Have you ever wondered why it is that any change proposed by bureaucrats at city hall, many of whom do not live here, are characterized as "improvements," or "upgrades," or the now popular "re-vitalization?" Is it because at heart they are political creatures and as we all know when politicians say something is "A" it may not actually be "B" but it certainly is NOT "A." So it is with proposed "traffic upgrades" for the intersection of Chamblee-Dunwoody and Mount Vernon. What does that even mean? Aren't they actually proposing to spend buckets of money to improve the intersection? Is the spirit of George Carlin haunting city hall: drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?
The original plan, now implemented, apparently was not enduring so we have yet-another-plan. Sorta. When plan changes are made so readily...easily...is it really a plan? So now the plan is to re-jigger the intersection to add double left turn lanes from C-D to MtV with the southbound lanes encouraging increased drive-thru traffic on C-D and Roberts, each with school zones. It also seems some kind of closed-door session was held to discussing a two-lane roundabout but this was dismissed due to cost. Apparently you can all but steal property from a church but businesses have immunity from imminent domain. Or maybe it is the political cost of doing away with the farmhouse.
But the plan, as has been presented, will go forward. It will require substantial changes to bike lanes (an entitlement that cannot be taken away) which has caused some concern regarding emergency vehicle response times. One council-folk wanted to know where these cars/drivers are coming from and where they are going to and even had the audacity to suggest that a traffic study be done. WTF? They've got this plan all but in flight w/o doing a traffic study? Why, you might ask? Well, it is Dunwoody 101: the city was recently awarded $6M by ARC to fund this so, well, you know, when it comes to clutching Other People's Money haste doesn't always make waste. And even then your tax dollars will be thrown at this. Without a proper traffic study.
When an outside agency, the Atlanta REGIONAL Commission, all but dictates, by dangling cash in front of bureaucrats, changes in our community is this the "local control" we were promised by Dunwoody Yes! and Citizens for Dunwoody? Because this is what we got.
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