The Peachtree City Council smoke generators are going full blast on TDK through a spurious lawsuit against the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA). The ultimate purpose of the huge smoke screen is to ensure that a TDK bridge and highway get built so that Coweta County developers (and many associated business interests) can unlock thousands of acres of rural land (now used for agricultural and hunting purposes) and build at least 2 new large communities and 1 new city with a combined total value close to a staggering $2 billion!!

As a Catholic of the Roman rite, I don't mean to butt into the internal decisions of another Christian church, but since your parish has decided to leave the Episcopal Church in the USA (ECUSA) and is considering joining with the Nigerians, maybe you should investigate the Anglican Use rite of the Catholic Church.

I was just reading the City Council minutes from the recent meeting when the TDK right-of-way was accepted under shady circumstances. Mr. Kourajian stated (as recorded in the minutes) that "if Pathway wanted to hold a gun to the City's head in order to get the right-of-way it was their prerogative, he (Kourajian) was not prepared to make a decision on an 11th hour conundrum."

Red Herring -- To divert attention from the real issue, a person may sometimes introduce a false, often emotional, yet irrelevant, issue to lure discussion away from the real point. For instance on the topic of addressing PTC providing a taxpayer funded road and bridge to developers in Coweta County, myword_mark avoids the topic of the TDK highway by discussing Billy Payne, section 8 housing, growth cycles, success of restaurants, big boxes, etc. Well done! Mark gets an A in red herring debate.

In the "adding insult to injury" category...I just picked up my mail and read my new edition of the PTC Update. The mayor is apparently not content to transfer millions of dollars of home equity from the citizens of PTC to Coweta developers (and a few related Fayette development businesses). As has been well publicized, the mayor and 2 council members are currently in the process of robbing PTC citizens of home equity, quality of life, while adding (annually) millions of additional man-hours to PTC citizens to sit in traffic.

I just googled this aticle published 53 months ago. Notice how Mayor Steve Brown was reportedly very concerned about TDK and what would happen on the Coweta side, while a very rude Vernon Hunter ridiculed the PTC Mayor's concerns about what would happen in Coweta County (note he said it was not PTC's concern - - what arrogance). Now we learn that tens of thousands of cars will be coming from the new City of Mcintosh and routed into PTC! Hunter owes Brown a MAJOR public apology. I have never voted for Steve Brown, but the more I learn of him the more I like him. Are we in PTC really going to allow this road to go forward? Are the citizens of this city truly that supine?

The tens of thousands of City of Mcintosh and other Coweta cars that will be passing through PTC by 2015 will create major noise problems, health problems, and will significantly lower our PTC property values. Traffic noise will interfere with our sleep, conversation, and other neighborhood pursuits. AASHTO highway engineering studies have shown about 2% of us are exposed to traffic noise at a level which affects health. That means 1 in 50 PTC citizens will be less healthy just because of the noise!

Peachtree City pedestrian safety will be greatly diminished over the next decade. Approximately 6,000 pedestrians are killed each year in the U.S. by automobiles and 55% of these fatalities occurred on residential neighborhood streets! For every pedestrian killed by a car, another 15 were seriously injured. Will your child be one of these? Speed is a major factor determining whether a pedestrian will be killed or injured by an automobile. The City of Mcintosh and other Coweta drivers will be in a HURRY to get through PTC. A pedestrian is nine times more likely to die if struck by a car traveling at 30 mph compared 20 mph. Other factors contributing to the high pedestrian accident rate on neighborhood streets include lack of adequate sidewalks, bike lanes, and crossings. Are our golf cart crossings to become life-and-death matches between our golf carts and Coweta drivers that are cutting through here on their way to some other location?

I know nothing about you or ancient PTC political history, having only recently arrived a couple of years ago in this wonderful city (where we plan to stay). I was shocked (like everyone else) when I read the TDK planning involved grossly flawed traffic engineering projections that are in error about 6x (7000 vpd versus 44,000 vpd!!). This is simply stunning. Even if that 44k traffic count is inflated, and turns out to be "only" half that number, we are talking about a monumental catastrophe for this small town...and not just for Highway 74 commuters.

With a few substitutions! Mr. Jefferson was actually writing about public roads:

"I view [the TDK Highway] as a source of boundless patronage to the executive [PTC City Council], jobbing to members of Congress [developers in Coweta County] and their friends, and a bottomless abyss of public money."

I came across some recent higway plans that reveal, upon completion, that this highway will be officially known as the "Confederate Memorial Highway."

While traffic has always been a concern in PTC as it is elsewhere, with the advent of the TDK Highway turning our city into merely a place to be passed through for tens of thousands of people from somewhere else, I predict that within 10 years, traffic calming will become THE political issue in PTC. If you live here in 10 years, here is a menu of the many things you will see our political leaders considering. Google them...get to know them..they are our future.

Getting kids to school safely is one of the most fundamental transportation questions parents face. In 1969, according to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), about half of all children ages five to 18 either walked or biked to school. In 2001, 85 percent of all children between five and 15 were chauffeured to school by either a parent or a bus driver. This change has had a disastrous effects on the morning commute and on the sense of community around schools.

I was just reading the AJC headline about the tragic air crash in a residential area of Stockbridge: "Crash Shakes Airport's Neighbors." From the article: "In the past 45 years, subdivisions have cropped up, putting some houses yards from the end of the runway at the corner of Miller's Mill and Kitty Hawk roads."

From the recent Shannon Mall October 3rd Regional Transportation Meeting:

"Also on the ARC’s books for completion in 2008 is the $4.1 million TDK Boulevard Extension."

I have always been interested in the psychology of "schadenfreude" (German for "pleasure taken from someone else's misfortune"). I suppose one could get theological with this, and ascribe it to our fallen nature. It certainly seems to be rooted in evil tendencies, as there is no LOGICAL reason someone would be happy someone else is experiencing misfortune.

The new City of McIntosh, which Fayette County is making a reality in the next couple of years by buildng the highway "aorta" that will literally supply life to this creation, is an amazing example of one community appropriating another's national reputation and value.

with apologies to Mr. Churchill!

Another (lesser known) line from Sir Winston's famous speech: "The great flow of new construction set on foot at the outbreak is now beginning to come in."

In the 1990's, Line Creek was classified by the State of Georgia as an impaired waterbody, polluted for "total toxicity." A Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) study was later completed for low dissolved oxygen (e.g., oxygen levels were too low to support fish and aquatic habitat). How can PTC building a highway to Coweta County (that will allow for 5000 homes per 1000 acres) help restore Line Creek? Have the PTC leaders considered the negative environmental impacts that they are making possible? The ensuing complete and total urbanization of eastern Coweta will only lead to a diminishing water quality in Line Creek. Silt and sediment will pour into the stream when the hundreds of bulldozers crank up, and the ineffective silt fences will be run down the first week.

As traffic volumes increase the safety of our PTC streets will decline along with property value, air quality, and the quiet we enjoy in our homes. In ths US approximately 6,000 pedestrians are killed each year in the U.S. by automobiles and 55% of these fatalities occurred on neighborhood streets. For every pedestrian killed by a car, another 15 were injured. Speed is a major factor determining whether a pedestrian will be killed or injured by an automobile. A pedestrian is nine times more likely to die if struck by a car traveling at 30 mph compared to 20 mph. Other factors contributing to the high pedestrian accident rate on neighborhood streets include lack of adequate sidewalks, bike lanes, and crossings.

It is amazing to me how much time is spent in our beautiful city on debating minor issues, when there is a looming catastrophe that will literally destroy the integrity and cohesiveness of this small town forever. The TDK extension will flood our community with traffic beyond imagination, and end the golf cart/residential atmosphere. Secondary roads will become major highways, and neighborhood groups will soon fight "cut through" traffic by starting an endless battle with city hall for building speed bumps. Inevitable golf cart/vehicle tragedies will occur, as thousands of new City of Mcintosh and City of East Coweta residents speed through the town looking for short cuts to the north and east. Our airport officials, now quietly operating in a somewhat isolated environment, are soon going to have a huge population of Coweta citizens fighting them at every turn, just like the Dekalb-Peachtree Airport officials have now. Complaints will pour in, and major FAA noise/flight pattern/operating issue battles are on the horizon.