North Arcadia Sidewalk Eaten By Nature
Decatur Metro | August 13, 2010Scarab writes in…
The attached photos are a stretch of drastically overgrown sidewalk near the intersection of North Arcadia and Dekalb Industrial (between the old DeVry place and Clarion Apartments).
I’m a runner who regularly runs through this area and downtown Decatur. And right now that sidewalk (as well as a patch farther up the hill on the same side of the street) is so drastically overgrown you can’t even walk through it, let alone run! Which leaves a person to have to try and cross that 6 lane street to other side right in the bend of a curve….and considering how fast cars drive on that section of road, that’s an extremely dangerous option.
It’s been overgrown for a LONG time now. It used to be regularly cut. But no more.
My questions: Who is in charge of cutting back all that overgrowth? Who do I contact to bug the crap out of until it’s done?
Well, it’s certainly DeKalb County, but I’m not sure who specifically should be bugged. Anyone know?
One more pic of the hungry-hungry nature after the jump.
DeKalb County never maintained such areas very well, and its even worse now that they’ve reduced the number of employees.
The triangle just up the hill where Winn Way intersects with Arcadia was mowed back in the spring, and now the weeds are as tall as wheat.
IMHO, Decatur should have annexed this area when it annexed DeVry, as it is now an eastern entrance into our fair city, and reflects badly on the city with people who don’t know it’s not in incorporated Decatur.
The Northeast Decatur Growing Community (NEDGC.com) hopes to develop a garden on the north and south sides of the intersection eventually.
This is an issue all around Decatur – trying to walk the dog gets tricky sometimes with the overgrowth in the neighborhood streets – do we know who is responsible for that – assuming home owners but guessing there is some City department?
On the first day of school, I got my tools out and chopped back the trees that were jutting into the sidewalk near my house.
Let’s all clean up our own sidewalks, friends and neighbors!
thank you SO much for bringing this up – W Howard needs to be added – walking from Decatur High to East Lake Marta is hazardous –
As the City begins their “Get Fit Decatur” program, this should become a priority.
Also the sidewalk from Gateway Homes to Water Street and around that corner, past where there’s a vacant lot that used to have a funeral home. There’s a bush on that corner that attacks kids walking or on bicycles.
Not to offer an excuse, but we are getting near the end of a long hot summer (I hope) and local government budgets are at the breaking point. Maybe that is why we see all these unkempt spots??
For concerns in the city limits, I’d use the city website, I’ve reported issues on there and they have fixed them. as for Dekalb county, go only knows. I thought about this exact spot and the part thats covered further up today when driving down it. the situation is the same on N Decatur Eastbound just past Dekalb Industrial, heading towards the old hollywood video across from spacemax.
As Joe said, all you have to do is fill out the form on the city website. I’ll even provide the link.
http://com4.govtsystems.com/ReqPDecaturGA/AnonRequests/RequestForm.aspx?FormId=400
If you submit it, they will clear it.
Is there a similar link for the county?
Or a phone call or email works. For the attacking bush on the Trinity/Water corner, I’ve gotten a good response when I’ve reported it. Problem is that it grows back in weeks. Maintenance of that stretch is more the problem rather than responsiveness to a complaint.
Thanks so much for posting this for me! I figured this particular spot is probably covered by Dekalb County. But for the life of me I can’t find where on the county website I should go to report this/seek answers (if anyone figures it out, please post!). But regardless, from the comments it seems this is a problem in quite a few county and city areas.
Dekalb County uses 311.
http://www.co.dekalb.ga.us/311/index.html
I believe the proper internet meme response to this headline is “om nom nom”
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=om%20nom
For county areas start with Public Works:
http://www.co.dekalb.ga.us/publicwrks/pw_who.html
Looks like it’s been cleaned up.
Sometimes shining a public light on things works!
I just walked through there yesterday–mostly in the road.
I was by this (Thursday) afternoon.
Perhaps only the west side was cleaned up?
The west side is what I noticed. Didn’t look across the street. What got my attention was a DeKalb County truck on the west side with yellow lights.
You are indeed correct sir–on both sides. Except a patch at the top of curve that appears to be private property.