Free-For-All Friday 4/3/15

Feel free to use this post to make comments and ask questions about local issue not yet discussed here over the past week.

115 thoughts on “Free-For-All Friday 4/3/15”


  2. Where is everyone?

    I need opinions on whether anyone else thinks “Alexan Decatur” is the stupidest name ever for an apartment building?

    Scott? Rick? Junderscore?

    2. I’m commenting solely on architecture because that’s the easiest way to get J_T riled up.

      1. It sounds like an amalgam of bad TV shows on the SyFy channel (which has gone downhill ever since they changed their spelling)

    5. adding the “an” to Alex crossed that “fine line between clevah and stewpid”

      1. I noticed that the name of the apartment building on Krog going up is also called the Alexan. Is it a chain?

        1. yup, another project by the same developer.
          for my taste, the name is a bit too precious

          1. on the other hand, when i added “an” to my birth name Rick Juli — well, that, my friends, was a stroke of genius.

    6. Agreed! Silly name! Unless it’s name after someone who died. Then I take that comment back.

      1. I think it was more likely named by the same kind of person who thinks PARC is a word.

        1. “I think it was more likely named by the same kind of person who thinks PARC is a word.”

          It is in French. Means PARK. I know this because we briefly considered buying in Parc Vue in Midtown when it converted from apartments. The name was one of the strikes against it.

          1. I should have said word in English that goes with Kensington, for example (see Avondale)

  4. Has anyone been successful at making a passport appointment at the W Ponce post office? I have left voice messages but my calls haven’t been returned. Their site says appointments are required.

    1. Go to the Court House. I have a friend who had the same problem re: Post Office and went to the Court House for same day service.

      1. Totally agree. We went to the Courthouse and it was really easy. I didn’t even have an appointment and the whole thing, including waiting in a short line, took maybe 20 minutes. Just make sure you have all the proper paperwork – otherwise, that’s when delays happen.

        1. And also make sure you have a money order for the passport fee and cash for the Court House processing fee..

          1. Oh yeah, good advice! I forgot about that cash part. There was a quick trip to the ATM in the Square for that.

        2. Another vote for going to the Courthouse. It is surprisingly easy. Regarding the necessary paperwork: if your current passport is expired AND it has been more than 15 years since the expired one was issued you must bring your birth certificate. That requirement is not totally clear on the forms. Also, you can pay the processing fee (and for photos if you need them) with a credit card and you can pay the passport application fee with a personal check.

          1. Re: credit card and personal check. That was not my friend’s experience. She had to go up to the convenience store on the corner (old SunTrust) to get a money order and get cash from the ATM.

            1. Very strange! Took my kids in December and paid credit card/personal check for both of their passports. Did the same for my own a couple of weeks ago.

        3. +2 on the courthouse. Unlike the post office, no waiting on an unanswered phone for an appointment. They are quick and friendly. We were in and out in no time when renewing a kid’s passport (gosh we hate that both-parents-in-person rule)

      2. Yet another vote for the courthouse. We got prompt, cheerful service about a month ago, after failing to be able to make an appointment at the post office. And I’m speaking as a fan of the USPS in general and of the West Ponce post office in particular.

  6. Want some really good dirt? The Decatur High School garden has relocated, and much good dirt remains at the former site, which is scheduled to be paved soon. There are a lot of weeds sprouting in the former beds, but if you yank out those weeks, the soil underneath is black and gorgeous.

    1. The WEEDS, I meant to pull the weeds. Isn’t that true of most things? Get rid of the weeds, the unproductive things sapping our energy, and life is better? Life is just a garden! Go get some dirt!

  8. We tried the Davinci’s pizza location in the old Mellow Mushroom spot yesterday. Best I can say about the pizza … terrible. Anyone have better experiences? I am willing to give it a second shot if this just happened to be a one time thing.

    1. I tried DaVinci’s last week. I like the crust — of moderate thickness; slightly sweet; buttered and parmed — but thought it was slightly under-cheesed. Also I ordered a pepperoni pizza and received a cheese pizza, so…

    2. For take-out, Athens Pizza is our normal spot. We tried Davinci’s recently and the pie was okay. It didn’t knock my socks-off, but I’d go back. If your pizza was terrible, did you alert them? Just wondering if they had a chance to make things right for you.

      1. Did not alert them, it was a take out order. The place looked good on the inside, but the pizza was definitely lacking.

    3. Ours was okay, the Greek salad was quite good, and the atmosphere was pleasant–not too loud but enough wall TVs that some members could watch sports and others could watch some dumb show.

    4. I ordered an Italian sausage sub to-go two weeks ago.

      It was sausage, but not Italian sausage. The flavor was somewhere on the Andouille-Kielbasa spectrum, nowhere near the flavor of either hot or sweet italian sausage.

      They have no other sausage on their menu – I hope it was just a startup blooper and got the wrong stuff (but it doesn’t even LOOK the same!). I called to let them know — I will give them one more shot and attribute it to startup woes.

      It is the best draft beer selection of any pizza place in Decatur. If they had a bar (not yet) I would walk over just to have a beer.

    5. We didn’t love it either. They forgot to “submit our order, so we waited a long time to get pizza. I could write that off as growing pains, but what I couldn’t get out of my head were the goofy prices. An XL, which I had to ask about, is 16″ and 1/2 the price of the 20”. I did a little mental math and just couldn’t make it work.

      Pricing aside, the sauce was too sweet for my taste, and no/kinda table service were big steps down from what we had with the previous occupant.

      1. Those $50 pizzas on the menu are only 20″? Seriously? 100% more price for 64% more pizza versus a 16 incher? Between the bad math and inability to distinguish Italian from Polish sausage, I really don’t think I need to give them a first chance, let alone a second.

        FWIW, if anyone is looking for an obscenely large pizza at an economical price, the 30″ carnivore challenge pizza at Big Pie in the Sky is only $35, and it’s really good. I might even say it’s worth the drive to Kennesaw. Unfortunately, driving back home after eating it is a whole ‘nother story.

    7. We tried DaVinci’s on Friday. A 16″ cheese pizza and Caesar salad. The pizza was great, I like it better than Fellini’s. The garlic cheese crust was great. I do love garlic though and was happy to walk in and the place smelled of garlic bread!

      The large salad was a bit small, but the wife and I split it.

      It’s a nice addition to Decatur, but I wish they had a bigger menu with chicken and eggplant parmigiana too. They did have 3 Taverns on tap and a number of other beers on tap and we’re giving someone a taste of a beer in a salad dressing cup at the front counter.

      I’d try it again, but your call.

  10. What’s the deal around here with people not even looking at each other as they pass on the sidewalk – even on residential streets? Sometimes I even say hello and get no response. :/ I keep thinking I’m going to start tracking it – like what percentage of people acknowledge another person on the sidewalk. Is that weird? If your answer is yes, don’t comment. 😉

    1. Your problem is you are walking on the sidewalk. Don’t you know it is not cool to walk on the sidewalk? You are supposed to walk in the street. Best if you wear dark clothing and it is dark out. Bonus points if you are pushing a baby stroller.

      1. There also need to be 8 of you and you need to take up the whole street then get annoyed when people trying actually trying to use the road for its intended purpose glare at you. Of course, this mostly applies to areas that have nice, straight, smooth sidewalks like the area in front of my house, next to where I park my car.

        1. Cupcakesandlimes, you aren’t allowed to comment, see?? You might be implying New Decatur is weird.

      3. In my neighborhood, you are supposed to walk on the incorrect side of the street (with traffic) and force people walking on the correct side (against traffic) to move out of your way.

    2. I have never had that issue but then again I am terribly attractive and popular

    3. We always say hi! I think some of our new residents come from areas that just aren’t friendly like that, but if old and new friendly people keep at it with the sidewalk hello the silent types will come around.

      1. Yes, people come around. When Bic and I moved here from South Florida I was frightened/horrified by the strangers who spoke to me (circa 1988.) If I wanted to dash into a convenience store for a pack of cigs I had to brace myself for a possible conversation. Then there was the cashier at our grocery who asked me, “Is that a little cold sore on your lip, honey?” right after explaining I couldn’t buy the bottle of wine in my cart because it was Sunday. It was all so foreign. I took solace when Bic promised me we’d only be here for three years. (Ahem)

        Eventually I took to it. Now I’m a smile and nod person if I’m walking, a wave person if I’m driving, and a Hello person if I’m standing on the sidewalk outside the office. (If I ever get back to Florida I’ll probably get arrested for it.)

        I guess the moral is to set a good example and wear them down to friendliness. But don’t ask about the scab on their lip.

    4. Wouldn’t surprise me if I were one of those people. I often find it very difficult to make eye contact with strangers, because I’m always afraid I may actually have to have a conversation with them. Even in a sidewalk-passing situation, it’s just an instinctive and deeply ingrained reaction on my part.

      In other words, it’s not you, it’s me. Seriously. Try not to take offense; none is intended.

    5. I agree with those saying that it’s due to the growth in transplants from elsewhere in the U.S. where folks don’t tend to say hello to anyone on the street that they don’t already know. New York City would grind to a halt if everyone said hi to everyone they passed on the sidewalk. Meanwhile, in rural New Mexico, absolutely every vehicle you pass, in either direction, including big trucks and those filled with scarey looking teens, will give you the platonic lift-hand-from-steering-wheel-for-a-five-second-greeting gesture.

    6. I have noticed the same thing, and due to my raging confirmation bias I think everybody who doesn’t say “hi” has earbuds inserted. Sometimes when I get eye contact there’s no “hello,” or even nod. Creepy!

      Some people say that the zombie fad in our popular culture reflects our unease about virus outbreaks or gender identity issues, but if you ask me it’s all about earbuds.

      1. Forgot about earbuds. If it’s a teen or young adult, yes it’s the earbuds. I hate those @#$%& things. It’s scary how good some of them are at blocking out sound. I think we’re going to start hearing about earbudded victims who perished because they couldn’t hear the fire alarm, the vehicle coming at them, or the police ordering them to halt. There’s only a few things that I hate more than earbuds right now–kudzu, olives, cockroaches, and Fox News blaring, are all that I can think of off-hand.

        1. We lost our son one time (around 10-11 at the time). We looked outside, checked for his bike, called neighbors and were just about to call the police when we found him upstairs asleep (on the floor in our bedroom – ?) with earbuds in. Almost had a heart attack.

          1. Similar thing happened to us a while back (probably in the 6-7 YO range). I can’t even recall the details now but no one could find him anywhere, turns out he was stashed away somewhere in the house listening to an audio book.

            1. Another downside of big houses. In the olden days you woulda tripped over that youngin’

    7. I haven’t noticed a large trend of people not saying hi or smiling in the sidewalks, but there is a minority that doesn’t respond.

      To me it’s friendly and normal to me to acknowledge your neighbors, even ones you don’t know, when walking through your neighborhood.

      A trick for those of you who don’t like to make eye contact on the street: wear sunglasses and smile or say “hey” while looking in the person’s general direction.

    9. I never say hi to people if they look open to conversation. But if they’re already talking to someone else, especially if it looks real personal and dramatic, that’s when I turn into chattykathy. Well, chattyRScott at least.

    10. Over here in the Winnona Park area we are friendly. Even have people driving down Oldfield waving at those of us walking. My walks take much longer due to neighbors stopping to say hi or strangers wanting to pet my dogs. Even had a neighbor chide me this week for not telling her I was off on vacation last week. She was worried I’d been home sick since my car hadn’t moved. Darn friendly around here.

    2. Why did the school system cancel the $12M project with Winter Construction? I’m fairly certain a bunch of time and resources were spent in this deal to get where it just stopped. This is frustrating to me.

  14. During the GO Bond presentation the other night, Dr. Edwards stated that the school system wouldn’t be able to comment on any specifics in the period between City Commission approval (May?) and the November vote.

    She did suggest that a public interest group could take on this charge. Does anyone know if there is an effort already underway to dig into the details for the GO Bond? If so, how does one become involved with this? If not, I would be interested in forming such a group. You can contact me through DM if interested.

    1. Tin Man – Just to clarify, the city commission will approve a vote …and a vote will occur in November.
      In the interim, no information will be provided by CSD.

      This would provide clarity as to why the Mayor states – “I’m not going to second-guess their numbers. They have a tough problem, it’s a crisis, and it affects everybody in the city.”

      1. Whatever happened to Mayor Baskett’s Blue Ribbon Committee that was going to solve all the problems?? He even had a big fancy proclamation to make it all official.

        1. They mistook that it was a *Pabst* Blue Ribbon panel. They disappeared into the Euclid Ave. Yacht Club and haven’t been seen since.

          1. I understand that Pabst is now the largest U.S. owned brewery. Perhaps DM should do a post on our favorite mass market beers!

            1. I hate to break it to you, but Pabst is no longer American owned.

              Pabst Blue Ribbon — a sub-premium beer brand that embraced savvy marketing to stay relevant in a craft beer age — has been sold, along with its parent, Pabst Brewing Co., to Russian company Oasis Beverages.

  16. I went to the Comedy Night at Three Taverns on Wednesday and had a great time. Were any of yall there?

    1. I was there; front row. It was a really nice night. I had never had any of their beer but will definitely look for it now. Loved the Russian Imperial Stout! The performers were great and it was a very nice crowd… all except the woman who decided to put her jacket over the back of MY chair instead of her own. Who does that?

  18. Oakhurst Market has Tropicalia in cans! Have one chilling now…if it’s even half as good as it is on draft, I’m fixing to be in for a treat! Happy Friday, and cheers, y’all!

  20. Decaturish reporting that the legislature lifted the alcohol restrictions for the Callaway development, making a grocery store more likely there. So, all together now, Trader Joes…

    1. Holy shnikeys. I didn’t even know that was on their agenda. Great news. If we can land a decent sized downtown grocery (and don’t get me wrong, I’m one of the li’l Kroger’s loyal fans), it’ll put weekly shopping within walkable proximity of probably 5,000 people.

      1. If I am going to walk to do my weekly grocery shopping I will need to get a cart and a Bernese Mountain Dog to pull it.

        1. http[colon] [double slash] dogworks [dot]com [slash]store [slash]wagon [dot]html

          http[colon] [double slash]www [dot]instructables [dot]com [slash]id [slash]DIY-dog-pull-cart-made-out-of-a-folding-bicycle-tr[slash]

          1. That looked like a lot of work. You do know all you have to do is leave out the part before the name of the site? Then people can copy and paste.

              1. Wasn’t meant as snarky at all. Just trying to save you some typing (unless your post was a joke that went over my head, then never mind).

          2. Haha! Thanks for sharing. My daughter and I really enjoyed looking at this website. Who knew?!

  22. Midweek overnight in Savannah coming up. Recommendations for food and fun?

    2. elizabeth on 37th is great as is the old pinke house
      you could also see about eating at mrs wilkes dining room but get there early as the line starts forming before they open at 11am
      it’s been a month of sundays since we lived close to savannah so there could be some new and trendy places i’m not aware of

    3. On Tybee – also new AJ’s Beachside in Ocean Plaza Hotel.

      In town – south of historic district – The Florence on Victory Drive. Hugh Acheson’s italian restaurant. In newly renovated Ice House building.

      Daytime- south of historic district – sweets and sandwiches – Back in the Day Bakery

      Downtown Daytime- Gryphon Tea Room in beautifully renovated old pharmacy building . Run by SCAD.

      Dessert – – historic district – Leopold’s Ice Cream

      Elizabeth’s on 37th has been there forever but is still wonderful.

    4. If you are a book person there’s a nice bookstore on Bull Street, E. Shaver. And Bull Street is a very satisfying walk with a diverse selection of shops. Also, there’s Flannery O’Connor’s childhood home, on East Charlton Street. And if you are driving to Savannah, you can stop in Milledgeville to visit her farm, Andalusia. And if you really want to immerse yourself you can listen to her work on audio as you drive, but you probably don’t get as fanatic as I do. But if you are interested, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is a great idea for a driving trip.

      Another house tour I liked was the birthplace of Juliette Gordon Lowe, founder of the Girl Scouts, an organization I admire.

      The #1 thing I recommend for Savannah: sturdy, comfy shoes. The town is wonderfully walkable, but there’s a variety of paving material: cobbles, brick, asphalt, and those crushed oyster shells that will slice right through thin soles.

      Another great thing about Savannah is its open carry laws. Not for guns, for booze. If you go to a restaurant and there is a 45 minute wait, instead of waiting in a crowded foyer, get a drink and sit under the oaks in a nearby square. So civilized.

      And those squares. Explore as many as you can. You never know what you’ll find. A few years ago I found a monument to the gens de couleur libre (free men of color), dedicated to Haitians who fought for U.S. independence in the Revolutionary War. Who knew?

      Have a great time. Let us know what you saw and did on another FFAF.

    5. Do NOT go to Vinnie Van Go Go’s for pizza. Or for anything for that matter. It’s the only place in Savannah I’ve ever been kicked out. And I was SOBER, so I know it really wasn’t my fault! Total jerks.

  24. I have a small roof leak. Any recommendations on someone to find the leak and fix it?

    1. How do you know it’s small? (Sorry for the negativity. Water leaks drive me crazy. Never found any good solutions other than completely tear off the roof and remodel.)

    2. Intown Roofing, forgot his name, lives in Oakhurst, fixed a small leak for me a couple of years ago.

  26. Hmmm…I wonder why I just got moderated. Was it because I used some inflammatory phrases, like “guns” or “fanatic” or “girl scouts”?

  28. Advice Please: Best place to donate books? Prefer local rather than the big parking lot bin, but that might be what it comes to. thanks!

    1. Kids books: Decatur Education Foundation which sells them or gives them away
      Adult: Friends of the Library which sells them (leave at front desk) or drive around Decatur and look for the Little Libraries that need restocking–e.g. often the one in front of City Hall and the one in front of Dancing Goats need some stock.

    2. +1 for the library – they will take any books, and they give you a tax receipt. They sell them periodically to raise funds for the library.

  30. Open message to the man who drives a silver Kia Sorento, Gwinnett County license plate [edit: license plate # removed]:

    Early this afternoon, while traveling northbound on Second Ave., you passed me and two other vehicles between Memorial and East Lake. I’m curious about who you are and where you were going, and anything else that might explain why you are so much more important than the safety and well-being of people who live on Second Avenue, their children, their pets, and their guests, as well as the rest of us motorists who were making our way while observing the speed limit.

    (I had ample time to note your license plate number while sitting behind you at the Second Ave./East Lake stop sign. your reckless haste didn’t gain you any time, so why be a jerk?)

    1. I have long thought the AJC could benefit greatly from a Vent dedicated to just such observations!
      Daily I would like to call out for public humiliation some real jack holes behind the wheel.

    2. Some things never chance. Thank you for calling him out. DPD could probably identify with that tag and add the vehicle to a BOLO list.

    3. DM, the point of my post was to shame the reckless driver (although I admit that it’s a long shot, since this forum’s reach is not that broad, relatively speaking). Everybody complains incessantly about this type of irresponsible driving, but nobody’s ever willing to call anybody out for doing it. The police can’t be everywhere all the time. To a certain extent, any community has to regulate behavior through peer pressure to maintain acceptable standards. If it came down to it, I would not hesitate to swear in a court of law as to what I saw. I don’t understand your problem with it. Are you afraid of being sued?

      1. “Are you afraid of being sued?”

        If you’ve watched any reality television, you may have noticed that they always blur out license plates. Though reality tv is a long way from Decatur Metro, they are both forms of media which are subject to liable and slander laws. Not presuming to answer for DM, but the fact that you are willing to accept those potential consequences would not absolve this site of liability for publishing your allegations.

    4. “I’m curious about who you are and where you were going, and anything else that might explain why you are so much more important than the safety and well-being of people who live on Second Avenue”

      Maybe he was on his way to the hospital for an emergency. Unlikely? I suppose so. But not impossible. You don’t know either way, and perhaps this is why there is some concern over posting the car make/model and license plate no. on the board.

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