SAVANNAH RED

The Creative Coast's Challenge: Hack Public Education

2012-01-15T17:18:00.005-05:00

Apparently, it is fashionable, among the bright and creative people of Savannah, to look at public education in their city and shake their heads, cluck a little, and inevitably throw up their Polyvore ringed hands, and turn away from the snarled vinculum of despondency that is local public education. In a blog post, the other day, on the Creative Coast Blog, Susan Isaacs, the incoming chairperson for the Creative Coast and head strategic focus-izer of the Paragon Design group, lamented the sorry state of Savannah for young creatives:

"Of course there are challenges. I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know, but if you are a young professional (or a slightly-less-young professional) Savannah can have its drawbacks. There are some ingredients that remain underdeveloped or are missing entirely when you compare Savannah to other towns with a growing start-up, technology and creative community. We still don’t have any real venture capital resources or incubator facilities. Our city ordinances are struggling to adapt to the newer requirements of our technology-driven companies. Our public school system leaves a lot to be desired, and looking at our community as a whole presents the sobering truth that too many of our citizens are living below the poverty line."

Yes, Savannah's public education is, probably, to a young, creative professional, well, icky. The problems of poverty, race, and governmental overreach, seem--intractable. Better to leave well enough alone, see past all the ugliness, and focus on the clubs, the nightlife, and just when the hell is Savannah going to get a food truck? But eventually, I suppose, even creatives like to procreate. Then education starts to matter. A lot. I see an opportunity here, for the Creative Coast to accept a challenge--that of folding their mission into the community's most basic mission--that of educating the populace.

The Creative Coast is already considering an entrepreneurs' workshop or hacker's space:

"The organization could soon offer Savannah’s creative community support at a more material level as it explores the creation of a workshop that would be used by early state entrepreneurs to develop prototype products. The space would be stocked with welding and carpentry equipment, laser cutters, 3D printers, CNC machines and other tools."

Sounds like a place to noodle around with ideas or basically throw stuff against the wall and see what sticks. This hacker's space will probably be modeled after similar spaces like Bucketworks in Milwaukee and Makelab in Charleston that were namechecked in the article. Interestingly enough, Bucketworks sponsored something called Hack-A-Thon for Humanity: Random Hacks of Kindness in early December with this catchphrase:

"Are you a hacker, developer, database expert or designer? Why not put your skills to use making the world better?"

Heck, I'm more provincial than that. How about making Savannah better? It's not much of a secret here, or anywhere else, that the bean-counters are looking hard at textbook commitments and how fiscally feasible eBooks might be. Already, iPads, Nooks, and Kindles are starting to wander into classrooms as are newer, younger teachers who know their way around an Android or iPhone app. The seed fund and start-up accelerator, 500 Startups, sees opportunity in the creakiness of current public education:

"500 Startups, plans to invest in 10-20 education startups this year...It’s because education is “incredibly backwards, and has huge potential for change.” He cited a disruptive trend of teachers integrating technology from everyday life into their classrooms voluntarily, rather than technology integration being mandated top-down by administrators. As tablet devices become pervasive, teachers are embracing apps as learning tools, with iPads leading the way in the U.S."

I challenge the Creative Coast to find within its mission the will to face Savannah's very real problems with public education rather than look past or dismiss them. As Ms. Isaacs so eloquently puts it in her Making Change Happen post:

"The Creative Coast has been very fortunate to connect with so many of you who believe in a new and bright future for Savannah. This passion for a reinvented city is what our brand is about. "

So get started with the reinventing--hack Savannah's public education.

The Hutchinson Island Convention Center And Hotel: Sickening

2012-01-11T16:57:00.004-05:00

To the Chatham County Commission's credit, they aren't rushing into a new convention center hotel just yet, but its much further along than flirting, playing footsie under the table, or stealing kisses--really, just a matter of maintaining their credit rating:

"The county also agreed with the split vote to consider within 30 days the adoption of an inducement resolution that would declare the county’s intent to proceed with the hotel, as long as certain assurances, such as a finding that the county’s bond rating would not be impacted, are in place."

The Savannah Morning News agrees with the the Commission in extending the memorandum of agreement:

"It will permit commissioners to learn more about the pros and cons of the proposal, thanks to studies that Assistant County Manager Pat Monahan is overseeing but hasn’t completed."

There was also this check, to someone, which was more like a neck rub (to continue the flirting analogy):

"In August, the commission voted 6-3 to accept the memorandum of agreement with Journeyman Austin and allocated $25,000 to update previous studies done about a convention hotel, including an economic analysis completed a year ago."

About that economic analysis. I wonder if it takes a hyper-local viewpoint or a more regional or national one? Surely Savannah's wiser heads won't assume that this area is the only one vying for the shrinking conventioneer dollar? Attendance in conventions is waning:

"In 2010, conventions and meetings drew just 86 million attendees, down from 126 million ten years earlier. Meantime, available convention space has steadily increased to 70 million square feet, up from 40 million 20 years ago."

Another concern, amply voiced by the convention center hotel's opposition is that using a rosy, yet flawed economic analysis, will show the economic feasibility of the project when actually "most of the benefits come at the expense of some other center or sector of the economy." The Savannah Chamber of Commerce has been more Solomonic in its support of the convention center hotel--hedging its bets between public and private support:

“The Savannah Area Chamber of Commerce and Visit Savannah, support the Georgia International and Maritime Trade Center Authority board’s decision to seek a convention hotel adjacent to the Trade and Convention Center. Furthermore, we support public funding of infrastructure, but do not support public funding of any portion of the physical hotel facility itself. Additional meeting space, if publicly funded, should be in the form of an expansion of the existing Trade and Convention Center.”

Okay, the Chamber seems to be saying, build the road and the storm drains, but anything else needs to come from private money. That's a little more jittery than full-throated support. Maybe they've already experienced the systematic overestimation of local impacts by the original convention center--according to some, most local economic impact studies are hopelessly optimistic:

"Heywood Sanders of the University of Texas did an ex-post review of 30 convention center feasibility studies done by major national accounting and economic consulting firms and found that they substantially and systematically overestimated either the number, or the average stay, of attendees or both. He states that he has never seen a study that does not recommend the construction or expansion of convention center."

Robert Gallup, the vice president of Journeyman Austin, the developer of Savannah's new convention center hotel perfectly illustrates the current state of the Hutchinson Island Convention Center, as he unironically talks about Savannah with the Jackson, Miss. Redevelopment Authority as they try to figure out if they should spend gobs of money on a convention center hotel (and if they continue that pursuit they are even more delusional than Chatham County's Commission about the economic impact of a convention center hotel--I mean, really, who wants to party down in JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI?) Gallup said:

"That city's convention complex is across the river from its downtown with not much else happening in the vicinity. Every time I go to Savannah, walk in the convention center—and no one is there. It makes me sick. It is sitting there."

Folks, this is the developer that our Commission is flirting with to build a convention center hotel on top of an already under-utilized trade center and hotel that makes him SICK. There's ample documentation that companies aren't booking conventions on Hutchinson Island because there isn't a dedicated space for them (as the Westin is apparently a resort and not a convention hotel) so if Savannah just builds a 500 room or 350 room convention hotel, they will come. They will, the studies, city master planners, and developers promise. Once again, the taxpayer will be on the hook if they are even a little bit wrong with their prognostications.

Now that's sickening.

Mandingo Socio-Civic Club: What's In A Name?

2012-01-01T22:21:00.006-05:00

For some reason, the Savannah Morning News plastered a socio-civic group that Mayor Edna Jackson belongs to (actually, Jackson is one of the founders), the Mandingo Socio-Civic Club, for two days running, first, in a front page story, then in its follow-up editorial. This club does good works for the community such as sponsoring the Alvin Ailey Dance to Savannah and presenting checks to the local Economic Opportunity Authority for building renovation and for establishing a scholarship fund to Savannah State University to benefit students who demonstrate a need for financial assistance. Civic groups like the Mandingo Socio-Civic Club are any community's lifeblood--supporting others, providing financial assistance, and promoting giving back to the community.

But what's in a name? Specifically, what does mandingo mean and how does what the word means guide the mission of the socio-civic club? The Mandingo Socio-Civic Club Facebook page is severely malnourished, so there is no help there. There are several cultural references, however, from the screamingly inappropriate to the merely obsequious that the word mandingo could be associated with.

Probably mandingo references being a member of any West African linguistic group--or socio-civic club--like the various North American Mandingo Associations that claim members from African countries like Liberia and Sierra Leone. Or it may mean simply being from any of the West African countries that descend from the Mandinka ethnic group, which is currently 11 million strong in West Africa. Curiously, though, over 99% of West African Mandinka are Muslim which doesn't seem to fit Mayor Jackson's club. Another curious aspect of the Mandinka in West Africa is the prevalence of female circumcision--with upwards of 60% of girls ages 3-14 being circumcised. Certainly, Mayor Jackson's club does not subscribe to this practice which the word mandingo might signify.

Descending in appropriateness, if that's possible, would be referencing the book Mandingo (1957) and movie of the same name from 1975. Roger Ebert reviewed it:

"Mandingo" is racist trash, obscene in its manipulation of human beings and feelings, and excruciating to sit through."

I read through the synopsis of this movie and I can't think of anything more distasteful for a socio-civic club to be associated with. Ebert describes a scene:

"There's a scene at the end of "Mandingo" in which the young plantation master goes out to the slave quarters after his slave Mede. The master's wife has just given birth to a black baby, undoubtedly Mede's, and after poisoning his wife, the master intends to boil Mede alive. Mede builds the fire but demurs at the invitation to jump into the pot. The master shoots him, and the blast knocks him into the boiling cauldron. As he screams and struggles to escape, the master pushes him under with a pitchfork."

Probably based on this movie and how it was received back in the 70's, there is an even more inappropriate association with the word mandingo that while the Urban Dictionary makes clear, I will not, other than to say, this would not be an association a socio-civic group comprised mainly of women would want.

So, what's in a name? Plenty.

Wreck Of The Justin Bradley

2011-12-31T13:30:00.008-05:00

On October 21, the shrimper Justin Bradley caught fire:

"A damaged shrimp boat towed to the President Street pier in Savannah after the Coast Guard rescued two passengers from it Thursday was destroyed by fire Friday morning. Firefighters battled the blaze on the Justin Bradley for more than three hours beginning at 6:30 a.m."

With apologies to Gordon Lightfoot.

The legend lives on from the Yamacraw on down
of the big marsh hole they called "Ogeechee Gumee."
The intercoastal, it is said, never gives up her dead
when the skies of October turn gloomy.
With a load of shrimp twenty-six thousand tons more (probably less)
than the Justin Bradley weighed empty,
that good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
when the "Gales of October" came early.

The ship was the pride of the Georgian side
coming back from some cut in Carolina.
As the big shrimpers go, it was bigger than most
with a crew and good captain well seasoned,
concluding some terms with a couple of fish houses
when they left fully loaded for Savannah.
And later that night when the ship's bell rang,
could it be the north wind they'd been feelin'?

The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound
and a wave broke over the railing.
And ev'ry man knew, as the captain did too
'twas the witch of October come stealin'.
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
when the Gales of October came slashin'.
When afternoon came it was slashin' rain
in the face of a hurricane west wind.

When suppertime came the old cook came on deck sayin'.
"Fellas, it's too rough t'feed ya."
At seven P.M. a main hatchway caught fire; he said,
"Fellas, it's bin good t'know ya!"
The captain wired in he had smoke pourin' out
and the good ship and crew was in peril.
And later that night when 'is lights went outta sight
came the wreck of the Justin Bradley.

Homeless In The Hammocks

2011-12-29T08:04:00.012-05:00

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I went looking for a crabbing spot the other day (better to explore with a high of 60 degrees than 95) among the hammocks across from the Frank Spencer Boat Ramp Park on the Islands Expressway and while I didn't exactly find what I was looking for, I did find stuff.

The first indication that these hammocks were already well-trod was the set of railroad ties set and fastened to either bank across a small cut between the Atlanta Gas Light access road and the hammock I was fixing to explore:

The water was only knee-deep, so even if I dorked it and fell in, I would only injure my dignity. A few steps into the hammock and it was apparent that, at one time, this hammock was bustling with activity.

None of this stuff appeared recent--the coveralls were covered in mildew and rotting away. There were at least three distinct camp areas on the hammock, each camp with a dump site nearby where take-out food containers, bottles, cans, and other refuse were thrown.

I found a child's bookbag under the pine straw. Stuffed inside were child sized shirts. Most likely for a girl. Bright colored tops, wet, soggy, and deteriorating. Where was this kid now?

From the orientation of the sleeping bag and ripped tarp, this would have been the little girl's view each morning waking up:

Good luck and God bless to those in need, especially the kids, this new year.

CAT Should Pick 'Em Up

2011-12-25T08:28:00.006-05:00

Come on guys, Robert, Gary, Yolanda, and Patricia need rides--so make it happen. They want earlier morning pick-ups, Sunday service, more convenient stop times, and more runs.

CAT wants riders.

Combine the fixed Rt. 10 with Dial-A-Ride and get these people where they need to be. Researchers are on it:

"Public transit structure is traditionally designed to contain fixed bus routes and predetermined bus stations. This paper presents an alternative flexible-route transit system, in which each bus is allowed to travel across a predetermined area to serve passengers, while these bus service areas collectively form a hybrid “grand” structure that resembles hub-and-spoke and grid networks."

Rt. 10 travels from Broughton to Wilmington Island using Wheaton and Gwinnett Streets then looping through the neighborhoods east of Pennsylvania Ave.--then back again. According to the hybrid model suggested to optimize low density runs, include the regular stops (or reduce them), add transfer points for fixed routes going in other directions, and add a dial-a-ride service so that buses would go where the riders are when they need a ride--within the defined parameters of the route. So Yolanda, whose current CAT choices at the Gregory/Riverview stop are 5:54 a.m or 7:53 a.m. dials up CAT and says I need a pick up at 7:00 and the Rt. 10 bus makes it happen.

Maybe there are already enough riders on this route to make such a hybrid arrangement unnecesary, but if CAT wants riders, responding flexibly to folks who need rides seems to be a more customer friendly way to build ridership than having riders conform to existing fixed routes.

Major Gerry Long: Insubordination Happens

2011-12-22T09:24:00.007-05:00

Major Gerry Long's demotion to captain (which is what would have happened had she not retired)over mourning bands seems capricious and arbitrary--but not really. As Tom Barton describes it:

"It was the last straw in a clash between two strong-willed people who've worked at the police department for three decades each: Long, 53, and Police Chief Willie Lovett, 62. News flash: Chief trumps major every time. Savannah is really a big small town. The walls aren't the only things that have ears. So do the trees, the garbage cans and telephone poles. So when you think you've said something in confidence to someone, especially when it involves your boss's ability, don't be surprised if what you said gets whispered into the wrong ear, is filed away and then, much later, comes back to hit you like a boomerang when you least expect it."

Major Long called subordinates "buckwheats" in 2008, a pejorative from whatever your country of origin. The mourners band flap, as dumb and overreaching as Chief Lovett played it, was only the explosion from a fuse lit long ago--the major having sparked with Lovett and Alderman Van Johnson, years ago. But as muddy, obtuse, and damaging to public confidence as the whole mess seems to be, the Major Long situation isn't even particularly unusual. Southwest of Atlanta, in Chattahoochee Hills, GA, their chief terminated their lieutenant for insubordination after the lieutenant sent anonymous letters of the chief having sex parties and getting an underaged girl drunk at his home.

Kind of makes the mourning bands fracas seem silly.

The former chief of DeKalb County was fired for keeping seven county vehicles at his home including a Mercedes and a Range Rover confiscated in drug raids.

An Orange, NJ police officer was fired after posting variations of the N--word and for criticizing the city on Twitter.

The Pine Bluff, AR chief of police was fired for insubordination and he still doesn't even know why.

Damn, even Miami's chief of police was fired for insubordination when he defied orders about personnel moves and for allowing too much overtime.

Buckwheats, mourning bands--if Chief Lovett keeps it up, he might receive an order that sticks in HIS craw. Insubordination isn't that rare a thing.

Zone One: The Middle Class As Zombies

2011-12-03T09:05:00.006-05:00

I finished Colson Whitehead's solemn zombie tale, Zone One, running a fever of about 101, a good four days into a nasty bout of pneumonia that made me feel like an 87 year old man with a smoking hole in my chest. I've read a lot of zombie muck over the years, watched a lot of zombie movie dreck, and was appropriately amazed that AMC went and made a tolerably good tv series from the Robert Kirkland comic, The Walking Dead, but I didn't expect zombies to make their entrance into the world of New York centric literature. Evidently, some critics found it hard to believe too. From the NY Times review of Zone One:

"A literary novelist writing a genre novel is like an intellectual dating a porn star. It invites forgivable prurience: What is that relationship like? Granted the intellectual’s hit hanky-panky pay dirt, but what’s in it for the porn star? Conversation? Ideas? Deconstruction?"

There's a lot of high falutin stuff to chomp through to get to the zombie porn. One of the first descriptions of zombie mayhem is this:

"Two of them got the old man down then all of them were on him like ants who received a chemical telegram about a lollipop on the sidewalk. There was no way the old man could get up. It was quick. They each grabbed a limb or convenient point of purchase while he screamed. They began to eat him, and his screaming brought more of them teetering down the street."

That's tasty, robust red meat, so to speak. I would have liked more, but this zombie story, in service to literature, took a good many shots at regular folks, possibly the real zombies to Mr. Whitehead. Open the book to any page (that's what I did because I couldn't remember where the most glaring shots were), and there is likely a description, an aside, an unexplainable paradox or meandering that trivializes ordinary folks daily existence. From p. 7:

"If you asked him about his plans at the time of the ruin, the answer would have come easily: lawyering. He was bereft of attractive propositions, constitutionally unaccustomed to enthusiasm, and generally malleable when it came to his parents' wishes, adrift on that gentle upper-middle class current that kept its charges cheerfully bobbing far from the shoals of responsibility."

I always wonder what's a better alternative to being cheerful. From p. 49, after lengthy descriptions of the undead that are trapped as "stragglers" ( zombies that are in a catatonic state repeating endlessly tasks or jobs from their previous lives) such as a therapist ("sat in her requisite lounge chair, feet up on the ottoman, blank attentive face waiting for the patient who was ever late") and an electronics store salesman ("the up-selling floor salesman halted mid-pitch, as if psychoanalyzing a skeptical rube who was simply, even and always, not in the room"), there is this, almost mercy killing of a menial straggler:

"One morning [he] stumbled upon some brain-wiped wretch standing at the fry station of the big hamburger chain and had to shoot him on general principles. Out of the abundance of a life, to choose fry duty."

That style permeates the story--shooting the middle class and all of their woeful, paltry, disgustingly meaningless lives--just on general principles. Whitehead, the literary writer with the impeccable literary credentials (McArthur grant recipient, critical, almost Pulitzer-like praise for his previous works, etc.) is aware of almost every detail that concerns the middle. All except that the middle class is more self-aware and thoughtful than he might expect. They certainly can recognize elitist, dilettante "stragglers" in their midst and take them down with a double tap just as handily. After all, it's necessary to save the world, right?

The Wal Mart Complex At Savannah River Landing

2011-11-24T09:20:00.005-05:00

A land development project in Kansas goes belly-up:

"Developer Tom Valenti of the Cameron Group purchased the land and tore down the existing shopping center to make room for "a mixed-use development in the new-urban style." That project was meant to include 300 residences, 150,000 square feet of retail, 150,000 more of office space, a gym, movie theater and 3,000 parking spaces."

Aaaaah, the new, mixed-use, urban style. Sound familiar? It should.

Someone asked me in a long-ago post about the Savannah River Landing what I thought should go into the space--my answer then:

"Since the tax allocation district will continue to churn debt payments (close to a half million next year), it would have to be something HUGE. Uh, Walmart?"

Now, communities nation-wide that got hammered in the real estate recession are looking to Wal-Mart and other big box stores to make their parcels of red ink profitable, especially, if like the Savannah River Landing the parcels are civic embarrassments, desolate and choked with weeds:

"The huge property, rather than being a classy gateway to Mission off busy Shawnee Mission Parkway, became a community embarrassment, a wild pasture overgrown with weeds and even small trees. And now, Walmart will enter the scene to provide the larger investment needed to get the project rolling again. City officials claim the walkable character of the development will be retained, even with the addition of the big box store. "We’re happy all the mixed-use elements remain, and we’re staying true to our community’s vision."

Broughton Street and downtown would scream of course with a Wal-Mart on either end of the Truman Parkway, what with all the damage to small businesses and retailers, but the city ought to consider the economic power a big box can bring.

Jeff Felser: To Infinity...And Beyond!

2011-11-18T07:42:00.009-05:00

Not to put to fine a point on it, but Savannah really is at a point in its history where it will either take that next uncertain, wobbly step into a 21st century future or will slide quietly back down into the muck and morass of the 20th. Savannah can either look forward or backward--and the remaining two mayoral candidates, Alderman Jeff Felser and Mayor Pro-Tem Edna Jackson reflect those stark choices.

Jeff Felser, playing the Young Turk, to Edna Jackson's staid Ottoman Empire, is naturally chafing at the presumption that the next 5 weeks of campaigning will only lead to his summary annihilation on December 6:

"Running for public office, to serve the community I love is not a waste of my time, money or personal dignity. On the contrary, regardless of the outcome, my parents of blessed memory would be proud of the use of my time, money and dignity. I was raised to give back to my community."

To be sure, waste of time or not, there doesn't seem to be much difference between what Felser says he will bring to the mayor's office and what Jackson promises. Felser calls his promises the Vision For Progress--like Buzz Lightyear--to infinity...and beyond! Jackson's promises are called, in throwback language--Edna Jackson's platform. There is some agreement when both outline their proposals on how to boost Savannah's sagging economy:

--Both support Savannah harbor expansion
--Both want more cooperation between the Savannah Economic Development Authority, the Chamber of Commerce, and other business groups.
--Both want to better utilize local contractors for city contracts.
--Both espouse better linkage between the business community and public education and higher learning institutions (whatever all that means).

Both, I assume, like small children, shrimp and grits, and puppies. There are differences though, some subtle, some not. Felser is very specific about how to improve the economy:

--“Business Friendly” Policies, Procedures and Attitudes; creation of Mayor’s Small Business Task Force
--Utilize tax incentives to fertilize economic development and employee growth.

Jackson's idea to improve business?

--Help promote this city nationally and internationally as a good place to do business in order to help bring new businesses here.

Not so specific, unless promoting Savannah as business friendly city replete with tax incentives is part of the promotional package. Jackson also wants to steer small businesses that are in trouble to the federal trough, I mean, safety net:

--Strengthen the city’s efforts to assist business owners and small businesses in distress and provide easy accessibility for them to utilize assistance from the Small Business Administration in applying for federal low-interest loans and learning more about federal assistance.

Seriously? Council policy and anti-business regulations have local businesses hunkering down and not investing, spending, or hiring. Any loan from the Small Business Administration is not going to offset the Bush tax cuts going away since most "small" businesses report income through their owner's personal income taxes. Jackson''s 1960's era War on Poverty continues.

There is more to both Felser's Vision and Jackson's Platform, the former wants gewgaws like Earth Day clean-ups and healthier government work spaces (??) and the latter wishes to pull ALL of the entities together and network her way to more knowledge-based careers--meaning more photo ops of the current mayor pro-tem sitting around a table sagely counseling teamwork while everyone with a favor lines up to give one--then receive one.

If this run-off mayoral run is an advertisement for Savannah and its future, it might be important to remember Jeff Felser and Edna Jackson don't just represent their current constituents as, but they also represent a brand that signals to the larger community in-state and out, what direction Savannah is heading in. As financial journalist Felix Salmon says about on-line advertising and consumers:

"In a digital world, we believe brands can be signals. Pointing consumers to valuable information that is not necessarily about the brand directly, but speaks to the brand promise and consumer mindset."

Both Jeff Felser and Edna Jackson are local Savannah brands--one signals his desire to move forward into a mostly uncertain future, while the other signals a reluctance to move too far from a long-ago past.

Savannah's Mayoral Candidates As This Weekend's Movies

2011-11-06T13:07:00.009-05:00

I thought the Savannah Morning News would be helpful with their mayoral candidate pick in this morning's editorial, but they bailed on that:

"Six candidates — Floyd Adams Jr., Ellis Cook, James Dewberry, Jeff Felser, Edna Jackson and Regina Thomas — are seeking this post. A runoff between the two leading vote-getters on Dec. 6 is likely, as it’s expected no single candidate will capture more than 50 percent of the vote Tuesday. We will make our recommendation for mayor at that time."

Talk about kicking the can on down the road. Some folks might have appreciated the guidance of a well reasoned, staid editorial pointing out strengths and weaknesses, past successes and foibles of each candidate in making their decisions. Its kind of like the editorial page abdicated 66% of their responsibility to its readers. To fill the vacuum, I matched up mayoral candidates with this week's most popular movies (because that's what happens when the only thing left of an editorial that was supposed to bestow its mayoral recommendation is a huge sucking noise).

We wanted to take in a movie this weekend and talked about the one's we might go see but we never made it--we needed a can of white paint, we needed to be around for the firewood guy, and we needed to see UGA hang 50 on hapless New Mexico State. But we did talk. Savannah's mayoral candidates as movies:

James Dewberry & Floyd Adams--A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas

In the most recent poll, Dewberry was at 0.2%. Adams was at 9.1%. Adams has been wacky in the forums and Dewberry is wacky most of the time. Richard Roeper says this about Harold & Kumar:

"Of course it's offensive and crude. It's also hilarious at times.”

Sounds about right for Dewberry and Adams too.

Ellis Cook--Footloose AND The Rum Diary

From a review of Footloose 2011:

"Footloose may not make as great a dent in the current generation as the original... did, but it does offer up a commendable amount of energy and heart to its tale of rebellion."

Substitute "Ellis Cook" for "Footloose" and you would have the essence of his campaign against the "racist attitudes and actions" of the current council which is majority black. Plus, chances are you might run into Mr. Cook somewhere in Savannah--it's not Puerto Rico and Cook isn't Hunter S. Thompson or even Johnny Depp, but there are resemblances there.

Regina Thomas--Tower Heist

Tower Heist is about the working people of a luxury condo getting revenge on the penthouse billionaire swindler who took their money. That's pretty much Thomas' entire political philosophy. From Blue America:

"Regina's perspective on governance is pure FDR-- the government is there to protect us from forces outside of our own control, whether that be foreign enemies or domestic predators. Regina's concern is that the rich and powerful pay their fair share so that the society that has enriched them continues to prosper and thrive for everyone."

Thomas talks about fiscal responsibility on her website, but deep down, I don' t think she believes that.

Jeff Felser--Puss In Boots

"Puss in Boots is almost shockingly good. And not just because a lot of you will approach it with lowered expectations."

Same with Felser. He's younger than the rest, energetic, suave, dashing, somewhat the Antonio Banderas of Savannah City Council. Wait--he's also been on the council long enough to know that Edna Jackson's consensus building may mask a lack of leadership ability. He's the closest to being in the impending Dec. 6 run-off against...

Edna Jackson--Paranormal Activity 3

Maybe she and her seemingly overwhelming poll lead is why the Savannah Morning News has been silent. It's chilling to think.

Would Savannah's Evangelical Voters Support A Gay, Mayoral Candidate?

2011-11-01T16:48:00.006-05:00

Since the Savannah Morning News and just about every other political prognosticator in town don't think any of Savannah's mayoral candidates will garner 50% of the vote, that means there will be a run-off between the top two. One poll, with a very curious origin, has Edna Jackson at 23% and Jeff Felser at 18%. With a margin of error of +/-5% that could put Felser in a dead heat with Jackson.

So if that poll holds, what happens if there is a run-off between Jackson and Felser on Dec. 6? There seems to be an obvious racial angle--but there is something else in play that I think may make a bigger difference than a black woman up against a white man--evangelicals don't vote for gays. From a Pew survey:

"Evangelicals were also much more likely to oppose a gay candidate, with nearly two-thirds of them said they would oppose such a candidate. This is over twice the opposition among either Mainline Protestants (30 percent) or Catholics (25 percent)."

Mr. Felser has been "out" for several years now and has lent his voice to several issues that have impacted the LGBT community. He waded into the Kieran Daly matter forcefully, (the gay man who previously used a racial epithet in a road rage incident that was beaten by 2 Marines in Johnson Square) defending Daly and a state hate crimes law:

"City Alderman Jeff Felser, who is gay, spoke at the rally, saying Mayor Otis S. Johnson was out of town but sent his support of the “GLBT community, the diversity of Savannah and the need for a state hate crimes law. As an attorney, I don’t like it when you have a rapist who goes on trial and the victim then becomes the focus of their past. Whatever their past may be it does not mean the present act was right. Just walk away. Kieran is not on trial, OK? The investigation is not about Kieran. Let justice and the facts prevail.”

That's giving off a lot of heat for a city alderman. At this year's Savannah Pride festival, Felser offered his support and taxpayers' dollars:

"Savannah Alderman At-Large Jeff Felser said he would like to see Savannah Pride “get city funding just like every other festival.”

On July 29 of this year, Felser held a fundraiser at Club One where "special entertainment" was promised with a suggested donation of $20-$40. I wonder if Lady Chablis contributed?

Mr. Felser's support of LGBT issues really isn't all that important to doing the job of mayor successfully--except it might make it tougher for him to get to the mayor's office. 55% of Savannah is black. Close to 50% of Savannah's celebrants are Southern Baptist, Methodist, Episcopal, or Evangelical Lutheran. Edna Jackson, Felser's primary challenger, is a communicant of St. Philip AME Church (African Methodist Episcopal). Interestingly enough, the AME church doesn't quibble about one of the major LGBT issues--same sex marriage:

"The African Methodist Episcopal Church (AMEC) believes that marriage is ordained by God as set forth in the Holy Scriptures. Further, the AMEC believes that unions of any kind between persons of the same sex or gender are contrary to the will of God. Therefore, the AMEC strictly prohibits and forbids any AMEC clergy person, licensed and/or ordained from performing or participating in or giving any blessing to any ceremony designed to result in any pairing between persons of the same sex gender, including, but not limited to, marriage or civil unions. Further, the AMEC strictly prohibits and forbids the use of any AMEC property for the performance of and/or the participation in and/or giving of any blessing on the same."

Edna and the Evangelicals can't even bless a same-sex marriage without getting into trouble. The question is, how can Jeff Felser garner enough votes in a run-off to overcome the obvious black/white divide and the evangelical/gay one?

Cutting The Minority Contracting Pie In Savannah's 5th District

2011-10-22T07:45:00.013-05:00

In a Savannah city council candidate for the 5th district debate the other day, sponsored by the NAACP, increasing the number of minority contractors for city projects seemed to be the hot topic. Hot like a homemade apple pie cooling on a windowsill. Estella Edwards Shabazz, one of the 5th district candidates (Greg Hagins and Warren Hickman are the others), declared her minority contractor philosophy:

“It is time for the pie to be cut in equal shares."

I think what Shabazz means here is that even if a minority or woman owned business doesn't comply with the extensive Minority/Woman Business Enterprise Policy that the the City of Savannah has formulated, they should still be awarded an equal number of contracts. Here are the factors that go into awarding a contract for a M/WBE:

The City will consider the following factors in establishing project specific M/WBE goals:

1) the number of M/WBEs registered or certified in the City’s vendor directory;
2) the availability of M/WBEs registered or certified in the City’s vendor directory
that are willing to do business with the City;
3) the availability of M/WBEs registered or certified in the City’s vendor directory
having the capacity and/or requisite skills to perform on a related contract; and
4) the nature of the project (scope of work)

The M/WBE goal is determined by a mathematical calculation that compares the number of
M/WBE firms certified in a given trade to the total (majority and minority) number of firms in the same trade for a given project. The resulting ratio is used as the basis for the specific M/WBE goal for that trade on that project.

I suppose its possible for Shabazz to circumvent the 23 page M/WBE policy to make sure the pie is cut equally if she is voted onto the council. It appears that circumventing policies she doesn't like is nothing new to Shabazz. For example, in Volume 5, Issue 1 of the New Black Panther (The Voice of Black Power, Revolution, and the Hip-Hop Generation), in an article entitled Black Liberation Theology, Part One, Shabazz discusses the usefulness of Christianity:

"If Christianity is not coming from a Black liberation theological perspective, it is of no use to Black people. When we look throughout history we should ask ourselves the question, is this Christian tradition related to the struggle of Black people?"

She goes on to put the Bible in perspective using this viewpoint:

"The Bible contains 66 books; therefore, Black people must decide which books are more important then others. As Black people we must keep in mind that the Bible is simply a reference of historical records dealing with religious experiences. We should not accept the theological norms put before us without question, because the theological norm for other people may not be the theologi- cal norm for Black people."

Since Shabazz has no problems eliminating parts of the Bible she disagrees with, I can see how a paltry 23 page city policy document doesn't stand a chance.

After not getting an appointment Shabazz thought she she should have received (Shabazz, at that time, was an ordained Elder) from the Georgia area bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME Church), Shabazz picked up her marbles and not only left the denomination, she crowned herself bishop of the "New AME Church". AME Church insiders were incredulous:

"She was so upset over not getting a particular charge by her Bishop that she left the denomination and created a new one? Rather than perhaps starting her own congregation?"

Is this the kind of decision-making that the new city council needs, considering all the problems the current council finds itself in from their own poor decision making? Shabazz seems to be working the angles already:

"Shabazz, describing herself as fully supportive of [Rochelle] Small-Toney, said, “I will continue to trust her judgment.”

Of course, Rochelle Small-Toney as city manager, is charged with the administration and implementation of the city's M/WBE policy.

Most Representative Savannah Street

2011-10-17T09:15:00.004-05:00

I saw the other day that there is a property for sale on Turner Rock for the modest price of $4.9 million dollars. It looks and sounds like a steal:

"A house where your imagination takes over and invites you to reflect on the simple elegance of an earlier era. An era of leisurely afternoon garden parties and evening dinners illuminated by candlelight-an era that, though past, lives on with the same spirit today. This plantation-style home is nestled under live oaks, with extensive landscaping and wonderful porches."

A plantation-style home from an earlier era description makes me wonder how much earlier. That earlier era, while past, (damned Yankees), lives on with the same spirit. Savannah's style lives on at another luxury abode--all the way up on the shore of Lake Erie. The Waterwood Estate is for sale, by the family of Don Brown, who invented drop ceilings. For $19.5 million dollars you can have all of this:

Somewhere along the way, Mr. Brown must have visited an enjoyed Savannah:

"On the lower level of the house, there are a series of streets built to scale and named after streets in cities like Georgetown, Paris and Savannah. There were five bars in the house, one with a full-mounted polar bear. There’s a barber shop with a pole where Don would go every morning for a shave. At one end of the house, he had cages that would open every hour on the hour and two Dobermans trained to run the perimeter of the property would run out. The next hour, another pair would take off."

Sort of like a James Bond villain. My question is this--what Savannah street is built to scale on the lower level of this house?

River Street? Broughton? Abercorn? (Maybe Don liked Waffle Houses and big box stores). I looked everywhere for a picture of one of these streets and came up empty. I'm guessing its a downtown street like Jones or Charlton. If you were going to build a replica Savannah street on your estate, what would it be?

The New York Times Drags Skidaway Island Into Rick Perry's Camp

2011-10-07T16:36:00.006-05:00

Of course, most of Skidaway Island is probably already in Rick Perry's camp--but the New York Times wants to make sure. From its article on race-based place names:

"Consider Runaway Negro Creek, which flows near a state park outside Savannah, Ga. The name is printed on nautical charts, but park rangers find it so uncomfortable to use, they try to avoid saying it. It is one of several hundred places that have the word “Negro” in their names and still exist on government maps and in the local vernacular in dozens of states."

I looked at my framed map of the Savannah River and Wassaw Sound that has been hanging on my study wall for the last 11 years and in various other rooms for 15 years before that, and sure enough, Runaway Negro Creek is there, connecting the Skidaway Narrows to the Skidaway River, just east of Burnt Pot Island. It also says the map was printed in Washington, D.C. by the Department of Commerce.

I don't know if the name of the creek should be changed or not, but it seems historically accurate and tells the tale of Savannah's slaves quest for freedom poignantly and succinctly. Might the NY Times be as succinct some day.

How To Afford Housing In Savannah

2011-10-04T16:37:00.003-05:00

In a Savannah Morning News article the other day about the lack of decent housing in Savannah, a single mom is profiled as a one of the face's of inadequate housing in Savannah:

"[She] pays $200 per week to live in a Savannah hotel room with her 13-year-old daughter."

She does the math using her hourly salary and comes to this conclusion:

"Paid at $9 an hour, she calculates she could pay $530 to $575 per month in rent, with the upper limit stretching her budget."

I hope she figures out--soon--that her present living arrangement will cost her $800 a month, which is $225 more than she has budgeted for rent. Being a single mother and poverty seem to walk together. It might even be fair to say that being a single mother leads directly to financial hardship, along with a heightened risk for depression:

"Risk of onset [of depression] was double among single mothers. Single mothers were twice as likely as their married counterparts to be in financial hardship, despite being twice as likely to be in full-time employment. Both of these factors were independently associated with onset in single mothers. The link between them and onset was via their association with humiliating or entrapping severe life events."

Single motherhood is prevalent in Savannah. According to the latest Georgia Census data, there are almost 10,000 single mother households with children under 18 in Chatham County. That's almost 10% of all the households in the county. Now, not all of those single mother households are in poverty, but with a poverty rate of 25% in this area, I bet the majority of them are in poverty or heading there soon. So what the hell? Are Savannah men that sorry that they won't stay with the women they have babies with? Are Savannah women under some weird black magic voodoo spell that compels them to turn off their brains and not think through what might happen to their lives if they don't use contraception and have sex with a ne'er-do-well?

I went to a website called SingleMomFinancialHelp.com to see what was being offered in the way of assistance to single moms in Georgia. I read the comments for a post (Georgia State Assistance For Single Mothers) and was dismayed at the stories of single moms:

"hi i really need help. im 18 years old and im a senior in high school about to graduate. i had my son back in december. i plan to go to school in the fall but i need financial help. i want to do the best i can for my son and college is the only way. i would really prefer not to do loans because i dont do good will the whole interest rates thing but ill take all the help i can get."

Apparently, its not only the whole interest rates thing that eludes her.

"I am taking care of seven people but dfac doesn’t consider my sons since grown but jobless so I help them too. I need any help that I qualify for. My daughter is 13. She also has hadnight terrors and sleep walking for years. Other daughter horrible eczma. Help."

Grown, but jobless?

"Hi, My name is Shaheerah. I am a 23 year old single mother of 3. I have been seeking employment for over a year now and has had no luck. I have ran out of all my savings, which was supplying us with needs and shelter. Now, that I am pretty much dead broke. I have no family here and I really need some type of assistance with keeping a roof over my children head without having to live in a homeless shelter. I am currently taking college classes online, due to having no childcare for my youngest. I do not receive child support or any other funds. All, I really need is housing assistance.. Please help me!! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated."

Shaheerah needs housing assistance, yes, but who is coaching her on the wisdom of continuing to have children without being able to care for them? Everyone makes mistakes, particularly when sex is involved, but it appears to me that single mothers make repeated poor decisions that greatly impact their financial standing.

Maybe there aren't enough reliable men around and women with poor impulse control hear a deafening biological clock ticking and figure that marriage isn't going to work out for them anyway, so why not have their babies? I can understand that--carpe diem--but unfortunately women decrease their future marriageability by up to 30% by having out of wedlock children. Probably poor impulse control women getting hitched with unreliable men isn't a very good combination though, so marriage, while probably economically advantageous, if both worked, wouldn't work out in the long run and just lead to more onset of depression for the single-by-divorce mother.

There probably isn't an answer except to use contraception assiduously, until a reliable man is found or cultivated. A two parent family is still the best way out of poverty and the best way to afford housing.

It's fun to dream, eh?

Widespread Drug Use, I Mean Panic, Comes To Savannah

2011-09-29T16:06:00.004-05:00

I hope Chief Lovett of the SCMPD is ready next week. Widespread Panic is coming to the Savannah Civic Center on Tuesday, 10/4 and Wednesday, 10/5, and well everyone knows about the Spreadheads:

"One who is a Widespread Panic fan, on an extreme level. Often characterized by smoking copious amounts of pot, eating caps, and dropping the occasion hit, and traveling through 3 states to attend a WSP concert."

Here was the scene outside of a Widespread Panic concert in Brooklyn on September 17:

The Panic doesn't condone sucking down nitrous oxide from balloons. From their website:

"The sale of nitrous oxide is strictly prohibited. N2O cuts off the flow of oxygen to your brain. Countless medical emergencies occur from it, including death. If you purchase N2O you are likely supporting people who care nothing about the Panic community. While state to state the laws covering Nitrous Oxide vary, there are clear mandates by the Food & Drug Administration under the Health & Cosmetics act that address distribution and they will be enforced on our tours."

Yeah, that's effective--but maybe keeps them from getting their jam band asses sued off. Back in April 2011, Athens-Clarke County police teamed up with the UGA police at a Widespread Panic concert and put a dozen people behind bars:

“We don’t do that for every concert,” said University of Georgia Police Chief Jimmy Williamson, adding that the practice isn’t even done once a year. “I like Widespread Panic music, but the crowd that follows them, we do see a good use of drugs.”

Good grief, does Al St. Lawrence have enough room in his jail? 74 drug arrests at another April 2011 concert in Birmingham, AL:

"Of the arrests, four were felony distribution of a controlled substance charges, nine were felony possession of a controlled substance charges and one was a felony conspiracy to commit a controlled substance crime. The remaining 60 charges were misdemeanors ranging from possession of marijuana to the illegal sale of tobacco."

Chief Lovett should get ready. He won't have a better opportunity to jack up some white dope boys for a change.

Social Engineers Collide At Pinkie Master's

2011-09-24T06:34:00.005-05:00

You know the old joke, two social engineers walk into a bar...

In a widely disseminated article (at least around here), Jon Tevlin the Minneapolis Star Tribune's travel writer, expresses his delight at Savannah institution, Pinkie Master's:

"A local had insisted that if I wanted to see real Savannah, or at least a small piece of it, I needed to visit Pinky Master's Lounge, an institution where the up-and-coming meet the down-and-out over the simple common denominator of a Pabst Blue Ribbon tall boy. I could see the winking Pabst sign from half a block away, and as promised, a crowd of people on the sidewalk, drinking and smoking cigarettes, as if auditioning for a gangster movie. I pardoned my way through the group and stepped inside. Pinky's was a dump. Dirty and dilapidated, it smelled of stale beer and smoke. There were old pictures of boxers on the walls. Two people danced to a 1980s soul tune on the jukebox, and the bartender was scolding a patron for walking out on his last bar tab.

My kind of place."

Ironically, his kind of place, Savannah's kind of place, is in danger of closing.

The smoking ban, enacted by city council, (more fully explored here) is a socially engineered regulation to improve Savannah health, a program financed by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation:

Supported by a generous grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the leadership by our Mayor, Healthy Savannah led a grassroots movement to enact the Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights model smoke-free ordinance in the City of Savannah. By enacting a local smoke-free ordinance we are able to clarify Savannah's current ordinance and close loopholes in the Georgia Clean Air law by eliminating smoking in

• All workplaces including restaurants and bars
• Long-term care facilities
• Private and semi-private rooms in health care facilities
• International airports
• Convention facilities
• Private clubs
• Retail tobacco stores
• Distances 15 to 20 feet from the entrance to any public building

Like Pinkie Master's owner Guy Kirk says--smoking is what brought the bar together. Its doubtful that non-smokers patronize Pinkie Master's much and any time I've ever been in there, I've always had a clear understanding that Pinkie's is not Rocks on the Roof. Unlike Mayor Johnson's solution for joblessness in Savannah (“We need something out of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s playbook to put people back to work. We need something big and bold.”)and that Zapp guy the Savannah Morning News drags out every other day to hyperventilate about Keynesian solutions to joblessness in Savannah, doing away with stupid regulations that harm businesses in the name of spurious "healthy society" agendas would seem to do more good, quicker.

Besides, in a new paper that explores the socio-economic causes of obesity, (30% of Americans are considered obese-, which is about 100% more obese people than 25 years ago), the mysterious rise in obesity is positively linked to the decline in smoking--not employment, physical activity at work, food prices, prevalence of restaurants, etc.

"Scientists publishing new research through the National Bureau of Economic Research have concluded that quitting smoking is the biggest quantifiable cause of obesity. [They] found that a decrease in the average number of cigarettes smoked per person in America likely causes an increase in obesity."

Its pretty easy to see that--watch an episode of Mad Men or any show from the 60's--there aren't any obese folks, and everyone smokes. Banning smoking harms some businesses and apparently increases obesity. What are the social engineers to do?

Mary Ellen Sprague And The Ugliness Of Hypocrisy

2011-09-08T17:29:00.000-05:00

I was sort of going along with the whole "Billboards Are The Visual Equivalent Of A Hobo Taking A Dump On Your Living Room Sofa" meme before Ms. Sprague, Savannah's City Council District 4 rep, rose up in righteous indignation and wrote this op-ed. She said:

"Most of the rest of Savannah does not enjoy the same level of either legal protection or beauty that the Historic District enjoys.Because of this, much of the rest of Savannah has become Anywhere USA. No identity, no style, no character. One of the reasons for this is the proliferation of both digital and nondigital billboards. They are visual pollution that detracts from the beauty of our city."

Well, speaking of no style and no character--which is worse the billboard or what's planted below it?

Jeff Felser. Carol Bell. Clinton Young. Ruel Joyner. Edna Jackson. Van Johnson. Bill Gillespie. Russ Sill. Dr. Suresh Persad. Ellis Cook. That's some proliferation for you. Speaking of Ellis Cook--he certainly doesn't give a good whoopty-doo about ugly billboards:

Speaking of consistency and hypocrisy, Ms. Sprague. Ahem.

Normandy Street: Savannah's Homeless Highway

2011-09-07T19:56:00.000-05:00

View Larger MapThe area before the north terminus of the Truman Parkway (bounded by President's Extension to the north, the Savannah Golf Club to the east, Hillcrest Cemetery to the south, and the Atlas Recycling System, Inc. landfill to the west), seems to be home base for a considerable number of Savannah's homeless. It didn't start out that way though. The whole area was part of the 2,500 acres rice plantation that Miles Brewton acquired from Jonathan Bryan in 1765.Unfortunately Brewton, (evidently an original Tea Partier) and his entire family drowned on their way from Charleston to Philadelphia where he was going to be South Carolina's representative to the Second Continental Congress. On December 29, 1778, after the Battle of Brewton Hill, during the Revolutionary War, the British occupied this area--after landing a little bit below the present Savannah River Landing. The skirmish lines between the British and the rebels are shown in the middle of the map below:

During the Civil War, Fort Boggs was built on Brewton Hill (on the other side of President's Extensiion) to help repel any Union invasion from the East (especially after Ft. Pulaski fell in 1862). An earthen wall was built from Fort Boggs all the way around the city to Laurel Grove Cemetery. Of course, General Sherman invaded from the West, taking Savannah, and negating all of that digging. Fort Boggs is gone now:

Most of Brewton Hill and virtually all of Forts Boggs and Brown were destroyed over the years. In 1874, the Atlantic and Gulf Railroad Company excavated 100,000 cubic yards of earth in the vicinity of Fort Boggs. Additional grading reduced Brewton Hill to the slight elevation rise found today at the entrance to the Savannah Golf Club

By 1877, the whole area was pretty much a giant cesspool fed by the raw sewage pumped from the Bolton Street sewer into the Bilbo Canal. An observer notes:

That early in the day, say until ten o'clock, excrementitious matter in considerable quantity is discharged, but it is so disintegrated that it is only observable in small particles except where rags and paper are discharged with it.

Naturally, all this poo left baking in the sun and clogging the canal and immediate environs led to a fierce outbreak of yellow fever--which some claimed upwards of 5,000 lives and led to the creation of the Yellow Fever Tunnels--where bodies were buried in secret so the general populace wouldn't panic.

By 1910, this area was labeled Twickenham Plantation, but there was still no road running west to east. By 1917,houses were going up to serve the railroad and by 1930 there was a road running east to west through Twickenham Plantation, but it still wasn't named. In a 1942 map, what is currently known as Normandy Street was called Lawton Road and ran from the east end of Perry St all the way to the Savannah Golf Club. Finally, by 1956, Lawton Road was changed to Normandy Street--which still started where Perry Street ended but now crossed not only the Bilbo canal on its way to the Savannah Golf club but now the Jones and Kayton canals.

Now, Normandy Street is a major highway for Savannah's homeless. If you don't drive a truck you may not even know that you can see Normandy Street from the Truman Parkway, heading north. Normandy Street juts out to the right of the parkway after the giant S turn is negotiated but before the exit onto President's Extension. It goes off due east, seemingly into the trees and marsh. I walked down the WSOK access road the other day, past the abandoned men's transitional center (that's what this place used to be, right?) I didn't go inside. I've seen enough evil serial killer movies to know what might be in there:

Say--here's a thought. Fix the place up and let it out--cheaply. I bet the place is already occupied, if you know what I mean.

Right past the Atlas Recycling Systems landfill, Normandy Street looks west, ,toward downtown. I saw two guys come out from behind the shed right after I took this picture.

Normandy Street crosses railroad tracks and heads off into the woods and marsh toward the Truman Parkway.

Normandy Street is a straight shot from there. Right through the woods, marsh on the left, toward the Truman.

The Truman Parkway looms up from the undergrowth and it was then that I realized that I was in the middle of what I guess is basically a homeless neighborhood. I saw pup tents, canvas flapping from underneath the parkway, blue tarps over piles of tires, a clothesline. I started to get closer to get pics, but there were people under there. More than several people. I suppose I would get pissed if someone traipsed through my living room uninvited, possibly irrationally violent--just because they were curious about where my sidewalk led. I backed out. Wisely, I think.

According to the Chatham-Savannah Authority for the Homeless, there are approximately 4,000 homeless in the Savannah metropolitan area. If you drive President's Street even minimally you will see the steady stream coming from up under the Truman Parkway headed to the Inner City Night Shelter located right up the hill. When I exited back down Normandy Street and crossed back over the railroad track there were a couple of guys with backpacks walking down the railroad tracks, toward me, from where the railroad track crosses Wheaton Street. They looked at me briefly and ducked into the woods--heading home, I guess.

Savannah's Graffiti Stonehenge

2011-08-23T18:48:00.019-05:00

The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles just wrapped up its controversial Art in the Streets exhibit this month. Their website crowed on August 10 that the exhibit had just logged its 201,352nd visitor to see 50 of the nation's most dynamic artists of the graffiti and street art community. (I think that's artsy talk for vandals and vandalism). Almost a quarter of a million visitors seems like a lot--but, heck, probably that many cars and trucks pass by Savannah's Art in the Streets exhibit at Graffiti Stonehenge before lunch time on a Thursday. Technically, however, Savannah's Graffiti Stonehenge is in South Carolina. Head north over the Talmadge Memorial Bridge on Highway 17 and directly to your right on the banks of the Savannah River, you can see the concrete pillars of an old GDOT building jutting out of a dusty parking lot across from the old-timey facade advertising Fireworks.

View Larger Map

Enter Tagger Heaven:

One of the graffiti artists at the MOCA show commented in an interview about why the Art in the Streets exhibit was so popular (well, besides offering entry for free every Monday):

"The dominant response has been greatly positive, in part because the show itself is strong and strongly varied, and in part because the artists presented represent a broad selection of graffiti crews. I like knowing that people unfamiliar with graffiti can enjoy the work without that specialized “educated eye,” and that those familiar with the who’s who of graffiti can enjoy it in an entirely different way. The great majority of graffiti-fluent people believe that bringing this work into a gallery setting is entirely legit as long as someone has “paid their dues,” as all of these artists have."

I take this to mean that the masses who are unfamiliar with graffiti and aren't all that educated in the membership of the different graffiti crews can enjoy graffiti art without having to venture too far out into the more "vibrant" neighborhoods to view it in the wild and that as long as the artists represented have had years of experience vandalizing others property, then they have enough street cred to be displayed and critiqued by those with an educated eye. Maybe what is meant by paying their dues is they have spent time in jail?

Some of the tags on the walls and pillars (some of them are downright fascinating):

In an interview with an Atlanta graffiti artist, the Savannah Morning News asked her what she most enjoyed about urban graffiti:

"I find well-planned, technically-advanced graffiti to be fun to look at. It adds color and vibrancy to places that are generally drab, like abandoned industrial sites. I don’t think the graffiti detracts from appreciating the historic value of the sites. I generally think it adds to the value."

Certainly the graffiti at Savannah's Stonehenge adds color and vibrancy to an abandoned building. Some of the visuals are even haunting:

There's even some self-help philosophy being communicated here:

But mostly, even though there are SCAD-worthy tags here and there, the graffiti is mostly what you'd expect from the disaffected, yet edgy urban artist. The nihilistic:

The silly:

The anti-establishment:

The wishful thinking:

Sometimes, graffiti artists mature and follow their rebellious street art beginnings into fine art and abstract expressionism--others are idiots and go to jail. Take a walk on the wild side then, if the Jepson or the Telfair are too twee for you. Just watch out for the hundreds of broken beer and wine bottles. Or would that be a street mosaic?

Racism Is The Tar Baby

2011-08-21T16:01:00.003-05:00

If you want to get sticky yuck all over you, like Brer Rabbit touching the tar baby, speak frankly and openly about race. Unfortunately, nowadays, sticky yuck can get all over you even if your words and meanings are misconstrued by those who are on the look out for racial statements. Take Colorado Congressman Doug Lamborn's use of the word tar baby in reference to the budget:

"Even if some people say, ‘Well, the Republicans should have done this or should have done that,’ they will hold the president responsible. Now, I don’t even want to be associated with him. It's like touching a, a tar baby and you get it . . . you know you’re stuck, and you’re part of the problem now, and you can’t get away.”

Ooops. The congressman touched the race tar baby and now he's on an extended constituent apology tour and promising to form a minority citizens' advisory board to offer "an even better perspective on issues of concern to the minority community." Of course, Congressman Lamborn probably wasn't aware of how the black community perceives the term "tar baby" as relating to a person of color. If he was aware of that and still used the term tar baby to describe President Obama then he needs to tour on, but I'm thinking the naive congressman used the term tar baby to describe a SITUATION not a person. Here's the Disney cartoon of the Brer Rabbit/Tar Baby Fracas that certainly shows the tar baby as a stand in for the comeuppance of those who don't know when to leave well enough alone:

Is it possible that Congressman Lamborn meant that the budget situation and not President Obama is the tar baby? I think so--but looking at his quote and listening to it (here), he says he doesn't want to be associated with "him" meaning President Obama then using the term tar baby, I can see where one who looks for these things could say he was referring to President Obama as the tar baby and not the budget situation. Apparently, Savannah Morning News letter writer, Marilyn Jackson thinks so too, and plunges her arms elbow deep into the racism tar baby:

"Today racism still lies in the hearts and minds of many white Republicans and Democrats. Rep. Lamborn is a product of America’s racist ideas. Evidently, he has heard tar-baby stories all his life, and it manifested in his comment against President Obama."

Not elbow deep, shoulder deep. Considering the tar baby story traces back to West African origins and was primarily a story told by West Africans and later by blacks in the Americas, obviously Ms. Jackson has heard a different version than the one that Disney made popular. Since Ms. Jackson doesn't have a constituency, I wouldn't expect an apology tour anytime soon for her ridiculous assertions.

Savannah Murder Review: Nothing Sensational, Just Ordinary Wickedness

2011-08-05T06:28:00.006-05:00

In Bill James' largely erratic, yet very entertaining book, Popular Crime: Reflections on the Celebration of Violence, he seems to support the sensationalizing of murder to the public:

"We can abandon the criminal justice system to the lawyers--which will result in a criminal justice system that works well for lawyers--or we can involve the public. If we want the public involved, it is Popular Crime stories that are the pathway to their involvement."

In the above quote, James capitalizes the words " popular crime" to distinguish crimes, particularly murders, that capture the public's attention--think Casey Anthony, Natalee Holloway--from the mundane. James has developed a key of sorts that predicts how a murder vaults from the ordinary which maybe occupies space on the front page of the local newspaper for a day, then fades away, to murders that explode into the media, staying there with help from an audience that demands fresh details daily, sometimes hourly. He posits 18 distinct elements that characterize "popular crime" stories, like Bizarre (think Jeffrey Dahmer), Political (JFK, RFK, MLK, etc.), and Sexual Violence (like Ted Bundy and the Natalee Holloway case again). Combinations of these 18 elements predict the public's fascination for any particular crime thus making it rage on in the media beyond the usual garden variety murders and mayhem that are committed in a community. When I look at Savannah's 2011 murders, none of them are sensational, really, not even all that interesting as most of them display a casual sort of wickedness. As Voltaire said, " Man is not born wicked; he becomes so, as he becomes sick." Most of Savannah's 15 murders in 2011 are symptoms of the same sickness. A quick review of Savannah's murders to date (with the help of the fascinating RAIDS online tool at the SCMPD website):

1. Sixteen year old Trevonte Edwards shoots a 78 year old man in the chest outside of a convenience store after robbing him of $96.71. Edwards seems to have been in trouble with the law since he was pretty much out of training britches.

2 & 3. Probable squatters, David Weitnauer and Shawn Morris are found dead in a condemned house in the Windsor Forest neighborhood. The police seemed to be aware of this place:

"Savannah-Chatham police violent crimes detectives remained tight-lipped about last month's discovery of two bodies found in the Windsor Forest Home. Metro police officials also declined to provide information on the number of times officers responded to the home, which had already been condemned by the city when the two bodies were discovered. Also, city officials declined to reveal when and why the home was condemned."

4. In a night of gunfire, Curtis Hall is found in a field off of Augusta Ave. suffering from gunshot wounds which he later succumbs to. He leaves a wife and 5 daughters. Hall's murder remains unsolved.

5. Elton Guyton, 34, was shot to death the same night as Curtis Hall in Live Oaks Plantation off of Waters Ave. He left behind 3 sons and a daughter. Between Hall and Guyton 9 kids are left fatherless that night. The sickness spreads.

6. Willie Moss, already wanted for burglary shot Rashamel Young to death. A year prior, Young was shot in the stomach in the same area. Two years prior to his death, his brother was also shot in the same neighborhood. Young's grandmother lamented:

“What I want to do is, if they allow me, is to talk to those guys who shot Rash and find out what they were arguing about that made them so mad they had to kill him."

Whatever it was, the Young boys seem to carry the lead contagion.

7. Insurance agent Christopher Shuman is murdered while collecting insurance premiums by ex-convict Pedro Lee Walker who had been out of prison for about 90 days:
"He has a long criminal history and spent more than 11 years in prison since he pleaded guilty to a 1994 armed robbery. Walker also pleaded guilty to selling and distributing crack cocaine in 2000, to a 2002 aggravated assault and to theft by receiving stolen property in 2009."

Shuman was going to celebrate his girlfriend's 27th birthday with wine and crab legs the day after he was murdered.

8 & 9. Thomas Smith and David Medina are found shotgunned in a house on Chevis Road in Ogeechee Farms. Apparently, neither of the victims led a pristine life:

“No matter what they did, or their lifestyle, nobody deserves to be ... nobody deserves to lose their life in such a manner — nobody."

That's true, nobody deserves to die of cancer either, but it certainly happens and there seem to be equivalent risk factors involved--like smoking and handling plutonium.

10. Sometime after 2:00 a.m., on June 7, 2011, Gregory Williams of a West 32nd Street address was shot to death by an unknown assailant after an altercation inside his home. Interestingly, Williams family saw the assailant, but don't have a description:

"The suspect hasn’t been identified, but police say family members saw him. Metro police spokesman Julian Miller said police do not have a description of the suspect and are asking for the public’s help...Family members and friends crowded the building’s two porches Tuesday afternoon, smoking cigarettes and staring out at the street. No one wanted to talk much about Williams’ life or his death."

This tightlippedness generally doesn't bode well for the police. Doesn't bode well for stopping the cycle of violence either as one might interpret the family's response as one of cold, steely-eyed vengeance.

11. 20 year old Dwayne "Poody" O' Neal, Jr. is gunned down in Tatemville. Around the same time and on the same street, Levi Marshall, just released from prison 3 days before for a long string of crimes, was also shot. He admitted to "talking" to Poody before he was shot. Later, after police weave through Marshall's web of false statements, he is indicted for Poody's murder.

12 & 13. In the Baldwin Circle Shootout, Kevin Moore, 21, and Nick Bing, 26, shot each other to death inside the home when Moore pulled a gun during an argument and Bing returned fire. There were two small boys in the house at the time who witnessed the gunfight. I'm not sure if traumatic memories are expunged or if they just fade away, but certainly its been shown that many pathologies are rooted in witnessing such violence.

14. 32 year old James Griffin is found shot to death in his pick up truck in the middle of Legrand Street. I already commented on this story before in relationship to the Savannah Morning News seemingly glorifying the culture of homicide (Savannah Morning News On Savannah's Culture Of Homicide), which in retrospect, could be seen as the media's attempt to gin up sensational headlines for murders that don't seem to have any extraordinary circumstances attached to them. To illustrate that same old-same oldness of this murder, Steve Ray Dunbar, arrested in Bluffton, SC, on drug charges was questioned about Griffin's murder. It almost goes without saying that Griffin had been previously incarcerated for possession of cocaine.

15. Jeffrey Smith is shot to death during an altercation with Eric Riley during a drug deal gone wrong on Ogeechee Road. Inside Smith's truck were 60 grams of cocaine and scales. Riley was arrested a week later.

In late July, Kenneth Sanders stabbed his wife, Nancy Sanders, to death in front of her 3 daughters. I'm pretty sure Savannah won't count the Sanders saga toward their murder stats since it happened in Port Wentworth, but its still worth noting that out of all the murders in the Savannah area in 2011, this is the only family violence homicide.

Looking at Savannah's homicides for 2011, the inescapable conclusion is that, for the most part, the murders seem to follow the same script. Most of the victims are black. Most of the killers, when caught, are black. Murders were committed during robberies, during drug deals, and during arguments, with victims more often than not, traveling the same less-than-lawful roads as their assailants--with notable exceptions of the 78 yr. old grandfather, Curtis Hall, Elton Guyton, and Christopher Shuman. What is readily apparent is that none of Savannah's murders are "popular". There won't be any John Berendt books or Clint Eastwood movies made about any of these murders--they are boring to the general public (except for the neighborhoods where they occurred), non-exceptional, common. Nothing bizarre, no celebrities, no real innocents accused of murder, nothing political, no mystery, no sexual violence. Savannah is on pace for about 10 more murders in 2011 as the contagion spreads--is there an antidote?

The Interrupters is a documentary film that follows the CeaseFire program which uses community members deeply embedded in the neighborhoods (read that as folks who travel the less-than-lawful road) to stamp out the violence contagion before it spreads.

"So in 2004, Hardiman suggested.. they also hire men and women who had been deep into street life, and he began recruiting people even while they were still in prison. Hardiman told me he was looking for those “right there on the edge.” (The interrupters are paid roughly $15 an hour, and those working full time receive benefits from the University of Illinois at Chicago, where CeaseFire is housed.) The new recruits, with strong connections to the toughest communities, would focus solely on sniffing out clashes that had the potential to escalate. They would intervene in potential acts of retribution — as well as try to defuse seemingly minor spats that might erupt into something bigger, like disputes over women or insulting remarks."

Much like injecting a virus into a healthy body to build up antibodies, the CeaseFire program uses the most violent to try an arrest the spread of lethal violence:

"You want to go after them with individuals who themselves were once either infectious spreaders or at high risk for the illness. In the case of violence, you use those who were once hard-core, once the most belligerent, once the most uncontrollable, once the angriest. They are the most convincing messengers."

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I'm sure Savannah has programs like CeaseFire going but if they don't, its time they did--the carriers for violence are multiplying (all the fatherless kids, the children witnessing murders, the family members not cooperating with the police, etc.). Savannah's murders aren't "popular" with the public, but they aren't rare either. As a result, Savannah's public just turns the page on these stories--but that doesn't mean they aren't reacting to it--Savannahians, in absence of popular, sensational crimes to obsess over are isolating the contagion, walling themselves off civically and often physically from the very real threats of violence. There are largely two Savannahs now and that, along with the spread of violence, is a wickedness that is learned.

Dawn Of The Debt

2011-08-03T16:36:00.003-05:00

In an inspired bit of breakfast programming, Fox & Friends debuted a remake of Zack Snyder's remake of George Romero's Dawn of the Dead, which originally skewered America's consumer class as mindless, gut-munching zombies. Johnny Cash's Man Comes Around never sounded so good (or as appropriate):

Here is the original intro to Snyder's remake of Dawn of the Dead:

Snyder's 300 was listed as one of the top 10 conservative movies of the decade in 2009:

"Any film that prompts howls of indignation from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his brutal acolytes in Tehran deserves recognition. 300 achieved that in spades with its fiery retelling of the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC, where three hundred Spartan warriors took on a vast army of Persians commanded by Xerxes. Zack Snyder’s faithful adaptation of the Frank Miller graphic novel featured incredible battle sequences shot with the latest digital technology, and proved a major box office hit. As he contemplates how to deal with the Iranian nuclear threat, Barack Obama should ditch his failed appeasement strategy and take some tips from the Spartans about standing your ground in the face of an evil tyrant."

Fox & Friends weren't the only news shapers goading the undead to life over the debt crisis. Maureen Dowd from the NY Times:

"They were like cannibals, eating their own party and leaders alive. They were like vampires, draining the country’s reputation, credit rating and compassion. They were like zombies, relentlessly and mindlessly coming back again and again to assault their unnerved victims, Boehner and President Obama."

Damn, and its not even Halloween yet.

Savannah Cruise Terminal: Segway To Carnival Hell?

2011-07-24T20:58:00.009-05:00

Having just debarked from a cruise ship the day before, I read Martha Summerell's broadside against cruise ships in Savannah in the SMN Letters to the Editor with a bit more interest than I probably would have prior to. She says:

For those who believe huge cruise ships would benefit our local economy, and, better still, themselves, I offer insight and a suggestion.

Be the first to secure a large warehouse close to the chosen port site and fill it to capacity with motorized, two-wheeled vehicles, which arriving passengers, eager to escape their ship cubicles, will happily rent from you for a quick cheap tour of our city.

Flip-flop sandals firmly on the pedals, with a backfiring roar, they’re off to find the fabled shady squares and 19th century houses.

While circling the blocks, straining to see church spires and colorfully painted Victorian gables through the treetops, a couple of parked automobiles will be sideswiped as the rider swerves to avoid hitting a group of elderly folks on a ghost tour crossing the street, who might join their vapory subjects even sooner than expected.

Prospering with you will be automobile repair shops, ambulance drivers and hospital emergency rooms.

The expected surge in pizza sales downtown is negated by the more probable return to the ship for pre-paid lunch.

This is not a fantasy.

It’s happened in Bermuda, and the canary is coughing in Charleston, S.C.

Ms. Summerell ain't lying. Cruise folks just want to have FUN and they will sprinkle dollars all up and down whatever destination's boulevard they land on--segways, motor scooters, 4 wheelers, bikes, and if any of the tropical places had decent sidewalks, probably roller blades and skateboards.

Ms. Summerell's canaries in Charleston (The Southern Environmental Law Center representing the Historic Ansonborough Neighborhood Association. the Charlestowne Neighborhood Association, the Coastal Conservation League, and the Preservation Society of Charleston) have joined together to sue Carnival. To rid prim and proper Charleston of all those flip-flop wearing, fanny packing, pedestrian sideswiping, segwaying cruise tourists, I guess, if not the cruise ships altogether. The executive director of their Coastal Conservation League seems to be upset by the amount of poop on a cruise ship:

"[Exec. director] said cruise ships have been compared to floating cities. And the waste they produce is comparable, adding the ships produce 21,000 gallons of sewage every day."

I guess all of those folks coming in for Spoleto pooped before they came. Besides the Coastal Conservation guy is just plain wrong about cruise ship poop--its all self contained and reprocessed--away from port. Probably what rips the delicate sensibilities of the genteel and well to do in Charleston and evidently now Savannah too, is the crassness and vulgarity of all those cruisers lighting off for bars like Senor Frogs that will be thrown up (read that, literally thrown up) somewhere nearby any eventual Savannah cruise terminal.

One of the economic insights that Ms. Summerell neglects is that since cruise tourists have mostly paid for their trips months in advance, they have plenty of cash available to spend on shore and from my vantage point, I saw plenty of people ordering food at restaurants when the ship was mere yards away. Plus, 80% of cruisers "agree that cruise vacations are a good way to sample destinations that they may wish to visit again." 43% of experienced cruisers are likely to add a couple of days stay if the port is an embarkation/debarkation point. A cruise terminal in Savannah would seem be economically advantageous. According to Cruise Line International Association, the South Atlantic states, including Georgia, make up the largest percentage (34.48%) of cruise passengers. Tawdry shore bars and segway rentals are a shortsighted look at how a cruise terminal in Savannah would impact the economy. Georgia doesn't even have a cruise terminal (yet) and cruises already account for $558 million dollars in economic impact.

More than $124 million was spent with businesses in the top five support industries, food processors and computer and electronic equipment manu-facturers within the manufacturing sector; and advertising agencies, insurance companies and management and technical consultants in the nonmanufacturing sector. Direct expenditures in Georgia also impacted many other industries throughout the state including telecomm companies, other financial services, software publishers and textile and apparel manufactur-ers.
Finally, these direct expenditures generated total economic impacts of 8,836 jobs and $413 million in income throughout the Georgia economy during 2009.

A lot of folks could use the work a cruise ship would bring and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't mind dodging a few segways to do it.

Westside High School Little Neckers

2011-07-14T14:05:00.013-05:00

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The new westside high school that has broken ground way out on Little Neck Rd. should be a high performing high school. So far, there is literally nothing out there to distract them from their studies.

There are no McDonalds. There are no Enmarks. There is no New Hampstead subdivision there either--except for miles and miles of beautiful roads that are closed off and go nowhere.

Since the New Hampstead subdivision didn't materialize (well, except for the roads and sidewalks)most every Westside Litte Necker will either drive or be bused through miles and miles of peaceful pine forest.

Across from the new high school are miles and miles of tantalizing dirt roads that lead back into the piney woods:

These roads lead to idyllic ponds. Walden Pond, Thoreau, and transcendental philosophy come to mind:

There seems to be transcendental things going on back in the piney woods, just maybe not what Thoreau had in mind:

Maybe the new high school mascot will be a famous Chatham County philosopher or friend to education. Or maybe it will be a pine tree.

Savannah Morning News On Savannah's Culture Of Homicide

2011-07-08T14:15:00.004-05:00

Usually, the Savannah Morning News' dependence on Savannah's culture of homicide goes largely unnoticed as it reports on the city's murders. But not always, sometimes the SMN glorification of Savannah's culture of homicide is right out in the open. Reporting on the city's 14th murder of 2011 (or a murder about every 2 weeks), the SMN noted:

"Vernon “Boss Player” White, 43, a photographer and neighborhood rap music promoter who has lived in the area since he was 8 years old, watched police through the yellow tape with 26-year-old aspiring rapper Shawn “Meezy Da Industry” Bailey as their friends circled the block on bikes, wearing wife beaters and twisties."

I'm sure that this descriptive paragraph is supposed to convey to the casual consumer of the news what the prevailing culture of the neighborhood is. Not only are we treated to nicknames--Boss Player and Meezy Da Indastry--but to occupations--rap music promoter and rap musician. The fact that their friends were riding around the yellow tape in wife beaters and twisties is local color, I suppose, that defines all the intricate connections clearly: Descriptive Nicknames + Rap + Wife Beaters & Twisties = Homicide In The 'Hood. Both Boss Player and Meezy Da Indastry seem to know why James Griffin was shot--even though the reporter, Constance Cooper, makes it clear that the police aren't releasing any details:

"Usually the men who get shot get shot for a reason, they said. “They hustle, gamble. They’ve got jobs other than paper jobs,” White said. Instead of getting an education and career, “they’d rather chase fast money and risk somebody hurting them over a little bit of nothing. Illegal don’t come with no rules.”

So how do Boss Player and Meezy Da Indastry know this? Remember, the police aren't releasing any details. So, Ms. Cooper, the SMN reporter, without any details on the homicide, allows these two guys to slander the homicide victim with allegations of criminality? Maybe a basic follow up question would be--how do you know about Mr. Griffin's alleged criminal activity? I wonder if Ms. Cooper looked into Boss Player and Meezy Da Indastry? Here's a Boss Player, King of Savannah, promotional video--note the lifestyle that is promoted (which is not inconsistent with what Ms. Cooper describes--also, note, around the 5:14 mark what the young child is doing and the Jennifer Ross name check around the 5:40 mark).

Meezy Da Indastry videos (here and here) are more of the same--the usual rapping about getting rich or dying trying. Which is fine as far as it goes--but when this particular lifestyle is linked to crime, drugs, and most times homicide, time and time again, what is the Savannah Morning News interest in promoting it? Are other crime scenes described in the same way with bystanders giving their street names and their occupations? If this murder happens in Ardsley Park, I doubt the bystanders are going to be described as lawyers and doctors and dental hygienists while other bystanders are noted riding around the crime scene in their Prius. Maybe its like Chief Lovett said the other day about the Baldwin Circle shootout:

"People who don’t deal (drugs) or aren’t in that culture don’t have anything to worry about. It’s the ones that live that lifestyle that have a problem.”

Good to know that the SMN is all over the cultural markers for homicide in Savannah. I just hope the glorification of this culture is for informational purposes only--and not economical.

The Underworld Of Spence Grayson Bridge

2011-07-05T10:32:00.017-05:00

I've probably crossed the Spence Grayson bridge at least 2 times a day for roughly 15 years. That's almost 11,000 crossings. Up until the other day, stupidly, I thought the bridge was named after previous Chatham County District Attorney, Spencer Lawton (who was last heard from giving some serious hell to progressive interviewer Dori Smith about Troy Anthony Davis). Not quite, as I later found out, not even close. Years ago, I cruised under the bridge in a canoe, but I remember fighting the tide getting to where I was going so I didn't have time to look around. I took a minute the other day, on foot, to have that look.

I walked down what used to be Old Tybee Road (its a little spur on the north side of the bridge). As expected, its overgrown, weedy, and stacked with roadway junk.

From Old Tybee Road, its only a matter of picking a way through the marsh and the undergrowth (undergrowth being a kind word for every species of plant that grows deadly sharp stickers meant to carve up interloping trespassers).

Getting a new bridge built over Gray's Creek some 60 years ago seems to have been only nominally less thorny. Spence M. Grayson, son of Col. William L. Grayson (the Spanish American war hero and namesake of Savannah's historic Grayson Stadium) seemed to be quite chummy with the then governor and staunch segregationist Marvin Griffin and was able to pry $157,000 from Atlanta for the bridge to be built, something the Savannah News Press held a dim view of--from the 10/16/60 editorial:

"At long last the State has entered into a contract for the replacement of the dangerous and dilapidated bridge across Gray's Creek on Tybee Road. The Highway Department Wednesday signed a contract for construction of a new span to cost $142,579. We are all happy that this highway improvement is being provided. We must confess, however, to being somewhat puzzled by the manner in which the announcement was released by Highway Board Chairman Roy F. Chalker. In telegrams to local news media, Mr. Chalker said: 'At the request of Spence Grayson, Gov. Griffin has just signed a budget amendment giving $157,000 to Chatham County for immediate construction of Gray's Creek Bridge. The contract has been awarded to the Scott Company and work should begin within 30 days.' The question that arises is: What would have happened if Mr. Grayson had not requested the Governor to build the bridge?"

The News Press figured the Gray's Creek bridge should have been built even without Spence Grayson's sponsorship and concludes:

"The money was available from the Governor's surplus funds, the estimate should have been revised and the bridge built on the basis of the needs without further ado. Georgia's road and highway requirements cannot be met adequately and fairly if vitally needed projects are to be dependent on the vagaries of political cronyism."

Aaaaah. Political cronyism! Shades of Savannah Alderman Mary Osborne, eh? Why was little old Spence Grayson such a crony of Gov. Marvin Griffin anyway? Griffin was the one that objected to Ga Tech playing Pitt in the 1956 Sugar Bowl because Pitt had a black player and stated that Georgia schools would stay segregated come "hell or high water." According to one election recap, it was because Grayson was a segregationist too:

"Despite Negro voter registration estimated at 13,500 in Savannah, Atty. Eugene Gadsden, battling three white opponents for a seat in the Georgia Senate, received only 8,096 votes (an estimated 1,000 of them whites) to come in second. Gadsden, a Democrat, handily trounced diehard segregationist Democrat Spencer Grayson."

Grayson successfully sued the Savannah News Press for libel in 1960 for this statement an editorial said about Gray's Bridge--and Spence Grayson:

"Ever alert to the needs of Chatham County, the county commission has now come forward with one idea that should win immediate and widespread popular approval. It would be a fine thing, the commissioners say in a resolution adopted at their last meeting, for the State to name the Gray's Creek bridge for one of their longtime pals, Mr. Spence Grayson. This is indeed a jolly suggestion, and even though it might be successfully argued that there are one or two more urgent matters needing the attention of the county and State governments, the Morning News is hopeful that they will pursue this one at full throttle. The Spence Grayson Bridge. We can see it now, with the name emblazoned in foot-high letters, standing as a lasting monument to the pork barrel politics that has kept Chatham's road program 20 years behind the times--and behind the rest of the State. Sitting there astride Gray's Creek in all its splendid majesty, the Spence Grayson Bridge would serve as a constant reminder of the kind of backdoor, back-scratching politics which:--Got us a bridge costing more than $150,000 when a $30,000 culvert would have met the need."

The GA Appeals Court found this statement libelous to Mr. Grayson as it hinted at a $120,000 impropriety with funds--which would be a crime. Evidently, as we all know today, cronyism isn't a crime, its just how government works. Today, under the Spence Grayson bridge the underworld rules:

There is some wicked, wicked stuff under the Spence Grayson--including gang symbols, satanic signs and Nazi swastikas:

If I let myself, I could probably drift over into Stephen King's territory and talk about how the bridge and its unseemly beginnings have cursed certain denizens of the bridge:

Maybe the ghosts of the segregationist past and its victims are still in combat and still giving no quarter:

Maybe I should get my ass out from under this bridge and get it home and out of the heat.

My Angel Nails Mani Pedi

2011-07-02T08:46:00.009-05:00

Instead of my post-work drink on the patio one day last week, my wife said, "Let's go, mani/pedi, my treat." My wife knows me well enough to spring this kind of crap on me suddenly, like a sneak attack, get me in the car before I even really understand what she's saying to me.

Me: I'm not leaving without my drink
Her: You can't bring a drink into the salon.
Me: Then I'm not going.
Her: Bring your stupid drink then.

I poured my robust tequila, crushed ice, and slim ribbon of amaretto into a Solo cup. To the brim. I'm not getting a manicure + pedicure for the first time without it. We went into Angel Nails. There were about a dozen Vietnamese women scurrying around. Well, probably not that many, more like 6, but they were scurrying around enough for a dozen. Apparently, Vietnamese women are over-represented in the nail business:

"Vietnamese fitted the racial profile for low-skill manual service work in America, and were seen as deft in performing nail care. Also, they settled mainly in urban areas, where demand for nail services was greatest. Furthermore, they had extensive ethnic resources on which to draw. Through ethnic networks they acquired the necessary skills to perform the work, they secured employment, they pooled capital to go into business for themselves, and they found reliable workers in turn. Meanwhile, as poor immigrants, they were impressed with the earnings they could make as manicurists."

There were 2 customers already in chairs. Everyone looked up and froze when I came in--like I blotted out the sun or something. The boss lady was happy, happy, happy to see me. The last time I was here, I paid for my wife, her mom, and her sister as a Mother's Day present. I swear I think the boss lady called me Big Visa.

I sat in the chair beside my wife. It has controls to vibrate the seat and the back. It has a spa tub at the bottom for feet. I took a big swig of tequila and amaretto and looked over at my wife for clues on what to do. She was already talking with her girl. My girl came over and said a bunch of stuff to me which sounded like, "Don't get drunk in here and vomit all over my floor you big hairy ape." She tapped the foot tub sharply and I figured it out. Stick my feet in the tub of hot water. While my feet soaked, my girl put her hands in a big mayonnaise jar with blue goop in it. Then she spread the goop up and down my leg--I could feel the menthol in it. It was like Vicks VapoRub. I hoped to God it wasn't Nair. I drank again.

Then she "did" my toenails. Man, really? I was squirmy. It tickled a little. I thought I kept my nails short, but she found all kinds of things to do. Like trim cuticles, which I didn't even know had to be done. She clucked when she saw the mass of scar tissue on the bottom of my foot. One of my toes started bleeding, I guess when she trimmed something to the quick. She didn't have gloves on. That's just damned icky to me, but I guess it happens all the time.

That doesn't seem to be the only health issue these folks seem to have in the nail industry:

"Of the workers surveyed, a majority reported that they are concerned about their health from exposure to workplace chemicals. Additionally, a sizeable proportion reported having experienced some health problem after they began working in the industry, particularly acute health problems that may be associated with solvent exposure (e.g. skin and eye irritation, breathing difficulties and headaches). Our findings highlight a critical need for further investigation into the breast cancer risk of nail salon workers, underscored by the workers’ routine use of carcinogenic and endocrine-disrupting chemicals, their prevalent health concerns about such chemicals, and their high level of acute health problems. Moreover, the predominance of Vietnamese immigrant women in this workforce makes it an important target group for further research and health interventions."

Egads. My girl used a pumice stone to scruff up my heels. I've seen a lava rock like this one before in my tub. I thought it was something the dog brought in from the backyard. Then she picked up a cheese-grater and went to work on my scruffed up heels. She worked the grater expertly on my heels, like they were hunks of provolone at the deli. Then she showed me the grater, chattering away, probably grossed out that she had just removed enough skin from my heels to make an Ann Taylor leather purse.

She slid my flip flops on my feet and told me to follow her. I minced over to the other side of the room where she told me to put a foot into a crock pot of what looked like old hot dog water. I plunged my foot in and yowled--there was no indication to me that this was a bucket of foot blistering wax. Plus, I'm stupid. She wrapped my foot in a plastic baggie, then I sank my other foot in the crock pot filled with Vienna sausage looking jelly. She sat me down at a table with thousands of little bottles of stuff and little, tiny instruments of torture. She went off to do something. I unscrewed the top off the jar closest to me, wondering what fresh hell was going to happen next, and sniffed. I almost fell out of my chair, unconscious. No labels on the nail polish remover. No damned wonder nail technicians complain of headaches and watery eyes. I felt like I should have turned myself in for huffing. Great, hammered and huffed.

My girl peeled the wax from both of my feet, slipped my flip flops back on, and started with my hands. She asked if I wanted "French" then laughed, crazy and maniacal to all of her buddies. I smiled and said, "No thanks." She dipped one hand then the other in wax and put baggies around them. I felt like a penguin. Then she beat me around my head and shoulders. Literally. Beat. Me. She beat me so hard, my drink sloshed. My wife said later every time she looked over at me, I was grimacing in pain. Almost as soon as the beating (massage) commenced, it halted. I think she could tell I was no John McCain. She peeled the wax mask from my hands and I sort of felt like a giant bug that split its exoskeleton or a moulting snake. Good God, I was pink and reborn! I stepped out of Angel Nails with my wife, my Solo cup empty, shaking my head. There's a first and last time for everything, right? But maybe not--how hard would it be for a nail salon to get a liquor license?

New Georgia License Plates: In That Guy We Trust

2011-06-29T08:27:00.008-05:00

In an otherwise excellent rundown of the new Georgia license plates that can be voted on (go here to vote), Savannah Unplugged's Bill Dawers makes his plug for his favorite and qualifies is choice this way:

"The inclusion of “In God We Trust” clearly violates the establishment clause, I think, but I’ll bet one of those three will end up winning. And then some civil liberties group will file a lawsuit against the state. And then Christian groups will be shocked! outraged!"

In God We Trust on government currency doesn't violate the establishment clause and currency is more ubiquitous than license plates. There is plenty of precedent for In God We Trust not running afoul of the establishment clause, from Elk Grove Unified School Dist. v. Newdow, 542 U.S. 1, 37 (2004):

"Ceremonial deism’ most clearly encompasses such things as the national motto (‘In God We Trust’),” whose “history, character, and context prevent them from being constitutional violations at all”)."

In Gaylor v. United States, 74 F.3d 214, 217-18 (10th Cir. 1996):

"The statutes establishing ‘In God We Trust’ as our national motto and providing for its reproduction on United States currency do not violate the Establishment Clause."

Finally, in Aronow v. United States, 432 F.2d 242, 243:

“It is quite obvious that the national motto and slogan on coinage and currency ‘In God We Trust’ has nothing whatsoever to do with the establishment of religion."

What remains to be seen is if the state of Georgia is offering choice, as the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled the state of Indiana did in 2008, upholding as constitutional, Indiana's use of In God We Trust on their license plates. From their state attorney general:

"The display of our material motto, 'In God We Trust,' on state license plates has found deep support among our fellow citizens. So often when there is a reference to a supreme being in the public arena, objections are made. With the court’s ruling, those objections have failed and the Legislature's will has been sustained."

My guess is Mr. Dawers will be correct in asserting there will be a court challenge if the new design that is voted in has In God We Trust as the standard issue license plate without a choice for a plate that doesn't have God with a capital g without paying an extra fee. However, I doubt many Christians will be shocked or outraged. Christians are used to the constant assault from secular ninnies. It's de rigueur now.

Chatham County Library Contracts: Old Boy Synergy?

2011-06-23T15:48:00.005-05:00

Competition is fierce these days for any kind of government contract and Chatham County's public libraries project is no different. There are questions about how the contract was awarded:

"An evaluation committee had given Elkins Constructors and its partners the highest score for the project, prompting county staff to recommend them for the job. But after a closed door meeting, commissioners came out and, with no discussion, voted 4-1 to award the project to the second highest scorer, RJ Griffin and Co. Now the contractor, library officials and members of the business community want to know why."

The editors at the SMN were even blunter in their assessment, likening the decision to a "contract killing" (which makes me think Savannah Noire might be a great sequel to L.A. Noire):

"The commission's apparent desire to put as many local people to work as possible on these two libraries should be applauded. Unfortunately, they shot themselves in the foot in the process. That's what happens when you do the public's business in the dark."

So really this isn't a noire theme of contract killings and meetings in dark, dark places at all (there's not even a gun moll, unless you want to count Dawn Morgan of Collins Construction), but more of a Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight story. Or maybe that's an overly gentle interpretation of what happened back there in the dark. Commissioner Patrick Shay puffed up a bit when the commission voted 4-1 for the 2nd place contractor, RJ Griffin:

"I have been an architect in this market for over 30 years and have working knowledge on this subject."

Indeed Mr. Shay does have a working knowledge of this subject and of the RJ Griffin company and particularly with their partner Rives Worrell. (Helen Stone and Pete Liakakis claim they do too because of all the work the Worrell company has done around Savannah). Rives Worrell was bought in 1971 by the late Walter B. Murphy and is still run by the Murphy's and has partnered with Gunn, Meyherhoff, Shay for years. Mr. Shay memorialized Murphy in 2009:

"He was a beacon for me in the construction industry. There aren't many real builders left in our community, and Buddy was the best of his generation."

Shay trusts Rives Worrell for rising to the challenge of a project on Sapelo Island, praising Murphy:

"Good builders make good architects look great.”

Absolutely none of Shay's fondness and respect for Murphy and Rives Worrell, Inc. is surprising. People want to work with people they know, respect as competent, and trust implicitly. Its how business and most social organizations and situations work best. Its synergy. Some might call it the Old Boy Network. Some call it better than having more points in the bid process.

Savannah Cultural Project Feels The Pin Prick Of The Gray Lady

2011-06-21T16:53:00.005-05:00

Back in December, Connect Savannah, the bastion of liberallyness and frolicsome Savannah fun, reported on the Pin Point Heritage Museum project just underway:

"The community of Pin Point is best known as the humble origin of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. But its merits far outreach its reputation as the birthplace of the conservative adjudicator. A new project launching this month, the construction of the Pin Point Heritage Museum, seeks to protect and preserve the community's unique cultural significance beyond its most powerful native son."

Even in a straight news story about a museum dedicated to a blue crab canning factory, Clarence Thomas is described as a conservative adjudicator in the first paragraph, rather than just a plain old Supreme Court Justice. Paradoxically, in a lengthy interview with State Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears, where Sears states she was on the short list for the position that Sonia Sotomayor eventually took on the Supreme Court, the word "liberal" isn't used even once.

Go figure. I'll be interested to see if Connect Savannah falls in with the New York Times and their attempted hit job on Clarence Thomas and the Pin Point Heritage Museum. The Gray Lady reports on the friend that Justice Thomas put Algernon Varn (whose grandfather owned the cannery) in touch with:

"The publicity-shy friend turned out to be Harlan Crow, a Dallas real estate magnate and a major contributor to conservative causes. Mr. Crow stepped in to finance the multimillion-dollar purchase and restoration of the cannery, featuring a museum about the culture and history of Pin Point that has become a pet project of Justice Thomas’s.
The project throws a spotlight on an unusual, and ethically sensitive, friendship that appears to be markedly different from those of other justices on the nation’s highest court."

So Justice Thomas is ethically challenged here? I'm not sure how. The Gray Lady insinuates that his vote is for sale as if Justices Ginsberg and Breyer don't travel around with rich people. It's a curious place for folks like Connect Savannah to be in--line up with the NY Times against Thomas (I'm sorry, conservative Justice Thomas) and his purported ethical lapses, perhaps sandbagging a project it characterizes in this way:

"What was once the economic heart of Pin Point will soon be its cultural landmark."

Algernon Varn says this about the Pin Point Heritage Museum:

"I couldn't have dreamed a better dream. It's the best thing that could've happened for the property and the community."

Algie would be right if Justice Thomas was liberal.

Dissolving The Special Service District The Indian Way

2011-06-15T16:34:00.005-05:00

Chatham County commissioner Pat Farrell, God bless him, wants to dissolve the Special Service District for the unincorporated areas of Chatham County:

"The taxing district, which encompasses the unincorporated county, has a separate budget created to fund services there such as trash collection and police. Unincorporated residents pay a district tax on top of the countywide operations budget. Farrell said he will propose to the commission at the next meeting to dissolve the tax district. The plan entails increasing the tax rate paid by all county residents to cover the cost of operations in the unincorporated area. The increase is needed since state legislators have refused to include the service district in the distribution of revenue raised from utility franchise fees and Local Option Sales Taxes, Farrell said. Unincorporated residents, who make up one-third of the county's population, pay an estimated $11.5 million in the fees and taxes every year, but do not receive the revenue as cities do, Farrell said."

Yeah, dissolve it. In fact, dissolve the SSD and the rest of county oversight for the unincorporated areas. Inside the proposed 2012 Chatham County budget, is the $8 million dollar observation that supports dissolving the local SSD:

"Because the SSD Fund is not treated like a municipality under Georgia statutes, it is not eligible for some of the taxes and fees that municipalities collect. It is estimated that treatment as a municipality would net $8.6 million in taxes and fees."

The example of Gurgaon, India provides reason enough to dissolve the rest of county oversight for the unincorporated areas:

"In this city that barely existed two decades ago, there are 26 shopping malls, seven golf courses and luxury shops selling Chanel and Louis Vuitton. Mercedes-Benzes and BMWs shimmer in automobile showrooms. Apartment towers are sprouting like concrete weeds, and a futuristic commercial hub called Cyber City houses many of the world’s most respected corporations."

Gurgaon has 1.5 million people in it so there is the problem of scale. Plus, their problems are much vaster:

"Gurgaon, located about 15 miles south of the national capital, New Delhi, would seem to have everything, except consider what it does not have: a functioning citywide sewer or drainage system; reliable electricity or water; and public sidewalks, adequate parking, decent roads or any citywide system of public transportation. Garbage is still regularly tossed in empty lots by the side of the road."

Vast problems or not, I wouldn't have garbage service unless I contracted it out. Or water unless I hooked into and paid the city of Savannah. According to the 2012 county budget the SSD will have police protection from the SCMPD--for $14 million dollars. The people of Gurgaon have all of those issues to deal with and more--as there is no functioning government:

"In Gurgaon, economic growth is often the product of a private sector improvising to overcome the inadequacies of the government. To compensate for electricity blackouts, Gurgaon’s companies and real estate developers operate massive diesel generators capable of powering small towns. No water? Drill private borewells. No public transportation? Companies employ hundreds of private buses and taxis. Worried about crime? Gurgaon has almost four times as many private security guards as police officers."

Maybe I'm just big-talking because I do enjoy the roads and the sewer service out here and I probably have a couple of bags of leaves a week for the big orange county truck to pick up, but did you know the county is going to collect $775,000 in beer taxes alone? Add the wine and spirits taxes to that and its over a million dollars. The county will collect over a million dollars in business licenses in the SSD. Total expenditures for the SSD in 2012 will be over $25 million dollars. Fully 56% of that goes to policing. I wonder what those crafty Indians would do about a district that collected tax money but derived little benefit from it--and then threatened to raise fees? Residents would have to provide all of their services on their own I guess, like Gurgaon:

“You could call it the United States of Gurgaon. You are on your own.”

I wonder how much a private security guard for my street would be?

Savannah River Landing: What's Behind The Bulldozer?

2011-06-08T19:40:00.004-05:00

I swear this is my last post on the Savannah River Landing for awhile; it's just that I'm a sucker for conspiracy theories and there seems to be a whole Area 51's worth of them surrounding this project. Here is what an SMN commenter said after the Savannah River Landing Bulldozer Rodeo post:

"Look behind the bulldozer and you might find out what the motivation is behind the fiasco."

I remember the first time I posted about the Savannah River Landing, after I had walked through most of the acreage assigned to luxury townhomes and urbanist heaven and found nothing but dirt, scuttling crabs, and an abandoned, dangerous structure, area politician John McMasters weighed in with this conspiracy-like bit:

"The largest undeveloped tract of land within the TAD itself sits right across the street from Savannah River Landing. Just across Presidents Street, like 80 feet away from the imaginary gold gates into the Emerald City. It runs eastward along the boundary of the tad and juts back towards the south into some of the murkiest and bogish land within in the TAD. This parcel is owned by NorthPoint Development and Senator Eric Johnson has worked for NP for a number of years.

3 fine points for consideration.

1) What will happen to the land value of NorthPoint's acerage after the improvements paid for through the TAD are completed... remember that one of the biggest bucket of money in that $57,000,000 is going to raise Presidents Street and redirect flood control problems within the TAD area?

2) Who is paying for the $9,000,000 River Walk Extension connecting River Street to the Emerald City called Savannah River Landing? The tax payers of the state of Georgia. Wow, such largess just for the economic development of Savannah?

3) Study the history of recent bills in the state capital both last session and the one prior and you will find all sorts of efforts focused on building "public private" infrastructure. Something that was tossed around was an overpass to connect the Emerald City to the "south side" of Presidents Street.

Now connect the dots and ask yourself who benefits the most from this giant TAD along Presidents Street?"

Right now, I don't see benefit except to contractors and perhaps North Point--and bond brokers. From a highly critical report on redevelopment agencies, why bond debt is so popular:

"Redevelopment agencies may sell bonded debt without voter approval. Unlike the
state, counties and school districts, the debts need not be justified to, or approved by, the taxpayers. A quick majority vote by the agency is all that is needed."

I wonder how many times Savannah's debt has been sold? Redevelopment bond brokers apparently LOVE selling this debt:

"The commissions are high and the buyers plentiful. Since the debt is secured
against future property tax revenue, they are seen as secure and lucrative. If an agency over-extends, then surely the city's general fund will cover the debts."

This is precisely what is happening now--Chatham County taxpayers are now on the hook for $1.3 million a year while the $20 million bond debt has probably been bought and sold as often as a used washing machine in the Penny Saver. Probably more. Not only that, but since the city has to divert over a million dollars to debt repayment, that is money that can't be used for other city services--like police, fire, and even poverty reduction programs.

Once again, central planning has failed to accurately predict what consumers might want. Extending the river walk was lofty, yet typical RDA/TAD thinking--even before the real estate meltdown. Now, the mayor says the Savannah River Landing will be transformed in 20 years. So will city, county, and board of education budgets--and not for the better.

Savannah River Landing Bulldozer Rodeo

2011-06-05T13:32:00.007-05:00

The Savannah River Landing Redevelopment Agency is going to chainsaw through over a million dollars a year in debt repayment for the next 20 years unless someone develops something there that can be taxed.:

"Before real estate here and elsewhere tanked in 2009, the blueprint called for private property owners at Savannah River Landing to pay off this $20 million note through their property taxes. Taxpayers wouldn’t pay a dime. But no private development means no taxes. Hence taxpayers are stuck with the tab to fast-track plans to elevate President Street Extension to end street flooding and to widen the Bilbo Canal to improve drainage. And that unpleasantness gets worse. Beginning next year, that $626,504 annual bill is going to double to $1.3 million. It will remain at that higher amount until 2032."

Wow. Maybe Mayor Johnson and Tony Thomas should get this guy on the line--he seems to know what to do with acres and acres of dirt--create a heavy machinery playground:

"The 10-employee park has five pieces of machinery, including a pair of Caterpillar D5 track-type bulldozers and three Caterpillar 315CL hydraulic excavators. Dig This sells three-hour packages that consist of a 30-minute safety and operation orientation followed by two hours of maneuvering either a bulldozer or excavator.  Guests can either dig a trench up to 10 ft deep or build an earthen mound; there are also skill tests like picking and moving 2,000-lb tires or scooping basketballs from atop safety cones.   Packages are priced at $400, which reflects equipment maintenance and insurance costs. Patrons 14 and older can play in the dirt."  

I'm thinking bulldozer rodeos. Caterpillar vs. JCB (with JCB being the home team). You got a better idea?

High Speed Rail Deal Breaker

2011-05-31T20:18:00.005-05:00

I saw the other day that Governor Nathan Deal is heading to Washington, D.C. with Atlanta’s mayor, Kasim Reed to lobby for the Port of Savannah’s deepening and to dip their gubernatorial and mayoral biscuits into Obama's high speed rail gravy:

“The Democratic-Republican duo will also be paying a June 1 visit to U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, to persuade him that Georgia is indeed serious about bringing mass transit – i.e., rail – to the state.”

I'm not sure how mass transit in Georgia would scale for me. Right now, if I wanted to take a train to Atlanta from Savannah, it would cost me $176 and more than 30 hours. Amtrak would take me to Raleigh, NC then to Charlotte, NC and from Charlotte, to Atlanta. It would then take me another 30 hours to get back home. 60 hour round trip! Obviously, Amtrak isn't built for the Savannah to Atlanta run. Or I could take a Greyhound bus for $53.55 one-way. That would take about 4 hours and 40 minutes (it could be less if I departed at 1:30 a.m., but there is almost zero chance that I would saunter into Savannah’s Greyhound station at 1:00 in the morning). I also would not have any choice about who might be sitting around me. Or I could do what I usually do and drive my car and for about the same price in gas as the Greyhound ticket get there in about 4 hours--plus bring my wife, who generally smells nice, and usually makes helluva good cranberry-oatmeal cookies for road trips.

After meeting with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, the man with $8 billion in choo-choo gravy, Governor Deal felt more hopeful about getting some:

"LaHood was very pleased with the fact that both the mayor and I were here together and he had already heard good reports about us working on projects cooperatively."

Well, gold stars for both the governor and the mayor for working together! I sort of understand that this is more about getting $600 million federal dollars to deepen the port at Savannah, but does Governor Deal have to shine on Secretary LaHood about high speed rail, just to secure it? The Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor plan that runs from DC to Charlotte, then on to Atlanta, has a spur that runs through Macon, to Savannah, then on to Jacksonville. I looked at the study that was specific to the Charlotte to Macon, but scaled it to how it would be useful to me. The low end of the high speed rail would be 90 mph--that's about 2 hours and 45 minutes to Atlanta. Honestly, that's only about 10 miles an hour faster than I drive it. But at the top end a train could be going 200 mph. That's about an hour and a half travel time.

See? I'm trying to make high speed rail make sense. The plan says that by 2025, 660,000 one-way riders will be using the Charlotte-Atlanta run. The cost to the passenger would be roughly 21 cents per mile--in the Savannah to Atlanta case about $52. Gosh, I sort of want to go to D.C. with Nathan and Kasim and give Ray LaHood a back rub or something!

Too good to be true? Annual maintenance costs alone would be $30-$60 million dollars per year. That's a fairly broad estimate--I'm betting even more, probably in the $90-$100 million dollar range. More nastiness:

"Estimated capital construction and vehicle acquisition costs for the entire corridor range from about $1.8 billion for the 90 to 100 mph cases to $3.4 billion for the 150 mph electric and 200 mph cases. The total amortized annual expenditure for initial capital over a 40-year horizon at government borrowing rates for the 125 mph technology option would be about $120 million per year."

The inestimable Bill Dawers, the City Talk columnist and recent blogger, wrote this recently about Deal's trip to DC:

"Maybe a conservative like Deal will finally be able to squelch the silly arguments about rail not paying for itself. Highways and roads don’t pay for themselves either. Some investments in infrastructure are best done by the government, and I have no doubt that an investment in high speed rail and passenger rail in key areas would pay off big in the future."

Here's a squelcher for you. This plan will not be self-sustaining in my or probably your lifetime:

"The 90 mph 110 mph, 150 mph electric and the 200 mph technologies were found to require subsidies for the entire analysis period through 2040."

That's not just silly. It's a deal breaker.

Ogeechee Road Of Death

2011-05-29T07:50:00.004-05:00

The state of Georgia ranked 10th in the nation for pedestrian fatalities according to the new Transportation For America report:

"Between 2000 and 2009, 1,545 people were killed while walking in Georgia. This is a share of the more than 47,700 Americans who died on our streets and roads, whether walking to school, approaching a bus stop, or strolling to the grocery store. Children, older Americans, and racial and ethnic minorities were killed in disproportionate numbers. An overwhelming proportion of these deaths share a common thread: they occurred along “arterial” roadways that were dangerous by design, streets engineered for speeding cars with little or no provision for people on foot, in wheelchairs or on bicycles."

Chatham County isn't in the top 10 of Georgia counties for pedestrian deaths--our per capita rate of roadway death being 2.6 per 100K (the top place for pedestrian lethality is the watermelon capital of the world, Crisp County, at 4.08 deaths per 100K). Chatham County is 12th. In a handy, if not ghoulish, data tool, the Transportation For America folks provide a way to Google map local pedestrian fatalities.

When I zoomed in to Savannah and started counting the little death markers with a an exclamation point inside, obvious patterns emerge. Of the 50 or so death markers that I counted, 11 (or about 22%) of all pedestrian deaths in Chatham County in the years 2000-2009 occurred on Ogeechee Road. No other arterial road even comes close, with the exception of Abercorn St. which had 9 pedestrian deaths on approximately double the length of roadway. Clicking on each death marker gives statistical information about each incident--age, race, sex of the victim and the date of the fatal accident. It also provides a Google Map picture of the location. The Ogeechee Road Death Stats:

Average of age of pedestrian when killed--43
73% male
45% white
28% Hispanic
18% black
Most dangerous stretch of Ogeechee is between Chatham Parkway & Dean Forest Road.

Of course, the Transportation For America suggests more federal dollars expended to make the roadways safer:

"Congress is currently contemplating elimination of dedicated funding for Transportation Enhancements and the Safe Routes to School program, the two largest funding sources for bike and pedestrian facilities. Without these committed funding streams, states will likely reduce spending for safety features like sidewalks, crosswalks and trails."

In the next 10 years, with the population shifting west and increasingly Hispanic, it would probably make sense for city/county planners to install more sidewalks on Savannah's arterial roads--or lay in some more body bags.

Make A Donation In Westboro Baptist Church's Name

2011-05-24T16:36:00.005-05:00

The foul-mouthed Lisa Lampanelli did it--sending over $40,000 to Gay Men's Health Crisis--$1000 for every Westboro Baptist Church member that showed up to protest one of her shows.

Why not Savannah?

For every Westboro creep that protests at Congregation Mickve Israel or at a public school this week, make a pledge to a charity that Westboro hates--like the Gay Men's Health Crisis, Georgia Equality-Savannah, or Savannah Pride--or to any of the churches that were picketed.

And do make your donation in Westboro Baptist Church's name. Keep the documentation, uh, straight.

Cameron Diaz Has No Hope

2011-05-13T18:51:00.006-05:00

Maxim asked addle-pated sex monkey and upcoming Bad Teacher star Cameron Diaz if she still thought marriage was a dying institution and she said:

"I think we have to make our own rules. I don’t think we should live our lives in relationships based off of old traditions that don’t suit our world any longer."

Cameron Diaz's new world relationships and rules seem sex-charged, sex-fueled, and sex obsessive. According to her Maxim interview, Cameron Diaz's favorite sport is sex. Her favorite word is sex--because it just sounds sexy. She dry humps someone or something every day. She's always in the mood for sex. Matt Dillon had her. Justin Timberlake had a go with her. Alex Rodriguez is evidently reviving his baseball career with her. And so it goes in the new world of able bodied, attractive, twenty-something actors and models. Wait--not twenty something, more like close to forty something--Diaz is 39. Maybe it was just the medium--Maxim isn't all that concerned with concepts like marriage, long-term relationships, or the hope inherent in both old world concepts. I went to a wedding reception last weekend at Old Fort Jackson that was suffused with all of the hope, grace, and old-timey crap like love that New Worlders like Cameron Diaz eschew for nights or weekends with men with strong hands (the body part Diaz looks at first in a man), dripping with Victoria Secret model secret sauce.

Dr. Keith Ablow, part of the Fox News Medical A-Team, in his bid for a weekend, a Friday night, or at least 15 minutes in a car with Diaz, agrees that marriage is a dying institution:

"As a healer, I can’t help looking askance at anything that depletes energy, optimism, mood and passion to the extent that marriage does. It is, without a doubt, one of the leading causes of major depression in the nation."

De-energized, passionless, and depressed. Sounds brutal. Marriage as a terminal illness death sentence. Aren't there medical boards that whip sad sacks like Ablow with a Hippocratic Oath for crushing hope and sowing seeds of despair? The scene at Old Fort Jackson wasn't a tableau of the misery and hopelessness, strife and anger, arguments and divorce that is sure to come according to the hopeless. Rich and Rebecca's reception was quaint--old fashioned even--a hopeful swing of a ragtime band:

Old Fort Jackson was built along the banks of the Savannah River to guard against naval attack. Nifty then that this marriage starts off in a fort--defending itself from the puerile, despairing hordes who want nothing more than to be beautiful and sexy all of their lives, to have sex indiscriminately, often, and often meaninglessly, to rob and pilfer hope from others who endeavor to make a marriage work and grow strong--even understanding implicitly that marriage seems old-fashioned like other ancient concepts like trust, honor, and respect and explicitly that marriage often ends, statistically, in destruction at least half the time.

Marriage is about hopes and dreams, about horizons, about the beauty and grace of living with and understanding another. Cameron Diaz and others like her are hopeless.

Mayor Johnson Complains About Complainers

2011-04-28T16:28:00.007-05:00

In a guest blog post on the Creative Coast blog the other day, Savannah Mayor Otis Johnson opened up his mayoral copy of the DMS-IV and diagnosed his critics. I didn't think Dr. Johnson was THAT kind of doctor:

"Reading blogs about Savannah makes me believe that we suffer with “the glass is half full vs. the glass is half empty” syndrome. A significant portion of our population sees Savannah as a great place to work, live, and rear children. Another sizable portion of the population sees Savannah as a place where they can only find things to complain about and people to criticize. The positive people will identify something that needs improving, offer suggestions on how to improve the situation, and get involved in the solution. The negative people only find fault, assign blame, and wait for someone else to correct the situation. I guess the syndrome is a reflection of human nature. There are doers and complainers."

In Johnson's finger-pointing and calling out of local bloggers (not to mention the psychoanalyzing), those "negative nabobs of negativism", (spoken by VP Spiro Agnew, written by William Safire), I realized I've seen this kind of thin-skinned response to criticism before--from another professor who is struggling with frightful realities and trying to apply a community organizer solution to an economic problem:

"In Obama's eyes, he is always the aggrieved, always the violated, always the victim of some injustice. He is America's virtuous and valorous hero, a man of unusually pure motives and uncommon wisdom, under assault by the forces of darkness. It is all so darn unfair."

There's more than a little in common between Johnson and Obama and how they react to criticism. No doubt, the criticism has been raw and punishing. For example, from the comments beneath the mayor's post:

"Everyone who thinks Otis Johnson is for all the people should watch the video of the speech he gave at St. Paul AME Church in January 2011..he clearly pointed out that it’s “US AND THEM”. How’s that for being a Mayor who should represent ALL citizens? Many citizens are sick and tired of the Mayor playing the race card in an attempt to distract “them” from the many big issues this city has on its plate."

I think the mayor's blog post complaining about the complainers is a preemptive shot before next week's townhall meeting. The topic of that meeting? Business. First time since 2004 a townhall meeting will be about business concerns. Might be too little, too late.

Even if Ruel Joyner lays waste at the townhall meeting next week, (and from the looks of his comments on the mayor's post, his quiver will be full) at least Mayor Johnson is another candidate for Best Local Blogger in Connect Savannah's 2011 Best of Savannah ballot. That's doing something, right?

Can Jack Kingston Really Say No To Eva Longoria?

2011-04-22T06:41:00.005-05:00

Someone asked Jack Kingston (GA-R) about the feasibility of building a $500 million dollar Smithsonian Institution National Latino Museum on the National Mall. Uh, maybe, he said:

"Representative Jack Kingston, a Republican of Georgia, said in an interview that he supported a Latino museum as long as it was not financed with federal money, and as long as he was assured that the museum would not become “an interest group’s platform to advance political agendas.”

The spokeswoman for the National Council of La Raza seems to validate Jack's concerns:

"Lisa Navarrete, a spokeswoman for the National Council of La Raza, a Latino advocacy organization, said it was unfortunate that Latino children who now travel to the Mall cannot see “their community and history and legacy reflected.” She said that a museum that accomplishes that is particularly crucial now because discussions of immigration issues have created a “toxic” environment for Latinos. “It’s even more important to show other Americans that our roots go back centuries on this continent."

Coming to this country illegally does make relationships toxic, I would think. None of that matters though--Eva Longoria supports the museum. Think Jack can still vote no?

Savannah Dog Park Shame

2011-04-21T08:25:00.014-05:00

How not to get the public and Savannah City Council interested in a dog park--prevaricate and morally equivocate:

“Savannah as a city needs a dog park. It’s kind of a shame as a city that we don’t have one. It just doesn’t make sense to me that, as a diverse city, we don’t have a dog park.”

There are lot of shameful things going on in the Savannah area--unemployment, infant mortality, crushing poverty for about 25% of the city's residents, and city council's closed door meetings and decisions, but not having a dog park may not be one of them. There is a dog park at 41st and Drayton in the Starland District. It's even on DogFriendly.com, for heavens sake. (It does cost, I think, so its probably not a true public park). There's another one, that doesn't seem to have the best doggie amenities over by East Broad Elementary. Tom Barton, I think, goes about getting a dog park in a more positive way:

"A dog park to a dog is like a mall to a teenager, a day spa to a woman or a fishing hole to a guy. It’s a place to run leash-free and do stuff like chase tennis balls, sniff other dogs and make mischief without getting yelled at. "

There are options in the Savannah area though. The Whitemarsh Island YMCA Preserve Trail:

The trail starts at the YMCA on Johnny Mercer Blvd. and wraps around the undeveloped wooded area bounded by Johnny Mercer Blvd and Bryan Woods Road. There's a fantastic bridge over a small wetland area that parallels Bryan Woods Rd:

If you take a left at the trail terminus, the trail will take you to a clearing--a perfect venue for gamboling, romping, ball chasing, and butt sniffing (mostly for the dogs).

The proposed dog park at Nathaniel Greene Park isn't universally popular--from a letter to the editor writer:

"As someone who will be directly affected by the Nathanael Greene dog park proposed by Tom Barton, the Savannah Morning News and the owners of TailsSpin pet supplies store in Habersham Village, I am writing to express my intentions to vehemently fight any dog park proposed for Nathanael Greene Park."

Sounds like a bull terrier type of guy. He offers another way:

"I suggest Mr. Barton and his dog park supporters look at a Chatham County map to see if they can find another area for their dog park."

Well, if you are up for a little bit of a drive, there are other options in Chatham County your dog or dogs would love to explore. Charlie gives the YMCA trail the traditional paws down, tails up salute!

Coastal Empire Fair's New Sideshow: Mary Osborne, Half Citizen, Half Alderwoman

2011-04-18T17:16:00.005-05:00

I guess the devolution is complete for the Savannah City Council. When the Coastal Empire Fair comes back around in October, there will be rusty trailer pulled up in the back, in between the Himalaya and the Funhouse full of mirrors, hard by the Italian sausage and fried dough wagon. Step over the corn dog puke drying on the concourse and pay a dollar to the carny barker (Come one, come all, see the Amazing Felser Express Complete and Total Ignorance! See the Half Citizen/Half Alderwoman Twist Her Body And Your Mind Into Impossible Pretzels of Logic!) to see Savannah's City Council freak show. Besides being on the state attorney general's daily to-do list, (Oh, its Tuesday, another open meetings violation down there in Savannah), this council has opened itself up for more behind-closed-doors, public meeting law violating, costing 50K, confabs where litigants will have to be vetted for WHO they know and WHAT their public standing is before being awarded damages in the amount Mary Osborne, city alderwoman received for her flood damage. See the flexibility!

"What this apparently means is that City Council is flexible when it comes to damage claims that are legitimately the city’s fault. The axiom “ignorance of the law is no excuse” doesn’t strictly apply in every case. Instead, the city has “the Osborne rule.” What goes for Ms. Osborne should go for other property owners with damage claims that are more than six months old."

Ms. Osborne explains how the city council awarded her 50K for flood damage when it was past statutory limit:

“I am a citizen first and an alderwoman second. Certainly I have the same right as any citizen to petition."

And she has every right, like every other citizen who isn't half alderwoman, to be REJECTED by city council for falling outside of the statutory limit. City attorney James Blackburn, sort of a one-eyed leader of the three-ring council circus, oozes oily disingenuousness:

"City Attorney James Blackburn agreed that had a similar case been presented, city lawyers would have raised “every question in litigation,” He added, though, that nuisance law is “very peculiar” and complex."

R.Perry Sentell Jr., Marion and W. Colquitt Carter Chair in Tort and Insurance Law Emeritus at the University of Georgia has this to say about ante litem suits against Georgia municipalities:

"No person, firm, or corporation, having a claim for money damages against any municipal corporation on account of injuries to person or property, shall bring any suit at law or equity against said municipal corporation for the same, without first, and within six months of the happening of the event upon which such claim is predicated, presenting in writing such claim to the governing authority of said municipality for adjustment, stating the time, place, and extent of such injury, as nearly as practicable, and the negligence which caused the same, and no such suit shall be entertained by the courts against such municipality until the cause of action therein shall have been first presented to said governing authority for adjustment."

He goes on to further state that, "chiseled in stone in 1899, this clear-cut commandment ostensibly offers the security of a comprehensible rule which one may work."

Ante litem law has been around since 1899, (the year Blackburn probably graduated law school), and doesn't seem very peculiar or complex to me. Take the incident, subtract 6 months, if its in the window, lets talk. If not, adios. Like the professor emeritus said, CHISELED IN STONE. Well, except for in Savannah, where everything is pliable, malleable, and just so darn complex. Like what to do with a half citizen/half alderwoman.

The Ignobility Of Ignorance And Intolerance

2011-04-09T08:01:00.007-05:00

The SMN editorial staff was being overly charitable, I think, about the kerfuffle between Rev. Jim Lewis of Old Savannah City Mission and some of the residents of Feiler Terrace neighborhood. The editorial about Lewis wanting to set up a homeless shelter in an empty warehouse that sits beside the Feiler Terrace neighborhood said (link not available):

"This is one of those instances when two noble forces are colliding--the desire to help Savannah's needy and the desire to protect the integrity of the neighborhood."

Maybe one noble force and a half--with other half being the force of ignorance and intolerance. At a meeting between Lewis and Feiler Terrace residents to discuss the shelter project, one of the Feiler Terrace residents, evidently the neighborhood's beacon of integrity and tolerance, said:

“Now you’re trying to bring this stuff in our neighborhood. Why would you bring this into our neighborhood? We don’t need it here. ... Take it into your community."

From what I understand the residents of Feiler Terrace are upset about property values going down because of the homeless shelter. But what sits there now is an EMPTY warehouse. Vacant property does more to damage property values than occupied property. From the Journal of Urban Affairs:

"Vacant and abandoned property is increasingly recognized as a significant barrier to the revitalization of central cities.Findings indicate that vacant and abandoned property is perceived as a significant problem by elected and appointed officials in the nation's largest central cities. This type of property affects many aspects of community life, including housing and neighborhood vitality, crime prevention efforts, and commercial district vitality."

Besides ignorance, there is more than a whiff of intolerance for the Rev. Jim Lewis and his mission of mercy. A cursory glance at a map will shows that the Greenbriar Children's Center sits less than 1/2 mile from Feiler Terrace. In fact it's catty-corner from Rev. Lewis' proposed site. Greenbriar's programs include, Family Preservation, Independent Living, Early Childhood Education and Care, Residential Care, Emergency Shelter, Runaway/Homeless, and Project Safe Place. Maybe that explains the "We don't need it here" and "Take into your own community" means--there is saturation in the market!

If that's not the case though, I don't understand how one community can say, with anything resembling virtuous nobility, that those who are homeless and by definition, bereft of their own community, should be cast away.

Ideologues! They're Frackin Everywhere!

2011-04-05T18:34:00.005-05:00

In this morning's Savannah Morning News op-ed, Kenneth Zapp, (not Roger Troutman's brother, I don't think), complains about how public employees are being battered by ideological meanies:

"The current attacks on public employees follow a sad trend by ideologues who believe that the private market economy functions perfectly but for inappropriate interferences."

By ideologues, I assume Zapp means Republicans or conservatives or tea partiers. Or maybe just folks who listen to Rushbo and/or Hannity (which really might be all of the above). Zealots all. So how come Zapp sounds like an ideologue himself? Here is what he says about the efficacy of public plan health care (Obamacare):

"We have seen the market elevated to a holy status in our country. Unfortunately, the market is not infallible, especially in health care. We do not need more ideological noise. The market will not fix our mess!"

I like that. Capitalism and free markets as ideological noise. Where does Zapp get his facts to support his, ahem, non-ideological opinions? Why from public radio! Nothing ideological there.

"A recent survey cited on public radio found that more than 70 percent favored the public alternative."

And...

"Another public radio report found private insurance companies denying urgently needed services due to inadvertent (and irrelevant) mistakes patients made on forms."

Thanks goodness, Mr. Zapp is on the ideological beat. Ideologues just ruin public discourse, don't they?

Regina Thomas Has Gas Pains

2011-03-28T07:01:00.005-05:00

I'm not sure how I ended up on the receiving end of a Regina Thomas (Regina4congress@bellsouth.net) email blast about buying gas but I did. In her email, Ms. Thomas, a Savannah mayoral candidate, offers up tips on buying gas because as she puts it:

"Considering how high gas is hope this helps."

While I'm sure the tips she shares (fill up in the morning when the ground is colder and the gas is denser, etc.) are helpful to some minute degree, it is the other statement she makes in her email that is deleterious to local business. Her stated priorities as mayor would be:

"To focus on fiscal accountability and stability and to stimulate Savannah’s economy by awarding contracts to local, qualified companies She also cited offering expanded tax credits as one way to attract new companies."

Here is what Thomas said in her email:

"Dad & George told me "running on empty" meant you were running on dirt, George also said that Enmark gas had more dirt. Bottom of the barrel."

I'm not sure Enmark, a subsidiary of Colonial Oil, cares much what candidate Thomas says about their gas--but if she becomes mayor, they might. Particularly when she makes consensus building statements like this:

“What affects one neighborhood affects all neighborhoods. We are one Savannah; this city belongs to all of us. If we are to move forward, we must seek common ground.”

Just maybe not from a bottom of the barrel LOCAL oil distributor. Maybe Thomas smarts from the almost $10,000 the Demeres of Colonial Oil contributed to Republican candidates statewide and nationally in 2008. Maybe Ms. Thomas can explain how she is going to help local businesses as the mayor at 24e later this week when she ran against John Barrow on an anti-big business platform.

It's just politics, but trying to stimulate the local economy and seeking ONE Savannah while running down one of the more prosperous local businesses is just, well, bottom of the barrel.

Rochelle Small-Toney, Savannah's New City Manager: Winning!

2011-03-26T08:12:00.003-05:00

And just like that Rochelle Small-Toney becomes Savannah's Charlie Sheen:

"In a 8-0 vote a few minutes into Thursday’s council meeting, Rochelle Small-Toney was appointed city manager. Her acceptance ends months of public turmoil about the search but leaves lingering resentments about how racially divided the city is in the wake of the process."

Winning!

Quick quote quiz--who said what--Charlie or Rochelle? (Answers below)

1. It’s been a tsunami of media and I’ve been riding it on a mercury surfboard.

2. If your destination is Paris and the flight is a little turbulent, you don’t look back. What you look forward to is Paris.

3. A necessary evil? I’ll say it is necessary. That is the safeguard to ensure that restaurants you dine in, that they meet a certain level of public safety standards. The evil part might be going through the proces

4. I'm dealing with fools and trolls.

5. I don’t think I was unclear, frankly. When the issue came up about raises, I was very forthcoming about the information. What happened to the information after it was given to the public is beyond my control. None of that was withheld from anyone. People took the information and created whatever story they wanted to create with that

6. I'm dealing with soft targets and its just strafing runs in my underwear before my first cup of coffee. .

1.CS 2.RST 3.RST 4.CS 5.RST 6.CS

The Mystics Of Savannah's Metropolitan Planning Commission

2011-03-23T18:42:00.004-05:00

I'm glad the mystics of the MPC are including obesity, climate change, and the interconnectedness of life in the update of the Savannah-Chatham County Comprehensive Plan. It might need a little feng shui since 2006. The natural resources administrator for the MPC warned:

"For instance, building more sidewalks could lead to more walking and healthier residents. It’s really a neat approach when you see how everything is connected. You’re going to fail if you don’t consider that.”

Uh, see how everything is connected to what? Sidewalks connected to obesity connected to climate change connected to aging connected to empty houses? According to Bill Dawers the other day, Chatham County has a 13.6% residential vacancy rate. Savannah has a 15.1% vacancy rate. (It wasn't made clear, but I'm hoping that's home + apartments and not just homes). In comparison, Las Vegas has about a 19% vacancy rate and is ranked the #2 Emptiest City in America. The #4 emptiest city is San Bernadino with a 17% vacancy rate. The natural resources coordinator is absolutely right--if the interconnectedness of life isn't considered, sidewalks could be built in front of empty houses. Seems like those folks are already skinny. Really, really skinny. Like non-existent skinny.

Another speaker warned that the seas were rising at a catastrophic rate of 3 millimeters a year so plans need to be made now to locate sewage and water treatment facilities in safe, presumably, dry areas. By the year 2111, the Atlantic will have advanced almost 12 inches which I'm pretty sure doesn't imperil too much except for maybe folks' beach blankets and bocce ball sets. I suppose by then, humans will recycle their own waste and they will probably have grown gills as an evolutionary safeguard against inundation.

People who participate in the planning process will help determine how the people of Savannah live their lives in the future. A doctor speaking at the meeting said:

"Residents participating in the planning process are in a unique position to help determine the health of entire community for decades to come. You all are going to have a much greater health impact on the community than I have ever been able to do in the health offices of Savannah."

That's not the impact of crystals or pyramid power he's talking about. He's referring to the power of regulation. The interconnectedness of which is already strangling Savannah's business community.

More Feedback For Bill Dawers

2011-03-09T16:52:00.005-05:00

Just a brief note about something I noticed the other day--as I was finishing reading Bill Dawer's latest City Talk column about the Artists' Square planned for Telfair Square in April, and the feedback he received on his story about how Savannah could be a stronger art market, I was amused to see this tidbit:

"I got some negative feedback to that column, too, with one person noting in detail all the demographic reasons why it’s tough to make a living as a visual artist in Savannah. Sure, a bigger and wealthier city would be better for artists, but I was writing then and now about Savannah as an art destination, not about the dearth of local art buyers."

Now I could be mistaken but I have more than a sneaking suspicion that Mr. Dawers is referring to this post Art In Savannah: Another Victim Of Demography that I put up in response to what I thought were credible concerns Mr. Dawers had about the art scene in Savannah. Here is the nut graf from his Savannah Could Be A Stronger Art Scene article:

"Over the years, I've had countless conversations with working artists about the positives and negatives of being in Savannah. I'll sum up those conversations pretty simply: Savannah is a great place for creating art, but a tough place for selling it."

So yeah, despite Mr. Dawers protestations and unless I'm misunderstanding what "tough place for selling it" means, he did write about Savannah's "dearth of local art buyers". And one more observation--my post only clarified why perhaps Santa Fe and Charleston have more vibrant art scenes than Savannah which Mr. Dawers certainly asserted (demography matters)--it was meant to add to the conversation. Realistically, not negatively.

Viper Attack At Savannah Train Station

2011-03-04T17:28:00.003-05:00

A team of TSA vipers attacked a 9 year old at the Amtrak station in Savannah:

The TSA VIPR team, according to the TSA's Blogger Bob, is a whole slew of federals in latex gloves:

"It's a team that's made up of Federal Air Marshals, Surface Transportation Security Inspectors, Transportation Security Officers, Behavior Detection Officers and Explosive Detection Canine teams. The teams provide a random high-visibility surge into a transit system and work with state and local security, and law enforcement officials to expand the unpredictability of security measures to detect, deter, disrupt or defeat potential criminal and/or terrorist operations."

Makes you wonder what the kid in the green T-shirt is thinking about. Probably not Allahu Akbar.

More here.

Henry "Hank" Wilfong Can't Get Over It

2011-02-26T10:46:00.006-05:00

Henry "Hank" Wilfong, identified by the Savannah Morning News as a community leader in its 3,382nd story on Rochelle Small-Toney and the the city manager's position, has nursed a hurt, a grudge, against the benign racism of his life--for FIFTY YEARS--yet he tells those who object to the manner in which Small-Toney was voted into the city manager's position to move along quickly:

"His blunt advice to those who have doubts: "Get over it."

Mr. Wilfong comments on Small-Toney's eventual nomination as city manager:

"How great it was to sit in the Council Chambers and be a part of history. I wish that all could share the joy that some felt. I'm sorry that some had some pain to bear. But, then, that's life. Change is inevitable. What we do with the Change-now that's the key. I anxiously await to see how the various "parties" react. I wait to see if we "come together", now that we've had a chance to say our piece. I will not try to force folk to do anything they do not want to do. But, i welcome all folk who really do want to come together. Let's talk. As for the rest of ya'll..well, ya'll are on your own. Be a part of our community, if you choose. Don't be, if you choose not to..."

Let's unpack that for a minute in context of Wilfong's previous life as gun-toting Black Panther who has been criticized in the past for spending too much time in his government job pushing for black businesses. Readers of the Savannah Morning News or viewers of city council meetings know Wilfong from his numerous letters to the editor and his several appearances before city council in relation to the city manager search and he comes across as a concerned citizen that just wants everyone to come together. Here's how Mr. Wilfong used to conduct business as a CPA:

"For much of my professional life when I got up and dressed in the morning, I had three- five- seven Magnum hanging under my arm and a twenty-five automatic with hollow point shells in my boot....Wilfong showed up in San Francisco wearing, as usual, a big Black Panther style leather coat and accompanies by some of his Black Panther friends from Oakland. One of the agency leaders tried to intimidate Wilfong by opening his coat to reveal his .38 special. In response, Wilfong let his suit jacket open to reveal his .357 Magnum."

Good thing there was extra security at last week's city council meeting, eh? Wilfong's plea for coming together in the wake of an unpopular vote for city manager doesn't exactly jibe with some of his other associations either--especially when he was removed from the Small Business Administration for steering too much business to black owned businesses instead of ALL small businesses:

"Wilfong was in charge of the SBA's billion dollar plus 8-A program designed to help small business people enter the mainstream...Hispanic business communities have protested to the White House Wilfong's public expressions of concentrating on Black enterprises for funding."

I guess Hank got over that as he now president of the National Association of Small Disadvantaged Businesses. There's really no reason to distinguish which small disadvantaged business he's referring to is there? Well, maybe just one or two--the association intends to help--his wife and mother-in-law (smart guy, that Wilfong):

"We’ve got two business folk that need a hand up. These two, are both NASDB members. And, they both are related to me. If you got a problem with that, then, that’s just gonna be your problem. We believe in helping folk. And, we believe in starting “at home”. We’ve believed in that philosophy, for as long as we have philosophized. "

Charity starts at home and if you got a problem with that, then that's your problem. Kind of like getting over the city manager hiring. Its all kinds of disingenuous for Mr. Wilfong to claim wanting the community to come together when its fairly clear, he isn't that interested in togetherness--unless it suits his long-held beliefs--and is the right kind of folks coming together.

The National Forum Of Black Public Administrators Reaches To The White House

2011-02-15T19:43:00.005-05:00

I was sitting poolside, at my parent's retirement condo pool, and surfing around on their really spotty clubhouse wifi when I pulled up this SMN story with this Detroit/D.C.-like lede:

"Internal affairs interviewed 2 about Small-Toney bond before Savannah-Chatham chief called off investigation."

I sprayed Stoly out of my nose. Seriously, I hate wasting good liquor like that for the D league shenanigans of Mayor Johnson and the other members of Savannah's chapter of the National Forum of Black Public Administrators (NFBPA). Kwame Kilpatrick and Marion Berry are rolling their eyes. Rookies. A good many of the names connected to the city manager debacle are NFBPA members--Mayor Johnson, Rochelle Small-Toney (acting city manager), Carol Bell (central services director who was investigated by SCMPD internal affairs in connection with the leak of the information that Small-Toney could not be bonded by Wells Fargo), Van Johnson (city council alderman and president of the Savannah chapter of the NFBPA), and Police Chief Willie Lovett (who directed the internal affairs investigation). Alderman Tony Thomas finds the whole internal affairs investigation troubling:

"It's bothersome. If the mode of operation is threats of losing your job and threats of polygraph, then we're in really bad shape at City Hall. If our senior staff is working under those types of conditions, we have to ask ourselves what's going on."

The raison d'etre for the NFBPA is clear--"to promote, strengthen and expand the roles of Blacks in all aspects of public administration." I'd say that the NFBPA is very successful with that goal in Savannah--the mayor, the acting city manager, city councilman, the police chief, the fire chief, and the district attorney are all NFBPA members. Might not they feel the pressure to "expand the roles" of blacks in positions of administration--even if they aren't qualified? A past president of the NFBPA thinks that could happen:

"She believes most Black administrators and government employees don’t commit unethical or criminal infractions and are aware of the need for good ethical behavior. The problems, though, come when they try to address the concerns of other Blacks, who often feel they are an overlooked part of the community."

Mayor Johnson has stated unapologetically that he wants the new city manager to look like him. How should this statement be weighed in relation to the NFBPA's stated agenda? The NFBPA isn't just a Johnson & Johnson (Otis & Van) creation though--its been around awhile. As far back as 1986, the wise heads of the NFBPA invited the likes of Rev. Jesse Jackson, Eleanor Holmes Norton, and Henry Cisneros to rail against the federal balanced budget and emergency deficit control act of 1985 (Gramm-Rudman Bill). Shades of today, eh?

This year's NFBPA national conference is being held in Chicago--where the connections between the NFBPA and the White House are clearly demarcated. Note how President Obama states that he moved to Chicago because of Harold Washington's inspiration. Harold Washington was the first black mayor of Chicago and among other things started the first NFBPA chapter in Chicago. Note also, as Obama talks about how Harold Washington's spirit lives on (about the 1 minute mark), the camera moves in for a close-up of disgraced NYC congressman Charlie Rangel. Also, note the presence of Valerie Jarrett, "Barack's Rock" or right hand woman, who received the NFBPA's 2001 Marks of Excellence Award. Savannah's NFBPA chapter may be in a backwater, but its service to its mission isn't any less passionate than those on the national stage--or any less destructive to its community.

Last year's NFBPA conference was held in Greensboro, NC. Here is the highlight video of that conference and you can see Van Johnson and Rochelle Small-Toney featured prominently.

The motto for the Greensboro NFBPA conference was "Transforming the Government Connection Between Community and Government." Unfortunately for Savannah, both Johnsons and Small-Toney have transformed the government connection between the community and government. I don't think this community can afford any more NFBPA conferences. Do you?

Pushback To The Pushback: Is Step Down, Mr. Mayor Tarnishing Savannah?

2011-02-05T11:40:00.004-05:00

In a previous post about Savannah's botched city manager's search and Us vs. Them thinking, I linked to Ruel Joyner's Step Down, Mr. Mayor Facebook page with this observation:

"Already, there is push back to the wielding of Us vs. Them power. The Step Down, Mr. Mayor Facebook page has almost cracked a 1,000 followers. As can well be predicted, none of the followers seem to be black. What to make of that? How is that not about race?"

Then, there were almost 1,000 Likes, now after Joyner's appearance on Fox News, there are over 1,300 Likes and there is much discussion on what to do next to force Mayor Johnson out of office. Some of the posts are unseemly, some are angry, some express incredulity at the haplessness of the city manager search. An anonymous commenter to my original post draws my attention to, what seems to be the beginnings of pushback to the Step Down, Mr. Mayor pushback. From the Savannah Channel:

"Downtown Business Association president Ruel Joyner has made a big push to get face time on tv, notoriety on the web and is also doing his best to promote racial intolerance in Savannah."

Another brickbat flies as the Savannah Channel writer continues:

"Joyner who operates a downtown business has created a Facebook page that not only mocks, defames and harasses the sitting mayor he supported during the most recent city election but also causes great harm to the image of Savannah and its citizens. "

Mock, defame, and harass are pretty hefty brickbats actually. In the aforementioned Fox interview, Roger Moss, who was sitting beside Joyner, said when commenting on Mayor Johnson's "It's our turn" quote, that "It was Savannah's turn." Is that sentiment what the Step Down, Mr. Mayor Facebook page promotes? The Savannah Channel thinks not:

"If defaming the mayor were not enough Joyner has done great harm to the image of Savannah. Through Joyner's page, any outsider would have to believe that the citizens who re-elected mayor Johnson with 70% of the vote were all nuts. Further, an outsider would have to think that Savannah was not a friendly place at all but rather a racist little enclave boiling over with racial tensions. "

Now, The Savannah Channel seems to be out of the 9 Posey Street empire of one James Dewberry, erstwhile mayoral candidate and frequent teller of less gentle truths. Is this a case of a non-Downtown Business Association business owner protecting his turf? Or does Mr. Dewberry feel about Mr. Joyner in sort of the same way that Mr. Joyner feels about Mayor Johnson?

Us vs. Them thinking--again.

City Manager Core Competencies: Some Observations Of The Candidates' Powerpoints

2011-02-02T19:52:00.006-05:00

I pretended to be on the Savannah City Council (you know, the Felser Beard, the Stuber Slack Jaw, the Tony Thomas Tequila Shot Handshake--the Otis Johnson Forty Year, Forty Yard Stare), so when I decided to take a look at the remaining city manager candidate's powerpoint presentations, I could evaluate their potential leadership qualities and base their capacity for vision on the color of their skin. Just kidding! That pretending stuff can get you into trouble.

Really, no one can pretend to know what goes on in the mind's of politicians who are probably thinking about stuff far differently than their constituents. I have no sense of history like Mayor "It's Our Turn Now" Johnson does and I can't imagine the busy political and personal lives that other council members have that they can't spare the time or even have the inclination to Google things like Alfred Lott + Lawsuits. What I did do though was use Martin Melaver's framework to make observations about Alfred Lott's, Rochelle Small-Toney's, and Pat DiGiovanni's powerpoints that were presented to city council at the illegal city council meeting. In an op-ed the other day in the SMN, Melaver, who is the son of recently deceased Norton Melaver (M&M Supermarkets, to me), listed the core competencies that should be looked for in Savannah's new city manager. Melaver's list of core competencies:

-- Capacity for visionary thinking. After all, we are likely to hire someone whose tenure will be a decade and whose decisions are likely to have consequences for decades to come.

-- Proven capacity to facilitate broad consensus and support for the vision being touted. A vision alone ain't gonna cut it. You gotta have the bones to implement it.

-- Courage to push a visionary agenda, even in the face of negative push-back.

-- Deep experience in successfully leading city governance elsewhere. No resume, no ticket to the dance.

-- Superb communication skills. The best visionary on the planet is not going to go very far if he/she is lost in the constellation of his/her thought process.

-- Inveterate curiosity/innovative thinking. The past experience a manager might bring may be of little or no use to the dances we may have to swing to down the road.

Now, to be fair, a powerpoint probably won't illuminate a candidates vision in a few slides. Unless. It. Does. So without pretending to know what's in a councilman's or councilwoman's heart, here are some observations of the remaining candidates, using Melaver's framework for leadership:

--Laotse, in The Character of Tao, said, "He who talks more is sooner exhausted." With that in mind--Lott clocked in with 16 slides, Small-Toney with 12 slides and DiGiovanni, the soul of brevity, with 8 slides.

--The titles of the three presentations are telling. Lott's title is a no-nonsense, take no prisoners approach (well, except for the presentation is twice as long as DiGiovanni's)--City of Savannah: 90 Day Action Plan. Small-Toney's title is like a diary entry at summer away-camp--My First 90 Days As The City Manager for the City of Savannah, Georgia. Digiovanni's title is terse and doesn't assume quite as much as the other two--Pat Digiovanni City Manager Candidate.

--Capacity for visionary thinking and facilitating broad consensus? Small-Toney quotes Henry Ford, ("Coming together is a Beginning. Keeping together is Progress. Working together is success,") to describe her relationship with city council. Of course Ford pretty much invented assembly lines and mass production so maybe that's how Small-Toney takes the quote--but Henry Ford is quotable for other things too--mainly for his alleged anti-semitic writings in The Dearborn Independent. Unbelievably, if you are heading north on I-95 from Florida heading into Georgia, you will see this sign about Henry Ford and Richmond Hill:

I doubt Small-Toney considered Nazi connections when picking her quote out--after all there is a high school in India with that quote as their motto and numerous (I stopped counting after a dozen) organizations like the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and the Cheney Technical High School Student Athlete Handbook that use the quote. It's just powerpoint puffery, right? Small-Toney says she will support current city council priorities (Slide #3). Uh, not to be overtly underwhelmed, but supporting city council priorities is the OPPOSITE of vision. Lott makes two very telling and largely superfluous assumptions about the city manager job (from Slide #3):

--That the first 90 days will be very busy for the City Manager and his immediate staff.
--That there will be many 12 plus hour days and many weekends dedicated to learning the community while managing the City.

I don't know if I would call this visionary or just getting a new job, one that, like Mr. Melaver says, will possibly have consequences for thousands of people for years to come--of course its going to be busy! DiGiovanni jumps right to what needs to be done for a newcomer to the city (Slide #2):

--Expedite the learning process
--Introduce myself to the organization/community
--Build my team/secure alignment
--Formulate an action agenda

Imminently more useful than a quote and a couple of obvious assumptions.

--What about courage to push a visionary agenda and having experience? Small-Toney has experience in Savannah but her visionary agenda may need to be developed later as the rest of her powerpoint (Slides 4-12) regurgitates the adopted city priorities--Public Safety, Neighborhood Vitality, Poverty Reduction, Economic Development, Culture & Recreation, Healthy Environment, and High Performing Government. Along with his objectives of establishing meaningful relationships with every single person in Savannah (Slide #5),Lott intends to take a more personal path to his objectives (from Slide #6):

--Establish residency and find permanent lodging with spouses approval.

At first glance, I wasn't sure if Mr. Lott was showing much courage at all here. But on second thought, maybe Mr. Lott is making a very prudent decision based on his experience--he knows his wife best. DiGiovanni talks about expediting the learning process in 2 steps (from Slide #3):

--Step 1
WITH Mayor & Council
What are the critical issues/Council priorities/expectations/strategic direction
Understanding the communication process

WITH Community
What are aspirations
Expectations of government

WITH Staff
What are values, mission, goals & expectations
Identify the people who will be critical to our success

--Step 2
Understanding the Essentials
History of Savannah
Organizational Culture
Budget/Finance
Local Economy
Business Processes (i.e. Customer Service, Citizen Engagement)

Could be just a swamp of city manager-like buzzwords, but DiGiovanni's steps could also be borne from experience--he's been successful in two previous cities that are miles and worlds apart culturally.

--Finally, communication skills and curiosity--how to tell that from a powerpoint presentation? Small-Toney's presentation has 10 pictures on her 12 slides including a picture of a CEMA guy's ass on Slide #5 and what looks like a serial killer's lair on Slide #6. This is filler as is reposting what the city council has already approved and communicates, perhaps, an intellectual laziness. Lott didn't have any pictures at all--but still had 4 slides that had one sentence and another slide that delineated personal objectives like finding a gym and a church to attend. With one more slide, perhaps he could have added his grocery list. DiGiovanni's presentation is lean, yet chock full of information that shows the steps he would follow on how he would introduce himself to the community, secure alignment with staff, and formulate an action agenda.

Of course, with infinite wisdom, the city council eliminated Pat DiGiovanni who had the clearest, most concise, and closest example of what Martin Melaver was looking for in a city manager. Is it any wonder then that Savannah's community is suspicious of the process?

Savannah City Council: It Is About Race And It Is About Power

2011-01-29T07:33:00.006-05:00

A bold and erroneous proclamation from the SMN editorial page, concerning the political gangsters on the Savannah City Council and how the search for a new city manager has been conducted:

"It's not about race. It's about process and raw political power."

Except it is about race--and it is about power. It has always been that way--for 4,000 years of recorded history, it has been that way, and no amount of editorial proclamations, while commendable, are going to change that. At the very root of this political issue of selecting a city manager is the ancient concept of Us vs. Them. Erich Gruen, professor emeritus of history and classics explains from his study of the ancients:

"Jewish writers excoriated Egyptians for zoolatry and shunned admixture with Canaanites, Ammonites, Moabites, and Philistines. The Romans scattered their biases widely with negative pronouncements on easterners and westerners alike. They dismissed Greeks as lightweights and belittled Jews for superstition. Some Greeks decried Romans as boors and regarded Jews as having contributed nothing useful to civilization. Egyptians mocked Greeks as recent arrivals in the world's history, and they transformed the Exodus story into a flight of Jewish lepers and pollutants. The list of ethnic aspersions is long."

Us vs. Them thinking is ubiquitous and seemingly very normal. Take for example what City Talk's Bill Dawers said about Wal-Mart in the very same edition as the editorial cry for healing in the city over the city manager search:

"For a variety of cultural and economic reasons, I'm no fan of Walmart. I imagine that comes as no surprise to regular readers."

Cultural reasons? Like what? Is he upset that Walmart interacts with over 100 million people a week? That 84% of the people in the United States have visited Walmart at least once? (Which would seem to mean that even progressives shop at Walmart). The article was about the opening of a new WalMart on Abercorn Street--bringing 250 sorely needed jobs to the area, so I guess Mr. Dawers had to bite hard on the inside of his cheek to find that as positive when he is against WalMart for "cultural" reasons. Do you think running into folks like this is one of his "cultural" reasons for avoiding Walmart?

Us vs.Them. So, as the SMN describes it, when the City Council traveled to Atlanta for Savannah-Chatham County Day, they didn't sit together:

"The divided City Council sat on opposite sides in the large hearing room where state officials, including Gov. Nathan Deal, appeared. Maybe the governor didn't notice that Mayor Otis Johnson and black members on the council sat on opposite sides from white council members. But attendees who made the four-hour drive from the coast did."

I don't know if there is a clearer description or example of Us vs. Them that can be made--those in power and those out of power are separated--and somehow, beyond all mathematical reasoning all members of the in-power group are black and all the members of the out-of-power group are white. It is facile for the newspaper to look at the whole city manager search with its many, many twists and turns and counsel for healing without paying attention to the diverse and divided nature of the city.

Already, there is push back to the wielding of Us vs. Them power. The Step Down, Mr. Mayor Facebook page has almost cracked a 1,000 followers. As can well be predicted, none of the followers seem to be black. What to make of that? How is that not about race?

Perhaps a closer adherence to political and legislative processes would tamp down natural Us vs. Them tendencies. Perhaps those who stray from those processes should be sanctioned--whether they are part of the in-power group or the out-of-power group. (Seems as if the Georgia AG might have something to say about that). Perhaps the voters should make very careful decisions--particularly with at-large positions (since those members representing defined districts rarely have overtly heterogeneous populations).
As Savannah struggles through another bout of Us vs. Them, perhaps Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn words from The Gulag Archipelago would be worth remembering:

"If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?"

Garbage, Guano, And Manatees On The Ogeechee Canal

2011-01-25T20:43:00.021-05:00

The Savannah-Ogeechee Canal bisects the campuses of Woodville-Tompkins Career Center and the Scott Alternative Center between Market and Alfred Streets. It runs beside the West Side Shopping Center, in Garden City before crossing Highway 80. I felt like the Keep America Beautiful Crying Indian walking this section of the canal. It's a garbage choked trickle of fetid water that covers old tires, shopping carts, and every empty Funyuns bag dropped on the ground since 1969.

As ugly as this part of the canal seems now, I'm pretty sure that during the mid-1800's when the Savannah-Ogeechee canal was a bustling waterway, that it probably wasn't any cleaner. The Ogeechee canal was used to haul a lot of stuff:

"Its impact on the lumber trade was particularly important with one of the nation’s largest sawmills located along the canal’s basin. Cotton, rice, bricks, guano, naval stores, peaches, and other goods also traversed the canal."

Those canal guys were probably throwing whatever passed for Funyun bags in 1845 right into the canal--along with whatever else wasn't needed from the canal barge including the odd, busted open bag of guano every now and again. I just hope that they shipped the guano and peaches separately. According to Bill Bryson in At Home: A Short History of Private Life, guano was highly prized and made enterprises like the Ogeechee Canal profitable:

"In the 1830s, there suddenly came the miracle product the world had been waiting for: guano...A dressing of guano reenergized fields and increased crop yields by up to 300 percent. The world was seized with what came to be known as "guano mania."

By 1850, 22% of America's commercial fertilizer supply was guano--bird poop. By the time of the Civil War, it was 43%. Importing bird poop from Peru (where in those days it was easily 65% of their economy), seems like a horrid mess, until you realize that before before bird poop, farmers used regular, old people poop. After the discovery of guano, people poop was collected and simply dumped, increasingly, in the waterways.

Like the Ogeechee Canal. Nice.

This is the stretch looking back toward Highway 80 across the 516 exit ramp.

Then the canal breaks into three tunneled channels passing under I-516. What do you think is in there? Bats? Maybe guano?

On the other side of I-516 the canal passes down Brampton Avenue in front of one of the Gateway To Garden City strip malls:

The canal then passes under Highway 25 (or as the locals in Garden City call it, MAIN STREET), under a railway trestle and on into the coastal plain woods between Highway 25 and the Savannah River.

If you happen to careen off of Highway 25 heading back to Savannah, your day's shopping done at one of Garden City's strip mall emporiums, you might run smack into this sign that is set off the road a bit:

So about that last piece from Garden City to the Savannah River--it looks to be the best, most natural piece left, but maybe the hardest to get to. Here is what you can do. Turn right at the Garden City sign on Highway 25, like you're going back into town and then turn left at Foundation Drive. Go back up in there--past umpteen warehouses and the Owens Corning site. Bear left at the tarmac plant (it will be on the left and about a thousand unhitched transport trailers will be on the right--or at least where they are parked). Follow the dirt road through a brief patch of woods until you come to the last lock, a tidal lock, of the Ogeechee Canal before it runs into the Savannah River at the Port of Savannnah:

Standing on top of the tidal lock looking south, back towards Garden City is a wistful view of a man-built waterway returning to nature:

Facing north, from the same lock, toward the Savannah River I couldn't tell that one of the busiest ports on the East Coast was a hundred yards on either side of the canal.

Evidently, there are other visitors to the canal too. More like in the canal:

"It is believed that during their trip back south, manatees sometimes use industrial sites along the Savannah River as stopping grounds. This “layover” can be a problem if they don’t pick up on the right cues from Mother Nature and end up staying too long. Once winter approaches and the water temperature drops to about 60 degrees Fahrenheit manatees can suffer stress and die."

There's even a helpful sign beside the tidal lock that would help identify the giant 1,000 blob that you might see floating in the Ogeechee Canal, wondering what the hell you are doing so far back up in these woods.

Paula Deen Is 50th Most Loathsome Person In America

2011-01-22T17:06:00.006-05:00

Just fiftieth? Some faux shocking and irreverent website called The Beast (an early Matt Taibbi vehicle) has listed their 50 most loathsome people in America (evidently they do this every year). Paula Deen kicks off the list at 50:

"The A.Q. Khan of the culinary world, her secret recipes are demonstrably more dangerous to America than a nuclear armed North Korea. When not delighting delusional hicks on “Huckabee,” she’s cooking up coronary-clogging treats like the “Luther”—a bacon-topped cheeseburger served between two glazed donuts—whose purported inventor Luther Vandross suffered from diabetes and died of a massive heart explosion. Make no mistake, this insane, evangelical pumpkin-face is trying to send you into the arms of Jesus."

Pretty funny, but the insane pumpkin-face is also seemingly everywhere opening restaurants and turning over appearance profits for charity--this week it was opening a restaurant at a casino in the Cherokee Nation:

"Food Network personality Paula Deen opens a restaurant on Saturday with a cooking demonstration. Profits from her appearance and question & answer session will benefit efforts to fund a digital mammography unit at Cherokee Indian Hospital."

Before that the loathsome Ms. Deen was delivering 80,000 servings of ham to an Asheville, NC food bank:

"Chef and author Paula Deen used her celebrity status to shine a light on the subject of hunger in Western North Carolina. Alongside representatives from Smithfield, the pork supplier, and Ingles Markets, Deen delivered 80,000 servings of protein to MANNA FoodBank on Friday morning."

Yeah, Paula is downright disgusting.

Savannah's City Manager Search: I Miss Chris Morrill

2011-01-18T19:23:00.008-05:00

Frankly, I miss Chris Morrill who was Savannah's assistant city manager before moving on to be city manager in Roanoke, Va. He was fiscally conservative, generally unflappable, and knew how to plumb the depths of city arcana and communicate it effectively. He also was able to balance the hell out of some budgets. From all indications he is loved in Roanoke like they love the mist rolling off of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the morning right before dropping a line into an icy cold Appalachian creek for a native trout. Morrill's boss at the time, Michael Brown, also left for Virginia, but his tenure in Arlington County, didn't end well. It seems as if maybe the Discovery Channel's Dirty Jobs needs a segment on city managers. From the looks of the 4 Savannah city manager candidates--their previous efforts at managing cities make lightning rod installers and animal renderers seem positively boring and whistle clean in comparison.

First, there is Wayne Cauthen from Kansas City. How the Affion folks, who were paid about $30,000 to put the city manager list together, missed this debacle is right at criminal. Mr. Cauthen is a Kansas City Royals season and Kansas City Chiefs playoff game all rolled into one huge, miasmic budget deficit. Since embedding has been disabled by request, you can go here to see a video of Cauthen's suspension by the mayor of KC. Basically, as this news report shows (again embedding disabled by request), the KC mayor and council lost confidence in him because the budgets he was submitting were riddled with mistakes and not responsive to the recession.

Does any of this sound even vaguely familiar? There is no point in rehashing Savannah's acting city manager's peccadillos about being bonded, yes, no, maybe--lets just say the mayor and some of the council have been reduced to sputtering and saying ridiculous things about it.

Then there is Alfred Lott from Albany, Ga. He's run into several problems with his hiring and firing. This charge of sexism from his firing of his Director of Human Resources, Mary Lamont:

“You’ve stated to me on more than one occasion that the human resources department needs a male authority to gain control of the women in the human resources department.”

Ouch. Then there was the botched hiring of the new director of the Albany Civic Center who was seemingly disqualified after 2 "diluted" pre-hiring drug tests. The not-hired director responded in a letter published in the paper:

"Let me start at the ending with Albany City Manager Alfred Lott's last words to me, “Lane, our official response will be that negotiations weren't fruitful and I suggest you could say that you were simply unwilling to divest from the State Theatre”. If I had anything to hide, that would have been good advice. However, my response to him was, “My Granddaddy taught me that honesty was the best policy and that I have done nothing wrong.” Perhaps you all will demand a change to what Lott called “a bizarre set of circumstances”. Since I have nothing to hide, and contrary to Al's suggestion, I am writing this for my whole community -- which has so warmly supported me – to read."

In fact, you can get Mr. Lott's full explanation for city hiring policy as it relates to the civic center guy here:

Lott should know the hiring policy backward and forward as he has been in and out of court for hiring and firing people pretty much the whole time he's been in Albany.

Which leaves Pat DiGiovanni from San Antonio and before that Kalamazoo. I sort of like what he wanted to do in San Antonio with their underperforming-because-of-the- recession tax district (like our Savannah River Landing). He wants to kill it:

"But Deputy City Manager Pat DiGiovanni warned TIRZ board members Thursday that - if the taxing district remains - critics could hammer on the question of why the city would use debt for work that a special district is set up to pay for. DiGiovanni recommends dissolving the TIRZ. "It has underperformed, and we've lost four significant years," he said. "Everyone believed that as soon as we had a master plan and started the TIRZ that developers would be knocking at our door. Then the recession hit and it just slowed everything down."

But guaranteed, the mayor and some of the jumpier council people aren't going to like Pat. He fired the deputy city manager and deputy public safety chief of Kalamazoo after a public safety substation project went forward without commission approval (that sound familiar?). Of course the two fired guys were black and DiGiovanni is white so institutional racism was the charge. DiGiovanni resigned (the full text of his resignation is here):

"Tomorrow evening I will offer my resignation as city manager of the City of Kalamazoo. After considerable thought, reflection and discussion with family, close friends and colleagues, it is my decision to move on. The decision has been a painful one filled with a great deal of emotions. I believe this decision is made in the best interest of our community."

So there you go. The 4 candidates for Savannah's city manager. Affion should be ashamed. Mayor Johnson should be ashamed. The entire city council should be ashamed.

Chris Morrill where are you?

Mayor Johnson Wants To Be As Transcendent As Eugene Robinson

2011-01-14T18:29:00.006-05:00

Mayor Johnson's intellectually sloppy colloquy the other day about how poverty is a threat to black Savannah's success generated 49 astonished comments on Savannahnow.com and probably would have generated more had commenters not ran out of synonyms for "WTF?" But what do you expect? Mayor Johnson is a devoted acolyte of the increasingly bizarre and partisan Eugene Robinson, a columnist with the Washington Post. Robinson is the one that, after the Nov. 4 wave election, wrote that Americans were spoiled brats:

"In the punditry business, it's considered bad form to question the essential wisdom of the American people. But at this point, it's impossible to ignore the obvious: The American people are acting like a bunch of spoiled brats."

It's telling that Mayor Johnson's comments from his "Black Savannah 2010: A Splintered Community" are based on Robinson's book--both believe that opposition to what they believe in is based on race and little else. Robinson, in his own words, unintentionally describes Mayor Johnson perfectly in this passage from Disintegration: The Splintering of Black America:

“Ever wonder why black elected officials spend so much time talking about purely symbolic ‘issues,’ like an official apology for slavery? Or why they never miss a chance to denounce a racial outburst from a rehab-bound celebrity? It’s because symbolism, history, and old-fashioned racism are about the only things they can be sure their African American constituents still have in common.”

In Johnson's comments at the YMCA, he shows that he still lives in the old paradigm he is most used to:

"His focus was the 22 percent - some 80 percent of whom are black - who have lived in poverty here for more than 30 years. He said many of those people are "trying just as hard as they can but can't make it because of the barriers of race and poverty.'' And he warned while some say race doesn't matter, that only works "until it hits them upside the head.'' "Its time for us to begin having some real tough conversations,'' Johnson told the group."

The tough conversation that Johnson wants to have is a circular one until the differences between the different "splinters" in the black community here in Savannah are fully explored (in Robinson's book he classifies blacks into 4 distinct groups: the middle class, the transcendental elite, the emergents or black immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean, and the abandoned). Why doesn't Johnson describe Savannah as having any transcendent blacks? Are there none? What are the key characteristics that distinguish the black middle class from the abandoned? How are immigrant blacks different than both the black middle class and the abandoned? Is it racist for the mayor to address these classifications of blacks as it relates to poverty and not realize that similar classifications can be made for whites or Asians that also live in Savannah? (Whites classification in Savannah: Transcendent Elite=Landings, Downtown, Middle Class=Ardsley Park, Islands, Emergents=Southside, Westside, Abandoned=Ogeechee Road? Quacco?) Is Mayor Johnson really interested in this conversation?

Robinson's solution for the abandoned group in black America is more funding and more programs. Johnson echoed this solution albeit less clearly:

"I want to spend more spending, so much of it is just being wasted.''

Don't forget who is responsible for wasted money and failed programs in Savannah--witness the city manager search and the recent accountability issues with the city's poverty reduction programs. Maybe that's a conversation that Mayor Johnson should have first.

8 Savannah City Manager Candidate Questions

2011-01-09T15:35:00.006-05:00

There aren't too terribly many people happy with how Savannah's city council is conducting its search for city manager:

"Ramming a city manager choice down the public's throat - with little regard for what the public thinks - is a poor way to do public service."

4 blacks, 1 white. 4 males, 1 female. That's all the public knows about the next person who would be Savannah's city manager. No sense letting reporters and nosy bloggers zoom around the internet gathering all kinds of stuff that may be damaging (I mean illuminating) to the search, right? According to AffionPublic, though, city council has a definitive description of what the ideal candidate should look like. Here are a few qualities the ideal candidate should possess:

'The ideal candidate will be fiscally conservative and have a strong background in finance. The candidate should demonstrate knowledge of and familiarity with innovative funding and financial sources in order to assist the city with current and future economic development projects."

So here are a couple of questions for a potential city manager:

Question #1--Since the city manager is not beholden to city council for much of anything after being hired, (see Economics 101 as explained by the hoodwinked city council as they tried to explain how Michael Brown gave everyone raises before blowing town), how will you show your fiscal restraint to the community and the council, when by law, you don't really have to?

Question #2--When Mayor Johnson and Tony Thomas toss words like "accountability" and "fiscally responsible" around, how will you keep from guffawing?

Here's another candidate ideal from the Affion Savannah brochure:

"The ideal candidate will be innovative and creative and be a champion of new initiatives while serving the City of Savannah."

Which may mean the city manager candidate will have to support stuff that just might seem plain crazy to him or her.

Question #3-- What are the most important projects in Savannah to complete if money gets tight and something has to go? ($2.5 million general fund dollars in 2011 want to know!)

A. Civic Center
B. White Bluff Marina
C. West Bay Street
D. Arts-Culture-Education Center
E. Drainage

I will not mention Savannah River Landing. Not going to do it. Aww, hell, yeah, lets:

Question #4--Would you put a cruise line in the space that is currently designed as a mixed-use residential area?

Another ideal:

"This individual will have a desire to help alleviate poverty in the community and have experience with poverty reduction efforts."

Savannah has budgeted $2,256, 926 for poverty reduction efforts in 2011. $210,000 to Step-Up Savannah to "convene the community to reduce povery" and $336, 972 to the Youth Futures Authority (which just went through their own spasm of tough-talking, finger wagging recriminations about accountability).

Question #5--One of the outcome measures to tabulate accountability for Step Up Savannah is to show evidence that 50% (or 500) individuals keep an open bank account with at least $100 in it for 6 months. Do you think that is too low a percentage to aim for, just about right, or could Step Up Savannah strive for more?

Question #6--One performance measure for the Youth Future Authority is to "engage with at least 12 Collaborative partners in support of the Savannah Promise neighborhood". What do you think that means? Phone conversations? Powerpoints? Listening to Geoffrey Canada podcasts together?

Question #7--One outcome measure for the YFA is to productively address a certain percentage of indicators throughout the year. The 2010 adopted budget called for 42% of YFA indicators to be productively addressed. The 2010 projected budget slid to 30% addressed. The 2011 budget calls for...nothing. Just a blank. Do you think the YFA should productively address more than 42% of their indicators since poverty reduction is a particularly vexing issue in Savannah?

One last ideal.

"This individual must be able to adhere to the highest ethical and moral standards and be able to display transparency."

Question #8--Which city council member, do you think, wrote that silly part about displaying transparency?