Bloglanta

We all need medical care sometimes. However, if you don’t have insurance, it can be expensive.

Well take heart, because there are affordable options out there. Here are some of them. At 1340 Boulevard is the Grant Park clinic. Office visits are $30. At 1350 Boulevard is the Family Health Enterprise. This clinic is $40 but they take appointments. Their phone number is 4O4 635 13OO.

Both clinics work with Publix to provide free prescriptions. Many of those not free at Publix are $4 at Target.

So, if you’re sick and you need help… Take I-20 to Boulevard and head south to health!

Ever wonder why downtown isn’t teaming with clubs despite the hotel presence?  Ever wonder why no club survives very long in town?

The lack of places to play have been a big discussion among Jazz musicians in the Atlanta Jazz Forum and now a theory has been proposed.

Dan Turner is a local developer, builder, and piano man.  When presented with the scene of a woman who came downtown to hear Jazz and had a terrible experience, he began to delve into what went wrong: (These are editted excerpts from his post, which, in it’s original form is a little bit spicier)

“My time playing Atlanta started in  the very early 60’s when I was 9….playing in a few of the nightclubs that my father owned. I got into the circuit and hit his clubs as well as some of the joints that were within walking distance of each other. Sure…they were strip clubs; however for the 3 years that I played each weekend …jazzers were passed around from the Zebra, Domino, Club Peachtree and a host of others within a block or two of  each other. Going from one club to another, I saw a lot of familiar faces that were simply walking back and forth.

“In my opinion…and it extends back to those years playing with  really good players (and GREAT LOOKING EXOTIC DANCERS!!); now coupled with my role as a land planner…there are a few folks to blame for the fiasco in Atlanta:  Sam Massell, John Portman, & Tom Cousins.

“Massell picked up from his predecessor to “clean up Atlanta” by  closing down clubs by raising the dispensing fees. The Chamber of  Commerce gathered together with the powers to be and decided on John  Portman to devise a way to circumvent the sidewalks with the tunnels and tubes that deliver you away from the clubs on the street and right into the propietary clubs of the hotels. Ditto with Tom Cousins who was just the most fortunate guy to have MARTA wind up at his major complexes, and everyone else that went into the same mode of “cleaning up Atlanta” took something away from the night clubs that kept them alive …making a buck selling liquor.

“There was a lot to be said for a bar with a great band that all of a sudden had to be able to cook food. That ordinance wiped out the little hole in the wall joints….the same set up that thrives in New Orleans. There were ordinances enacted against Neon lighting. The distance between the bar stools and the stage. The decibel rating. Smoking/non-smoking designated square footage. Restrooms that had to meet a minimum square footage and then the ADA (Americans with Disability Act) that although a great thing…was not allowed to be grandfathered in for established businesses.

“It got to be too expensive to be in a business that the City wanted to see leave in order to make the place hospitable to Conventions.  The city [departments] were shaking down club owners and the Bud Turners, Chic Hendrix’s and Sam Jensen’s just closed shoppe.

“It’s still not a hospitable city… with the panhandlling and the blocks of no-mans land at night. The clubs and bars are found inside the complexes or within a $30 taxi ride from the center of the action…it’s just spread out and too thin.

“What little bit of fire that was there went away with a purpose. The jazz clubs have no competition…and sometimes human nature takes over with regards to how they would treat a customer since they were the only show in town…or walking distance to another Atlanta attraction. Or they’re not making enough to pay the help, talent, and nightly nut…so you’re getting anyone barely breathing to wait your table for minimums. Without the competition, there’s not much reason to improve…or if they’re already into the failure mode (which happens much too often), they’ve just given up.

“Atlanta had a great little complex at one time….Underground Atlanta…before Rouse. There were a half dozen player joints within sound of each other….I can remember many a tawdry Saturday AFTERNOON at the Apothecary watching Paul Mitchell and Neal Starkey, et all wailing away to a pretty full house. Tired of that? Walk across the street to Dante’s and then on over to Reds and a few other joints that the names don’t come apparent right now…and then start that circuit over again.

“Underground wasn’t a threat to Atlanta during the 60s and 70s..but they (whoever THEY were) decided to “fix it” anyway.  It’s a brave step every time someone opens a club to sponsor jazz players…but, foremost in mind, in order to keep that door open, they have to sell enough liquor. The players are almost always way down the food chain as to priorities, but it’s a huge investment to open a joint to meet all the codes and ordinances; pay the fees; get the final permit and then try to market with the leftover cash. Some places are doomed on opening night and everything that you described doesn’t make it that appealing for a return visit.

“Until a chosen few decided to “Clean Up Atlanta” and when they got rid of the clubs….they got rid of the talent and the incentives for future clubs.”
—————-
It should be pointed out that to some degree, Massell did this same thing again a few years ago in Buckhead.  He wanted to chase the club owners out to make the area more attractive for the big condo towers that now dominate what was one of America’s best known party spots.  With the help of the City Council, he again succeeded in killing off lots of Atlanta nightlife.  Maybe, Massell likes money better than fun… Or at least he thinks if everyone has money they can afford to go have fun somewhere else.

Did you like 99x?  WNNX has changed formats again.   Cumulus, the company that now owns the station, saw the writing on the wall and decided that though Gen Y was not yet as wealthy as Gen X, their superior numbers and younger minds would be more attractive to advertisers.

So your old friends are almost gone.  99x, in it’s current version, is still on the web and is the HD2 channel of 99.7 FM.  Of Course, the classic 99x staff left long ago.  Sean Demery is long gone.  Leslie Fram is long gone.  Steve Craig is left with only the Thrashers and didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye.

There really is no place for the audience that listened to 99x.  Some of the most hip will go to WRAS.  Others will find their way Project 96.1 ( another casualty..  96 Rock too died)  the remainder will likely end up at Dave FM.

There are two questions remaining;  one small, one large.  The small question is what will Cumulus do with the 100.5 FM frequency?  The answer of course is what ever makes the most money.

The bigger question is what is going to happen longer term?  Will radio continue to consolidate and will those pressures continue to push the broadcasters toward the lowest common denominator?  How will HD, Satellite, and wi fi radio effect the broadcasters?  Eventually, one would hope that the competition would force the broadcasters to create a smarter more progressive product, but don’t count on it.  Look forward to more basic boomer radio instead.

According to a recent AJC piece, among the items in Governor Perdont’s wish list is to take the current DOT building, tear it down a replace it with a parking deck.

You reap what you sow.   Will the Governor have the political will to make this happen?  Probably not, but the very idea is hilarious.  Better yet, tear down the current parking decks for ‘road improvements’ first, & let the DOT keep it’s building.

With no parking, they’ll all be forced to take MARTA to work…. or the Lovejoy line.

Pick which one of the following statements is true:

1. The City Council is considering an ordinance which limits the size of the pet you can have to 1 pound per 15 square feet of dwelling.
2. The Virginia Highlands Starbucks is closing.
3. Tyler Perry’s ‘House of Payne‘ is so popular that he has hired Jermaine Dupris to write “Payne! The Musical!” .

All of them seem so impossible that any reader should be skeptical.  However, the answer is that number two is true and the others are false.  Sources say that the Virginia Highlands Starbucks store is closing!

Who’d have thought that a Starbucks, one of the oldest in Atlanta, would not be able to maintain enough business in Virginia Highlands?   There are two different ways to look at this.  One way is ‘Hooray!  defeat for chain stores!  Booyah the independent little guy!  San Francisco Coffee Roasters Up Up and Away!”

The second way to look at it is with concern.  Rent here is clearly an issue and if rents are becoming so high that Starbucks cannot maintain one of its stalwart locations in a very prosperous neighborhood, what pressure must that be putting on other businesses?  Might Starbucks be a canary in a coal mine?   If they cannot afford the rent, who will go next?  I’d hate to see Neighbors or Atkins Park unable to afford the location in which they have long been.

It might be a good idea to stop by the Starbucks.  Has anyone ever seen a coffee going out of business sale?

Want something odd? If you’re African American and you want to graduate from college in Georgia, you should go to Emory. According to recently published research, 83% of African Americans who enter Emory graduate. 66% of African Americans who enter UGA graduate. No information was available for Agnes Scott, Oglethorpe, or Georgia State.

Contrast this with the Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Morehouse graduates 55% percent of it’s students while Clark Atlanta University sees a mere 32% of its students who enter finish. Only Spellman rises above. They graduate 77% of their entrants.

Of course, if you really want to graduate, you go to Harvard. 95% of their African American students graduate. In fact, the top seven schools in terms of African American graduation rates are all in the northeast and a majority of those are Ivy league universities.

Contrast this with the historically Black colleges and universities of which only 8 have a graduation rate of more than 50% and this represents a significant improvement since 1998. This calls into question the need, purpose, and future of America’s historically Black Colleges and Universities. At the outset there are two contrasting points of view:

1) Their time has passed. The strong ones will evolve toward a more multi-cultural future and start admitting a variety of students based on the strength of their own programs.

2) The other argument is that they need to be strengthened and fortified. In this view, one sees the need for more governmental and private support as an effort to keep African American college enrollment local and strong. A special emphasis would need to placed to induce young African American men to enroll. Right now, far more Black women are going to college and of those who go, half graduate. Fewer men attend college and roughly a third of them graduate. One possible role for these schools is to address that gap.

Still for those whose goal is graduation & with the grades and the intellectual drive to apply, traditional colleges are the way to go. Even with a 77% graduation rate, Spellman cannot touch the Seven Sisters or even Emory.

The circus is back intown, and by the circus of course, we mean the Georgia General Assembly.

This year is all about the prevent defense. The focus has to be on stopping stupid ideas from getting through. As you may have heard, several of these are “Let’s completely revamp our tax system proposals!”

Basically, Glen Richardson wants to eliminate locally assessed property taxes and eliminate the sales tax exemption on food and other essentials. The state would then dole out the money to each school district according to what it thinks the local  needs, rather than letting the locals decide for themselves. Of course anyone who lives in a city should be screaming bloody murder against this because if the state legislature controls the money, Atlanta and environs will suffer in favor of South Georgia.

Further, anyone who is a true small government conservative should be screaming too as this takes power directly away from citizens and local governments and puts it directly in the hands of a larger one.

Here’s the danger with this plan however. Even though it likely will not pass, it will provide cover for lots of other crazy
legislation to get through. That’s where everyone has to be vigilant. Forget Richardson, he’ll be stopped. Look for what this is going to cover.

Will the governor continue to prevent spending on education from matching inflation? He has been quietly doing this since 2003.  Will the legislature continue to support big road bills will specific toll lanes? Will the legislature pass a bill on water
conservation which sounds good but does not have any real teeth or conservation, but simply a tax break for contractors?

In large part, it’s up to you. The more vigilant you are and the more you get in touch with your legislator, the less garbage will get through. Pay Attention and get involved or come July you could find yourself with an employee with a  right to carry a gun in your shop but no way to pay for your school.

Here’s what everyone is failing to mention in the battle between Senators Obama and Clinton.

“IT’S THE DOWN BALLOT RACES STUPID!”

Think about it. If Senator Clinton wins, people will zealously come out of the woodwork to vote against her and they’ll vote a straight Republican ticket down the ballot. Many people, even Democrats, seems to have a pathological disdain for her. So, if you believe in Darwinism, trains, keep local property taxes in the hands of local school boards, and having at least a chance of sensible sex education, Vote Obama!

Why? People generally do not hate him with the same vitriol which exists almost exclusively for Senator Clinton. Highly educated voters, African Americans, and other likely Democrats vote For Obama With Passion. The result with be that reasonably progressive candidates (mostly Democrats, but not exclusively) will do much much better.

If Senator Clinton wins, no self respecting Democratic will run against Senator Chambliss, and he needs to beaten… and kicked. While their chances of winning are still slim, they’re doubled if Obama is the candidate. It means that some Democrat of note will be less suicidal in running and if Republicans have to spend money here, so much the better. Progressive Congressional candidates also stand a much better chance of winning and the legislature might be less Republican.

Right now, it looks simple. Obama brings lots of Dems out, while Clinton brings out all the people who hate her. I’d rather Atlanta voting lines be filled with the former than the latter.

Believe it or not, we’re already at the top of another election cycle. Today is the last business day you can register to vote for the Presidential Primaries that will occur on Super Duper Tuesday, February 5th.

Iowa saw record turnout and you can be part of a record year here.

Click here for voter registration info! You can also go to any city hall, library, and many banks to register to vote.

The official drop dead registration day is January 5th, so get thee to the library!

Georgia likes to brag about what an excellent place to do business it is. Part of that is seeing what price it takes for the Legislature to be sympathetic to business.

It turns out were in the middle of the pack, but nearly every state costs less than you’d think. Now, of course, certain rules apply here. The price goes directly with the ease of understanding the issue and the interest of the general public directly in it. That’s why in issues of the death penalty, flag amendments, etc, the price is too high for money to have any effect. It’s too easy to understand and it tugs directly at the emotions of too many.

However, in terms of reasonably arcane elements of regulatory legislation, money is everything.

The Wall Street Journal looked at ‘tangible net benefit requirements‘ for mortgages and lobbying from 2001 to 2004. Now, lots of people are concerned with making sure their states have these laws, but from 2001 to 2004, it was pretty arcane stuff. Ameriquest hired a lobbying firm to go from state legislature to state legislature to fight the inclusion of the requirements in their laws. It was a good investment. It turns out it does not take a lot of money to buy a legislature and Georgia is in the middle of the pack.

The most expensive, of course was California. At $10 million, it’s 3 sigma out. Texas was $190,000, Florida and New Jersey were $180,000, and Georgia $160,000.

The effort in Georgia occurred in 2001. Of that 160K, $5000.00 went directly to then Lt. Governor Mark Taylor. In addition to direct campaign contributions, Ameriquest bought and gave away Rolling Stones tickets. It’s a sobering thought that literally, there are people who cannot afford their mortgage because Mick and Keith were on tour.

They tried to offer Senator Vincent Fort a contribution and he declined, but argued vigorously with the Ameriquest representatives. In the end, Fort lost as both the Senate and the House stripped tangible net benefit requirements from their bills, and they went on to pass by large margins.

With Mr. Taylor gone, $155,000 seems as though it’s a relatively cheap cost if your company can turn millions in revenue with a small regulatory change. Goodness knows how much total is really spend of wooing legislators.

So what can be done? Most companies hire lobbyists who then have to register with the clerks office as paid lobbying people. Those folks should have to make public on the web, within 24 hours of the transaction, a detailed public statement of what money they spend and on whom and what they spent it. Have a reception for the legislature? You have to declare who you invited and how much the event cost. Did you buy tickets for a Senator? You have to declare immediately.

The legislators should also have to declare what they received and from whom they received it. In combination, two quick things will happen. First, Creative Loafing will have a lot more fodder and second, people who do their own lobbying will be much more influential as they do not have to register. That makes the whole thing far more democratic and the more people who are involved the better.