Seems like One West Courthouse Square is becoming an educational hub.

DeVry University/Georgia’s President announced today in a letter to “Georgia Employees” that they are downsizing from its DeKalb Industrial campus and moving to our glassy, Square building this autumn.

Geez…was this building completely empty prior to these academic tenets? When did all this space become available?

Hopefully this means even more lunchtime traffic for Decatur and perhaps it will help revitalize that sunken dead-zone patio area with the broken stone tables. That whole area is completely unacceptable if you ask me.

Thanks to Cherie and Rus to forwarding along this information!

If you’d like to read the President’s full message check out the continuation… Read the rest of this entry »

The AJC recently used a February “incident” where a student brought a gun to Renfroe Middle School as a jumping off point to talk about promoting “safer schools” around Atlanta.

A little chart included with the story detailing gun felonies for school systems showed three weapon felonies in the Decatur school system in 2007. Well, after I got passed the fact that Gwinnett had a higher gun felony total than DeKalb (and yes, I am aware that Gwinnett is a larger school system, but its still surprising) I wanted to know more about these 3 incidents in Decatur.

Well, the AJC didn’t specify where the data came from, so I turned to old reliable Google. Within a few clicks I found the site. From there I clicked on “Decatur City” and found this.

So as you can see above, those three cited felony weapons charges was the total extent of the crime reported in CDS in ALL of 2007. And looking back to 2006 there were NO incidents reported. Looks pretty good to me.

But then I noticed a breakdown link. And it showed this.

Uh…of the three felony weapons charges filed in 2007 within CDS, two were at the elementary school level!?

I was surprised and thought you might be too.

Any parents out there with details on these “incidents”?

My wife and I have been a bit curious about the lack of activity behind the torn brown paper at the old Tropical Smoothie Location. But we needn’t have feared.

In an email, the co-owner of Tastings: A Wine Experience, Kelly Resignola, says that they are shooting for a “early May” opening.

And not a moment too soon. The alcohol density within a quarter mile of my residence was getting scarily low.

A Cakes & Ale family member let’s us know that the restaurant will be opening “the week of March 31st”, notes that you’ll have to brown bag your alcohol, and gives us an overview of the menu. In fact, the restaurant’s liquor license is the only item on the city commission’s agenda for tomorrow night.

Here’s Rachel’s comment in full from a previous post…

Being a member of the immediate family of the Cake & Ale restaurant clan, I was invited to family night on Tuesday, March 25. The restaurant will be open to the public beginning week of March 31. There is a delay on the liquor license, but brown bagging is encouraged!!Let me just say that it was worth the wait! What a beautiful space – polished and sophisticated but warm and inviting. The menu is simple, comfortable but unique all at the same time.On the night of my visit, featured appetizers included Maine mussels in a delectable cream sauce with bread for dipping; arancini, which is a rice made like risotto, creamy with a touch of citrus, then deep fried – can you say melt in your mouth yummy good. Followed by a nice salad of radicchio and greens (nice and crunchy, not limp) with warm vinaigrette.

On to the main food – pan roasted wild stripped bass with lemon mayo; potato gnocchi in a nice, almost puree, of cabbage, garlic and caraway (I’ve never like gnocci before, but this was great!); and definitely the winner of the evening was roasted chicken with carrots and turnips – like grandma would make if she trained with Julia Child – crispy outside, succulent inside – need I say more?

I encourage you to stop by for a visit! Welcome Cakes & Ale to Decatur!

This morning the AJC reports on the controversy surrounding the 315 W. Ponce development, offering a couple new insights and a few nice pics.

One tidbit I hadn’t heard previously was that “Rents will average $1,450 per month” according to JLB.

Also, since the plans were presented last week, I haven’t heard a peep out of the neighborhood in favor or in opposition of what was shown. But the writer of this article states “Most residents who viewed the company’s plans said they liked the design and layout but remain opposed to the project’s size.”

So if the neighborhood likes the design and is cool with the graduated setback, has this boiled down to a parking lot/traffic issue? Because if the city and “parking experts” say that shared parking can work, I would much rather see that than more barren parking decks. And in regards to traffic, its this study, produced by the neighborhood, that has everyone in a panic about increased traffic. But I’m unclear who developed it and what data was used in its calculations. Personally, I would want to see a city-produced traffic study before making bold claims about gridlock in the neighborhood.

And am I the only one that is concerned about how this development will look in relation to the one existing building it will share the lot with? A bunch of 4-story brick structures are going to look awfully strange up against a 10-story international-style high rise without some very creative design. Also, how will the development along the small strip fronting Ponce relate to the massive tower behind it?

These issues have been completely overlooked (in the public discussion at least) as this process has moved forward.

(photo courtesy of AJC)

InDecatur catches word that Decatur’s mayor has started his own blog!

After stipulating that “This is being done by me personally and has no official , or unofficial for that matter, ties to the city”, the mayor invites comments from all guests.

This should be an interesting endeavor. If people don’t abuse this direct line to the mayor’s inbox, it will be an excellent way to gauge his reaction on a variety of topics affecting our city.

His first thoughts are on a city of Dunwoody; a topic I’ve cited the mayor on a couple times in the past few weeks.

Make sure to check out BillFloydDecatur.com! I know I’ll be a frequent visitor.

SLIGHT ASIDE: It’s been interesting to see how the city government and other orgs have adjusted to work (and deal) with the Decatur blogs since we launched last year. While we both started out as just little voices in a big old internet, I continue to be amazed by the people, news orgs and residents that have contacted me personally because of this blog. And now the mayor has started a blog!

As the mayor states in his first post “when used properly, [blogs] have value”. I couldn’t agree more. But figuring out the definition of “properly” is a constant challenge.

Good luck Mr. Mayor.

Wordsmiths is out of the old Post Office building (with only one casualty) and is gearing up to open in the old Trust/new Wordsmiths building this Friday, March 28th at 9am.

Sounds like they have lots of events planned for this weekend, including a raffle for a $100 Wordsmiths gift card, free food from Avondale’s Sweet ‘n Sinful bakery and the 5th annual Edible book festival.

Don’t just read books, eat them too!

Yum…I love binding paste.