Couple of things
- OK, I want to be clear about this, but I think Dan Abitz is a bid misguided here in his own interpretation of the statistics. In fact, he sets up one of the most spectacularly shallow counterarguments I've seen on the Athens Banner-Herald editorial pages in quite a while. He concedes that 33 percent of the arrests are Greeks, that the Greek community at the University of Georgia is 20 percent of the total student population (at best) and the proceeds to say this is all 'OK' because 33 percent isn't even double of 20 percent. Listen, I'm sincerely not here to rain on the Greek parade. I've got plenty of good friends who went through the Greek system, and the fraternities and sororities in town do much good work, but Abitz is disputing statistical evidence here ... very poorly. The fact remains that Greeks are arrested, for things like underage drinking, at a higher rate than non-Greeks.
- As if you didn't think J. Warren Blackmon was already a bit nutty, the use of a Little Richard quote solidifies that. Buddy ... it's a zoning issue. There ain't no personal vendetta against you.
- Because this guy needed to add to his growing legend some more.
- Some folks would be a bit concerned after reading this piece, but I'm not. It's an uphill climb in the 10th Congressional District, and the more important goal is longterm building of the party. Winning local and state elections and cultivating future leaders is more important big-picture-wise.
- As if you didn't think J. Warren Blackmon was already a bit nutty, the use of a Little Richard quote solidifies that. Buddy ... it's a zoning issue. There ain't no personal vendetta against you.
- Because this guy needed to add to his growing legend some more.
- Some folks would be a bit concerned after reading this piece, but I'm not. It's an uphill climb in the 10th Congressional District, and the more important goal is longterm building of the party. Winning local and state elections and cultivating future leaders is more important big-picture-wise.
posted by Jmac at 6:53 AM
8 Comments:
Could Ahab have taken Naboth's vineyard if he had simply "zoned" it for non-agricultural purposes, or perhaps if he got it declared a wildlife preserve?
You say it's a "zoning issue," as though the city's decision to zone this or that property for this or that use doesn't have effects on the actual people who live on or own the properties in question. I admit to not being up on all the details, so consider this an opportunity to clarify to mine and everyone else's edification. But assuming his facts are correct, Mr. Blackmon's basic contention seems right that something sucks about planning a certain development on property you own, development which is in conformity to the law at time A, and then having that development suddenly outlawed at later time B by the fiat of the city powers-that-be. "Hey, nothin' personal, we're just trying to zone properly". Uh, thanks, that makes me feel a lot better.
With all due respect to Blackmon, he's spinning the story to present his argument in a positive light.
Athens-Clarke County law places restrictions on any development in 100-year floodplains, which is where he wants his development to go. For numerous reasons (such as safety concerns or environmental impact), the local government requires special permits to build on that type of land. The government isn't averse to issuing those permits, but typically does them just for single-family homes (Blackmon actually received a permit for a 7,200 square food single-family home back in 2003, but never built anything on the property and the permit has since expired).
Blackmon now wants to build a 24,000-plus square foot multifamily development on this property. The story which originally reported this quoted several officials with the Planning Department who said they couldn't recall a multifamily or commerical development in a floodplain in recent years, though an older apartment complex does exist nearby the proposed development site, but it has existed since before the community's environmental ordinances for floodplains, river basins, stream buffers and the like went into place.
It isn't as if Blackmon proposed a multifamily development way back when and then the law changed. He proposed a single family development, opted not to build it, and then decided to do something else which is contrary to the specifications for that property. Now, all of a sudden, he's acting as if he's victim, which isn't the case.
He's received permission for the appropriate development on that property, but didn't build. Now he wants to change the rules to something in contradiction to the existing ordinances, and blame the local government for it. I don't think that's the appropriate thing to do.
"It isn't as if Blackmon proposed a multifamily development way back when and then the law changed. He proposed a single family development, opted not to build it, and then decided to do something else which is contrary to the specifications for that property. Now, all of a sudden, he's acting as if he's victim, which isn't the case."
Well, like I said, I'm not up on the facts. If that's what Blackmon is doing, then so be it...
No observation/thought on the Winterville Police Station????
I am all for new digs for the staff but I personally couldn't believe reading the fact that the City of Winterville (population 1,100) needs a police chief, 4 full time officers, and 10 reserve officers. Is there more to this need or is it just some good ol'boy way of getting family/friends on the payroll?
Without regard to this particular case, Xon’s argument does strike a chord with me because sometimes government does change the rules. That is why I’ve complained about the manner in which the Commission has adopted moratoria for years; the Commission can (and several times has) simply suspended entire sections of the zoning ordinances with little to no public notice or input, for the sole purpose of making previously legal activity illegal. And if you hadn’t applied for you permits before the moratorium was declared, too damned bad for you.
FWIW, check out today’s two A-BH editorials concerning redistricting and SPLOST votes. The folks over at Press Place are way behind the curve, though; I was the talking about these issues as part of my campaign a full year ago (and was the only local candidate to ever do so). Nonetheless, the powers that be couldn’t bring themselves to endorse my candidacy.
See the following:
www.votegarland.org/my-concerns-and-proposals.html - the fourth item down; I was advocating taking redistricting out of the hands of the General Assembly well before Sonny announced his panel idea and before Jane made any proposal or filed her lawsuit (at least before anything was made public)
www.votegarland.org/inappropriate-actions.html - the last item on the page
www.votegarland.org/my-local-political-activity.html - the last three paragraphs on the page
As I’ve noted before in the local blogosphere, every individual who publicly opposed the SPLOST special election (by addressing the Board in person, writing a letter to the editor, holding up signs at Board meetings, etc.) was an evil Republican. In fact, it was John Marsh and me who brought the memo to the attention of the A-BH in the first place as part of our ongoing monitoring of the District’s activities.
anonymous, do you consider 4 full time police officers to be far too many officers for Winterville? Is that the concern, or the new building?
As for Greeks being arrested:
They tend to be at parties where alcohol is served, where the Greeks themselves are in high concentrations. That is, you are more likely to arrest a (particular) Greek at a Greek party than a (particular) non-Greek at any other party, since those who are non-Greeks are not as confined in their social mobility as Greeks are. Non-Greeks can go to various other parties, or not party at all; whereas Greeks, due to the social scene, go to these functions and parties and events put on with other Greeks.
It is not the 4 full time officers that I have concerns with - it is the 10 reserve officers and the weekly paycheck that each of them collect.
Ah, thanks for the clarification, anonymous. I'm not sure what the exact situation is for Winterville, but it doesn't hurt to have part-timers who can fill in for when the full-timers have medical emergencies, vacation, &tc. Although, looking at Winterville's own website in the staff section, they have 13 officers listed, with eleven reserve, and two full time. So, I am not sure just how they run the numbers. It looks as though the full time officers are supervisors (such as the Chief himself) who hold down the shift while the reserve officers make up what's there, switching out on off days. I don't think it's quite an ol' boy system of keeping folks on the payroll, but I cannot say that for sure. I take it it's not as though they are "collecting a paycheck" for not doing any work.
There may also be certain conditions where the reserve officers are stationed currently in Iraq or elsewhere on active military duty, given the disproportionately high number of small towns in the US having to send people away. There are many officers who also are on the reserves, and that's affected many smaller towns.
At any rate, what did you have in mind as an appropriate police force for town such as Winterville?
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