Better Name a District!
Scott | | 12:17 pmDecatur’s big on activity centers (nodes, in case you’d like to join me in geekland). All of our growth plans are rooted in them. Downtown. Oakhurst Village. East Decatur Station. These are the centralized, walkable places that serve (or will serve) as hubs for their surrounding neighborhoods.
However, another important component of city organization is corridors — which serve to connect activity centers — and Decatur’s got a good one: The CSX railroad tracks, from East Lake Marta to the Ice House.
The reason I bring it up is because, while we were all focused on other things, this corridor started gelling into, uhhhh, something. Something good. Some pieces that have been around a while, some new, some to come. Consider this:
PATH
A significant (albeit “private”) linear park
Infrastructure for peds, bikes, runners, cars, trucks, transit and trains
Wahoo!
Ink & Dagger
Lawrence’s Cafe
Ale Yeah!
Revolution Doughnuts
Avellino’s Pizza
The Imperial
Corrina’s Corner
Yoga Central
Candler Park Market
Thinking Man Tavern
Core Fitness
Atlanta’s United Tae Kwon Do
The arts collective businesses around Church / Howard / McDonough
– Decatur School of Ballet
– Various music instruction services
– Color Wheel
Agnes Scott College
Harbour Bar
Twain’s
Trinity Triangle
DQ
Trackside Tavern
Kimball House
Las Brasas
MAR
Some groovy office rehab of the tire store
Fellini’s
Whatever’s going in the Ice House
Some salons and other things I’ve probably missed
Dang! That’s a healthy dose of groovy, and yet this area has no name (that I know of). Which identifies a void that, as I see it, is our responsibility to fill.
The obvious contender seems to be something like “The Rail District” but that might rankle the folks in Avondale, who’ve put a lot of effort into their “Rail Arts District.” So what do you think?
Better name a district!
The Swollen Node
Cholesterol Row
The Taint District
The Stop Calling It DeKalb Avenue Corridor
Rail Yeah
+ one on Rail Yeah!
You had me at “The Taint.” It aint Decatur and it aint Avondale. Brills.
Except . . .
Yeah, no. It’s perfect.
Umm, maybe not. It’s a term that has made it out of urban dictionary obscurity into semi-mainstream usage.
Warren, we know what it means. Relax. It’s funny.
Except it is all Decatur.
. . . and there’s that.
It ain’t Downtown and it ain’t Oakhurst.
I’m sold. Let’s make a t-shirt.
Guys, trust me. You don’t want to name it the Taint.
Well… the neighborhood around Cheshire Bridge is trying to push out unsavory businesses. With a little creative branding like the Taint, we could attract those entrepreneurs that no longer feel welcome…
Shush. I’m really looking forward to Eye On the Street: Taint Edition.
The annual Taint 10K
Once the Taint festival happens….How would we illustrate this name on the “There’s a Festival For That” T-shirt?
I think I just gave myself the shivers.
So if the space between is the Taint… what is Downtown and what is Oakhurst? on second thought.. don’t answer that…
+1,000,000
College Avenue.
The ARTery
The OBGC: “Over By the Girls College” district.
After all these years we still have to tell you it’s a women’s college, not a girl’s school!
College Ave. Railroad District (CARD), or The CARD. “Let’s go up to The CARD and grab a drink and a taco, and a tattoo, and a donut, and an ice cream cone.”
Very nice. I was thinking we needed some mashup like Triangle Below Canal = TriBeCa.
How about Railroad District Above College = RaDiCal. “Let’s walk over to the Radical and grab a drink and a taco, and a tattoo, and a donut, and an ice cream cone.”
Meh. Not sure.
Excellent one from Warren B. Simple, incorporates College Avenue and the railroad, without being too cute, and not pi**ing off Avondale. Plus “District” is a sexy word.
CARD has this man’s vote in all my obsequious glory.
If your considering “the Taint” you might as well call it the CSXXX ( CS triple x)
The Decatur Equator, or the DEquator
Rail & Trail Corridor (R&T or RTC)
The Route of Gout
Mid Decatur Rail Belt
+1 for DEquator!
DEquator is wonderful! And while we’re naming it, what can we do to get a better/safer crossing at the Adair end of town?
+2
Dequator is gold. I’m calling it that.
D
eQuator
That one is a keeper
Oh, I really, really like this. I would actually be able to use it without any juvenile giggling, unlike Andisheh’s masterpiece.
Keep it simple – “The Railway”
Trackside
Let’s see…Howard Ave. and College Ave. HoCollege? Oh, wait…
The Real Rail District
AleRail
I like AleRail, especially with Three Taverns up and running and Wild Heaven soon to be.
Keep It InDeQuator: Spend your money where your middle lives
Explore the DeQuator for:
Rails,
Trails,
Ales,
Sales,
And… food.
Houston Street in NYC divides SoHo and NoHo. Some wag named the median island MoHo some years back.
Homer Simpson Highway aka “The Homer”
anchored on its westerly starting point by its namesake Homer Simpson Plaza (beer, pizza, doughnuts: Ale Yeah, Avellino’s, Revolution) and extending easterly in a similar gustatory fashion
Homer’s Trail?
Homer’s Ride Home?
How about CoHo (College-Howard) or CoHoCo (College-Howard Corridor).
Also, maybe just Trackside, like Toml suggested. Or Trackside Corridor. (Maybe TraCo)
I like Trackside as well – it is an established name with community history, and it is descriptive.
But, it needs a second word to distinguish the Tavern from the district/corridor.
+1 for dequator
Sounds like Elmer Fud. ” we ate whiskey and wabbit over in Dequater”
The DMZ
Decatur Meal Zone
Decatur Metro Zone
Decatur Middle Zone
The Beltline is already taken.
How about the Waistline?
I like CoHo a lot. My second choice is DEquator but doesn’t the corridor extend beyond Decatur? In terms of humor, The Waistline tickled me the most.
Doesn’t this district include DeQuaker Meeting House?
Dequater is brilliant. I am calling it that no matter what.
I like the DC. (Decatur Corridor) Then you can say East DC or West DC