The Furlough Petition is Nothing More Than A Political Ploy and Has No Substance

written by Jouran Crosby

Ok now I am sure everyone is tired of my rants and raves about the City of Atlanta's wonderful Mayor and many of her exceptional accomplishments such as leading the City of Atlanta into a $200+ million deficit, cutting every possible revenue generator the city once had, driving property and sales taxes to astronomical levels, and an array of other political, financial and social mishaps.

Fast forward to last week on Facebook (FB); I logged in to Facebook and had a note waiting for me from one of my member groups. The note was encouraging members of this group to sign a petition that State Senator and Mayoral Candidate Kasim Reed started to encourage Mayor Shirley Franklin and the Atlanta City Council to end the furloughs for the Atlanta Police and Fire Departments so the city can be "safe". This brings up a question I hinted at previously..."Who is going to pay their salaries?" The answer at this point in time is no one will be able to pay their salaries; so why the petition? In my opinion, its just a political move to make it appear as if he is doing something above and beyond the other candidates while showing that he is completely against the current mayor. In the end, it's nothing but a dog and pony show.

My message to State Senator and Atlanta Mayoral Candidate Kasim Reed and his staff is instead of encouraging the end of the furloughs, how about we encourage the Atlanta City Council to approve the issuance of Revenue Bonds to finance and build the family center complex project that was proposed during Mayor Franklin's first term and marred by scandal and wasted $4.5M of taxpayer money with no ground breaking. How about we encourage Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau to drop the cliche campaigns that Mayor Franklin has concocted and develop a true Trade and Visitor promotion strategy that encourages convention traffic to return to the city which a vast majority left under Mayor Franklin's watch. Why not encourage a new entertainment and theater district where nightclubs, theaters, bars, and restaurant owners contribute 2-5% of their overall revenue to a special entertainment tax that would be used primarily for Police and Fire departments that patrol these areas, but ensure that city legislation blocks any use of this money for projects outside of these two departments. The same can be said for bringing back Atlanta Festivals such as Concert on the Bricks, Music Midtown, etc and working with various private media partners to develop additional attractions that aim to drive millions to Atlanta. This includes allowing restaurants and bars to pour on Sundays even if 50% of their receipts are not derived from food sales [legislation the sitting mayor that passed it some 3 decades ago didn't even enforce]. Finally, how about encourage city council to lower property taxes so that people may consider moving to the city and buy all this dormant real estate. Question was is total collected amount of property tax on 0 new units sold? Answer 0.

I understand that we are in significant economic downturn, however, the City of Atlanta has been in a downturn since 2003. Overpriced residences, posh retail selling garbage that is ridiculous priced, and a slew of low end buffet restaurants is not going to stimulate the Atlanta economy. Let's see if we did this what is the worst that would happen; hmmm more officers on the beat = safer streets, more people frequenting the city = more revenue, potential increase in residential sales = more property tax revenue, and wait the most important thing...jobs would be created that put real people back to work; what a wonderful concept.

State Senator Kasim Reed it appears that you are a favorite to win the seat next year, but if you want it to be a lock lets look past the political ploys and charades. There are real people hurting out here and people don't want to hear political rhetoric, the heartbeat of the Metro community needs a candidate that is going to reverse the ploys of this town jester that is currently holding the seat and enact true definitions to get this city back on track. The days of being a big city with a small town flair left once Atlanta won the Olympics. The city does not need a casino what it needs is a team to breathe life into, sweat from hard/smart work and focus. It needs a team that knows what they are doing and is not caught up on titles, but is caught up creating real growth. I guess it will take the Metro area becoming the Crime Capital of the United States with a junk bond status rating before the current mayor decides to do anything positive. Drop the rhetoric or allow someone who really wants the job and will do what is necessary to grab seat. Final question proposed to everyone running, are you up for the job and if so why do you feel you are the best candidate?

Finally GM Makes A Smart Business Decision

written by Jouran Crosby

GM thus far has made poor decision after poor decision with the worst being listening to government bureaucracy and going to bankruptcy court to settle its business differences, but that's another blog. GM today announced the sale of Saab which will transfer ownership back into the

hands of a Swedish company. Prior to GM purchasing Saab, Saab was a Swedish owned organization that made great quality products which diminished after Greedy Motors purchased the firm two decades ago. The interesting question now is what will the new owners at Koenigsegg do to revitalize the brand and raise its profile back to the prominence it once boasted.

Koenigsegg is a high end sports car manufacturer that, according to Yahoo News Article (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090616/ts_nm/us_gm_saab) is highly obsessed with quality and sells cars that have an average ticker price of $1,000,000 (see picture below). I don't believe you will see Saab's coming off the assembly line looking like this in mass production, however, I can see Saab getting an performance and quality overhaul in the next few

years which will allow them to rival other strong foreign brands (i.e. the Germans). I hate to sound anti-American, but if Saab is going to turn it around, they can't focus on a business structure that aims to build a product that Americans like; the focus should be to build a product that the rest of the world will embrace. When it comes to cars, the average American wants to buy a label and that label generally carries a lapel with a home based outside of our coastlines. I guess when American manufacturing is more obsessed with quantity over quality, trust in the product is lost. Until this business practice changes (which I don't see that happening anytime soon), Americans just wont trust American made autos.

Congratulations GM on sending the prodigal son back home; now the ball is in your court Koenigsegg. There's no pressure to excel, heck the bar is so low any improvement will be better than what's out right now. By the way, yes I come from a household that was a former Saab Owner prior to GM's purchase of the company back in 1990.