Somebody's Gettin' "A Curb Job"

In the middle of late of late last night I was sittin' on a curb
I didn't know what about but I was feelin' quite disturbed...

This whole curb cutting thing is silly. And that is just what makes it disturbing.

Is this part of a greater sleight of hand performed by the developer where all the Dunwoody watchdogs are being distracted by a useless curb cut while something much more nefarious is being slipped through? Perhaps. It is absolutely incredible that this developer really believes this traffic hazard is key to his property value.

Perhaps this is just another example of boys being boys with some nearby City Managers claiming New Hotel Bragging Rights. A kind of permanent prepubescent penis envy on the part of Dunwoody's City Manager where he feels he's come up short on the hospitality front.

Or it could be related to the song that seems to play incessantly at local City Halls with raucous sing-a-longs emphasizing a few key lines:

My Yvonne sweetest one me oh my oh
Son of a gun, we'll make big fun when they Buy-OH!
...
Thibodeaux, Fontainbleau, the place is buzzin'
Kinfolk come to see Yvonne by the dozen
Dress in style, go hog wild, me oh my oh
Son of a gun, we'll make big fun with the Buy-OH!

Given the PCID's ability to turn one dollar into twenty by shaking hard on the grant tree it is easy to see why they all want to curry favor with the Queen of Somethin' Hot. Could it be that a City Manager is hoping for a slow dance with Yvonne and the chance to show off a pro-developer eight story priapism? Given the overshadowing Ravinia it is hardly impressive but desperation drives strange behaviors.

While it may be one or all of these, there is still something missing. Some dark undercurrent  hidden from public view.

The developer let the cat meow while keeping the bag closed when he referenced the many meetings he has had with the City. In reality he has not met with "The City" because there is no "The City". There are living, breathing humanoids with whom he has met. They have names. They draw salaries. And...they are responsible. They are supposed to be responsible to the citizens.

Fact is they aren't.

This will become exposed due to an inconvenient juxtaposition. The City Manager will advance the developer's cause based on improving the tax digest--money, money, money. Yet this is the very same City Manager who successfully advocated removing a five million dollar property from our tax digest and has since let that property decay as if it were Dunwoody's "picture of Dorian Gray" sitting at our southern gateway instead of locked in the attic. Unless he thinks everything outside PCID IS Dunwoody's attic.

How does one make sense of these polar opposites in position? By understanding the common thread. In both cases the actions of the City, the actions of the City Manager, were in the best interests of developers and consequently the best interests of a management and staff who never stand for a meaningful review let alone a public vote. The rotting building was a deal sweetener leveraging City funds to make the taxpayers a white knight saving a local development firm. A simple curb cut curries favor with another developer and the PCID.

This speaks to a serious problem which like all problems is only a problem because it has a solution. The City Charter is coming up for review. Soon. The problem we have is a too powerful City Manager and weak, limpid Council and Mayor resulting in a horribly squelched vox populi. It is time to fix this by ensuring that the real power in this City rests with elected officials beholding to the ballot box and not a hired gun who uses a divide and conquer strategy to bend the City Council to his will thereby subverting the democratic process.

Apartments and McMansions

The world is increasingly binodal whether we're discussing pay disparities, the digital divide, abilities of students in a single class or even Dunwoody real estate--the mean truly is mythical.

Dunwoody was formed to purge the area of existing apartments and where ever possible to forestall or prevent the construction of new apartments--a chore previously handled by the DHA thru their cadre of lawyers. The logic was that apartments suffer from shoddy construction, poor maintenance (and one might observe: poor enforcement of local codes) and high crime thus harming overall property values in the vicinity but the underlying issue was the fact that apartment dwellers ARE the lower lobe of our socio-economic binodal distribution. This was pretty clearly exposed along with the plans for spending the proposed tax bonds on eradicating the PIB apartments. The noise about this being a  "high crime area" has become muted as the real high crime area is the Perimeter Mall where the apartments are tony and newer. It cannot go without saying that they pay more in property tax for which they receive the lion's share of Dunwoody's police protection. We won't detail the "harm to our schools" argument as that was pretty much blown out of the water with Austin's recent CCRPI scores in spite of hosting kids from apartments.

Given our revulsion to apartments it may seem befuddling that there is a growing resistance to McMansions whether on previously undeveloped land or lot-by-lot tear down rebuilds. It seems that in Dunwoody the only good McMansions are those replacing existing apartments or preventing the construction of new apartments. But while McMansions may be bad, they're not that bad.

But are McMansions really bad at all?

A surprising number of single family detached houses in Dunwoody were built in the late sixties to mid eighties after which scarcity drove up prices and drove many buyers further out. As our Mayor has pointed out (in his support of tear-down McMansions) these houses were built with construction techniques and integrity such that they have about a thirty year life (funny how that is a bad thing for an apartment complex but a good thing for a house) and it is really about time they were replaced. Our own little Ulysses, bless his heart.

So why is someone in a mature neighborhood upset that the neighboring 2600 sq. ft. Four Four and a Door has been replaced by a 6500 sq. ft. Tudor style two story with a three car garage and blessed with a daylight basement?

This isn't just envy. You. Lose. Money.

Your property taxes just went up and the Total Addressable Market of buyers and  ironically the price they're willing to pay just went down.

But there is also a strong pride of ownership. Long time homeowners have often put much of themselves into their home--more than sweat equity--homes become a personal statement. It is a family jewel. The homestead. Where the kids were raised. Remember the year the cat chewed thru the Christmas light cord and had to be put down? Ah...yes, dear Beelzebub...she was really just like a dog.

Where real estate agents see a house (and a private school payment for their child) some folks see a home. Their home. Just like the one in Father of the Bride, Part 2--to be preserved and cherished for all eternity and not an eyesore to be demolished so some rich asshole has a better place to park his A7.

OK. Maybe there is some envy.

Then there are those built on previously un- or under-developed land. Bill Grant has been building McMansions right off Ashford Duwnoody (and even scored a new curb cut for a single driveway) for what seems like an eternity.  And now another developer has plans to build a few dozen homes off Vermack. This would be on approximately 35 acres already zoned for exactly this purpose so at this point it is in the hands of the developers and their investors. Resistance will be relegated to "additional traffic" and "impact on schools". Not very compelling.

Prices at the new development start at $700,000 and run right up thru $1 million. The Bill Grant homes are no cheaper. Unless your plan in life is to drain a trust fund these hardly fall in the category of Starter Home. And that affects the traditional Dunwoody Demographic pushing some folks who currently enjoy the view from the top just a wee bit further down.

When you consider a wide range of factors (down payment, interest, other debt, DTI, etc.) you should not be surprised if the folks buying these homes have anything less than $150K in annual household income. Probably more. Perhaps a lot more. This is not only at least two times the 2011 Dunwoody average household income, it is no more a starter salary than these are starter homes. So don't expect a starter family either.

It is hard to get really good drill downs on census data for these demographics but researchers have long reported that these levels of income strongly correlate with high levels of education, particularly amongst women as they tend to seek out equally well educated mates resulting in high earning households. These folks also tend towards the middle to latter part of the high-wage portion of the lifecycle (generally 35-55 years of age) and combined with a high probability of well educated women will likely result in fewer and older children. Their kids are as likely to be in (or out of) college as they are to be taking seats in K-12. Given these income levels, strong emphasis on education and the sorry state of our DeKalb County schools any of their children eligible for DCSD will probably be in private schools.

These McMansions will attract smart, well educated families with high household incomes and below average burden on school and city services. With all this how could anyone oppose the gentrification of Dunwoody?

Tongue Freed From Cheek

It seems quite a waste to spend $1136/ft on the Mt. Vernon to Chamblee-Dunwoody stretch of Dunwoody Parkway. Not only is this pricey, it doesn't solve any real problems. In an upcoming diatribe we'll rant about the differences between destination transportation and recreation transportation, but for now let's look at the Village and see what we can do.

First let's observe some sanity rules and objectives:

• Roads at or under a 25MPH limit will have not dedicated bike lanes--you'll share the road and if you cannot enforce a speed limit or share the road at these speeds there are deeper problems that no amount of pavement or striping will fix.
• The entire run of Dunwoody Parkway should be at or under 25MPH.
• Transportation IN the Village is not primarily for the benefit of those trying to get THROUGH the Village. We have through ways. Use them.
• Passive speed control measures should be used as we're not likely to see active measures in force.
• Some existing trees warrant saving but many do not and neither have a constitutional right to equal treatment or equal outcomes. Some will die, others will be planted.
• We need to address more than just the needs of special interests, be they cut-through drivers in a hurry to get where ever or bike riders in a hurry to get back where they started. 

Based on the annotated map below let's look at what we could do to improve Life In The Village.

Tackling the 800 pound gorilla first the contentious part of the Parkway (shown above in green) would be reconfigured. Where possible trash trees (think Bradford Pear) in the median and those medians will be removed. Crepe myrtles are readily sacrificed as well. In the areas with no median the outer lane will become a small linear park with wide sidewalks and plantings including non-trash shade trees. You have one half the width of the median and the width of one traffic lane to work with on each side. In areas where there are high value, high quality trees in the median these will be preserved--there are a few. This will create traffic calming structures known as "center island narrowing" where lanes diverge around these retained medians. This is being used effectively on a similar road on at least one corporate campus in the area.

Now let's look at the oft neglected portion of Dunwoody Parkway stretching from Chamble Dunwoody down to the Publix center, past Car Repair Central and over to Restaurant Row ending at the four way behind Hickory House (shown in blue above). This certainly needs re-paving and curb improvements. Either the storm drain problem at the bottom of hill must be fixed or the area declared a federally protected wetland. This little stretch of road should not be costly to bring up to par with the rest of the Parkway, but it is important to the overall plan as will be shown shortly.

Then there are also some important additions (shown in red above). First, a round-about (the red circle) which is not only euro-chic but appropriately located near Dunwoody's British pub, and Alison's, whose proprietor sports a British accent, and D'Vine Wine bar, purveyors of wine from across Europe. Another critical component of the overall plan is an extension of the Parkway behind Moondog and dead-ending on Nandina after a dog-leg to the east. This route is already paved, but not as part of the Parkway and rights of way would need to be acquired and the roadway brought up to Dunwoody Parkway standards. Another added element is raised pedestrian crosswalks at key locations around the Parkway (shown as red squares) which not only provide clearly marked crossings for pedestrians but offer a similar alert for drivers. As a traffic calming measure they complement the center islands. There are other additions and changes, but these are largely minor, like fixing the Fresh Market entrance at the Chevron station which is awkwardly angled. A Citizens' Committee can handle these details.

And what do we get for all this trouble? Glad you asked.

• These improvements allow us to ban all left turns from shopping center parking lots on Chamblee Dunwoody. This is long overdue and eliminates one source of accidents that waste our police budget.
• Nandina can be made one-way south. Folks leaving Moondog will be able to turn right on Nandina, right on the Parkway to the round-about and have their choice of traffic lights to head their merry way. Something may catch their eye and they just might pick up a little something extra. 
• Shoppers can move with relative ease through all areas of the Village without the current interference of commuter traffic.
• The City will get the consistent "look and feel" some seem to want.

Most importantly we get past the current dog fight created by focusing only on what some silly grant covers.

Cut Loose Like a Deuce

If you frequent the area you know the intersection at Chamble-Dunwoody and Redfield has been re-configured eliminating the right turn lane using the spare pavement for a lane separator with a pedestrian island. That and additional sidewalks sounds like a significant albeit expensive safety improvement.

Far from the truth. First, the city will all but brag that a vast majority of the money was picked from others' pockets. Expensive? Sure. But not for us. Sorta.

The untold number of street crossers playing frogger at that location may well be safer but not so much for those on the sidewalk to the west of CD. Eliminating the turn lane and shifting thru traffic towards the curb means all the speeders in their two ton missiles that scare the bullets out of cops' guns are now aimed directly at the sidewalk across the intersection. Lack of enforcement in the area and a broken radar sign do nothing to discourage speeding and if distracted driving weren't bad enough it gets worse. On any given clear morning a driver headed to DaVille gets a face full of blinding AM sunshine. They won't know what they hit until someone's head crashes thru their windshield.

Sooner or later there will be an "accident" and someone will get hurt, maybe killed. It may be the olde farte walking his dog, or a jogger or maybe a couple of kids who just want to play tennis. The driver will be charged but someone down at City Hall will have blood on their hands.

All for the love of other people's money.

Blinded by the light...