Voted Off the Island

Wonders of the South: Porch Swings @ the Capitol

I've been to Atlanta's s-called "Twin Towers" many times, but honestly never noticed the porch swings out front.  Today they looked so lovely I stopped to sit and then just had to take a picture.

This building, known as the James H. "Sloppy" Floyd Building, is ground zero for Georgia's governmental offices. I was there because it's home to the Georgia Department of Education, where I hang out professionally these days.  There's a big room up at the top where meetings and luncheons are held called "Top of the Slop."

It's pretty sweet to have a human thing like a porch swing in a venue that's all about bureaucracy (at its worst) and about democracy (at its best).

What is now the site of Atlanta's Twin Towers was originally the Atlanta Steam Flouring Mills, operated by W.G. Peters and Company. And after that, a pistol factory.

"It consisted of wood frame buildings with good solid stone foundations and enclosed with a good fence consisting of one large framed house with three stories and one story office, storehouse and smith shop. The building was leased by Spiller and Burr to be used as a pistol factory in June 1862. It operated until January 1864, when it was purchased by the Confederate States and the operations moved to the Macon Armory."

Swing on, oh wheels of progress and government!

Some Reasons Why Atlanta Isn't A World Class City

Y'all know I like living here.  And you understand that this blog is, at least in some small part, a fan letter to my adopted city.  But sometimes I get mad.  When you like a place and you're feeling the love, you've gotta be truthful and tell it like you see it. 

Just about every day, the news makes it clear, at least to me, why Atlanta doesn't have the cojones to become a truly World Class City, and why there's a failure of will to confront the hard issues of poverty, poor education and insufficient infrastructure.  No wonder "Brand Atlanta" was such an embarassment.

As former state Sen. Sam Zamarripa says: "We're no longer a post-Olympic city. We're a post-post-Olympic city. People have forgotten. We're back to being an ordinary global city."

And so, I give you evidence from recent headlines:

1.   Public Transportation is not moving forward -- and even though ridership is up, and cool "liveable cities" projects like the Beltline are inching along, they're actually thinking of cutting MARTA service on the weekends!

MARTA may cut service 1 day a week

MARTA tops ridership list but faces cuts

2.  Homelessness -- the city geniuses decided to put coin collection "meters" downtown to give people a way to help the homeless without actually having to be confronted by panhandlers.  The powers that be are also thinking about selling the largest homeless shelter in the city, just to raise cash, and moving the homeless out to the suburbs.  Nice. Oh, and I almost forgot the most astounding thing . . . homeless shelters in Atlanta (even the one for ladies, that runs out of my synagogue) actually close in the warm months putting folks out on the street.

Judge gives homeless shelter more time to pay water bill

Homeless meters raise little elsewhere

3.  Public education is still a mess:  An entire school district, Clayton County, has lost its accreditation.  Beverly Hall, the Superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools was named "best in the nation" but we are still plagued with under-performing public schools that do not achieve Adequate Yearly Progress.

'We will regain accreditation,' new superintendent says

Cherokee may cut 304 school jobs

Atlanta schools reformer Hall wins accolades, alienates teachers

We're a one newspaper town, owned by Cox, and that paper is shrinking before our eyes.

AJC cuts staff to reduce costs

Cox Enterprises puts several newpapers up for sale

Jim Martin Goes Down in Georgia

Gentleman Jim Martin concedes on Tuesday night. AJC Micki Harris.

In the end, the turnout for Jim Martin wasn't there.  I felt badly that I didn't volunteer to get the vote out, but frankly, I don't even think a day or two of phone banking would have made a whit of difference.  No amount of money from the DNC, not even appearances by Bill Clinton and Al Gore, lifted Martin's chances.  The Republicans threw everything they had at Jim . . . including appearances by John McCain and Sarah Palin. Georgia's still a red state, folks, and having elected Obama, progressives have tuned out.

While I'm sad to see Jim Martin go down, the campaigns on both sides were pretty awful, and neither offered compelling reasons to vote for either candidate.  I believe that Jim Martin is a "mensch" of a guy, but he's been such a milquetoast on the campaign trail that you've got to conclude that only Obama's coattails took him to this runoff.  In November you voted for Martin because he was a Democrat and the underdog, not because he stood for something concrete.  In December you voted for Martin, out of dimming party loyalty, or simply to stop Chambliss. 

Chambliss, who I swear I wouldn't have recognized by face until this campaign -- when suddenly he was all over tv -- did nothing but slime his opponent. What were his accomplishments?   In November folks voted for Saxby because he was a white Republican representing the status quo.  In the runoff, the pitch wasn't on the man's merits, but because "we need a Republican in the U.S. Senate to maintain a 'firewall' against a Democratic majority. Flimsy. 

And now we're stuck with six more years of the do-nothing Senator who destroyed Max Cleland. Bleh.

Max Cleland May Get Some Justice After All

Take that Saxby Chambliss!

Max Cleland: Obama's Secretary Of Veterans Affairs?
from The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com by The Huffington Post News Editors

Barack Obama is considering Max Cleland for two top posts, the Washington Times reports:

President-elect Barack Obama is considering former Sen. Max Cleland for a top position of either Secretary of Veterans Affairs or Secretary of the Army.

A source familiar with transition planning said Mr. Cleland, a Vietnam veteran and triple amputee, is under consideration for those positions in an Obama administration and liberal grassroots support is building for his selection.

The president-elect's transition team declined to comment, and the normally talkative Mr. Cleland would not respond to even a basic question from a reporter.

Yes, We Did -- Nightwatch

Election Night 2008.  Nightwatch Diary
   
Election Night Shpilkes (nerves) . . . the Obama and Biden Familes sweat it out in a Chicago hotel suite. Isn't this a great photo.

6:30 PM -- My friend Hallie calls and says, "The tension is killing me. Let's go to Manuels."  Hmmmm, there's an idea. Tho I've been invited to two other election night parties in the Emory area and I can't decide what to do.  I warn Hallie that Manuel's parking lot is already full, but I think I have some ideas about where to park.  We decide to go and to bring our teenagers.  This is a singular moment in history.  If the kids want to come (and they do!) I'm ditching the Emory-people parties and going to Manuels. That clinches it.

7: 00 PM -- Hallie and Ed and Sarah 14, and a colleague of Ed's roll up to our house and off we go. OMG. The streets are full of people and the feeling is jubilant.  We park behind Publix, walk three blocks and squeeze ourselves into Manuels.  Ed gets a pitcher of beer and we fall into conversation with everyone around us.  You absolutely cannot hear the sound on large screen TVs at all.  Close captioning is the only way to know what the talking heads are saying.  But the map looks awesome.  Indiana, Virginia, Ohio, North Carolina and Pennsylvania haven't been called, but it's looking hopeful.

The crowd outside Manuel's spills into the parking lot on election night.

8:00 PM -- Virginia is called for Obama.  The Manuel's crowd goes batshit!  Pinch me, it's looking like we've got Pennsylvania too!  Gabe is having a ball...maybe I raised another political kid after all.

8:15 PM -- Georgia is going red.  Everyone's disappointed about the Saxby Chamliss/Jim Martin race.  Hopes had been high for a win or maybe a runoff election.  But it's looking bad for us.  People say not to give up as Fulton County hasn't fully reported in yet.

9:00 PM -- Gabe and I leave Manuels' smelling of cigarettes and feeling starved and grab a quick burger at George's in VA Highlands.  In this bar the TV's on too, but the crowd is mixed.  We cheer when Ohio is called.  The McCainiacs boo, but the Obamans drown them out. It's gonna happen.  We just need Florida.

9:30 PM -- Glued to CNN, watching the crowds gather in Grant Park.  Channel flipping to Fox just to watch those shitheads squirm.  We are rapt, waiting to exhale. 

  9:45 PM -- Have I mentioned that I love David Gergen?  What a mensch.  Now here's a middle aged white guy who totally gets it.

10:00 PM -- Florida!  Take that Sean Hannity.  Crawl into a hole and die Brit Hume.  Eat a turd sandwich O'Reilly. 

10:25 PM -- Let the historical record also note the very rare and utterly delicious phenomenon of having a 6'2" teenager snuggle with you as you watch TV on one of the greatest nights in American history.

11:00 -- Yes, we DID!  It's Obama for real.  Cut to McCain's concession speech...classiest he's been in 6 months, shushing the boos from the crowd in Phoenix.

11:01 Atlanta: Toasts were made as a television above these revelers' heads at Manuel's announced that Barack Obama had secured enough votes to win the presidential election on Nov. 4, 2008. LOUIE FAVORITE / lfavorite@ajc.com

11:05 PM -- Crowds surging in Grant Park.  Old, young, black, white, brown.  Starry eyed idealism like I haven't seen in 20 years.  "Yes We Can!  Yes We Can!"  Tears flowing freely.  There's Jesse Jackson.  There's Oprah.  Thank you David Axelrod for engineering this victory.

11:07 PM -- And here is the moment that gets me, this is when I lose it completely. The announcer says, "The President Elect and the First Family of the United States of America."  Here they come...Barack, Michelle, Malia and Sasha! The rest of the night is a happy blur.  Our long national nightmare is over.

       

Extend Early Voting Hours

I didn't write this, the AJC editorial board did!

OUR EDITORIAL BOARD'S OPINION

Early-voting hours must be extended

Georgia, as Florida did, should accommodate citizens

Thursday, October 30, 2008

The long lines of Georgians going to the polls early — many in metro Atlanta are waiting three or more hours in line — suggest a huge turnout that ought to be cause for celebration. And state and local election officials should be making every effort to accommodate citizens who obviously want to exercise their country’s most sacred right.

That’s why Gov. Sonny Perdue and Secretary of State Karen Handel should authorize early-voting precincts to stay open extended hours and over the weekend in places where the lines and waits may have already discouraged Georgians from casting their ballots. They should follow the lead of Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who signed an executive order Tuesday that will keep the Sunshine State’s early-voting polls open for 12 hours a day through Saturday and for four hours on Sunday. Crist, a Republican, bucked his party’s legislative leadership, which in 2005 pushed through a law restricting early-voting hours. The Florida governor deemed the heavy turnout thus far an “emergency” and ordered the extended hours because he feared traditional voting precincts may be overwhelmed Tuesday.

While Crist’s order initially caused consternation among local election officials — who worried they could not get enough workers — almost all of them agreed to comply. Already 1.2 million Florida voters have cast ballots over the last two weeks. About 1.3 million Georgians have voted since early voting commenced in early October.

That unexpected early turnout has apparently left Handel and other elections officials thinking that Tuesday will not be problematic for the millions of Georgians who have yet to vote. But that’s wishful thinking.

Earlier this week, the state’s computer system for checking voter identification sputtered several times, slowing down the process and backing up lines of would-be voters. Election officials said those initial problems appear to have been fixed, and by midweek most of the long lines were caused by the volume of voters and a limited number of voting machines in the early-voting precincts. Tuesday night in Clayton County, for instance, the last voters, in line at 7 p.m., didn’t cast their ballots until nearly 10 p.m.

Despite the anticipated turnout and potential for severe backups on Election Day, neither Handel nor Perdue seem interested in making it easier for Georgians to get to the polls early. Handel claims there is no mechanism in Georgia law that would allow the secretary of state or the governor to order extended hours.

Interestingly, Crist said essentially the same thing a few weeks ago when asked by Democrats in Florida to do so. Florida’s law seems to be much more specific than Georgia’s regarding when polls can be open. Yet, based on the first seven days of early voting, Crist changed his mind.

“It’s not a political decision. It’s a people decision,” Crist said. “I have a responsibility to the voters of our state to ensure that the maximum number of citizens can participate in the electoral process and that every person can exercise the right to vote.”

Unfortunately, Georgia’s GOP leadership doesn’t share Crist’s broad view of encouraging voter participation. In recent years, the Georgia GOP has conducted a unholy campaign to make voting as difficult as possible by enacting a rigid voter ID law — despite virtually no evidence of voter fraud at the polls. Already in this campaign season, Senate President Pro tem Eric Johnson (R-Savannah) has opined that early voting was a “mistake” and suggested the Legislature should enact tighter restrictions on it.

For her part, Handel is convinced extending early-voting hours isn’t necessary. She also thinks it would be a logistical nightmare for local election officials to find poll workers over the weekend and then move around thousands of polling booths and computers from where they are now to the regular precincts that will be open Tuesday.

From a practical standpoint she may be right. But state and local election officials should take a lesson from the election of 2008.

Georgians, when given the opportunity, want to participate in deciding their own future. We should make that process as simple and as easy as possible. In statewide elections where the turnout even weeks in advance is obviously heavy, there’s no reason why early-voting hours — including weekend voting — should not be extended.

— Mike King, for the editorial board (mking@ajc.com).

Georgia: Early Voting Stats

Source:  Daily Kos

  GEORGIA
Fully 826,000 have voted so far, which is over 150,000 more than voted early in 2004.

 

Of these, nearly 36% are African-American, a black turnout significantly higher than that seen in 2004, when 25% of voters were African-American.

 

Also, 56% of early voters are women (who lean more Democratic than men do), compared to 41% for men, and 2% third-party.

 

VOTE! No Excuses Accepted

Every vote counts.  Not convinced, see this video.

Beltline on the Ballot. Vote YES for TAD

Amendment 2: The Beltline's best shot (from Creative Loafing 10.15.2008)

 

 

· Vote YES for “Amendment 2” on November 4.

 · Read more about the benefits of TADs 

 

Amendment 2 on the ballot asks: "Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended so as to authorize community redevelopment and authorize counties, municipalities, and local boards of education to use tax funds for redevelopment purposes and programs?"

 

Allow us to interpret: Do you want the BeltLine to get the money it needs, or do you want it to be a long-rolling urban disappointment?

 

To understand the issue, first wrap your head around the idea of "tax allocation districts" – which were supposed to be the main funding source for the $2.4 billion proposed intown loop of parks, trails, transit and development.

 

For two decades now, cities and counties have, with the approval of local voters, created TADs around blighted areas. They sell bonds to pay for roads, parks, sewers and other fixes that spur development and boost property values within the TADs. At the same time, they freeze property tax revenue schools and local governments get from districts. The money that comes from higher property values is used to pay off the bonds. Without a TAD, Atlantic Station might still be an abandoned steel mill full of hazardous waste.

 

The Beltline (along with 40 other TADs) suffered a huge blow in February when the state Supreme Court ruled that using school property taxes for noneducational redevelopment violated the state's constitution. Because the bulk of property taxes in Georgia are levied by school boards, the development scheme du jour lost more than half its revenue stream overnight.

 

There are valid concerns about TADs. Big developers, who are getting help with the infrastructure they need for glitzy office towers, often whine like spoiled children when TADs require them to set aside affordable housing or do other things in the public interest. And any program that opens a spigot of public funds can end up being used for well-connected interests or distort market forces.

 

Still, most TAD projects have ended up funding the kind of community building needed to turn Atlanta and other cities into better places.

 

Of course, there's nothing like pissed-off developers to spur our state's politicians to action. After the court ruled, the General Assembly quickly passed a referendum that placed Amendment 2 on the ballot. If passed, it would revive the option of using school taxes for redevelopment purposes.

 

In the interim, the private sector's contributed to the Beltline, but that largesse gets things only so far – especially when other projects are competing for big bucks in a tight economy. And buyers of municipal bonds – long the go-to mechanism for cities to fund infrastructure improvements – have melted away with the credit crisis.

 

The Beltline isn't perfect. Skyrocketing property values around it already have displaced residents. The city's also been less than nimble with some purchasing practices (most obviously in dealing with mega-developer Wayne Mason over a huge tract of land in northeast Atlanta).

 

But the Beltline promises to be a tranformative project for the city. It will surpass Atlantic Station as the nation's largest "brownfield" project, converting 1,100 acres of former industrial sites into centers of commerce and leisure, and creating an alternative to the car in the heart of the city.

 

The challenges so far actually are arguments for a more dependable revenue stream. TADs would allow the city to move quickly in securing land that's needed for the parks, trails, transit and affordable housing. The quicker they can move, the better.

 

If we fail to provide the funding, shame on us for failing to grasp what's necessary to make that vision a reality.

 

Early Voting

I had a jaw dropping experience yesterday.  I went for early voting on Memorial Drive.

The line, not visible outside the building, was mammoth.  Parking was tight.  Yet everything inside was orderly.  You entered, were handed an application and a pen.  The spirit was serene, confident, purposeful.  The faces were 98% African American.  It was a Barack Obama love fest, played with calm and joy.

When I first entered the building and saw a line I was excited. Then I walked ahead to find  the end of the line.  And walked, and walked and walked...and walked. The entire building, including a large unrenovated section of the space, was a large snaking line of voters filling every hallway.  The elections staff said this is the way it's been all week long.  Long lines with a wait of an hour or more.

It filled my heart with joy and wonder to see this human river of voters.  I'm a newcomer to the American south, but I'm old enough to remember how hard won the vote was for black people.  To see masses and masses of voters exercising their rights, many for the first time, was humbling and moving to me. 

Seeing this, I don't just want Barack Obama to win.  I want the whole 9 yards -- I want Jim Martin to beat Saxby Chamblis' butt.  I want Georgia to go blue.  Based on what I saw yesterday, it just might happen.