Newspaper Page Text
The Washington Post says, "These are the men who put brass music on
the map." They are indeed "the world's most famous brass ensemble."
I B
Tuesday, February 21 • 8:00p.m.
Hodgson Concert Hall ,
"The Capitol Steps are what Washington would be like if everyone
were smarter and could sing," quips humorist R J. O'Rourke.
Friday, February 10 ■ 8:00 p.m.
Hodgson Concert Hall
S5:C" V *
casters.
Hie Bobby Hendricks Df llterS,
andThe Platters
- — — ■■■ ■■
Enjoy an evening of musical magic as three of America's favorite vocal
groups offer a non-stop parade of classic hit songs from the 50s and 60s.
Friday, Februaiy 17 • 8:00p.m.
Hodgson Concert Hall
ATHENS NEWS AND VIEWS
Leveling the Field: Public discussion of
the Walmart-anchored development Selig
Enterprises has proposed on the Armstrong &
Dobbs property was broadened significantly
last week after the release of a song by an
all-star collection of Athens musicians that
was carefully coordinated to draw attention
to the project. The legitimately beautiful
"After It's Gone/ by Patterson Hood and the
Downtown 13, appeared on the website www.
protectdowntownathens.com last Tuesday
evening, and by Wednesday afternoon media
outlets across the region and the nation were
broadcasting and writing about a last-ditch
effort by the people who have made Athens
famous to keep its most uniquely valuable
civic asset, its iconic downtown, from being
subjugated to the hegemonic grip of the
world's largest retailer.
If that sounds a little
melodramatic, well, it's sup
posed to. After months of
trying to engage with Selig
at the local level with no
results more tangible than
assurances that pedestrian-
friendly revisions to one
comer of the 65-foot
Walmart parking deck were
most surely being consid
ered, it was definitely time
for those concerned about
the development's incom
patible design and scale
to go big. Hood and the
Truckers, and Mike Mills, and
Todd and JB from Panic and
the rest of them stepped up
because it was obvious the
loyal opposition was going
to get steam rolled without
some serious firepower to
match Selig's, and they
were it. Now that there's
more than one heavyweight
in the ring, let's hope the
developer will make more
of its promise to "engage with Athens" than
a serjes of meetings with selected community
members designed to make them comfortable
with the project as planned and convince
them that that's the only way it can possibly
be completed.
Because there really are. very few of us who
don't want to see the A&D property developed,
and Selig's project if the company would
agree to compromise on things like con
nectivity and the scale of the anchor, would
be about as close to the ideal use of that
land as we could hope for. Between the newly
intensified spotlight and the increasing ob'd-
ousness that the des ; gn has some non-trivial
hurdles to clear in order to comply with our
existing zoning and development standards (a
case nicely laid out on the Protect Downtown
Athens site and compellingly expanded upon
by Kevan Williams in this week's Athens Rising
column), it would seem Selig should finally be
motivated to stop pretending there's only one
way for the project to happen and start talk
ing seriously about ways it might be better
integrated with its surroundings.
Chamber of Commerce President Doc
Eldridge didn't help that conversation along
much with his presentation, in a Feb. 5 Athens
Banner-Herald op-ed, of a false dichotomy
between "accurate information directly from
Selig" and "misinformation" like Russell
Edwards' much-maligned "yellow box" and
Mike Mills' unfortunate (and immediately
retracted) misstatement on an Atlanta radio
station that the development would displace
Weaver 0's, without so much as an allusion
to the well-supported arguments of the
conspicuously reasonable Protect Downtown
Athens group. Eldridge does indeed prefer
to get his information directly from Selig:
many of his facts and figures he cited were
cribbed straight from the company's website.
Given that the editorial explicitly functions
as the Chamber's endorsement of a project for
which no actual plans have been submitted
for review, Eldridge's total reliance on Selig's
"information" and refusal to acknowledge
critiques of the design based on apparent
noncompliance with zoning regulations is
troubling.
That's been the main problem all along,
and the single one all this community activ
ism has been most useful in addressing:
the treating of Selig's self-interested perspec
tive as objective, default truth. It's only now,
with that formulation finally breaking down,
that we can begin to hope for everyone else's
interests to be given their proper standing in
an honest discussion of how this very desir
able but hugely impactful project can best
serve us all. So, in that spirit of cooperation,
let's echo the laudable sentiment with which
Doc closed his editorial: "We may come at it
from different directions, but most of us want
what is best for this town that we love so
much."
Next on the Docket: News last week that a
major redevelopment of the Athens Hardware
property at downtown's northeastern corner
is apparently in the works should serve as a
reminder that the underdeveloped parcels at
the edges of downtown remain valuable and
attractive to investors, even with Athens'
finicky, progressive building and design codes.
We fully imagine that whoever undertakes that
project will expect to be required to follow
those codes—and that they will still somehow
expect it to be worth their time, effort and
money.
Dave Marr news@flagpote.com
An Atlanta news crew got a quick shot outside the A&D property while in
town last Wednesday for a spot that featured a mid-day downtown per
formance of “After It's Gone" by Patterson Hood with members of Drive-By
Truckers and Futurebirds.
4 FLAGPOLE.COM • FEBRUARY 8,2012