Hey! I’m bloggin’ again!

  OK, I had to take a hiatus from the blog thing. Way too much going on in my life, and well… it ain’t like I’m getting paid extra for it.

So…. what’s new? I kid, I kid.

Connect Savannah has started 2008 with renewed energy. The obvious example is Jim Reed’s vigorous take on the Locos/Van Johnson thing. I just got an e-mail in response from Alderman Johnson that I’ll be posting shortly, and putting in the print edition next week. (Hint: He disagrees with our reporting.)

Johnson’s wrong when he says we’re not objective — if two plus two equals four, then we have a duty to say it doesn’t equal five. Because it just doesn’t.

But Johnson’s certainly right when he says it’s a multilayered issue. I have heard on the QT from other food-and-bev people in town who say Locos was asking for trouble and is spoiling things for everyone else by needlessly attracting attention to the whole issue.

I’ve noticed two things about the City of Savannah and the way it does business. Well, actually a lot more than two things, but two that are particularly relevant to this situation:

1) There are some excellent public servants employed by the city who do great work and do not get nearly enough credit.

2) The city tends to do things in an all-or-nothing fashion, i.e., they either completely ignore you or you become their total center of attention. This of course can work in good or bad ways, depending on the motivation.

Perhaps the big-picture message out of all this is similarly twofold:

1) Pick your battles with the City of Savannah very carefully; and

2) City elected officials and staff should strive for more consistency, a broader outlook, and more even-handed treatment of citizens.

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