NCSSM and the neighborhood...

[Justin Preyer]

Hey everyone,

I just had to throw something into the conversation.  I live in the
community directly abutting Georgia Tech.  The school and the
neighborhood have a healthy working relationship.  They share resources
for a combined day care center.  The neighborhood can bring up problems
that need to be addressed and gets a positive response from the school.
Everything isn't always ideal, but the two sides mostly work well
together.  I've seen what the interaction can be like.  It works based
off of a good history of working together and both sides having trust
in the other entity.

It sounds to me like the key point is not the lights on the tennis
courts being on 45 minutes longer.  Or the issues associated with the
stadium.  It sounds to me like the neighborhood and city have serious
trust issues with the school.  Rightfully so, too.  You CANNOT promise
something to a community and then immediately make official policy to
the contrary if you want to keep trust.  It is blatantly lying to them.
You CANNOT send something out to faculty and alumni that blatantly
ignores or misleads them to what the city code or planning board tells
the administration if you want to keep trust.  That is blatantly lying 
to the alumni and faculty.  You CANNOT repeat that it is soooooo far off
in the future and then immediately say it's too late to do anything and
it needs to happen now and maintain trust.  That's blatantly jerking
people around and blowing them off.

If Tech pulled that crap on our neighborhood association and misquoted
and misrepresented the City of Atlanta, there would be no more interaction
with the community.  Their day care would have to be dissolved since
it's a joint venture and numerous other blessings of the two
organizations working together would be gone.  But, Tech seems to
understand being within an area and a city and we make it work quite
well together.

Boarman apparently does not.  I can't support the extra hours of the
tennis court lights and I cannot support the stadium as it is.  The
neighborhood has a definite concern if they're being told there will
only be lights facing in.  They've been lied to countless times before
and there is no trust.  And because of that alone (barring any other
strong-arm tactics), I cannot trust Boarman.  And I don't even live
there.

So, please, don't say the community is off their rocker just because of
45 minutes of extra lights and things like that.  The more important
issue is the repeated lying and strong-arm techniques to get what he
wants.  That's the bigger issue.

Justin