Chamblee54

There is a proposal to create a city of Brookhaven. On July 31, the matter will go before the voters. The proposed city is between Atlanta, Chamblee, I 285, and I 85.
There has been a fad for creating new cities in the North metro area. North Fulton has been divided between John’s Creek, Milton, and Sandy Springs. DeKalb county has the proposed Brookhaven, and Dunwoody. Brookhaven is the first of the new cities to be completely located inside I 285 (ITP).
PG has gotten mailings from those who say yes, and from those who say no. Neither mailer was printed at a Union shop. Both sides quote a feasibility study from the Carl Vinson Institute.
According to the yes website, “The 5 services the city will take over from DeKalb are : Police, Parks, Roads, Zoning and Code Enforcement. Fire, Water and Sewer, Sanitation, Schools etc., will remain with DeKalb county”.
According to Wikipedia, the new city would have 40, 456 people. The racial breakdown is 61.52% White, Hispanic 27.41%, 17.56% Black, and 4.88% Asian. The numbers for the registered voters are probably different, with many of the Hispanic people transient. DeKalb county is 54.3% Black, and county politics are dominated by the Black community.
The yes mailer has racial undertones. It has a picture of Dekalb CEO Burrell Ellis, who is African American. The headline read “What’s CEO Burrell Ellis doing with Your Tax Dollars? There is a quote from an “Email from lobbyist to DeKalb County”, with a line about fighting the proposed new city.
PG attended a meet and greet with Mr. Ellis recently, and the subject of the new city came up. Mr. Ellis thinks the finances of the new city would be precarious. The figures used in the feasibility study are from real estate values that have been declining. The new city will not have a much money as many think it will. This point is made by the no crowd. Mr. Ellis said that he thinks people are wanting a new city for the wrong reasons.
The issue of the new city having enough money to operate is key. The no people say it won’t, the yes people say it will. Brookhaven has more poverty than the other new cities, and less commercial areas. There are height restrictions in much of the area, because of Peachtree DeKalb Airport.
An important issue is taxes. The yes crowd say they will be lower. The no crowd says they will be higher. The millage rate will be set at 3.35, and an increase would require voter approval.
Franchise fees will be a factor in the money. According to the no website, “Franchise Fees are the taxes charged to utility companies for the use of the public right of way for utility poles, pipes, and cabling. We already pay 1.2% on our GA Power bill now, but do not on landline phone bills. Incorporated cities such as what Brookhaven could possibly become, are allowed to charge the utility companies higher percentages than counties. As a result the utility companies pass that extra charge along to the consumer.  Georgia Power and landline phone bills will be  where we see the increases.”
Another big issue is police. The yes people say “DeKalb county assigns 3 to 6 patrol officers to the entire area of Brookhaven. The city of Brookhaven will increase this number to a minimum fo 8 to 9 officers at all times.” The no people say that the new city should have 83 police officers, and that the budget calls for 53.
Chamblee54, despite the name, is west of Chamblee, and is part of the proposed new city. There have been features about Brookhaven recently, including vintage pictures. The election on the new city will be July 31. All affected voters are encouraged to study the issues, and make your opinion known. The spell check suggestion for Brookhaven is Brokenhearted. Pictures today are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”

On July 31, voters will consider a proposal with the clumsy acronym T-SPLOST. . This stands for Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax. It was a name given by a committee, just like the project list was created by a committee. Some say a camel is a horse designed by a committee. Perhaps the “regional roundtable” wants to have camel trails. Atlanta did not build roads, they paved the cow paths.
The Georgia Sierra Club is opposed to T-SPLOST. Their presentation will form the basis for this post. Not enough goodies are going to South Dekalb county, so the Dekalb NAACP is opposed. Chamblee54 has mixed feelings.
The project list was assembled by a “regional roundtable”. The ten counties of the region are Clayton, Cherokee, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry, and Rockdale. Sierra describes the sausage factory: “The Atlanta T-SPLOST project list was developed by a “regional roundtable,” a 21-member panel consisting of one mayor and one county commissioner from each of the region’s ten counties, plus the mayor of Atlanta. There was no attempt to apportion representation by population. As a result, the panel was dominated by smaller, more rural counties that do not prioritize transit. Twelve of the 21 panel members came from the six smallest counties, representing just 25% of the region’s population. Only nine of the panel members represented the region’s four biggest counties (Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett) even though those counties account for 75% of the region’s population and 79% of the anticipated T-SPLOST tax revenue. The result of this disproportionate representation was an overemphasis on road projects that (unlike transit) have alternate sources of potential funding, and a series of political turf battles focusing on local demands rather than regional needs.”
It is like the old county unit system. Gwinnett county, with 805,321 people, had as much say so as Fayette county does with 106, 567. (Source of numbers.) Another problem is the way Local Assistance Road Program (LARP) money is distributed. 15% of T-SPLOST bucks will go to local governments. The problem is that several OTP counties will take in more money than they will generate. Fulton county is estimated to take in $88 mil less than it generates.
The Georgia Sierra Club has seven main objections to T-SPLOST. On their website, they go into luxurious detail. Here are the sloppy seven.
1 The Project List Does Not Present a Cohesive Transportation Vision, offering a hodgepodge of conflicting priorities when what is needed is a bold and consistent vision for a sustainable transportation future.
2 The Necessary Institutional Context is Not in Place, with the 2012 legislative session having failed to address serious questions about equitable regional transit governance and the ongoing second-class treatment of MARTA.
3 It Likely Kills Commuter Rail For Another Decade, taking off the table one of the most promising strategies for providing commute alternatives and promoting sustainable development.
4 It Does Too Little to Address the Current Road-Heavy Funding Imbalance, instead reinforcing a funding framework that already heavily favors highway expansion over commute alternatives.
5 The Road Funding Neglects Maintenance Needs to Focus on New Capacity, with five times as much funding going to expanded capacity than to maintenance and operations, further compounding an already serious backlog of asset management needs.
6 It Locks the Region into a Dysfunctional, Undemocratic Decision-Making Process, both through the highly politicized “roundtable” process and the blatantly anti-urban method for distributing local set-aside funds. (Fulton County alone would forfeit $88 million due to this inequity.)
7 The Transit Component Has Too Many Flaws, including vaguely defined project descriptions, underfunded capital expansions, and uncertainty about long-term operational support.
PG has a few things to add. The treatment of MARTA by the rest of the state is shameful. MARTA recieves no funding from the state. The same legislature passes laws telling MARTA how to spend it’s revenue. Fulton and Dekalb counties have had a one percent sales tax for forty years to support MARTA. While the system has it’s problems, it needs more support from the OTP crowd.
The Clifton Road Corridor is a big ticket item. This is a light rail system between the Lindbergh MARTA station and the Emory campus. GSC has concerns about whether this project can support itself after it is built. This is an ambitious project, and the demand for it is far from certain. It is currently planned to go in a railroad corridor, which will reduce disruption during construction.
There is a ton of information available about this referendum. Voters are encouraged to learn as much as possible before the vote. At this time, there is no Plan B.
Pictures today are from ” Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”

There is an amusing discussion now at Peach Pundit about a proposed City of Brookhaven. The metro area has gone new city crazy recently. Unicorporated Fulton and Dekalb county land has been used to create Sandy Springs, Milton, John’s Creek, and Dunwoody. The latest proposal (the boundaries have not been drawn yet) would use land between Atlanta, Dunwoody, Chamblee, and the unincorporated Dekalb territory to the south. It would probably include the Ashford Park area that PG lives in.
Brookhaven is called the first planned golf course community in Georgia. The Capital City Club anchors a spectacular neighborhood, with a loop road that is popular with joggers, bikers, dogwalkers, and somnambulists. There used to be a city called North Atlanta which was discorporated in the sixties.
With it’s location on Peachtree Road, just outside the City of Atlanta, Brookhaven has been a favored site for McMansions. In the “Indian Village” neighborhood, very few of the original shacks remain. Lynwood Park, the oldest Black community in Dekalb county, is another scene of gentrification.
The story in Peach Pundit is a lively affair. People with reservations about this new city are given links calling them liberal crackpots . The author tells the tale of seeing a young man walking away with his lawn mower. He was not happy with the police response, and feels that an new city police force would do a better job.
The story spawned a festive comment thread. Instead of discussing the merits of a new city, the commenters discuss the pros and cons of confronting the lawn mower thief personally, as opposed to calling the police. There is one comment that begs to be quoted. I agree, creating government is not conservative. It is a conservative reaction to liberalism gone awry.
In other neighborhood news, fishwrapper scribe Jim Galloway talks about the continuing saga of Jill Chambers. The former State Representative is being sued for some debts, and creditors covet her campaign contributions.
In a comment to the Galloway piece, Ms. Chambers writes “The interesting thing is all of this is on the hands of the Feds now – state law does not apply and this cannot be fixed during a special legislative session. That is why the Judge will not consider that the funds were seized illegally BEFORE the bankruptcy.” Two comments down from Ms. Chambers, her creditor’s attorney says “Call me if politicians owe you money. 404.262.1425”
Mr. Galloway reports that Ms. Chambers is currently working for a private investigation firm, in hopes of getting her own P.I. license. Pictures are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”. This is a repost. The vote on the proposed new city is July 31.

Some people think that the drought is over, and we can go back to wasting water. They are wrong.
From a water supply point of view, Atlanta is a terrible place for a city. 4 million people depend on the Chattahoochee River, an overgrown trout stream. If you look at a map of Georgia watersheds , you see what a small area is covered by the Chattahoochee.
As if that isn’t bad enough, the water is also claimed by Alabama and Florida. A nuclear power plant in Alabama uses enormous amounts of river water. The three states have been arguing in the courts over the water rights for years, and the courts have ruled against Georgia.
For decayeds decades, the developers in Metro Atlanta have built as though having a water supply was not an issue. With dozens of governments to choose from, if the developers are turned down in one jurisdiction, they merely go to another…or make another bribe campaign contribution, and another forest bites the dust.
In an era of tea parties and calls for small government, few have a plan for the water crisis. There are going to be no cheap solutions. Even if we were to have access to the Tennessee River (a very big if), a pipeline to carry the water through the mountains to Lake Lanier is going to be very expensive. We will not get this money by cutting taxes to stimulate the economy.
Even without a water sharing agreement, we almost ran out in 2007. A severe drought cannot be predicted, and another one may start today. The nuclear plant in Alabama requires tremendous amounts of water, and was close to having to shut down.
Much of the rain in Georgia comes from the Gulf of Mexico. This Gulf is currently becoming an open air reservoir for crude oil. What will happen when the remaining sea water evaporates, and becomes rain? Will the water have a helping of crude oil derivatives? At least this water can be used in a nuclear power plant.
Rain water is held in a reservoir until it is needed. For metro Atlanta, this is Lake Lanier. A water reservoir is not like a bank account, where the money earns interest. Water in a reservoir shrinks over time…water on the surface evaporates. When there is a drought in August, with 100 degree temperatures every day, water usage increases, evaporation increases, and there is no fresh rainwater going into the lake. This is how a water problem becomes a crisis.
There are a few, common sense, ways to save water now. Just because we are not in a drought does not mean we need to start wasting water. The water we save now will (mostly) be waiting for us when ( not if) another drought starts.
When you brush your teeth, fill a cup of water up first. Use part of this to rinse your mouth, and use the rest to clean your brush.
If it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down.
Get a stopper for the bathroom sink. If you shave, save water in the sink to clean your razor.
Keep a jug of water in the fridge if you like cold water. Don’t let the water run until it gets cold.
Take a “navy shower”. Get wet, turn the water off , lather up, turn the water back on, rinse.
Only run dishwashers and washing machines when they are full.
There are many, many more ways to save water. The less we use now, the longer our reserves will last. The water shortage will never be over in Atlanta.
Pictures from The Library of Congress. This is a repost.