(Another) New Doraville Website

Just this weekend, a new Doraville website called “Know Your Neighbors” was launched. In a message posted on the Oakcliff Neighbors e-mail list, the creator writes:

www.doravilleneighbors.com, the “Quality of Life” website serving Doraville is now up and has content. The site is still very much under construction, but you can visit it now, post FREE classified ads, submit stories, read about events that are coming up in our area. Please visit, and support this website. It is designed to spotlight “All Things Good” in, around, and about Doraville – good people, good places to visit in the city, and good things to do.

Each neighborhood will be able to have a “neighborhood” page specifically for their neighborhood constructed (Northwoods, Oak Cliff and any other Doraville neighborhood).

Additionally, I am looking for people who will submit “Quality of Life” stories. All uplifting stories will be accepted. The site will NOT actively promote anything political. If you are running for public office, or are working on someone’s campaign, you are free to send a link to your website which I am happy to put on the “Links” page. I feel it is important to be involved politically, but I do not want this website to EVER appear partisan in any way.

Lastly, in addition to offering PAID advertising space for all local commercial businesses in Doraville, if you operate a home based business, or know of someone in the community who does, please send that information to me. I will be creating a listing of “neighbors who offer services and products from home”. If you have an MLM business, you are welcome to send your information (including links to your webpage); however if there are several people offering the same products and/or services – it’s first come first served. Duplicate listings will not be posted. You CAN also post your listing in the classified ads though where duplicates ARE acceptable. If you know of local artists, I will be creating an “artist’s corner” page as well so our local artists can get local exposure.

Finally, I hope this website will be enthusiastically embraced by our community as we REALLY need some mechanism for showcasing positive things about Doraville.

Thank you to those of you who have already submitted content for the site. It is nice to see that people ARE already enthusiastic about the site, and I look forward to developing it for EVERYONE in our community including the hispanic, and asian communities as well.

This is one of many such electronic forums that have sprung up about Doraville over the past several years–it joins The Doraville, Georgia Unofficial Site (maintained by Brian Bates), Doraville.com (run by a local businessman), e-mail lists for both the Northwoods and Oakcliff neighborhoods, and of course this blog. Some of these ventures are more successful than others, but I think it’s amazing how such a small city can have so many efforts going on to harness the Internet and make itself better. I hope that the next city council will take notice of this–whoever is ultimately elected–and realize that we are far overdue for an overhaul of Doraville’s official web presence. This town is obviously ready for a 21st century city website where we can do simple things like pay our trash bills online, find agendas and times for the upcoming council meetings and even view videos of the council meetings (if I can upload council videos on this site, there’s absolutely no reason for the city not to be able to do it on their end).

Anyway, good luck to the new website. It’s been added to the sidebar links.

September 30, 2007 | Joseph Geierman | Comments Closed

More Press Coverage for the Upcoming Doraville Elections

This week’s Southern Voice contains a fairly long article about Doraville politics, focused on the fact that there are two gay candidates (Brian Bates and Chris Avers) on the ballot for our city council elections this November.

I don’t think a candidate’s sexuality has a whole lot of relevance to the issues facing Doraville, although it may have an impact on some people’s votes. Several of the candidates–notably, Chris Avers and Bob Roche–commented on their views on topics like the domestic partnership policy the city adopted last year and various types of hate-crimes legislation (which is another issue that I don’t think has much relevance to city government). The only candidate who seemed a little clueless about these issues was Matt Harner, who I presume is probably waiting for “the people” to tell him what to think (after he gets elected, of course).

Despite the narrow focus, it’s an interesting article, and worth the read.

| Joseph Geierman | 11 Comments »

Quality of Life – Your thoughts

The candidate forum thread that Rich started has kind of veered off onto a tangent about the new Quality of Life patrol. I’d like to move that conversation over here

I admit that I do start sweating when I see one of the QoL trucks driving through the neighborhood–they are driving our streets very slowly and deliberately, looking for anything that might be considered an infraction. While I keep my grass reasonably short and don’t have any junk cars in my driveway–you never know what these officers are going to find. There’s a little bit of a Big Brother feel to it all. I also personally think 3 days is too short a time to correct an issue–7 days does seem more reasonable.

That said, I’m not against better enforcement of Doraville’s quality of life ordinances, and am actually happy that this patrol has gotten going. There are several rental houses near me, many of whose tenants have a tendency to throw garbage all over their front yards for several days prior to trash-pickup day (rather than using a trash can). Many of these same people don’t seem to know what a lawn mower is, letting their weeds get knee-high in some cases. Very recently, I’ve noticed some of these folks get ticketed by QoL–and have noticed an improvement (still not perfect, mind you) in their maintenance of the home since then.

I can relate to the libertarian argument about how people should be able to do what they want with their property. Then again, owning a piece of land has never been a free ticket to do whatever you want with it. You are required by law to use it within the terms it is zoned for, there are rules surrounding who you can sell it to, you must pay taxes on the land or have it taken away from you. In short, owning property is a social contract and many home owners in Doraville aren’t living up to their part of the deal.

Over the next several years, I want to see the city council do as much as they can to raise property values in this area. I believe the QoL patrol is one tool that can help make that happen. What do you think?

September 28, 2007 | Joseph Geierman | 42 Comments »

IS ANNEXATION A CAMPAIGN ISSUE?

Disclaimer: I’m merely an observer without any inside connections or information—the views herein are merely speculation on my part.

The Chief King firing debacle has squelched any chance for Doraville annexations for the remainder of the decade, exclusive a very limited annexation that may be required to craft a logical boundary between Doraville and the proposed City of Dunwoody.

Last year’s Doraville annexation proposal was very well situated to ride the coattails of Dunwoody incorporation, making the process enormously easier for Doraville to implement. There was enough perceived voter support that Representative Chambers and Senator Weber could readily support a referendum offering unincorporated DeKalb citizens a choice. The negative publicity has so adversely the prospects of voter approval of annexation that I would be surprised if either Representative Chambers or Senator Weber champion a Doraville annexation referendum. (Note that not championing annexation is not the same as opposing it). Senator Weber furthermore is very invested in a Dunwoody incorporation referendum. Given some recent ugly news concerning the new Fulton municipalities, I doubt he will choose to jeopardize a Dunwoody referendum with Doraville annexation baggage (other than as necessary to establish a logical boundary).

All that said, is the effect of the King firing on annexation a campaign issue? What are the candidates going forward views on Doraville annexations?

September 26, 2007 | Dave Bearse | 13 Comments »

New Candidate Website – Ray Jenkins

Current Mayor and mayoral candidate Ray Jenkins has a campaign website up at www.rayjenkins.net.

Kudos to him and to all the other candidates who have put websites about their candidacies online. From my own personal view, an online presence does immensely more in helping me form my vote than a yard sign.

September 24, 2007 | Joseph Geierman | 22 Comments »

Questions to Candidates

The candidate forum was a good way to get to know the folks running for office. I also think it would be great if they answered some long form questions that we could all read and compare. I’ve sent a questionnaire to most of the city council candidates, asking them to respond by October 1. The only three people whose e-mails I couldn’t find, are Ed Lowe, Pam Fleming and Matt Harner. I don’t think Lowe has a computer, but I am going to e-mail his questionnaire to city hall. If anyone has an address for Pam Fleming and Matt Harner, though, I’d appreciate it! They can contact me at “joseph at doraville.org”.

Below are the questions I sent out. Some of the questions came from an e-mail Susan Fraysse sent out prior to the candidate forum. Some of the others are just things I was interested in. Hopefully the candidates decide to respond. Here they are:

  1. First, please tell the voters about yourself and why you think you would make a good addition to city council.
  2. What do you feel is the single most important issue facing our city?
  3. How would you raise Doraville property values?
  4. Where do you stand on whether we should hire a city manager?
  5. How would you improve Doraville’s website?
  6. What would you like to see done with the General Motors property? What should we do to prepare for the loss of the GM revenue?
  7. Do you support any of the recommendations of the Livable Centers Initiative (LCI Study), Comprehensive Plan or the proposed new Zoning Ordinance? If so which ones?
  8. Are you willing to communicate by phone, email, in person, or in print with residents of your district to ask for their input or to explain why you support or oppose items voted on at city council meetings?
  9. What is your vision for Doraville in one year? Five years? 10 years?

September 23, 2007 | Joseph Geierman | 1 Comment »

Doraville Candidate Forum: Video

Here’s the video from the candidate forum. There were some interesting moments, and I hope you enjoy:

Video thumbnail. Click to play
Click To Play

Unfortunately, the sound drops out every once in a while for a second or two. It’s kind of annoying, but I don’t think it cuts out at any really critical points.

September 21, 2007 | Joseph Geierman | 7 Comments »

Doraville Race Getting Attention from Outside the City

Our city council race is starting to get some attention from outside the city. Blog for Democracy recently published a post requesting donations for Bob’s campaign. I think Bob has done a great job of raising his profile in this city and think it’s great that he has enlisted folks to help him raise funds for campaigning. My only concern with the post is the partisan tone that it strikes. i really don’t think that party affiliation matters all that much in local offices, and am very glad that the city council positions are all non-partisan. Here’s what I wrote in the comments section of that post:

I like Bob, but I hardly think this race can be viewed as a Democrat vs. Republican issue.

You guys (BfD) wrote a post back in ’05 that was very positive about Tom Hart, just because he was perceived as the “Democratic” candidate (is something wrong with your archives? I can’t find anything written earlier than January). I was amazed when he was being touted here as a good Democrat, when he was obviously nuts even then (go back and read my review of the candidate forum on dorablog from that year).

Bob is not Tom, but I still think it’s dangerous to apply the Democrat/Republican filter to the race. Doraville has its own factions at play, and they are all over the map party-wise. The real division in Doraville politics tends to be older residents who have lived here for 30+ years–many of whom still think of this as a pastoral suburb; and newer, younger residents who see themselves as living in an urban area and who want to see mixed use development and other similar amenities that can improve both quality of life here and property values.

Bob Roche is a Democrat, and I think his fund raising on this site is perfectly valid. I have to say, though, that making this race about partisan politics is a ridiculous misreading of the situation.

September 20, 2007 | Joseph Geierman | 9 Comments »

Doraville candidate forum: from the back

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:
Read the rest of this entry »

| BubbaRich | 49 Comments »

Campaign Season is Here…

A shot taken in the Northwoods neighborhood:

signs.jpg

September 19, 2007 | Joseph Geierman | 3 Comments »
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