- Can we just buy the damn golf course and get it over with already? I personally don’t have a strong opinion whether it’s as greenspace or as a leased public/private golf course. Either is good. At the end of the day, District 5 got the short end of the greenspace allocation and this is a chance to make it right (Gerry Sullivan continues to be spot on). The greenspace money has already been bonded, and we already pay the taxes to support it. The folks who are using the economy/recession as an excuse to do nothing have conveniently left that unsaid. That’s unless they are advocating rolling back – which nobody is doing.

And, of course, nobody could have predicted that Patrick Bell would use this as an opportunity to squeeze a developer friendly option into the discussion. Shocked!

- Bethel. Sigh… Sadly, I think the Save Bethel folks are going to lose this at some point. It’s really too bad. I’m with them on this one. Again, and especially for us folks who live in the north, locking in publicly available land should be a priority. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. This issue isn’t going anywhere fast, but when the in-district commissioner is against you – and you’ve lost some preliminary legal maneuvering – the movement is officially on life support. On the flip side, Bell is pissing off folks who will have a direct say in his re-election, and I know they won’t forget. A strong R challenger, in what will be a district voter only election, can leverage this for maximum damage.

- Rezones to Ag. While I agree with the commission vote to simplify re-zones from Residential back to Agriculture, it’s probably for different reasons than the current commission contemplated. They are just so damn tactical. I mean, I get the fact that some developers are getting soaked on land they can’t afford to develop. So fine, let’s remove the onerous tax environment. Whatever.  Sez Bell:

Many of those who want the rezoning have property in Bell’s district.

After the meeting, he said the expedited process would aid some of those in difficult financial situations.

“With the economy, a lot of those builders then went out of business, so there’s nobody to buy the property,” Bell said. “But yet a lot of people are stuck with property taxes on high density zonings that are creating problems for them.”

Once again, nobody could have predicted Bell’s posturing on this issue.

Only a dunderhead like Bell could suggest that folks are being stuck with “High Density” zonings. Because clearly, before the downturn we were engaged in urban development up here… What a terrible lack of appreciation.

The larger opportunity here is to reset the playing field by re-placing these to A1 and cracking open the comprehensive plan. A lot of land use assumptions were predicated on growth and population numbers that are probably widely off the plan now. It’s a perfect time to re-evaluate how we want to build. To figure out a sustainable path forward (which we were decidedly not on before the downturn). Of course that’s not going to happen. The county commission barely has the ability to break its own lackadaisical inertia on land use planning. Once status quo development begins again, it will be a re-run of rezoning back to 1 Acre Lot Exurban Sprawl and poorly designed and executed development.

…success.

In other news, obviously got a lot going on that’s kept me from sharing lately. Will try and do a little better.

Having run for office, albeit at a much smaller scale that Speaker Richardson, I know that today must have been a tremendously hard day in what looks to be a number of tremendously hard days. It’s no fun putting yourself out there like he did today, but he deserves a hell of a lot of credit for doing so.

Speaker Richardson and I probably couldn’t agree on the color of the sky, but tonight I wish him nothing but the best. Life’s to short…

…Removed. Testing complete

It's still all good

The annual ritual of sweeping up the wife and kids and heading down to the fairgrounds for the Cumming Fair and Country Festival has arrived.  Of course, my kids love it.  The wife, well, she’s in it solely for the funnel cakes and candy apples.  From my perspective, the fair kind of sucks – in a “quality of fair experience” sense.  Most of the rides are the same as last year or really old; seriously, they still have a ride with a big Soviet hammer and sickle on it.  I don’t even try to shoot out the red star with the bent sight bb gun anymore (even if watching my kids try is a hoot).  I haven’t eaten the food since the polish sausage incident of 2006.

But there is one major redeeming quality that makes it interesting; the social experiment.

I’ve lived in Forsyth County for over a decade, and during that time I’ve learned that the only opportunity to witness the integration of the county is at the Fair.  Forsyth County has developed itself into an exurban enclave of the affluent.  Gated communities, and status as one of the wealthiest counties in the nation, now largely defines our little “bedroom community”.  The only problem is that picturesque view of Forsyth County has otherwise hidden the rest of the county.  A large, and mostly lower income, hispanic population that’s tied to the bottomed out housing market and the Tyson chicken plant.  The rural population, particularly in the north half of the county, that struggles to make ends meet while living in trailers sitting next to mansions.   For that segment of the county, a Shangri-La it ain’t.

But at the fair, we see both faces of our community in the same place enjoying the same worn out crap.  A soccer mom, with a Coach bag over slung over her shoulder, waiting in line to shuttle her kid onto a 30 year old Tilt-A-Whirl.  A guy with a wife beater tee lifting his kid up to a counter to get a fried oreo (something else – do.not.want.).  I’m sure there is some profound commentary that belongs here, but I just enjoy the people watching and the fact, that at least on one occasion, it’s an unavoidable confluence of all the people who live here.

Other more random experiences from this years fair:

Care for a Fillet at the Fair?

You think I’m kidding about the food? Well, I’m not.  Perhaps I’m just a puss who lacks the ability to try weird shit, but you can pretty much bank on the fact that I will never eat “corn in a cup with mayonnaise and cheyenne pepper” or any other tasty treat that is “fried”.  I’ll just take your word for it.  Also, while lobster and filet mignon are on my list of favorite things to eat, I’ll think I’ll pass getting them from a food stand.  Just sayin…

The fair does bring out the poli. A gentleman at the Fair Tax booth, who, incidentally, looked like a serial killer, lurched out to enlist me.  Had the wife and kids not been along for the ride, I fear that would have ended very badly… damn tax cultists.  The race to replace the Ghetto Grandmother hater is in full swing with signage apparent for Graves, Evans, and Hawkins.  I collected a push card for Graves that is destined for my garbage can, and I filled out an “issue” survey for Hawkins.  I also met Hawkin’s daughter and wife.  I’m sure my entry for the GPS giveaway – I’m not filling out that survey for nothing! – will also find its way to the garbage.  Why?

For the record, I answered:

Top Issues: Health Care Reform, Environment, and WoT (the others options were ridiculous).  I’ve already forgot the second of two “questions” at the bottom – a.k.a poll questions only Strategic Vision could love – but I answered “No” to the question “shouldn’t we oppose cap and trade legislation that will make you poor and hurt your grandmother?”.  The other question was equally stupid.  The only consolation prize is knowing that after filling out the “survey”, I’m likely to never get GOTV robo-calls from the Hawkins campaign.

I gave Jake my H20 race winnings.

Lastly, in spite of the crap quality, it’s still great time spent with family.  I now sit atop the family heap in the game where you sit on a stool and fire water into a tube (and scored a kewl stuffed skull in the process).  And the time spent with the kids, even if that meant sitting in a basket that whirled around to the tunes of Michael Jackson, was well worth it.

Good times.

But we just dispensed with two reliable allies in an effort to gain one decidedly unreliable one.

It’s called Article 5 of the NATO Treaty. You should read it some time.

I do find it a little ironic though that Pennington was lauded for his work bringing down crime rates in some very tough cities, but is being panned here for basically doing the same thing. The rates of crime really took a dip when he showed up on the scene in 2002, and while he’s not responsible for all the goodness, it all happened on his watch.

Not defending or justifying, it just occurred to me when I was finished up the other post that Pennington was the Sheriff when I lived in NOLA. I haven’t taken the time to look it up or anything, but I bet Atlanta was a relative Disney World compared to the violent crime rate of New Orleans at the time.

So what’s going on?

In the case of these recent numbers (e.g. the “year over year” variety), Jim Walls has an insightful analysis that shows exactly where pockets of crime are up in certain policed “zones” of the city.  The conclusion is that while the rates of crime are down across Atlanta as a whole, localized pockets of crime are up (and in some cases dramatically so).  The perception and reality of rising crime are real in these areas of the city.

But we shouldn’t let today’s highly politicized environment obscure the broader view of crime in Atlanta.  The fact is that the Atlanta has seen incredible gains over the last decade in reducing crime.  If you trend the numbers reported by the FBI back to the year 2000, the city has accomplished something truly wonderful.  While the population of Atlanta has grown by 20% over 8 years, violent crime has decreased by 36%.  Property crime has fallen by 11% in the same time period (although it does show some troubling signs of a rebound).

(Atl crime stats 2000-2008)

It’s a good story that seems to be lost in the current narrative.  While it’s easy to proclaim that the “city to busy to hate” is in jeopardy, a longer range look tells the opposite story.

Violent Crime Trends

(Atl Property Crime Trends)

I’m not trying to minimize the power that crime has on a community.  Nor am I trying to de-legitimize any particular tragic event.   During the mid-90’s, I spent my time living in uptown and downtown New Orleans.  I was mugged twice, once at gun point, and understand very acutely the tension many people feel in Atlanta today.  When something happens in your neighborhood, you could care less if the “statistics” say something different.  If you are the victim of a violent crime, your personal “crime rate” is up 100%.  Experiences matter.  I get that.

But let’s not lose site of the forest through the trees.  If we need to take tactical measures to better protect particular communities that are stressed, well, let’s do that.  Hire some cops, extend community policing, invest and empower.  I’m all about that. 

It’s also time to acknowledge that real shifts are occurring that drive crime rates in ways we have less direct control over.  We live in a “surveillance era” where we are captured on camera just about everywhere we go in public.  We carry less cash because of ATM machine.  More than ever, we live in a consumption/service economy where cheaper goods reduce the incentive to steal.  For a lot of people, the concern over losing your “identity” to an African email fraudster has replaced the fear of getting mugged.  While we are on the subject, we should add these issues to the discussion as well.