New Dwarfs In Town

Does that mean we'll get some law and order? Will there ever be any consideration for the people who live here?

 

Not likely. Why? Because this happens ALL THE TIME and nary a dwarf has lifted a finger to help.

Fish Mongers

Imagine you're the fish. First you were lured to the bait. You took the bait and when hooked may have fought the good fight but were brought to net. Now you're on the table, gasping, struggling for life. Standing over you is the fish monger who you can only glimpse out of that one, upward looking eye as the other is blinded by the table. The monger stands there with the glinting knife, a fiendish smile on his face. You barely feel the blade slip in, slide down. Pain overwhelms you as your guts are ripped from your body. The peace of death comes as your muscles and nerves slowly expire. 

Now imagine not a fish, but the village overlay. And the gutting monger? That would be the mayor and council who are poised this very day to fully gut the sign ordinances of the Dunwoody Village Overlay in order to feed your flesh to their business family. That is what they really mean when they say they're here to serve you.

Some of you will simply disengage saying this doesn't affect you because you don't live near the village. But think about this: these people are voracious and there are more fish on the monger's table. They're smiling, their knives are glinting and your guts may be the next to spill.

Doing Time

George Carlin liked to point out there are still some guys in hell doing time on a meat rap. The moral logic underpinning this odd reality is that at the time the offenders did the crime it was indeed a crime. That it is now no longer a crime does not absolve them of deliberately doing what they knew to be wrong. We have something similar with city hall politics though it is neither moral nor justifiable. 

At issue is visual pollution in Dunwoody Village. City bureaucrats and some on council are for expanding unsightly signage and are no longer content with on-the-QT support and negligence in enforcement. They now intend to allow by ordinance the promotion of their previously clandestine Uglify Dunwoody campaign. This was announced in a public notice in this week's Blue Bag Rag, the city's official organ, as an addition to the previous notice a week prior. Reports indicate that on Monday the mayor sent a resident a terse message indicating that a matter of egregious sign violations would be addressed that day. Perhaps Mayor Tardy was referring to this notice and the actions sure to be taken at the upcoming meeting on 10 August. 

Of course if you go to the City website to get the specifics of the text changes presumably allowing all manner of visual clutter you will come up empty:

Could They Be More Opaque?

Not a single link, not even to the items in the public notice a week prior. Let the open records requests begin and rumor has it they have. Rumor further has it that these requests are for communication between city bureaucrats and elected officials. Good, but not good enough. Yes, citizens do need to know which elected officials are behind the Uglify Dunwoody campaign if only to cast a more informed vote. 

Citizens also need to know, and deserve to be told, specifically which bureaucrats and businesses are involved in these community defacing activities. To know who made first contact. Know where contact was made, what records have been made and what actions were taken to avoid discoverable records. Citizens deserve to know who, and there may be more than one, is championing this through the process. To know who is responsible for drafting these changes, to know who has input and who approves the drafts. Citizens deserve transparency around the actions of the economic development group within the city which acts as little more than an unconstrained internal chamber of commerce free from any community consideration or oversight. After all, they can run a poll asking for community input on arts, why not do the same for their negative arts, their visual pollution? Is it because they really do not give a hairy rodent's rectum what you think when the businesses tell them to do something? 

Rest assured, this mayor and this council will pass the changes provided by their bureaucrats to align the ordinance with their deliberate acts and their passive-aggressive inactions. Nonetheless this will not, this cannot absolve bad actors of their prior bad acts for which they must still be held accountable. 

Too Bee Mayor

We are on the verge of installing a queen bee down at the city hive. She was the thought leader on the compulsory installation of yellow jacket nests at local drive through windows. It was never clear if the motive were to effectively banish drive through windows, favor new development over established or just plain meanness.

But we're already treated to even more silliness. In shilling for the proposed development in the front lawn and lake of the former Wang building our Mayorette Too Bee posited that there would be no traffic impact because "travelers don't drive, they use [...] Uber." And what do Uber drivers drive? Well in a world clouded by the influence of developers that must be magic carpets. It is also worth noting her assertion that this would generate few NEW trips to the area. Why? Because in her world these developments, including restaurants and a 70,000 sq. ft. fitness facility would serve these MARTA addicted "travelers" and those already slogging there way through our neighborhoods. Should the developers indicate it is their wish, perhaps she'll ban mere residents from entering, blocking the way with their armored personnel carrier and the time-share SWAT command[o] center.

Why?

Pave Paradise & Put In A Parking Lot

Why did council vote to approve this? Because the developers told them to.