Greenville's free alternative weekly

Displacement of merchants continues in Five Points

Feds to cut funding for low-income college bound students

An all-black Google page could save energy

Displacement of merchants continues in Five Points

While businesses on Greene St. have been threatened with eviction in the past few weeks, Atlanta developer Hendon Properties and their local agent, Travis Butler (a member of a Columbia city planning board), has so far kept the media, Columbia city council and Five Points merchants in the dark about their plans to develop a three-acre lot near the corner of Harden and Gervais. The company plans to purchase the Bazaar shopping complex and Bob Andrews Motors but has declined to comment on what plans it has for the property. The company’s Web site lists retailers like Best Buy, The Gap, Borders and Old Navy as some of its major clients in past development projects.

The project would displace small businesses in the Bazaar, some who have been operating in the shopping center for over a decade.

On, Aug. 20, City Council held a public meeting to discuss the Five Points “Future Five” plan, originally drafted by the Quackenbush architectural firm and the Five Points Association (FPA) merchants group. The FPA has stated that it hopes to develop Five Points while retaining the uniqueness of the shopping village and the locally-owned ethos of the area. Many Five Points merchants used the meeting to express concerns about Hendon and Doug Quackenbush, of the architectural firm, asked city council to quickly pass zoning laws that would guide development of the area.

Meanwhile the merchants on site are left with more questions than answers. Natalie Mudd has owned Swiftwater Beads since the mid-Nineties and is one of the business owners who may be forced to move. She says she suspected the sale after her landlord began buying a lot of the surrounding property. And, though she says she doesn’t want to move, she understands that Five Points is growing in her direction and understands the development potential of the area. Still, she is [concerned] by Hendon’s apparent reticence to work with the FPA.

“The Five Points Association is a good organization that really does fantastic things for Five Points and if they [Hendon] are not willing to work with the association that would certainly be a red flag to everyone, I would think.”

The businesses, which include Swiftwater, PTs Cabaret, BodyFit and others have been told that their leases would be honored, but Mudd said the landlord later clarified that they aren’t honoring the leases, but will help the tenants relocate.

PT’s Cabaret recently spent $17,000 in renovations to their club and hope to renew their lease in May.

“Five Points is based on Mom and Pop businesses,” Mudd says. “And if you start inserting international corporate businesses, it’s certainly going to change it. And it’s not like Columbia doesn’t have enough of that already.”

Mudd says she still doesn’t know where she will move her store, though she hopes to stay in Five Points.

-Todd Morehead

TRIO program in jeopardy

Feds to cut funding for low-income college bound students

Since 1966, the University of South Carolina, in conjunction with Richland County School Districts, has given low-income and potential first generation college bound students access to the TRIO program. Nationally, TRIO was established and funded under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 and was designed to help students from the 6th grade through adulthood overcome class, social and cultural barriers by assisting with various college preparatory processes.

But funding for the Upward Bound portion of the program has been slashed, according to Paul L. Beasley, director of TRIO for USC. Upward Bound focuses primarily on high school students and provides academic tutoring, helps with the college application process, financial aid counseling, etiquette workshops and a range of other services.

“The federal government is trying to get rid of programs like Upward Bound, stating that No Child Left Behind is supposed to be doing the same thing—helping low-income, first-generation, and minority children get an education—which may not always be the case,” says Sheri Hardy, an administrator with the program.

Beasley remains hopeful that Congress may some day reinstate the funding.

“Congress has developed proposals that would reinstate the program,” Beasley says, “but the process is far from over. We are still hopeful but officially defunded.”

-Todd Morehead

Once You Go Black…

An all-black Google page could save energy

According to a study conducted by Australian Web-based company, Heap Media, internet users in North America could save an estimated 750 megawatt hours of energy every year if Google had a black background instead of white. According to the study, an all-white Web page consumes 74 watts while a black page would only require 59. The energy saved could reportedly power 77 North American homes for a year. As a result, the company introduced a Google-powered search engine called Blackle.

Since its introduction the company claims to have already saved users 166,329.571 watt hours.

However, the energy saving technique may only work on older CRT monitors which function like light bulbs and thus have more fluctuating power needs. Another study showed that newer LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) screens actually use more power to use a black screen instead of white.

It is also unclear what effect the hot pink screens preferred by hundreds of thousands of female MySpace users have had on the North American power grid.

-Todd Morehead