Macon is home to some of the dumbest people in the world...

...And to prove it, all you have to do is look in the comments sections posted beneath the stories on Macon.com and on WMAZ-13's website. Most of the comments are negative and usually inaccurate, biased or hung-up on things that no longer apply (like C. Jack Ellis, who hasn't been the mayor for almost four months now).

But most baffling to me is that these morons bash this city endlessly but they continue to live in or around it. I don't know about you, but when I hate something, I get it out of my life. These idiots spend all day consumed with their petty hatred, going off in tantrums with their equally vitriolic Internet buddies... and they still live here. They don't move. They don't get involved. They just bitch about Macon--and everyone in it--on the Internet. Brilliant, eh? The irony is twice as delicious when they go off on the public education. I mean, no matter where they went to school, it doesn't say much good about your smarts when you don't have the brains to leave the place you hate so much.

The good news is that there's only a few of them. From what I can tell, even though they generate dozens and dozens of comments a day, it's only about ten or fifteen people doing it. In a city of 150,000 that ain't bad. Sure, there's others out there--maybe they don't have Internet access--but they too are few.

The really good news is that the people who feel positively about Macon aren't morons. They aren't stupid. They see the signs pointing in our favor and that's what fuels their enthusiasm. Better, there's more of these people than there are of the angry, self-loathing, comments page-dwellers.

If you don't believe me, pay attention to the Discover Macon campaign. It's going to do one very important thing: it's going to change the perception around so that the correct one remains. Right now, it still seems kinda cool--in that middle school kid skipping class kind of way--to bash Macon. That's because most people who can and probably want to see what's positive about the place feel like they must be wrong, that there are so many other people who dislike this place that they'd be foolish not to dislike it too. The fact is, there's way more who like it and they're already crowing. Expect that to get louder the longer the Discover Campaign goes on.

From the Mayor's Office

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Andrew Blascovich
Mayor’s Office, City of Macon
andrew.blascovich@macon.ga.us

Status of Macon Audit Certification for Fiscal Year 2005
Macon, GA, 4/9/08 - On Monday April 7, 2008 the Mayor’s Office received an email regarding the certification of the audit from the 2005 fiscal year. The email was from the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) and was based off a message they received from the Department of Audits and Accounts.

Mayor Robert A. B. Reichert considers this to be of the utmost importance to the City of Macon and he has indicated his desire to resolve this issue and to do so in a timely manner. Mayor Reichert has informed City Council of the situation and continues to work to achieve a satisfactory resolution for the City of Macon, with great consideration to all parties that are involved.

It is the firm belief of Mayor Reichert that this issue can be resolved between the primary parties in this disagreement and that the audit for fiscal year 2005 that has already been accepted by the State of Georgia will remain in place.

Today Mayor Reichert has spoken with key city departments and also the previous city auditors Clifford, Lipford, Hardison, and Parker to see what the concerns and issues are with the audit from the 2005 fiscal year.

State of Georgia has not set a timetable for a resolution of this issue or withdrawn any funding from the City of Macon because of this issue. As the City of Macon moves forward to resolve this situation Mayor Reichert remains committed to keeping both City Council and the Citizens of Macon informed on the progress.

###

Andrew Blascovich
Director of External Affairs, City of Macon
700 Poplar Street
Macon, GA 31201

HB 851: The Wave of the Future

Sure it sounds like some type of experimental drug--especially when it's called the wave of the future, which was solely my discretion--but HB 851 may be that thing that finally cures what ails us. It might be the sort of incentive that lures capital investments into Downtown and Intown so that these boarded-up storefronts and dilapidated houses get the renovation they need. Local developer Gene Dunwoody says it might be our "tipping point", meaning the city of Macon may finally deliver on its pregnant potential to be the rockingest little place in all of Middle Georgia.

But how? You ask.

Currently, the state of Georgia puts a $5000 cap on the income tax credit one can receive for rehabilitating a historic property. That amount is often too small for people to pursue, and it certainly isn't enough to motivate someone to choose the process of fixin' up an old building instead of building a new one. So, HB 851 would first remove that limit, and then replace it with a credit worth up to 25% of the rehab cost (sorry, one per project). For residential projects, over a ten year span, that would mean a cap of one-hundred thousand dizz-ollars. For a "certified" (aka commercial) structure, that limit is triple over the same amount of time.

Where those measly five g's failed, these six figures should prevail. That's why Gene Dunwoody says it might be our tipping point. This might be what it takes to bring the big bucks to our endangered downtown area.

And he brought up a great point too. This works to draw in potential homeowners. On the same principal, they'd be more likely to invest in the cost of rehabilitating an old home versus settling in North Macon (or elsewhere) in newer construction. The reason that matters is that a lot of those big dollar investors that we'd all like to see downtown usually look to plop down in areas that people actually live in. So, you kill a couple birds with one stone on this bad boy: save historic properties, revitalize the downtown and intown areas, and bring commerce and population back to the center of the city. Yee-haw!

For this, you can thank Bettye-Lou Brown at Historic Macon for giving Representative Allen Peake a phone call. He has become, she says, their "champion". They've been all about it, bout it.
House Bill 851 swept through the Georgia House, with support from our other local representatives (Randall, Freeman, Lucas) with only one "nay", and now it faces the state senate. That means it is time for you to get on the horn with your representatives, Mr. Cecil Stanton and Mr. Robert Brown.

And of course, I've included their info down below. (I threw in the Governor too since he's the final step.)

Robert Brown
Capitol Office:
121-B State Capitol
Atlanta, GA 30334
Phone: (404) 656-5035
Fax: (404) 463-2071

District Office:
PO Box 5742
Macon, GA 31208
(478) 750-0220
robert.brown@senate.ga.gov

Cecil Stanton:
Capitol Office:
303-B Coverdell Legislative Office Building
Atlanta, GA 30334
Phone: (404) 656-5039
Fax: (404) 656-6484

District Office:
P.O. Box 26427
Macon, GA 31221
Phone: (478) 757-0983 (O)
(478) 757-1305 (H)

cecil.staton@senate.ga.gov

Gov. Sonny Perdue
203 State Capitol
Atlanta, GA 30334
Phone: (404) 656-1776
Fax: (404) 656-5947

email is a web form