What's On A Website?

Have you used the city's website? Lately? Pretty slim pickings, eh?

If you need proof, cruise on over to the calendar, search for the upcoming special called meeting being held at Vintage Pizza and click on that link. Now muddle around to get to the agenda. Three items: Call To Order;  Dunwoody Village Planning Discussion; and Adjournment. For funsies click on the Planning Discussion for item details. Spoiler alert: all you will get is "Dunwoody Village Planning Discussion." Maybe if they cannot post a proper agenda and meeting materials they shouldn't be having this meeting. Not now. But, it would be worth attending just to see how much alcohol is involved in the "planning" that goes on in this city.

If that didn't steam your broccoli check out the PD request for public feed back. The online form is "unobvious" and once you get there it is far from a solicitation of your views and opinions. Instead it is limited to two questions: what are we doing great; and where could we improve? And before you submit you must agree to "Terms and Conditions" which you can read before you submit by clicking a link. Or can you? You will get a pop up window with this text: "By using the Social Pinpoint Mapping Tool you are taken to have accepted these Terms and Conditions set out below." Only one problem...there is nothing below. So does that mean there are NO T's and C's? Or are they just lying about their existence and hiding the details? At least the survey is operating as well as anything else in this city and definitely NOT at internet speed.

Paint The Town

Normally this would be followed by "red," but this is Dunwoody so...no. Apparently some folks think Dunwoody in its original condition, Williamsburg 4-4-and-a-door brickers, is far too red. So the bureaucrats down at city hall (NOT brick, NOT red) have decided to paint this town white. Now this is all based on a conversation overheard by a friend of TOD in a city hall restroom but you can rest assured this is much, much more than potty talk. They mean business. There is some serious "incentivizing" going down.

It started when Berkshire-Hathaway came to town. Out came the white wash. Faster than Tom's fence those red bricks were one shade of white. Next was the pizza joint that never was and now is urgent care. Did we really need yet another pizza joint in Da Ville? Really? Then right across the street we see a bank/dry-cleaner blanched into a Chipotle. A white one. Now, what once was a red brick Whopper shop is now, you guessed it, white washed. NFA is looking to build a larger place attached to the Chevron. Think it will be red brick to match the existing structure? Not a chance. It is far more likely that city bureaucrats will impose a requirement that the existing bricks get a heavy coat of white paint. 

These bureaucrats cannot be stopped and won't be happy until the brick chimney at the farmhouse is just as white as the house itself. This is scorched earth cultural genocide. And it has some folks really pissed off. Apparently the local BLM club, the very same folks who defaced the obelisk, are fixin' to git ready to do something because they consider this white washing to remove all remnants of color to be a "macro aggression." No one knows for certain what they have planned but everyone is pretty sure it will involve lawyers and lots of money. The city may well end up spending more on legal fees, compensation and court costs than the police chief has cost us with his high jinks.

Holiday Job Opportunity

 

Happy PATH...

...or maybe not so much.

First we gotta get our terms straight. Is this a "walking" path or a "multi-use" path. We need to know because these are radically different creatures. And, just to be very clear, these aren't what anyone who spends much time in the great out-of-doors would consider a path. These are paved lanes and in the case of the "multi-use" variant they can be as wide as an interstate lane.  

Apparently these things have become somewhat contentious. Some have suggested that one council-folk is showing favoritism when it comes to the location of Tilly Mill Road paving and the change to the other side of the road ups the cost by $700K. This particular council-folk denies the charge claiming to "have made a concerted effort to not discuss this issue at all with the other council members." So? Like council members or the mayor are in charge of this? Really? Have you not been paying ANY attention? The real question is whether or not there has been communications with the city bureaucrats (who are really in charge) that would influence this enormously expensive change. Any of those folk friends and family? 

It gets better. Another council-folk went on a 10 minute rant about the issue, even pushing up council comments to have a say. Lots to unpack. Council gets open-ending comment time? Hmmm...mere resident taxpayers only get a very limited chance to voice their concerns. So exactly who is serving who in this scenario? This must be the operational definition of "distinction" plastered on the side of city patrol vehicles. 

Both council-folk are dodging the real issue: who, EXACTLY WHO, and we need a name here, decided we simply must have these "paths" in the first place? And WHO can rescind this ill-conceived decision? And why aren't council-folk demanding this nonsense be stopped? And exactly who, staff bureaucrats, friends and family, whomever,  benefits from all this? Is this just more grant-grubbing nonsense?

One thing we know for sure: no one at city hall has the character or integrity to put these crazy things up for a vote. We, the voters, are only ever allowed one referendum, that ill-fated first one and we blew it.

Happy (Belated) Birthday

 

Mableton Maybe?

Voters in Mableton have approved the cityhood referendum and the voices from both sides are singing the same hymns as those who've come before. The pro choir have dropped the verse about a city police force which is interesting as this new city will be the largest in Cobb County. Perhaps they watched the dumpster fire that is the Dunwoody PD and decided to pass on that one. The anti choir is saying they'll be watching, especially on the pro's commitment to not raise taxes (a lie from the get-go), but everyone knows the proposed budgets were unadulterated bullshit and while they may not raise the millage rate for the first few years, taxes will increase. As will the general cost of living due to fees.

One thing does set "Mableton" apart: geographically it isn't what was commonly thought of as Mableton as the cartographers have sucked much of south Cobb into the newly imagined city. This includes areas which are at least under developed or ripe for re-purposing from aging industrial to something else. This could happen organically (think: artists' village) but before Mableton sends their second tax bill there will be a Mableton Developer Authority handing out tax breaks to boost the profits of developers. An argument might even be made that a five-on-two that will be dilapidated in 8-10 years actually is an improvement over brown-field that already IS dilapidated. Just doesn't fit the recycle-repurpose-reuse paradigm of the eco-minded. 

Mableton, we're gonna miss ya.

You Have To Wonder

Now that she is convicted and her extortion is a matter of public record you have to wonder how she pulled this off. How exactly did she coordinate this? How did she keep in touch? Maybe, and this is just a guess, but maybe she used her personal cell phone. Seems like one reason to avoid formal communication channels. Looks like it didn't work out so well. Maybe there IS hope for Dunwoody too.

If You Were Trying...

These four words are the beginning of a thought exercise, perhaps even a litmus test. This exercise ends with "what would you do differently?" Most of the fun is in the middle. For example, "If you were trying to create a failed government, what would you do differently?" You could ask this any day, any time at Dunwoody City hall of anyone you bump into. What makes it an exercise is that you'll never get an answer from anyone on the payroll. 

A more topical thought exercise is "if you were trying to convince the public this government is corrupt, what would you do differently?" This relates to the longstanding use of personal communication channels for official city business. This gives the impression of a culture of backroom dealings, and underhanded under the table negotiations where the well connected are, well, connected. And you aren't. And since it is all off the books you'll have a damn hard time even finding out what is really going down (spoiler alert: it ain't your taxes) and apparently the folks down at city hall really like it that way with the mayor enjoying the practice for a decade.

Well at least until they were called to task and then someone pointed out these clandestine, covert practices are uncommon and in many jurisdictions verboten. So now they're fixin' to git ready to start thinkin' 'bout doin' somethin'. Bless their little hearts. But you would be wise to NOT hold your breath waiting on this city to do the right thing or come close to doing anything the right way. Just look at their track record.