About Buckhead reporter. (Sandy Springs, GA) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (April 2, 2020)
4 | Community Facebook.com/TheReporterNewspapers ■ twitter.com/Reporter_News Atlanta floats new historic preservation rules, offers public survey BY JOHN RUCH jchnruch@reportemewspapers.net Should Atlanta review the proposed demolition of any building dating back 40 years or more? Could city hotel taxes be directed to saving local history? Those were some of the possible new histor ic preservation rules floated in a Feb. 27 meeting in Buckhead. And residents who couldn’t make it can weigh in through an online survey. Officials also said they plan to do infor mal, drive-through reviews of areas of the city where they lack historic site informa tion, including three significant sections of Buckhead: Peachtree Hills, North Buck- head and the Chastain Park area. Under wood Hills in Northwest Atlanta is on the list, too, along with many other neighbor hoods citywide. Under the name “Future Places Proj ect,” the city is revamping its Historic Preservation Ordinance, which is rough ly three decades old. The update eventu ally will part of a new city zoning code. Currently, the city’s Urban Design Com mission reviews zoning-related pro tections for 23 historic districts and 63 structures or other landmarks. But it’s considering broader ways to save history, and more popular definitions of “histor ic” to include sites that shape “communi ty identity.” The Feb. 27 meeting at the Cathedral of St. Philip, which drew about 25 residents, was part of a second round of public in put, following an initial round last fall. Doug Young, the city’s assistant director of Historic Preservation and executive di rector of the Urban Design Commission, said the final recommendations were to be unveiled May 19 at the High Museum during the commission’s Design Awards ceremony. That was before the coronavi- rus pandemic hit the nation, so that time line may change. Young presented an overview of rec ommendations for possible new rules and methods borrowed from practices in oth er cities considered similar to Atlanta, in cluding Denver, Tampa, New Orleans and Austin, Texas. Some of the recommenda tions were the following: ■ A “Structure of Merit” list, giving certain sites an informal designation as important. Proposed demolition or ma jor alteration could trigger a review for possible formal historic status designa tion. ■ Directing part of the hotel tax to his toric preservation. ■ Better public engagement through social media and other formats. ■ Letting anyone submit a nomina tion for historic designation. ■ Review of the proposed demolition or major alternation of any structure aged 40 years or older. ■ Tighter regulation of “demolition by neglect,” meaning a structure that is al lowed to decay. ■ Regulation of how properties are de molished, such as requiring the salvage of some materials. The city is already attempting to be in novative in its public engagement on the “Future Places Project,” with feedback methods at the meeting including both sticky notes on boards and surveys on tablet computers. The process also a has a promotional branding element, with give aways of stickers and T-shirts. Beyond rules and regulations, the city has several other approaches for re thinking and reviewing historic protec tions. One is an extensive survey of the city’s parks and an inventory of histor ic resources within them. That work is done, Young said. Another is to establish “The Story of Atlanta” - a set of generally agreed themes of what makes the city spe cial and though which historic sites can be considered and identified. Young said the themes are boiling down to “Struggle and Imperfection,” “Hustle and Hard Work,” “Legacy of Inclusion/Creating Opportu nity” and “Upward Movement,” meaning transportation, mobility and accessibility. Yet another part of the review is special consideration of restricting the size of in fill housing as a way to preserve the char acter of neighborhoods. That idea was a big topic of discussion at the first local meeting in October. At the Feb. 27 meet ing, Young provided no material updates, just an overview of some public com ments about it. For more information about the “Fu ture Places Project” and to take the survey, see the city’s website at bitly/FuturePlac- esProject. Former KGB spy talks about his switch to the American Dream BY HANNAH GRECO hannah@reporternewspapers.net Jack Barslcy, 70, was born in East Germany and recruited to be a KGB agent at just 23 years old. Now, he resides in Covington with his wife and daughter and is living out what he considers the American Dream. “Just because you were in the KGB doesn’t mean you were Su perman,” Barslcy said at a Feb. 10 Rotary Club of Sandy Springs meeting. “I’m one of the best-trained agents that they ever sent out into the world and I’m just quite normal.” The KGB was a security and secret-police agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until the country’s collapse in 1991. “Jack Barslcy” is not his given name - it’s one he started using as a false identity but now has become his own. Barslcy was recruited by the KBG to gather political intelli gence on the U.S. government at the age of 23 when he was teach ing chemistry at a university in Germany. He says his childhood shaped the “lone wolf” mentality the agency looked for in re cruiters. “The KGB was really looking for people like me,” Barslcy said. “They were looking for people in the ages of 20 to 30 who had certain character traits that would qualify somebody to do this kind of work.” Some of the traits included focus, hardiness to stress, intel ligence, adaptation, emotional stability and bravery, according to Barlcsy. “I own that list. That’s me,” Barlcsy said. “These traits are some of the tools you can use for good or for bad.” Among the parts of his background that were useful for KGB service, he said, were a tough-love childhood and a breakup that left him heartbroken in his teen years. “I started to develop this idea that I’m going to be pretty much on my own,” Barslcy said. “That is how I got put into the attention of the KGB.” The decision to join the KGB was an obvious choice, Barslcy said. “I needed to have a bigger purpose. I needed to be attached to a bigger cause,” Barslcy said. “When people grow up, at a certain age, they need to attach themselves to some thing bigger than them, and to me, it was the communist cause. There was no doubt.” In 1978, Barslcy began his new career of spying in New York. He left his hometown and birthname behind and picked up the name Jack Barslcy, which was on his new birth certificate. “Jack Barslcy was a young man who passed away at the age of 11,” Barslcy said. “This is how KGB stole identities - from people who passed away at a young age.” Barslcy never met with his bosses, known as handlers, on U.S. ground. All communication was done by handwritten letters and decoding Morse code through shortwave radio. He did not say who he spied on. After a decade-long career with the agency, Barslcy resigned from the KBG in 1988 because his first daughter was born. Grad ually, he converted to the American way of life. “I just didn’t want to do the spying anymore,” Barlcsy said. “I just wanted to stay here, so I did.” The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation tracked down Barslcy in 1995 after he had been trying to integrate into American soci ety for the last seven years. “I was just going to live out my life undetected and start work ing on my version of the American Dream,” Barslcy said. “But somehow the FBI eventually got wind of me and 9 years later, they introduced themselves.” He said the FBI let him stay in the U.S. “I cooperated with the FBI. I told them everything I knew, and at that time I had no loyalties and I had fundamentally pretty much become an American in many ways,” Barslcy said. In 2008, Barslcy was baptized at a Baptist church and in 2015, he received his U.S. citizenship. After he resigned from the KGB, Barslcy worked in several upper-management roles for large corporations such as United Healthcare, Prudential and NRG Energy. Barslcy attributes his success in these roles to the skills he acquired during his time as an agent. “The ability to make decisions in high-pressure situations without second-guessing yourself,” Barslcy said. “I had to do this during my spy career and I operated in corpo rate America primarily to fix crisis situations.” Now, Barslcy and his wife have a second daughter, 9, and are settled into American life. “I am legally, intellectually and emotionally an American more so than I am a Ger man,” Barslcy said. “I’ve lived here for 40 years...and I really like it here.” HANNAH GRECO Jack Barslcy, a former KGB spy, speaks to the Rotary Club of Sandy Springs Feb. 10. BH
