AJC > Sandy Springs > Blog > Archives > 2008 > November
November 2008
New Sandy Springs City Hall
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Sandy Springs city council recently voted to buy the property that used to house Target at Johnson Ferry and Sandy Springs Circle as the future home of City Hall. The price tag was $8 million and if nothing else it’s nice to see a real estate transaction of any sort in this economy.
At the moment there is no schedule for when the city staff will move from their present digs out past Morgan Falls. It’s not certain whether the city will retrofit the present facility or tear it down and build a new one.
The purchase, by the way, does not include Goodwill, so it’s entirely possible in the future that you will be able to fight city hall and get a deal on a used [note to readers — please fill in your own punchline here].
I’m not a big fan of spending money when there is a perfectly good solution in place, but over the long term I think it will be wise to have city hall in what passes for the center of town. It’s close to Heritage Green and opens the door in the long term to begin some serious re-working of our little bit of heaven.
If you want to see what Sandy Springs could be take a drive over and walk around the Smyrna city hall complex. I was there for an art show recently and the difference between what exists now and the dingy former downtown area is like night and day. By the way, who would have thought Smyrna would ever be a role model?
There have been few defining moments for the present elected administration of Sandy Springs. Much of their time and energy has been consumed by getting the city up and running, which is time-consuming work that doesn’t really get the blood a’pumping.
Think of this purchase like an $8 million blank canvas. The decisions made in the coming months will go a long way toward creating the image of the city we want to be.
And speaking of “we” now is the time to put your two cents in on this topic. Should the city renovate the existing building? Build a new one? If new, how big? Marble or glass? Two stories or three?
This could be more fun than a box of Legos.
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Christmas gifts: Try random acts of kindness
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The recycling box on the carport is starting to overflow with colorful flyers offering all manner of “must have” gifts for the holidays. And if I’m not careful I get caught in that retailing undertow that grips us all every year, convincing us that Christmas just isn’t complete until the gift boxes block our view of the tree.
Can I be so bold to suggest that we give the gift this season of random acts of kindness? I thought about this when I ran across a story of a woman who was at a foreclosure auction. She happened to meet a person whose home was being auctioned off and was understandably in tears.
The woman bought the house, and then worked out a deal to allow the former owner to move back in. She put up a portion of her own small business to secure the mortgage. Now it would be great if we all were willing to extend ourselves to that degree for our fellow man, but that isn’t always an option. But there are other ways we can give without making a run to the mall.
When a young child says “watch me” stop and give them 10 minutes of your full attention.
Hold the door open for the person behind you when you’re going into the store. Bake some desserts and drop them off at any fire station around town. Grab that empty soda can that didn’t quite make it into the trash can off the ground. Slow down and let that other driver ease into ahead of you.
Drop your pennies into the change box at the convenience store cash register.
When you drive through the “change” lane at the 400 toll plaza hand over a dollar and pay for the car behind you.
Make some time to visit with the folks at the Dorothy Benson Senior Center off Vernon Woods.
Buy some extra groceries to donate to the food drive every supermarket in town has this time of year.
Pick up those random pieces of trash you see around your neighborhood when you’re walking the dog.
When you sit down for dinner, turn your phone off.
Fill three big boxes of stuff and take it to the Goodwill next to the vacant Target.
Leave a really huge tip for someone who deserves it, but only if you can exit the restaurant before they catch you.
Haul out the lights and give your front yard a good old-fashioned tacky decoration.
I have nothing against giving and I sure love getting — but maybe this year it might make us all feel a little better if we turn it down a notch.
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A lot to be thankful for
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Caroline Hartrampf, age 19, of Sandy Springs was recently killed in an automobile accident and it hit close. Our daughter is 19 and when I hear about accidents like that my mind goes to the unthinkable “what if” place.
Separately, I spent some time earlier this month with the family of a young man I knew, Caleb, who died unexpectedly a couple of years ago. I watched his brother walk through the months of questions and anger following the funeral. We gathered to remember Caleb and raise funds to help those in need.
I bring all this up because we’ve been hammered with months of bad news. Gas prices were eating us alive just a month ago. The sub-prime mortgage business slammed broadside into the rest of the economy this year. Congress voted to bail out ineptly run corporations — with our money. We were told how divided we were by who we had chosen to get behind in the race for the White House.
I don’t ever want my happiness to come at the expense of those who have experienced loss, but we might also not want to wait to carve the turkey later this month to start counting some of our blessings.
So while this has been a year we won’t forget for a while I look around and have a hard time believing my life is as bad as some would suggest.
I have a roof over my head, clothes on my back and enough to eat. My car runs fine and I have work.
A friend’s young son has recently been declared to be in remission from leukemia. Another friend in North Carolina wrapped her chemotherapy last month with an optimistic prognosis.
And at this writing everyone in my immediate family that began 2008 is still with me, living each day on their terms. Everybody is healthy.
Hard times? I guess. But from where I sit there are no bad days.
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Democracy doesn’t have to be sexy to work
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A lot of neighbors have been relating stories of standing in long lines out in the cold to vote early, which is uncomfortable for them but very encouraging on a couple of fronts.
First, they’re voting.
Second, they’ve been willing to stand in line for up to five hours in the cold to cast their ballot.
In this era of mobile phones, e-mail and text messaging that has caused many to lose their ability to be patient it is heartening to know they will stand around with a group of strangers to cast their vote. Some of these same people live on fast-food burgers because they don’t have the attention span to microwave a frozen entree.
It’s usually easy to get people voting in a year when there is a presidential race. It’d be great to see the same fervor when it’s time to consider our choices for mayor and city council members. There’s something about a local election that, sadly, fails to ignite the same fervor.
Would the same people standing in last week’s chill for hours to vote for the next president wait 30 minutes in warmer conditions to cast a ballot of their city council representative? Heck - do most Sandy Springsteens know represents them on the council?
It’s been a fractious few months in our neighborhood as we have opposed the expansion of a private school we share real estate with. Down Lake Forest a neighborhood is going to court to try and reverse a city council decision to allow another private school to build an athletic complex.
Predictably there have been the “we won’t forget this when (fill in the name of your offending council member) is up for re-election.” My guess is that by the time the mayor and council members are back on the ballot many will have forgotten that pledge. Or still not know the name of the rascal they want to oust from the council.
Undeniably there is more sex appeal to be had with a presidential race. There is a ton of media coverage, saturation advertising, televised debates, etc. And this election will also make history — we either have out first African-American president or our first female vice president.
But what local races lack in marquee value, more than make up for it in our future quality of life. Zoning permits, building regulations, speed limits, traffic studies, tax digests, etc. may not be the things that get our blood pumping but they are the things that will affect how we live day to day.
Democracy doesn’t have to be sexy to work.
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