Couple of things

- Blake challenges the 'liberal Athens' argument, and I think he's valid in some places, but off-base in others. For starters, to lay the blame of the death of a local circuit breaker tax at the feet of the Athens-Clarke County Commission means you have to divorce yourself from the fact that the state legislature makes such final decisions. Given that any type of progressive tax relief program would be a non-starter for Rep. Bob Smith, it was useless to pursue the initiative. The commission instead sought to expand an existing, underutilized tax deferment program, which was a pragmatic move in the right direction.

- Per usual, John Stossel is a cherry-picking, know-nothing hack who can easily be refuted when resorting to actual data.

- 'Backyard Elistism' is guiding Lamar Duncan's principles.

- $2.50 per hour is steep, but what other option is there? Perhaps a new arrangement could be worked out where private leasers of the properties managed by Batson-Cook could pay a marginal monthly fee until the debt is retired since they are the ones actually in the building. Matching that with higher fees in the decks alone might be a more viable solution that could result in lower parking rates in the rest of downtown Athens-Clarke County.

- Dan rounds up the best quotes of the week.