Columbus residents running out of time to reach out and impact 2020 capital project survey
According to recent Facebook posts — and if it’s on Facebook, it must be true — Columbus residents are running out of time to take an online survey regarding which capital projects the city government should pursue with a one-cent sales tax to fund things like “infrastructure.”
You know what “infrastructure” is, don’t you?
No? Then don’t ask me, because I avoid vague terms like “infrastructure” and “capital projects,” and “greenspace” and “connectivity” and “amazing.” And I don’t use “impact” as a verb or say I “reached out” to someone if I all I did was call them on the phone instead of actually trying to grab them with my arms.
That is not the point. The point is that you have until Wednesday to reach out online and take the city’s “capital projects” survey to impact what infrastructure the city funds through a sales tax that’s up for a vote with the General Election on Nov. 3, when we anticipate a bee-swarm turnout of voters inflamed by the presidential race.
As opposed to the Muscogee County School District sales tax referendum set for March 24, coinciding with nothing but the presidential preference primary, when Republicans taking President Trump’s party nomination as a given needn’t vote at all.
Not that the school board would count on a low turnout to get its sales tax passed.
Anyway, that also is not the point. The point is that if you don’t take the survey, then the city can’t tell what infra- … what stuff you will vote to pay taxes to build to impact this community with amazing connectivity or whatever.
You can find a link to the survey on the city’s website at www.columbusga.org, and as proponents allege, it takes only 5 minutes. It takes even less if you don’t put too much thought into it, or if you think the city can’t afford the maintenance costs for anything new it builds, or if you think sales taxes are regressive and you’re going to vote for only so many within a certain time span.
So, go there right now and take the survey. Don’t get online and go straight to Facebook and start a post-holiday argument with your cousin about how her husband would be better able to discuss politics at a family gathering had he actually graduated from the University of Alabama instead of just yelling “Roll Tide” when he’s drunk.
I just filled out the survey, and it took me no time at all, hardly — mostly because I ranked almost every suggested project as a low priority, except for a “judicial center” to house the courts currently located in the Government Center, and for upgrades to the jail complex off Sixth Avenue at 10th Street.
Like the Government Center, that whole jail block is inadequate. Besides the jail buildings, it has two small, dimly lit courtrooms with exceedingly tight lobby areas that cannot handle the crush of people summoned there.
The parking’s even worse: Sometimes hundreds are called to court there in a day, and they have to park all over the place, because too few spaces are available for the public.
Beyond the residents compelled to attend court hearings are those trying to avoid court by paying off their traffic tickets in advance, and little room is allotted for their customer service. They have to line up in a narrow hallway to wait their turn.
The whole complex needs to be re-engineered to better serve those who daily have to go there, including the clerks and law enforcement officers, and to improve security where feuding friends and families at homicide hearings get into affrays, forcing deputies to run out and separate them before someone else gets shot.
If the city doesn’t show more interest in better serving those drawn into its criminal justice system, then its other priorities may be regarded as questionable.
But that’s just me. You may have other priorities, such as improving public restrooms along the Riverwalk and other walking trails, if those toilets are ever unlocked.
So go take the survey, before it’s too late, because your opinion matters, as far as you know, and it impacts no infrastructure with amazing connectivity if you don’t reach out.