Oh, yes, we got trouble here, we got big, big trouble

As measured by end results, Thursday's last meeting of June went, frankly, swimmingly.

The Divine Mr. Mac and his sprawltastic C'Town Road strip mall, last-gasp at legitimacy, pump-and-dump development went down to ignominious defeat. Even sibling D5, D. M-B, could not find the intestinal fortitude to be the sole remaining promoter of this unpopular PUDD request, which has been rejected by city officials on what seems to be 43 consecutive times.

Even the invincible residents of the Lafayette Drive neighborhood could not have expected D5 Diane McCartin-Benedetti to switch her vote to oppose her brother, "The Gary," and his mediocre attempt at restoring his flagging financial fortunes.

Mr. Coffey, esteemed by more than a dozen Westenders and the council member of the longest tenure of all current council members, was rebuffed in his attempt to dictate an ill-advised zoning change in a ten-block area near to his house.

I do not doubt that his constituents fear that persons with more resources and visions might transform their neighborhood (and increase their property values) by making the isolated triangle of historic homes a potential target for constructive redevelopment.

"The 'Jack' is back" is the headline you should (but won't) see in today's issues of The Tribune. Mr. Messer, the presumptive favorite for the mayor's office in 2012, decided that five months of silence was enough. Backed by facts instead of innuendo, and insisting on proper procedure instead of demagoguery, pointed out that the targeted area consisted primarily of rental housing units. Further, he elicited expert testimony that the ill-considered Coffey resolution would, in all likelihood, depress local property values. Instead of protecting and preserving homeownership and value, the Coffey proposal would do injury to the interests of that area's homeowners.

We will admit that we have zero confidence in either the efficacy or the legitimacy of D1 Dan Coffey. His contradictory and incoherent defense of his proposal lent no additional confidence. At once, Mr. Coffey insisted that his resolution would have no effect and that its passage was essential to the protection of his near-neighbors.

Due in no small part to the inartful, inarticulate drafting of his proposal (evidence of the unprincipled, weak mind behind the effort), the council soundly rejected the resolution. Mr. Caesar presented anecdotal but persuasive evidence that muddled, ad-hoc legislation such as Coffey's could have serious, unintended consequences. Thankfully, the measure was rejected and the attentions of the Plan Commission will not be diverted.

P.S. We suppose you had to be there, but the pull-quote of the night goes, once again, to D5 Diane McCartin-Benedetti. Det. Fudd, who spoke in favor of accepting $193K from the feds, was distracted from his purpose by the handsome D5, who wanted to know how the acceptance of an integrated automated fingerprint identification system might tax the resources of the police department, and specifically Det. Fudd, when he was the go-to guy in the region for fingerprint IDs.

Perhaps we would have been better served to self-medicate before Thursday night's meeting, as did at least one compatriot, but we couldn't help but read double entendre into Ms. Benedetti's remarks. Commiseratingly, D5 remarked of the sole resource for this critical NAPD resource, "There's only so much manpower you can give!?

We're unwilling (and woefully uninformed) to evaluate Det. Fudd's man power. But we are willing to agree that there is only so much of it that he can give.

We pray that other online sources will capture more of the tenor of the night. July's first meeting promises to be more compelling and critical.

For now, we'll say good night.