Newspaper Page Text
Monday
April 25th
SPECIAL EVENT
with
Jim Hightower
7pm Hightower Hour
Sponsored by
Foundry Park Inn & Spa
Hosted by Tim Bryant
5pm Mixer and
Volunteer Work Session
RSVP Information
www.tsplost.org
More info & entry form:
wwwiilmaxhens.net
Sponsored by:
Flagpole Magazine * Mama's Boy • TSAV
FlickSkinny • Cine Bar Cafe Cinema
Jittery Joe's Coffee • BabbSteel.com
Transmission Merchandise
J's Bottle Shop on Prince • Kindercore.com
Terrapin Beer • Bel-Jean Copy/Print
Official AthFest 2011 Affiliated Event
SPROCKETSSIX
MUSIC VIDEO
COMPETITION
THIS IS A CALC FOR ENTRIES
INSIDE A DREAM
noATm nr i rnBLD or smw
A Doctoral Composition Recital by
David Mitchell
THURSDAY, APRIL 88™
at MO
in UGA’s Dancz Center for New Music at
Hugh Hodgson School of Music, Room 264.
Free and Open to the Public.
For more information call 706 546-7082
Film Athens is currently accepting submissions
for the 6th Sprockets Music Video Competition!
Selected entries to be shown at the Fabuious 40
Watt with “Best Of" and "Audience Choice" video
screened and awarded at the Flagpole Music Awards
Rebuild Georgia Railroads
TSPLOST 2012 Presents
at the
Melting Point and
Foundry Park inn Ballroom
A REBUILD GEORGIA RAILROADS
38
Smoothies
under
300
Calorie
1/2 OFF ANY;
MEDIUM :
Expires *-17/09 Some Restrictions Apply I
Valid only at:
5 Points 4 Omni Club
706.613.0600 706.369.3111
in Public Forum
Led by
Russell Edwards
with Special Guests
Gordon Kenna
and Jack Crowley
Limited Capacity
April 1 - Early Deadline
Ap>ii lg—Ua»»-PeartiiHe
April 29 -
June 10 - Sprockets Snow
June 23 - Flagpole Music Awards
ATHENS NEWS AND VIEWS
Support Local Parking?: The news that one
of the retail tenants of the ACC/ Batson-
Cook downtown parking deck structure will
be a Waffle House is surely cause for some
ambivalence, even among many of those who
supported the mixed-use deck project from
the get-go. The idea that anyone might have
looked into the crystal ball and embraced
the vision of our treasured downtown being
enhanced by the epitome of bland, corporate
restaurants seems pretty unlikely, especially
if one reflects on how much of the college
student trade—especially late-night—such a
highly branded entity might stand to siphon
from long-established, locally owned eater
ies. Momma Goldberg's, the Alabama sandwich
chain that is the other known retail tenant so
far, presents a similar challenge to local busi
nesses, if not so emblematic of one.
There's not much we can do about it, of
course; the deck was approved with SPLOST
2005 and the contract with Batson-Cook, the
developer that controls the structure's retail
and office components,
was finalized last year.
It's much too late to
contemplate imposing
restrictions on what
kinds of businesses we
want to be allowed to
lease the retail spaces,
even if anyone thought
that might be a viable
approach. Athens
Downtown Development
Authority Executive
Director Kathryn
Lookofsky says she
hasn't heard any com
plaints yet. But there
are bound to be plenty
once the usual cycle of
gradually germinating
public awareness starts
to crank up.
Whatever objections
may be raised, it seems
we'll have to trust the
theory held by many supporters of the project
that any increase in the concentration of retail
business downtown is good for downtown
retail on the whole. And Lookofsky boils the
matter down to some simple, direct advice:
"If local businesses are important to you, you
should support them." Let's hope 35,000 UGA
students can hear that message.
This Oust In: When the M&Cs tentative agenda
for their Apr. 21 Agenda Setting Session
was released late this Monday morning, the
Dope did a double-take: did the item titled
"Downtown Parking Rates" really contain a
proposal for a hike in metered parking from
fifty cents to $2 per hour? Yup. The increase
has been floated before as being necessary
to bring on-street rates into step with those
for the downtown decks, but has always been
dismissed by commissioners, who have been
understandably reluctant to approve a 400
percent increase in one fell swoop. Central
Services Director David Ruck says the ADDA
ordinarily gives staff a recommendation on
such matters, but "they have not given us
any yet." Staff thought it was appropriate,
he says, "to bring it forward at this time, and
we'll see what the Commission does with it."
Commissioner Mike Hamby, who serves
on the ADDA board, confirms that the ADDA
"hasn't weighed in" on metered rates yet,
and he thinks the item will be held from
this month's agenda. He finds it "very hard to
believe" that $2 meters are on the way. "I'm
not voting for it," he says, "and I doubt any
one else is." So there you have it.
Georgiazona... Nice Ring!: Our Republican
Legislature, in its infinite temperance and
wisdom, last week passed H.B. 87, the second-
most draconian anti-immigrant bill in the
nation; our Republican Governor, the noted
cheat and swindler Nathan Deal, has indicated
he will sign it in the name of prioritizing "the
rule of law." The Anti-Defamation League
and other such radical left-wing organiza
tions as the Georgia Farm Bureau, the Georgia
Agribusiness Council and the Catholic Church
had raised alarms at the legislation, over
both its inhumanity and its certain detri
mental effects on business, but shoot, that
don't matter! As long as the Republicans can
keep pinning the state's failing econc :iy -jn
poor brown people (and believe it, they can!)
instead of the fat-ass tax cuts they keep dol
ing out to ever-more-powerful corporations
while going medieval on schools, transporta
tion, health care and social programs, every
thing's working great for them. Stay classy,
Georgia, and keep voting like a bunch of
stupid, backwards racists. It'll be 1953 again
soon enough, complete with the dirt roads
and the sixth grade educations.
Or, We Could Try Something Positive: The
local nonprofit Whatever It Takes is using a
federal grant it received last September and
the tremendous energy and dedication of its
staff and volunteers to build an infrastructure
that will ensure that every child in Athens
is on track to complete a post-secondary
education by 2020, beginning with a focus
on the Clarke County School District's Alps
Road attendance zone. WIT has been hold
ing a series of "Community Conversations" at
which interested families are invited to share
their thoughts on how that goal might be
accomplished, as well as to hear what's being
done already. The next such meeting is 6-8
p.m. Thursday, Apr. 21 at the Mount Pleasant
Baptist Church, 1931 Old West Broad St. To
learn more about WIT, or to donate or volun
teer, visit www.witathens.org.
Dave Marr news@flagpole.com
If you’ve wondered whether the manhole covers sticking up two feet from the
ground in the otherwise beautifully landscaped field in recently renovated
Dudley Park are permanent, ACC Public Utilities Director Gary Duck says they
are. The elevation brings the manholes above flood level next to the Trail Creek/
North Oconee River confluence, making service access easier and mitigating the
possibilities for sewage overflows
4 FLAGPOLE.COM-APRIL 20,2011
