Gandering At The Geese

Flock has the city's politicos and bureaucratic money sponges in a snit. And it is delicious. 

The stated reason they're all up in arms is that Flock may, or may not, leverage the Flock system to Flock's benefit and they may have, or may not have, updated their agreements. Happens all the time to you doesn't it? 

Mother Mayor has been in attack mode, moaning that we (the city's money sponges and politicos) need control of our data. WTF? Just throw that out there and expect it to magically become fact? Your data? Yours? Really? What, are they your license plates? No. No they are not. Do you pay for these plates? No. No you don't. Do you sell (rent) these to citizens? Again. No. Are the Flock LPRs restricted to residents of Dunwoody, as in, your constituency? No. Not at all. Not even part of anyone's original intentions. Plus, Flock can track your constituents in other jurisdictions if they are Flock customers. And finally, is Flock providing you the service you asked for, contracted for, and are paying for? Yes. Yes they are. 

So what is really your problem? After all you are getting what you're paying for: Law Enforcement as a Service. This provides political cover for the fact that you have no intention of deploying police officers in our community to keep our streets safe. "Let Flock do that. We rent technology to handle that." Truly a farce multiplier. 

Are you pissed that Flock are leveraging their system, a vast majority of which is not on poles in your right of way, to their benefit, potentially to their financial benefit, but also to the benefit of additional law enforcement missions? Are you that firmly against law enforcement? Are you picking and choosing? Do you have the integrity, the courage, to say out loud that you are against immigration enforcement and intend to do whatever you can to impeded federal law enforcement? Are you so dogmatically tied to a political party, a political movement, that impeding the FBI's ability to apprehend criminals on their Most Wanted List is acceptable collateral damage?

Or is it money? Do you resent that Flock may be monetizing their system beyond your little contract? That might be somewhat consistent with your statement that this is your data, however illogical, and indefensible, that might be. Do you want the feds to come, genuflect at your feet, and beg (AKA pay) you for access to Flock's data? Is that even reasonable? Only in your bubble. 

The humorous bit cannot be ignored, if you are indeed pissed because they've updated some of the T's & C's. Haven't we recently been subjected to Mother Mayor's campaign supporting increased taxes based on the premise that "things have changed since the city was founded"? Now you have the chutzpah to act offended that what is essentially a software/service company has updated their agreement, all the while changing nothing that negatively impacts the service they provided, that you wanted, and that you agreed to pay for. It really sucks when someone treats you like you've been treating us, doesn't it?

Local Control

Not complete local control, but more control than a particular government bureaucracy would like. The bureaucracy in question? City Schools of Decatur. It is worth noting that this limited control is being thrust upon them by the State. That's right, the State Legislature is forcing local control, via the ballot box, on a local government. Expect the local government to fight back on the basis of the State being outsiders, and local control is them doing whatever the hell they want, but the ballot box is just a bridge too far.

This is all about Senate Bill 625 which will force a referendum for any bond issuance exceeding $20M and seems to be targeting a CSD request for a $52M bond. Not perfect, but clearly better than a government bureaucracy run amok. Ideally, any bond issue should require voter approval, and consider this: schools have no problem coming to the voters with hat in hand when they want a SPLOST. Probably because they must. 

Citizens of Dunwoody should take note. This is what local control looks like.

Guest Post: Safety Fast!

This is a conversation overheard between a visiting ole farte Calinky and his nephew who lives in Dunwoody. As is often the case, the language is salty and no effort has been made to change that. Get over it or go somewhere else. 

Boy, let me tell you, drivers around here suck. 

OK, what is it this time?

Well, remember you told me to take that back road, the one that changes names three times, to get over to Cobb county? And how I should go to the light to turn left instead of taking that short road that cuts off the corner, you know, the one Google tells me to take? I did it your way and damn near got killed when some Porsche pulls out in front of me, coming outa that road you told ME not to take. 

You must not have crashed, or that would have been the first thing out of your mouth. What happened? Did you have to blow your horn? Does that clown car even have a horn?

Yes, it has a horn and no, I didn't blow it. There wasn't enough time for that. I mean, this car pulled right out in front of me. And no way the driver didn't see me. I was past the hill and I always run with my driving lights on and you know how bright those are. Just pulled right on out.

And what is it with Porsche, anyways? They used to make good cars. Drivers cars. Now they make these whatever-UVs. And when they're white, they're just generic, and you can hardly tell they're a Porsche, except this place seems eat up with 'em.

Yeah, and Teslas.

Don't get those things. Who wants to drive a car with an IUD tacked on the back? Maybe it's the ladies' version of a penis wrap. 

OK. OK. Enough. What did you do? Slam down on those new brakes of yours?

No. Seriously that car pulled out when I was nearly right on it. No time for brakes. This called for evasive action. You know how there's a street opposite where that Porsche pulled out?

Auden Trail. Did you turn right?

Been tellin' ya...not enough time. But I did use that extra pavement to get on the right side of that Porsche, made the skinny pedal kiss the carpet and scooted past. Thank gawd for that Brit Six. And I know you're blessed with a bumper crop of shitty drivers, but this was the worst I've ever seen. How'd it get so bad?

No cops. I mean we have cops. On the payroll, but not on the streets, so everyone knows they can drive without any regard for any laws. Speeding? Fine. No turn on red? Says who? Stop sign? Yield sign? Ignore them all. Red lights? Run at will. No cops. No tickets. So they've conditioned drivers around here to disregard any rules and drive like their own worst self.

Well, that driver definitely earned a "Student Driver" sticker. And what's up with those? This place is eat up with Porsches, Teslas and those silly stickers. Why don't they just send 'em to drivers' ed? You ain't gonna see those stickers back home.

Why not?

Well, when folks started puttin' 'em on their cars, cops started pullin' 'em over. See, the cops figured if you're gonna try on-the-road training, they were gonna offer a lesson on 'what it feels like to get pulled' and 'how to talk to a cop.' Then they offer refresher courses. Turns out these drivers were either fast learners or they figured out those stickers slowed ya down. Now we're back to 'baby on board' signs. That's it. 

Anyway...I didn't hit the Porsche, but I am looking forward to gettin' home.

Aren't Those Deer Cute?

You know, the whitetail deer that seem to be doing what bunnies do, but better. Most folks find them adorable. Let's fix that.

Those deer come with something you may not know about, or may know but don't care about: ticks. Now your mind may leap to lime disease. That's normal, because lime disease is a serious tick-borne disease which is associated with deer. But... There is something as bad, maybe worse, and spreading. This issue is primarily being spread by the Lone Star Tick, ironically named because of the white dot on the back. White tail...white dot.

These ticks brings alpha-gal to your, or possibly your child's bloodstream. So? Well, the human immune system, a wonderful thing, responds, sometimes gifting the person with Alpha-Gal Syndrome (AGS). You may have heard of it. One of the key issues with AGS, that gets a lot of press, is acquired allergy to red meat. You may think that is a big "so what," as we probably have too many folks eating too much red meat, but this is an immune reaction and there have been deaths. This is spreading across the country.

Some states track AGS. Georgia is not one of them because it is not a notifiable condition per state or federal law. The Georgia Department of Public Health does recognize AGS as an emerging tick-borne allergy but does not mandate reporting. High prevalence is reported in the Augusta area, unsurprising given the close proximity to South Carolina which hosts a whitetail deer population exceeding carrying capacity. See, all migration isn't wonderful, even if fleeing food insecurity.

Are those deer still cute as a button? Do you want your kids playing in a yard where they may have brought a few other visitors? 

What Problem

As in "what problem are you trying to solve?" Around daVille this plays like a procedural series, with the bad guys being a bureaucracy of government pitted against the often naive public. Happens all the time. And it's happening right now with the scene of the crime being, once again, public schools. If it seems like  a re-run, that's because it is. 

And what is the problem? Money. 

Here's a shocker: DeKalb County Schools are running out of money. What they are not running out of is things to spend it on. That's growing, largely because they failed to properly maintain facilities. Turns out that "stitch in time" is spot on, but now it's time to pay for the other nine. DCSD has done more than neglect maintenance, they ignored the State of Georgia, particularly the State's requirements for funding local schools, which DCSD ignored because parents would come after them should they follow those guidelines. So why do parents turn down the money?

Because the State's funding all but requires large, 950+ seat, schools. At the elementary level. The rationale is higher efficacy of these larger schools--more, and better learning for less money. The issue is that a 950+ seat elementary school is not a "neighborhood school," it is an edu-factory. Maybe an edu-fantasy. But it is a full-on assault against Dunwoody's sacred cow: Vanderlyn Elementary. What makes Vanderlyn more precious than say, Austin, a neighborhood school that has already been traded in for a state approved mega-mill? Hard to say. But is the last one standing, and the reality is sinking in, even with Vanderlyn parents, that Vanderlyn Elementary is not long for this world. Some parents are simply hoping it stands until their children move onward and upward. 

That's their problem.

Our problem, with "our" being residents without children attending Vanderlyn who are financially supporting DCSD, even with all its inefficiencies. According to the State, Vanderlyn is one of those inefficiencies and has been for a long, long time. 

The over-arching problem? DCSD. It doesn't work. Not by any measure. Nor is it getting any better. That is the problem.

Dunwoody. Lost & Found.

Seems someone dropped something on the Dunwoody Parkway sidewalk right by the now shuttered Steak & Grace. A shell casing. A SIG 277 Fury shell casing. 

Just Lying There

And guess what? As you might expect, it has been fired.

277 Fury

And a very nicely centered firing pin that is. 

This particular round was developed by Sig in 2019, so this had to have been dropped after there was a city, with a city PD. Which touches on another interesting point. The 277 Fury is primarily a military round with little penetration (pun intended) in the civilian market though you can buy rifles chambered in that round. And they are pricey. The ammo isn't exactly cheap either with AmmoSeek listing one vendor offering reloads at $1.75/round, but most others well north of $2.00/round. 

So where do you think this may have come from?

Ableton Mableton

If you guessed the answer to "who said this?" was "the mayor of Mableton" then give yourself a pat on the back. The "tool" to which he referred is Artificial Intelligence. Using AI to provide broader, better services without an excess of money sponges. 

Broadly speaking there are two types of AI: Large Language Models (LLMs) and Agentic AI. The former gives answers while the latter gets stuff done. Both can make very important contributions to open, transparent, democratic governance. Seems to be what they're doing over in Mableton. 

With LLMs working on fully digitized records we, the people, can ask questions and get answers. Immediately. Accurately. Without spin. With proper configuration and training an LLM can properly redact sensitive information, far better than any money sponge, at a relative cost indistinguishable from zero. Suppose you wanted to know how many citations for code violations were issued in your neighborhood in the last three years. Nearly instant answer. Want to know how many tickets have been written to trucks violating a particular no-truck zone since the city was founded, organized by year and month, you can get that question answered. Want a copy of all contracts under the city manager's signing limit, by year and by each city manager? That is just a few keystrokes away. 

Agentic AI is even more powerful which is why it terrifies entrenched bureaucrats. Should we be running audits? Certainly. With Agentic AI this wouldn't be an annual event, not quarterly or even monthly, it would be continuous. It could be triggered by real-time events, like whenever someone with the city makes a charge on a credit card or P-card. Any inflow or outflow of money could painlessly trigger an audit and an audit report. Or, it could be done on demand, on request. Even by one of the We The People. Or, suppose you need to monitor T&Cs for bought in services, so you don't get surprised by vendors like, say, Flock. Agentic AI can do that. Is it worthwhile to monitor processes, say applying for a business license, to ensure proper, timely operation? That can be cone.  

Could this happen at the City of Dunwoody? This is what a technologist would say is "possible, but not probable," while a cynic might say "humanly possible, but not with the humans we have available." Don't hold your breath. 

Who Said This?

As quoted in the AJC

"[...]a tool that will allow us to do more with less. It's an equalizer in a way for us to be able to do all these things that, quite frankly, we would have needed more people to accomplish."

Who said this? Well, here's a clue: it was a mayor of one of those "mushroom cities" that sprung up after Sandy Springs. Want to guess which one? If you're guessing Mother Mayor of Dunwoody, well, you could not be further from the truth. See, Dunwoody is all about staff expansion, with no limit to the number of money sponges on the payroll. So you know nothing like doing more with less is welcome at our city hall.

Carts And Horses

Making new law...

...probably should not happen in a courtroom.

But the Colin Gray case did just that. He was found guilty on 27 charges including second degree murder and involuntary manslaughter related to the school shooting at Apalachee High School, where the alleged shooter was his son, Colt Gray. 

Then it gets weird. Prosecution relied on a law passed after the Georgia Supreme Court overturned the conviction of Justin Ross Harris for the hot car death of his son Cooper Harris, giving clear guidance to prosecutors and courts regarding the consequences of parents who cause their children serious harm or death. It has also become common over the last few decades for legislatures to append a section on legislative intent to laws they pass. This is lazy. If they cannot write a law that clearly addresses their intent, then maybe they are in the wrong job. Consequently, with the Colin Gray case, prosecution argued this law, as written, could readily be extended to others' children regardless of intent, stated or otherwise.

Much of the case hinged on the (often emotional) arguments about a father giving serious firepower to a son who was clearly suffering from serious emotional and mental issues, some directly related to glorification of school shooters. This approach was distanced from "safe storage," a concept that the City of Savanah had tried to codify but which was rejected at the state level, even though what was easily proved is that Colin Gray bought a gun and that gun fired the bullets at Apalachee High. 

What hasn't been proven, in a court of law, and beyond any reasonable doubt, is who pulled the trigger. Now we all know who did, but at this point, legally, that is only an allegation. Remember O.J.? After he got off on murder charges in criminal court, well, he was not a murderer, and you really could not call him that. After his civil conviction, you could. That's because you can't call someone a murderer until it has been adjudicated. Colt Gray has not had his day in court, so you cannot logically (legally) say that Colin Gray aided his son in murdering anyone. 

When the courts do not respect the law, why should anyone? Certainly they should do the right thing, but they must also do that thing the right way. In this case they failed.

Are You Sold On It?

Did you stop by the check-the-box event the city held at Vintage? Go for the lies...stay for the pies?

It was an impressive poster show. You know, all those timeless architecture-art drawings of things that just never seem to materialize. Remember the ones depicting the Village Parkway? Not there yet, eh? There were other informative materials, one looking like a memo, but for the fact that it is color printed on heavy weight calendared paper. The PIOH notice is printed on heavy card stock and you have to look closely to see it isn't laminated. Could they have made this more extravagant? Perhaps, but they couldn't figure out a way. 

The actual information was interesting, particularly the arch-art. First was the total absence of any information indicating the funding source for this, well, whatever the hell it is, maybe today's trend. But, one of the docents gladly offered up that the Fed's were funding this, but seemed somewhat dismayed when the questioner's reaction was: this is not good. Then there's the trees. Docent: "we're going to try our best to keeps as many trees as possible." This is city hall speak for: "those trees are toast." What's with the two strips of concrete? Well, that's the latest fad sweeping the country, and it comes with marketing buzzwords: separate the heels from the wheels. The docent, clearly a contractor, city bureaucrat, or someone who otherwise knew nothing about what goes on in daVille, was surprised to learn that our Lance-a-lots don't race around daVille, but they drive here, park their cars and bike all over the area, probably covering 20 or more miles at a ride. The look on the docent's face was almost as if he realized this whole project was bullshit and wasn't comfortable peddling it. 

One answer beyond the docent was contact information for the non-profits established to support this project. Unlike the origins of the city itself, where folks who live here came together and organized to form the city, there is no such community support for this project, or any of the others like it. So...no support...no non-profits. The outside funding tells the story. Outsider's money means outsider's plans and outsider's agenda. No where near local control. And those trees at the TFM/Walgreen's parking lot? They'll come down in a hurry and some city apologist, maybe Mother Mayor herself, will declare them "diseased." It has happened before. And that tree in front of Novo? It is like a Japanese death row convict, it won't know it's the day until the morning of.

 Why don't we all celebrate this project during Lemonade Days?