The DeKalb Neighbor has a few new interesting details regarding Decatur’s new tenet at 1 West Court House Square, Art Institute of Atlanta.

The satellite facility will include 20,000 square feet of classroom and administrative space, computer laboratories and a library.

Like its parent campus, the newest location will offer degrees in a variety of studies from graphic design, interior design, fashion and media, said director of admissions Jennifer Ramey.

“It’s the same accreditation, same curriculum and same system,” she said,

While nearly 30 students have enrolled thus far, Ms. Ramey said the campus is still accepting applications.

More classes are slated to begin in February and April and the school will offer eight new student starts per year, Mazur said.

This reconfirms that things will start out small.  Can’t wait for the street front gallery.

Guess what Creative Loafing’s Thomas Wheatley and everyone else in attendance at last night’s DeKalb County Commission meeting saw? Cheerleaders.And not just any cheerleaders. Commissioner Elaine Boyer’s Lakeside High School Cheerleaders!

Are these the same cheerleaders that are supported by the booster club that received $20k from Sembler a few months back? Yes!

Did Boyer vote for the TAD on the Sembler project? Nope.

Anyone else just receive a call from 999/911-9999?

That would have been Decatur’s new Code Red system notifying you that non-safety operations (including trash) will not be available on December 31st and January 1st as first reported on the little yellow door tags we got a few weeks ago.

Will we now be getting a call for every trash-related emergency?

The phone number alone kinda freaked me out. It was almost as scary as getting a call from 666/666-6666.

UPDATE: See Linda Harris’ official city comments below clarifying that yesterday’s call was a system test and they won’t always be using this to report minor things like changes to the trash system.

Regardless of my teasing (which is just more fun to write), I do think this is a great initiative taken up by the city.  This isn’t the kind of good PR, knee-jerk reaction to crises we see at the federal level.  This is cool-headed planning that ultimately can save lives in an emergency.  Kudos to everyone at the city level that worked on making this project a reality.

You can now get to Decatur Metro simply by typing www.decaturmetro.com into your address bar!

So now when all your friends ask how you’re so knowledgeable about all things Decatur you can just say….”I went to www.DecaturMetro.com!”

Hmm…I need to work on making my shameless self promotion sound less like an Atlanta Toyota commercial.

I can’t help but write a follow up the DeKalb County Commission’s “surprise” TAD approval yesterday.

Apparently the DeKalb County Commission prioritizes like a 4th grader. They make sure to schedule time at recess (aka commission meetings) to flex their muscles and throw dirt at each other about issues that affect a small portion of the population that live near raucous bars, but can’t seem to find the time to ask a favor of the kid who’s lunch money they’re constantly stealing (aka DeKalb County School Board). Unfortunately in this case, that kid controls 72% of the available TAD money.

Here’s Commissioner Rader via the AJC…

“I regret not doing that [getting the school board on board]. I just have not had a great deal of time to think of it on a purely political basis,” Rader said. “We’re not asking them to make a decision at this point. I did not conceive this [vote] as putting them on the line for anything.”

He also sounded resigned to waiting it out.

“We recognize the school board doesn’t have the information it needs to decide whether they should go forward,” Rader said. “We don’t expect them to make a decision until they have that information. We need to talk an awful lot about this.”

Don’t have the time to talk about 72% of available TAD funds? Or can’t take responsibility for a bad ongoing relationship with the school board?