Out-Golf and Gardens. Five Minutes Ago- Downtown Baseball. In- Theater District.

The Chronicle's editorial today seems to start out poking fun of our get-rich-quick schemes here in Augusta (the race track, a canal downtown, a new baseball stadium, cable-cars on Broad Street, and everyone's favorite- the Golf and Gardens) and goes on to rave about how wonderful it could be to restore the Miller Theater. But then:

Our feeling is that it would be terrific if they're right -- and the theater district could have room for the old and the new. It would be a terrible shame to lose the Miller now.

Still, it would be a greater sin if, by restoring the Miller, we lose either momentum or public support for a new state-of-the-art performing arts center. If we have to choose, a newer, larger, modern performance hall is the way to go.

The comments following the column didn't indicate a lot of public support or momentum that direction. What is it about Augusta and these big ticket items that no one wants?
We could take a lesson from little North Augusta and their Riverview Park and Greeneway. Augusta could do something similar and even better. We have the canal path already connecting downtown to lovely Lake Olmstead Park. We could buy or build a gym downtown near the canal path. That would be affordable, healthy, social fun for Augustans, and a steady stream of traffic for downtown businesses. The city could rent out bikes downtown and kayaks or canoes at Lake Olmstead. We already have disc golf and a great baseball stadium there. We could also easily catch some more money from Greenjackets games without building a second stadium. If parking is really a problem there, let's set up a park-and-ride shuttle downtown on game nights so people can hang out on Broad Street (maybe even at the Miller) before the game and then get dropped back off again after. We have buses.