State’s 1st openly gay Republican elected
Brian Bates’ victory in Doraville City Council race called groundbreaking
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This is a good AJC article showing Doraville as more than a good-ole-boy haven and immigrant wasteland, which is how we’re usually depicted.
I don’t particularly think either of those labels are accurate, since there are much worse good-ole-boy places in Georgia, even the capital itself, and the immigrant portion of our population is often a thriving part of our community. The AJC has tended to portray Doraville that way, even to the point of using “near Doraville” when any north DeKalb story involves crime or immigration or good-ole-boy politics, and “north DeKalb” when a Doraville story involves something more obviously positive and/or progressive. But this story makes Doraville and even Georgia Republicans sound like grown-ups.
I arrived late, so I got to stand at the back of the crowded Doraville Civic Center. All of the candidates were there, except for City Council incumbent Ed Lowe. I didn’t know much about a couple of the races. I have debated in my mind how to present my impressions of the forum, and I have decided to start with my personal preferences for all the races, then give my impression of everyone’s performance in the forum. My personal choices are based on wanting a city council that will work on good planning and zoning to help the city develop as a nice place to live and work, and will use the city web page as a “force multiplier” to enable a small, efficient city staff to disseminate detailed information about the city and city government to the public. I strongly recommend watching the video, when it is available, to check my memory.
Races:
Mayor: Ray Jenkins (Incumbent), Marlene Hadden, Tom Hart
District 1 (Oakcliff, Jason Anavitarte’s former seat): Maria Alexander, Clint Howard
District 2 (Northwoods, Marlene Hadden’s seat): Chris Avers, Bob Roche
District 3 (Winters Chapel, Tilly Mill): Ed Lowe (Incumbent but absent), Pam Fleming, John Noonan
District 2 (Northwoods, Tom Hart’s former seat.): Brian Bates, Matt Harner
My current selections: Marlene Hadden, Maria Alexander, Chris Avers, John Noonan, Brian Bates
Performance in The Forum:
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Northwoods resident, Spencer Reed called me up a little while ago, asking for help uploading a video he created of Autumn Park on the web. He wanted to show the truly bad state of disrepair that the park is in–with erosion eating away the little creek bed, kudzu covering everything, empty shopping carts half-submerged in mud, and other rusty metal items just sitting there waiting for a child to cut themselves on them. Spencer believes that the poor state of the park exemplifies why we need a city manager–someone skilled in what it takes to manage a city government at the beginning of the 21st century. I happen to agree.
Watch the video and see for yourself the state of Autumn Park. I’m actually amazed that this park is being considered by Home Depot as a candidate for new playground equipment, considering I’d be worried any kid playing there would come away with a case of tetanus or worse.
