City Dope

Fight The Power

originally published September 26, 2001

city-traffic2.jpg Photos by Brad Aaron

FROM BAD... Looks like Commissioners will sign off on the Barnett Shoals widening project at their October 2 voting session. The plan as drawn does not include bike lanes on College Station Road near the Kroger shopping center, though lanes have already been incorporated into the other end, near its intersection with East Campus Road, and though the county just added lanes to Barnett Shoals from Lexington Road. One reason, says ACC Transportation and Public Works Director David Clark, is there is currently no way to add lanes to the College Station bridge, and his department can't support drawing cyclists into an unsafe situation. Of course, cyclists ALREADY RIDE CSR, bridge and all, and bike lanes on any stretch of the road would at least make it that much safer. The T&PW argument makes as much sense as keeping condoms from teenagers in the hopes that they won't have sex.


...TO WORSE... Commissioners will likely also pass up $2.5 million - that's two-million-five-hundred-thousand dollars - in state Department of Transportation money because they don't want to put a four-foot median on Barnett Shoals from College Station to Cedar Shoals. The median, which would limit left hand turns in order to reduce accidents, is unpopular with some BS business owners, who say it will hinder access to their strip malls and quickie marts. Responding to those gripes, the majority of Commissioners seem to prefer an Atlanta Highway-style five lane plan. (Keep in mind Athens-Clarke plans to spend a gazillion dollars over the next two decades fixing Atlanta Highway.) The reason the DOT won't help pay for the BS project as proposed: it has deemed such roads UNSAFE.

...TO JUST PLAIN SILLY. Since ACC won't be getting help from the DOT to further screw up Barnett Shoals, the cost of the project now exceeds available funds by $1.5 million. But that's not a problem, 'cause there suddenly seems to be a million dollars available from interest on SPLOST funds. Funny how that money just appears when a massive auto-centric road-building project is in peril.


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ALL THIS CRAPTASTIC NEWS should make for a lively Tour de Sprawl. Organized this year by BikeAthens, UOWN (Upper Oconee Watershed Network) and the Athens Grow Green Coalition, the TdS weekend begins Thursday Oct. 11 with a fund-raiser at the 40 Watt. That show will feature Art Rosenbaum, The Squalls, Jack Logan, David Barbe and Circulatory System (members of Olivia Tremor Control and Neutral Milk Hotel). "America's pre-eminent new urbanist planner," Andres Duany, will speak Friday evening, and the 13-mile ride itself begins "promptly" at 9 a.m. Saturday the 13th. See bikeathens.com for TdS registration info, remember the Sept. 28 Courteous Mass, and don't let the bastards grind you down.

BRING THE NOISE. Hip hop deity and City Dope idol Chuck D (yes, of Public Enemy) is coming to Athens Oct. 1. Though Mr. D will not be performing (sigh), he will be speaking "on how Napster and electronic media affects media today." Tickets are FREE for students, just a buck for the rest of us, and are on sale now at the Tate Center. Chuck D for a buck? It would take a nation of millions to hold us back.


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ONE THING COMMISSIONERS LIKE even better than roads are the developers who make it necessary to keep subsidizing them. Another item on the Oct. 2 agenda is a list of unpaid tax assessments that the county has given up on collecting. Topping the list, owing a total of $73,465, is one Paul D. "Denny" Hill. This takes City Dope back to November 7, 2000, when, ignoring the wishes of a standing room only crowd at City Hall, the recommendation of the Planning Commission, and the Guiding Principles of the yet-to-be-enacted land use plan, the Commission voted to permit Hill to build his 214 unit "Oak Grove" subdivision smack in the greenbelt. At the time of the vote, Hill owed every penny of that $73K, yet seven Commissioners gave him the go-ahead to put yet more strain on your roads, air and water. And now that debt will be written off. Just goes to show that developers in Athens aren't perfect, just forgiven.

CITY DOPE NEEDS A BREAK from this shit, so we're taking next week off. Be good to yourselves and to each other, and always, always, watch your back.

Send your city dope to bradaaron@flagpole.com

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