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Dunwoody Reporter
Lighting up the skies
Teen time Town hall success COMMUNITY 2
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Take care when shopping PUBLIC SAFETY 28
DEC. 11 — DEC. 24, 2015 • VOL. 6 — NO. 25
A light for the holidays
COMMUNITY 21
As mayor leaves office, he’s proud of leading a City Council without factions BY ELLEN ELDRIDGE
elleneldridge@reporternewspapers.net
PHIL MOSIER
Dancers with J Dance Company stand with Sandra Bass, assistant program director for the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta, as she lights a menorah on Dec.6, the first night of Hanukkah. The candle lighting followed a performance of the ballet of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” ballet. See more photos on page 25 and at ReporterNewspapers.net.
Mike Davis said he’s learned a few things over the four years he spent as Dunwoody’s second mayor, not the least of which was how to handle criticism. “The one wild card nobody knows until you get in there, ‘How thick is your skin?’” Though he lost his bid for re-election and leaves office Jan. 4, when newly elected Mayor Denny Shortal takes over, Davis walks away from the job saying he’s proud of the way he implemented the founding City Council’s plans. Shortly before he decided to run for office, Davis thought, “Why don’t people like us run for office?” He said he believed he was a competent communicator who could speak equally well in one-on-one conversations as in public forums, making his ideas understood. As a retired executive salesman, he also had time. “I was young enough to throw a lot of energy into [the job of mayor] and I was old enough to have acquired enough money that earning $16,000 a year wasn’t going to SEE DUNWOODY, PAGE 26
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 offroad 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
Dunwoody resident Rashaud Stockdale pauses on the trail along Cotillion Drive.