My Athens

Classic Center Vs. Parks

In making the case that a proposed Classic Center expansion should get the lion's share of the 2011 SPLOST funds that aren't going to the critically needed jail project, Athens Banner-Herald business columnist Don Nelson claims:

1. The Classic Center expansion will boost convention business, and thus bring more visitors to town to pay sales taxes, generate more profits for local business and create jobs.

2. The expansion is a better return on investment for our tax dollars than investing in maintaining our parks infrastructure, greenways or transit stops.

Both claims can--and should be--closely questioned.

1. Does expansion = more convention business?  Not necessarily.  While it's a very frequently made pitch, expanding convention space and adding hotel rooms doesn't always pay off  for cities. For one thing, lots of cities buy into this idea that more is always better when it comes to convention centers. So, there's tons of convention space out there--and it's intensely competitive. For another, the convention business itself is changing as employers, tradeshows and other typical users of convention space scale back or are exploring web-based ways of getting together. (The downturn in convention business preceded 9-11, and the current recession.)  This 2005 report from the Brookings Institution--Space Available: The Realities of Convention Centers as Economic Development Strategy--outlines reasons for skepticism about the wisdom of investing convention center expansions.

2.  Why isn't improving quality of life for residents a good return on investment? Well, actually it is.  Good parks are good economic development investments for cities. If designed well, parks--particularly small neighborhood parks--can help strengthen community ties, boost property values, reduce crime, control stormwater runoff, cut traffic, improve air quality and encourage physical activity. They make existing residents happy, and help attract new residents.  Read this report from the Trust for Public Lands--The Benefits of Parks: Why America  Needs More City Parks and Open Space--to see how parks generate lots of benefits, including economic development benefits,  for cities and their residents.

Let's suppose Nelson and other advocates for the Classic Center are right that Athens stands to gain a lot from an expansion of convention space. And, at least according to the Classic Center's SPLOST proposal, past experience--in terms of exceeding event booking and hotel room usage goals--suggests that this might be case here.

Well, even if this is so, we've still have to grapple with the question of priorities. Personally, I'd like to see a larger Classic Center--one that's perhaps able to attract some bigger name concerts and attractions. But, if because of fiscal constraints, we have to prioritize either convention centers or parks--which it seems like we have to--then what's the best choice from an economic development perspective?

Should luring tourists here to spend money downtown be our priority? Or should investing in making Athens a highly desirable place to live be our priority? That is, should we prioritize investing in convention space for visitors or in neighborhood parks, greenways and transit stops for us to use?

Which economic development investment is more likely to help attract the kind of higher-wage employers we want to locate here? Investments for tourists? Or investments aimed at making Athens the most walkable, family-friendly university town in the South?

Unlike Nelson, I'd prioritize the parks over the convention center.

Lower Bus Fares? Not Ambitious Enough

Well, actually, lowering bus fares is not a bad idea. If you want to give low-income people a break and attract increased ridership, this is a reasonable suggestion.

But there's a better idea: expand service and make it free.

Doing this will save poor folks more money, will likely prove more effective at attracting new riders--and will benefit the community in other ways as well.

This idea is not as crazy or as fiscally irresponsible as it sounds. Read on!

Lower Fares Effort

According to this Athens Banner-Herald article, the Athens Bus Campaign, an effort led by anti-poverty activist Michael Smith, proposes cutting bus fares by 25 cents (from $1.50 to $1.25 for an adult fare). Smith says the fare reductions would not only cut expenses for low-income people who ride the bus everyday but would also attract more ridership and thus fill the budget gap created by the reduced fares.

Not bad logic.

But like some other folks, I'm not convinced that lowering the fares by 25 cents will--by itself--do much to attract new riders. I think Athens Transit Director Butch McDuffie is right when he says the most effective way to boost ridership is "to make your service more frequent and available."

Shaving off 25 cents for two rides a day, five days a week, most weeks of the year (25 cents x 2 rides x 5 days x 48 weeks) cuts transit costs by $120 a year--which is a modest, but real savings for low-income folks. This is a viable way for a local government to actually do something to help low income folks directly. Free, however, is an even better deal (surprise!). Compared to today's today's current $1.50 fare, paying nothing would save riders $720 annually.

Going Free

So, if we really want to boost ridership and also cut costs for low-income riders, here's what we need to do as I suggested in an earlier post: increase the frequency of service, add more routes, extend hours of operation--and offer free rides for everyone, all the time.

"Hold on," you may say. "First of all, even if we could afford to do this, not everyone rides the bus. So why isn't it fair to charge actual users for their use?"

Well, to paraphrase Aaron Renn, who runs Urbanophile, a blog about cities, no one is charged to check out library books or to take a walk in county park even though not all of us take advantage of these services.  Police officers and fire department workers don't ask for tickets or fares when they respond to emergencies.  And, there are plenty of other public services that aren't used by everyone but are paid for by us all: schools, is just one example.

"OK, then sure," you may continue, "free is great in principle but we simply can't afford to give out free bus rides in this fiscal climate. Free buses are a pipe dream!"

Affordability

We might not be able to afford it. That's true.

But consider this: the bus is already roughly 64 percent "free." Which is to say that only 36 percent of revenues for the bus come from passenger fares (which includes UGA's payments)--the rest is government subsidy (20 percent fed, 44 percent local).

In 2000, the bus system cost about $2.3 million to operate. (These decade old numbers are the only ones I could find on the Athens Transit web site.) If current costs are comparable, that means we'd only need to kick in another $840,000 or so to fund the system at its current capacity. But we want more buses and more bus stops and shelters--so let's say we'll need three times that amount or $2.53 million every year.

That's a big number for a smallish city in a bad recession--and there's no chance that Athens taxpayers will support that increase.

So, is that it? The smoke has cleared; the dream has died?

No, because while $2.53 million looks big from a local perspective, it's not so big if we can boost federal, and--potentially--state contributions.

Of course, getting these extra funds won't be easy. We may, in fact, have to help create the federal and state programs we'll need. So, this is probably a good juncture for me to confess that my proposal for a free and expanded bus system is--unlike Michael Smith's more modest, more locally-focused and easy-to-implement fare reduction proposal--a multi-year project.

Scaling Up

But I think the downside of the longer time horizon could be compensated for by the upside that an ambitious, creative campaign for a free and expanded bus system would generate. Done right, such a campaign would capture lots of positive attention for Athens--and might just put us in a position to actually receive and spend new federal and state funds to build a truly outstanding local transit system.

And remember: we're not starting from scratch here. Athens Transit is already progressive, creative and well-run. College students and faculty already ride for free. We've got some nationally recognized bus shelter designs. There's a relatively new, really nice Multi-Modal Transit Center.

What's needed is an ambitious and detailed plan to scale up. Let's deploy enough buses to dramatically reduce wait times and expand hours of service. Let's plan very simple direct routes, and have many of them converge downtown to create a very frequent "circulator" route.  Let's put up more really cool bus shelters. Let's scrap the tacky advertising. And let's work with other small cities in Georgia and across the country to build a coalition to advocate for federal and state funding of free bus systems.

By the way, it's possible that a well-designed free bus system will do a lot more than cut transportation costs for citizens, reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality. Such systems may prove attractive to employers. Potential employees may find free bus service very appealing, and--by and large--employers locate where they can most easily find employees.

Importance of Being Ambitious

Now, before one's natural pessimism kicks-in again, please note that there are reasons to be hopeful about the prospects for increased federal and state funding for local transit programs--at least post-recession.

On the federal front, federal transportation spending priorities are changing at least a little in favor of mass transit. For example, as part of stimulus spending, the Federal Department of Transportation in February awarded $1.5 billion in Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants.  More than half of that money went directly to local jurisdictions for a range of projects, including streetcars to link working class neighborhoods to downtown areas and to fund local multi-modal transit centers.

National transportation advocates are lobbying for billions in additional funding for bike lanes, buses, light rail and sidewalks--and, for the first time in recent memory, aren't being dismissed as quacks by politicians.

Even on the state front here in Georgia, there seems to be increasing recognition of the need to--maybe--do something about reducing traffic congestion other than building more roads and freeway lanes.

Plus it's likely that gas prices will start climbing a bit more aggressively--on average--as the years pass and generate more support for mass transit.

Here's the deal, though: unless there's ambition there's no plan; and unless there's a plan, there's little chance of getting funded. Because Georgia had no plans and had demonstrated very little interest over the years, the state got passed over for high speed rail funds. Let's avoid that mistake locally. Let's get ambitious and start planning now.

Free the Bus!

Go Free and Multiply!

Buses Unleashed!

Fare is Free, Free is Fair!

Buses Should be Free Like the Country and Flagpole!

(Clearly, a good slogan is needed. Any suggestions?)

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APPENDIX: Advantages of Going Free (adapted from a post by Aaron Renn)

1.  No fares = no expensive fare collection equipment, and no cash box related accounting, security, etc.

2.  No fares = quicker bus boarding, less bus idling time.

3.  No fares = really good way to boost ridership.

4.  No fares = great city marketing asset.

Sidewalk Felicities, and a Suggestion for the ABH

Not sure that this blog can take credit, but two instances of what I highlighted as "sidewalk infelicities" have been improved.

The Northwest and Southwest corners at Prince Ave. and Barber St.--a location with lots of foot traffic--are now much more pedestrian friendly.  Take a look at these before and after shots:

Exhibit 1: Northwest corner of Prince Ave. and Barber St.

Before:

After:

Exhibit 2: Southwest corner of Prince Ave. and Barber St.

Before:

After:

Nice work. But, as I said, I'm not sure that any spotlighting by this blog did anything to spur the work. Athens-Clarke Co. does have a Sidewalk Improvement Program in place, and these corners may have been slated for work under that program or another one long before I took note of them here.

For citizens like me the before-and-after shots have proven to be a very satisfying way to report a problem and then to see that something actually got done. (In this case, I can at least pretend that I had an impact--even though it might have been a coincidence.) I  imagine that public servants might feel a similar satisfaction in being able to be so visibly responsive and effective.

In an earlier post, I suggested that Athens-Clarke Co. government set up its own version of SeeClickFix to allow citizens to publicly report city infrastructure problems like crumbling sidewalks or uncollected trash and to have the county's response to those reports publicly tracked.

Suggestion for the Athens Banner-Herald

Now, I think it might be a good idea if the Athens Banner-Herald hosted and bird-dogged such a site as part of its on-line package.  According to this New York Times article, there's a local daily in Connecticut that's using SeeClickFix to boost its internet traffic and interactivity with readers. (The article includes a link to the newspaper's online site and the SeeClickFix page it maintains there. And, FYI, there's already a nascent SeeClickFix page for Athens--it  just needs some high-profile care and attention.)

It seems like a similar effort here in Athens could produce lots of benefits: citizens might feel a little more empowered; public servants might feel a little more useful and loved; the Athens Banner-Herald might get a positive jolt from the new social media, and the city's infrastructure might improve.

Partnership Saves Daily Local News for Athens

[If worse comes to worst, here’s a news story I’d like to read…]

By Dan Lorentz

ATHENS, GA., March 32, 2010 (PDN*) — If the plans of an unusual partnership go forward as expected, the daily news drought here will soon be over. That’s a welcome development for starved local news junkies. But the bigger story—according to national media observers—may turn out to be not that daily local news was saved, but how it was saved.

“What’s happening in Athens—the new partnerships, the new business model, the new print and online formats—might give us a template for keeping quality local journalism alive everywhere,” said Todd Chitlin, a noted media critic and professor at Iowa University’s prestigious journalism program in Dubuque.

Response to the “news drought”

The news drought started three months earlier in January when the Athens Banner, the daily newspaper, suspended operations after its parent company, the Atlanta-based Norris Publishing, Group, declared bankruptcy.

Almost immediately the publisher and staff at Athens Flagpole, the weekly alternative newspaper, launched a local news blog—called Athens Observed—and started publishing multiple news posts daily. Contributors not only included reporters from both papers and the local public radio station but also a group of independent bloggers and journalism students.

At the same time, a number of concerned citizens joined this group of contributors and formed a group called Save Our News to figure out a way to support quality local journalism, including some form of daily news.

“Like the death of a friend”

“That first morning without a paper was shock to many of us,” said Michael Smitts, a local activist and occasional blogger who helped organize the group. “It felt like the death of a friend, a friend who was always there, a friend who always had something interesting to say, who somehow managed to make you feel part of a family, a community.”

“We had to do something to fill the void,” Smitts said. “But right from the beginning nobody was interested in supporting shoddy, under-staffed news coverage or raising money to pay for wire services and syndicated columnists you can find anywhere. We wanted to find a way to support and sustain quality, locally-produced public service journalism. Ironically, the death of the local daily really jolted us into reinventing and improving local coverage.”

The Flagpole & Banner is born

After two and a half months of meetings—ranging from initial brainstorming sessions to discussions on fundraising strategy to a final round of agreement and contract signing, Save Our News announced the formation of Flagpole & Banner, a new local news organization for Athens under the leadership of Athens Flagpole publisher Commoner McPete and Athens Banner publisher Scooter Norris.

And today at a press conference held in the reopened newsroom of the Athens Banner, the publishers of the Flagpole & Banner promised that a new daily paper would be hitting newsstands and doorsteps in May. They also said to look forward to expanded Thursday and Sunday editions of the paper, and a new Web site devoted to local news, opinion and culture.

A non-profit with a big grant

Because the current model of for-profit local newspapers is losing its ability to subsidize quality public service journalism, the publishers said Flagpole & Banner would be a non-profit venture at least for the foreseeable future. Which means the bulk of money for the new effort will come foundation grants and individual gifts much like how public radio stations are currently funded.

The McKnight Foundation, which, like the more famous Knight Foundation, funds innovative local public service journalism projects, has agreed to multi-year, multi-million dollar grant to Flagpole & Banner.

A peak at the future

While many details have yet to be worked out, McPete and Norris discussed some of their plans for the fledgling news organization and its products. Here is a summary of their remarks.

A trim, tabloid daily paper. For readers who simply must have paper with their news, there will be the new Flagpole & Banner Daily Bulletin. It will be a tabloid with slightly larger type and run about 20 pages a day. It will be free, though customers who want home delivery will have to pay for that. Apart from one column of wire service briefs on national and international news, the paper will be devoted to local news and happenings. But readers will find their favorite comics, a sports section, classified ads, birth, crime reports, death and marriage announcements and locally written op-eds and letters.  In general, articles in the bulletin will be shorter than articles used to be in the old Athens Banner.

An expanded Thursday paper. On Thursdays, the Daily Bulletin will contain a second section, called “The Weekend Manual,” which will give readers a comprehensive guide to local happenings for the upcoming weekend. It will also include reviews of restaurants, movies, art shows, and music offerings.

An innovative, multi-sectioned Sunday paper. The big Sunday paper will come in as many as nine sections, including:

“News & Views,” which will contain a summary of the week’s local news, longer background and analysis articles on major local issues and locally written op-eds.

“Scrapbook,” devoted to documenting ordinary life in Athens during the past week, will feature lots of photos of local folks at school, work and play as well as interviews and brief sketches of Athenians.

“MFA”, or the music, film and arts section, will cover the people and the issues in the local arts community.

“Table and Garden” will give readers tips about what to cook and grow, and will cover the vibrant food and restaurant scene in town.

There will also be “Funny Pages,” a section devoted to mainly locally produced comics and humor; a “Shopper’s Guide” for smart local consumption; a sports section; a business and jobs sections and an indexed advertisment and coupon supplement.

A full-service Web hub. Most of what readers can get from a newspaper, they will get at Flagpole & Banner’s flagship Web site, to be called “Flagpole & Banner.” This will include news and feature stories about all things local—politics, business, crime, culture and sports. Readers will find obituaries and weather forecasts, too. And photos and video clips. What readers won’t find here is national and international news from wire services. This will be all local. The plan calls for an uncluttered, easy-to-read and navigate site that contains only a few discreet, non-up-popping ads. Every article and every photo will be easy to print, and there will be free access to the archives. The site will link to all the other content produced by Flagpole & Banner.

Standalone guides. Flagpole & Banner will publish two annual magazine format guides to Athens. The “Annual Manual,” which—much like Athens Flagpole’s Guide to Athens—will be a comprehensive guide to enjoying what Athens has to offer in terms of restaurants, bars, parks and art. The “Athens Power Guide” will orient citizens to community leaders, government and key local issues.

An AV department, and community forums. As part of its broader concept of what local news can be, Flagpole & Banner will not only produce text and graphical products, it plans to create or commission digital audio and video documentaries about local places, people and issues. These productions will be available online. The organization also plans to sponsor well-organized, well-publicized educational community forums on major local issues.

Athens: the new capital of local journalism?

“If Flagpole & Banner deliver what they are promising,” said media critic Chitlin, “Athens, Ga. will suddenly become the new national capital of local journalism. It’s a very exciting prospect—the city is so full of talent that I’m betting it will succeed and show the rest of the nation the way forward.”

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* This post is a work of fiction. PDN is the acronym for Pipe Dream News, a fake news service that syndicates (actually, pretends to syndicate) fictional news accounts of people, places, things and happenings that do not exist but would be cool if they did.

In addition to being fictional, this post is not entirely composed of fresh material. I borrowed a little from posts I’ve written elsewhere, including one about a Sunday paper I’d like to see, and from a series about the future of local journalism.

Athens Power Guide 2009-2010

“For such a small town, this is really a good guide.”

I said that—or something much like it—to my wife last summer about the Flagpole Guide to Athens 2008-2009. We were just moving to town, and happy to keep discovering good things about our new little home city. Like the freakishly large number of good restaurants. Like helpful city planning department employees. Like an unusually fine weekly newspaper that also puts out a very readable, user-friendly guide to enjoying life in town.

Getting good advice on where to eat, drink and play in a particular place is extremely useful, especially for newcomers. Flagpole’s guide delivers the goods. It’s an excellent orientation on how to live the good life here in Athens. But the guide whetted my appetite for an even broader orientation.

The guide’s first section—under the heading “Athens Stuff”—sketches some basics about city history, population, government structure, the university and key local issues and laws. For a guide devoted to dining and entertainment opportunities, this brevity makes sense. Still, as a newcomer, I felt hungry for more after reading it.

So, to satisfy myself, I propose that Flagpole publish a second guide to Athens—something I think might be fun to call the Athens Power Guide.

This guide should give readers a solid orientation to the issues, politics, leaders and government of Athens. But it shouldn’t be content with offering a bland civics lesson. It shouldn’t focus exclusively on official government. It shouldn’t just be a directory city services and departments…and…well, maybe it would be better to put forward some positive—and more specific—suggestions about what the guide should do.

Paint a survey of major issues, but don’t oversimplify. Pick the seven-to-ten biggest issues currently facing the city. For each issue, prepare a text and infographic package that tell readers what the issue is, why it’s important for the city, who’s involved with it and why, what the alternatives are, when action will likely be taken, and how to get involved with the issue. Don’t be afraid of complex issues—just slow down, and be extra inventive about making things clear and interesting. Be fair to all sides, of course, but not at the expense of lending credence to factually dubious assertions.

Tell us who’s in charge officially, and give us “performance reviews”. Head shots, district maps, job description, contact information—yes, give us all that for every local elected and appointed government official. But give us more, too. Tell us about their major efforts while in office, their voting record on major issues, who their main supporters and allies are, what friends and foes have to say about them.

Part the curtains to show behind-the-scenes players, and tell us what they want. Government officials are hardly the only important people in town. Businesspeople, directors of non-profit organizations, church leaders, neighborhood group presidents, lobbyists, campaign managers and even newspaper editors and publishers are frequently very powerful political players in the local scene. Who are these people in Athens? Tell us who they are, who they’re connected to, what they want, and how they go about trying to get it.

Advise us on how to get involved. Tell us how to get heard at city hall. Give us tips on how to be an effective citizen lobbyist and how to testify at public hearings. Lay out election deadlines. Show us, step-by-step, how to become a candidate for office. Provide contact information for non-profits seeking volunteers.

Yes, yes: include a directory of city services. While boring as journalism, residents find such directories useful. This one probably doesn’t need to be as comprehensive as Athens-Clarke County’s ACC from A to Z, but it should contain phone numbers and web addresses for all frequently requested services.

Write it in the style of Flagpole’s local government reporters. Keep the tone informal, but the thinking and reporting precise. Be patient and civilized, but don’t be taken for a fool. Encourage engagement, gently. Despair infrequently. Just like Ben Emanuel, John Huie and Kevan Williams do.

Those are my main suggestions, and they all concern the editorial content of the guide. But I’ve got a few more ideas about other aspects of the guide.

• Supplement the guide with a Web site that keeps the information up-to-date, provides alerts on government hearings and votes, and links to relevant ordinances, laws and administrative rulings.

• Publish the Athens Power Guide every two years just like the Guide to Athens. Pretty soon local history buffs will have a very interesting two-volume biennial series on the city to consult.

• Partner with the Athens Banner Herald—a newspaper with a handful of its own good local reporters—and University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication to secure all the hands needed to produce the guide.

• Distribute the guide to every household or to every voter in Athens. Include an indexed advertising supplement—maybe an expanded version of Flagpole’s Shopping Guide?—with lots of coupons with the Athens Power Guide to help defray costs. Or round-up a group of philanthropists—some local, some national—to float the effort.

Such a guide would satisfy the need of newcomers like me to get a decent feel for local politics. Frankly, it would probably help many longtime citizens get a firmer grasp, too.

I’d also bet that publishing something like the Athens Power Guide would attract national attention as an innovative local public service journalism project. It would—I can see it!—earn kudos for Athens, the small city whose journalists are forging a new, progressive future for local journalism throughout America even as the local dailies die.

Why Local Newspapers Are Good to Have Around

Local newspapers like the Athens Banner-Herald aren’t just good for covering boring government meetings, high school sports and the local entertainment scene. They’re also good to have around when something happens to a historically and psychologically important local institution—like the recent fire at the Georgia Theatre.

Of course, the paper reports the news—the who, what, when, where, why, and how of the fire. But that straight news reporting, especially when it’s supplemented with historical accounts, photos and collections of first-person anecdotes, really helps weave together memories and strengthens community identity.

Doing that for a community takes a lot of work, and it’s not easily replicated or replaced. Local bloggers Hillary Brown and Johnathan McGinity posted similar observations earlier. Let’s hope our local daily survives.

Convention Space, Corridors, Really Long Words

It’s not always a good idea to expand convention space. According to this Athens Banner-Herald article, developers are promising a new hotel if taxpayers pay for an expansion of the Classic Center’s convention space. Such an expansion might be a good idea, and it certainly seems so at first blush. But consider this: nearly every city in the country spends money to expand convention space. The convention market is so competitive that even convention centers in cities with huge tourism pull like Washington, D.C. don’t make a profit. Before I’d support spending very precious taxpayer dollars on this, I’d like the hotel developers and others who favor expanding the convention center to answer the questions this paper—“Space Available: The Realities of Convention Centers as Economic Development Strategy”—asks. (I learned about this paper from an article, “Unconventional Thinking,” in Next American City, a quarterly magazine. As of this writing, the article is not available online.) [Photo credit: Flickr user the unquietlibrarian]

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A reminder to all city planning amateurs and regular citizens (including me). The Athens Clarke Co. Planning Commission is seeking citizen input on two key Athens street corridors—Prince Av. and Oak/Oconee St. as they approach downtown. If you go here, you’ll find space to submit comments.  Don’t neglect to examine all the incredibly detailed charts and graphics depicting key features of both corridors. I’m really impressed by the quality and accessibility of the information provided by the planning commission. [Image credit: ACC]

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Antidisingenuousmentarianismphilia. Hillary Brown’s blog, Antidisingenuousmentarianism, should be a dud. For one thing, it has a title that requires one to take a breath and furrow one’s brow in concentration before attempting—and more than likely failing—to pronounce it correctly. For another, it has no unifying theme: Brown puts up little reviews of New Yorker articles, stories and reviews; she tosses off vivid little movie/DVD reviews; presents cute kitty photos; rants about service at Ikea; expands—entertainingly—on her published restaurant reviews in Flagpole Magazine; and indulges in what she calls her “lil’ hobby,” which is commenting—pithily, thoughtfully—on local affairs. But this seeming hodgepodge works. Everything is written with a certain brio, and I find the New Yorker stuff a useful guide about what to read in that relentless magazine. Plus I’ve recommended to my wife that she read her “lil’ hobby” posts as a quick way to keep up with a smart perspective on local affairs. [Image credit: Screen shot of Hillary Brown's blog banner]

Organized Burglary, Looming Deadline, Don Nelson

Just how organized is burglary in Athens? Joe Johnson’s story about burglaries in Sunday’s Athens Banner-Herald really intrigued me. I want to know more about organized fencing operations, and about whether Athens police are doing a good job busting burglars. How did some Pakistani convenience store owners get into this racket, and why? What's the history behind this connection? Are there other organized fencing operations at work here? How are other cities fighting burglaries? How would crime-fighting experts evaluate our cops’ efforts? [Photo credit: Flickr user timsamoff]

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Will next Friday’s paper be the last for Athens Banner-Herald? Probably not, but June 12 is the deadline for Morris Publishing Group LLC, the parent company of the Athens Banner-Herald, to make a $9.7 million interest payment. According to this article, the interest payment is way, way overdue and creditors could—if the payment isn’t made—force the publishing company to start repaying more than $400 million in bonds, interest and revolving credit. What’s going to happen? I’m afraid for the future of local news coverage here, though in this letter the publisher told us not to worry. [Photo credit: Flickr user Dan Lorentz]

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Newspaper reporting can’t be replaced by bloggers. Don Nelson, Athens Banner-Herald business reporter, columnist and editor, is a good example of why not. This collection of Nelson’s columns is a great way to learn about Athens, and it offers a taste of what a good, full-time, paid, professional journalist brings to the table: clear writing, insightful choice of topics, diligent research, steady productivity, deep knowledge of the local scene and years of experience. You just don’t—can’t—get that whole package from local bloggers, who usually aren’t paid and don’t have copy editors. [Photo credit: Athens Banner-Herald]