EDITOR’S PICK
Best Place to Maintain and/or Destroy Your Diet
Courtyard Coffeehouse

Whether you're feeling strong-willed or weak, Courtyard Coffeehouse is always beckoning. For me, more often than not I have absolutely no willpower and I'm feeling in need of a sugar rush. In this case, their strawberry cake--devilishly drenched in whipped cream and chocolate--is always on hand to feed my decadence. If the other (much quieter) voice in my head wins out, however, then there is always a fantastic falafel sandwich or black bean burger on hand to satisfy both my taste buds and my guilt. DC

EDITOR’S PICK
Biggest Risk with the Biggest Potential Payoff
CCI (CanalSide) Development

CanalSide is an example of local governments actually trying to do what they say they want to do. Columbia wants to bring residential development back to the City Center. So with the help of consultants, they envisioned the CanalSide development, an upscale urban neighborhood to be built on the western edge of Columbia next to the canal and where Broad and Saluda Rivers converge to become the Congaree.

The biggest risk is whether or not there will be enough public demand to support the development, particularly since competing developments targeting similar residents are cropping up in The Vista, Downtown and The Granby/Olympia Mill Villages. And a huge portion of sprawl development is encouraged by public demand to have their little suburban fortresses.

Thus far, CanalSide has had two official submissions by developers, and the whole process will take place over the course of years, not months. The city will be committing millions of dollars to build roads and other infrastructure items in the hopes of luring more developers into the project. And they're going to have to do something about the existing heavy traffic there at the corner of Huger and Taylor.

But the reward may be worth it if the result is a living downtown region. If successful, it would serve as a boost to urban riverfront development, an increase in city nightlife and incentive to return schools and important missing commerce needs (grocery stores, etc.) back into the area. SS

EDITOR’S PICK
Best Place to see a Free Show on a Couch
Art Bar

No surprise here, it's the Art Bar. And yeah, I know that they don't always have the couches out for shows. Still, what could be better than walking into a bar without paying a cover and plopping yourself down for an evening of relatively low-volume music? It's too bad that the intimate setting the Art Bar offers for music is only available on Wednesday nights, but that's certainly better than not being available at all. DC

EDITOR’S PICK
Most famous local bands you've never heard
Stretch Arm Strong
Guyana Punchline

It's a toss-up between two of the most active local punk bands, Stretch Arm Strong and Guyana Punchline. These are the bands that tour nationally, have record deals (with Solid State and Prank, respectively), and sell thousands of records. You won't hear them on the radio (like Five Way Friday), you won't see them on SCETV (like Turku and Seven Nations), and you won't read about them in Alternative Press (like Danielle Howle, with or without the Tantrums). But they exist, they sell records, and in some circles they would even be considered celebrities. DC

EDITOR’S PICK
Best Quote of the Year About the City of Columbia
“You know about six degrees of separation?
In Columbia, there’s only one.”

said by Jayne Darke on the night of Oct. 30, 1999 at the Artists Against AIDS benefit. TT

EDITOR’S PICK
Two of the Best Artists Not Selected for the 100 Years Show at the State Museum
Bob Doster (Lancaster) and Tom Stanley (Rock Hill)

These two artists make daring and innovative work, and they are also influential. Doster's sculpture projects often tackle tough social issues such as sexual politics and racial tolerance, while Stanley's jazzy compositions reflect the relationship between symbols and personal memory. In demonstrating his craft, Doster has opened up the world of art to thousands of high school kids who had previously sold themselves short. Stanley has been the state's biggest champion of self-taught artists. TT

EDITOR’S PICK
Best Place to be a Freak and/or a Geek
(Combination) Heroes and Dragons/Manifest Discs and Tapes

Something important about today's culture can probably be divined from the fact that I'll walk out of a newsstand or bookstore openly holding a copy of The Advocate (a national gay news magazine), but I ask for a bag when I make my weekly excursion to pick up the latest issue of The Fantastic Four or Justice League of America.

I'm a geek, and it's actually caused more harassment in my life than my sexual orientation. That's why comic/fantasy megashops like Heroes and Dragons are so wonderful. Its huge size and varied selection is an affirmation that not only are there lots of geeks out there, but supporting geekdom can be a profitable venture. And though some comic shops may operate under a "geek hierarchy,"--a handful of the more popular geeks deciding what is and isn't cool-Heroes and Dragons' workers are blissfully non-judgemental.

Goth freaks can enjoy (so to speak) the wide selection of alternative comics and, of course, the Vampire: The Masquerade role-playing game.

Manifest is included because both freaks and geeks can easily wander next door to buy albums from morbid tragipunk bands or melodramatic, bombastic symphonies suitable as background music for a good fantasy role-playing session.

And, because the two stores aren't located inside a mall, the people you find there are committed shoppers, not clots of wandering mallrats. SS

EDITOR’S PICK
Best Venue for a Late Night Mid-Life Crisis
Art Bar

As a forty-something editor of an alternative news paper, my better and more stable hard-working self gets to bed by 10:30 p.m. But sometimes, my more festive self stays up late and winds up at the Art Bar. Later in the evening, while engaged in a conversation or listening to music or dancing, I just tend to shut down completely. It's then that a part of me splits off and demands to know what I am doing there. TT

EDITOR’S PICK
Most Annoying Controversy
The Confederate Flag

The flag wins it, and probably will continue to win it every year for the foreseeable future. Put atop the State House dome in 1962 as a blatantly racist response to the civil rights movement, it nonetheless continues to be defended as a symbol merely of “heritage.” Okay, the obvious “reasonable” solution is to move the flag to a place of honor on the State House grounds, as I’ve heard politicians say ad nauseum. But wouldn’t it be easier to just invoke common sense and declare that flying the flag is an act of treason subject, like other treasonous acts, to the full force of federal prosecution and possibly the death penalty? DC

EDITOR’S PICK
Biggest Disaster in the Making
The Burroughs & Chapin Development

I hope I'm proved wrong with this one because I really don't want to be right. Since Hurricane Floyd, I've seen two in-depth news reports on network television about the lack of restraint in flood plain development, lack of backbone in regards to the National Flood Insurance Protection Program and the costs to the taxpayers, who end up footing the bill when people’s homes end up underwater.

Burroughs and Chapin’s consultants had to debate with FEMA just to get their proposed development area named as a flood plain--the earlier designation of floodway would have prevented almost all development.

Not only does the proposed “city within a city” lay on a very floodable plain next to the Congaree River, it’s also essentially Richland County’s natural drainage ditch. Water from the rain across the county tends to flow through that land to drain into the river. Caretakers of Congaree National Swamp, located just downstream of the proposed development, fear that changes in the natural water flow could spell disaster for the marshland ecology they're trying to preserve.

So if the development is built, when a flood occurs (and a flood will occur eventually), a break in the levee system could flood out hundred of citizens, who would then be reimbursed from the public coffers. If the flood protections for the development work properly, the effect on the swamp could be very damaging.

The question we should be asking: should we be undergoing such risks so that the developers of one of the tackiest places in the state (Myrtle Beach) can make even more money? SS

EDITOR’S PICK
Most Likely Candidate for Biggest Waste of Public Funds in 2005
The Midlands Regional Conference Center
(a.k.a. the Convention Center)
Which of the following pieces of information should concern you most about the planned convention center in The Vista?

A. There's already a surplus of convention space in the United States and The South.

B. The public funds used to purchase land for the center will, in part, limit future growth of our less-than-stellar education system.

C. Although the center is being promoted as an economic boon for the city, the big bucks will go to a handful of developers and construction companies, and the jobs created, even if the center is successful, will be lousy service-oriented positions with little pay and no benefits.

D. The marketing campaigns to promote Columbia to the rest of the country, rather than making us stand out, point out that we're really no different from any other small city. An art museum, a zoo, ballet companies-these are not unique.

E. If the center doesn't cause an increase of groups coming to Columbia, the result will be that the center will get its business by taking it away from the private convention space at hotels here. Even worse, if the center doesn't get enough business to be self-sufficient it will result in a loss of public funds, while at the same time draining conventions from the hotel industry.

F. Plan developers have not adequately accounted for parking or mass transit should the center and the nearby arena prove to be successful.

G. All of the above.

You don't really need me to tell you the answer, do you? SS

EDITOR’S PICK
Best Waste of Time and Money in 1998-1999 for arts groups
The Mayor's Arts Task Force

Back in August of 1998 a group of civic and cultural leaders began the process of reassessing how to better organize and promote the city's arts scene. The task force hired members of the S.C. Downtown Development Association to facilitate the process. The facilitators conducted informative and honest public hearings and prepared a report summarizing the best ideas. They did a great job. Later, in private executive sessions, the whole thing began to unravel, and it took about a year for the thing to just fade away. I vaguely remember attending some face-saving session toward the end, but I was too depressed by that point to even care. TT

EDITOR’S PICK
Best Idea for a New Art Gallery
A gallery devoted to art photography

The reason: Jean Selman, Victor Pagona, Gene Crediford, Brent Wahl, Waylon Smith, Gunars Strazdins, Michael Dickins, and many, many more. TT

EDITOR’S PICK
Best Idea for a Performing Arts Venue
The Jim Moore Cadillac Building on North Main

If and when the dealer eventually vacates the building, it could be outfitted as a mid-size performing arts hall, just the size many groups need. It would sit between the historic neighborhoods of Elmwood Park and Cottontown, serving the direct needs of the arts-crazed residents who live there (including me). Adequate parking is already built in, but residents of the neighborhoods could simply walk to a concert. In my perfect world, the surrounding vacant warehouses would be turned into rehearsal spaces, innovative restaurants, gourmet take-out markets, and loft apartments. Sidewalk bistros would pop up along the street. Soon everyone would start constructing Paris-style four story buildings behind rows of sycamore trees along both sides of North Main Street from Elmwood all the way up to I-20. Music and the smell of freshly baked brioche would fill the air. TT

EDITOR’S PICK
Best Dressed and Most Intellectual Group Sponsored by the Cultural Council
The Columbia Design League

The Columbia Design League is a group of architects and design professionals that sponsor programs to encourage the value of good design in the city. This is most welcome in a city that frequently lets people down on the design and planning front. After attending a few of their lectures, I also noticed that they fix themselves up really well. TT

EDITOR’S PICK
Best Place for Peace and Quiet
Granby Park

Despite a widely-publicized opening earlier this year, Granby Park has remained one of the quietest and unused parks in the city. Nestled at the edge of the Congaree River in the Olympia-Granby Mill Village area, this no-frills park usually has only a handful of visitors at a time. And since bikers and rollerbladers find Riverfront Park more accessible, Granby Park sees almost exclusively foot traffic.

With the exception of the occasional rowdy dog on a walk, sound doesn't carry much into the park. The woodland surrounding the trails serves a buffer against streetside sounds. The river, however, can easily be heard throughout the park. At the end of a particularly stressful day, I found myself sitting on a bench on the bank of the river for two hours, listening to the mutterings of a couple of fishermen in a boat, more than 500 yards away from me. SS

EDITOR’S PICK
Most Orgasmic Yawn by a Free Times Staff Member

Art Director
It's usually the writers and the editors who get their names most prominently displayed on 30,000 copies of the paper every week, while the people who really keep things running--the office manager and art director--toil in relative obscurity. Well, sharing an office with art director Lisa Willis, I can assure you that she not only does a fantastic job on ad layouts and cover designs but also has the most blatantly orgasmic yawn that has ever passed my tender ears. A high-pitched, ecstatic yelp that lays waste to that Meg Ryan scene from When Harry Met Sally, Lisa wins the prize for making this overly-sheltered music editor blush on a regular basis. DC