I just spent 7 years helping revitalize New Orleans after Katrina – I am a community advocate and organizer who knows the entire New Orleans City Council personally. With that said, when I considered returning to Atlanta where I grew up, it was only if I could be near Decatur.

My street, Medlock Road, is already plagued with the zooming cars that are cutting through from outlying neighborhoods to the commercial “hub”of the region – Decatur. I support this annexation because I hope Decatur will help with traffic calming devices and the like.

However, more importantly for those of you not in the footprint, if you can accuse your city of putting income ahead of local business interests in this annexation, you are deluding yourself. A Wal-Mart will impact your local businesses – whether or not it is part of your footprint or lies just outside it.

The only hope I see of controlling the ravages of Wal-Mart and other national chains that might want to “revitalize’ Suburban Plaza is to have the City of Decatur at the table.

I read in the AJC that the Surburban Plaza parcel is considered the most attractive in the area – likely because of its proximity to Decatur. It IS part and parcel of you, whether you want to admit it or not. The CoD is wisely recognizing and addressing that fact rather than burying its head in the sand.

Is there revenue associated with this “land grab”? Of course. The CoD has to defend its actions against irate citizens who complain that the annexed parcels will overburden the tax base. This one won’t.

However, if you believe in the vision that brought Decatur to what it is today, then you must have some faith that the same vision hasn’t become blind to the potential damage an unchecked Wal-Mart could do to your lovely town.