We’ll go easy on you.

Welcome to ConnectATL. We are Atlanta’s Artists, Musicians, DJ’s, Promoters we are members of the Community who have worked together to help educate the People of Atlanta about their Club Culture.

3 years ago we started meeting once a month to talk about ways to improve the audience’s exposure to a Culture that has been the fabric of this city for many many years.

In this Major Election Year for Mayor we have taken upon ourselves to show this City that its Culture is very much alive and ready to explode. If you find yourself here we just ask that you be aware of the effort going on around you to save your city.

And it doesn’t cost you a dime. If you are new start here: http://connectatl.com/?p=3

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Listen to our meeting recodings from 2006 - 2008 on our myspace blog: ConnectATL Myspace

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IF you haven’t already seen this weeks loaf the COVER story says:

GOING GOING…
Atlanta’s arts organizations brace for crisis

by Scott Henry

http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/atlanta_s_arts_organizations_brace_for_funding_crisis/Content?oid=736078

The Metro Atlanta Arts & Culture Coalition is hosting a Town Hall meeting THIS MONDAY with Shirley Franklin to discuss Strategies for Art & Culture Organizations in the Current Economy.

WOW. Imagine my surprise. What exactly was the strategy before this?

The MAACC is a publicly supported entity whose mission is to advocate for better funding and recognition for local arts organizations and increased public awareness of cultural offerings.

WE NEED TO BE RECOGNIZED.

This absolutely WILL NOT HAPPEN if we don’t get enough people out there ON MONDAY to guarantee us some floor time.

We need to be the 800 Pound Gorilla in that room. I need bodies that’s it.

I can not do this alone so I hope you guys are listening. Please check back here throughout the weekend for status updates.

UPDATE> I was told there wasn’t any room at the meeting so I didn’t sound the alarm. Apparently it only took one person to be an 800 Pound Gorilla. See the continuing discussion on the Wren’s Nest Website:

http://www.wrensnestonline.com/blog/metro-atlanta-arts-culture-coalition-keep-the-dream-alive/

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3/7/2009

ConnectATL Round 2 - TAKE BACK THE CITY

WE HAVE UNFINISHED BUSINESS

Three years ago we got together to talk about this city. We got to know where people came from and where they were headed. If that was an act of Observation this is one of Action.

NO MORE MEETINGS.

This time I am going to put a target out there for you guys to hit.

There is a window of opportunity that only exists in our current environment and there is no telling when it will open again. I CAN tell you that if you don’t take ownership of this effort it will have no chance of becoming a movement.

There is no script. I am not here to tell you what you are supposed to do. There is only the prize and if you want it then you are gonna have to take it.

OBJECTIVE

Take back the city.

TARGET

Return bar hours to their Pre-2003 levels

ENVIRONMENT

This is a MAJOR election year for this city. Come November the citizens of Atlanta are going to elect a new Mayor. Shirley Franklin has been in office for 8 years. She was re-elected in 2005 and received 90% of the votes.

She has had a major influence on the development that has been going on in MidTown and Buckhead and the surrounding areas. Before being Mayor she headed up the committee that got the Olympics here.

The majority of this development has been residential and was done in areas that were former club districts like Buckhead and Midtown.

In 2003 a series of violent incidents in Buckhead brought about a decision to cut back the bar hours from 4am to 3am with a alcohol sales cutoff at 2:30 am. She backed the legislation that was presented by City Councilman Howard Shook who represents the Buckhead district.

Other decisions made were the revocation of the 24 hour club license that Backstreets operated under for 35 years and a smoking ban from restaurants that resulted in the banning of the 18+ from establishments that didn’t serve food.

Shook still sits on the council today. In fact most of the people who voted for the bar hour cut back are still on the council. Two of them are running for Mayor. The others are a Lawyer and a State Senator.

Only one of them has spoken publicly about regretting the 2003 decision and its repercussions.

I’ll come back to that…

LOCAL ECONOMY

The consolation for the clubs that weren’t getting their leases renewed in Buckhead was cheap rent and extended bar hours in Underground Atlanta. However when it came time to move the Council backed off on the extended bar hour promise and by then it was too late to remain in Buckhead. Most clubs just shut down including Backstreets.

We currently loose 8 million dollars a year in taxes on Underground Atlanta. The history of Underground’s failure as a city project is long and widely available.

We also are experiencing an 84 Million dollar deficit that has all the candidates with their hands in the air.

PLATFORM

I would like us to make the argument to this city that extending the bar hours would be a much needed source of tax revenue for this city. To that I would add that we need to be able to promote in order to get the convention traffic out spending money in our town.

This has actually been suggested to the council however they are opposed because the City lacks the funds to keep the police on patrol for an additional hour.

Councilman Ceasar Mitchell has suggested charging clubs that want to stay open later a ‘Riff Raff’ fee if you will to cover the extra Police hours.

Get to know this guy. He is our only hope. Pay attention to the perception of his opponents. We will have to address those too.

http://atlanta.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2008/07/21/story7.html

CONCLUSION

I’m tired of feeling like a thorn in this City’s side. Every decision that has been made over the last 8 years has been Sub Urban in nature and people’s back yards are starting to rob this city of its Nightlife and Culture.

You can’t go anywhere in this city without being in somebody’s neighborhood. Castleberry Hills recently passed a noise ordinance for 12PM MIDNIGHT!! That is 5 blocks from the Georgia Dome. If that doesn’t get your attention, nothing will.

We don’t need to win the election we just need to make this a hot enough topic that it makes it to the papers and into the discussion that these candidates will be having in the next few months.

Then maybe, just maybe, we can get something on the ballot before the November election.

TURNER YOU ARE CRAZY

Am I?

There are 500,000 people in the City of Atlanta.

Only 50,000 decided who was going to be Mayor in 2005.

5,000 people is 10% of the vote. We know 5,000 people or at least will see 5,000 people in our clubs, at our shows and out and about.

A petition of 5,000 signatures would catch their attention. 10,000 and an article in the paper would really put a fire under their asses.

I am going to follow up this post with a proposal. For now I’d like everybody to take all this crap in and give it some thought.

I will be posting this only on Lunar and 404Audio cause yall are my kind of people.

Please bring this to the attention of anybody who you think would be down for the cause.

influential people

admin News atlanta, connect, meeting, shirley franklin, welcome

PROPOSAL

We are dealing with a complex issue that has many moving parts, if you will. Before we take this initiative to the streets we need to understand exactly what it is that we are asking of the people of Atlanta.

Our case needs to be presented in a way that benefits every citizen in this city in some way or another. If there is any guarantee in life it is that people will watch out for their own ass before anyone else. We want to make this an easy choice for the selfish person. Selfless people will already be on board.

PHASE 1 - Discovery

WE NEED AMMO!!

It starts with a question: Why does Atlanta need later Bar Hours?

==============================================

Well let’s look at the HISTORY.

For purposes of this exercise I think we should focus on Shirley Franklin’s term in office which was 8 years. So 2001 - Present. The major shift in policy occurred in 2003 so let’s put a big red dot on our time line there.

At a minimum the following questions need to be answered:

Before the Cutback

How many bars/clubs existed?

What kind of Tax Revenue were those clubs generating for the City?

What was Tourism doing back then?

What was the crime picture during this time?

What kind of funding did the Police have at this time? What was the size of our Police force?

After the Cutback

Short Term - 2003 - 2005

Our focus here is to look at the immediate impact of the bar hours on liquor sales. It gets harder to make that comparison the further away from the event we get so let’s sum it up like this.

What were the immediate impacts of the cutback?

Long Term - 2003 - Present

What does the Bar/Club picture look like now?

How many Bars/Clubs have shut down since 2003? How many have opened?

What kind of Alcohol sales are we seeing now?

What about Tourism? How does that relate to the big picture?

What is the state of our Police force vs crime?

==============================================

What is the National Picture?

How do we size up vs the rest of the Country? How do we compare to Cities of similar size in the South East? Who are our peers?

We really need to do our homework here. Every city is different, there is no denying that.

I think we should pick a handful of Cities in the Southeast and then a few more from different areas of the Country. Then we work to narrow that list down to about 4 or 5 that we focus on.

How does our Federal Government compare cities? Can we learn anything from that?

==============================================

What is the Political Environment of this Election?

If our goal is to participate in this election it behooves us to understand what it is about. Knowing who the major players are and who they represent is a key element of any election.

I want to know which candidates have a real chance at winning this Election?

What platform are they running on? What is their political history? Who do they represent?

Atlanta has 12 voting districts and 3 at large votes, each represented by a member of the City Council.

Beneath that there are the Neighborhood Planning Units who make recommendations to the City Council. How many of those are there? Who represents them? When do they meet?

What other public office positions are being decided in this election?

What is going to be on the Ballot? Is there even an opportunity to add anything to the Ballot? When is that deadline? How many votes are needed?

What are the Demographics of this City? Own vs Rent, Age, Income, Employed or not. Who shows up to vote?

PRESS: Who is covering this election? Who are the writers and what are they writing about? Who is covering the Bar hours?

==============================================

SYNOPSIS

This is just a basic framework for Discovery. I’m sure there are other questions of significance but right now I am trying to divide up the work into functional areas so we can start chipping away at the iceberg.

I will be looking for people to head up each of these areas.

My next post will outline how you can volunteer for those positions. It will also have a number of opportunities for people to contribute at various levels of commitment.

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