And so it begins...

September 05, 2007

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WITH THE PASSING of Labor Day comes the busy season, in which the hazy days of summer become the crazy days of autumn in the blink of an eye.

Here at Connect Savannah we live by this internal calendar, spending much of August hunkered down preparing for the onslaught of events and issues to come as Savannah wakes up from its heat-and-humidity induced summer torpor.

Several key events happen this weekend I wanted to call particular attention to. First is the altogether awesome and unique Growing Hope Expo, intended to expand Savannah’s awareness of the issue of homelessness, and to highlight the valid contributions of members of that largely-forgotten community.

Union Mission’s Growing Hope Artisans Cooperative hosts this event Saturday, Sept. 8, from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. at the corner of East Broad and Gwinnett. It’s free, it’s fun, and there’s music, dance, spoken word and of course the handiwork of two dozen local and regional artists who might not otherwise receive the recognition they deserve.

Another noteworthy aspect of this year’s Expo is the “Generations of Change/My Savannah” history project, in which community members are encouraged to provide oral or written history about their experiences in Savannah, especially in that neighborhood.

Also there’s the Yoga for Peace event the morning of Sept. 8, 9 a.m.-noon in Forsyth Park. Begun as a spiritual response to 9/11, the event — basically a long series of sun salutations — seems to have morphed into a general call for peace in a world increasingly obsessed with endless, winless war.

In addition to your good vibes, you should bring your own yoga mats, towels, water and refreshments.

And we can’t forget the 5th Annual Savannah International Food & Wine Festival, which this year is helping to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the congregation of St. Paul’s Greek Orthodox Church. Sample food from some of the area’s best restaurants and take a taste of more than 40 wines. All proceeds of the event, held across the street from the church at the Hellenic Center, benefit the charitable projects of the Ladies Philoptochos Society.

OK, I HOPE everyone’s gotten a chance to check out our new website. Like I mentioned last week, it’s at the same URL, www.connectsavannah.com, but otherwise is totally different and vastly improved over the site you may remember.

While so far I have literally heard not a single negative comment about it, I’m sure you can come up with some reader-friendly improvements. As always, feel free to e-mail me at jim@connectsavannah.com and I’ll pass it on to the right place.

Or you can just use the convenient e-mail links at the “Contact Us” section.

BECAUSE OF THE Labor Day holiday we put this issue together on early deadlines, so I wanted to mention this late-breaking news I received in time to include in this column but nowhere else.

The rumors are true: former Mayor Floyd Adams Jr. is running again. Adams says he “has become disenchanted with the direction the present administration is leading the city. I love Savannah and the citizens of this community and it is my goal to restore a feeling of harmony to every citizen.”

For newcomers to town, Adams was Savannah’s first African-American mayor, elected in 1995 to much consternation from the white old guard in town. However, Adams quickly became known as a reliable ally of local business interests.

Whether you admire Adams or loathe him for allowing the huge post-Midnight boom to have its major transformative effect on Savannah, there’s no doubt that the city you live in today is what it is in large measure due to his two terms in office at a key time in our history.

While technically city offices are all non-partisan, this of course is less true in practice. Interestingly, Adams was first elected as a Democrat — albeit a very conservative one — but seems to have made something of a transformation into a latter-day Republican. He may differ with that assessment, but I think it’s safe to say that in this run he’s counting on a lot of Republican support.

I have a longstanding policy of not endorsing political candidates, for two reasons: 1) our readers are smart enough to make up their own minds, and it’s an insult to their intelligence for me to tell them how to vote; and 2) newspaper endorsements never amount to a hill of beans anyway. If anything, they tend to work against the candidate being endorsed!

But I confess I do have soft spot for Adams, who as a fellow newspaper guy I could always count on to look out for the interests of independent publications in town in our collective fight against the Morning News’s constant push to monopolize distribution locations in town and deprive the community of other voices.

Since Adams left office, the few brief times I’ve talked with him I’ve been impressed with his soft-spoken yet insightful take on local issues, so much in contrast to the often-acerbic and cantankerous persona he developed sometime during his second term. Here’s hoping that if Adams should win this November, he remembers to bring that kinder, gentler Floyd to the council chambers.