Is 5th Ave the Answer? (photo circa 1936 - Prior to Addition)

CSD Mom sends along this announcement from the school system…

During the week of March 9-13th the City Schools of Decatur’s Reconfiguration Committee is hosting an Adult Showcase of their work. Come to peruse posters for each option offering the following: financial and demographic data, instructional implications, strengths and challenges. The showcases will be held from 8:00 am – 4:30 pm at the Central Office at Westchester (758 Scott Blvd., Decatur 30030). The Adult Showcase may be borrowed by individual schools for other sessions. Stay tuned to school newsletters and electronic communications for more information.

Additionally, there will be a Board informational session followed by a listening session at Renfroe Middle School (220 W. College Ave., 30030) on March 17th at 6:30 pm and on March 25th at 6:30 pm. The topic of these sessions is reconfiguration.

Or if you don’t have time to view the posters in person, you can also view them in this PDF right now!

I’ve been digging into this data for the last couple weeks, and I’ve gotta say that if you think that this is a cut and dry decision, you’re sorely mistaken.  Lots of options (13 in fact) each with its own pros and cons.  These posters try to sum up the arguments for each.

A quick look at the “posters” seems to show that Option 13 (make Fifth Avenue the 4/5 Academy & add a few classrooms to Winnona and Glennwood) has the fewest “cons” of all the stated options, though “highest capital costs” at over $9 million is a pretty big negative.   I wonder if this relatively new option is now the new favorite amongst the reconfiguration committee.

I received an email from Holly at Button Cakes Bakery this morning asking to be added to DM’s links list.  After jumping over to her website, I was intrigued and asked for more info.  Apparently Holly’s Button Cakes Bakery just opened inside Viola and will be selling a wide variety of cupcakes throughout the day (and into the evening) to anyone that wants to stop by or call in and place an order!

Mini cupcakes are $1.25, while the regulars are $2.50.

Here’s more from Holly…

Our cupcakes are baked from scratch daily and available Wed-Sun (hours on my website) at the cafe. We are closed on Mon &Tue but take special orders placed in advance for delivery or pick-up on those days. Unless I am on a delivery or out doing sales, I will be there to wait on people buying cupcakes Wed-Sun. If I am not there, the staff at Voila can also help folks. We have a bakery case with our cupcakes displayed inside. The cupcakes are also available to order with any meal you have at Voila.

Many of the flavors sound very dangerous…in a good way.  Can’t wait to try one!

Over the weekend, AsianCajuns’ Catherine and Lauren hiked 6-miles of the future Beltline with some good friends in tow.

Their photo journal documents the fascinating urban environment along this much-talked about abandoned track.  Its not to be missed.

I’m thinking I need to get in on one of these Urban Hikes.

You know what’s even more daring than an urban hike?  A suburban hike.  Go stroll those great unused sidewalks along US 78 for a couple miles and in short order you’ll see what I mean.

A great indepth piece in this Sunday’s New York Times surveys the Cleveland neighborhood of “Slavic Village”, which has been an epicenter of foreclosures in a county that has lost over 100,000 people in the last decade.

Today, the area can hardly be described as a neighborhood.  A well-kept house in this part of town has plywood over broken windows and doors.  Inside, the shameless removal of utilities like copper piping, electrical wire and boiler heaters have destroyed interior walls and floors.  To call these houses “raped and pillaged” wouldn’t be an understatement.  Squatters use the buildings as temporary dwellings, while speculators treat them as playing cards – with many homes selling for a couple hundred or thousand dollars.

Its a bleak picture.  And because Cleveland has suffered longer than most cities – thanks to a out-dated industrial economy – many other cities look to it now with bloody fingernails wondering if that’s their future too.   As Wheatley pointed out last week, with the third highest foreclosure rate in the country, Atlanta is one of a long list of cities mentioned as looking hesitantly toward Cleveland.  The article even quotes Dan Immergluck, an associate prof at Georgia Tech in urban planning, who states bluntly, “Cleveland is a bellwether…It’s where other cities are heading because of the economic downturn.”

Yikes.  So, could parts of Atlanta really become as bleak as neighborhoods like Slavic Village?

It certainly isn’t beyond the realm of comprehension.  Foreclosure rates are highest in areas of Atlanta already plagued with high unemployment – just take a look at the news coming out of South DeKalb.  Our overbuilt metro area has already provided plenty of vistas of lonely and vacant subdivisions.   If this trend continues and these homes aren’t bought up and maintained, they will quickly become – wait for it – toxic.  No one will want them for fear of the expense of taxes and upkeep.  And demolition ain’t free.   In Slavic Village it costs $8,000 a pop.

But is this really Atlanta’s future?  Well to start, Atlanta’s obvious advantage over Cleveland is its more diverse and vibrant economy.   The city has spent the last 20 years reviving its economy, building an economic base that is still attracting new people to the city.  That can’t be a bad thing, especially with so many empty homes and condos available.  However, in our attempts to make a quick buck, developers have overestimated demand both intown and out in the ‘burbs.   The future of these developments is unknown.  If nobody wants them, who’s going to pay to have them torn down?  And if they’re not torn down, what becomes of them?

We’ll just have to wait and see.