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Meat Sales

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Athens, Ga is a city thriving on the idea of what’s “Classic”. With weekly farmers markets and under the title of having a municipal scene with local and cultural flare, Athens has made it’s mark as one of the classiest college towns in the nation.

The University of Georgia, let alone, is one of the most significant artisans of Athenian culture. Within the University itself, there lies multiple entities of local influence that still survive that provide to the students of UGA. One of these lasting entities of local business still on campus is the University Meat Sales.

The UGA Meat Sales are held weekly every Friday afternoon from 1-5 PM in the Rhodes Animal and Dairy Science building right in the heart of ECV.

Ryan Crowe, professor and lab manager for the meat sales, promotes the local uniqueness of the sales within this interview. He discusses the technique of “dry aging” meats such as beef that gives an enhanced natural flavoring to it. He also points out how this very technique is uniquely provided by the UGA meat sales because  it is a technique most conventional meat marketers do not utilize in the processing of their meat products.

Professor Crowe and Dr. John Bertrand sit down with me in two separate interviews to discuss the UGA meat sales. They discuss the meat itself, ranging from beef, pork, and even lamb. Lamb, however, is a rare meat and as Professor Crowe states it is more of a “seasonal” product.

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Andrew Blevins and Daniel LoPilato interview Gabe Wardell about the future of Ciné, the cinema, bar, and café.

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by Jason Flynn

“Thank you, thank you, thank you you’re far too kind.”

That’s all I hear when I look at the picture of Mayor Nancy Denson, Gov. Nathan Deal and other commissioners posing in front of a mustard colored backhoe, and parading a CAT hat.

In case you hadn’t heard Denson, with the help of Athens-Clarke and Oconee county aides, help reel in the industrial manufacturing giant Caterpillar and a massive $200 million dollar investment — and that doesn’t even include the 25 plus suppliers that are expected to follow.

“Balcony, orpera, black tux, binoculars.”

It is a massive achievement that warrants a ball (Sorry, they already popped the champagne).

So why the lyrical sarcasm?

Well to start, no one heard about the major deal until last Thursday, and even then the company and provisions were still kept under wraps. A deal which included ACC and Oconee covering the initial purchase of the property, plus extensions to roads, water and sewage.

“This is your song not mine.”

The Caterpillar factory is slated to add 1,400 new jobs on its own. We are told the wages will be competitive, but either way they are sorely needed for unemployed and underemployed in Athens. In addition, it slashes the city’s image as business unfriendly.

“Heaven knows  I’ve made my mistakes.”

While the results of this development — as far as we are allowed to know — are positive the methods employed over the past two months are egregious. The closed door meetings, top-secret monetary promises and a blinded citizenry. Any of this sound familiar?

It should, since the same thing has been happening with the hotly contested Walmart slated to rise between Broad and Oconee Streets. The only difference is the factory will be on an out-of-the-way greenfield. Millions or no, this kind of corrupt — dare I say, illegal —  activity is appalling and wholly unrepresentative of proper democratic representation.

“Hold your applause.”

Selig Enterprises, the development company that hopes to build a Walmart on the outskirts of downtown, will have to hold off on its negotiations with elected officials at least until after it releases a long-awaited study assessing the project’s impact on traffic flow.

The property in question is located on Oconee Street and stretches from Broad to Wilkerson. Selig recently released elevation renderings of the “mixed-use urban center,” which can be seen here. According to the project’s web site, Selig’s development plans for the plot include “15 to 20 retail stores and restaurants,” “roughly 200 residential units,” “gathering spaces and common areas,” and a 94,000-square-foot “anchor tenant” (all signs point to Walmart).

Although Selig will pay for and conduct the study, it will have to attain approval from the Georgia Department of Transportation and follow guidelines laid out by the Institute of Traffic Engineers. Many, including Flagpole editor Dave Marr, think it unlikely that the report will find the already-congested Oconee Street corridor capable of handling the large influx of traffic the development would bring.

Many have expressed concern about the development’s impact on the area, namely the detriments to local businesses, historical landmarks, neighborhood atmosphere, and the Athens Greenway ecosystem. At the ACC Mayor and Commission’s meeting on Jan. 3, citizens aligned with Russell Edwards’s “People for a Better Athens” filled the hall as he submitted a 17,000-name petition against the construction of a Walmart. In an email to supporters, Edwards explained that the petition’s goal was to encourage officials to enforce legal restrictions on the development. “We want the County Commission to legally compel Selig to shrink the size of their anchor tenant,” he wrote. “A smaller anchor size means a grocery store can fit there… It is naive to believe Selig will unilaterally throw money away and shrink the anchor size without being legally compelled to do so.”

A month before Edwards’s submission, in early December, the Athens Banner-Herald published an editorial by VP Scott Selig addressing some of the community’s concerns. Regarding the project’s environmental impact, he wrote that its designers were “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-accredited professionals” and that they were “aiming to achieve a LEED certification.”

He also claimed that the development would bring increased revenue, tax money, and jobs to the area. “While much of the discussion has revolved around potential anchor tenants,” he wrote, “it’s important to remember this project represents an $80 million investment in Athens, creating 500 temporary construction jobs over 18 months and an estimated 350 new permanent jobs… Additionally, the project will generate as much as $3 million annually in sales taxes as well as $1 million in annual property taxes.”

However, repeated claims that Selig’s project is in full compliance with zoning and planning code have been criticized as ambiguous and misleading. The issue of whether Selig has yet been granted “vested rights” to the property is a complicated one, as explained in this article by UGA law professor Jamie Baker Roskie.

Besides the questions raised by traffic concerns and zoning issues, the project is also in the middle of a 90-day hiatus invoked by commissioners in late December with the purpose of evaluating historic elements. At this point, no facet of the controversial development appears set in stone.

We want your opinions. What does a downtown Walmart mean to you? Is it a community-destabilizing eyesore, or just a convenient place to get groceries? Should the store be built, would you personally frequent it? Or is that beside the point? Let us know what you think below.

Big changes are coming to Farm 255, Athens’s favorite “farm-to-table” restaurant. The award-winning eatery has hired a new chef, Whitney Otawka, soon to be familiar to many as a contestant on Bravo’s “Top Chef.”

Otawka is no stranger to the culinary world, coming to Farm after a year at Cumberland Island’s much-lauded Greyfield Inn. Before that she staged at prestigious New York restaurants such as Per Se and Le Bernardin, and she served as sous-chef at Athens’s 5&10.

Otawka said she plans to make considerable changes to the restaurant’s menu. “At the heart of my approach is the idea of comfort food,” she said. “I am influenced by the old world, traditional country dishes of France, Italy, and Spain and, of course, the south. I will focus my attention on technique and craftsmanship while bringing new flavors to rustic cuisine.”

In an introductory video on Bravo’s website, Otawka speaks of herself as a highly competitive person. “I’m very driven,” she says. “I’m a perfectionist in so many ways that it kind of makes me feel like I’m better than everyone else. I want to be the best.”

What’s happening to former chef Matt Palmerlee? He’ll be developing his own artisanal charcuterie and sausage business, as well as focusing on work with the Four Coursemen project.

Farm 255 is a local, seasonal, and sustainable restaurant, an early vanguard of the farm-to-table movement. The restaurant owns and operates its own vegetable operation, “Full Moon Farms,” and its own pork and beef supplier, “Moonshine Meats.” It’s also the flagship of an enterprise that includes Atlanta’s Farm Burger restaurant, which serves completely grassfed burgers sourced from the same local farms.

Farm has received national recognition from such outlets as CNN, Food & Wine Magazine, and Southern Living. Most recently, the restaurant received the Glynnwood 2011 Good Food Entrepeneur Harvest Award, created “to highlight innovative work being done on a community level [and] to increase access to fresh, locally-produced food.”

Questions? Comments? Experiences at the Farm worth sharing? Want to thank me for not starting this post with a pun about things “cooking” or “stirring” or “sizzling” at Farm 255? Tell us below.

News staffer Andrew Blevins interviewed A.E. Stallings, a poet who received a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Fellowship earlier this year.  She is an editor with the Atlanta Review and studied Classics at Oxford by way of UGA.  She has published two collections of poetry, Archaic Smile (2000) and Hapax (1999).  In 2007, she released a verse translation of Lucretius’ The Nature of Things. She currently lives in our sister city, Athens, Greece.

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Amidst dwindling conversations of local redevelopment, Prince Avenue residents have taken matters into their own hands.

On October 14^th the Athens-Clarke County planning department released a

study of the Prince Avenue corridor begun in 2008.

The study contained demographic and civil statistics that are the current foundation of the Prince Avenue corridor, current opinions of the residents and staff and suggestions by the Community Approach to Planning Prince Avenue for the use and development of the corridor area.

Major points considered in the study were promotion of local business, increased residence and ease of travel along and outside of the corridor.

Zoning designations that promote mixed use properties, increasing the current housing density, expansion of sidewalks and busing and more pocket green spaces are all proposed to increase the number of local businesses, residential consumers and improve the quality of life.

However, some of the stipulations may be suspect for groups of locals.

Proposed zoning changes promote street front mixed use buildings that would house new bars, shops, restaurants and residents. While such proposals will draw more local commercial activity, they also serve to remake the current corridor into an extension of classic downtown – with all of its congestion and problems in tow.

In consideration of traffic, Prince Avenue is already one of the most congested thoroughfares in Athens. Dramatically expanding sidewalks, bikeways and decreasing speed

limits will only serve to increase congestion from already present commuters and non-resident consumers. In addition, increases in resident density will exacerbate these problems.

Finally, stipulations for businesses, including size limits for single use buildings and mandatory architectural or landscaped buffer zones that increase costs and decrease flexibility for incoming businesses could deter leaders, notably those in the thriving medical industry, from investing in the area.

While the Prince corridor residents are well ahead of other residential areas and the ACC government, they may still have a number of things to consider before moving forward with dramatic changes to the area.

What do you think about the development suggestions by the commission? What other considerations should be made with the development of a master plan?

The Occupy Wall Street protests have spread in recent days across the country, and show little sign of breaking.  Whether it’s Nancy Pelosi or Kanye West giving the protests their blessings, or investors toasting champagne to the occasion, the protests have drawn media attention, praise, and scrutiny this month.

News staffer Emily Kopp visited the Occupy Athens protest, which currently occupies the steps in front of the Arches.  They protested, with signs and chants, this past weekend and well into the week.  Early rains this Monday and Tuesday did not break their ranks.  Photos below:

If you’ve protested with Occupy Wall Street, let us know in the comments below.  Or, offer your take on the occupation — is it a strong force that will push lawmakers and activists in the coming days, or is it, in the words of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a mob?

It was a little past 7 PM on Wednesday, September 21. Troy Davis should have been dead. With heavy hearts, anti-death penalty activists and Davis supporters demonstrating at the Arch gripped their signs and watched the sun disappear inch-by-inch, falling below the horizon by imperceptible margins. Some drivers seized the opportunity jeer at us as they whizzed past. Out of respect for Troy Davis, I wont repeat their offensive jokes, but they made their point clear. He deserved to be killed, they yelled.

My cellphone broke the silence– Davis wasn’t dead. As people received word of the good news, a renewed sense of hope emboldened demonstrators to talk amongst themselves. The crowd grew livelier. Anticipating a later execution date and, just maybe, renewed dialogue about Davis’s guilt, many supporters trickled off, myself included. It wasn’t until past 11 PM that I learned that the State of Georgia had indeed followed through with the execution. A UGA student who has often visited and written Troy Davis, Gautum Narula says he considers him a personal friend. When he learned that Davis was still alive after 7 PM, he left demonstrations in Jackson and returned to Athens. He learned Davis’s true fate on CNN. The death of Davis felt a little like the sudden darkness after a prolonged sunset. Davis supporters had kept constant vigil, but the execution still felt like a sudden blow.

At midnight I returned to the Arch to find a larger group gathered there for an impromptu vigil. Candles lined the steps, and Troy Davis’s picture rested in the middle. The demonstrators, mostly students joined by a few sympathetic passers-by, sang protest songs and shared our thoughts, but mostly, we stood in silence. One could detect, in addition to grief, a sense of frustration among the group, indignation that Georgia could demonstrate such a lack of respect for the sanctity of a human life.

My mind raced back to the drivers from earlier in the evening. How could people fall so passionately on either side of a case that would, in any other circumstances, be a purely personal matter? I think supporters of the death penalty misunderstand the Troy Davis in many ways, but a particularly widespread misconception is this– the Troy Davis case is not about morality of capital punishment. Whether you believe taking a life for a life has ethical merit is irrelevant to this case. The fate of Troy Davis illustrates the flaws in the practice of capital punishment, not its moral implications. Whatever side of the argument you fall on, we can agree that the government should never have the execution of an innocent man on its hands, because ultimately the buck stops with us, the citizens. The justice system is never foolproof, and fixing a faulty verdict absent physical evidence, as the Troy Davis case shows, proves an insurmountable task. So why should the state have the authority to issue a sentence as irrevocable as execution?

The new downtown parking garage located behind the Georgia Theatre will feature the permanent installation of unseen work by five Athens artists this week.

Workers will spend the next few days putting the twenty-four metal panels and eight fabric banners on display, as well as applying other finishing touches to the six-story garage, which opened for use on Monday. The building, located on North Lumpkin Street, adds 500 new parking spaces, six storefronts, and an upper-level office space to the downtown area.

Landscape architect and artist Chet Thomas and UGA graduate art student Elizabeth Debban designed two each of the large black-and-white metal panels. The tall 4-by-40-foot banners were created by Heidi Hensley, Jared Brown, and Robert Clements, a professor emeritus at UGA’s Lamar Dodd School of Art. The banners are each inspired by events and activities in downtown Athens.

The artwork, which will be hung on all four sides of the garage’s exterior, was selected by an independent jury after the Athens Cultural Affairs Commission issued a call for submissions last spring. The development company, Batson-Cook, included public art in its initial design proposals, and $78,000 of the project’s $17 million budget was set aside by the Athens-Clarke County government for the purposes of commissioning, fabricating, and installing the pieces, according to an article in the Athens Banner-Herald.

Commission chair Marilyn Wolf-Ragatz said in an interview for Flagpole Magazine that she was excited to be involved in supporting public art. “I am passionate about art in everyone’s life, and giving artists a chance to be a part of the community with art,” she said. “And the fact that the builder and the commission set aside money for it, it’s overwhelming for me… It’s just the beginning of what’s going to be the start of more public art in Athens.”

A dedication ceremony for the parking deck is planned for 4 p.m. on Oct. 5. See pictures of the art after the cut.

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