DoraBlog

3456 Aztec Road, Doraville, GA 30340; 10am – 1pm Saturday 13 March.

The good news is that all, or almost all, grounds trash can be removed (or at least be piled curbside for pickup by city, county of school district forces) with a good turnout. The result will be noticeable, but additional community involvement will be needed to restore the grounds to what they should be. Hopefully the March 13 effort will be a step in that process.

Not so good is the fact there are a number of needs beyond the capability of landscaping volunteers. Field turf is largely non-existent. There are a number of drainage issues. Fencing varies from fair to poor condition. Nonusable tennis courts (a circumstance that catalyzed recent community interest in the grounds). Track in poor shape.

Taken in the entirety, I think significant grounds rehabilitations are in order. Given the age of the building, much of the grounds infrastructure (fields, courts, track, fencing and drainage) can be expected to be past its useful life if there have not previously been any major rehabilitations. I think a proper rehabilitation (starting at six figures) would be of a magnitude such that rearrangement and changes, and not largely replacement in kind, should be considered. Needed rehabilitation will come sooner, and the result a better fit for the community, if the community supports and contributes to it.

I’d like to see more (but regulated) widespread public access and use of grounds as part of increased community involvement. The school district erected a number of fences 6-8 years ago that blocked neighborhood access to Sequoyah grounds. The fencing certainly has been a less than optimum response to misuse of grounds. The neighborhood lost access yet there’s still misuse.

It would also be great if the trail connecting Aztec Road to Drury Court was restored and used (and perhaps creation of a new trail from Drury Court to the Stewart Road dead end). The restored trail would promote walking to school by knocking one-half mile off the approved walking route to the schools from parts of Northwoods. It would offer the opportunity to walk in a more natural habitat for those walking in the community for the sake of walking, as well as.

The fences cut off access so long ago, I’d forgotten what an asset the greenspace was.could be to the community. I for one would contribute to both the restoration and maintenance efforts, if such a trail would be well-used.

Look for a later post with additional details about the cleanup.

Dorablog is active again! Joseph, the site’s owner, has agreed to re-activate it with me as moderator for an indefinite time, while he continues to take a break and focus energy elsewhere.

The blog’s rules remain the same.

The blog’s focus is Doraville and adjacent environs. DeKalb County, metro Atlanta, Georgia or even national subject posts and comments aren’t categorically off-limits, but posts and comments that aren’t Doraville-centric need to connect the subject matter to Doraville in a specific or significant way.

Comments on posts should be on-subject. A thread matter may drift or evolve, but high-jacking won’t be allowed.

Pointed and even snarky posts and comments have a place in vibrant open on-line communication, bald maliciousness doesn’t. Pseudonym postings and comments are very welcome, and postings and comments that identify the author are encouraged. To that end the line that separates pointed and snarky from malicious, though unavoidably fuzzy, is in a slightly but distinctly different place for identifiable versus unidentifiable authors.

People other than I had posting rights when Joseph was moderator, but past posting rights have been wiped clean (though Joseph of course retains rights). I welcome being contacted by those seeking posting rights, subject to the blog’s rules of course. My e-mail address may be readily obtained from the ONA/NNA/Earlynews message board comments that I make with some regularity, or comment here and I’ll reply and provide it.

A few months ago, I had an e-mail exchange with Rebecca Crawford — a graduate student at Georgia State University who is doing a research project on Doraville’s Northwoods neighborhood. She is looking at the neighborhood as a good example of the ranch-house communities that sprang up around the country after World War II.

The exciting thing is that she, along with the Dekalb History Center, will be discussing the project on Wednesday night at the Civic Center. Unfortunately, I have another function I need to go to, but I think that this meeting will be very interesting to any residents of our neighborhood. It’s also a way to get important history about our city told! Be sure to publicize this event to long-term residents – encourage them to bring pictures and news articles from the neighborhood’s history!

Here is what the press release says:

The DeKalb History Center is holding a meeting to discuss the history of the Northwoods community.

The History Center is studying Northwoods as part of a Ranch House Initiative program in which select ranch house communities and post war development in DeKalb County are researched.

DeKalb History Center staff will discuss the project and their findings to date and welcome input from community members.

All residents are encouraged to attend and share their Northwoods history. Please bring any photos or artifacts relating to the development of Northwoods you would like to share with the History Center.

The meeting will be held:
Wednesday, December 9
6 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Doraville Civic Center
3770 Central Avenue, Doraville GA 30340

Don’t forget to go back to City Hall this Tuesday, December 1st to cast your ballot for the city council run-off between Bob Spangler & Karen Pachuta. This is an election which could change the balance of power on city council – it’s also likely to have a very low turnout: so your vote could be the deciding factor! The polls will be open from 7am to 7pm, don’t expect a big crowd.

See you on the other side of the election! I’m looking forward to a city relatively free of campaign signs!!

When I had more time on my hands, I thought about featuring local restaurants on this site. One of the things Doraville & Buford Highway are known for around metro Atlanta are all the great Asian and Latin restaurants. Featuring them is a great advertisement for our area.

Ultimately, though, multiple factors worked against this idea. Work, school & my personal life all keep me from focusing too much time on this site. Even more importantly, I’m a vegetarian, which limits how many of the restaurants in our area I actually can eat in.

I think there are some neighbors are working on a site that will feature local restaurants. When they complete that, I’ll write a post about it. In the meantime, I encourage you to check out the crowd-sourced restaurant review site Yelp’s listings for the 30340 zip code. When trying to find out information about a restaurant – or find a restaurant to go to in the first place – the reviews of other people who have gone there and had good (or bad) experiences are really helpful!

Results for the election haven’t been posted on the AJC website yet, but the results for all three have been posted on Facebook. In District 1, Donna Pittman was re-elected by 61%. Brian Bates also won by a large margin for District 2.

District 3, unsurprisingly, is going into a run-off between Karen Pachuta & Bob Spangler. According to a status update from Pachuta, she had 40% of the vote compared to Spangler’s 30%. A run-off election will be held on December 1.

Congratulations to the winners – I wish them much success over the course of their next term.

Update (Nov 4, 2009): While the AJC is still reporting that the District 3 race has Pachuta with 40% and Spangler with 31%, Bob Roche in the comments below & Karen Pachuta in an e-mail to me have informed me that she actually got 39% of the vote. It will be a very tight election on December 1 – I’m not sure where the Calvert or Howard voters will fall.