AP Accidently Slights Decatur, GA
August 29, 2008So I’m sure you’ve all heard about Clayton County losing its accreditation yesterday? Third time in the past 40 years, ring a bell?
Well, apparently the article written by the Associated Press originally had the story based in Decatur, GA. See here. Since then, many of the original postings have changed the lead of “Decatur, GA – ” to “Jonesboro, GA -”, but not before the popular blog “Hit & Run” used Decatur as an example for allowing parents to choose where their kids go to school. (You know, since apparently we’re located in Clayton County!)
Now, we really can’t be that judgemental. Even among Atlantans, it seems that everything from the city of Decatur to the southern DeKalb County line gets dumped into the “Decatur” bucket these days. Soon alligator attacks in the Okefenokee Swamps will be attributed to “Decatur, GA”.
But I guess we just have to grin and bear it.
yeah, thats annoying…judging by news articles and tv Decatur is HUGE! I wish they would start saying “unicorperated Dekalb county”. cause thats what it is.
Same goes for places like Marietta. Most people who live in “Marietta” actually live in “unincorperated Cobb County” If you go to Wheeler high school you dont live in Marietta…you are in unincorperated Cobb county, but I’ll bet your address says Marietta.
This is one of my pet peeves! I absolutely hate how most of unincorporated southern Dekalb county has a Decatur address. I run into people all the time who say they live in Decatur, but when you ask them which neighborhood, they say the Wesley Chapel Road area or something like that. And a lot of them don’t know anything about the real city of Decatur. Plus it really confuses people who don’t know the Atlanta area very well. And Decatur gets credited with a lot of bad press, like the Clayton County school issue and the whole Josh Jarboe/Oklahoma football fiasco. Uhh! In this respect, I wish Vernan had passed his crazy proposal to make all of unincorporated Dekalb county the city of Dekalb. Maybe then Decatur could reclaim its name.
Haven’t checked the links you cited, but I think the reason the AP may have made that mistake was because the offices of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the agency that yanked Clayton County Schools’ accreditation, are located in Decatur. (Careful, it’s a PDF link.) They probably reported and filed from that location.
Still, that’s like “Decatur Metro” sloppy…
The story should have been based in “Decatur” because that’s where the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools announced that Clayton County was losing its accreditation. Obviously, it wasn’t saying that Clayton County was in Decatur.
I don’t understand your beef in this case, unlike a shooting in South Dekalb.
True enough Decaturguy. I guess its more Hit & Run that should be considered sloppy.
And of course SACS is NOT located in Decatur either; it is still in unincorporated DeKalb. I don’t understand why the press can’t simply list “DeKalb Co., Ga.” That would solve any number of woes with all of the stories about murders, foreclosures, and a challenged police department. While visiting another part of the country recently, I was told, “Yeah, I know where Decatur is. That’s where the Sheriff was killed.”