AJC > Sandy Springs > Blog > Archives > 2008 > April
April 2008
Has Sandy Springs cityhood been worth it? You betcha
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Unless something radical happens our neighbors in Dunwoody will vote this summer on becoming a city, the way we did here in Sandy Springs almost three years ago.
The whole thing reminds me of those days when I was a kid and couldn’t wait to grow up. I imagined life was perfect as an adult. I could come and go as I pleased, I could stay up late, I could eat at McDonald’s every day, I could watch all the TV I wanted to, etc. Of course I didn’t consider getting and keeping a job, paying bills, laundry, paying taxes and some the other things that come with being an adult.
Many people had the same wishful feelings before Sandy Springs became a city - once we were out from under Fulton County life would be great. But at a recent forum in Dunwoody someone floated the question - did the folks over there want another level of government?
And I started thinking if we were asked about whether being a city was worth it, what would we say? Are we better off now, than we were when we were part of Fulton County? Is being a city everything we thought it would be?
Or perhaps the question should be do we feel like we’re better off? Has it been worth the effort.
On the plus side of the ledger we’re no under the Fulton County Commission, a group many people felt (myself included) did not have our best interests in mind. It was okay to collect our taxes but the money seemed to have a strange way of ending up elsewhere.
Indeed, this week I got an e-mail from our neighborhood association about the non-emergency police contact number. Several people have said they used that number and got an indifferent response. Digging a little deeper it was discovered those calls were still being routed to Fulton County Police, not the local Sandy Springs officers.
On other fronts there might be some homebuilders who aren’t happy with us being a city. I’ve heard complaints that the permitting process is slow. Likewise the city stepped in to make sure a builder couldn’t buy a piece of land and bulldoze every tree of the property - something else that didn’t make a lot of builders giddy as schoolgirls.
Traffic on Roswell Road is still a pain in the buns.
If I was talking to the folks in Dunwoody and I had one minute to tell them how I felt about life after incorporation I guess I would say this:
If you think becoming a city is going to solve all your problems think again because what is a problem to me is a non-issue to my neighbor.
If you think electing your mayor and city council will make your lives better from Day 1, you’re mistaken because those folks can’t say yes to everything. And they shouldn’t.
If you think everything that bugs you will get better overnight, think again. Situations that bother us are usually years in the making and can’t be undone in the blink of an eye.
But is it worth it to have the opportunity to control our own destiny, not to mention our day-to-day lives? Absolutely.
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Memories of the “Underwear Hills”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The new elementary school in town is in the process - among other things - of choosing a name, school colors and a mascot. Obviously not the weightiest of decisions that will be made, but one that will lodge in a lot of memories.
Growing up I went all seven years of elementary school - this was in the pre-middle school era - at Underwood Hills, now The Epstein School. I can’t remember our mascot - the kids at other schools called us Underwear Hills — but I do recall our colors, for sports, were purple and white.
Back then our after-school sports program was run by the YMCA and was for boys only. If you were a girl with athletic prowess you were out of luck. As for us boys in the fall it was football, winter was basketball and spring was softball or track & field.
This being the south the greatest emphasis was on football. Our coach was a man named Larry Conklin, and in addition to teaching us football he also spray-painted our helmets purple and dogged us about our grades. I have no idea if he was a YMCA employee or coached as a volunteer, but we worked after school five days a week on the gravel and sand playground, playing our games on Saturday mornings in Chastain Park.
Very few kids wore cleats. You started the year in a new paid of Keds, with your parents hoping your feet wouldn’t outgrow them before you got your sports in for the school year.
I may leave some names out but the other schools in town back then included Highpoint, Liberty Guinn, Hammond, Guy Webb and Spalding. Heards Ferry would come much later.
There are two highlights from that period. The first was about the YMCA sports trophy that was given every year to the team with the best overall record. If one school won the trophy three years running they got to keep the trophy. We did. Hopefully that trophy is in someone’s basement and not in the landfill.
Second, when I was in 6th grade our quarterback was a 7th grader named Matt Robinson. Matt later played at Georgia and in the NFL. I caught a touchdown pass from him in a game - my only score in organized football. Ever. Years later when I was briefly a sports-talk radio producer I leveraged that TD into booking Matt on our morning show.
The new school off Lake Forest will have colors and a mascot but the YMCA no longer has after-school sports here in Sandy Springs. That’s not the worst thing in the world for those kids, but I sit here and think about those days. The memories have lasted 40 years give or take. Not bad as memories go.
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Do you know what’s happening in Sandy Springs
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Now and again I’ve fussed and fumed like an old scold over the lack of enough of us getting involved and knowing what’s going on around town.
I think it’s a safe bet more Sandy Springsteens know the status of Britney Spears’ mental state than we do what our elected city council members are up to.
The latter has gotten a little easier, meaning there are fewer excuses for being ignorant. Assuming, sadly, anyone was looking for an excuse to be so.
The Sandy Springs Council of Neighborhoods has launched a Web site that tracks the vote every councilperson has cast from the beginning. That would be Dec. 5, 2005 for you Britney fans.
Simply by clicking past tmz.com over to www.sandyspringscouncil.org, it is now possible to easily pulls one’s head from the sand, know what’s going on, and who voted how to make it so.
The only way it could be more user friendly would be if they gave away coupons for donuts.
And I really do think this is a great idea and a wonderful tool, but there is some sadness that citizenship has to be made so rudimentary.
If you don’t want to make time to go to city council meetings, you can access what happened on several Web sites. You can sign up for e-mail updates from your council representative and stayed informed that way. Assuming you know the name of your council rep.
I get that it takes some extra effort to stay informed. You have to get off your couch, turn off the TV and do something. Conduct an online search, make a phone call, talk to a neighbor, read the paper.
By the time most people become aware of a decision they disagree with it’s usually too late. The discussion is long since ended and the votes have been cast. The battle cry of the uniformed could be: “Nobody told me!”
To which I would reply: “Did you ask?”
There’s that old 60’s pabulum that if you aren’t a part of the solution you’re part of the problem. For the sake of this discussion I would suggest morphing that to: “If you haven’t taken the time to know what’s going on, you might want to keep the old pie hole shut.”
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Catching up with Father Time
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We have one of those clocks in the house that sets itself according to some massive time-keeping device so we always have the ultimate correct time. Part of its claim is that it constantly monitors and resets itself so it’s never wrong.
Lately I’ve started to think the dang thing is running fast. It’s the only explanation for all sorts of things going on here that don’t add up.
My wife and I had a conversation the other night about how we’d get our daughter packed up from her college dorm at the University of South Carolina and home in a few weeks. But that can’t be - she only left for college a month ago, right?
This is the same child who just got her braces off last week. I think. There’s no way she could be finishing her first year of college. Is there?
Our son called to say he’d be home for a couple of days in May and was bringing his girlfriend. He says they’ve been dating a year, but that can’t be right because it was only last fall that he was playing high school football. At least that’s the way I remember it.
And there’s no way he can be the one interning this summer in Washington, D.C. That would mean he’d be a senior at Indiana next fall and he doesn’t even have his driver’s license yet. He does? When did that happen?
I had lunch with a friend last week — he told me his oldest was 13. But that can’t be right because that would mean my wife and I have been an item for 14 years. It can’t have been 14 years. We’re still just cresting the big 4-0, give or take. And she’s as cute as the day I met her.
People tell me that time is passing, but that much time hasn’t gone by. Or has it? Can’t be. I know my eyes have lost a little of their edge lately, but c’mon.
I blame the clock. It has to be running fast. Maybe I need to take the battery out.
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