Community voice

Question-Answer Session
From The MNA Meeting

The following is a sampling of the questions raised by the members and the answers provided by the guests:

Question: I have received a new reassessment on my house which is 100% over last year's. Is there anything you can do to help me out?
Pitts: Unfortunately your only recourse is the appeal process. If the new assessment is 15% over last year, consider it acceptable. If it is more, then you should appeal.

Question: Partying every Sunday evening on Peachtree Street has become intolerable. No police around to control the crowds. Can anything be done?
Pitts-Tinubu-Franklin: With the 400/600 vacancies in police force, it becomes almost impossible to assign police officers into specific areas, unless a crime is committed. Once the vacancies are filled in, more police officers will become available for assignment.

Question: We hear so much about high cost and malfunction of infrastructure. What can you do to rectify the situation?
Franklin: In 1989 we projected that the population in Atlanta will grow to 3.7 million by the year 2010. We already have 4.1 million. 10% more in 10 years earlier. We cannot afford to do the same mistake.
Tinubu: It is simply a matter of poor planning and the lack of proper appropriation.
Pitts: We have just introduced a sewer plan to be completed by the year 2007. The cost: \\$600 million. 75% will be funded by the Federal government. The rest by you and me. The new mayor will be faced with some major challenges. Clean air, clean water, sewage improvement. All of them costly. They carry expensive solutions.

Editor's Corner

MNA'S ANNUAL
"SPAGHETTI DINNER" MEETING
The Midtown Neighbors' Association (MNA) held its traditional annual "Spaghetti Dinner" meeting at the Tavern Park last night. Over 200 members attended the meeting. Jim Holbrook, the President, opened the meeting by welcoming everyone. He was very gracious in recognizing every Committee Chairperson and paying tribute to their combined efforts throughout the year. The Home Showing Committee drew a thunderous round of applause

for their very successful results. The net profit to the MNA was over \\$26,000. Will Acosta who had chaired the committee had done an outstanding job along with all the volunteers and the members of his committee. A great deal of credit goes to Owen Omundsen who was the organizer of the meeting, as he has done in previous years. It was a very successful meeting.

Elections were held for the Board of Directors. All eight Board members were re-elected for another term of two years. Although the undersigned was not elected to the Board at this time, nevertheless, he wishes to thank all those members who elected to vote for him.

At the conclusion of the business agenda, Jim Holbrook turned the meeting over to Jannie Gerds, the Vice President, who introduced the three guest speakers, mayoral candidates Dr. Gloria Bromell-Tinubu, Shirley Clarke Franklin and Robb Pitts, the President of the City Council of Atlanta. Each candidate was allocated five minutes for their opening remarks and then they engaged in a lively question-answer session. Gloria was the first to speak. She stated that Atlantans find themselves in crossroads. Either they accept the status quo or they go for a fresh new start. She told the audience that they own the city government, therefore, they should call the shots. The real issue according to Gloria was economic. The gap between the haves and havenots. She was committed to bridge this gap.

The next speaker was Shirley Clarke Franklin who announced that she was opening new headquarters in midtown shortly. She reiterated her past services under the Andrew Young administration and how 30 years ago Andy Young had envisioned Piedmont Park to become like the Tavern on the Green in New York City. The three dominant issues according to Shirley were (a) Safety - more well-paid police officers; (b) Education - better facilities with more qualified teachers; (c) Ethical Standards - to be able to trust your government officials. She concluded by saying that she was bringing new ideas for a fresh start.

The next speaker was Robb Pitts, the City Council President who has ran successfully for four terms and he is about to announce formally his candidacy in couple of months. Robb enumarated his priorities by beginning with the 400 vacancies in our police force. He said it is more like 600 vacancies than 400. He attributed this void to low pay and lack of adequate retirement benefits. He is committed to upgrade the pay and benefits and fill in those vacancies with qualified police officers. He spoke of cost effective government and delivering on the promised services. He cited one case which shocked the audience. He said when you need an oil change for your car, you go to Jiffy Lube, pay \\$19.95 and in 30 minutes you are out of there. When a police car needs the same oil change, it costs $100.00 and the car is out of commission from 4 to 8 weeks.

All in all, it was a successful evening and the audience enjoyed listening and articulating with the guests.

James C. Stathis
Associate Editor