The Blog of Columbus, Georgia

23 MAR 09: Surrender of Liberty

I've driven by it several times, and it looks as good as new. But I've frequently wondered why I never saw any people there. Now before you jump to conclusions - no, I'm NOT talking about the Columbus airport.

Our thanks to Richard Hyatt's web site for leading us Sunday to new details on this neighborhood. It's called Legacy Terrace - a complex on Ninth Street in the Liberty District, designed for older people to live. And it had that name "Legacy" long before Emanuel Jones came to town.

But Legacy Terrace apparently isn't doing very well. Tuesday's Columbus Council agenda includes a proposal for the city to buy the complex for one million dollars. Yet as we say, the complex looks nice - so you can't really accuse Councilors of becoming Slumdog Millionaires.

The agenda item prepared by City Manager Isaiah Hugley explains the problem at Legacy Terrace very simply: "only four of the 17 units rented." And seven of the units are set aside specifically for low-income and moderate-income people. Shouldn't the number of applicants there increase with every unemployment report?

Legacy Terrace opened three years ago, as a project of "Fourth Street Tower, Inc." - an arm of Fourth Street Baptist Church. Part of me wonders if that name is part of the problem. The church already meets on Fifth Street, and has a day care center on Eighth Street. Advancing to Ninth Street may have encroached on someone else's turf.

Other factors could explain why Legacy Terrace doesn't have many residents. It was supposed to be a first step toward revitalizing the Liberty District, but other development simply hasn't happened. Allen Woodall gutted an old building at Eighth and Sixth, and it remains an empty shell today - with not even his statue of a monster moved there, to scare people away.

Another problem could be the way Legacy Terrace is designed. It was meant to be a "gated" facility, probably to assure residents would live safely. But those black iron gates are all around the complex -- and people driving by it without knowing better might think it was a halfway house for jail inmates.

It cost $2.5 million to build Legacy Terrace. By offering to sell the complex to the city for one million dollars, Fourth Street Tower leaves the impression it's giving up on the Liberty District - at least for new residents there. The number of children needing day care isn't likely to go down. Especially if that new study on out-of-wedlock babies is accurate....

City Manager Isaiah Hugley proposes to buy Legacy Terrace by using money from the 1999 sales tax issue. That's bound to make a few people upset. The city can't afford to build an indoor swimming pool, but it can afford 17 townhomes?! At a complex which doesn't even seem to have an outdoor pool?

The proposal gives the city and Columbus Housing Authority control of Legacy Terrace until a 20-year "affordability period" ends, so a federal grant for the project can be erased. The City Manager says the alternative is a complex in foreclosure. But this might not be a bad thing -- because the Bill Heard family might consider it a bargain, compared to that mansion.

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E-MAIL UPDATE: Now an update on the battle of the S-Blogs - as in local social networking web sites:

Check out 'We Are Celebrating 25,000 Page Views on ColumbusGeorgia.Ning.Com'One Month Old and 25,000 Page Views and Growing.

The updated scoreboard stands at 92 members for the "Columbus Georgia" site, compared with 58 for the "Columbus Ga." site. That second site hasn't had any new items posted in a couple of weeks - and it really shouldn't take THAT long to recover from spring break.

As for the original S-Blog, InTown Columbus - well, we don't know how many members it has these days. The entire site beyond the home page is now for members only, including the membership count. It's as if the real "coup" there was a takeover by managers of the Ledger-Enquirer.

The lovely start of spring inspired another reader to write us:

We need to bottle all this pollen and send it to the executives at AIG. Maybe it would put some scents (sense fits better here) in their heads,if they don't sneeze them off first..I don't think they have their heads on straight to start with..Hey,this description sounds like Congress..

Would sending yellow pollen to AIG really send the right message? Wouldn't bottles of red ink do it better?

I'm told at least one local insurance agent now has instructions to answer his phone "American General" - and no longer say "AIG," which is the parent company. But things could be worse for this company. Before its radio stations were sold, Archway Broadcasting wasn't even listed in the Columbus phone book.

I heard one person express concern over the weekend about people protesting outside the homes of AIG executives. He compared it to angry gatherings outside the homes of Jews, in the years before World War II. Apparently this man missed the woman who has protested across the street from the White House for more than 28 years.

Keep those e-cards and letters coming - and now let's mull over some Sunday news headlines:

+ Columbus State University President Tim Mescon told the Ledger-Enquirer the arts program will be turned into a separate college. Most of it already is downtown, in a separate location. Now all we need is for Troy University to build its new building across the river, and start the bidding war.

+ An annual jazz festival was held at Golden Park. This opens the door for minor league baseball fans, who want to sing the blues there later in the year.

+ The Columbus Lions advanced to 2-0 on the indoor football season by conking Carolina 68-37. Troy Bergeron caught ten passes and scored two touchdowns, only four days after he was signed to a contract. All you have to do is put on the sticky gloves, and take the field....

+ Good ol' Kansas advanced to the round of 16 in the NCAA men's basketball tournament. But WRBL had several strange minutes where it showed the Kansas-Dayton game, while airing audio from the Xavier-Wisconsin game. I was already going back and forth between a pro basketball game, a hockey game and a NASCAR race, but this was a little too much.

+ Instant Message to my neighbor several apartments away: I stepped onto the front porch in my pajamas with a small U.S. flag in my hand to make a point. If the sight of me seemed absurd, setting off fireworks at 1:15 in the morning to mark your birthday is every bit as weird.

The number of unique visitors to our blog is up 16 percent so far in 2009! To advertise to them, offer a story tip, make a PayPal donation or comment on this blog, write me - but be warned, I may post your e-mail comment and offer a reply.

BURKARD BULK MAIL INDEX: 688 (- 35, 4.8%)

The views expressed in this blog are solely those of the author -- not necessarily those of anyone else in Columbus living or dead, and perhaps not even you.

Monday, March 23, 2009