Loss to the Neighborhood

The Memorial Park neighborhood will suffer a loss soon. David "Cooler" Inglis has resigned his position from the Board. He has accepted a job in another city and will not be able to continue his volunteer work for the MPCA. David and Faith have made many lasting and important contributions to Memorial Park and they will be missed terribly.

The MPCA Board has a responsibility to make a serious and thoughtful selection in choosing a replacement for Mr. Inglis. They must select someone with a history of service to the neighborhood, a strong resume and independence of thought.

We Are Not Alone... (click here)

...and we're in pretty good company...


I felt a certain empathy with the exasperation expressed:

"He blithely says, 'I'm sure the trees will be replaced'. We are talking about a park which has very ancient trees, including the hollow tree where Elizabeth I played as a child. These are very important sites, and I am not sure that the Minister has grasped the importance of those trees. He seems to be too focused on the wood."

Nosing around some more, I've discovered that The Gadfly has a counterpart in London. I present The Greenwich Phantom, an anonymous blogger who reports on neighborhood doings. He (or she) has been at it for much longer than I, and seems to have a many more daily hours of free time, or a job that takes him everywhere (journalism?). Opinions and public comments worth reading by the Greenwich Phantom here. British subjects may sign the petition.


But we do see eye-to-eye on what he calls "vandalism," the cutting down of mature trees. They are up against the same fatuousness that we are. I see that educated Britons are just as careless in their thinking as Americans.

"I noticed one well-meaning peer (Lord Addington) suggesting that 'if we lose the odd tree, we plant two instead?'

Erm, despite numerous pleas by The Phantom, Homebase still doesn't sell 300 year-old trees planted by Charles II. I will continue to lobby Dobbies (nice rhyme, huh) to get some in stock, but until they do, that's going to be a problem. We're stuck with the ones we've got."

In the case of Greenwich Park, the trees are certifiably known to be hundreds of years old. Ours haven't been tested of course, and it was recorded that many of them were planted at various times in the 20th century. The fact that some of them were probably here when the Confederates were trying to thwart Geary's Union forces from crossing Peachtree Creek doesn't give them quite the historical cachet as little Princess Elizabeth playing beneath them in the 16th century. I suppose some of ours might have been nicked by minie balls, but those wounds are long covered over.

Two or three --or ten 3-year-old saplings are not the same as a 100-foot tall tree with a 30-foot canopy and corresponding root system. (Oh, those despicable tree roots! Some of the Path Committee won't grasp the simple idea that tree roots are not the result of erosion, tree roots are what hold the soil in place. If you cut into them or pave over them, the tree will be damaged, probably die and then the soil more easily erodes. Especially in a flood plain.) To suggest new plantings could possibly be "replacements" is moving from disingenuity to purposeful deception. If there's no intent to deceive, then I have to infer some kind of brain blockage in a failure to grasp the obvious.

Even our own City Arborist reported back in the 1970's,way before millions of acres of Atlanta's tree canopy had disappeared, when a proposed sewer project route threatened some trees in Memorial Park:

“...the trees involved were so large and many were of unique species that replacement would be impossible no matter how much money is available,” and “...the trees are irreplaceable and their value expressed in dollars is meaningless.”

Mr. Cartledge, our Association President, amazingly, is able to express the value of the trees which would be lost to the proposed paving in what seems to be c.1933 dollars, (the year of Georgia's Bicentennial, when the park was dedicated and the first 200 donated trees were planted) and he also must have the inside track on a source that not only sells mature trees at rock-bottom prices, but will transport and plant them for practically nothing, because none of the local nurseries or big box stores can match his flippant assessment as to how cheap and easy it would be to replace the 30-year-0ld trees lining Wesley Drive that are too close to the street to allow for any paving. Mr. Quillian lives in a world where those shiny new "replacement" trees will be of much more appropriate species than those varied and rare ones which were planted over the preceding decades. According to him, they ought to be placed more conveniently, I suppose out of the way of any future bulldozers.

Maybe we could have a Tree Ghetto where they all could be rounded up and kept, where they wouldn't annoy anybody anymore. (Or in that tree museum in the song?)

The New Buzzword

The Paving Committee has attached itself to a new word that is popping up everywhere these days, in a dizzying lack of logic and conflicting arguments.

"Marginal" is the word of the month.

"Any changes to the park would attract a marginal increase in usage." Can somebody tell me what "marginal" means? How many more people per hour? Twenty more? One hundred more? Will they arrive in cars? Or take MARTA? Carpool? How do they know? Have they done a study? Did they do a comparison with another park that made a change to their amenities?

OR did they just make this up?

Yes, I thought so.

Path Committee Member: " I think that it (paved sidewalk) could attract marginally (as long as it was “in scale” as we discussed) more traffic in a decidedly safer environment is better than marginally less traffic in a decidedly less safe environment."

What?

How does higher traffic make for safer streets? The paving proponents have ignored the unassailable fact that there has never been a pedestrian injury on Wesley Drive in its entire history, (nor even an auto accident in anyone's living memory) but that doing things to increase the traffic and parking on Wesley may definitely make it much more likely. Certainly making changes based on gut feelings (like the ill-conceived 3-way traffic stop which has turned out to have increased pedestrian danger) can have opposite the hoped-for effect.

And will we force people not to walk on the streets or cross the street once the paving is done? (Has anyone noticed that lots of people walk on the natural dirt path now and enjoy it just fine, by the way? Why is walking on a dirt path "a decidedly less safe environment?" )

But I digress.

Explain how we can make improvements that will most certainly be touted all over town, and on the internet-- City Hall parks site, tourist sites, jogging sites, Mom sites, dogwalking sites, Yelp.com (just see what's being said here!) and various others, word of mouth, and is literally across the street from the soon-to-be built Beltline, and yet that is only going to attract a "marginal" increase in traffic to the park?

The promoters of this project are either self-deluded, if they think it is only going to be known and used by the immediate neighborhood, somehow because it is "in scale," or they are trying to fool the membership in order to sell it.

Every day, people come to Atlanta Memorial Park from all over the area to use this relatively small park the way it is now. Possibly the attraction is limited to people who prefer a more natural, undeveloped setting, people who are willing to walk around a muddy spot or a bump in the path. Some of them do jog on the asphalt rather than on the softer dirt and grass. If they don't care for the "dangerous" street, why in Hades do they drive all the way here? They are adults, at least many of them. (The legal age for a driver's license in Georgia is 16.)

Chastain Park has a concrete path, and it is estimated to have more than 200 users per hour. (Apples to apples: They aren't coming to use the tennis courts or the golf course. They are joggers, walkers, baby strollers and bikers.)

"If you build it, they will come."

"A HAPPY PLACE FOR TREES"

Construction, Renovation and Neighbors

I'll admit I borrowed much of these thoughts from another website, which were copied, also uncredited, from somewhere else. The original author is unknown.

Renovation and construction projects require cooperation with neighbors who are impacted by the process. When planning a project, communicate with your neighbors before work begins. Sharing plans and responding to questions can resolve most issues. Anyone concerned about a neighborhood renovation should attempt to communicate directly with the property owner before involving City of Atlanta officials.

Talk with neighbors:

• Will trees be removed?
  

• Have erosion and water retention issues been addressed, especially for those homes situated on higher points?

• Have the appropriate building permits and/or variances been applied for and received?
  

• Is the renovation in keeping with the neighborhood?

Inform your contractors and subcontractors of regulations (or just good manners) and monitor for compliance.

• Limit parking to one side of the street to prevent hazards for cars and pedestrians.

• Do not allow mailboxes to be blocked.

• Locate port-o-potty away from the street if possible. (Even though this does keep some of our joggers from engaging in public indecency.)

• Require regular trash pickup and keep construction site clean. Ask that workers dispose of the remains of their meals in dumpsters and not on the ground.
  

• Install silt fencing and other erosion controls.
  

• Post permits in a visible place.

• Observe height restrictions, set-backs and all other zoning regulations.

• Schedule construction, deliveries and port-a-potty services with neighbors in mind: no earlier than 8am on weekdays and within the hours of 9am to 5pm on weekends. Excessively noisy work such as tree removal and jackhammers should not take place on weekends.

• Atlanta Memorial Park is not a dump. Landscaping debris should be disposed of lawfully. Professional landscapers are required to take it away. (Along those lines, residents may leave yard waste at the curb for pickup, so there is no reason to dump illegally in the park.)
  

If building codes and other ordinances are blatantly defied after civilized requests, of course reporting to the appropriate authority is in order. No one has the right to disrupt the neighborhood, build out of scale, damage the environment or cause someone else's home or land to be flooded.

Outdoor Watering For Dummies

One of my neighborhood reporters has passed along a clarification directly from City Hall this morning. John was indeed correct that Governor Purdue put through legislation requiring all local governments to follow uniform outdoor watering restrictions, and that means that Atlanta had to ease up on the strict bans that were in place. Unfortunately, my earlier source had been timed just prior to that passage. Here's the most current information:

• Hand watering is now allowed for 25 minutes per day on an odd-even schedule between midnight and 10 a.m. Odd numbered addresses may water on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Even numbered addresses may water Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. Hand watering is defined as one person with one garden hose with a spray nozzle that shuts off when it is released. This obviously means no automatic irrigation systems set on timers. Landscape services or workers are not allowed to water in chemicals during the day or when they overseed or plant after 10 a.m. either. It doesn't matter that they are "professionals."
  
• New professionally installed landscaping can be watered up to three days a week from midnight to 10 a.m. only for a period of 10 weeks based on the odd/even schedule.
  
• Anyone wishing to water a new professionally installed landscape must register with the Outdoor Water Use Registration Program. There is only one permit allowed per address per calendar year. The program will be hosted on the Urban Agricultural Council web site at Urban Ag Council. (Link is posted to the right for your convenience.)

Mayor Franklin is extremely unhappy about having to comply with Governor Perdue's legislation, because Atlanta is still seriously short of water, and this area is still in the midst of a long-term drought, while the city is in a population-growth pattern. Purdue's legislation was in response to political pressure from the landscaping industry, which was suffering financially. It was not because there is now more water available. The City may yet request permission to reinstitute the former bans, but askin' ain't gettin'.

In any event, it would probably be a good idea if we all acted responsibly and continued to conserve water.

Soon: The park is not forgotten.

Atlanta's Watering Ban

The Gadfly was somewhat premature in reporting that the very outdated MPCA website was going to be updated. (I even hoped it would become a useful neighborhood news site.) As you can see, nothing has changed. There's not even a note about the upcoming picnic on Sunday! I apologize if I got anyone's hopes up.

As Humphrey Bogart famously said in Casablanca , "I was misinformed."

Speaking of being misinformed, it seems that certain residents of this neighborhood are under the false impression that outdoor watering restrictions have been eased (or lifted entirely) in the City of Atlanta. This is absolutely not the case.

The Gadfly has it on unimpeachable authority that no outdoor watering, as of this writing, is allowed in Atlanta by residential water customers with two exceptions:

1. Personal food gardens.

2. One exemption per address per calendar year for 30 days for newly installed landscaping installed by a licensed landscaper. (A permit is required from the City.)

There are some professional landscapers who seem to think that they are allowed to water any time they do any routine maintenance, but that is not the case. Overseeding and fertilizing doesn't get an exception, even for professionals.

There are two sources of confusion about this, I think. One is that other nearby jurisdictions have eased their bans a bit to allow more water use as recently authorized by Governor Sonny Perdue.

The second problem is that the City of Atlanta's website is not properly maintained. All the various past watering rules remain posted and are viewable, searchable and not even dated. *

However, Atlanta residents who are watering lawns, washing cars at home and letting children play under sprinklers are breaking the law and putting all of us at risk of a water shortage that could be tragic if there is a fire and there isn't enough water pressure for fire fighters.

It might be helpful to put this type of information on the MPCA website to encourage neighborhood participation in conservation efforts, along with other civic goals. Maybe some of our neighbors are not aware that it is illegal to water outdoors.

Violations may be reported here: 404 982 1414

*Atlanta's Public Works Department has a multitude of competence issues that the drought has brought to light. Website maintenance is the microscopic tip of a gigantic iceberg.

Big Yellow Taxi