Suzanne points us over to a great post she wrote for Playborhood.com, about two young Decaturites who decided they wanted participate in a great American past-time this summer: making money!

Here’s a taste of Suzanne’s post, entitled “An Old Fashioned Capitalist Summer”, to wet your appetite…

Today, my 9 y.o. and her friend put together a lemonade stand. Each cup was “$.50.” However, the sign had very small writing in parentheses in the bottom corner saying “Or $.25 if you prefer.” They hoped that no one would notice the fine print in the bottom corner. They were equipped with my crystal pitcher (which I reluctantly donated b/c my daughter wanted a “classy operation”) and the usual cups and napkins.

Click over to finish the story and see how the kids made a whopping 15 bucks!

Suzanne also suggests we use this post to alert the greater Decatur area of lemonade stands in the city throughout the summer so “none of our residents have to go without cheap lemonade on demand.”

So feel free, though I’m sure there’s an iPhone app for that. 

The Decatur Book Festival tweets…

Eudora Welty tribute Tix with K. Campbell, M.C. Carpenter, C. Herring and C. Holley on sale at Agnes Scott box office on Monday, July 6.

That’s Kate Campbell, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Caroline Herring and Claire Holley for the uninitiated.

How much are tickets?  Hopefully Daren can fill us in.

Kristie writes in…

Hi DM. I saw on the news this morning that someone was shot while walking down Electric Ave., right in front of COD police station. Do you know any of the details on this? Seems like the blocks surrounding the police station are the most dangerous in the city.

I have a note into the DPD, but wanted to get this out there in case anyone has heard more detail.

UPDATE: Decatur PD is getting good at getting us quick info on these events and I certainly appreciate it.

On Tuesday June 30, 2009 at approximately 11:00 pm the Decatur Police Department was notified of a person shot in the vicinity of Electric Avenue. Responding officers made contact with the victim Quontavius Clark, an 18 year old male. Clark had a gunshot wound to his lower back, but was conscious and alert. Clark stated he and two companions were walking home near the 400 block of Electric Avenue when a vehicle stopped in the roadway and someone inside the vehicle fired several gunshots. Clark and his companions ran from the area, and did not see the suspect’s vehicle again. Clark was the only person injured. Clark was transported to Atlanta Medical Center for treatment.

Anyone having information about this crime is requested to contact the Decatur Police Department at (404) 373-6551.

A post over at The Decatur Minute reporting on the retiring of two COD firefighters who have been with the city for 21 and 36 years, respectively, reminded me of another way that we can measure Decatur’s success: employee tenure.

If you’ve participated in Decatur 101 or just like to hang around city hall on weekdays for the “free A/C”, you don’t need me to tell you that there is a seemingly endless line of people working for the city that have been around 10+ years, many up and beyond the 30 year mark.

Many residents know the most public Decatur “lifers”, like Peggy Merriss, Lyn Menne, Linda Harris, Hugh Saxon, Cheryl Burnette, and David Junger, but I swear to you that they are just the tip of the iceberg!  There are hundreds, maybe even thousands of city employees, from police to fire to public works to city staff, who came to work for the city and never left.

Assuming that Peggy isn’t making everyone sign some kind of secret, unbreakable blood-pact, this is a truly extraordinary symptom of a well-functioning city government. So cheers to retiring firefighters Roosevelt Strong and Larry Pettit, and all of our other city employees old and new.  We truly appreciate all your hard work and dedication to our fair city!

If you’re like me (and I’m certain you are), you hate it when newspapers, blogs, or jerks on the street talk or write in the present tense about data that concerns the previous year.

Like this AJC article, “City of Atlanta Continues Rapid Growth“.  From the title you might think, “Wow, even in a recession, Atlanta’s hanging in there!” and then you go about your day, spewing untruths because you were too lazy to read the in-depth 5-sentence blurb.  And that’s too bad because people were finally beginning to respect you.

What’s the problem?

The problem is that the title is referencing census data comparing 2008 to 2007, not 2009 to 2008, and as we all know Lehman Brothers didn’t fail until mid-September 2008, so 2008 isn’t all that clean if you’re looking for a post-recession gauge.  So, it looks like we’ll just have to make do knowing that the city of Atlanta grew 3.4% from ’07 to ’08 and wait ’til next year for any kind of 2009 data.