The Suwannee Valley Transit Authority’s Live Oak bus route will
begin operating on Monday, July 20, running continuously from 7 a.m.
until 7 p.m. throughout every direction of the city, Monday through
Friday. The route’s unofficial stops include apartment complexes and
other residential neighborhoods, public schools, grocery stores,
parks, government offices, nursing homes, the library and the
hospital.
The route starts at the intersection of Walker Avenue and US 90 West Continue reading →
Mr Emmet Carlisle wrote a song about fracking Florida
“Don’t Frack Florida”.
So in support of that movement I wrote another verse:
The battle is on in Bama & Georgia too
Spectra wants to run a pipeline through,
They could care less ’bout me or you,
And they lie to FERC more than they have too,
More Solar energy, Yeah that’s the thing
To everyone this message we bring,
We don’t need Spectra’s pipeline, That’s a fact!
And we don’t have to Frack!
Potential fracking in north Georgia was too close,
but what about right here in south Georgia?
Florida has a snowballing anti-fracking movement.
Looks like Georgia needs one, too.
Jim Kennedy, the state’s geologist, says another company is
considering the shale gas fields of the Mesozoic Basin that covers
60 percent of the Coastal Plain in South Georgia.
Most of the story is about proposed fracking in north Georgia
that
we noted back in 2013,
plus fossil fuel industry propaganda about how great they say
that would be for the local economy, with very little
about the immense destruction, environmental hazards,
and invasions of private property that would ensue.
The AJC version of that Dan Chapman story didn’t seem to have Continue reading →
Somebody told me a few weeks ago there’s a big solar farm near Lakeland.
He was not very specific about where, but it’s big: two megawatts,
organized by a company out of Chicago.
Can anybody point me to where it is so I can go take pictures?
The Chamber, the Industrial Authority, and various other local leaders
say they want knowledge-based jobs, or creative jobs.
We won’t get those just by teaching students to show up on time and
do what they’re told: that’s how you train factory workers,
not knowledge-based employees.
For creative jobs we also need Technology, Talent, and Tolerance.
How do you measure Tolerance?
One key component is the concentration of gays and lesbians.
So today’s
South Georgia Pride Festival
is a good sign for creative jobs in south Georgia!
The map above shows how metros across the U.S. score on the
Tolerance Index, as updated for The Rise of the Creative Class,
Revisited. The chart below shows the top 20 metros. Developed by my
Martin Prosperity Institute colleague Kevin Stolarick, it ranks U.S.
metros according to three key variables—the share of
immigrants or foreign-born residents, the Gay Index (the
concentration of gays and lesbians), and the Integration Index,
which tracks the level of segregation between ethnic and racial
groups.
Do you recognize that shape in the middle of south Georgia?
That’s the Valdosta Metropolitan Statistical Area,
consisting of Lowndes, Echols, Lanier, and Brooks Counties.
Looks like about 0.4 on the Tolerance Index.
So sure, we’re no Austin, Texas, but we’re in the same range as oh,
Charlotte, NC.
If you want to help promote creative jobs in south Georgia,
there’s a festival going on today:
South Georgia Pride Festival
noon until 6PM
John W Saunders Park
1151 River Street
Valdosta, Georgia
food and music all day
Larry Hanson, Valdosta City Manager, asked for the regional council to reconsider aviation projects, especially considering that the tax was supposed to be for projects of regional significance. Then he pointed out
Out of that $503 million about 40% of it or $212 million is projected to be generated here in Lowndes County. And when you look at what's being returned, for instance to the city of Valdosta, it's $47 million. It is certainly one thing to be a donor, but that's a pretty substantial donor.
He said he appreciated all the other counties, but much of the money would go to counties that are not contiguous to Lowndes County and are not part of the Valdosta Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which includes the four counties of Lowndes, Brooks, Lanier, and Echols. He continued:
Lowndes County is about 26% of the region's population and we generate about 38% of the revenue, and we're not quite getting that back in terms of the distribution.
You may wonder why a City of Valdosta official was speaking for Lowndes County. County Manager Joe Pritchard was there at the start of the meeting, and I think County Engineer Mike Fletcher was, as well. County Chairman Ashley Paulk came in late and summoned Pritchard and Fletcher outside the glass doors of the meeting room. They stood there for quite some time, peering in, and then vanished.
Aviation Projects, and Valdosta is a substantial donor –Larry Hanson @ T-SPLOST 2011-09-19 T-SPLOST Public Meeting, Southern Georgia Regional Commission (SGRC), Corey Hull, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 19 September 2011. Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
Georgia has gained enough population in the past ten years to add
a congressional seat. This means redrawing the Congressional
district lines not only to balance population, but to also add
another representative in Congress. Lowndes County has been split
between the first and second districts, and all spring rumors of
where we might end up were circulating. Eventually we saw a draft
map that had Lowndes completely in the 8th District,
along with
other counties along Interstate 75. That map made some sense south of Macon.
Some communities of interest were preserved (most of the Lowndes-Valdosta
MPO was in the same district) and the hospitality corridor of I-75
was in one district, along with the rural farms that surround it.
Valdosta to Macon is easier to traverse than Valdosta to Savannah,
or Valdosta to Columbus.
But then Congressman Jack Kingston stuck out his green tongue.
You may want to consider other reasons for Lanier’s residential
growth. There was an explosion of lower cost housing there over the past
10 years. It has attracted a large percentage of Moody folks. This was
in part a response to the cost of homes in Lowndes Co. More specifically
land cost. One component of the ULDC adoption was a call for higher
density developments in the unicorporated areas where at the time,
land was cheaper. Unfortunately, those that owned the land picked on
the demand and guess what…..the prices started to climb quickly.
Some might refer to this as sprawl. The other item of interest is the
budget woes the Lanier County Board of Ed is having as a result of this
growth. Residential property demands more in services than it pays for
in taxes. Just something to consider. There may not be a pot of gold
at the end of this rainbow.
Lanier County gained more than 30% in children under 18.
Lanier looks like the exurbs around Atlanta, except it’s even more striking.
Also visible on the map is Hamilton, County, Tennessee, home of Chattanooga,
CUEE’s favorite example of school unification:
Hamilton County showed a loss of children while just across the state line
Catoosa County, Georgia gained 15-30%.
If school unification doesn’t cause bright flight, it doesn’t seem to
stop it.
Because families with children tend to live near each other,
the result
is an increasingly patchy landscape of communities teeming with kids,
and others with very few.
…
Even in counties where the percentage of children grew, only 49 gained
more than 1 percentage point — many of them suburbs on the outer edge
of metropolitan areas such as Forsyth, Whitfield and Newton outside
Atlanta and Cabarrus and Union outside Charlotte.
what mighty Valdosta (56,481) in Lowndes County (112,916), Georgia can’t?
