tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-934041074178717925.post6779281794803932806..comments2023-06-29T03:32:26.874-07:00Comments on The City of Tucker Initiative: ScottdaleUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-934041074178717925.post-17351494401293460442015-01-23T12:30:33.692-08:002015-01-23T12:30:33.692-08:00This may be way out of the discussion of the city ...This may be way out of the discussion of the city of Scottdale. If the county builds a highway that runs through North Druid Hills road, it may help to raise property values to the areas under discussion. It also solves the huge traffic problem on the road. If Scottdale is connected to Buckhead, many may choose to live in the area. It is also a plus to most of DeKalb county cities. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-934041074178717925.post-40549332647853061402013-07-20T13:14:45.594-07:002013-07-20T13:14:45.594-07:00Please don't forget the 100M to 150M in indust...Please don't forget the 100M to 150M in industrial tax digest in and around Scottdale!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-934041074178717925.post-65652082513486708562013-07-19T17:42:21.479-07:002013-07-19T17:42:21.479-07:00Scottdale makes sense for Briarcliff for the same ...Scottdale makes sense for Briarcliff for the same reason Buford Highway makes sense for Brookhaven.<br /><br />It is diverse cities make sense that take on solving the challenges of a community and including not just the high tax real estate but areas that can benefit from better planning, zoning, code enforcement and policing.<br /><br />By creating cities of reasonable size, such a focus can occur and the good citizens who live in modest areas need not be victims of neglect and bad planning decisions that allow crime to thrive, property values to decline and overall quality of life to be poor.<br /><br />Most the problems of Scottdale are solvable with good planning, there is simply too much positive potential for the area for this not to be likely.<br /><br />BTW, the DeKalb County Commission labeled most of unincorporated Dekalb as a SLUM in order to get redevelopment dollars.<br /><br />http://www.wsbtv.com/videos/news/dekalb-commissioners-declare-most-of-county-a-slum/v3tBy/<br /><br />Again, Why Scottdale? If a city is about solving problems, Scottdale is a great opportunity. With so much success and high value homes adjacent to it, clearly being neglected unincorporated county has been its greatest challenge.<br /><br />There are some very good people in Scottdale who want to be part of the solutions, an involved city with a vision for this area could make it a shining example of quality improvements.<br /><br />But again DeKalb has demonstrated either their disinterest or lack of ability to solve the challenges of this area, maybe it is time to give Briarcliff a chance.<br /><br />Is creating cities supposed to be only about creating enclaves of the more successful areas and abandoning areas with planning challenges?<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-934041074178717925.post-11642981615511744752013-07-18T15:06:05.976-07:002013-07-18T15:06:05.976-07:00Just to be clear, the Dekalb County Commissioners ...Just to be clear, the Dekalb County Commissioners designated the Scottdale area a SLUM and the last time I checked neither RandyRand nor Webster were on the Dekalb County Commission. So it appears that RandyRand is using the Scottdale areas legally designated status as accurately! Now you have posted a lot of pretty pictures of Scottdale homes but the underling real-estate question is this: is anyone actually paying the mortgages or taxes on these homes and who owns theses homes? The truly tragic fact is that Scottdale has huge home foreclosure issues as well as all the accompanying problems like greatly depressed home values -4x and delinquent property taxes. RandyRand points to the crime trac link for Scottdale too! And with just a little effort anyone can do as he suggests and see +10-20x crime rates compared with other areas within the LCA or Briarcliff. None of these issues are positive for a new city, so the basic question still remains unanswered by the COBI: Why Scottdale? Additionally, one could ask why is City of Tucker Initiative so pro Scottdale that it would consider using thirteen year old census data?<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-934041074178717925.post-72294520779140564962013-07-15T11:12:05.471-07:002013-07-15T11:12:05.471-07:00Scottdale is actually an excellant example of wher...Scottdale is actually an excellant example of where good planning could solve a lot of challenges. <br /><br />There has been a strong arts community in many of the warehouse buildings in and around Scottdale, combined with proximity to Decatur and other thriving areas of industrial/residential transition it has a strong mixed use potential. <br /><br />In fact the challenge of Scottdale is that it is a mix of industrial and residential without the kind of planning necessary to deal with such transitions. As can be seen with mixed use development and loft districts in Atlanta and around the country, with good planning, these areas often attract successful development with restaurants and local businesses and commercial as is happening a short ways away in Decatur.<br /><br />It is common to see these transitions where healthy quality development happens in such urban places up to the edge of the city and a lack of it is seen over the edge. The city has identity and focus while the unincorporated county is usually focused on some large project far away. Managing large areas of unincorporated county does not bode well for such local fabric planning details that often come from working with the local community.<br /><br />One of the greatest challenges of Scottdale, if you study the plat maps is that in the quadrant between Rockbridge, N Clarendon, N Decatur and I-285 there is an area where two historic street grids, for what reason I do not know, do not match up. (this is kind of hard to see unless you study the plat maps as a group in detail with land lots, it does not show up as clearly on road maps). <br /><br />It thus creates a hodgepodge of road connections that are totally dysfunctional. Due to terrain and creeks there are thus a large number of long ago platted building lots that are not develop-able and without proper road access. It is basically a planning mess, sprinkled with scattered homes and several segments of dis-joined streets with nice modest homes.<br /><br />But with proper planning tools and working with the community and land owners, this is a solvable problem, particularly with the existing PATH trail system that runs right through the community and connects it to Decatur, Stone Mountain and other areas by dedicated and scenic bike paths. All over the country communities with this amenity are becoming in demand, particularly so close to thriving urban areas.<br /><br />Abutting this area are many nice new homes, areas with new sidewalks and a great potential for the area, particularly if the industrial transition is taken advantage of as potential creative class loft districts.<br /><br />But to improve the heart of Scottdale will take dedicated involvement of the community and planning to solve these challenges.<br /><br />Despite the fact that for the community this specific and large street grid problem has existing for a historically very long time, and despite the county commission and county offices being just a short distance away, this problem has lingered and has hurt both this community as well as the surrounding areas of nice working class homes, including some of the historic mill district.<br /><br />What Scottdale needs is a government that really cares about it and sees the potential for it to be a thriving neighbor to Decatur and Avondale Estates. It can in fact be a great area for healthy development with so many nearby amenities, jobs, transportation options. <br /><br />Scottdale can be a shining star of what is possible with a new city that is about solving challenges and improving the overall quality of life for the larger area, or it can continue to be an area of un-incorporated county neglect.<br /><br />ThomAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com