And I’m not talking about our squawky West Courthouse Square building.

For all you Twitter addicts, the city of Decatur (aka Linda Harris) now has its own account.  Click here to follow.

Incidentally, DM is also on Twitter.  And I’m even more hilarious when restricted to 140 characters.

First on DM

MJK writes in…

The ARC transportation policy committee just voted to explore the possibility of using up to $25 million of the remaining Federal Stimulus funds to plug the MARTA operating gap thus avoiding draconian service cuts. It will be [made] official during the May Board meeting.

Trying to confirm what stimulus money we’re talking about here.  Is this the remaining mass transit funding from the federal stimulus package?

A list of the first stimulus-funded road projects released by the Atlanta Business Chronicle shows only a single $887,000 project for all of DeKalb County (South and North Hairiston Road).   But take heart, that’s one more road project than Cobb County received.  The big winners in this first round of funding, which according to ABC counts toward 25% of total road funding, seem to be Fulton and Gwinnett County (if you consider road-widening a “win”).

Most of the approved projects thus far focus on “maintainance”, though the most expensive projects revolve around “capacity” and “bridges.”

As this money continues to be distributed, it will be interesting to see how the amount of $ spent in a county stacks up against its population.  Hopefully someone with more time can pull something like this together.

This morning, AJC’s Bob Townsend profiled the Brick Store boys successful sophomore effort.  You know the place.

More importantly (ha!), the article gives me an opening to ask a question that’s been fermenting (yes, of course the pun is intended) in my head for a few weeks:  Among all the elements and people that contributed to Decatur’s revival in the last 15-20 years, where do the Brick Store boys rank?

Here are a few other influential people/trends/things to consider:  smart growth strategy, Atlanta’s growth, the Olympics, individuals in city government, MARTA, Emory, etc…

Don’t you just hate it when the government spends time and money on things you don’t personally use?  Well then you’ve got a friend in House Majority Leader Jerry Keen of St. Simons Island!

Apparently, ol’ Jerry Keen’s the fellow that deemed MARTA unimportant since he lives closer to Disney World than Atlanta and therefore only rides MARTA occasionally.  (Does “occasionally” ever mean “never?”)

Wow, what an expansive point-of-view!

Come to think of it, I can’t remember the last time I used that enormous bridge to your isle o’ retirement Mr. Majority Leader.

The next time its in need of repair or maintenance, remind me to send a little note of protest to the GDOT or the State Authority of Asphalt or whomever controls the pile of road-money stating my snide disapproval.