangerous or irritating you’re making their lives, they understand how important it is that you shave five or ten seconds off your drive.

"Chase 'em out, chase 'em out, chase 'em WAY out!"

Pedestrians/Crosswalks:  Here in our corner of Hoosierland, we see crosswalks as needless government regulation. Fact is, some people are too cheap to exercise in health clubs–they actually get out and walk around. Here’s what to do: As moms with strollers, County employees on the courthouse square, and Monon Trail users are exercising their “supposed” right to safely cross the street, ease your car menacingly close to them. Once they’re just inches out of your way, slam on the accelerator and roar past. This may sound extreme to bleeding-heart newcomers, but it reminds pedestrians that "Might Makes Right." Likewise, if you’re in a mall parking lot or at a pedestrian crossing and it’s raining or bitterly cold, do not give pedestrians the right of way out of some mistaken notion of kindness. No matter that you’re warm and dry and they’re not. Cars come first here. Always.

 

ALWAYS! Oh, and BTW, block intersections and crosswalks anytime you want. Totally fine. 

When stopped at a red light, it's perfectly
fine to do so in the middle of the crosswalk.

Bicycle Safety: Treat cyclists the same way you’d treat pedestrians. Hurry past them going way too fast and way too close. Cyclists should know they’re a nuisance because sometimes they slow down drivers a few seconds.

 

Car Size: We prefer the biggest cars possible. Small cars are for weak liberals. Never mind that we live in one of the flattest places on earth, have not one single gravel road in the county, or that we have some of the best and safest roads in the nation. Bigger is always better, no matter what. Commuting solo to downtown Indy in a Suburban, extended cab truck or other urban assault vehicle? Of course you are! We all are. And if it costs $80 bucks to fill your tank, that’s not your fault. Just blame Biden. (Around here we blame everything on him.)

Yellow Lights: The yellow light transition from green to red is actually an extension of green. Slam on the accelerator and blow through that sucker.

 

Turning Left: Hamilton County is so conservative we’ve made turning left as hard as possible. But if you insist on turning left, pack a sack lunch and bring your meds–you’re gonna be there awhile. (And FYI, nobody’s gonna wave you ahead. *Refer back to our Golden Traffic Rule)

 

Roundabouts: We have roundabouts here in Hamilton County. If you’re of at least average intelligence and prefer to move forward rather than sit needlessly at red lights, you’ll do fine. If you’re of below average intelligence and enjoy sitting at red lights, you’ll find these irritating, and possibly even their circular shape, confusing. Forewarning: If you hate daylight saving time and spicy food, you belong here and therefore will also hate roundabouts.

These signs can be taken literally elsewhere
in America, but here they translate in the
local language as, "blah, blah, blah."

Noise Pollution:  Hamilton County residents put “noise pollution” in the same category as global warming, evolution, and Obama’s citizenship: Things that don’t exist. We love loud car sound systems and loud motorcycles. Even better–a loud motorcycle WITH a load sound system. That’s why we don’t enforce our noise ordinances. Fellas, the louder your sound system and/or engine, the more men admire you and the more ladies are attracted to you. Like you, they see the noise as a symbol of your masculinity. 

 

Calculate Your Kill Threshold: How much exasperating driving delay would you accept before losing your shit and endangering another person’s life? For example, let’s say you come upon a cyclist taking up half a lane and to wait for a safe spot to pass would add 10 seconds to your commute to the liquor store, so you angrily zoom around them, your side mirror just inches from their handle bars. Your Kill Threshold is 10 seconds. If waiting for a pedestrian to comfortably clear the intersection would slow you down 3 seconds, so you race past, your tires just inches from their heels, then your Kill Threshold is 3 seconds. The pedestrians will understand you’re in a hurry to get to that next red light. Sitting at a red light myself recently, I saw my neighbor, a young mother of two, waiting to cross the street. When the light turned green a motorist in the oncoming left turn lane did not wait his turn, but slammed on his accelerator, rocketing across the path of oncoming cars who had the actual right-of-way and through the intersection my neighbor had just entered, almost hitting her. That man’s Kill Threshold was zero. There was no period of time he’d wait before endangering another person’s life. That there’s an overachiever! 

In the 24 hours before posting this blog, The Contrarian
actually came upon 2 such car accidents.

What’s your Kill Threshold?

 

If there’s a traffic situation not covered here, refer back to the Hamilton County Golden Traffic Rule*.

 

What Could Noblesville Learn From Lancaster, PA?

Lancaster's war memorial, a Federal-style 

visitor's center, and Romanesque Central Market.

When I travel to dynamic towns, I keep my eye out for what makes them dynamic. What choices have these communities made that set them apart? What lessons could Noblesville learn?

For over 30 years I’ve chaired boards, sat on committees, restored homes, argued at board of zoning appeals and plan commission meetings, written hundreds of newspaper columns and blog posts agitating for a more exciting town, and along the way sold many hundreds of houses and businesses in my day job as a Realtor. Call me a “land-use nerd."

Because Lancaster, PA is so similar in population to Noblesville (at 59,000 people it’s about 5,000 less than us), and because it leans heavily on its historic past, as we do, it’s useful to see what works for them.

 

Lancaster is old–their oldest architecture a 100 years older than ours. And though slightly lesser in population today, it was a much bigger town in 1890 than Noblesville was. So their downtown commercial district is bigger, its historic buildings taller, its historic neighborhoods much bigger, it’s architecture more dramatic, and it’s urban sprawl a smaller percentage of the whole than ours. While we’re a suburban satellite town to a state capital , they’re just far enough away from Baltimore and Pittsburg they have to be a little hub of their own.

Early 1800s architecture in Lancaster, PA

My location as I write this offers an initial lesson. Lancaster has a Marriott Hotel and a modest convention center in the very heart of their downtown (out its front door is the view above) This brings convention business and tourists who feed an impressive expanse of shops and restaurants. That’s not beyond Noblesville’s ability. Gossip in development circles a couple years back said a boutique hotel was looking to locate in our downtown and there are a number of prime undeveloped locations on either side of White River to put one. The possibility of a hotel with an events center would be a game changer for the urban environment unfolding right now in Noblesville.  And with Grand Park in Westfield, Ruoff (Deer Creek) Music Center, Morse Reservoir, and White River, our own historic districts for wandering, there are plenty of reasons for regional tourists to spend a weekend in Noblesville.

For context, let’s restate reality: 18 months from now, thanks to large high-rise apartment buildings being built in downtown Noblesville, there will be at least 500 hundred more people living in our urban core, a number I believe could quadruple in the next 4 years as new projects are announced. Add to that some 60,000 square feet of office and retail space. Forget about what downtown Noblesville WAS. I’m thinking about what it WILL BE.

 

Dinner atop a 4 story historic building with a view of the city.

Lancaster is abuzz on Saturdays. They have the best produce market I’ve ever seen in a smaller city. You walk the stalls of a back-alley Victorian Romanesque warehouse choosing wares from Amish, West African, Polish, and Italian booths. Cured meats, donuts (the Long John is serious business here), gourmet coffee, butchers, cheese makers, pasta makers, pastries, breads . . . it’s all here. The surrounding alley’s have been bricked and tables and chairs abound where locals, and on the weekends, tourists relax here and also further out amid blocks of brunch spots and coffee shops. Outdoor restaurant and bar seating fills up first, so much so, some eateries who don’t have ground level room for outdoor spaces have created rooftop dining. There are 4 or 5 of these and it’s fabulous to dine overlooking the city. Think I’ve been to all but one of them.

Late Friday afternoon a corn hold game

begins on a rooftop bar as the parking 

garages start to fill up

There’s been some conflict in downtown Noblesville about creating expanded outdoor dining. The City wanted to do it by reducing street parking and widening sidewalks, but merchants pushed back. With 4 separate parking garages planned or underway within a couple blocks of the courthouse, parking in our downtown WILL change. In Lancaster folks can either parallel park on the narrow streets, pay in the hard-to-find surface lots, or park in multi-story garages–which they do. People keep telling me Noblesville folk won’t park in garages, but I can’t figure out what defect we have that prevents us from acting as reasonable people act in urban environments everywhere else I travel in American. Everywhere!

And those brick sidewalks? I’ve been told by past Noblesville city engineers that brick sidewalks just have to go, that they’re too dangerous and tend not to meet ADA mandates. Well please! Tell me why every other dynamic historic town I visit, like Lancaster, makes it work? Are they smarter or more hard working than us? Do they care less about the handicap? Of course not.

 

Our Hoosier defect might be nothing more than a curmudgeonly lack of vision. Noblesville’s Street Department has a massive stockpile of star bricks removed from sidewalks. Put ‘em back in the damn sidewalks and quit thinking up reasons why it won’t work!

Sidewalk bricks abound in Lancaster, but they 

don't have the beautiful star bricks we have.

Like Noblesville, Lancaster protects its historic resources (like those brick sidewalks). They appear to understand that it’s their trump card. Noblesville needs to double down on this and perhaps go as far as declaring a moratorium on demolition of pre-1970s buildings, (don’t quibble with my cutoff date. Mid-Century houses are all the rage), and taking action to encourage restoration of neglected older properties. There needs to be a review and protection process. Something more than homeowner whim.

Lancaster is not all rosy and clean. Walking a few blocks west of the bustling downtown, I smiled at an elderly shirtless man smoking in the doorway of an ancient, crumbling house on a street where fast food trash gathered against a stairway and weeds sprouted from cracks in the sidewalk. Here, blocks of low income housing with peeling paint and crooked gutters are found, made up of 200-year-old simple Georgian and Federal-style row houses bending this way and that along streets following colonial-era mule paths. Working your way clockwise north, surrounding streets reveal big ambitions not entirely realized. There are a couple blocks of art galleries and record stores, a couple more streets of wonderful restaurants, but here and there, empty buildings with “For Lease” signs. Further on the axis to the east you return to envious environs, tree-lined streets with stunning Victorian homes–Queen Anne, Italianate, and French Second Empire, all beautifully restored.

 

Like Noblesville, Lancaster has iconic American

streetscapes filled with shops and restaurants.

Low-income housing remains a challenge for Noblesville, too. Thankfully, we don’t have large neglected zones meant to house those struggling financially, but we do need more affordable housing and as our downtown gentrifies, the challenge will mount. Rather than ranting at Help Wanted signs, “People don’t want to work!” perhaps consider that the folks qualified to take that job can’t afford to live in our town. Lancaster and Noblesville, each in their own way struggle with low-income housing, as our entire nation does.

I am proud to be a Hoosier, but just as I can recognize my personal faults, I recognize those of the place I come from. I worry the Hoosier mind set is our biggest enemy in city building. We’re so used to the old stereotype of Indiana being a backwater, fly-over state, do we carry the cancerous germ of belief that while we’ll vacation in great places, our own towns can’t compete?

 

Noblesville is poised for greatness, but it will take hard choices and enlightened value judgments to get there, just like those made here in Lancaster, PA.

 

 

Downtown Noblesville At A Crossroads

We can wish for powerful, transformative forces to enter our lives, but once they come, they might just take over and lead us somewhere we never wanted to go. We’ve got to invite them on our terms. That dilemma is where downtown Noblesville finds itself today.

The wave of redevelopment hitting downtown is, on it’s face, a good thing. Most towns across the Midwest would kill for it. But it could also threaten our historic architecture and the very historic identity that defines our community. Can we protect our idyllic, historic commercial and residential architecture amid a swirl of investor millions and newly arriving, deep pocketed residential buyers who may have little interest in our town’s history?

 

Hamilton County’s other growing cities have readily sacrificed their old downtowns in various ways amid transformative, developmental makeovers. Towns like Carmel and Cicero have allowed linear development to sprawl down their main drags, filling former homes with businesses. Carmel has also allowed the relentless demolition of existing homes in established neighborhoods for new, larger, more lavish replacements. Fishers has allowed widespread demolition and redevelopment to utterly obliterate and remake its downtown. And Westfield has gone all-in, not only allowing both linear development down State Road 32 and demolition of key pieces of its history, but also giving over established residential neighborhoods to commercial redevelopment. 

 

You could start thinking living in an older, traditional neighborhood is illegitimate–only disconnected neighborhoods with curvy streets and matching mailboxes are safe.

 

But not in Noblesville. All the pressures neighboring towns gave into are breathing down our necks, but we’ve held off most of it, so far.

Hamilton County government has just broken ground on a 5-story parking garage located at the
brackish northern border between commercial and residential Old Town. It will face commercial
downtown and has residential homes immediately at its back and east sides.

 

Noblesville has by-and-large protected its historic neighborhoods. For decades attempts to rezone homes for commercial use along Old Town’s main arteries have been rebuffed by residents and the City. There are actually fewer commercial uses of buildings in residential Old Town now than thirty years ago, and that’s not just due to activism and regulation. It’s also an organic trend, driven by the market–people wanting to live in those structures. And in its most recent master plan, the City drew a firm zoning line down the north/south alley east of 10^th Street from Wayne Street to Seminary Park, making it clear that our booming commercial downtown could not bleed east into our reborn residential neighborhoods. 

Yes, Noblesville has chosen a different path than its neighbors. 

 

But with the construction of high-dollar apartment buildings on old parking lots and the demolitions of a couple small homes in rough condition to make way for newer, bigger homes, pressure is quietly mounting and city leaders will soon be forced to make hard decisions about Noblesville's future identity.

The $48 million East Bank development at White River and Conner St. will break ground later this 

year and hold 219 apartment, 295 parking spaces and 5,000 sq. ft. of retail. Immediately at its back 

is a residential neighborhood with many homes in need of renovation.

In my last blog post I detailed the projects underway in commercial Old Town. They’re pushing property values up. Once those projects are complete and the urban foot traffic they promise hits the streets, filling restaurants and retails shops, I’d expect those values to climb even further, along with retail rent. That could lure chains not afraid of historic districts, like Starbucks and regional restaurant groups.

 

Meanwhile, in adjoining residential Old Town, property values have also risen rapidly as more homes are restored and buyers pursue an urban lifestyle–a walkable/bikable life near parks, summer festivals, concerts, restaurants and shops. As a result, in a couple recent incidents, small, poorly maintained homes have been demolished and replaced by new, bigger homes. In both cases, the new homes are an improvement, but I fear someday we'll see routine demolition of smaller, historic homes to make way for big modern homes, simply because the lot location is so coveted. 

 

1437 Clinton before demolition.

Noblesville will have to fight this tooth and nail, making it clear that this is not Carmel. Carmel is fine–good for Carmel and what they want to do. But we have a different identity that’s worth protecting.

Why not tear down a few eyesore houses here and there? In my 3 decades fighting for historic preservation I recall a time when demolitions were far more common. Over those years I could count perhaps 25 historic properties torn down because they were an eyesore and someone had a “good idea" for using the land better. But when your  town’s identity is built upon authentic historic charm, it’s a lesson in how 25 little “good ideas” add up to one big bad idea. Remember that most of the beautifully restored historic buildings in Old Town were eyesores at some point in the past 60 years. If they’d all been torn down when they were an eyesore, we’d be . . . well, Fishers. 

 

1437 Clinton today with a home nearly 4

times the square footage of the previous

home nearing completion.

No offense intended. That's fine for Fishers. But let's

be Noblesville. We have an authentic identity.

In my day-to-day life as a Realtor, I’ve recently heard both commercial and residential owners of historic properties speculate about tearing down their 

buildings and putting up something more lucrative. The City’s answer needs to be an emphatic, “NO.” 

 

These transformative redevelopmental forces need to come on our terms, or they need not come at all.

It’s The End of Downtown Noblesville As We Know It (and I feel fine)

(Apologies to R.E.M. for co-opting their song title.)

 

Two years from now the feel and functionality, even the center of gravity of downtown Noblesville will be transformed. It will become an intensely urban environment with dramatically more pedestrians and cars. It’s already underway, and will unfold fast enough to make your head swim.

 

And I feel fine. 

 

I want an exciting, vibrant downtown. I’ve been waiting decades for housing, restaurants and shops to be built in the surface parking lots–the asphalt deserts that ring our city center. And it’s finally happening.

The Levinson Building at 9^th and Maple (pictured above) is nearly complete: 85 apartments, 337 parking spaces, and a family-friendly restaurant with a broad street-side dining space. Before the end of the year some 140 people and 120 cars will call this single half block parcel just a half block from the courthouse, home. The builder finds half the tenants of their Indiana buildings are at or near retirement–an active population with more disposable income. That’s good for downtown shops and restaurants.

By the approaching winter, the Lofts On Tenth (pictured above) could be occupied. Currently under construction along 10^th, between Clinton and Wayne streets, it replaces a long-term eyesore with an attractive building. It will house 7 small retail spots and 23 apartments. Let’s estimate another 45 people and 40 cars.

 

County Parking Garage: Hamilton County is about to break ground on a new 5-story parking garage along Clinton St., between 8^th and 9^th streets. They'll will move all employee parking from the surface lot at Conner and White River to the new garage. This long overdue project is good, but a mixed bag. They only need 4 stories today, which leaves 1 story of additional parking for downtown during the day (hopefully), and presumably the entire building on evenings and weekends. But the relatively easier access county employees once had down Hwy 19, St. Rd. 32, and 8^th to their parking is gone and now they’ll have to filter through commercial and residential Old Town to get to and from parking. 

Construction begins this summer on East Bank (pictured above), a 4-story building on the old County parking lot where White River meets Conner St. and includes the demolition of the McMillan Auto Care. Its 219 apartments will overlook the river, with a 295 car garage and 5,000 square feet of retail centered at 6^th & Conner. Let’s expect approximately 350 more residents using most of the 295 parking spaces. Completion is expected spring of 2023.

Though it’s across the river, consider the Village of Federal Hill (pictured above): 163 apartment units, a 430 space parking garage, and a staggering 30,000 sq. ft. of commercial space. This and the city’s plan to make west Logan a more bikeable/walking artery reaching west to the staggering Nexus development (pictured below) at the old Marsh plaza, with almost 300 living units and another 36,000 sq. ft. of commercial space (and a bike share facility) will functionally drag the center of downtown from the courthouse square to the river. 

Let’s do the math for spring of 2023. There will be approximately 600 more people living within about 2 blocks of the courthouse. They’ll be shopping, eating, living, going to downtown parks, art shows and music events, and having friends and family visiting them. Imagine sharing the sidewalks, crosswalks, restaurants and Farmer’s Market with that many more people. Also consider that they’ll also have at least 550 cars located in the same radius, coming and going from 3 parking garages. Imagine sharing the streets with them. As I said, downtown will become a far more intense urban environment. 

 

And that math I estimated doesn’t include the Nexus development further west, the biggest development of all.

 

But that’s not the end of it.

 

I’m a Realtor who sells commercial property in this zone. Without divulging private conversations or anyone’s personal business, trust me that every single remaining parking lot or parcel of ill-used land you see downtown or immediately west of the river has a landowner and/or a deep-pocketed developer dreaming and scheming about it, right now! In 4 years, barring a recession, the numbers could be double what I’ve just laid out.

 

And I feel fine. Not because I’m a realtor, but because I’ve lived here with an under-performing downtown for 3 decades. Yes, it gets better all the time, but still a shadow of what it could be. I want more cool restaurants, distilleries, shops and special events to enjoy. That potential is unfolding.

For more info on each project and a maps showing locations, follow this link the City of Noblesville's website: Noblesville Projects

The Book That Could Save America

You believe lies. And so do I.

In fact, we likely each have many beliefs or opinions that couldn’t survive solid research. Yet, we cling to them. The 2020 election demonstrates how profoundly divided our nation is and I’m convinced that the intensity of the division is built largely upon utterly false beliefs. Mistakes Were Made, But Not By Me, by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson details the scientific research into how we mentally assemble and defend our sometimes mistaken opinions.

 

To overcome these prejudices, we have to overcome our powerful natural urge to defend our worldview in the face of contrary evidence. Here’s an example.

 

Lance Armstrong was a hero to my avid cycling friend. And for good reason. Armstrong beat cancer and became the world’s greatest cyclist, winning the Tour de France 7 times. But from the first victory in 1999 he was accused of using performance enhancing drugs. My friend defensively regarded the accusations as sour grapes from competitors. He was feeling “cognitive dissonance,” the term given to the protective mental struggle we experience when confronted with information contrary to our beliefs. By 2012 Lance Armstrong’s teammates and closest associates revealed that he was the ringleader of the most sophisticated doping scheme in cycling history. 

 

To my friend’s credit he accepted that the overwhelming evidence wasn’t a conspiracy, but proof his hero was in fact a cheater. Mistakes Were Made demonstrates that’s not the typical outcome. Our brains go through enormous gymnastics to defend our beliefs in the face of opposing truths. Once we embrace something as true, take some decisive action, or get emotionally attached to an idea, the self-justifications and biases take hold.

 

“Most people, when directly confronted with proof they are wrong, do not change their point of view or course of action but justify it even more tenaciously.” -Mistakes Were Made (but not by me)

Mark Twain said, “It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they’ve been fooled.” That’s because of cognitive dissonance. 

 

Back in 2012, the Trayvon Martin shooting came up with a friend. I said, “The actual facts of the case don’t matter. America’s so divided, everybody knew which side they were on before they’d heard all the facts.” Nostrils flared, jaw tight, she stopped the conversation in a bluster of anger. The mere chance I might blame George Zimmerman was too much. “I can’t bear to hear people twist the truth!” she said.

 

She was experiencing cognitive dissonance; her deeply held beliefs confronted by an opposing view (though I only suggested opposing views existed). It was so upsetting she couldn’t bear to hear the words.

 

That’s why we increasingly seek news channels that soothe our biases. Like country fans who only listen to country stations or a hip hop fan who only listens to rap, many of us are immersed in carefully constructed filter bubbles. Nothing we dislike gets through. And just as the algorithms of Spotify and Pandora keep our musical taste narrow, FOX News and MSNBC rarely challenge the political blinders we’ve affixed to our minds. If they did, we’d change the channel.

“As fallible human beings, all of us share the impulse to justify ourselves and avoid taking responsibility for actions that turnout to be harmful, immoral, or stupid.”  -Mistakes Were Made (but not by me)

 

The political manipulators in our culture know this well. They design social media posts meant to inflame our biases, knowing we’re so ready to have our opinions vindicated, we won’t fact check their claims before we hit share. And so we spread false information about our mistaken beliefs, thinking we’ve proving ourselves right.

 

Apply that to a politician we hate or admire, or to those waving rebel flags or Black Lives Matter signs. With our tendencies to defend and justify beliefs, it’s no wonder America is polarized. While reading Mistakes Were Made, I was embarrassed to see some of my own prejudices and BS reflected in the stories and research.

 

I once saw the Dali Lama speak. Someone asked him a very simple question: “Will the world ever know peace?” He replied like a prophet: “Only when we learn to disarm ourselves from within.”

 

Facing our own prejudice, biased bullshit is a great way to disarm ourselves, and learning the lessons detailed in Mistakes Were Made is a great way to start. No Facebook post will change our minds. Only we can change our minds.

 

During the Obama years, some of my conservative friends believed he was born in Africa, was a secret Muslim, and insisted he “hated America.” Some of my liberal friends are convinced that Trump has been compromised by Russia, deliberately destroying democratic norms at Putin’s bidding. At some point we have to face the idiocy behind these conspiracy theories and recognize that few of our opponents are monsters from hell. They’re just people we disagree with.

 

It’s been said we’re in a tribal, post-truth society, a time where truth doesn’t even matter. All that matters is the version of reality our tribes ascribes to. But if we’re to survive as a nation, we’ll each need to step back from our warring tribes and face the lies they and we embrace. 

Kurt Meyer's novels can be bought at the Noble Made shop on Noblesville's courthouse square, or from any major online bookseller.

“Kurt Meyer’s The Salvage Man is a gentle Midwestern fantasy made up of one treasure after another. Part historical fiction, part love story, and part rumination on modern day life, this novel asks hard questions about the world we live in and the world we leave behind. I couldn’t put it down.”

Larry D. Sweazy, author of The Lost Are The Last To Die

“Meyer turns the pages of history with gentle care and a warm heart, creating a story I’ll remember forever. Thank you Kurt Meyer for opening a door to my beloved town’s past and allowing me to travel the streets and meet the people of Noblesville 1893.”

Susan Crandall, Author of The Myth of Perpetual Summer

A Gravel Pit Lake Tests Noblesville's Commitment to Communication

Communication is the buzzword in Noblesville’s City Hall. Our new mayor and new council members mention it often. The goal: Communicate proactively with constituents about projects and policy. Don’t blindside them with backroom done-deals after it’s too late for real public input. But Hamilton County Parks’ and Beaver Materials’ plan for a gravel pit lake on North Allisonville Road will test this admirable commitment to communication.

 

For decades Hamilton County leaders, some elected, and some anointed by their economic power, have treated the general public like a nuisance to maneuver around, rather than what the public truly is: their only reason to exist. But just as Noblesville’s new leaders are trying to govern beyond these old bad habits, the County and Beaver brought the old habit to City Hall for a stamp of approval. 

 

Beaver hopes to dig a 20’ deep gravel pit where 191^st Street T’s into a rolling farm field that falls west toward Potter’s Bridge Trail and White River. They’d dig for 10 years, then turn an eventual lake over to the County to add to Potter’s Bridge Park. Lovely idea. Only problem, they never asked surrounding homeowners in Allison Trails and Potter’s Woods if they wanted a gravel pit next door for the next decade. Prevailing winds from the northwest would aim dust and noise, and gravel trucks at both neighborhoods. Before even talking to neighbors, County Parks had already put up signs in the empty farm field heralding their done deal.

 

On September 14^th, Beaver and Hamilton County Parks presented their plans, hosting a meeting for the neighborhoods at Potter’s Covered Bridge. It didn’t go well. What was to be a carefully managed rollout collapsed into a shouting match between angry residents on one side and a defensive Beaver and the County on the other. 

 

Now what? In old Hamilton County tradition, Beaver and the County are moving ahead intent upon forcing their will on these neighborhoods.

 

But the property needs a rezone and the elected officials who can give the green light to this horrifically communicated plan are the very same Noblesville officials who have been calling for communication. I don’t envy them. They’re all good people. I just hope they govern with their newly stated ethics front and center.

 

From my perspective, there are 3 ways to govern. You can represent, lead, or dictate. 

 

Before even announcing their plans, the County put

up a sign at the site of their proposed gravel pit lake

that read, "More Parks, More Fun." I was vandalized

last weekend and then removed.

Want to Represent? That’s admirable. Figure out what the public wants and give it to them. But don’t govern as if you know better than the public, even if you do. That’s dictating, not representing.

 

Willing to Lead? That’s tricky, but also admirable. You have an idea the public hasn’t considered. Be up front and get out front with your idea and educate and “Lead” the public through the wisdom of your vision, bringing them along with you. 

 

But if they don’t follow and you do it anyway, you’re dictating, not leading.

 

Or you can go low and just Dictate, which has been the politically inbred, one-party reflex of 

city and County governments for the 35 years 

I’ve lived here. We’ve all heard the excuse, “I was elected for 4 years to do what I think is best.” No you weren’t! We don’t elect kings. We elect Reprentatives and Leaders. In truth, dictating is fine when settling mundane affair. But if you’re changing the rules and the lay of the land for the entire community or for even just families in a few neighborhoods, you’d better be Leading or Representing.

Dictating is easy. Leading and Representing are hard. No wonder dictating often wins in a one party town. I so wish the County and Beaver Materials had Lead from the very beginning, involving the surrounding community in the planning process so that City leaders could Represent the public’s desires on a rezone. But old habits die hard. I honestly believe we have the people in place for fresh Noblesville government. They’ve been put in a tough position. 

 

Frankly, I’m neither for nor against the gravel pit lake. And I know my opinion isn’t as important as that of those who’ll live near it. 

 

Noblesville’s Plan Commission and City Council should vote no, for now. Not no on the gravel pit lake, but no for failed communication during the planning process. Send a firm statement that says, “That’s not how we do things here anymore.” Vote no now to tell Beaver and the County to start from scratch and include in their planning the Noblesville residents who will spend the next 10 years living beside the digging. If the plan survives, bring it back and vote on its actual merits.

Buy a copy of the Contrarian's novel, The Salvage Man

 

 

“Kurt Meyer’s The Salvage Man is a gentle Midwestern fantasy made up of one treasure after another. Part historical fiction, part love story, and part rumination on modern day life, this novel asks hard questions about the world we live in and the world we leave behind. I couldn’t put it down.”

Larry D. Sweazy, author of A Thousand Falling Crows

Buy a copy of the Contrarian's novel, Noblesville

“Meyer turns the pages of history with gentle care and a warm heart, creating a story I’ll remember forever. Thank you Kurt Meyer for opening a door to my beloved town’s past and allowing me to travel the streets and meet the people of Noblesville 1893.”

Susan Crandall, Author of Whistling Past the Graveyard