Some nights you just can’t sleep. Something comes through the atmosphere and jostles you around, making your mind race. What is it? You lie awake, helpless to know. Fortunately, the internet is there, so you get up in the dark, turn it on, and viola! There it is! It just happens to be more misinformation from those lizards in the ivory tower at that paper, the ones insular from the world of us that have to work, get our hands dirty, and struggle through the rough economic times. (If only I could get paid by the word……).
Take a look at today’s editorial: http://www.thestate.com/opinion/story/652599.html. Surprisingly, the city manager’s chief cheerleaders have turned on him, but are still making excuses for him, council, and the city. Lets dissect the article.
First, misinformation #1: “Yes, the form of government lends itself to failure.”. Maybe this is what is wrong with The State as well, a system that has a board of directors (city council), a chairman of the board (mayor), and it hires the president (city manager) of the corporation to run it, a system that is what most corporations world wide have. It seems to work for business, it seems to work for Charlotte, it seems to work for Greenville, but why not here? Maybe it is the people hired (elected) to run it as it has proven successful in Charlotte and Greenville. Why do the editorial lizards at The State continue to fail to inform us of the success of other cities with a system like ours? They have been on a rage so long to change our system, while denying us information on the successful cities with systems like ours, that it is obvious to anyone that these lizards have an ulterior motive. They just absolutely refuse to acknowledge any city that is like ours and successful. They would rather we have a “boss hog” system, one that can easily be corrupted by a powerful mayor and infected with cronyism and corruption, which is why those that have been in Columbia for years said the old system of a “strong mayor” was eliminated by the people years ago. Yes, Columbia had a strong mayor system and it was voted out due to problems. The editorial lizards obviously have not done their research and dug into their own archives (or have strong ulterior motives-think they are getting something on the side?) and want us to have Chicago like politics. Yeah, sure guys.
Misinformation #2: “While a broad cross-section of the community supports the Midlands Housing Alliance’s proposal…” . Huh? Where did this data come from? Not from the lizards, who only get out among the rich and well connected at events and clubs the average Columbian never attends. Was it a push poll they did that was heavily prejudiced to getting a respondent to answer in their favor? Or is it “editorial license” to make a statement with no basis to support a position? Most people do not know what the MHA proposal truly is, and I have yet to see any MHA full proposal, though I have asked. I am not sure the MHA has a full, in-depth working document on their proposal. This is yellow journalism at its truest to make a statement such as this.
Misinformation #3: “Also, consider how the council allowed a project that would have added needed parking to Five Points to just collapse”. Is parking needed in 5 Points now? Or is it that a few scream as they don’t have enough parking within 30 yards of their businesses? One parking study did not say that 5 Points was deficient, and a look down the street at times other than noon to 1p and 5p on will tell you that. Enclosed malls create a perception of closeness and encourage walking, even though you may park 3 blocks from where you ultimately end. Open area shopping creates a different perspective. Even though 5 Points is compact and the area bounded by Blossom, Harden and Saluda is no larger than Columbiana, being open, it appears larger and people tend to look for a space in front of their intended destination, or pass on. There is no way to put extra parking in front of every place in 5 Points, unless it went overhead. There were other parking alternatives and other parties interested in supplying facilities. The adjacent neighborhoods correctly pointed out that council did not allow a fair and open process to identify other better proposals and allow an open and fair process for bidding. These alternatives still exist; there is nothing stopping council from continuing a fair and open process of addressing any needed parking solutions for 5 Points. (BTW, meters are not needed before 11:30a and between 1:30p and 5p. There is plenty of parking available at these times, and as many have pointed out in The State, Free Times, and elsewhere, meters are a deterrent to shopping in 5 Points. If some merchants feel meters are needed-and council does because they need money-enforce them only 11:30a to 1:30p and 5p until midnight. This will create a deterrent to 5 Points employees using the space at lunch, and create the turnover in spaces merchants say is needed during peak parking times.
Otherwise, the editorial has valid points about the poor job that council and manager are doing. If this were a business, the board would have been voted out long ago and the manager fired within the first 12 months. Even Kevin Fisher in the Free Times just called for this: http://www.free-times.com/index.php?cat=11012501074601536&ShowArticle_ID=11011301090782507.
The real problem in Columbia is us: we tend to keep what we have even if it is broken as we do not change and progress easily. Regardless of city, the elected officials are a direct reflection of the people and attitudes of that city, and ours are of us.
As Pogo said, “We have met the enemy and he is us”.
Joseph Azar
(Done in a fit of sleeplessness so any errors are excusable. Now, if I was paid by the word as some others are…….)
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