At this morning’s school board meeting, DeKalb school officials voted unanimously against selling some 30+ acres of land to the Sembler Company to build its much-criticized mini-city.

It’s an important victory for local residents that have opposed the development’s insanely grand scale at an already congested intersection, though Sembler still has plans to build a scaled-down version of “Town Briarcliff” on the 70 acres it already owns at the corner of Briarcliff and N. Druid.

Town Briarcliff? Is that like City Decatur? Nothing institutionalizes community like “Town [Insert Road Name Here]“!

Hmm…I wonder what the school board thinks about letting their tax dollars go towards the TAD. Yeah, not so much.

UPDATE: Fresh Loaf’s Scott Henry also reports from the meeting and gives the story a bit more context.

Sembler is still planning to develop another 70 acres on Briarcliff Road that it has under contract from the county housing authority, but the loss of the school property means no frontage on North Druid Hills Road. That, in turn, means plans for a grand boulevard linking the two roads will likely be scrapped.

In other words, it’s back to the drawing board for all concerned.

(Photo courtesy of the AJC)

 

From an Emory Press Release…

Salman Rushdie, Distinguished Writer in Residence at Emory University, will deliver a public lecture titled “Autobiography and the Novel” at 5 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 10 in Glenn Memorial Auditorium, 1652 N. Decatur Rd. on Emory’s main campus.

Tickets, which are $10 ($5 with Emory ID), are available online at www.emory.edu/events.

“The lecture will be an examination of how the lives of writers intertwine with their work, and in what ways, if at all, the life can be said to be the best explanation of that work,” said Rushdie of the presentation. Read the rest of this entry »

Seems we were right to be skeptical about The Angel’s claim that they weren’t open because of a backlog of liquor license applications.  Local resident, Carl, reports that an Angel bartender has said the location will be closed “indefinitely”.

Not promising.

If you’re reading about this for the first time, word across Atlanta is that Derek Lawford Pubs has a serious case of the unpaid taxes.  The Midtown pub, Prince of Wales, has already been sold and signs are down, while the Highland’s Hand in Hand reportedly has been sold to the owner of Dark Horse Tavern.

Anyone wanna buy a British pub with a great patio?