Couple of things
- Uh. Wow. Alvin Sheats's answers are very, very odd. The tree ordinance one had me laughing out loud, the lack of knowledge regarding the rural zoning was mind-blowing and the suggestion that we don't 'deny the right of fraternities to exist' was weird. Contrast those with Kelly Girtz and, well, it's obvious the latter is considerably more qualified to serve on the commission.
- Speaking of question-and-answer, the Athens Banner-Herald puts up interviews with Heidi Davison and Charlie Maddox. At first glance, it seems like they asked Heidi fewer questions ... but, then again, that's probably because she's clearly articulated what she actually wants to do while Maddox hasn't really done so. His comments here were the most in-depth I've seen yet, though this whole 'assisting the school board' thing drives me nuts. Why? Well, because it's an entirely different entity and the local goverment has no authority over it. I think, quite frankly, this is a clear misunderstanding on Maddox's part of what local government does. He also kinda ducks the poverty question, which was worded well. Davison dwelled a little too much on the smoking ban for my taste, but did a fine job on neighborhood notification.
- I trust everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. The Wife and I went to Augusta for the day, enjoyed some turkey, then ran errands on Friday and went to the game on Saturday.
- You're filing a police report over this? Really? Have you ever put up a political sign in your yard? I 'lost' my Kerry/Edwards one several times last year.
- Yesterday, I had to handle some of the duties done typically by our executive director at IHN regarding a situation, and - though I already possessed a great deal of respect for them - it makes you tip your hat to social workers. Long hours, few thanks and low pay ... but doing an absolutely necessary job. So, with that in mind, please be sure and support some of the many, wonderful non-profits in this community this holiday season.
- This is a nice story on some of the local towns in the area.
- Just in case you didn't know ... Georgia beat Georgia Tech on Saturday. And it was truly a wonderful event.
- The Boston Globe says $51.1 million to negotiate with Daisuke Matsuzaka really isn't that much ... and I sorta see what they're saying, but not completely.
- Speaking of question-and-answer, the Athens Banner-Herald puts up interviews with Heidi Davison and Charlie Maddox. At first glance, it seems like they asked Heidi fewer questions ... but, then again, that's probably because she's clearly articulated what she actually wants to do while Maddox hasn't really done so. His comments here were the most in-depth I've seen yet, though this whole 'assisting the school board' thing drives me nuts. Why? Well, because it's an entirely different entity and the local goverment has no authority over it. I think, quite frankly, this is a clear misunderstanding on Maddox's part of what local government does. He also kinda ducks the poverty question, which was worded well. Davison dwelled a little too much on the smoking ban for my taste, but did a fine job on neighborhood notification.
- I trust everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. The Wife and I went to Augusta for the day, enjoyed some turkey, then ran errands on Friday and went to the game on Saturday.
- You're filing a police report over this? Really? Have you ever put up a political sign in your yard? I 'lost' my Kerry/Edwards one several times last year.
- Yesterday, I had to handle some of the duties done typically by our executive director at IHN regarding a situation, and - though I already possessed a great deal of respect for them - it makes you tip your hat to social workers. Long hours, few thanks and low pay ... but doing an absolutely necessary job. So, with that in mind, please be sure and support some of the many, wonderful non-profits in this community this holiday season.
- This is a nice story on some of the local towns in the area.
- Just in case you didn't know ... Georgia beat Georgia Tech on Saturday. And it was truly a wonderful event.
- The Boston Globe says $51.1 million to negotiate with Daisuke Matsuzaka really isn't that much ... and I sorta see what they're saying, but not completely.
posted by Jmac at 7:07 AM
9 Comments:
Article shows Mayor simply does not get it.
Blake Aued's article (11/26/06) confirms that Mayor Davison simply is not listening to the majority of Athenian’s needs. She gushes over the arts and music scene while enacting policies to help kick artists and musicians from their houses. She asserts that arts and music will turn into jobs for area residents but she has been the primary instopple in preventing the cohesive and adequate marketing of this city for tourism and business attraction in any industry.
Charlie Maddox has clearly and repeatedly offered plans such as focusing business recruitment on Athens’ strengthens such as seeking out businesses that can employ many in the art and music sectors in full time or freelance capacities. Charlie has also said he will promote our city so that we can assist our local businesses through a thriving business and tourism economy. Charlie seeks real answers to support our local artists and musicians rather than the lip service offer by Heidi.
Of course, Heidi said that despite Charlie’s position on economic development, she cannot find anything in his platform to comment on. This is typical of her term as mayor. If she doesn’t agree with something or have an answer, she simply ignores it.
Yea. You're objective.
"They asked Heidi fewer questions ... but, then again, that's probably because she's clearly articulated what she actually wants to do while Maddox hasn't really done so."
I got this (below) from Charlie's campaign materials and I am pretty sure I've seen it on this blog before. And seriously, if you think the city cannot support the school board by augmenting the support given to children after they leave the classroom each day you truly just don't understand.
Charlie wants to make children a priority and you and every other person that believes goverment is your own personal change purse want to defame his intellegence for that?
Major actions proposed by Charlie Maddox:
• Make a recommendation to amend charter by changing the appointment authority of municipal court judges from mayor and commissioner to superior court judge
• Request audit of ACC Government activities and request manager to arrange for audit of standard operating procedure for all departments
• Form a mayor’s cabinet of advisors from concerned citizens and establish (Meet the Mayor) program for a weekly discussion of individual citizens’ cares and concerns.
• Seek review and remedy to adequately fund economic development efforts
o Increase local contribution
o Rebuild partnerships with local industry
• Lead the effort to focus and carry out business recruitment by marketing our strengths rather than waiting for industry to come to us
o Hospitality
o Animal Health
o Media Arts
• Work to repair damaged local and state economic development partnerships
o Georgia DOL
o Georgia Department of Economic Development
• Work with citizens, elected officials and economic development officials to help set clear and consistent guidelines for those who choose to do business in Athens
o Protecting our natural resources
o Offering incentives for desirable business
o Attracting clean, well paying industry
• Create a priority list for infrastructure needs and begin action on the most dire of these problems
• Affirm and support Athens Housing Authority in efforts to increase affordable housing through partnership with the university
• Affirm, support and partner with Athens Housing Authority to attract and develop affordable housing through available low interest loans
• Implement the already passed Floating Homestead Exemption which will protect senor citizens against unjustly elevated assessments and taxes
• Comprehensively survey the city with regards to transportation needs
• Fully embrace and support the Clarke County mentor program
• Remove fees for after school athletic programs for low income children.
Yea. You're objective.
Well, I don't really ever remember saying I was. I like Davison, and I like what she's done as mayor. I've been critical - perhaps too much so - of a lack of a coherent vision from Maddox's campaign.
The litany of points you list are noble ones, but - as I've said before - I don't necessarily think they make up a concrete plan of action for government. It's a listing that is comprised of part platitudes that everyone likes and, in some cases, part downright false claims regarding 'damaged' relationships between the state and local governments.
As far as Maddox articulating his message to the community, this isn't just a criticism I've had - it was noted in the Banner-Herald as well as other segments of the Athenian blogosphere. Rightly or wrongly, there is a perception among many in this community that no one really knows where Maddox comes down on some things. I've conceded he's done much better toward the end of the campaign in fleshing out his thoughts and views, but in contrast to both Davison and Tom Chasteen, I felt some of his answers to some questions were kinda lacking.
I do not mean this as a slight, but I am genuinely curious if 'instopple' is a malapropism for 'obstacle' or some other word I'm not familiar with. Or is some new word itself. What sort of businesses are those that hire people in the "art and music sectors"? It seems to me that people earlier were criticizing Davison for not seeking out businesses that didn't cater to arts and music, that aren't tourist-related in some way or other, when she was encouraging these kinds of economic choices. In other words, they wanted her to attract more industrial, more technical jobs, that would be available to a wider base of workers and contribute more to the economy by creating a stable consumer base. It's entirely possible that the criticism is that she attracts no business, arts or not. But, that's not quite what I had read before. At any rate, are you, anonymous, suggesting that the city needs more arts-related businesses, and Charlie will bring that to Athens?
To the other anonymous, I think it's a great point to emphasize that education can only happen in an environment conducive to it, but, as Johnathan never tires to point out, it is one thing to propose this and another to show how those bullet points translate into that education-affirming environment. That is, how are the first three bullets going to impact education in a noticeable way?
How will having a municipal court judge chosen by the superior court judge going to result in demonstrable increases in student performance? If effectiveness as a leader working for better education is going to be measured and judged, then it seems to me something concrete will be needed: test scores, grades, extracurricular participation, essay comprehension, &tc. Otherwise, if we take some intuitive "I know it when I see it" measure, it's not clear how Davison fails and Maddox wins.
Are the connections between, say, "clean, well-paying industry" and education made within the Maddox literature?
Incidentally, I am having t-shirts printed up with my new favorite catch phrase from the campaign season...
"I have an appreciation for trees, and there are two trees I have an appreciation for. Now some are going to find this answer challenging, if you will. But while serving in the Middle East, in Operation Enduring Freedom, there are three things I learned to do even better, and I can appreciate being able to do better than before I went over there, and that's praying a lot, and appreciating a good shade tree, as well as the tree of liberty, which thrives off of blood.
I am in support of protecting the older trees who have been around for many years and provide unlimited shade and pleasures as they continue to blossom and change in the fall."
Now THAT'S a slogan!
I'd probably want a police report if someone had trespassed on my property and stolen a number of expensive items, too. Theft isn't a game.
Well, there is that old warning of Jonah's shade tree and the worm...
dawg, I think you capture succinctly just what I was asking. This is, I think, where people start to have their problems with Maddox's campaign: it's not that it doesn't have a position, but that it's position is all positions. The kinds of things suggested by Maddox supporters are able to fulfill all of what people need, and where everyone else goes wrong is that they are unable to do all things correctly.
That is why concrete proposals are better, since the concrete proposal takes a stand on how this change will result in demonstrably beneficial effects. Platitude, so the position is called, is a problem because it means too much, not too little.
To some extent, that has worked for the Maddox campaign since it fits with "Everyone is with Charlie, and Charlie is with everyone" message. But the common denominator of everyone is too open a thing to really, in the end, campaign on. That's why you have people like Xon and Johnathan, my friends of very different political orientations, agreeing that, in the end, you are going to have to side with a "one-sided" or "narrow" position such as Grow Green's or not side with it, in addition to whatever stances you take elsewhere. That's why there are these narrow interest groups, and why it helps for people seeking public office to interact with them in a clear way. It gives people something more than the common denominator, a kind of commonality beyond that mere one.
Ugh, I wrote too much.
I clearly see that Charlie's main position is thoughtful economic development as a solution to poverty and a host of this city's other woes
No one is disagreeing with the solution - I think we've all said that - but we're disputing the specifics of the prescription.
It's as if a doctor told a patient 'you need some medicine to get better' and the patient asked 'what kind' and the doctor responds with a blank stare.
You were the one bringing up this odd 'instopple' word. If you had, you know, actually gone through the comments you would have seen a criticism and question posed in there as well.
I'm not trying to show up anyone with asking whether 'instopple' is a misspelling or some other kind of grammatical thing. I like words. I like how they can mean things even when "bad" or "flawed" or "wrong." It is a personal question for me, since, to me, there's a lot going on in the word, whether misspelling or not. As I said, I have a genuine curiosity in what first anonymous intended or meant. Neologisms sometimes result from bad copy, and it brings a charm to knowing someone. I mean no slight by the question, and I expressed that I meant none, suburban chaos.
If you don't want to take me at my word, that's your own decision to make. I'll hold you to that.
If, though, you were also talking to me about being blind, well, yes, I "clearly see" that his position is that "thoughtful economic development" will alleviate poverty—I wouldn't say, though, he thinks it's a solution (as in, it will not eliminate poverty, since Charlie, agreeing with Jesus, holds that the poor will always be with us). What I don't see is what second anonymous proposes: the kinds of goals or ends suggested in the bullet points second anonymous put up for us from Charlie's campaign materials are meant "to make children a priority."
As I said, I agree with the idea that education can only occur within an environment conducive to it. It seems to me that the bullet points are more than just creating an economy, but going beyond job creation to increasing life options, developing infrastructure for both private and public services, increasing democratic access to government, maintaining quality in housing whether public or personal. To see that bullet list as just about economic development is, I think, an insult to the thought behind Charlie's campaign, as that's a cheap way of supporting him in what he is trying to accomplish. It's a shortsighted view of what Charlie is saying he will do, that it's about economics.
But, let us talk about jobs, then. It's not just any old job that will do for Charlie. I take Charlie at his word when he says this in the interview: "We'll always have poverty, we'll always have poor people with us, but what creates that problem is the lack of jobs, and I'm not talking about high-paid university jobs or low-paid minimum-wage jobs, where we had factory jobs and industry jobs where people could go to and earn a living." Charlie, I take it, is arguing that we need more "mainstream things" such as factory and industry jobs, notsomuch arts or music jobs. During this interview, which I admit is just one thing and just an interview, he doesn't mention tourism, arts, or music as things his government will focus on. He does mention that he likes trees, but not too much and shouldn't be as much a priority as "some of these other things." In other words, Charlie's approach to government will not focus on culture or lifestyle or environment as much as it has been, in his view, a priority for Heidi. Walking away from this interview, my impression is that Charlie is for factory or industry jobs, not for music or tourism jobs. Now, combine this with the bullet points from second anonymous, where you have that we need to recruit business by emphasizing our strengths, and we see that Charlie already considers Athens to be strong in tourist and in the arts, and also in veterinary medicine. So, taking these together, we have from Charlie this picture of the economic condition of Athens: strong in music and the arts and vetmed, with a large gap between uni admins and minwage workers, at a time when we need to attract factories and industries to create a middle class mainstream. And, so his own literature goes, we will attract these factories and industries by touting vetmed, music, and the arts. The literature also says that his government, with outside and experienced assistance, will create clear and consistent guidelines for attracting businesses (as they haven't yet chosen to do business here). His interview suggests something very similar: eliminate the willy-nilly, nonsense ordinances and form a foundation for our regulations that will be consistent (I'd also add "rational and predictable"), and we will find people more willing to do business here. And, in attracting these businesses, not only will we protect our natural resources (though not as our priority), but we will also try to recruit "clean, well-paying industry." Here's a snarky question: what is clean and well-paying if not a university admin job? So, what kind of industry do we have in mind? Most likely we mean something having to do with advanced technology, but is this assembling the parts or manufacturing the parts or coding the programs or splicing the genes? And, again, how is tourism, music, or vetmed going to bring us this kind of industry?
So, yes, I see that Charlie is saying that we need a sustainable, diverse, and growing economy in order to have better educated and less poor people. I do not see how the view, though, is consistent, because, as I was saying earlier, it is a view that says everything. His government will attract factory and industry jobs by going to business with the artistic and musical economy it has, create a better quality of life than what we have by making it a lesser priority, allow greater participation in government by reducing the number and kind of ordinances any person can suggest, keep housing affordable and available by helping UGA confine students to the campus and by encouraging developers to profit from the housing they make, and so on.
The point is, he's not just saying he's for creating jobs to reduce poverty. He's for doing x (which this group supports) by doing y (which this other group supports), but neither one can work together.
Again, that's the problem in a platitude. It says a broad ambiguous thing in a little clear sentence, when sometimes you need to say a little, clear thing in a ponderous lengthy post.
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