Fairview Street at Sycamore Drive Decatur, GA (pic submitted by Susan)

I’m pleased to announce that I have been deemed the “official” micro-blogger by the Decatur Book Festival for tomorrow night’s Jonathan Franzen keynote address.  (I guess we did it “unofficially” last year)

So, if you weren’t able to get tickets or just can’t get out of the house tomorrow night, tune in to Decatur Metro at 8pm and get live updates and random observations by yours truly straight from Agnes Scott’s Presser Hall!

(And no, the fact that I will be multi-tasking during an keynote address by a speaker who abhors multi-tasking has not been lost on me.)

UPDATE: The pup is back home!

From Travis…

I just saw someone in a bit of a panic, looking for a lost bulldog. It’s home is on the north side of Adams St.

If you happen to see this guy/gal, shoot me a note and I’ll get back in touch with Travis.

According to a newspaper website, the city of Decatur currently has two financing options on the table if it decided to build the unfinished projects left over from the 2006 bond referendum (Fire Station #1, the Rec Center, and the Public Works building.)

The city could raise the millage rate by .4 (equivalent to $72 a year on a $400,000 house) or it could dip into its reserve fund for two years and then use $900,000 a year in capital improvement sales tax money, which is currently being withheld by DeKalb County, to make the loan payments for the remainder.

As the Mayor pointed out in an off-hand comment during a recent commission meeting, the city has to make a decision regarding the ongoing HOST sales tax lawsuit it has with DeKalb County.  Either the city can continue the lawsuit, which is slowly crawling its way back to the GA Supreme Court again, and hope that they win AND that DeKalb can somehow come up with the $10 million in owed back taxes, or they can drop the lawsuit, give up the $10 mil and start getting their nearly $1 million a year from the County “tomorrow”.

I’ll have to get clarification, but I’m assuming that the idea of using two years of reserve fund money is mainly a time-cushion to insure that whatever the outcome of the lawsuit, the city will at least be receiving its annual $1 million from the county by that point.

The city is holding a public information session on our options tonight at 6:30p at City Hall.  Click here for more info.

Susan wrote in yesterday with this eyewitness report…

Any idea what all the police activity was right after noon on Ponce between Glendale and Sycamore? It’s a rare day when I see at least 6 cop cars (some unmarked) and cops on foot running in Decatur. When they began to head my way up the hill toward Glenn/Mountain View/ Sycamore, I decided I could walk the dog another time and we went back in the house. It was as if they’d formed a perimeter around the block on the chance someone they wanted was inside. It was lively. And weird. I had to go out for a while and when I returned everything was back to normal. I wonder if this means they got the person(s) in question or if he/she slipped away.

Deputy Chief Keith Lee fills us in as to what caused the event…

We received a report of a possible burglary on Sycamore Street by a neighbor. Officers who responded located several males who fled from the officers. Three males were detained, but one was later released. We are still investigating the other two males’ involvement in the attempted burglary of a residence.

As his final act before being eaten, Daren Wang sent in this chilling video of Bookzilla arriving on Decatur Square – and rocking out to Blue Oyster Cult.

I don’t know about you, but I find Bookzilla slightly more disturbing than the Cloverfield monster.

The modern furniture company Agliest Collections is moving back to Decatur from Norcross into one of the ground floor retail spaces in the recently spruced up 127 East Trinity Place office building, according to Oakhurst Realty.  Via Twitter, they alert us DM folks…

Agilest Collections , a modern furniture and accessories retailer, to open at 127 E. Trinity Place http://bit.ly/abufcl

In a follow-up note, they project a late September opening.  Great to finally see some street-front retail in this building!

For those who don’t have every Trinity building address memorized, I point you again to my crappy – yet high-def! – video of the building after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

UPDATE II: According to AP, Paste’s Print Edition is dead.  The website and online components will live on.

UPDATE:  Damn, Wikipedia is already referring to it in the past tense.

Aw hell.  From Gawker…

We heard earlier today that Paste Magazine was in imminent danger of folding. Looks like it’s already happened.

A tipster tells us “They announced it internally yesterday in an afternoon meeting, giving employees approx… 2 hours notice.” Rough. A few (former) Paste editors took to Twitter:

I saw Rachel Maddux’s Tweet about needing work last night, but never followed up.  This is a sad flippin’ day.

Water Street + W. Trinity Place, Decatur, GA (pic submitted by Luis)