Buying A Divorce

You know, it starts out great. You've done all the right things; said all the right things. You're on the same page with family, career, kids and finances. But somehow, somewhere it all goes wrong. You're no longer on the same page. You're not even reading from the same book. You know where you are, but you're not exactly sure how you got there.

Until you are. 

After the initial shock, most divorcees find that one of the biggest sources of fatal conflict is money. Having it. Spending it. Saving it. And heaven forbid, borrowing it. And you did discuss this. You came to an understanding, an agreement. Inevitably this agreement is to be prudent, to spend money, yes, but to spend it wisely. And with a common understanding of what, exactly, wisely means. And this is what you do.

Until you don't.

Something happens. Usually one finds that the commitment to prudence escapes them. Maybe the neighbors got a new car and jealousy set in. Maybe deferred gratification isn't your thing. Or, just living within your own means means you won't live with the things you want, things you feel will make your life better, without any way of knowing if there is an ounce of truth to that. But you've made a commitment, a vow, and you will keep it.

Until you won't.

At first, you're sneaky. You're clever and hide your indiscretions. You may even enlist others into your deceptions, but deceive you do. 

Until you're caught. 

At this point the damage is done. The wound is mortal, the relationship is over. It just takes time, often too much time, for both to acknowledge it. To bury the remains of a relationship that upon reflection was dead when it started, when one, or both, said they would do something that goes against their nature. Things that deep down, you knew you could not, you would not, do. 

And you didn't.

So this is where we are. It started with promises of financial restraint. Taking care of our needs and watching out for our greeds. To establish clear priorities, to not deviate, remaining undistracted by outside influences. To remain immune to envy, to jealousy. All the promises you made, so many years ago, you've broken. You've used outside money, one-time funds, to incur ongoing, recurring liabilities with no clue how you're going to pay the bills when the windfall runs out. Do you just pray for another windfall? Certainly you will deceive, you will lie. 

And you have. 

We discover, in the Blue Bag Rag, that "staff have been instructed to not use terms like 'reserves' and 'structural deficit'" in a clear effort to deceive the public. This comes as no surprise from someone who has condoned falsifying police reports, but this deception breaks a fundamental trust. A promise made at the beginning of the relationship. Because of your infidelity, and your constant deceptions, you have created an untenable situation. You have killed what could have been an enduring relationship, perhaps intentionally, certainly without a care. It is time to revisit the charter, not to amend the contents, but to tear it up. You have already destroyed all it ever represented. You're asking for a divorce.

And that's what you deserve.

Why Make Things So Difficult?

What, you ask, is so difficult? Well, that would be apologizing, and this city has well over a million reasons to apologize. And really, how can you NOT apologize. You ran an organization with systemic sexual harassment and to make up for it you not only spend millions of dollars to lose court cases, you allow the person who was supposed to keep this from happening to run his own investigation. Of himself. This would be laughable if it were some banana republic, but it isn't. To make matters worse, neither of the top dogs, the city managers, did anything other that fight against what is right, because they seemingly think "wrong" looks so much better. And for them, appearances are everything. 

Wouldn't it have been easier to acknowledge that a superior officer demanding porno pics from subordinates is unacceptable and will not be tolerated? Hard stop. Then you apologize to those victims in the police department, to the whistle blowers you punished, and to the citizens who expect better. You do this by explaining exactly, in precise detail, what went wrong, who failed in diligence and action, and what measures you have taken and will continue to take to ensure this never happens again.

Instead, you've pissed away OUR money defending a predator and fighting whistleblower complaints. You look like idiots and are an embarrassment to the community. And this goes not only for the unelected bureaucrats running this shitshow, but for the elected mayor and council who sit idly by, or worse yet rise up in support of this atrocious display of moral rot. When this first came to light, the mayor and council should have insisted on an independent, outside investigation and if the city manager refused he should have been fired for insubordination. Once the truth, which is now seeing the light of day, was revealed, mayor and council should have called for the firing of the police chief, and again, failure of the city manager to act would be fireable insubordination. 

It is time for the mayor and council to show some integrity, and character worthy of the citizens they claim to represent. It is time for them to grow a spine. If they cannot, or will not, then they should resign. 

Timing Is Everything

Maybe timing isn't everything but in most cases it is very important and sometimes sooner is not better than later. This is especially true in politics and associated "messaging." Recently the Blue Bag Bag had the weekly, rather droll, report on discussions between city bureaucrats and elected officials around the structural deficit, devalued commercial properties cutting revenue whilst avoiding mention of the shift of burden to residential properties, diminishing pandemic slush funds, expectations of SPLOST funds and the desperate need for bond money for unspecified parks projects allowing rebudgeting to support more than just playtime. The SPLOST and bond are coming up for a referendum vote and this is where it got sticky. 

The BBR article drops this nugget: 

"If costs continue to outpace revenue, the city won't be able to afford expanding local government to their liking."

You know what? You might have better supported the "unlimited growth agenda" had you waited until after the upcoming elections to lay this out there.

Still, lots to unpack, most importantly who does "their" refer to and just what is their "liking?" Are we talking about just the unelected bureaucrats who thrive on spending other peoples' money or have we elected folks who have forgotten, or never knew, that Dunwoody was founded on commitments to fiscal prudence and spending restraint. What flipped in the city's DNA that switched on this cancerous growth seemingly limited only by restriction of revenue? Is there any way to cure this cancer without killing the host or has this city run its course? If the latter it is time to call on hospice, starve the cancer and wind this thing down. Vote accordingly.

 

Man Plans. The Gods Laugh.

Or perhaps the city plans. The citizens laugh. Or so it seems from the front page article in the Blue Bag Rag (print edition only, hmmm). Seems like the city had a plan obtained at cost from the PATH Foundation, or simply foisted on us by PATH and as it so happens significant, vocal residents really do not like this plan. 

So guess what: they're probably going to change "the plan," calling into question not just this plan, or this part of it but all other parts and the process thru which these "plans" originate. Plan thrown out there? Check. Perfunctory "public info/input sessions?" Check. Rubber stamp by council? Check. Total train wreck? Double check. 

The real problem is not with the Peeler Road section of this interstate lane, it is with the process of turning over planning for things in the city to agenda-fueled special interest groups. PATH doesn't give a hairy rodent's rectum about the folks who live in Dunwoody. They only care about paving. Anywhere and everywhere. 

Maybe the only path we should pave is the one that takes the PATH Foundation the hell out of Dunwoody.

Transparency: A Word They Like To Use

You hear it all the time. "We're committed to transparency." Our current lesson in transparent-not-transparent revolves around the officer who has been placed on administrative leave because he divulged to media a situation that is, perforce, a matter of public record. Of the "police blotter" kind (it is worth noting that none of local rags with a police blotter have mentioned Parsons' DUI in that format). Sounds a lot like the bloke on leave was simply being "transparent." 

But that is not what this city actually wants nor is what they're committed to. The police chief released a statement that it would be "inappropriate" for him to comment on an active investigation. For what it is worth that investigation is by an outside authority, sadly not a higher authority like the GBI. This "we have nothing to say" statement was followed up by Truth Botcher claiming the city will continue to be transparent in future incidents. Just not this one.

Schoolhouse Brats

Parents know how enervating it can be to stay on top of children's propensity to misbehavior. Sometimes you're just too drained to intervene. But this leads to the same end as encouraging the bad behavior and at that point the only option is the nuclear option. Drastic, even harsh, action is required.

And so it is with public schools. The edu-industry has been running feral for some time, quite a while longer than the general population knew. They've been feeling their oats, pushing indoctrination while abandoning and weaponizing semantic machinations in their own defense. Parents have had enough.

Parents may be patsies but they're not (all) stupid. They know their school boards are ineffective at best, sometimes harmful other times even worse. When they're on their good behavior they are restricted to approving contracts that bureaucrats set before them, hiring a superintendent with a contract the board did not write and setting policy, whatever that is. And it just so happens these three are insufficient to discipline our out-of-control public education systems. 

Previously Quiet Moms have found a good stick to beat the lovely lady: money. By way of elected official who wield real power, manifest in money flowing from the state coffers to public school bureaucrats, parents have found a way to demonstrate to these wayward brats who is actually in charge. In charge of their children's education, in charge of their moral upbringing and in charge of the schoolhouse. The edu-industry hates this and "open" letters signed by superintendents have ensued. They are right to be alarmed as this is an existential threat. And a very real one. Might be time for them to behave and for many of them to begone.

PSA: All The Waze

It has become all too apparent that some of the bureaucrats at city hall are very, very easily offended by what does, and always has, makes Dunwoody special: it is a SUBURBAN oasis. This is particularly frightening (the offended bureaucrats, not suburbia) because some of these bureaucrats, specifically those hell bent on selling Dunwoody to the highest bidder, live in their very own suburban havens.

That's right. These vandals cruise into Dunwoody from their little slice of suburban heaven, feigning to be offended by OUR suburbia and committing themselves to using our money to destroy our lifestyle. The very lifestyle we moved here to enjoy.

They have set their sights on Dunwoody Village which apparently has greatly offended them as they drive through from their suburbia to mine Dunwoody gold. A possible solution is to deny these bureaucrats travel through the village, perhaps issuing permits based on IQ. If you're not smart enough for the smart city, maybe you shouldn't be spending any time in the Smart City Village. And that's OK, because there are many ways for these bureaucrats to get from their suburbia to their office. They can come down 400 to Hammond and drive right by that other train wreck they're continually hawking: High Street-the confluence of commerce, greed and overcrowding. Or, if 400 isn't your speed, try Alpharetta Highway/Roswell Road and cut across at Mount Vernon. For real fun you can take Peachtree Dunwoody to enjoy the Gulag apartments at PD and Hammond that are just like the crap you want to plop down in Dunwoody Village. 

If more of these destructive bureaucrats lived in Gwinnett and drove through the North Dunwoody area maybe we'd see a few long in the tooth dwarfs re-discovering what folks thought they were getting when they voted for this city.

Only In Lilburn

Some Lilburn ex-officials have been indicted for various malfeasance related to development and associated business transactions.  Even worse, one of the indicted was allowed to resign. But even though structural similarities exist all daVillians can rest well in the certainty that really bad things only happen in Lilburn. 

Yes, early on we sailed into troubled ethical waters with counsel at the helm. But we're OK because really bad things only happen in Lilburn.

Yes, there was the pipe farm and the "Save Wieland" mandate at city hall, but we're OK because really bad things only happen in Lilburn.

And there are the recurring civil liberties violations, the lawsuits and the Fraternal Order of Dick Pics that is our police department. Just remember, really bad things only happen in Lilburn. 

It may be unsettling to watch the corporate welfare being lavished on wealthy developers or a mayor who shills for them by demanding high rise development in the Village, but let's thank our lucky stars that really bad things only happen in Lilburn.

When you see your city treating residents like almost unnecessary inconveniences showing total disregard for quality of life, just know Things Will Be OK because really bad things only happen in Lilburn. 

When you realize that Dunwoody is intentionally structured and organized to ensure all these things would happen, well, it could be worse, we could have some of the really bad things that only happen in Lilburn.

If the burden of guilt for having voted this city into existence keeps you awake at night you can ease your troubled mind by remembering Lilburn since the really bad things only happen in Lilburn.