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WHAT'S UP IN NEW DEVELOPMENT
Classic Center staff and board members have been trotting
out arguments about a decades-old plan for the convention
center in support of fast-tracking the upcoming phase of the
convention hall's growth, at the expense of public input and
oversight. In the interest of gathering public input at a Jan.
6 public input session, they gave out handouts with a three-
page history of the process (compare that to the half-page
slip given to citizens for their comments... Equal time? I think
not). As long as we're digging through the archives, let's take
a look at a few other gems that didn't make it onto the Classic
Center's glossy timeline.
The '80s! That wondrous era of long ago that is now relived
in the form of themed parties and bad downtown planning.
No, not that one that called for turning Clayton Street into an
enclosed mall; the other one... the one for the Classic Center
that's recently been dredged up as an argument for curtailing
public scrutiny of its proposed expansion. Notable events in
the Classic Center's history from that era? A lawsuit, for vio
lation of open records, related to the hiring of the facility's
designers, which held that the Classic Center Authority improp
erly held closed sessions "to discuss and deliberate upon the
employment of architectural firms for the Athens Civic Center."
Then there were the '90s, when we burned up a million dol
lars because the uncompromising Polshek design team refused
to consider a Classic Center that didn't involve demolishing the
historic Fire Hall. Frustrations in the community rose to a level
that only those hearing "Smells Like Teen Spirit" for the first
time could otherwise muster.
Athens' then-CEO Gwen O'Looney (no relationship to cur
rent Classic Center Authority President Gwen O'Looney) put it
best with this quote to the Athens Banner-Herald, circa 1994:
"I'm really sick of the civic center," she said. "Blame can be
put at every stage. Probably way down the road, somebody will
appreciate it, but we will never see it." Nowadays she's tout
ing the consistent transparency of the organization since its
beginnings.
Finally we arrive at the most recent decade, the 2000s,
when local hoteliers got bent out of shape because the Classic
Center decided to spend a quarter million dollars strengthen
ing its parking deck to accommodate a hotel on top. If only
they had known that this hotel was part of the plan all along.
This was their intention since the beginning, and it was made
manifest in such actions as... strengthening an existing park
ing deck to accommodate putting an initially-unplanned-for
hotel on top. A 2002 article in the ABH cit a letter from the
Athens Area Hotel Association: 'We were surprised and disap
pointed to learn that at least $239,000 of public funds has
already been submitted by the Classic Center Authority and
approved by the commission to build hotel infrastructure."
Didn't they get that the Classic Center had their best interests
at heart?
The decade wrapped up with a bang last fall, when Paul
Cramer (no relationship to the Classic Center Executive
Director) answered a question from City Dope Dave Marr at an
Athens Federation of Neighborhoods forum on the SPLOST 2011
referendum, specifically asking whether approving SPLOST 2011
meant the closure of Hancock. Cramer answered by assuring the
group of citizens gathered at Fire Hall No. 2 that it did not.
That certainly contradicts the request for proposals the Classic
Center put out last Nov. 15, which states that no firm's pro
posal will be considered which doesn't meet the criteria of the
RFP, among them that Hancock's closure is assumed.
We’ve already cut out plenty of the historic downtown grid—every re
maining connection increases the value of the whole.
Look: either the Classic Center's design decisions are the
result of a long-term Master Plan or they aren't. They can't have
it both ways, though. If they are operating off a plan which
has called for the closure of Hancock all along, they certainly
can't fill in the Washington Street courtyard, being that that
space was clearly designed and intended to remain open, and
that design intent was to be reinforced with another matching
courtyard across the street at a later date (some early Greenway
documents even point to that courtyard as a great pedestrian
connection). If they are instead opportunistically seizing on
opportunities as they come, it would certainly explain why the
hotel/parking deck story unfolded the way it did.
A Classic Center staffer assured me at the Jan. 6 meeting
that the visual plans on display were not architectural draw
ings, just an illustration of the shape, location and placement
of buildings. He couldn't recall the particular title of the firm
that made the drawings, but they were certrir.ly not archi
tects! Quibbling over the definition of architecture may be an
important philosophical exercise across Broad Street at UGA,
but it's certainly not funny here. It calk to mind the aforemen
tioned incident in the 1980s, when the Classic Center couldn't
differentiate between a paid employee and a hired consultant,
using the technicality to violate open meetings laws.
Maybe what Cramer's assurances meant when he said the
design wasn't finalized was that he'd like public input on
whether to paint the walls of the hallway he's subbing in for an
urban thoroughfare in taupe or beige. Had the Classic Center's
record been better over the years, I might be willing to let
these pretty messy oversights slide, but as it stands, I can't
help but wonder if there's a systematic callousness with regard
to the public's concerns. The reality is that this public input
forum gave no real chance for such a thing, with the caveat at
the bottom of those half-page slips that they would be "sum
marized" before being passed on to the mayor and commission.
Indeed, the whole session was simply PR for the Classic Center,
another chance to "sell" their plans, rather than a meaningful
chance to have a dialogue and find the best solutions. Nothing
about the meeting suggested the public's ideas were on equal
footing with those of the Classic Center, its staffers, or the
studies of consultants it hired.
What we really ought to be talking about, though, is how
to move forward. No one wants to see the Classic Center fail;
indeed, the so called "opponents" of this expansion gener
ally support it in principle but question the short-sighted and
outdated approach. The important issues at stake are how
this project fits into broader goals for the community. The
Economic Development Foundation folks behind Project Blue
Heron (that Riverfront Economic Development Zone that would
create all those jobs) have said the Classic Center's cutting of
several potential access points won't preclude their proposal,
which is a smart thing for them to say, but it sure as hell
won't help, either. Or let's take the Multi-modal Transportation
Center, for instance, somethi ig we've already sunk a few mil
lion dollars into. That transportation hub, placed where it
was, will be pretty well cut off from downtown by this, with
a narrow chink in this Great Wall as a token gesture towards
access. Don't the folks using public transit deserve to be well
integrated into the city, rather than hidden away behind the
parking decks and loading zones of a monolithic convention
center?
If commuter rail will one day come to Athens, along with
high-tech firms relocating here to the River District, then
Foundry Street is not the Classic Center's back alley; it's Athens'
front door. We need a plan for downtown and the Classic Center
that recognizes these 21st-century opportunities, rather than
dredging up antiquated arguments about why the'process can
only unfold one way.
All hope is not lost, though. Our elected leaders (as
opposed to the ones who seem to really be running the show)
seem to get it. This from Commissioner Mike Hamby: "I get the
sense of the majority of the commission wants to slow down.
We want the right design." So, breathe a little easier, catch
your breath, and next week, we'll explore what that means, and
what truly proactive planning could look like in this town, and
how the Classic Center's planning process could be the first
chance to get it right.
Kevan Williams athensrising@tlagpole.com
An expanded version of this column appears at flagpole.com.
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