originally published April 30, 2008

The Politics of Race: Well, commish-watchers, the stage is set for a big show at the Tuesday, May 6 Mayor and Commission meeting. It seems like a long month since the April vote to take several hundred thousand federal dollars away from the East Athens and Hancock Corridor development corporations, and though plenty of efforts have been in motion since then, City Dope doesn’t have much reason to guess that it won’t be a close vote again this time around.

To catch up: Commissioner Elton Dodson, as he said he would in Flagpole, has set himself to the task of getting that April vote officially reconsidered - a motion which has to be made by one of the six who voted for Commissioner Kinman’s motion to transfer the funds. From there, it takes a simple majority to reverse last month’s action.

Don’t think a tie vote will bode well for the people wanting to see the money come back to those agencies: last Tuesday’s community meeting at Hill Chapel Baptist Church made clear that Mayor Davison - who by virtue of her position plays tiebreaker when needed - probably wants as much as anyone to see the relevant agencies tighten things up before receiving that kind of public money again.

It’s worth pointing out, of course, that the agencies’ best friend in all this - Dodson - isn’t saying they should be let off easily if they get the money back, either. In other words, no matter what happens at City Hall on Tuesday, the discussion won’t yet be over about the who’s and how’s of lifting up Athens’ old intown black neighborhoods.

This columnist has said it before and will say it again: shifting the money may have been the right thing to do - and it still may very much be - but it was done the wrong way, and that’s important. Perhaps City Dope and Elton Dodson both are being foolishly idealistic, in these days of Obama-ist hope, about this community’s ability to engage and empower all of its citizens in community-building and political processes.

Then again, last week’s meeting at Hill Chapel church, with all its racial button-pushing from black community leaders (most of it justified, if lopsided), and at which the Mayor bristled (also rightfully, if too vigorously) at charges of racism - and frankly, showed her worst side - left a bad, bad taste in City Dope’s mouth. This particular messy local political situation ought to at least give Athens a venue to carry out some part of that long-overdue discussion - you know, the one about race.

So, a suggestion: Let’s not worry about rights and wrongs this time around. Let’s commit to having a better discussion about race. It’ll never be easy, but it doesn’t have to be quite as hard as it has been in this town for the last few weeks.

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Whoa, Speaking of Racialized Politics: Thanks to production deadlines, City Dope has been well behind the curve in the recent maelstrom over the news that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas will be UGA’s commencement speaker this year. Loyal Flagpole readers may be asking themselves why UGA Law Prof. Eugene Wilkes’ byline hasn’t yet graced these pages, as in years past, with a protest to Thomas’s visit. There’s reason not to fear, though: word at press time was that the good professor was warming up his keyboard…

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It All Started So Innocently: Active and involved Cobbhamites Michael and Mary Songster had a heck of a week last week in relation to compliance with various ACC code issues at their home. It started with some yard chickens (illegal at their place, per zoning), expanded later into a temporary eviction (having to do with a certificate of occupancy on a new home; as with the chickens, guilt is admitted), and the pile-on came when they got an historic preservation violation. Why is this made note of in City Dope? Because some of those issues - like the chickens and the historic preservation bit - are not necessarily isolated incidents, and they’re things that may be a getting a wider discussion in town soon. But, let it be said here: not just yet. It’s true that the burgeoning interest in local food means it only makes sense for folks to be able to fry backyard eggs, but as with any local government policy, it’s worthwhile for all sides to approach the issue with care and deliberation. City Dope has reason to believe that’ll happen fairly soon, so stay tuned.

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Fun Stuff: Got to hand it to the UGA College Republicans, who are first in line for hosting a debate between Republican Congressional challenger Barry Fleming and incumbent Paul Broun. That primary race ought to be fun once these guys meet face to face, and the Saturday afternoon debate is free and open to the public. Kudos also to WUGA’s Mary Kay Mitchell, one of two journos working the questioning table at the event. This thing goes down May 3 at 2 p.m. in UGA’s Dean Rusk center; visit www.ugarepublicans.com to learn more.

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Like a Real-Life Study in Historiography: It’s really getting to be kind of fun, this ideological tug-of-war over whether anything actually happened at this year’s session of the Georgia General Assembly. (See City Pages for the latest edition, care of the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce.) On Monday, May 5, Athens’ Federation of Neighborhood Associations presents the next installment in the road show - 7:30 p.m. at the Presbyterian Student Center, with all of the local legislative delegation present. So get your questions ready - whether about transportation funding or the nature of how political history gets written - and head out to see the local boys. Who knows, maybe the truth is that nobody even went to the Gold Dome this year?

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Athens and the Wider World: In case you missed it, longtime local artist, folklorist and banjoist (that a word?) Art Rosenbaum is heavily featured in a story about field recording folksongs in the April 28 issue of The New Yorker. Hey, it ain’t Flagpole, but it’s pretty good.

Ben Emanuel

Send your city dope to ben@flagpole.com.