Last night's vote made that abundantly clear:
"The commission voted 8-2 against letting the financially struggling ACTION Inc. sell its 1.7 acres and 100-year-old former schoolhouse to a developer with plans for 17 townhouses. Commissioners George Maxwell and Harry Sims voted to approve the plans."
Whether Elton Dodson is right in claiming "Those who would use this as a wedge issue to imply that we do not support ACTION are out of line," doesn't make the racial discrepancy in the vote or in the debate any less of a wedge.
Race is a big problem in Athens. And despite where you come down on the ACTION, Inc. issue, last night's debate/vote was a rather ugly, desultory affair, carefully dancing around the thousand pound elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about.
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2 comments:
Despite the marginality, I'll bite...
Where is the part where you quote Elton's reasoning for his vote? I can't speak to his consistency (he is a bit too much of a nanny for me) but arguing in favor of the Land Use Plan as written is a racial issue? Attack the plan, not the vote simply because it falls on racial lines.
Note also that the Boy's Club vote was different, but apparently for the same reasons...
If Athens govt. was really as leftist as a lot of reactionaries like to complain, they would have put in public housing there a long time ago. It is not as black and white as you would like to make it out to be, but there is a huge disparity in Clarke County for sure.
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