When the fight to create a city of Lakeside was first brought to the public's attention via a
created by the Alliance Founders, a brave resident, Jordan M. Fox, used the open forum posting format to attempt to raise awareness about a very serious zoning, permitting and safety issue that was taking place at that very moment in time. She returned to the bulletin board online to ask for help, share concerns and raise awareness for a very serious matter that could have long term implications on multiple neighborhoods.
Unfortunately, her challenges to the newly self-proclaimed leaders went unanswered and eventually her comments tapered off as no one in the small circle of followers (at that time) seemed to be particularly interested or concerned. Now that there has been widespread construction, road paving and utility work throughout the entire Lakeside / Sagamore / Briarcliff / Briarlake / Oak Grove area, we thought this issue might be worthy of a second look, especially for those who live in the area affected.
So, in case you missed it and don't know what issue we are referring to, because you didn't hear any of the strong community leaders mention a thing about it at any of their 85 meetings or subsequent rants about other urgent issues affecting their own portion of their own map, like attempted child abductions that turned out to be grossly exaggerated claims egged on by the true fear mongers, here's a summary from a old "news" report from former North Druid Hills-Briarcliff Patch editor Jonathan Cribbs :
Opponents of an
Atlanta Gas Light regulator station being built in PDK's flight path are circulating a video of a 2010 fire at a similar station, also constructed near a residential neighborhood.
The video is of a 2010 gas regulator station fire in Toledo, Ohio.
Lori Muskat, chair of the Clairmont Community Alliance, sent the video to several public officials, asking them to persuade the Georgia Public Service Commission to stop the project.
Muskat, along with another resident of the Clairmont Road/Tanglewood Circle community, appeared this past week before the commission, raising objections to the project.
"I have been very disappointed by the obvious lack of accountability by the regulatory process," said Chamblee City Councilman Tom Hogan. "AGL has been very unresponsive to the very strong requests of the neighborhood, and have provided only minimal responses/dialogue about the many issue raised.
"If this area were inside the Chamblee city limits, I would have led a vigorous offensive against AGL for their dismissive position in response the community’s needs. I hope the obvious toothlessness of the PSC gets the attention of our local state representatives, and next year’s legislative session brings new tools for accountability and transparency."
While AGL spokespersons say the station and pipeline are safe, some local residents say the company has not been forthcoming about addressing the concerns of local residents.
See Also:
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And, what did the "pro-city / We can't advocate for or against / We love where we live and want to protect it with better zoning, yadda, yadda" leaders do to help spread the word about this pipeline? Well, here's just a sample:
(reminder, this is from 2013... today the pipeline is being built right under your / our feet and homes and streets.... literally.) And, DECA was able to get off the Lakeside map. Lucky DECA.
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Message 1 of 5 , Mar 15, 2013
To all -
This is a reminder of the importance of attending the March 20, 2013, meeting of the Clairmont Community Alliance. The meeting is to be held at the Chamblee Branch of the DeKalb Library at 4115 Clairmont Rd, Chamblee, GA 30341.
There will be an audio-visual presentation that will bring everyone up to date on what has transpired relative to the AGL pipeline installation and the proposed regulator station, as well as meaningful information about safety concerns, potential additional AGL expansion, the gas line breakage and leak that resulted in the closing of Clairmont Road on March 8th, and other items of great importance to all of us.
We look forward seeing you there. Please send us an email if you have questions about the meeting.
Cheryl Huvard
on behalf of the Clairmont Community Allilance
clairmontcommunityalliance@...
-- Jordan M. Fox
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Mar 16, 2013
Jordan M Fox, Cheryl Huvard & CCA,
Why is your group posting information on this site? Honestly, I find your issue completely misaligned with the Lakeside group's purpose on many levels. It appears that you are simply high jacking this site for your NON Lakeside issue as a means of publicity. I don't believe the basis of your concerns or issues would be located in or even close to the previous or currently proposed Lakeside City boundaries.
Additionally, your fear mongering around this regulator station is completely based on hyping speculation of worst case scenarios where the probability of an occurrence is almost zero. Find a higher risk concern for your area to worry about, God knows, you have a bunch of them! You might focus on the high crime incidents including DUI's, directly brought about by the scourge of strip bars in your area. This issue might affect us as a neighboring community and therefore warrant some interest. So unless this issue will affect our taxes or our quality of services or our schools, we are NOT interested. This group has enough to focus on. Take it somewhere else! - Randy Rand
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Why do we care? Save Tucker! does care about this issue and the people who are being affected by it for a number of reasons. One reason that pertains to city formation groups and our hesitation to support any of them ... is that it is clear that there are hidden agendas at play from the beginning of this city movement for Lakeside. There are certain "issues" that are raised without any evidence or explanation (WHY do they want to control zoning? WHAT are they trying to do with their school attendance zone and how will it affect others?) and then there are BIG issues, like the one raised by Jordan M. Fox, that seem to be taboo. They won't touch it. They ignore it. They pretend it is not important to them and therefore it should not be important to anyone. This is the same way parents in Tucker were treated when they tried to learn more about why a group of people, referred to at the time only as "The Lakeside Community" but never identified, wanted cell phone towers at 12 schools to improve their dropped call issues in their small enclave. (Myself being one of those concerned parents.)
How can you claim on one hand to love your community and then, on the other hand, publicly insult and so rudely dismiss the very people who are a part of that community?
Is it really this existing community that the city advocates (all of them) are fighting so hard to "locally control" or is it possible that city advocates have something to gain if the true community leaders, like Jordan Fox and Cheryl Huvard, finally throw up their hands in disgust and leave? Those pushing for "other" recent cities ended up in some sweet positions when it was time to vote and they rewarded themselves with some sweet salaries and perks, too. Sounds a lot like the county government they were saying we needed to get away from. So, how exactly will ANY new city do ANYTHING specifically for the taxpayers? Not the businesses ... but the actual residents who are living here and struggling to find decent schools for their kids while living in the state with the second highest unemployment rate in the nation?
There has been plenty of time for them to convince us that these cities will be good for everyone or even just better for most. But, they haven't done that. They've pointed fingers at others they say are doing bad things, but then they turn around and lie, bully, intimidate and try to push the topics that concern REAL residents of our entire area aside as if the only opinions that matter are their own.
Why does this matter to Save Tucker? Because the Tucker 2014 city group didn't bring any of these issues to light. In fact, at the first opportunity they had, they jumped into a partnership with these same folks and tried to get a negotiated map passed by the House at the last moment. They were singing the praises from the very beginning for the legislators who orchestrated the entire fiasco. And they worked together with the Lakeside group to attempt to discredit and silence the real voices of the Tucker community. If their negotiated map (which isn't really a negotiation since we all know that only one person actually drew both maps from the onset of the whole city battle anyway).... but if the divided up map would have actually been approved by the state and then by voters, we would be living in a very strange Tucker right now and we would be paying a lot more to do so. But, more on that in a later post.
Is this a conspiracy theory? You can call it that. We just call it the truth.
Sure, we've all heard about "keep your friends close and your enemies closer," but these groups (Tucker, Briarcliff, Lakeside) are doing much more than that. They have all been together, working on this plan to deceive the voters, the legislators, the taxpayers, from the very beginning.
One way you can always spot a "faux" grass roots, or astro-turf, group, is by looking at their Marketing. Anyone who has worked in a corporate Marketing Department can spot it a mile away... it's "corporate" marketing. It isn't grass roots and it isn't cheap. Look at the photos, the models, the quality of the paper they use. Did you suddenly hit the lottery and decide to donate to this cause that you aren't even sure you understand or want to vote in favor of any time soon? No? Well, guess what? Neither did your neighbor or anyone else you know. The big money had to come from somewhere... so how to we follow the money?
Well, that part we don't know. Because Save Tucker! is a true grass roots effort. We don't have all the answers. We don't always write in perfectly bulleted lists or on high gloss white, double sided, white paper press releases and, if you'll notice, our story often is ignored or overlooked by the media, too.
Why? Because there is a targeted, corporate, strategic agenda at play and we weren't factored into the equation. We were underestimated... and we became a thorn in the side of the Brair Patch.
Let this stuff sink in. There's more to come.... lots more!
