Saturday, December 19, 2009

Dunwoody Street Naming on Monday's City Council agenda.



My guess is that Monday night's Dunwoody City Council meeting will last less than half an hour even if we receive 25 minutes of public comment since there is only one item on the agenda and it will immediately be referred to the Planning Commission for action.

It turns out that Dunwoody needs to name the Peachtree Industrial Blvd access road that has been un-named for many years and for safety reasons the Dunwoody Police Department would like this corrected.  The work session agenda and the one action item is attached for your review prior to the Monday evening meeting.

Though I do not think that the situation above will match my concerns on this topic, please allow me to get up on my soap box for one second.   Politician's naming public facilities after political cronies for political gain turns my stomach and I am of the opinion that the City of Dunwoody should have a strict policy in place of not naming any public facility after any person until after that person has been dead for at least two years.  Maybe my views are a little too extreme on the subject but I know of various examples of this happening in bad taste and I would prefer to just outlaw or strictly restrict the practice.  Ok, I have just stepped off my soapbox.  Thank you for allowing me to vent.

19 comments:

  1. John,
    Is this an action item to initiate the city application with a proposed name for a street? I may be missing something, but, the agenda item for this meeting says this access road is “unnamed” as does the memo from our police chief. However, I don’t see in the CoD chapter 23 code where there is a process to create a NEW street name. There is however a “procedure for changing street names”. In the memo, staff supports a “name change” for the “unnamed” street. Yeah, that's what they wrote. Does an “unnamed street” have a name? Just saying… maybe there should be an action item to fix our code.

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  2. Ah, as you've relinquish your soapbox allow me to ascend it, that is if members of the IWW are allowed a say in the local political arena, regarding: the link to the "Henry Jones Dog Park" sign.

    It's not just me as I hear others vocally reflect in the same manner, but this continual haranguing of Vernon Jones really should stop by our City of Dunwoody elected officials. The venomous sniping comments towards this man makes our town look petty and baneful.

    Dunwoody has been a city for over a year now and Vernon Jones is no longer in office. Maybe now it's time to cease with the snide comments and move on and put the energies incessantly used in denigrating this man into accomplishing something positive for the city.

    There you go, you can have your soapbox back and I promise never to even approach it again.

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  3. Thanks to the actions of some we are blessed with Cynthia McKinney Parkway here in DeKalb, Billy McKinney Highway, Levetan Park, Henry Jones Dog Park, etc.

    I hope they call this road "FarmHouser Highway" or perhaps "Warrens's Way"

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  4. Why don't we adopt the USPS Guidelines for naming a stamp after a individual - 5 years after they are deceased, or better yet, just do not name anything after a person at all.

    btw, Rick, nice to see that you removed the racist rant from Boortz' blog that you posted on your blog. Did you offer an apology to Yvonne Miller of DES?

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  5. CofD should not be forcing unnecessary expenses (such as an address change) on the businesses located there by invoking “public safety”. That’s not better gov’t. CofD is 12 square miles and we’re talking about the south bound access road of PIB. I don’t see the confusion or “a public safety challenge for our Police Department when responding to incidents and accidents”.

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  6. First, did you have to crop the picture that much? ;^)

    Second, if this is the only "unnamed" road in Dunwoody, then wouldn't public safety be supported by simply referring to it as THE Unnamed Road?

    Or could the problem be that it won't show up on GPS and the Dunwoody cops could never find it? Based on the number of speeding tickets written in my neck of the Dunwoods I'd guess a lot of named roads don't show up on their maps or GPS.

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  8. The proposed street name for the un-named section of road will be "Peachtree Industrial Blvd, Access Road N.E." or something else very similar so that no one has to change their address. I guess this was just a formality of correcting the obvious and I am satisfied that the process stated in Chapter 23 will be followed.

    Ken you are correct I should have acknowledged your sign, please forgive me. Since I removed your site from my blog roll when TOD passed and he stopped writing, now it is time to link back to you if you are blogging again. As far as speed enforcement, I hope the radar signs (once activated) will help slow the average speed but please do feel free to ask for specific police services from Chief Grogan or any of your elected officials. I forward a good number of various service requests on a regular basis and I am sure the elected officials living near you do the same.

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  9. "Dunwoody Mom", I had the very same take when I initially read the posting of that rant, and I am glad you had the courage to speak up. I also found the equivocating excuses offered to you even more appalling. Not only is Yvonne Miller still owed an apology but 12.4% of the population of the United States of America is as well.

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  10. Gary, Yvonne Miller is one of the most-dedicated, devoted teachers I have had the pleasure of working with (my children were her students when she taught at Chesnut). In Rick's gleeful haste to try and prove his point that the public schools are full of "liberal loonies", he attempted to malign a marvelous teacher and belittle the hard work the children of Dunwoody Elementary put into their program. That is shameful in my book.

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  11. Dunwoody Mom, I agree with all the accolades you bestowed upon Yvonne Miller. I have had four children in the Chesnut > Peachtree Middle School > Dunwoody High School system (with two still in it), and I couldn't have obtained a higher quality, more diverse, well-rounded education for them if I had had all the money in the world.

    My children are all very amiable, brilliant, insightful, responsible, tolerant, of strong character and integrity, and I owe much of that their Dunwoody public school education and certainly not because of my irascible old self.

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  12. I am glad to see the speed signs in place. It is even better that we are acquiring some baseline data and hopefully it is not skewed by the holiday traffic patterns.

    The research I've read indicates these signs will have only a temporary positive impact if not supported by enforcement. In fact they are sometimes used in a dangerous game to see how high you can 'score'.

    You may be aware that we had a child struck in this section of C-D at the end of the 08-09 school year. You may not be aware that there is almost no traffic enforcement in this area--but only if you've never met Al. Hopefully these signs are an indication that we will also see adequate traffic enforcement in this area.

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  13. At no point in either post did I 'belittle the hard work' of the students, nor did I even mention the name of the instructor. I did not refer to anyone as liberal or a loon.

    The point that I tried to make (but obviously failed to do so) was that I prefer an instructor/teacher of music use his/her talents to teach students in the technical aspects of music, conduct rehearsals, and evaluate student performance.

    My big concern for students (with great, sponge-like minds)is when teachers infuse political issues into lesson plans (no matter the subject/elective/activity) and deviate from traditional American culture.

    Are the kids learning to sing or are they being taught history and environmental science?

    I'm sure the lady can motivate and teach kids to sing. Let's keep it at that.

    Merry Christmas.

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  14. Ken, I specifically asked that the radar signs record data through one complete, non-holiday week therefore they may not be "actively lit" for awhile.

    As far as effectiveness, the report below sold me on the devices.

    http://jkheneghan.com/city/meetings/2009/Apr/04302009_radar_sign_report_BellevueWA.pdf

    I am well aware of the child being hit on Chamblee Dunwoody up near Redfield and if you believe that there still needs to be more speed enforcement on that street, I will take your comment as a service request and forward it directly to Chief Grogan. Thanks.

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  15. The point that I tried to make (but obviously failed to do so) was that I prefer an instructor/teacher of music use his/her talents to teach students in the technical aspects of music, conduct rehearsals, and evaluate student performance.

    That is actually what Ms. Miller does. Sometimes to a fault. At Light up Dunwoody, the chorus certainly sang Christmas/Holiday music. I believe that chorus practices before/after school.

    However, Ms. Miller can be very goal oriented and driven, so I am not certain if all the students had their regular instructional plan interrupted for holiday music. Probably not.

    Ms. Miller loves to "show" parents exactly what students have been working on. It can be tedious and sometimes very loooong, but her heart and her intentions are in the right place. I expect that the objectives for what ever grade level it was involved instruction into rhythm, sounds and a variety of instruments.

    At the end of the year, Ms. Miller's students have always learned and accomplished far more than most parents would expect from a music class that meets once a week.

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  19. My big concern for students (with great, sponge-like minds)is when teachers infuse political issues into lesson plans (no matter the subject/elective/activity) and deviate from traditional American culture.

    Rick, you are a real piece of work. Exactly, what is "American culture"? Please enlighten us. Also, how is teaching "drumming" in any way considered "political".

    I'm sure the lady can motivate and teach kids to sing. Let's keep it at that.

    The "lady"?

    Wow, just wow.

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