Unfair Competition?

Classic Center vs. Downtown

originally published December 6, 2006

Downtown businesspeople love the business that conventions bring to town, but they aren’t too happy when retail trade shows—like boat shows or piano sales—compete with downtown stores. “Why would you want somebody to come in from outside the community, sell the product that your local businesses are selling, and then take absolutely every penny of that money out of the county?” asks Rusty Heery, chairman of the Athens Downtown Development Authority (ADDA). For the Classic Center to host such shows is “not good for business. It’s not good for Athens,” he told Flagpole. Heery questions whether such merchants even pay local sales taxes, as law requires.

“I don’t think any of us citizens of Athens thought we were building a retail outlet for companies to come in, sell their products, [and] take all of the money—tax money and everything—out of the county,” he says. Case in point: Yamaha’s recent piano sale. “If [someone] wanted a Yamaha piano they could go to Chick Piano 365 days a year,” Heery insists.

But Classic Center Director Paul Cramer says retailers like Yamaha have as much right as anyone to rent the publicly-owned facility, even if they compete with downtown merchants. “There’s many people in our community that love to come down and see that sort of thing,” he told Flagpole. The Classic Center hosts five or 10 retail shows a year, from clothing sales to a homebuilders’ fair, he says. And organizers are required to pay local sales taxes; at least, they are given a sales tax form and are supposed to send the money to the state, which then returns the local tax to the county. Cramer says he doesn’t have any reason to think the taxes haven’t been paid. “We can discourage” out-of-town retailers, he says: “We can do a lot of things, but at the end of the day, if we have the space available, we sell it to them.”

“Paul’s been very good as far as discouraging those kinds of shows,” Heery says. “I think he understands the impact—the negative impact—it could have on retailers in town.”

ACC Auditor John Wolfe looked into operations of the Classic Center earlier this year. In his August report, Wolfe said the Classic Center Authority—an independent body overseen by a five-member board of directors—“has managed to control general operational costs” of the $52-million center, but its debt service “continues to be burdensome.” The 30-page report recommends finding additional money, perhaps from a $1 surcharge on tickets, for a reserve account to cover facility maintenance and repair. The report also recommends various modest improvements in financial reporting and staff grievance procedures. (The center’s board has said, in a written response, that it agrees with a number of the suggestions.) Sixty-four percent of the center’s costs are covered by its own operations; the rest are paid by a local hotel/ motel tax and other local taxes. The auditor’s comparison of the Classic Center with several other Georgia convention centers suggests that most come closer to covering their own costs than the Classic Center does.

John Huie

Downtown Notes

Trash, Panhandling, Parking…

originally published December 6, 2006

Athens Downtown Development Authority chairman Rusty Heery says the ADDA’s board wants to invite the Chamber of Commerce, the Classic Center, and other users of downtown to cooperate on downtown issues. Especially in the past few years, Heery notes, “the local Chamber of Commerce and the Mayor and Commission decided to have a big feud. People have kind of circled their wagons, and haven’t reached out like they should.” The group sees downtown cleanup as “the number one issue,” he said.

While downtown has grown from having a few bars to several dozen, along with more restaurants and people now living downtown, Heery says trash pickups haven’t increased. People may walk from North Campus or the Classic Center to Clayton Street “and it smells and it’s dirty and the sidewalks are trashed,” he says. In addition, downtown’s landscape plantings are “scraggly” and not well-maintained, Heery says. “We could have flourishing flowers and bushes—it should be beautiful…. We’ve looked at maybe letting different businesses or garden clubs or whatever sponsor planters.”

And aggressive panhandling has become less of a nuisance in the past two months, although homeless people still use offensive language in public, Heery says. At a September meeting of the new Downtown Athens Business Association, some merchants lashed out at police for failing to prosecute panhandling vigorously enough. But police are constrained by very specific laws relating to “aggressive” panhandling, Sgt. Derek Scott of the downtown substation explained to them. Scott now reports that panhandling arrests of just two individuals since that meeting (as well as a couple prior to it) seem to have gone a long way toward cutting down on panhandling this fall.

Downtown merchants look forward to construction of a new parking deck behind the Georgia Theatre, which should help that part of downtown to develop, Heery says. The existing parking deck on College Avenue is “pretty much maxed out,” he says, and shoppers will drive around looking for nearby spaces rather than walk a few blocks farther, say, from the Washington Street deck or the Classic Center’s. “In the downtown area where you can’t see through the blocks, you feel like you’re a lot farther away than you are,” he notes. For all its problems, says Heery, downtown is “a huge draw…. Downtown Athens is one of the biggest things that attracts students to Athens.”

ACC Auditor John Wolfe is also scoping out problems downtown. “There are a number of departments that are responsible for various issues of downtown,” he told Flagpole. He agrees that “it’s not as clean as it used to be.” Wolfe wants to look at staffing levels of cleanup crews, and also at how often pedestrian signals are being checked for burnout.

JohnHuie

Write-In Votes

Power To The People

originally published December 6, 2006

Worry as we might about the new era of touch-screen voting machines, the age-old tradition of writing in candidates remains intact. A look at the list of write-in choices in the Nov. 7 General Election reveals that spelling and accurate typing were difficult for some voters, but that there was no lack of creativity at the voting machines. Athenians were creative enough in that election (write-in results for the Dec. 5 runoff were unavailable at press time) to employ the keypad in about 1300 cases across the ballot.

In among the Donald Ducks and Bugs Bunnys, there were some political statements: ex-mayoral candidate Andy Rusk got two write-in votes for governor, two for state Soil & Water Commission, and three for mayor. (Because he withdrew late in the race, Rusk appeared on the ballot, but actual—that is, not write-in—votes for him are lost to history; the vote-counting computers weren’t programmed to count them.) By far the write-in frontrunner for governor, however, was gubernatorial primary candidate and outgoing Secretary of State Cathy Cox, with 29 votes which presumably reflect Democratic Athens’ bitterness that Cox was not the Democratic candidate against Sonny Perdue in the general election. Bill Overend, who lost a summer primary runoff for Athens-Clarke Solicitor General by 33 votes, picked up another 21 in November to no avail.

Other local and state politicians make appearances in odd places throughout the write-in tally, but more fun are the votes cast for Athens townies and local musicians. Flagpole music editor Chris Hassiotis, for instance, has the honor of gaining one of only four write-in votes (one of which is for “Bartholomew Simpson”) for the uncontested District 3 seat on the school board. “For the good of Athens,” Hassiotis declares, “I will not demand a recount.“ And anyway, records show he doesn’t live in that district, but then again neither does Bart Simpson. Lucas Jensen of local promotion crew Team Clermont and band Venice is Sinking made a short list for state Senate. Someone recommended Flagpole music writer Gordon Lamb for state Labor Commissioner alongside local artist Keen Zero, among others. Lamb—who, like Hassiotis, didn’t know about the support until informed by the Flagpole news department—says he’s willing to concede and acknowledge Athens native Michael Thurmond’s continued incumbency in that position, but also says simply: “I was robbed!”

Local musicians receiving write-in votes for mayor include singer-songwriter Kemp Jones, Widespread Panic bassist Dave Schools, and R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe. Local poet Jeff Fallis got a nod for State Court, along with someone identified as Jojo, who we can only assume to be Jojo Glidewell of the band Modern Skirts. Jeff Tobias (We Versus the Shark, Dark Meat) and Jim Willingham (Ham 1), among others, matched Congressman John Barrow’s one write-in vote for state Supreme Court, as did Ian Darken of the band Murder Beach. Darken’s Murder Beach bandmate Julie Dyles got a vote for Congress, tying Barrow (whose district no longer represents Athens) and former state Rep. Louise McBee. Dyles’ bandmate in The Folk Yous and Big Gray, Courtnie Wolfgang, got one for state House in District 114 along with Bill Elliott, Mickey Mouse, Stephen Colbert, Vince Dooley, former Mayor Doc Eldridge, and local blogger Jonathan McGinty.

Musicians, celebrities and politicians aside, one write-in vote stands out from the crowd: Flagpole beer editor Ort Carlton for school board in District 5. As anyone who’s ever had a finely crafted, unfamiliar ale in his company knows, Ort is a born educator.

Ben Emanuel

Street Theater

Dramatic Protest on Campus

originally published December 6, 2006

One of the more difficult dramatic lessons taught, learned and acted in the classrooms and on the stages of the Fine Arts Building on the UGA campus is the virtue of taking an artistic risk. Outside the walls at the busy intersection of Baldwin and South Lumpkin streets, however, lie risks of an entirely different ilk. Both students and faculty members park their cars in lots across four lanes of perennially speeding traffic trying to beat the lights on Lumpkin. The real dangers, though, come from unwary drivers turning from the bottlenecks on Baldwin.

The heavily trafficked connector between East Campus Road and South Lumpkin Street cuts a quarter-mile stripe right through the center of the University’s North Campus. It has been the site of a disproportionate share of pedestrian accidents and plenty of expensive though well-intentioned construction to lessen their likelihood. On the corner where the Fine Arts Building sits, Baldwin dead-ends into Lumpkin, forcing the entire volume of traffic to turn across the crosswalks frequented at all hours by members of the Department of Theater and Film Studies. The lights that indicate it is safe to cross come on while all other lights at the intersection are red, but approximately five seconds later the flow of vehicular traffic is unleashed to navigate through the streams of pedestrians caught in the middle of Lumpkin. A pair of small signs is all that alerts pedestrians and motorists that they must contend with one another for right of way.

A little over two years ago, Professor Farley Richmond was struck by a student-driven SUV as he crossed from the parking lots to the Fine Arts Building. As a result, he was unable to lead a planned study abroad trip to study Indian theatre and spent the majority of the ensuing year walking with the aid of a cane. On Nov. 13, yet another professor from the same department was sent to the hospital, and on her birthday no less. Dr. Antje Ascheid sustained a concussion and a cut on her head after she was hit crossing (with a walk signal) to the drama building.

Certain that something needs to be done, department head Dr. David Saltz and his colleagues petitioned Athens-Clarke County for a permit to hold a protest at the intersection on Wednesday, Dec. 6 at 12:15 p.m. Utilizing the method of public communication for which they are best known, the department will, quite literally, stage a demonstration to convince the city to do something about the dangerous crossing. Various plans have been floated to guarantee this achieves maximum effect: masses of masked students, an extempore appearance by the University’s commedia dell’arte troupe, even displays by local politicians sympathetic to the plight of department members. Regardless of the nature of the statement itself, however, the department has determined that something dramatic, in every sense of the word, is necessary to ensure action is taken to make the crossway safer for the students, faculty and patrons in peril on the road every day.

Brandon Waddell

Election Returns

originally published December 6, 2006

Local election returns are available as they’re counted beginning Tuesday night, Dec. 5, on ACTV Channel 7 and online at www.athensclarkecounty.com/elections.