Posted by EnKiKur (anonymous) on May 18, 2008 at 8:25 a.m. (Suggest removal)

This is the problem with monopolies. There is no incentive for good customer service.

I wonder if annexation or consolidation could in some way provide incentive for Cable One to improve their service to Beau Pre.

Posted by Hambone (anonymous) on May 18, 2008 at 9:15 a.m. (Suggest removal)

FWIW I didn't get my paper this morning...

Posted by NatchezEnema (anonymous) on May 18, 2008 at 2:44 p.m. (Suggest removal)

What we have here is an investment issue. First the owners or stockholders of these companies look at it like this. To get cable and high speed internet to Beau Pre it will cost x. Once it is there how many customers are there or will be there to buy the service and how long will it take to start getting a profit off the investment of getting the sevice there. Well, by their actions, it's just not worth it at this time, the payoff is to small for such an investment. If say Beau Pre had 150 or 250 houses that was going up and most were sold even before construction had started they would not even think twice about getting the service to that place. Cable one is on the Coast also. There are developments of 150 250 even 600 and more homes going up everywhere. Thats where they are willing to invest. I mean, put yourself in their shoes. Would you spend hundreds of thousands of $ or maybe a million in Natchez getting service to Beau Pre so say 30 40 or 50 people will have sevice now. What is the growth potential or outlook of Beau Pre? How many homes are going up there now or will be going up in say the next 2 years? 5 10 15? Anybody know? Cable one is a huge company has millions of customers and is in business to make money not lose it. They are masters at looking at local economies in towns, growth potentials, where they will make or lose money. Read the tea leaves people, Cable one is saying to Beau Pre " you are not worth the investment", " we are in the business to make money, not lose it" When you look around Natchez and see goverment miss management, goverment infighting, a hospital laying people off, no new major developments, jobs going elsewhere, a shrinking population, can you much blame them? No Cable one is not perfect. But this is a business decision. Ask any business owner if they will invest in a money losing proposition. If they say yes they won't be in business long or will stay in the red. Maybe the Natchez goverment has something to learn here about investing in a money losing "tourist industry" . Cable one is saying "when you guys in Natchez show us growth potential we will invest". " But right now we will not invest in a money loser, and we don't care who lives there or how nice the homes are." Good developers will work with service providers before constution starts. They should have thought about the growing technology market when construction started out there. This is about like building a convention center without a parking lot. People around here always put the cart in front of the horse.

Posted by EnKiKur (anonymous) on May 18, 2008 at 4:17 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I agree with what you are saying NE, but I am curious if the franchise CableOne has with Natchez would be extended to the rest of the county if city and county consolidated. This might change the location of transmission lines that could service more of the county and in this way make it more profitable for CableOne to put the service in.

I also think there is a possibility that big things are about to happen to Natchez and Vidalia. I read last week about three cities out west that had been in similar situations to Natchez but joined on with some international planned city agreements and each got a cluster of tech related and other industry in return for becoming models of sustainable development with walking trails and recreation complexes. All went through a period of rapid growth and if you compare the growth of development in Natchez and Vidalia over the last two years to the previous five, development growth rates at least appear to have dramatically increased even with a declining population.

I read that article about the other three cities at CNN. Maybe you can find them and see what happened there for yourself. And local politicians have said there are things happening not everyone knows about. I wonder what those things could be?

Posted by EnKiKur (anonymous) on May 18, 2008 at 4:57 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I just got back to town yesterday NE and came down Main to check things out. I've been gone a month and it already looks a lot different. I noticed that the new hotel, with its "Vote yes for hotel assessment" on the fence (I wonder why they didn't say hotel occupancy tax, their sign makes it seem like a tax is going to be assessed on hotels and that could confuse the voters) looks in scale with the Callon building and the convention center, but very out of scale and style with the buildings on the block to the south. That block contains the old Rendezvous, Bowie's, Pig Out Inn and it could really use some new development to make things look balanced.

Then, there is all that on the other side of the Callon building, excluding the post office, that can be developed, and there is a spot or two that can be used to build a parking garage that would be in scale with the Regions Bank building and the new stuff on Canal. Of course, that might have to wait until the hotel assessment brings in more business.

I guess no one has thought about how all that looks down there though.

Posted by NatchezEnema (anonymous) on May 18, 2008 at 4:59 p.m. (Suggest removal)

EnKiKur, Consolidation wont change how many feet of fiber optic cable, infrastructure, amplfiers, and labor to trench down the side of the highway to bury the cable. Or the labor of upkeep of a new grid of cable out there. Cable one knows exactly what it would cost to get the service out there. There are not enough customers or guaranteed growth of customers in that area to justify the cost. Its a business decision. I mean would you open a Lexus or Porsche dealership in Natchez? Or try to sell a snow ski here? Why? There is not enough customer base for that here. Same problem for people without cable down kingston rd. Not enough customers or growth to cover the cost. These people are in a pickle jar and I feel for them. They need to get an outside antenna for tv, and satillite for enternet. If they can afford the homes they can surely afford these simple things for comfort. Well, maybe not knowing some of the people trying to live like the Jonses out there. Internet satillite is about 70-75 dollars a month with 3 recievers and an installed antenna to get about 3-5 stations about 300 -500$. About what it takes to fillup those Cadilacs and Escalades with gas for a month. And a word of advice, don't believe anything the goverment in this town says. They have been saying that bull for a long time. When things pop up at the last minute like I.P. closing, Binkey stealing, or a hospital in 25 million debt about to lay off people, don't trust them, they have enough genies popping up downtown you would think we were in Islamabad . And if you are getting you news from left wing CNN, well, hmmm, I will save that for another blog.

Posted by EnKiKur (anonymous) on May 18, 2008 at 5:15 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Part of sustainbale development is public/private partnership, like the people building a convention center and then turning it over to Hotel Consultants.

The goal of sustainable development is to build planned eco friendly human habitats for the global village that draw residents in from the countryside, which then gets converted to eco buffer zones, some of which allow no human trespass. The human habitats promote walking, hence the walking trails, like the one the city proposes building that will be linked in time to the one the NPS plans to build on the Fort Rosalie site.

It won't happen overnight, and the jobs created won't be high paying compared to past standards, but the US has signed on to Agenda 21, which all this comes under, and for about 15 years or so it has been happening in communities around the US.

Compare this development to other communities like the ones in the rust belt that are being paid to dismantle their now defunct cities.

Don't you see any of this happening here? Do you suppose that the amount of state, federal, and private money spent in this area over the last ten years has been done without some definite plan in mind?

I read both extreme right and left wing publications, and some of more moderate persuasion as well. Just read about Agenda 21 and Sustainable Development, take your pick of what flavor you want, and think about what is going on in our area, and then make your own conclusion.

Posted by OldGrandDad (anonymous) on May 18, 2008 at 5:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)

EnKiKur, You been gone a month? You do that on a regular (rotational) basis?

I've also noticed the "hotel assessment" signs and banners. There are some small ones in yards. I don't know who is sponsoring them. Maybe its in fine print on the signs.

Posted by EnKiKur (anonymous) on May 18, 2008 at 5:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Yes, I usually stay gone for three months, but I had to cut this trip short. I am a boat pilot. And I have to tell you OGD, every time I come home I am amazed. I say to myself, where in the heck is all this money coming from?!

Posted by sammohon (anonymous) on May 18, 2008 at 8:35 p.m. (Suggest removal)

A couple of comments if you guys don't mind me chiming in:

EnKiKur...Marty, we must be very careful about placement, size and design of parking structures in Natchez. A good case in point is Meridian which has, or had, several parking structures that were built to ease parking problems in downtown, but no one used them and they became abandoned eyesores...and if I'm not mistaken, most, if not all, were eventually demolished.

They were built on the tax payer dime and were demolished the same way after twenty years or more of blighting the city. I do agree that the new hotel is terribly out of scale and architecturally speaking, simply awful. I still can't believe it got approval.

On the other hand there is a structure in Memphis that was particularly successful in blending with the tapestry of the city...I always admired the work of the architect to make it work so well.

NatchezEnema: There are some companies that sustain less than profitable enterprises in some areas so that they can claim universal service...a good case in point is UPS which loses money on this area everyday, but by being able to claim universal service worldwide, make up for it, FedEx and DHL are the same way (BTW did you know that DHL is owned by the German Post Office?)...maybe CableOne should look at that paradigm.

EnKiKur...I'm an architect, and while I agree with some of the precepts of sustainable design and green building, some of it is pseudo-science and simply not economically practical. Case in point: In order to gain LEEDS points in a wood structure or for that matter any wood used in a building including framing, cabinetry, millwork, sheathing, etc. the wood must be certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, a non-profit group dedicated to encouraging the responsible management of the WORLD'S forests...that sounds all well and good, until you find out that of all the US wood used in construction, only 2% is certified by the FSC.

The point is that the federal government, under pressure by environmentalists and by setting up the FSC as the sole arbiters of sustainable design in wood products, are in the process of crippling the construction wood industry unless they bow to the coercion of the FSC, they are driving up the cost of construction in this country, and they are not performing their stated goal because they only control 2%...the other 98% is controlled by private companies, working in the capitalist system, which demands that they provide even more stringent "stewardship" than the FSC, in order to make sure their livelihoods are "sustained"

It is analogous to the ruination of the asbestos industry by public scare tactics and trial lawyers...but that's another story.

Posted by EnKiKur (anonymous) on May 18, 2008 at 9:09 p.m. (Suggest removal)

You are right on target Sam. Sustainable design is so costly it prices even small dwellings out of the range of the majority of the populace.

The vision of Agenda 21 is to build compact cities that put as many people into as small a space as possible, which means condos and apartment buildings. For the less well off, think eastern bloc concrete buildings, though probably a little more attractive because the well off like things that are visually appealing and they will not want ugly soviet style buildings in their line of sight.

Notice that of all the development proposals on the Pecan Factory site the one that got the deal is the one building the largest condo development. That is a choice site and I bet those condos will go for a lot.

Agenda 21 is enacted by organizations like FSC, and so many others, and by groups like Sierra Club and Wilderness Foundation who have been on a buying spree in the US of late with the devaluation of the dollar. They are networked across the three legs of sustainable development, Economy-Education-Equity, through international organizations like Red Cross, Kiwanis, Lions Club, Rotary, Chamber of Commerce, etc., all organizations dedicated to the international brotherhood of man.

The Democrat had listed some of the 300 organizations taking part in Leadership 2008 in an article a couple of days ago but then for some reason took that paragraph of the article out. Leadership 2008 is aimed at developing leaders to coach and lead the people in the principles of international community.

Posted by OldGrandDad (anonymous) on May 18, 2008 at 9:10 p.m. (Suggest removal)

EnKiKur, Ok. I was only wondering since you post regular but at odd hours and still said that you had been away. I hope that you did not have to come home early due to any serious problem.

Sam, Just to mention the parking - I can go to New Orleans or Taos and find parking lots and not have to drive in and up some structure. Big towns and small. Some are public and some private. But for some reason folks in Natchez always seem to think everything must be done on a grand scale. Maybe its in our dna......

Posted by NatchezEnema (anonymous) on May 18, 2008 at 9:17 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Lot of pretty talk, but it will be a cold day in hell when Beau Pre gets cable without more development and customer base. You guys can spin it, or call it anyway you want. Cable one has lost enough money in this town as it is.

Posted by EnKiKur (anonymous) on May 18, 2008 at 9:20 p.m. (Suggest removal)

No serious problem OGD. The reason I post at odd hours is because I work six hours on six hours off. I can only post during standby for weather or cargo transfer.

Posted by sammohon (anonymous) on May 18, 2008 at 9:25 p.m. (Suggest removal)

EnKiKur...don't know much about Agenda 21, does that mean that there have been 20 prior agendas?

On the face of it, it seems to be ridiculous, unless you're already in a major city where space is at a premium or in a country, like Japan where land is scarce. I'll have to do some more research, but why would this group be espousing this in the U.S.?

I must say that I think the condo project at the old Pecan Factory is a good concept and is architecturally tastefully done and I'm glad the project was approved by the Preservation Commission. I must also disclose, that while I didn't design the project, I do now work for the architectural firm that did design it.

In fact, back in 1994, I was involved in a condo project on another site, directly behind the old Bluff City Motors building, which was very similar to the design of the newer condo design, if on a smaller scale. It had a similar character and was repeatedly denied by the Preservation Commission of the time. Perhaps the times they are a changin'...a little bit.

Posted by rushinghjr (anonymous) on May 18, 2008 at 9:29 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I wish that another company, such as Cox Communications, would look at Natchez and Adams County and even Vidalia, Ferriday, and Concordia Parish Maybe our new Board and new Mayor will look for a better company with good customer service!

Posted by EnKiKur (anonymous) on May 18, 2008 at 9:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Agenda 21 is the UN development plan for the 21st century, and we are one of the signing parties.

They are espousing this because the world is in imminent danger of destruction due to man's misuse of the environment. In 20 years it is possible that large sections of our gulf coast will be underwater, and some pacific and atlantic islands will no longer exist. The polar bears are dying.

The overall plan is to centralize control of all resources so that they can be divided up in an equitable manner by all the citizens of earth. This will end resource war and finally bring peace on earth.

Posted by EnKiKur (anonymous) on May 18, 2008 at 9:35 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Oh, as to why in the US, the US is the guiltiest of all the nations in terms of resource misuse. But Agenda 21 is being carried out in, I think, 127 countries or more by now.

Posted by sammohon (anonymous) on May 18, 2008 at 9:35 p.m. (Suggest removal)

OGD...isn't it funny that you've been reduced to three simple letters?...I'm sorry, I just found it funny...

OldGrandDad, there that feels better, I totally agree with you on the parking problem. This was something that we were trying to deal with ten, or was it fifteen, years ago when I was on the Board of Directors for the NDDA.

Seems that employees and even owners would rather park in front of their businesses, rather than parking a block or two away in city owned parking lots and walking to work. This denies would-be customers parking, who after maybe even making a block, just move on. In fact, most of these folks will go out every two hours and move their cars to avoid a ticket not realizing that they are costing themselves far more than any ticket that they might get.

It's a huge game of musical chairs.

Posted by sammohon (anonymous) on May 18, 2008 at 9:37 p.m. (Suggest removal)

NatchezEnema...I have good and local service with DirectTV...I gave up on CableOne long ago and I live in the Garden District.

Posted by sammohon (anonymous) on May 18, 2008 at 9:40 p.m. (Suggest removal)

EnKiKur...in other words...global communism?

Posted by EnKiKur (anonymous) on May 18, 2008 at 9:43 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Bingo. That is what values based education is about, the type of education we have in our public schools now. The purpose of it is to cause a shift in value in the children so they put the community above their individual desires. That is why the stories about the MCT and Leap focus the school's performance and not the children's performance. The children are being taught that group effort is more valuable than individual effort.

Posted by NatchezEnema (anonymous) on May 18, 2008 at 9:44 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I don't blame you, I did also. I only use them for internet. That is as long as their connections stay dry in my part of town.

Posted by EnKiKur (anonymous) on May 18, 2008 at 9:54 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Here is what they have in mind Sam, this is Maurice Strong, one of the leaders:

"We want to put [sustainable development] in business terms. It’s running Earth, Inc. with depreciation, amortization and maintenance accounts so that we are not really living off of capital. If we continue to equate wealth creation with the liquidation of our natural capital, we will be headed for bankruptcy and that is the direction we are going NOW"

Earth Sciences is how sustainable development is taught in the schools.

Posted by OldGrandDad (anonymous) on May 18, 2008 at 9:56 p.m. (Suggest removal)

EnKiKur, Ok. Thanks. I was only wondering. I post at odd hours myself, sometimes.

Sam, I'm sure OGD is easier and I don't mind a bit. Concerning parking, I think we've gotten ourselves into a little pickle since its become vogue to turn your downtown building's upstairs into upscale apartments. That reduces parking spots by one, two and sometimes three spaces per apartment. And I fail to see why business owners insist on parking in front of their own establishments when it is so much more intelligent to park in front of some other person's business. But then, its smarter still to have ample parking available so that visitors (some pulling trailors) can stop in our downtown area and shop. Which comes back to my mantra - We need signs pointing to Historic District Shopping, then signs pointing to parking (once we have it) and then signs pointing to public restrooms. I can't drive from here to Montana without finding these things in other towns seeking tourist dollars.

Posted by EnKiKur (anonymous) on May 18, 2008 at 9:58 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I hear you OldGrandDad. But if I am right in my suspicions in shortly won't matter, because in sustainable communties the downtown areas are often closed to traffic. That is what walking trails are for.

People will drive a lot less as gas continues to go up, and will use public transportation. That is called Smart Growth, and that is the reason Baton Rouge complains about traffic congestion but there will be no further widening of interstates. Baton Rouge is a Smart Growth community, if the people won't quit polluting on their own, then by crackey they will get the picture after a while.

Posted by OldGrandDad (anonymous) on May 18, 2008 at 10:08 p.m. (Suggest removal)

EnKiKur, Yuck. Sounds like Aspen. I used to could drive through the town. Now the whole Roaring Fork valley is like a bad dream. I'll start putting the ole wd40 on my bicycle in the morning.

Posted by EnKiKur (anonymous) on May 18, 2008 at 10:12 p.m. (Suggest removal)

hehe...but you were for the walking trail! That is what it is OldGrandDad, a beautiful vision of a brave new world.

Only, the most rabid supporters of Agenda 21 feel like the earth can only sustain somewhere between .5 and 1.5 million people. That part worries me a bit, since the earth has about 6 billion on it right now, and the human rights records of world dominators gives me hesitation. I think the tally for the last century was 50 plus million culled out, and that was just the man made culling. Think how many people there would be now if those 50 million hadn't been shelved.

Running Earth, Inc. will have to mean controlling the human capital as well.

Posted by OldGrandDad (anonymous) on May 18, 2008 at 10:30 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Yes, i am for the walking trail. And more than the plans call for. But I also want parking spaces. I've seen plenty of towns do it right, And I've seen other towns, like Natchez and Aspen, at either ends of the economic spectrum, do it wrong.

There's nothing wrong with walking. Pre automobiles, my great great grandfather walked all over this town and would ride the ferry to Vidalia and walk there too. Having a little walking spaces isn't a bad thing. And I personally have a plan for a trail I would like to see created and my plan has nothing to do with any global conspiracy.

Concering population sustainability, 20 years ago i said that Mississippi could feed the world. I still believe that. Mississippi and Louisiana could feed 2 worlds. Maybe we'll get to prove it one day.

Posted by EnKiKur (anonymous) on May 18, 2008 at 10:40 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Yes, there is nothing wrong with walking. In fact, I think some Agenda 21 has some good ideas, I think cities could be constructed in a much better way. My main sticking point is I haven't been able to figure out if I am for or against global socialism. I have been thinking about it for a while, and every time I think I've reached a decision I find some new point I hadn't considered before. In truth, that is what a lot of my posting is about, trying to answer this particular question about global socialism.

Posted by OldGrandDad (anonymous) on May 18, 2008 at 10:52 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Would socialism be so very bad? Of course, I'd want to keep my land, money and guns.......

Posted by sammohon (anonymous) on May 18, 2008 at 11:13 p.m. (Suggest removal)

OldGrandDad...I refuse to give into the new fangled propensity to deny others of their duly earned respect by abbreviating their identities to simple acronyms ...be that as it may...

The "current vogue" of having living spaces above businesses in downtowns isn't new, actually, until the 1970's it was the norm and several studies including the watershed book by Jane Jacobs, "The Life and Death of American Cities" was the most prominent and widely accepted, although in my mind, there were some socialist arguments that I personally didn't agree with.

One point she made was that it was good to have eyes on the street. People living downtown look out their windows. She advocated a corner bar every three or four blocks with the observation that the more people on the street, regardless of the time, makes for less crime...some of these observations seem to me to be naive, but I don't doubt that people living downtown and having a personal stake in their downtown is a good thing.

I wonder too at the owners and employees that take up potential customer spaces, but I can't agree with you that spaces should be left for people pulling trailers. I'm sure you own one, as this isn't the first time you've commented on it, but it doesn't seem to me to be pragmatic...go park your trailer then come back downtown...loosens you up to go other places too...

Signage, I agree with you.

Posted by OldGrandDad (anonymous) on May 18, 2008 at 11:23 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Sam, I usually have no trailor and when i do, its a small one. I just happen to see where the money is. This town is looking at busses when they should be looking at cars, trucks, trailors and motor homes. Just ask Cappy. Most places i took a small trailor, i found a place to park courtesy of local government or private enterprise. That might not be a problem in Natchez on a slow day.

Posted by sammohon (anonymous) on May 18, 2008 at 11:34 p.m. (Suggest removal)

EnKiKur...you claimed I was politically confused in a previous argument, but it seems that you are the one who is really confused.

Name a country where socialism has truly succeeded where democracy wouldn't have served the people better.

France is almost bankrupt and unable to assimilate hordes of immigrants she never required to assimilate. The UK flirted with socialism until Margret Thatcher pulled them back from the brink. All of the former Warsaw Pact countries have foundered then come to embrace capitalism. Sweden and Denmark are smothered with immigrants looking for a living from the government and tolerance of their drug and or sex deviance. Italy can't figure out what it's doing, or when, or where, or how...not that, that has changed all that much. That's just Europe!

Canada has universal health care that has the populace that can afford it coming to the US.

I could go on and on...can you?

Posted by EnKiKur (anonymous) on May 18, 2008 at 11:39 p.m. (Suggest removal)

OldGrandDad, you aren't one of those bitter Pennsylvanians are you? Clinging to your land, money and guns....

Socialism would be great if I were the boss. I'd hesitate to let either of you two hold the job though.

Posted by EnKiKur (anonymous) on May 18, 2008 at 11:42 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Sam, this current crop of socialists are going to do it right this time..they have a secret formula. See, that's why it failed in all those other countries, they just didn't have the right people in charge.

Posted by sammohon (anonymous) on May 18, 2008 at 11:48 p.m. (Suggest removal)

That's exactly the point EnKiKur...socialism and communism would only work if, and only if, men were perfect...they aren't! It would require a benevolent dictator, which actually is the way most successful marriages DO work, but on a societal scale, not possible, any more than TRUE democracy would work on a societal scale. It's the reason we have representative democracy.

I think I could be a pretty good benevolent dictator, apparently so do you...I imagine we would both chafe under each other's benevolence and/or dictatorship.

Why you want to insult OldGrandDad that way? Calling him a PA?...LOL.

Posted by EnKiKur (anonymous) on May 18, 2008 at 11:50 p.m. (Suggest removal)

What they are going to do this time is blend Marxism and Fascism. It will be a sort of Reese's cup of socialist ideology.

I'll explain a bit. The earth is under two dire threats the world needs to pull together as a communi-ty to fight. The threats are man made global environmental destruction, and bad actors on the world stage, resisters who don't want to go along with the UN agenda.

Guess who the bad actors on the world stage are? Certain oil rich countries that don't want to cough up for the common good. That would be Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Venezuela.

In the British Commonwealth and in the US the two major parties each support action on those two dire threats in differing degrees. No matter who you vote for, the plan is pushed forward.

Posted by NtzMom55 (anonymous) on May 19, 2008 at 2:07 a.m. (Suggest removal)

I have been with DirectTV for many years and with Hughesnet internet for several. I don't see why more folks don't try them instead of complaining so much about cable and DSL. It is obvious that the cable company does not want to improve so watching my DirectTV has been great. It is extremely rare that it goes out due to bad weather.

Posted by rushinghjr (anonymous) on May 19, 2008 at 1:58 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I'm sure that Owhampy would like to sign a couple of you old guys up to pursue his "all mouth" policy and his career to no where? Spin as you wish! Hillary and Uncle Bill may even take you all at a last resort?

Posted by sammohon (anonymous) on May 19, 2008 at 11:23 p.m. (Suggest removal)

rushinghjr...OK...you lost me...what are you talking about?