Castleberry Hill Neighborhood Association
General Business Meeting
October 19, 2009, 6:30pm
Granite Room – 211 Peters St
MINUTES
President, Laurel Emery called the meeting to order at 6:40pm.
The September, 2009 General Business Meeting minutes were adopted and accepted.
MAYORAL & CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATES
Cleta Winslow – District 4
• Came to Le Flash and it was a great event
• Anything Cleta can do to help with Castleberry Hill just let her know
• Cleta brought the tax abatement to this area back in 1995/96, which helped energize the area and helped with Landmark Districting and Clean Up’s
Wesley Knapp – Post 2 At Large – http://www.knappforatlanta.com
• EAV – Buckhead – running for Mayor w/ a fraction of the budget
• Lives in East Lake, a lot of revitalization, has a business and family over there and public safety is a big issue
• Fought water bills, tax bills, etc. Working on increased efficiencies in the City of Atlanta
• Budget, Public Safety (police reserve plan, doesn’t cost tax payers more) & Expansion of Economic Development in the City (block-and-tackle department-by-department) are big points
• Supporting MARTA & Beltline – Transportation is a big point of the campaign; all comes down to funding and there needs to be a State-funding focus
Adam Brackman – Post 1 At Large – http://www.adamforatlanta.com
• Currently held by Caesar Mitchell
• Works for IBM and manages multi-million dollar implementations
• Public Safety plan calls for rolling back increase and putting the right people in charge of managing
• Jay Tribby mentioned 80% of City officials not living inside the City – Adam said that the crime and cost to live in the City is not appealing right now, that needs to change
• Feels the CFO should report to the Mayor and City Council and they need to be more accountable
Caesar Mitchell – City Council President – http://www.ceasarforouratlanta.com
• Currently Post 1 At Large, running for City Council President
• 8 years on City Council
• Works as a real estate lawyer
• Ethics reform, infrastructure, etc. were an original focus, but the financial issues started to take over. Caesar spoke about a year ago with the COO about the financial issues the City is facing. Making an investment in the City for the long-term. Chief budget czar to work with the rest of the team and get everything in line and that the budget process starts earlier. Pension fund has to be looked at as well.
• Promoting a cleaner city for all Atlantans
• Advancing Atlanta’s environmental sustainability agenda
• Implementing strategies to better secure Atlanta’s neighborhoods
• Transforming Atlanta into a global leader where people come to live, work, study and play
• Caesar spends a lot of
• Public Safety, Economic Development, Youth Engagement and continuing to push for reforms in government
• What was the thinking when the decision was made to fully fund the pension plan on an annual basis? Wasn’t a lot of thinking they could do, they were following regulations and guidelines that were put in place for this type of thing. Those regulations said that municipalities should fully fund their pensions.
• As we move forward with changing the pension plan, do we make changes for those not fully funded? That remains to be seen.
• When you have an idea SPEAK UP! Ask questions, make suggestions and provide constructive criticism.
• $10 million funding for an arts program (brought up at Arts Mayoral Forum), where would the money come from? That will be put on the table. There will be a strong push to use one-cent funding for arts programs.
OFFICERS REPORTS
President – Laurel Emery
• Very proud of the neighborhood w/ the Loft Tour, Le Flash and 2nd Friday Art Stroll change
• We made money on the Loft Tour, didn’t lose even with the low sponsor turn-out
• Le Flash was incredible! The energy was fantastic! We could have had 4000-5000 people that evening. They want to return and make it even bigger and better.
• Officially the 2nd Friday, banners around the neighborhood. Please talk about the change and let us know if there are listings that are incorrect that you are unable to change.
• Dog Park – Went to UDC for a variance for the fencing materials and found we don’t have a usage right to the land. The City has no usage language for dog parks on private property so Doug Young is working with us to make this change. Kwanza Hall introduce the change. Email president@castleberryhill.org for the verbiage in the text amendment change for the usage allowance. Ballots being passed out to vote on the change to the amendments – unanimous YES
• Kia Ball – 1st year grad student at GA Tech doing report on Castleberry Hill
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Public Safety
• Next Public Safety meeting – November 9th @ 6:30pm at Tilt
• Brochures are done, thanks to David Gacsko for completing and making pretty, they will be printed and distributed at the November meeting
• Blast sent out about a couple of car-jackings on October 8th; October 10th gun-shot at 222 Peters St
• Window breaking guy from last year is back, threw a bottle through Machine Shop Lofts front window at 215 Peters St
• Various reports of people reporting crimes on Facebook rather than to Public Safety, please fill out an incident report or just send a quick email to publicsafety@castleberryhill.org
• Public Safety phone # is 404-903-7844, please leave a message
Loft Tour
• Thank you to all of the volunteers and sponsors and hosts who made the Loft Tour another success this year.
• We raised over $20k, had more than 2500 people come through and more importantly we received excellent PR for having another great tour.
• Have entry forms from Loft Tour that need to be entered into
PR/Communications
• Working on street banner replacement, but there have been changes to rules & regulations and having issues.
• We were at Harvest Midtown October 4th to hand out maps, Chili Cookoff information and more about the neighborhood. Thanks to Emma, Stefan and Kelly for volunteering for this.
• We received the Creative Loafing Best of Atlanta 2009 award for “Best neighborhood for the arts” and “Best neighborhood art walk” and Le Flash won for “Best art event”.
• Always looking for help with the PR committee to help get the word out about CH!
Neighborhood Relations
• Halloween Trick-or-Treating – Saturday, October 31st @ 6pm – Let us know if you are joining us or want to be a stop along the way by emailing social@castleberryhill.org
• Castleberry Hill Chili Cook-off – Saturday, November 14th 2-5pm – Visit website for links to download entry form and pay online! $20 to enter, $5 to eat, $5 to drink, awesome raffle prizes!!!!
Land Use & Zoning
• Landmark & Historic Districting posters for sale for $10, money goes to the neighborhood. City Council will be given a poster and Matt Belfi in the neighborhood
NEW BUSINESS
Joint Happy Hour – Friday, Oct 23rd @ 30 Tables at the Glenn Hotel with the ADNA (Atlanta Downtown Neighborhood Asso) and MSAA (Marietta Street Artery Asso)
OLD BUSINESS
NEIGHBORHOOD ANNOUNCEMENTS
Any New Businesses Opening in Neighborhood
Any Other Announcements
SPECIAL GUESTS: CITY, COUNTY, STATE, & FEDERAL OFFICIALS
City Council – at beginning of meeting
APD
Meeting adjourned at 7:40pm
