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ATHENS NEWS AND VIEWS
The Politics of Race: Well, commish-watchers,
the stage is set for a big show at the Tuesday.
May 6 Mayor and Commission meeting. It
seems like a long month since the April vote
to take several hundred thousand federal dol
lars away from the East Athens and Hancock
Corridor development corporations, and
though plenty of efforts have been in motion
since then. City Dope doesn't have much
reason to guess that it won't be a close vote
again this time around.
To catch up: Commissioner Elton Dodson,
as he said he would in Flagpole, has set him
self to the task of getting that April vote
officially reconsidered—a motion which has
to be made by one of the six who voted for
Commissioner Kinman's motion to transfer the
funds. From there, it takes a simple majority
to reverse last month's action.
Don't think a tie vote will bode well for
the people wanting to see the money come
back to those agen
cies: last Tuesday's
community meet
ing at Hill Chapel
Baptist Church made
clear that Mayor
Davison—who by
virtue of her position
plays tiebreaker when
needed—probably
wants as much as
anyone to see the
relevant agencies
tighten things up
before receiving that
kind of public money
again.
It's worth point
ing out, of course,
that the agencies'
best friend in all
this—Dodson—isn't
saying they should be
let off easily if they
get the money back,
either. In other words,
no matter what hap
pens at City Hall on
Tuesday, the discus
sion won't yet be over about the who's and
how's of lifting up Athens' old intown black
neighborhoods.
This columnist has said it before and will
say it again: shifting the money may have
been the right thing to do—and it still may
be—but it was done the wrong way, and
that's important. Perhaps City Dope and Elton
Dodson both are being foolishly idealistic
about this community's ability to engage and
empower all of its citizens in community
building and political processes.
Then again, last week's meeting at Hill
Chapel, with all its racial button-pushing from
black community leaders (most of it justified,
if lopsided), and at which the Mayor bristled
(also rightfully, if too vigorously) at charges of
racism—and frankly, showed her worst side—
left a bad taste in City Dope's mouth. This
particular messy local political situation ought
to at least give Athens a venue to carry out
some part of that long-overdue discussion—
you know, the one about race.
So, a suggestion: Let's not worry about
rights and wrongs this time around. Let's com
mit to having a better discussion about race.
It'll never be easy, but it doesn't have to be
quite as hard as it has been in this town for
the last few weeks.
Whoa, Speaking of Racialized Politics: Thanks
to production deadlines. City Dope has been
well behind the curve in the recent maelstrom
over the news that Supreme Court Justice
Clarence Thomas will be UGA's commence
ment speaker this year. Loyal Flagpole read
ers may be asking themselves why UGA Law
Prof. Eugene Wilkes' byline hasn't yet graced
these pages, as in years past, with a protest
to Thomas's visit. There's reason not to fear,
though: word at press time was that the good
professor was warming up his keyboard...
It All Started So Innocently: Active and
involved Cobbhamites Michael and Mary
Songster had a heck of a week last week in
relation to compliance with various ACC code
issues at their home. It started with some yard
chickens (illegal at their place, per zoning),
expanded later into a temporary eviction (hav
ing to do with a certificate of occupancy on
a new home; as with
the chickens, guilt is
admitted), and the
pile-on came when
they got an historic
preservation violation. !
Why is this made note
of here? Because some
of those issues—like
the chickens—are
not necessarily iso
lated incidents, and
they're things that
may be a getting a
wider discussion in
town soon. But, let it
be said here: not just
yet. It's true that the
burgeoning interest
in local food means
it only makes sense
for folks to be able
to fry backyard eggs,
but as with any local
government policy,
it's worthwhile for
all sides to approach
the issue with care
and deliberation. City
Dope has reason to believe that'll happen
fairly soon, so stay tuned.
Fun Stuff: Got to hand it to the UGA College
Republicans, who are first in line for hosting
a debate between Republican Congressional
challenger Barry Fleming and incumbent Paul
Broun. The Saturday afternoon debate is free
and open to the public, and goes down May 3
at 2 p.m. in UGA's Dean Rusk center.
A Study in Historiography: It's really get
ting to be kind of fun, this tug-of-war over
whether anything actually happened at
this year's session of the Georgia General
Assembly. (See City Pages for the latest edi
tion.) On Monday, May 5, Athens' Federation of
Neighborhood Associations presents the next
installment—7:30 p.m. at the Presbyterian
Student Center.
So get your questions ready—whether
about transportation funding or the nature
of how political history gets written. Who
knows, maybe the truth is that nobody even
went to the Gold Dome this year?
Ben Emanuel
Send your city dope to ben@flagpole.com.
Brent Temple and his son Dillin were joined by a
handful of comrades involved with the fairly new
local council of MoveOn.org outside City Hall last
week to publicize fresh MoveOn polling numbers on
Georgia voters who think the government ought to
help the economy by ending the Iraq War. Good idea!
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