INTRODUCING: Wine Xplorer!

Last night I launched one of my big summer projects!!

www.wine-xplorer.com

The front door of Wine Xplorer's venue
in  Dunwoody Plaza

WineXplorer is a cozy wine tasting club in the Dunwoody Plaza shopping center on Dunwoody Village Drive.  (The same center that houses the 1420 Room, Dunwoody Pediatrics, etc.)  This location serves as the new physical headquarters of the Atlanta Wine Meetup.  The club has over 3,000 members and now has a venue for comfortable, casual, neighborhood-scale wine tastings and related special events.

I met the owner/coordinator Katt Martin through the Chamber of Commerce.  She had commissioned a combination online community/e-commerce website based on Drupal, the same CMS that the Dunwoody Chamber website is built in.  However, she was becoming unhappy with the results and wanted a new developer to take over the project.  That's where I came in.

First step was to go through the database and additional functions that were built already, find the bugs, then find what had not been included or done incorrectly.  There were a couple of standard Drupal "modules" (plug-in additional functions) that had been customized by the previous company - but there was no documentation included.  Oh joy.  The project started by reading lots of code line by line.

Next issue on the table was the appearance.  The version I received was not even close to what Katt wanted to represent her club.  Katt wanted a unique combination:  the sleek, glossy, uncluttered structure of now-standard "Web 2.0" technology, but instead of the cool greys and blues that are typical of that design, she wanted a color palette of earth tones to exude a sense of warmth and comfort and closeness.  That's not a combo you see very often.  The result is what you see in the image above.  In honor of the Wine Xplorer club, I call this theme "Cabernet & Chocolates."

There are numerous features in this site, some included with the initial launch, others planned to debut in a scheduled sequence.  First and foremost is membership.  Members can join the club free of charge and engage in the online community as well as participate in events.  Next - the calendar of events.  The site owner and her staff schedule club events for the venue and display them in a calendar form.  From there, a visitor can browse the upcoming events, and purchase tickets securely right where they're sitting.  Tickets for multiple events can be purchased in one secure transaction.

Bring your camera when you attend an event.   Registered members are welcome to upload their photos to the gallery and share their experience and POV.

Finally, membership has its benefits.  The first benefit that rolled out with the site launch are Xplorer Points.  Members earn "points" by participating in events and interacting with the online extension of the Wine Xplorer community.  The points can be used to get discounts on future purchases.  Katt has more surprises in store.  I'll let her brag on them when she wants me to pull the trigger.

Looking for more than just membership?  The Wine Xplorer community welcomes wine bloggers, wine experts, and other who would like to add their expertise to the website, to organizing events, and growing the club.  Opportunities are on the site as well.

Your Host, Katt Martin!

Best of all, Wine Xplorer is a community in real life as well as online.  When I first visited to go over programming mid way through the project.  I was determined to keep my mouth shut so I wouldn't embarrass myself with my lack of knowledge about wine, even though I have a firm grasp on what I like.  I need not have been concerned.  Wine Xplorer is not only not expensive or difficult, it is also not overbearing, or intimidating, or pretentious.  Anyone who enjoys wine and is interested in learning or experimenting is welcome, from any walk of life.  The venue at Dunwoody Plaza has a comfortable homey atmosphere.  It's impossible NOT to make yourself at home.  There's even an adjoining "wine cave"-type room if you'd like a more formal tasting experience.

We've met the goal of a completely seamless online community that includes calendars, online ticketing, e-commerce and various forms of member interaction including photo sharing and blogging - with more to come.  In addition, this online community blends seamlessly with real life interactions and an easy-to-use administration interface where various members have different abilities to manage different elements of the site.  This is the ideal spectrum that an interactive website is supposed to accomplish.

Next event is a Wine Social tonight at 7:30 which I'm going to try to attend if I can get the kiddos squared away early enough.  Tickets are still available at the site.  Keep your eyes peeled for more local wine events from Wine Xplorer.

Who is the Face of Dunwoody?

Most Facebook comments from city hall aren't too exciting.

This one should be interesting!  Are you the face of Dunwoody?  Your spouse?  Your neighbor?  Or kids?  Here's a chance to find out.  Comments are open if you go to the event and would like to report back.

We will be out at Brook Run Park this Saturday 9/22 taking pictures from 4pm-7pm. We are looking for men, women, families, kids, and pets who would like to be models for our Dunwoody photography. No experience necessary, just have fun! Please contact Molly 404 949-3776 for more information.

A Greenway By Any Other Name

The latest hot topic in Dunwoody development is the resurgence of "multi-use trails".

This topic nearly came to a riot before the last election when the first "greenway" plan was presented.  The original version involved confiscating easements (private residential property that utilities pay to use for their equipment) and paving them over for general public use.  While some were willing to donate their property to this purpose, others, notably those who would stand to lose 1/3 or more of their lot and have the greenway uncomfortably close to their homes, objected.  Loudly.  The "greenways" were removed from the parks plan.

Now in 2012 the subject is "multi use trails".  Same concept, same purpose, different name, slightly different approach.

These trails run around Brook Run Park in this overlay drawing, except at the northwest end of the park where the trail diverts south so as to avoid private property that is surrounded by the park.  The rest of the trails (in red) run directly on the perimeter for the most part.

The sales pitch images are oddly familiar:

The text in the  links and warmfuzzyfeelgood pitch images are exactly the same as the original Greenway presentation.  The only difference is that "Greenway" has been substituted with "multi use trail".

Not only is this new proposal flat-out laziness, it assumes that no one will notice or call out city staff for it.

The best thing I can say about the Brook Run greenway is that it employs municipal land, rather than privately owned residential land.  The city can make whatever plans they want without intruding directly on anyone's castle.  The similar trails in Georgetown are being planned in with the rest of the development from scratch.  Again, nothing to tear down.  

Q&A by Hutmacher.

(Note:  words are great, pictures supporting them would be better.)

There are still drawbacks.  First, the amount of construction involved.  Brook Run had a small network of forest-like trails to stroll or hike along.  We're talking nature trails, not paved highways.  Then that evolved into "paved walkways".  Now we're back to the original 12-foot-wide greenway.  Development projects in Dunwoody have a tendency to expand during discussion, along with their budgets (cf, Dunwoody Village Parkway).  I'd still like to know why this is the usual trend.

Second:  when the playground and skate park were built, homeowners on the opposite side of Peeler Road went completely ape at the number of trees being cut down and the lack of screening between their homes and the active parts of the park.  Does anyone think the reaction will be different this time?  The trees are not going to obediently uproot themselves and replant elsewhere.  The screening that immediate neighbors say they want is going to be completely demolished.  The Q&A claims that only a "minimum" of trees are going to be removed but doesn't clarify a number and there are no artist renderings or even sketches superimposed over photographs to demonstrate this.  Only the same greenway sales photos from the original presentation.  

Speaking of trees, how is this plan getting reconciled with the efforts of the Sustainability Commission who claim to want to preserve tree canopy in Dunwoody?  You can either develop land for greenways by cutting down trees or you can preserve trees via force of law.  You can't do both.  I don't find the Q&A credible when it implies that few trees are going to be disturbed.  There's 12 feet of pavement plus a buffer zone on either side, especially during construction.  Again, there are no photos of the area to be built itself to confirm anything in the City's documents.  

Next is the question of materials.  Sustainability Commission and related "green" advocates have been touting  "green" building and "green" materials to the sky since the city was founded.  Now they have a chance to put that rhetoric into action by using the much celebrated "pervious paving".  But wait, there's a snag.  It turns out that "pervious paving" materials are only functional if nothing "green" falls on them.  Like leaves, dirt, or pine straw.  So we're now back to concrete, the less expensive of the standard paving alternatives.  The "green" advocates have not been forthcoming about the disadvantages of "green" materials - we have to find them out the hard way when it's time to consider their use.  

These questions of mine are just for the Brook Run section of the greenway plan.  They don't apply to the Georgetown development because the land was already cleared for development.

Before I can decide what side of this plan I stand on, I'd like to see more than an aerial photograph of the entire park.  I would like to see on-location photos of the areas being developed with similar markups clarifying what is going to be disturbed and what isn't.  I'd like to see the engineers' reports that confirm that water runoff will not affect the properties on the opposite side of the street from the greenway where it runs along the edge.  (Especially along Peeler Road where the curbs are crumbling and water is a major issue during storms.)

I want to believe that what is being presented is the best option.  But no one at the city is showing it in any tangible way.  Recycled sales photos from the old greenway project and memos on city stationery don't cut it.