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4 aAGPOLE.COM JUNE 6,2012
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• ENTRANCE ON JACKSON ST. • WVfW.REPUBLICSALON.COM
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What Neighborhoods Are: Some residents
of the part of Normaltown that spreads .gut-,
behind Athens Regional Medical Center have - v
been concerned of late that infill develop
ment in the area, which has picked up due to
the conversion of the U.S. Navy Supply Corps
School into the University of Georgia Health
Sciences Campus, is being undertaken with
out sufficient regard for the neighborhood's
sleepy, spacious character. Those worries
came to a head last week as a local developer
knocked down a house at 380 Talmadge Dr.
to make way for new construction that many
feared would also lead to the cutting down
of a very large, very old oak tree which they
consider a neighborhood landmark.
A petition was circulated to ask Jared
York of J.W. York Homes to spare the tree,
and signs reading "Jared: Save the Tree"
were planted in yards. But the residents'
attempts to contact York during the week got
no response until Friday afternoon, when the
homebuilder emailed a statement to report
ers who had contacted him saying he had "no
plans which would require the removal of the
tree at this time."
That came as a relief to neighbors (though
one, Emuel Aldridge, was quick to point out
he "would feel more comfortable if we could
delete those last three words"). Area residents
have grown increasingly frustrated as develop
ers, including York, have subdivided lots to
build houses that strike many as out of scale
with the neighborhood, sometimes clearing
out or fatally damaging mature trees that have
been seen as important parts of the neigh
borhood's identity. This is all allowed by the
zoning code, of course, which in many places
encourages increased intown density in order
to de-incentivize sprawl
But the rush to pack new housing into
Normaltown has many residents wishing for
a happy medium. The result in this instance
has been a good one from the neighborhood
standpoint, assuming it holds up, and whether
he changed his mind under pressure or never
meant to fell the tree in the first place,
York should b« commended for living up to
his company's commitment to "respect the
environment in which we all live and strive
to maintain as much tree canopy and green
spar* as possible." But what happens when
the developer with a historic tree in his way
is not one who brands his work as "green"
and "responsible"? With evidence mounting of
what it. freely allows, perhaps now would be a
good time to revisit the zoning before one of
Athens' quietly iconic neighborhoods is quickly
remade. ; ' '-V " > J
Not Helping: With the Athens Banner-Herald
not running house editorials anymore, the *
paper has had to look elsewhere for opinions,
to that end turning three times last week to
its trusty "What Others Say" op-ed header.
That has a bit of a funny ring, of course, when
those "Others" are the editorial boards of
papers also owned by Morris Communications,
the ABtfs parent company, as was the case
with two of those three pieces. One was a hys
terical screed from the Savannah Morning News
against a tfhy federal concession toward union
rights (oh, that radical Obama!) that bared
the rosy, pampered ass of an impossibly
entitled corporation that has managed by its
legal maneuverings to keep piling up obscene
profits for its sheltered owners despite its con
tinuing demonstration of an absolute inability
to operate effectively in the marketplace, yet
cries "Stalin!" at shoe clerks who hope to
negotiate for retirement plans.
But the other—a bit of folksy wisdom from
the Morrises' Augusta Chronicle entitled (in the
ABH) "Let's introduce competition to public
education"—was much more scary than funny.
Its author makes an impassioned if unsup
ported case for "true school choice," which we
must assume means funding private schools
with public money—though the article never
makes that clear—apparently because the
government can't ever do anything right and
because public entities whose mission it is
to educate children perform better when they
have to "compete" with private entities whose
mission it is to turn a profit for their investors
(but which are nonetheless funded by taxpayer
money that would otherwise be going to their
"competitors," i.e., the public schools).
Actual presidential candidate Mitt Romney
is quoted as saying "school choice" is "the
civil rights issue of our time," which is incred
ibly frightening unless you happen to believe
the appellation should be applied to the tra
vails of privileged white people who wish they
weren't spending so much on their kids' prep
schools. And the editorial's coup de grcce is
: the fully idiotic assertion that since, accord
ing to a Google search, the words "competi
tion makes you better" are often recited by
jocks in locker rooms, "academia"—meaning,
Neighbors of this stately oak on Talmadge Drive mobilized to protect it from becoming a casualty of development.
presumably, those of us who cling to the lofty
view that there needs to be a well-supported
public school system if we want to keep call
ing ourselves a civilized society—had better
take heed.
The preposterousness of the arguments
in the Morris editorial can be taken as proof
of the bankruptcy of the position they're
supposed to support And the fact that this
destructive agenda is being pushed by one
of the state's largest media conglomerates
in advance of a November "charter schools"
referendum that could fling wide the doors of
public education in Georgia to corporate profi
teers is beyond concerning: it's offensive.
An Unexpected Ally?: That editorial appeared
in our daily newspaper during a week when
local progressive advocates for public educa
tion were already on edge, having dropped
the ball on fielding a candidate for the Clarke
County School Board seat being vacated by
Allison Wright who is running for the ACC
Commission. Many erstwhile activists were
jolted from their inertia when the sole, last-
minute qualifier for the seat was Carl Parks,
one of the members of Mayor Nancy Denson's
Economic Development Task Force. Parks is
a former aide to Republican the late Senator
Paul Coverdell, advisor to the George W. Bush
transition team and insurance industry lobby
ist whose resume suggests a deep allegiance
to free-m^rket policies. That background,
and the recent memory of Parks' enthusiastic
defense of Walmart's corporate citizenship in
a February Banner-Herald op-ed, led some to
speculate that he would walk onto the school
board and serve as an internal advocate for
exactly the kind of outsourcing of public edu
cation to the corporate sector that the charter
schools referendum is designed to facilitate.
But asked last week for his position on
charter schools and the referendum, Parks
was unequivocal in his opposition to handing
the power to approve local charters to a state
commission, saying by email, "I support local
control of education and the principle that
government policy is best managed at the clos
est level possible to the people affected." He
also expressed strong admiration for the lead
ership of CCSD Superintendent Phil Lanoue and
praised the achievements of the district's two
public charter schools, J.J. Harris Elementary
and the Community Career Academy. "I believe
we have accomplished much despite budgetary
issues and the various significant challenges
we face," he wrote, and "I especially appre
ciate the value of CCSD and our other fine
educational institutions and look forward to
advocating for them at every opportunity."
Is Carl Parks a conservative Republican?
Absolutely. But if these statements are an indi
cation, he is not one of those who would like
to see the public education system burned to
the ground. And if, as a school board member,
he will use his lobbying skills and connections
to press for the interests of Clarke County's
public schools at the state level, as we should
hope he will, then he could become a tre
mendous asset. Should that turn out to be the
case, Athens progressives, asleep at the wheel,
will have unwittingly avoided a crash.
Dave Marr news@flagpole.com
PETE McCOMMONS