Couple of things
- Being the political animal that I am, it's not shocking that I'm very much obsessed with the Iowa caucuses today, even more so given my strong support for Barack Obama. It's a three-way tie in Iowa, with second-tier support figuring to help break the stalemate. Dennis Kucinich instructed his supporters to be released to Obama where needed, while rumors indicated that both Joe Biden and Bill Richardson might be telling their backers to do the same thing, which would be a big coup for the Illinois senator. The question is what the John Edwards supporters do since, obviously, he wants to knock out Obama in an attempt to consolidate the 'Not-Hillary' vote. So, even though he shares more in common with him, it's likely his folks will back Hillary Clinton. Should be interesting.
- Safe to say, I'll be doing some blogging tonight.
- Also, let me know who you like in those early primaries.
- The landfill's gonna get bigger, and let me tip my hat to both Elton Dodson and Kelly Girzt who opposed the expansion, favoring instead to work with the residents and expand the recycling program. I've noted my unease with this expansion, and I would have voted against expansion for a variety of reasons (one being that it seems rather silly of us to vote to enter into an agreement with a neighboring county to dump our trash in their community without them having officially voted to do so). I recognize that there are few, if any, alternatives, but this just doesn't feel right to me.
- Oconee County is about to hop aboard the 'let us keep our water' train, that Athens-Clarke County is already riding on. Again, another power grab by the Georgia General Assembly and another attempt to tear local control away from community, and this would have a negative impact on downstream communities by granting the state the ability to transfer water from river basins to other areas in the state (i.e. Atlanta). Why would should attempt to reward Atlanta for unwise and reckless growth and mismanagement of resources is beyond me, but it's even more stunning that we want to strip more control away from our local communities.
- Expectations are high, which may not be a good thing based on the 2008 schedule. If we could have this team in place for 2009, I'd already book my hotel room for the title game. But it's hard to envision Georgia getting through that tough slate unblemished.
- Though a ton of folks have poked fun at him already, let me join in the chorus of insults against Dale Cardwell, who has climbed atop a pole in Atlanta and promises to stay there until we all hear his voice. Of course, it's ridiculous, but then again so is Cardwell. He's got a webcam here and Creative Loafing is keeping tabs on the stunt.
- Safe to say, I'll be doing some blogging tonight.
- Also, let me know who you like in those early primaries.
- The landfill's gonna get bigger, and let me tip my hat to both Elton Dodson and Kelly Girzt who opposed the expansion, favoring instead to work with the residents and expand the recycling program. I've noted my unease with this expansion, and I would have voted against expansion for a variety of reasons (one being that it seems rather silly of us to vote to enter into an agreement with a neighboring county to dump our trash in their community without them having officially voted to do so). I recognize that there are few, if any, alternatives, but this just doesn't feel right to me.
- Oconee County is about to hop aboard the 'let us keep our water' train, that Athens-Clarke County is already riding on. Again, another power grab by the Georgia General Assembly and another attempt to tear local control away from community, and this would have a negative impact on downstream communities by granting the state the ability to transfer water from river basins to other areas in the state (i.e. Atlanta). Why would should attempt to reward Atlanta for unwise and reckless growth and mismanagement of resources is beyond me, but it's even more stunning that we want to strip more control away from our local communities.
- Expectations are high, which may not be a good thing based on the 2008 schedule. If we could have this team in place for 2009, I'd already book my hotel room for the title game. But it's hard to envision Georgia getting through that tough slate unblemished.
- Though a ton of folks have poked fun at him already, let me join in the chorus of insults against Dale Cardwell, who has climbed atop a pole in Atlanta and promises to stay there until we all hear his voice. Of course, it's ridiculous, but then again so is Cardwell. He's got a webcam here and Creative Loafing is keeping tabs on the stunt.
posted by Jmac at 9:40 AM
15 Comments:
So, what can we do other than expand the landfill? Mandatory composting? That wouldn't be such a terrible idea, but it sure would get people riled.
How about accepting more items for recycling (many plastics are not accepted), giving extra bins to those who want them and offering composte pales for those who want to composte but don't want the expense or hassle.
That would all be awesome. Can we do that _and_ make the landfill bigger? Because I kind of trust Mr. Reddish.
We could start with larger bins and then making additional bins available for a small, one-time fee.
Also, additional recycling containers throughout the community would be good.
Size of bins only affects those inside the old city limits. Unless you want either to expand trash service to those of us outside them (I technically am) or ask every private trash service to provide bigger bins. I can't imagine that size of bins is the biggest problem, though. I know that I overflow mine some weeks, when there is a lot of paper, for example, but not often, and we drink quite a lot of beer and soda.
Unwise and reckless growth? The growth may not be as dense as the do gooder social engineers would like it to be, but the growth is anything but reckless. People want to live in Atlanta because it's a nice place to live and good place to make decent living. That's not reckless growth -- it's people using there freedom to locate where they wish to be.
And Atlanta would have more than enough water if everybody moving there from South Georgia, Alabama, and Florida brought their own water with them. How about all of ya'll head back to your third world communities and stop using up all of our water?
decon
Unwise and reckless growth? The growth may not be as dense as the do gooder social engineers would like it to be, but the growth is anything but reckless.
Obviously you haven't driven through parts of Gwinnett County.
Size of bins only affects those inside the old city limits. Unless you want either to expand trash service to those of us outside them (I technically am) or ask every private trash service to provide bigger bins.
Fair enough, though we typically fill up ours pretty regularly because, when space allows in our paper, we recycle all sorts of paper goods ranging from granola bar boxes to other more random things which many people would otherwise trash.
I favor letting private companies be able to serve within Athens proper, though I would require they adhere to the same recycling rules as the city service (though I could be unclear on recycling rules right now).
We're often overflowing our paper bin, but our recycling guys are great - we sometimes end up with a supplemental bin of paper (AKA box that we don't break down, and instead put the overflow paper in), and they take it. So, thanks recycling guys!
"ask every private trash service to provide bigger bins."
Yes.
And I don't understand the whole trusting Alan Reddish thing. What is the joke?
Re the landfill.
1) even if we doubled our recycling overnight, that gives us an additional 11 months of landfill space. Talking about it endlessly and grandstanding doesn't change that reality. The same outcome would have occurred two months down the road as occurred last night.
2) With all due respect, I think you don't understand what was voted on last night. Oglethorpe has already agreed to condemn the property. ACC was simply voting to enter into an intergovernmental agreement to buy it from them for use by both counties. The two things are clearly linked but separate. Oglethorpe couldn't proceed w/ the condemnation unless they knew that ACC would also follow suit in the process. Therefore, it makes perfect sense for the vote by ACC to be before Oglethorpe actually condemns the land.
1. No, it's not a joke.
2. How much paper/cardboard/whatever are y'all using every week? I recycle anything that's even vaguely papery and I still rarely fill my whole bin. You all have one for paper products and one for bottles and cans and plastics, right?
With all due respect, I think you don't understand what was voted on last night. Oglethorpe has already agreed to condemn the property.
Duly noted. The article reported that Oglethorpe County had not yet voted on the agreement.
Still, it doesn't alleviate the unease I have regarding how the landfill was done. Granted there are few, if any, viable alternatives, but I do wish we'd see some new conversation on a regional landfill.
"but I do wish we'd see some new conversation on a regional landfill."
Totally agree w/ you there, my friend. Also, regional cooperation on water, transportation, development, and a host of other things.
Of course, we may get that via an alternate route, namely that the way things are going w/ the current lot in Atlanta, all local govts will simply be abolished and we'll have one big region --the State of Georgia-- controlled by Glenn Richardson :-)
My bin gets full and we take the overflow to a nearby fire station.
We don't really mind the extra trip but I can see how it might induce some to just throw the extra in the trash.
Composting could also use a slight boost because it can be a pain in the ass. If we could have a seperate back or bin for things that can be composted in a community composte site, I bet more than a few (who won't do it at home) would give it a try.
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