The big-box retailer and progressive’s worst enemy moves closer to the heart of metro Atlanta. Read more

Cue “The End of the World as We Know It.” A multi-building mall-like shopping complex, likely to include …Walmart, has set its sights on downtown Athens. Renderings by the Atlanta-based developer Selig Enterprises show a bricked concourse surrounded by large-scale retail, including a 94,000-square-foot superstore, topped with apartments. Read more

He’s done that my putting his thoughts — in this case about Wal-Mart displacing local merchants in his beloved Athens, Georgia — to music in the song “After It’s Gone.” Joining him on the song are the Downtown 13 otherwise known as members of Drive-By Truckers, Widespread Panic, R.E.M., Futurebirds, Hope For Agoldensummer, Lera Lynn, Justified True Belief and The Quick Hooks. Read more

It might not have been Joni Mitchell’s Paradise being over with a parking lot, but Patterson Hood saw a little bit of his city about to be taken over by a Walmart and decided to try to do something about it. Read more

Regarding the Classic Center, Athens Regional Hospital, and the Clarke County School District: “All three of those entities don’t have to listen to the public when they’re developing their properties, but all three of them did, and by listening they got significant buy-in from the community, and they got better projects that are not just supported, but are championed by the community” – Tony Eubanks. Listen to the radio broadcast (start at minute 25:32)

At this late date, you shouldn’t need anyone to explain why the arrival of a Wal-Mart in your town is pretty bad news for the well-being of said town. Read more

Calling themselves Patterson Hood & the Downtown 13, they recorded a sleepy, mid-tempo tune called “After It’s Gone,” that’s a direct message about the development of downtown Athens, Georgia. Hive spoke with Hood about his opposition to Wal-Mart, his love of Athens, and his new solo album. Read more

What exactly is he fighting against? What Hood and his musical cohorts feel is an affront to Athens’ beauty and musical heritage in the form of a proposed building of an 8.3 acre mixed-use development, anchored by a 94,000 square-foot Walmart. Read more

Photoshopped renderings of Oconee Street have been an entertaining diversion, but speak to the misinformation surrounding one of the most important civic discussions Athens has ever faced. The development of the Armstrong & Dobbs parcel will, for better or worse, have a tremendous impact on downtown Athens. With so much at stake, Athenians deserve an informed discussion. Read more

Among the many frustrating components of the local discourse regarding Selig Enterprises’ proposal for the development of the Armstrong & Dobbs property has been a deeply counterproductive fracturing of Athens’ progressive community, which is as unnecessary as it is unfortunate. Read more

Although the issue has been talked about extensively by many in the community, there’s been a deafening silence, at least on the record, from two parties which likely will soon have to face each other: Selig, the Atlanta firm developing the Walmart complex, and the Athens-Clarke County Commission. Read more