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ATHENS NEWS AND VIEWS
CLASSIC CENTER ART: My (admittedly unschooled) opinion
of public art is that it's usually either bland or tacky. The
Athena statues downtown and the guitars on the parking deck
are a bit too obvious for my taste, and don't get me started
on those painted bulldogs. The cows in Chicago, the shrimp
in Fernandina Beach, FL???pretty much all fiberglass animals
should be banned, IMFIO.
So, I was fully prepared to dislike "Nest," the new public
art installation in the Classic Center, and doubted that the
artist, Maureen Kelly of St. Louis, MO, would have anything
non-generic to say about Athens, GA. But not only does Kelly's
work, to use technical terms, look pretty cool, it does comment
on the history and culture of our city.
Before submitting a proposal for the Classic Center expan
sion, Kelly had only visited Athens once, for a wedding, but
she immediately picked up on how tightly knit we are. "The
people were so nice and so warm,"
she says. "It's a fabulous commu
nity. That really comes across."
The design Kelly came up with
involves curved fabric-like stain
less steel panels arranged in a
nest shape meant to invoke a
sense of community and remind
viewers that Athens was once a
textile capitol. Inside the nest
is a ladder of red poles, an unin
tentional reference to the Classic
Center's origins as a 19th-century
firehall. (Kelly, unaware of that
history, chose red to add color to
the beige-and-white room, along
with a dash of sex appeal.) The
whole thing will be lit up by the
sun in the morning and LED lights
in the evening, reflecting off the
stainless steel and drawing people
in from Foundry Street, fulfilling
one of the atrium architects' main
goals: creating a front of the mas
sive building on its now-desolate
side facing the North Oconee
River. It doesn't get in the way of
the view, either.
"I wanted to see something
floating over the hills, but never
blocking them," Kelly says.
The SPLOST-funded installa
tion cost $150,000 out of a total
$24 million budget for the whole
expansion. Kelly took a $15,600
fee for herself; the rest went
toward materials and paying her
team of construction workers,
electricians, welders and lighting
designers. Her background is in
architecture, and she's as much a foreman on a job site as an
artist (expertise, by the way, that someone local may or may
not possess). The Athens Cultural Affairs Commission, which
selects public art, also hired a local artist, Jamie Calkin, to
paint a mural.
Check out more photos in City Dope online. The public will
get its first in-person glimpse of the new atrium, art installa
tion and expanded exhibit hall from 2-6 p.m. Feb. 16. There
will be circus performers and jazz bands, too. Feel free to bring
a picnic, PR and marketing director Angie Estes says. It's free,
but a ticket is required because space is limited. They're avail
able at the Classic Center and UGA Performing Arts Center box
offices starting Jan. 28.
Next up are requests for qualifications for art at the
Athens-Clarke County Library and the new Rocksprings Park
pool. After the jail art controversy last year almost derailed
Athens' nascent public art program entirely, let's hope they're
successful.
EAU DE DOWNTOWN: Athens Downtown Development Authority
board members have been pushing Executive Director Kathryn
Lookofsky to find a solution for downtown's, shall we say,
odoriferous emanations, especially in the summertime, when
stale beer, trash-bag leakage and vomit marinate in the heat.
Short of hiring a crop duster to spray Febreze over a 20-block
area, there's not much she can do.
It's one of several issues where the ADDA board and
Lookofsky have butted heads, leading to the mutual decision
last month not to renew her contract when it expires in June.
A recent ACC audit???available in the online version of City
Dope???absolves her of responsibility, putting the blame on
business owners for not cleaning the sidewalks and the county
commission for not fully funding the Solid Waste Department.
Two full-time and two part-time litter technicians clean up
downtown from 5 a.m.-2 p.m. seven days a week. They pick
up litter, empty trash cans, remove grease clogs and pressure-
wash sidewalks. Even as the number of bars, restaurants and
sidewalks has grown by half over the past 10 years, the level of
service has stayed the same.
"This level of service appears to be inadequate given the
high volume of usage during the evening and night hours,
changes in the mix of businesses downtown and the increase
in the number of authorized sidewalk cafes," ACC Auditor John
Wolfe writes in his report.
Wolfe and his staff observed "multiple violations of ACC's
litter ordinance including discarded cigarette butts, broken
glass in public planters, other refuse on sidewalks and streets,
and the use of glass in the sidewalk cafes. In addition,
instances of what appeared to be leakage from trash bags and
other refuse containers onto the sidewalks and streets were
noted."
Solid Waste has asked for money to deal with those prob
lems in the past, but the commission has never funded those
requests. Wolfe recommends "additional resources for down
town cleaning operations," as well as laws to clarify that
business owners are responsible for cleaning the areas outside
their doors and require them to provide a place to dispose of
cigarette butts.
Wolfe's audit also addresses downtown parking, another
vexing issue. Although total parking revenue rose from $1.8
million to $2.4 million between 2011 and 2012, he notes that
net revenue dropped from $1.1 million to $431,000 due to the
new West Washington Street deck's debt service and operating
costs. The increase in total revenue he attributes to raising the
cost of parking and expanding the hours when ACC charges to
park. Meanwhile, revenue from the College Avenue deck is flat,
even though fees are higher.
In other words, more people aren't parking downtown,
they're just parking in the Washington Street deck instead
of the College Avenue deck. Why did we build that new deck
again? Oh, well, at least we got a Waffle House out of the deal.
On top of that, three different branches of government???
ACC, the ADDA and the Classic Center???run the four downtown
decks, so ACC is essentially competing against itself. The solu
tions, according to Wolfe, are to adjust rates based on demand
and consider putting all parking under ACC control.
RUENA VISTA: After postponing it once in November, Athens-
Clarke commissioners have decided to put off a vote on the
Buena Vista Heights historic district for yet another month.
Commissioner Kelly Girtz proposed reducing the size of the
district from 76 to about 50 homes, removing some property
owners who oppose the designation as well as some mid
century houses that aren't part of the original neighborhood,
built as a streetcar suburb in the 1890s. He said he plans to
continue tweaking the borders in the coming weeks. With a
Feb. 5 vote looming, several commissioners said they're not
comfortable adjusting the lines on
the fly.
A moratorium on demolitions
in Buena Vista, also approved in
November, expires at the end of
the month, but individual commis
sioners can put holds on demoli
tion permits for 90 days. "Let's
not put this off [so] long that
something will happen we'll feel
sorry for," Commissioner George
Maxwell said.
RLACK HISTORY: A less contro
versial item on the commission's
agenda last week is naming the
ACC Police Department's Baxter
Street substation for Donald Moon
and Archibald Killian. It's been
50 years since what was then the
Athens Police Department hired
Moon and Killian, the city's first
two black officers. "They were
the finest, at that time, that the
police department had," Maxwell,
Athens' third black officer, said
last Thursday. Moon was killed in
the line of duty, but Killian, now
a reverend and radio host, is still
kicking.
PARK AND RIDE: Eastside residents
can say goodbye to the hassle of
trying to find parking downtown.
A free park-and-ride lot on Oconee
Street???AKA that big mudhole
you've surely noticed inside the
Loop cloverleaf???opens at 11 a.m.
Thursday. For $1.60, commuters
can hop on a new shuttle that will
run from the lot to Park Hall, the Arch and back every 20 min
utes from roughly 7-9 a.m. and 3:30-5:30 p.m. on weekdays.
Hourly buses will serve the lot during non-peak hours. If ACC
ever finishes a long-awaited raiIs-to-traiIs project, suburban
ites will be able to drive halfway to downtown and bike the
rest of the way, too.
DOWNTOWN TRAFFIC: And when Selig Enterprises builds its
mammoth mixed-use development off Oconee Street, we'll
need all the help we can get. It will generate 5,833 car trips a
day, according to documents the company filed last week with
the Northeast Georgia Regional Commission, a state planning
agency that advises local governments on major developments.
A full traffic study hasn't been done, but Selig will submit
one to ACC as part of a variance application in the next few
weeks, county planner Gavin Hassemer says. The regional com
mission recommendation should come around the same time,
setting up the ACC Planning Commission to hear Selig's request
at its Mar. 7 meeting.
See the In the Loop blog at Flagpole.com to read the
documents.
Blake Aued news@flagpole.com
Pro tip: Birds can fly. They don't need ladders to get to their nests.
4 FLAGP0LE.C0M ??? JANUARY 23, 2013