Doraville’s message boards are buzzing right now. Councilman Bob Spangler (with the backing of Donna Pittman and Ed Lowe) recently requested a special closed-door council session — allegedly to discuss a complaint against Police Chief John King. When approached with this request, the Mayor refused to grant it. Normally, that would have been the end of the story. Somehow, though, word of this has leaked out to the general public, many of whom are predictably outraged at what they see as a plot to smear the popular police chief.
So now, people are calling for Bob Spangler to resign and citizens all over the place are expressing their support for Chief King — including attending a support rally that was held for him at a private home this weekend.
Just another tempest in the teapot that is Doraville. What I’m much more interested in is the answers to these three questions:
- What is the exact complaint Bob Spangler had against the chief? Whatever it was, 3 city council members thought it was serious enough to warrant a closed-door session.
- Why did the Mayor refuse to hold a review meeting requested by 3 members of the council?
- Who actually leaked this information to the general public? Whoever the culprit was seems to me to be to blame for smearing not just Chief King’s reputation, but also that of Bob Spangler.
Whatever the answers to the above questions are, it’s clear that someone wants this to be an issue, and has succeeded in making it such.
The 12th episode of the GA Politics Podcast is online at the Georgia Podcast Network. We spent a fair amount of time this month talking about new media’s effect on politics–both today and in the future. There was also discussion of Sonny Perdue’s battle with the legislature, state representative Harbin’s late-night drunken car crash, and Vernon Jones’ campaign for the Senate.
If, as has been stated, our weak ordinances have brought Doraville to its current unenviable state, wouldn’t we then want to uphold the few zoning ordinances we DO have? Refer to page 12 of the 2006 Zoning Ordinance body: Definition 76. The H development would be defined as a “Neighborhood shopping center” whose function provides for the sale of convenience goods (foods, drugs, sundries, etc.) and personal services (laundry, dry cleaning, barbering, shoe repair, etc.) for the day to day living needs of the immediate neighborhood and is usually built around a supermarket which is the principle tenant. The definition goes on to say that the shopping center must provide on-site parking “in definite relationship to the types and sizes of stores.”
NOW!!! I know I know, boring boring, but since I’ve started rifling through Ben’s books here, please bear with me. On page 84, under Supermarkets:”Requires one parking space per each 75 square feet of floor space, exclusive of storage.” Retail stores require one parking space per each 2,000 square feet of gross sales. With everything figured in/out, a 240-space shortage exists and this would not meet the needs of the surrounding neighborhood OR OUR parking requirements. The only way around this would be to call the market something other than a market and to borrow parking spaces from Brandsmart which is dubious at best. Now, the developer can call a supermarket something/ANYthing else, but in the end . . . “A rose by any other name . . . “
The H Mart developers do not have the parking spaces they need for their development. At the present time, and under our Doravilian ordinances, they are 248 spaces short. They are asking the city council to grant them a variance and, essentially, make an exception in their case. The city council members and the mayor (and maybe to some extent the residents) have to decide if this is something that is so essential to the city that city council should set aside the ordinance we have in place. This will be decided at 7:00 Monday night at the city council meeting.
By the way, I’m not a lawyer, I’m a teacher, but as far as I know (and, as a teacher, fervently hope) citizens still have the right, under the second amendment, to voice opinions and preferences. To say, for example, “Gee! I wish we had a coffee shop nearby!” is hardly treasonous material, and to intimidate people into not speaking is a little too heavy handed for my taste.
According to an e-mail forwarded to me from Councilwoman Hadden, it sounds like the next city council meeting will be Jason Anavitarte’s last. I guess the complaint against him (not living in the city limits anymore) has some merit, and he’d rather not fight it out.
All eyes should be on city hall for the next few weeks to see who gets pegged as his successor.
For a while now, rumors have been flying about Councilman Jason Anavitarte being extremely busy with both his work and personal lives and not having much time to spend on politics anymore. Now, a new rumor has surfaced — someone named “Keery Henry” is on the city council’s agenda to discuss her concern that Mr. Anavitarte is no longer even a Doraville resident. While I doubt Ms. Keery’s claim, I do wonder whether the councilman will run for office again this year.
If he does leave office, the city’s political landscape will look completely different in 2008. With Marlene Hadden leaving her seat to run for mayor, it would leave two positions wide open, with no incumbent to defend them. What would this mean for the ongoing deadlock that has been gripping the city council for the past several years? Has anyone heard about potential candidates in any of the 3 council districts?
Semi-declared Senate candidate and current Dekalb CEO, Vernon Jones has a new blog — Jonesin’ for Georgia. Jones has not yet officially declared that he is running for that office and there is quite a bit of speculation that he is just trying to generate publicity for himself in preparation for a 2008 run against Hank Johnson (Doraville’s representative in Congress). If you care about politics on the state or federal level, you should probably be following what Vernon does very carefully.
Anyone who hasn’t been to Cafe 101 is missing out on quite a treat! This place is beautiful, with metal sculpture encircling the interior, collages covering the walls, Cathedral-looking ceilings and festive brightly-tiled floors! The building right beside it (a Chinese restaurant) I plan to go back with my camera to photograph. I’ve never seen anything quite like it – its exterior appears to be large cement squares in metal frames. Both buildings are truly works of art and, in my humble opinion, far and away the most attractive places in Doraville, Chamblee OR Tucker. They represent the essence of what our city could be – truly international, inclusive, diverse, artistic and original. If you haven’t been there, check them out!
Please Please remember next Saturday is the art show at the Holiday Inn! If everyone turns out – and there will be great artistic gifts for mother’s day which is the next day – it will illustrate residents’ desire for more of this kind of event. It will begin at 3 and go on until 8 that evening – open bar, refreshments, music, good people, good art (paintings, hand-made jewelry, sketches, sculptures, etc.) Bring your friends and family members. The more the merrier!
Dave Bearse weighs in on school boundary changes…
From: “David Bearse”
To: “‘Chris Avers’” ,
“Susan Fraysse” ,
“Marlene Hadden”
Subject: Oppose Chamblee feeder school attendance boundary changes
Date: Tue, 1 May 2007 09:08:24 -0400
Chris, Susan, Marlene:
My research indicates that there currently is no plan to eliminate overcrowding at Reynolds or Dresden schools, and absent action that the overcrowding will continue indefinitely. Other concerned citizens may want to express concerns to the DeKalb school board or administration (Board members e-mail addresses in the message header below). I also understand others residing in the vicinity of Nancy Creek Elementary advocate continuing operation of the school as a general purpose elementary school. They may want to advocate for school attendance zone changes extending to Reynolds and Dresden to bolster their cause, if you have means to provide the information in the message below to them.
Dave Bearse
_____
From: David Bearse
Sent: Tuesday, May 01, 2007 8:29 AM
To: ‘jim_redovian@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us’; ‘lynn_c_grant@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us’; ‘sarah_copelin-wood@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us’; ‘bebe_joyner@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us’; ‘jay_cunningham@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us’; ‘thomas_bowen@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us’; ‘zepora_w_roberts@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us’; ‘cassandra_m_anderson-littlejohn@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us’; ‘elizabeth_andrews@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us’
Cc: ‘redistricting@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us’
Subject: Oppose Chamblee feeder school attendane boundary changes
Dear DeKalb School Board members:
I support DeKalb Schools increasing school enrollments at schools operating at less than capacity in order to maximize state funding. I however request you oppose at least for the present the proposed Huntley Hills and Montgomery Elementary Schools school attendance boundary changes, and eliminating Nancy Creek Elementary School as a general purpose elementary school. An effort should be made (or greater effort if one has already been made) to develop attendance zones that would relieve substantial and long time overcrowding at nearby Cary Reynolds and Dresden Schools, before closing Nancy Creek as a general purpose school.
There are currently seven classroom trailers at Reynolds and six at Dresden, schools that are adjacent to the Huntley Hills-Nancy Creek-Montgomery group of schools. School attendance boundary changes that would relocate the Reynolds and Dresden trailer students to the Nancy Creek-Huntley Hills-Montgomery group should be considered, or reexamined if they have already been considered. Thirteen trailers at 18 students per trailer yields 234 children that if relocated to the Huntley Hills-Nancy Creek-Montgomery group of schools would bring total attendance at that group of schools to over 1200, in excess of the desired 400 each minimum required to maximize state funding.
Attendance zone changes could relieve overcrowding without new construction. There is nothing to indicate the overcrowding will ever subside without attendance zone changes or new construction, given the land development and resident population in the Reynolds and Dresden school attendance zones is mature and stable, or if anything is increasing. (I am personally familiar will at least 100 new housing units under construction within the attendance zones served by Reynolds and Dresden.)
Reynolds and Dresden are by most any reckonings special needs schools. There is nothing in the SPLOST construction program to eliminate trailers at either Reynolds or Dresden. Reynolds is on at least its second generation of trailer classrooms (I don’t know about Dresden) thus overcrowding is clearly a long-time circumstance. Relieving systemic overcrowding that will not subside on its own and that dates to or before the first SPLOST should take precedence to attending to overcrowding at schools that only more recently have become overcrowded, or areas that are only now being developed.
As a starting point, that part of the Reynolds attendance zone bounded by Shallowford Road, Chamblee-Tucker Road, and MARTA likely has 126 or more (7 trailers worth) of overcrowded Reynolds students. This area is separated from Reynolds by both Shallowford Road and Buford Highway, as is nearly as close to either Huntley Hills or Nancy Creek as it is to Reynolds.
Dave Bearse
PS – William Moseley is to be commended for taking the time to respond to my initial inquiry and discuss this matter with me.