Odds & Ends (9-22-08)

The Greek festival was a HUGE success! We ran out of souvlaki and gyro on Saturday before close. Ran out of pastries Sunday early, along with doughnuts and food from the kitchen. Yet more was ordered this year. I did not get any salad or pasta, a favorite of mine, but I did carry many buckets of salad to be served (how did I let it run out before I got any?).

Gotta say, Lady Chablis is better than RuPaul, if you ask me.

The bicycle race was fun to watch. Unfortunately, not as big a crowd as I expected.

OK, onward….


The City

I cannot begin to tell you how many times I was asked to run again for mayor this weekend. I had generally decided not to run again for public office, instead supporting others I feel will be clean, honest, and effective in our city. Yet the public dissatisfaction with all of city government, from Coble to council to Austin, is past comprehension. Not only citizens, but those employed by the city as well. I cannot believe the anger city employees have for council and administration. So much so they are almost willing to risk job just to speak about what is wrong. Coble has always been a source of dissatisfaction, but the hostility towards Austin really has taken me by surprise. This I am going to have to write about in the future, but the anger comes from employees across the board, not any one demographic.

People feel that the city is in a financial bind, that the truth has not come out. The lack of balanced books, the very high salaries of some, the demand that the merchants pay for Christmas lights as the city has no money for them now, and on and on, just leads everyone to the same conclusions: that council and manager are incompetent, do not take the jobs seriously, and that there are things being hidden. One person last week made a very telling comment. He said the city will not bring the books up to date for a very long time, keeping them at least 6 months behind. Because if they do bring them up to date, it will show that the city is truly out of money.

Someone a few weeks ago emailed me asking that I call for a grand jury investigation into the city, that is how bad it is. Supposedly, a citizen can call for one, the writer stated. I do not know if it is true, but like the state supreme court, it should be handled by the feds.


SC State Supreme Court

Ok, they say that bad stuff comes in threes. Here is the second, so what is the third.

This past week I had the opportunity to hear about some lawyers and their trials with the supreme court, eventually talking to some close to them about the situations. I am not sure what is going on, but some have told me that it is a kangaroo court, the way attorney investigations are handled. A complaint against the court is handled by the court and its subservient agencies, not by independent agents. An article in The State this past week made reference to the court and that it should not be the one investigating itself. That is quite obvious, it should not. Yet it is, for itself and for complaints lodged against it.

FITS News, Will Folks, put out this article ( http://www.fitsnews.com/2008/09/04/sc-supreme-court-faces-multiple-investigations/) that states that the court is under investigation. I have been told that SLED and the US Justice Dept. are in the information gathering stage. It would seem difficult for a state agency such as SLED or the attorney general to investigate impartially, but that the feds could less partially.

Lets see what happens here.


Temple Ligon

Temple, one of Columbia’s great assets, hits it again!

www.ecsc.org/index.php?Itemid=161&id=108&option=com_content&task=view

Our state's electric co-ops magazine Living in South Carolina published my article on Jasper Johns and sent about 450,000 copies across the state. Last May in Portland, Oregon, without telling me, the Council of Rural Electric Communicators declared my Johns article as their Best Feature Story among all of the statewide co-ops publications in the country for 2007.

I found out last week when I Googled myself, "John Temple Ligon."

Sometimes you should check yourself out and see how you're doing. I hadn't, apparently, since before last May. Anyway, I'm tickled pink to win a national journalism award, and I'm happy to tell my friends about it.

Thanks for reading such shameless self-promotion. Hell, if I don't, who will?

John Temple Ligon


Paying Parking Tickets

Joe,

I was just wondering if you knew of any easy way to pay for parking tickets in Columbia. As a generation X'er, I admit that I don't even have a check book anymore to mail in my payments. Even when I did, they usually got there a day or two late which added penalties to my bill. I have tried to go by the city's office on Main Street to pay my parking tickets, but I can NEVER find a parking place on or around Main Street during the day when they are open. I've even gone down to the Washington Street building, but their drive up window is never open... usually b/c there is a line out the door which I don't have time to wait that long when I have a job to do. I haven't been able to find an online payment solution on the city's Web site, so do you or anyone else know the best way to pay these blasted things?

KS

P.S. For the love of God, don't underestimate the time you will need to park b/c I just got another ticket today and was only 11 minutes over.

jsa-No, I only know of the drive up window at the police department.


Vista Concerts

what happened to the vista concert series on thursday nites?

jsa-I was told that the sponsor felt there was a large liability with people drinking and decided to withdraw. Below is the official statement.





No Fall Concert series

Vista After 5 - Where Columbia Comes Alive!

Fall 2008 season postponed
The Fall season of Vista After 5 has been postponed to next Spring due to reasons beyond our control. We truly appreciate your support, and the help of all the volunteers in the past seasons. We look forward to continuing, and building upon, our relationships with all of you when we return in April 2009.
Our gracious Sponsor at Jillians will be hosting the bands inside Jillians each Thursday from 6PM - 9PM each Thursday afternoon. You can view the band schedule by clicking here.
11 Years of Music, Fun, Dancing for a great cause!
For the past eleven years, the Vista After 5 concerts have been fantastic social and business networking events. There is never an admission fee, and beverage proceeds and your generous donations support very worthy local charitable organizations.
If you would like to be a part of our exciting 2009 season, either as a Sponsor or a Volunteer, please send us an email @vistalife@aol.com. We would love to hear from you! We currently have Sponsorship and Volunteer positions available.
History of Vista After 5
The Vista After 5 series was created by a group of dedicated volunteers and began in September of 1997. These free concerts have become "the place to be" every Thursday afternoon in Columbia, S.C. They feature the very best variety and show bands from throughout the Southeast and have generated many thousands of dollars in contributions to worthy charities. Your help and support for the future is greatly appreciated! Vista After 5
email: vistalife@aol.com
phone: (803) 239-9303
vistalife@aol.com
Quick Links...
• Visit our Website








More Odds & Ends

Joe,

I received word that the Happy Bookseller is closing in October. This news is sad for lovers of independent bookstores. Maybe you should put the news out in your newsletter.

Thanks,

jsa-Ace Hardware too. We are losing small business to large corporate boxes, who do not have the knowledge, service, and, believe it or not, the selection. I have noticed that the big hardware stores do not have the selection and variety of smaller stores such as Hiller Hardware. I can usually find one bolt or washer I need at Hiller, but at the big stores, if I can find it, I am required to buy a package of 5 or 10.

If all the specialists disappear, where will we find the knowledge and service?
………………..

Hi all.

I have a friend here in Columbia that is the Director of Programs for a non-profit agency called Communities In Schools of the Midlands. The sole purpose of this agency is to help children who are at risk of dropping out of school. In this technological age that we live in today, one of the required items on the school supply list of area students is a "jump" or flash" drive for them to safely backup their computer lab work. Many of the students that my friend fosters do not have the means to provide these for themselves. I have located a vendor that will sell me 100 256mb Memorex flash drives for $350 shipping included. That's only $3.50 per unit... that's less than a cup of Starbucks coffee!

I will be collecting donations to help acquire this item for as many Columbia area students as possible. If anyone is interested in helping out monetarily please let me know.

Best.

Jay Ellington
Art Director
Constantnow
[ellington@constantnow.com]

…………………..


Dear Joe,

Please explain why the 5 pts merchant's association is so adamant about having a garage built on the Kenny site?? What is behind it?? My husband and I attended the Five Pts Citizens Parking Advisory Committee meeing last evening but I cannot get at the economic basis of the merchants' demands as they are so contradictory. The owner of the creaive toy shop pleaded for the garage even though she has been in business on Saluda Ave for 20 yrs. ( She even maintained that if a garage were built behind Clausen's mothers with children in tow wouldn't walk to her shop and that she wouldn't do so as a customer either!!! Oh how the automobile and construction industry loves to hear such assertions regardless of the energy constraints facing the mobile world devoted to the 30-second waddle.) The same is true for the owner of the liquor store (Dennis??). If business has been so bad for the last twenty years sans garage why haven't they departed for better locations?? They all talked about the need for employee parking and in fact that was the main thrust of their argument for a parking garage. Two other merchants (the owner of an art gallery and another Dennis) asserted that there were plenty of parking spots. Evidently, employees cannot walk a couple of blocks to work and I assume from the the merchants' point of view that employees do not arrive on time for work and excuse their tardiness because of their search for a parking spot.

Five Pts businesses or rather their customers contribute to the hospitality tax. Since the businesses are the conduit, owners feel that they should receive benefits from such a tax in the form of garages, for example. Why can't they benefit from this tax in another way?? They have a wonderful opportunity to find a creative and I might add a much cheaper and more environmentally friendly solution to their putatvie problems.

The owner of the liquor store argued that the Kenny site as the gateway to Five Pts. would very soon be home to a Walgreens sorrounded by asphalt. Scare tactics?? That Walgreens would open another store so close to the one they have recently built on Garner's Ferry is another story and I suppose from the point of view of the investors who bought Kenny's site a moot point.

You may have written about the above in some detail. Please refer me to that scribble.

jsa-Look in the archives: http://groups.google.com/group/theazarnewsletter/topics. I have written much about it. The push for Kenny’s comes primarily from the Saluda Ave. merchants as it is close to them. They have given much faulty rationalization about how it is the center of 5 Points, closer to everyone, etc. At this point, either it will not be built in any fashion, or there are closed door meetings going on, just as in the beginning.
……………………

Hi Joe,

You seem to have enough contacts in town to get some answers on "missing link" questions. If you recall, shortly before school was back in session a decomposed body was found in the Maxcy Gregg stream off of Pickens and Blossom Streets adjacent to the ROTC building . The State covered it for a few days - maybe even a week - and the last I read was that they couldn't identify the body. Was this issue ever resolved? or was it put to sleep so as not to alarm the incoming students and the parents that were leaving their children in Columbia to go to school. Maybe I just missed the follow-up on it! Do you know how the story ended?

jsa-No, I do not.
……………………

On the CCI property issue and bridges to somewhere:
I don't know why the city let CCI be developed that way. They should have built another bridge over the Congaree River there. Tayor Street at the river could have been straightened and a new bridge could have been added. Now this can never happen because of the developement on that section of CCI. This is a mistake that will haunt Columbia when it grows 10-20 years down the road. Someday they will have to build another bridge over the Saluda River too. There is no way to cross from Columbia all the way to I 26. I predict they will have either a 9th Street or 12th Street Bridge someday (Maybe hooking up with Greystone Blvd.). Any comments?

jsa-I overheard a group at the Greek Festival discussing that, and everyone thought the project looked cheap and junky. The State ran letters from people who felt it is very poor architecture. The city, meaning council, has no real interest in good design or architecture. Maybe they just do not know what good design and construction is.

……………………
Why won't the city consider a light rail train from Irmo to the city center?

jsa-Ask the city that. I am sure you will get: “We are looking into that”, “The Midlands regional Planning Commission is in charge of that”, “The other towns and governments won’t work with us”, or some other similar comment. Attorney Joe Roof has promoted this idea for years, a great one involving a bus that is fitted with rail wheels and can run on track and street alike.

No vision, no will, no understanding, no money, and no money to be made under the table, yet.
…………………………..

Enough for tonight; plenty more where that came from. I will look for your comments.