From You
Request For Feedback
originally published February 21, 2007
I would like to get the community’s feedback on my proposal to ensure safety in gated communities. In a great twist of irony, it has come to my attention that the numerous vehicle gates blockading thousands of residents in Athens in their apartments and houses pose a huge safety problem if firefighters, EMTs, or police officers are unable to drive through. I am asking the Athens-Clarke County Mayor and Commission to adopt an ordinance that would require gates at apartments, condos and subdivisions to provide a special means of emergency access, be equipped to allow access in case of power failures, and give county officials the means to inspect and enforce those features.
After I moved into the Village at Jennings Mill, behind a gate, I learned about the plight of a neighbor who was having her house rebuilt after a fire. It turns out that after the fire department responded to this fire in January of 2005, they sat outside the gate for several minutes because they did not have the correct code to open it. After they finally gained access and put out the fire, the house was damaged so badly that it had to be demolished. Surely, after such an episode, the homeowners association and the county government would make sure that emergency personnel all had the code, right?
Wrong. In April of 2006, another neighbor called for an ambulance. A police officer was the first to respond, but he had to wait at the gate until a resident came driving up to let him in. After that, the ambulance did not have a code, and it also had to wait for a few minutes. Minutes can separate life and death, but fortunately my neighbor did not have something as urgent as a heart attack, so she is still alive and well. We talked about the gate problem and figured there ought to be a law - but there is none, even with all the potential problems. The fire code in effect on the installation date applies, but it is terribly inadequate.
Several cities do have laws enforcing standards for vehicle gates. Some require locks that fire departments can access, and others require infrared receivers that all emergency vehicles can activate with transmitters normally used for traffic light preemption systems. Some cities have an outright ban on gates at subdivisions. Why do we not have sensible regulation in Athens? We do not have traffic light preemption here, but gate companies make siren detectors that open gates for emergency vehicles. Only recently did the county pass an ordinance preventing new gated subdivisions, but it did not help the existing ones or stop new gates at apartments.
Another problem with many gates, particularly older ones, is that residents are trapped if the power goes off. Modern industry standards call for a mechanism that immediately loses its locking force when power is lost, but gates like those in my neighborhood have mechanisms that keep them closed with hydraulic force, meaning that in a natural disaster residents will be trapped inside and emergency personnel will be locked outside.
Living behind a gate is not really about making a private choice. No one in my neighborhood chose to live behind a gate which public safety personnel might not be able to open. Most of us do not list our occupation as electromechanical technician, so we do not know how to identify a gate problem. We also assume that government has codes to open the gates. Thousands of people living behind gates in Athens is a public safety issue, not a mere private choice.
I know what many of you are thinking: gates are a symbol of the exclusion and paranoia of suburbia that contribute to many social problems. I totally agree with you, but I am not out to fix with a single ordinance the decades of isolation and segregation that have been promoted by developers, real estate agents, and the federal government. I just want our health and homes to be safe. Maybe a couple of you think we should die from heart attacks as our houses burn to the ground because we are hateful snobs in a “gated community,” but I will have you know that my particular neighborhood has middle-class homes with hard-working people who are allegedly looked down upon by the country club members playing golf on the course around us. We might have buried utilities and Bermuda grass (and rusty old gates), but you can find many of my neighbors participating in community theater, demonstrating at the Arch, and promoting charitable or progressive causes.
It is time to discuss what kind of regulation we should have on vehicle gates at gated communities. The problems in my neighborhood have been bad enough, but there are a lot of new apartment complexes with gates, and I would like to know whether they have had similar problems. As for me, I know that gates provide a horribly false sense of security we would be better off without.
Bipartisanship?
originally published February 21, 2007
If this recent call for bipartisanship doesn’t convince you what this set of conservative leaders is, I don’t know what will. After these years of public ridicule, hiding meetings, turning out the lights, threatening to “nuke” long-standing Senate rules, handing out bills at the last minute, sneaking in provisions, signing statements - all to pursue unforgivably bloody and corrupt goals - they have the gall to call for bipartisanship? I encourage our Democratic leaders to wait on some humility before they indulge that call. First there should be retribution to destroyed families and the public coffers. There should be some contrition from those who allowed themselves to believe these lies. There is also a core who truly supported the might-makes-right Mayberry Machiavellians. That is most important: we must never allow this faction to be elected again. My mother was at the march on Washington in the ’60s. I don’t want to come to her age now and have to cry with my sons because the Social Darwinian elite has maneuvered another tool into the most exalted position in this great nation.
RE: Saving Grace
originally published February 21, 2007
Wow. Ms. Hillary Brown is beginning to grow into the role of an actual food critic and she receives personal attacks because of it [Letters, Jan. 31]? Hillary, keep up the good work, and to the rest of you: 1.) Find a dictionary. 2.) Look up “critic.” 3.) Stop complaining because your favorite restaurant didn’t get the shining review you’d like. Athens is finally progressing into a city with more than just a few good options. Constructive criticism will encourage competition, better food, lower prices and perhaps prompt a few changes at restaurants that have gotten a bit stale. Telling the truth is a win-win situation for everyone.
Hip Mamma Thoughts
originally published February 21, 2007
Reading this week’s “Hip Mamma” column [Feb. 7] got me thinking…. I wonder if daddy-o would have the opinion “they’re just bodies” had the little lad spied some kinky bondage photos of men “together” and wanted to hang them on his wall… “hot guys.” (And please, the females in Maxim are 18 or over, so they’re women, not girls). That got me thinking how sexist our media is, since it is blasé to see scantily clad women in sexual poses on the grocery store newsstands but not the equivalent, i.e. “gay male” magazines. Can you imagine the fundamentalists? Flagpole sex shop ads are a classic example - surely there is a gay male reader contingent and an equivalent shopping contingent for these stores to merit some firm male buttocks in thongs and suggestive poses? Even the “men of Playgirl” ad gives us only chests, biceps, and abs - not even full face shots.
P.S.: I wish Hip Mamma were hip enough to say “breasts” instead of boobs… but take heart! You can use those Maxim shots to teach him the difference in “real” and “breast implants” (make that “boob jobs”) so he might have a little reality on his side when he gets to viewing almost-nude females in real life.
P.P.S.: And for the record, I am a middle-aged woman who has raised both male and female children.
Hates Hip Mamma
originally published February 21, 2007
I just had to write in and tell you how terrible the “Hip Mamma” column is and apparently will continue to be, until Justice (what kind of idiot names a child Justice anyway?) is around 35 or so. Mrs. Deroshia is a syrupy writer who brings nothing new or interesting to the long expounded-on topic of child-rearing. This column is a pointless and cutesy-poo endeavor, which puts on a false guise of validity by offering bad, potentially harmful advice in a tongue-in-cheek manner. You would make better use of your space with a regular column about something as trite as puppy care; you could still work the “aww, how cute” angle, and at least the potential long-term damage to human children would be minimized (except of course to poor Justice, god bless his painfully named soul).
God, I’ve wanted to say that for months.
P.S.: Jyl on the other hand offers even-handed and useful advice in her column [“Reality Check”], and is a great boon to your magazine.
RE: Sidewalks
originally published February 21, 2007
Thank you for the thanks, Richard Boyd [Letters, “Sidewalks,” Feb. 7]. Before anyone or any group picks up on the “bleach” word, I have to set a part of the compliment in order. I use a biodegradable and very eco-friendly compound called Consume. It is all natural, all organic. I only make the cooks wash in the bleach, not the streets. (We do the best with what the city has put upon us in the situations of sanitation and the gates around our businesses. They put down the bricks, not us, and the best way that I have found to maintain a sanitary and clean-smelling area is with biodegradable agents. (It was supposed to be the responsibility of the city to maintain the general cleanliness of the sidewalk areas, as we all do pay extra fees upon fees and taxes for these services. The city workers do the best with what they have, but still more could be done to see that our city is as beautiful as it should be. I spend a lot of money on eco-friendly detergents to do what our fees and taxes should be paying for, and I do believe that most businesses try to keep their areas clean; it’s just that this is a busy place, Athens, and keeping it up to par is a bigger job than is easily recognized. Thanks for the shout-out on keeping clean, it’s good to see that the work is noticed.
Concerns On TDRs
originally published February 21, 2007
I recently completed my postgraduate studies in “Sustainable Development” from UNSW in Sydney, Australia. The degree lead me to explore many planning “tools” local councils were using in Sydney: one such tool was a TDR. In Athens, just as in Sydney, “transferable development rights” [City Pages, Feb. 7] are being touted by many as a way for developers to be compensated for unrealized profits on a specific piece of land. A TDR [quoted in Flagpole, Feb. 7] “… allows a property owner to sell the development rights from one piece of land to another landowner, who could then develop a different property more freely than would otherwise be allowed.”
In Sydney, if a specific piece of land or building was considered a heritage item, its development would usually be restricted; nothing could be done to the building or property without council approval, and even then it was generally limited to upkeep or restoration. The most common development right that was transferred from one of these heritage items to a “non-heritage” piece of property dealt with height restrictions. For example, if the height of a heritage item was restricted to 15 stories where the general height restriction for surrounding buildings was 20 stories, developers would take the “unrealized five stories” from the heritage building and be allowed to construct a 25-story building. Where once only 15- and 20-story buildings existed, now there would be one reaching 25.
Though this extra five stories may seem trivial, the problem that then arises is the ease in which further variances can be obtained without TDRs for surrounding properties; council members are bombarded with variance requests by every developer who is now five stories shorter than his or her neighbor, and in many cases the council members are unable to withstand the pressure. In some cases the council members even change the overall height restrictions to match the new tallest building.
I could argue the “sustainable approach” to development and how “community” and “human-scaled cities” are key aspects of smart growth, but instead I would merely like to admonish the ACC Commission on some of the pitfalls of TDRs through my observations. Whether we speak of TDRs in the central business district or in the greenbelt, once developments are allowed variance on restrictions, it appears difficult to maintain planned growth. Plans that have been created to accommodate growth - growth managed by restrictions on development - become warped and in some cases must be thrown out all together. In Athens, where planning restrictions give so much charm to buildings and neighborhoods by keeping them at a “human scale,” we may, in the future, be no more distinguishable than the sprawled mass that is Atlanta. As Gerry Whitworth [quoted in Flagpole, Feb. 7] ominously said concerning TDRs, “We’re creating a living, breathing thing that will evolve over time.”
"Second Life" Scary
originally published February 21, 2007
And I thought I was cringing as hard as I could to see all of these lone young females running around on dark city streets with their ears plugged with iPods and no idea what could be sneaking up behind them. No, I was not, come to find out.
I keep seeing stuff in the news about “Second Life.” Maybe I’m missing something here, but that’s just the third worst thing I’ve seen in the news other than the facts that we’re destroying our environment and are about to destroy ourselves fighting over what’s left of it.
Human beings barely even have 100 percent of the time and energy we need to live our REAL lives. People are siphoning off their creativity, their waking hours, their hearts and souls to a FAKE one?
I mean, yeah. For a moment, it might seem potentially nice for me to imagine that in some virtual world I could be a 22 year-old 125-pound rock stah with a Blackberry full of names to drop, but what would that make me in real life?
An even worse-off almost-30-year-old nobody, because then I’d be too busy sitting in front of a screen to practice REAL musical instruments and record REAL music and exercise my REAL body and open up books and put information into my REAL brain and clean my REAL apartment and fix my REAL vehicle and stay in touch with my REAL family and hang out with REAL friends. And do my REAL job.
This is no harmless fad like slap bracelets. If it snowballs as badly as I’m afraid it is, then there’s going to be nobody on the REAL streets, and in REAL offices, and in REAL customer service departments and in REAL health care facilities and in REAL ANYWHERE who gives a squirt of piss about REAL PEOPLE.
America REALly is doomed.
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