Comment Archives: stories: News & Views
Re: “Georgia Supreme Court reprimands Democratic Party chairman for ethics violations”
"you don't want to end up losing an election in Norwood fashion by filing paperwork past the deadline."
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The Georgia Dem Party's problems go way beyond administration skills. When you have a party that thinks the way to power is going "Republican-lite" it will always be voter-lite.
Re: “First Slice 5/17/13: Whistleblower sues mayor for alleged conflict of interest”
"Looking Glass, ten cents or ten billion, I'd rather the money go to something useful being created by a worthwhile person like Arthur Blank than have the government waste it on a stupid jogging path for hipster rollerbladers."
true. why spend public money on something the whole city can use when u can just give that money to one "worthwhile" person?
the educational system in america is really letting us down if this clown actually thinks the above statement is in any way related to reality.
kinda funny, but ridiculous that someone believes it to be true.
plain talk/truth/whoever, please post more. i'd love to read regular updates from whatever planet/shithole you're from to cheer me up when things are crazy at work.
Re: “First Slice 5/22/13: Solar power advocates criticize Georgia Power for 'trying to protect their monopoly'”
"i don't think he has any control over what they sell."
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Wes - when you have a shareholder with that much stock he has a major influence over the corporate ethos (if he wants to).
Re: “First Slice 5/22/13: Solar power advocates criticize Georgia Power for 'trying to protect their monopoly'”
arthur blank may be a lot of things (lying sack of shit, thief of public money, grower of a creepy looking mustache) but he's no longer in charge of home depot since he retired in 2001 so i don't think he has any control over what they sell.
Re: “First Slice 5/22/13: Solar power advocates criticize Georgia Power for 'trying to protect their monopoly'”
"The sun is free, it's there."
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If Arther Blank really wanted to be civic minded he would sell solar panels at every Home Depot at a discount. With their bulk buying power solar panels could become a feature on every building in the South and we could use clean energy to wean ourselves from Georgia Power's teat.
Re: “First Slice 5/22/13: Solar power advocates criticize Georgia Power for 'trying to protect their monopoly'”
"A Savannah Port official thinks that the federal government will "step up to the plate in a big way" in the coming years and help make the project a reality."
Which would be so much better than the state of Georgia stepping up to the plate and paying for their own stuff (by maybe raising taxes on...oh, let's say gas). When we keep relying on Big Daddy Federal money for our state projects, Georgia Republicans get to please voters by not raising state taxes. Win!
Re: “First Slice 5/21/13: Group plans to supply Georgia parks with atheist books”
What's your beef with Dawkins?
Re: “City Council OK's Downtown Ferris wheel construction, allows Atlantans to forge memories that will last a lifetime”
Anyone who has stepped inside a MARTA elevator will know that a ferris wheel in Atlanta is a bad idea.
Re: “First Slice 5/17/13: Whistleblower sues mayor for alleged conflict of interest”
If you really believe that the city can't be trusted with even ten cents, then why not push for the tax be repealed? Why insist that it be kept in place when that makes our hotels less competitive with hotels in other cities?
Great monuments? The only stadium I can think of off hand that is a "great monument" is the Colosseum in Rome but it's almost two thousand years old. The Georgia Dome on the other hand is barely twenty years old and you want it torn down. If stadiums are monuments, then you should be for preserving the Georgia Dome, not for replacing it with what appears to be a tractor tire that fell over. One thing is for certain, I will never brag to anyone about Arthur Blank's publicly subsidized new toy.
Re: “Falcons land $200 million NFL loan to build new shrine to bone-crushing injuries and fleeting glory”
"I fully understand the difficulty in having a conversation with anyone so entrenched in ANY particular ideology that they can't even think for themselves."
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In my 6 decades on this planet I have met many folks of all kinds of political persuasions. What I have come to realize is most folks who knowingly follow a particular ideology are much more likely to think for themselves than those who lack any ideological conviction, but just go wherever the prevailing winds are blowing. We live in a society that valorizes apathy and ridicules consciousness.
This is not to say that lack of ideological conviction correlates with lack of ideology, but that most Americans' ideology is the status quo - consumerist capitalism of which the new Dome serves as the perfect monument. So while you shrink at the idea of being a "Blank worshiper" you relish the thought of subconsciously paying homage at his temple.
Re: “Falcons land $200 million NFL loan to build new shrine to bone-crushing injuries and fleeting glory”
Mattie90120, is it possible that people simply believe that spending over HALF A BILLION PUBLIC DOLLARS for a football stadium to replace an existing football stadium is a bad use of PUBLIC DOLLARS? Why it is that stadium supporters always gloss over the HALF A BILLION DOLLARS OF PUBLIC MONEY? Yeah sure, if you ignore the HALF A BILLION DOLLARS OF PUBLIC MONEY, it seems like a good deal. Unfortunately the truth is that this stadium is getting at lest HALF A BILLION DOLLARS OF PUBLIC MONEY.
What's so hard to understand about that? It's so ridiculous for stadium supporters to ignore HALF A BILLION DOLLARS OF PUBLIC MONEY that it's easy to believe they must be either on Blank's payroll or have a mental defect because to ignore HALF A BILLION DOLLARS OF PUBLIC MONEY is insanity. Sounds like you have an ideology that has professional football as it's center. That's fine, people believe all kinds of things. If you want to worship Arthur Blank, Michael Vick, the NFL, astroturf, or anything else associated with it, you're free to do so... just don't expect people to be happy when it costs HALF A BILLION DOLLARS OF PUBLIC MONEY for your new church.
Re: “Falcons land $200 million NFL loan to build new shrine to bone-crushing injuries and fleeting glory”
Hysteria is the perfect word. If you even hint at supporting a new stadium and you are branded a Blank "worshiper" and "corporatist". REALLY??
Is it possible that some people simply believe that a new top-of-the-line sports facility remaining in downtown Atlanta near two Marta stations with the potential to attract even more high-profile events that will sustain and enhance the city's large hotel/convention industry is a net positive for the city and well worth the investment of extending an EXISTING tax structure?
This purely a rhetorical question because I fully understand the difficulty in having a conversation with anyone so entrenched in ANY particular ideology that they can't even think for themselves.
Re: “Georgia Supreme Court reprimands Democratic Party chairman for ethics violations”
While it doesn't sound like Berlon is a bad person, it does sound like he's sloppy. If I were his client and had the custody of my children messed up because of him, I'd file a complaint too. If the Democrats are going to make a come back in Georgia, they need to be led by someone who pays attention to details because in politics anything can be used to manufacture outrage. Plus you don't want to end up losing an election in Norwood fashion by filing paperwork past the deadline.
Re: “Falcons land $200 million NFL loan to build new shrine to bone-crushing injuries and fleeting glory”
Let me get this straight, if you aren't willing to give Arthur Blank over half a billion dollars it's because you hate Israel? Have you taken your medication today?
Brecko77, not sure if you're right about people in Atlanta not caring about the Super Bowl. Atlanta has a HUGE inferiority complex and the people here are always looking for some sort of bragging rights they can use to show up people from other cities generally considered superior. Once you notice this, you'll understand the motivation behind so many of the rather odd and logically inconsistent arguments made by city boosters.
People here seem quite happy to give Arthur Blank a key to the public treasury if it means we get a new football cathedral that will somehow show up people in other cities. This is also why so many are angry about the Ferris Wheel. It's not that it's tacky, it's that it isn't the biggest in the world so they have nothing to brag about. Many of the people whining about the Ferris Wheel are the same ones who were cheering a year or so ago when Bernie Marcus was talking about bringing a London Eye sized wheel here. It's also why those who claim to be historians don't care about two historic black churches being torn down to make way for Arthur Blank's ego palace. They're humble buildings that can't be shown off to out of towners. If they'd been designed by IM Pei, even if they looked exactly as they do now, then there would be raised voices galore.
Atlanta is all about finding ways to sooth that sickly feeling that we're not as good as anywhere else. That's why we're constantly claiming to be "the something of somewhere". But instead of focusing on improving the nuts and bolts of the city, we focus on quick fixes and flashy window dressing. We don't care if our gums are bleeding as long as we have an expensive set of veneers to make our smile appear to be something it's not.
Re: “City Council OK's Downtown Ferris wheel construction, allows Atlantans to forge memories that will last a lifetime”
QM:
http://www.atlantadowntown.com/_files/docs/downtown_counts_people.pdf
Now, I know when you look at that map you're going to say "OMG, they included O4W, Cabbagetown, and Grant Park in downtown" but that's not the case. What CAP/ADID claims as downtown is the much smaller area inside the red line on the map. The population of the entire map is 157k. Those numbers appear to be a few years out of date since they're using 23k instead of the 27k number from another one of their pages liked above. So you have about a third of the City of Atlanta's population adjacent to downtown. Add in the powerhouse neighborhood to the north, Midtown, and you like have the bulk of the city's population within a few minutes of downtown. So even if no one did live downtown, enough people live next door that it would still be a viable destination as long as the development is done right. If development is done like it was in the Portman era, then locals aren't really going to be attracted.
Of course everyone has somewhat different ideas of what is and isn't downtown. The local media insists that the Peachtree-Pine facility is downtown but that the hospital formerly known as Crawford-Long across the street is in Midtown. Too many people think downtown and limit themselves to the grouping of skyscrapers along Peachtree south of the start of the Grady Curve. Boundaries are sometime easy to identify such as when there is a river or an interstate. Other times is boundaries are blurry as the type of development in an area changes gradually from one block to the next. Nevertheless, take a look at the linked PDF. If you asked most people what is the population of the area inside the red line on the map, they'd say something like Plain Talk and guess a few hundred rather than 23k-27k. BTW Plain Talk, Museum Tower alone has several hundred units, many with multiple people living in them. So with one building your belief that only two hundred people live downtown is busted.
Re: “City Council OK's Downtown Ferris wheel construction, allows Atlantans to forge memories that will last a lifetime”
@ Dave (361969)
The Ferris Wheel at Myrtle Beach is taller than the one proposed for the City of Atlanta. According to Wikipedia, there are 38 taller wheels.
The London Eye is 394 feet tall, over twice the height of the midget proposed for Atlanta. I've been on the Eye and it's great fun.
Re: “City Council OK's Downtown Ferris wheel construction, allows Atlantans to forge memories that will last a lifetime”
The only time there are 27000 people downtown is when there is an event at the Georgia Dome. If there is more than two hundred people living down there who aren't homeless, I'd be shocked beyond belief. When the new stadium is built, it is going to bring a renaissance to downtown. If you want it be a happening place like the central city of places like Paris and Rome, you'll cheer the construction of the new stadium and all of the money it is going to pump into downtown. Without a stadium, downtown would be an even worse waste land than it already is.
If the owners of the circus wheel are smart, they'll wait until the new stadium opens to build. They should go ahead and buy the land now while it's cheap. It's a good investment. Being located next to the Tabernacle, it will bring in enough money through parking fees to cover the property tax while waiting for the stadium to renew downtown.
Re: “First Slice 5/17/13: Whistleblower sues mayor for alleged conflict of interest”
Looking Glass, ten cents or ten billion, I'd rather the money go to something useful being created by a worthwhile person like Arthur Blank than have the government waste it on a stupid jogging path for hipster rollerbladers. None of you are paying the tax anyway so why do you care? Five years from now when the entire world watches the Super Bowl in awe of Atlanta's new stadium you'll be the first ones bragging about how great it is. Other cities have great monuments, why can't we?
Re: “City Council OK's Downtown Ferris wheel construction, allows Atlantans to forge memories that will last a lifetime”
"Just wait until a few unsuspecting attendees at the software, medical device etc. convention wander down to the ferris wheel after a few drinks and rub shoulders with the loitering "youths" that have drifted in from the downtown "mall". If you think Atlanta's convention business is starting to flag now..."
whats it like living inside of a bubble? rent controlled at least?
Re: “Georgia Supreme Court reprimands Democratic Party chairman for ethics violations”
this guy is the chairman of the democratic party in georgia?
that explains a lot.