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GoodOwl Offline
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Government Programs are so valuable Thread
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[Image: pb150519.gif]

When I think of government programs, things like this come to mind... Actually, this appears to be one of their less harmful programs.

We're better off without government programs.
(This post was last modified: 05-21-2015 09:36 PM by GoodOwl.)
05-21-2015 09:30 PM
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GoodOwl Offline
The 1 Hoo Knocks
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Posts: 25,218
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I Root For: New Horizons
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Post: #2
RE: Government Programs are so valuable Thread
Here a local example that Atlantans might remember: the Atlanta-Fulton County Recreation Authority. I have to agree the AFRA has a pretty bad record when it comes to successful investments and use of funds that help the area they administer. Remember the $500,000 + $2.5 million boondoggle of "Fanplex" that was supposed to 'revitalize the neighborhoods around Turner Field?" Yeah, that happened--not:


from Wikipedia:

"Fanplex was an entertainment center in Atlanta, Georgia, adjacent to Turner Field. It opened in 2002 and was shut down in early 2004 after losing $500,000, above and beyond an initial investment of $2.5 million.

The attraction was meant to lure fans of the Atlanta Braves with miniature golf and video games, and to pump economic activity into the depressed area around the stadium. However, Fanplex saw little business, even on game days, perhaps since it was actually located far away from most game-day foot traffic. An initial staff of 16 was pared down to one and operating hours were scaled back as patrons continued not to show up.

Critics say Fanplex was largely built to justify the existence of the Atlanta-Fulton County Recreation Authority, which was originally created to manage Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium and The Omni Coliseum, both of which no longer exist, along with Zoo Atlanta.

An October 2, 2006 article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution says that the authority has put the facility up for sale twice, but cannot find a buyer at the $2.7 million price it has sought. The miniature golf course is now overgrown and nearby residents complain that the facility has become another vacant parking lot. With seemingly few commercial prospects for the current facility, Atlanta leaders quoted by the paper speculate Fanplex may ultimately be swept up in large-scale redevelopment of areas around the stadium.

Starting November 2013, the Fanplex was home to the "A" team of Archer Western Contractors who is currently constructing a 5 million gallon underground storage tank in the media lot across Hank Aaron Drive."

from the AJC archives:

"Buyers shun government white elephant
Author: D.L. BENNETT, Staff
Date: October 2, 2006
Publication: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The (GA) Page: B1


The building offers 11,000 square feet of bright colors and modern design, with exposed metal and wood details and a spacious, open floor plan.

It sits on a prominent street, just minutes from I-20 in bustling downtown Atlanta.

Still, nobody wants Fanplex.

The controversial former children's entertainment complex has been for sale for about three years -- about twice as long as it was open for business. Interest has been so limited that the Atlanta-Fulton County Recreation..."


I trust the Braves staff and management to do a better job than the City of Atlanta leadership with making their new investment in Cobb a success. Traffic will be a nightmare, as it is already (I used to drive through that intersection every day just a few years ago, and it's bad now.)

My hope is that the Braves moving will finally be the straw that breaks the camel's back and gets MARTA approved in Cobb County (recent polling suggests Gwinnett County is more than 60% in favor of joining MARTA today, where numbers have never been over 45% in the past. The demographics are changing, despite what some ignorant leftover leaders think. Clayton County recently joined and everyone will be watching that addition closely. Mass transit and rail will eventually come to Cobb and Gwinnett counties and finally start moving things forward for the region after decades of gridlock caused primarily by greed and racism).

Fanplex is just one of millions of examples of bad government programs and cronyism among whoever is in power, whatever their particular background may be. Time and time again, the government is shown to be inept and crooked when trying on its own to do something people and companies are better left to do using capitalistic basic market forces and rational supply/demand and investment/return cost/reward analysis.

Nothing wrong with wanting to help people or areas in need. It's the how that is most often screwed up when it comes to government involvement. The Braves basically said "We've had enough of it," and got out to where they could use some business sense to do what they saw could be achieved. Now, hopefully, GA State University can come in and do something more productive by partnering with private, for-profit developers to actually help the area and people around Turner Field for the first time in over 50 years.

As boondoggles fail, market forces come to rule
Marvin Olasky | Jul 18, 2003


ATLANTA -- President Lyndon Johnson nearly four decades ago said that government programs would make the long-impoverished Summerhill neighborhood here a place of "spacious beauty and lively promise." Instead, it's become a place of boondoggles.

One of the latest is FanPlex, a state government-funded arcade/miniature golf course/fast food joint located at 768 Hank Aaron Dr., near the stadium where the Atlanta Braves play -- but pressure is growing on local politicians to give up on FanPlex within the next several weeks.

The entertainment center came into being last year as well-connected officials decided they could justify their salaries by saying they were giving poor "childrens" recreational opportunities. The children, though, have decided to do other things. On the Saturday afternoon I visited, with a Braves game three hours away, a total of four children were playing videogames; about 70 videogames were unused. The miniature golf course was deserted.

The Taco Bell a block away had a line at its counter and its tables filled, but the FanPlex staffer on duty had time for contemplation and no need to wipe down his unused outside tables. As the Atlanta Journal and Constitution commented, "Taxpayers would have been better off if the $2.5 million" spent on Fanplex "had been tossed into a bonfire. At least taxpayers could have kept warm for an hour. Instead, they're going to get burned for years."

That's nothing new. For years, government dollars have led to waste, and wasted lives. Lyndon Johnson's appointees boasted that "the most modern federal-state-city planning, housing, training and social welfare techniques" would "transform the slum core into a modern area." Tens of millions of governmental dollars flowed into the pockets of middle-class officials, contractors and social workers. Over 10,000 residents -- one-third of Summerhill's population -- left, as welfare dependency and crime increased, and those who could afford to move out did so.

Community political power has also created messes. Atlanta's Bob Lupton, president of FCS Urban Ministries, helped Summerhill's community development corporation harvest cash and commitment from foundations and corporations, but the project "absolutely crashed on the rocks" as immediate political and financial gratification came to outweigh the long-range vision. After his Christian group handed over land, houses and money to the Summerhill CDC, Lupton said, "we ended up with no capacity to deliver on our commitments. We were rightly motivated but very unwise."

Lupton noted that the Summerhill experience pushed his organization to develop a new rule when working in other neighborhoods: "Don't subordinate to community politics your ability to fulfill commitments. ... In subsequent neighborhoods, we've established a true partnership. When we make an agreement, we have the legal capacity to fulfill it. We'll be the land assemblage entity, we'll buy the land, we'll hold the land in accordance with the agreed-upon plan, it won't be reliant on subsequent political intrigue. The partnership has clearly defined roles."

Where politics failed, market forces have taken command. On some better Summerhill blocks, homes priced at $269,000 boast "new construction with downtown skylines views." On other blocks, older homes have been rehabbed, but with crime still a problem, many broken-down houses show huge bags of dog chow on sagging porches. Others, not so subtle, display large dogs tethered by long chains.

As affluent urban villagers move in and land values increase, some Summerhill residents may be priced out. Markets can be brutal; as Wilhelm Roepke wrote in "A Humane Economy," capitalism works best with a Christian sensibility. FCS Urban Ministries tried to bring that but failed in this instance; it's doing better elsewhere.

Yet one lesson is clear: Government initiatives have repeatedly failed, with politicians who use taxpayers' money for follies like FanPlex showing themselves to be not public servants but public exploiters."
05-21-2015 09:35 PM
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