THE Inman Park September 2019 Advocator Volume 47 • Issue 9 Atlanta’s Small Town Downtown News • Newsletter of the Inman Park Neighborhood Association [email protected] • inmanpark.org • 245 North Highland Avenue NE • Suite 230-401 • Atlanta 30307 Bring the Advocator Back Home By BeVerly Miller • [email protected] THE Inman Park Advocator spending lots of money on home improvements Atlanta’s Small Town Downtown News • Newsletter of the Inman Park Neighborhood Association August 2019 pondered how many rats were needed for a stew. [email protected] • inmanpark.org • 245 North Highland Avenue NE • Suite 230-401 • Atlanta 30307 Volume 47 • Issue 8 Telling Our Money Where To Go This column’s catchy title is courtesy of Pat Westrick. It echoes Instead of Wondering Where it Went. Volunteers typed articles for Hot Rats, cut them By Beverly Miller • [email protected] her remarks at the August IPNA meeting’s discussion of some Per our bylaws, IPNA’s fi scal year runs from November 1 to October 31. To out with scissors, and pasted them onto sheets of the July IPNA get a head start on the budgeting process, this summer the IPNA Board meeting that formed a committee to review budgets going back fi ve years and come up the permitting with a proposed budget for FY2020. The entire board will submit feedback process should President’s Message THE before the budget is presented to IPNA for discussion at the September proceed much big changes that are being considered for the meeting. The fi nal budgetJanuary must be approved 2019 by a vote of the membership at the paper to create the layout, which was then taken to faster to allow paper to create the layout, which was then taken to Inman ParkOctober meeting. There areVolume important 47 • fiIssue nancial 1 decisions to be made between for prompt now and then because how IPNA spends its resources largely defi nes who we are. completion of the remaining sidewalks IPNA members may recall that a few years ago, our neighborhood association during this fi scal year. Advocator. Our neighborhood publication found itself in the fortuitous position of having a large cash reserve, thanks to These new sidewalks are a a printer. The volunteers then collated the printed years of prudent saving for a rainy festival that never happened. But the board welcome improvement! decided when planning the FY2016 budget that IPNA is not a bank and that the time had come to start spending. Now FY 2020 approaches, and Polar Bear Jump: January 1, 2019 it’s time to budget again. But fi rst, was outsourced a few years ago to publisher Historians may someday look back upon the ensuing budgets as hallmarks of Advocator there is an immediate expense the Atlanta’s Small Town Downtown News • Newsletter of the Inman Park Neighborhood Association pages by hand around someone’s dining room table, IPNA’s Golden Age. The neighborhood association allocated more money for [email protected] • inmanpark.org • 245 North Highland Avenue NE • Suite 230-401 • Atlanta 30307 board would like to fund. After many years capital improvements and gave larger grants to schools and civic organizations. of service, the IPSP patrol car is no longer with us IPNA paid for the installation of lights in Freedom Park along the Poplar Circle and needs replacement. Unfortunately, the news path and also budgeted over several years for subsidies to repair and replace came on July 18, one day after the IPNA meeting, so President’s Message President’s KDA. Over time, KDA has devoted more more sidewalks. However, sidewalk work fell behind, and while more repairs Your iNPUt Needed! the car’s replacement now must wait for membership stapled them together, and hand-delivered them to continued to be budgeted and planned over the next two years, the money went approval at the August meeting. Kevin Curry, VP for Public Safety, has found By BeVerLy MiLLer • [email protected] unspent after the City suddenly changed its substrate requirements, doubling an excellent deal on a replacement vehicle. This large purchase will require a construction costs. In 2018 IPNA was fi nally given the go-ahead to proceed as special vote at the August meeting since it is an un-budgeted expense. The good Imagine moving into your recently purchased home only to fi nd that a before using the less expensive materials. news is that if the purchase is approved, IPSP will have a reliable vehicle, and the and more of our former article space to major expressway is about to come right through the heart of your new neighborhood. Joseph Drolet found himself in exactly this situation when In order to clear the resulting sidewalk repair backlog, last September IPNA voted continued on page 4 neighbors. he moved in 1971 to an area now known as Virginia-Highland. At the time, to allocate $115,000 for sidewalk subsidies during the current fi scal year. The Atlanta’s in-town neighborhoods were under siege. People would often fi nd board advised against this expense because the outlay threatened to take IPNA’s Happenings Hulsey Yard out about new developments only when they saw the bulldozers coming cash reserves under the previously member-approved $150,000 limit. However, down the street. The City’s planning process operated from the top down a large majority of the membership voted in favor of the increased funding. This this month and You ads. At the same time, many of our local business Message President’s without neighborhood input. That’s why Joseph and others banded together was a defi ning moment as our membership weighed the potential risks and benefi ts involved in making the decision, and the discussion reminded everyone to form the Virginia-Highland Civic Association, which soon joined with over 50 that our resources are fi nite. As of this writing, sidewalk construction is almost other neighborhoods, including Inman Park and the BOND community, to form Page 4-5 Page 7 complete along Euclid. Millie Astin, our Sidewalks Committee Chair, reported at the Citywide League of Neighborhoods (CLN). Their fi ght for neighborhood IPNA began a few years later to help defer the costs of owners stopped advertising in the Advocator as the participation led to our Neighborhood Planning Unit (NPU) system, which today makes surprise bulldozers a thing of the past. continued on page 8 To accomplish their goals, the CLN fi rst went to work to elect candidates who supported neighborhood inclusion in planning, zoning, and transportation. Among Little ads became more and more expensive. these candidates was mayoral hopeful Maynard Jackson, who in 1973 was elected 5 Points the publication. It developed into the Advocator and with CLN’s help. Atlanta’s NPU system is a form of community governance, one of the fi rst of its kind in the nation, that was adopted under Mayor Jackson in 1974. Inman Alliance The NPU process requires that any proposed development that does not comply Diners’ Club with a neighborhood’s existing zoning or land use rules cannot proceed without Happenings Invitation resident input. In 1989, Atlanta also instituted its Comprehensive Development this month became the offi cial neighborhood newsletter. There Plan (CDP), a public record documenting future land use. The NPU system provides citizens with an opportunity to give input into the CDP as it is revised Page 10 through quarterly updates, and to advise the Atlanta City Council and the City of The IPNA Board is now in favor of returning to a self- Atlanta Mayor’s Offi ce on city planning, zoning, and land use. Page 4 An example of how the NPU system empowers citizens can be found in our were only a couple hundred members of IPNA, so hand neighborhood association’s recently approved amendments to a Livable Centers Pages 4-5 Initiative (LCI) Update. In 2000, the Atlanta Regional Commission established the LCI to provide grants for studies focused on improving transportation, publishing model for the Advocator. Communications walkability, and public spaces. LCI studies are periodically updated, with many of the proposed projects eventually being adopted into the CDP and becoming reality. Early in 2018, IPNA members became concerned about several proposed delivery continued. Some regular features were “Ann Launders” projects in the latest Moreland Avenue Corridor LCI update. For example, the update suggests a development with a 1000-space parking deck on Bass Fields VP Melissa Miller, Advocator Editor Carla Jeff ries, and continued on page 4 and “Butterfl y Buzz,” both newsy columns, and “Clumsy Clem,” Webmaster Cristy Lenz have been helping in pursuit of this vision. Assuming the membership approves, and the which provided home renovation tips. Many neighbors contributed content, so plan moves forward, here are a few changes you can expect the compilation refl ected the character of early Inman Park. to see: more space will be devoted to articles refl ective of the unique spirit of Inman Park; ad content will be local; advertising will be more Moving forward, I hope we will be able to revive the tradition of featuring regular aff ordable so that local business will run ads. We project that the publication will columns. Please volunteer to write for the Advocator to help make it a better pay for itself with these ad sales. voice for our neighborhood! We are also compiling a sheet of ad rates for all neighbors to give to local businesses they patronize. Business owners can then Distribution by mail will remain the same. In addition, IPNA members will also go to inmanpark.org, fi ll out a single form, pay for the ad, and upload it.