Stonecrest Update

The Proposed City of Stonecrest

Following are the latest versions of the map for the proposed City of Stonecrest, in southeast DeKalb County, Georgia.  You can find the latest information on Stonecrest here.

A Racial Dot Map of DeKalb County

One Dot Per Person for the Entire United States

A fascinating map of the United States is now available on line which illustrates the racial makeup of the entire country by displaying 308,745,538 color coded dots geographically, one for each person at the location they were counted in the the United States at the time of the 2010 census. Each dot is color-coded for race and ethnicity.

The map was created by Dustin Cable, a demographic researcher at the University of Virginia's Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service. A full explanation of the methodology used, and the entire map itself, can be found here.

Following the jump are two maps, one of which overlays DeKalb County and its existing and proposed cities over the map, and a second map which focuses on the proposed City of Tucker.

Clyde, the Orangutan

I often use Clyde the Orangutan, from the San Diego Zoo (but now living in the Rolling Hills Wildlife Adventure in Kansas), as my internet avatar, largely because he is far more photogenic than I am. Orangutans are incredible animals, fully deserving of our respect and protection.  For more information check out the Orangutan Conservancy web site, here. An interesting article on Clyde himself can be found here.

Orangutans are actually Great Apes, not monkeys, a common misconception of the uninformed and uneducated. Amazingly enough, biologists have recently demonstrated that orangutans are FAR more intelligent, perceptive and empathetic than certain loud-mouth champions of the LCA. A video of Clyde after the break.

Save Tucker From Lakeside City

Or, Stupid Is As Stupid Does

Cheryl Miller, the lone administrator of the Facebook page Save Tucker From Lakeside City, seems to be very challenged by map reading. Currently on her Facebook page, she is asking for some help in deciphering a DCSD map from 2011 which indicates how the high school attendance areas were to change after the 2011 redistricting. (And YES, Cheryl, the map is quite correct.) She seems to be VERY confused about the location of the Idlewood Elementary School attendance zone relative to the Tucker cluster, and then further asks for some help in determining how the proposed City of Lakeside borders overlay the new attendance areas. A snapshot of her current posting follows (in case she wisely decides to remove it from her Facebook page.

After the break -

Tucker - Property Appraisal Maps

DeKalb County Property Appraisal Maps

When considering various questions about property types, sizes, and ownership, or when looking at potential city borders, it is sometimes very helpful to refer to the Property Maps provided by DeKalb County through the DeKalb County Tax Commissioner web page. Although very useful, these maps do not offer the wealth of information available through the County GIS Office, but they are, as far as I know, the only information available on line.

Normally to access these maps, one has to go through a somewhat tedious, but not difficult, process. After you first go to the Tax Commissioner web page, you then click on the Property Tax line on the left menu, which will take you to a new window, where you must enter limited information on either the street name, the property owner's name, or the property address. After a few more steps, and based on how detailed the information is that was first entered, this will ultimately lead you to a page with the Property Tax Information for a particular piece of property.

DeKalb Property Assessments

DeKalb County Property Assessments

On a subject dear to every homeowner's heart, here is a map, distributed last year by County Commissioner Jeff Rader, which shows the percent change in residential property assessments between 2011 and 2012. This will allow you to compare how your assessment changed when compared to your neighbors or how your neighborhood changed compared to other neighborhoods. No credit is taken on the full version of the map; presumably it was created by the DeKalb County GIS Department working with the Property Appraisal Department.

The map can be found after the break.

Scottdale

Why Scottdale?

When comparing the relative merits of the City of Briarcliff vs. the City (With No Name Yet) (as proposed by the LCA) one glaring difference is Briarcliff's inclusion of the Scottdale Community within its proposed city borders. On many of the comment threads on the Patch neighborhood news sites, the LCA's most vocal Champion, RandyRand, continuously and passionately berates the City of Briarcliff Initiative (COBI) for this decision. In general, he claims that because Scottdale is a 'SLUM', it will be a drag upon Briarcliff's city finances, will require a disproportionate share of police services, and will somehow depress property values throughout the new city. (I have included RandyRand's postings, along with other related postings from the Patch, at the end of this article.) I believe that everyone concerned about incorporation should therefore teach themselves a bit regarding Scottdale, as to be in a better position to understand the arguments.

Scottdale is clearly a challenged community, but is it a slum? I would say NO, it is not a slum, regardless of it current circumstances. I would offer that its best days are ahead of it, and maybe, just maybe, its inclusion in one of the proposed cities may just be just the spark it needs to take it there. From the Wikipedia article on Scottdale: