RTP-area local music and culture

[rick sawyer <rickbang AT gmail.com>]

before i get to the crux of the argument, let's clear a little something up:

> Your recollection of the Durham theatre debate was factually incorrect.

so you claim.

> Rick Sawyer wrote:
> >the proposal died because it had no support outside of the developers
> >who proposed it.  when you say that the city council voted "at least
> >6-1 in favor of every step of the theater" you are being a bit
> >disingenuous.  the city council never voted to approve any construction
> >project, and it never approved anything.
>
> http://www.durhamnc.gov/agendas/minutes.cfm
>
> Durham City Council did in fact vote 6 to 1 on June 7, 2004 (when you claim
> to have attended) to grant on extension to negotiate the theater deal. They
> voted multiple times over the next year to do the same, and eventually
> approved the final proposal - which will be built soon.

the city council voted to grant *an extension* to negotiate the
theatre deal.  that's not the same thing as approving it.  ultimately,
the city council approved a substantially different project -- one
that did not include clear channel.

let's take a look at that 6-1 vote.  don't you think it's peculiar
that the single voice in opposition belonged to john best, the ousted
ring-wing deadbeat dad and only republican voice on the city council? 
i sure did.

i'm glad that city council came to its senses.  i'm glad that a more
reasonable project is being built.  and, while i'm generally opposed
to handing tax dollars to private industry, i'm glad that the american
dance festival, which required the new theater, will stay in durham.

i do find it ironic that you appealed to my misuse of fact when it was
the curious absence of fact from your hysterical posts that got my
panties in a bunch in the first place.

you sent an email to a public listserv full of hands waving and
innuendo.  it was a wild-eyed conspiracy theory backed up by a single
statement that, if your only source is any indication, amounted to
nothing.  it's the sort of political reaction that i expect from the
fundies:

"durham wants to kill downtown entertainment.... and christmas!"

you linked an out-of-context statement on the part of a county
commissioner with a year-and-so long deliberation on the part of city
council and called it a pattern.  a pattern?  these aren't even the
same group of people!

when pressed about the sources of your panic, you asked us to "trust"
you.  that puts the ball in your court.  if your argument is built on
an appeal to your own virtue, we have to examine that virtue.

so i did.  first of all, i know that you sit on the durham city board
of zoning.  i therefore find the fact that you cannot explain the
zoning change  proposed by commisioner reckhow without waving your
arms to be... disheartening.  (you called me "naive" in a previous
post.  i'll stop here before i return you the favor.)

second, i recalled that you led a ragamuffin group of hipsters
(including this one) in opposition to the clear channel theater
proposal.  a greater shambles of political organizing and a more
bankrupt political maneuver i have never seen.  never again do i wish
to endure three hours of indie rockers mocking the education levels of
my fellow durhamites in open chambers.  save it for the rock clubs.

finally, i checked the company you keep.  you sit on the board of
downtown durham, inc., and it seemed as if your call to "ACTION" came,
in part, directly from that organization.  i checked it out, and it
seems to me to be a collection of banks and corporations, with a
smattering of nonprofit types.  these are the groups that brought us
the american tobacco campus, a starbucks, and a wonderful brown river
that runs straight toward the heart of downtown.

on what basis should i trust such a group?  as rich (mostly) white
men, they aren't responsible to me.  they are responsible to their
shareholders.  so, i'm supposed to swallow it when they pump out some
theory about our elected officials entering into cabal against
downtown development?  on what basis?  because the public face of the
group produced the ben folds five?

give me some evidence.  give me some context.  don't tell me what to
think or believe.  i don't trust you, and i don't trust your cronies.

rick sawyer, durham resident