If Mattie Jackson can stay, we stay
After weeks of organizing, meetings with city officials, rallies and press conferences, Mayor Kasim Reed decided to allow Ms. Mattie Jackson, my 93-year-old neighbor, to stay in her Peoplestown home of over 40 years (“Reed: 93-year-old can stay put,” Metro, Oct. 9). After his announcement, the mayor said the city is moving forward with its plan with respect to the remaining homes because “the block sits in a flood zone.” An official land survey, however, states that my house is “NOT in an area having special flood hazards.”
The mayor’s description of our block provides no more justification for taking my home than exists for taking Ms. Mattie’s home. If the plan can be re-engineered to leave Ms. Mattie’s home in the “flood zone,” it can be re-designed to leave the remaining residents’ homes there as well. The mayor’s decision creates the space for the Department of Watershed Management to consider more sustainable and environmentally responsible alternatives.
I want for my neighbors and myself the same outcome Mayor Reed granted Ms. Mattie. We want and deserve to stay in our homes. She stays, we stay!
TANYA M. WASHINGTON, ATLANTA
Roundabout fears in Sandy Springs
Regarding “From bare bones to big plans” (News, Oct. 14), it’s a great article about Sandy Springs and its planned growth into a great city north of Atlanta. Mayor Paul is to be congratulated upon a carefully crafted growth plan with our financial debt by not starting too soon after incorporation. There is one item, however, that city planners must address now before it is too late, and that is their plan to reopen two-way traffic on Mount Vernon Highway and Johnson Ferry Road immediately east of Roswell Road.
This decision has caused the city to plan for two roundabouts east of Roswell Road. This plan will introduce even more problems in traffic flow as well as increased traffic dangers to a 300-unit retirement community facing the two roundabouts. These and other problems have been pointed out to city leaders with suggestions, for example, of moving the roundabouts to the south and east. Only time will tell if leadership is listening.
RALPH MARION, SANDY SPRINGS
Obama connected to Clinton emails?
How’s it possible that president Barack Obama is immune from any connection to Hillary Clinton’s email scandals? Are we to assume that during her tenure as secretary of state, there were no direct communications between them that indicated usage of a private email? Perhaps she was too elite to abide by rules Obama established? Or perhaps jeopardizing national security isn’t that big a deal.
PAULINE FUERST, MARIETTA
