Brookhaven Reporter www.ReporterNewspapers.net
Inside
Lighting up the skies
Earlier last call Council discusses bar hours COMMUNITY 3
MARTA matters Station town center planned
DEC. 11 — DEC. 24, 2015 • VOL. 7 — NO. 25
COMMUNITY 6
Capturing holiday spirits
COMMUNITY 21
Lawyer: OK for city councilman to hold school director job BY JOHN RUCH
johnruch@reporternewspapers.net
Wearing matching antlers, Jenni Muserallo and her daughters, Dara, right, and Ellia, donning a Rudolph nose, shows off some photos she captured during the annual “Light Up Brookhaven” event held Dec. 3 at Blackburn Park. See more photos on page 30.
PHIL MOSIER
Brookhaven City Councilman Bates Mattison’s other job as executive director of the Brookhaven Innovation Academy creates no ethical conflicts as long as he stays out of any BIA-related council discussions and votes, according to a legal opinion ordered by Mayor Rebecca Chase Williams. Read more about MattiBrookhaven son said he Innovation Academy in is pleased Commentary, page 8 the opinion shows that “one, I did nothing wrong, and, two, there’s no conflict going forward.” The Nov. 25 opinion from Marietta attorney R. Randall Bentley Sr. also “strongly” recommends that Mattison not receive any fundraising bonus from BIA—a change the school’s board already made shortly after the legal review was announced—and that he comply with financial disclosure laws. “Now, as an employee of the BIA, Mr. Mattison should recuse himself from all matters, including discussions and votes, brought before the mayor and council and the Development Authority regarding BIA,” Bentley writes. “The best SEE LAWYER, PAGE 7
Trails show where walkers really want to go BY JOHN RUCH
johnruch@reporternewspapers.net
Dunwoody resident Rashaud Stockdale walks to work on Cotillion Drive in a rut worn in the roadside grass. The road is a major connector to I-285 and the Georgetown commercial district, but for pedestrians, it’s like rural pastureland. “I’d say it feels dangerous,” Stockdale says of the off-road hike he sometimes has to make in the dark. Meanwhile, in Sandy Springs, Cedron Tigner escorts his visually impaired relative Hershell Horton along Hammond Drive. Instead of a sidewalk, there’s a muddy trail, studded with exposed tree roots and stones, which looks imported from a backwoods park. “Taking a chance every time,” Horton says of his walk to a convenience store. These trails blazed by pedestrians are known as “desire paths” or “desire lines”—or, more picturesquely, “goat
trails.” For decades, Atlanta’s car-centric suburbs left pedestrians to fend for themselves. But that’s changing. Sidewalks are now replacing desire paths on such routes as Buford Highway in Atlanta and Brookhaven. But finding the money can be tough, and public accessibility can still spark debates over keeping desire paths in such places as Buckhead’s Atlanta Memorial Park. Desire paths are “especially common in areas where people have no choice except to walk or use public transit” because they don’t own cars, said Sally Flocks, president and CEO of the Atlanta-based pedestrian advocacy group PEDS. “I think attitudes nationwide are changing. I do think a lot more people want the sidewalks,” Flocks said. SEE ROADSIDE, PAGE 10
JOHN RUCH
A trail on Buford Highway, south of Clairmont Terrace, in Brookhaven.