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WHY GWEN?
• Gwen O'Looney, since before she first was elected to the
Athens City Council, has embraced Athens and has been deeply
involved in our community's development as a town that cares
about its quality of life and tries to extend that quality to
those who don't have it.
• She was literally present at the creation of our local
government and worked through the long, painstaking, detail-
driven unification of the county and city, giving her a hard-
earned but exhaustive knowledge of how our government works
in every department and how the mayor, the commission and
the management must interact to get things done.
• She's a good fit to work with the present ACC Commission.
She can provide the focus that will strengthen their hand in
tackling our problems of business development, poverty, trans
portation and planning. She has the energy, intelligence and
spark to facilitate the commission's work.
• She is progressive in every sense of the word—not just
as a political slogan, but as an approach to using government
as a tool for providing essential services and solving problems,
encouraging business development while at the same time
fostering outreach to those who need a hand-up to become
productive citizens.
• Gwen "gets" Athens in all its multiplicity and diversity.
She is at ease in the music scene on Saturday night and the
religious community on Sunday morning. She's comfortable
with influential Athenians but also knows firsthand the daily
discouragements of those who struggle to make ends meet and
take care of their families.
• Gwen understands business. She knows the problems and
obstacles faced by our many startup entrepreneurs, and she
knows how Athens can appeal to companies with the potential
to understand what Athens is all about, businesses that can
contribute in a positive way to our economic diversity.
• She has a deep appreciation for our intown neighborhoods
and how they enhance our quality of life. She has lived in them
and fought for them, and she knows that many neighborhoods
still need protection from invasive development.
• The most stubborn problems Athens faces—poverty, alien
ation, lack of productivity, disfunction, joblessness—present
the kinds of challenges that Gwen has confronted all her work
ing life—with the Red Cross in Vietnam, with the Boys and
Girls dubs, with ACTION, with the Department of Family and
Children Services, plus work addressing problems in education,
health, handicapped access and domestic violence, in addition
to numerous volunteer activities. She is uniquely qualified to
lead our government in addressing^hese persistent problems
that drag down our citizens and hold back our community.
• A mayor cannot do a lot singlehandedly, but the accom
plishments of the local government under Gwen's leadership
on the Athens City Coundl and as ACC mayor show the fruits of
her vision: historic preservation, neighborhood protection, the
Greenway, Lyndon House Arts Center, the Bear Creek reservoir,
the Classic Center: all that and more—plus she reduced taxes.
• Well, I'm beginning to sound like her web site, and it is
no secret that I've been a Gwen supporter from the beginning
of her governmental career, sometimes feeling the sting of
opposing her on some matters. She studies all sides of an issue
and .listens to everybody concerned. Then she says what she
thinks, up front and to your face, and she does what she thinks
is right for the community, whether or not that pleases all her
friends. She is incredibly hardworking, with-intense attention
to detail, zeroed-in on what makes the most sense and will do
the most good. Let's call her a pragmatic progressive, because
that's what she is. She doesn't care about labels or appear
ances, but she does care very deeply about Athens and all its
people: our welfare and prosperity and happiness.
• If, instead of holding an election, we had simply adver
tised for the job opening of Mayor, we would have looked for
somebody with experience in leading the unified.government
of a medium-sized city-county, somebody with a background
addressing the problems of poverty and joblessness, somebody
with a solid record of accomplishment in protecting neigh
borhoods, supporting the arts, building infrastructure and
holding down costs and somebody strong enough to lead an
independent-minded commission and direct a staff accustomed
to doing things its own way. We could not have found anybody
better for the job than Gwen O'Looney.
Pets McComnons editor@fiagpole.com
THIS WEEK’S ISSUE:
NEWS & FEATURES
City Dope 4
Athens News and Views
Tallying up endorsements in the local run-offs, and talking about closing the east end of Hancock.
Comment 6
Racing and Rallying for America
An unlikely but inspiring convergence in Washington. D C.
ARTS <§s EVENTS
Theatre Notes 8
Schooled in the Arts
Performing arts programs are a vital part of local school curricula
Film Notebook 9
News of Athens’ Cinema Scene
Inside Job and Never Let Me Go are coming to Cine
IMUSflG
Joanna Newsom 13
A Talk in the Clouds
Supporting her new. three-part album. Have One on Me
Azure Ray 17
Coming Home
After several years of solo albums and side projects, the synergistic duo is back in action.
CITY DOPE 4
CITY PAGES 5
CAPITOL IMPACT 6
COMMENT 6
ATHENS RISING 7
THEATRE NOTES 8
FILM NOTEBOOK 9
MOVIE DOPE 10
MOVIE PICK 11
THREATS & PROMISES 12
JOANNA NEWSOM
13
MASERATI
14
RECORD REVIEWS
16
AZURE RAY
17
THE CALENDAR!
18
BULLETIN BOARD
24
ART AROUND TOWN .
25
COMICS
26
REALITY CHECK.:
<..27
CLASSIFIEDS
28
EVERYDAY PEOPLE
31
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VOLUME 24
ISSUE NUMBER 46
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