You Might Be a DM Addict If…
Decatur Metro | July 29, 2009…you dream about it. Paula writes in…
HI DM –
I just had to tell you about this funny dream I had last night. In it, I went outside to discover that both our cars had been stolen, with one being driven off as I walked outside. I went back into the house to try and call the police, and I kept getting transfered, disconnected, put on hold, etc. I was getting really upset with the delay, especially considering that the perpetrators had just driven off, and I said to my husband in the dream: “Just wait till I tell Decatur Metro about this!!”
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DM: the Gossip Girl of Decatur.
Hey everybody! DM closed the McKoy Park carjacking/racial profiling discussion. Let’s continue it here!
I’M KIDDING. SERIOUSLY. THAT WAS A JOKE. PLEASE DO NOT CONTINUE THE DISCUSSION.
Sorry, DM. Couldn’t help myself.
LOL, Eric! You’re just asking for it this morning, aintcha? Thanks for the levity– I needed that.
I was dreaming one night that I was reading DM then I woke up and I was reading DM!
Yeah, I stumbled across that other McKoy thread too late!
DM community – I won’t “troll” this thread, since I’ve now been accused of being a kamikaze and a hijacker. I mainly enjoyed the back and forth and hope there will be occasion to debate some of these issues in a rational manner in the future. Crime intersects with a lot of uncomfortable topics like race, class, who’s included in a community, etc. These conversations will be uncomfortable many times.
DM – I am disappointed that you closed the comments, but I respect your right to do so. This is a great resource for people looking to move to the city (like the city-data website). I remain undeterred in my decision to move to Decatur…so I’ll see you soon at Leon’s.
Mongoose, you might want to send DM your ideas for topics, and just “go with the thread topic” of any you choose to enter in discussion. I read up on lots of local news and culture, demographics, and crime statistics for all of the Atlanta neighborhoods before I chose to live in Decatur in 2006. I am not disappointed by my choice of living in Decatur, not at all, and I would highly recommend it. I don’t have any school-age children, but my neighbors all seem very happy to have their children in CSD. As for pre-school choices for your little one, I have no idea about that.
College Heights for preschool if you can get in
I’d love to see a thread on Decatur day care and pre-school experiences sometime.
How about an open thread where people can write in with topics they’d like to discuss? (Though this thread has nearly become that already…)
I’m obviously fine with talking about anything, but based on emails I frequently receive when things get a bit out of hand, I think maintaining some sense of structure is important to most readers. For every 10 frequent commenters, there are 75-100 readers not commenting.
EXCELLENT IDEA: an OPEN THREAD every day, so people can bring up topics and get feedback, comments, etc. Hope to see it “in place” tomorrow!
That’s not exactly what I was proposing, but it’s not a bad idea.
But not every day. That would be a bit much for me. How about once a week? It could be entitled “Free-For-All Friday”.
We’ll try it out tomorrow and see what happens.
Mongoose —
You should purchase a house over on Coventry. With a PhD from Oxford, I like surrounding myself with Harvard grads who can do odd jobs around my house like landscaping or washing my car.*
*Not a personal attack but commentary on the consequences of promoting one’s Ivy-league credentials on a blog comment thread. I suppose it’s also a commentary on the relative merits of Harvard vs Oxford.
I love it – see DM, I got THAT joke. LOL I just wish everyone wouldn’t take a debate so personally. I never attacked anyone and none of my comments had to be edited. I’m just a guy at home with the flu, with strong opinions, and with an abiding interest in this dynamic city.
I’d like to ask a question…not sure if this is the right place, but I’ll let DM decide that.
Any thoughts on Decatur City Schools vs. private schools in the area like Paideia, Children’s School or Arbor Montessori? (if I need to be redirected to another thread, I understand).
For the entire 8 years that I’ve had my two children of disparate ages, sexes, temperament, and abilities in CSD schools, I’ve debated this issue. Many of my co-workers send their kids to Paideia, the Children’s School, Cliff Valley, the Friend’s School, Waldorf, St. Thomas More, or Westminster. I’ve visited the Friend’s School and loved it but I wasn’t the one who would attend; my son nixed it on the basis of lack of a good athletics field plus he worshipped his elementary school principal. In the end, the reasons we’ve stayed with CSD are:
#1: Great to unbelievable teachers for 12 kid-years of school with only one, possibly two, exceptions, and great paraprofessionals with no exceptions
#2 : My kids have been thoroughly happy every single year
#3 : I like the school-community connection that one gets with public vs private school
#4: I feel more comfortable with the parents in CSD vs the schools above
#5: I just plain believe in public school, as in the Mark Twain quote “Out of its public schools comes the greatness of a nation”. The dominance of private schools in Atlanta bothers me. While I understand all too well why parents get frustrated with the poor customer service of public schools, I feel that the metro Atlanta private school empire grew out of the racism of the era of school desegregation and is now an agent of socioeconomic and educational classism. I do not fault any parents who send their kids to private school–we’ve considered it ourselves–I fault the general socioeconomic and educational milieu in Georgia.
Thanks for your detailed response. That is very helpful. I too am a bit torn on this issue. One of my concerns is with my child experiencing both an academically rigorous program and experiencing diversity as a student. When some of the independent schools laud that they have a diverse student body and it’s only 20 percent diverse in a city considerably more diverse than that, it gives me pause. On the other hand, I don’t want my child’s education subject to what taxpayers think is a sufficient tax burden to bear to fund schools. Enter CSD. Here is a school system with a dood deal of diversity AND an academically rogorous program it seems. My who family has been involved with public education in ther careers, so I am probably biased in favor of a public school experience. In your opinion, are there appreciable differences between the schools? I have heard that Oakhurst is “the best” overall, but I want to challenge that notion. Thanks so much for taking the time to respond to this.
Mongoose, I hate to be a hardass, but this again is technically thread-jacking. And thanks to Eric for giving the opening.
If you have questions to ask on a blog about some unrelated issue, I’d appreciate an email asking the question, as opposed to killing any potential, on-topic conversation on another thread.
Sorry DM – I didn’t really know what the topic on this thread was (ABC’s said backwards?), asked for permission, and then dived in. I am not doing this intentionally; I guess I don’t know blog protocol as I don’t do this this often. To be sure, what is the topic of this thread?
Noted. I recognize there is a blog protocol that is not instantly recognizable. But there’s a definite difference between blog commenting and a message board.
This thread was intended to be silly, but apparently it was impossible to move past the carjacking thread that quickly. This blog definitely has a mood (contributed to by myself and commenters) and after a heated discussion, there’s inevitably down time when people need time to re-energize.
So should I move my convo to “CSD Teacher Furlough” thread? Or is a discussion of the comparative strengths of CSD vs. private schools off topic for that too?
I hear you, DM. I’m a silly person too. I will limit my future posts on this thread to such silly things. I still don’t know how my posts HERE are related to the posts about crime, however. That is my last question on the lighthearted thread.
If you’re interested hearing discussion on a topic, please submit it on the contact page as an idea for something I could post.
Again, a site like this is not a message board. People come here to read about events and discuss. They might not love every topic that I cover, but in general they appreciate my choices of what to cover and what to pass on.
I’m not sure what you mean by “I still don’t know how my posts HERE are related to the posts about crime,” but I’ll give it my best shot.
There are different ways of thead-jacking. One is to overwhelm the board with a slightly on-topic side conversation and force it in another direction for your own personal enjoyment. The other is to post completely off-topic questions or statements in a thread.
DM, I hate to agree with anyone that isn’t City Code Steve, but what the h-e -double hockey sticks WAS the topic of this thread? Me cornfused and scared.
cubalibre’s got it.
I suspect then this thread topic must have something to do with people like Scott, who have 400,987 page views.
I’ll sneak in a reply and then get off this thread on the excuse that I am not the hijacker, only the piggybacker onto the hijacker. All three elementary schools have claimed to be the best at one time or another. They all three have a different style and ambience but are obviously pretty darn good given their popularity and test scores. Rather than give you a long hijack reply, I’ll say that you should go on a tour of all three and meet with the principals. Try to go when parents are dropping kids off or picking them up and mingle a bit. Consider hitting a school social, orientation, or curriculum event. Since all three schools have major strengths and some lesser weaknesses, you’re probably safe by picking on which neighborhood and particular house appeal to you the most. Don’t forget that Glennwood will soon be K-3 school again soon. One caveat about public schools vs private schools–they frequently (~every 5 years) reconfigure, remodel, reorganize, or something else disruptive as enrollment, neighborhoods, educational fads, and politics change. That’s something less likely to happen at a private school. It’s disconcerting the first time it happens that your family has to change schools but then your kids survive, you meet new people and like them, and you move on, all the while shaking your head at the goings-on of educrats and the School Board. I still like public school better.
I had a dream once, in ABCs:
…don’t cast backwardglances at Zimbabweans, young, xenophobic, withdrawn; vibrantly, unbearably tired. So, reading quickly, perhaps off, nor maybe? Limiting knavery jostles, incoherently, history good for everyone. Delicious cats, big asses. Zaltar, your xylophone will voraciously unbraid themasses.
…if DM is the first blog you check in the am, the only one you check in the afternoon during lunch, and the last one you check before going to bed. Really, I’m ashamed to be such a blog-haint!
I had, once, the urge to post here–because, after reading and digesting the content, it seemed like such fun, and a fellow was kind enough to enlighten me to the informative methods that go into this fine blog. That said, I’ve had to quit posting–that is, after this, in order to rid myself of the incessant urge to flame and insult some of my fellow obstinate, rude, unenlightened, apparently omniscient, backward-looking posters.
DM – you were right to call me out for sending out an invitation for people to thread-jack here. My sincere apologies – I thought I had made it clear enough that I was joking.
Sigh.
P.S. I have never dreamed about this site, but I do visit it a lot more than any other blog. You do damn good work here.
There, there, Eric. We know you meant no harm. But now you know better, so if it happens again, spankings and stern warnings may have to be administered by Papa DM.
It’s funny because I’m 30.
Eric, no worries my man.
Ah, but you’re still The Blog Father! (Yeah, I went there– I can’t pass up an opportunity to make a really bad pun.)
I am a DM addict. I check in so often, all I have to do is type a “D” in the URL field and I instantly get www.decaturmetro.com. On all of my computers. No bookmarks or RSS needed. Just keep it coming, DM!
apparently the topic of this thread is thread jacking, elementary schools, and wet blog dreams. IMO thread jacking is a non issue on such a focused blog, unless someone starts posting continuous messages about Eden Prairie Minnesota, hemp furnace filters, dirty Mormon rap lyrics or something of that sort. DM has done a fine job with this blog, especially given how quirky wordperfect /wordpress is. But as a weathered frank in a box, well in to the pre-elderly time of my life I would like to hear mor•¥>. ^€