Save Tucker!

Misinformation and conflicting reports about what a new city would actually do, how much it would cost and how the process works is making it very difficult for residents to support ANY plan.  Tucker residents must INSIST that city advocates put an actual proposed charter in front of them before they will support it.  We can't stop corruption if we refuse to change the process that has let it continue for decades! Posted on the Tucker 2015 Facebook page, a description about a proposed city of Tucker that ended with this statement, "Tucker 2015 believes these complex factors deserve to be considered by all citizens who will bear the cost, not simply a small group of unelected volunteers."   Which led to this response from one commenter: ??   Who elected YOU??   Tucker 2015 IS a small group of unelected people, possibly even PAID (as the Tucker 2014 was  listed with the state of Ga as a For Profit company and Auman has been quoted as being ...

1.  Did I attend a recent meeting for a city in my area and leave with the strange feeling that I was now obligated to pitch some kind of a pyramid scheme to my neighbors that I don't even fully understand myself?                   2.  Did I attend a recent meeting for a city in my area but leave without any real tangible facts that I can verify on my own?   How do I know that I can trust that what I heard as the answers to my questions was the same understanding that others may have left with when they asked the same or similar questions? 3.  Is a word of mouth campaign (asking me to tell five others and then they tell five others, etc.) viewed as a reliable method for the dissemination of factual data by current government entities or even in corporate America?  Wouldn't an actual copy of a proposed city charter or a fact sheet approved by the sponsoring legislator be more appropriate for this important of an is...

Dear Friends, Thank you for endorsing the Blueprint to Redefine DeKalb; your voice is essential to its success. I urge you to stay involved and help as a citizen’s force to push for the next steps that are needed to start bringing real reform to DeKalb County government. There are two easy things you can do to bring about change: FIRST, attend the September 30th public meeting in the Maloof Auditorium at 6:30 PM to hear the leadership team’s proposed reforms and to provide feedback. We will also discuss implementation and the citizens’ role to push reform through state and local government. SECOND, recommend the Blueprint’s website, www.BlueprintDeKalb.org , to your circle of friends and neighbors and ask them to endorse and attend the meeting. The Board of Commissioners, the Interim CEO and the DeKalb Delegation to the General Assembly need to hear from as many people as possible. I am very proud that a group of engaged neighborhood leaders have taken the original Blueprint’s ...

Upon attending the subcommittee meeting on incorporation and annexations,   a subset of county CEO Lee May's "Task Force" on County Operation, here are some philosophical thoughts for you today, regardless of where you live: Taxpayers are being kicked under the bus and real conversations with lawmakers and other leaders are not taking place.   ************************************* Compromise and change cannot come without a true, meaningful dialogue.  This type of dialogue will not occur as long as there are those that disrespect the views of others.  "In order to have a REAL conversation with another person, you, yourself, must open to the possibility that you are wrong."    (-- dadsfirst, July 11, 2011, DeKalb School Watch Blog) In other words, if two individuals seek to converse and each one holds fast to their own beliefs without the courtesy of actually listening to the other individual, then you have not really had a true "convers...

Sept. 17, 2014   To whom it may concern:   I find your response to Sen. Millar's voting location allegations to be very disturbing.    It was reported by many sources that South DeKalb Mall was not the only location to have Sunday voting.  Rather, it was also available at the Memorial Drive Elections Office and Tucker Recreation Center.    Now, you have sent out an email announcing that Early Voting is available for three locations.  And indeed, the first three locations on your list do include Tucker Recreation Center, but if we look closer, it says that Tucker Recreation is actually NOT available on Sunday.  It has early voting, but not after church on Sunday like the other locations will have and like was reported widespread in the media. Please inform your elections supervisor and the CEO and whomever else might need to know, but Central DeKalb County Residents are getting very tired of the games that are played between the North...

On our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/SaveTuckerFromLakesideCity , we were recently challenged to prove that there was a connection between the city proposals of Briarcliff and Lakeside. While a simple Google Search of the two terms together can help anyone who wants to research this issue for themselves, here are a few of the clues that tipped us off about this unholy union: 1.    This article by Briarcliff spokesperson Herman Lorenz  in the North Druid Hills / Briarcliff Patch: The Briarcliff and Lakeside organizations. By  Herman Lorenz (Open Post) Updated October 31, 2013 at 5:37 am     42   Why are there two organizations in the area talking about a new city?  The City of Briarcliff Initiative appreciates all of the work being done by the Lakeside City Alliance  educating  the community about the values and opportunities that come from being a city. We are in agreement with most aspects of Lakeside’s educa...

Franchise Fees are a convenient way that cities can collect revenue from you without having to call it a tax. But, make no mistake, it is still a tax - a tax in disguise.    See the exact slide below that Lakeside City Alliance was pitching to those who attended one of their meetings:   Cities proposed in DeKalb - at what cost? Everyone wants a piece of Tucker these days, or so it seems.  There are three different city groups who have drawn various configurations of city maps.  Each map includes some portion of what is now called Tucker, as you and I have always known it to exist.  None of the maps are fully inclusive of our area, so if any of them are approved, Tucker will be forever changed as a result. While each proposal for a new city in our area offers a slightly different version of the same story, they are all essentially offering to take a few services away from the county and place them under the control of a new layer of governme...

First, here is Sen. Fran Millar's (R-Dunwoody) statement directly from his Facebook page: INTERIM DEKALB CEO HONEYMOON OVER How ironic! Michele Obama comes to town and Chicago politics comes to DeKalb.   For the third time in recent months Governor Deal appointee Interim CEO Lee May has disappointed those of us that hoped he could help bring the county together.   First, he assembles a task force of 15 with no elected Republicans to review various aspects of county government. I called his hand and Representative Jacobs and I were asked to serve on the group. This seems like a good idea since legislation will be required for many changes. Second, he schedules meetings throughout the county with Tucker being the only north location. Again, I called his hand and several north locations were added with little publicity.   Now we are to have Sunday voting at South DeKalb Mall just prior to the election. Per Jim Galloway of the AJC, this location is dominated by...

This is just one part of the numerous connections we have uncovered between the pro-Lakeside and pro-City of Tucker groups.  Coincidence or a real conspiracy to hand over commercial property to form a new city while dividing and destroying Tucker as we know it? This will be a recurring topic on this blog with more evidence brought to light as we move forward. The push for new cities is not what we are being told and someone needs to stop it before we are all harmed in the process and Tucker, as we know it, ceases to exist at all.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/09/ferguson-worst-governments.html "The myth of localism is rooted deep in our political psyche. Left and right alike use small and local as terms of approbation, big and bureaucratic as terms of abuse. None of us is equipped to see that the government that actually oppresses us is that which is closest to us." When the town of Ferguson, Missouri, exploded last month, there was an effervescent moment when right and left agreed on the problem. The problem, Democrats and Republicans concurred, was militarized police. It was the perfect trans-ideological nightmare, combining the right’s fear of centralized authority with the left’s fear of excessive military force. In point of fact, police militarization bore only the faintest responsibility for the tragedy in Ferguson. At worst, the weaponry at the disposal of the town’s cops made them more aggressive in responding to protesters. But old-fashioned policing tools were all the Fergus...

 Much buzz has been created by the controversial memos by Senator Fran Millar, the champion of a proposed Lakeside City which this blog was created in an effort to stop, when he vowed to stop DeKalb County's Interim CEO from opening early voting up to residents on a Sunday (Oct. 26) prior to the next election. Sen. Fran Millar wants to draw a map to exclude you if you don't look or think the same way he does and he doesn't want you to have a vote on it, either. Think that can't happen?  Well, it's happening here, in Tucker, GA, right now. Regardless of whether or not that date is open, the important  takeaway from this entire debate should be that voting in Georgia, and specifically in DeKalb County, as elsewhere in the country, is low.  What happens when you don't show up to vote?  Well, small special interest groups who can control or influence the way others vote in their circle get what they want.  Corporations can change laws without you even re...

There is a well known public education advocate named Diane Ravitch who writes for major newspapers, mainly the Washington Post.  She has reported about the issues that are dogging our American school system from high stakes testing, to the reliance upon technology as a replacement for quality teaching to the charter takeover by big time corporations. Here is an excerpt from a recent article that ran in the Huffington Post: "If present trends continue, the U.S. will have a dual system of education in another decade. Some cities will have few public schools, only charters that choose their students and exclude those with disabilities and those who can't speak English. The few remaining public schools in urban districts will enroll the charter school rejects. The great irony is that privately managed schools don't get better results than public schools on average for poor students yet they are a gold mine for their founders. What is at stake is the great tradition ...