AAA Braves aren't here yet, but now we are "Mixed Use" (Atlanta: rental car)

[Georgia]

You just have to love it when a county (Gwinnett) is ran by developers for developers.
First we have our Richmond Braves purchase under the dark of night and in secret to all the taxpayers.
Next, we have our first tax increase on rental cars.
Next, we are talking about floating bonds to pay for quick, quiet, decisions.
and now today!

Arielle Kass from the Gwinnett County Posted provides an article titled
Study Starts for Stadium Mixed-Use Development.

Now here is the kicker folks. New 10,000 seat stadium, 1 1/2 mile from the largest mall in the Southeast, The Mall of Georgia. Currently we have Route 20, a 4 lane (2 and 2) road bound by stop lights, that is currently a parking lot on any given Saturday excluding holiday shopping.

Now, our illustrious county commission gives the go-ahead to buid the stadium without the addition of traffic control and new roads. Is this enough you may ask? Oh NO! not according to our developer ladened commission and planning committees. Let's look at something else. (never mind the water shortages) How about a 250 room hotel complex? How about an additional 280,000 square feet of retail space? What, more nail salons, tanning beds, and dry cleaners? and last but not least, how about 1,600 new town homes and condo's????!!!!

But don't fret, Gwinnet wants Brand Development to conduct a "traffic study" Is this the same study that our county leaders used when they approved the purchase? Or is this the same study of 324, the road attached to Mall of Georgia Blvd, when they approved the new lanes, but the next day approved 2 more developments to provide 800 more townhomes.

For those folks who live in Atlanta know, our traffic is the the second worst in the nation, our resources are tapped, our schools are beyond capacity with kids in trailers, and our crime rate is soaring out of control. This year the City of Atlanta is in the hole close to 80 million dollars due to mismanagement, and for the first time Gwinnett County is heading down the road to red ink.

One thread talked about red state/blue state with Georgia. On a local level maybe we need to ignore red/blue since it is a full combination of both and clean house for some common sense government. If not, the end result will be more gridlock, lower quality of life, and more tax increases.

What say you?

[BobKovacs]

And why does this surprise you? lol

I guess they'll just divert all the traffic to/from all of this new development onto the Northern Arc............

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by Georgia

One thread talked about red state/blue state with Georgia. On a local level maybe we need to ignore red/blue since it is a full combination of both and clean house for some common sense government. If not, the end result will be more gridlock, lower quality of life, and more tax increases.

What say you?

I think (speaking as a transplant who moved here from a metro area which has a VERY different distribution of power in local government) that many of the problems in the Atlanta metro area stem from the fact that so much power is concentrated at the county level (covering a large geographical area and focusing on big-picture interests) rather than at the city/village/township and/or independent school district level (covering a smaller more localized area and focusing on localized citizen interests).

That applies to schools, transporation planning, land zoning, etc.

Part of that problem stems from the fact that Georgia currently makes it very hard for an unincorporated area to mature into an incorporated city (it doesn't have intermediate steps like townships and villages that other states provide for), meaning that large areas of each metro county have no other recourse but to depend on the county level for such services and planning. That results in far fewer checks and balances in place, since there are no local government layers below the county (in many cases) to perform sanity checking on county-level decisions.

Another potential problem (in my opinion) is the fact that school planning occurs at a MUCH higher level here than I'm used to. Instead of Cobb County having perhaps a dozen independent school districts, each with 1-3 high schools plus feeder schools to consider and plan for, Cobb County has something like 17 high schools it has to keep track of and dozens of grade and secondary schools. That's a MUCH harder task.

Unfortunately, I don't see a short-term solution for this. Georgia has developed in the direction it has developed in, and most of those cards have already been dealt. So perhaps addressing local planning problems at the county level *is* a good first step. However, I believe other things (such as creating the concept of township within Georgia and reorganizing the way public schools are funded and governed) are potentially helpful steps in the long term.

Just my (admittedly biased) two cents...

[BobKovacs]

Originally Posted by rcsteiner

Another potential problem (in my opinion) is the fact that school planning occurs at a MUCH higher level here than I'm used to. Instead of Cobb County having perhaps a dozen independent school districts, each with 1-3 high schools plus feeder schools to consider and plan for, Cobb County has something like 17 high schools it has to keep track of and dozens of grade and secondary schools. That's a MUCH harder task.

Please, please, please- keep it just the way it is. New Jersey's property taxes got to the insane levels that there are due to the exact situation you described. In such a tiny state, there were close to 600 individual school districts, each with a superintendent, a business adminstrator, an HR department, payroll department, blah, blah, blah- the cost of such an operation is mind-numbing, especially when you consider the benefits, pensions, etc., that those folks get, and in return you get "OK" schools in 90% of the districts.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by BobKovacs

Please, please, please- keep it just the way it is. New Jersey's property taxes got to the insane levels that there are due to the exact situation you described. In such a tiny state, there were close to 600 individual school districts, each with a superintendent, a business adminstrator, an HR department, payroll department, blah, blah, blah- the cost of such an operation is mind-numbing, especially when you consider the benefits, pensions, etc., that those folks get, and in return you get "OK" schools in 90% of the districts.

Property taxes were no higher in the Twin Cities than they are here (and I lived in Hennepin County!), and that metro area has to deal with much harsher winters (and a LOT more road repairs) with that money than the Atlanta metro does.

I also think that the public schools in the Twin Cities (which are organized in the way I describe) compare very well against the public schools in any part of the country -- they are almost uniformly excellent, with very few exceptions.

I suspect that the property tax increases (and poor quality of schools) that you describe in NJ are due to other factors.

[Georgia]

Originally Posted by BobKovacs

Please, please, please- keep it just the way it is. New Jersey's property taxes got to the insane levels that there are due to the exact situation you described. In such a tiny state, there were close to 600 individual school districts, each with a superintendent, a business adminstrator, an HR department, payroll department, blah, blah, blah- the cost of such an operation is mind-numbing, especially when you consider the benefits, pensions, etc., that those folks get, and in return you get "OK" schools in 90% of the districts.

Bob, I think the majority of Jersey's issues are not with what the BitTwiddler was talking about, the same worked when I lived in the Richmond area and our taxes were actually "less" then here.
NJ's main issue was and currently is the NJEA. The teachers union strangle hold makes the mafia look like angels. When I lived in Burlington County my taxes went up quarterly, mostly from the NJEA's mid morning elections that were announced in the Courier Posts last section bottom 1/8th page. Overall my local government taxes were very low, it was the additional 8k a year for the 12 supers making 300k a year and also paying for the teachers union's annual Bahama getaway.