Which Came First? The City or the Services?

There has been some chatter online recently about Tucker 2014 and their push toward a city for our area.  

Many folks commend them for stepping up and leading the city initiative with the backing of support from Tucker Together, the non profit that initially formed to educate the community on the options.  

The problem with this "hand off" from one group to the next is that it was not evident that a city of Tucker was what the citizens at the meetings agreed they truly wanted.  Sure, there were a few who spoke up and said they were interested or they saw no other alternative, but there were also those who said that we should focus on simply stopping the land-grab and maybe hire a lobbyist who would work on our behalf.  

Many people asked about the potential of forming a "town" or another official designation to go along with our Census Designation that would clearly indicate our community lines, something that had never before been a matter of debate.  We heard mention of a "city lite," something that just dropped off the radar screen when the city advocates took over.

But, the map produced by Tucker Together, apparently, and pushed forward by Tucker 2014 isn't Tucker.  Look it over for yourself and let me know what you think.  And services being picked like names out of a hat doesn't feel like a real process we should be supporting here. 

The goal was never to become a city.  It was to protect our community from intrusion by a small group of individuals using the good name of their local high school during a time of educational crisis to try and stage a "takeover" of assets that don't belong to them.  They are people already tied to the government and who are backed largely by legislators who do not even represent our area.  

If we cannot fully say that there is a need for these services to be handled locally, then that seems to me that we cannot say there is a need for a city.  We're not a city, we're a suburb of Atlanta.   We're more of a small town than we are an up and coming powerhouse wanting to challenge the status quo.  We were happy being "the best kept secret" in Atlanta.  

We have experienced a good working relationship with the county, according to the many volunteer organizations who spoke up at the Tucker Together meetings.  We might actually lose benefits if we incorporate, like grants already secured for Henderson  Park, or protection of our residential areas that are currently marked as such, and not up for debate, in the county's zoning code books.

If Tucker is lacking anything, it may be an understanding of how our schools are being handled individually in order to serve their respective communities first and foremost. Too many of our Tucker families look for "alternatives" to their neighborhood school and that is a sign that something we are doing here is not working.  

I understand the Tucker Parent Council was a group formed to look out for all of our schools, yet I do not know exactly how they accomplish that or what they might need to help them.  I wish they were not focusing so much time toward the city initiative as it has been said many times that the city isn't about the school system.  Of course, I don't believe that myself, but that is what is being said.

And, I, for one, will be glad when we can vote and get this nonsense over with.  Let's put the Tucker Parent Council volunteers back to work on our schools, the number one concern on everyone's minds these days.  Frankly, we should have never allowed those with other agendas to distract us in the first place. 

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