City Council Member Rides Bike to Community Garden

City Council Member.

Rides bike.

To community garden.

These three phrases sound so simple, yet, my goodness, the possibility of this complete sentence didn't even exist a year ago. During this Thanksgiving week, I count it among my blessings to live in a city, just a week shy of one-year-old, where we have our own mayor and city council members. Who can ride their bikes. To our very own community garden.

And Robert Wittenstein (pictured above) is not the only one. Council Member Denny Shortal rode his bike to the community garden a month or so ago, and Council Member John Heneghan and his sons rode by during our very first potluck a couple weeks ago. (John, I was too busy talking and showing you the beer compost to get a photo--would you ride by another day so I can get you posing by the gate for the official City Council Member Community Garden Photo?) Also, Council Members Adrian Bonser and Robert Wittenstein participated in our Opening Day ceremony.


It's not odd that city council members have come by--they have been nothing but supportive of almost all the sustainability initiatives in the city of Dunwoody this past year (and, by the way, we'll be ending the year with about 100 points achieved on the ARC Green Community checklist, with 175 needed for Bronze Level certification, which we expect to achieve in 2010).

What's still odd, unfortunately, is that the city council members were even able to ride their bikes clear across town, when drivers and the roads don't make it easy for cyclists.

But all that is about to change. Here's why. City Council and Mayor passed this Resolution for an Action Plan for a Bicycle Friendly Community last night. Strap on your helmet before you read it, because it might just send you over your handlebars. BIG thanks to citizen activist Joe Seconder for his dogged determination in helping to make this happen.

(Quick garden update--FYI, Adrian Bonser and her husband, Brian, have recently come off the waiting list to get a plot in the garden--and yes, they were put on the list in the order in which they applied and had to wait for their turn, just like everyone else. Council Member Danny Ross' wife, Queenie, is still on the waiting list, and we are hoping to be able to have her join this garden, as well as everyone else who is on that waiting list. Or is it time to start talking about another community garden so everyone who wants to say, "I Dig Dunwoody" can?!)

Ken, Tom, Danny--let me know when you're coming by, and I'll bring my camera!