Collateral Damage?

Yes, losing water without notice, especially during a shower, can be annoying, but the plates are great. At slowing down speeders on Chamblee-Dunwoody Road, which is never going to happen if we rely on DPD to actually enforce traffic laws. 

This obstinate refusal to patrol our streets brings up another issue: they don't enforce the "no truck" zone either, even though it includes school zones. And then, if you've lived here long enough, it may occur to you that the repeated failures of this water main, started, and then picked up speed, once we had a city. Hmmm.... Perhaps there is a really good reason to NOT have heavy trucks frequenting this stretch of road. Possibly this is adding stress to subterranean infrastructure. Perhaps it is just the straw on the camel's back, or maybe it is more impactful. 

Could the county recover maintenance costs from the city due to the city's negligence? Or perhaps the county should hold off on a proper fix until the city is under a court order to do their job. Regardless, the CEO should be looking into this. Lord knows lots of bad things happened when that city referendum was approved. Maybe she can step up, step in, and get some things fixed around here.

Rightsizing

The Atlanta Board of Education has approved a budget that removes 135 positions garnering a $25M savings. Details, like hi/lo/median aren't available but this represents an average burdened cost of $185,185 per position.  Assuming the burden, employer taxes, retirement contributions, health insurance, etc., is 50%these are positions commanding over $92K/year. On average. Some higher, some lower. All sizable paychecks. This rightsizing is justified as [re]focusing on the core mission, the obligations to the children and the community. 

How much money could Dunwoody save were they to [re]focus on this city's core mission and promises made? 

Vote Mad

Double entendre intended.

Let's start with anger. Seems some left leaning loud chirpers want you to look at your power bill, get riled up and let emotions drive your vote for Public Service Commissioner. Perhaps that is the only way to get a Democrat into office, because facts ain't gonna cut it. 

It helps if you're crazy. You're supposed to ignore that Georgia suffers from some of the lowest rates in the country, and those that are lower are blessed with enormous amounts of hydro. You have to wonder how the eco-warriors feel about what those dams do to a natural ecosystem. Or, maybe you don't. You'll also need to turn a blind eye to the reliability of our power generation and distribution system. Can't compare us to Texas or California. At least not unfavorably enough to swing a vote to the left. 

What's really interesting is that some of the same, loud chirpers, laying hate on Ga Power and the PSC are the same ones decrying that Dunwoody has hit a millage rate cap. Ga Power charging what is necessary for abundant, reliable power is bad, but Dunwoody pilfering our purses to piss money away, well that is good. 

You gotta be crazy.

Pay Your Damn Bill

DeKalb's CEO recently reported that half, fifty percent, of residential water customers have bills in arrears. Some say that a crackdown on past due balances is somehow unreasonable. It isn't clear who these people are, what planet they live on, or how they've substituted emotions for character. Maybe they are the same [kind of] folks who think students, allegedly smart enough to get into college should have their debt erased because, well, they were actually pretty stupid. Somehow they think if you don't pay your water bill this month, well, it would be just wrong if you ever had to pay it. 

These people are breathing our air.

RTC

Return To Campus. RTC. And it is deja vu all over again. At least we can hope.

The University System of Georgia has mandated that all employees return to their workplace...to campus. And we're hearing the same complaints we heard when the CDC made their decision to return to the office. Traffic. Parking. Space. Rinse-Repeat. Maybe they'll get the same solution to all these complaints that resolved the CDC issues.

Hasty Retreat

Sandy Springs recently passed a "buffer zone" law seriously restricting in-your-face canvassing, proselytizing, and just general interaction in public. Yes, you would still be allowed to preach from the pulpit. In church. This passed with only two dissenting votes. 

More recently, Sandy Springs rescinded that ordinance by a unanimous vote, with the city attorney's legal opinion also doing a 180. It's enough to make your head spin. 

You gotta wonder why folks running the newish faux cities do the silly things they do.  

Where's Cancel-Culture When You Need It?

Remember those days? When you could say something seemingly harmless, certainly with no ill intent whatsoever, but someone, perhaps because they live in a world of their own, becomes offended? Try as you might, no apology is sufficient. None will ever be acceptable and the offended clearly prefers to wallow in victimhood. If the offended has an entourage you will be summarily excommunicated from your world. Your life is over. Gone. Disappeared. You might even say "86-ed."

Those days are over.

Apparently some former D.C. hotshot posted something offensive, intentionally so, but it was interpreted as a threat. A serious threat. On life and limb. Directed towards someone who, not that long ago, has suffered attacks on their life. Bullet whizzing past the head kind of serious. This hotshot wasn't just flashing an OK sign (which would have lots of folks up in arms), he made a threatening post targeting someone who might have reason to be a bit sensitive about these things. 

My how times have changed.

In the good old days, this hotshot would have been immediately canceled. Vilified in the media, social and legacy. Shunned by all right-thinking folk with an ounce of moral integrity. Today we can expect this hotshot to be immediately forgiven. It was just a misunderstanding of a term, a slang term, whose meaning is malleable and has been transformed at a rate this hotshot cannot fathom. He didn't know it would have that meaning, that his intent would be misunderstood, and after all it is his intent that is paramount, not the interpretation of the bloke he targeted. Right? Right. We can expect the hotshot to be defended, if not glorified, while his target will be vilified. 

We've come full circle.

Forced Retirement

Air traffic controllers face mandatory retirement at age 56, though congress has allowed an extension to age 61. But, and there always is a but, many air traffic controllers can retire at age 50. Yep. Sweet deal, right? 

It gets worse. Many air traffic controllers are working with equipment that is older than they are. That's right, much of the air traffic control systems are north of 50 years old, some over 60. You cannot even buy replacements or spare parts for this stuff. Maybe we should have retired some of that equipment. 

Greedy Grab

Council recently approved funding for a maintenance facility at Brook Run, a proposal presented by city bureaucrats. And this facility sports five offices, potentially expanding this herd of bureaucrats. 

The odious part? They are raiding the stormwater reserve to fund this. If you remember during the city referendum sales pitch stormwater was a big, very big, issue, with city proponents pointing out the county's negligence of this infrastructure. We were told the city would take this over and manage our stormwater system responsibly. Is stealing money from the stormwater reserves what this city's bureaucrats consider "responsible?" Do we really need more of them?

Sit Down Old Man

The Blue Bag Rag recently reported on a dialogue between former councilman and mayor, Dennis Shortal and a representative of TSW, hired by city bureaucrats to do their job regarding zoning code rewrites. Shortal gave a history lesson as it seems that the history behind this city has either been forgotten or is simply being ignored. Smart money is on the latter. He was met with a rebuke: "much has changed since 2020, and Dunwoody's zoning is outdated with leftovers from its time as part of unincorporated DeKalb County."

Wow. So much bullshit in so few words.

Turns out that Dunwoody is over fifteen years old, not five. What else does this hired gun not know? Well, that would include "not everything in pre-existing zoning is bad just because it is the same as DeKalb County," but you can be sure this shill was told to use that justification, Or how about this: zoning codes do not come with a five year expiration date, but maybe TSW will be back around in 4-5 years to rake in more money on the next re-write. Have you got that Dark Side Of The Moon ear-worm yet?

Shortal was spot-on, but neglected an important fact. No matter what folks were sold on fifteen years ago, when that referendum passed they handed the keys to the kingdom over to unelected bureaucrats. And these bureaucrats operate in their own best interest and the interest of developers. And that's why we're getting a zoning rewrite and you can rest assured it will benefit lots of folks, but not the citizens OF Dunwoody.