Gateway needs more green space
To the editor:
Your suggestion of “temporary” green space for the property at Hammond Drive and Roswell Road is “right on.”
Given the contentiousness of the zoning history, i.e. settlement by the Sandy Springs City Council in lieu of litigation, with the overwhelming density approved with the accompanying traffic nightmare, this property should be considered as a permanent passive park serving as a signature green space gateway to the city of Sandy Springs, rather than a monument to an ill-suited legal zoning settlement.
Perhaps the “powers to be” in the Main Street Alliance could persuade Pacific Life Insurance, the owners, to consider this a great pr gesture to the city.
Peter S. Trager
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Council’s decision shows disrespect
To the editor:
As you know I have actively followed the proceedings of the mayor and City Council since the city’s inception. Perhaps because of my unique position of collating the voting data for the “Sandy Springs Get Smart” document, I have a view of the voting process that others may or may not. It is from this vantage point that I have written the “Open Letter to Mayor Galambos” included below.
I want to be clear that this is my personal opinion and in no way reflects or represents the opinion of anyone else associated with the Sandy Springs Council of Neighborhoods.
Susan Joseph
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Open Letter to Mayor Galambos:
The vote on the GTC project at the last City Council meeting is a mixed blessing. The positive aspect is the impressive citizen participation voicing their wishes to their elected officials. The negative outcome is that you discouraged citizen involvement in the decision by holding the initial discussion in the midst of a debilitating ice storm. Then you and three other council members (council members DeJulio, Fries and Paulson) chose to ignore the overwhelming opposition to this use of our taxes and proceeded with your own agenda.
I find it extremely sad that after all your years of fighting “the system” in the form of the Fulton County Commission, you have become the guiding force of the unheeding system and allowed yourself to forget what it is like to be a citizen trying to protect your best interests.
Had this type of process occurred when you were working on the interests of Sandy Springs citizenry before we became a city, you would have been the first to yell “foul.” You would have said that County Commission would say publicly what they thought citizens wanted to hear but in their actions they showed they cared more for their own agenda (whether that be preservation of power, enhancement of one’s ego, or monetary gain) than they did for the interests of our citizens. Because you would have been correct, we all voted to become an independent city.
Your actions, and those of the other three council members who voted for this absurd use of our tax dollars, show that you have morphed into the type of person you once castigated. This makes me extremely sad.
This is especially distressing because over the years you have done so much to benefit Sandy Springs yet now you are behaving with the disrespect for citizen opinions that you so long denounced.
Susan Joseph
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Balanced college coverage welcome
To the editor
Great coverage of the Gwinnett Technical College issue — getting the balanced info out there. Just what a good community paper does!
Karen
Meinzen McEnerny, City Council, District 6