Save Tucker!

This was the vision for a "Tucker Township" as visioned by a beta version of a new school review website.  The website is:  https://k12.niche.com/t/tucker-township-dekalb-ga/ Who drew this map?  We are not really sure.  We stumbled upon it recently while looking for Tucker election results. We do, however, think this map, called "Tucker Township" actually shows a good compromise between Tucker and Lavista Hills that could have worked well for everyone.   It offers a great way to share the Northlake area commercial tax revenue.  So, why didn't anyone suggest something like this  prior to putting forth competing bills in the 2013 and 2014 legislative sessions?  And, why is Tucker's city still being allowed to move forward when it has been called "unconstitutional" by even the legislators who supported it? Limited services government in the form of a new city is something that the Georgia constitution does not allow, apparently. ...

Ben Shakleford says he reached out to people he knew after the Lavista Hills referendum failed at the ballot box and asked, "... what do you think about maybe annexation?  And, we're next to Chamblee." If you haven't heard, a portion of the former Lavista Hills movement (which is also formerly the Lakeside City and City of Briarcliff initiatives) has not stopped pushing for a city, any city as long as it is not in any way related to Tucker, even after losing in the referendum vote this past November.   So, far, we have heard them say that they have: Trimmed up their map, calling it the "North Lavista Hills" area, basically cutting things off at Briarlake Road, but taking in all the commercial not already in Tucker, most notably the Northlake Mall which they have said they do not shop at themselves, Brought back Mary Kay Woodworth to lead the effort until she quits, again, Cut out some of the areas that they initially claimed were the ones to star...

If you have ever wondered if the schools in DeKalb were really "that bad" that SACS had to be called in, just look at how the adults in DeKalb are behaving right now and what the process for creating cities in the state of Georgia has been turned into.  People being pitted against one another and politicians stepping back and waiting for the right  moment to offer their own spin, for a price.  Savior to one group, demon to another.  It keeps them in office and keeps the novices at bay. There is nothing more precious to a parent than his / her child.  And they had to mess around with education, didn't they?  There is no single more important investment one makes in a lifetime than his / her home.  They have to mess with that now, too, don't they?  The only one service that everyone agreed was working just fine was garbage collection, so they had to go and mess with that, too? There is very little that can be said that has not already been s...

This is a letter shared with the "Dekalb Strong" group.  You can join the conversation at https://www.facebook.com/groups/DeKalbStrong . We didn't realize how easy tweaking was. “Tweak” and just like that, 2000 people are moved from one city proposal to another. (“LaVista Hills, Tucker border tweaked in Senate,” News, March 20). Our home is in Toco Hills on the southern edge of the proposed LaVista Hills and we’d like to be tweaked out of it.   North and north central DeKalb County residents have become pawns in the misguided ambitions of a few. With all the changes made by the Senate and House, it’s vital the feasibility of these proposals be revisited. The LaVista Hills boundaries have bled commercial property to the Tucker proposal and Brookhaven’s annexation of Executive Park. As reconfigured, LaVista Hills is almost entirely residential. Even including Toco Hills shopping center and Northlake mall, there appears to be insufficient commercial or ind...

Two photos for two new proposed cities, but both featuring at least one supporter who believes he belongs in BOTH groups.   What OTHER similarities are there between these two "rivals" that their supporters may not know about?   How exactly did all of these proposals supposedly come "from the people" but ended up wanting the exact same things, with the exact same slogans and now, we learn, the exact same people.   In fact, Lakeside City was started by a group of people who stated that one of their main motivators was that they did not want to be included in a proposed City of DeKalb.  Later, Stonecrest was started, the story goes, because of the efforts to start a city of Lakeside in North DeKalb.   Before all of this, there was "Brookhaven YES."  Now, we have "Lakeside YES" and "Stonecrest City YES."   How stupid do they think we all are that we cannot see they are all part of the same plan? Either write ...

Tired of hearing people in DeKalb County misrepresent how you, as a Tucker resident, feel about the DeKalb County police and the job they are doing?   When Tucker residents told the city advocacy group at their onset that they did not want to start a city police force, opponents thought this concept would be one they could latch on to and use against them. "Why doesn't Tucker want a police force?" they would say.  Well, the answer is pretty simple:  we already have one.  The DeKalb County police department does an outstanding job protecting Tucker and the rest of the county. But, there actually was a time, about 100 years ago, to be exact, that Tucker residents were not so happy with their police protection.  That's because they didn't have any!   According to an  article in the Champion this week about the 100th commemorative year of DeKalb's finest, residents of the Tucker community wanted police protection, so they pressured the DeKalb Count...