City buy Strip Club for $997,000.00 just to burn it down.

[AndyC]

I've never agreed with the practice of changing place names in order to undo history. It's confusing, it's expensive, and it ultimately doesn't accomplish anything. In most cases, there's nobody around who even remembers a time when the name was any different. My belief is that governments should look forward when spending money, not backward. Historical preservation would be the exception to that rule, but we're talking about historical revision. There comes a time when people have to stop paying for past injustices and concentrate on making things better today and tomorrow. And in the examples of South Africa or the city of Lavonia, the money would be better spent on building something to be proud of, not tearing down something embarrassing.

Funny, I grew up near Kitchener, Ontario. The city is named after Lord Kitchener (the guy with the huge mustache on that famous British recruiting poster), but it existed long before that as Berlin. The name got changed around the time of the First World War, to make it more British. And it obviously worked, because every year, they have a huge British festival, with beer and schnitzel and sausages and polka music, and everybody wears lederhosen and alpine hats. Glad they got rid of the German element.

Just the same, every once in a while, somebody comes along to advocate changing the name of this city of 250,000 people back to Berlin. Fortunately, anybody who even bothers to listen will weigh the pro against the long list of cons and the whole idea is forgotten until the next numbnuts with time on his hands comes along. A name is a name, and it doesn't matter if it's not the original name. For the average person living with the current name, changing it back is no different from changing it. Move forward.

[dean]

I would think the price was for the business as a going concern. The property doesn't look like it's worth anywhere near that much, and the building would need a fair bit of work to turn it into anything else. Most of that money is gone.

The funny thing about taxpayers is that they will be initially happy until the long-term financial implications become clear. Then they'll complain about the tax increase, budget cuts depleted reserves or whatever made this possible. That's also assuming it isn't just a vocal minority who are applauding the move in the first place.

When you do something radical like this, even if it's to please your constituents, you'll likely end up in the pillory anyway.

Yeah that's true, but it really is surprising the stupid things that councils will do just to seem like they're 'on the ball'.  I still figure if everyone wanted it, then so be it, that's the whole democracy thing in action right there, but I really don't see that being the case.

BUT it really does seem like they were gunning to close that place down.  A lazy mill does seem like quite a ridiculous amout to be paying for it really, though I don't know property values in northeast Georgia off the top of my head so I could be wrong there... 

Even then, just imagine the legal fees they went through trying to close the place down for seven years as well.


A little research found this article which sheds a little more light on the financial situation for the fine council of Lavonia and what they COULD have bought with the money:

http://onlineathens.com/stories/073108/news_2008073100349.shtml

and the following gives us an update on what they plan to do with the site:

http://www.accessnorthga.com/detail.php?n=212008&c=10


Does anyone else seem to think that Fesperman sounds like a bit of a douchebag?  ""We all took turns daring each other (to slide down the strippers' poles)," Fesperman said. "But nobody would actually go through with it." ????????? 

Wow, what a fella...  They are total rebel crazy people who party like nobody's business. 

The killer here though is that they burnt all of the signs as a way of making a statement.  Considering that the council voted unanimously to buy the property, this really must have been a sore spot for all of them... 

Nothing says 'get out of my town' like a bonfire!    Recycling and re-using materials mustn't be big in Georgia.

I wonder how business will go around town now?  And all of this is overshadowed by the fact that the initial proprietor died in his sleep at 47.  Now that is a sad bit of news, but somehow I don't see the council members being too sorry about that 'minor tragedy.'  And where will all the waitresses go? 

I wonder how much they'll get for the site?

On a side note, I like the comment in the second link that says 'my cusion used to call CAFE RISQUE and ask for the service dept..'   

[Jack]

By that night, Lavonia's council members were having a victory party at the cafe, burning the business' signs in a parking lot bonfire. On Wednesday, Fesperman and city officials giddily began gutting the building.

"We all took turns daring each other (to slide down the strippers' poles)," Fesperman said. "But nobody would actually go through with it."

That's just incredibly childish.  I thought our city councilmen were a bunch of retards, but these people really take the cake.

[AndyC]

Burning the signs, gleefully gutting the inside personally, flaunting and celebrating the destruction of the offending business. Yeah, I would really feel comfortable with a city council who made something that personal. I don't care what the business was or how obnoxious the owner was, city officials should conduct themselves with a little more decorum.

This is what happens when people start throwing that 'evil' label around. Their own standards of behaviour start to slip. Here we have the impartial leaders of the community are out dancing on the grave of a hated business and making a big spectacle of it. "Yay, the good guys won!" That would make me really confident if I were coming before them on a contentious matter later on. Biases and personal animosity are OK in the council chamber, as long as councillors can justify it personally.

They should have just made an announcement and very matter-of-factly sent some guys from public works over to remove the signs. If they were my council, their credibility would be shot to hell.

[Trevor]

And it obviously worked, because every year, they have a huge British festival, with beer and schnitzel and sausages and polka music, and everybody wears lederhosen and alpine hats. Glad they got rid of the German element.