School Board Redistricting (updated)

Dunwoody has to find a way to either distance itself from the corruption that has taken over the school system, or overcome it.  I have no idea what will accomplish this so I am leaving it to people who know more than I do on this topic.  Feel free to post in the comments if you have an idea, because I am fresh out.

Excerpted from DeKalb School Watch Two:

On Tuesday (yesterday), a new map (the Mosby Map) for the DeKalb Board of Education (BOE) was approved by the DeKalb legislative delegation sub-committee. This map has 5 single member districts, instead of the 7 districts most voters were expecting. You can view what the Mosby Map looks like by clicking the photo above.  The X’s show where the  5 board members whose terms will continue live.  As you can see, the reps will be heavily concentrated in south DeKalb.
The moment this map is approved, you will hear a loud sucking sound as property taxes will be raised to the maximum amount by the BOE (thanks to gerrymandering, 4 of the 5 members live in South DeKalb).  North DeKalb property owners who pay the highest taxes that support DeKalb County School System and DeKalb County will be victims of taxation without duly elected representation.  Meanwhile, South DeKalb property values continue to decline as a direct result of the greed and ignorance of those who make up the majority of the BOE.

Full Article

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I'm adding on to this post because I wrote this after midnight while exhausted from a very long day and preparing for an even longer one today.  One last check of my usual online rounds left me utterly gobsmacked at the suggestion of a 5-member BOE.  So much for getting some extra sleep in advance of today's work.

My husband and I moved here in 2004 with his job relocation.  That was the year Lewis was appointed Superintendent.  We deliberately chose this area for the schools, especially the elementary school, thinking ahead to raising our family.  In the amount of time it took for us to get settled in our home, learn our community, start having our children, get the eldest through preschool, and make decisions about kindergarten, (just over 7 years) the Central Office made such a precipitous decline it ended in RICO indictments and test scores across the county landing in the basement.  Ultimately we decided to send our children to Catholic school for many reasons, but the shenanigans at the Central Office played a key role in that decision.

Whether or not you have children currently attending DeKalb County public schools is irrelevant in this discussion.  If you reside in and pay taxes within the boundaries of DeKalb County, this is your fight.  I believe the majority of the inmates at the Central Office asylum will not be happy until Dunwoody suffers from the same poverty, despair, and failure that the worst parts of the county experience now.  That's not impossible.  How we live in our community depends on people wanting to live here.  Bad school leadership means the decline of the home values some will go to extremes to protect. If the school system is dragged down by wasted spending and nepotism at the expense of the students' education, then all of the squabbling we have about O/I zoning, NS1 zoning, attracting large corporations, mom-and-pop small business, home business, and ozzie-and-harriet-residential ideals will be irrelevant.

You want to protect your home values?  Speak up now to protect our schools.  At this time, it's that easy.

I agree with Nancy Jester's presentation in her blog and with John's letter on his blog.  I've submitted this to the DeKalb delegation via email.

While engaging the current battle, there's still a larger war on.  I repeat, Dunwoody has to find a way to distance itself from the culture of failure that has become DeKalb schools central leadership.    Otherwise the future of our city may be in serious doubt.  Tom, Fran:  you're on.

Dunwoody City Council - The Musical!

If this doesn't make any sense, track down the parents of any school-age child and they will explain Phineas and Ferb to you.

The lyrics are on the video's YouTube page.

Many thanks for the inspiration to Rick Callihan and Bob Lundsten and their latest epistles.

FRAUD ALERT - In time for tax season

The latest fraud emails going around are spoofs of Intuit financial services.  Everyone's spazzing about taxes and records and returns so anything from Intuit is going to jump the needle on the anxiety meter.

Intuit's official online security center fraud listings.  Most recent alert was posted yesterday.

As always, when you get an email that appears to be from any of your financial services:  stop, breathe, and DON'T click on any links.  Also remember that no legitimate financial institution will ask for your password.

Best bet:  always call your financial institution at the customer service number listed on your account materials or credit/debit card to determine if there are any issues.  Do forward the email to your financial institution if possible so that they can warn other customers about the fraud attempt.

(Jeff - I got the tax organizer and I'm working on it.  Will get those papers in MUCH earlier this year!)

Oh What a Night ... Taste of Dunwoody 2012 Recap

Pictures are worth a thousand words so I'll keep the words to a minimum.
Thank you to Dunwoody Friends of CHOA for allowing SDOC to be a part of Taste of Dunwoody 2012.  I look forward to sponsoring again next year.

Here's a few photos I was able to snag between mouthfuls on my Facebook page.

The real spirit of Dunwoody is on the dance floor.  Nothing says "no matter what happens, we all love our neighbors" quite like watching Denny Shortal gettin' down in front of the bandstand.  Enjoy!  (If you missed this, get your tickets early next time!!!)

Happy Friday!

For those of you going to Taste of Dunwoody tonight, come on over and say hello!  I'll be modelling a product by SDOC's latest customer.  ;-)

Set your DVRs to catch "Say Yes to the Dress" tonight on TLC at 9 PM.
Tiffany Young, the owner of Pink Pastry Parlor and star of "Party at Tiffany's" on OWN  will be featured.  Tiffany's boyfriend proposed in the last episode of "Party at Tiffany's" and now she is picking out her dress.

Pink Pastry Parlor is a bakery/party venue at Rivermont Station in Roswell/Johns Creek/Alpharetta (depending on which direction you're coming from) that my children and I enjoy immensely.  Tiffany built this business up from scratch after losing her large corporate job.  She is an inspiration to anyone who has had to start their lives over again after a corporate layoff.  We need to support people like Tiffany right here in Dunwoody!

More Working Girl posts on Pink Pastry:

Party at Tiffany's debut recap

Party at Tiffany's debut

Local Business films Grand Opening for TLC Series

Wednesday Morning on Tilly Mill Road

Between 8 and 8:30 AM is "witching hour" on Tilly Mill.  Local residents, commuters from elsewhere passing through, students getting to and from GPC, all lined up on a road that was not built to handle this much traffic.

While we're hashing out the best way to (re)configure the roads, priorities for paving, and other ways of expediting traffic, let us not forget the factors that we have the least amount of control over, but contribute the most to road safety:

The following pic was captured while stopped at the N. Peachtree stoplight.  (I threw the Mom-mobile in park while I got this - no balancing a gear shift and electronics at the same time for me.)  What is wrong in the scene below?

Look closely and you will notice dude in the public safety vest perusing the AJC behind the wheel.  While this image was taken while traffic was stopped, the aforementioned dude was reading his paper at the same time he was driving down Tilly Mill.

Paving, road configurations, synchronizing traffic lights are all necessary to get traffic through and out to where it's going expediently.  But the roads are not going to be any safer until the idea of personal responsibility and good driving habits gets pounded into a few more skulls.

So if you know, or are the supervisor of dude driving a brown Chevy El Camino Conquista (!!) with the license tag below, you might want to pull him aside and explain the benefits of driving safely.  Because clearly, he doesn't currently get it.

College Sorority 101

Atlanta Panhellenic has announced its annual College Sorority 101 informational event for high school girls and their families. Click the image above to download your own flyer.

No doubt if you are headed to college you've heard about sorority life - either from friends or relatives, or from TV and movies.

This is your chance to meet sorority women in person, including collegians, alumnae and some national leaders of NPC sororities and ask any question you have about recruitment, requirements and what to expect from sorority life in the 21st century.  And I do mean any questions.

This informational is important for anyone considering formal recruitment for sorority membership.  If you are not familiar with sororities in real life, you will learn first-hand what you can expect.  If your mom or aunt or other older relative were in a sorority, AAPA would love to see all of you because a lot has changed since their college days.

Please RSVP online at www.atlantapanhellenic.org.
Your information will not be shared; it is only to plan for the number of guests and to contact you in case of any changes.

MS Office Live free business websites is going off into the sunset

If you have been using Microsoft Office Live Small Business and their "free" small business DIY website service, get ready for a change.

Office Live is morphing into Office 365.  The key difference for you is that now it costs money to host your site with Microsoft.  The FAQ section at the site above quotes $15 per month with a free trial period.  You have until April 30, 2012 to decide what to do with your website.

If you stick with MS, you still have to manually move all of your text and images and whatever else you have on your Office Live website onto the new one with Office 365.

Before you decide make sure to read up on all of the features that are going to be available and take some time to determine if they are going to meet your needs.

If MS Office 365 has the interactive features that you need, then all you have to do is recreate your website.

Is the new offering is too much tool (or the wrong tools) for too much money?  You have other low-cost options.    Some small businesses can get away with using WordPress or even Google's Blogger to create their sites.  Or you may need a custom hosted solution.  Either way, don't forget a custom design to broadcast your brand.

Drop me a line if you need to review your options for your MS Office business site.  I can create a theme for your solution that looks just like or better than what you created in Microsoft.  While we're at it, let's make sure that all of your business communication needs are met in the transfer process.

Dunwoody Rezoning: T minus 7 hours and counting

It's finally here, the beginning of the zoning rewrite.  A standing group meeting on a large project has monopolized  my Tuesday nights so I doubt I'll be one of the throng at Dunwoody Baptist Church tonight.

Here's the news announcement from Patch:
http://dunwoody.patch.com/articles/city-begins-zoning-rewrite-process-tonight-with-public-input-meeting

Here's Duncan|Associates that Dunwoody City Hall hired for the project.  (No relation)
http://www.duncanassociates.com/index.php

Here's the guy heading up the project in Dunwoody.  You'll probably see him around tonight
http://www.duncanassociates.com/index.php?page=resume&resume=KirkBishop&name=Kirk%20Bishop&position=Vice-President

Here's his email address:  kirk@duncanassociates.com

The descriptions of the company's past projects aren't specific as to how they rewrote codes, only that they did to make them more internally consistent, streamlined, etc.  This is a good thing.  But there's no clue as to how they're going to implement that here.  As I type this there are closed door meetings happening with the usual groups, which will probably be speaking again at the public meeting tonight.

I've already posted what type of approach to zoning will benefit the most residents in the long term.

Specifically, a solid zoning code has to have a clear, practical definition of "nuisance".  Find a way to make that word an objective, measurable benchmark by which all activities and complaints are measured.  As long as "nuisance" is subjective, any ordinance built on it is a house of cards waiting to fall.

Every resident in Dunwoody wants their neighborhood to be an enjoyable one where it is peaceful to live.  The problem comes from the fact that there is no unified agreement as to what that entails.  There has always been a spectrum of opinions on what constitutes "residential" and that spectrum became clearer after incorporation.  My personal thing about home businesses is only one of the questions being raised.  Don't forget the "urban farmers", the "backyard chickens", the "alternate transportation" and other causes that are questioning the definition of a "residential" activity.  Those questions are not going away.  Fighting at City Hall every single time a new idea comes into fashion is a waste of the city's time and money and residents' energy.

There is one thing that will decimate a community's quality of life more than home businesses, more than backyard chickens, and more than any other "new" activity to be dreamed up.  That one thing is a reputation as "The City Of 'NO' ".  When the entire life of a city is defined by one group within it, and anyone deviating from it is considered an "auslander" to be avoided or suppressed you're going to end up attracting fewer and fewer people to be a part of the city.  The result is, the quality of life that is supposed to be preserved becones "groupthink" and crosses over into stagnation.  What some will find ironic is to preserve a certain lifestyle, it's necessary to find common ground and coexistence within that spectrum of thought.

Not every lifestyle or activity is going to be workable within the city.  I would like to see the starting point of the discussion be an attempt at coexistence, rather than immediate barriers to growth and differentiation.

For tonight, I hope those attending avoid three "H"s:
Hysteria
Hyperreaction
Hyperbole

Let's see if we can get through the night without overreacting to different opinions, dire warnings about "slippery slopes" or just making up a bunch of nonsense because someone doesn't like another idea.

Hell, if this ordinance code ends up getting written well enough, you might even convince me that chickens aren't so bad!

The Fine Print

Whenever John or the City posts documents, take some time to check them out.  I know a lot of this is dry analytical stuff but it's worth it to read over because it gives interesting insights into City Hall's perspective.

This caught my eye:  General Fund Resources & Uses Forecast

It starts out as an overview of economic conditions facing Dunwoody and a perspective on approaches to keeping the city financially solvent consistently as the economy fluctuates.

This quote from page 6 is worth pondering:

We benefit from a more educated work force.  The unemployment rate for those without post-secondary degrees is more than double those with post-secondary degrees.  Without doubt, it is my opinion our strongest weapon for fiscal resiliency is ensuring our labor market is trained and ready for growth while attracting those businesses that will hire our labor.  

No one will argue against the benefit of having large companies relocate to Dunwoody.  Large corporations provide a lot of jobs and a lot of benefits.  But a large portion of the city's business community is in small businesses and entrepreneurs - the things that create large businesses.  If our citizens are smart enough to be hired, are they not smart enough to create jobs as well?  If we are smart enough to attract corporations, are we not smart enough to create home-grown corporations  inside our borders?  There is no mention of the impact of the small business community in Dunwoody in this report, and nothing about intentions to create businesses at home, rather than just attract them from outside.

The economic growth we saw in the 2000s came from small businesses, not large corporations.  After an economic decline, like our recent recession, the small businesses were the first to recover.  Small businesses are a key indicator in economic recovery after a decline.

Does City Hall recognize this?  If so, where is that incorporated into the financial recommendations?  If not - why?

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm..........

How SOPA Can Affect Your Business and You (Yes, YOU!)

I'm not going to get into the flashy symbolic graphics or page-blocking JavaScript, or wax sadly poetic about the evil pall of censorship.

We're just going to keep this really simple for the small business owner who uses the Internet.

Start by reviewing this article from Mashable, with links to the full text of the bills and direct references in the analysis.

Another discussion in simpler terms and spelled out in the form of a hypothetical situation is available at the blog of Splendid Communications, a marketing firm catering to the wedding industry.

If you want it even simpler than that, here is an infographic.  (Be patient.  It's big.)

While much of the media focused on blocking foreign websites with bootlegged material or other malware (what I affectionately call "Chinese Takeout" due to the frequency of spam from that region) there are severe penalties for owners of US websites that are reported as "infringing".

Most people know next to nothing about copyright law.  The public has become so used to seeing frequent images that they ASSume they are public domain.  Very little is public domain.  So if you even unknowingly have information on your website that crosses a copyright line, however obscure, however subjective, a complaint will cut your bottom line off at the knees.  Online transactions and advertising can be blocked and you're relegated to the stone age.  That's just inadvertent infringement.  I'm not going to bother with deliberate theft that is passed on to an unknowing flunkie.  It's covered in the Splendid Communications article.

A precaution I always take as a web designer is a boilerplate statement in all of my contracts that once the site goes live and ownership of the completed code is turned over to the customer, that the customer is legally liable for all of the content on the site.  There are going to be webmasters thrown under the bus with a law like this:  "Hey, it's not my fault.  My web guy put it up.  Prosecute them!"  Not on my watch.

We're not just talking about commerce websites either, gang.  All of you blog owners out there:  John, Bob, Kerry, Rick, TOD, Paula, Cerebration, the other Bob, Donna, Lindsay, anybody else I missed - I know you're all reading this! - think about your comments section.  (Except for TOD who doesn't allow comments.)  You know how the spammers will sneak in their links by registering a Google ID, then posting some bland generic stuff on an old post and then a link to whatever it is they're hawking?  And it takes you a while to find it and delete it?  Under this bill, you're liable for that content.  If no one notices, you get lucky, you delete the comment and go on your way.  But if you miss it and someone complains, you're toast.  I don't know about you but I never feel that lucky.

It's a couple of bad bills that need to go back into committee.

BTW - to get around the Wikipedia blackout:  search your content and hover over the "stop" button on your browser.  The nanosecond the content loads, hit the stop button.  Read away.  The graphics and presentation of Wikipedia's point were good but the JS implementation was amateur-hour.