Stupid's Back

If you stroll the Knoll you have probably noticed a new addition to the Chamblee-Dunwoody intersection that cropped up overnight like some kind of mushrooms. Yep. Two new, pretty much unnecessary sources of light pollution. Remember when the city gave a hairy rodent's rectum about light pollution? Of course you do. But look, it gets better.

Here They Are

Not just two, but two different types, two styles. Let's take a closer look at the shorter of the two.

Oddly Familiar

Doesn't this look like the pole lights on Dunwoody Village Parkway? It does. Well, except for one notable exception. 

This is the one they replaced and this is where things get stupid. Again. The Knoll tells us that there are indeed replacement lights that are visually consistent with all the others on DVP, at least when it isn't lit, but Stupid chose this atrocity. But wait! It gets worse. Because this is what the not-so-long-ago city mandated residential streetlight looks like.

Hard to see, but notice the similarities: open frame; straight lines. Just like the DVP atrocity. 

So here's what happened. A DVP style streetlight was installed in a residential area where all the other streetlights are of a different, conflicting style, but a replacement light on DVP is in the residential style, conflicting with what was there and all the others that remain. How stupid is that?

ZIP Plus Four

Fun fact: ZIP plus four is supposed to specify a specific street and a specific side of that street. ZIP plus six gives the specific street address but that is rarely used. Honestly should be unnecessary as ZIP plus four and just a teeny bit of reading, like the address, should get the mail to the right box. Right?

Not so fast. The envelope below should have been delivered to an address on a street just off Peeler a mile or so east of the intersection with Chamblee Dunwoody. 

Didn't See That Coming

Now where do you suppose gloomy day USPS dropped this off? All the way across town. A stones throw away from Fulton County and Big Sis Sandy. Seriously. It landed about 2.3 miles away from the ZIP plus four designation. 

Now, this looked legit and pretty important, so the unintended recipient drove it over to the proper address and dropped it off in the mailbox. And if you've signed up for "Informed Delivery" you probably already know that where your mail ends up is pretty random. How many times have you gotten the email with a picture of mail, perhaps very important mail, that never shows up? Don't you wish someone would drop by with it?

Never Send Certified Mail

Why you ask? Well, there is the distinct, non-zero probability it will never get there. Who knows why? Not the USPS. The other, perhaps more important reason is the cost. Certified mail with return receipt for a 9x12 envelope with three pages will cost almost $15. UPS ground is a little over $12.50 for the same envelope with over 30 pages. With both you will get a tracking number, and while you will not get a return receipt with UPS, you are far less likely to need it, and with USPS return receipt you have to have faith they can actually deliver. That is far from certain. There is also the issue of time. USPS delivery of regular mail between Decatur and Dunwoody can take two weeks. UPS gets it there in two days. 

So, if you think you need certified mail, reconsider. Stick with the pros. 

Guest Post: Postal...Going...Going...Gone

This is a tale of woe regarding the United States Postal Service, but not what you might expect. This is not about the new Palmetto facility that our grandstanding senators have been bleating about. This is far worse.

So look, I've been trying to close out an estate and as you may know, or soon will, filing a Final Report is a must-do. Cannot file the petition for Done&Dusted until the probate court gets that report. And likes it. Here's where it gets interesting. You can file lots of things online like death certificates, petitions and some forms. But they got no category for these reports, so whatcha gonna do, right? Now you could hand deliver but since the pandemic the probate court really likes keeping the public at bay so you need an appointment which is about two weeks out. And yes, I did call to see if they had a drop box, left a message and never got a call back. So then I decided to mail it. Good ole USPS. 

Now I didn't go to the post office 'cuz that is a special circle of hell. I went to one of those Mailboxes-R-Us, had them notarize the Report, print the mailing label for Certified Mail and paid for Return Receipt. This happened on April 2. Since I tracked it on Informed Delivery I'll show you what happened next.

It took three days, three whole days, for 30338 to scan it in. Keep in mind that April 2 was a Tuesday so they didn't scan it until Friday. What's up with that? Do they just let mail stack up and have a processing party on Fridays? But then, overnight, it makes a boomerang tour of North Georgia, going down to Palmetto and then back up to Decatur where it disappears. Ain't looking like Palmetto is the problem so maybe someone should share a clue with some clueless senators. And why were they whining about thirty something percent on-time delivery? Hell, what about the mail that ain't getting delivered at all. Like MINE.

So I wait a couple of days to see if it ever gets delivered and I check on the bank account to see if the enclosed check gets cashed and if so is it the proper amount. That's right, you gotta pay the probate court to do their job. It's kinda like cable TV, you know how you pay a monthly fee and then still have to watch commercials only here we pay taxes and then have to pay for ever little form we file. The very day after I put this in the mail, Carl the know-it-all tells me I should never send certified mail, especially to the court 'cuz everyone knows there is a check in there, and it will get stolen, and the check washed and cashed. So I'm waiting and watching until I figure it's time to chase this down. Then I call the Decatur post office and actually talk to a real person who says she'll look around for it and call me back. She does. She says it's not there and that someone from the courthouse comes and picks up their mail. Questions leap to mind. I asked if this means their mail doesn't get scanned as delivered? Says it should have been. Then I point out this is Certified Return Receipt and does this mean the person who picked it up didn't sign and post the receipt? Silence. Then she says she will look for it again and call me back. She doesn't. 

'Bout now I'm getting pissed. The angry kind. The wine kind comes later. I'm too old to run for the Senate and too young for the White House, but I gotta do something. After a few more days of watching, I put a payment hold on the check, for which my bank charges $23, just to make sure a lost check doesn't turn up putting money in someone else's account. But I still check in with Informed Delivery just in case the probate court finally gets the mail and gets a bum check. That is until the package disappears from Informed Delivery. So I go to USPS tracking, enter the number and click on "add to informed delivery" figuring somehow Informed Delivery had sudden amnesia. Nope. Got this:

That's right. I cannot use Informed Delivery to track a package that they have not even delivered yet. The last reported status was "Awaiting Delivery" and they have the nerve to say it's now expired and they ain't gonna say anything more about that package. It went postal and now it's just gone.

Talk To The Hand...

...the bureaucrats are busy.

A resident of Dunwoody has been trying to get the city to stop ignoring his requests for discussion. Topic? Stormwater issues. The matter at hand seems pretty straightforward and involves a drainage basin in need of an outlet and frankly the ownership of the basin itself should not result in the city ignoring a resident. And by city we mean the city manager, the mayor and a councilman. 

However, if you want to openly violate the sign ordinance with your inflate-a-dino this city will not only listen, they'll give you the key to the city and rewrite the code to suit your (currently in vogue) style of ticky-tacky. Does anyone we've elected not see what's wrong with this picture?

Looks Like A Duck

Must be a duck.

Park in a driveway, drive on a parkway

Apparently when you pave a lane of interstate beside an existing road and stripe it just like a road folks begin using it like a road. And why not? Doesn't multipurpose include motor vehicles?  

Sauron

Having gotten the new School Superintendent to cave, the self-proclaimed top-cop is advocating a set of ordinances mandating cameras at hotels, apartments, gas stations, convenience stores and in designated "high-risk" areas.  

And here's a shocker: many in the public, those being increasingly and incessantly surveilled, did not really cotton to the idea. The best anyone on council could say is "this needs more work." Understatement of the century. One remarkable and incredibly accurate comment was "all this strikes me as government overreach." Overreach to enable under-delivery. And you are not alone. In fact, one commenter in the marked up doc noted: "Need consent, a warrant, or some exception to the Fourth Amendment." Dunwoody PD has previously run afoul of the US constitution to the point you wonder if the police oath includes fealty to that document. Honestly, you have to wonder if this is an effort on the part of government to get private businesses to do blanket surveillance that the government could not do [legally] without a warrant. Doesn't a mandate make this a government operation?

Then there is the abdication of public safety and community policing responsibilities to be replaced with expensive technology paid from private budgets which is not only overreach, it is unconscionable. But one also has to wonder: when the government forces public safety responsibilities on these businesses has it also transferred liability? If so, can it provide the umbrella of sovereign immunity government enjoys, or will these companies be subject to civil litigation if a crime occurs even with all these expensive surveillance systems? Are they not mandated on the premise they reduce crime?

Another council-folk pondered the policies and procedures around "high-risk" classifications. Note that this ordinance would apply to convenience stores and gas stations regardless of risk classification. Falling into the high-risk classification requires police providing service more than six times in 30 days for a specific list of serious crimes. Note that the original ask was for 3 in 30 making you wonder: why not one? There is no provision for getting off the list either by petition or a lowered crime rate. This is supposed to result in lower crime rates, right? Sorta like police patrols did in the good ole days. There is also no requirement for the PD to report on the impact all these expensive systems have on crime. Perhaps it is also worth noting that prostitution (AKA "human trafficking") is NOT listed as a serious crime lest city hall be classified as "high-risk." 

If Dino-gate has taught us anything it is that city hall is incapable of crafting even minimally acceptable ordinances. Do you remember the before times? When everyone was getting triggered and screaming "words matter?" Well, it turns out that when it comes to crafting laws and ordinances words really do matter because it is what the law actually says that will be deliberated in a court of law. Some mistakes are silly but nonetheless symptomatic of fundamental language deficiencies. For example, writing "VSS system" is kinda dumb since the second "S" in VSS IS "systems" and that is clearly stated in the definitions. Then there are actual factual issues. A requirement for 5,017,600 pixels per image is difficult to obtain from a 4MP sensor and 1440p at 16:9 resolution is 3.69 MP. Oops. What are they asking for, upscaling? The container format, MP4, is specified but the compression format is not though perhaps they think the container implies H.264 when it really doesn't. When you are writing a technical specification into law these specs need to be complete, detailed and accurate. Laws and ordinances should not be "make it up as you go along" or so says the Dino. 

And what are the mere residents to think of this city foisting safety and protection on us? Should we all be ensuring we can protect ourselves knowing the city is not there for us? Think that is unreasonable? Over the top? Well here's a thought exercise: suppose Dunwoody had its own Fire Department and operated that as well as it does code enforcement, operates the police department and crafts ordinances? Then fire trucks would only roll in the 4th of July parade, houses would burn to the ground, but we'd have it all on video.

Is Third Time The Charm?

City hall just won't let it go. After being batted down twice they are lodging another, third, appeal in an unemployment case. Here's one of the funny parts (at this point how can you NOT see the humour in this expensive goat rodeo?): the police officer at the center of this case was fired for dishonesty! Cannot make this up. This guy was fired from a police department that has a proven record (facts not in dispute) of falsifying official police records--on purpose. And keep in mind that there have been no credible outside investigations of the smarmy goings-on withing the PD, instead the top cop has "investigated" concluding there is nothing to see here. Just move along. Credibility? Veracity? Is any objective observer going to associate either with the Dunwoody powers that be?

The lawyers hired by the city for this appeal, on your dime, probably a few million of them, may be ignorant (willfully?) of the city's fear of veracity and allergy to transparency but he has stones saying: "The GDOL needs to finally right its wrongs in this case, and the Board of Review now has a third opportunity to do so." [emphasis added] Very gracious of him to offer them yet-another-chance. Wonder if this work is pro bono. Seriously, would this money be better spent on rank and file police?

The Embarrassment Never Stops

At least not when the Dunwoody PD is involved. 

A recent decision by the Georgia Department of Labor has found that the city's case against a police officer they fired just doesn't hold water. That officer is getting the unemployment that was always due though it isn't clear if the city will launch an appeal. And with their transparent-not-transparent approach to operations it is likely we'll never know exactly how much they'll [continue to] spend on protecting what is clearly a failed department. 

When will the mayor and council pull the only lever the city charter has given them?

Have They Considered DIY?

Fine. We know they are grant-grubbers. Have been since day one. And they do need to tick some boxes to grub those grants. But you have to wonder why it is city hall is spending over $166K "develop a road safety action plan." Now we know these plans, like the PATH[etic] plans aren't worth the paper they're not printed on, but for the love of god why do we have to spend this money? With the bloated city payroll you'd think they could have hired someone who could string together the blather that would pass muster and earn that grant application tick mark. Or, how about this? Why don't they use ChatGPT to "develop" action plan? In fact we could ditch PATH as well. 

It is worth noting that this is not even what a normal person would call a plan. It is a plan for actions to be taken to come up with an actual plan assuming they follow thru once the Fed's check clears. Not likely. 

When Elites Confront The Reality They Created For Others

Andrea Riccio was a shaker and mover behind "marketing" ObamaCare posing as a bit of a healthcare expert, at least from a political insider's perspective. This involved copious amounts of dis/misinformation, rampant in politics and a key ingredient of successful "marketing." One element persists to this day, unquestioned by those with a vocal opinion on the matter: the conflation of "healthcare" with  "health insurance." 

They are not the same. And now, Ms. [ed: can you say that?] Riccio realizes it due to a serious health issue with her husband. Reality struck:

"While I worked to stop efforts to 'repeal and replace' the law, I never thought I’d get a masterclass in  health coverage  or receive a letter from an insurer with limited explanation of why only half of a craniotomy was covered and half deemed cosmetic.'

It is even worse, as a Senator, who could vote up on down on the ACA, said to Vox News:

"I didn’t know that a good many health insurance plans had limits, I thought if you were insured, you were insured."

Perhaps the good Senator can be forgiven as he has Federal Government benefits so this holds true for him and he has never had to confront the issues the "little people" deal with on a daily basis. Makes it seem that he is preeminently unqualified to have anything to do with any legislation but suffer under it as everyone else does. 

Take a moment to pause and reflect. Ponder the depths of ignorance from which the ACA (and almost every other federal legislation) arises. Clearly these people swim in the Fourth Order of Ignorance, only making it to the Third Order with confronted with unavoidable circumstances forcing knowledge upon them.

Above The Noise

There have been some recent threads on social media regarding the existence of an enforceable noise ordinance in Dunwoody. The response has generally been "no," with a member of council suggesting this is difficult to enforce when the source of the noise is an automobile. Furthermore, excessive noise is left to the interpretation of the officer as in fact it is with the offended resident. A brief read of the noise ordinance indicates it is, as implied, poorly crafted.

How poorly?

Steam whistles? Really? With the example signaling quitting time like that happens in a city that is so moderne that it is undergoing "urban renewal." Where did they plagiarize this one from? It does call out "exhausts" but by neglect excludes motor vehicle exhaust specifically calling out steam engines, stationary ICEs and motorboats. Are steam engines (and whistles) that thick on the ground in Dunwoody? Who wrote this crap and when, exactly, will they be fired? With cause. 

If plagiarize you must, and that is what this city does, then why not steal from a good source? It is like this city is a cheater copying answers from the class dunce when they're sitting right beside the curve buster. And who might this curve buster be? That would be Athens Clarke County whose noise ordinance is far better. Notice how subjectivity for both the offended resident and the cop is all but eliminated. Can you measure a distance? Hope so. Can you hear the prohibited noise? Then, based on time of day and day of week this would be a violation. Cuts directly to the heart of the problem: is the noise so loud to the human ear that it constitutes a disturbance?

Another thing we might purloin: ACC has a Public Safety Civilian Oversight Board. 

Have They Ever Won?

It doesn't seem to matter whether suit is brought against the city or if the city initiates legal action it isn't clear if the city has ever won. Maybe the losses are just more prominent because of the enormous expense. Maybe they won't need a to float a bond if they quit with these wasteful endeavors. 

Their most recent loss (unless in the brief time since they've lost another court case) regards a legit business, doggy daycare, for the fact that, wait for it, dogs bark! Now this might upset local cats (but is too far from the city hosted cat house to bother the ladies) but they were in violation of no ordinance (when did the city start enforcing those?) yet still worked to placate complainers. Then the city took them to court. And lost. 

Maybe the Truth Butcher can post the city's win/loss record on the website or D-News. Interesting and entertaining.

Above The Law

In a normal place and time the last thing you would expect is police openly evading the law, in spirit and perhaps in fact. But this is Dunwoody where the ends justifies whatever means folks at city can think of. The logic, however, is convoluted:

“I think if we had to put the exact address, then we might as well stop trying to enforce human trafficking,” Grogan said. “If we started saying, ‘Okay, we made 15 arrests here at the Crowne Plaza today.’ Well, then, the Crowne Plaza could get bad publicity from that, and then say, ‘Hey, y'all, this is hurting our business. We're not gonna allow you to do this.’”

 Ponder that a bit...done? Okay, if you made 15 prostitution (they word-inflate to "human trafficking" but it IS prostitution) arrests at Crowne Plaza in one day, then that isn't a hotel, it is a brothel. And, maybe, just maybe, they, the pimps, the prostitutes and the hotel managers should be run out of town. Instead, Top Cop wants to molly coddle them. Why? In his own words because he fears if the Crowne gets upset they're "not gonna allow you to do this." What? Really? Top Cop says some hotel manager can keep his police force from enforcing the law. Wow. That is so incredible, so unbelievable that the only explanation for those words to ever float thru the air is that the speaker thinks anyone who hears it is an idiot.

Are we that stupid? Or, are we smart enough to vote in a mayor and council that will make the changes necessary to stop this madness?

Dead Cat Bounce

Since the days of the TRS-80 governments, especially public schools, have had a troubling relationship incorporating technology into anything they try to do. It isn't clear why, but to the outside, objective observer it appears they don't know what they're doing, they don't even know what they want to do. And they clearly do not know how to do it. 

And this is odd. Out in the real world technology has been used for over three decades to improve operational efficacy and offer stakeholders new features and improvements to existing services. Over that time systems have been installed, maintained, upgraded and replaced without the disastrous results we see in the DeKalb public school system. It is almost as if they are trying to fail. 

But all is not lost. One board member, leveraging the favorite technique of politicians, relativism, has hope:

“I’m looking forward to an even better report next year.”

Perhaps this member is sure it cannot get worse. Smart money would not underestimate this school system's ability to fail.

Who Was Arrested?

And when? These questions regard the double murder of Roger and Dorothy Abbott who were murdered in their home July 1, 2010. Why does anyone care about a 12+ year old crime? Because one group, Dunwoody Police, seem to have "forgotten" as this crime is not listed amongst their unsolved crimes. Does that mean they've bagged the bad guy? Or does it mean their failure is a black mark, far worse than their bungling of the Schneiderman murder investigation, that they would prefer everyone forget. Just like they have.

Go Set A Watchman

No. This is not about that book. But since we're on the topic, if ever there was proof that Truman Capote wrote To Kill a Mockingbird, it is Watchman. This actually about some interesting cameras cropping up in our community.

This one is just (barely) outside a school zone and sports a wired connection to nearby telecom service cabinet. Police departments, who insist on NOT doing their own damn job have been pressuring the school system to install, or rather contract with a for-profit firm, to install and operate traffic enforcement systems. This includes the Dunwoody Chair Force.

This invokes an interesting thought exercise to answer a pressing question: since the city refuses to enforce laws where can we, the mere citizens turn? Well, decades ago public schools charted a course away from education towards a land of expansive wrap-around services. The greater community, including Chair Forces, have not only supported this expansion they are now demanding it. Why shouldn't we? We already know that schools have a police force. Now we know they can levy fines outside the school grounds. Or they can at least contract it out. So, here's the thought: what other laws can they enforce and what other fines can they levy? How about this: maybe these cameras can be used to track illegal truck traffic through the school/no-truck zones and issue some hefty fines to egregious offenders. Like Coke, who sends multiple trucks each day into violation. Makes you want to drink Pepsi or go all Birkenstock against all manner of fuzzy brown sugar water. 

So maybe we should just agree with city hall and give up on the city ever doing their job and direct our efforts to the school system. They'll at least try. 

Everything's Better With...

...BOOZE!

Or so say the bureaucrats down at city hall. Apparently they are teeing up booze changes to let more "personal service and entertainment providers" get a special license so their patrons can be serviced and/or entertained and get a buzz on. To quote the Blue Bag Rag this would cover businesses that offer "an activity or experience while allowing patrons to drink, such as with 'Paint and Sip' and axe-throwing establishments."

Here's some thought exercises.

Does this mean that 7 Massage could offer some "happy time" in the middle? Would they source their alcohol from Moondog, just a short schlep away?

Suppose someone opened a gun club and shooting range. Would they be able to offer shots of whiskey with shots at targets? Why not? Probably as safe as axe throwing. And they could call it "Shooters" with employees that look too good to work at Hooters. Who doesn't want a smart woman holding a real warm gun?

And what about that most au naturel entertainment: dancing. With poles. Wouldn't this fit right in with city bureaucrats' vision for Dunwoody? Or will they inject some thoughtless (and probably unconstitutional) irony into the situation by making this the only type of entertainment business that cannot obtain a license? No "Dance and Drink" in daVille.

Once again city hall has proven that this is NOT a "Smart City."

There Oughta Be A Law

Maybe there is. Maybe it's a Federal Law. Maybe that's why no one at city hall is going to do a damn thing about this.

Nah...even if this city had such a law they wouldn't it enforce it. They don't enforce any of the others.

Going Postal

The USPS has a spot of a problem. Seems checks have gone missing and some have been cashed...just not by the intended recipient.  And this is a localized issue. All these checks have gone through the Dunwoody Post Office. 

One explanation, a very weak one, is that the blue bins out front had been compromised. One might argue, some do, that outside forces have pulled mail out of the bins. Problem with that is some of these missing checks were headed to local residences. These never see the inside of those blue bins. The only thing these missing checks have in common is that they spent some time inside the Post Office itself.

But rest assured the USPS is on top of things and investigations will continue until the public quits asking questions.