Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024
Good morning! We start today with tonight’s debate — you know which one. We then preview a scheduled vote by the Savannah City Council that could shape the future of the city’s crown jewel, Forsyth Park, and note how one Coastal Georgian responded to anger over a recent visit by the Democratic presidential nominee. We conclude with four things for your radar. Questions, comments, or story ideas? You can reach me at craig.thecurrent@gmail.com
NEWS: POLITICS
‘Marquee moment’
One political story eclipses all others this morning, and it’s a national one: Former President Donald Trump meets Vice President Kamala Harris this evening in what is likely to be their only face-to-face debate this election season.
Most Coastal Georgia voters The Current spoke with said they’d be watching the debate from home. In Chatham County, however, the Chatham County Republican Party is hosting a watch party tonight at Tubby’s Tank House, 2909 River Drive in Thunderbolt, starting at 7:30 p.m. To register, click here.
Meanwhile, the Harris-Walz campaign will host a watch party at the Beach Institute African American Cultural Center, 502 E. Harris St. in Savannah, starting at 7 p.m. To sign up, click here. The debate, in Philadelphia, is scheduled start at 9 p.m. and last 90 minutes.
The stakes of this evening’s debate, which is being hosted by ABC, are high. Trump is setting the stage to claim that debate was rigged. In a town hall interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity last week, he accused ABC, without evidence, of giving Harris the debate questions in advance and being the “worst network in terms of fairness.”
Meanwhile, Harris has work to do to define herself in the eyes of undecided voters and convince them she’s “presidential.” As one conservative, anti-Trump pundit put it, the debate is her opportunity to “close the deal” with “persuadable voters.”
The debate takes place against the backdrop of The New York Times/Sienna poll showing that the race is a toss-up. Asked who they would vote for if the election were held today, 48% of those surveyed said they’d cast their votes for Trump; 47% for Harris.
Of course, no mention of an opinion poll is complete without noting the all-important small print: “The poll of 1,695 voters nationwide was conducted between Sept. 3 and Sept. 6 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 points” — in other words, a dead heat.
NEWS: GOVERNING
Forsyth Park deal vote delayed again
For the second time in a month, Savannah’s city council has postponed action on a proposed draft agreement between the city and a private, non-profit group over future administration of Forsyth Park.
The draft memorandum of understanding was to face a vote at Thursday’s regularly scheduled council meeting. But late yesterday, action was postponed “at the request of staff,” according to the meeting agenda. The reasons for the postponement weren’t immediately known.
Last month, scheduled action on the MOU was put off after Detric Leggett, the city alderman who represents the neighborhoods surrounding 30-acre, 183-year-old park, said that the proposed agreement hadn’t been adequately aired and discussed.
“To be as blunt as possible, it looks like it’s something else going on behind the scenes,” Leggett told The Current.
The proposed MOU was largely the work of the non-profit group, Friends of Forsyth Conservancy, Inc., with only slight changes by city officials. Under the accord, the city would hand considerable authority over the park’s administration to the group.
In exchange for raising money for modifications and maintenance of the park, the group would receive oversight on some spending decisions, according to the draft deal. It also would be granted free use of the park for its private events.
Proposals for changes to the park and its immediate environs have gained pace in the past 18 months. The council last year cleared the way for the construction of a multistory office complex at Forsyth’s southwestern edge. A proposed design for the complex is set to go before the city’s Historical Preservation Commission later this month.
NEWS: COMMUNITY
‘Exceptional place’
Like many of its longtime residents, Keith Latture says the Isle of Hope, on Savannah’s eastern edge, is a beautiful place. Yet it’s the community’s people, he points out, that make it such an “exceptional place to call home.”
Which is why Latture said, on social media, he was saddened and discouraged by the response of some people in the area after Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, visited his restaurant, Sandfly BBQ, one of several stops the Democratic nominee for president made during her recent campaign swing through Coastal Georgia. (She ordered a brisket plate with macaroni and cheese and collards for sides; he, a brisket sandwich and coleslaw.)
The fallout of Harris’ visit to Sandfly was furious and toxic. Writing on Facebook’s Isle of Hope Neighborhood Group, Latture said he received threats and “disgustingly vile and racist direct messages,” as well as social media posts calling for a boycott of his family business.
Latture lamented those he said put politics ahead of “good neighborliness (and good manners),” slandered his business and made assumptions about his personal beliefs.
Amid the anger and contempt directed at him, Latture said he was buoyed by the outpouring of support from both Republicans and Democrats — proof, he said, that those attacking him were small in number. He said the “misguided anger” won’t lead him to abandon his belief in what makes his community special.
4 things for your radar
- Tomorrow is the 23rd anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon. President Joe Biden and Vice President Harris are scheduled to attend memorial ceremonies in New York; Arlington, Virginia; and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where passengers forced the crash of one of the four hijacked airliners, killing the four hijackers and all 44 passengers and crew.
- In Bryan County, Meredith Gibson is now officially a write-in candidate in the race for chair of the county commission, after meeting the deadline for filing the required paperwork to the state. The Richmond Hill resident now faces incumbent chair Carter Infinger in November. The county’s response to Tropical Storm Debby spurred her her write-in candidacy, said Gibson, who coordinated volunteer relief efforts in the wake of the storm. “It was so obvious the lack of any kind of leadership from the county,” she tells The Current. “You couldn’t not see it.”
- The Chatham County Democratic Party will host a voter empowerment party and meet-the-candidates gathering on Saturday, Sept. 14, between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. at Savannah’s Forsyth Park.
- The Darien-McIntosh Chamber of Commerce hosts a forum for local and state candidates on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, at 5:30 p.m. at the MCA Auditorium. For more information, contact the chamber at (912)437-6684 or khoyt@mcintoshchamber.com.
- The League of Women Voters of Coastal Georgia host a candidate forum featuring Chatham County district attorney candidates, the Democratic incumbent Shalena Cook Jones and Republican challenger Andre Pretorius, on Monday, Sept. 16, at the Coastal Georgia Center at 305 Fahm Street in Savannah. Doors open at 6 p.m.; the forum starts at 6:30 p.m.
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