City vs Developer

An interesting turn in the Buckhead breakaway movement are the naysayers highlighting the financial damage done to the city, Atlanta, left behind. To amp up the rhetoric they point out the millions of tax dollars this will siphon away from the Atlanta Public Schools.

Somehow none of these folks were very concerned when their developers' authorities did exactly the same thing.

Comic Sans

Guv Gunshow's latest order permits local yokels to issue their very own mask orders with some restrictions. Mayor Delay and her buddies wasted no time issuing an order all the while doing their dead level best to bypass any restriction from a higher authority. 

The Guv's restriction goes a bit like this:

The Local Option Face Covering Requirement may be enforced on individuals on private property where the owner or occupant of the property consents to enforcement.

Sounds like owner/occupants must "opt-in" doesn't it? 

But if you read Mayor Delay's edict it sounds much more like an "opt-out" scenario:

Every entity subject to this Ordinance which does not consent to enforcement of this Ordinance upon its property shall post a clearly legible sign in one inch Arial font at all public entrances of such entity stating the following: "This location does not consent to enforcement of any local face covering requirement upon this property."

A presumption of opt-in is not an actual opt-in. Unless you're Mayor Delay.

Does any of this matter? Really? 

Probably not. First we're talking about a city that has openly stated it employs an "enforce on complaint" policy, though a sitting member of council dodged the issue on social media. Then there is the fact that this city is notorious for completely ignoring, even violating its own ordinances and mostly just looks the other way when any ordinance is violated by businesses or the public. 

So is this just "virtue signalling" from the least virtuous among us?

No. It is far worse than that.

This transcends the usual hypocrisy spewing from city hall taking deception to a level that sets a new low. Quite an accomplishment for this city. 

Consider this possible scenario: Publix "opts-in" and the city sends their Mask Storm Troopers to lay down the law, but they arrive late because they're stuck behind a Publix semi that is tooling through the No Truck zone. Which ordinance do you think this city will enforce?

If this mayor and this city were trying to destroy any remaining positive regard in this community, what would they do differently?

Honky Tanked

A women's rally slated for the 19th of this month in Humbolt, California has been cancelled. Why? because the rally was deemed too white. It isn't clear what their reference is as the Census Bureau indicates that Humbolt is 74% non-hispanic white. Otherwise known as "lily white." So the rally organizers have chosen to mute vox populi not because the message is unpopular but because the messenger is. And just what is that messenger's sin? Race.

It's Not YOUR House

No, no, this isn't about the fact that the bank holds the title. While you certainly feel the pain of "renting from the bank" with every mortgage payment the title doesn't identify the real owner. Government is the real owner. Taxes are a mortgage you cannot pay off; a rent you must pay and if you don't they'll come take the home and kick you out. Thinking about resisting? You'll stay in government housing, but this time it will be prison and you will be marched there at the point of a gun by an increasingly military police.

And that is just the money. Those running our over-arching permission society will tell you what you can and cannot do with their property, literally the roof over your head. From our local overlords' Permits on roofing:

What does this do to protect the public and from what devastating tragedy? What public good does this serve? What is it about a metal drip edge that protects you from your neighbor should they neglect to purchase these or worse yet simply rely on the existing wood molding serving the same purpose? Is this part of the City's war on wood?

But let's put this in context. This is a city that refuses to enforce quality of life ordinances they themselves have passed. It is a city that refuses to enforce safety laws regarding speeding in school zones and semi-tractor-trailer trucks in residential areas. Laws they crafted. Laws they passed. Just like the drip edge requirement.

And this is also the city that refused to even inspect let alone apply their Certificate of Occupancy regulations for semi-permanent trailers at local schools. Schools within the city limits and subject to city codes and ordinances. This is the city that cares more about a drip edge around your roof than it does about your children who live under it. 

AJC ePaper eFail

eFail as in "Epic Fail." Their "ePaper" is the so-called "online version" of the paper and it is undeniably crap. The main problem is that it looks more like Illya Kuryakin used his mini-spy-cam to photograph pages to put online that it does an actual 21st century online presentation of content. But pictures remain worth thousands of words.

Typical Front Page - Just Like The Print Edition

Let's look into that article the editors think warrant front page coverage. Still looks like the photocopy that it really is.

A16? Really? Not Even A Hyperlink?!!?

Yes. Continued on A16. Annoying in newsprint, especially when chopped in mid-sentence. Surely this wouldn't happen in the article view. But let's take note of where the article is hacked. Just in case.

What You Get When You Click On The Article

Scrolling down to the bottom of the article, this is what'll you'll see.

Hacked In EXACTLY The Same Location

That's right! You get to know which article you're looking at--sorta, because as it turns out the remainder of THIS article is actually listed as a separate article. From a reader's point of view it may as well be. But good luck finding it because there is not a hyper-link to the continuation. From the so-called article view you can go to the next/previous "article" or you can exit to the as-printed view and navigate to the faux-printed page containing the rest of the article and then...well, you get the idea. It sucks.

Maybe there is a work-around. What if you try printing the article. Surely that would print the entire article and not just a hacked up piece. Maybe print-preview is a way to read an article.

Printing Is Also The Hacked-To-Pieces Article

No such luck. Perhaps the iOS version sucks much less. Not really. Similar presentation, but even with the latest version of the app (29 May 18) it repeatedly crashes.

Now let's keep in mind that these articles are not written in two-part disharmony. The good folks running the AJC actually do this. Why? Because the luddites running the show only understand newsprint and that's the way it has always been done. What you see when you look at the AJC ePaper is them giving the finger to the entire Information Age.

And there are a couple of things that make this particularly annoying. Not only are you assaulted by the ads in the faux-print, you actually pay real dollars, every month for the displeasure. Then there is the hypocrisy. This is the "news" outlet that blasted the Kasim Reed machine for intentionally putting roadblocks between public information and the AJC--self-appointed representatives of "the public."  If you are actually trying to read this ePaper, how is the AJC really any different?

Playing The Price Is Right

What is a property worth? How about your house? Is it worth what you paid? More? Less? Suppose you found someone who'd pay three times what you paid only two years ago, would you sell? Would you feel the least little bit bad about taking advantage of a fool?

Probably not. Not if you have "Dunwoody Values." Especially when those values mean you overpay for an asset and then in an effort to appear thrifty you deliberately under-deliver on commitments to tenants in order to drive them out without promised compensation.

But what is this bad boy we want to call City Hall really worth? Hard to tell, but there is always the sales history.

While it is hard to use this track record to justify the money that Staff, Council and Mayor are getting all wet over spending, the "over-pay" assertion is based on a notion of "arms length purchase" that doesn't exist. Businesses, the owners and renters of commercial property, operate in a community bordering on incestuous. Chambers of commerce and industry organizations are the most obvious public facing entities but for every one of these there are ten less formal but no less potent "networking" associations. Commercial real estate transactions take place at the benefit of both parties and may be structured in such a way that the full value to each party is not reflected in the recorded sale price.

The County has, as it must for tax purposes, its own opinion.

Today's opinion is around $5.2 million, a year-over-year increase of thirty percent over last year's $4.0 million. This might explain why the co-owners are appealing the assessment.

On the afternoon of September 16 the Board of Equalization is THE place to be. It would be very interesting to play back a recording of the owners' argument that $5 million is too high during the meetings with Dunwoody where they argue that over $8 million is a real bargain. Should the City persist in their argument that the County valuation is low by sixty percent what do the City have to say about other properties in the area? How about yours? Is our entire property digest low by fifty percent or more? Who are these fools trying to fool?

We can be certain of one thing: the City of Dunwoody is paying an outrageous premium for this property. What we do not know is who, on the buying side of this deal, is making out like a bandit.

Our only consolation is that the City cannot claim that enormous tax giveaways are necessary to encourage development in the Perimeter area while at the same time justifying overpaying for this property because real estate is booming in the area. 

It Is Called Discrimination

Discrimination is using the brain god gave you to discern the best option or action to take. In and of itself discrimination is not inherently bad. But when used, particularly by governments, to control or even just influence what folks can do or where they can live based on colour, culture, ethnicity or even socio-economic status there is an evil taint.

But that is exactly the kind of discrimination underpinning the "these apartments are good, but those, back then were bad."

To really grok this you must remember Dunwoody's first assault on undesirables hoped to use a Parks Bond Referendum to capitalize our own little Pogrom. This forced expulsion was rationalized as a way to improve our schools and therein lies the big clue. So what about these most-favoured apartments? How can they possibly be better than the ones the City so wanted to bulldoze? How are they even different?

Turns out the problem is not with apartments per se, but with the specific kind of folks that live therein. In both cases they're immigrants. But over by PIB they're hispanic, poor, with more than few suspected to be undocumented. Down Ashford Dunwoody, they're asian, mostly Indian (dot not feather), sporting H1B visas and IT jobs with more than decent salaries. And they speak english--kinda.

More importantly the PCID apartment dwellers are educated and fully intend that their children will not just succeed in school--they will excel. These apartment dwellers are all right by us not least because their children, who primarily attend Austin and Dunwoody Elementary are part of the reason that each of these schools ranked above the much ballyhooed Vanderlyn on the most recent CCPRI rankings. Austin even ranked well against special charter and magnet schools.

In short, it is simple discrimination and socio-economic segregation that determines whether an apartment is good or bad. 

Forced Pregnancy

The zygote known as Cliffside is not only the product of compulsory copulation but now has gone just a bit too incestuous for comfort. But let us set aside talk of the hillbilly soap opera for now and focus on the more important and terribly inconvenient fact exposed by this knee-shaker.

This city cannot pay its own way.

The wrangling over Northlake Mall and the surrounding businesses demonstrates very clearly that the citizens of this proposed City of Cliffside cannot or will not pay for their precious little city and its promise of "local control." This is neither new nor surprising. But because the fight over the authority to redistribute business wealth to resident/voters is between two prospective cities and is not city vs county the issue is naked, stark and in plain view.

Cities are parasites pure and simple. They take money from businesses to support the political power structures housed in their city halls and if you are unconvinced spend a few moments and ponder the newly formed partnership between Brookhaven and the Pink Pony. The folks behind citihood stampedes have always known this but this time around we have two cities, Cliffside and Tucker, conjoined at Northlake and any attempt to separate the two will result in the death of at least one.

The real problem is this situation exposes the lies underpinning the successful citihood movements. How can it be that this economic engine is absolutely necessary for city viability yet at the same time taking it away from the county has no negative impact? That was the gist of the argument around Perimeter Center when Dunwoody was formed. It begs the question: if the county can do just fine after all the business centers are gobbled up into cities then why can't the cities do just fine without gobbling up these centers in the first place? The lie is exposed and the liars are exposed as liars of the most odious sort.

Where power grab and prevarication intersect it is not uncommon to find hypocrisy. Such is the case here. Though "local control" is the banner they rally around the real force behind citihood is money. In DeKalb's denser, richer northern areas the prevalent perception is "we send all our money south and  don't get anything in return" which can be viewed as selfishness or a reluctance to contribute to the greater good but is nonetheless used to fan the flames of anger and rebellion. Effectively.

Then they turn around and do exactly the same thing to businesses that they have just successfully accused the county of doing to them. Take their money, spend it elsewhere while giving them no effective representation when spending decisions are made. To bring it closer to home, how, EXACTLY, does the Cheesecake Factory benefit from road paving in a cloistered subdivision like Redfield? Yet that is what they and many other businesses in Perimeter Center are paying for.

And there are racial overtones. After all this is DeKalb and in DeKalb "North" is code for "white" and "South" means "black." And we cannot pass this off on the ignorant inbred racism of Southern Whites as many of those in the north are also Northern Transplants and where they come from liberalism flourishes because it is not challenged. Ironically, even with self-segregation it takes only a few short years before they are ready to trade in their membership in the Knights of Columbus for a chance at becoming Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan. So while it is politically incorrect (and ineffective) for these folks to openly discuss their views on race it is interesting to observe they carry a racism that is more raw and closer to the surface than anyone who lays claim to being Southern by the Grace of God.

It is not that forming these cities will not hurt anyone, it just won't hurt anyone these folks care about.

Fly, Delta

If you ever get the chance to go to Dallas
Take it from me pass it by
'Cause you'll only sing the blues down in Dallas
Take it from me don't go and cry

"Dallas", Roger Bartlett, 1974

Being a corporate entity we all know that morals do not apply to any actions taken by Delta. This has been no more evident than with their recent pissin' and moanin' regarding events around an airport near Dallas. Not Dallas, Georgia, but Love Field near Dallas Texas. Dallas (TX) is kicking Delta out of Love Field (they will still fly in/out of DFW) and Delta has chastised Dallas, expressing disappointment "that the City of Dallas has made the decision to reduce competition and travel options...".  That warrants a big ole high flyin' WTF. How 'bout this Mister Delta: how about you apply that same logic regarding the airport over here near the other Dallas? You know, support competition and travel options by throwing your support behind commercial service at the Paulding Airport. Say what? Not going to happen? Oh, so your definition of "competition" is "we win and everyone else loses." Another mystery solved.

Later in the week the AJC reported that Delta's lawyer was whining that Dallas had decided that "available gate space should go to hometown favorite Southwest...". Would Delta like to give up some prime gate space at Hartsfield, or would they prefer to maintain their status as "hometown favorite"? Exactly.

Again, Delta is a corporate entity with no soul, no moral fiber and expecting it to behave inconsistent with that nature would be sure to disappoint. While shameless hypocrisy is consistent with that makeup the pissy attitude exposed by the juxtaposition of homonym and diametrically opposed actions breaks more than a few camels' backs.

So fly, Delta. Please. Just spool up them big ole jet engines and fly away...far...far...away.

Back Door Tax Increase

The blogosphere lit up recently with the observation that Dekalb County Schools will get a 6.54% tax increase by simply leaving their millage rate at the current 23.98 level while letting rising property values do the rest. Some folks are calling this a "Tax Increase" which it is indeed.

But wait just a minute. Isn't that EXACTLY what the City of Dunwoody is doing? It is indeed.

We should speak softly as we call another odious Dekalb kettle black as our own little pot is blackened with the smoke of hypocrisy. As it sits the Dunwoody "Tax Increase" is even more egregious than Dekalb Schools'. The schools tax the entire county and the overall property digest is only going up 6.54%. But as we know, all places are not equal. Recently released data shows that properties located in this county's cities went up 13.1% while properties in unincorporated areas rose a mere 0.9%. That's right, city properties increased almost double the county-wide average.

Now you may argue that Dunwoody properties did not rise as much because they did not fall as much during the real estate collapse but that would be a rationalization at best. And it does not change the actual fact: Dunwoody is doing EXACTLY the same as Dekalb Schools--raking in a back door tax increase.

Get used to it.

Sotto Voce