More Jittery Joe's

Bob at Athens World talks about Jittery Joe's ...

If that’s right, then I have problem describing the roasting company coffee shop as a “downtown” business. Have you been there? It’s down a hill, quite steep in places, between the railroad tracks and the river on what’s called East Broad Street, but easily might be called “Broad Street Extension.” If you parked at the last metered space on Broad Street and walked to the roasting company coffee shop, you’d need to shift to a lower walking gear to negotiate the grade, your walk back would be decidedly uphill, and you’d walk a substantially greater distance than you would, say, from a metered space to Five Star Day or Trappeze or O.K. Coffee. Morever, the businesses and other uses neighboring the coffee shop are not within the core common-sense definition of downtown uses. The area might be described most accurately as mixed.

Here’s another thing. If what we’re worried about is unsightliness, then is it more unsightly to have customers parked in the space next to the coffee shop, or is it more unsightly to have that lot remain empty? Unsightliness, of course, is in the eye of the beholder, but I personally like the look of the lot filled with cars.

I personally find distinguishable allowing a lot at the roasting company coffee shop and allowing one, say, in the space now occupied by the remains of the Georgia Theatre.

I think Bob's points are valid ones, and he does a solid job of talking about the distinct difference between what the popular perception of downtown is and what the actual definition is. The latter, though, is crucial in understanding in that, roughly 10 years ago, Athens-Clarke County voted for a Land Use Plan that featured this area, albeit a fringe one on the far outskirts, as part of a general definition of downtown.

That central point, it must be noted, is the strongest one those concerned with the possibility of a precedent have presented ... and it's not without merit.