Couple of things
- Officially, Rep. John Lewis will switch from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama, which brings a total of five superdelegates who flipped just yesterday, all in the wake of Obama's recent wins and the Clinton campaign's stark admission that they'd ignore the will of the voters and seek out party insiders to propel her to the nomination. Rumor is that there are more to come, particularly with someone as prominent as Lewis providing political cover.
- Seeing how the Clarke County Board of Education isn't going to bring Tommy Craft back, what good was this? Again, if you don't like the BOE, then find some folks to challenge them in the election.
- While I've liked this idea all along, it is good to have a point of reference. And Greenville, S.C., has one of the revitalized and energized downtowns for a mid-size city in the South, so using them as a model is far from a poor idea.
- On this, I agree 100 percent. Why try to actually, you know, invest in our existing schools when we can just take more money from them and use it in a way that may or may not actually provide them with access to a different school? Of course, some folks have proposed a way to properly fund our public education, so there's that.
- Seeing how the Clarke County Board of Education isn't going to bring Tommy Craft back, what good was this? Again, if you don't like the BOE, then find some folks to challenge them in the election.
- While I've liked this idea all along, it is good to have a point of reference. And Greenville, S.C., has one of the revitalized and energized downtowns for a mid-size city in the South, so using them as a model is far from a poor idea.
- On this, I agree 100 percent. Why try to actually, you know, invest in our existing schools when we can just take more money from them and use it in a way that may or may not actually provide them with access to a different school? Of course, some folks have proposed a way to properly fund our public education, so there's that.
posted by Jmac at 8:41 AM
8 Comments:
I still don't know why we need another parking deck in the downtown area. I have never had any trouble finding a place to park - whether is was at 10 a.m. on a weekday, over lunch, 5:00 p.m. on Friday afternoon of a UGA game, or any time that I am downtown at night (weekday or weekend). Sure, I rarely find a place directly infront of Walkers or TransMet where I tend to head to, but downtown is only a few blocks long and wide and I can almost count on a spot on Hancock. So what I have to walk three more blocks to my restaurant. I at least burn away a few of the calories that I am about to consume.
Can't $6 million be used for something more in-line with the alternative modes of transportation that the Mayor likes to spout off on (but yet never seem to fund)?
What about a trolley that brings people from parking lots or decks outside of downtown and into downtown at the intersection of college and broad. It's scalable, keeps traffic out of pedestrian laden downtown and the extra millions can be used on things that are far more important to this community.
"Can't $6 million be used for something more in-line with the alternative modes of transportation that the Mayor likes to spout off on (but yet never seem to fund)?"
No. This is a SPLOST project that was voted on and approved by the voters. To not build it or to divert the $ to some other project would be illegal. The train has already left the station on this one. The chance to get something different was when it was on the ballot.
Lewis is apparently wavering, or at least leaving his options open for his superdelegate vote but continuing to publicly endorse Clinton even if he might vote otherwise.
"The chance to get something different was when it was on the ballot."
Oh, so voters were aware of the desire to put more condos and bars downtown when they voted for a parking deck? Because that's all that will go in there.
I don't know about that Jeff. I think the downtown community has expressed a desire to have a grocery store locate in the vicinity, but the existing space is inadequate. If the plans could accomodate a large retailer - Whole Foods, Earth Fare or even something like a Target - I think you'd see it end up there.
Granted you'd have your typical local vs. national discussion, but I think it's more of a case of the market wanting it, but not having a place to put it (see the possibilities surrounding what to do with St. Joseph's when - if - it relocates for more proof of this).
"Oh, so voters were aware of the desire to put more condos and bars downtown when they voted for a parking deck? Because that's all that will go in there."
yes. It was listed as a parking deck/ mixed-use project on the SPLOST list. Whether the mixed-use would be condos and bars or something else was, of course, not listed, and never is. But it was always listed as a parking deck/ M-U project. If that's what voters voted for, presumably that's what they wanted. And if it's not what they wanted, then they had an obligation to vote against it.
Wanting a grocery store and being able to 1) Deal with the crazies who will protest any non-Athens brand and 2) make it profitable enough to justify an extremely expensive choice of Real Estate are very different things. Funny, we had a perfectly good grocery store with parking lot at Homewood. Too bad we can’t get the city to subsidize a Whole Foods to move in their. Guess you need to live in the right neighborhood.
Again, I think there are better things our leaders should be focusing on. Maybe instead of picking out the color stucco on parking garage they should visiting communities who used economic development to ease poverty.
And Anon, I think if voters were given a chance to vote on this effort today, it would fail. They too are tired of a commission obsessed with land use and design at the exclusion of far more critical things.
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