From You
Nov 19, 2003
Letters
GROW GREEN CLARIFIES
After reading this week's City Dope [Nov. 12] (about the People of Hope rezoning request) I went back and re-read my email to the Grow Green list that referenced the ABH editorial on the topic. I discovered it wasn't as clearly written as it should have been. I said the editorial "puts it in perspective," by which I meant they put the situation in perspective by giving a succinct recap of the history of the People of Hope; I didn't mean that I thought the "People vs. Land Use Plan" attitude of the editorial was on target. I don't think it is, and I don't think that it's at all an accurate characterization of this issue. The ABH may think so, the Planning Commission may think so, but Grow Green does not.
As you know, Grow Green supports the Land Use Plan. The Land Use Plan, however, is more than just a description of where to have different densities. It includes a set of priorities or community values, which include increasing homeownership and providing a diversity of housing types.
Athens needs more housing that is affordable to people who have low and very low incomes, and for a lot of people that means mobile homes. Mobile homes are part of the spectrum of affordable housing.
The Land Use Plan doesn't specifically designate any areas for mobile homes, but it does set the goal of increasing owner-occupied housing. The People of Hope project would do that. And the site plan they've proposed does not subvert the Land Use Plan: it doesn't increase the density currently allowed (in fact, it's lower); it doesn't change the use (housing); and it includes as many of the features of the "Traditional Neighborhood" designation as the site, and housing type, allows.
I just want to make it clear that Grow Green strongly supports the integrity of the Land Use Plan AND this rezoning request by the People of Hope. We do not see the two as incompatible.
Beth Gavrilles
Athens Grow Green Coalition
BULLSHIT X 2
I'm forever spouting about on what a great town we have here and how lucky we are to have a fine publication like Flagpole providing a voice for the arts / music community here as well as its political content.
My band spends a great deal of time on the road and most towns twice our size have nothing to compare to it (of course most towns of any size don't compare to Athens either).
I do have to call bullshit on a couple of points though. That review of the OutKast album was beyond ridiculous. Did they even listen to it? Perhaps they got a different album than the one we've all been listening to. I've only ever written about a review once before. (Spin's review of R.E.M.'s Life's Rich Pageant, 1986, which was completely an attack on the band and had nothing to do with the album itself, I still feel the same 16 years later).
If the OutKast review was just a review, I certainly wouldn't begrudge anyone's personal taste, but the fact that it was the "cover story" and two different writers worked on it warranted greater scrutiny. OutKast managed to move forward in two different directions on this one. Big Boi's disc (Speakerboxxx) continued in the more "traditional" OutKast direction, while Andre 3000's disc (The Love Below) is the record many of us have wished Prince would make since about 1988 (or maybe 1999, which was in 1982).
Atlanta's "Dirty South" hip hop scene is easily one of the most vital scenes (along with our own town's eclectic music scene) anywhere in the world and I'm more than proud to live in a state that sits at the forefront of so many different genres.
The other "bullshit" is on the omission of tonight's [Nov. 10] great triple bill at Tasty World. Rob Veal is one of the finest songwriters ever to live in our fair city, and his shows are too rare in the first place. Tonight, he is opening for Cary Hudson (formerly of Blue Mountain and The Hilltops) and the great Philly band Marah. It's been years since Marah has played in town and the followings of all three artists should make for a sizable crowd.
I've been on the road for the past couple of weeks, and I knew about the show last week (and I was in Detroit), so it's hard to fathom how the musical editor could have missed it. (Fortunately, Tasty World bought an ad, so there is "some" mention of the show.
Again, I hate to be a prick and I really am a big fan of Flagpole. Y'all do a whole lot right, just don't be lame.
Rock On.
Patterson Hood
Athens
UP YOURS
I am writing to tell a sad story and to issue a warning.
My wife and I live in Five Points in one of the areas that is almost totally occupied by renters. We are surrounded by streets on all sides that are occupied by mostly "homeowners." Every block of every road running through the "homeowners'" section of our neighborhood is rife with speed bumps and stop signs. Our road, the renter's road, has hills, blind spots, children and pets and yet not a single stop sign or speed bump. This effectively funnels the majority of traffic through our area and at the same time keeps the much more important "homeowners" from having to deal with it.
The other night our cat disappeared. We've had her for a long time and took good care of her. She was spayed and wandered our neighborhood like a lot of other cats (and dogs) do. She always came back at the same time, though, expecting dinner and love. We did our best to accommodate her. Well, to make a long story short, she was run over and killed. A friendly neighbor witnessed it and told us it was someone who was speeding and talking on a cell phone. They just kept going. This was in broad daylight and the speed limit was 25 m.p.h. Our cat wore a collar with a tag stating her name and our address and phone number. The whole collar was knocked clean off her! The irresponsible coward who did this didn't even slow down. We really miss our little cat. So that's my said story.
Now for my warning. To all you people out there who like to drive around while talking our your cell phones, if you are on your phone while driving and you hurt or damage anything or anyone that belongs to me, you had better do what the person in my story did and just keep going. If I have to deal with something like this again and it is because of someone who was on their phone while driving, I will quite literally shove the person's phone right up their ass! I am a legally armed and very angry person and I assure you I could do this. Man, woman, whatever. I would be completely willing to accept whatever consequences this might bring down on me, and I have very little to lose. I think it sucks that someone can be sent to jail after having only a couple of drinks and then driving, but someone who can hardly drive when applying total concentration is allowed to careen around in a 1500 lb. metal box all the while yammering away about some trivial aspect of their life on a cellular phone! The next time you are out and talking on your phone while driving remember this letter and hope that this time isn't the time that you don't get lucky. If you screw up and it's on me, you're screwed! I am not alone, either. There are a lot of people out there who feel the same way I do and to those people I say: tell your friends when you see them doing this that you think it's assholish of them. Call them on it! Don't be afraid to let them know that they are acting very selfishly. I hope it doesn't take a real tragedy to change the public's mindset that this practice is tolerable. But it probably will. Hopefully it won't be a little kid or an old lady who dies because someone chooses to concentrate on their phone conversation rather than driving their vehicle.
Pissed Off In Five Points
Athens
SHORTCHANGED
Just wanted to let the readers of Flagpole know that the "Proposed Skatepark" being shown on ACTV channel 7 is not what we're getting.
The "Proposed Skatepark" was estimated to cost $450,000 (it's important to note that one baseball field comes in around $300,000). The commissioners allocated only $85,000 towards the construction of a skatepark.
After Commissioner McCarter is through riding his bike, do you think he could help us raise the additional $365,000?
Rick Stanziale
Athens
STREET SCENES
The Nov. 12 piece on urban design for Prince Ave. more than once mentions the need for an establishment that sells meat. The authors must be new to the area, or they would realize that Prince Ave. is in fact already the best spot to purchase butt steak, especially late at night on home game weekends.
Yet we have already lost many of our old black transvestites to the relentless gentrification along this corridor, and any further development should retain sensitivity towards the rich local history and unique people of Prince Ave. The irresistible juxtaposition of gaunt, aged androgynes peddling their flesh against the twilight backdrop of Gothic steeples is Athens at its most priceless. Things are getting erected all the time on Prince Ave. without a building permit: let's keep it that way.
Marrow Fedwell
Athens
JUST STOP
Call me crazy, but I just don't get what the big stink is all about with the crosswalks on Prince Ave. Having lived in California, a state that strictly enforces pedestrian crossing laws (so much so that if someone even steps a toe in the crosswalk you have to stop or you will receive an enormous ticket as well as a large ticket for jaywalking if caught crossing outside of the crosswalk), it seems pretty common sense to me. The situation goes something like this: I am cruising down Prince Ave., and I come across a pedestrian and their dog/bike/stroller/by themselves crossing the street in the designated crosswalks that are clearly marked with gigantic white stripes on the ground. What do I do? You stop, you jackass, and let them cross! Where is the confusion in all of this? It seems pretty cut and dry.
Do you want to smack into the pedestrian and go to jail for manslaughter or, do you obey simple traffic laws and STOP? I agree that the signs that are designed to warn oncoming traffic of the law, you know stopping so as to not kill someone, are a bit small and relatively illegible until you are right on top of it, but come on. Use your brain! Police need to enforce pedestrian crossing laws and people need to learn to drive more responsibly.
Hang up the phone, slow your ass down (I believe the speed limit is 35 on most of Prince Ave.) and stop almost killing people!
Krista Merry
Athens
After reading this week's City Dope [Nov. 12] (about the People of Hope rezoning request) I went back and re-read my email to the Grow Green list that referenced the ABH editorial on the topic. I discovered it wasn't as clearly written as it should have been. I said the editorial "puts it in perspective," by which I meant they put the situation in perspective by giving a succinct recap of the history of the People of Hope; I didn't mean that I thought the "People vs. Land Use Plan" attitude of the editorial was on target. I don't think it is, and I don't think that it's at all an accurate characterization of this issue. The ABH may think so, the Planning Commission may think so, but Grow Green does not.
As you know, Grow Green supports the Land Use Plan. The Land Use Plan, however, is more than just a description of where to have different densities. It includes a set of priorities or community values, which include increasing homeownership and providing a diversity of housing types.
Athens needs more housing that is affordable to people who have low and very low incomes, and for a lot of people that means mobile homes. Mobile homes are part of the spectrum of affordable housing.
The Land Use Plan doesn't specifically designate any areas for mobile homes, but it does set the goal of increasing owner-occupied housing. The People of Hope project would do that. And the site plan they've proposed does not subvert the Land Use Plan: it doesn't increase the density currently allowed (in fact, it's lower); it doesn't change the use (housing); and it includes as many of the features of the "Traditional Neighborhood" designation as the site, and housing type, allows.
I just want to make it clear that Grow Green strongly supports the integrity of the Land Use Plan AND this rezoning request by the People of Hope. We do not see the two as incompatible.
Beth Gavrilles
Athens Grow Green Coalition
BULLSHIT X 2
I'm forever spouting about on what a great town we have here and how lucky we are to have a fine publication like Flagpole providing a voice for the arts / music community here as well as its political content.
My band spends a great deal of time on the road and most towns twice our size have nothing to compare to it (of course most towns of any size don't compare to Athens either).
I do have to call bullshit on a couple of points though. That review of the OutKast album was beyond ridiculous. Did they even listen to it? Perhaps they got a different album than the one we've all been listening to. I've only ever written about a review once before. (Spin's review of R.E.M.'s Life's Rich Pageant, 1986, which was completely an attack on the band and had nothing to do with the album itself, I still feel the same 16 years later).
If the OutKast review was just a review, I certainly wouldn't begrudge anyone's personal taste, but the fact that it was the "cover story" and two different writers worked on it warranted greater scrutiny. OutKast managed to move forward in two different directions on this one. Big Boi's disc (Speakerboxxx) continued in the more "traditional" OutKast direction, while Andre 3000's disc (The Love Below) is the record many of us have wished Prince would make since about 1988 (or maybe 1999, which was in 1982).
Atlanta's "Dirty South" hip hop scene is easily one of the most vital scenes (along with our own town's eclectic music scene) anywhere in the world and I'm more than proud to live in a state that sits at the forefront of so many different genres.
The other "bullshit" is on the omission of tonight's [Nov. 10] great triple bill at Tasty World. Rob Veal is one of the finest songwriters ever to live in our fair city, and his shows are too rare in the first place. Tonight, he is opening for Cary Hudson (formerly of Blue Mountain and The Hilltops) and the great Philly band Marah. It's been years since Marah has played in town and the followings of all three artists should make for a sizable crowd.
I've been on the road for the past couple of weeks, and I knew about the show last week (and I was in Detroit), so it's hard to fathom how the musical editor could have missed it. (Fortunately, Tasty World bought an ad, so there is "some" mention of the show.
Again, I hate to be a prick and I really am a big fan of Flagpole. Y'all do a whole lot right, just don't be lame.
Rock On.
Patterson Hood
Athens
UP YOURS
I am writing to tell a sad story and to issue a warning.
My wife and I live in Five Points in one of the areas that is almost totally occupied by renters. We are surrounded by streets on all sides that are occupied by mostly "homeowners." Every block of every road running through the "homeowners'" section of our neighborhood is rife with speed bumps and stop signs. Our road, the renter's road, has hills, blind spots, children and pets and yet not a single stop sign or speed bump. This effectively funnels the majority of traffic through our area and at the same time keeps the much more important "homeowners" from having to deal with it.
The other night our cat disappeared. We've had her for a long time and took good care of her. She was spayed and wandered our neighborhood like a lot of other cats (and dogs) do. She always came back at the same time, though, expecting dinner and love. We did our best to accommodate her. Well, to make a long story short, she was run over and killed. A friendly neighbor witnessed it and told us it was someone who was speeding and talking on a cell phone. They just kept going. This was in broad daylight and the speed limit was 25 m.p.h. Our cat wore a collar with a tag stating her name and our address and phone number. The whole collar was knocked clean off her! The irresponsible coward who did this didn't even slow down. We really miss our little cat. So that's my said story.
Now for my warning. To all you people out there who like to drive around while talking our your cell phones, if you are on your phone while driving and you hurt or damage anything or anyone that belongs to me, you had better do what the person in my story did and just keep going. If I have to deal with something like this again and it is because of someone who was on their phone while driving, I will quite literally shove the person's phone right up their ass! I am a legally armed and very angry person and I assure you I could do this. Man, woman, whatever. I would be completely willing to accept whatever consequences this might bring down on me, and I have very little to lose. I think it sucks that someone can be sent to jail after having only a couple of drinks and then driving, but someone who can hardly drive when applying total concentration is allowed to careen around in a 1500 lb. metal box all the while yammering away about some trivial aspect of their life on a cellular phone! The next time you are out and talking on your phone while driving remember this letter and hope that this time isn't the time that you don't get lucky. If you screw up and it's on me, you're screwed! I am not alone, either. There are a lot of people out there who feel the same way I do and to those people I say: tell your friends when you see them doing this that you think it's assholish of them. Call them on it! Don't be afraid to let them know that they are acting very selfishly. I hope it doesn't take a real tragedy to change the public's mindset that this practice is tolerable. But it probably will. Hopefully it won't be a little kid or an old lady who dies because someone chooses to concentrate on their phone conversation rather than driving their vehicle.
Pissed Off In Five Points
Athens
SHORTCHANGED
Just wanted to let the readers of Flagpole know that the "Proposed Skatepark" being shown on ACTV channel 7 is not what we're getting.
The "Proposed Skatepark" was estimated to cost $450,000 (it's important to note that one baseball field comes in around $300,000). The commissioners allocated only $85,000 towards the construction of a skatepark.
After Commissioner McCarter is through riding his bike, do you think he could help us raise the additional $365,000?
Rick Stanziale
Athens
STREET SCENES
The Nov. 12 piece on urban design for Prince Ave. more than once mentions the need for an establishment that sells meat. The authors must be new to the area, or they would realize that Prince Ave. is in fact already the best spot to purchase butt steak, especially late at night on home game weekends.
Yet we have already lost many of our old black transvestites to the relentless gentrification along this corridor, and any further development should retain sensitivity towards the rich local history and unique people of Prince Ave. The irresistible juxtaposition of gaunt, aged androgynes peddling their flesh against the twilight backdrop of Gothic steeples is Athens at its most priceless. Things are getting erected all the time on Prince Ave. without a building permit: let's keep it that way.
Marrow Fedwell
Athens
JUST STOP
Call me crazy, but I just don't get what the big stink is all about with the crosswalks on Prince Ave. Having lived in California, a state that strictly enforces pedestrian crossing laws (so much so that if someone even steps a toe in the crosswalk you have to stop or you will receive an enormous ticket as well as a large ticket for jaywalking if caught crossing outside of the crosswalk), it seems pretty common sense to me. The situation goes something like this: I am cruising down Prince Ave., and I come across a pedestrian and their dog/bike/stroller/by themselves crossing the street in the designated crosswalks that are clearly marked with gigantic white stripes on the ground. What do I do? You stop, you jackass, and let them cross! Where is the confusion in all of this? It seems pretty cut and dry.
Do you want to smack into the pedestrian and go to jail for manslaughter or, do you obey simple traffic laws and STOP? I agree that the signs that are designed to warn oncoming traffic of the law, you know stopping so as to not kill someone, are a bit small and relatively illegible until you are right on top of it, but come on. Use your brain! Police need to enforce pedestrian crossing laws and people need to learn to drive more responsibly.
Hang up the phone, slow your ass down (I believe the speed limit is 35 on most of Prince Ave.) and stop almost killing people!
Krista Merry
Athens
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