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Of cranks & creatives

Editor,

Your editorials have certainly changed a lot in the past few weeks. The newspaper now seems devoted to echoing the reactionary (and dangerous) views of the real estate hoods, carpetbaggers and property speculators who have hit town to do their damage and clean up before they move on.

You should know better. This is old stuff.

And there is no “creative class.” There still is, however, a “working class,” people who are struggling to exist and feed mouths on Georgia’s ruthless minimum wage, giving Marx’s term “wage slavery” its just and significant meaning. These folks deserve all our attention, all our focus.

The others, creative or not, will take care of themselves. You say the town needs to “attract” them. It’s unclear what benefits this will bring. Surely none of the poor who have far from benefited from anything lately.

The town has already sold off much of its public property to SCAD, who use the downtown as a campus. And Broughton Street, which should be a main street for the population, is the hub of what is called the “tourist center.”

Can you see how that plays out? An entire population relegated to living in whatever shabby Bantustans can be organized while coming into the “tourist center” for low-paid and hard-earned wages in the hotel and restaurant industry.

This kind of set-up will indeed attract a certain type of person — hardly creative — manipulative and grasping, full of energy without intelligence, and determination without scruples. And when they’re “created out,” they’ll move on to the next place that wants to attract them!

True creativity would consist of throwing out the property speculators, making the school system teach youth to read and write and do math, forcing the elected officials to guarantee a decent minimum wage ($10/hour at least), and take back the town from the cabal of thugs so everyone can get on with living.

And never mind listening to Professional Lecturers and Sleazy Sociologists. Richard Florida knows a lot he isn’t saying. They all do. And if “the Creative Class” message is making him a swell living and it happens to be rubbish, well, let’s not be too hard on him, he needs to eat too.

But you don’t have to fall for it. You, as editor of a newspaper, owe it to everyone to stay away from cranks. It’s always clear what needs to happen. The trouble is, do we have the will?

P. Rodriguez

A course on horses

Editor,

Since I am the only one in town with a horse named Wilbur, I’d like to respond to the recent letter writer that is obviously not educated on the care of horses. Our tours during this time of year start at 9 a.m. and end at noon, then again from 7-10 p.m. We have enough horses that none of them do double shifts.

If you’re so concerned about the heat, what about the workers in Ellis Square that have to be out in this all day? What about the kids practicing for football season in full uniform?

I would appreciate it if people would not assume that a carriage horse, because it is walking along nicely with its head down, is being mistreated. That is what they are born to do. They love their jobs and get very depressed if they are not working.

Don’t forget, they have been used as farm equipment for generations. Pulling a cart of people with a modernized, shock absorbing, full cylinder wheel cart is nothing compared to pulling a very large hoe all day in all kinds of weather.

If you want to know about the treatment, walk up to any driver in the city and ask.

Kelley Tarr

Treasuring Tybee

Editor,

The August 22-28 issue was great! You covered one of my favorite bands (The Train Wrecks), my favorite pizza place (Pizza Rustica), and had an interesting column about my favorite place in the world (Tybee Island).

Robin Wright Gunn’s column was a very balanced piece about the many changes that have occurred on Tybee. I enjoyed her reminiscences about her childhood beach vacations. I agree with her that “some of those condos are just plain ugly.”

Tybee has lost some of its quirkiness due to an attempt to become “nicer” and to accommodate the maximum number of visitors. Hopefully, businesses will continue to be successful, due to support from residents as well as visitors.

However, I think it’s vital to maintain the unique ambience, historical treasures, and marine environment that everyone loves.

Sherri Simmons