Thumbs! (5/29/2014)

I have Thumbs! They go UP! They go DOWN! Come look at my Thumbs! in this edition.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, UP! is good and DOWN! is not good…

• Normally you’d expect at least one or two snarky comments about Danville Mall, but I’ve got to cut them a break for a while. I met Katie Keatts, Assistant Operations-Marketing Manager, and she’s amazingly awesome. Outgoing, very willing to talk to the media, and overall terrific. In the history of the mall, nobody has ever gone to her level in helping with questions and information. She’s getting a big Thumbs UP! today. Jeez, I even called it Danville Mall. SouthsideCentral is getting soft.
• Thumbs UP! to the South Boston Town Council for rightfully killing a proposal to add town fines to non-registered vehicles. The ordinance would have been difficult to enforce and was a lousy solution to a non-existent problem. When the police department says “Um, no. Bad law.”, you know it should be deservedly killed.
• However, the South Boston Town Council and Destination Downtown South Boston are getting a giant Thumbs DOWN! for even considering trying to double the fees to set up a booth at town festivals. First, if the downtown group wanted to stupidly raise the fees, they could go ahead and stupidly do it on their own. But hey, it’s easier to pass the buck and get the town to charge the additional fee.  And what’s all of this about? Around $5,000 in town expenses for the Christmas Parade & Harvest Festival which are events that are extremely popular and bring lots of people into the town. Here’s an idea if you want to get that $5,000 back… stop donating $5,000 to John Cannon & Friends’ “Virginia Coalition” , that lobbying group against uranium mining. Spend your $5,000 of taxpayer money in a legitimate way and help defray the town’s main events’ operating costs instead of blowing it on a group that can write their own checks whenever needed. Thumbs DOWN! to Destination Downtown South Boston for attempting this passing of the buck. Thumbs DOWN! to them trying to soak the vendors that make the events special instead of finding a way to raise this “needed money”. Thumbs DOWN! to this whole process. DOWN! DOWN! DOWN! GAH!

Well, that escalated quickly. Heh. We love your comments here on SouthsideCentral!