• Sturgess Fillmore Presents… ATLANTA!

  Yesterday’s city of today, because tomorrow is soon! Warning: no Atlanta institution is left uninsulted in this video.

  (tags: atlanta atlantajournalconstitution cnn thevarsity bigchicken turnerfield peachtree georgia georgiaworldcongresscenter)

• Parking Spaces Outnumber Drivers 3 To 1, Drive Pollution And Warming
  From suburban driveways to the sprawling lots that spring up around big retailers, Americans devote lots of space to parking spaces — a growing land-use trend that plays a role in heating up urban areas and adding to water pollution.
  (tags: cities transportation parking)

• Art: Value vs measurement
  “The crux of the discussion centers around Mr. Bogle’s position that the financial services industry is actually taking value out of our economy. What Mr. Bogle says at the end is what inspired this post.”
  (tags: arts fundraising nonprofit)

Americans for the Arts provides links to position papers of where the presidential candidates stand on issues relating to the arts.

Take a gander at what they say and know that just because a link no longer works doesn’t mean the candidate doesn’t have a position. I’m looking at your shifty website, Huckabee.

Among the Democrats, both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama express strong support for the arts and education. Bonus points go to Clinton, who pointed out how NCLB left the arts (and, by extension, the children) behind. Bonus points go to Barack Obama for proposing new, innovative programs to bring the arts to places where they are needed the most. Additional bonus points go to Mike Huckabee, who has the courage among Republicans to say anything, and to take a very strong position at that — calling the arts, “weapons of mass instruction.”

Streetsblog has done an excellent job of researching the presidential candidates’ records on transportation. What they brought up, combined with the additional comments on each post, reveals much about how each of the candidates stand not only on transportation reform, but also on energy and the environment.

Part one discusses the Republicans.

Part two discusses the Democrats.

In case you’re on the fence one way or another, this is a little-discussed issue of real substance that may help sway you one way or another.

• Cultural Amenities Project studies what it takes to create a “scene”
  It refutes assertions by Richard Florida that the “creative class” rests entirely within the 25-34-year-old class of college grads. Clark uses his own term, the “gray creative class,” who “foster and maintain the infrastructure [of the artistic scene].”
  (tags: cities creativeclass bohemian culture neighborhoods)

Shirley Franklin on MayorTV
As Presidential candidates ignore metropolitan America (that’s 80% of the population), America’s mayors are speaking out on the issues. Mayor Franklin says we must invest in infrastructure.
(tags: atlanta cities politics)

• Commenters on the AJC’s ATLArts blog criticize back - Excellent comments!
  “The ASO currently has a larger donor base than it does yearly paying show patrons… On the other hand, most of the other arts organizations, both professional and community based have far more show patrons than donors.”
  (tags: atlanta atlantajournalconstitution arts media)

Robert makes a terrific point:

Second, nearly all the people polled answered in socio-political terms. In so doing they made a more important error: they confused freedom with liberty. All liberties are freedoms, but not all freedoms are liberties and confusing the two is serious business.

There’s a guy in Lawrenceville who is gathering postcards from famous people, asking them to define freedom. The responses are posted on a website called The Freedom Project.

Reading through a bunch of the responses, I’m struck by how many of them are either too vague, or too narrow.

Many of the responses remind me of the documentary Why We Fight — the filmmaker, when he asked people why do we fight in wars like what we’re in now, typically got the answer “for our freedom.” But when he asked the respondents to define freedom, or how the war protects our freedom, most of the respondents were unable to offer a clear answer.

Similarly, trying to define freedom on a postcard is clearly no easy task — as demonstrated by the folks who have responded to this Define Freedom project.

What also strikes me is how some of the answers clearly originate more from a partisan ideological background than from a more unifying viewpoint.

Geraldo Rivera, and several others, respond by talking about choices — as though freedom is nothing more than a marketplace of material goods. Several would go no further than expressing freedom as freedom of speech — as though freedom is nothing more than a marketplace of ideas. Others went no further than freedom of religion — but in a creepy sort of way, as though freedom is nothing more than that person’s right to engage in religious or moral crusades.

Then, there were the responses that sounded like the inane musings of a PR executive. Rather than answering the question, they responded with some variant of saying that we are a free nation, or freedom is what we defend.

My favorite response, of the ones I read, was Edward Albee’s. His response is more vague than the ultra-specific answers, and more specific than the vague non-answer answers.

And my second favorite is Jon Stewart’s — which, in a way, is kind of sad.