Thursday, August 4, 2016

Existential Threats

There's one problem with claims of City action posing an existential threat to the DHA--there is an existence proof to the contrary.

It wasn't that long ago there was no City of Dunwoody, but there was a DHA. How can that be? Did the DHA have a couple dozen folks down in Decatur sitting on zoning boards, planning commissions and the like? Hell no, they didn't. And yet the DHA existed. And the DHA will not cease to exist if it re-acquires the level of influence at Dunwoody City Hall that it formerly wielded at DeKalb County offices.

That the DHA views a reasonable separation, even a firewall, between DHA board negotiations with developers and official City decisions and actions regarding those same developers as an existential threat is the clearest proof that the DHA is indeed bartering with their influence at City Hall.

Comments and statements to the contrary do not pass the smell test.

First they claimed to be "just another homeowners group" which they later upgraded to "like the Buckhead Coalition." Still not quite right. The Buckhead Coalition represents the interests of the Buckhead community, not all parts of the City as the DHA lays claim to for Dunwoody. Because of that members of the Coalition suffer from a geographic constraint limiting their ability to dominate citizen boards and panels. Not so with the DHA.

Then there is the claim that members do not receive marching orders from their DHA superiors. Perhaps that is technically true. But they do go to the Sunday revival meetings where the folks in the pulpit describe the souls they've saved and how wonderful the glory. Folks come out with admiration for their workings and have certainly been singing from the same hymnal. Were they brought to the alter for the layin' on of hands to shouts of HEAL? Probably not. But there is little doubt they'll be bringing the Good Word to the unwashed down at the Big Hall.

Clearly the City does not pose an existential threat to the DHA. It is increasingly clear that the DHA poses such a threat to the City.