In my ongoing pursuit to bring you all needless city rankers regarding things you already know, here’s a new one out by Forbes.com, which rates Atlanta, GA as the city with the worst commute in the whole darn country.

OK, so we’ve achieved our goal of #1 status. Unless we’re looking to compete with Shanghai to be “Worst in the World”, let’s quickly get through the awards ceremony (and the after-parties) so we can implement some solutions to the traffic problem. No? You need more time to create additional committees and action plans? OK…just as long as you’re not stalling.

You’re not stalling GA legislature, right?

[picture courtesy of Forbes.com]

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A new Decatur-centric site, DecaturNow.com, is now online. The site, which is part of the Broadcast Atlanta network (like GoDeKalb), promises bi-weekly videos featuring Decatur profiles in May and weekly video starting in June.

The first sponsorship check for the site seems to have been written by my Allstate agent and DBA Pres. Neil Dobbs. (where is his patent bow-tie in the video!?) Apparently some folks think there’s money to be made (aka web traffic) in this business of Decatur-based websites…I wonder what that’s based on.

InDecatur found the video yesterday, but I don’t think the actual site was up and running yet (though its not much more than the video at this point)

So, by now you’ve probably heard about the city staff layoffs and proposed property tax increases in Atlanta to pay off their big, fat $140 million debt, but were you aware that Avondale Estates is also considering a tax hike?

The AJC reports that Avondale is considering a 5.96% increase as a result of the new city budget.  A closer look at the budget (by yours truly) shows that unlike Atlanta’s blatant overspending, the Avondale property tax increase is due to the city’s new “Master Plan”, which redevelops much of the tutor-style downtown and needed improvements to an aging sewer system.

You want to improve your community, you gotta foot the bill!  As Decatur residents are well aware…