MM: Avondale Developer, Another Cityhood Bill Vote Coming, and a Case For Free-Range Parenting

  • Avondale still waiting to hear from developer [AJC]
  • Senate could vote on LaVista Hills/Tucker cityhood bills next week [AJC]
  • Family behind the Iberian Pig brings Basque cuisine to the Westside [Atlanta Magazine]
  • Decatur Farmer’s Market Spring Launch is Tomorrow [Be Active Decatur]
  • Touring Portland’s new car-free bridge [Bike Portland]
  • The Case for Free-Range Parenting [NYT]

13 thoughts on “MM: Avondale Developer, Another Cityhood Bill Vote Coming, and a Case For Free-Range Parenting”


  2. If I was the leadership of Avondale, I would be VERY concerned by the lack of communication from the developer of a significant portion of their downtown. If they’re MIA during the honeymoon phase of the process, what makes anyone think they’ll be at all responsive when problems start to arise?

    1. Did the acting mayor lose the developer’s phone number? Communication is a two way street. Too many “unofficially” and “maybe” words in that article for my taste. All it says to me is the acting mayor is setting the stage to blame the developer for something.

  4. I thought the Saturday Market was gonna move to the green at the new Municipal Building. I passed by there the other day and it looked like the landscaping was in. Are they just waiting for everything to take root or did this plan get nixed?

    1. I heard is not going there because of insufficient parking. Not sure I agree. Seems like ideal location

  6. Last minute changes to the Lavista Hills/Tucker boundaries may sink those bills in the legislature again this year.

    1. If it sinks this year, it’ll probably be sunk for several years. Despicable move by Fran Millar.

  8. The term free-range parenting always makes me think of raising livestock, like we’re preparing our offspring for sale at the market..

    1. Wait. We’re not? (Just insert “job” before “market” and I think it holds pretty true.)

  10. Amen to the NYT free-range parent writer. Moved to COD 20 years ago partly for school quality, and not just in the ways test scores measure. But also our neighborhood on the northern edge of the city felt like those in suburban DeKalb County where my husband and I grew up playing in woods, streams and fields with complete freedom. A “play date” meant knocking on doors till you found a neighbor who’d ride bikes or play tag. If there were enough kids we’d start a game of kickball or softball in the street, with a manhole cover as home base. Approaching vehicles were met with yells of “car!” as we scattered to the curbs. My children, now fifth grade and post-college, have had this same priceless freedom to run and play in the creek, woods and street, though I hovered till a much later age than my mom. I also paired “go outside and play” with strict restrictions on electronics–a far cry from my own childhood TV diet. The great thing about Decatur is while teens in my era grew up gathering at suburban malls, our kids get to meet at coffee shops and ice cream parlors in a real town as they get older, a vast improvement in community quality. I do have some reservations about free-range kids. My early teen years were not danger-free, and while I do believe parents today overprotect as a result of too many unfounded fears, caution makes sense. I don’t plan to let my sixth grader roam the square on Friday afternoons as many do, not from fear of kidnappers or molesters, but because kids that age, especially in large groups, don’t always exercise the best judgement. Maybe by eighth grade my son will have worn down my resolve.

    1. I was a free range city/suburban kid. Played in creeks and the woods all the time. And as I got older, from the age of 14 until I got a car when I turned 17, I rode MARTA all over the place, bus and train, from Little 5 to Five Points, Lenox Square to the Omni, and numerous other places. Never encountered one problem or “danger” (OK, I did lose ten dollars in a “shell game” at Avondale Station once.) Within a month after getting my first car, I was involved in a serious accident. My own example (from a time when crime rates were considerably higher than now) isn’t merely anecdotal; it’s statistically typical.

    2. “Go out and play” is my favorite phrase, and I say it often. Like you and brianc, I spent a lot of time exploring and discovering without parental oversight. And I encourage my children to do the same.

      I do let my sixth grader go to the Square on Friday afternoons. I wasn’t sure about it at first, but it seems to be working out. The police haven’t had to drop him off…yet. 🙂

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