Fairy Ring

 

Almost

Fairy Tales

Permanent?

Very Revealing

If the blue-bag-rag coverage of the retreat is accurate, and there is no reason to believe it isn't, much was revealed. When asked about impediments to their 10 year goals, someone, mayor, council, both, but someone, offered: "community resistance at the polls." Have we really come to this? Are we saddled with politicians who are openly opposed to the will of the electorate? Perhaps it is time for a recall. Perhaps we have the government we deserve.

There was one voice of reason: 

"everything boils down to quality of life for our existing residents. If we are looking to attract new businesses and people to the community, it's quality of life." 

Wow. Who knew that folks who were attracted to Dunwoody for a certain quality of life might want to maintain that quality of life, or through there own eyes see it improve. Unfortunately that view is not shared by Mother Earth Mayor and some on council. Nor by bureaucrats in the Shining PATH's rolodex. 

And that force is strong in city hall. Even though a referendum comment observed "I think they told us ... that they really just want parks," the notion of floating a parks-only bond in the fall was shot down. Why? Again, Mother Earth was having none of it, as this would be yet another impediment to a dream of paving paradise, while touting lack of community support for the projects. This directly contradicted the aforementioned "they really just want parks" conclusion. Mother Mayor prefers a cult-like religious movement: 

"... what we lack is a passionate group of citizens asking us for these improvements. We didn't have a base of support that could rile up their friends." 

Based on past performance one can only assume that "improvements" is Shining PATHS. Furthermore this turns a blind eye to the loud mouth PATH supporters on [anti]social media and a deaf ear to the reality that this tactic of using "passionate" advocates "to rile up their friends" back fired.

Place Identity

This is an interesting thing in today's America and like most other things it is divisive, or perhaps simply reflects baseline divisiveness in society. It is even more interesting here in Dunwoody. 

Before the city referendum was passed Dunwoody had an identity. And it was a good one. So good that nearby locations adopted "Dunwoody" in their name to add a certain cachet otherwise missing. There are still quite a few subdivisions and apartments in neighboring cities carrying a Dunwoody label.  This character was comfortable, convenient within the community and accessible to things like work and entertainment without the annoyance of those being on top of you. It was suburban. Largely single family with an enthusiastic support for that place identity. People wanted to move here, to live here for the location, the convenience and the inherent stability. But it was suburban.

Then the city rolled in. With it came bureaucrats who run the city and elected officials who have no operational responsibility, capability or accountability, and who are prohibited by law from attempting to exert or influence any of these. The bureaucrats, often not from here and many not living here, are driven by their own priorities or the priorities of outside influences by way of funding from other government entities and grants. If there is a grant, or state or federal funding to do something then that is what they will do, without any regard for the wishes of the folks who sought Dunwoody out as THE place they wanted to live because of THE place that it was. The promises made before the city was chartered have been washed away by organizational greed.

It isn't clear if city hall is its own echo chamber (it probably is), or if they are cult-like in following the Shining PATH Foundation (seem to be), or if they just thought the voters had dumbed-down (or just gotten wiser), but their vague, flimsy excuse of a funding referendum went down. Hard. And they seem clueless and their acolytes have resorted to divisive pejoratives in [anti]social media. Perhaps, if they are smarter than everyone else, as they seem to believe, they can gain an understanding of their failure by studying an article on the left's failure to comprehend rural Americans, a demographic upon whom they liberally heap their pejoratives. They might find, and should ponder, things like this:

...consider how rural voters' choices are frequently rooted in values and place-based identities that place a strong emphasis on self-reliance, local control and a profound sense of injustice regarding the lack of recognition for rural contributions to society.

[emphasis added, and perhaps read "rural" as "Dunwoodians"]. What has baffled the left is that rural voters are choosing those who have demonstrated they will send less outside money to rural areas because the left has little comprehension of or toleration for self-reliance and local control. They don't understand why they cannot simply buy these peoples' votes. Here in Dunwoody those in operational control of the city cannot fathom why we would turn away outsiders' money if all we have to do to get it is, well, whatever these outsiders want us to do. That is because city hall no longer understands that the voters who supported this city wanted self-reliance and freedom from outside control, and that is what they were promised. A promise that has been broken. 

How Many Times?

How many times can you write the same opinion piece? With the AJC public school advocate there seems no limit. The latest diatribe included jumping on the mis/dis-information bandwagon and it is good to do it now because hearing those chants from mainstream media, shown to shun veracity, is getting tiresome. Just hop right on before the wheels fall off. The author questions how anyone could believe what the author finds to be exaggerations and falsehoods (SAT word for "lies"). It is not because these things are in and of themselves believable, but because public schools have actually done so many things equally unbelievable. They make it difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. 

There is also the juxtaposition of "send their own kids to their own public schools" with "public schools as a national source of commonality." So which is it? Are they local schools? Or, are they a national machine for homogeneity? Does this mean PTA's do not matter at all, but for being a possible source of money for a school? And just whose "commonality" is to be imposed from the national level? Is that the AFT?

One very noncontroversial point is made: it is all about the money. We're offered this interesting twist:

"It's never been the parents' money. The voucher represents the collective pooling of all the community's tax dollars, including those of residents without children." 

The word "collective" must have flown from the fingertips, but it makes you wonder which continent the author hails from or wishes us to emulate. Nonetheless, it is about money. Money being poured into a system that cannot self-correct, cannot self-improve, where incompetents cannot be fired even in places, like Georgia, without official union presence. Perhaps if the author exercised a bit of critical thinking we'd not be subjected to the same diatribe run thru the rinse-repeat cycle. 

New Budget

Dunwoody city hall is all abuzz. Seems that the mayor and folks on council have un-retreated and decided there will be a new budget. And a new way of getting it. This entails two major changes. First, zero-based budgeting and second a revenue-neutral model. 

A zero-based budget ensures that needless bureaucracy falls away as it becomes unneeded as demonstrated by its own inability to justify its existence. In other cases where outright elimination is not warranted there remains a once-a-year opportunity to "right size" elements of the bureaucracy. The hope is this will put an end to a fifteen year run of cancerous expansion at city hall. 

The revenue neutral model ensures that as the tax digest increases as it has for each of the last fifteen years, the true beneficiaries will be the tax paying residents since the millage rate will be adjusted, downward, to reflect the fiscal prudence promised at the outset. Any budgetary increases must pass through the zero-based budgeting process and cannot be added with a dismissive wave of the hand and a mumbling of "inflation" as is currently done. 

This will result in real people, with real faces, and real names, standing before the city to plead the case for their wants, to be held up against our needs. When this city was being formed a commitment to fiscal responsibility was a major plank in the platform, and with these new budgetary processes that commitment may finally be kept. 

You Said. They Heard.

King John, on his blog, said:

"Because we are currently at our maximum millage rate and based on everything I am hearing, in 2026 our operating revenue will not be keeping up with expenses."

But some, particularly folks who were here over fifteen years ago when advocates put on the hard sell for a city, actually heard:

"Because we did not keep our commitment to fiscal prudence, expenditures are out of control and will exceed revenues in 2026, despite tax increases every single year since that commitment was made."

Apparently there is no "master plan" addressing fiscal responsibility.

Guest Post: Heart To Heart

After far too long, TOD is re-visited by the Calinky Cousin's Cuisine, and once again, it does not disappoint. The years and pandemic have softened the rougher edges leaving the language only slightly spicier than the meal. As is the case with almost all non-manufactured food, finding out where food really comes from can trigger folks. But you know what? It turns out that experts all over the interweb now agree with TOD that if you find yourself triggered, that's your problem. So buck up buttercup. Plus, if you're easily triggered, what the hell are you doing here?

So once again, here we go... 

I really have to thank ya for turning me on to that dawg meat store over in Athens. Man, they got the best bacon outside of gramps' back yard, and I don't have to slop their hogs. I know I told ya, and I'm pretty sure ya forgot, but I had planned on stopping in on the way here. Maybe get some ribs or steaks or maybe even one of them "picanha" which sounds like a South American fish, but ain't. I got there 'bout time they opened, and lo and behold they had lamb. Not just chops and racks and legs, but they had off cuts. Heart and liver. Fine eatin'. Now come to find out they only had one heart cuz they had given, like fer free, the rest to some school so they could cut it up, which is what we're about to do. Only difference is, we're gonna eat ours and I bet they threw theirs away. 

Now a lot of folks take a lamb heart and stuff it. Usually with a sausage stuffing like Aunt Norma used to make for her Thanksgiving bird. It's like they think a lamb heart is some meaty bell pepper. We ain't gonna do that. We're gonna clean it up, break it down, marinate it, grill it and slice it. Just like we did that beef heart last time ya stopped by. Ya know...ya really could show up for something other than a funeral. We are running low on relatives. And maybe even dress like someone other than Johnny Cash. 

So first off we gotta trim some fat. Not all of it, but we really wanna get the big chunks at the top and maybe trim some of the thicker bits on the sides. Ya gotta leave some for flavor but since we're gonna grill this, if ya leave too much ya might end up with a grease fire. That ain't no way to smoke yer meat. 

Now ya mighta noticed, if ya put yer damn phone down, that this heart came with some of the plumbing still hooked up.  We're gonna cut that out. 

And while we're at it let's open this up so we can get to some of the lining on the inside, cuz we wanna make that disappear too. If ya got a pet, a real pet, like a cat or a dog, ya can take all those trimmings and make a friend for life. Ya might wanna feed yer dog a sweet tater first. Just sayin'. 

There ya go. Two fine looking pieces of Little Dead Quadruped ready for a marinade. And we're gonna keep that simple, and only make a little bit of it. We don't need this swimming in a pool, just enough to coat the meat. A bit of oil, some cumin, black pepper and make a garlic paste with one clove and a little salt. Ya let that stew in the fridge for a few hours, overnight if ya can, but we ain't, and we're ready to grill. 

Ya do remember the first rule, maybe the only rule, about cooking meat, dontcha? That's right. Don't overcook it. And before ya start grilling put on a pot of rice to go with them hearts, and we can throw in some olives and capers like ya do with that fancy sauce ya make. What's that ya called it again? Hmmm. Yeah. Italian whore sauce*. But we'll just use the olives and capers.  Ya can get those out. Now. 

Off the grill ya gotta let it rest, but not as much as ya might with a chop or a steak. Heart is pure muscle, real lean, so it is easy to ruin by overcooking but it don't need much of a rest. So then we're gonna slice it, not too thick, not too thin, and plate up with rice and artichokes. Ya did remember to grill the artichokes didn't ya?

Look at that. Ya didn't overcook it. 

Now what happened to that liver?

* Puttanesca. Look up "puttan" in your favorite online Italian-English dictionary. 

Do You Suppose...

...an occasional police presence might keep things like this from happening?

Nah. The juice just ain't worth the squeeze.

Will The Last To Leave...

...turn out the light?

Consider It Done