The Ox has responded to an outraged Inman Park.   Hot out of the Fresh Loaf oven…

“I love East Atlanta, Morningside, Grant Park, Inman Park and that entire wonderful part of our great state,” said Oxendine. “But I know we must find a way to move Georgia forward towards “greener” roads, mass transit, light rail—every option must be on the table.”

I can only assume he means covering all the roads in sod, but that sounds rather expensive.

As Wheatley points out in his analysis of the statement, though there’s little chance this bypass would ever be built, it’s win-win for the Ox, who already has little support on the blue-tinted east side of the metro.  Pissing off Atlanta earns major brownie points with the rest of the state.  Politicking at its finest.

Too bad it doesn’t work the other way around…”Hey rest o’ Georgia, Atlanta needs all your property to create a massive metro parking lot!”

Inman Park isn’t mincing words about gubenatorial candidate John Oxendine’s proposal of building more bypasses and highways around Atlanta.  CL’s Thomas Wheatley has the note to the candidate from Inman Park President Lisa Burnette.

The idea has obviously picked open the old scab that Inman Park has worn since a coalition of in-town neighborhoods defeated the plan of connecting the road with the most laughable 35mph speed limit sign in the city (Freedom Parkway) with Highway 78.

Now in politics, pissing people off is kind of inevitable.  But pissing off people with money?  Oh, that’s bad.  Very bad.

These Atlanta neighborhoods, including Inman Park, most soundly defeated this highway proposal decades ago, at a time when they had little organization and little resources. Today, we are highly organized and closely networked. We have neighbors and friends in many high places, and we have a lot of money, set aside specifically to protect ourselves against these kinds of proposals.

The Inman Park Neighborhood Association demands that you immediately retract your statements that you would consider building a Stone Mountain Freeway through intown Atlanta.

Hells yes.

Hey Inman Park, let Decatur know if you need help.  We don’t have quite the wealth-hoards, but we’re feisty and we’ll volunteer for near about anything.