Is Anyone Surprised?

With only one dissenting vote the city council, as expected, approved the plan to pave paradise. The discussion as was reported in the blue bag rag clearly indicated that council and presumably city bureaucrats still have no clear idea of exactly what a "plan" really is. At least not one they can articulate though this may be attributed to general inability to articulate much of anything.

Class Of 23

Never Gets Old

Never Will

A Good Sign

Or so says the City of Dunwoody. Even if it looks illegal and trashy to you, as you may have figured out when it comes to local rules, regs and ordinances, this city would have to work hard (harder than their demonstrated capability) to care less. 

And yes, this sign has remained in place for days, including business days, so assuming someone, anyone at city hall actually works business days, they have intentionally neglected their responsibilities. Honestly, someone should be fired since this is only one illegal sign desecrating the village. 

Fait Accompli

The latest edition of the Blue Bag Rag hands us this journalistic nugget:

"With the pending approval of a Trail Master Plan by PATH Foundation,"

Is the master plan written by the PATH Foundation, or is it to be approved by them, or is it both? You could read it either of these ways so let's see if there is any meaningful difference in meaning.

Start with "approved by PATH Foundation" because even if it is "just" written by them they kinda approve of the submitted plan, right? Since we know they approve it does it matter what mayor and council say? Probably not as it appears they have handed the whole matter of deciding what goes on in this city to a phalanx of bureaucrats, consultants and special interests. They have gone all Honey Badger on us. 

But let us hope. Perhaps mayor and council approval will be required, and if the above report is accurate, forthcoming. So does it even matter? After all they will approve whatever is put before them because that is the only option available. So it seems like either way your vote never counts because those you elect are completely powerless. Is this what "local control" looks like?

Speed Is NOT The Problem

Looks like someone did not play nice with one of Billy Boys toys. 

But speeding is clearly not the problem. How do we know? Because the solution is obvious: put cops on the street to enforce our speed limits. But the city manager and his top cop are NEVER going to do that and no one seems to know why. What everyone does know is that there is not nor will there ever be enforcement of our traffic laws. Not speed limits. Not no truck zones. Not...

Too busy checking in on the prostitutes and their hotel partners in Perimeter Center. 

What Do These Have In Common

What Do These Signs Have In Common?
Total Lack Of Enforcement

 

Cheerleaders Don't Win Games

Sometimes they don't even know what game is being played.

Since first meeting resistance to the Pave Paradise scheme of the [Shining] PATH Foundation, the mayor has been trying to get the cool kids, and only the cool kids, to show up for a pep rally. No Boo-Birds need attend. To the mayor's dismay, the Boo-Birds will not stay away. And it is as if the Shining PATH is feeding the seagulls at the beach with expected results. Not only have the Boo-Birds flocked to the events, and not only have they displayed their dismay, the breadth of their issues and the intensity with which they are presented is growing. Not what the mayor and the other elected cheerleaders had in mind. 

In addition to previous pushback around poor location and planning seemingly catering to non-residents more than anyone else there was significant pushback against destruction of quality of life. As it turns out there remain Dunwoody residents who purchased a home for peace and quiet, to live in privacy, perhaps even cloistered. And yes, that means these communities, often with HOAs are likely to have barriers in place including walls, fences and private ownership of neighborhood roads. The Shining PATH and their mayor (ostensibly our mayor) doesn't really give two shits about that. They intend to open up these neighborhoods, tear down the barriers and destroy the privacy these neighbors hold dear. 

The usual suspects have also shown up in support, notably the Bike Brigade. First they got their bike lanes whenever, wherever pavement was re-striped and now they are all in on the plan to add just under 4.4 Million square feet of impervious surface to "Tree City," some of which will likely intrude on stream buffers. But when you are monomaniacal like the Brigade and the mayor, well, nothing else really matters, does it? 

Makes you wonder what happened to the not-so-distant era of Going Green, since concrete is one of the most environmentally unfriendly synthetic materials in the world, whose manufacture alone is responsible for 5% of global CO2 emissions. This doesn't account for the trees and other vegetation destroyed for the installation of a series of interstate-highway-scale lanes. It will destroy not only trees in the way, but those beside with suffer and many die due to inevitable root damage. Apparently there is even less concern about runoff and the harm that will cause to the local ecology. 

And when did Shining PATH take ownership of Dunwoody? Really. Who died and made them Local Control? What little pushback there was came from King John and was dismissed by the Shining PATH Planning Priest as inappropriate and requiring too much specificity. Apparently in their view a "Master Plan" is little more that a commitment, a contract if you will, with little specificity beyond "costs will be exceeded." Yet there was enough specificity to tell some residents their privacy was about to be obliterated. Seems like someone was blowing smoke, perhaps in the wrong person's face. Exactly what is it that King John does for a living? Who does he work for? Is it possible he is a bit of a domain expert when it comes to paving our way out of paradise? Hmmmm...do you really think it is a good idea to mansplain to to him?

In reality this "path" thing is just a stepping stone to a greater destruction of Dunwoody, at least the Dunwoody that attracted most residents in the first place. The ultimate goal is to add as much ultra-high-density housing to Dunwoody as possible. High Street is just the beginning with plans already forming to bring Stick Frame Over Podium housing to the Village and any other cluster of shops developers set their sights on. After all, who wouldn't want to live five or six floors above E. 48th Street Market? You'd have great views of the golf course sunbathers around that backyard pool. These "paths" along with parks are a way of deflecting obvious negatives about this ultra-high-density. The developers' bureaucrats at city hall will point to these and suggest access to "paths" and parks makes up for living like a sardine. If they dare suggest this will add to the tax base you know it's too late to save the shoes as the Developers' Authority will keep these [re]developments off the tax rolls. And that Stick Frame? Well, that is planned obsolescence at its best. These will not outlast the tax handout before needing to be re-developed, with, wait for it, another tax handout. And they are hell-bent on doing this. After all, they had no problem whatsoever stealing property from a church.

A few folks, most probably more Dunwoody than you, remember going to GaTech football games in the early '80s. If so, you may remember the cheerleaders, who seemed too clueless to attend Tech, had this bizarre cheer that somehow involved bananas. They trotted this out for a couple of games in a row, much to the crowd's displeasure. Booing and razzing did not seem to get the point across so at the next home game students smuggled in bananas and when the cheer started those cheerleaders were pelted with enough fruit to feed a troop of chimpanzees for a month. And the student section was never subjected to that odious, totally forgettable cheer ever again. Maybe it is time, metaphorically speaking, for residents to  ask our elected officials "how much they like them bananas?"

Dragging Them Aboard

Just when you start daydreaming about the upcoming Blue Angels airshow and even consider knocking back a cold Bud Light (just kidding) you get hit with this: the US Navy is using an enlisted yeoman drag queen to attract recruits. Has no one in the military or any part of the Biden administration been paying attention. Have they not noticed what the Mulvaney cockup has done to Aneheuser Busch? Do they really think this will help recruitment? Make youngsters think: I wanna go SWO 'cuz I like me a good drag show? Really? 

It ain't woke but it might be a good idea to remind folks that Navy's job-one is to defend this country through military might, not pander to whimsical fantasies held by emotional and intellectual windsocks who will sacrifice nothing for anything or anyone and will serve only themselves. 

Keeping Secrets

Or not. In this case, the shenanigans of a closed, "executive" session of the DeKalb BOE was exposed by one of the board members in attendance.  This apparently broke no laws and isn't an ethics violation but instead is a breach Board rules. It should come as no surprise that the breach comes from one of the most outlandishly outspoken members who gives Trump a run for his money when it comes to open-loop rhetoric, disdain for facts and a very flexible relationship with recent history. That she continues to be re-elected should scare the living daylights out of the anti-Trump crowd. How does this happen?

The board's disciplinary options rise [almost] to the level of nanny-nanny-boo-boo with the most interesting option the imposition of a formal, public apology from the now named and shamed violator. This should greatly expand the wealth of "apology that isn't an apology" that we have been getting from politicians for the last several decade. Cannot wait to watch the toothless board gum their way through that.