The city of Dunwoody invited Peggy, Lauren and me to attend the 10th Anniversary “State of the City Address” last night. I rarely attend events like this because I’d typically rather be watching Grey’s Anatomy instead. However the lovely City of Dunwoody Communications Director, Jennifer Boettcher, invited us so Lauren and I figured it would be fun to check it out.
I took a ton of notes but have just decided not to bore you with those and instead will give you a light version of my observations:
- This was mine and Lauren’s second time at the Crowne Plaza Ravinia this week and we agree it is a lovely hotel and the banquet space was well done for this event.
- I ran into several people I loved seeing:
- Adam Freedman from Dunwoody, PC
- Lynn Deutsch, one of my fave City Councilwomen
- Su Ellis, a friend from long ago days at AT&T who happened to win the City of Dunwoody Sustainable Hero award just after I hugged her neck!
- Priscilla Cole, Dunwoody High’s amazing principal
- The fun guys from What’s Up Dunwoody and their beautiful wives
- My young, smart, beautiful friend, Marina Von Behren – the DHS Class of 2020 President
- Kimberly Franz from the Dunwoody CVB who is beautifully pregnant with her first child
- And I got to sit next to the Mayor of Tucker and his beautiful wife Gay who happens to be friends with my son’s literature teacher!
- I learned that the Rotary Club of Dunwoody considers themselves the “friendliest breakfast club” so I need to go have breakfast with them soon.
- The Mayor talked about paving, police, parks, property taxes and a ton of other things like that but the most interesting things I remember are:
- The Vermack/Mt. Vernon/Manhassett intersection should be FINISHED by the first day of summer (hallelujah)
- The city will soon put out a video on crosswalk etiquette
- The new bridge that connects the Georgetown neighborhood to the Perimeter business district is apparently awesome and I need to check it out this weekend.
Finally, I loved listening to Mayor Shortal talk about how important his family is to him. He announced when his term ends on 12/31 he’s going to do the following things:
- Take time to see his grandchildren….
- Wrestle with the youngest grandboys
- Drink a beer with his college grandson at Boston College
- Watch his high school grandson excel on the football field
- Spend time getting to know his only granddaughter
Denny said he’s “Giving everything he’s got til 12/31 then going to drink a cold one. We’ve come a long way in 10 years but there’s still work to be done. If we stay the course…. EVERYTHING WILL BE OK”
