Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Dunwoody High student, Ms. Nicole Anderson named to City Transportation Board

Heavily restricted parking at Dunwoody High?

By Gloria Love of the Dunwoody Neighbor

Dunwoody City Council last week appointed a high school student to the city’s Comprehensive Transportation Plan Advisory Board in response to a lack of youth representation on the city’s public boards.

Councilman John Heneghan said he asked Dunwoody High School junior Nicole Anderson to join the board after learning of a Facebook group she founded called Students Terrorized by Irrational Residents, or STIR.

Ms. Anderson said she started the group — which currently has 55 members — after construction at Dunwoody High left her unable to park on campus.

“I went around to find places without ‘No Parking’ signs and still got a note [from someone] saying they would call the police if I parked there again,” she said, adding that other students have received similar notes.

“I got really angry and looked up the laws,” she said.

It is legal for students to park on public streets in neighborhoods unless “No Parking” signs are posted by the city, Heneghan said.

Heneghan said he was impressed by “the fact that Dunwoody students were organizing politically to engage the process.”

“I don’t believe young people have been represented well. We could start changing that,” he said.

Ms. Anderson has agreed to serve on the 13-member board which will act as a steering committee for a consultant firm doing research on “making traffic flow better and improving transportation by all means, walking, biking, etc.,” Heneghan said.

Ms. Anderson said she plans to meet with other committee members within the next month.

“I am really excited,” she said. “It’s exciting to be a teenager and get someone to listen to you and care about what you’re upset about.”

Dunwoody principal Rodney Swanson said there are only 108 spaces for students at the school of 1,600.

The students participated in a lottery for those spaces, Swanson said.

8 comments:

Chip said...

On a related subject, the Mayor's Town and Gown Committee held a meeting last Thursday, Aug 26 at GPC.

There are no minutes or summaries of the meeting posted on the City of Dunwoody website, even though a week has passed.

What transpired at this meeting?

Chip

Paula Caldarella said...

What is the "Town and Gown" Committe?

btw, thanks John for involving our young people in the government process. We need some change from the "grumpy old men" crowd.

GaryRayBetz said...

John, this was a great idea! Thank-you!

This involvement could have a great influence on a young adult - could be a fantastic inspiration for this young lady and those that will possibly follow.

This is akin to the high school intern program that the Dunwoody Crier implemented awhile back that motivated some of these students into journalism or writing careers.

Chip said...

The Town and Gown committee was formed by Hizzoner the Mayor on Feb.22, expressly to begin dialog between City of Dunwoody and Georgia Perimeter College. Among it's members are: Bonser, Wittenstein, Hutsmacher, Grogin plus 4 GPC students.

Their first meeting was Aug 26th. See their agenda on Dunwoodyga.gov.

No minutes, yet.

Chip

John Heneghan said...

The Town & Gown is a joint committee with Georgia Perimeter College to work cooperatively with the GPC to address ongoing issues of mutual concern. There are 14 members of the Town and Gown Committee, with seven of those members appointed by the City of Dunwoody and seven members appointed by the Georgia Perimeter College. The seven members appointed by the City of Dunwoody shall consist of 2 members of the City Council, the City Manager, Police Chief and three members of the community, one of whom is a high school student joint enrolled at Georgia Perimeter College.

Due to only two members of Council serving on the committee, this meeting is not subject to open records as are regular meetings of Council where there is a quorum of four or more members present. Because of that fact, I believe the City Clerk did not attend to record the minutes. As far as what transpired, I myself haven't seen a recap but I am sure that they working on items of common interest that may take a number meetings to air both sides of the issues to work towards a common solution. I trust that my fellow council members and the members of staff are working diligently on our behalf. I'm sure details will emerge over time, especially if there is something positive to report.

In other words this was just the first of many meetings and I wouldn't expect overnight results on any issue.

Robert Wittenstein said...

Actually, the Dunwoody City Clerk did attend the meeting and took notes. I would expect minutes of the meeteing to be available once the notes have been typed up.

Representatives of The Crier and the AJC were also present.

I didn't take good notes, so I won't try to offer a recap but it was a good first (introductory) meeting. We introduced ourseleves and talked about ways we could work together on a lot of items including traffic, noise, educational opportunities for the community, joint cultural and sports events and parking.

Paula Caldarella said...

Here is an article from the AJC re: "Town and Gown Committee".

http://www.ajc.com/news/dekalb/dunwoody-college-learning-to-611174.html

Paula Caldarella said...

I'm not sure where to put this comment.

As a parent who drops off their children at Dunwoody HS each morning, I want to thank and commend the citizens of Dunwoody and others who travel Womack for the marvelous manners they show in allowing parents and students to go in and out of the drop-off zone at the high school.