Bike Roswell Forum 10/7/09

Thursday, October 08, 2009

 THANK YOU

Thank you for making Roswell a Bicycle-Friendly Community.

Because of you,

-Roswell’s streets are safer

-Our citizens who ride are healthier and they can travel around town without getting in a car. 

-Good people are moving to Roswell to live in a bicycle-friendly community

-Local business are making more money, starting with our bike shops

-Bicycling events are benefitting local charities, like the Hospitality Highway Century that benefitted the Ga. Transplant Organization. 

-Being designated as a Bicycle-Friendly City has improved our image.

You are not just helping Roswell, you are helping the state.

-By riding to the Capitol every march you are  to influencing state legislation.

-By becoming a Bicycle Friendly city you are a model for other cities.

-Everyone here tonight who is not already a member of Bike Roswell should join because  if you don’t own a bicycle Bike Roswell is good for Roswell and deserves your support.

   BICYCLING’S  FUTURE

With your leadership, Roswell will become a Platinum Level Bicycle-Friendly Community.

Before the end of this year we will open a new multi-purpose trail along Holcomb Bridge Road so that you can ride from Horseshoe Bend to East Roswell Park and the rest of the city.

Whenever we re-pave a street, we are widening the pavement and narrowing the lanes from 12' to 11' to give you more room to ride.

We are planning a multipurpose loop trail around Roswell connecting our neighborhoods to all our parks.

The Criterium will be returning to Canton Street next year.  Among other improvements, I have suggested to Eric Broadwell that we add a parade of decorated  bikes.

I would appreciate your vote on November 3rd so I can continue to make Roswell even more Bicycle Friendly.

Roswell Crime Rate - The Neighbor Newspaper 10-4-09

Monday, October 05, 2009

I was surprised by Councilwoman Henry’s criticism of the Roswell Police in last week’s Neighbor given that she has been responsible for oversight of the Police Department for the last two years.

Any crime is too much, but you can be proud that Roswell is doing a good job of preventing crime.   Contrary to Ms. Henry’s claim,  Roswell’s violent crime rate is down.  Based upon 2008 FBI crime statistics published in the AJC, Roswell ranked better than Milton, Alpharetta, and Sandy Springs (Johns Creek ranking not available.).  For 2009 the FBI index crime rate is down 1% for Roswell.  For Roswell crime statistics, see www.roswellgov.com, click on City Services, then Police Department. 

Protecting the safety of Roswell residents is my top priority and always has been.  The biggest item in Roswell’s budget this year, 26 % of the total, is allocated to police.  Ms. Henry voted against this as being too costly.  Under my leadership, Roswell has added 32 police officers, became the first city in Metro Atlanta to offer a Crime-Free Housing Program,  www.crime-free-association.org., and saw the District Attorney open  an office in North Fulton.  I am working with Judge Downs to start a “Drug Court” in North Fulton.  As a consequence of these and other crime prevention programs, Roswell is consistently ranked one of the safest cities in the nation and was ranked 18th safest city in U.S. over 75,000 in 2008.

I will continue to do everything I can for you to make Roswell an even safer city. 

Mayor Jere Wood

MAYOR’S OPENING REMARKS ON ARTS FORUM

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

September 22, 2009

Arts and Culture are very important to Roswell.

Arts and Culture bring good people to Roswell.

Arts and Culture  generate good jobs.

Arts and Culture are good for business.

Arts and Culture have made Roswell a better place to live.

I get it.

Under my leadership Roswell adopted in our vision statement that  we are a community that celebrates our culture. We included in our a strategic goals the celebration of our history, culture, and   character.

At my request, The City created the Historic and Cultural Affairs Board to promote the arts and culture in Roswell. We hired a full-time Cultural Arts Director. We built an amphitheater at Riverside Park and began a concert series. We opened the Roswell Art Center West.

Roswell has benefitted from its promotion of the Arts.

We have become the cultural center for the metro region north of Atlanta.

We have the potential to do even more but we cannot achieve our potential without your help.

Sharon Moskowitz has asked what I can do as Mayor to get the City to do more for the arts.

There is nothing I can do without your help.

Let me tell you a story.

This year the Cultural Arts Board discontinued the CABI Awards because there was no sponsorship money and no money from the City to cover the $11,000 cost of the CABIs.   Last year, we almost had to cancel the CABI, but I had $5,000.00 in my discretionary account which I was able to spend on the CABIs without Council approval.

This year the Council was also considered canceling the Roswell Bicycle Criterium because it lost its named sponsor, Nalley.  Bike Roswell filled the Council chambers when cancelling the Criterium came up for a vote, and the Council unanimously approved spending $30,000.00 that it cost to run the bike race.

If the people in this room  come to the Council and  requested that the City spend  $11,000.00 for the CABI awards, it would have been done.

If you want  help from the City, you need to come together, form an organization, and when you want the City’s help, go to the City Council as a group, not as individuals.

A Life of Bicycling in Roswell

Thursday, September 17, 2009

I have enjoyed bicycling in Roswell for most of my 60 years. As a young boy, one of my proudest achievements was overcoming the fear of riding a bicycle without training wheels. The best presents my brother and I ever received for Christmas were new bicycles. We road them to our friends, to town for Little League practice, and once we even bicycled on dirt roads all the way from Roswell to our Grandparents’ home on Lake Alatoona.

In high school I temporarily gave up bicycles for cars, but at the University of Georgia I bought a 10-speed and rediscovered the joy and convenience of bicycling. I spent my last summer before beginning my legal career bicycling across Europe.

After marrying Judie Raiford and restoring an old log cabin for our home, I discovered mountain biking. Len Postema and I cleared trails behind our houses to practice trail biking skills. Before there were rules limiting where you could ride, we rode our fully rigid mountain bikes at Big Creek and on trails in North Georgia that had never been ridden.

When I was elected mayor, I began building trails and promoting bicycling with help from the city, Roswell Vello, RAMBO, and Bike Roswell. First we sanctioned mountain biking at Big Creek Park. Next we started the Historic Roswell Criterium. Then we persuaded the city to build the Riverwalk Trail. The ARC required that we reduce the width of Azalea Drive to compensate for paving the Riverwalk trail. In response to the criticism that by changing Azalea Drive we had taken away the only good place to bicycle in Roswell, we started the Mayor’s Ride to introduce bicyclists to the entire city. Then we organized the bicycle ride in March to the State Capitol. We adopted a policy that whenever possible when the city improves a street we widen it to add bike shoulders. Most recently, we partnered with the City of Sandy Springs and the Georgia Transplant Organization to closing down GA 400 for 1,500 bicyclists to ride the Hospitality Highway Century.

In 2006, Roswell was recognized as the first Bicycle Friendly Community in Georgia. People are moving to Roswell because of its bicycle friendly streets. Today there are more cyclists on the streets of Roswell in one day than there used to be in a month.

I am proud to have been part of making Roswell the first bicycle friendly city in Georgia and I am excited about the opportunities to make Roswell and the State of Georgia an even better place to ride. 

Jere Wood, Mayor of Roswell

REPUBLICAN PARTY BREAKFAST 9/12/09

Monday, September 14, 2009

The difference between Republicans and Democrats.

I was raised in Roswell, which was then a small Dixicrat town, by Yellow Dog Democrats. I am the only Republican my mother ever voted for. My mother and father traveled to New Hampshire with the Peanut Brigade to campaign for Jimmy Carter, and President Carter appointed my father to serve as assistant to the Secretary of Interior during his administration.

I majored in economics at the University of Georgia and learned  how our  free market economy works. My favorite author was Thoreau, and I adopted his philosophy that “government is best which governs least” and big government is the enemy of individual rights and personal liberty.

When I was 29,  I ran for Roswell City Council as an Independent on the promise to stop the widening of a road through my neighborhood.  I was gaining momentum until Mayor Pug Mabry pulled the plug by cancelling the City’s plans to widen the road.  Afterwards, I remained active in Roswell politics, but I did not join any political party.

Twenty years later, when I was trying to decide whether to run against Mayor Mabry, a 31-year incumbent Democrat, I heard Senator Paul Coverdale speak about his political beliefs.  He said he was a Republican because he believed in the free market system, individual rights, and personal liberty.  I have been a member of the Republican Party ever since.

The difference between the Republican and the Democratic Parties has never been clearer than in the Debate over Health Care.  Congressman Price, Senator Isakson, and the Republicans want a free market health care system in which patients make health care choices and everyone is able to obtain coverage.  Under President Obama’s plan, government would choose what health care we receive, who pays for it, and how much it costs.

President Obama says that at stake is not just details of policy, but the fundemental principals and character of our country.  I agree with him.

We are not just debating health care, we are debating whether America will continue to have a free market economy.

Our nation is at a tipping point.   Forty-five percent of America’s  gross domestic product has  already been taken over by government. Health care makes up 16 percent of our gross domestic product.  If big government takes over health care,  more than half of our economy will be run by the government.� The  free market system has proven to be the most efficient  way to produce and distribute goods and services in history.  Our free market system has made us the strongest country in the world.  We defeated communism in the market place, not on the field of battle or through politics.

If America ceases to have a free market economy, we will cease to be free.

The United States is the strongest nation in history.  The biggest threat we are facing today is not a terrorist attack, it is big government take over.  Our biggest enemy is not al Qaida, it is people who are willing to trade our free market system for government health care.

Just as Jacob offered his brother Esau a bowl of lentil stew for his birthright, the Democrats are offering us  government health care in exchange for our individual rights and liberty. Not even Esau would accept the Democrats’ offer.

The Democrats want big  government to take over America’s economy.

The Republicans want America to remain free.

It is time for us to take back America.

Jere Wood.