The City
of Dunwoody began in 2009 with the full implementation of UN Agenda 21. In 2008
and 2010 the Georgia legislature passed laws establishing Regional Commissions
to introduce unelected governance. The Georgia Legislature approved the
Dunwoody City Charter with a “City Manager” form of government. The City Council does vote on the budget
using “group think” and gives the City Manager anything he wants and voters
have no say.
By 2010,
the Georgia Mayor and Council Handbook included UN Agenda 21 implementation
ordinances and land use plans along with the propaganda that “smart growth”
would replace 200 years of history that allowed individual cities’ sovereignty
over their own ordinances. UN Agenda 21 required high density public transit
development, but that expensive pipedream has failed in Atlanta Metro.
Private
property rights were trashed from 2009 to 2016. Cities and their cronies were
given authority to zone private property any way they liked. Easements were
already excessive and bike lanes were required despite the fact that there were
and are still no bikers using them. Property owners no longer had the property
rights they had when the bought their properties.
The
Dunwoody City Charter was expanded by the Georgia Legislature to remove all
limits to the city’s ability to tax and borrow, despite the fact that cities
were going bankrupt over failed economic development schemes and failure to
maintain critical infrastructure like water and sewer systems.
The abuse
continued with police impounding cars of car owners who were late in paying
their car insurance bills. Municipal Court became a profit center as fees and
fines rose and proliferated. The fine for not paying your car insurance on time
is $1300.
Homeowners
now pay fees for inspections when they replace anything. Stream buffers render
back yards useless and obstruct deck maintenance. Everything requires permits
with hefty fines for non-compliance. Traffic gridlock is assured due to high
density building, welfare migrant immigration and failure to plan for
expansion.
Public
school expansion and replacement costs doubled because of unnecessary State
laws dictating that schools be built to accommodate 900 students and all are
financed through Bond sales with interest doubling the cost. Neighborhood k-12
schools have been replaced by k-4, 5-6 and 7-8 middle schools making gridlock
worse.
The
maintenance of our crumbled 35 year-old roads we voted to be repaired in 2009
have not been completed, but we have spent $millions on bribes to attract more
employment and development to achieve total traffic gridlock and settlement of
lawsuits against sloppy law enforcement, useless expensive studies, very
expensive, unnecessary road and intersection designs and other non-essentials
since 2009.
Now we
see the Dunwoody City Council debating protection for our invisible bikers and
$1000 fines for harried car drivers if they violate these rules. Our current
bike-lanes are 2 to 3 feet wide and would need to be expanded for these
invisible bikers in order to squander more $millions. The bike lanes were
installed to get federal funding for street expansion for commercial vehicles.
Dunwoody, like the rest of Atlanta was built with narrow 2-lane roads and no
sidewalks.
There are
few walkers on Dunwoody sidewalks. All the walkers confine themselves to the
subdivision streets and few use the sidewalks that have been installed on the
main roads. There are virtually no bikers using the bike lanes.
See the
latest unnecessary, abusive police-state, revenue gouging ordinance proposed
below.
Dunwoody ordinance seeks to
protect cyclists, pedestrians, other ‘vulnerable road users’, Posted by Dyana
Bagby, 9/10/19, Dunwoody Reporter.
The Dunwoody City Council is considering
a new ordinance that would prevent motor vehicle drivers from getting too close
to or threatening pedestrians, bicyclists, scooter riders and other “vulnerable
road users” as part of a goal to make city roads safer.
The ordinance would impose stiff
penalties against violators, including fines, jail time or having their license
suspended. The penalties could be removed if the driver agreed to take a driver
education class.
The Dunwoody council was scheduled to
take up the ordinance at its Sept. 9 meeting in the first of two presentations,
but the council agreed to defer discussion to allow the city’s legal department
more time to go over its language.
“This is an important public safety
issue and we want to get it right,” Councilmember Tom Lambert said at the
meeting. Lambert is the sponsor of the proposed ordinance. There was no other
discussion by councilmembers at the meeting.
The current draft of the ordinance would
require, among other things that motorists move over into an empty lane if
possible when passing someone on a bike, scooter or moped. If another lane is
not empty, then car and small truck drivers would be required to pass
vulnerable road users with at least 3 feet of space between them.
For larger trucks or commercial
vehicles, the safe space to pass a vulnerable road user is at least 6 feet,
according to the draft ordinance.
The ordinance bans motor vehicles from
driving too closely to “vulnerable road users” to intimidate or threaten them,
or tossing objects at them. The draft ordinance also requires motorists to
yield to vulnerable road users who are approaching an intersection or close to
an intersection.
The ordinance’s definition of
“vulnerable road users” includes highway construction workers, emergency
service providers and utility workers whose job can put them close to busy
roads. People using skateboards, roller skates, wheelchairs and horse-drawn
carriages would also be classified as “vulnerable road users.”
The ordinance might not apply in
incidents where the “vulnerable road user” was violating traffic laws.
Lambert said he felt compelled to
propose the ordinance after learning in January about a middle-school student
being nearly struck by a car while she was in a crosswalk at North Peachtree
and Tilly Mill roads. In another January incident, a jogger was struck by a car
as she ran in a crosswalk and sustained serious injuries, he said.
The drivers were not paying attention to
the road while the pedestrians were following the law, Lambert said. The
proposed ordinance could help raise more awareness among motorists about
sharing the road, he added. Deterrents such as fines, mandatory court dates and
even a stint in jail, are also intended to change driver behavior to be more
aware of their surroundings.
“We are striving to become a more
bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly city and have initiated a lot of priorities
like sidewalks [and] crosswalks,” Lambert said. “Infrastructure is great, but
you only get one piece of the puzzle.
“The idea not to be punitive, but to
educate drivers,” he added. “We’re crafting the ordinance in way the driver can
have penalties reduced or removed if they complete a driver education class.”
No other cities in Georgia currently
have such an ordinance, Lambert said. He said he worked with Police Chief Billy
Grogan and the city attorney to come up with Dunwoody’s ordinance by
researching similar ones in Houston and Washington state. Nine states in the
country have “vulnerable road user” laws, Lambert said.
Lambert said he hopes to have the
proposed ordinance back before the City Council later this month. “I’m excited
for us to blaze this trail … and set an example for other municipalities,” he
said.
Dunwoody resident Cheryl Summers spoke
out against the ordinance during public comment, saying “vulnerable road users”
can use sidewalks and other pathways to stay off roads.
“I don’t see the need for this,” she
said. “I don’t know of any driver or operator of a vehicle who would
deliberately try to run down a pedestrian or one of these others vulnerable
road users. I think this is a little ridiculous and redundant to what we
already have.”
Norb
Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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