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if toO
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WHAT X
MEAN.
WE ARE 50 ABSENT-
MIN0ED--SOMET1MES
WE FORGET TO EAT
FOR DATS AT A TIME*
IT'D A GOO© THING
BREATHING 15 AN
AUTONOMIC FUNCTION,
OR ELSE WE'D BE IN
SERIOUS trouble;
THIS MfBIIH WtKLI
by TOM TOMORROW
This mrk: it’s lime for
another installment of.
Il's Just
That
Simple:
Kasy \nswcrs for Yiur
Troublesome Durst inns!
(>: N\ liv was then* an
IK-hour delay before
I he press was informed
lhal llie \ in* I'miiirnl
ha«l shot a man in the
face?
]
\: Bemuse Dirk (dirnry
nanled the story to he
as “arm rale as possible!*
Il's just that simple!
Q: Him did news of warrantless NS \
spying hurl national security? Didn't
at Qaeda alreaih know their phones
might he lapiM*d?
V: Yes--hill iT the media weren't con
stantly reminding them alumt it. they
might forget! It's just that simple!
IF THERE 5 ONE THING THE VICE
president 15 Known For rr is
HI5 COMMITMENT TO ACCURACY
THE LAST THING HE
WOULD EVER WANT
TO DO 15 MISLEAD
anyone;
The "Yellow Man" of Five Points, as well as some of his neighbors, would like for you to slow down.
And while the Commission can decree lower
speed limits. Clark said that police cannot use
radar enforcement unless the new speed limits
are approved by the state—"and in the past we
have not been very successful in convincing the
Department of Public Safety of the reasons to
lower speed limits," he said. The traffic manage
ment program will next be considered by the
Commission's Government Operations Committee,
then returned to the full Commission for consid
eration of inclusion in next year's budget.
John Huie iphuie@speedladofynet
Poverty Task Force
Notes on Starting Out
At the first meeting of the 32-member
anti-poverty task force known as Partners for a
Prosperous Athens, participants heard statistics
on employment and poverty in Athens, got ad
vice on problem-solving and group dynamics, and
were given cameras to take pictures for a home
work assignment. Participants representing lead
ers of Athens' public and private sectors—from
UGA and the Chamber of Commerce to social ser
vice agencies and the police department—gave
up much of the day on Saturday, Feb. 11 to begin
talking about solutions to the persistently high
local poverty rate.
They heard statistics about jobs in Athens-
Clarke County, where the largest employers are
UGA. the hospitals and the two chicken plants.
Athens has a high poverty rate despite a rela
tively low number of jobless people. That's partly
because the large number of students depresses
wages, and most poor people—65 percent—have
at least one job. according Matt Bishop of UGA's
Initiative on Poverty and the Economy.
Over half the jobs here are "service" jobs—in
retail, healthcare or food services, Bishop said.
Average weekly wages here are $572, and that's
$104 less than the state average, he said. And
although at 28.3 percent, Athens-Clarke County's
official poverty rate is more than twice the
state's average of 12.9 percent (based on the
2000 census), that figure includes unemployed
and underemployed UGA students. If statistics
on all Athens residents 18 to 24 years old (UGA
students and non-students alike) are subtracted
from the equation. Bishop said, the local poverty
number drops somewhat, but only down to 23.5
percent. (It should be noted that even he 28.3
percent figure excludes students who live in dor
mitories.) "The Athens economy is not without
jobs," Bishop concluded, but "the type of jobs
ACC has to offer do not pay wages high enough
to sustain self-sufficient families."
Finding affordable and reliable childcare at
non-traditional hours can be a serious problem,
too, Bishop said. Many poor people who can
not afford a doctor depend on the hospitals'
emergency rooms for their medical care. Personal
disasters like car trouble and health problems
"are much more pronounced for those living in
poverty." Bishop told the group. Payday and car-
title lenders charge up to 400 percent interest on
loans. But poverty is not only about money, he
said. "It is also about the poverty of knowledge,
self-worth, and—for me the most important—
the absence of hope."
To a list of suggested subcommittees, the
group discussed adding one on race relations and
one on Hispanic concerns. "Race is very blatant
here," said Cassandra Hunter of Clarke County's
Department of Family and Children Services.
"You'd be flabbergasted what I still go through
as an educated black woman." ACC police chief
Jack Lumpkin agreed: "Young people in this
community tell me that it's an issue." Athens'
young African Americans don't come back here
after college, he added, because there are few
opportunities for them. "We are deprived of that
middle class," Lumpkin said.
Participants were assigned to take photos of
Athens and try telling the city's story visually,
and to include an unfamiliar area of town in the
assignment. They were also asked to imagine
leaving town for 20 years and returning to find
that everything they wanted to happen in Athens
has occurred, and to describe what they see.
The group will meet again Mar. 3 to form sub
committees, and twice monthly thereafter.
John Huie iphuie@$peedfactory net
In The Archives
And Ont in the World
Rjck Prelinger is one of the people trying
to figure out the Internet, what it means and
where we can take it. His ideas about how to
use the new reality of broadband to put content,
especially moving image files, into the hands of
creators have found their outlet in the important
Prelinger Archives, a collection of moving images
Prelinger started in 1983. Many pieces from the
Archives are available "to all for free download
ing and reuse" at www.archive.org.
About 45 people turned out to hear Prelinger
speak at UGA's Student Learning Center the after
noon of Feb. 8. Prelinger moved quickly through
his speech (titled "Are the Archives Doomed?")
and touched on the topics of citizen-archivists,
making money by giving things away, and the
question of access to the history of our archives.
Prelinger started by asking who was in his
audience. He asked if there were librarians, ar
chivists, people who work in media, lawyers and,
prompted an audience member, "Any geeks?"
Slowing The Cars
Traffic-Calming Comeback?
Neighborhood traffic concerns are "issue num
ber one" with her constituents. Commissioner
Kathy Hoard told her colleagues at the Feb. 14
Mayor and Commission work session. Since 1997,
Athens-Clarke County (ACC) has installed "traffic-
calming devices"—mostly speed humps—on 45
neighborhood streets, but the program was sus
pended in 2003 after sales-tax money ran out.
ACC Commissioners now seem ready to fund
the program again in next year's budget. The
ACC Department of Transportation and Public
Works has made careful studies and interviewed
neighbors before and after speed humps were
installed. "Most of the time, residents are
fairly pleased with the results," transportation
director David Clark told
Commissioners at the work
session. Test data on the
speed humps’ effectiveness
didn't always agree with the
perceptions of neighbors,
but most people liked the
humps unless they lived
right next to them and had
to live with the noise. Before installation, most
streets had typical speeds of around 36 miles per
hour, Clark said, and that dropped to about 30
miles per hour with the humps in place. "Over
time, it did start creeping up a little bit," he
said. "Most of them are now between 31 and 33
miles per hour."
The number of cars was reduced, too, Clark
said, in cases where an alternate route was avail
able. "But really," he said, "all it did was shift it
from one street to another street." Commissioner
Hoard said she was "embarrassed" that "we have
no tools, since this program is no longer in
place, to assist people." Police patrols will slow
speeders, she said, but "the 'cop on every corner'
is not a long-term solution...when they leave,
it's business as usual."
"I don't think we can really wait to re-fund
this program." Commissioner Alice Kinman said.
Commissioner Carl Jordan said he believed that
posting slower speed limits on major streets
would make traffic "carry over" onto minor
streets. "I'd like to see us collectively decide that
this is going to be a town where people drive
more slowly than they do in the Atlanta area." he
said, and asked staffers to propose workable op
tions for reducing speed limits.
That suggestion was appreciated by some
concerned residents who attended the session,
John Wares of Five Points told Flagpole. Wares
and others from several neighborhoods met in
December about fast traffic concerns. "Our wor
ries are for our kids, the elderly, our pets, our
selves," he said. "It is so jarring having all this
high-speed traffic go by." But county officials
told them there was little they could do until the
"Neighborhood Traffic Management Program" was
funded again. "The fact that
it is back on the agenda to
be discussed is a step for
ward," Wares said.
Clark told commissioners
he'd like to use other traffic-
calming measures in addi
tion to speed humps: traffic
circles, dips, tighter curves,
narrowed roads, or raised "swerves" that drivers
must steer around. But such methods tend to be
more expensive, he said, and most neighborhoods
are only interested in speed humps.
Before it was suspended in 2003, the traf
fic management program required 65 percent of
homeowners on a street to agree to the speed
humps. Some such requirement will likely remain,
but Clark suggested that commissioners might
consider raising the 65 percent bar to 75 or 80
percent, and also to decide whether to include
renters as well as homeowners. People living or
affected side streets might also be considered,
he said. Clark also recommended charging neigh
borhoods for part of the cost of installing speed
humps (which cost the county $2500 apiece),
although they haven't been charged in the past.
“The ‘cop on every corner’
Is not a long-term solution...
when they leave,
it's business as usual.”
Tin* admin
istration was
warned about
l4»e breached
levee tin* night
Hurricane
Katrina hit
New (Means.
So why was the
government so
sluggish in its
resjMinse to the
disaster?
WHEN PRESIDENT BUSH SAID
"HECKUVA JO& BROWNIE*' HE
WAS OBVIOUSLY BEING SAR
CASTIC!
Q: Do they really think we*re stupid enough
to believe these lame excuses--or do they
just not ran* what we think?
NOW STOP ASKING SO MANY
QUESTIONS—BEFORE SOME
BODY ELSE GETS MISTAKEN
FOR A PEN-RAISED GAME
\B!RD.
Both
6 FLAGPOLE.COM • FEBRUARY 22, 2006
BEN EMANUEL