August 16, 2007 Letters to the Editor

Mr. Broadwell,

As a recently transplanted Yankee from the Boston area I took great offense at your not once, but twice referencing how the local northerners nearly killed you as you rode 30 miles recently training for the MS ride. Let's get some things straight here. First, whilst many Yanks are indeed abrasive, it is extremely bigotted to indicate all are. Is that how you raise your children, to be judgemental in such a severe fashion? Is that why Georgia ranks #49 in education? Maybe the Yankees will bring up that standing, eh? Many southerners are polite, but many also could use an Emily Post School of Charm course. Yourself included.

By the way, bicycling was very big in the community I came from, which was just Roswell's size, with a bit over 80,000 residents. However, many streets had large biking paths to make riding safer for all. So, the next time you spout and sputter about the safety of biking in Roswell, direct your ire in a more professional demeanor towards City Hall and ask for better biking trails. In the meantime, get off your southern high horse. Atlanta is becoming a large melting pot, so accept it.

David Meltzer

"I can only imagine that they must be damned Yankees," says Eric Broadwell as he saw bad behavior against bikers on the MS150 Ride. That kind of a stereotype can only be uttered by an unreconstructed redneck.

Has Broadwell ever set foot in the North or the Midwest? There he would find down-to-earth, caring and good manners more than equal to the gentile phony hospitality he imagines here.

He adds, "All those tranplanted Yankees living in Alpharetta should be deported back north, so our way of southern hospitality can restored without another fight." That's an example of southern hospitality? And what other fight is he referring to? The one the South lost 140 years ago? It's time to get over it.

I moved to Atlanta from New Jersey 20 years ago. My kids went to school here, I pay taxes, belong to many organizations, and teach at the university and the adult education school. When can I apply for citizenship?

It occurs to me that without air conditioning and the influx of us Damn Yankees (are we in the majority yet?), Mr. Broadwell and his dying kin would still be sipping juleps in the backwater.

George Lemmond

It seems I have created quite a ruckus. Thank you for allowing me to exercise my First Amendment rights. I would like to sincerely apologize if I offended any of our northern born citizens that have chosen to live here in North Fulton and surrounding areas. As a parent that saw cars terrorizing my family, other families and friends you can only imagine the emotions it provoked. I have diligently put in 1,000’s of hours to help cycling move forward in our community, raising our quality of life, but after the attack on my family I had had enough and was at a loss as to what to do. I am sure some of your readers felt attacked by my comments, but imagine that attack being physical and with malice like I experienced against my own family before my eyes. I have grown up and worked in both the North and the South and I am married to a wonderful woman from Philadelphia. As a working adult, when I moved back to the South after working in the Northeast I found myself in a hurry when there wasn’t any reason to hurry. It is this reference that I used to draw attention to my letter.

I knew that any mention of being a Yankee would rile many people, and that I did. I had to ponder the actions I took in my original letter as to whether I should create a stir or wait until a tragic accident occurs. Is a life worth how some people view me? Yes, a life is worth way more. I realize it is not just any one group of people that are the problem. I still don't understand what causes any person driving a car to want to put themselves, oncoming traffic and the cyclists in danger. If I made no mention of “Yankees,” would everyone be telling their neighbor about my letter? Would anyone take action? Would the enemies of cyclists have revealed themselves? Unfortunately, I believe not.

Cycling has tripled in the last 3-4 years. I am feeling that the state and other officials don’t understand the issue. Is there any current education to teach our younger drivers or any drivers how to pass a cyclist or a pedestrian? Do you know how? Is there any guidance in the Georgia State driving handbook? Are the state roads required to provide safety for commuters on bicycle? These are the issues Bike Roswell, Georgia Bikes, The Atlanta Bicycle Campaign and others are working to affect. To date I have received letters threatening me and all cyclists and I have received letters from angered northern-born joggers that have the same challenge cyclists do with aggressive drivers.

So where are these people when it comes to actually getting something done about it? Currently sitting behind a keyboard. I have to quote one of the board members from Bike Roswell, “So I am neither Yankee nor Southerner. Just an activist who firmly believes that if you are not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem.”

I invite all that believe they can accomplish the challenges we face and help raise our quality of life. Bike Roswell will be having elections at its October 4th meeting. I invite all that believe they can make a better difference to join us or lead us.

I do sincerely apologize if I offended anyone of northern origin. I was only referring to those that drive aggressively or "gun it" when passing a cyclist. Is that why you were offended?

Eric Broadwell

Response to the Open Letter from Tony Croce

Tony,

Your letter was far-ranging and a detailed response would take up too much space, so I will just respond to a few of your points.

I do not believe that the Charlie Brown proposal is a campaign issue. No one that is running is in favor of it. While I was favorably disposed to what I initially saw from Mr. Brown, I have always said that I thought that many of the buildings were too tall and, the more I have learned, and the more that the project changed, the less I liked it. My initially favorable view was based on my understanding that the proposal would have fewer square feet than that already zoned and, because of underground parking, more green space.

If we were to get a development that is less dense on this raw land (that is the land I was referring to) than what could be put there under existing zoning, get underground parking and thus not have a lot of parking lots and the resulting runoff and erosion, then I thought that the project deserved serious consideration. That is not what the proposal turned out to be. I do not support it.

You are correct that this is about quality of life. I live just down the road from Martin's Landing, in Northcliff, and plan to live in Roswell the rest of my life. I have two children, 11 and 7, that are growing up here. I served for nine years on the Council working hard to make Roswell the great place that it is. I would never support a proposal that would mess up Roswell, east or west.

Also, I would never support a proposal opposed by so many people. If the citizens do not want it, then it should not happen. I have no intention of getting elected and then turning my back on my constituents. That makes no sense, morally, politically or ethically.

Frankly, I resent the implication of your letter and of my opponent's comments. You and he seem to be implying that I plan to get elected and then open the door to Charlie Brown or someone else. That is nonsense. There have been and will be no backroom deals. While I view a position on the City Council as important, it is not worth losing my credibility. Win or lose in November, I still will live here. I want to do what is best for our residents.

That having been said, I think that the discussion about what to do with the land, a discussion that was started by the Charlie Brown proposal, is a good one. What gets done in that particular area, with its empty stores and rundown apartments, is vitally important. I welcome that continued discussion and a resulting solution. I think that we need to maximize open green spaces and minimize parking lots. We need underground parking and/or decks. We cannot have 20-story buildings. Also, we need to try to incorporate more of the surrounding declining commercial area, including all or part of Kings Market, and come up with a long-range plan we all can support.

What I do not want to happen is for sections of East Roswell to continue to deteriorate. I do not want to see our property values lag behind other areas. One of my neighbors e-mailed me on this issue recently and her words sum things up pretty well:

"Having lived here for 15 years and having two children attending our public school system from elementary school through high school, I have observed over the past 15 years a growing decline in our area. Our schools are increasingly being taken over by ESOL students. Please don’t get me wrong, I think diversity is great and is one of the many reasons that I have chosen public school for my children. However, it is not fine when our schools are being labeled as “schools at risk” and more and more parents are putting their children into private schools. Our schools are failing their “No child left behind” requirements because they have no control over this extremely transient population. Our schools and teachers can do a great job with the kids that attend school all year, but so many of these children move in and out of our school on a daily basis. Do I see the trend improving? No.

"Do I see this trend becoming increasingly worse? Yes. I believe that if we continue on the same path, our neighborhoods will go down in value due to the diminishing reputation of our public schools.

"What do I think is the solution? I think that we should find some way to attract young professionals to move to our area of town. How would we do this? I have a vision for a “Roswell East” that is a unique community offering class A jobs, nice restaurants, boutiques, parkland, walkways and bike paths. Who wouldn’t want to live minutes from their job in such an environment? There are so many older homes in our area that would be great “first homes.” … Neighborhoods such as Martins Landing, with its beautiful large wooded lots, could really benefit from this. Unfortunately, I don’t think many young professionals are interested in raising families in our public school system when they can drive up Ga. 400 and find a school with better credentials ... .

“I wish that our community and city council would look at this piece of land as an opportunity to attract young professionals to our area. We have so many assets to offer. Our “close in” vicinity, our beautiful Chattahoochee River, our wonderful parks and recreation services. Maybe Charlie Brown’s current Roswell East is not for us, but let’s try to find a middle ground.”

I could not have said it better. Let’s make the best of this opportunity. Charlie Brown’s plan does not work. Fine. Let's continue the discussion about what we want and work together to not only keep Roswell great, but make it better. Roswell citizen’s are smart and know how to make great things happen.
Tony, if you want me to be a reflexive “no” vote no matter the plan proposed, like my self-proclaimed one-issue opponent, I am not your man. If you want someone who has shown the ability to solve problems and wants to work hard on this one to improve our quality of life, I am.

Steve Dorvee
Candidate for Roswell City Council


[A second letter also arrived from Mr. Dorvee.]

I was out-of-town and just got a chance to read the August 2, 2007 letter from my opponent attacking several City Council candidates. Interestingly, my opponent, who pledged that he was a “one issue (anti-Charlie Brown) candidate” is now running an ad adopting several of my campaign themes.

Long before he entered the race I was campaigning on improving on transportation throughout Roswell, including Holcomb Bridge and Ga. 400. I have campaigned for redevelopment of dilapidated areas since 1989. I have been a member of, and continue to advocate for, responsible government. It is good to see that these issues resonate with voters as shown by my opponent’s sudden campaign platform makeover.

Given his recent unprovoked attack, I guess he won’t be copying my pledge to try to end the bickering at City Hall.


Steve Dorvee
Candidate for Roswell City Council

This letter is in response to the “Opinion” article you published [last] week by Herman Cain regarding SCHIP – a health insurance program for the children of our nation. Cain uses one of the conservative Republicans’ favorite attempts to scare our citizens from government programs by stating these programs will raise our taxes. This is a line that Republicans and conservatives have been brainwashing Americans with since the Reagan years.

They want us to be afraid of having a large government and paying taxes for the common services we expect from our government. They talk of decreasing taxes – but whose taxes are really decreasing? It’s not the average working American citizen. Since 1981 those who have benefited from tax cuts are the millionaires and billionaires of our country – the top marginal income tax rates went from 70 percent to 50 percent in 1981 and down to 28 percent by 1988. Of course the people that benefited from these tax breaks don’t want big government and government services because they can afford to purchase whatever health insurance they need, whatever health care they need, and can retire without financial worries.

More than 45 million Americans don’t have health insurance to cover expenses for serious illness. Americans are working more today than they did 30 years ago and are making less. Our minimum wage is not a living wage. Workers are now expected to pay for their own health insurance and their own retirement. Pension plans are disappearing. Hospitals have become deregulated and are now for-profit organizations. Health insurance providers are now for-profit corporations. Drug companies have raised their prices as high as they want because we no longer have government protecting us, and are now the most profitable businesses in the U.S. Medicare and Medicaid were implemented to take care of people who aren’t insured. Our government is shrinking and the services we need are decreasing. The middle class is shrinking – while the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer. Americans are falling out of the middle class today because they can’t afford health insurance.

Social Security, implemented under FDR, is a government-run insurance program paid for by working Americans and has provided more benefits to Americans than any other program in place. Social Security is in a crisis not because it has become an “ill-executed entitlement program” as Cain suggests. It’s in a crisis because when Reagan first implemented the tax cuts for the wealthy he produced budget deficits so large he had to begin borrowing to make the economy look good. So after decreasing income tax on the wealthiest Americans by more than half, he doubled social security tax on Americans earning $30,000 or less. This still didn’t resolve the budget problems he created, so he turned to borrowing – on Greenspan’s recommendation Reagan borrowed from the Social Security trust fund and didn’t have to list it as a deficit because he was borrowing government money to fund government expenses. This continued through George H.W. Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush. What we have left for our Social Security fund now are treasury debt instruments. These tax cuts for the wealthy were basically paid for by our Social Security fund which was funded by the American workers.

We’re not in debt as a country because the government is providing the government services it should be. We’re in debt as a country for other reasons such as the tax cuts that have been given to the wealthy and to corporations, because we no longer enforce our Antitrust Act, because of free trade agreements, and because we won’t implement import tariffs.

Don’t try to scare us with tax threats! Why don’t we re-implement progressive taxation – returning taxes to where they should be for the wealthiest Americans and corporations? Stop shrinking our government. Stop privatizing the services we rely on. The only ones benefiting are the corporations, their presidents, CEOs, board members, and stock holders. Corporations will always choose profit over people.

We need taxes to ensure our government can provide the services we need. This includes free public education, better roads, police officers, firefighters, federal emergency services, water, sewage systems, and public works projects. We need social programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP. These programs should be run by our government for the American people. They should not be privatized so corporations can make more money off the American people. They need to be paid by everyone that uses them – that includes the wealthy Americans and the corporations. We need to strengthen these government services so we can provide for the people of these United States. This includes health care – for all Americans and especially our children.

Debora Bailey

Mr. Fredericks,

Your op-ed piece on the city's rat pack hit home with me. I, too, have been a victim of an overzealous neighbor.

I had an old car parked in my driveway in the grass ( which I learned was illegal ) for three months waiting for my son to get the title he lost, so I could donate it. The car ran, but was not worth the trouble to try to sell or trade in.

The day that the donation company was to pick the car up, I turned the car to face the street (easier for the tow truck driver to load), removed the tag (like I was told to do) and left for work. At 3:20 that afternoon, I was given a warning about the car saying: "it was inoperable (not true) and parked on my grass (again illegal) and was not legally tagged." When I came home at 5:15 that afternoon, the car was gone.

The only thing I would have wished was that the overzealous neighbor would have had the decency to call or leave me a note saying they had a problem with the car.

I understand that things like this bring down values of homes, but give me a break. The car was parked for three months!

Rick Peterson

Thank you for your outstanding newspaper and the contribution it is making to North Fulton. I have been a resident of Roswell since 1989, and a regular reader of the two other neighborhood weeklies. Not until the Beacon, however, have I read straightforward talk about my chosen community and how it is run. Your latest editorial regarding the “Rat Pack” is a case in point. What appears to be a perfectly acceptable practice (investigating every anonymous complaint) has been twisted at times into a harmful and unfair reality. In future issues, I hope to see suggestions on how the city can change this "archaic style of enforcement" into a procedure that cannot be so easily misused.

Don Sadler

Just as the grave for Charlie Brown's Roswell East project was being dug, Councilman David Tolleson decided to breathe life into the issue by sending it to his Chairman's Advisory Group (CAG). Knowing that this project/the future of Roswell will be decided in the smokey backrooms of City Hall by a group of individuals operating outside the realm of official city business is absolutely enraging – especially when they'll be negotiating directly with someone who hasn't been truthful since day one.

This reeks of corruption. Everyone in Roswell should demand transparency in this process.

Josh Davis