Bloglanta

The suburbs love to pick on the City of Atlanta. They claim Atlanta is inefficient, wastes money, etc, but underneath, secretly, they want the city.

Witness the City of Atlanta workers rebuilding the Sandy Springs pipes on Dunwoody Place. City workers are using city equipment to help the suburbs. Why? Because the city employees know more and even the City Council of Sandy Springs know that private contractors just don’t have the experience.

This is just another example of the the hypocrisy the entire state has regarding the city. It’s the engine of the state yet, no other government comes in for so much criticism. They chide MARTA, but more than one suburban public transit systems uses them for maintenance.  County hospitals send their indigent and homeless to Atlanta facilities all the time.  Grady is the only level 1 trauma center in the entire state.

It’s time for Atlanta to get its due.  It is time for the rest of the state to put its mouth where its money is going.

One hundred fifteen friends of James Marlow are about to be in pain!  After Tuesday’s election, voting indicates that Democrat Marlow in in third place, trailing his nearest Republican opponent by 115 votes.   The margin is so close that Marlow can ask for a recount, but that’s not the point.

Turn out was dismal.  According to the Secretary of State’s Office, less than 55,000 voters participated in a district that includes a slice of metro Atlanta, Athens, and Augusta.  The people who ought hang their heads here are the Democrats!  Where were they?  If the results are to be believed, for every three Democrats in the 10th district there are eight Republicans.  This seems unlikely.  While the legislature redistricted to give Republicans a change to win, this is a bigger margin than they need.  They’d have moved  Some of the Republicans into a more competitive district.

Nope.  The answer here is the Democrats did not come out and vote.  It appears that they couldn’t even get their guy into a run-off.  Moveover, where was the party?   If they party had induced even one of the two other Democrats to get out of the way, the citizens of the 10th could get a real run-off featuring two candidates that disagreed with one another.  Debates here will be meaningless!

Jim Whitehead must be ecstatic!  He’s on his way to congress because the guy running against him agrees with him on ninety percent of the issues!

10 years ago, the Democrats in the state were a powerhouse.  Now?  Their the mat on the back porch that Republicans use to wipe their muddy feet.

This is so true that even in town State Representatives in Liberal areas are changing affiliation!  The Democratic Party needs to get it’s act together.  They need to Fund YD groups and get the state thinking again.

Today is election day in the 10th Congressional district of Georgia.  Polls are open 7 AM until 7 PM and if you’re scheduled to work during the entirety of that time or if you cannot otherwise make it to vote, State Law requires that you get two hours off from work to go vote.

Go Vote.

There are ten!  Count ‘em, ten! Candidates from which to choose!  Six who affiliate with Republicans, three who affiliate with Democrats, and one Libertarian,  Clearly, a run-off will happen July 17th.

The big issue in this race is immigration.  Republicans and even some Democrats seem to be chiding the administration and the current Congress on the immigration bill.  Clearly, these folks don’t realize the impact immigrants have made to this country and will make.

Do we need fewer illegal immigrants?  Absolutely.  Conceptually, it’s far better to have people who are here legally than not.  However, This requires that the state and the country as a whole take a more realistic view of the value immigrants provide.  Georgia’s Legislature seems bent on not recognizing that fact and so do the voters of the 10th district.

Smart people can both want a more open process will let us admit more people who want to rule of law and like free societies with the skills we need and want those people to be here legally.   Let’s hope they vote in the election tomorrow.

The Dekalb County Commission is trying to fight the power.  In a bi-partisan move at their recent meeting, the commission refused to adopt the plan put forth by County Engineers arguing that it puts the cart before the horse.  The road on which cart and horse are being placed is Clifton and the Clifton Corridor has become the poster child for what the Commission is trying to fight.

The Clifton Road Corridor runs from Briarcliff to North Decatur Road and includes the CDC, Emory Conference Center, Emory University Hospital, and other elements of the Emory Campus.  It’s a very tricky busy road with lots of congestion.  The current Comprehensive Transportation plan for the county focuses less on making the corridor usable through improvements in transit and pedestrian access and more on adding vehicle capacity.  They want to widen the road and add items such as double left turn lanes, easing access into the pedestrian neighborhoods surrounding the road.

This flies in the face of the general Comprehensive Plan which emphasizes the importance of building around neighborhood centers that are less vehicularly focused.  Further, it flies in the face of the researchers in Dekalb county who believe that the Clifton Corridor is a central destination in Dekalb county that cannot sustain the level of vehicular traffic that proposed increases in activity and housing density would generate.

Rather they prefer to see Clifton as  transfer point between the first section of the Brain Train (running from Emory to Lawrenceville) and the rest of the transit market such as Emory loop shuttles, MARTA connecting service to Candler Park and Lindberg, and to the beltline.  One employee went so far as to say that, “Before I retire, my goal is to see the Clifton Corridor be served by transit.”  Those are pretty strong words.

There was considerable pressure that the meeting to adopt the plan, but a coalition of Elaine Boyer, Jeff Rader, and Kathy Gannon stopped the adoption in its tracks.  They’re even risking federal dollars for road projects in order to make sure that the philosophy of the general plan is carried in to the choices of projects to fund in the transportation plan.

The next meeting is June 12th and no doubt in the that time, the county attorney’s office and ARC officials will do some serious arm twisting to get the commission to bow their notion of what the county should be.  Will the Commissioners break?  Stay Tuned and Find out!

So… you want to take a local power broker our for drinks or meal and you want them to be at ease.  Where should you go?

If you’re courting a Democrat, member of metro Atlanta’s finest, a theater person, or beat writer, there is no other place than Manuel’s Tavern.  Manuel’s was named for Manuel Maloof, whose family still runs the bar.  Democrats have been meeting here for years and many a political deal has been cut in this establishment.  Members of Atlanta’s finest, theater folks, and reporters also all mix here depending on what time of day you get there.  Just look on the walls.  You can’t be a Democrat and win the general election without coming to Manuels.  Anyone can get in and anyone can walk around.  It helps however, to know which group your trying to reach as they all sit in different parts of the tavern.  Particularly progressive Democrats have also been known to congregate at Thinking Man’s Tavern.

Republicans have more money and have not really established a single watering whole as their own.  However, the Capital Grille seems to meet the needs of Republicans and their well heeled lobbyist clientele quite nicely.  Apologist Neal Boortz has been throwing his “power lunches” there for some time and the staff makes sure that deals can be made with the utmost discretion.  Some Republicans have also taken to hanging out at the River Room.  First, it’s right next to Matt Towery’s offices, and second, it’s in a Post Community where it looks like a town, but there is no civic authority to create regulation.  Instead, it’s entirely corporate controlled.

In Atlanta, African Americans are a substantial power structure on their own without regard to party (though there are more Democrats than Republicans).  Still, all must pass through Paschal’s at some point.  Many folks don’t even realize that the venerable restaurant is still in business, but it has a lovely location just west of Castleberry Hill.   A visit there on any given Sunday will still show you class of Atlanta’s African American Elite.  As the “Unofficial Headquarters of the Civil Rights Movement”, and as the  place where Morehouse and Spellmen graduates celebrate big events, Paschals remains a vibrant part of the scene.  The tea is sweet, the steaks are good, the cobbler is hot.  Anyone who has not been should go.  Anyone who has been knows that if you want to meet the elite, Paschals is the place to which you should beat your retreat!

Libertarians?  Apparently, you’re free to meet where ever you’d like… but they seem to tend toward the Piccadilly Cafeteria in Cobb County.  That’s scary.  C’mon guys, couldn’t you find a bar in which to drink about Ayn Rand?  Or does the cafeteria form create the best culinary representation of informed consumer choice?

Atlanta is still not a 24 hour city.  Compared to other cities, there are some amenities we need and some changes that should occur.

Atlanta is still a place where Dunkin Donuts closes.  The Brookhaven Dunkin’ Donuts is a mile from Oglethorpe University, yet by 10:30, it’s closed.  Don’t they know if they throw a wifi router in the place and advertise they have access, the place will be packed 24/7?  Worse than that, we don’t have Tims!

The same goes for Starbucks.  Some are closed by 7.  Others by 10.  What’s with that?  There is not a single 24 hour Starbucks in Fulton or Dekalb County.

More Trader Joes are great, but as the NFT Atlanta points out, we like chain stores a little too much.  Other cities have gourmet stores that largely stock local product.  The closest we have is Alon’s.

We lack late night gourmet food.  Only Atkins Park is still serving ‘better than bar food’ on a Tuesday at 1 AM.  Yes, there are more diners, and some pubs still serving, but when you need a 1 AM business dinner, you’re left with Atkins Park or Chinese.

There are too few independent book stores in town, and none of them have a full service restaurant or bar in them.  Someone is missing the opportunity to make some serious cash.

We have too many governments and that is going to quash our regional effectiveness.  While other cities are in uni-gov mode, we’re splintering even more.

At least 3 of our major sports venues are inaccessible directly by subway.  Further, none of them have won a Championship this century!

MacDonald’s here do not serve Newman’s Own Organic Coffees.

One of the better midrange chocolate companies does its manufacturing here and most Atlantans don’t know because local stores don’t carry Flyer Bars!

The Museums around here have no free day, and rather than showing off the great art they own and acquiring more, they rent art from other museums!

Okay… enough snarking, but after visiting other cities, it’s clear we’re slipping.  Still, there is hope.  Housing is surely plentiful.  The city of Atlanta was truly strengthened by the Olympics.  People here are ambitious and want to get things done.  We have Atlantix.

One wonders, however, how long Metro Atlanta can survive until the lack of affordable starter homes, public transportation, and bickering between the various counties cripples the place.

Alvaro Alvillar is a stunning success.  How does he know?  The cops want shut his work down.  Anytime your art scares the police, you’ve succeeded in raising the issue your art sought to raise.  The police officers here are dead wrong.  Being a police officer means having to accept whatever the world throws at you without feeling or emotive response.  You’re there to serve and protect, not be an art critic.

Are the police valuable community assets?  Yes.  They have a tough job and generally deserve community support?  Yes.  This however, is a case in which they are their families are not under any threat.  Officers and members of the benevolent association however think they should be able to limit what an artist has to say within an art gallery and that’s flat wrong.  Even if the art portrayed the police in a highly negative light, they should only criticize it as citizens.  Write a letter to the editor.  Write your own blog entry.  However, International Brotherhood of Police Officers puts the imprimatur of law enforcement behind it and that is unacceptable.

Now, on to the art itself.  This is not the first time Alvillar has done a flag piece.  He did one last year in Dalton.  This piece is titled “Formula for Hate” The pieces are a series of US flags with inscriptions.  Read across the inscriptions of the various flags are two questions:”Politically its OK to hate the white man” and “Is it OK for me to hate if Ive been a victim” [sic].   So, through use of the flags, one can surmise that Alvillar is examining his statements and questions in the context of the American field which the flags represent.  Second, one can see that he intends the statements as a ‘formula for hate’.  Given that, a person might well surmise that Alvillar himself believes that victimhood is not a justification for hate, nor is it politically okay to hate white people.

The questions, however, are ones the permeate our society and might resonate particularly among folks in the city.  Atlanta is undergoing a major racial shift.  It’s becoming whiter and more Hispanic despite having an African American power structure.  We also live in a time when members of any given group have been the victim.  Indians, Korean, Serbs, Columbians, New Englanders, Africans, Jews, Syrians, and on and on and on have all been victims because of where they were born, what they look like, or what creed they follow.   No one has a monopoly on victim hood and no one has a monopoly on hate.

If we want to be a world class city, it’s time to grow up and accept that a variety of viewpoints are out there.  People are going to have to learn to argue these points through a continued rhetorical and reasoned argument.  The clash of ideas is important and it’s better to let all the ideas, even the dumb ones face the light of day and stand scrutiny rather than trying to use the power of the state to forcibly remove them.

For those with health insurance be glad, for the clinics of Metro Atlanta may be more than you can face.

A friend who has lost her insurance went to the North Dekalb Health Center for help.  She was referred by Metro Counseling Services for assistance in getting psychiatric and medication assistance.  She filled out the inventory, told them about her situation and warned them that she was very low on medication.  For those of you unfamiliar with psychiatric problems, it’s not a good idea to go without your medicine or to try to self diagnose.  A doctor’s help and guidance is vital.

The office staff took her seriously and asked her to return Monday after the weekend so she could be seen.  The staff might get the seriousness of this, but the Doctor on duty didn’t.  After she waited an hour and a half, the doctor on duty told her that she was not welcome and that he would not see her.  When she asked if anyone canceled, he acknowleged that a person had canceled but that her lack of medicine and the dire consequences she has been suffering “were not my damn problem”, but her own and that she would have to make a formal appointment and come back.

She left shaken, angry, insulted, and scared.  So should the rest of us.  It’s one thing to be busy.  It’s another thing to be rude and to not care about your patient and the public safety.  CEO Vernon Jones has stressed customer service among his employees and has mandated training for them.  Apparently that did not apply to the doctors.  Moreover, this doctor is letting someone who has serious psychological problems lapse in her ability to get medication (she’s willing to pay for it, BTW, but a prescription is rightly needed here).  Common sense says that’s bad practice.

Even if today was an amazingly busy day, simple decency tells one that the doctor should have asked how many days of medication she had left.  Then he should have found a day to make the necessary assessments prior to her running out.  Instead, he threw her back on the street after the staff of the office had recommended that she come in.  Where is the concern for the patient?  Where is the concern for the public as the doctor now is aware she’s almost out of medication and will be among Dekalb Country residents without it?  We, as tax payers, have the right to expect more.

The question is what the county is prepared to do?  There will always be public service and customer service mistakes.  People get it wrong and blow their tops.  However, this is a pretty serious glitch and if the county is smart, it will address it.  The county needs to assure that the requisite facilities, resources, and training exists to make sure that citizens who come in for services are well treated.  No one should be treated with diffidence by a county employee and when the person needs assistance to keep them and others safe, a priority flag ought go up.

There are another separate set of issues here too.  First is that medical care is lacking for those without insurance and we need a way to make access to the system better.  Both market and government solutions can be part of the picture.  Second, it also says something about the mindset of some of Atlanta’s doctors.  Namely, that they have dissociated themselves from the actual needs of their patients.  They are not problem solvers who want to help folks, but rather are proceduralists who believe that their job is to perform a task and get paid for it.

Of course there are really patient oriented doctors in town, Dekalb County just needs to get them into medical centers and give them the needed resources so that everyone gets first rate attentive care.

If you live in Fulton or Dekalb County, get on your voting shoes, because there is an election Tuesday, March 20.  For most people, the vote is about re-authorizing a SPLOST for local schools.  If you don’t vote here, you can’t complain about your taxes.  Vote on this and you have a license to complain.  You can also make sure there is enough money to keep schools from crumbling.

If you live in Chamblee, however, you have more to vote for.  There is a City Council election.  Barry Finley and Dan Zanger face off.  Zanger has been on the Recreation Advisory Committee for the city.  Finley has been on the City’s ethics board.  Voting is 7 to 7 PM and will take you less than 10 minutes.  Just do it.

Republicans that run our state government are hypocrites. Their stated motivations for creating the city of Sandy Springs was to let local communities have more local control over the revenue generated by the tax payers there. They said they believed that you should not transfer money from communities that generate it to poorer communities that didn’t…So long as you don’t apply that logic to transportation funding or anything having to do with Alcohol taxes.

Georgia State University research shows that the big 5 metro counties make up over 24 percent of the state’s gas tax revenue, yet they get nothing like that in terms of the investment in transportation infrastructure. It’s so bad that the Metro Chamber of Commerce thinks that Metro Atlanta should be able to create its own self taxing district to raise the revenue to fix their transportation needs.

The same is true for liquor revenue. Fulton, Dekalb, Gwinnett, and Cobb produce well over 20% of all the alcohol taxes and that money does not end up back in those counties. Heck, the Governor has promised to veto a bill which would let those counties sell beer and wine on Sunday.

So what is it about? They don’t want things to go well for those living in the blue parts of the state. They are afraid that if the blue areas of the state (And if you think that Cobb and Gwinnett are still solid red counties think again) get to control their money, drink, and build good transit systems, people there will be happier and they won’t be willing to live the red state, Sam’s Club, SUV way. The people might discover the power of the community and turn the Reds out of power.