UPDATE: Extra awesomeness.  Daren writes in with the details…

But wait, there’s more! Immortality is within your grasp! LEON’s will create a custom drink and name it for the winner. Forever more, people will walk into this fine establishment and order up a “Your name here.” “I’ll have a Purdy.” “Give me a double Draper.” “Man, I had one too many Kells last night.” People will be cursing you behind your back for years.

Leon’s Full Service is auctioning off its first pint!  (Place your bids HERE.)

Daren Wang (of Book Festival fame) and the Brick Store boys (Mike, Dave and Tom) have set up the auction on Ebay, with all the proceeds going to the Trackside/5th Earl Employee Fund.  What a great idea!

Here are the details as stated on Ebay…

After months of waiting, Leon’s Full Service is ready to open. The Brick Store guys are putting the final touches on their new space for an official opening Sunday or Monday. Who gets to buy the first official pint at the new hub of our fair city? It could be you! Mike, Dave, and Tom are auctioning off the right to buy the first pint, and all the proceeds go to the Trackside Tavern/Fifth Earl Employee Fund.

The historic moment will be photographed and enshrined on the wall of Leon’s along with the first bill. This is history in the making. You’ll tell your grandkids. This will make the Inauguration look like a Concert on the Square. Mary Jane Mahan will immortalize you in the sequel to “Love at the Pub.” You’ll get to choose from the finest beer selection in the Southeast. And it’s all to help out the good folks down on College Avenue. So bid like crazy. Even in a bad economy, you’ve got to have a drink every once in a while. Why not this one? First Pint will be served at 5pm on Opening Day.

Man, what pressure!!  With all the beer afficiandos around me I wouldn’t know what to pick! Whomever wins this thing better spend a few hours on BeerAdvocate to determine the best course of action.

What would you go with?

As the AJC reports this morning, the “Element” condos at Atlantic Station are auctioning off 40 condos on February 28th, with minimum bid prices up to 59% less than the last asking price.  A 1 bedroom/1 bath starts at $95,000!

This surplus of available condos may indeed be in part the result of bad timing in a terrible market.  No one wants to own a condo in this kind of landscape…

“Intown Atlanta is awash in 6,000 unsold condos, according to the local real estate consultant Haddow & Co. Just 66 new units sold in the second half of 2008, Haddow & Co. says. For the year, 645 new condos changed hands, which is 76 percent below the average of the previous eight years.”

But there’s still a lot to learn from this lack of demand and we shouldn’t waste a perfectly good down-market to gauge what types of development are actually desired by residents and what types are just bought up by speculators that have no desire to live there.  Those that designed, built and promoted Atlantic Station as mixed use, should still acknowledge the short-comings of their model city-within-a-city.

Any mini-city built from the ground up will have its share of problems.  It doesn’t have the luxury of an organic city with years of trial and error under its belt, having adapted to the needs and desires of its specific population.  But beyond that, I believe that poorly executed “smart growth” properties like Atlantic Station, often display signs of something I would label as “automobile hypocrisy”.

Like every other “smart growth” model that drives me insane, these developments bend over backwards to cater to the car while simultaneously promoting it as a “smart growth” district.  They show sidewalks and parks in advertising, making all kinds of false promises to potential residents and customers about the walkability and community aspects of the district, while building massive underground parking decks and major thoroughfares that are impossible to walk along. This actually does damage to the public face of smart growth, as the average citizen sees these failed projects as emblematic of the failure of the movement.

The planners of these communities might have actually thought they had the answer.  They thought they could have the best of both worlds – catering to all metro-Atlanta commuters, while simultaneously creating a walkable community.   But the results say otherwise.  Atlantic Station can’t sell its condos because everyone wants to visit and shop at H&M but few want to live (and even fewer want to walk around) there.

But there is hope yet for places like AS.  Like everything else in our built environment, it will also soon be subject to change.  Exterior forces will alter it in ways not yet imagined and they will either adapt or disappear.

The first chapter is already written.  But unless those close to Atlantic Station realize that its not just a down market that leads to $90,000 condos, they will continue to do a larger share of the suffering.

Leading up to the Academy Awards on Sunday, February 22nd, Emory Writer in Residence Salmon Rushdie will give a lecture on how art is translated from one form to another.  General admission tix are $10, but for all of you Decaturites with Emory ties (students, faculty, staff, alums), tix are only $5.

Both price points can be purchased here.