Damn Those Drive-thrus

Or so say city bureaucrats though they seem to have difficulty with definitions. This is a side effect of agenda driven actions. There goal is to ban all new drive-thrus and the agenda is some intellectual squishy "pedestrian friendly" nirvana. This is really their first step towards filling the village with five-over-two firetraps to inject very high density housing. And crime. 

One bureaucrat remarks that these evil drive-thrus "lead to a lot of conflicts between pedestrians and cyclists (scope creep) at points of ingress and egress." Most shops in the village would call this business. And how do these bureaucrats propose to allow for successful businesses? They will put a couple thousand apartments in the village. That's how you get the pedestrian density they covet.

Slow Roll

How long can temporary last? Well when this city doesn't want to do something temporary can be rather indefinite. Point in case? The moratorium on drug rehab centers that started in February and was supposed to be over in July. Commitment? Not even a word they like to use. Turns out staff has been too busy not doing something and hasn't gotten around to figuring out what they were supposed to figure out. So they have asked for and gotten an extension on the moratorium. They are asking to for seven more months, doubling the time which suggests they are about half way toward done. Smart money says they haven't even started. Even odds they'll "need" another extension. 

They have no intention of lifting this moratorium and even if they do it will be to reveal a complete ban on rehabs. How can you tell? Because when these bureaucrats want to get something done they spend tens or hundreds of thousands of our dollars on outside consultants. And it gets done.

You Know Its The Sporocarp, Right?

 

Best Of All...It's Dunwoody!

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?

Letters To The Editor

At the request of a reader the Blue Bag Rag has restored letters to the editor to page three where they had been under previous management. As was pointed out this provides a platform for citizen discussion and adds to the value of the weekly. 

The very next edition sported letters in the new-old location including a letter from a resident pondering the lack of police directing traffic during signal outages cause by recent storms. Other jurisdictions do just that.  What this resident doesn't realize is that Dunwoody does not do much of anything to enforce quality of life ordinances or traffic laws. Nothing. Sign ordinances? Nope, with one interchange with a resident trying to get the city to "enforce on complaint" revealing that city bureaucrats think it is the resident's responsibility to document and prove the violation. Traffic laws are no better. Everyone, especially those using our neighborhoods as to-and-from speedways know there will NEVER be speed enforcement. Trucks barreling thru no-truck-zones? Well, if actions speak louder than words, then city bureaucrats are screaming at the top of their lungs that trucks blasting past our schools are A-OK. Our top cop has even sent out an email to a [now former] resident indicating the juice isn't worth the squeeze. And yet we spend money on cameras.

The best part about the re-emergence of letters to the editor in this particular issue is that the BBR also reported on Dunwoody's top cop being selected as Police Chief of the Year. That year must have REALLY sucked. Unless the number of lawsuits against the city naming the Police Chief is somehow meritorious. Or perhaps it is the hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars he has cost the city in legal cock-ups. Or could it be his innovation in doctoring police reports to show city hall is a real house of ill repute? Perhaps it is the failed attempt at creating a PD porno ring.

DeKalb Schools' Epiphany

The heavenly purse strings opened and DeKalb County Schools' new superintendent had an epiphany pledging his career and our money to COB,O.

 

That's right, Horton has zealously pledged his full faith to the divine teachings of the Minstrel of Margaritaville because, as the faithful know, come Monday it'll be alright. A deficit of 400 teachers? Believe! It'll be alright! A 110 headcount, $12M bloat to administration? Have faith, after all COB,O works in mysterious ways. But lordy, lordy it works. And you can help by keeping sobriety at bay.

Now, as you may imagine, this is gonna be one hell of a weekend especially for the most secular amongst us. Try to stay hydrated. And...Fins UP!

It's Working

Bidenomics. It is most certainly working. Just not the way Bidenphiles want.

What's With All The Blind Squirrels?

First it was our favorite semantic vegan whose word salad-spinner inadvertently spat out a truth. Which had to go back in the spin machine. No five second rule for accidental truths. 

Close to home we now have a School Board member best known for open loop rantings who spoke truth to power. Well, really, to the powerless as it was fellow board members who recently hired a new supe effectively their last chance at a power play until they hire the next one. In a couple of years. But this particular, rogue member pointed out that this "new and improved" supe is really just the same ole same ole. What her pollyannish see as the great, new hope, she sees yet another rinse and repeat. And here is the shocker: she is absolutely correct. The new supe, like those before, is bloating admin, adding positions to be filled with prior colleagues--his hallelujah chorus. Next we'll be treated to multi-million-dollar trendy edu-babble junk program with materials, training to waste teachers time even while they are terribly understaffed. 

There is an interesting metric: student/teacher ratio. While this number is manipulated by including "teachers" without any direct classroom responsibilities, it is a metric. Maybe we need a new one: student/administrator ratio. Oh, and we should include those non-teaching "teachers" in the admin headcount.

Not A Dime's Worth Of Difference

Or just two sides of the same coin. 

From the senile side we get "just another way of saying restoring the American dream."  Sounds familiar in a bumper-sticker kind of way, now doesn't it? It's a lot like what we've been getting from the crazy side with "make America great again." Both rooted in nostalgia, looking back while claiming to move forward with one aligned with self-proclaimed "progressives." 

Do we really have two major political parties? Really? Is senile and crazy really the best they can put on offer? Outside of party extremists is there anyone who still thinks ranked voting is a bad idea?

Counting When It Matters

The "Brookhaven Annexation" applicant has withdrawn, allegedly after "questions were raised" about the application. Now that is spin that would make Washington insiders dizzy.  Questions were not raised; observations were made. The applicant's claim regarding 60% of the population was based on an under count of the relevant population. Hence not 60%. Oops. If that were not enough some property owners smelled a rat and pulled out of the fiasco. Again, not 60%. 

While this application has been withdrawn, we'll not have long to wait for the second act. Like all good citihood advocates hell bent on throwing their fellow citizens under the bus we are treated to the same chant: "we'll be back!" Let's hope more folks at risk of getting caught up in this disaster use the intermission to read the city charter as they'll soon realize they are turning their community over to unelected bureaucrats unaccountable to anyone who lives there.