Maybe It's Cold Outside

Nice Sweater

Blinded By The Night

What is it with Dunwoody [City Hall] and lights? First it was advocacy against light pollution. A noble effort, so we knew that wouldn't last long. Then came the LEDs. At the city's behest Ga Power replaced traditional sodium vapor lights, which are long lived and reliable, with LED lights that go into a flashing mode, screaming "replace me now" after a few years. The LEDs are not cheaper since replacement of perfectly good equipment allows Ga Power to recover the value of working street lights. What's better is that all this was known beforehand. Then came the village parkway. Those lights have always been flaky, randomly going on and off. The only time these lights operate correctly is during the day. Oh, and they were selected by the city. 

Now we have odd pairings of a pole light and an overhead light at intersections. Some work, some don't. 

Hardly Ever Works

This is looking south on CD at the Knoll and the city-mandated overhead street light is further up CD on the same side. The illumination on CD itself is from pre-existing street lights on the west side of CD. This has always been a well lit area, not like, say, the east side of Roberts between Wintercreek and Austin where there are no lights on either side of Roberts, and arguably there should not be.

Some have conjectured that this light doesn't operate because the pre-existing lights, combined with the paired sister light, is so bright that the pole light is overwhelmed, confused, unable to distinguish night from day. Seems like someone well versed in this technology would have known this could happen. So, what out of touch bureaucrat issued the dictate to install this waste of money at this already well lit intersection? What was their motivation? Have they ever actually seen this intersection? Day or night? 

Git Mo'

One of the gunmen in Atlanta's former mayor's "autonomous zone" has been convicted of killing a young girl. During sentencing there were statements made by interested parities, including the  mother of the recently convicted.

Followed by:

Seriously? Do they allow conjugal visits at Gitmo?

Not to worry, he got quite the sentence, and thankfully that child will grow up without his guidance.

Victory Lap

One of the folks who circulated an online petition against the monstrous apartment complex proposed for the Life South property, a proposal endorsed by city bureaucrats, has done a victory lap. 

Just what was the victory?

To hear them tell it, that would be the rejection of the oft-modified proposal. That's it.

No strategic changes by folks who should care, and DHA should, but probably isn't amongst them. Nothing that takes note of the "ask for the stars to get the moon" approach often adopted by these developers. Nothing to address the fact that the city's Confederacy of Dunces who promoted and recommended approval of this fuster cluck had no elected official representing the electorate. 

Maybe these committees, or whatever the hell they are, should have at least one citizen representative from each district in the city. None of these citizens should serve in any other capacity in the city or the city adjacents: the large number of authorities, councils, committees... whatever they've thrown up as a "we didn't do it, they did" CYA. It should have at least one elected official from council or a first term mayor. In other words someone accountable at the ballot box. Otherwise we'll continue with what we have, a sham rubber-stamping whatever it is these unelected bureaucrats want, and they want what outsiders have told them to want. And maybe it is time for a Citizens Oversight Group to ride herd on this goat rodeo. 

Until meaningful, enforceable changes are made, there has been no victory.

It Really Is A Scam

It always starts like this:

But this time, it is a bit brazen. Turns out we have the workers, but we're not cheap enough. Look, everyone who's ever worked alongside H1B employees know that the only thing making them "special" is the price. Usually, no one will say that out loud. Now someone has.

What if they're not legit H1B's? Turns out, that just might be the case.

They weren't just filtering liability through "contracting companies," they were knowingly crossing the line, abusing our laws. At least we now have a media report on the Hyundai fuster cluck that actually points out that immigration law was violated. Maybe that is why there was a raid.

Wonder What's Next

You may have noticed something missing in daVille. That's right, that big, majestic tree in front of Dentistry With A Difference has been cut down. 

Why?

Well, someone with the city went on social media explaining it was coming down because it was: a) afflicted with mistletoe; and b) had been determined to be rotted. We were also informed that mistletoe is a parasite, and when someone from this city declares something else a parasite, well, you gotta laugh. Is this the pot calling the kettle black or what?

Let's look at some of that rot.

There it is with some limbs amputated, and zooming in on the nubs we see this.

See any rot? Didn't think so. Mayhap the rot was at the trunk, which would seriously increase the odds of a tragic collapse. But is it?

Does that look rotted? Hollowed out to the very core? Were we lied to? Will we ever find out the real reason this tree had to come down? Do you really have to ask?

We know what's next: the similar landmark tree in from of Novo Cucina. It's gotta go. We will be told that it has mistletoe, which it does, and has for decades. We will not be told that this can be dealt with.

The city wants these trees down and they don't want you to know why. Wonder if any of the candidates know.

Is It Part Of The Plan?

The AJC, well Torpy, dropped a nugget in a recent piece on burglary in Atlanta and the drop in rates. Being an actual journalist he checked in with some law enforcement experts with one offering a possible explanation for the drop in burglary rates. 

So, what would you do if you wanted to build a honeypot for these pivoted, lazy burglars? Well, you might entice a bunch of developers to build massive apartment complexes, with equally massive parking decks. Then the "bad guys" have a bumper crop of cars, all packed in at one place, for their smash and grabs. 

Was this part of city hall's plan all along?