It's no George O'Leary, but ...
Don Nelson is all over the now departed Athens Area Chamber of Commerce community development director Tom Wyatt. Seems like he found his resume somewhere.
Tom's not a bad fella personally, but he does appear to be taking a lot of credit for things he had little control of. He also conveniently leaves out the whole 'repeatedly losing elections' thing.
As an aside, while Don's going here ... he's also on the proposed Target on Lexington Highway.
Tom's not a bad fella personally, but he does appear to be taking a lot of credit for things he had little control of. He also conveniently leaves out the whole 'repeatedly losing elections' thing.
As an aside, while Don's going here ... he's also on the proposed Target on Lexington Highway.
posted by Jmac at 8:59 AM
6 Comments:
Look, I think that Don Nelson is an amazingly fair person, and wonderful reporter. Now, let's bring this back around to the location of a Target store here in Athens.
Here's my idea, why not recruit CostCo? And not to build a whole new location, but to occupy/renovate one of the huge gaps left by previous big box companies.
I wonder whether the ABH might do a story on the true cost of either WalMart or Target, esp. in a county w/ 28.6 percent of our people living in poverty.
It is a matter of record that WalMart employees make up a huge percentage of the people in the state of GA who are on public assistance.
Here's the thing:
If an employer like WalMart or Target, or the UGA, under the guise of "part-time temporary status", which some folks endure for years at 38 hours a week... is NOT paying for health care, paying enough so that childcare, food, shelter or transportation are covered, guess what folks?
We are.
That's right. The taxpayers are unwittingly and unwillingly subsidizing these horrible employers, because when they don't pay enough for employees to cover those basic essential needs, WE DO.
Couldn't the ABH take a look at how many WalMart employees are on public assistance in the state of GA? Couldn't there be an exploration of the TRUE economic impact of the existing Target on Atl. Hwy, to see whether in fact they are paying their people enough to live on?
Listen, I understand up front incentives for large employers, tax breaks, cheap bonds, sidewalks and access roads, okay, fine. That's up front and in front, when the local economic development folks work w/local government to woo a business into town.
What's not fair is that employers who pay poverty wages are being ipso facto subsidized by each of us, via public housing, section 8, food stamps, emergency room medical care, medicaid, peach care, on and on and on. When the employer refuses to pay a fair wage, WE are the ones who are contributing to what I consider a false bottom line...
If a business has grown beyond it's ability to treat it's employees well, to honor their labor with fair wages, it is a false prosperity, inflated at the expense of the taxpayers. Period. Nobody is actually doing without food... or medical care, or any other essentials. We're just paying the price so that the fat cats at the top can continue to flourish.
It is, actually, economic slavery in many, many, many ways. No wonder that it goes over so well here in GA, where slavery has merely changed context. Right to work, my booty.
Let's talk about the true cost of big boxers, or other criminally negligent profiteers... and think twice before we spend any more money there, too. Every dollar spent at WalMart is an endorsement of their practices.
aquariusrizing
I agree with you, but I don't think we have a vacant big box in Athens that's specifically big enough to house a Costco. Their stores are comparable in size to Sam's.
david
There is one (I think), but it's right next to Sam's Club. Stranger things have happened as a Lowe's and Home Depot coexist across the street from each other.
Jmac,
Your referring to the old Roberds store. Check out the Google satellite map and you'll see that building is only 1/2 the size of the Sam's property with maybe 1/4 of the parking area.
It sits at the back of the property, right on the lot line, so expansion is out. Here's where it gets interesting - check the tax roles and you find that it's owned by "ta-da" the UGA Board of Regents. So is the adjoining parcel to the rear. They bought it out of foreclosure in 2001 (about when Roberds went belly-up). I don't think the regents will be selling anytime soon, odds are they've got something in mind for the whole parcel. Time will tell.
You will always hear me advocate for adaptive re-use of existing vacant real estate. My experience tells me that market forces will make this a tough sell for new ventures coming into town. It's more expensive, and they are limited by politics, parcel ownership, etc. in ways that don't apply to new construction. As a community, we can't be afraid to say we will not allow new construction of big-boxes unless exisiting structures are utilized. The onus is on us to put mechanisms (TAD's/TDR's)in place to make this practical and functional. Companies will always go where they can sell product. Target wants a second location here because the west-side location is literally selling at its capacity.
Encourage them to come, but require them to play by our rules. Profit will motivate them to get creative - that's the beauty of a free market. I'll happily live without Costco if it means Athens never looks like HWY 78 in Snellville.
David Hamilton
Hey Dave ... shoot me an email at the link I have on the home page.
You will always hear me advocate for adaptive re-use of existing vacant real estate. My experience tells me that market forces will make this a tough sell for new ventures coming into town. It's more expensive, and they are limited by politics, parcel ownership, etc. in ways that don't apply to new construction. As a community, we can't be afraid to say we will not allow new construction of big-boxes unless exisiting structures are utilized. The onus is on us to put mechanisms (TAD's/TDR's)in place to make this practical and functional. Companies will always go where they can sell product. Target wants a second location here because the west-side location is literally selling at its capacity.
Agreed, though I'd be a tad reluctant to deny any developer to right to build without utilizing another space. But, yes, I think we can put together an attractive incentive package to lure in businesses to our empty big box locations.
And I have a mild disagreement with Al here over this, though I'm probably reading a tad too much into it. I think we should be actively recruiting the kinds of businesses we want to set up shop in this town. Our government should be very active in this facet, as should the entire community. Shoot, the number of times I've emailed the corporate folks with Fresh Market imploring them to come to the A-T-H is staggering.
Developing the right type of incentive packages, coupled with a good land use plan and active recruitment on our part, means we can bring in economic development to our community.
This isn't to say that we're not already doing that, but I think, as with anything, you can continue to finely hone the process.
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