This dumpster sits behind 1 West Courthouse Square’s (aka Birds From Hell building’s) parking deck.

It has leaked onto the sidewalk and into the street for as long as I can remember.  As someone who walks this sidewalk frequently to get to and from the MARTA station, I have to say I’m pretty disgusted every time I have to walk through this smelly mess.  Lord knows what it is.

I’ve long meant to post a pic and submit a code violation to the city about this.  Tonight I did both.  Let’s see what can be done.

Andisheh was overcome with emotion when he spotted this crime of passion on an abandoned commercial building on West College near Atlanta Avenue.

My graffiti-annoyance was short-circuited by the sentiments expressed. Someone is deeply in love. Someone with good handwriting, too.

Good luck third-person speaking “boy.”  I can already see the proposal, (“Girl, will you marry boy?”), marriage (“Boy does”) and break-up, (“Boy is totally sick of girl telling boy what to do! Boy is going out to do some theraputic spray-painting!”).

Just call me Daily Candy…

Head on over to Wiggle’s blog and get details about the huge kid’s clothes warehouse sale this Friday and Saturday off Ellsworth Drive in Atlanta.  Up to 70% off spring and summer clothes!

On Monday, the City Manager presented the City Commission with some daunting figures. Losses of over $40,000 in 2008, and a projected loss of $72,000 in 2009. What insidious instrument could possibly be leaching away funds from our city coffers at such an alarming rate?

If you’ve ever turned left from Scott onto Clairemont (or vice-versa) you’re well-aware of the answer. It’s the red-light camera at the intersection of Clairemont and Scott Boulevard!

According to the City Manager’s letter to the commission (page 97), this camera is the grand-daddy of all red-light cameras in the state; the very first.  Since it’s installation in 2004, there have been no reported fatalities at the intersection and the number of vehicles running the light has declined.  The ongoing problem has been that the money brought in from fines has never off-set costs.  And while those costs were once “tolerable”, the city can no longer stomach the growing cost.

The city has attempted to renegoiate contract fees, but has been unsuccessful.  So the City Manager has decided the best course of action was to take the camera down.  “Therefore, unless the City Commission wants to continue this program, we will begin steps to end the City’s current program. It is regretful that this action is necessary but given the current financial environment, it does not seem prudent to continue a program that incurs significant program costs.”

In a note to DM, the City Manager confirms that while the city commission regrets the “demise of the program”, they have gone along with the decision.  She continues, “We will retain the equipment and should the need arise in the future, we’ll have the ability to reestablish the program.”

And just like that, Decatur is now just the latest in a long line of Georgia cities that have abandoned their red-light cameras, because they were just too darn expensive.

Georgia’s new, massive tax breaks for film studios have turned the city of Atlanta into a movie set overnight!

Once free to live there lives in relative peace, residents are now reporting having to fight with big-glasses-wearing famous people over silm milk and Truvia at the local coffee shop and attempting to open doors in cardboard-cutout buildings.  (Disclosure: The previous sentence is untrue and should be viewed as creative-license gone horribly wrong) It’s madness not seen since the Villa Rica goldrush!

There have been THREE reports of filming around the city and its surrounding environs in recent days. First there was a report on Twitter recently about filming in Oakhurst this past week.  Then this morning the city’s Cheryl Burnette reports filming in the Economy parking lot at Arcadia and College.  And finally, Rob writes in about some pretty intense filming going on in Candler Park…

Have you heard any info on what is being filmed at the corner of Oakdale and Iverson (block north of Candler Pk Marta station)? For the past few days, dozens of trucks have been parked outside the house on the corner lot. And today, as I walked by on my way to the station, a cherry picker was hoisting lighting equipment. And this afternoon on my walk back through, the back yard was a-buzz with what appeared to be actors taking their marks. There are no signs anywhere about it though.

Do I know what any of this is?  Of course not.  If you do, please fill the rest of us in.