There has been an effort to portray Paul Wiehl as being unfriendly to students. The reality? He is promoting the Smart Growth movement in Athens. His policies favor a walkable, bicycle-friendly city with a diverse urban core. His vision is one that limits sprawl and builds a healthy city center. To me, that sounds pretty student-friendly.
Ed Baum has used the term smart growth
but gives it a new meaning. His description of smart growth is one that relies on market forces with the city a passive partner. That is not what the term smart growth was coined to mean.- transit-oriented walkable
bicycle-friendly land use
including mixed-use development with a range of housing choices).
Some may recall how, when the sustainable development movement began to gain strength, oil companies redefined the term sustainable development to mean sustainable profits. This strikes me as a similar strategy to what Ed Baum is doing with smart growth.
I urge you to support Paul in his efforts to make Athens the kind of city that you would want to live in, while in school and after you graduate.
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