Good read
This is an excellent piece by Ben Emmanuel from Flagpole taking a look at the political realities for the new Athens-Clarke County Commission.
From a journalistic standpoint, I'm very impressed with not only how engaging his writing is, but also with how he was able to get such frank, honest and sincere quotes from folks from all sides of the spectrum in this community.
There are two really interesting passages.
The first one, regarding David Lynn's 'independent' streak ...
There have been other aberrations, too. The Mayor and some of the commissioners will admit to having been surprised by Lynn on some votes. An example is last year’s decision to allot a large chunk of road-building money to building a four-lane Jennings Mill Parkway parallel to Atlanta Highway near the Loop, despite concerns about encouraging growth versus redeveloping parts of that area, and about saving some money for alternative transportation projects. Lynn stands by that vote today, and adds, “Every transportation issue isn’t a decisive vote for the future of alternative transportation in this community.” He goes on, “I get a little impatient with every issue being some kind of indictment on where you stand on alternative transportation.”
The other, regarding promising comments from folks like Lewis Shropshire ...
Shropshire also serves on the PPA steering committee, and says it’s “critical” that the five co-conveners of the initiative (which include the local government and the Chamber of Commerce) accept their responsibilities when the time comes to implement PPA recommendations. “We have some very difficult decisions to make,” he says. “Change is going to be difficult because nobody wants their ox to be gored.” Shropshire says thick skins will be required on everyone’s part when the PPA’s time comes, “because otherwise we’ll do what we’ve always done and get what we’ve always gotten, which is unacceptable.”
From a journalistic standpoint, I'm very impressed with not only how engaging his writing is, but also with how he was able to get such frank, honest and sincere quotes from folks from all sides of the spectrum in this community.
There are two really interesting passages.
The first one, regarding David Lynn's 'independent' streak ...
There have been other aberrations, too. The Mayor and some of the commissioners will admit to having been surprised by Lynn on some votes. An example is last year’s decision to allot a large chunk of road-building money to building a four-lane Jennings Mill Parkway parallel to Atlanta Highway near the Loop, despite concerns about encouraging growth versus redeveloping parts of that area, and about saving some money for alternative transportation projects. Lynn stands by that vote today, and adds, “Every transportation issue isn’t a decisive vote for the future of alternative transportation in this community.” He goes on, “I get a little impatient with every issue being some kind of indictment on where you stand on alternative transportation.”
The other, regarding promising comments from folks like Lewis Shropshire ...
Shropshire also serves on the PPA steering committee, and says it’s “critical” that the five co-conveners of the initiative (which include the local government and the Chamber of Commerce) accept their responsibilities when the time comes to implement PPA recommendations. “We have some very difficult decisions to make,” he says. “Change is going to be difficult because nobody wants their ox to be gored.” Shropshire says thick skins will be required on everyone’s part when the PPA’s time comes, “because otherwise we’ll do what we’ve always done and get what we’ve always gotten, which is unacceptable.”
posted by Jmac at 2:33 PM
1 Comments:
I thought this was a good article but I was a bit puzzled by David's comments though I suppose I can imagine some folks pressuring him about alt-trans in relation to the Jennings Mill Parkway. My disappointment in the way that vote went down had nothing to do with any alt-trans perspective and everything to do with the fact that there was no compelling argument made to make that a 4-lane and it was just a huge amount of money to give away to the developers. We spent a ton of unnecessary dollars to help make 2 or 3 people who owned land out there even more filthy rich than they already are. I'll be those same 2 or 3 people will be just screaming about how much they pay in taxes, too.
The better alternative for that road, which was actually more useful to that area than the one chosen, would have been a 2-lane road in a slightly different location.
I don't blame David for it but I still can't figure what motivated the vote that was finally taken that I believe was doubley-flawed: a) only a 2-lane was needed; b) it really did not need to go where it was finally placed.
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