When I had more time on my hands, I thought about featuring local restaurants on this site. One of the things Doraville & Buford Highway are known for around metro Atlanta are all the great Asian and Latin restaurants. Featuring them is a great advertisement for our area.
Ultimately, though, [...]
The AJC is reporting on a murder that happened this Sunday at 1am on Oakcliff Road. Please be on the lookout for an individual who matches the police sketch below – and report any suspicious activity or information about the shooting to the police at 770-220-1591.
[...]
I attended the Revive285 public information open house last night at the Perimeter Center.
The transportation planners and engineers were surprised when I pointed out all the tanker trucks on Longmire and Buford Highway on the aerial photographs – they didn’t realize Doraville had tank farms! We also discussed tanker [...]
Results for the election haven’t been posted on the AJC website yet, but the results for all three have been posted on Facebook. In District 1, Donna Pittman was re-elected by 61%. Brian Bates also won by a large margin for District 2.
District 3, unsurprisingly, is going into a [...]
Doraville’s city election is this Tuesday, November 3rd at City Hall. The polls are open from 7am to 7pm. I believe that there are only city council candidates on the ballot this time around. Remember – you can vote for one candidate from each district.
District 1 (Winter’s Chapel)
Donna Pittman [...]I was unable to attend Tuesday night’s meeting, but I read with interest the postings about how Bob Roche provoked Mr. Maxwell, so I watched the DVD from that night. I was fully prepared to corroborate what I’d read, but I’ve got to say, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Mr. [...]
It was not a big surprise, and reported widely elsewhere, so I hadn’t bothered writing about it here, but on October 20, the City Council put out a press release stating that they were all 100% against the Falcons stadium moving to the city.
This story has gotten fairly wide [...]
During the last election, I sent out a questionnaire to candidates running for city council, and asked them to write short answers to their stands on various issues. I thought it worked well & was a good chance for them to distribute their views on issues that were specific to [...]
Did you go to the candidate forum? I was there for the first hour – it was good to hear the candidates articulate for us why they think we should choose them to represent us.
I didn’t video record the session, but I did take some notes, which I transcribed [...]
Luke Howe sent me this statement from the mayor on the GM Plant, asking me to post it here:
Dear Residents,I understand the stories surrounding the GM property have caused some concern, so I would like to take this opportunity to address those concerns. First of all, don’t mistake our silence [...]
The Doraville Business Association is sponsoring this year’s candidate forum. It’s being held at the Civic Center this Tuesday at 6:30pm. It’s unclear from the notice below whether they will turn people away who don’t register, so you may want to RSVP to Kristina@doravillebusiness.org if you plan to attend. [...]
City council member Bob Roche has sent out an urgent announcement about a town hall meeting this Thursday night concerning the fate of the GM property. His statement is short and sweet:
[There is a] Town Hall Mtg on GM Property, 10/1/2009, 6:30 pm at Fleming ArenaPlease spread the word [...]
I’ve no inside information. Nada, zip. All I know is what I read and observe, and what I subsequently figure out for myself.
The DeKalb Development Authority (DDA) is an organization to watch with respect to any DeKalb County involvement on the GM site, with or without a stadium in [...]
Big news about the GM plant site — councilman Bob Roche just confirmed for me a rumor that I heard earlier this weekend that Dekalb county is considering a purchase of the site in partnership with a developer.
The implications of the development deal are big. According to councilman Roche, [...]
In December, I wrote about the Sembler Company’s desire to purchase Doraville’s shuttered GM plant and build a new football stadium for the Atlanta Falcons. It seemed like a long-shot idea at the time, and frankly still does. Even so, it has cropped up again, with Sembler bidding $45 [...]
Doraville’s city election is fast approaching – November 3rd at city hall.
The deadline for qualifying was this week, so we now know all the people who are running for each district. Many familiar faces and not a whole lot of surprises. Thanks to Eleanor Earley for putting this information together [...]
The Citation:
My partner Clint was stopped by Doraville Police on May 9, and issued a citation for “Failure to yield after stop sign” on Jess Norman Way at Stewart Road. The citation stated ”Veh was N/B on Jess Norman veh stop @ S/S then failed to yield right of way [...]
When I first moved to Doraville, it was a dream of mine that candidates for local office would all have websites where voters could find out their positions on issues affecting the city. Slowly but surely, we have been getting there – especially over the past few election cycles.
Some [...]
The worst of the pavement was patched soon after the post, and before the County received the followup letter in the post.
The County responded to that second letter as well, expressing appreciation for my offer to assist in seeking restitution to the County, but that the County hadn’t made a [...]
This second post concerns the extensive damage wrought to Chestnut Drive pavement by utility work in connection with the three new home on the southwest corner of Chestnut Drive and Aztec Road just outside Doraville city limits.
The background is that I placed a letter at each of the three homes [...]
This is intended to be the first post in a series conveying various ongoing or recently completed interactions with government. I’d intended the first post to be more explanatory of the series as a whole. Perhaps I’ll explain later. I’m introducing the series with the interaction below, which is self-contained. [...]
For quite a while, Doraville’s residents have been waiting for the new Super H-Mart development (next to the GM plant) to com online. Northwoods resident, Rick Dovi, drove out to the site recently and took photos. From the images he took (visible below), it looks like it is almost ready [...]
I haven’t heard or read anything of Buford Highway street lighting for months now, so I don’t know if the matter of removing the old lights, and operating and maintaining (O&M) the new lights, has been resolved (making this an after the fact footnote), or the matters are still dragging [...]
Almost exactly a year ago, I was walking through my neighborhood when I discovered a 5-week old puppy cowering and alone in front of an empty house. She had no tags or other identification, and I felt like I couldn’t leave her there. I brought her home with me and [...]
Councilman Roche posted some interesting news recently on the neighborhood e-mail lists — the police departments of Doraville, Chamblee and Dekalb County have come together to form a task force that will focus on crime in the Chamblee-Tucker/Shallowford Road corridors.
So far, the task force has conducted two major operations. [...]
This weekend, I hosted my semi-regular show about the state’s political scene, the GA Politics Podcast. This month’s panel was made up of Catherine Smith of Blog for Democracy, Grayson Daughters of Mostly Media, Decatur-based businessman, Larry Kosten, and James Williams of Drifting Through the Grift. We [...]
It’s been about a week since the Doraville Business Association had its first meeting. Overall, it appears that the new group is getting support from many different factions in the community. Councilman Bob Roche has told me that he believes the council should do a better job of engaging local [...]
City council recently passed an ordinance that would ban any new wholesale businesses from establishing themselves along Buford Highway. My understanding is that wholesale businesses were never supposed to be on Buford Highway in the first place, but somehow were able to get permission to establish themselves there over the [...]
There has been quite a bit of talk recently on local message boards about the possibility of starting a community garden. To that end, longtime resident, Dick Suever, made the following announcement about an event that will be taking place tomorrow at City Hall:
The quest to establish community gardens in [...]
I live in the Northwoods neighborhood of Doraville, which was primarily built in the 1950s and 60s. I love the cute brick houses, the big green trees (that flower so nicely in the Spring) and of course I love our parks.
In Northwoods, we have two [...]
We are deleting the definition of ‘family’ from the zoning ordinance. This will close a loophole and doraville won’t be in the business of defining families.
Also, we are deleting the rental provisions, so having roomates won’t be illegal.
The proposed ordinance is based on square footage, but it also includes [...]
Hello everyone we have upcoming events on Saturday April 25 our annual cleanup day and this time we will also be planting trees . We will meet at City Hall at 9:00 and break up into groups to clean different areas then hope everyone will bring a picnic lunch and [...]
This afternoon I attended a great class at the Dunwoody Nature Center. The instructor was a guy named Andy Schneider who is known as “The Chicken Whisperer.” He lives in Alpharetta and is helping a lot of people in cities and suburbs get started with keeping backyard chickens. He is [...]
Let’s keep it simple:
No more than 1 adult per bedroom plus one per dwelling up to a maximum of 4 adults.
1 bedroom, 2 adults
2 bedrooms, 3 adults
3 bedrooms, 4 adults
4 bedrooms, 4 adults
More than that requires waiver from the building inspector and mayor.
Rent rooms:
A homeowner may [...]
The Chestnut Creek townhomes in my opinion are near the highest quality/price the area will generally support even without the current bad economy. A development/redevelopment of a contiguous say 40 acres or more is another matter, that being of a minimum size to constitute something of a community unto itself. [...]
Why is an outside electrician doing the electrical work on the City owned house next to the Civic Center when the City has a licensed electrician in their employ? And was this electrical work put out for bid or just given to the electrician doing the work? People seem to [...]
I know the city has sunk quite a bit of money into its Park Ave buildings and the Library is located on Park Ave as well, but most people agree the area bounded by New Peachtree, Stewart Rd, Buford Hwy and the Park Ave including the property on the south [...]
While walking through my neighborhood a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that all of the storm drains I passed had a new, colorful “No Dumping” symbol affixed to them. I thought it looked great (a picture is to the left) and figured the city [...]
Two bits….
1 – If you tend a bird feeder part time, now through May is the most important time of the year to consistently do so. Reliable assistance is of great benefit to birds returning to nest in a landscape of relatively little food.
2 – Doraville has the police presence [...]
Chris Avers and Donna Pittman have been distributing the following press release about a reception being held in Doraville Police Chief, King’s honor on Thursday, February 26 at 6pm. Chief King is being deployed to Afghanistan for another tour of duty, and this is the city’s way of honoring him [...]
Doraville is a great city: it’s close to I-85, I-285 and MARTA; it has an extremely responsive police force; its neighborhoods are welcoming and filled with parks; and the city is home to many great businesses. Because there are so many cool things about living here, I am going to [...]
This is old news, but I wanted to put up an official post about DoraBlog’s new design. I’ve been tweaking it on and off for the past month, but am about finished at this point. If you see a problem with the site, please take a screen shot of the [...]
This weekend, I received an e-mail update from Councilman Bob Roche with some pretty dire news — apparently new revenue budgets are down more than $800,000 than what was originally budgeted. In addition to that, two departments did not budget correctly for their needs in ‘09 and have requested an [...]
The city has put out a press release letting people know that Councilwoman Donna Pittman has been hospitalized due to a heart attack.
Doraville Mayor Pro Tem has “minor to moderate” heart attack
Donna Pittman, a youthful mother of four, is recovering after an unlikely attack
DORAVILLE, Ga. - Tuesday night, following [...]
For those of you who live in the parts of unincorporated Dekalb that Doraville is eyeing for annexation - the big vote on your neighborhood’s future is on Tuesday. A lot of commenters have stated that they don’t want to pay higher taxes, although I am not sure if they [...]
Episode 20 of the Georgia Politics Podcast is online at the GA Podcast Network. You can download it directly here or add it to your iTunes via RSS.
We had a great panel consisting of myself and the following people:
While not specific to Doraville, the number of unwanted, abandoned and stray dogs in the metro-Atlanta area is a problem that affects every city in the region. The current financial crisis has made this situation worse as families lose their homes and are forced to move places that do not [...]
According to the AJC, a judge has set a date for a special election on Doraville annexation. The new vote will be held on Tuesday, January 27th and should happen at your regular polling place (note that current city residents will not be voting on this issue, only individuals [...]
I began writing this in response to NNA/ONA message board comments about a transportation/transit center including intercity rail (Amtrak) on the GM site. It became too long a message to broadcast to NNA/ONA, so I’ve placed it here.
Intercity Service
The current GDOT / City of Atlanta plan is to incorporate the [...]
Joseph Geierman, Bob Roche, Susan Crawford
