About Flagpole. (Athens, Ga.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 24, 2011)
WHAT'S UP IN NEW DEVELOPMENT I recently trotted out my copy of Athens, GA: Inside/Out for a friend who was uniniti ated into the finer points of Athens music history (Look—Michael Stipe... had hair!). There was one quote packed in there that really caught my ear, though, and I think it really sets up the ethic that has defined the community's sense of place for the last 30 years or so. Michael Lachowski of Pylon, in explaining his band's approach to music, said "...Our biggest priority when we got into the band is that we were gonna be making more art, and it was just gonna be using instruments." Could Athens' eclectic sense of place be rooted in a similar mindset? Jim Herbert talked about how "People are not thinking about taking it to New York... but the sense of the practice of doing it— but the dignity of the making and the fun of the making." Suppose that it's the sense of craft—of process inherent in making art—that is integral to our sense of place. We could view this form of placemaking and community building as an environmental art, with boards and bricks and sheet metal rather than instruments or oil paints. R.E.M. certainly deserves credit for the effect its members have had in the Prince Avenue area, preserving a number of land marks, like the building that houses Daily Co-op, among many others. Their unique preservation ethic and aesthetic has had a dramatic effect on the community, even if they've shied away from structures that they were more directly associated with, like the Murmur Trestle. Then, there are the art studios in old warehouses around town and farther out, com munities like the Chase Street Warehouses that are defined more by the varied aesthetics of studio occupants, expressed in their restora tion of individual components of the complex. There's also that back-to-the-land aftershock that has sent a steady steam of artists and musicians out into the countryside, most fully realized in projects like the Orange Twin Conservation tommunity. Perhaps the root of our troubles is that our approaches to planning stem from this ethic. It's not so much that we aren't planners, but that we've got the minds of craftsmen, and the big picture will only emerge from engage ment in the process. The idea of a downtown master plan is a perpetual "wouldn't it be nice," but no one in the position to do any thing about it seems intent on doing anything about it. The prevailing position seems to be that, as handy as that would be, the only way to get it done would be to hand it over to someone from out of town, and pay money we don't have. Perhaps if we turn back to that sense of craft, of manually shaping our environment, we might find a way forward. Rather than viewing something like a master plan as an out-of-town job for which we must pay hun dreds of thousands of dollars, if we overcame Could the ethic underlying artists' studios (like these in a warehouse off Barrow Street) and other creative envi ronments inspire community-driven and enacted planning and visioning? [photo: Kevan Williams] our own unwillingness to put pen to paper, we might find we have all the necessary ideas and skills here already. There's been a lot more looking at the University of Georgia as an asset as we've been grappling with the River District. Are there other assets there that could be employed in a cost-saving manner, like the College of Environment and Design or the Fanning Institute? A volunteer-driven effort, coordinated by a combination of municipal and university resources, could be a much more affordable way to generate a usable plan. The only other issue is how to give these ideas, once generated, a living, breathing relevance in our community, rather than put ting them on a shelf. Some Athens Economic Development Foundation board members recently dusted off a forgotten economic development plan from May 1999 (The EDF was created in 2002). The landscape hasn't changed that much since then, and the recom mendations sound similar to ones made today in newer documents like the recent Janus Report, a study funded by Georgia Power. That economic development plan was forgotten without an organization to shepherd it, and any downtown master plan or similar docu ment will also require guidance and owner ship. ACC Commissioner Mike Hamby has been pushing the idea of an urban design commis sion recently; perhaps overseeing an ongoing community-driven planning process could be part of the responsibilities of such a body. We already know that there are strengths and talents here; it's just a matter of taking a familiar way of working and applying it to a new challenge. Kevan Williams alhensrising@flagpole.com AUGUST 24 Kip Jones & Jay Ring AUGUST 31 The Vibratones Wednesday Nights 6pm 2020 Timothy Rd. Athens, GA 30606 706.549.7700 Here's the Deal... i Remedy Herb Shop has the highest quality vitamins, minerals and herbs for all of your health needs. (706) 613-0120 Sangjia Yoga Studio has over 20 classes weeldii in more Neuromuscular Massage Therapy, Pre-Natal Massage and Individualized Yoga Therapy are also available at: Healing Arts Centre <3M- Prince Ave. • Athens igartscentre.net WWW AUGUST 24, 2011-FLAGPOLE.COM 7 KEVAN WILLIAMS
