A couple of weeks ago, representatives of affected industries — especially agriculture — seemed like they would sway the Georgia legislature away from passing an “Arizona-style” law targeting illegal immigrants. But it looks at this point that some version of…
Month: February 2011
Port cargo growth would stay the same with or without deepening, according to the Corps of Engineers
My column in the Savannah Morning News today, “Harbor deepening and its benefits”, is one of the most important I’ve written in some time. I am not going to quote or even recap all of it here, so I’d encourage…
Savannah Stopover preview #5: Murder By Death, Fake Problems, and Buried Beds
This is the fifth in occasional posts previewing acts slated for the Savannah Stopover festival March 9-12, 2011. Check out previous posts about Astronautalis, Little Tybee, Class Actress, and The Drenched Earth Tour. Since I’m previewing three bands, this is…
Girl Scouts, cookies, and sidewalk sales
Every year when I would see Girl Scouts selling cookies from a table in front of the Juliette Gordon Low Home, I’d have the same thought: “Why can’t every business do that on their sidewalk if there’s still plenty of…
Savannah city manager saga nearing an end — for now
There are still details to be worked out, but Rochelle Small-Toney will be Savannah’s new city manager, with no “acting” or “interim” in front of her title. The question that Savannahians should be asking right now is this: why didn’t…
Some thoughts on the cuts to HOPE scholarships
As was widely expected and necessary, Gov. Nathan Deal proposed cuts to the lottery-funded HOPE scholarship and pre-K programs. I haven’t been thrilled with the comprehensiveness of any of the news reports I’ve seen so far, but the AJC’s seems…
National home prices down 3.9% in 4th quarter of 2010, according to Case-Shiller
Regular readers know that I’ve been writing for a long time about house prices — and I’ve been writing for well over a year about the inevitability of continued price declines. As I discussed at length here, the homebuyer tax…
Aging well — or maybe not at all — with The B-52s
I had never seen The B-52s live, so what better time than a benefit for the Georgia Theatre and what better place than in their hometown of Athens, Ga.? The 35-year old band played the Classic Center and obviously sold…
Another Savannah metro area bank closed by the FDIC
In this post, I provided a good deal of background about the banking crisis in Georgia. At some point soon I’ll update the statistics in that post. We are obviously having another busy year for the FDIC in Georgia, primarily…
Savannah Stopover schedule released
You can find the full Savannah Stopover schedule here. Various segments of Savannah seem totally clued in to the Stopover, but I’ve run into a lot of people who still don’t understand its scope and, especially in its first year,…
Georgia Conservancy President muddies the water on harbor deepening
A couple of days ago, Georgia Conservancy president Pierre Howard published an op-ed in the Savannah Morning News: “Deepen port, protect resources”. At first, the piece might have seemed a blessing to proponents of the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project and…
Savannah Stopover preview #4: The Drenched Earth Tour
This is the fourth in occasional posts previewing acts slated for the Savannah Stopover festival March 9-12, 2011. The detailed schedule has not yet been released, but The Drenched Earth Tour appears booked to perform on Friday, March 11th, at…
Sunday package sales probably dead again this year in Georgia state legislature
According to various news reports, Georgia is just one of three states that allows no package beer, wine, or liquor sales on Sundays. A variety of business groups and civil libertarians have been pushing for a change for years, but…
A “pittance” of funding for harbor dredging: what now?
We’re all going to be reading and hearing a lot in the coming weeks and months about the Obama administration’s decision to include only a $600,000 “pittance” (the AJC’s characterization) in its 2011 budget for the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project.…