Wednesday, October 29, 2014

DeKalb Commission Election

I agree with Dunwoody Talk Blog that the DeKalb Commission District 1 election may well require a run-off between Wendy Butler, Nancy Jester and Larry Danese.


Wendy Butler - No

I agree, Wendy Butler would favor development over individual property rights.  She has mentioned that she has the backing of the developers.  Confirming that, she is the only candidate with TV ads running, very expensive.  I must conclude that she is unashamedly seeking election depending on special interest funding.  The theory is ‘whoever spends the most money wins’.  However, in the T-SPLOST vote July 31, 2012, the opposite occurred.

Her promise is to promote lots of “economic development” projects aimed at using federal squander-grants and local tax funds to encourage what I consider to be a boost to UN Agenda 21 implementation in DeKalb.   This would benefit CIDs (Community Improvement Districts), big shopping malls, multi-use zoning and large planned transit villages close to MARTA lines.  This is the same model rejected by 66% of voters in the T-SPLOST vote.

Wendy Butler is a Land Use Attorney and serves on the MARTA board and is a Democrat. She would promote the creation and support of Community Improvement Districts, a self-taxing, entity for large shopping malls and large commercial development properties.  Their funding includes federal and local taxes, local city and county backing for bonds and borrowing, plus their own revenue collected from owners and renters.

DeKalb Needs

DeKalb needs to move to a balanced budget and put basics like roads, sewers and water first.  These cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to replace and we’re behind on maintaining these.

DeKalb Development

Economic development should not use tax dollars, but should be funded by the private sector based on demand. Retail space needs to be maintained by owners, not subsidized by taxes.  Most corporate welfare here revolves around CIDs

 

DeKalb CIDs

DeKalb has a few CIDs, including PCID (Perimeter Community Improvement District) with MARTA train and bus access.  Northlake Tucker has a CID with just MARTA bus access.  Brookhaven is developing a transit village by the Brookhaven MARTA train station.  If Lakeside and Briarcliff vote for cityhood, they will also likely follow the transit village model of development.  It’s embedded in European model federally subsidized cookie-cutter plans.

DeKalb Footprint

Metro Atlanta was built for single family homes to line their streets. The “downtown” high rise type developments sit right next to tree-lined streets with single family homes on narrow streets. 

Metro Atlanta is the least dense city of its size on the planet.  It has been built out to accommodate subdivisions. 

Madrid Spain is the most dense city of our size on the planet, so the new urban “pack and stack” train riding model works, just like New York City.

Transit villages require very high density. This automatically results in road congestion in around high density developments.

This European model also requires very high taxes. The new developments would use the cookie-cutter Agenda 21 model with apartments over retail. Demand for this model is weak.

Public Transit

The problem with public transit is low demand and low ridership requiring heavy subsidies to build, maintain and staff.  Trains cost billions and we don’t have billions.

I encourage MARTA to make sure that they continue to increase their ridership within their footprint and work toward a “break even” point. 

Taxed Enough Already

If we admit that the federal government is broke and resorts to printed and borrowed dollars to maintain its pace with grants for states, we must conclude we shouldn’t be overspending and squandering our tax dollars on mal-investments when our roads are rotting.  

I would hope DeKalb District 1 voters would avoid voting for Wendy Butler.  I would like to see a run-off between Nancy Jester and Larry Danese.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader

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