Tag Archives: Lowndes County

NAACP calls for end to War on Drugs

Nafari Vanaski, wrote for Gateway newspapers 18 August 2011, NAACP calling for truce in nation’s drug war
If you grew up at the same time that I did, you’ll remember the “Just Say No” anti-drug campaign that became popular in the mid-1980s and early 1990s.

It manifested itself in many ways, from the posters and talks in class to the “very special episodes” of shows such as “Blossom” and “The Facts of Life,” where a character encounters a kid from the wrong side of the tracks who is pressuring him or her to try drugs. Inevitably, good prevailed and the druggie turned out to be from a broken family and needed only a good face-to-face with Nancy Reagan, the driving force behind the campaign, to overcome his addiction. (She appeared on “Diff’rent Strokes,” and considering the real-life histories of Gary Coleman, Todd Bridges and Dana Plato, she probably should have stuck around for a five-episode story arc.)

“Just Say No” was part of the larger war on drugs the Nixon administration declared in 1971. For grown-ups, that war symbolized a lot more than sappy primetime television. Especially for black adults. For them, it meant stricter laws for those found buying, selling and distributing illegal drugs.

To that end, the NAACP took an interesting step at its national convention last month. It approved a resolution to end the war on drugs because of its devastating effect on the black community.

Interesting how the headline writer watered that down: NAACP called Continue reading →

“about as fruitful as trying to squeeze information out of the Kremlin”

Which organization was this judge referring to?
Schuster told the directors that he thought [that organization] was supplying “vague” information and he directed that henceforth the sides meet monthly in his office for updates on the liquidation process. In short, Schuster is learning first hand — just like members, the media and the public at large have learned — that prying information out of [that organization] is usually about as fruitful as trying to squeeze information out of the Kremlin.
No, not that city council! No, not that county commission! Not even the state board of corrections. (Although some of them might want to try that bureaucratic shoe on to see if it fits.) Here’s who: Continue reading →

An agenda! From the Industrial Authority!

Monday I remarked about the Industrial authority:
Here’s the agenda:

Just joking. They don’t publish their agendas!

Well, shiver me timbers and bless their little hearts! Their new executive director, Andrew Schruijer, remarked at Tuesday’s board meeting that the agenda for that meeting had indeed been posted since Friday. In Citizens to be Heard I readily admitted I didn’t look too hard for it, and expressed astonishment and pleasure at this positive development. Linked from their front page, there’s now an agenda page:
Agenda

Agendas will be posted one day prior to the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority regular scheduled monthly meeting.

It has links to agendas for June, July, and August, each with an agenda in PDF. That seems a bit odd for some of those months, when there were several meetings. But, hey, it’s a start!

Here’s the aganda for yesterday’s meeting. That’s in PDF, so here’s a web-readable HTML version:

Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority Agenda Tuesday, August 16, 2011 5:30 p.m. Industrial Authority Conference Room 2110 N. Patterson Street
Continue reading →

Retrofitting suburbia —Ellen Dunham-Jones

There are many jobs in this. The Five Points redevelopment is an example of what she’s talking about. It’s a lot better than building more sprawl: safer, less expensive, more jobs, less energy cost, more energy independence, better health, and more community.

Georgia Tech Professor Ellen Dunham-Jones spole January 2010 at TEDxAtlanta, Retrofitting suburbia

In the last 50 years, we’ve been building the suburbs with a lot of unintended consequences. And I’m going to talk about some of those consequences and just present a whole bunch of really interesting projects that I think give us tremendous reasons to be really optimistic that the big design and development project of the next 50 years is going to be retrofitting suburbia. So whether it’s redeveloping dying malls or re-inhabiting dead big-box stores or reconstructing wetlands out of parking lots, I think the fact is, the growing number of empty and under-performing, especially, retail sites throughout suburbia gives us actually a tremendous opportunity to take our least-sustainable landscapes right now and convert them into more sustainable places. And in the process, what that allows us to do is to redirect a lot more of our growth back into existing communities that could use a boost, and have the infrastructure in place, instead of continuing to tear down trees and to tear up the green space out at the edges.
Here’s the video: Continue reading →

Jack Kingston from Valdosta to Tifton to Atlanta

You may have seen by the front page of the VDT this morning that Jack Kingston was in Valdosta yesterday morning and by the VDT editorial that he will be in Atlanta today. The VDT whines:
Why do you have to take the one politician that actually works for us?
Well, some farmers in Tifton didn’t take kindly to the main idea Kingston was pushing yesterday. Said a farmer:
I have tried working with probationers and I’ll just say that it was a very inconsistent supply of workers.
Hm, the VDT previously was of a similar opinion, an opinion that got quoted in the AJC. Maybe the VDT didn’t know Kingston was pushing HB 87, even though they sat down with him yesterday morning?

We don’t need an ALEC-organized private prison law like HB 87 to profit private prison company CCA, and we don’t need a CC private prison in Lowndes County. Spend those tax dollars on rehabilitation and education instead.

-jsq

Comprehensive Plan Update Due

Hm, does Lowndes County also have to provide an update for the Comprehensive Plan? If so, where is it? And how are we to find out about it?

Found in the August Valdosta Planners Post:

STWP Update Due Fall 2011

The five‐year Short Term Work Plan (STWP) for the 2030 Greater Lowndes County Comprehensive Plan is due for an update later this year. The STWP is a key implementation tool that reflects the activities and strategies to support the Comprehensive Plan goals, which the City of Valdosta has undertaken for the past five years (2007‐2011). It also sets future activities and strategies for the next five years (2012‐2017). A ‘report of accomplishments’ that identifies the current status of each activity in the current STWP must be submitted to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. A local public hearing must be held and a local resolution passed in order to adopt a the STWP update. Please check our website at www.valdostacity.com/planning for news and meeting schedules related to the STWP update.
According to the FAQ for the 2030 Greater Lowndes Comprehensive Plan: Continue reading →

I live in the shadow of … the biomass plant —protester @ VLCIA 19 July 2011

A protester I hadn’t seen before:
I live in the shadows of where they were talking about building it. So I’m a little sceptical when they tell me that, you know, it’s safe.

They told me the same about Agent Organge before I went to Vietnam. It turned out it was dangerous to us.

He told me his name, but my memory for names is like, er, what was I saying? Somebody please help identify him.

Here’s the video: Continue reading →

Do we need more of the same unsafe roads?

Many T-SPLOST projects submitted by Lowndes County would make traffic safety worse.

More from Professor Ellen Dunham-Jones of Georgia Tech:

Even Buford Highway, she says, could be transformed with medians, trees and buildings set closer to the road. Changes that are known to slow traffic. But outside of the ivory tower, change does not come easily. Or quickly.

Last year Georgia spent more than two billion dollars on transportation, but only a tiny fraction, less than 1 percent, went specifically to pedestrian safety.

And what Lowndes County has sent in for T-SPLOST funding includes: Do we need more of the same unsafe roads?

-jsq