Insights Into Dunwoody After the GA06 Special Election

Even the most staunch, long-term "I've lived in Dunwoody longer than YOU!!" citizen is coming to realize that Dunwoody's population is not a monolith but a mosaic of assorted lifestyles and ideologies.  Like it or not, there are people different from "us" (whoever "us" may be) living in our fair city.

Not everyone is accepting that fact peacefully.  In fact, a few weeks ago an anonymous Dunwoody resident posted this comment to Stan Jester's blog, regarding where "REAL" Dunwoodians live and that "those others" should be cut off outside of city limits.

But is this right?  Is our city split along district lines, with District 3 being all "those" whackos?

Let's take a look at how Dunwoody voted in the House District 06 special election.  This image was taken from an interactive map that showed precinct results from all District 06 precincts.  (View it in Firefox for best results.  Mousing over or tapping each precinct will highlight the borders and give a final vote tally.)
http://www.myajc.com/news/gen-politics/how-each-neighborhood-voted-the-6th-district-runoff/72ZamHK2RQLoVsvFhcfWjM/

Here is what Dunwoody looks like.  Red and Blue are self-explanatory

What's this we see?  Dunwoody's districts, divided via north/south lines are not the boundaries of the red and blue majority votes.  The ideological divide in this case split along a roughly east-west  through all three districts.  The "blue" segment is a mix of apartments, condos, large-scale commercial space and long-established single family neighborhoods.  The "red" district sees its own share of high-density housing as well.

The putz who wrote the stupid comment above may well change his tune to say, "Well, just cut off that perimeter district" instead of Dunwoody's east side - same difference."

Not so fast there, Skippy.

The perimeter area houses the commercial districts that are paying 70% of the property taxes, which are keeping residential tax rates stable.  And - making the existence of Dunwoody feasible as a city.\

So what did we learn from this week, aside from the fact that if we never see a canvasser again it will be too soon?

• Ideologies and lifestyles are a broad, diverse mix in Dunwoody.  The days of the stereotypical one-type of resident is long gone.
• You probably live next to someone who thinks and lives differently than you do.
• Our districts are all a steady mix of these ideologies.  There is no cutting one off saying "I have no need of you."
• We'll all be a lot happier if we can coexist in spite of these differences.  No one is going anywhere.