Smart-growth guru and frequent commenter, Scott, recently got in touch with parking expert Todd Litman about the 315 W. Ponce controversy.  After agreeing that an 18% reduction in parking is adequate for the development, Litman suggests a compromise that protects both the neighborhood and lets the developer build fewer parking spots at the outset.

“…you can probably have no trouble with an 18% reduction from the conventional standard in that situation, since it has many factors that tend to reduce parking demands, including density, land use mix, transit proximity, good walkability, and lower-income demographics.

I suggest that you develop a contingency-based parking management plan, which identifies various parking management strategies that can be implemented as needed. For example, the plan might specify how parking will be shared, regulated, and priced (including cashing out and unbundling), plus carshare services available on site, and the development of an overflow parking plan. The plan can also specify how regulations will be enforced (for example, applying “resident only” restrictions on nearby streets) and problems monitored (for example, with a complaint line to the city parking department). The plan can include some additional strategies that will be implemented if needed (for example, if the city receives more than a dozen complaints of overflow parking on nearby streets), such as arrangements to use nearby off-site spaces (such as renting some parking spaces at a nearby church), new regulations, higher fees, improved bicycle parking facilities, creation of a transportation management association, improved enforcement, or even construction of additional structured parking). This plan can be enforced with a legal agreement or a bond.

This type of contingency-based planning reduces the need to predict exactly how many parking spaces will be needed. Most likely, few of these additional strategies will actually be needed, but it reduces the pressure on developers if they are able to say specifically how any future parking problems will be addressed.”

Sounds pretty reasonable to me.  I wonder if any of the involved parties (neighborhood/city/developers) would get behind such a plan.

Don’t worry, I’m just talking about the Decatur Arts Festival. Geez…get your minds out of the gutter!

On both Saturday and Sunday, my wife and I left the confines of our cool, Decatur home to brave the Arts Festival crowds. And boy were there crowds! Now maybe they weren’t Inman Park Festival size mobs, but for what its worth it seemed a lot more crowded this year than last.

Let’s take the food area on Saturday for instance…

Mad house! You can see the untamable desire for gyros on every patron’s face here.

Crowds were also plentiful by the gazebo/stage, where audience members tried to escape the heat under trees and next to the stage itself.

Walking around the other side of the gazebo, we checked out a few of the “Doors of Decatur”, which there were surprisingly few of this year (though I heard one went for over $1k at the auction)

After surveying a wide array of art (some old and some new), we found ourselves back on the Square and perused Worthmore’s Grand Opening.

Free drinks, A/C and lots of cool/funky jewelry obviously drew a crowd!

Hope your day was also filled with lots of art and cool beverages!

Thanks to the generosity of its owners, Kelly and Deb (prior Decatur residents now living in Avondale), my wife and I headed down the street on Saturday evening to check out Tastings: A Wine Experience, which is located in the 335 W. Ponce condo building, for the wine bar’s “soft opening”.

Upon entering, we were amazed by the transformation that has taken place to convert this space from a Tropical Smoothie Cafe to an upscale wine bar. After getting over our initial shock, we were given the run down about how to navigate the unique set up. In front of us stood an army of reds and whites, all hooked up to a special “Enomatic tasting machine”, which allows patrons to extract a “taste”, half-glass, or full-glass of the wine of their choosing.

In order to partake, all you have to do is go up to the bar and put some denomination of money on a special Tastings card (we went with $30) to use in the machines. At first the shear number of choices can seem daunting, but the good layout (by region and type), individual descriptions, and helpful, friendly staff quickly coach you through your indecision. Once you’ve picked your wine-of-the moment, stick your card in the “tasting machine” and select your “pour”. In the spirit of endless choices, we stuck with the “tasting” pour the entire night.

Our $30 bucks got us about 5 tastings each (for a total of 10). We stuck mostly to reds (though there was also a good selection of chilled whites), and sampled wines from all over the world. Fragrant, mild, peppery, chocolaty, jammy, short-finish, long-finish, we tried them all for a cool $30. There’s even a “cheat-sheet” available, so that you can rattle off these same descriptors to friends.

And that’s what’s cool about Tastings. Instead of always relying on recommendations from friends or the equally vague Wine Spectator score/review at the liquor store, you can just head over to Tastings and let your our own tongue/nose decide!

Then just take a bottle home with you!

Though wine is the obvious star of the show, Tastings also offers a wide array of food selections. Most are appetizer-ish, designed for you to share as a group as you debate the finer points of wine-making. We were served some tasty blue cheese chips, a margarita pizza, some delicious crab cakes and shrimp and chorizo. Each was a good accompaniment to the wines we were drinking, which was most important in our minds.

Though you could tell that the servers were still getting their bearings, each was very friendly and remarkably helpful. In fact, aside from the wine itself, the staff might be this new spot’s best asset.

So, if you’re looking to up your wine game or just have a fun night out on the town with friends, I would recommend letting Tastings entertain you for an evening.

InDecatur’s sources are telling him that the Brick Store owners are taking over the lease at Rue De Leon.

They’ve already got a successful pub and coffee house in town.  What’s next?

Must…avoid…excited…speculation…

I wonder if this is an alternative to the stalled Grant Park location.

John recently inquired as to the status of wi-fi for the entire city of Decatur. Luckily, the city recently posted a presentation on that very topic earlier this month. In it, it is confirmed that Phase III will be completed in June/July 2008.

The presentation also includes a cool map that shows the location and status of every wifi radio in the city.

Click on it to see a full size view and determine if there’s an active wi-fi radio near your location.

Here’s the legend too…

Green-Radios installed and working
Yellow-Radios currently being installed
Blue-New poles to be installed
Purple-Radios installed, should work upon Yellow installs completed
Red-Radios installed, not working

(The closest one to me is two streets over…and with the dense forest that is Ponce Heights, my computer can’t locate it. Oh well…)

Per the all-knowing Carl over at InDecatur…

Rue de Leon is closing on June 15th, while Birdi’s owner wants to get the heck out of Dodge and “move to the mountains”.

Carl also points out that RockIt Boutique opens “officially” this weekend. We saw this a couple weeks back before I went overseas, but never got around to posting it, because I had no real info or a link for it. I think its in the old record store space on the pedestrian-only portion of Sycamore. Not positive its that exact location though.

Also he notes that Saba (love the awning) and Tastings are opening this coming week.

This humble blogger has been invited to the the Tastings soft-opening party tomorrow night, so hopefully I’ll have some pics for those of you who have yet to see the amazing renovations they’ve undertaken at the old Tropical Smoothie location.

Based on the email from Decatur police, here are the guys that were arrested in connection to the flat-screen robberies in Oakhurst.