Fussbudget

The first vote is in and the runoffs are a week away. We've had two Sundays to become intimately familiar with the distinct boundary between Dunwoody and Sandy Springs even as a new purveyor of adult libations plies his trade in our little village. As the tryptophans fade and the toddy warms, let us all pause to take stock of recent wounds and those who lick them.

The most obvious are the fans of "America's Sport", baseball, and there seems to be quite the disagreement on just how popular baseball is in Dunwoody. On the one hand, the Dunwoody Fan Rag claims without any supporting citation that "there is ample public demand for ball fields". Really?!? Sadly for these ample demanders, this did not bear up under public scrutiny nor did it survive a public vote. Frankly it is superficially incorrect: where "ample demand" exists, pay-to-play works because "ample demand" begets "ample support" with no need to tax non-players. Clearly Dunwoody falls far short of "ample" with regard to boys, their beloved balls and the sticks to beat them with.

Then there were the parks bonds themselves, invested with more than ample  histrionics and ego and whose rejection appears to have ripple effects far beyond mere boy's games. The City's immediate response was a little "tit for tat", putting on hold the purchase of property slated for the "Peachford Extension" as if to say "if we don't get what we want, we'll just take our bat and ball and go home", knowing they'll just have to call a special session to approve the purchase or lose $50K. But publicly we're treated to a Councilman saying " the voters of Dunwoody spoke loud about us buying land particularly if we’re going to buy land and pay too much for it".  Yeah. Right. Like the voters were wrapped around the axle about the price tag of those apartments and didn't care a whit about the pogrom it forces. These folks never had their fingers on the pulse of the public, and it is unlikely there was an election day epiphany at a Tuesday night pity party. It is more believable that this was a pissy fit of pique resulting in a childish tantrum.

Or perhaps the voters simply put them on notice with regards to whimsical boondoggles. This extension is to facilitate east-west travel in the area, which is located only one block from the apparently inadequate east-west conveyances of I-285, Cotillion and Savoy. Or perhaps not.

But it could be that one plan, the parks, was tied to another, the extension, by way of the general budget. Had the bonds carried the day, this infusion of cash would take parks out of the general budget freeing up funds needed for less playful commitments. Like pavement. Complete with white and yellow markings. Now that the City does not have that easy $66 million to go on a "shopping spree" and all projects must come out of general funds, perhaps  they don't have enough money to run this City in the manner they promised.