Public Officials Ignore Taxpayers Requests to Improve Street Lights

Dear Cascade Patch,

I am furious with our representatives of Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia and the Georgia Department of Transportation!

For months lights have been out in our area and no one has done anything about it! Over the course of two months I have sent many, many emails just to get this problem ACKNOWLEDGED, showing just how incompetent and inconsiderate some of our public servants really are.

As you know, lights are VERY important for the safety of travelers at night. Not only do they significantly improve visibility to prevent accidents, but have been proven to make a huge difference on both crime and the public’s sense of security. Cities wouldn’t bother putting them up if they weren’t so important!

Since moving to Atlanta this year, the street lights from Welcome All Rd to 285 W along Camp Creek Parkway have NEVER worked. On March 27, 2011, I contacted Clyde Mitchell (East Point City Councilman) for the purpose of addressing this issue. Although he responded to me, he only offered to pass on my distress to Senator Vincent Fort and Rep. Joe Heckstall, stating it was outside of his jurisdiction.

I promptly emailed them myself and asked who I needed to speak to, letting them know that I will follow up until the issue is resolved. Javier Brown (Legislative Assistant for Senator Fort) said he contacted the Department of Transportation to look into the matter and told me I’d have an update once he got a response from them. I NEVER got that update from him.

Five days later I sent an email to Javier to find out what’s going on. Since I didn’t get any update AGAIN, a few days later I sent an email to everyone (including Javier) letting them know my growing frustration and even volunteered to fix the lights myself if they supply the new lights and boom truck. In no uncertain words I made sure everyone knew that I would be taking this story to the media and make sure it gets immediate attention.

Javier finally got back with me the next day saying that the lights are “actually” installed and maintained by the city of East Point (pointing the finger at Clyde Mitchell), and would follow up. Soon after I got an email from Clyde giving a poor excuse of the confusion everyone had on taking responsibility for the lights (keep in mind they figured it out only after a month of my persistent communication – who knows how long Atlanta would be DARK and DANGEROUS as everyone points fingers at each other and neglects the issue).

In that email he also said that the Langford Parkway (166) lights were fixed, but that was a LIE and they still aren’t fixed to this day! So when he then tells me that there are “serious problems with missing wiring, missing transformers, missing lights and other issues” and it will take “90 days” to complete the project, am I really expected to believe him? Or is he just getting me off his back so he can get back to sucking that cigar on our tax dollars without my annoyance?

So, here is where we are at:

• Camp Creek: ALL lights are out and a light pole down
• From 285 on the west side to 75 N on the Langford Parkway (166) E & W 30+ lights are out.
• From I-75/85 N & S to downtown inside the 285 loop 40+ lights are out.
• From downtown headed on I-20 E & W inside to 285 W loop 50+ lights are out.

PLEASE GET TOGETHER AND ADDRESS THIS ISSUE IMMEDIATELY!

I own and manage multiple national marketing companies and am quickly approaching a million followers on the major social networks. Not only will I make sure every single one of them knows of this city’s inability to address such an important issue, but will also use my 2,400+ Atlanta media contacts to bring awareness to everyone else.

How many public officials does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Michael McCarthy
Michael@McCarthy.net